Brain vs Brawn vs Beauty

I read this somewhere in Seattle "If you dont have brains better be tough". I pondered over this statement after reading the comments from Sudeep and Bridget Jones (Kriti) on my last post Cup of Glory. And in response to it I write this piece. These are purely my thoughts again. (Usually I write opinions from others, gathered over discussions and potray the thoughts to which I have acquiesced, as mine)

We are often very critical about display of Muscle power,as against the display of brains and almost non-critical about beauty flaunting. ZiZou might have been wrong according to the football faternity and the codes of the FIFA worldcup and he rightly recieved a RED card for it. May be he should have acted as Kriti puts it
"I would have expected the "best player of the tournament" to be self-assured enough to laugh away insults ", but I would not agree with the part of to laugh away insults'.

How often can we swallow insults or racial abuse, of origins, of religions, of language, of stature, of looks and of behaviour ??? When will the abusers be punished? I know world cup finals is not the right platform to do it. I am highly disappointed about the French not winning. But I believe, if Zidane had stayed back for the full extra-time there would have been any difference to the score line. David Trezeguet was slated to take the 'penalty', and he would have missed it anyways.

The FIFA has just looked into containing the PHYSICAL ABUSING, and havent done much about the verbal abusing. Hence, I prefer the football of the 80's where men fought, like men, for the glory. Now, they act, they deceive, they taunt others with abuse of all forms.

We cannot see a kick in the BUTT, but we are okay with verbal bashings, the Nazi salutes of Buffon, the spitting of the players, their diving, their remarks. speculations are that Mattarazi called "Zidane a terrorist", "His sister a whore" etc etc. How often can you swallow such remarks ? Sometimes your personal pride takes over the World Cup. May be Zidane dint want the world cup then, may be he wanted to teach the Mattarazi guy and his likes to behave properly. Italians are accused often of being racists Okay this is not about Italy. Its generic - its european in nature.

Coming back to the Brain vs Brawn vs Beauty. Brawny ppl are the most accused, followed by brainy ppl and then the beautiful. If you display your muscle power you become an instant hooligan (They do it cos thats their act of defence and offence. They lack brains so they go the muscle way). I am not justifying that they are right in doing so, but I am pleading that we need to be equally critical about the others too. We never condemn the killings/assasinations of thousands/lakhs of innocents, who are victims of diplomatic screw-ups in the same way (with the same fervor) we condemn the burtal killings (see the word brutal comes naturally) behind which the muscle power has ruled. Given the choice between 'concentration camps' and 'nuclear bombing in hiroshima' the 'concentration camps' will be voted as more cruel, where as both these acts are equally despicable to the highest orders respectively. One was a muscle power and another a brilliant tactic. Ofcos brilliance gets away easily in words of diplomacy. (this has been derived from the disussion I have heard so far, we often discuss too much abt Nazi vs Jews and occassionaly discuss abt Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. I might be wrong here)

Now to Brains vs Beauty. If you flaunt your brains, its an offence - you are headstrong, you are not humble, and you are a jerk too at times. But you flaunt beauty and no one complains. Everyone loves it. Its gone to an extent that 'if you have it flaunt it' . Now if a person has brains and a lesser capacity in beauty, doesnt he have the right to flaunt it. Why are we biased here again ? Why do we taunt poeple with remarks and put a tag on them as 'headstrong, arrogant' etc etc.
Again I am against both or I am for both, not for a step-mother treatment of brains or beauty. Research in the US have reported that offenders with better looks have escaped the wrath of the jury many a times. Why so ? why are we so much tuned to be so partial towards beauty?

If a physical damage leaves a scar behind which is very much visible, then a moral/mental damage leave a deeper wound which is not percieved by many. I am in total support of ZiZou (if the allegations made on Mattarazai were true). For me he will be one the greatest footballers. My best would still be Maradona. I havent seen Pele much but I dont think even if I see him I would like him. Genius ppl have a slight madness in them, and that madness is what makes them a genius. ZiZou also got support from his coach, co-players and PM. The cup of glory can be won again and again and again. It's tough but it is not impossible. But it takes a lot of time to regain personal pride, as they say it in Kannada 'adikege hoda maana aane kottru barolla'.


And I agree with Kriti

"The diving, the anger, the head-butting, the goals, the referess, the brilliance - all seem like parts of a well done play, where the suspense stays on till the end. Thats what is so much fun about it! :)
"

only thing the Italians should not have won the world cup. A team which plays 10 ppl in the 18-yard area, doesnt deserve the highest reward of this sport 4 times. All said and done, well played Italy and ZiZou you deserved the Golden ball. Keep your head high

ps: only person who I have seen coming close to evenly critical abt brains, beatuy and brawny is Chilli

Cup of Glory..

Bullshit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its a Cup of Debauchery, Genius acting skills, hooliganism
Cup of Money (for rich nations), while a Cup of struggle for the Poorer nations
Cup of Pride for the starters, whereas the europeans fight as if it is a world war
Crazy refrees, coaches and even crazier players.

Only good match was Germany vs Italy, thanks to refree, who dint care for the player's acting skills and diving skills. The footballers can seek a career in Hollywood. Next it would be like 20th Century Fox presents 'The world cup 2010'

Racist remarks would be made on the ground, but we cant hear what the players speak. All we could see in Zidane heading Mattarazi and earning a RED card. Which moron in the world will hit a guy without being provoked. ZiZoU u need a mental asylum. People are not ready to forget is from Algeria, a muslim. Similarly the Africans would have been slurred for sure . Things which we see on TV are never true aint it.

The clash between Argentina and Germany after the match. What was that ?

Its been a disappointment of sorts. The whole world cup looks flimsy. Thanks to Shakira it looked somewhat colorful.

The only team I really liked was Ghana, for their sprit (they too had some actors though)

A huge disappointment, though I watched most of the matches with fervor, made a 100 buks too.

Kopa

Zidane was hallucinating that he was a bull yesterday.

24 hour news channels ..

Solutions

Solution to the coconut problem

Well, the solution is not even n-nary. It goes something like this :-
a) Go to the eight floor and drop the coconut.

b)If it breaks
{ then the floor "x" is such that 1 <= x <= 8.
So start from 1st floor and drop...2nd floor and drop....8th floor...
Until you get x.
}

c)If it doesnt go to 8+7 = 15th floor.Drop from here.
If it breaks
{then the floor "x" is such that 8 <= x <= 15.
So start from 8th floor and drop...9th floor and drop....15th floor...
Until you get x.
}

d)If it doesnt go to 8+7+6 = 21st floor.Now the search for x is between
15 and 21.

:
:
It goes on till 8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1 = 36.

Solution to the Prison Problem

Richie got a beautiful deduction as :-
Prime numbered cells will be closed.
The state of the composite numbered cells depends on the number of its unique factors.

Among composite numbers , consider the numbers which are squares. e.g. 1 , 4, 9 , 16 ...These have an ODD number of factors. eg :- take 49. The factors of 49 are 1,7,49. So Door# 49 will be opened during 1, closed during 7 and re-opened during 49. So, All the numbers which are perfect squares will be opened and the rest will be closed.

Note:-

There are some more puzzles coming. But yesterday's coffee discussion was centered around the fact that Kannada movie heroes are ugly. I couldnt disagree on the fact that, the movie which was being showed on TV at the cafeteria when this discussion was going on, was a lesser know movie called "Chaitrada Premanjali".On second thoughts,should heroes always be good-looking ?

The old guns fired

Against Brazil :), and they looked tired against Portugal :(, but they still made it, thanks to Henry and Zidane. I am concerned as to how will they perform against the energetic Azzuri. The Azzuri's hold the edge. They have talented people matching France, man to man. Yeah, there is no Zidane in the midfield, but Pirlo is good enough. And there is Buffon. How can French get past him. Answer is Henry, Buffon can be beat only from near >2 mts & <>4 mts he can respond easily. Where does Barthez stand against Italy? He has a crucial role to play, but he acts like a jerk sometime. (sometime ? most of the times).

And the French get tired easily. Old soles. Almost everyone wants to retire after world cup :). Vikash u are missing the game man. I especially dislike the forwards in both the teams. They get exhausted without doing much of running around. They act as if they are precious soles. They expect the ball to be thrown at their feet. Uhhh they suck. But, Henry is a better forward (probably cos Shammi, my friend,is nicknamed Henry. that reminds me the following - Teju looks like Del Piero, and Dhi like Klose, someone suggested me Sudeep looks like Lahm, no personal opinion here. Avi can get an entry to the Italian side for his looks and shaven head;-). One person I cant imagine in football is SP.. lazy couch )

Okay, back to the match. What would be the scoreline ? Very difficult to predict. 1-0 France or 2-0 Italy. I like France, but I am not a hardcore French fan. May the better team win. Going by the last match performance Italy is a better team. Going by quarterfinals match France is a class apart. Only expectation is a classic encounter similar to Italy vs Germany, Brazil vs France :). I dont have tears for any team that loses. It is left to their country men and women who weep so much. They wouldnt have done cried so much for their parent's demise. Thus are the strange ways of europeans :). They blame Bangalore for the Rajkumar incident, they dont mind killing each other on the football field (as pointed out by Sudeep) :)

Okay tomorrow 11:30, get glued.

Welcome to the new look

Guys,

How is the new look ?

"The Adda" turns two years today.

I started blogging after I stumbled across a few blogs.Since I had the habit of mailing people left ,right and center (Oh yes, I am a natural human spammer) and I had the strange feeling that people dont like many mails in the mailbox , I thought I will write whatever comes to my head,instead of mailing people...If people like it, let them look at the blog....Otherwise, let them go to hell.That was the main motivation of starting THIS blog.

Before this blog, I had two very personal blogs which I used to vent my frustrations and I was going through a personal turmoil of a heartbreak. I deleted it.Thank god.

Well today the blog count reads 13,229 visitors. It has become a vital part of my sedentary life.And there is a community of bloggers (I have edited and put the links in the left).Apart from the last two, I know everyone.

Coffee Time puzzle #2

In continuation to the coconut problem , I posted , here is another one.

Vivek keeps flummoxing me with these puzzles....

Anyone try this ?


There is a prison with n cells. All the cell doors are in the closed state.
On the first day, they are all opened. On the second, all multiples of 2 toggle their state (cells 2,4,6...close). On the 3rd day, all multiples of 3 toggle their state (those which were open now close and those closed open). This goes on for n days. After the nth day what would be the state of the cell doors and why?

