The Wimbledon and the Chair Umpire

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weekend .. two views

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

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

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

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

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

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

adios to the weekend...

the forgotten BRAHMA

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

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

Only glad thing is the behavior is changing

ps: I feel sorry from Brahma

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

olle naraka yaathane

Power cuts

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

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

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

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

Michael Jackson

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

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

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

MJ

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

Personal E-mails

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

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

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

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

Some Science News blogging

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sat Evening Random ramblings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As I type these lines I remember this lyrics :-

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

Rediff message boards Jokes

Hilarious!

Phase in Space

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

------

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

Mmmmm

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scrum

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

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

To describe scrum very shortly :-

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

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

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

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

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

phew!

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

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

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

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

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

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

What do I really want in life ?

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

That's perhaps the most important thing in life.

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

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

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

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

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

The next big thing in search

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

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


Let's look fwd to the release of this.

Planet Earth

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

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

But there are many aspects to nature.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bob Dylan

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


PassionNTennis (1 month ago)
i dont get this song

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


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

Voting

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

Passing thought

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

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

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

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

Dancers, yes I can understand :-)

Will banking become boring?

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


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

2014 elections, India

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

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

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

Interesting website

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

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

Quote :-

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

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

Take two of their products :-

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

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

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

Some lost+found songs

It was 1997/8.

I was seeing channel[V] and I saw an interview of some random Brit Indian guy followed by a song which blew me away. I still had a faint memory of that song. The guy (Brit Indian) had a punk rock look with spikey hairs and he was playing tabla like an expert. They were showing the huge and magnificent temples of Tamil Nadu in the background and he was playing the tabla. The song never came again and I had searched a lot in the Planet M and Jayanagar HMV house and all that. I remembered a little part of the song, but it was hopeless as you don't know how to search it, but yet you want to search it badly.

Now back in 2009, I was browsing thru' youtube and randomly I stumbled upon that image which I had seen. I am feeling happy that I located this "lost" song. The name of the guy is Talvin Singh, it seems and this was the image which I had in mind. The song which I had listened to was Butterfly.

The song is extremely complex and is Carnatic Fusion based : I bet you cannot get the tune (even if you are very musically inclined, it takes "serious listening" to appreciate this song. You can listen to the song Talvin Singh - Butterfly. The flute, tabla and the veena combination is the work of a genius. If you like this song, I recommend Spirit of Unity Concerts of the Madras Telegu Academy by AR_Rahman in the late 80s and the early 90s when the genius was making music for ads.

There are other lost songs which I hope to discover them one day. I remember the images and the tune. But alas not the band name nor anything else. If you catch some lyrics, you can track it down. Otherwise it is impossible.

Which brings us to a problem on web searching. Can objects be associated with descriptions so as to facilitate searching ?

Election time

If your area falls in the B'lore South Constituency, then have a look at this candidate, Krishna Byregowda. Lot of talk happening about him in the office corridors over a cup of coffee: Looks to be a decent chap. An M.A. in International Affairs from Washington DC is a good education and also he has some experience, like President, Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress 2007-Current

I don't know in which constituency my locality is a part of.

I heard some rumours that Captain Gopinath was made to stand for elections, by Devegowda. It seems the campaign is fully sponsored by Devegowda for Capt. Gopinath although the captain is contesting as an independent. Maybe the intention of Devegowda maybe vote splitting for BJP AnanthKumar?

There is another Swami from Tumkur who is sponsored by Devegowda it seems .... Devegowda is upto something these days.

However, Kumaraswamy is a decent chap IMHO.

It is hot summer here. It is cold winter elsewhere in some other part of the world. But I like the mood and light and the peace in this photo.

Tranquil waters - The boat sails silently and the forest looks at the boat.
Beautiful.

Congo Basin and Amazon rain Forest are two places whose beauty is hard to put on by paper. I should breathe that lovely fresh air someday.

A picture is worth more than a thousand words.
Assuming 1 word is 1 byte on this machine.

Gulaal

Check out the lyrics of Ranaji , the song of Gulaal.
Really want to see this movie, let's see if I can get the tickets.

