DEMONstrate

How the fb IPO should be...

2012-02-02T15:38:00.001-05:00

So facebook has launched its IPO… Lots been said about it here and there.

But hey, in the whole process, where is the user? Wasn’t facebook suppose to be “user-centric”?? We all now what happens if investors run companies. And then we also know how clueless companies are if they are run by founders (read google). So facebook should do something different. Something new. Going the IPO route is very old-school and not fb like. After all the stock exchange won’t autopost on FB if I buy FB (yes that’s the ticker they are aiming for).

The company should raise money through its user-base and let them trade the shares on facebook. How about that?? 500 million users can each contribute $10 to raise $5bb. Given wha tpeople spend on online games, FB credits etc... most of the userbase should be on board with a $10 share price. A lottery system can be used if number of applicants are more than 500mm. There can be some flexibility here in terms of max share per user - say 5 or 10. All users should be given stock-credits which could be later traded on the website. And just like the exchange, prices would be determined by stock-credit trading. The big investors can then jump in here and trade FB credits for FB stock-credits. And about that conflict of interest, well an SEC app on fb platform can take care of it.

Trading can be 24x7. No middlemen involved. And given the userbase, there would be ample liquidity - across the globe. Voting rights will also flow to the share holders. And management releated polls can be easily done on fb platform.

Shareholder meeting can be done online, implies less expenditure on travelling and renting hotels etc... Company-Investor meetings too can take place online with ease. All on the FB platform.

Am i missing something here or is facebook just another offshoot of the capitalist society.

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Vintage posters - temple tour of india

2012-01-28T21:10:00.001-05:00

This just keeps getting better... found these old posters on Indian Tourism. My guess is these were comissioned by non-Indian travel/tourism entities. Thankfully the elephant was rescued by temples. Need to find someone who can get wall size prints. Or someone who can redraw these.

Am trying to collect old posters on India. pls let me know if you find more. exciting non-monetary reward awaits you... ;)

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Vintage India and AirIndia Posters

2012-01-26T01:08:00.001-05:00

Came across vintage airline posters on India. While most of them stick to elephant, TWA had beautifully used an indian lady for one of the posters. thumbs up to TWA. AirFrace seemed bit modern-art types. British Airways or erstwile Imperial Airways used temples, forts and "6-day" London to India via Egypt posters.
In addition there are few AirIndia posters. Most of them belong to the golder era of 50s and 60s - under the art direction of J. B. Cowasji, Air India Design Studio, Bombay. They are simple yet powerful. AirIndia needs to bring back "The Maharaja" and maintain an international identity.

AirIndia Swiss

See the full gallery on Posterous

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Transitioning to the (Big)Apple

2012-01-11T13:18:00.001-05:00

You have landed in firang-land… now what? If you are a tourist, it’s pretty easy. You already have planned your trip, booked transportation, booked hotels, carried some supplies and even carried some cash/card for shopping and impulsive spending. Since you will still go back to where you came from, the experience good (and some times not-good) is only momentary. But my plight is slightly different on this one. Though I am in firang land, unfortunately I am not a tourist. The whole experience is loaded with multiple shocks.

To start with, there is this “culture shock” which all desi talk about. There is this “FX shock” which you experience unless you get your salary in new currency. There’s also the “Weather shock” – Now how can you expect someone from equator to understand Canada’s freezing snowy weather. There’s also a “Development shock” – you are so amazed at the new developed economy, but deeply miss your developing economy for its cheap labour. Or it might be the other way as well – you are amazed at the chaos and how much a developing/under-developed country has accomplished... but deeply miss the civilized “developed” world. Its not that one is not prepared for the shocks. But, no mater how much you prepare for it, you’ll still experience it. Say, more like touching a live wire.

For the tech bend… it is like transitioning from Windows to a Mac. You have heard about it… everyone loves it… but the moment you sit down with it, you hate that all your windows tips-tricks don’t work over here. I mean all. To start with… there is no “Start” button. There is no “program files”… now where the hell is the control panel… and how does one refresh the screen…And why is it so smooth and fast. But at the end of theday, it doesn’t make much diff… cause we end up using Macs and PCs for surfing the internet.

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Its all relative

2012-01-04T17:58:00.001-05:00

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Don ko pakdna mushkil hi nahin... na mumkin hai...

2011-12-26T02:11:00.001-05:00

That is if you do not catch sleep instead... the best thing about the movie was its title track.. which guess is the only thing they havent changed since the original DON movie.. not the prequel to this one ... the one with Amitabh Bacchan...

A lot has been said about the movie here, here, and before you get tired of clicking on each link.. here's the summary for major critics...

The film is actually not that bad.. its pretty good after the first two halves....

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12/19/11 PHD comic: 'The Claus Hypothesis'

2011-12-19T18:58:00.000-05:00

lol.... had to share this one...

12/19/11 PHD comic: 'The Claus Hypothesis':

Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham		www.phdcomics.com

Chennai checklist....

2011-12-13T11:34:00.001-05:00

Things to do before you leave chennai... Or checklist for a person to be called "Machha"

