Blasts in Delhi ?
I heard that there are some blasts in Delhi ? Wtf ?
This is too much man ...
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/sep/13delhi.htm
How many blasts in a year? Very disturbing ....
Seriously how do you prevent and whom do you check to stop all this nonsense ...
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Monday, September 08, 2008
Hmmm
I moved out of Sasken yesterday. It was a wonderful company. From my point of view, more than the company, it was the team and the people. Team maketh an employee's professional life.
CorePCU is a lively team. Also an eventful one for me :-
Needless to say, I really enjoyed working here. Now I've stepped out of its umbrella, to venture into other things. I feel like a Columbus today, venturing into new waters, this rainy season.
Needed : Swalpa josh and Swalpa hosh.
Current Song : Eno ondthara
CorePCU is a lively team. Also an eventful one for me :-
a) I moved into our new house when I joined the team.
b) My sister's marriage.
c) My Paris trip.
d) My Ottawa trip.
e) My marriage.
f) My aptmt
Needless to say, I really enjoyed working here. Now I've stepped out of its umbrella, to venture into other things. I feel like a Columbus today, venturing into new waters, this rainy season.
Needed : Swalpa josh and Swalpa hosh.
Current Song : Eno ondthara
Sunday, September 07, 2008
ie and ei ..
i hate those words which have both ei's and ie's in them.. i never get when to use "ie" and when to use "ei".. thanks to auto correct features which often helps me out..
my chemistry prof once advised that if a word in which the "ie" pair sounds "e" then the "i" would precede "e", and if it sounds "i" then "e" would precede "i" and immediately cautioned there were numerous exceptions to this rule..
some examples which follow these rules are field, believe, rein etc..
i had some exceptions in my mind .. but its buried in somewhere
my chemistry prof once advised that if a word in which the "ie" pair sounds "e" then the "i" would precede "e", and if it sounds "i" then "e" would precede "i" and immediately cautioned there were numerous exceptions to this rule..
some examples which follow these rules are field, believe, rein etc..
i had some exceptions in my mind .. but its buried in somewhere
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Few movies you might want to Catch-up
If you are really looking to get rid of some boredom the following bollywood movies will certainly help you ..
Rock -On - For Farhan Akthar and Shankar-Eshan-Llyod amateurly sounding Great hindi rock.
Aamir - Mumbai Meri Jaan- A Wednesday , I suggest all three. Good work on terrorism in India from different angles . UTV has made a great contribution to the bollywood
If you are not into serious cinema right now then there is 'Singh is King' for you...
All these are available on Veoh.com.. thats my only source in Hong Kong. I try to get DVDs sometimes which are also pirated again and certainly I cannot wait for 3-4 years to catch a movie (avinash does not like me watching these pirated stuff, but I am channel restricted.. sorry).
After The Dark Knight I have not watched in Hollywood movie. Looking forward for Tropical Thunder.
Rock -On - For Farhan Akthar and Shankar-Eshan-Llyod amateurly sounding Great hindi rock.
Aamir - Mumbai Meri Jaan- A Wednesday , I suggest all three. Good work on terrorism in India from different angles . UTV has made a great contribution to the bollywood
If you are not into serious cinema right now then there is 'Singh is King' for you...
All these are available on Veoh.com.. thats my only source in Hong Kong. I try to get DVDs sometimes which are also pirated again and certainly I cannot wait for 3-4 years to catch a movie (avinash does not like me watching these pirated stuff, but I am channel restricted.. sorry).
After The Dark Knight I have not watched in Hollywood movie. Looking forward for Tropical Thunder.
India N-abled
thats the TOI headline today. Though there is lot of skepticism about the full-waiver stuff, this was a great achievement for Congress and India. Whatever the BJP/Left/BSP /Deve Gowda harp about the deal and that India had surrendered Nuclear-sovereignty I genuinely believe that apart from India other countries would want to have India continue its testing ability and be a nuclear powerhouse, apart from the likes of sweden, norway, austria, new zealand and switzerland .
the bigger threat to the region and the world are the likes of Pakistan, Iran, North Korea and China. There is a nuclear nexus here somehow and there is proliferation happening in this nexus allegedly in some instances like the China-Pak connection. Others like the Pak-Iran-NK was openly admitted by A.Q. Khan, though not proven explicitly.
Under such a nexus developing in the region the western world needs a counter balance. The US especially is interested in containing the growing presence of China in this region and its aggressiveness in non-nuclear activities like O&G exploration which is always included with an arms support, be it burma, middle east of africa. Even the european mights are threatened though there is russia which physically separates them from China, but not by a far distance. And if Pongyang claims to have missile reaching the US pacific states, its naive to assume china would not have.
So the US and its european allies really want an Asian heavyweight who can counter balance China and who else can that be apart from India, who also has a special relation with Russia. By enabling India, the western powers are sending a direct message to China. China obviously would and did tried to veto this deal and Mr. Bush himself had not interfered I am sure India would have lost the race.
So Mr. Yechuri and Jaitley mostly oppose for the sake of opposing, esp the BJP which itself would have done a similar deal if it were in power.
Certainly we are N-abled today.
Bravo India
the bigger threat to the region and the world are the likes of Pakistan, Iran, North Korea and China. There is a nuclear nexus here somehow and there is proliferation happening in this nexus allegedly in some instances like the China-Pak connection. Others like the Pak-Iran-NK was openly admitted by A.Q. Khan, though not proven explicitly.
Under such a nexus developing in the region the western world needs a counter balance. The US especially is interested in containing the growing presence of China in this region and its aggressiveness in non-nuclear activities like O&G exploration which is always included with an arms support, be it burma, middle east of africa. Even the european mights are threatened though there is russia which physically separates them from China, but not by a far distance. And if Pongyang claims to have missile reaching the US pacific states, its naive to assume china would not have.
So the US and its european allies really want an Asian heavyweight who can counter balance China and who else can that be apart from India, who also has a special relation with Russia. By enabling India, the western powers are sending a direct message to China. China obviously would and did tried to veto this deal and Mr. Bush himself had not interfered I am sure India would have lost the race.
So Mr. Yechuri and Jaitley mostly oppose for the sake of opposing, esp the BJP which itself would have done a similar deal if it were in power.
Certainly we are N-abled today.
Bravo India
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Google chrome
I installed Google chrome for my windowsXP and I like it. It's cool. I think it is faster than firefox. It looks somewhat like the Opera Web browser I think.
Europe is the answer
I am not a technical expert on infrastructure, but looking at two geographies which have different transportation infrastructures, I perceived what could be better.. I might be completely wrong
There is a lot of talk about infrastructure in India and I always follow it up.
Looking at the developments taking across India looks like India likes to follow the US way of infrastructure, building massive road network across the country. This strategy basically sucks. I agree we do need roads, but we cannot afford to have a road network as vast as US/China or even 50% of it. We just do not have enough land for that.
While Roads work for a country as big as the US, like China, this would utterly fail for a country like India. To build world class roads you need land and land acquisition in India is not as easy as in China ( mass displacment for roads is common in China). the NICE road however nice it could be did run into a lot of trouble over acquiring land (most of it was politically motivated, but am sure the number of acres was really a huge number.)
By building roads we are directly affecting the most abundant working class - the farmers.
On the second hand we are encouraging people to buy Cars which could be second worst thing to happen for a country with subsidised petrol/diesel prices and imports nearly 80%+ of its crude oil.
What we currently need is better conditioned roads which will increase efficiency of vehicles and a wider roads (like the golden quadilateral). Building parallel highways like the BMIC is a waste of everything (though its very attractive).
India should look up to europe and build a world class railway infrastructure. Every city/town in India should be connected by railway networks. Being already the biggest railway network in the world and the ability to make a 30K crore surplus surely shows that there is a huge potential in this mode of tansportation. Every city should run a metro like Bombay.Railways consume less space, and can be more efficient for mass transportation. Building high class service trains would make it attractive for all class of people to travel by trains.
And Europeans have proven that they are smarter than the US in many instances (europe banned lead in gasoline nearly 50 years before US completely realized the harmful effects of lead, same is happening with the GHGs) and having a demography and geography similar to europe (western europe) we should act the european way and not the Calfornian way.
There is a lot of talk about infrastructure in India and I always follow it up.
Looking at the developments taking across India looks like India likes to follow the US way of infrastructure, building massive road network across the country. This strategy basically sucks. I agree we do need roads, but we cannot afford to have a road network as vast as US/China or even 50% of it. We just do not have enough land for that.
While Roads work for a country as big as the US, like China, this would utterly fail for a country like India. To build world class roads you need land and land acquisition in India is not as easy as in China ( mass displacment for roads is common in China). the NICE road however nice it could be did run into a lot of trouble over acquiring land (most of it was politically motivated, but am sure the number of acres was really a huge number.)
By building roads we are directly affecting the most abundant working class - the farmers.
On the second hand we are encouraging people to buy Cars which could be second worst thing to happen for a country with subsidised petrol/diesel prices and imports nearly 80%+ of its crude oil.
What we currently need is better conditioned roads which will increase efficiency of vehicles and a wider roads (like the golden quadilateral). Building parallel highways like the BMIC is a waste of everything (though its very attractive).
India should look up to europe and build a world class railway infrastructure. Every city/town in India should be connected by railway networks. Being already the biggest railway network in the world and the ability to make a 30K crore surplus surely shows that there is a huge potential in this mode of tansportation. Every city should run a metro like Bombay.Railways consume less space, and can be more efficient for mass transportation. Building high class service trains would make it attractive for all class of people to travel by trains.
And Europeans have proven that they are smarter than the US in many instances (europe banned lead in gasoline nearly 50 years before US completely realized the harmful effects of lead, same is happening with the GHGs) and having a demography and geography similar to europe (western europe) we should act the european way and not the Calfornian way.
Monday, September 01, 2008
Chrome ..
Frankly, the browser business is a little outdated I feel and Google is entering very late into this.
But you never know whats in the store ( rather I do not know whats in the store, as I have not bothered to check the features, its left to my techie friends).
This shows Google has ample bench strength to work from Browsers to office documents and solar power and potentially wind mills.. so ppl dreaming of the coveted job beware.
May be Chrome should have been a Chinese/Japanese browser. Strategically this would have helped. (or atleast give it a wild shot). Mozilla is a good and much needed replacement for IE.
Chrome might end like Safari or even worse... but there is a cool factor (atleast in India and Brazil) to be associated with Google products and so Indians will for sure embrace the Chrome......
But you never know whats in the store ( rather I do not know whats in the store, as I have not bothered to check the features, its left to my techie friends).
This shows Google has ample bench strength to work from Browsers to office documents and solar power and potentially wind mills.. so ppl dreaming of the coveted job beware.
May be Chrome should have been a Chinese/Japanese browser. Strategically this would have helped. (or atleast give it a wild shot). Mozilla is a good and much needed replacement for IE.
Chrome might end like Safari or even worse... but there is a cool factor (atleast in India and Brazil) to be associated with Google products and so Indians will for sure embrace the Chrome......
Friday, August 22, 2008
10th std A section
This song from the movie "10th Class A Section" is really catchy.I heard it on radio and it actually took awhile to actually google out this song.
The title of the movie is weird. If the title is weird, how about the new Kannada movie "KA-999 B-333".
The lyrics is really clever, but one gripe is that it always has a racist note.
and later about female infanticide :-
Very original and really worth a listen. You can listen to Bhagawantha Bhagawantha Yeshtondu hudugeerowrallo.
Nice song.
The title of the movie is weird. If the title is weird, how about the new Kannada movie "KA-999 B-333".
The lyrics is really clever, but one gripe is that it always has a racist note.
Kappiddru nange OKAY,
Makeuppu haakistheeni.
Kullugiddre high heel haaki
uddha maadstheeni !!!
and later about female infanticide :-
Hennu huttoke modalE saayisthaarallo,
Nammantha hudugura kashta kelovryaarolo!!!
Very original and really worth a listen. You can listen to Bhagawantha Bhagawantha Yeshtondu hudugeerowrallo.
Nice song.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Somewhere in the interiors of South India, an umbrella is seen moving on a partially lit mud road. It's raining very heavily and the sun is about to hide his face.
Beneath the umbrella 4 legs are seen. Walking. One pair of legs don't wear any slippers and wear saffron clothes. The other pair is wearing a Woodland brown pair shoes.
We zoom into these subjects.
The Guru is walking along with the Shishya. There are two roads fading into the dark intersecting at right angles.
GURU : So, here you are shishya. At the crossroads.
SHISHYA : (confused) Yeah I guess.
GURU : What will you do ?
(smirks)
SHISHYA : (apprehensive) This is only the beginning. We still have time.
GURU : Do you ?
The two continue to talk about which road to take, as rain pours.
Beneath the umbrella 4 legs are seen. Walking. One pair of legs don't wear any slippers and wear saffron clothes. The other pair is wearing a Woodland brown pair shoes.
We zoom into these subjects.
The Guru is walking along with the Shishya. There are two roads fading into the dark intersecting at right angles.
GURU : So, here you are shishya. At the crossroads.
SHISHYA : (confused) Yeah I guess.
GURU : What will you do ?
(smirks)
SHISHYA : (apprehensive) This is only the beginning. We still have time.
GURU : Do you ?
The two continue to talk about which road to take, as rain pours.
Monday, August 18, 2008
whats your take on Consumerism?
This post is to solicit feedback..
Please post your views as comments..
thanks
ps: ofcourse the question raises from a quandry again
Please post your views as comments..
thanks
ps: ofcourse the question raises from a quandry again
Quote
Dr.Rajkumar-avaru, ondu film haadu helidare avarade film-nalli haadiddare, Wah! "Gaana Gandharva" Rajkumar-avaru haadiddaare antha anisuthade;
aadare, Dr.Rajkumar haadannu P.B. Srinivas haadiddare, "namma maneya hiriya anna avaru" haadiddare antha anisuthade.
Ravi Belagere.
Many oldies prefer the older Rajkumar songs which were sung by PBS rather than the newer ones sung by Dr.Raj himself.
aadare, Dr.Rajkumar haadannu P.B. Srinivas haadiddare, "namma maneya hiriya anna avaru" haadiddare antha anisuthade.
Ravi Belagere.
Many oldies prefer the older Rajkumar songs which were sung by PBS rather than the newer ones sung by Dr.Raj himself.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Small programming pblm ...
Given an array contains 0s and 1s mixed together, in one scan of the whole array, is it possible to put all the 0s on the left and all the ones to the right ?
I got the solution (I think) :-) But I took sometime.
I got the solution (I think) :-) But I took sometime.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
How abt some good news about India ?
Every time you pick up a paper I see headlines which are depressing or sometimes really affecting your daily life.
The real pleasant news amidst this sea of torture just dies a silent death because it is unnoticed. Optimism is really important and it adds that delta and the feeling that we are doing something and keep it going.
It is that ray of hope.
So Dhimant has started a website called www.TheBetterIndia.com which aims to address the good news and give it its due. Congrats and great idea dude !
The real pleasant news amidst this sea of torture just dies a silent death because it is unnoticed. Optimism is really important and it adds that delta and the feeling that we are doing something and keep it going.
It is that ray of hope.
So Dhimant has started a website called www.TheBetterIndia.com which aims to address the good news and give it its due. Congrats and great idea dude !