IBM's new ad

Have you heard the new song which features in IBM's ads ?
I was desperately searching for the mp3 (below), and found it on dogpile.

It is froma sixties(1966) band called "The Kinks".

Check out the lyrics...This is what every damned human thinks!!!


I won't take all that they hand me down,
And make out a smile, though I wear a frown,
And I won't take it all lying down,
'Cause once I get started I go to town.

'Cause I'm not like everybody else,
I'm not like everybody else,

And I don't want to ball about like everybody else,
And I don't want to live my life like everybody else,
And I won't say that I feel fine like everybody else,
'Cause I'm not like everybody else,
I'm not like everybody else.


Here is the mp3 :-
I am not like everybody else

I havent

been following the world cup THAT closely, but I have seen around 4 to 5 important matches live and a few highlights of important matches (being an early sleeper), But today's match seems to be a very special.

ARGENTINA v/s GERMANY. at 8:30 India Time.

The amount of media attention will persuade even an ignoramus to wake up all night and watch the match .Boy! am I real excited or what...Let's see whats gonna happen....

Accounts of the day so far...

I wake up realising I am late for the bus. I see my mum sleeping still. Oh mann this cant be real, mom and still sleeping, then it shudnt be late, it should be just 6:30 am. Not bad, I wake up at my usual time 7:40 am. But, wait I see the papers, the milk packet on the desk . Ahhh, she never misses her duties.

I decide not to wake her up (but little I know shes always awake). I start thinking about my breakfast ( I have been moulded into a selfish fella). I decide it should be idlis at Terminal (Infy food court). Then I feel I cant be hungry for such a while( I get these terrible headaches). I open the refrigirator. Glad to see papayas and mangos. My worries have vanished :).

I grasp the newspaper, superficially observing the events of the previous day (by now I have forgotten everything literally, with faint memories of football news). I rush to take a hair bath, mom wakes up with instructions to bro to prepare the dough, change the cylinder etc. Mann how does she manage ? ( how many times have I lost my sleep to serve dad/mom/bro?? > 0 ? ).

I finish my bath, eat a slice of mango, dress-up, arrange my bag and peep at the kitchen slowly to see if my breakfast is ready. There it is along with the tea . I make a fuss I might miss the bus if I wont eat it asap. I finish it on-time, grab my bag and "Shalimar-the clown" and rush towards the bus. The bus is late too. I am happy :)

My mind drifts to other things

1. the sudden demise of my friend's father.. How can death be so cruel ? We know its inevitable, but why cant it be more graceful. I see the person at 6:00pm arraning plywoods for a new wardrobe and I hear at 2:00 am he suffered a brain stroke.... CRUEL, totally cruel
2. I think about the person who I have disappointed one more time (but as usual do not know the reason). This is repetitive through out the day.

*The bus arrives. Am confused to take this one or wait for the next one. Finally decide to board. I see a macho guy occupying 3/4th of the seat in a 3-seater in my favourite first seat. I manage to push his bag and make a seat for myself. I start my adventure into "Shalimar-the clown". I get lost in the book and the music on the radio (dont know which song's playing), the book is more enchanting.

*The bus travels along the BTM main road, I peep out of the window from the start to the finish and I see a beautiful person in maroon top. Just missed. Never mind. I get back to the book.

*I am disturbed by a lady who wants to share the seat between the macho and non-macho guy(me). Its uncomfortable for her (the macho guy has 40% of the seats share). I decide to make the place a little more comfortable for her and move towards the aisle and again get back into the book.

*Enter Infy campus, see my cubicle mates having tea and smoke for breakfast. They are suprised to see me in a cotton shirt(denim types), codroy and reebok shoes. They say I will get caught for violating the dress code. I pass the security with ease (as they do), they are baffled I am not caught. I am not surprised, as I enter Infy this way almost daily.

* I almost trip from the steps near my building (this could have broken my leg, however there were only 2 steps). The guys tease I am thinking of someone. Yeah, I was, thinking of someone & trying to surmise something.

* Enter my building, see a friend (girl) of mine turned totally from western to Indian outfits. Want to compliment her, but she rushes out with a notebook and we just exchange an 'HI'. May be trainings I presume.

* Land at my desk, check the usual sites, put two stocks on trade on ICICI direct. Keep track of the paisas.

* Sudeep calls me ( I am in the cloak room, reading Shalimar the clown). I say will return in call. I do it, Sudeep says he will return the call again.

* Ping a friend (maroon top) for tea, and see the person is shown away

* I decide to sip tea and read the book, walk out of the building (after giving the download command for Khalballee song from RDB)

*Reach the food court, buy tea (simultaenously speaking to sudeep on phone and having a good laugh abt myself, sudeep, teju, kummi and sumanth).

* See the maroon top lady with her friend walking towards the food court. i decide to have the company of "Shalimar the clown". (not that I had a choice ;-) )

* It starts drizzling, it feels like heaven sipping tea and reading a novel. Finish a chapter, walk back towards my PC. (PCs beckoning me).

* Listening to Khalballeee, log into blogge.com, read Sudeep's blog, and for some starnge reason decided to write down all this.

music still in the background, I type the events of the day so far.. so mundane, yet so different set of events, not exhilarating but still enjoyable, such a pleasure yet so painful

done with the review and here I go

The Coconut Problem

A problem discussed over a cup of coffee and peanuts with one of our Project leaders.



There is a building with 36 floors. It is known that, starting from the floor "x", if a coconut is dropped it breaks.

A boy is given 2 coconuts. Using these 2 coconuts, he is supposed to find the least floor "x" from which it starts breaking, when dropped down. Note :- The boy can break both the coconuts.No problem. But his aim is to find the floor "x" using the minimum drops !!

Example :-
A gut-feel-approach tells you that :-
Let the boy goto floor 1. Then let him drop the coconut. It breaks ! Then x is found and x = 1.
If it doesnt break goto floor #2. Then let him drop the coconut. It breaks ! Then x is found and x = 2.
:
:
If it doesnt break goto floor #36. Then let him drop the coconut. It breaks ! Then x is found and x = 36.


Bigger clue :- Think binary search.

Biggest clue :- n-nary.

Congrats to Kummi

Congragulations for Kumar.N. for publishing two one paper, submitted in the IEEE conference. I didnt know N stood for Nagaraj until I saw your IEEE paper!

He has explained what he has published here

Way to go Kummi ! Great to see guys going places :-)

EDIT:made correction. The other one was just a contest and will not be published as proceedings.
-Kummi

$37b dollar charity vs $26- $33b business deal

and the Arcelor-Mittal business deal wins the media attention. (talking about the Indian media). The only reason Mittal has Indian origins. He is the aggressive face of Indians, the go-getter, can do anything fella and media is projecting it as a picuture-perfect future of India.

There was rarely any coverage about Buffet's philanthropic act. Buffet has decided to donate $37b worth value to Gates-Melinda Foundation. India is one of the prominent recepients of the Gates-Melinda Foundation. Indians have been hugely supported by this foundation and a $1.5 b extra funds to this organisation every year is incredible. This might alleviate a whole lot of problems of a whole lot of people all over the world.

But, who cares? all we are worried about is one man getting more richer, more powerful, and one day who might dictate the prices of steel.

Media has its own ways.

Guru Shishya #7

I started writing this episode of Guru Shishya after a good refreshing episode of Socrates and Plato from DhiOnlyOne's blog . I enjoyed writing this. Hope you like it !



FADE IN :

INT. A BOEING BUS - SEPT.11-2001 MORNING

The Captain of the flight makes an announcement.

Ladies and Gentlemen. We are headed to San Francisco International Airport. We have reached an altitude of 39,000 feet. Please relax and enjoy yourself and enjoy yourselves.There will be refreshments and programs on TV. We hope you enjoy your flight.Thanks for flying with us.

An OLD MAN dressed in an English attire and wears an English Beaver Top Hat. He rests on his walkstick.Sitting next to him is a hippie who plays a song on his ipod, The Beatles's "Free as a Bird".

The hippie looks at the old man's hat. He is surprised

HIPPIE
Strange!

OLD MAN
My man. Whats strange?

HIPPIE
I think we are all gonna die in half an hour.

OLD MAN
(chuckles)
Why? How do you know ?

HIPPIE
Dont worry. Take some oxygen. Tyler Durden said Oxygen gets you high. I believe him.
But the truth is, most of us look like we may die in half an hour.

OLD MAN
(inquisitively)
How do you know ?

HIPPIE
My name is Samay Agarwal.I have a very rare gift.I can see and tell the exact date & time about when a person is gonna die. You know, just like how medicine bottles come with expiry dates, we also have expiry dates written just above our heads. And I can see it.

OLD MAN
Hello Samay. Nice name.Nice gift you have.

HIPPIE
And I see, that everybody on this plane have an expiry date of September 11 2001 and about half an hour from now.

OLD MAN
So you reasoned it to be a crash ?

HIPPIE
Oh yes.

OLD MAN
Why dont you tell to anybody on the plane?

HIPPIE
I am a hippie. The world thinks hippies are mad.

OLD MAN
I dont. :-)

HIPPIE
But there seems to be something special about you.
Your expiry date is set to :- 0xFF-0xFF-OxFFFF.

OLD MAN
Oh thats right. My name is ......Oh never mind. Just call me a Guru.

HIPPIE
Can we do something about the situation ?

OLD MAN
Nope. I am afraid, we cannot. We have to leave to George Bush and a person known by the name Osama Bin Laden.

HIPPIE
So what happens next? What do I do ? I am sure there will be a crash.

OLD MAN
Well, I was sent to take you back from this plane.

HIPPIE
Who are you ? Will you rescue me, from this place ?

OLD MAN
Call me Guru. Become my Shishya. I will take you away from this place.

HIPPIE
Oh Guru! Please rescue me from this place!!

OLD MAN
Surely, Samay.

Poof! The Guru and Samay are teleported to .....

EXT. THE GURU's ASHRAM - DAY

Children,deer, rabbits, peacocks and attractive women play in front of the ashram and the guru takes Samay, beneath the Peepal Tree.Some shishyas are studying the vedas and some of them are staring at the hippie.

SHISHYA#1
So Guru!! This is Samay.