Have sweat it out winters here
Have been to sowcarpet atleast once and tried the thali
Tried waking across Marina beach... Tried
Have been to atleast one of the multiplexes and saw a movie for Rs10 ... wonly... :D
And speaking of films... have seen atleast one SUPERSTAR film
Lived long enough in chennai to see atleast one Rajnikant film release - and then booked a 4am show
Walked across Ranganathan street during festivals or first week of the month
Tried Murugun, Saravana, Sangeetha, Geetha, A2B and other restaurants only to realize that Idli "toh sab ek jaisa hi hai"....
Attended at least one Tamilian mariiage at 7 in the morning
Started your diwali celebration at 4am in the morning -after visiting the temple
ECR ride... with friends and prospective family
started your day with "THE HINDU"... and ended it with songs on Chennai Live
Strolled around in the only true multiplex EA, and then went off to Specer's, Pondy Bazar or your neighbourhood store for purchases...
15th Aug means more than independence day - its Landmark quiz @ Music Academy
And while we are on Music Academy - have attended atleast one concert/play there
Chennai style buffette - had chennai/andhra meals - with all you can eat rice and "side dishes"
Bhajji on the beach - and for the non-veg - grilled fish at besant nagar beach
Rode a Royal Enfield - Handcrafted in Chennai
TASMAC - hated it to the core, but still....
but for the quality/price seekers - got contra from Pondicherry or Bangalore - or better from your "videsh" touring friends
ditched the cappucinos of the world for some good "kaapi" - filter coffee
Ate rice all day - breakfast to lunch to dinner - idlies - dosa - utthapam - rice meals - evening tiffin - rice cakes - and still not missed the humble roti...
Danced to ~Gemini gemini~ or ~Apdi podu~ in clubs...
Missed Curd Rice in a 5-star - 7 course all-you-can-eat buffet
Learned the art of communicating in sign languages with domestic help (only for non-Tamil speaking junta)
Cursed non-tamil speaking junta for their inability to learn the language (for Tamil speaking junta only)
went trekking/holidaying atleast once near chennai - tirupati ranges - nilgiri ranges - coorg area - ooty region: realized there is life 120kms beyond the city in any direction (except east maybe)
Bought winter wear for your trip to bangalore...
Spent a day at Madras Race Track...

The list is endless... feel free to add more here in comments...
also see the Ahmedabad checklist:

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How did it happen: Burma Bazaar

2011-10-18T08:30:00.001-04:00

Pantheon Road, Connamera Hotel, Fort St George, Frazer Road... an endless list of buildings and roads remind us of Chennai's British history. Chennai, unline other India cities does not have any pre-british historic significance. Like other british port cities (Mumbai, Kolkatta, Colombo), Chennai was established for the port with a fort at its center. Fort St. George was that anchor for Chennai. Two centuries later immigrants helped expand the city to its current shape. Like Kolkata, Chennai too has a sizeable population of trader communities like the Marwaris. Owing to its location, it also had an influx of traders from Andra. The city was a big part of the British regime in India. No wonder the first Governer of Madras was Elihu Yale, after whom Yale University is named. The City expanded beyond the Fort over year.

Here's how it looked in 1921 - with the Fort at center of expansion.

The city later expanded to take its current form.

But an interesting part of Chennai goes by the name "Burma Bazar". While Burma has some British history, the Bazar is in Chennai for a different reason. Apparently when the Japs attacked Burma during WWII, many PIOs in Burma wanted to come back... mostly PTOs (tamil origin). The then GOI allowed them to seek refuge in Chennai where they could sell random stuff from Burma till they make decent money to start other businesses or get employed elsewhere.

Post independence, political landscape in Burma forced many PIOs to seek refuge in Chennai and Burma Bazar grew. The Bazar, which is a series of small shops along the road near beach station, is still buzzing with activity. The shops mainly sell grey market electronic goods, maybe due to its close proximity to the port. So while it is named Burma Bazar, there is nothing Burma-like.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma_Bazaar

#burmabazaar, #chennai

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Wrath of THE chennai rickshaw driver

2011-09-08T12:46:00.001-04:00

'Majboori ka naam Gandhi'

A popular Hindi line... Don't know its origins .... But it means that sometimes we have are left with the most undesirable options... I finally had to face the deadly Chennai auto drivers. my bro says only two things do not need after sales service - coffins and Chennai auto meters. haven't seen even a single soul operating on the meter here.

Ask anyone in Chennai, negotiating with an auto is the most difficult part, even for tamilians. And above that, you need to know the exact address. a lane travelled extra attracts additional Rs10 for sure.

but.. but but but....

But interesting part of the day was haggling, no... read it as shouting on autorick driver. And sort of feeling good that I gave him less than what he shouted for. But at the same time am afraid that he will keep an eye on me. His Rick is parked around my gully... need to be careful when i step out tomm... wish me luck...

And mind you, these are not your ordinary drivers... these are Rajnikanth styled Schumaker Swamy union leaders.

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Delhi blasts - recent history

2011-09-07T06:13:00.001-04:00

Recent history of delhi blasts:

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BOL, the movie - kya bola hai....

2011-09-04T17:31:00.001-04:00

BOL movie... awesome movie

preview rating: 4/5 - expected to be good. Director's previous movie "khuda ke liye" was an acclaimed one.

the movie is about a family in Lahore, which in my opinion could even be an Indian family. The father is obsessed with getting a boy and hence gets his wife pregnant 14 times!!!! but poor chap does not get lucky and ends up with daughters. I could go about telling you the story... but then thinking of not spoiling the movie for you.... so go and watch it.

but keep in mind. It is the inconvenient truth. might be disturbing in some parts. Not gross, but just disturbing. The movie is beautifully shot. the story gets somewhat hilarious in 2nd half (at least for me), and but slow in first half. and dont understand why they picked atif aslam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bol_(film)

http://bolthemovie.com/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1891757/

http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=54580&Cat=9

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Who will guard against bodyguard?

2011-09-03T05:44:00.001-04:00

Live blogging from bodyguard screening...

Movie preview- yet another salman action flick 2.5/5
Expect sallu to be the mindless action guru and kareena the typical bhartiya naari

30mins into the film - bad jokes... not vulgar, but same old stupid jokes... and the suppporting actress looks much better than kareena... dont recall her name..

Ok.. now first half is a boring love story... or should i say boring lovely singh story

The lovely effect is like the nightingale effect... tumne meri jaan bachayee.. and now i will love you.. wow..so original..

The action director loves splits.. every other goonda ends up in a split.. poor souls... Isse toh acha maar daalta..

And for the analyst bend - cinema hall utilization at ~70percent..

This is killing me... 2hrs into the film, but whr r the fight scenes... and sallu showing off for song!!! Yaar ek dhang ka fight toh dikha do...

Spoiler alert.