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Things Change
and its very cyclical..
ask me a couple of years ago.. and I would have told the top most issues for me were were inequaility in Indian society, bridging the gap between the classes, creating equal opporutnity, contributing to someone apart from me, my family and friends...
today its about me , me and me .. it has become a egomaniacal world..its mostly about me nowadays, without knowing what i want..but am sure its about me most of the times .. or my closest relatives and friends .. the society has gone at large.....
i believe this is totally cyclical ..i keep swinging between these two levels and often than not stay at the middle most of the times ..but I have been at the extremes completely too.. you get tired of one you sway to the other and then get tired of the other end .. and prefer to travel along the middle line in a slow pace ..
not sure what causes the transistions..sometimes its events, sometimes boredom, sometimes inspiration, and sometimes dejection .. but it happens and you will notice it but forget about the trigerring event ..
winding down another day.. a bad day for India at olympics.. two close matches, which seem to be all indian suddenly became indonesian and russian ..but i am lot more positive about india's future olympics hopes.. we are into quarter and pre-quarters ..usually we were pre-qualifications exits .. and sometimes we need luck in our draws ..unlike the one akhil kumar faces .. he is up against no 1 in weighlifting .. poor thing he will be beaten (and literally too)..
i have found a new distaste toward events which have a judges and need to have judgement in awarding points and determining the gold/silver/bronze.. gymanstics, diving, boxing all suck ... okay i dont like how this guy looks ..heere i go a 9.8 instead of 10... am sure the human psyche is a not a very pure one .. hence we should not have any judging events at the olympics..
heard two boxers (a korean and a french) protested yesterday and complained the judges were biased towards the Chinese ... not sure whats in store for the indians ..
ask me a couple of years ago.. and I would have told the top most issues for me were were inequaility in Indian society, bridging the gap between the classes, creating equal opporutnity, contributing to someone apart from me, my family and friends...
today its about me , me and me .. it has become a egomaniacal world..its mostly about me nowadays, without knowing what i want..but am sure its about me most of the times .. or my closest relatives and friends .. the society has gone at large.....
i believe this is totally cyclical ..i keep swinging between these two levels and often than not stay at the middle most of the times ..but I have been at the extremes completely too.. you get tired of one you sway to the other and then get tired of the other end .. and prefer to travel along the middle line in a slow pace ..
not sure what causes the transistions..sometimes its events, sometimes boredom, sometimes inspiration, and sometimes dejection .. but it happens and you will notice it but forget about the trigerring event ..
winding down another day.. a bad day for India at olympics.. two close matches, which seem to be all indian suddenly became indonesian and russian ..but i am lot more positive about india's future olympics hopes.. we are into quarter and pre-quarters ..usually we were pre-qualifications exits .. and sometimes we need luck in our draws ..unlike the one akhil kumar faces .. he is up against no 1 in weighlifting .. poor thing he will be beaten (and literally too)..
i have found a new distaste toward events which have a judges and need to have judgement in awarding points and determining the gold/silver/bronze.. gymanstics, diving, boxing all suck ... okay i dont like how this guy looks ..heere i go a 9.8 instead of 10... am sure the human psyche is a not a very pure one .. hence we should not have any judging events at the olympics..
heard two boxers (a korean and a french) protested yesterday and complained the judges were biased towards the Chinese ... not sure whats in store for the indians ..
Sunday, August 10, 2008
where is the GOLD lost..
This is a tough one to judge ..
where in the supply chain of building athletes is the weakest link and where does India lose heavily in transforming itself into Olympics superweight.
We cannot be China, agreed and partly because we do not want to be like China either..
but dont we want to be like the US, Australia, Russia or atleast like Brazil in the sporting fraternity...
If we look back where we exactly lose out on sports, I can attribute to two factors
- a system which doesnt reward sports
- and people backing the system (you, me, your/my parents etc)
The state of athletes in India is never a rewarding one, in the career sense and monetary sense and hence there is no REAL incentive in pursuing a Gold medal for Olympics, becasue after that all you are left is a few grams of gold ..
What we need is a revolution in each sporting activity - like recently Tennis, where there is money and there is also a chance of winning the Olympics.. In the US this is true for most of the sporting events .. In Europe there is a lot of government and industrial support .. and in Russia and China ..there are the armies of the respective countries..
In India we lack corporates (thought TATA has been very active), the government and the army.. and we all know this .. not only this but we lack athletes..
Athletes lose out in making a career in life vs making a career in sports ..
personally we would have witnessed brilliant athletes amongst us in our school days..
by 12th standard.. this number is reduced by 1/10th or 1/100th.. with everyone cramming to get into the coveted engineering/medical/arts/commerce schools of India.. there goes our first big cut .. a cut as big enough it has been bleeding for the past 50 years with no Gold apart from Hockey.. (now we do not even qualify for hockey)..
the second cut .. in university level there is barely sporting activity.. apart from cricket.. for cricket there is a ranji level and now IPL, ICL etc .. where players do get rewarded with jobs is both corporates and prestigious banks .. and there is a good support system ..
Hockey enjoyed some decent level of support ..
Other sporting athletes are usually supported by railways ..
Imagine having a sports quota in Intel, Tata, Google, Reliance, ICICI, Infosys and all the super power house corporates .. (if someone represnts at national/state level or higher).. would this help???
these companies encourage/sponsor the training of one athlete from one sport (pursue government to make it mandatory).. and the companies are allowed to use the athlete for endorsment of their brand apart from making him write C, C++ programs ..
Would this change something over the next 20 years for India in sports ..???
I think we need much more concrete ideas than these .. oh yeah and the implementation
where in the supply chain of building athletes is the weakest link and where does India lose heavily in transforming itself into Olympics superweight.
We cannot be China, agreed and partly because we do not want to be like China either..
but dont we want to be like the US, Australia, Russia or atleast like Brazil in the sporting fraternity...
If we look back where we exactly lose out on sports, I can attribute to two factors
- a system which doesnt reward sports
- and people backing the system (you, me, your/my parents etc)
The state of athletes in India is never a rewarding one, in the career sense and monetary sense and hence there is no REAL incentive in pursuing a Gold medal for Olympics, becasue after that all you are left is a few grams of gold ..
What we need is a revolution in each sporting activity - like recently Tennis, where there is money and there is also a chance of winning the Olympics.. In the US this is true for most of the sporting events .. In Europe there is a lot of government and industrial support .. and in Russia and China ..there are the armies of the respective countries..
In India we lack corporates (thought TATA has been very active), the government and the army.. and we all know this .. not only this but we lack athletes..
Athletes lose out in making a career in life vs making a career in sports ..
personally we would have witnessed brilliant athletes amongst us in our school days..
by 12th standard.. this number is reduced by 1/10th or 1/100th.. with everyone cramming to get into the coveted engineering/medical/arts/commerce schools of India.. there goes our first big cut .. a cut as big enough it has been bleeding for the past 50 years with no Gold apart from Hockey.. (now we do not even qualify for hockey)..
the second cut .. in university level there is barely sporting activity.. apart from cricket.. for cricket there is a ranji level and now IPL, ICL etc .. where players do get rewarded with jobs is both corporates and prestigious banks .. and there is a good support system ..
Hockey enjoyed some decent level of support ..
Other sporting athletes are usually supported by railways ..
Imagine having a sports quota in Intel, Tata, Google, Reliance, ICICI, Infosys and all the super power house corporates .. (if someone represnts at national/state level or higher).. would this help???
these companies encourage/sponsor the training of one athlete from one sport (pursue government to make it mandatory).. and the companies are allowed to use the athlete for endorsment of their brand apart from making him write C, C++ programs ..
Would this change something over the next 20 years for India in sports ..???
I think we need much more concrete ideas than these .. oh yeah and the implementation
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Rambo anyone ?
Why is Rambo so popular ?
I didn't even bother to see one movie, because I thought it was all about blood , blood and more blood.
Anyone one here a die hard fan of Rambo, Rocky etc. ?
I didn't even bother to see one movie, because I thought it was all about blood , blood and more blood.
Anyone one here a die hard fan of Rambo, Rocky etc. ?
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Traits of Kanglish
I am making a compilation of some common terms which is used by Kannada influenced English speakers. Help me compete this list.
*)Using present continuous tense sounding very awkward.
Ex: I am enclosing a photo of a Gorilla along with the receipt which we received yesterday.
instead of
I have enclosed a photo of a Gorilla along with the receipt which we received yesterday.
*)Stretching the vowels
Aye you are doing like theeeees ? Naaaat like that...Thats what I thought!!! Thats why you are doing like thataaah?? ok.ok.
*) Can never get the "a" in words like cat and the "o" in words like coffee. This is commong to many Indian languages.
Ex: Sir there was a traffic jaam (jaam rhymes with Hindi aaam)
*)Adding "u" in the end.
Bengaluru is full of roadsu, busessu, caru and garbeju
*) Adding a rhyming word stating with gi.
Aye, why have you kept all your Books-gicks here ? go man.
I don't post or comment on all these blogs-geegs and all....
Can you guys think of more ?
*)Using present continuous tense sounding very awkward.
Ex: I am enclosing a photo of a Gorilla along with the receipt which we received yesterday.
instead of
I have enclosed a photo of a Gorilla along with the receipt which we received yesterday.
*)Stretching the vowels
Aye you are doing like theeeees ? Naaaat like that...Thats what I thought!!! Thats why you are doing like thataaah?? ok.ok.
*) Can never get the "a" in words like cat and the "o" in words like coffee. This is commong to many Indian languages.
Ex: Sir there was a traffic jaam (jaam rhymes with Hindi aaam)
*)Adding "u" in the end.
Bengaluru is full of roadsu, busessu, caru and garbeju
*) Adding a rhyming word stating with gi.
Aye, why have you kept all your Books-gicks here ? go man.
I don't post or comment on all these blogs-geegs and all....
Can you guys think of more ?
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
A Comment
on the previous post by Sudeep, which went so long that I had to post it as a blog .. apologies
Sudeepa, I agree Kannada movies lack originality. Most of our hits have been remakes. (so are the songs)... but I think the industry has moved a bit upwards in the past few years .. in terms of script writing and even music.. i do miss old harmonium style of Hamsalekha, Rajan Nagendra etc.. This is a transition phase, the industry is re-establishing itself... and in this growth there will be some crap and some cut copy paste ..similar to the IT industry.. uppi could have been a shankar nag .. (OM is a classic)..but he got carried away and went to acting.. Yograj bhat has had a couple of decent movies .. heard "moggina mansu" is good too.. its novel to have a whole women oriented movie in Kannada .. even the bollywood cannot afford it ..
the scene in hollywood is pathetic too.. its alll comic books into movies now.. spiderman, batman, iron man etc etc etc.. i am shocked that 'The Dark Knight' could replace Godfather as the best movie on IMDB.. that totally sucks.. the days of classic drama/issue based movies seems to be diminishing in Hollywood.. its more like hancok, wanted matrix etc..which feels like Rajini / mithun movies of the 80s with a Sci Fi and tech twist..
Looks like Tamil and Telugu industry have declined too in novelty. Tamil was at the cutting edge of experimentation a few years back.. Now they have found a easy formula.. copy from malayalam movies.. Now bollywood is chasing the similar angles too.. either copy.. or have a superstar .. or stars who can be sentationsalized and capature on the pre-hype of the movie, (market aggressively) have a strong 1 week sales.. recover all the costs, make a decent profit.. through Music sales, DVD, VCD and channels .. Last year I enjoyed movies like Taare Zameen Par, Bheja fry, Ek Chalis ki last local etc which were small budget decent movies and some really good ones.. I thought the trend would increase, but its back to classic Khan's and Kumar's, Kapoor movies this year...
Sudeepa, I agree Kannada movies lack originality. Most of our hits have been remakes. (so are the songs)... but I think the industry has moved a bit upwards in the past few years .. in terms of script writing and even music.. i do miss old harmonium style of Hamsalekha, Rajan Nagendra etc.. This is a transition phase, the industry is re-establishing itself... and in this growth there will be some crap and some cut copy paste ..similar to the IT industry.. uppi could have been a shankar nag .. (OM is a classic)..but he got carried away and went to acting.. Yograj bhat has had a couple of decent movies .. heard "moggina mansu" is good too.. its novel to have a whole women oriented movie in Kannada .. even the bollywood cannot afford it ..
the scene in hollywood is pathetic too.. its alll comic books into movies now.. spiderman, batman, iron man etc etc etc.. i am shocked that 'The Dark Knight' could replace Godfather as the best movie on IMDB.. that totally sucks.. the days of classic drama/issue based movies seems to be diminishing in Hollywood.. its more like hancok, wanted matrix etc..which feels like Rajini / mithun movies of the 80s with a Sci Fi and tech twist..
Looks like Tamil and Telugu industry have declined too in novelty. Tamil was at the cutting edge of experimentation a few years back.. Now they have found a easy formula.. copy from malayalam movies.. Now bollywood is chasing the similar angles too.. either copy.. or have a superstar .. or stars who can be sentationsalized and capature on the pre-hype of the movie, (market aggressively) have a strong 1 week sales.. recover all the costs, make a decent profit.. through Music sales, DVD, VCD and channels .. Last year I enjoyed movies like Taare Zameen Par, Bheja fry, Ek Chalis ki last local etc which were small budget decent movies and some really good ones.. I thought the trend would increase, but its back to classic Khan's and Kumar's, Kapoor movies this year...
Cuil
The news of a new search engine has been spreading like wild fire. cuil is started by some former google employees.
What's so special about this new search engine ? The index is huuuuuuge!!!!! Which means the web is much bigger than what google had told us. Hope this index does not contain redundant or unimportant information.
The viral marketing and the TV marketing of this new search engine www.cuil.com is in place, but as a fairly intensive search engine user I think there are two main arguable points :-
a) The philosophy of cuil.
b) The release time. (I think it is too early. They should have waited for some more time).
Philosophy :-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance."
I would rather trust 100000 people saying that a website is relevant for my query rather than an algorithm which says this is the relevant website. Many search engine users might not know anything on what they are searching. They might be searching something because people are talking about it and they want a quick summary rather than an authoritative treatise on a subject.
Example :
a) I might have heard someone talking about blackberry censorship in India, and I just want to know why people are talking about it. Never underestimate popularity metrics.
b) If something is popular it is for a reason and more people would like to know/read about it. Only people who are interested in going deep have the motivation to go deeper searching for the "authoritative truth". Example : Compare the search of TCP/IP in google and cuil.
So it will be great if popularity metrics is also taken into account.
But one thing I would appreciate is a search engine which provides ALTERNATE RESULTS than many search engines.
That's something interesting.
Release Time :-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Too early.The pressure of time and money is there, but this is a half done work.Where are the image searches, news etc. etc. or at least something NEW???
This looks more like an academic project rather than an industrial search engine.
They SHOULD put some kind of a spell checker feature. The last time I checked it, Kramer vs. Kramer , Kramer v/s Kramer , Kramer versus Kramer all give different results.
My remark : Lots to improve there is room for improvement.
But all the best to Cuil!!! We need a competitor to google!
What's so special about this new search engine ? The index is huuuuuuge!!!!! Which means the web is much bigger than what google had told us. Hope this index does not contain redundant or unimportant information.
The viral marketing and the TV marketing of this new search engine www.cuil.com is in place, but as a fairly intensive search engine user I think there are two main arguable points :-
a) The philosophy of cuil.
b) The release time. (I think it is too early. They should have waited for some more time).
Philosophy :-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance."
I would rather trust 100000 people saying that a website is relevant for my query rather than an algorithm which says this is the relevant website. Many search engine users might not know anything on what they are searching. They might be searching something because people are talking about it and they want a quick summary rather than an authoritative treatise on a subject.
Example :
a) I might have heard someone talking about blackberry censorship in India, and I just want to know why people are talking about it. Never underestimate popularity metrics.
b) If something is popular it is for a reason and more people would like to know/read about it. Only people who are interested in going deep have the motivation to go deeper searching for the "authoritative truth". Example : Compare the search of TCP/IP in google and cuil.
So it will be great if popularity metrics is also taken into account.
But one thing I would appreciate is a search engine which provides ALTERNATE RESULTS than many search engines.
That's something interesting.
Release Time :-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Too early.The pressure of time and money is there, but this is a half done work.Where are the image searches, news etc. etc. or at least something NEW???
This looks more like an academic project rather than an industrial search engine.
They SHOULD put some kind of a spell checker feature. The last time I checked it, Kramer vs. Kramer , Kramer v/s Kramer , Kramer versus Kramer all give different results.
My remark : Lots to improve there is room for improvement.
But all the best to Cuil!!! We need a competitor to google!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Specialty ?
I was going through one of the links of a website called chitratara.com just to check out some new Kannada movies. I heard that the movie "TajMahal" is pretty good. Let me try to catch that movie.
But that's not the point or the purpose of this post. The purpose of this post is cliched shit which Kannada movie makers,Kannada musicians and even the critics have to offer.
The new Kannada film makers guys copy. Of course everyone copies. But the Kannada guys just flick from Tamil/Hindi and make movies. At least let them flick from English/Japanese/ French etc. But no! They flick from Tamil/Hindi. Take a DVD and make the movie scene by scene. A Tamil Goundar is automatically translated into a Kannada Gowda including the mooch. And Mr.Ambareesh looks more like a Tamil Goundar than a a Mandya gowda. It is an insult to audience by copying movies left right and center.
First let's talk about the critics. Let me show you an example :-
Look at the "specialty of the movie" starring some two new people according to the some film journo :-
I love you till the end of the movie. Interesting.