GURU
(to Samay)
Samay, dont tell any of your expiry dates fundas to any of the people here. I run an ashram not a psychiatric consultancy. People will get psyched if they hear their expiry dates.

SAMAY
Sure, Guruji.But why did you bring me here ?

GURU
I didnt bring you here. MY GURU asked me to bring you to her.

SAMAY
Is she here ?

GURU
We have to meet her.She'll decide what to do next.She is the greatest teacher, mankind has ever seen. Mankind will ever see. Unfortunately she has killed all her disciples. And I am supposed to die on 0xFF-0xFF-OxFFFF.

SAMAY
So, where does she stay ?

GURU
She stays in dimension 4.

SAMAY
How do we go there ?

GURU
It is a part of imagination, dude. You have to imagine Dimesion#4.

SAMAY
How do I do it ?

The GURU picks some GRASS on the ground.

GURU
This is called , "The Holy Hashish". Just have it.

SAMAY
I have hash very often.

GURU
This is a different version, which I use to go to meet her. Have a place and let us smoke it,my dear hippie buddy.

SAMAY
Yeah sure man...

Amidst a lot of Psychedelic Rock, the Guru and Samay start smoking The Holy Hashish.The surroundings suddenly melt and everything is white.An ocean of whiteness. Samay and the Guru just sleep. Then they are placed in a googolhedron based structure. And we see a very beautiful woman wearing a red gown.The woman looks like Liz Hurley (or is she ?).

Her name is Time.Rather she is Time.

TIME
Welcome Guruji. How is mankind doing? So you bought Samay with you ?

GURU
My best wishes to you madame.This is Samay.

TIME
Hello Samay :-) .

SAMAY
(sweating)
Hello.

TIME
I just came to know, you got this gift, after your overdose of narcotics and OD-ing.It's been more than a month. And it took some time to understand about your gift.I took sometime to decide to do what with you.
(PAUSE)
I think, it is best you go back to the flight.

SAMAY
Why ? I want to live!!!

TIME
I am afraid, you cant Samay. Your "gift" is a little too dangerous. I dont see understand how you can see the patterns and sequence of events. We dont want a change the careful events which have been generated.These events are generated strictly in complaince with the Laws of Matter and Energy.But if you start taking proactive actions because, you can "see" the future and change patterns, You are almost as capable as the Guru, himself.

SAMAY
Thats okay. I understand, I'll die. But what abt you ? What abt the Guru ?

TIME
Well, I'm just a concept.I have been a major subject of philosophy, art, poetry, and science. I cannot be killed. I dont have a beginning or an end. People say something called Big Bang! My ass!!Let them waste their time creating theories.

SAMAY
So who are you, according to you ?

TIME
Guruji, you wanna explain ?

GURU
My pleasure! Every atom in YOUR WORLD can be located in the (x,y,z) plane. So, is only (x,y,z) enough ? Not at all. For YOUR WORLD, an atom in the year 9.A.D. may be present in one of Jesus's hair. The SAME atom, would be present in a rock in 1895 A.D. Now, it may be a dirt in your eye! So (x,y,z) and time can locate any ATOM in your world ! So, time is a sort of "dimension" which aids in locating an atom.

SAMAY
So, is Time the fourth dimension ?

GURU
Time is not even 4 dimension. Time is the (n+1)th dimension for an n-dimension creature. Think of it this way. Consider a two-dimensional world resembling a sheet of paper.The atoms in THAT WORLD can be located by (x,y) and TIME which is "z" in your world!

SAMAY
Thats amazing! How do I look to a 2D world ? How does a 4D creature look ?

GURU
Have a look here

TIME
Guruji, can you please place him in the aircraft, United 93.We dont have time and energy.

SAMAY
Yes, I will go.But,one last question.Who is the Guru ?

TIME
Guru is the compilation of Human Knowledge. It has a birth. And it ends. Unlike me. By "ending", he will attach himself to me, physically.

The girl "Time" winks at the Guru.

TIME
Wanna attach to me, Gurujee....teehee

GURU
Time and Space is running out! Samay, You must have heard the Pink Floyd song.

SAMAY
Yeah...I breathe that song....So, What am I supposed to do ?

GURU
Just stab the Pilot of United-93 with this kashmiri dagger, so that it crashes in an empty field just outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C.

SAMAY
Let the pattern grow as it is supposed.

GURU
Dont worry buddy. You will have a very interesting next Janma. Bye!

SAMAY
Bye Guruji

FADE OUT


Previous Guru and Shishya Posts can be found here :-
6,5,4,3,2,1.

Krrish

I dunno whether teens and adults may laugh at Krrrish, but I really admire the efforts of Rakesh Roshan to actually make a desi superhero out of Hrithik. I have noticed MANY,MANY kids anxiously waiting for the release of this movie. Koi Mil Gaya was a HUUUUUUGE hit.

The first, very popular Indian Superhero was Shaktimaan. Shaktimaan just asserted the fact that a desi superhero can do wonders in pinning down kids to Television.

Not just that, Krrish has been shot in Singapore. And Bollywood to a tourist Destination means money.So just Check check out Singapore Tourism Board promoting Singapore to Bollywood here

Ofcourse , Superman will get released....But I doubt it will be a big hit in India.
I think Krrish is going to win the competition.

Wheat and Sugar...

Should I blame the government for importing Wheat and Sugar for controlling the prices? Read the set of events and decide for yourselves

1. Government doesnt give a good support price for sugarcane and wheat (infact it doesnt give a good support price for anything ;-) )

2. Farmers stop growing sugarcane (escalating costs, sugar mills not paying them on time and properly, more than 50% of the sugar mills shutting down) and wheat (Punjab farmers are avoiding farming due to high costs of agriculture involved and are chosing cab driving in Europe America, Australia.. they go to every nook and corner in the world ;-).. wheat is not the only reason though ;-) )

3. There is a supply crunch due to step 2, where as the demand is on the rise. (people are switching from rice to wheat to shed flab u know ;-) kidding , but the demand is certainly high )

4. Prices spike due to step 3.

5. Government decides to import wheat and sugar from foriegn nationals at a higher price.
(Aus govt is involved in a wheat scandal, so in Indian government)

OVerall effect - A few richer pockets. Other coutries making benefits at the cost of Indian farmers. Way to go India

Postlesss country

When was the last time you used a post office in India for transporting some letter/documents ? Wellll, for me I think it was in Chamrajpet when I was studying in primary school.

The post offices were primarily meant for communication. Once upon a time these ppl used to be the backbone of Indians to exchange personal/professional messages. With the advent of technology snail mails became a passe, almost non-existant now. People started moving towards telephony and later e-mails for basic communication needs. Now u have scraps, blogs and what not. The postal department crumbled.

The postal department did not re-invent. It did not bother to take a cue from the foriegn postal departments. Every advanced economy has a postal system and they are one of the richest organisation in their respective countries. USPS, DPWN, AUPost .. just to name a few. Infact USPS figures in top 50 for the Fortune list. DPWN owns behemoths like DHL, EXEL etc. AUPost is the leading courier in Australia. And where is Indian post? Its lost its battle. A loss only due to not re-inventing. Not changing according to the market needs. What is the main revenue for these companies ? It is still posts. But they do a lot more than documents. They are couriers now. They have collaborated with the private players. They offer a wide range of solutions. They re-invent themselves and stay profitable.

The 1991 economic reforms have been a boon for several industries, but became a bane for the postal industry. The Indian postal department wanted people to send mails and give them revenue. They were not ready to carry your goods. They might have felt they would be coolies ;-)

Today the Indian postal department to save itself wants a legislation that private carriers should not be allowed to transport any documents/ packages < 500gm. WOWWWWWWW thats a magnificent invention :) with left's support this might be achieved too as there are no big players in the transportation industry to muscle the governement. Way to GO. :)

Mr. laloo has to be patted to try and make Railway industry the most preferred Freight corridor. I think with the low-cost airlines coming into picture, the railway industry had to look beyond passengers for profitability and they are moving in the right direction.

Railways Re-invented. Posts - shutdowned
U can no more sing chitti aayi hai chitti aayi hai

World's rudest city ?

Mumbai is the world's rudest city it seems....and and New York in the US are among the most cordial, a survey has found !!! Bollocks...

http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jun/20mum.htm

I think the joker who did the survey had a nasty experience in Bombay...So he came up with an idea of screwing India in general and Bombay in particular by creating a survey.

And what was the basis of the survey ? Here it was, deliberately gathering points
where we are actually having a defect:-


The magazine sent its over 2,000 reporters to gauge the politeness level of leading cities in 35 countries where it publishes from.

The survey used three tests to take stock of the politeness factor -- dropping papers in a busy street to see if anyone would help, checking how often shop assistants said "thank you", and counting how often someone held a door open.


Well...There is one valid point. The politeness factor test done in the survey, is NOT just in Bombay but in the whole of India. The point is, are we THAT bad to top a godammn list ?

Hilarious !

Question : Who / What is "Lara Lara" ?

When Lara Dutta marries Brian Lara she'll be called "Lara Lara"....

Bolo tararara :-)

Testing using the hello blogger bot 

Techie Product startups ? ....nah!

Why is India not going into the Products ? Why do we need to be led by somebody else ?
Why can't we lead the world ?

We have to admit. We have the man-power and we have the talent(well, we are there....almost, i guess), we have resources. Some of us have the motivation. But what do we lack ?

We lack Venture Capitalists. Thats what is pushing us to the pit (right now). I hope there will be change. One of my friend's friend worked in the US for 9 years on a SINGLE PRODUCT comes to India with the hopes of starting a company. He has a working model of his product. But nobody in INDIA is ready to fund him.I heard that Venture capitalists are ready to fund amusement parks like WonderLa.

Venture-Capitalists in Bangalore are ready to fund SERVICES sector and they consider Indian Manufacturing Segment as too Nascent to invest. Venture Capitalists in the US want to invest their money which is somewhere close to their houses.

Venture investors, however, prefer to fund startups within an hour's drive. For one, they're more likely to notice startups nearby. But when they do notice startups in other towns they prefer them to move. They don't want to have to travel to attend board meetings, and in any case the odds of succeeding are higher in a startup hub.

Bangalore is a big Services Hub atleast now. But there has to be some sections which should encourage "StartUp hubs".