Kuch kuch hota hai ending... i rest my case

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The ultimate phone buying guide - sep 2011

2011-09-02T15:29:00.001-04:00

Yeah... Look no further my friends... This IS the ultimate phone buying guide. No, really. No kidding. Having seen my friends go through bad times (read phones misplaced/lost or having a 2yr phone which does nothing apart from calling) i have come up with a small list... or a helpful guide if i may

But first... If you are a fanboy (apple or nokia) read no further. No matter what I say, frog will not come out of the well.

So let's start the game
How much you got at disposal??
>35k - iphone (it is the best out thr)
>25k - samsung galaxy s2 and htc sensation (in that order)
>15k - samsung galaxy ace, nokia e7 series
>10k - sasta nokia e series
>5k - nokia C5
<5k - samsung hero

Hav fun

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book cover - iFraud

2011-09-02T03:35:00.001-04:00

callcenter-fraud-lovestory. novel by Ananth. .

iFraud - a book by my friend Ananth. Designed the coverpage for the bookread more about the book

www.ifraudthecallcenter.com

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WG5LMU

http://www.pubmatch.org

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Valuing Facebook

2010-12-14T12:55:00.000-05:00

Valuing Facebook: "

Facebook is touted to be next thing in the internet world. Facebook which stated as an intranet portal in Harvard and began operation in Feb 2004 and has more than 500 mn active user worldwide by Aug 2010. It has already given giants like Google a run for retaining its best talents.

Facebook Users(in million)

Source: benphoster.com

Just having a look at the staggering figures of Facebook

2.6 billion minutes are spent on Facebook every day, which makes 52 minutes per user per day. More than 700 million photos, 4 million+ videos and 15 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared/uploaded every month. More than 52,000 applications are currently available on Facebook Platform (like these and what not) and over 140 new applications added per day. Over 95% of Facebook members have used at least one application built on Facebook platform.

What makes Facebook a Success?

1. Improved privacy: Facebook came up with improved privacy features for users compared to other social networks like Orkut and Myspace. Users were given better control over the content they would like to share. Privacy issue led to an initial surge of Facebook users who shifted from other social networks.

2. Feed from users: It was one of the revolutionary things that Facebook brought to the social network world. Feeds and status updates made Facebook more engaging to the users. It helps to increase the connectivity between users and feeds help in keeping updated about their friends and relatives. It also became a good media to advertise about the various Facebook application, as application used by one user can be seen by all his/her friends.

3. Large photo sharing and photo editing: While most of the other networks restricted the numbers of photos in album, Facebook allowed unlimited uploads and photo tagging and related tagged search. This made Facebook more engaging for users.

4. Developer friendly API: Developer friendly API has led to an explosive growth in Facebook application. These applications have been successful in increasing time spent by people on Facebook and increased revenue streams. Many community based games/application has seen people spending their largest time spend on Facebook on these games.

5. Lighter mobile version: The light version of Facebook for mobile opened floodgates for status updates on Facebook. Lighter version which requires very less data made Facebook accessible to a huge population developing world that access web only through mobile.

Valuing Facebook

We would use relative valuation approach and past transaction to value Facebook.

In Oct 2007 Microsoft made a $240 million investment taking 1.6% stake. The transaction values Facebook at $15 bn. In March 2008 Li Ka-Shing took 0.8% stake for $120 million, again valuing Facebook for $15 bn In May 2009 Digital Sky Technologies had made a $200 million investment representing a 1.96% stake. Based on this stake the valuation of Facebook stands at a $10.20 billion. If we go by these transactions and adjusting for market condition, valuation table is mentioned below.

Date	S&P Index	Value	Adjusted Value
May-09	919	10.2	17.19
Mar-08	1400	15.0	16.60
Oct-07	1549	15.0	15.00
Average			16.26

Now we look at certain multiple valuations. Since only sales value is available for Facebook we use price/sales multiple.

	Revenue 2009($)bn	Revenue 2010E($) bn	Price($)	P/S(2009)	P/S(2010)
Google	23.7	28.73	592.2	25.0	20.6
Yahoo	4.6	4.6	17.0	3.7	3.7
E-bay	8.6	9.1	30.7	3.6	3.4
Amazon	24	33	175.6	7.3	5.3
Monster	0.9	0.92	24.0	26.7	26.1
Average				13.25	11.82

Source: Reuters

Facebook valuation

Facebook	2009($)	2010E($)
Revenues(bn)	0.7	1.1
Equity(bn)	9.27	13.00

Based on the multiple valuation, Facebook stands at $11.13 bn. Taking an average of both the valuations, we value Facebook at $13.7 bn.

Update: Tony Blair Joins Khosla Ventures As Portfolio Comes out of Stealth

2010-05-25T05:14:00.000-04:00

Update: Tony Blair Joins Khosla Ventures As Portfolio Comes out of Stealth: "Calera, Kior, Point Source Power, Soraa come out of hidey hole."

Switching to wordpress

2010-02-04T04:41:00.000-05:00

I've got bored of this blogger account.... so am shifting to demonstrate.wordpress.com, lets see what the platform has to offer. Have imported the basic settings, previous blogs/comments. But don't hope to blog frequently... You see, off lately.. my blog count has gone down sharply... and my tweet count has rise dramatically.... you can follow me there @m2demon

So update your feed settings to my new address: demonstrate.wordpress.com

And as for a status update... I am still in chennai doing something in finance

ps: does anyone blog anymore?

win7 – shld u go for it??

2009-11-18T13:41:00.001-05:00

My friend asked me a simple question… ‘should i upgrade Vista to Windows 7?…”. Though am a tech fan and am totally in for buying any new technology… but let’s think from a different angle… “does one REALLY need Win7”???? Before discussing anything else… lets make two points clear…

If you are a Mac user… read no further.. windows is still not ready for you…
Windows Vista is/was and will be a disaster. Period
Windows 7 is the best thing that happened to Microsoft (after WinOffice… obviously...)

Now as for the UPGRADE from vista to win7....