Anurag Kashyap has always something new to offer. Some element of creativity and surprise is in store.

The chicken was shot and there was no egg. The cooks are thinking what is the next thing to cook.

Related post :
Chicken and Egg Problem

Today morning in the cab I closed my eyes and I was thinking abt a lot of things not in any particular order.

Off late, I have been really busy and I want to do something which I like with passion and that refreshing feeling of freedom.

When a thing which needs to be done becomes a responsibility with people having the right to expect something abt it, it becomes a work/routine


1
Times are strange and recession is staring at us like a vulture waiting a prey to die. Things can change anytime. But we need to take everything in stride. Thats what corporate professionalism is all about. Flash a smile when you have a red hot iron rod poked into your @$$. He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being human.

2
Meanwhile I am trying to follow the elections keenly this time and really making an effort to vote wisely. Varun Gandhi is a mystery as a leader, but I like his guts.

3
I saw from my cab seat a girl sitting in the back of a scooter reading a text book, probably studying last minute for the exam. By her appearance I could make out she was from a village and going to a government school. But I saw what she was studying. She was studying some kind of Integral and Double Integral stuff. I was really happy.As we go on in our lives leading the lives of concrete bricks on huge walls, I was thinking on some ideas on what I can do to actually contribute to the society. I closed my eyes and I envisioned myself wearing a Khadi kurta and riding on a cycle in some distant village far from Bangalore advocating the effects of accessibility to a literate/semi-literate population and what can be the advantage if children in the remotest corners of India can have access to the latest IEEE or MIT's course....I believe we could have a better India. Seriously I should do this one day. Also decentralization of metros can be possible.

25kg rice or wheat/month to every family below poverty line at Rs 3/kg

Now the UPA joins the bandwagon and on a national scale that too..

In 1982 the then CM of Tamilnadu Mr. MGR universalized (for TN that is) the now famous "Mid day meal" scheme, to pull children (esp from the lower income class) to the schools, which was/is/and will be a brilliant idea. The mid-day meal scheme is now being implement nationally and also followed by other countries to eradicate illiteracy, child malnourishment etc

However, this version of freebie lunch was thoroughly misunderstood by other politicians, including Mr.MGRs parallel in AP Mr. NTR who implemented the Rs 2/Kg rice scheme for BPL families. And the rest as they say is history. Many states and political parties have launched different versions of the same over the years now, most of it being electoral promises.

If your stomach (including your family's) could be taken care by 25*3 = 75 rs + another say 125 = Rs 200/month, your target would be earn just that, which is approximately a day's agricultural labour. Supplement this with free TV and other freebies, the result is a disaster. What it has done is, it has reduced the incentive for people to work and earn for a livelihood, aspire and grow to acheive a better quality of life.

Shortage of labour is a big problem in rural areas today. Many of the framers are hence now shifting from manual labour to argricultural machines, which requires huge investment, without actually doing the required work. This is also slowly but surely erasing a large employment sector for the lower income class in India.

The freebee schemes instead of providing benefits for the poorer section is pushing them towards the abyss of poverty. The government is no where helping the poor to improve the quality of life by giving free food. Instead of generating employment it is exactly doing the opposite.

It is said that "Ragi kottre ondu dinaddu hasivu hogotte, Ragi beliyodu helkottre ondu varshaddu hasivu hogotte". Well that certainly is falling on deaf ears now.

Parlimentary elections

There is no event in India which could be as exciting as the parlimentary elections. (atleast for me). Though I have managed to vote only once, I have always followed the elections ardently. This time I will miss the media coverage. My updates are restricited to rediff ( a daily article by one senisble correspondant on different issues .. highly recommened), daily udpates on constituencies (K'taka) in TOI, general elections news on ET (this is really good compared to TOI and other newspapers) and some long stories on Outlook.

My vote (a virtual one and which does not count) is for the UPA. I find the UPA as a much better and competentent team than the NDA. Personally, I detest Advani and blame him for most of the communal tensions this country has faced since the 1990s.