StartUp Hubs should have (according to an article , I read) :-

a) An attractive town with a fabulous University nearby.

b) Liberalism.Most good startup ideas seem a little crazy;
What sending Text on a mobile phone ????!!! What ANOTHER SEARCH ENGINE ??? !!! What another mobile phone ???!!!! That's the connection between technology and liberalism.It's because liberal cities tolerate odd ideas, and smart people by definition have odd ideas.

c)Usually startups are started by Geeks.Most geeks like quieter pleasures. They like cafes instead of clubs; used bookshops instead of fashionable clothing shops; hiking instead of dancing; sunlight instead of tall buildings.

A professor at an IISc or an IIT who is highly regarded by his peers will get funding, pretty much regardless of the proposal. That wouldn't work for startups, whose founders aren't sponsored by organizations, and are often unknowns.In my opinion, companies started by Professors are way too focussed on academic self-learning rather than focussing on a buyer-base.

Everything is about TRUST & BELIEF in technology. Strongly for VCs and very very strongly for the founders of start-ups.

Wake up India !!! We gotta show to the world that we are more than just cheap workers !!

odd-sized trousers

Arent you a victim of buying only even-numbered trousers. I mean you just get 28,30,32,34,36 etc. Why is the garment industry so much against odd-numbered trousers. Why cant I get a 29,31,33,35 etc ? Is it so difficult to manufacture these ?

Thats the exact reason as to why tailors still are in business (purely my thoughts). The tailor has a margin of 1/4 of an inch. You can get your trouser with a 32 1/4 waist size, where as in the ready-made industry all you will get is 32 or 34. Isnt this a real problem ?

Now you have three choices..
*cut down 1/4 of flab and fit into a 32.
*Or buy a 32 and walk with a tucked in stomach whenever you wear the trouser and be proud of the 32 waist (temporary one).
*Else buy 34 and try to get to 34.

All the above of these methods suck.

When was the last time I went a tailor to get a trouser stiched?
hmmm.. cant exactly remember at all.

I mean who has the time/patience to buy the material , go to the tailor, tell him your odd sized figure and wait for another 15 days to get the trouser. You need to be one helluva guy to do all these.

Trouser manufacuteres please do provide a margin of 1 inch to poor folks like us. Introduce odd sized pants.

I dont know whether Ghazals are very romantic....I dont understand complicated Hindi/Urdu...
But I think Beatles song take me to the mushy mushy mood !

It is not the lyrics....It is the voice of John and Paul. The innocence is undeniable.....
Yes, that was before India-Cocaine-Ashram-HareRamaHareKrishna.

I think they must created a mania in the early 60s....The original boy-band....
Real talented one at that!



My favorite Beatles Love Songs
-------------------------------
#5
I want to hold your hand (REALLY OLD ONE!!!)

#4
Im happy just to dance with you....by John & Paul. (The starting guitar chors is really cool)

#3
All my loving ----This song will is SOOOOO filmy...so bollywoodish!!

#2
Girl......by John Lennon

#1
Something in the way , She Moves....by George Harrison

Charity...

I never knew it could be so difficult, so damn difficult to run an NGO. It is easy to be an outsider/volunteer and criticize about the way of functioning of an organisation. We do it all the time. We criticize and do it damn well indeed, abt our workplace, our city, state, country .. infact anything and everything we are associated with. If there is a competition We-Indians would emerge as the best critics.

Enough of digression. The running cost of the NGO approximates to 2 lakhs INR per month. To mainatin a student body of 140 people ( free food and accomodation), a staff of 50, including 30 teachers. The teacher's salary is given by the government.
Now with such costs I am dumbfounded how the organization meets the escalating costs every month.

Thanks to the concept of charity ingrained in humans there are many NGOs which are up and running fine. I am amazed to know there are around 3000+ NGOs in bangalore alone, 10000+ in karnataka and over a lakh in the whole of India. All of these are supported by charity. There are a barely few of them which are sustained by themselves (by income generation projects). Most of the NGOs are into mid-day meals distribution(thats what I hear). This is source of income for them. Well a lot beneficiaries of a noble scheme. I have become a big fan of the mid-day meal scheme. It is an awesome concept and it works stupendously well also.

Now with a lakh NGOs and say 100 inmates in each of them, we have around 1 crore people being given a decent life and supported by Charity.

But how long will the method of charity sustain? For how long ? Shouldnt the NGOs move out of the charity mode to income-generation mode. Sympathy sells and the NGOs need to sell sympathy. They need to make products and projects to the AAM AADMI and sell it with the NGO tag. They should come out and cut deep into the daily bread & butter market. Thats where the money is. Get into catering, Laundry services, Waste paper collection drive etc etc. Give what the markets need wiht your tag. Give quality products and you can make the best run business out of business.

Aha,easily said than done. Charity is a better way. Someone might listen to you and donate. But, how long would it work ? just how long enough ? What will happen if people stop donating. What will happpen to the kids? will they run out of food & shelter ? I AM SCARED.. how can we depend on the humans, the sinister evil social animals?

Charity.... a blessing/curse in disguise

Disappointing

performance by France. ZiZu, Henry, Vierra, Viltord ..all you guys suck mann.. I liked the guy with Indian chromosomes - Vikash Dhorasoo. He was brilliant :). Cant believe he is 32 years old. He should have scored. His effort was the best for France. The other players are just CLUB players. They just could not prove their mettle on the international scence.

I do not know why you are paid so much and so many crazy heads following your sport day in & out on EPL, Seria, Bundesliga, Spanish football etc etc etc.

France will be out of first round this time too. Hang up your boots guys.

10th June 2002

And 10th June 2006.
====================

I complete 4 years in the software industry. I really dont know what have I learnt after four years but there is certainly a learning. But not a great learning abt way things work in an industry , but I cant say that I have learnt nothing.

Dont know how / what the future is gonna be like.

But just like one of the wordings which I see when at my granpa's room :-


If life is a question, find an answer.
If life is a challenge , accept it

Cops with blogs

One day I had made fun on a doctor maintaining a blog. I thought blogging was a little too "techie" behaviour and something not appreciated by people in any other field. I was surprised that the Dakshina Kannada District's Superintendent of Police, Mr.B.Dayananda (IPS) maintains a blog and it actually serves as a useful interface between the police and the press.He also uploads photos using flickr.

Congrats Sir!! Way to go....I appreciate your faith in blogging and technology and more importantly, the way you have productively utilised resources in the web.

A short story ...

Amy Screams: Joe wake up, please wake up Joe. Joe stays motionless

Cut back to May 31st 5:00pm Seattle…

Amy sits at the Starbucks coffee shop at the junction of pine and 1st street sipping a double shot espresso. It’s a beautiful evening. The summer has never been so beautiful at Seattle. Had it been Friday, she would have atleast enjoyed some novice rock group drumming to glory, and the attention of onlookers on her. Amy thinks, it can’t get worse than this. This is my birthday, Joe still hasn’t wished me and now he is late. Well when was he on-time anyway.

Her cell-phone beeps. It’s Joe, he might be somewhere arnd the corner fishing for the elusive parking space.

Joe: Hey baby
Amy: Joe, where are you. Its been an hour and you aren’t her still. We need to catch the Symphony at 5:30
Joe: Sorry babe, I have an urgent delivery to be made this evening.
Amy: Whaaaa???
Joe: Please pull in Christine. I promise I shall keep it up for the next time
Amy: Atleast be on-time for the dinner
Joe: Am terribly sorry again. Have to deliver the movie reels from Technicolor to the theaters. You know how important is that. All the incentives for on-time crucial delivery Sorry, babes.

Amy snaps the phone.. The line goes muted at Jo’s end

Joe is a driver with DHL and studies law(part-time) at the University of Washington. He met Amy there 2 years ago and today they stand committed. Joe wants to be a millionaire. He puts in 18 hours per day in work and school. Amy is a girl with small ambitions and gets hurt when she misses the small pleasures of life. But, today was no other day. It is Amy’s birthday today and she has every right to demand Joe’s exclusivity for the day. But Joe being Joe…….

6 days later…. Monday 9:00pm.

Joe’s cellphone beeps. Its Christine. Joe thinks why is Christine calling at this hour. Joe picks up the phone

Christine: Joe, its me
Joe: Yeah, Christine wassup?
Christine: Joe, Amy is hurt. Its been a week since you have met her outside school
Joe: You know Chris, how I have been working off-late and I thought Amy would understand
Christine: Yes Joe, I know and I am quite sure Amy does too. But it doesn’t mean you forget her bday, miss the Symphony and the dinner arranged by herself. The least you could have done is had dinner with her on her bday
Joe: ohhh maannnn… it totally got off my head… how could I, I mean how could I, this the second year in row… no wonder she aint talking to me properly.. Oh Christine ..I am so dumb.. isn’t there a way to get out of this.. there should be rite
Christine: there is one, but I don’t think it would workout
Joe: hey hey tell me what it is, I shall give in my best shot to make her happy
Chris: okies, tomorrow is her registered bday, the official one you seee. You might want to pull in some surprise on her…
Joe:how could that be possible… I always thot it was registered 31st only
Christine: Some mainframe glitch when she was born and they could register only for tomorrow
Joe: oh Christine you are a darling.. thanks a lot Christine .. I shall sneak in a surprise this midnight.

