Jugaad : The best Mobile App ever..

Move over the Apple/ android apps.. here is one of the best innovations

http://economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/08/jugaad

fitness

after a lot of deliberation overnight (during the sleep as well in form of nightmares), I have decided to start attending the boxing classes in the gym.. there are several reasons to it.. but certainly the aim is not to challenge Joe Frasier..

a. classes starts at 7:30 pm and lasts till 8:30 pm... giving enough space in the changing rooms/showers.. (other classes start and end on the hour)

b. probably will pick up some defensive skill over 3-6 months..

c. will not get bored as in the case of DUMB bells.

d. last but not the least, need not wear sneakers..

the whole purpose of publicly announcing it is to stick to the plan..

on the contrary I might end up like Indian politicians with announcements before the polls and slumber after the polls..

a word of caution to myself - i need to make sure i don't get injured.. my back pain has been the biggest nemesis to ACTIVITY and the greatest friend to "COUCH POTATO"...

of high military spending and poor infrastructure..

Annually both Pakistan and India spend anywhere between 2- 4% of the GDP on defence. This has been going on for the past 63 years and given the state of affairs will probably go on to reach a century and probably can even strike triple century..

the total amount would probably run to trillion dollars which mainly benefit the western defence organizations contributing to their respective GDPs. While India/Pak and other developing/underdeveloped nations (african, south american etc) keep bickering and diverting money to defence projects, the lack of basic infrastructure leads to massive destructions YoY (earthquakes, floods, typhoons and other natural disasters) both in terms of human life lost and damage to the GDP...

though corruption consumes more amount than the defence budget in most of these countries.. it might be a good option to just bluffing about having nuclear arsenal and cutting back on defence spending.. somehow nuclear weapons have really been the real preventer of World war 3...

food binge..

during the last two weeks, the stomach has crunched through the globe, with a great tour of Asia.. while during the first week it was constrained to China-Shanghainese.. Sichuanese, Ningbo and Yangzhou cuisine.. it got liberated during the weekend through Burger King at the Shanghai airport.. (almost dying for non-Chinese food) and went on a wild ride...

over the next three days, i was relieved to have some good Vietnamese and great home cooked food..

starting Tuesday the culinary adventure took great strides.. starting with some french and Shanghainese on tuesday, English Curry buffet (was a pain getting thru) and local hong kong cuisine on Wednesday, some great pan-Asia and Indian on Thursday , with Chinese and Thai on Friday, No wonder corporate trainings are a real pain on the stomach and the eyes, which have to fight to be awake post lunch..

the weekend went down with some awesome food again.. Ragi dose on Saturday, followed by Japanese for lunch.. Sunday started with great Akki rotti, followed by a mexican lunch and "anna saaru" for dinner ..

The following would be the ratings in descending order of liking

1. Akki rotti

2. Anna Saaru

3. Chinese fried rice (the best I have had in Hong Kong till date)

4. Fried Garoupa with Cashew nuts

5. Sashimi

6. Fajitas

7. local Canton food ( the atmosphere was like VV puram)

8. Ningbo

9. good old thai

10. Burger King (just for the break it provided)

end result .. 2 pounds++, but no regrets at all..

Happy Independence day

miss the feeling of independence day/ republic days back from the school days..

One of these days NSN will be shifting to Manyata Tech Park and I will be leaving this Infantry Road Office. We go to the North of Bangalore. 30km from my house. Far journeys. Will not think about that now. I tell my mind, to take things one at a time. I'm thinking about what I'll miss....Short 2 wheeler journeys. Going everyday in front of Vidhana Soudha.

Seeing the common junta. Manyata is a "Tech park" with people wearing ID tags. Here, at Infantry Road, it was a pleasure to just walk out of the building and get some good filter coffee and good darshini food. 2 people come to my mind when I think of people whom I see everyday while going to office.

Just in front of the Bangalore High Court, a lady sells buttermilk and flavored milks under an umbrella. She looks somewhat like Sudha Murthy. Was just wondering she must have some financial crunch to work at that age....She was not to be seen for a week....Then she returned yesterday - with her hair dyed. Must have gone to a marriage to some other town.

There is one more character who stands in front of SP Road, dressed like Jesus. People put coins into his hand. And then there is a car with a sticker "The Power of NOW" which sometimes charges me up as a motivational statement.

Hmmm....Change is essential in life.

Inception

Finally got to saw the movie. Took a half day leave (bunked office ;-)..Had not used that word for probably a decade ) and saw it in the theatre.

Interesting movie. Generally audience snores while the actors act. Here the audience see the actors snoring away and still walk back dazed.

Here is a good explanation I got regarding the movie. Reminds me of OSI Layers.