The third front looks like a congregation of regional political heavy weights, who also head the most corrupted list in their respective regions - Maya, Jaya, Devegowda, Naidu, Pawar- all of whom I do not like for various reasons, though I have to admit I am in awe of Majawati and Jayalalitha who could compete and succeed in this brutal arena, albeit in the wrong way.

Though the CPI/CPM played a good part in controlling Chidambaram and Manmohan singh not to get swayed by the ultra-capitalist motives and helped Indian banks to get out unscathed (almost) from the financial crisis and also helped preserve our forex reserves, I could not understand how they can make the "nuclear deal" to be their primary agenda. Isnt literacy, poverty, employment, growth, malnutrition etc bothering them? This time the CPI/CPM will face a big challenge on their home turf (Bengal and Kerala) and certainly need more support from the Thrid front.

All said and done, UPA seems to be the winner among the losers or as they say in Kannada "haalu oorinalli ulidavane gowda".. and my vote goes for Mr. Singh. I just hope they do not make Rahul Gandhi the PM after the elections.

Quite some time

It has been quite some time since I found my way back in the blog.
Several reasons :- Been getting up really very early for go quite a few days. Finally a big phew.

Apart from that, all the members of adda are happily married now. Teju's marriage happened a week ago and it was a nice time. GD and Richie were missed.

Apart from that there have been no good updates or no new stories to tell, except the fact that I am picking up on my Hindi speaking without putting an effort. Well, I cannot speak Hindi with people who know that I can't speak Hindi. But with new people who speak to me in Hindi, I can speak back in Hindi and the conversation can go on.

But of course when the going gets tough, a few sanskrit words come to the Hindi and it sounds odd. Example sometimes you use the word "katin" instead of the urdu word "mushkil". It sounds like you have seen too much of Mahabharatha in your childhood and cannot get over it.

Kiitos Kajaani

Hmm my stay in Kajaani is coming to an end today.
Today I leave to Oulu and from there I am off to Bangalore.
Coming back to Bangalore on Saturday. Yay!

Dev D

I never really wanted to see Sanjay Leela Bansali's Devdas. Neither Dileep Kumar's original version. But the new trailer of "Dev D" is simply superb. This is how Devdas, would become if he lived in our times, I guess...Especially the song is simply original and delightul. Listen to both the versions of Emotional Atyachaar. The Wedding Band verion of the song is just spot on.

You can check out the trailer of Dev D here :-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRLjycn11Rw

Chicken and egg problem

A project where the software is still maturing is a place for a wonderful opportunity of growth OR wonderful opportunity to analyze and take away learnings about the limit of chaos.

Let us start with an analogy.

Try putting 1 cook from each country of the world each with a different specialty, in one room. Give them a task : They have 1 egg to boil. It is easy , the cooks think and go into the kitchen unsuspectingly, each one of them boasting about their background and the dishes they have cooked in the past. Some cooks have not seen eggs in their life and some cooks dont like to make boiled eggs.

They have several meetings before they enter the kitchen.Some have formed a mutual admirable society and some have formed secret societies which discuss plots for assassination of other cooks and some are worried about the egg is rotten, some hope there is a golden egg in the kitchen.

Most of the cooks are concerned about the worldwide production of eggs and some of them are amused that the shape of the economy is looking like an egg! What a bloody situation , they think and put on their aprons and enter the kitchen. Some cooks have taken initiatives about the time required for the egg to be boiled and some cooks also have conducted theoretical trainings on how a boiled egg looks like.

And then'

They discover there is no egg in the kitchen! The egg is inside a chicken which is in the kitchen. They can here the coc-coc-coc-coc. Each fellow is giving a different funda on where to find the chicken. As they start finding the chicken some people have started throwing rotten eggs at the cooks as they dodge the eggs and still try to find the egg. Right now, the cooks are still trying to find the chicken with egg shots all over their body. Some cooks really wonder what in the name of good lord is happening...

A matter of reminders

"Honey, do not forget to drop the cheque in the dropbox!"

Hmmm...One feature which I would love to see in a mobile phone is , reminders should be sent as text messages by the prompt person to the forgetful person. The text message should be saved as a reminder, and then automatically at the specified time, the forgetful person should get reminder.