Joe switches out of his Pyjamas, wears a cool jeans and a T-shirt. He boards his DHL van and rushes towards the nearest Safeway. Picks a bunch of red roses, a yummy cheese cake, pays the bill and heads towards the Univ. He re-checks the backyard of the van to see the reels of the new movie are intact. He arrives at the woman’s hostel and parks his van safely. Checks the time on his watch 11:55 pm. Exact 3 mins to Amy’s room and perfecct Joe thinks. Joe takes his cellphone to wake Amy up. He gives up the idea half way. Plans to sneak into Amy’s room and throw a surprise. He walks around the lawn and peeks into Amy’s room. Amy is in a deep sleep. He opens the window and sneaks past. Checks the time again 11:58:06, the time glows on his Casio. He hurries inside, keeps the cake on the desk, lights a small candle. Checks his watch again 11:59:57, 58, 00:00:00.. Joe sings

‘Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you dear Amy, happy birthday to you’. Joe goes near her ear and say : “Happy bday Amy wake up, Amy”

Suddenly the door opens, Amy comes in from the front door. ‘Thank you Joe’. Joe is perplexed, if that’s Amy who is on the bed. He hears another voice ‘ Thank You Joe’. He turns quicky, He sees Amy inside the wardrobe. Joe is confused, he rubs his eyes. ‘Thank you Joe’, Amy in the bath tub. ‘ Thank you Joe’, ‘Thank you Joe’, ‘Thank you Joe’.. Amy everywhere.. Joe screames holds his head out, realizes something and panickly looks at his watch again .. he realizes he had missed something befoer, the date shows ’06.06.06 ‘– he realizes the Omen has arrived’… and Joe crashes to the floor with a loud thud

Feverish - Unleashing a series of blogs

Give the devil a much needed time and he will blog - mostly crap.
quote - GD

I have been unwell the last 4 days. The constant rumblings of the
hot headed brain comes out as follows. Read on and suffer :)
(no its not anymore abt resrvations)

Disovery - the 3rd and the best way for washboard abs

Get sick :) Am not crazy. This is self-tested method
Anything of the following would do:- Fever (preferably viral),
thypoid, jaundice, chicken pox, herpis, measles.
There is no better way. 4 days and I have lost around 4 kgs.
Mann, this I think is the secret.

After my MBA i will start a
weight loss clinic. There will be 4 solutions
Serum A - induces fever - 5 days and 5 kgs - prescribed yearly twice
serum B - induces typhoid - 15 days and arnd 8-10 kgs - not repatable for next 10 years
(based on history give SERUM A)
Serum C - jaundice - 1 month and 10-12 kgs - not repatable for next 10 years
(based on history give SERUM A)
serum D - CHicken pox - 1 month and 10-15 kgs - not repatable for next 10 years
(based on history give SERUM A)

maximum weight loss is based on individual ability.

All the serums will be carefully manipulated and given. Also the customer
will be instructed to have all kinds of chats, road side junkies, high profile
junks(oily and fatty stuff- high intake of this for Serum C),
veg, non-veg, mixed veg blah blah on the pretext that he will
be missing all those once the weight loss course begins.

But, the real intention is to avoid the docotor to trace out the Serum.
You c need to protect intellectual property. ;-).

Next day mrng send ur physical instructor to the customer's home in sexy outfits.
He will complete the formality of admitting them to the hospital. (sexy outfits are to misguide the doctor)
After the prescribed duration the results are achieved automatically.

Petrol Prices Up ...

This is really bad.

I should think of some alternate mode of transport, otherwise half my salary goes to the transportation charges.

Change in Behaviour.

Well :-
Can a characteristic of a person change overnight ?

I think it is in your hands.

This is a measure of "flexibility" of an individual.
An intelligent person is very flexible, tries everything and very quickly adaptive to change.

I am trying to develop a new theory called "Version2" theory.
If you have the time to listen what the Version2 theory is about, here it is ......

An individual, an ordinary individual tries to "change" himself (doesnt care about the consequences, in an ideal situation.The consequences may make him a devil or an angel).The change is a conscious effort and he changes himself based on this statement :-

WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM, THAT's WHAT I'M NOT

The simplest motivation to move to Version2 is to avoid PREDICTABILITY.

PREDICTABILITY is something very boring. It irrtitates me when people say that I reacted predictably.

I am coming up with my Version2. (Ofcourse in an ideal case, it would be like Captain Jack Sparrows. A cool and composed man in any situation. Thats exactly what I am NOT)

Do start thinking abt your Version2.
It is HIGH TIME.

One day you should say :-

"Hello Buddies, remember Me.
I am the man , you thought I'd never be"

Current Music : Depeche Mode - Try Walking in My Shoes

Stubborness and Woman

probably have been fed from the same breasts - inspired by 'The Kite Runner'

Warning : Apologize for the topic to be named so, and there is no resemblance to the women I know personally. Please do not misunderstand me.

The lady was stubborn, believe me she was hard like a rock. She stood to her point. You twist the question, rephrase, paraphrase etc etc etc, she wouldnt fall for the trap. Instead, she corrects the question everytime before she answers. The interviewer is flummoxed. He is desperate to tie her up using his most powerful weapon - words. But, alas he is dumbfounded everytime. The interviewer had put others in a state of flux almost everytime on his talk show. But this time he was at the recieving end.

Aaaa, Karan Thapar, you could not get out what you wanted to of Miera Kumar. The lady was pretty smart, rather she had only one point - "Reservation for SC (to be Yesh C - in her accent)/ST in private sector" is a must. She spoke as if she was born to achieve this, this was her soul aim in life and GOD had sent her to achieve this on his behalf.

Karan Thapar tried to squeeze in statistics, quotes from business leaders, protests etc etc. But the lady was stubborn- if you dont do it, I have to enact a legislation. Her stubborness was vindicated by herself. Affirmative action is not enough I want reservation for YESH C/YESH T in the private sector. Its their moral right. Its their fundamental right. I want reservation YESH C/YESH T in the private sector.

Karana Thapar had to resign with "Thank you for joining us" ( you stubborn lady - in the background).

I kept switching between "Jack Nicholson's witty remarks in 'Something's gotta give' and ' I want reservation YESH C/YESH T in the private sector' "

I have lost my belch

Aargh. My fridge is empty. To quote Sinistar, best among philosophers, I hunger ( enter for wisdom ). (clarification: there are leftovers, but I hunger for good food.) It seems that it is time to run to the Indian store.

Mobile Spamming ..

I have been a viticm (and a grave one) of mobile spamming. Its gone to such a level I decided to throw away my mobile for a while.

Airtel is the mother of all spammers (belive me, though I havent used HUTCH or BSNL or SPICE I can promise that Airtel can be a frontrunner in spamming).

Just some of the messages they send.

1. Call #$%^&* and get free tones of Himesh Reshamiya and similiraly from kannada movies, upendra movies, sallu bhai and every tom dick and harry in the world and they dint leave DR.Raj also ........only clause Rs 6min/call

boooooooohhhhhhh, my phone is only for talking

2. Recharge now or never options. Do this you get that stuff with conditons apply clauses

3. Win Jackpot SMS &*() ..
Dude I havent been that lucky in my life. I am happy if the values of my stocks rise and I am out of loss okay.

Imagine this, you are sitting all alone from morning and you would not have talked to anyone and no funny SMS from your friends also and suddenly your mobile beeps. You excitedly look into it for a message from your beloved (I have been greedy here, we spend our time together always :) ) , your friend sending a cheapo forward (atleast this one).. okay, some emergency message ( I need help types...yuck no luck here too) and you end up getting one of those sutpid AIRTEL stuff.

If they gimme free SMSing facility == the number they send, I will be a true and loyal customer of theirs for life ;-)

Now they have gone to a whole new level, you get calls from AIRTEL, some cranky lady's voice recorded in the following way

"Namaskara, idhu Airtel inda Uchita kare ...." , I havent gone past Namaskara most of the times, but I have sometimes progessed till here.

Thank you Airtel lady for making my day. I may not get any calls from my known people but you for sure, make sure that you make (read mar) my day my day.

Similar viticms, suggest a solution if you know pleaseeeeeeee

Back in Bangalore

Life is again at full speed.....I have to realise that it is not just abt the jetlag, but lag in everything. Indian cities are "fast", because of the sheer amount of people everywhere.

There is a new Radio Station at Bangalore called 93.3 Radio Mirchi. No idea, when the hell did it start.My car has magically picked up that frequency.There are promoting words like "sakkath" and "maga"....Lol... First was "Enjoy maaDi" , now it is "sakkath hot maga".....Whatever! So people are making some effort to familiarise the slang.

Meanwhile, Bangalore is the same as ever. The chaos , buildings rising up in no time...This city never stops and this time I am not surprised.The are two apartments (which were at ground level next to my house) are nearing completion.

The petrol prices have risen up again. What the heck !!! There is a massive media coverage on reservation and medical students...I have to look into that. Didnt get time to understand the whole controversy.

Meanwhile, a few liquor chocos I bought went into the wrong hands (my father,mother,grandfather,grandmother).....Some people dont look at a chocolate's cover while devouring it.....Thank god they didnt recognize what they ate!!! muahahahah....

Way to Washboard ABS

There are 2 ways to get back to 6-pack washboard abs. The one I read in the newspaper yesterday and the second one is my own funda

one -

Hi-protien diet coupled with cardio for 40 minutes & weight trainging for atleast 3-5 times a week. Avoid sweets, choclates, fatty food, junk food, soft drinks, night meals.

Walk, run, jog, use stairs, walk to office, swim the drain,
climb the tree,sit straight, sit crooked, push ups, pull ups, single bar, double bar, parallel bar, perpendiuclar bar, pendulum, uranaium blah blah blah which will avoid/ burn down calories.

Second -

Forget it and chill thinking that
"Truth is stranger than fiction"
"if u aint have paunch you aint a software engineer" "Even Neo has it"
"Paunch is in,slim is out"

and enjoy the mangoes this summer.

Have a good day.

Btw, SP and Avi meet you in the gym for a 2 hour workout ;-)

Adios

Oh-tata-wah

guys i am leaving ottawa this sunday.
i will be back in bengalooru tuesday.

i had nice time here.hmmmm...lemme recollect catchwords that MAY trigger memory!

PCU CELL Zahir 3500-Carling 166 DaysInn Laura PeanutButter+Frooties Haroon Kodbele Subway Loblaws Moody-Robertson Ravi Sudeendra 116-NapeanNorth 118-Kanata 118-Hurdman 116-SouthKeys Stefan Perry Pizza Subbu Srikanth Ananth BusPass theWhskyBar 1624-Baseline(!!) BAYSHORE-BASELINE-LINCOLN_FIELDS Accu-Rate Wendy's LittleIndia FamousPlayersColiseum TimHortons DoubleDouble Ryan VendingMachine Snooker&theChineseGuys Dollarama Bassano RotiWrap Helmi NiagaraFalls Montreal Toronto Rideau 64445820 that_hrrbl_friday_with_bengali_pg Oh-Henry Dani-California long-afts 6:49 riversideWalks&Paradoxes sudeep_v2 the_jeans

Dude, where's my gun!!!!

Apna Rathore (Olympic medalist) lost his gun in the airport! Losing a gun in an airport is a security issue.

What bothers Rathore is the fact that trap shooter Ronjan Birendeep Sodhi too had lost his gun while travelling on the same airlines 10 days ago and is yet to find it.