First, lets talk economic sense - WHY?? why the need for Win7 ?? it's def good than Vista/xp.. but when u dont access ur home system for more than net, few movies, few songs and occasional microsoft office... u actually dont need to BUY windows 7. Vista is heavy and slows down sys, but ur sys has enough RAM to cope wit that.... (assuming u bought a preloaded vista)

BUT the techie in me says - GO FOR IT.... it might not be as cool as Mac (refer point 1).. but it is def the second best thing out there... better than any Windows/LInux OS.... take my word for this... i am the guy who had installed Windows2000/XP/Vista, Redhat Linux, Ububtu Linux AND few other flavours of linux before finalizing upon win7.

Windows is no longer the mammoth monopolistic Giant.... With competition from all the quarters, they have in fact churned up pretty decent products, and unlike Apple, they aren't heavy on pocket either....

Best of luck with the purchase :)

Where’s the Gold??

2009-10-29T21:21:00.002-04:00

FYI, am in west coast looking for some gold. West coast where?? Well west coast of the “western world”, west to the wild-wild-west. To be precise, I am roaming around the “bay area”. Am at Yerba Buena – also known as San Francisco, SFO, Frisco, SF, SanFran Bay Area.

I started of my journey happily thinking that I might run into strangers in SF, but to my disappointment I ran into my long lost Enng col friend. Moreover, he came to even pick me up at the airport. The bugger didn’t even let me exp the American cab or metro. Anyways, more bout that bugger later.

The first thing you notice about bay area is that it comprises of dozens of cities (or counties or wotever they call them here) Along the freeway, you see the endless stretch of buildings and city blocks. And when you reach downtown, the place feels more like a hill station with all of its uphills and downhills. You remember the holloywood flick where a car drives downhill and jumps over them, or even better the zig-zag road going downhill (or uphill??? depends where you look from) with gardens around.. bang… that’s SF. Ok, so you can get some cable cars, buses, cars and climb these easily, but how do you handle the cloudy Frisco?? The place is so cloudy, that some 400 years ago (may be more, don’t quote me), the Spaniards gave the whole bay-area a miss while looking for land to annex. You don’t believe me… ask ne1 who has been here.. or rather just Google it up… atleast they won’t lie, after all this is their home turf, they are like 2hr drive from downtown, and so are Apple, Sun, Oracle, and all the other 15,763 IT companies in the Silicon Valley (which reminds me, I have to there…).

Now the surroundings… Looking at the area, with china town, little Italy, Freemont (desi janta area), Mexicans, Russians, south-east Asians, eastern Europeans and other ethnic populations, the city feels more like a culture pot. And if this sounds like any other city, then add the liberal crowd from The ‘Castro’ area to the pot and you get the distinctive SFO.

My daily walk to the office takes me thru’ the famous uphill and downhill trekking of san fran, the unique (and freakingly expensive) cable cars, 4th largest shopping area in US (in terms of absolute $$)- Union Square, largest Chinese establishment outside China- China Town and the commercial hub-downtown skyscrapers. And all of this, compressed in just 5 blocks walk. Can you beat that…?

Haven’t seen much of SF yet, let’s hope I get to see it before Halloweens day (or is it night)

AS for the Gold, guess am bit late. Gold rush expired here hundreds of years ago, but who knows, I might get lucky. I might find a new Tech-startup here…

Coast to Coast Dash (Part 1 of 2)

2009-09-12T17:57:00.001-04:00

What happens when you take two daringbaaz guys (who at times lose their cerebral screw), put them on a 200cc bike, give them smooth (like butter) 4 lane highways, single lane scenic ghat roads and the stamina to ride for 44 hours????

THE GREAT INDIAN EAST COAST TO WEST COAST DASH

Tushar, the bike owner- route planner cum chief driver, and yours truly, the treasurer- navigator – cameraman – and co-driver, decided to clear this to-do item from Tushar’s ‘Things to do in LIFE’. You can read Tushar’s story here. Now let’s here my story…

… It’s 8pm, phone rings (and yeah… am in the office..)

tushar – when do we leave???
maheep – tonight…
tushar – time??
maheep – by 2am

“Why would you want to DRIVE all the way to Mangalore?”, asks my colleague (and whosoever heard of the plot). “Why not?” i ask. Moreover, having worked madly for the week, one deserves a break. A break where you do not think anything, just drive and drive endlessly.

That pretty much raps up the WHY part for me. Now the details… I left office at 2am and we started from Chennai for Bangalore at 2.30am. After travelling some distance thru halogen lit chennai streets we hit the moon lit national highway. Now let me take this opportunity to thank the Indian Govt for building good roads. The road to Bangalore is simply smooth, with low traffic during night time, so we drove comfortably at >80kmp & <110kmph for the whole stretch and 60kmph for a small patch when the bike ran in reserve. We rode in turns, and stopped whenever we felt that our posteriors couldn’t handle the pain (more on that later). By sunrise, we were greeted by scenic mountains immersed in clouds near krishnagiri. A quick tea and we were off to hosur. Hosur, for the uninitiated is located in Tamilnadu and is known for the mfg facilities and proximity to Bangalore's famous electronics city. Having said that you can guess how badly our speedometer would have travelled counter clockwise. After Hosur, it was electronics city and then bangalore city, the traffic kept getting worse. We managed our way through the ‘Bangalored Traffic’ and crashed at Santosh’s place. After a day’s long work and 350 kms, 2 hrs of sleep “banta hai yaar”. The recharge was complemented by hot Parotha’s at Santosh’s place. But to my dismay, the recharge was cutoff by Tushar’s plan to leave bangalore ASAP (btw, i’ve started to hate this word). We took a country road to reach hasan form bangalore. The road, as described in Tushar’s own words is ‘Biker’s Paradise’. This was not a commercial route, so was free of heavy vehicle and luckily potholes too. I was sleeping though out the stretch. I woke up at the end only to find that we have reached the highway. This part of the highway is WIP all the way till Mangalore. The roads converted from 4 lane to two lane to single lane (through the ghats) and no lane at all (near mangalore). The roads were bearable till the ghats. After which only the serene environment kept us motivated, coffee plantations and lush green forests in specific. Tushar drove through most of the bad roads like a warrior, but finally had to give in favour of some rest. but to my surprise, when i was in the drivers seat, the roads got better. not just that, when tushar drove next, the roads got as worse as they can get (guess i was lucky with the roads). A smal 20km stretch just before mangalore took us around 1.5 hrs to complete. The road was under construction and had hell lot of potholes. To add over that, it was raining and the vehicles passing by were splashing the muddy water all over us.