And the songs are shamelessly lifted. Any damn Kannada song you listen to these days, you get a sense of Deja Vu. Kaddalu Manasanna is thoroughly inspired by one RHTDM song. Patra barayala illa chitra bidisala is a mix of two old Kannada songs Jotheyaagi Hithavaagi , Sweety nanna Jodi and Airtel tune. And the beats, support music are extremely predictable with the drumbeats on an infinite loop till the end of the song. I think these are possibly programmed using some amateur software like Fruity Loops or Reason (especially Mano Murthy and Gurukiran generate a lot of computer music). There is absolutely no soul on the songs, just composed due to the pressure of deadlines. No artistry in the songs.
My opinion : Music sounds best when composed with passion and when you mean what you sing/play. When a music instrument is played rather than generated with a computer (no matter what the degree of sampling) it gives a human touch and makes it sound more human. More human means more durable and not a passing fad. Electronic music is good, but not always. Raghu Dixit is OK, but I feel he is very much inspired by Euphoria and Folk.
The lyrics are also pathetic. Kariya needs a mention here, and now Hotappa hotu sakkathu hotu maga lifted from Radio Mirchi slogan. Otherwise the songs contain some esoteric words which a guy never uses when he loves a girl. Example of esoteric words include : amrutha dhaare, inchara, saniha etc..
And the actors. They are the yuckiest of the lot. Forget acting skills. That's too much to ask for. They neither have style or originality or common sense or the desire to improve. Dullards and idiots. They look like a bunch of celebrated and pampered fools who think that if they carry a "long" with some blood on their face with a fancy hindi word in the title name (like Duniya or Zindagi), they are great actors with great performances. And their inrto songs usually feature them in front of Lord Ganesha or some other god with flowers and one long thilak.
And the actresses. Where are the Aartis/Bharathis/ Manjulas / Kalpanas ? They bring some fair maiden from the north, show her legs and midriff and thats it. Over. All acting finished.
I really miss the heyday of Kannada film when Puttanna Kanagal made some lovely movies, followed by Shankar Nag. Ok, if these people were very arty, even the Vishnu-Dwarki-Manjula , Rajkumar and Udaykumar days were also too good. The new guys have spoiled the enthu to go to a new movie.
But that's not the point or the purpose of this post. The purpose of this post is cliched shit which Kannada movie makers,Kannada musicians and even the critics have to offer.
The new Kannada film makers guys copy. Of course everyone copies. But the Kannada guys just flick from Tamil/Hindi and make movies. At least let them flick from English/Japanese/ French etc. But no! They flick from Tamil/Hindi. Take a DVD and make the movie scene by scene. A Tamil Goundar is automatically translated into a Kannada Gowda including the mooch. And Mr.Ambareesh looks more like a Tamil Goundar than a a Mandya gowda. It is an insult to audience by copying movies left right and center.
First let's talk about the critics. Let me show you an example :-
Look at the "specialty of the movie" starring some two new people according to the some film journo :-
This is a love story for Andrita but either she or he the protagonist Prajwal will be telling I love you in this film till the end. This is the specialty of the film. Janardhana Maharshi after seeing the photographs of sweet looking Prajwal and Andrita Ray has stitched the story
I love you till the end of the movie. Interesting.
And the songs are shamelessly lifted. Any damn Kannada song you listen to these days, you get a sense of Deja Vu. Kaddalu Manasanna is thoroughly inspired by one RHTDM song. Patra barayala illa chitra bidisala is a mix of two old Kannada songs Jotheyaagi Hithavaagi , Sweety nanna Jodi and Airtel tune. And the beats, support music are extremely predictable with the drumbeats on an infinite loop till the end of the song. I think these are possibly programmed using some amateur software like Fruity Loops or Reason (especially Mano Murthy and Gurukiran generate a lot of computer music). There is absolutely no soul on the songs, just composed due to the pressure of deadlines. No artistry in the songs.
My opinion : Music sounds best when composed with passion and when you mean what you sing/play. When a music instrument is played rather than generated with a computer (no matter what the degree of sampling) it gives a human touch and makes it sound more human. More human means more durable and not a passing fad. Electronic music is good, but not always. Raghu Dixit is OK, but I feel he is very much inspired by Euphoria and Folk.
The lyrics are also pathetic. Kariya needs a mention here, and now Hotappa hotu sakkathu hotu maga lifted from Radio Mirchi slogan. Otherwise the songs contain some esoteric words which a guy never uses when he loves a girl. Example of esoteric words include : amrutha dhaare, inchara, saniha etc..
And the actors. They are the yuckiest of the lot. Forget acting skills. That's too much to ask for. They neither have style or originality or common sense or the desire to improve. Dullards and idiots. They look like a bunch of celebrated and pampered fools who think that if they carry a "long" with some blood on their face with a fancy hindi word in the title name (like Duniya or Zindagi), they are great actors with great performances. And their inrto songs usually feature them in front of Lord Ganesha or some other god with flowers and one long thilak.
And the actresses. Where are the Aartis/Bharathis/ Manjulas / Kalpanas ? They bring some fair maiden from the north, show her legs and midriff and thats it. Over. All acting finished.
I really miss the heyday of Kannada film when Puttanna Kanagal made some lovely movies, followed by Shankar Nag. Ok, if these people were very arty, even the Vishnu-Dwarki-Manjula , Rajkumar and Udaykumar days were also too good. The new guys have spoiled the enthu to go to a new movie.
Asian Phenomenon
Blasts have become a day to day life routine in Asia........ Its really tragic that most of the countries in Asia have such awful security set up .. the matter of fact is we dont care ..not sure if this due to population levels in Asian countries .. lack of political will.. lack of political impact .. or availability of jehadis and ammonium nitrate in abundance .. few cities in the past few days which have witnessed the blasts
Istanbul
Ahmedabad
Bangalore
Kunming - Yunnan
Shanghai
Guangdong
Jaipur
Varanasi
Hyderabad
Karachi
Islamabad
Bombay
Bali
Bangkok
Jakarta
etc etc etc ........... frankly there is a long list
The last European blast was Madrid ?? And the US has not had an incident after 9/11....???
Why is Asia ( in particular India ) so vulnerable .. ? is it 'cos we dont care ..
Istanbul
Ahmedabad
Bangalore
Kunming - Yunnan
Shanghai
Guangdong
Jaipur
Varanasi
Hyderabad
Karachi
Islamabad
Bombay
Bali
Bangkok
Jakarta
etc etc etc ........... frankly there is a long list
The last European blast was Madrid ?? And the US has not had an incident after 9/11....???
Why is Asia ( in particular India ) so vulnerable .. ? is it 'cos we dont care ..
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Ram Sethu
Sometimes you need to be really tactful in getting things done in India especially when the issue on hand is of "RELIGIOUS" in nature. Things could really go erratic on religious issues and effect everyone one from common man to primeminster.. The president is in a safer position
One such issue has be the Ram Sethu demolition and DMK/Congress' stands on it.. Finally there is a tactful story to put up .... look below
Here is the full story..
http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/24/stories/2008072460211300.htm
Now the people who are fighting for the bridge, apart from your previous stands you should do something unique in order to save it .. (not sure if it needs to be saved really, I do not have any stand on it as I have not analyzed the Pros and Cons)
- how about getting a UN cultural heritage status - not an easy one ..
- how about involving Lankan government on your side.. saying destroying it might have some effect on the island .. may be lanka gets washed away till antartica .. (oops the bridge is holding it close to india you know)
comeon guys do something .. just dont start another religious fight and start burning down people and property..
I think Indian inflation would be far lesser if we bar strikes, public burning and looting by political outfits .. and ofcourse the political processions
One such issue has be the Ram Sethu demolition and DMK/Congress' stands on it.. Finally there is a tactful story to put up .... look below
The Centre on Wednesday asserted that Lord Ram himself destroyed Ramar Sethu after his victory over Ravana and “we cannot worship something that has been destroyed.”
Mr. Nariman said “Kamba Ramayanam also expressly says the bridge was destroyed by Lord Ram so that no one can cross over to Sri Lanka and ships can sail through. Even the Telugu version of Ramayana says Lord Ram destroyed the bridge.”
Here is the full story..
http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/24/stories/2008072460211300.htm
Now the people who are fighting for the bridge, apart from your previous stands you should do something unique in order to save it .. (not sure if it needs to be saved really, I do not have any stand on it as I have not analyzed the Pros and Cons)
- how about getting a UN cultural heritage status - not an easy one ..
- how about involving Lankan government on your side.. saying destroying it might have some effect on the island .. may be lanka gets washed away till antartica .. (oops the bridge is holding it close to india you know)
comeon guys do something .. just dont start another religious fight and start burning down people and property..
I think Indian inflation would be far lesser if we bar strikes, public burning and looting by political outfits .. and ofcourse the political processions
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Retirement_age ++;
In Karnataka, the retirement age has been advanced to 60 years.
So my dad and other people of his age who had to retire the next year can continue to work for some more time. Shortage of skilled labor in other areas, I guess ?
Although my dad is happy that he can keep himself occupied, he is concerned like the college authorities. He told me the college could not find anyone who could teach Electronics course for +2 students. He has to take the Electronics Course.
The BSc Electronics Guys, it seems, are not even applying. For CS courses, a fresher from an Engineering College offered to teach the +2 students but this guy may not be around after sometime as they could get better prospects and opportunities.
The sad state is that the quality of teachers could go down. Many students can study on their own, but some people need a push to study and understand things.
Moreover guest lecturers don't take a very good commitment. If the going gets tough/boring, they can escape.
So my dad and other people of his age who had to retire the next year can continue to work for some more time. Shortage of skilled labor in other areas, I guess ?
Although my dad is happy that he can keep himself occupied, he is concerned like the college authorities. He told me the college could not find anyone who could teach Electronics course for +2 students. He has to take the Electronics Course.
The BSc Electronics Guys, it seems, are not even applying. For CS courses, a fresher from an Engineering College offered to teach the +2 students but this guy may not be around after sometime as they could get better prospects and opportunities.
The sad state is that the quality of teachers could go down. Many students can study on their own, but some people need a push to study and understand things.
Moreover guest lecturers don't take a very good commitment. If the going gets tough/boring, they can escape.
Nuclear Deal - Quote Unquote ..
"The UPA's victory is not due to their policies but a well thought-out political conspiracy by both the NDA and the UPA to check the BSP and prevent the daughter of a Dalit from becoming the Prime Minister of the country,"
"Both feared BSP and prevented me from becoming the prime minister. Had the NDA not helped the ruling coalition, it would not have been saved on the floor of the House," said Mayawati
"It is a sad day for Parliamentary democracy in India when all norms are sacrificed for a nuclear deal which is against the interest of the country," CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat
"The opposition parties should now pave way for Rahul Gandhi," said Puneet Sharma, an enthusiastic party supporter
" I urge him at least to change his astrologers so that he gets more accurate predictions of things to come" Manmohan Singh
SP leader Amar Singh "today is the happiest day in my political career".
"The politics of Prakash Karat, A B Bardhan and L K Advani has been exposed,"
"The BJP and NDA seem to believe that nuclear isolation should end but no one is clear about the Left parties. Yet the two groups are voting together.
"The NDA has no problem with the strategic relationship with the US. The Left parties have ideological opposition to it. Yet the two groups are voting together.
"The NDA believes in India becoming a nuclear weapon state. The Left parties have always opposed nuclear weaponisation. Yet the two parties are together.
"The NDA says if it comes to power, it will renegotiate the nuclear deal. The Left says it will everything to scuttle the agreement for ever. Yet they are voting together.
"I don't think in the history of Parliament there is anything more bizarre than two disparate groups voting together," the Finance Minister said in his spirited speech.
But the day belongs to Manmohan Singh.. His conclusion in the speech is inspiring..
The Management and governance of the world’s largest, most diverse and most vibrant democracy is the greatest challenge any person can be entrusted with, in this world. It has been my good fortune that I was entrusted with this challenge over four years ago. I thank with all sincerity the Chairperson of the UPA, the leaders of the Constituent Parties of the UPA and every member of my Party for the faith and trust they reposed in me. I once again recall with gratitude the guidance and support I have received from Shri Jyoti Basu and Sardar Harkishen Singh Surjeet.
I have often said that I am a politician by accident. I have held many diverse responsibilities. I have been a teacher, I have been an official of the Government of India, I have been a member of this greatest of Parliaments, but I have never forgotten my life as a young boy in a distant village.
Every day that I have been Prime Minister of India I have tried to remember that the first ten years of my life were spent in a village with no drinking water supply, no electricity, no hospital, no roads and nothing that we today associate with modern living. I had to walk miles to school, I had to study in the dim light of a kerosene oil lamp. This nation gave me the opportunity to ensure that such would not be the life of our children in the foreseeable future.
Sir, my conscience is clear that on every day that I have occupied this high office, I have tried to fulfill the dream of that young boy from that distant village.
The greatness of democracy is that we are all birds of passage! We are here today, gone tomorrow! But in the brief time that the people of India entrust us with this responsibility, it is our duty to be honest and sincere in the discharge of these responsibilities. As it is said in our sacred texts, we are responsible for our actions and we must act without coveting the rewards of such action. Whatever I have done in this high office I have done so with a clear conscience and the best interests of my country and our people at heart. I have no other claims to make.
I am happy for Manmohan Singh and the Nuclear Deal
"Both feared BSP and prevented me from becoming the prime minister. Had the NDA not helped the ruling coalition, it would not have been saved on the floor of the House," said Mayawati
"It is a sad day for Parliamentary democracy in India when all norms are sacrificed for a nuclear deal which is against the interest of the country," CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat
"The opposition parties should now pave way for Rahul Gandhi," said Puneet Sharma, an enthusiastic party supporter
" I urge him at least to change his astrologers so that he gets more accurate predictions of things to come" Manmohan Singh
SP leader Amar Singh "today is the happiest day in my political career".
"The politics of Prakash Karat, A B Bardhan and L K Advani has been exposed,"
"The BJP and NDA seem to believe that nuclear isolation should end but no one is clear about the Left parties. Yet the two groups are voting together.
"The NDA has no problem with the strategic relationship with the US. The Left parties have ideological opposition to it. Yet the two groups are voting together.
"The NDA believes in India becoming a nuclear weapon state. The Left parties have always opposed nuclear weaponisation. Yet the two parties are together.
"The NDA says if it comes to power, it will renegotiate the nuclear deal. The Left says it will everything to scuttle the agreement for ever. Yet they are voting together.
"I don't think in the history of Parliament there is anything more bizarre than two disparate groups voting together," the Finance Minister said in his spirited speech.
But the day belongs to Manmohan Singh.. His conclusion in the speech is inspiring..
The Management and governance of the world’s largest, most diverse and most vibrant democracy is the greatest challenge any person can be entrusted with, in this world. It has been my good fortune that I was entrusted with this challenge over four years ago. I thank with all sincerity the Chairperson of the UPA, the leaders of the Constituent Parties of the UPA and every member of my Party for the faith and trust they reposed in me. I once again recall with gratitude the guidance and support I have received from Shri Jyoti Basu and Sardar Harkishen Singh Surjeet.
I have often said that I am a politician by accident. I have held many diverse responsibilities. I have been a teacher, I have been an official of the Government of India, I have been a member of this greatest of Parliaments, but I have never forgotten my life as a young boy in a distant village.
Every day that I have been Prime Minister of India I have tried to remember that the first ten years of my life were spent in a village with no drinking water supply, no electricity, no hospital, no roads and nothing that we today associate with modern living. I had to walk miles to school, I had to study in the dim light of a kerosene oil lamp. This nation gave me the opportunity to ensure that such would not be the life of our children in the foreseeable future.
Sir, my conscience is clear that on every day that I have occupied this high office, I have tried to fulfill the dream of that young boy from that distant village.
The greatness of democracy is that we are all birds of passage! We are here today, gone tomorrow! But in the brief time that the people of India entrust us with this responsibility, it is our duty to be honest and sincere in the discharge of these responsibilities. As it is said in our sacred texts, we are responsible for our actions and we must act without coveting the rewards of such action. Whatever I have done in this high office I have done so with a clear conscience and the best interests of my country and our people at heart. I have no other claims to make.
I am happy for Manmohan Singh and the Nuclear Deal
Monday, July 21, 2008
Piracy..