Time and Memory

Time and Memory are certainly inversely proportional.. As time passes we forget things, and in most cases as in India we forgive them as well.. a few exceptions were the Jessica Lal's case and to an extent the Narmada valley protests...

a long list of forgotten things can be associated with the Congress party. They make sure it is done so.. The same will be done with the Common Wealth Games corruption, as would be Lalit Modi... they seem to be systematically attacking the BJP and making them weaker.. while they make every effort to implicate mayawati.. they seem to be forgiving everything associated with Pawar , Lalu Prasad and A Raja

the Congress(I) will eventually be the only standing party in India with a sucky opposition (when was the last did we hear of BJP/CPI).. the dynasty rule will continue (not just the gandhi family, dynasty politics is just the heart and soul of Congress).. and where is the Crown Prince Rahul Gandhi.. ??

Anyways, looks like CWG is something not to look forward.. Still not sure how Kalmadi can't own up responsibility for anything... well again its a Congress legacy..

dont they get tired of the scams they originate..???

The trees and duets

Nowadays the original Bollywood heart and soul is removed from the Bollywood songs.
Songs post the A R Rahman are about "collaborations". Out of the 5 songs, there are about 10 singers - Which is good thing, I agree.

But the good old days where the hero had one voice for all the 5 songs is conspicuously missing. There is no one like a Kumar Sanu or a Udit Narayan or a (ummm whatwashername??) Alka Yagnik. Kumar Sanu was good. Now he has become antique value, if you ask me.

We have songs like this one which I can't understand....Is it really Hindi (or urdu or punjabi or mix) ?

But if I listen to a song like this one or this one there is a bollywood soul to these songs (the duets) and the lyrics are easy as well. The songs now are somewhat different(gosh! I'm sounding old), if you understand what I mean. Good if you purchase a CD of Rs25, you can put it in your car, and remember those student days.

chaddi

Its quite strange to see 3 girls in skimpy tops and 6 inches shorts/skirts dancing with guys wearing denim and full length jackets (golmaal)... the same thing repeats on the aussie beach, though better this time at least one of them is into shorts ( arshad warsi), while SAK sticks to denim pants ( salaam namaste).. even in the deserts sallu bhai and his younger brother prefer denims and leather jackets while ms Kaif is expected to wander around in a white one piece dress.

cut to five years forward, the pant craziness never goes, rather the shorts phobia among bollywood men doesnt go away.. so even as deepika and lara stick to skimpy 2 piece bikinis dancing in italian beaches, akshay and the other chap stick to pants... how ridiculous it looks should be watched rather than being told..

why is the SHORTOPHOBIA so strong ? is it because they are still hairy on the limbs while they have managed to shave the rest of their body.. or they are chastised by their mums/wives exposing their lower limbs.. or is it plainly vulgar (never mind the tummy exposure)

its time that these guys start sporting the shorts (one up to knee length and not the shorter one) and lead the indian mass to adopt the same, and this help them survive the scrotching heat.. and preventing someone from dying in the denim..

the phenomenon is no different among the indians in hk.. their limbs are fully clad even when they just shopping around wet markets/grocery stores/ or dining at an al fresco.. ( under temperatures of 35+ and humidity of 70%++.).

there is certainly a shorts phobia among indian men (both the longer and shorter form).. meanwhile leaving the burden to the fairer sex

LOOT mentality

It is deeply ingrained in the system. Make money wherever possible, and store it for the progeny, for them to rut, rot, burn and spend.. its been there since days of Mahabharata and the 3000 years of tradition isn't going away easily. It doesn't matter which scheme it is.. there is a scam impending every where. The range is just astonishing..

MIGs, Tankers, fertilizer, cattle food, PDS rice, wheat, oil, coffers, guns, armaments, mid day meal, common wealth games, military winter wear, iron ore, edible oil, sugar, lpg, kerosene, spectrum and the list goes on and on and onnnnnnnnnnn.............

And it seems the grand old party leads the race and is the great grand father of all the scams...

the LOOT is worse than what the British looted during the Raj..

At the Box Office..

Its completely dark outside at 4pm.. as the black rain lashes hong kong, making it tempting to skip the gym plans ( this skips due to the flimsiest of reasons and doesnt require a black rain) and go on board with some chai, pakodas and movies, with the latter two needing some resource stretching..

its been a good run of movie watching lately, though the movies themselves werent that fun.. following movies were conquered or they managed to conquer me

On Screen

Inception - A preview show (my first) was worth it... quite good..but needs a second screening on the home theater, to pause, question debate and resolve.. and if possible a direct line to Nolan..

DVD

Housefull - ignoring it completely would have been better rather than just ignoring it for a few months

I hate luv stories - doesn't deserve to make money.. have to support Shoba de on this one.. starting to dislike Sonam Kapoor, never like Imran khan much.... K JO is creating mini K JOs

TV

De Dana Dhan - cant watch too much of AK.. wound up midway..