The stretch made us rethink about our return journey. We decided that we would drop our bike at mangalore and catch the next train to chennai. Atleast our body would get some rest. So anways, we somehow reached Mangalore by 7pm. Shivaditya had pretty much everything ready. Had some good hot food and medicinal brandy.

will continue the rest of the story in part 2

Newyork -- the torture film

2009-07-06T05:25:00.000-04:00

Indian multiplexes went through a drought of good movies during this summer. Newyork (2009 film-hindi) was to end this, but it failing didn't achieve so. The film very touches a very different topic, human rights violations post 9/11 in US. Well film buffs would argue that "Khuda Ke Liye" (2008 film) is the source of inspiration, but givent that KKL was not released in India on a wide scale, the concept might be new for many. But nothing else is right in this movie. Acting is pathetic, storyline poor and dialouges range from worse to worst. And don't even try to apply any logic during the 2.5hrs.
Like john, i too had this strong urge to destroy the production house which made me go through the nightmare.

Jist: The message is good, the medium through which it is deliverd is BAD.
film rating: watch only at your own risk, not even for any eye candy.

India covered so far...

2009-06-24T05:11:00.001-04:00

visited 14 states (40%)
Create your own visited map of India

Khoon ka badla Planet

2009-06-17T04:19:00.001-04:00

Shakal (the villian) kills Ram. same time Ram's son Vijay is born. Vijay wants to avenge his father's death. 25 years later, Shakal kills Raj's family and community people. Raj, eventhough a very rationale person, wants to avenge the loss. So grown-up Vijay and Raj team up to kill Shakal and out end to his evil intentions. A typical bollywood philum... No??
Now just go back and substitite Ram with George Kirk , Vijay with James T. Kirk , Shakal with Nero and replace the director with a firang, add some sci-fi physics concepts, imaginative weapons, nice visual graphics, with some love angel thrown in between and resurrect a hollywood franchise. Now that's Startrek (2009 film) for you. Had expected great storyline but apart from the sets and the visual graphics, the movie was as good as a bolywood flick.
Let's see how transformers-2 turns out to be....

Airtel - worst customer support

2009-06-08T15:42:00.003-04:00

An year ago, when my roommates and i were discussing about the best broadband service in Chennai, Airtel and BSNL were the only two names in our list. Being skeptical of BSNL's service, we went for Airtel, but turns out that Airtel is no better, if not worse. A simple complain of router not working takes 3 days to attend to and after that replacement of faulty router takes more than 1o days. http://bit.ly/lRdZi. And not just that, even after the 10 days, customer support informs that new router will be available only after 10 more days as Airtel has ran out of stock. ow wait a minute. Is this the same airtel we talking about which wants to merge with MTN? A company which can't even keep track of its inventory wants to go global!!!
Even if we assume that the company has ran out of stock, the customer support doesn't even offer any solutions to the issue. I offered my services to personally go to the market and buy a router onbehalf of airtel, but the airtel guys were adamant on only one thing "saar, we'll replace it sometime next week" or "i've written it down, and will forward it to back office". One guy even pleaded, telling me that he is just only a call center employee and it depends on back desk to get a replacement. Well for gods sake, let me take this opportunity to tell airtel and all other companies, we don't care if it's back desk or front desk, that's your problem. For us, customer care is the only face of the company.
But Airtel guys did accept one of my suggestions, and that too w/o delay. Termination of account. Hope they do this one in time.

ps. airtel complain number is : 20432964 for chennai circle

vandu, yardu.. muuru.

2009-05-15T16:20:00.000-04:00

Life has suddenly come to a standstill.... I'm the same as an year ago, doing the same thing, surrounded by pretty much the same people (and if you don't feel the same, then enjoy the coll life). But then, I have lived 1 full year in Chennai... My dear friend chex went ahead and nominated me for Limca book of records. Why not Guinness? well apparently foreign liquor is banned in TN. and i don't like the local MGM-vodka. so happy with Limca....
My claim to the feat might seem unreasonable, more like the price for chappatis here. But then even our soldiers get a standing ovation, with some medals here and there, when them come back from their annual stay at siachein or Thar. I can atleast get a pat on the back.
Although my stay in this suburb-cluster has been mostly confined to air facades (my word for air-conditioned places) at office/home I did get very few chances of exploring the city (read when not sleeping). the most important thing of all which i have learned is - do not expect this city to be like Mumbai or Bangalore or Hyderabad or Delhi or Pune or Ahmedabad or Indore (ok this one here only bcoz of blood ties) or any other indian city. this city resembles only one city, Chennai. Heavn't yet found the city soul. You know, like mumbai's soul is it's fast life, trains, highrises and beaches; ahmedabad/baroda's soul is it gujju culture, eat-outs on the road, navratri festival, the veg food etc... . But i havn't found anything for chennai. let's hope that i find it out within the next year or so.
But one thing which earns brownie points for chennai is that it doesn't have the perils of a metro. since the city is spread across, traffic congestion is minimal. Also cost of living is quite low compared to mum, blr, hyd, del. Period.

The city might be different and some may even dis-like it, but at the end of the day it doesn't matter much. coz "It's not the Journey, but the company which matters". With many friends leaving the city, the journey might become quite a bore in the next year, so planning to take up sailing to pass time.

ps: the blog title are the only tamil words i have learned , apart from definition of the word Sister
Sister - Often used to address figures where attempt was unsuccessful
courtesy : http://tamilslangs.blogspot.com/

Earth Hour... we need it, but just for an hour?