Talking about Guns, I read an interesting article about James Bond. The REAL JAMES BOND is an ornithologist who had written a book called "Birds in West Indies".Iam Fleming got the name for his character by seeing

this book , which was lying on his table.This real J.Bond had difficulty at an Airport when he showed a passport having a name called James Bond....Hilarious!

UPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

The PM and FM are making ppl dance to their tunes. While the PM along with HRD has managed to create some drama on the street, the FM has managed to pull off a Mayhem on the Dalal Street.It is so ridiculous to provide statements which can be misinterpreted in a hazzaaar ways. Kudos to the duo :)

UPA, Please stop the non-sense. UPA you are building enemies. Now even dalal street wont vote for you ;-). Let us see how many you will corner before your term of 3 yrs gets completed. You might say as Mahesh Bhatt puts it. We should not be reactive to how Stock market behaves. Only a million people depend on the stock market.

With Kamalnath and the social welfare minister pressing on a 2 year deadline on reservations in private sector, do u feel there is a chance that you will be voted back to power?

Your alliance partner DMK is in power, so its sure that the LS seats will go to AIADMK. You have lost another 40 votes. Kerala too has gone out of your hands, so will be Karnataka. Your darling x-CM - Dharam Singh- has managed to irke the people of this state to a maximum and HDK is doing quite well you see. Goa is volatile and you do not know about AP with your alliance working like a unhappy couple.

You will probably loose Delhi, Bombay and other urban/semi-urban seats where u r dominant right now, say around 25. There is no water/power & the infra is crumbling in these cities. To these existing woes, you have added the Reservation saga, without bringing in reforms in the existing reservation policy.

You have irked the muslims through your foreign policy (Iran), so no chance of a comeback in UP. The nuclear deal has mixed reactions. So it is not a clincher either.

Now the farmers and the rural poor. I know you wont keep your promises cos in 2 years you have not done much towards that. I am ransacking my brains, as to see if there is something...hmmmm... aaaahhh...noooo a zero over here too. Your agricultural minister is busy handling the BCCI, when there are suicides in his own state. Recentely Punjab too has joined in protests ??

Okies I know Sonia has made some tremendous grounds in politics, but she wont be enough to sweep the elections right ?

Now you might be wondering with NDA weakened with a poor BJP (Advani, mahajan etc etc being the reason) you have a fair chacne, but the answer is NOO a big NOO.

Right now you are in power but dancing to the Left tunes, I feel the you might have to supprot Left from outside or worst case the Left will manage without you, which again means there is no future for anyone in the country. No offecnce meant UPA. O dont mean that the NDA provided any better governance. There were lots a complaints from the rural poor, who voted NDA out of power. But with no good monsoons and hazaar farmer suicies, I think that was inevitable (though not predicted) that NDA would be voted out of power.

In short we have a bunch of losing political parties fighting hard to win. Each one have their own agenda to screw the country. We need to pick the best of the lot.

As Bill Gates put it rightly 'Democracy is the least corrupt way to run a country'.

So we really dont have a choice in here.

Da Vinci Code

Well, I saw this movie. This movie had a damn housefull theatre. This was least expected, considering the facts that:-
a) Mission Impossible #3 had arnd 40 people in the whole theatre
b)United 93 had 10 people in the theatre
c)I heard that Rang De Basanti was watched by 4 people in the theatre.

The same theatre was HOUSEFULL yesterday, something unseen by me.

The movie is very collinear with the book.They have not deviated and called a spade , a spade. However, it is very difficult to write a screenplay for a novel like Da Vinci Code.The acting job is challenging especially for the protagonists as they keep falling into loooong religious controversial conversations.

Nevermind the movie. I loved Audrey Tautou.Such dark, big expressive eyes.

Around Sourcing ?

I just read this article by Thomas Friedman, the journalist. One of the paragraphs caught my attention.

I was recently interviewing Ramalinga Raju, chairman of India's Satyam Computer Services. Satyam is one of India's top firms doing outsourced work from America, and Mr. Raju told me how Satyam had just started outsourcing some of its American work to Indian villages. The outsourcee has become the outsourcer.

Mr. Raju said: "We told ourselves: if business process outsourcing can be done from cities in India to support cities in the developed world, why can't it be done by villages in India to support cities in India. ... Things like processing employee records can be done from anywhere, so there is no reason it can't be done from a village." Satyam began with two villages a year ago and plans to scale up to 150.

There is enough bandwidth now, even reaching big Indian villages, to parcel out this work, and the villagers are very eager. "The attrition level is low, and the commitment levels high," Mr. Raju said. "It is a way of breathing economic life into villages." It gives educated villagers a chance to stay on the land, he said, and not have to migrate to the cities.


The basic conclusion, I reached is any *.* sourcing is madness.

The BBC Goof-up

The BBC goofed up and interviewed a person X instead of a person Y on Air !!!

A person named Guy Kewney was to be interviewed about the story BBC is doing on the Apple v/s Beatles.However, the BBC ended up interviewing another guy Guy Goma who had come for a job interview at the BBC !

It all started when the producer of the show goes to the wrong reception room and asks for "Guy".Guess who raises the hands?

Guy Goma, a guy from Congo, who had come in for a job interview.This man shared the same first name "Guy" and he had come for a job interview at BBC.He's a Business Studies graduate, from the Congo, and he was there in reception because he was applying for a high level IT job with the BBC.

And what goes on simply hilarious. This is the transcript :-


Karen Bowerman: Guy Kewney is editor of the technology website Newswireless.

KB: Hello, good morning to you.

Mr Goma: Good morning.

KB: Were you surprised by this verdict today.

The best part
Mr Goma: I am very surprised to see... this verdict to come on me because I was not expecting that. When I came they told me somehting else and I am coming. So a big surprise anyway.

KB: A big surprise, yeah, yes.

Mr Goma: Exactly.

KB: With regards to the costs involved do you think now more people will be downloading online?

my favorite part
Mr Goma: Actually If you can walk everywhere you are going to see a lot of people downloading the internet and the website and everything they want. But I think eh It is much better for development and eh to inform people what they want and to get the easy way and so faster if they are looking for.

KB: It does really seem the way the music industry's progressing now that people want to go onto the website and download music.

Mr Goma: Exactly you can go everywhere on the cyber cafe and you can take, you can go easy. It is going to be an easy way for everyone to get something to the internet

KB: Thank you. Thanks very much indeed.


Apparently the unflappable Mr Goma assumed the whole thing was some kind of initiation prank (stress interview)

His own speciality is data cleansing, and was "a little upset that nobody asked him about his data cleansing expertise."

You can check the video here

And the bbc link

Well, the guy next to me is an eastern european , as I mentioned in my earlier posts. A Romanian to be precise.His native state is "transylvania". Does that place sound familiar.I guess so :). Well it is where Count Dracula lived (in the novel Dracula) and the Dracula novel is set. I thought it was a fictional place.

I also googled up and searched for pictures of the Castle of Count Dracula and found it here

Also I remember seeing the movie based on the original Dracula novel

Very nice movie. That image of Transylvania has a good impact on me.

Boastology

A great man once said :-
"Give me a place to stand, and a rod and I will move the whole earth"

But is it really possible?
Such a long rod cant even be lifted , right ?

I think we need some F = m*a calculations. Or the value of "g" acceleration due to gravity of that place to stand mentioned by the great man.

Nevermind.
I am really tired and bored of eating subway burgers.
Yesterday's vaangibath was awesome, though, prepared by me.

Returning to our discussion,nobody gave the guy a rod nor a place to stand. The great man figured that nobody would give him that. Thats why , he was great.Now I will say this :-

Give me a machine which will travel in the speed of time and I will go backwards and rewrite history

Reservation about Reservations

In an interesting debate with my Father about reservations we came to the following conclusions

1. Reservations for SC/ST should be present in all forms of education, but mechanisms to prevent the creamy layer should be implemented
2. The MOBCs should be identified (Most Backward classes) and reservation should be extended to them in all forms of education
3. Reservations should not encouraged in employment, but there should be affirmative action
4. Affirmative action should be extended to economic backward class irrespective of caste. Reservation will not work here as it is not easy to define "economic backwardness"
5. Unfilled seats via reservation should be given back to General merit. But this requires a proper implementation.

But for all of the above to work in a +ve manner there should be AWARENESS created about education and its benefits in these people. Another way is to lure ppl towards education.

Mid-day meal is an excellent program which is working towards educating the masses.
People are sending their kids so that atleast these ppl get access to one proper meal per day. In the process the kids picks-up a little of formal GYAN.

There should be more scholarships at higher education level, so that the backward class people complete their education and make a living out of it. THE CREAMY layer should be punished if they even try for reservation.

Reasons for the above

A large population of SC/ST/MOBCs do not have access to education. Their economic state is very bad. They are mostly worried about making a living for the day. In that most of them tend to ignore the benefits of education.
Most of them are still under bonded labour, more of it in the Northern states and the backward villages.

Sample Data
My Village. The incidents my dad gave were shocking.

After the discussion, my reservations about reservation has gone down.
I realised that I hate the concept of reservation due to its bad implementatioin.

I feel its better a mediocre backward (economically) student gets a living for himself and his family by studying in a reserved seat rather than a well-to-do meritorious guy who will flee to US of A.

In general I conclude Reservation with proper implementation is a must for the all-round development of the society.
The current move by the govt is absurd, as 90% of the listed OBC's have very well-to-do people and this should not happen.
The MOBCs should be identified and reservation should be extended to them, may be a max of 7.5%.
Affirmative action in employing these ppl should also be implemented.

More number of seats should be added so that Merit students arent deprived. We need to check Brain Drain and reservations should not become a pretext for people to flee.

Ah, Poetry!

Check out this poem written by my colleague, Vardhan.


Vision of a Dream

Swirling clouds among misty mountain tops
Beams of light piercing the veil of silence
Amidst the voiceless tumult of far away storms
Breathing the freshness of the first drops of dew
Fragrance which hits the sweetest spots
Of a mind lost in its limitless deep gaze
In the profound story of a soul wandering
Through the jungles towards an unseen goal
First glimpsed in the eyes that made it speak
A language unknowingly known to itself
Uncovered by the slightest breeze of her sight
Oh heaven oh earth oh life why are you so beautiful?