Okay forget it...I will talk about it in detail later

The Subramaniyapuram song

There is something ethereal about this song. Carnatic Music used very, very well.

I just love the video.....

The video must be dreamt for years to conceptualize and experienced.....

Love it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CApQcVAYWHs

feeling really yuckkkkkkk

I want today to go off asap

How ?

The last two digits of your birth year + Your current age is 108.  Why is it ? Can anyone prove this?

mindry.in

If you are a victim of TV remote unavailability during prime time and you have watched dozens of kannada serials THESE LINKS are for you !!!!

Delightfully original and satirical . The english ones are just OK but the kannada ones are really delighful. I laughed my heart out !!!!!

Mimicry and Spoof of Mukhta CSP 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9CO-wqPM40&feature=related

Mimicry and Spoof of Ede tumbi haaduvenu (SP Balasubramaniam)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXRyM1jlG1E&feature=related

Mimicry and Spoof of Udaya TV Horoscope programme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQdY4gfqP9M&feature=rec-HM-rev-rn

Hale Paathre

Hale paathre , hale kabbna, hale paper kane thaayi...

Never knew anybody could write lyrics on Old vessels, Old paper and Old iron....That anybody happens to be the director Yograj Bhat of "Mungaru Male" fame.

Hale hudugi hesaranu thagiyede ninna mundhe saacha aagiruve...

Just stumbled upon this song of the film Junglee today by chance ... The flavor of the month, I suppose!

the going is getting tough at work.
deja vu of sasken´s ssf team.

Obama on McCain

.And yet, what makes John such a rare and courageous public servant is not the accomplishments themselves, but the true motivation behind them 

Yen maatadtaane ee Obama...Super dialog king. 

Weekend Post

Sunday evening blogging is something done when you have nothing else to do. Well , I don't have any specific to say in this post, but what the heck. Just scribble something so that the time goes by and then get ready to prepare some food.  

Yesterday while strolling thru' the Keskuskatu of Kajaani, I found a theatre. It is a stone's  throw away from my house. It took me more than 2 months to realise that there was a theatre in Kajaani. So we saw Quantum of Solace. It didnt even leave a Quantum of Impression on my mind. And the new song by Alicia Keys is not impressive. Yawwn.

Anbe Sivam was the pick of the weekend , for sure. I am too bored to actually write a review nowadays, but I am sure noone is expecting me to write about it too.

Apart from that, a small note on weather. Days have started getting a little longer. Finnish beer is a little strong.  I realise it is so important and useful to have an internet connection and wireless router is a wonder in such places. Really.

The discovery channel which is tailor-made for Finland(just like how it was tailor made in India) talks mostly about some crazy arctic or antarctic expeditions and how they made it to the pole. 

And I leave this post with a photograph : not taken with ANY special effects, but with natural light on a cloudy day. That's what I meant by a black and white world....This is a zoom view from my apartment window, taken by my roommate.

and now ....

recession has started in full blown proportion in the tech sector. I heard that Nortel has filed for bankruptcy, Microsoft starting lay offs .... Hope we do not slip into a deep depression and things will be alright soon.

A day in the life of ...

As I sit here breaking my head with a debugger like Visual Studio (after using Unix for so many years) I was thinking abt some memories .... Memories of life ..... Not computer memories.

So many inconsequential things which just pop out , for which I don't have a strong reason to remember , yet I have some memories.

I remember going into some obscure roads behind HanumanthNagar main road and going into some random 'Guru Internet Cafe ' to check some email. Maybe I was working with Infy or I was in college , I don't remember. Just a memory. Another memory of me and my school friend Shiva playing holi...Another one where Anil Kumar a middle school friend bicycled a steep uphill inclined road for which he was lauded by my friends ... Another memory where I swallowed a plastic pawn while singing 'mera jootha hain japani' and panicked like hell....My scooter in engineering where I travelled to college....memories keep building ......memories++

chuckle

The Guru and the shishya are staring at a baloon in the air.

Shishya: There goes the old businessman  .... Up in the baloon .... Can the businessman see us ?

Guru     : No, the businessman cannot and will not. 

Shishya : Why will the businessman will not see us ?