2009-03-27T09:02:00.000-04:00

I'm sure that by now, either through fwds or your friends/colleagues or through the extensive media coverag, you would have come to know about the "Earth Hour" initiative. For the uninitiated, it's a publicity stunt by WWF to raise awareness towards climate change.
But do we need such an event. Symbolically the event will achieve a lot. Even if it doesn't reduce global demand for power, it at least makes people (esply those from the developed countries/cities where more power is wasted than consumed) standup and take notice of climate change. It's more like turning off lights to light our future (©, u know- just in case someone likes it). It might be a very strikingly different experience in the developed nation, but Indian cities won't have much trouble, coz we invariably have power outages, and that too for no less than an hour.
Instead of organizing such events, WWF should make people come to developing nations like India where they can see how people live w/o electricity, and that too comfortabely. Hope people learn from it, and don't waste electricity on as petty a thing like running for you.

Recession ka asar (Aftermaths of recession)

2009-03-16T15:53:00.001-04:00

Well before u proceed any further, let me assure you that even though you feel that i am FULLY capable of it, i have not authored the following piece of art. I have ~~copied~~ borrowed this from my friend harish… after ~~not~~ paying him the due amount… If you want to publish this poem, or would like to buy any of the author’s creations (past & future, if any) then i’ll b his manager…. njoi reading…

Dikh raha he recession ka asar !!
Dosto nein baatein karna kam kar diya,
Phone lagana band kar diya,
Pahle scrap to kiya karte the,
Ab to online aana bhi band kar diya !!
Ladkiyon nein itrana band kar diya,
Aankhe zameen se uthana band kar diya,
Pahle jin nazaron se kiya karti thi ghayal,
Un par kaazal lagana band kar diya !!
GF nein pyar se muskurana band kar diya,
Pahle le jaati thi har roj shopping,
Ab to ghar aana bhi band kar diya,
Hadd to tab hui jab usanein,

khushi mein khilkhilana bhi band kar diya ....

ps: some of my friends feel that i’ve been using too much of enng language off lately, say for eg like this poem….. but then… the question is .. “to B.E. or not to B.E.”

Baap(u) of all irony

2009-03-06T23:35:00.001-05:00

It takes a flamboyant liquor baron to buy the memorials of the man who believed in simplicity, and in whose name liquor is prohibited in India.

Analysts and Journalists

2009-03-01T11:38:00.000-05:00

I had earlier written the following two posts on analysts....1) Analysts and film critics 2)Analysts are like actors... continuing the trend... in this post i speak about how analysts are more like journalists.
Well for starters... what's the job description of a journalist?? Fact finding, reporting and analysis are the 3 main tasks a journalist performs.... ditto for analysts. The difference lies in the treatment given to the facts. Analysts, doing justice to their title, do some analysis which at times involves number crunching and result interpretation. They then take it forward by giving such information to the market which they need or will need to value a business decision.

Chennai Autorick guide....

2009-01-29T08:28:00.000-05:00

Having lived in chennai for quite some time... i ~~sympathize~~ empathize with this poor fela, but am happy that someone has come with a comprehensive guide on chennai autos..... hopefully many lives, rupees, stamina and minutes would be saved with this guide....

Zen and the Art of Hiring Autos in Chennai

Here's a guide on how to hire an auto rickshaw in Chennai....Never ask the auto that is waiting on the stand..................Be
prepared to be ripped off..............

http://carefullywordednonsense.blogspot.com/

Enjoy reading....

Congrats for the New Job

2009-01-20T09:49:00.000-05:00

It's there on the wall.... economy is going down and pink slips are becoming a craze. It longer is "News" if any one gets kicked out. Even if it's the CEO of the company (though... he is the first one to be thrown out these days). So it's quite surprising if someone gets a job. So surprising that all the news channel,papers and media people are covering it. people have left their work and started celebrating the moment. The TV was on mute, so didn't quite get the guy's name, but do wish him all the best ....

Film review - President is Coming

2009-01-12T05:08:00.000-05:00

Starcast and credits here: imdb, Wiki

My review:

Film Starts
haha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lol ....sigh..... haha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lol........
Interval Starts (yes, this is a 2hr indian movie with a 15 min interval)
munch munch.. ssurpp....munch.... ssurpp
Interval Ends
munch.. munch....

haha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lol ....sigh.....
haha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha
haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha haahahahahaha
hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol
lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol
lol lolhaha ha aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha
aha haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha
haahahahahaha hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lolhaha ha aha haahahahahaha
hehehee lol lol lol lol lol lol........
Film Ends
get up and proceed to exit.... credits rolls... hahaha lol hehehe hahah hahahah
credits end...
run to catch auto to home....

Words not in this year’s dictionary

2009-01-11T03:46:00.001-05:00

Investment Banks

Lehman Brothers
Bear Stearns
AIG
Merrill Lynch
Its a long list… find the others here

Subprime
Mortgage crises
CDO
Bonus/Increment
Raju
Dubyaman
Madoff
LS Tools (for work related reasons… )
ioweyou (we have switched to much better expensure)
India TV (well at least it won’t be in my dictionary-for the crappy news whatever it broadcasts)

The list is endless… will write more bout it in later posts…pour in ur (yes u, 4 the very few of the elite crowd who read this blog…) suggestions for the list

Gajhini – its the villain

2009-01-04T14:47:00.001-05:00

An hour later into the film, I realized gajhini is the villain's name. And I had come to the theatre expecting gajhini to be the heroin’s name, or atleast a good character in the film. And what was all the hype around the film for lifting off the story from memento and all?? coz apart from 30 mins of the film, the rest was just a plain bollywood love story of boy meets girl, boy loves girl, girl is killed, boy takes revenge, and villain finally gets killed.