Bravo !

Infosys Technologies on Monday announced its first largescale plan to recruit 300 college graduates from universities in the United States in 2006 and 25 graduates from the United Kingdom in 2007 as part of an ongoing commitment to create a diversified, global workforce.

Now THIS IS CALLED TRULY GLOBAL and achievement man!!

And add to it ,

The new employees hired will develop their engineering skills at Infosys development centres across India for six months before returning to Infosys offices in the United States.

Yay! I am feeling very happy for my country :)

Read the full article here

United 93

I saw this movie.
The tagline of the movie runs likes this :-
September 11, 2001. Four planes were hijacked. Three of them reached their target. This is the story of the fourth.

First and foremost, this movie has nothing to do with patriotism.The passengers were not even aware that this was a terrorist act. It is about ego clashes between some passengers and the terrorists who want things to go as per THIER plans.It is not about team spirit.It is about reacting in a way every human being reacts when he is as strong as the other guy and his ego is hurt.This movie is about many things. It is about the tension in the NewYork Air Control Room , when the four planes were hijacked. This movie is very importantly about the grit and determination of the terrorists.Their faces, their ambush.

The movie has made an impact on me and I am still thinking abt the godammn movie. It is very disturbing.Very realistically made.

Kudos to the director , who has made this masterpiece.

Interns

Well, I saw this news item that Infosys will recruit interns as a part of its prestigious inStep program.

Interns would be recruited from technology and business schools including Said Business School, University of Oxford and London Business School, UK, Mannhelm University, Germany, Ecole Polytechnique, France, and St Gailen, Switzerland, an Infosys release said

Is there anything very special abt the inStep program ?

Interns will have the opportunity to work at Infosys Headquarters in Bangalore, on high quality, high visibility projects for eight to 24 weeks, it said.

I guess many of us who have worked at/working for Infy do the same thing. By high quality == CMM level 5 or higher. High Visibility == You can be seen by everybody on the plush Infy campuses and be recognized as an Infy Intern.The best part will be staying at 5* hotels and going around in golf cars.

But,am I missing something here ? Why is the inStep program so high-profile , that it gets coverage in Economic times and all that?

Link :- Infy to recruit 30 interns

The point is :- All the software companies who are big gasmasters have inflated "Brand India" to something very high and unrealistic. This seems so superficial.

Lets accept the fact

Sometimes you are 'the MOST WANTED' - in your company, at your home, by your friends, by your partners and thankfully not by the Police. And at times you are 'dead & stale meat & a burden'.

The only way to be the coveted one at workplace is to accept all challenges thrown at your. I prefer to call challenges as stupidities at times. You need to put in those extra hours, burn midnight oil, live on coffee and pizza, screw up your health and walk away with a 'thank you mail' from the "DELIGHTED" customer.

At home, you are the best kid if you dont have opinions and walk on a line drawn by your parents. Question their system and you are screwed.

Friends - aaahhh this the most easy one.. you can walk into a gang anytime and you can move out any time. I depends on your interests and like mindedness (dont know if this is the correct word). No one judge's you much and no one bothers. Just give a ring when you want to join some ppl and they accept you without any tanturms. There might a few leg pullings, but its funnnnnnnnn nevertheless.

Police - A NO NO always to me ..

Wondering where the Partner stuff went ?? thats a surprise .. ;-)

THE WORK IS BORRING .. I AM NOT ABLE TO COMPREHEND WHAT'S GOING ARND IN THIS PARTICULAR SHITTTTT.... AND I SUDDENLY FEEL I am adding no value, and hence not the most wanted guy in the project. Irony is my PM feels I am adding 'value'.. GRRRRRRRRRRR

Topcoder statistics

I was going through the Country-wise topcoder rankings of programmers.

This survey, I feel is a good indication of where we are heading.

And I was of the opinion that India is moderately good in Programming than the rest of the world.Look at the number of programmers(931) in India and the ranking(15th). And just check out China.This looks like the Olympic Games Medal Tally which we see every 4 years and sulk.

UPDATE
I got confused between a programmer and a software engineer.
This was going on in my mind since yesterday.

These kind of contests may judge a great programmer. But A GREAT ENGINEER ? A GREAT INNOVATOR ? These guys are what companies need....Ofcourse, they need, good programmers who are like tailors(skilled labor).....But the innovators and engineers are the movers and shakers for the success of a company.

This has caused some panic even in America

Let's face it:-

A great innovative programmer CREATES.The great programmers in this world are those who have demonstrated their abilities by actually designing and implementing great software. Coding the solution in a competition proves great problem SOLVING capabilities BUT NOT PROBLEM DISCOVERING abilities.A good guy in the software industry, should also know that he must be able to sense the need of automating some tasks or he should sniff at a system, and say "hey! i can write a piece of sw, instead of tabulating and writing in a book".You don't have to look any further than the GNU, Linux, Apache, KDE, Gnome etc. etc. CVS and mailing lists to find the real great innovators!

As well as software engineers? The best ones are those who can demonstrate abilities in :-
a) DESIGN
b) RE-ENGINEERING
c) DOCUMENTATION & COMM SKILLS.

Well , as far as many jobs coming to India.....This may be happening for sometime....We'll surely have stiff competition from China and Eastern Europe....I see a lot of Eastern Europeans in Ottawa :D ....Even the guy next to me is a Romanian....

heheh

xoxoxo

Time travel is an interesting thing. It may be argue that travelling backwards in time is impossible.

Consider this situation :-

Suppose you travelled back in time and killed your biological grandfather before he met your grandmother. Then you would never have been conceived, so you could not have travelled back in time after all.

In that case, your grandfather would still be alive and met your grandmama, you would have been conceived, allowing you to travel back in time and kill your grandfather.

This paradox is called Grandfather's Paradox.

Parallel Universe Solution
----------------------------------
There could be "an ensemble of parallel universes" and when you travel back in time and kill your grandfather, you do so in a parallel universe in which you will never be conceived as a result. However, your existence is not erased from your original universe.

Super.Alwa ?

Source :- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox

Happy Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZEEDS

Wish you a very happy birthday!

Nodu maga, Indian time alli wish maadta ideeni :)

Have a nice day :)

The unltimate Goal

of life or in one's life, according to me, is to figure out as to exactly why one was born. (on the funnier side we can say it was an accident which had dangerous consequences ;-) )

Everyone is in search of this ultimate truth which is unique to every single person. The whole life is as such a struggle to find out THIS particular GOAL . In the process we would have traversed several paths, helping some, bring smiles on someone's face, harming some, hating some, loving others, hurting intentionally sometimes & unintentionally at times, ispiring someone to follow you, demotivating others and etc etc etc. Most of the above might be happening simultaenously but we look at +ve part almost always and move on.

And when you observe the dark side of life, you sit and blog, read someone's blog and feel cozy that some other guy/girl is going through the same feelings.

And finally one day you feel that you reached your ultimate goal - mostly in your death bed. The goal === sum of all good things you have done enroute your death bed. YOu will be apologetic to all the people who you have harmed, but there will be none to pardon you.

So, feel sorry deeply and truly when you have hurt someone one and come to know of it. Apologise for your mistakes and hope that you are pardoned.

Laugh and feel goood when you have realised that you have done a good deed. Inspire others to follow suit. Showcase your good to others and ask others to do good.

Small chapters of life are very hard to learn.

Current book : Fedex Delivers
Current Music : Mirchi top 20
Current weather : Hot and Sweaty
Current Mood : Gloom Gloom & more Gloom

Looking a brighter Monday. How wierd ?? You hate Mondays!!!!!!!! aint it?

BTW Schumi and Ferrari pull a spectacluar win :)

500 rupees

An interesting article on the Youthcurry blog.

So true!!

Why I am touched abt this article is that, when I am in India, my purse does not have any 1 rupee coins at all. Forget the 25 paise/50paise coins. Everything starts at 2 rupee coin and 5 rupee coins are very common. But here, the coins still have value and you can get quite a bit of things with a 25 cent and a dollar coin. And they give the exact change, so the purse becomes really heavy with coins....

George Bush Double

This was hilarious!

Youth

A question which popped up in one of the many "Friday General Meetings" (back in Bangalore, some weeks ago) was this :-

Is "youth" a state of mind or has it really got to do with numbers ?

I am talking about the people in their 20s/30s/40s, and not people in their 70s or 80s.

I believe Youth is more a state of mind.Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals/giving up/sulking and brooding/regretting.Some people look lively and bubbling all the time , whereas some people look worn out and tired. Each face tells us a different story.Various opinions came out of the discussion.

One of the discussions which arouse out of this topic went something like this :-

Can we prevent ageing by "taking interest" and "enthusiasm" about many things like hobbies

I think, this is true in its own way.If we have the appetite for adventure over the love of ease, I think we can achieve grow older at a lesser rate(and be happy).A child has an un-ending supply of enthusiasm in it. It is always curious and takes the game of living as a kind of joy, it just doesnt give up and start seeing "a pattern" in life and make predictions and finally end up bored.It always has the attitude of "whats next" in life.

We can simulate curiousity and joy by just forcibly involving and exploring new things with renewed josh and thus keep us "alive".

A counter argument ran something like this :-

Some of us here have had really rough times and life has taken us through perilious paths.They often look a lot mature than their "age", they have wrinkles and white hair faster because they worry and they had a reason to worry.

I would agree that one too.The ones who are beaten by the weathers of tough times.

But, as I just read in one of the forwards I got today :-

In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so
long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men
and from the Infinite, so long are you young.

Current Music - Pearl Jam : Alive

Sitcoms and background laughter.

Why do you give a background laughter when you make a comedy sitcom ?
I guess they give a background laughter to cheer the viewer up, and give a theatrical touch.

But the big question is HOW DO THEY TAPE LAUGTHER ????

I guess they go to one of the laughing clubs. I had been there once. You go there just to laugh for no purpose. And you actually start to laugh heartily after seeing so many people putting an effort to laugh. The fact and principle at laughing clubs is this :-

They are not lauging WITH you. They are laughing AT you

All this thoughts come into my mind after watching Friends and Seinfeld and other shows like that.So, finally, I started enjoying the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. serial. The serial which I never thought which I would like. Everything you say is followed by people laughing at the background. So you never know whether they are laughing at your jokes or yourself! But who cares! Just lol and sit back!!