Last month, the Kannada film fraternity raised the issue of Piracy and sought the government's help in crubbing the same.
I am not sure if this was a joke and really looked hard for some pun in text or cartoon, but there werent many. If anything, the Kannda movie industry should encourage piracy. To be very honest how many of you have the DVD of the recent (remember blockbuster in Kannada movies may occur once is 5 years, by this standard the word recent is apt) Mungaru Male? At first you dont intend to get it, and even if you want to desperately watch the movie, drawn by its sucess, the only theater would be Sapna in the way lanes of Gandhinagar (Majestic)...
On the other hand, if you have pirated DVDs, VCDs or online streaming this movie would have reached a bigger audience (even tams and gults) and increased popularity of the movie( not that its extra-ordinary.. that makes me think whether they wnat to prevent piracy so that others are prevented to understand whey it was a blockbuster)...
Hindi movies are rampantly pirated, you get a dvd rip within a day of the actual release. Piracy could be a serious threat for bollywood and is already a very serious threat for Hollywood.
But if there are no channels for an audience like me .. residing in the Canton country, with a meager kanndaiga population, we should encourage some piracy in Sandalwood.....
I am not actually encouraging piracy, just asking for a channel (which is also cheap) to access Quality Kannada movies in Hong Kong.. ;-)
I am not sure if this was a joke and really looked hard for some pun in text or cartoon, but there werent many. If anything, the Kannda movie industry should encourage piracy. To be very honest how many of you have the DVD of the recent (remember blockbuster in Kannada movies may occur once is 5 years, by this standard the word recent is apt) Mungaru Male? At first you dont intend to get it, and even if you want to desperately watch the movie, drawn by its sucess, the only theater would be Sapna in the way lanes of Gandhinagar (Majestic)...
On the other hand, if you have pirated DVDs, VCDs or online streaming this movie would have reached a bigger audience (even tams and gults) and increased popularity of the movie( not that its extra-ordinary.. that makes me think whether they wnat to prevent piracy so that others are prevented to understand whey it was a blockbuster)...
Hindi movies are rampantly pirated, you get a dvd rip within a day of the actual release. Piracy could be a serious threat for bollywood and is already a very serious threat for Hollywood.
But if there are no channels for an audience like me .. residing in the Canton country, with a meager kanndaiga population, we should encourage some piracy in Sandalwood.....
I am not actually encouraging piracy, just asking for a channel (which is also cheap) to access Quality Kannada movies in Hong Kong.. ;-)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Well ...
I have opened this big textbox to write something but my mind is kind of blank. It's probably got to do with so many things happening at one shot that i am not able to concentrate on one thing.
Reminds of one of my favorite sarcastic comedies called "The Big Lebowski"
Because of one single action (some random guy comes into the hero's house and pees on the hero's carpet) , the character in the movie lands in a mess. The impact of his one action starts off a chain of dependent events. The character is too confused to think of the consequences. He starts seeing the impact and feels that it is too screwed up. He doesn't want to think of the impact and he says to his friend, "Fuck it, Dude . . Let's go bowling"
I want to go bowling now. Or rather thats the reason I am blogging.
I saw Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa. The songs are good except for one song (the title song which sounds like a Jazz song straight out of a 1930s or a 1940s jazz).
Reminds of one of my favorite sarcastic comedies called "The Big Lebowski"
Because of one single action (some random guy comes into the hero's house and pees on the hero's carpet) , the character in the movie lands in a mess. The impact of his one action starts off a chain of dependent events. The character is too confused to think of the consequences. He starts seeing the impact and feels that it is too screwed up. He doesn't want to think of the impact and he says to his friend, "Fuck it, Dude . . Let's go bowling"
I want to go bowling now. Or rather thats the reason I am blogging.
I saw Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa. The songs are good except for one song (the title song which sounds like a Jazz song straight out of a 1930s or a 1940s jazz).
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Smooth Criminal
We've grown up seeing this dance move, but little did I know that this dance move is patented.
[ Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion Michael J. Jackson et al ]. Whacko-Jacko also has a patent to his name and a nice one!I thought of it as some clever camera move and later editing the video, but it is not the case.
From what I understood, Michael Jackson and other people had come up with the idea of attaching the shoe to the dance floor and then balancing even though the center of gravity does not permit. Looks like the shoe's heel is fixed to the floor, through some nails.
Federer vs Nadal..
It was truly and epic final.. the best I have seen in years..
Beats the Aggassi vs Sampras US semi-final (steffi was pregnant then)..
Me and Naga watched it through the night .. before some exams at Teju place ..
me betting on Sampras and Naga on Agassi.. I had won a pepsi then..
this time I bet on Federer and lost HKD 500 .. but still Federer would be my bet until he retires .. just the way I used to bet on Sampras till he retired. :D
Nadal - He is a freak.. :-) ..
Beats the Aggassi vs Sampras US semi-final (steffi was pregnant then)..
Me and Naga watched it through the night .. before some exams at Teju place ..
me betting on Sampras and Naga on Agassi.. I had won a pepsi then..
this time I bet on Federer and lost HKD 500 .. but still Federer would be my bet until he retires .. just the way I used to bet on Sampras till he retired. :D
Nadal - He is a freak.. :-) ..
Monday, July 07, 2008
Rajinikanth Re-invented ..
No.. its not about the Cartoon movie or Kuselan ..
This is about 'Wanted' starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman..
To summarize this type of movie was done in K/T/B/ollywoods in th 80s and the 90s and everyone ridiculed it. Its now the turn of Hollywood to enter the bandwagon.
- Bullets curl around
- Bullets are cut with knives
- bullets cancel out bullets (as in mahabharata where arujuna nullifies bhishmas arrow)
- there are some twists and turns as you shall watch in any abbas-mastan movie..
when rajini used to do this (catching the bullet, cutting bullet with a knife etc), ppl (esp from north) used to ridicule this.. Now when Jolie (Zeenat Aman) and Morgan freeman (Vajra Muni) does it, it will become a cult .. (Sumanth if you felt Matrix was Mithun movie, you gotta watch this).
The story goes like this..
Morgan is the head of a mill in Chicago .. ( I prefer to call it the Binny mill).. and also a the head of a assassin faternity.. (already sounds familiar to a some desi movie)..
the yarn machine sews out the wool, which our freeman takes liberty in listing ppl he wants to kill.. (they add complexity here by saying it churns out a binary code and you can get a name from this.. too hi-tec)
they find this rajini chap , (who is an accountant before ).. but son of a powerful assassin and has extreme powers inherirted (through jeans oops genes).. and send Jolie to get him .. (this again is bollywood) and convince him that if he doesnt kill the GUY whose name is produced by the Binny Mill machine , then that guy will indeed kill some 1000 ppl .. she does this by narrating her child hood story of her father being duped, tortured and killed (tell me how many desi movies doesnt have a similar plot)..
they train our Rajini chap ..(all the bullet skills he need) using computer graphics .. and make him a superstar (aka rajini).. and then they set him chase to kill this guy who is suppose to be the killer of his father..
but it turns out that man who Rajini is after to kill, is actually Rajini's father and apna Vajramuni ( Freeman ) would have hatached a plan to set the son against the father with a preconcieved thought that the father will not kill his son .. (its shame for me to repeat where u could have seen such a plot)..
and poor Rajini doesnt even understand this when the person he is after to kill (i.e his dad) resuces him from falling of a falling train .. (well need to comment here.. apna desi Rajini has higher IQ here .. he would easily blurted appppaaaa .. and shed some tears and both the father and son would go and finish freeman)...
but the hollywood rajini needs some convincing etc.. (very low EQ and IQ) ..
finally with the help of some rats (cos he has killed his dad by now) he manages to enter the Chakravyooha of Morgan freeman, where freeman defends himself saying whatever he did was right, because the binny mill machine had produced the names of his and his colleagues (including Jolie).. to be killed .. and orders his colleagues to kill Rajini..
but again in true bollywood style, Jolie (Zeenat Aman in Don.. ) fires a bullet which goes in a circle and kills a dozen before she takes into her brain .. (having had some much confusion.. she knows this is the right thing to do )..
by this time you are done.. so am I .. cant write anymore on Wanted ..
This is about 'Wanted' starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman..
To summarize this type of movie was done in K/T/B/ollywoods in th 80s and the 90s and everyone ridiculed it. Its now the turn of Hollywood to enter the bandwagon.
- Bullets curl around
- Bullets are cut with knives
- bullets cancel out bullets (as in mahabharata where arujuna nullifies bhishmas arrow)
- there are some twists and turns as you shall watch in any abbas-mastan movie..
when rajini used to do this (catching the bullet, cutting bullet with a knife etc), ppl (esp from north) used to ridicule this.. Now when Jolie (Zeenat Aman) and Morgan freeman (Vajra Muni) does it, it will become a cult .. (Sumanth if you felt Matrix was Mithun movie, you gotta watch this).
The story goes like this..
Morgan is the head of a mill in Chicago .. ( I prefer to call it the Binny mill).. and also a the head of a assassin faternity.. (already sounds familiar to a some desi movie)..
the yarn machine sews out the wool, which our freeman takes liberty in listing ppl he wants to kill.. (they add complexity here by saying it churns out a binary code and you can get a name from this.. too hi-tec)
they find this rajini chap , (who is an accountant before ).. but son of a powerful assassin and has extreme powers inherirted (through jeans oops genes).. and send Jolie to get him .. (this again is bollywood) and convince him that if he doesnt kill the GUY whose name is produced by the Binny Mill machine , then that guy will indeed kill some 1000 ppl .. she does this by narrating her child hood story of her father being duped, tortured and killed (tell me how many desi movies doesnt have a similar plot)..
they train our Rajini chap ..(all the bullet skills he need) using computer graphics .. and make him a superstar (aka rajini).. and then they set him chase to kill this guy who is suppose to be the killer of his father..
but it turns out that man who Rajini is after to kill, is actually Rajini's father and apna Vajramuni ( Freeman ) would have hatached a plan to set the son against the father with a preconcieved thought that the father will not kill his son .. (its shame for me to repeat where u could have seen such a plot)..
and poor Rajini doesnt even understand this when the person he is after to kill (i.e his dad) resuces him from falling of a falling train .. (well need to comment here.. apna desi Rajini has higher IQ here .. he would easily blurted appppaaaa .. and shed some tears and both the father and son would go and finish freeman)...
but the hollywood rajini needs some convincing etc.. (very low EQ and IQ) ..
finally with the help of some rats (cos he has killed his dad by now) he manages to enter the Chakravyooha of Morgan freeman, where freeman defends himself saying whatever he did was right, because the binny mill machine had produced the names of his and his colleagues (including Jolie).. to be killed .. and orders his colleagues to kill Rajini..
but again in true bollywood style, Jolie (Zeenat Aman in Don.. ) fires a bullet which goes in a circle and kills a dozen before she takes into her brain .. (having had some much confusion.. she knows this is the right thing to do )..
by this time you are done.. so am I .. cant write anymore on Wanted ..
Headwear
Why is headgear out of fashion/less diversified? Probably because of inconvenience, I guess. But head gear is definitely fashionable can make a fashion statement.
The conventional Nike cap is a very important gear to a college student. I remember Teju using a NY cap all through his first and second semesters. But now, Nike cap has become cliched. Times are changin'. The nike cap was also be worn frontside back to give the Yo! look.
I am seriously interested in what are the options for some creative headgear :-
a)Golf cap :
If a girl/guy is into hip-hop, you can see them wearing the old style Golf cap. But this kind of cap is something which I will contemplate on wearing after I am 35, maybe. You can also be mistaken to be a bikini killer like this viper, "Charles Sobhraj". That guy is once again in the news for marriage with a twenty year old.
b) Skull Cap:
Suited for round big heads.
c) Mysore Peta : Why not ? It looks very cool as a headgear. The new designers can use the hat's cloth material to go with the suit instead of the traditional ornamental silk. Or maybe a leather Mysore Peta would look different. You would look like the main character of Prince2 - The Shadow and The Flame.
Some designer should consider Mysore Peta as an option ... Tired of Nike Caps.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Inside Man..
Have you watched this movie? It wasnt a big flick .. dint make a big noise at the box office..
what caught my attention was .. the title track of this movie was "Chayya Chayya" from Dil Se.. I was very surprised.. I had to mute my comp.. switch off the TV and restart, change channels, check my iPod etc to make sure that "Chayya Chayya" was indeed being played as the title track of the movie ..
The film starts as a dull "bank roberry" plot .. you wonder why such a powerful start cast - denzel washington, jodie foster, agreed to make such a movie.. but the movie unravels quickly and the bank robbery turns out to be a masterpiece ..
the movie can be best described as "unexpectedly unpredictable" .. - quoted by someone on IMDB.. rating 7.7/10..
oh yes .. and it ends with "Chayya Chayya".. again I had to check my comp, ipod and change channels to confirm I wasn't mistaken.. and glad that I was not ..
what caught my attention was .. the title track of this movie was "Chayya Chayya" from Dil Se.. I was very surprised.. I had to mute my comp.. switch off the TV and restart, change channels, check my iPod etc to make sure that "Chayya Chayya" was indeed being played as the title track of the movie ..
The film starts as a dull "bank roberry" plot .. you wonder why such a powerful start cast - denzel washington, jodie foster, agreed to make such a movie.. but the movie unravels quickly and the bank robbery turns out to be a masterpiece ..
the movie can be best described as "unexpectedly unpredictable" .. - quoted by someone on IMDB.. rating 7.7/10..
oh yes .. and it ends with "Chayya Chayya".. again I had to check my comp, ipod and change channels to confirm I wasn't mistaken.. and glad that I was not ..
Whats your identity..??
For majority of the people living outside their countries its their Nationality followed by religion.
(Now this could vary a lot for specific ppl .. esp like for americans whether is he a democratic or republican, what he thinks about Iran / N. Korea / Iraq ?? ;-)...
It mostly ends there. Anyone who wants to know more about my identity beyond being an Indian stops at my food preference, and concludes these are my religious restrictions.. (with a bit of apathy that I am indeed missing a lot of juicy stuff )
Now turn the scenario domestically and it becomes more complex .. and I think the complexity in India increases .. It becomes a taxonomy.. we have an obsession with dissection .. region (north south india, state, city, area .. the last level of granularity reached in here was till South Bangalore .. now its heading towards individual localities like katriguppe, Girinagar etc ), religion, caste,language, food, movie star idols (ask a rajini fan)...
this is the price we pay for having a history which dates back to 3000BC .. and 2000 years more we will be back like Jews with a single identity.. and hopefully its INDIAN...
The most remarkable achievement for India or of India , is to be a cohesive democracy, with so much diversity (and adversity too).. This is one front where we have excelled beyond any country in the world.. despite numerous races, religions, castes, languages etc we are functioning as a single country for 60 years..
Some Business guru recently said homogeneity increases productivity and diversity decreases it.. he was referring to corporations only.. looks like it applies to nations as well
(Now this could vary a lot for specific ppl .. esp like for americans whether is he a democratic or republican, what he thinks about Iran / N. Korea / Iraq ?? ;-)...
It mostly ends there. Anyone who wants to know more about my identity beyond being an Indian stops at my food preference, and concludes these are my religious restrictions.. (with a bit of apathy that I am indeed missing a lot of juicy stuff )
Now turn the scenario domestically and it becomes more complex .. and I think the complexity in India increases .. It becomes a taxonomy.. we have an obsession with dissection .. region (north south india, state, city, area .. the last level of granularity reached in here was till South Bangalore .. now its heading towards individual localities like katriguppe, Girinagar etc ), religion, caste,language, food, movie star idols (ask a rajini fan)...
this is the price we pay for having a history which dates back to 3000BC .. and 2000 years more we will be back like Jews with a single identity.. and hopefully its INDIAN...
The most remarkable achievement for India or of India , is to be a cohesive democracy, with so much diversity (and adversity too).. This is one front where we have excelled beyond any country in the world.. despite numerous races, religions, castes, languages etc we are functioning as a single country for 60 years..
Some Business guru recently said homogeneity increases productivity and diversity decreases it.. he was referring to corporations only.. looks like it applies to nations as well
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Gates' last day
So today , it seems is the last day of Bill Gates at office. A Microsoft without Bill Gates is something unimaginable.