Moral of the story: If you are the villain, then never utter your name in front of your victims. Or else, they’ll utter your name in their loved ones ear, who’ll forget everything but still remember your name and then tattoo it on his body, kill your men, and finally kill you. But here’s the catch, make sure that every consecutive meeting with him has a gap of more that 15mins. This way he’ll have to recall everything, and by the time he’s finished with doing it, he’ll forget everything.

film rating: can watch once (only when you are down with 2 5 vodkas.

del.icio.us Tags: gajhini film

SL Millionaire – a brief review

2009-01-04T14:18:00.001-05:00

Film: Slumdog Millionaire

I recently got a chance to watch the film everyone has been talking about, and my oh my was it a wonderful film. The film has already entered the top 50 films list on IMDB, and has been nominated in various film festivals. And irrespective of the awards it may win or not, it’s a definite watch.

The film is fantabulous in all ways. Be it editing, casting, direction, and background score. The film is afar cry from typical bollywood films and thank god(or the director) for that. Coz, the film has a solid storyline and that too original (something very rare in Indian Films). The story is about this simple boy from Mumbai slums who goes onto become the only winner of a popular game show “who wants to be a millionaire”. The film then tracks how every incident in his life has contributed towards answering difficult questions on the game show. But its not just the story, its the story telling which puts top of others. and the visual treatment does justice to both and stands a league apart. For AR Rahman fans like me… the background score was a treat in itself. He has mixed indian and western music style to create peppy numbers. These days the songs are on my playlist.

Go and watch this movie today……

Find more details here.

Technorati Tags: slumdog millionaire

Ameen Sayani & Colombo

2008-12-15T05:02:00.000-05:00

The two nouns in the title are pretty well known. The later one is obviously the Sri Lankan capital city. And the former, a well known celeb from the good old DD/AIR days, whose voice any Indian (from the DD era ofcourse) can recognize. But why do i mention the two together? For the uninitiated, Ameen Sayani shot to fame with "Binanaca Geet Mala" which was aired on radio ceylon. Which is quite strange, because sri lanka doesn't even have a sizable hindi speaking population. Bit of wiking let me to this piece of information .
So i always had this desire to see how different Sri Lanka really is. And my recent trip to the land of sinhalese (also of tamils of indian origin, Moors, Burghers and Malays) led to me the conclusion that the country is not much diferent from India. Probably the only difference was clean roads and imported cars (casinos also, but they are not that gr8 over there, so dropping it). The people, their dressing style, the language, the auto rickshaws ... everything is same or bears resemblance to their counterparts in India. One feels at home over there. The city is like any other british established indian city (like mumbai and chennai). It has an old fort area, crowded markets with small bylanes near it, best hotels-offices-govt building in the same vicinity, temples, churches, mosques, autoricks and lots of BATA showrooms.
However, the place is bit expensive compared to india. (Imagine paying LKR 40 or INR 17.4 for a newspaper!!!). And the only thing cheap over there is liquor (that too bcoz its heavily taxed in India).

The next time you visit the place, take my advice and expect an extension of India. The place is as desi as any indian city can get.

the Power of WWW 2.0

2008-12-01T03:44:00.000-05:00

The recent blasts in mumbai have brouhgt many things to spotlight. Be it the brave elite forces like NSG and Marcos, or the failure of govt of India, or even resignations from top bureaucrats and politicians. But one thing which stands out is the power of web 2.0. My first reaction to the blast news was to check blogs, flickr and other social networking sites for informaion on it, so were thousands of people across the globe. And to my surprise i did find entries on the tragic incident within an hour of the blasts. Twitters were updating their status round the clock. Some sources even claim that twits on 'mumbai' were getting updated at the speed of 14 twits per second. Now that's Blitzkrieg news. A blogger 'vinu' uploaded ground-zero pics on flicrk within hours of the incident. Wikipedia entry on the incident was being updated every few minutes. Where traditional media companies had failed, web 2.0 worked and my it worked like fire. people had even updated google maps with details of the incidents. One need not sit in front of the idiot box and listen to boring, repetitive news readers. You could get all the information you want on the web. And if you had configured search alerts, you could even get the latest news from the web/blogs/news on your cellphone.
Although web 2.0 did a prety good job, i hope that the need for such services never arises again.

Life Means...

2008-11-27T09:23:00.000-05:00

This one comes from my friend mallu....

Life Means: a winter evening, four Friends, Mild Rain, Four Cups of Tea
Life Means: Hundred bucks of petrol, Two rusty old bikes, And an open road
Life Means: Maggi Noodles, A hostel room, 3.25am
Life Means: 1 Prep leave, 1 night, 1 book, 8 duffers
Life Means: 3 old friends, 3 separate cities, 3 coffee mugs, and 1 internet messenger
Life Means: 1 chick, 1 number, 4 friends, nd a fight
Life Means: friends...
Life Means: friendship

The new Wiki – Searchwiki

2008-11-21T02:49:00.000-05:00

Google always exceeds my expectations (so are my expectations low or is it Google?). This time it’s an addon for their current flagship product, the google search. Google has moved a step closer to ‘personalization’. They have adopted this famous saying – “What’s the boundary of space? It’s just one step ahead”. So now let’s talk about this new feature. As I type, a google search on ‘searchwiki’ gave 593,000 results. (Results 1 - 10 of about 593,000 for searchwiki). So what I write here is nothing new, and this blog will feature somewhere in the 10^th or 11^th page. But searchwiki will help me (or even you for that matter) to bring my blog on top of the search. But here’s the catch, this would be only for the logged-in user (it means that I cannot promote my blog on google L) . To do so, look for the arrow button at the end of each search result. You can even write comments for the same. So the next time you seach the same key word under your login, the marked search will come up right at the first place.

So what’s my take on it? I see it as a child of social bookmarking and search. I call it “SeachMarking”.

A google a day, keeps yahoo/live/lycos/ask/answer/etc.. away. Njoi surfing

Saturdays at Bansal’s

2008-11-15T07:07:00.001-05:00

Since I we (that's me n my flatmates) shifted to madras
Chennai, never did we cook food at home. Well we did cook maggi and other RTC packs (or rather just poured the contents in boiling water), but that's not cooking. So this Saturday, my friend (cum ex-classmate, colleague and roomie) Mr. Bansal (as one of my uncles fondly addresses him... but will tell that story later). So this Saturday Mr. Bansal decided to cook at home, partly motivated by the chole in the fridge from the night earlier, and partly to put his culinary skills at work. And my oh my... what delicious parathas he makes.... the 2^nd best I ever had (1^st place reserved for my mom u c....). Delicious ghee parathas, not at all for the weak hearted, but for the desi dil wale. We have even contemplated the thought of opening up a restaurant, where he'll do the cooking, and i'll wait the tables. But that's more like a backup option, considering we both got jobs in financial sector, it's better to diversify your risks. So who so ever wants to join in, send in ur resume and seed money....