Guru     : The businessman will NEVER poke into your business.

Shishya : A rocket awaits me.

Guru     : Chuckle.

blah blah

Temperature has become 0 degrees after staying in -20s for sometime. It was a welcome change....It was good yesterday went to a small walk and came back into the house.

Weekend breakfast continues to be tomato pasta and thai noodles. And since vegetable availability is very restricted we have run out of ideas and keep making sambar and rice almost everyday. Lunch is either Puliyogre or chitranna. 

But we get good coffee.At work, the MIMO-B "Integration Camp" continues to be woefully slow. This weekend I saw Nodi Swami Naavu Erodu Heege. Quite depressing movie. And I saw "The Usual Suspects" - Did not like it that much.

But I saw Ananthana Avanthara, probably one of Upendra's earliest creations and enjoyed the movie like anything! I need to try skiing before I leave. But the gear is pretty costly, looking for rentals.  I can pronounce some Finnish (imitating them gives me the kicks)

the MTR and the People..

am talking about the Hong Kong MTR, which is the Mass Transit railway and not related anything to Mavalli Tiffin room in bangalore (though people wait for space in both the MTRs)..

I found the people's attitude (including me) fascinating is on the MTR.. and I think it is generally the same in all form of public transport systems..

People who board the train a stop earlier to others feel that the train belongs to them. Once you board the train you feel like the owner of the train. Your behaviour towards the passenger boarding from the next stop will be like - Y the F*** are you boarding my train.. cant you seen I am standing/sitting here.. its my space, its my train dont you dare step in.. you give them the EYE, shake your head as something terrible has happened and even mutter a few words

and infact the people boarding in the new stop feel guilty of jumping to the train and disturbing the peace and tranquility of the passenger.. but once the train moves they become the owners of the train as well.. now they view the next stop passengers like - why the F* are you here.. this is my train - and the cycle continues..

Ghajini

I have not seen the Tamil Version, I have seen Memento, but I liked Aamir's Ghajini. It is a full blown masala movie with a proper South Indian touch.

Especially the song, "Behka re Behka" looks like a Vijay/Surya (the Tamil actors) song. The colors and the junior artistes and all that. And story is like a gripping Puneeth Rajkumar movie. All elements of action , romance, flashbacks, revenge and after a loonnng time in a Bollywood movie, a villain who is black character (no grey shades at all!!!). The villain reminds me of the 80s and the 90s villain- travelling in an ambassador and wearing white kurta and pyjama and really huge guy with gold chains and going around with 10 guys behind. Something like Spot Naga. Aamir shouts and snarls like a proper South Indian hero before going to beat up the baddies.

Anyway I think this will be a 50 day or a 100 day movie and rake in the moolah at least in India. 

Fargo

I watched the movie Fargo this weekend. It is a simple story with a strong narrative and set in an environment where crime is not an everyday affair. The acting is genuine and the characters are believable. The pregnant police lady who is a supporting actor is just superb.

It is about a car salesman who hires two guys to kidnap his wife. The car salesman is your regular clean guy who does his job and goes back home to his wife and kid, but he is in deep financial trouble. His father-in-law is a rich guy but he does not want to give his money. Thats why he hires two crazy guys to kidnap his wife. The kidnap ransom would be paid by the wife's father and the ransom money could be shared by the guys and the car salesman as 50-50. After kidnapping the wife, things start going horribly wrong. The folk song in the beginning, it seems, is a Norwegian Folk Song. I loved it. It just blends with the movie. More than the camera work, and the all the snowy environment which is the landscape, it was the grip of the narration. It was just absorbing. Kudos to the Coen Brothers. They have the ability to get a very good joke or two in the most bizzare situations. This is not the first time I experience this.

But my favorite Coen Brothers movie continues to be "The Big Lebowski".

Slumdog Millionaire

I did not like it. The hype was unbelievable, I just wanted to watch it badly. But boy, I was disappointed and angry.