I first heard of the name Bill Gates in a function called "Unveiling Windows 95" at a five star hotel in MGRoad. It was in 1995 (of course). There were around 300+ people attending the presentation. At that time, I was using windows 3.1 and I was curious about this "Windows 95" (yeah, really!). There was a small movie clip in which Bill Gates talks about the features of Windows 95 and all that. In the clip they showed this photo. . I had thought "So this guy is the man who made the Windows Software"
And then I saw him when I was in Infy. At that time, the opinions had changed. Heheh.
But still MS will be affected by his departure, no doubts about that.
What will he do next ?
Bill Gates for US President ?
I first heard of the name Bill Gates in a function called "Unveiling Windows 95" at a five star hotel in MGRoad. It was in 1995 (of course). There were around 300+ people attending the presentation. At that time, I was using windows 3.1 and I was curious about this "Windows 95" (yeah, really!). There was a small movie clip in which Bill Gates talks about the features of Windows 95 and all that. In the clip they showed this photo. . I had thought "So this guy is the man who made the Windows Software"
And then I saw him when I was in Infy. At that time, the opinions had changed. Heheh.
But still MS will be affected by his departure, no doubts about that.
What will he do next ?
Bill Gates for US President ?
item News ..
are not the same as News items,
item News' are the 'item number' equivalents .. in my dictionary ofcourse ..
with so many news channels, publication and websites today, almost anyone can make it to the news .. and can make a item News ..
e.g checkout the following link .. http://in.rediff.com/getahead/2008/jun/25mba.htm
no offence to the person involved ... or the concerned school ..
some item News of the future..
GD - Blr to HK and IT to Chemical .. what is he doing..
Richie - Back to Y! or Y! Blor to Y! Sunny Vale ..an incredible journey through Ask
or watever ..
item News' are the 'item number' equivalents .. in my dictionary ofcourse ..
with so many news channels, publication and websites today, almost anyone can make it to the news .. and can make a item News ..
e.g checkout the following link .. http://in.rediff.com/getahead/2008/jun/25mba.htm
no offence to the person involved ... or the concerned school ..
some item News of the future..
GD - Blr to HK and IT to Chemical .. what is he doing..
Richie - Back to Y! or Y! Blor to Y! Sunny Vale ..an incredible journey through Ask
or watever ..
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
back to the future..
@ work last week we kicked-off the 5-year strategic planning process. It was quite hectic and there were lots of socializing events too which was incredible fun..I seriously cant think how to plan for 5-years.. It became very easy when I assumed that whatever I plan would be wrong.. and I just need to put an explanation for that .. ;-)
I am kind of stuck in post-meeting trauma.. the 5-year strat plan process has set me in thinking mode. How would life be in 2013 ??? My main concern is not "What will I be doing?" cos thats easy.. I would not be doing anything unusual .. i would still be contemplating on life and cribbing out many a things including work :-) .. I would be married for sure..
My main question ins "what kind of an environment would I be living in??"
A decade ago Blore weather ranged between 22-28. Today it swings betwee 12-40.
How would this be in 2013 ??? 0-50 ??
Looking forward the biggest threat to human well-being (including mine, assuming I shall be still human in a competitive environment) seems to be the unpredictable and harsh weather.
there will be more deaths to harsher unpredictable weather patterns than to any other cause (assuming al qaida stops bombing, US stops invading at free will, human genocide problem in africa, burma etc would be solved, politicians become wiser and ofcos no nuclear explosions or something like Bhopal tragedy)
okies.. enuf of crap.. its typhoon 3 warning.. pack your bags and leave office before it gets worser.. the future shall be there.. u need to survive the present hour...
adios
I am kind of stuck in post-meeting trauma.. the 5-year strat plan process has set me in thinking mode. How would life be in 2013 ??? My main concern is not "What will I be doing?" cos thats easy.. I would not be doing anything unusual .. i would still be contemplating on life and cribbing out many a things including work :-) .. I would be married for sure..
My main question ins "what kind of an environment would I be living in??"
A decade ago Blore weather ranged between 22-28. Today it swings betwee 12-40.
How would this be in 2013 ??? 0-50 ??
Looking forward the biggest threat to human well-being (including mine, assuming I shall be still human in a competitive environment) seems to be the unpredictable and harsh weather.
there will be more deaths to harsher unpredictable weather patterns than to any other cause (assuming al qaida stops bombing, US stops invading at free will, human genocide problem in africa, burma etc would be solved, politicians become wiser and ofcos no nuclear explosions or something like Bhopal tragedy)
okies.. enuf of crap.. its typhoon 3 warning.. pack your bags and leave office before it gets worser.. the future shall be there.. u need to survive the present hour...
adios
Monday, June 23, 2008
I attended a birthday party and another function this weekend. In other words, this means, that the weekend literally flew away before I realize it and I am already sitting here and typing something hastily.
My niece Lakshmi's birthday party was a very well planned and a 'deftly' executed party.
Just like any other kid of today, it featured cake-cutting, party games, spraying some kind of weird foam in the air, dance, "return gifts" like a pack of pencils or story books (ps: return gifts reminds me of the taamboola). The parents of the kids are generally enthusiastic about these kind of things.
As far as I can remember we never had such birthday parties : That was a long time ago.
Our previous generation would say the same thing.
Ditto previous of the previous generation and so on.
Since I am doing some linked list programming, let me put it like this :-
That sums up humanity's opinion on birthday parties.
Women generally like socializing. Thats a fact. So mothers of the kids would team up discussing many things like their dresses, their kids' dresses , the colors etc.
The fathers' of the kids were of two types :-
a)TYPE#1 : Tailing their wives going wherever they go.
b)TYPE#2 : Antisocial psychopaths who make faces because they have been put into an uncomfortable situation like attending a birthday party and want the cake to be cut immediately, because they don't want to talk with the neighboring father about "technology you are working on" OR "prospective customers in a value driven economy"
But both the types of fathers regardless of race, age, income in harmony watched one thing in unison. The beautiful sight of a balloon floating in air. It is human tendency to pat a balloon which comes near you. Some people also make that extra effort like jumping to hit a balloon and acting like a clown.
The other function was a formal one. It was the 60th birthday of my beloved maternal uncle. Great food. It is called as 60 year "Shanti". He has undergone quite a bit of rough patch in his life and now he's quite good and happy. Happy for him.
My niece Lakshmi's birthday party was a very well planned and a 'deftly' executed party.
Just like any other kid of today, it featured cake-cutting, party games, spraying some kind of weird foam in the air, dance, "return gifts" like a pack of pencils or story books (ps: return gifts reminds me of the taamboola). The parents of the kids are generally enthusiastic about these kind of things.
As far as I can remember we never had such birthday parties : That was a long time ago.
Our previous generation would say the same thing.
Ditto previous of the previous generation and so on.
Since I am doing some linked list programming, let me put it like this :-
curr = last;
while ( curr != GENERATION_CAVE_MAN)
{
curr->display("As far as I can remember we never had such birthday parties");
curr = curr->prev;
}
That sums up humanity's opinion on birthday parties.
Women generally like socializing. Thats a fact. So mothers of the kids would team up discussing many things like their dresses, their kids' dresses , the colors etc.
The fathers' of the kids were of two types :-
a)TYPE#1 : Tailing their wives going wherever they go.
b)TYPE#2 : Antisocial psychopaths who make faces because they have been put into an uncomfortable situation like attending a birthday party and want the cake to be cut immediately, because they don't want to talk with the neighboring father about "technology you are working on" OR "prospective customers in a value driven economy"
But both the types of fathers regardless of race, age, income in harmony watched one thing in unison. The beautiful sight of a balloon floating in air. It is human tendency to pat a balloon which comes near you. Some people also make that extra effort like jumping to hit a balloon and acting like a clown.
The other function was a formal one. It was the 60th birthday of my beloved maternal uncle. Great food. It is called as 60 year "Shanti". He has undergone quite a bit of rough patch in his life and now he's quite good and happy. Happy for him.
Friday, June 20, 2008
After driving slowly for quite sometime, have you ever felt the need to throttle?
I will give you an example:-
If you had seen the movie Ghulam, Aamir Khan will be going slowly bending his bike rhythmically as his bike waddles. Suddenly on the quite road, there is this array of bikes, which just swooshes past him with an defiance as though he never existed. Thats' enough to drag him into the race. Aamir Khan just wants to be on top of the other bikers, and he chases the guys to catch up with them.
Hmmm.
It's not just on road. It's with life too. My basic observation is the human instinct to be the bigger/better/faster/stronger wherever you are, whatever you do. Human, all too human.
Everything is looking so resigned and so philosophical today. I am looking fwd for the weekend. Lots of things to be done - everything will be taken one by one.
I will give you an example:-
If you had seen the movie Ghulam, Aamir Khan will be going slowly bending his bike rhythmically as his bike waddles. Suddenly on the quite road, there is this array of bikes, which just swooshes past him with an defiance as though he never existed. Thats' enough to drag him into the race. Aamir Khan just wants to be on top of the other bikers, and he chases the guys to catch up with them.
Hmmm.
It's not just on road. It's with life too. My basic observation is the human instinct to be the bigger/better/faster/stronger wherever you are, whatever you do. Human, all too human.
Everything is looking so resigned and so philosophical today. I am looking fwd for the weekend. Lots of things to be done - everything will be taken one by one.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
the indian dinner..
15 people from 9 different nationalities (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Malaysian, Canadian, British, American, Australian, and Hongkongese (trust me they need to be treated as a different nationality :P) ) were introduced to paani poori, samosas, tandoori, roti and curry, pulao and raita, gulab jamoon and ras malai..
they were quite open to the food and everyone ate too much .. (some were scared they might have a sensitive tummy) and the the taste was authentic ..
the atmosphere was fun filled, and I was the scape goat and butt of many jokes.. (unusual position)
I showed the way paani poori is prepared on the streets of Bangalore .. using the hand, dipping the filling first and dipping into the paani bowl.. many followed suit to my surprise.. no one stopped eating fearing contamination.. this was my main contribution for the day.. made sure ppl ate samosas with hand, paani poori with hand and ofcos rotis with hand (believe me many eat with knife and fork..) WELL DONE GD on this front..
and there was a caveat that it was all north indian ..
so the next round would be south indian with idli, vade and dose ..
they were quite open to the food and everyone ate too much .. (some were scared they might have a sensitive tummy) and the the taste was authentic ..
the atmosphere was fun filled, and I was the scape goat and butt of many jokes.. (unusual position)
I showed the way paani poori is prepared on the streets of Bangalore .. using the hand, dipping the filling first and dipping into the paani bowl.. many followed suit to my surprise.. no one stopped eating fearing contamination.. this was my main contribution for the day.. made sure ppl ate samosas with hand, paani poori with hand and ofcos rotis with hand (believe me many eat with knife and fork..) WELL DONE GD on this front..
and there was a caveat that it was all north indian ..
so the next round would be south indian with idli, vade and dose ..
how to test if someone is a bangalorean
some possible methods..
Derides masal dose in any other city in the world and comments even the worst of the restaurants in blore could beat the best in rest of the world .. (and believe me this is true)..
-Thinks it is wierd when ppl say they miss the cold weather back home or hot weather back home or the rains back home...
for bangalorean its always the cool evening back home ..(well this was a decade ago)
i dont know how to identify a bangalorean in a crowd of indians.. (apart from asking the obvious question.. )
.. u can easily spot a mumbai guy.. (find them to be a little bositerous/bragging to be honest about bombay.. no offence though) or a delhiite (behaves like a politician, talks mostly about power) or a madrasi.. (gets offended with the words Hindi/LTTE etc).. bong from the way he speaks ..(about tagore??)
bangalorean .hmmm ..how to identify this person?? Okies .. may be one more.. gets offended when someone derides rajkumar's ACTING skills? (note only acting).. now that could be a kannadiga ..
today.. my colleagues are going for an indian dinner (north indian dinner to be exact)..
i am expecting this obvious question.. "is this what you have at home daily??"
how do I tell them that the first time I had a full fledged north indian dinner or lunch was in 1st PUC..
Need to culturally educate them about south india..
this reminds me of a conversation..
xyz: Are you from Delhi??
me: No
xyz: Then from Bombay?
me: Err, No
xyz: mmmm
me: I am from Bangalore..
xyz: where is it ?? next to bangladesh?
me: err NO..thats calcutta..
xyz: where is bangalore?
me: Close to Chennai,, errr Madrasss
xyz: clueless stilll,
me: close to SriLanka..
xyz: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
me: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
There are so many cliches about India which I need to clear .. phewwwwwwwwww
Derides masal dose in any other city in the world and comments even the worst of the restaurants in blore could beat the best in rest of the world .. (and believe me this is true)..
-Thinks it is wierd when ppl say they miss the cold weather back home or hot weather back home or the rains back home...
for bangalorean its always the cool evening back home ..(well this was a decade ago)
i dont know how to identify a bangalorean in a crowd of indians.. (apart from asking the obvious question.. )
.. u can easily spot a mumbai guy.. (find them to be a little bositerous/bragging to be honest about bombay.. no offence though) or a delhiite (behaves like a politician, talks mostly about power) or a madrasi.. (gets offended with the words Hindi/LTTE etc).. bong from the way he speaks ..(about tagore??)
bangalorean .hmmm ..how to identify this person?? Okies .. may be one more.. gets offended when someone derides rajkumar's ACTING skills? (note only acting).. now that could be a kannadiga ..
today.. my colleagues are going for an indian dinner (north indian dinner to be exact)..
i am expecting this obvious question.. "is this what you have at home daily??"
how do I tell them that the first time I had a full fledged north indian dinner or lunch was in 1st PUC..
Need to culturally educate them about south india..
this reminds me of a conversation..
xyz: Are you from Delhi??
me: No
xyz: Then from Bombay?
me: Err, No
xyz: mmmm
me: I am from Bangalore..
xyz: where is it ?? next to bangladesh?
me: err NO..thats calcutta..
xyz: where is bangalore?
me: Close to Chennai,, errr Madrasss
xyz: clueless stilll,
me: close to SriLanka..
xyz: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
me: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
There are so many cliches about India which I need to clear .. phewwwwwwwwww
Random
My obsession with randomness lands me with this post. It's got to do with a definition of programming (found on the coding horror website). I am too lazy to create the link, you can go to the website, if you care ....
What is programming ?
Thats a wonderful definition. But the guy who thought about it deserves to be accoladed.
But, wait a second. It is not a guy who thought about. No not a girl too. It is a random spam program which can generate it. The program uses the concept of Markov chains where a [letter/word] is picked with a degree of probability. Interesting, but we need some time to look into the concept. Here is a link which explains on markov chains. This may be useful in generating some test data for text based programs.
Some play of words with my name :-
sudeeptions
sudeepting
sudeepist
sudeepchism
sudeepheting
sudeeppars
sudeeptulabooking
sudeeptudentlyphered
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious !
What is programming ?
Programming is all about knowing when to boil the orange sponge donkey across the phillipines with an orangutang gorilla crossed with a ham sandwich to the fourth power of twelve across the nile with an awful headache from the previous night when all of alfred's naughty jalapeno peppers frog-marched the nordic elves across the loom-lined geronimo induced swamp donkey over and above the fortran fortified kilomanjaro fence past the meticulously crafted anti disgusting sponge cake scenario where all the hats doth quoteth the milk which is not unlike the super werewolf from the infinite realm of ninja-step. it's hard to define, really.
Thats a wonderful definition. But the guy who thought about it deserves to be accoladed.
But, wait a second. It is not a guy who thought about. No not a girl too. It is a random spam program which can generate it. The program uses the concept of Markov chains where a [letter/word] is picked with a degree of probability. Interesting, but we need some time to look into the concept. Here is a link which explains on markov chains. This may be useful in generating some test data for text based programs.
Some play of words with my name :-
sudeeptions
sudeepting
sudeepist
sudeepchism
sudeepheting
sudeeppars
sudeeptulabooking
sudeeptudentlyphered
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious !
Monday, June 16, 2008
I will keep writing random thoughts because it feels good when you are not keeping anything in mind, yet you are writing something.
It is generally a good idea to keep expectations low. Or is it really a good idea ?
I remember seeing a movie called Great Expectations. I liked the movie and Gwyneth Paltrow in that movie. That was a long time ago when the word "Galaxy" reminded me of a theatre.
Speaking of Astronomy, one astronomer wrote something like this :-
A rockstar and a PhD. Both are a lifetime achievement. How did he do it?