For example :-

I have been watching it everyday here.
(the background laughter erupts).

I think this serial is FAR BETTER than Everybody loves Raymond.
(the background laughter erupts).

So the weekend is here!!
(the background laughter erupts).

The fact is that boring people never know the fact that they are boring
(the background laughter erupts).

Now I dont know whether I am boring you .
(the background laughter erupts).

SO I have nothing to write today!
(the background laughter erupts).

!!! APPLAUSE !!!! !!! APPLAUSE !!!! !!! APPLAUSE !!!!

And the serial ends.

wtf.

Current Music - Friends Title Song

A Rang De Basanti happening ..

Check this link out

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/specialcoverage/1482489.cms

Medicos protesting against the qutoa ruling. The police lathi charged and shot tear gas.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Some thought the RDB thing was just a fiction.

What say Mr. Anderson ??

Some great music videos

The local music channels and radio stations here are big patrons of modern rock music.
"System of a down" has come up with an amazing song called "Lonely Day".

Red Hot Chilli Peppers , the grand daddys (the guys who have been there from the 80s and giving us really great music ) have come up with another song called "Dani California".The video is simple amazing.

Another music video which has inspired me to write a script (when I get the time is Nickelback's "Saving me"). This video is eerie, very chick and philosopical.

Weekend was AMAZING.
I had been to Niagara Falls and experienced Nature at its fierce best!
and I had also been to Downtown Toronto.

Toronto looks like your typical American city (the ones I saw in HBO).It is huge, and has sky scrapers everywhere. But man! that place is infested with Indians everywhere.
It is much much bigger than Ottawa. Ottawa is a small city with a little neighbourhood. But I heard that the rate of crime is high here in Ottawa.

Initially I was joyous when I saw an Indian in Ottawa. But now the feeling is like :-
Yappa esht jana indians!!!! yella kade virus thara band bittidaare....

ESPECIALLY Toronto. Indians and Chinese everywhere.

Not just engineers. Infact, engineers are a minority. It is full of bus drivers, grocery shop keeper wallahs, taxi drivers ,coffee shops (even astrologers!!!!!)

Hmm ashte....

I have browsed orkut today more than 3 hrs...phew! But it was good today.
Going home .... Tired + Bored.

Down...Down and into the depths.......

Current Music : Moby - Natural Blues......AFT,ISANL

Job quota: PM's advice to industry

says rediff and economic times puts its well. This comes close on the heels of an announcement by Arjun singh abt reservations in IITs/IIMs and other central institutes.

Obviously, all these reservation moves are aimed at 'minority community' votes. What I find unbelievable is the direction of vote bank politics. Let us analyze the premise for reservations: people from backward classes dont fair well because of socio-economic reasons and hence need a push to ensure that they are 'well represented' in most fields. Agreed. So, this means that 'majority community' is omnipresent because of whatever reasons and to strike a balance we will take away something from majority community and give it to minority community. Logically, isn't this a political suicide? You are trying to appease minority community at the cost of majority community? A second standard kid can say which community has more votes and 'arithmetically' speaking, whom should you try to win over. The other possible explanations for wooing minority community could be that political parties have taken majority community for granted or political parties are very confident of majority community support for some reason(which i can't make out)...wait a minute..is minority community really a minority community in terms of population or more precisely, population that actually votes?

Disclaimer: Strictly speaking, I am not against reservations, I am just against the way it is being implemented and in this post I am not hinting that majority community should raise in protest or some such thing..I was just wondering about the arithmetic of vote bank politics.

PS:some stupid thing happened with blogger and i lost my previous post. Fortunately, I had copied it before publishing..but if the same post appears twice..blame it on blogger.

Mob Handling ..

Somehow I missed mentioning this event which happened on the day Dr.Raj passed away.

I have to thank my bus driver, who was sensible enough to assuage the crowd from pelting the buses.

This is the conversation, when our bus was stopped at BSK 2nd stage.

Local Goonda/Dr.Raj fan/anti-social element : yelli hogta iddiya ?
Bus Driver : Sir manege
LG: Yaaru ivaru
Bus Driver : Sir Infosys alli kelsa maduvavaru (at this time I felt a lump in my throat, I was sure we will be pelted, you know the Gowda-Murthy politics and we were in Mr.Gowdas territory)
LG: Ninge gottilva annavru hogiddare, gaadi odsa baradu anta
Bus Driver : Sir, manege bittu innu yellu hogolla, depot ge hogi bidtini.
LG: nedkondu hogli bidu avaru (Well I was sure by now, the bus will be demolished), yenu kaalu savadi hogotta
Bus Driver : Gottilla anna, yeno meliruvavaru heludru adakke hogidde...dayvittu kshamisi bidi
LG: aytu hogu

Thanks to the driver who pleaded on behalf of us

While getting down, the bus driver said.. 'boli makklu avara appa amma sattru ishtondu feeling irolla'.. i just acknowledged that and went home.


strange are the ways of people ..isnt it ??


In a similar incident, my brother escaped from another group by giving away water bottle and some biscuits to the mob.

This might sound simple but
Mob handling is a talent. I remember during the Cauvery row my house pelted with stones, due to my mom giving some harsh words to the mob.

India is certianly a challenging place to live

V for Vendetta.

For people who have not seen "V for V"

Good one jag!

When jag said he was refreshed with Barron's wordlist for V, he meant this :-

This is how the protagonist "V" introduces himself!


"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and
voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."


And this is said by the guy who played Agent Smith who speaks crystal clear, and slow English.

Moving Weekend

A long weekend. A very "movie movie" weekend. I saw two movies :-

-Scary Movie #4 (they could have renamed it to Sh***y Movie)
-V for Vendetta (One word about this movie - "Duh?" . What is the movie abt? )
-Ice Age #2 (Very , very nice).

A word about the mulitplexes in Ottawa.

So many resources, so little people

There will be 500+ seats.

For Scary Movie , there were about 30 people in the theatre.
For ice Age about 50 people .
For V for Vendetta , about 20 people.

So, if the fun of movie going was solely to WATCH the movie, it is very good.
But the place is EMPTY.

And EMPTY THEATRES MAKE NO NOISE AT ALL

And there was lord of the rings. #1 , #2 and #3 running back to back on TV.

And there was Tere Naam of Salman Khan.

I enjoyed watching Salman Khan and Bhumika in Tere Naam.

Bhumika is booming in my heart.

hahaha.

I have no clue , about the exact date , when I am coming back to India.
But I am damn sure , it is by end of May. Because my Visa is till june beggining.
My schedule has not started properly here , because people are really busy over here.
If they are very busy, they work from home.

I will update you guys, on this!

Heard that

there is a big bandh in bangalore and the streets look damn empty!!!
I am sure ALL the shops will be closed EVERYWHERE...

I post a link which shows photographs taken by a German visitor currently in Bangalore!

Shops barricaded

Bangalore : About Mobs and Morons

The bandh pictures : (this is how ottawa looks even when there is no bandh!!!)

My favorite Rajkumar movies.

As my testcase bombs, I just recall some of my favorite movies of Rajkumar.

I know by writing this post, I am actually procrastinating, but I will write this post.

:)

My favorite Rajkumar movies.
=============================

I have watched many Rajkumar movies.The very first movie I can ever remember watching in a theatre was a Rajkumar movie called Guri

I have listed some movies which immediately come to my mind when I think of Rajkumar the actor.And most of them are monstrous hits.

#10 CID 999 series
====================
These movies, namely Operation Diamond Rocket, Jedara Bale, Bengalooru Mail were the heavily inspired James Bond flicks in the early and late sixties.Yes, they consisted of "gadgets" (you have to see this movies!) and quite a few "good looking" & "scantily clad" women. The most important woman who made her debut in the CID 999 series was the Hindi film actress and daughter of Gemini Ganesan , Rekha. Rajkumar looked pretty suave in the suits (ofcourse the movies are black and white) but his english was really bad.

But the best part of the CID 999 series was the camaraderie which he had with another great comedian, NarasimhRaju

#9 Bhaktha Prahallada
=====================
Dr. Raj IS best remembered for the roles , he donned as kings and characters of mythology.He came from the famed drama company "Gubbi Company" and had a strong theatrical background, early in his career .Thats why he could effortlessly blend good songs into his movies.I dont think any Kannada actor today can make justice to the "Mythological" roles, like he did. He is brilliant as HiranyaKashipu in this memorable movie.And the moustache he dons in this movie shows the age which it was filmed and he does justic to this.

#8 Shravana Banthu
====================
This movie has got little to do with his acting skills, but it has a lot to do with his songs.I love the song
Ide Raagadalli, ide taaladalli
Nice fairy tale-ish script and a good movie which kept me glued to my seat.
However, it addressed the "then-sensitive" issues of inter-caste marriages in a nice way.It is to be kept in mind that, people were VERY DIPLOMATIC when they wanted to convey social messages. They were never hard-hitting/direct.So this movie will fail to make any impact today.

#7 Eradu Kanasu
================
A good movie dealing with heartbreaks and marriages having a rough start with a lot of cold war. Very good song. I loved two songs from this movie.
Tam nam, Tam nam and Yendendu ninnanu Marethu

#6 Mayura
============
A very stylised , improvised story of the history of the Kadamba dynasty founder "Mayura". Good swordfights (for Kannada movie standards) and garish (but colorful costumes!). Again, the movie hits a home run because of Rajkumar's charisma.

#5 Babruvahana
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An excellent movie, dealing with ego conflicts between Arjuna and his son Babruvahana.Excellent rendering of dialogs in the form of dramatic verses, in the form of songs.Rajkumar has excelled in both the roles , as the older Arjuna and the younger and dandy Babruvahana. The PB Srinivas & RajKumar song is awesome!

#4 Bhagyavantharu
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Another good movie where Rajkumar plays the role of an old man who loses his power gradually in his family over the years.His strict upbringing of his children make him the person, which everyone loves to hate. One of the best tragedies played by Rajkumar.

My top#3 will be seen by most of us here.So I wont write anything about these three movies!

#3 Dari Tappida Maga
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#2 Kasturi Nivasa
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#1 Bangaradha Manushya
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A great actor departs ..

Rajkumar - the prominent Kannada film Icon, succummed to heart attack today at 2:30 pm. A great actor and a prominent propellant of the Kannada cause.

It is really a sad day for Kannada.