First of all, yes , India has grave problems. Poverty, Communal Violence, Child labor, Child Prostitution etc... But the way it is shown in the movie, it is just, yuck. The India shown here is the darkness : Filth and shit and disease and blood. This condition prevails but it reaffirms a Westerner watching the movie that India is full of stench. I could almost smell the stench from the movie scenes... gimme a break!! I dont want to meet a westerner who has seen slumdog millionaire think of all Indians as Slumdogs.

A small child diving into the gutter with his nose closed to get an autograph of Amitabh Bachchan who comes in an airplane running with gutter water dropping. The height of imagination.

And the hero of the movie, Dev Patel does not have an Indian accent and he does not look like a slumdog. He looks like a polished Brit-Indian or Amer-Indian guy with zero Indian accent. A chaiwallah with so much hardships looking like Dev Patel , a nerdy NRI ...hahah.

What the hell was Anil Kapoor doing in this movie ? He looks like a weird slimmed down version of a grizzly brown bear wearing a suit. Rahman was not at is best in the music department.

And in India "Who wants to be a Millionaire" is fondly called Kaun Banega Crorepathi.

Maybe it's just me. I did not like Slumdog. Dont take my opinion ... Just watch it. But the potrayal made me baised in the beginning itself.

welcome 2009

Welcoming 2009....
Happy new year to anyone who sees this post!

2008 went like swoooosh. I want a calmer,peaceful,happier and satisfactory 2009.

Cars and Cycles

Hapless car and cycles standing in front of my apartment.

The world

Is such a place ... Humans have gone to every place possible in this planet...Adapted to all the climates....Humans are a remarkable species...We are there in the place where there are polar bears, we are there in the places where the Bengal Tigers roam in the sunderbans...

This part of the world is like a black and white movie during winter. Like the video like Stranger in Moscow. Two predominant colors :- Black and White. White background, Brown and Black Tree barks with no leaves, People walk around with one color jackets : black. But I must admit gold hair on black jackets look cool ;-) I now understand why they call India as colorful. There are so many people, that it constantly changes ... So fast that it is so self-occupied and self-important to itself. Just like we dont like April and May and call it as mid-summer, these guys have the midwinter. They treasure their summers...

I live on a Road by the name Koivukoskenkatu. Try telling it as fast as you can...Thats the way they say it! I think katu means road...Kasariminkatu, Merikoskenkatu. The downtown is called Keskusta. Initially I thought it was the name of an area...I was puzzled, how come every city/town had an area called Keskusta!!! The finnish have several words to say "Hi"...Some people say "Moi", some people say "Moro", some people say one fast incomprehensible word. The Santa Claus is called as Joulu Pukki.

Since the South of Finland is where the action is, the government is taking steps to improve the situation in the North as many youngsters leave the North and move over to Helsinki-Turku-Vantaa-Espoo-Tampere the important cities in the South. The only big city in the North is Oulu. It owes its existence to the University of Oulu. Because the University is a big and a prestigious one, there are many Tech companies there and almost all of these companies are into telecommunications/rf and all that.

There are no landlines in Finland. Even on train when I travel from Oulu <=> Kajaani, in the deepest snow covered forests, there is connectivity. The difficulty of maintenance of Telephone lines here forced people to come with an alternative. That was how Nokia invested heavily on implementation of GSM and the rest is history.

But one things which is welcome here is in peak hour , there will be 4 cars on the road. Which means travel time is negligible. Traffic in India has its own character and personality and you cannot neglect it or take it for granted. The other day when I had to leave to Finland, I has to miss my seminar because of Kumaraswamy anointment as the JD(S) chief. The idiot.

Sudeep the eskimo

I stand here in front of an igloo(eskimos live there)... I went to Rovaniemi, a place in Lapland which is on the arctic circle... There were igloos there!!! yappa....ond tharaa experiencu ...

But in one museum they have shown the effects of global warming in the arctic region...it seems in 1904 rovaniemi had a temperature of -47 in winter...now it is -3 or -4 .... warm winters

the best clothing

is not pyjamas ... heheh.... all my jeans were to be washed...so i went out with pyjamas this weekend... -7 degrees

BigB the blogger

Is audacious, forthright, frank and patriotic. The way he put forth his arguments and ideas are just phenomenal. He could be better than any of those stupid Ramachandra Guhas and Shashi Tharoors

India should end the tolerant attitude

wtf ... no hostages are alive at Taj it seeems....Using people as human shields,.... Seriously wtf wtf...Look at the confidence they have to come and kill in the open......man i am not feeling in a good mood man....