Let's assume he did it some how. My head is feeling like an empty vessel.As I type this, noises from a busy office are heard. Some people talk about Form16 and some people are talking about nawk. Some one is singing "Khawja Meri Khawja" with headfones on and a shrill pitch. The human brain adjusts the volume of speech based on the dB it's ears is sensing. In other words people shout when they put on earphones. Loudness is measured in dB. Frequency is measured in Hertz. Frequency and pitch are one and the same.
By the way, talking of pitch, timbre, libretto, flat notes, falsettos and so on, I am reminded of SMS based reality singing contests. People dont seem to have enough of it. In future, all the professional singers will have gone through one round of an SMS contest before they make their mark. We will no longer have SPB and S.Janakis who would sing 200 songs a year. Rather 45 people singing about 75 of the songs.
The retired singers have a good career of SMS Contest Judges. I wonder what kind of profession will retired Software Engineers have ? I am sure most of them will run away from any programming competition that asks them to be a judge.
Today the word inertia, grogginess seem to dominate my thoughts. Of course there are other words which are dominating my thoughts too. RA_TS and TO_DO too!
It is generally a good idea to keep expectations low. Or is it really a good idea ?
I remember seeing a movie called Great Expectations. I liked the movie and Gwyneth Paltrow in that movie. That was a long time ago when the word "Galaxy" reminded me of a theatre.
Speaking of Astronomy, one astronomer wrote something like this :-
I was recently asked to be the external examiner for a PhD thesis entitled A survey of radial velocities in the zodiacal dust cloud. Nothing too extraordinary in that, except that in this case, the candidate had carried out his observational work in the early 1970s, and that at the time when he should have been writing-up, he was enjoying huge music charts success with the band Queen. The candidate was of course their lead guitarist, Brian May.
A rockstar and a PhD. Both are a lifetime achievement. How did he do it?
Let's assume he did it some how. My head is feeling like an empty vessel.As I type this, noises from a busy office are heard. Some people talk about Form16 and some people are talking about nawk. Some one is singing "Khawja Meri Khawja" with headfones on and a shrill pitch. The human brain adjusts the volume of speech based on the dB it's ears is sensing. In other words people shout when they put on earphones. Loudness is measured in dB. Frequency is measured in Hertz. Frequency and pitch are one and the same.
By the way, talking of pitch, timbre, libretto, flat notes, falsettos and so on, I am reminded of SMS based reality singing contests. People dont seem to have enough of it. In future, all the professional singers will have gone through one round of an SMS contest before they make their mark. We will no longer have SPB and S.Janakis who would sing 200 songs a year. Rather 45 people singing about 75 of the songs.
The retired singers have a good career of SMS Contest Judges. I wonder what kind of profession will retired Software Engineers have ? I am sure most of them will run away from any programming competition that asks them to be a judge.
Today the word inertia, grogginess seem to dominate my thoughts. Of course there are other words which are dominating my thoughts too. RA_TS and TO_DO too!
Friday, June 13, 2008
nightmares..
everyone has them.. mine is different ..they occur inconsequentially.. like yesterday..
my worst ones..
a. falling off from a tall structure.
b. Being surrounded by SNAKES ..
but nothing beats this one..
"flunking an exam" , and the period is mostly my under-graduation..
I really cant understand this fear of failure even after 8 years and having an MBA..
well, BU has an everlasting impression .. still remember those days of group studies (rather discussion on issues other than acads in pretext of group studies).. the pre-exam maniac atmosphere, the post-exam discussion/depression, the lab exams - internals, externals, the wait for the results .. the relief/celebrations post results..
well remembering those days once again for fun and to make the post-nightmare morning a happy one
(from a previous post ..here it goes)
I remember my exam days back in engineering,
--the 15 day marathon,
--xerox notes, from malleshwaram, hanumanthnagar and bsk 3rd stage,
--long nights at tejus place ( long because of discussions .. politics , life, career, girls ..everything except studies) ..
--chakku troubling us by call at 11:30 pm and psyching us out by claiming he had completed
--teju's tea and kummi's biscuits
--morning breakfast by teju's mom
-- sleeping the whole day just to wake up for another night
-- the gathering at sudeep's palce at 8 in the morning for the final sharing and ofcos filter coffee :)
-- nair not coming into the exam hall inspite he being on campus ..last minute cramming
-- chilli's record breaking exam writing 2.25 hours max
-- followed by early exits from Avinash (peer pressure), Harsha and Carren
-- Nair bothering swati for answers
-- Tejaswi's recording breaking additional papers, matched equally by Sumanth (with such a small handwriting)
-- Discussions following exam and Avinash claiming the question wasn't there
-- sudeep misinterpreting (minimum 2 from first section as at least 2 from first section)
-- me copying a major step in Eng mech derivation from NAIR
-- lokesh always saying 'adhu neen andikondange easy illa' and HM bashing him up .. Sandeep J getting frustrated before DEC lab due to this
-- juice after the exam at Anand's juice counter
-- occassional beats
-- Dil Chahta hai after one of the exams .. (me satya teju and naga) and sudeep not participating bcos its a hindi moive
-- Maiya collecting notes for the next exam already - Maiya driving Sumanth to a state of nausea
-- Carren using the F word incessantly accusing all the question paper setters as bastards ..
-- Sandeep micro managed chits and Nair photo-copying a chit - truly innovative .. though not using it to any advantage (I think internal times)
-- Me not studying half of Computer architecture and pysching out the last minute ..and maiya explaining pentium architecture..
and the list goes on and on and on
ohh .. My handicapped stage and climbing 2 stories for writing exams and Sumanth picking/dropping me from home (thank u richie) ..
Memorable ..
my worst ones..
a. falling off from a tall structure.
b. Being surrounded by SNAKES ..
but nothing beats this one..
"flunking an exam" , and the period is mostly my under-graduation..
I really cant understand this fear of failure even after 8 years and having an MBA..
well, BU has an everlasting impression .. still remember those days of group studies (rather discussion on issues other than acads in pretext of group studies).. the pre-exam maniac atmosphere, the post-exam discussion/depression, the lab exams - internals, externals, the wait for the results .. the relief/celebrations post results..
well remembering those days once again for fun and to make the post-nightmare morning a happy one
(from a previous post ..here it goes)
I remember my exam days back in engineering,
--the 15 day marathon,
--xerox notes, from malleshwaram, hanumanthnagar and bsk 3rd stage,
--long nights at tejus place ( long because of discussions .. politics , life, career, girls ..everything except studies) ..
--chakku troubling us by call at 11:30 pm and psyching us out by claiming he had completed
--teju's tea and kummi's biscuits
--morning breakfast by teju's mom
-- sleeping the whole day just to wake up for another night
-- the gathering at sudeep's palce at 8 in the morning for the final sharing and ofcos filter coffee :)
-- nair not coming into the exam hall inspite he being on campus ..last minute cramming
-- chilli's record breaking exam writing 2.25 hours max
-- followed by early exits from Avinash (peer pressure), Harsha and Carren
-- Nair bothering swati for answers
-- Tejaswi's recording breaking additional papers, matched equally by Sumanth (with such a small handwriting)
-- Discussions following exam and Avinash claiming the question wasn't there
-- sudeep misinterpreting (minimum 2 from first section as at least 2 from first section)
-- me copying a major step in Eng mech derivation from NAIR
-- lokesh always saying 'adhu neen andikondange easy illa' and HM bashing him up .. Sandeep J getting frustrated before DEC lab due to this
-- juice after the exam at Anand's juice counter
-- occassional beats
-- Dil Chahta hai after one of the exams .. (me satya teju and naga) and sudeep not participating bcos its a hindi moive
-- Maiya collecting notes for the next exam already - Maiya driving Sumanth to a state of nausea
-- Carren using the F word incessantly accusing all the question paper setters as bastards ..
-- Sandeep micro managed chits and Nair photo-copying a chit - truly innovative .. though not using it to any advantage (I think internal times)
-- Me not studying half of Computer architecture and pysching out the last minute ..and maiya explaining pentium architecture..
and the list goes on and on and on
ohh .. My handicapped stage and climbing 2 stories for writing exams and Sumanth picking/dropping me from home (thank u richie) ..
Memorable ..
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Randomness
While coming to the office this morning, I saw a defunct petrol pump. There was an advertisement board which from a popular Oil company which said, we dedicate this year to the most important customer this year : YOU. Just below the board, there were goats tied to the legs of the board.
The petrol bunk was defunct. We might have some defunct petrol bunks soon. The Shell Petrol bunk has lost many customers because the petrol rate is almost 73/= bucks. Yesterday I saw Avinash cycling to (office?) I guess. A new trend in Bangalore. I would have done that if the dist <=10km. Firefox cycles look pretty cool.
I guess oil crisis will be a major problem in the next coming decades. Finding a source of energy is a major concern these days. What could be the next source of energy. Nuclear energy would be the best. A drop of anti matter can make my Swift car run for probably 1000 years. But producing such a drop and also the cost to make the energy safely usable is a different story.
Also one comment on the mode of locomotion. Rewind back 200 years ago. The whole world was of full different human beings than the ones living today. Their tranportation needs were supported by horses and ships for long and short distances respectively.Roads might have been full of horse shit and half-eaten hay, I guess.
Speaking of horse shit, I am reminded about one point on global warming. It seems cows and buffaloes cause global warming because of hydrocarbons they release! You can the news about it here. Cow farts harming the planet. Another link about "Cow 'emissions' more damaging to planet than CO2 from cars".
No wonder that villages with so many cows might be polluted areas, despite sanitation problems. On second thoughts this survey and idea might be promoted by some organization. Anything is possible.
The petrol bunk was defunct. We might have some defunct petrol bunks soon. The Shell Petrol bunk has lost many customers because the petrol rate is almost 73/= bucks. Yesterday I saw Avinash cycling to (office?) I guess. A new trend in Bangalore. I would have done that if the dist <=10km. Firefox cycles look pretty cool.
I guess oil crisis will be a major problem in the next coming decades. Finding a source of energy is a major concern these days. What could be the next source of energy. Nuclear energy would be the best. A drop of anti matter can make my Swift car run for probably 1000 years. But producing such a drop and also the cost to make the energy safely usable is a different story.
Also one comment on the mode of locomotion. Rewind back 200 years ago. The whole world was of full different human beings than the ones living today. Their tranportation needs were supported by horses and ships for long and short distances respectively.Roads might have been full of horse shit and half-eaten hay, I guess.
Speaking of horse shit, I am reminded about one point on global warming. It seems cows and buffaloes cause global warming because of hydrocarbons they release! You can the news about it here. Cow farts harming the planet. Another link about "Cow 'emissions' more damaging to planet than CO2 from cars".
No wonder that villages with so many cows might be polluted areas, despite sanitation problems. On second thoughts this survey and idea might be promoted by some organization. Anything is possible.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Kannada Haadugalu
I feel glad that Kannada music has found a new breath of fresh air.
I think this is a Renaissance of sorts ..
post Chi. Udayshankar Kannada songs were totally non-hummable (i dont know if thats a word) with occasional decent numbers from Hamasalekha..
and then V. ravichandran started acting, direction, lyrics, music, etc etc etc .. and screwed Hamsalekha ..
Then there was the new star - Gurukiran who did some good numbers and good albums too (I like Jogi).. then the runaway hit - Mungaru Male .. The film is seriously nothing better than mediocre ... not sure why it was such a block buster..
Then there has been a marked improvement .. My guess is the old directors like S.Narayan, Om prakash etc are losing their grip in the industry and new directors (music too) are taking a modern outlook and contributing more...
I was pleasantly surprised the radio channels were playing more kannada songs than hindi (though repetitive).. Some songs I picked up during my trip
- Kaddalu manasanna from Mussanje maatu - starts very well , but loses steam quickly
- aakasha ishte yaakideyo - liked it very much.. especially for this line "EE DOSTIYE NAMMA CHATA " .. am pondering over this.. is this still true in my life ?? it used to be
- Jinke marina na - dint like it much.. but they do play umpteen times..
my iPhone as a dozen plus new Kannada songs ..
(this is just to show off that I have an iPhone.. go the 3G version one guys.. I think Airtel is getting it in August.. looking at the US price $199 with a two year contract, there should not be a high price in India too.. Hutchison is releasing iPhone in HK on July 11th... interesting to c what the price would be .. am sure it would be runaway hit in HK .. there are 100,000 unlocked phones which sell at HKD 4000 already in HK)
on bollywood front.. there is Jannat (Lambi judai, Zara se ) and Kabhi Kabhi Aditi (Aamir's nephew's movie)..
kannada songs rock .. (literally)
I think this is a Renaissance of sorts ..
post Chi. Udayshankar Kannada songs were totally non-hummable (i dont know if thats a word) with occasional decent numbers from Hamasalekha..
and then V. ravichandran started acting, direction, lyrics, music, etc etc etc .. and screwed Hamsalekha ..
Then there was the new star - Gurukiran who did some good numbers and good albums too (I like Jogi).. then the runaway hit - Mungaru Male .. The film is seriously nothing better than mediocre ... not sure why it was such a block buster..
Then there has been a marked improvement .. My guess is the old directors like S.Narayan, Om prakash etc are losing their grip in the industry and new directors (music too) are taking a modern outlook and contributing more...
I was pleasantly surprised the radio channels were playing more kannada songs than hindi (though repetitive).. Some songs I picked up during my trip
- Kaddalu manasanna from Mussanje maatu - starts very well , but loses steam quickly
- aakasha ishte yaakideyo - liked it very much.. especially for this line "EE DOSTIYE NAMMA CHATA " .. am pondering over this.. is this still true in my life ?? it used to be
- Jinke marina na - dint like it much.. but they do play umpteen times..
my iPhone as a dozen plus new Kannada songs ..
(this is just to show off that I have an iPhone.. go the 3G version one guys.. I think Airtel is getting it in August.. looking at the US price $199 with a two year contract, there should not be a high price in India too.. Hutchison is releasing iPhone in HK on July 11th... interesting to c what the price would be .. am sure it would be runaway hit in HK .. there are 100,000 unlocked phones which sell at HKD 4000 already in HK)
on bollywood front.. there is Jannat (Lambi judai, Zara se ) and Kabhi Kabhi Aditi (Aamir's nephew's movie)..
kannada songs rock .. (literally)
Friday, June 06, 2008
Psycho
The word Psycho reminds me of that legendary movie made by Alfred Hitchcock. However, there is a new Kannada movie by that name !The promotional artwork looks interesting. Looks very "scorpion"ish.....
But this movie came to my notice because of this song.
Very distinct rock sound. And the part when the singer says "karunadhi kayo" (in the lyrics). I am reminded of Rajkumar. Thats how he would have sung it for sure.
You really got to listen to this song if you haven't heard it. It is by a "Mysore Rocker" called Raghu Dixit.
By the way Raj had sung a some thing of a rock song apart from the infamous Eeef you come today
Sunday, June 01, 2008
somethings on my mind now..
Martial Arts - Karate, Kung Fu, Taekwando
Yoga??
Bangalore, Chitradurga visit..
BCB, Vidyarthi bhavan.. adda..
IT / non-IT for carrer - just read an article on how IT has transformed some rural youth.. household income changing from 15K/ year to 3 lakhs/ year and the role of JKC (Jawahar Knowledge Centers)
How to lose (_____) ?? the obvious thing to fill in the blank
Methanol market in China..
and now back to work...
Yoga??
Bangalore, Chitradurga visit..
BCB, Vidyarthi bhavan.. adda..
IT / non-IT for carrer - just read an article on how IT has transformed some rural youth.. household income changing from 15K/ year to 3 lakhs/ year and the role of JKC (Jawahar Knowledge Centers)
How to lose (_____) ?? the obvious thing to fill in the blank
Methanol market in China..
and now back to work...
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Weekly ponderings
Saturday evenings are better than Sunday evenings. You still have one day more. I've realised planning weekends well in advance is good, so that you can maximize the fun.
Suddenly the words optimize, maximize are very much a part of vocabulary as I keep browsing the radio allocator software component. It tries to optimize the usage of carrier bandwidth on the air interface. It is supposed to be the most complex software component in our software suite and I am looking at it for the first time. It tries to allocate radio channels to mobile phones and also does something called as "Timeslot aggregation" (where in one mobile can use several timeslots) and "Timeslot partitioning" (where in one timeslot can be used by several mobiles at different times). Basically it is a problem of optimization of resources.
Ah the above paragraph might not have been interesting.
