Sunday, August 09, 2009

The Hangover

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

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

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

Dont miss it unless laughing is injurious to your health.

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

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Egomaniac politicians..

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

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

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

Saturday, August 01, 2009

KPL ??

Any opinion on KPL ?

I totally agree to Kumble's opinion :-

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

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

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


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

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

Thursday, July 30, 2009

pow

Sometimes I just lose it ...

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

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

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

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

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

Defying the myths of "AGE"

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

Monday, July 27, 2009

Sustainablity

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

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

btw, there are two ways to bet on this.

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

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

Friday, July 24, 2009

Yeddelu Manjunatha !



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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

the oil curse

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

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

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

Monday, July 20, 2009

Another Multi-Crore scam

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

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

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

Bofors
Food for Oil
Telecom spectrum

and the list goes on

Cant remember the others.. Add on please

Friday, July 17, 2009

the RIL Gas saga

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Guava and Pomegranate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Psychedelia

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

Kannada :

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


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

The pipe is like the body understand this.

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

Sunday, July 12, 2009

An alternative

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Chinese Way

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



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



How??



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



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



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

Saturday, July 11, 2009

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

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

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

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

Thursday, July 09, 2009

how fit are you?

idondu extra chinte eega....

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Overflowing rivers


This picture here reminds me of our trek back in 2002 to Kumara Parvatha. After 1.5 hours of waiting for the river water to subsize, we took a plunge to cross the bridge with knee length of water (culprits include richie, harsha, kummi, teju, sudeepa, raghu and myself), encouraged after watching some locals in white dhoties crossing the river. The view across the bridge was magnificent with logs floating on the water, which seemed to be flowing out of a mountain.
However, our joy of a brave act was doused when the hotelier across the bridge (where we had breakfast) informed us that 2 persons were washed away the previous day trying to cross the bridge. We had at least one person in the gang who dint know swimming and the RedBull bravery award should go to this chap.

The Air India Saga

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

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

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

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Tell me your dreams

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

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

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

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

There is a traffic jam.

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

I say: Thats fine. But why the jam ?

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

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

It was 3 a.m.

Monday, July 06, 2009

Butt Pocket

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

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

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

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

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

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

The adda turned 5 years old today

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

heheh.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

The Wimbledon and the Chair Umpire

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weekend .. two views

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

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

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

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

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

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

adios to the weekend...

Thursday, July 02, 2009

the forgotten BRAHMA

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

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

Only glad thing is the behavior is changing

ps: I feel sorry from Brahma

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

olle naraka yaathane

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Power cuts

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

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

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

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

Michael Jackson

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

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

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

Friday, June 26, 2009

MJ

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

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Personal E-mails

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

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

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

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

Some Science News blogging

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

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

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

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

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

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Sat Evening Random ramblings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As I type these lines I remember this lyrics :-

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

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Phase in Space

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

------

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

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Mmmmm

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Scrum

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

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

To describe scrum very shortly :-

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

phew!

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

Sunday, May 17, 2009

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

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

What do I really want in life ?

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

That's perhaps the most important thing in life.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

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

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

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



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

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

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The next big thing in search

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

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


Let's look fwd to the release of this.

Monday, April 27, 2009

Planet Earth

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

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

But there are many aspects to nature.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, April 24, 2009

Bob Dylan

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


PassionNTennis (1 month ago)
i dont get this song

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


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

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Voting

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

Monday, April 20, 2009

Passing thought

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

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

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

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

Dancers, yes I can understand :-)

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Will banking become boring?

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


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

2014 elections, India

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

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

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

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Interesting website

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

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

Quote :-

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

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

Take two of their products :-

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

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

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

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Some lost+found songs



It was 1997/8.

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Election time

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

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

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

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

However, Kumaraswamy is a decent chap IMHO.



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

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

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

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

Friday, April 03, 2009

Gulaal

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

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

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

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

Related post :
Chicken and Egg Problem

Thursday, March 26, 2009

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

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

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


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

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

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

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Parlimentary elections

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Quite some time

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Kiitos Kajaani


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

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Dev D

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

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

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Chicken and egg problem

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

Let us start with an analogy.

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

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

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

And then'

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

Monday, February 02, 2009

A matter of reminders


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

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

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

Friday, January 30, 2009

The Subramaniyapuram song

There is something ethereal about this song. Carnatic Music used very, very well.
I just love the video.....

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

feeling really yuckkkkkkk

I want today to go off asap

Thursday, January 29, 2009

How ?

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

Saturday, January 24, 2009

mindry.in

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

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



Mimicry and Spoof of Ede tumbi haaduvenu (SP Balasubramaniam)


Mimicry and Spoof of Udaya TV Horoscope programme

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Hale Paathre

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

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

Hale hudugi hesaranu thagiyede ninna mundhe saacha aagiruve...

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

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

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

Monday, January 19, 2009

Obama on McCain

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

Yen maatadtaane ee Obama...Super dialog king. 

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Weekend Post


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

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

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

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

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

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


Thursday, January 15, 2009

and now ....

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

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

A day in the life of ...

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

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

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

Sunday, January 11, 2009

chuckle

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

Shishya: There goes the old businessman  .... Up in the baloon .... Can the businessman see us ?
Guru     : No, the businessman cannot and will not. 
Shishya : Why will the businessman will not see us ?
Guru     : The businessman will NEVER poke into your business.
Shishya : A rocket awaits me.
Guru     : Chuckle.

blah blah

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

the MTR and the People..

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

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

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

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

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Ghajini



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

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

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

Friday, January 02, 2009

Fargo



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

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

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

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

welcome 2009

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

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

Monday, December 29, 2008

Cars and Cycles




Hapless car and cycles standing in front of my apartment.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The world

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, December 15, 2008

Sudeep the eskimo



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

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

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

the best clothing


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