What if we go to Dubai and indiscriminately start firing in a shopping mall ? Bloody shitheaded jackasses

3 snaps

The snaps show road to office , the other one shows where i stayed at oulu and the third one is me.

Shameful..

I guess the worst ever year in terms of number of terror attacks across India..from the list of terror attacks in india in 2008 in wikipedia, 360 are dead and more than 1450 people are injured!!! and the list is incomplete (does not include malegoan blast and i dont know how many more are missing)..this is what i could extract from the list

1. Jaipur - 13 may - 9 blasts - 63 dead 216 injured
2. Bangalore - july 25 2008 - 9 blasts - 2 killed 20 injured
   
3. Ahmedabad - july 26, 2008 - 21 blasts - 56 killed 200+ injured
4. Delhi - sept 13 - 5 blasts - 30 killed 100+ injured
5. Delhi - sept 27 - 1 blast - 3 dead 23 injured
6. Agartala - oct - 5 blasts - 4 killed 100 injured
7. Imphala - oct 21 - 1 blast - 17 killed 30+ injured
8. Guwahati - oct 30 - 18 blasts - 84 killed 470 injured
9. mumbai - nov 26 - multiple attacks - 101 dead 287 injured and counting
   

from that list, 9 different instances of attacks in 8 cities since 13th may (6 months!!) that is like more than one attack per month!! and except for 2, all are instances of multiple synchronized attacks!! and not mention scores of live bombs that were diffused in surati really want to ask this one question to the home minister shivraj patil "Do you feel even an ounce of guilt for what is happening?"

kiththala ,viththala, apajakari, nallikari, kiitos .... the finnish words sound funny. The names sound funnier Pekka, Jari, Juoni , Ville, Ulla , Heli, Jukka ...so on..(difficult to figure out who is male or female by looking at the names).Somehow languages like english,german, french, swedish have words which end in consonants...Here in finnish like dravidian languages, the words end in vowels.

The people are huge and gentle and very reserved. Somebody has told them not to talk. They won´t open their mouth at all.I am currently living in a village called Kajaani (j is pronounced as y : so it is Kayaani). It has only 2 colored people(I think). I am at a client site. The company is called ElektroBit. They do really hifi stuff. Kajaani is somewhere really north of finland. Needless to say it is cold and keeps getting colder...I can walk with a tshirt with a temp of 0 to -1 (ofcourse with thermals) and stay outside like that for ateast 3 minutes...But -8 and -10 are little too much, I tell you.....I have internet connection and that keeps me occupied. I heard the temp goes to below -27 to -30. Really don´t understand why they built an office here.....It is like building an office in Rajasthan Desert or Himalayas..Ask Narayna Murthy whether he will build an office there...He won´t ...It defies common sense...Not many people would love to have their offices in places of extreme temperatures....Yesterday the snow was like talcum powder...Today it is shining (which means another 2 degrees lower)

Life is difficult for Indians here. No doubt abt it. I have a long wait to go home in feb.

I get stares here.One lady actually asked me in the railway station with a guessing look "Indian?" I said yes...Then the lady goes back and tells her friends with a look which I guess means "I was right, he is an Indian".

Benny Lava !!!

What does a PrabhuDeva song sound to a foreigner ?
The answer is here .

I can't stop laughing...

Mata

I had the opportunity to watch this wonderful movie. I am blown away by the movie...Great movie! Wonderful!!!

What delightful acting! This is one of those rare gems. The movie has a strong message and the narrating voice, mannerisms and the voice of the middle class is simply GREAT!

The movie is about the search of a new swamiji for a mata which is run for the cause of blind children. The old swamiji just gets out of his robes and tucks in his shirt and says goodbye to the mata.

I really loved watching the movie and I am seeing it again. It is rich both philosophically and great acting by everyone....

Kudos to the director. Worth buying the DVD.