I have typed so much, yet I feel I have not typed something which is interesting. What exactly is interesting ? I think interesting/uninteresting can be related to will and also energy. If
you feel tired, you won't be interested in anything. Interest has something to do with a sense of purpose which may play a key role in badi zindagi. By "badi Zindagi " , I mean the dialog from the movie Anand where the dialogue "Zindagi lambi nahin, badi hona chahiye".
I am bewildered and fascinated by the piece of news regarding the uncontacted amazon Indians. Very interesting. At least I find it very interesting. At the moment I feel like putting on a hat like Indiana Jones and going to the amazon basin. The pictures are just stunning to say the least. Wow! just imagine how surprised they will be to see people flying around in planes. It will be too much of a shock for those guys. In the same way, I hope some really advanced tribe contacts us and we too are shocked like the guys in the picture.
What kind of gadgets would I like to see? I would like to see an exact software model of the human brain. Our loved ones might be mere mortals. But the concept and the thought and the way they respond to events are immortal. So take a backup of your human brain and store it in a disc. Another technology I would like to see is antimatter production and storage. One drop of antimatter can power an entire city. It would solve the energy crisis. Time travel and travelling at the speed of light. And something more realistic, would be short distance flight with a pair of mechanical wings like Icarus.
Hmmm. It is gonna be 9:00. I have to sleep now given the fact that I didn't sleep yesterday till 2:30.
Suddenly the words optimize, maximize are very much a part of vocabulary as I keep browsing the radio allocator software component. It tries to optimize the usage of carrier bandwidth on the air interface. It is supposed to be the most complex software component in our software suite and I am looking at it for the first time. It tries to allocate radio channels to mobile phones and also does something called as "Timeslot aggregation" (where in one mobile can use several timeslots) and "Timeslot partitioning" (where in one timeslot can be used by several mobiles at different times). Basically it is a problem of optimization of resources.
Ah the above paragraph might not have been interesting.
I have typed so much, yet I feel I have not typed something which is interesting. What exactly is interesting ? I think interesting/uninteresting can be related to will and also energy. If
you feel tired, you won't be interested in anything. Interest has something to do with a sense of purpose which may play a key role in badi zindagi. By "badi Zindagi " , I mean the dialog from the movie Anand where the dialogue "Zindagi lambi nahin, badi hona chahiye".
I am bewildered and fascinated by the piece of news regarding the uncontacted amazon Indians. Very interesting. At least I find it very interesting. At the moment I feel like putting on a hat like Indiana Jones and going to the amazon basin. The pictures are just stunning to say the least. Wow! just imagine how surprised they will be to see people flying around in planes. It will be too much of a shock for those guys. In the same way, I hope some really advanced tribe contacts us and we too are shocked like the guys in the picture.
What kind of gadgets would I like to see? I would like to see an exact software model of the human brain. Our loved ones might be mere mortals. But the concept and the thought and the way they respond to events are immortal. So take a backup of your human brain and store it in a disc. Another technology I would like to see is antimatter production and storage. One drop of antimatter can power an entire city. It would solve the energy crisis. Time travel and travelling at the speed of light. And something more realistic, would be short distance flight with a pair of mechanical wings like Icarus.
Hmmm. It is gonna be 9:00. I have to sleep now given the fact that I didn't sleep yesterday till 2:30.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Roti Kapada Makan
another day at the office .. weather is cloudy.. but f'in humid..
read a great article about why the commodity prices are so high.. which was inline with my argument and against goldman sacchs argument and I feel happy..
short answer is not demand being strong and supply being short as said by Goldman,
but investment companies buying commodities with billions of dollars ..
one example given was striking .. it seems investment compnies have so much Corn in future contracts that it would be enough for the whole US ethanol industry to run at 100% production rates for a whole year and plus..
if you are investing in US mutual funds u r doing a crime against humanity :P .. kidding..
the essence was that US government should regulate commodities market anta ...
looks like free markets and capitalism is already killing ROTI and MAKAN of the ROTI KAPDA MAKAN combo..
back to methanol.. there is a comment from the boss
read a great article about why the commodity prices are so high.. which was inline with my argument and against goldman sacchs argument and I feel happy..
short answer is not demand being strong and supply being short as said by Goldman,
but investment companies buying commodities with billions of dollars ..
one example given was striking .. it seems investment compnies have so much Corn in future contracts that it would be enough for the whole US ethanol industry to run at 100% production rates for a whole year and plus..
if you are investing in US mutual funds u r doing a crime against humanity :P .. kidding..
the essence was that US government should regulate commodities market anta ...
looks like free markets and capitalism is already killing ROTI and MAKAN of the ROTI KAPDA MAKAN combo..
back to methanol.. there is a comment from the boss
Sunday night blogging.As usual stringent office rules makes it possible to check blogspot only on weekends. Pity.
I had been to the town Mulbagal a religious town near Bangalore this Sunday. I think just like how human beings are born, thrive and pass out...so do civilizations and cities. Some cities like Rome are very successful. They have a very rich cultural, economic heritage for thousands of years, whereas some towns become something like a "Lost World". The people move away to other places because their importance diminishes after that golden era. However the buildings speak about the swan songs of "those old days". Mulbagal might have been such a place. Some buildings are reclaimed by trees , rocks and grasses ....Hidden between the forests you find dilapidated buildings....Bangalore might become such a place after tens of hundreds of years.
Meanwhile at Mulbagal I saw the sparrow. The House Sparrow. The sparrow was a bird which was superbly adapted to Urban life in Bangalore in 80s and early 90s, competing with the crows. Today you don't find sparrows in Bangalore. They are extinct in the city. Suddenly they are gone. Today I was lucky to spot a thriving population of sparrows in Mulbagal. I read in an article in outlook. Sparrows feed on rice grains. But the young ones of sparrows need plenty of insects. And they were harmed significantly by the cell phone radiation and so on. I liked the chirps they made. It was pure nostalgia. There is kind of birds' biodiversity in RRNagar. I see white cranes in the morning feeding on banyan leaves' left over food competing with the crows and pigeons. And another strange bird which I have never seen in any place other than RRNagar. I see them only in the mornings.
But the road leading to Mulbagal was narrow. I was driving a Lancer and I was drivin at 70 to 80kmph and occasionally at100kmph. But since the road was narrow, I would get some sudden surprises.
Hmmm .... Getting geared for another grind of a week. I guess I am starting off some new things at works. Hope they go well. Keeping fingers crossed.
I had been to the town Mulbagal a religious town near Bangalore this Sunday. I think just like how human beings are born, thrive and pass out...so do civilizations and cities. Some cities like Rome are very successful. They have a very rich cultural, economic heritage for thousands of years, whereas some towns become something like a "Lost World". The people move away to other places because their importance diminishes after that golden era. However the buildings speak about the swan songs of "those old days". Mulbagal might have been such a place. Some buildings are reclaimed by trees , rocks and grasses ....Hidden between the forests you find dilapidated buildings....Bangalore might become such a place after tens of hundreds of years.
Meanwhile at Mulbagal I saw the sparrow. The House Sparrow. The sparrow was a bird which was superbly adapted to Urban life in Bangalore in 80s and early 90s, competing with the crows. Today you don't find sparrows in Bangalore. They are extinct in the city. Suddenly they are gone. Today I was lucky to spot a thriving population of sparrows in Mulbagal. I read in an article in outlook. Sparrows feed on rice grains. But the young ones of sparrows need plenty of insects. And they were harmed significantly by the cell phone radiation and so on. I liked the chirps they made. It was pure nostalgia. There is kind of birds' biodiversity in RRNagar. I see white cranes in the morning feeding on banyan leaves' left over food competing with the crows and pigeons. And another strange bird which I have never seen in any place other than RRNagar. I see them only in the mornings.
But the road leading to Mulbagal was narrow. I was driving a Lancer and I was drivin at 70 to 80kmph and occasionally at100kmph. But since the road was narrow, I would get some sudden surprises.
Hmmm .... Getting geared for another grind of a week. I guess I am starting off some new things at works. Hope they go well. Keeping fingers crossed.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Random things
* Well , an update from the previous post....Well it seems it is an original. But here is a background music which resembles the hutch ad.
* Meanwhile I managed to catch the movie "The Pink Panther" (the one by Steve Martin...I have heard that the Peter Sellers' version is better). I loved a few aspects of the movie (like the Hamburger scene) .... and the way they kind of make pun on the French way....If you can, try to catch the movie.
* Anyone is following IPL ? I will see from the semi-finals , I guess. I was initially angry with the team selection of Royal Challengers. But now I care a hoot for the team. After Dravid and Co. keeps losing,losing,losing,losing,losing,losing,losing,losing matches, I guess they can change their team motto to "They came, they saw, they lost". And the team name could be "Royal Losers" or Royally Challenged (LMAO) ?
Rajasthan Royals is my new favorite. So many unknowns in the team, yet such a nice performance.
* I had a look at the new BIAL airport, just timing from my house. The airport itself looks damn cool... It may be around 2.5 hours on a weekend. From Electronics City, it could be a different story altogether. Three hours minimum.
* I have noticed a growing trend. Being a Software Engineer in Bangalore for quite sometime, I feel, the Software Parks are decentralizing and many people are moving to the city closer to their homes. Chennai and Hyderabad are already established in the South. In the north, we have Gurgaon and Noida. Pune is also an option and for the Easterners Calcutta. Although I don't endorse any extremist views, I feel, finally after devouring Bangalore's infrastructure and after complaining endlessly, "India Inc." is decentralizing.
* I have been wondering about the term "individuality". What exactly is individuality ? Does it get killed by teamwork/environment which you live in ? In my opinion no man keeps his behaviour constant. Behaviour depends on environment. At least Sudeep in 2001 != Sudeep in 2008 (as far as behaviour, opinions is concerned)
* I was following some nondescript TV program in the morning. Heard that City Market was called Seegeballi in 1900s, which was an affluent residential cum commercial area at that time. There was a plague breakout during that time. The then Maharaja of Mysore asked the local vendors to move to beyond the hillocks...beyond a temple which we now know as "Bull Temple". The area was christened as NarasimhaRaja Colony in honor of the king. Thus NR Colony was born. The layout had site-rates of Rs.30 for a 40 x 60 site in NR Colony. Thats when gold was values at 8/- per souren.
* Some people are unbelievably innocent. I wonder how they lived for so many years ? I am still reeling in disbelief! Some people are methodical...They rigorously follow a something like a "ten-things-to-do-before-i-die" list and live by it. All the best for them....But also remember to take life as it comes :-) ...I am noticing a pattern in the human society. Everything is so inter-connected. A subject of another post when the thoughts are crystallized.
* Morning walks and runs are good fun.
* Meanwhile I managed to catch the movie "The Pink Panther" (the one by Steve Martin...I have heard that the Peter Sellers' version is better). I loved a few aspects of the movie (like the Hamburger scene) .... and the way they kind of make pun on the French way....If you can, try to catch the movie.
* Anyone is following IPL ? I will see from the semi-finals , I guess. I was initially angry with the team selection of Royal Challengers. But now I care a hoot for the team. After Dravid and Co. keeps losing,losing,losing,losing,losing,losing,losing,losing matches, I guess they can change their team motto to "They came, they saw, they lost". And the team name could be "Royal Losers" or Royally Challenged (LMAO) ?
Rajasthan Royals is my new favorite. So many unknowns in the team, yet such a nice performance.
* I had a look at the new BIAL airport, just timing from my house. The airport itself looks damn cool... It may be around 2.5 hours on a weekend. From Electronics City, it could be a different story altogether. Three hours minimum.
* I have noticed a growing trend. Being a Software Engineer in Bangalore for quite sometime, I feel, the Software Parks are decentralizing and many people are moving to the city closer to their homes. Chennai and Hyderabad are already established in the South. In the north, we have Gurgaon and Noida. Pune is also an option and for the Easterners Calcutta. Although I don't endorse any extremist views, I feel, finally after devouring Bangalore's infrastructure and after complaining endlessly, "India Inc." is decentralizing.
* I have been wondering about the term "individuality". What exactly is individuality ? Does it get killed by teamwork/environment which you live in ? In my opinion no man keeps his behaviour constant. Behaviour depends on environment. At least Sudeep in 2001 != Sudeep in 2008 (as far as behaviour, opinions is concerned)
* I was following some nondescript TV program in the morning. Heard that City Market was called Seegeballi in 1900s, which was an affluent residential cum commercial area at that time. There was a plague breakout during that time. The then Maharaja of Mysore asked the local vendors to move to beyond the hillocks...beyond a temple which we now know as "Bull Temple". The area was christened as NarasimhaRaja Colony in honor of the king. Thus NR Colony was born. The layout had site-rates of Rs.30 for a 40 x 60 site in NR Colony. Thats when gold was values at 8/- per souren.
* Some people are unbelievably innocent. I wonder how they lived for so many years ? I am still reeling in disbelief! Some people are methodical...They rigorously follow a something like a "ten-things-to-do-before-i-die" list and live by it. All the best for them....But also remember to take life as it comes :-) ...I am noticing a pattern in the human society. Everything is so inter-connected. A subject of another post when the thoughts are crystallized.
* Morning walks and runs are good fun.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Everyday
Have you seen the latest Vodafone ad ?
The Vodafone Customer Support guys (or rather, the guys who make the ads for Vodafone customer guys) need to pat themselves on their back. They have come up with the above very refreshing ad with a haunting , introspective music (with dollops of inspiration from Taare Zameen par). And the result is an amazing ad, which gives an assurance to a prospective customer of Vodafone Call Support. Don't ask about the reality though.
The famous Hutch "pug" dog is back.But this dog is really lovable...(a statement from a dog-avoider like me is worth considering.).The Hutch ads were good and the brand was pretty established....Some Vodafone ads are very good, but MANY of them are bad....They are really abstract orr some of them are irritating....The "Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Mein" ad and the "Pehla Nasha" ad were just screwed up.
But what attracts me to this ad, is the music.....Man!!! It's been quite sometime since I listened to something like this. Simple and lovely...
But something is enigmatic about this ad...Which song is this ? Who is the singer ? I tried all my googling skills to locate the singer or the song, but of no avail....Is it an original composition ? Such a lovely composition for a jingle ? Maybe it may be a song in some other language, which has been adapted into English...
Meanwhile I'll keep on singin' :
Everyday I want to fly, stay by my side,
Everyday I want to dream, stay by my side,
Every morning I wish I could just play,
wish the mornings would just stay.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Gandhi's dream
Almost every woman's dream, a free and safe india for the Fairer sex. Is it too much to ask for ??
Look at the following news from today's TOI. Its truly disgusting.. 12-year old, rape, murder .. can imprint horrifying images in your imagination. After the shameful incident in Goa a more henioius and shameful act. Whats with India, molestations and rapes that even cant spare children.. Sucks big time.
12-yr-old raped, murdered
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Bangalore: Enthusiastic about shopping for Monday’s Ugadi festival, she went to the market, never to return. A 12-year-old girl was allegedly raped and brutally murdered in Harohallli police limits in the Ramangaram rural limits on Saturday. The deceased was a student of class five in a government school in Harohalli. Police said the girl had gone to the market in the morning to buy neem for the Ugadi festival and went out again in the afternoon to buy mango leaves. When she didn’t return, her grandmother started searching for her. It was only on the afternoon of the following day that some passersby found her body in an eucalyptus bush, near Hosagabbadi. “The assailants had strangled her to death after raping her. The body has been shifted to Ramanagaram hospital for autopsy. We are questioning locals who had seen her in the afternoon,’’ police said. The girl was staying with her grandmother as her mother was working as a housemaid in Bangalore. Her father had passed away some time ago. Her mother used to visit Harohalli frequently, police added.
Look at the following news from today's TOI. Its truly disgusting.. 12-year old, rape, murder .. can imprint horrifying images in your imagination. After the shameful incident in Goa a more henioius and shameful act. Whats with India, molestations and rapes that even cant spare children.. Sucks big time.
12-yr-old raped, murdered
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Bangalore: Enthusiastic about shopping for Monday’s Ugadi festival, she went to the market, never to return. A 12-year-old girl was allegedly raped and brutally murdered in Harohallli police limits in the Ramangaram rural limits on Saturday. The deceased was a student of class five in a government school in Harohalli. Police said the girl had gone to the market in the morning to buy neem for the Ugadi festival and went out again in the afternoon to buy mango leaves. When she didn’t return, her grandmother started searching for her. It was only on the afternoon of the following day that some passersby found her body in an eucalyptus bush, near Hosagabbadi. “The assailants had strangled her to death after raping her. The body has been shifted to Ramanagaram hospital for autopsy. We are questioning locals who had seen her in the afternoon,’’ police said. The girl was staying with her grandmother as her mother was working as a housemaid in Bangalore. Her father had passed away some time ago. Her mother used to visit Harohalli frequently, police added.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Time and Money..
or Time vs Money?? Doesnt matter. These two are inveresely proportional.