Die Hard - nice to see old style hardcore action

Die Hard 2 - too much of Bruce Willis

Vantage Point - good to recollect the movie

Twilight - no comments

Looking forward

On Screen

Wallstreet 2

DVD

Wallstreet

Once upon a time ....

Tere Bin Laden

Meanwhile on the road ....

a bus breaks down amidst traffic chaos. Some, (rather, most) BTS buses do not have the blinking parking lights . So they use branches of trees to indicate they cannot continue further with the bus. If tree branches with leaves are sticking out of the bus windows, then the bus is resting itself amidst the cacophony of horns. The bus is one with Mother Nature with branches protruding near its unnaturally small mirror as well. It looks like a huge elephant with branches sticking all over its body, unable to move and contented with the traffic jam it has caused. So, we (the celebrated motorists of Bangalore) can understand the bus has broken down. Thumbs up!

This is a standard traffic rule, even the traffic police use this.

Life goes on, with tree branches and monkeys everywhere.

Recession Really???

how come consumers snapped up 1.7 million iphones (gen 4) withing 3 days and 300K ipads in the first day of sale. Worldwide ~3million ipads were sold in 3 months.. and if not for the antenna issues apple would have sold 10 million phones within a month...

who are these buyers?? how can they afford it?? is this really a recession binge?

Web 2.0

I hate Web 2.0++, is similar to I saying "I hate Love stories". The way Bollywood is plagued by "Luv stories" but still manages to limp across each year. Similarly, the US economy is entangled in Web 2.0 applications and is reeling under a spiraling economic down-trend . Having given away manufacturing in the last quarter of the past century, now the US looks like giving up hi-tech as well chasing the WEB mania. Technology today to large extent is confined to WEB apps and jazzy gadgets which look like decreasing individual productivity. The WEB passed its peak optimization levels a few years ago, and now its contribution is mainly towards making people lazier by the day.

Am not sure leading in web services would give them a long lasting competency. But with most of the VC funding/ brilliant minds entangled in the Web, its unsure how the US gets itself out as a leading economy (its similar to how the Europeans got entangled in the art, music, coffee and leisure culture)

How much of the WEB do you need??

Franz Schubert Trio

I came across a classical music piece called "Trio" by a German composer called Franz Schubert. It seems it was used in Kubrick's Barry Lyndon. Very swaying cello (or violin?) and somewhat familiar. Check this out :-

Schubert Trio

The law of diminishing returns

The first ice cream tastes great->highest return.
The second one ice cream tastes OK.
The third one ice cream tastes not so bad.
The fourth one ice cream tastes sick and makes you sick as well ->lowest return.

This is the law of diminishing returns as I read about sometime ago.The law of diminishing returns also holds good in case of pain as well.

The first sorrow makes you feel real bad. When you drenched off all your sorrow and cannot be morose further,it first becomes a "philosophical laugh" (like the Mera Naam Joker's laugh). Even then if you keep experiencing pain, you feel nothing at all.

In case of achievement, I am not sure whether the law of diminishing returns holds. One achievement brings more encouragement. But of course, you are more bound to commit mistakes. After Hitler's anschluss of Austria, he was encouraged and Czech acquisition became a matter of urgency to Hitler. He wanted to finish that one off.

Octopus consumption to go down

With the Octopus prediction of Spain winning bang on target, i guess the consumption of octopus in the world will go down.. the Koreans will mostly use it to predict the war than bbq the same .

btw, spain played well, but i want to see them score more goals in the finals.. and avoid those tense moments as they had against germany

Spain deserves to win the world cup..but the problem is that Spain might pledge the world cup to raise some money to some rich countries which cannot afford to win through playing ( the Chinese are already talking to the Spanish authority on this one)

4 year BS

National College Basavanagudi is starting a 4 year course for science called as Bachelor of Science (BS). BS in physics , Nanotechnology and the like.

There was a big rush to the applications for BS @ NCJ as I passed through Gandhi Bazaar yday : It seems the US universities ask for a 4 year course in Science for MS in Physics etc. So, Indian applications for Sciences in the US universities might pick up according to me.

But it is a good move from the state to have a 4 year science course. I think they should have some courses in Photonics and Solar Energy to fuel research in these areas. I also heard IISc would be starting BS course. But no idea abt that.

Symbiosis

The world is like a give<->take place.You give and you take from many people. You are valuable as long as you can give....You need to give more and more.

If you take more and more and give nothing, your influence-circle keeps on diminishing and in the end, it comes to your immediate family/friends. They will tolerate you because there is no other option. This is the truth of life from my point of view, and everyone needs to realize it.

Current Music :Lou Reed - Wild side