Reached Oulu

Okay after an odyssey of a travel I finally reached Oulu, Finland. This place is really cold and day 1 seems to be like just the other day#1s I have seen.

I will miss two marriages and I feel really bad about that.

The place gets dark really quickly and as of today , I don't have anything concrete planned here....Except make Anna + Saaru

Hmmm....

The White Tiger

A few days ago, I stopped near the footpath bookseller who seemed to have an interesting collection of books.I decided to buy the book - "The White Tiger " by Arvind Adiga because I read that it had won the Booker Prize this year.I think it is very well written. A short story, but a very angry and a brutal voice telling the story.

The story is about a "social entrepreneur", Balram Halwai, who now has a booming business in Electronics City, Bangalore. The story is written in the form of letters by this person to the Chinese PM. It is not stated whether the protagonist actually posts the letters he had written to the PM.

Every night at about 1.a.m he writes a new letter to the PM. He starts off regarding how he came from one of the darkest, poorest villages of India and got to the position where he is in. As the story unfolds the reader will learn that he is not our conventional "good" person but a very dark, brutal opportunistic person and a classic example of survival of the fittest who can do anything to get to the top.As the story progresses Balram starts off working in a tea stall in his village and then he escapes his village in a truck and learns driving in a driving school and he becomes a driver for a NRI couple in Delhi. There isn't much to the story but it is interesting like hell.

The way the inequalities in the Indian society has been described, the power and sarcasm in Balram's voice, the feeling of hopelessness and the small town, a semi-literate guy's view of the world is amazing! Adiga's describes India's cities like Delhi, Bangalore as "half baked cities full of half baked men". He cleverly observes what works in India and what does not. The way Adiga writes about the
a car driver's psyche and the way he puts down a car driver's stream of thought and conscience is remarkable.

I am not much of an avid book reader. But this book is good enough to make a really engrossing read. Finally it turned out to be an intelligent investment for me ;-).

Read this book if you get a day or two to spare.

Change has come

Barack Obama.

He won because of a good logical campaign and he worked really hard to get the campaign right.

Let's see what this fellow will do about the economic crisis. It;s one hell of tough job to start delivering on Day#1 after so much of promise.

Interesting charity model

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

Favourite comedy shows

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

Hindi

Dekh bhai Dekh
Office Office

Kannada

paapa pandu
silli lalli

Of random thoughts..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Import import

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

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

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

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

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

Whatever, the result is pleasant music.

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

The Boss and reviews

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christmas in October ..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HK updates

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Uncle v/s 3 year old niece

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

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

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

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

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

early wee hours

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

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

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

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

10 Random Things

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sex ranks 7th in Indian men's life priorities

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

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

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

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

Federer v/s Roddick

Came across this question recently.

Part 1:
Earlier, the probability of Federer winning against Roddick was > 4/5.
Now it is < 4/5.

Does there necessarily have to be a point when it was exactly 4/5, during the transition from > 4/5 to < 4/5?

( The probability was determined on the past record of the players against each other )

Part 2:
Does your answer change if, earlier it was < 4/5, and later it was > 4/5, and you are asked the question:
Does there necessarily have to be a point when it was exactly 4/5, during the transition from < 4/5 to > 4/5?

adda .. for fun ..

i propose that "adda" be made an exclusive "fun postings" site ..
no more serious stuff .. yen heltira .. enuff of work related, wall street economy etc..
lets get some quirky, off-the-beat, ridiculing and poking fun types stuff ..
life .. philosophy na swalpa avoid madona ..its everywhere .. lets make adda the escape place ..

back to hong kong ..
in hong kong .. there are two things which are very prevalent ..

"Managers" and good "calf muscles"..
everyone in hong kong is a manager / consultant .. u go to a restaurant .. u have a server manager, billing manager and i think in a salon they have hair stylist consultant.. thats the way it works here .. and i am a product manager as well :-)

coming to more serious issue .. calf muscles ..i dont know if it is genetic or absolute trained from childhood.. calf muscles rock in hong kong .. and it cannot be the "heels" effect .. since guys and girls both compete on good calf muscles in hong kong ..