How much you earn depends on how much you work. We are hourly paid souls.
Our package is deterministically quantified in terms of time. Forget the official hours.
Those are just nominal anywhere in the world.
Heard that Infy had to pay overtime for its californian employees. What if such a legislation is bought everywhere???? I wish.
Coming to the matter of fact, I miss school and having time in my control part.
What I appreciate about work is cash flows. The money is certainly the thrill (job satisfaction is too... but nothing beats like money.)
So the search is for earning money but having Time in control. Time necessarily doesnt mean more time. I need Flex time. To all those souls who are searching jobs, take it slowly, enjoyy your holidays, vacation, leverage money and enjoy, cos once you start working you get sucked into to myraids of life and end as 'Evano Oruvan'. Job is a necessary evil.
Phd?????????????? in management sounds vague, but CK Prahalad, Michael Porter are inspirational. Phd should pay atleast 75% what the working environment pays. Today Phd renumeration is abysmal and it sucks. I know that money is not the motivation from researchers, but a pinch in the pocket might affect research output????? So richer, the better researcher you might end.
I am talking crap, time to stop now and get back to work
How much you earn depends on how much you work. We are hourly paid souls.
Our package is deterministically quantified in terms of time. Forget the official hours.
Those are just nominal anywhere in the world.
Heard that Infy had to pay overtime for its californian employees. What if such a legislation is bought everywhere???? I wish.
Coming to the matter of fact, I miss school and having time in my control part.
What I appreciate about work is cash flows. The money is certainly the thrill (job satisfaction is too... but nothing beats like money.)
So the search is for earning money but having Time in control. Time necessarily doesnt mean more time. I need Flex time. To all those souls who are searching jobs, take it slowly, enjoyy your holidays, vacation, leverage money and enjoy, cos once you start working you get sucked into to myraids of life and end as 'Evano Oruvan'. Job is a necessary evil.
Phd?????????????? in management sounds vague, but CK Prahalad, Michael Porter are inspirational. Phd should pay atleast 75% what the working environment pays. Today Phd renumeration is abysmal and it sucks. I know that money is not the motivation from researchers, but a pinch in the pocket might affect research output????? So richer, the better researcher you might end.
I am talking crap, time to stop now and get back to work
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Invincibles Humbled..
This year seems to be a revalation in sports. Some of the greatest upsets
Aussies - defeated on homeland in one-days, if not for Bucknor even in Test matches.
Federer - Aussie open and lately Dubai Open
AC Milan - Defeated at home by Arsenal
Real Madrid - they are down from a long time, but it was Home again this time
Indian hockey - invincible in view of South Americans, humbled by England on SA soil (this really sucks)
on the borring part
I should have missed quite a few from the above list..
I-banks (not bankers) - badly humbled, and rite now screwing the economy
US GDP.. (from the past 4 years)
next to follow.. China, India????
Predictions
Olympics - China will stop US dominance??
Aussies - defeated on homeland in one-days, if not for Bucknor even in Test matches.
Federer - Aussie open and lately Dubai Open
AC Milan - Defeated at home by Arsenal
Real Madrid - they are down from a long time, but it was Home again this time
Indian hockey - invincible in view of South Americans, humbled by England on SA soil (this really sucks)
on the borring part
I should have missed quite a few from the above list..
I-banks (not bankers) - badly humbled, and rite now screwing the economy
US GDP.. (from the past 4 years)
next to follow.. China, India????
Predictions
Olympics - China will stop US dominance??
Thursday, February 21, 2008
A Day Lost
Happens somedays. At Infy it used to happen more (more at offshore).
It is one such day. Woke up late (8 am). Broke a tile. Reached office late. Dint do much.
Dint achieve much.
Lost, totally lost. I dint have any control or my browsing behavior.
Its mostly browse today.
Is this compensating for overdoing yday?? What is it?? Why do we lose days like this?
Simple - We are not machines............ Niether do we do mechanical work..
Some more minutes and am offf.. The Business is closing officially. Want to really call it off
It is one such day. Woke up late (8 am). Broke a tile. Reached office late. Dint do much.
Dint achieve much.
Lost, totally lost. I dint have any control or my browsing behavior.
Its mostly browse today.
Is this compensating for overdoing yday?? What is it?? Why do we lose days like this?
Simple - We are not machines............ Niether do we do mechanical work..
Some more minutes and am offf.. The Business is closing officially. Want to really call it off
Thursday, January 17, 2008
After reading this, I feel sorry for the state of affairs (that a person may be hung to gain/offset some political mileage), at the same time, i cant help but appreciate the way things have unfolded.
Whoever is working on his case in cong is damn intelligent and cong has 'used' Afzal's case very well. I mean, look at it this way, had the govt not stalled his clemency petition and had they subscribed with supreme court's order, then not many would have noticed what happened. But they spotted an opportunity, they kept the mercy petition pending, allowed bjp to make noises abt the case, and donned the role of a govt which is considerate to minorities. Now, they have spotted that there is a chance of the issue backfiring, and they will do their best to prevent that. They basically played a game in which they had nothing to lose, only to gain, if at all. Contrast this with what bjp would have done and you would agree that cong indeed has 'seasoned' politicians.
Whoever is working on his case in cong is damn intelligent and cong has 'used' Afzal's case very well. I mean, look at it this way, had the govt not stalled his clemency petition and had they subscribed with supreme court's order, then not many would have noticed what happened. But they spotted an opportunity, they kept the mercy petition pending, allowed bjp to make noises abt the case, and donned the role of a govt which is considerate to minorities. Now, they have spotted that there is a chance of the issue backfiring, and they will do their best to prevent that. They basically played a game in which they had nothing to lose, only to gain, if at all. Contrast this with what bjp would have done and you would agree that cong indeed has 'seasoned' politicians.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Office outburst
It can happen to anybody and at anytime. Of course, some people get more angry than others and some people get more frequently angry than others. Some people's anger is harmless whereas some people might get outraged.
This becomes quite a concern at office since the bonding is restricted only to the work-ethics and sometime not even an ounce more than that. Moreover it can be detrimental to one's career and one has to be especially careful in this ugly maze of corporate structure.
First, let us just look from a person's perspective on what he should do when :-
a) He lets out an emotional outburst of anger on his superiors due to any reason.
b)His superior(s) let out an emotional outburst against him.
In the first scenario he should well know that his juttu is his superior's hands before getting angry. Sometimes, an individual might have decided to make himself angry because he controlled his anger on a previous occasion. Whatever it is, the body language indicates aggression and the words start coming out really fast from your mouth. In case, the anger cannot be controlled, my observation is this :-
It is best to make it up as quickly as possible, because it won't stay much time in people's minds
In the second scenario, if his superior(s) let out an outburst of anger against him especially with five other people who are rumor-starved by nature, the best way to deal with it is to have an informal chit-chat with his superior and discover why this happened at the first place.
The most important thing of the lot is understanding why both the sides (the employee and the managers) got angry and get into a problem-solving mode.
Finally, I also believe that if the mutual sides are intelligent (not foolhardy creatures) they can actually work-out a solution.
Happy Grrrrrr-ing :-) But don't become like that dean of Munnabhai......That's really stupid !!!!!
This becomes quite a concern at office since the bonding is restricted only to the work-ethics and sometime not even an ounce more than that. Moreover it can be detrimental to one's career and one has to be especially careful in this ugly maze of corporate structure.
First, let us just look from a person's perspective on what he should do when :-
a) He lets out an emotional outburst of anger on his superiors due to any reason.
b)His superior(s) let out an emotional outburst against him.
In the first scenario he should well know that his juttu is his superior's hands before getting angry. Sometimes, an individual might have decided to make himself angry because he controlled his anger on a previous occasion. Whatever it is, the body language indicates aggression and the words start coming out really fast from your mouth. In case, the anger cannot be controlled, my observation is this :-
It is best to make it up as quickly as possible, because it won't stay much time in people's minds
In the second scenario, if his superior(s) let out an outburst of anger against him especially with five other people who are rumor-starved by nature, the best way to deal with it is to have an informal chit-chat with his superior and discover why this happened at the first place.
The most important thing of the lot is understanding why both the sides (the employee and the managers) got angry and get into a problem-solving mode.
Finally, I also believe that if the mutual sides are intelligent (not foolhardy creatures) they can actually work-out a solution.
Happy Grrrrrr-ing :-) But don't become like that dean of Munnabhai......That's really stupid !!!!!
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Happy new year everybody!
I had a quite new year party snoring away to glory awakened by those loud crackers. 2007 has been a good year, but then as 2008 starts off, there is quite a bit of apprehension for me on several factors which are currently occupying my mind.
First and foremost my mood is a "Bah!" mood today and a little lull. I do like holidays. But a lot of holidays (I've been having holidays since 21st december) just upsets the rhythm. I had planned about doing this and doing that...Maybe I did 20% of what I thought I would do. Wasted Vacation.But driving to Madikeri, Coorg and the Homestays was a good break from the routine.
As I finished my vacation and came home there was the naming ceremony of my niece. So she is named as "Richa".
Hmmmm and philosophy gets created due to those sad and dull moments too....One realization is that life gets more and more "dont-take-me-for-granted".... As Lennon said "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans".
I have two finite and specific resolutions in mind. And two abstract ones. Well....
I had a quite new year party snoring away to glory awakened by those loud crackers. 2007 has been a good year, but then as 2008 starts off, there is quite a bit of apprehension for me on several factors which are currently occupying my mind.
First and foremost my mood is a "Bah!" mood today and a little lull. I do like holidays. But a lot of holidays (I've been having holidays since 21st december) just upsets the rhythm. I had planned about doing this and doing that...Maybe I did 20% of what I thought I would do. Wasted Vacation.But driving to Madikeri, Coorg and the Homestays was a good break from the routine.
As I finished my vacation and came home there was the naming ceremony of my niece. So she is named as "Richa".
Hmmmm and philosophy gets created due to those sad and dull moments too....One realization is that life gets more and more "dont-take-me-for-granted".... As Lennon said "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans".
I have two finite and specific resolutions in mind. And two abstract ones. Well....
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Was it worth the sweat, sleep, and stocks?
Dec 14th, the day when I ended my MBA, atleast from my side. I completed my last presentation of my last project and there by ending a roller-coaster ride of 16 months. Looking back was it one of my best decisions? Who knows, opportunity cost cannot be measured ? Really ? NO
Here are some positives
- A psychopathic (not Psychological) relief of being away from Infosys and its politics (onsite, offshore, hierarchy, blah blah blah)
- Alienating myself for IT (application development), which my colleagues used to treat
as a matter of life and death (may be thats what is required to excel, which I never could
attain)
- A new world of fuzzy knowledge - I love this , this is my domain, there is no single
correct answer. Anything and everything is dependent on perspectives. This models real life.
This is where the action is. Returns are correlated to risk and you chose your path in
decision making
- Analytics and problem solving are key
- Socializing is a bane though, which I have avoided to the maximum so far
- Traveling to different countries was fun, will do more of it in the future
- An opportunity wide open to explore Asia fully, North, east, south and west
- A possible travel to different continents (africa-egypt, Aus -nZ, South America-Chile, NA- Canada Trinidad and Tobago)
- High expectations, hope they get delivered
- A lot on personal front - its personal rite...no more explanations
From Jan 14th it shall be a new day, a new life.
Until then holidays.. ( just one more week of erratic sleep and stock selling)
Here are some positives
- A psychopathic (not Psychological) relief of being away from Infosys and its politics (onsite, offshore, hierarchy, blah blah blah)
- Alienating myself for IT (application development), which my colleagues used to treat
as a matter of life and death (may be thats what is required to excel, which I never could
attain)
- A new world of fuzzy knowledge - I love this , this is my domain, there is no single
correct answer. Anything and everything is dependent on perspectives. This models real life.
This is where the action is. Returns are correlated to risk and you chose your path in
decision making
- Analytics and problem solving are key
- Socializing is a bane though, which I have avoided to the maximum so far
- Traveling to different countries was fun, will do more of it in the future
- An opportunity wide open to explore Asia fully, North, east, south and west
- A possible travel to different continents (africa-egypt, Aus -nZ, South America-Chile, NA- Canada Trinidad and Tobago)
- High expectations, hope they get delivered
- A lot on personal front - its personal rite...no more explanations
From Jan 14th it shall be a new day, a new life.
Until then holidays.. ( just one more week of erratic sleep and stock selling)
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Friday, December 07, 2007
Are bankers paid to bring down the Economy
In the earlier years of this century, there was a dramatic shift in the finance industry. Actually the pre-cursor was set in the 1990s. Prestigious banks started to face competition from boutique companies and independent financial firms, many of which were established by ex-employees of these big banks. The innovation in products in the big banks were slowing down, and these smaller firms were creating newer attractive products. The big banks had the customers and smaller guys had the most creative products.
So an era of "open innovation" started, where the big banks started adopting the creation of the smaller banks, by distributing the products from these smaller guys. Previously the industry used to be rewarded based on the %age of returns they generated. But now, this could not be done anymore with the big banks having no rights on the products returns. This probably gave rise to the new way of compensating managers - %age of assets managed.
With this new compensation structure, bankers were pushed to sell more and more, and accumulate assets rather than concentrating on returns. The amalgamation of different industry players left customers with few choices of going elsewhere and look for people who had a different structure of operations. Almost all banks issued 3rd party products.
Well bankers kept on innovating products by wrapping up different layers of structured financial methods. One such product is the CDO - collateralized debt obligations. With the compensation structure tied to assets, all it mattered was raising money. The process of due diligence took a back seat. Evaluations were left to third parties. Bad debts were projected as AAA securities and sold to investors. The frenzy caught on, and no banks could resist such an opportunity.
It is estimated that in the $15 trillion US debt industry (this itself is a staggering number) 20% is subprime (not only mortgage it includes everything from credit card, car loans, student loans etc) and in this 90% is bad debt, which will be written down mostly. That mean nearly $2.5 trillion. Till now the total write down is around $100 billion probably. So there is still a lot to come. Embrace bankers embrace. The numbers might be wrong, but it is still huge.
The question is are bankers paid to bring down the Economy?
- the Internet bubble, where the banks issues so many overhyped IPOs
- Now the housing market
History repeats for sure in the banking industry, and mistakes are soon forgotten. Whats the next frenzy wave boys?
disclaimer - this is totally out of my ignorance. I might be grossly wrong
So an era of "open innovation" started, where the big banks started adopting the creation of the smaller banks, by distributing the products from these smaller guys. Previously the industry used to be rewarded based on the %age of returns they generated. But now, this could not be done anymore with the big banks having no rights on the products returns. This probably gave rise to the new way of compensating managers - %age of assets managed.
With this new compensation structure, bankers were pushed to sell more and more, and accumulate assets rather than concentrating on returns. The amalgamation of different industry players left customers with few choices of going elsewhere and look for people who had a different structure of operations. Almost all banks issued 3rd party products.
Well bankers kept on innovating products by wrapping up different layers of structured financial methods. One such product is the CDO - collateralized debt obligations. With the compensation structure tied to assets, all it mattered was raising money. The process of due diligence took a back seat. Evaluations were left to third parties. Bad debts were projected as AAA securities and sold to investors. The frenzy caught on, and no banks could resist such an opportunity.
It is estimated that in the $15 trillion US debt industry (this itself is a staggering number) 20% is subprime (not only mortgage it includes everything from credit card, car loans, student loans etc) and in this 90% is bad debt, which will be written down mostly. That mean nearly $2.5 trillion. Till now the total write down is around $100 billion probably. So there is still a lot to come. Embrace bankers embrace. The numbers might be wrong, but it is still huge.
The question is are bankers paid to bring down the Economy?
- the Internet bubble, where the banks issues so many overhyped IPOs
- Now the housing market
History repeats for sure in the banking industry, and mistakes are soon forgotten. Whats the next frenzy wave boys?
disclaimer - this is totally out of my ignorance. I might be grossly wrong
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