PALT (Posting After Long Time)

2008-11-11T12:43:00.004-05:00
Posting after a long time. Actually a really long time..... the sensex has shed more than 23% points, india has sent a spacecraft to moon, a certain Mr. Obama has won the US elections, Indian auto companies have cut down salary, my company took us to QOS screening (hope they won't cut our salary, HR ppl... hope u r reading ... X-fingers crossed), India beat australia 2-0 in test cricket, Arsenal beat ManU 2-1, Vishy is now the world chess champion, more than 10,000 people lost their jobs in US, and even more companies went bankrupt.
enuf of the global gyan.... now turning the pointer to me... have been pretty busy with work and a certification exam... though... did get the time to visit pondicherry and temple cities near thanjavur. nice place... do visit... it seems so that every town (small or big) has got a big temple for it... guess they were used as a commonplace for trade, socializing, politics and justice in olden times. Anyways, make sure to take a guide with you, the places are just carved stones without one.
gotta go rite now... got a lot to do... will keep posting

Analysts are like actors

2008-09-25T06:32:00.000-04:00

I had earlier written a post Analysts and Critics, comparing analysts with critics. This time, I’m upgrading Analysts to Actors. The trait i'm referring to here is the capability to enact multiple roles. An actor gets to play different roles across different films/plays. Similarly an Analyst gets to track different sectors. He gains expertise over various sectors before finalizing upon the one suitable for him (just like an actor). Film release day is one of the biggest days for an actor. Similarly, earnings release, M&A announcement and report publications are the biggest days for an analyst.

For eg. Aamir plays different roles such as - cop, student, cricketer (yeah he played that too, and its not lagaan), farmer (this one's from lagaan), businessman, teacher, guide, taxi driver and the list goes on.... On the other hand, an Analyst i know has traked various sectors... Metals and mining, IT services, biotechnology, Banking, Retail.. and has gained expertise in each of them.

But one thing separtes the two.... paparazi.....

Browser Wars - and what makes it one...

2008-09-15T13:14:00.006-04:00

Originally written for magIMNUops (College magazine) by yours truly.

This week, Google launched their browser and called it Chrome. This marks the official start of BROWSER WARS III (BW-III). Just to a take a sneak peak into the previous two wars, BW-I was the glorious Netscape Vs Internet Explorer (IE). Netscape had the first mover advantage and had around 80% market share in 1996. By 2003, Microsoft, with its muscle power (read financial muscle) had totally wiped off Netscape from the www map. Some ex-Netscape associates formed another company and made the most widely known open source application- Mozilla’s Firefox. It’s customizable features made it popular with the serious surfers (web surfers). This was the BW-II era. IE was the default browser, as it came free and pre-installed with Windows. Those who rarely used the net, or used only for dedicated single instances, did not care about the browser and did not make the choice of a browser. But majority of those who made the choice choose Firefox, as is evident from the red portion.
So did BW-II get over?? Well, yes and no. It got over because there was this select group of webusers who used it (Firefox), and there was this group who’ll never use it. There some other players too (Opera the most known one, Apple’s Safari and some others based on Linux…) but their presence was limited. And just when we thought that the BW was over, Google launched “Chrome”. Analysts, critics, techies, Googlers, professional surfers, bloggers, VJs, DJs, Politicians, Comedians…… everyone has his/her own opinion on why Google launched chrome and whether it’ll be a success or not. You may search (or “Google it” should I say) it to update your TQ (Tech Quotient… wow I almost invented a word). But what I can tell you for sure is that this is a sign of exciting times in the BW. Suddenly you have the best Firefox (Firefox 3.0 with a beta 3.1 coming up), an IE which has made many heads turn (IE 8beta), Opera (which always had the best of the features), Apple’s Safari (well it’s an Apple, what else to say) and a goggle browser (which is a combination of Safari, Firefox and Google’s new technology). This, my dear, is BW-III, and it can’t get better than this. And to add to the wars, Chrome is as much open source as Firefox is, and soon we can see the new features in Firefox too. This will force IE, Safari and Opera to innovate. And I hope that does more good than harm to users.
Read more about them, before you participate in the wars:
IE 8
Firefox 3
Chrome
Safari
Opera
(not pasting the links.... just wiki them out..... ;) )

Back to square 1

2008-09-10T05:33:00.007-04:00

If you have been following my blog (which means that you are amongst the niche audience which includes close family members, friends and... well no one else :P...) you must have noticed the theme change. Well i was in an experimentation mode, and was looking for a better template. I was not satisfied with the experiment, but did not hav the time to undo changes. It finally took a comment from a regular reader for me to revert back to the old theme.
And if, IF, you are new to the blog... [da da da,dum dum dum (welcome tune) ] thanks a LOT for visiting. Feel free to go through the blog and do post comments...also sign up for the email feed. And please ask others to hav a dekho at the blog. Anyways, coming back to the point, as you are new to the blog, here's the template i was experimenting with.

No more law

2008-09-09T01:24:00.001-04:00

The other day I was caught on the wrong side of the law (Wrong side of the road actually). No mistake of mine though. I tell you, these police wallas will make any road one-way at their will. And add to that, the sign boards are generally hidden below trees or behind billboards. And if you expect them to be well lit during nights then keep dreaming. So, I missed the board and the traffic cops caught me. I, being the kind of good citizen I am, paid the fine: Rs 50 for driving in the opposite direction and another 1000 for dangerous driving (a term cooked up cops to buy that silk sari for their missus…). I wanted to argue with the policeman, but didn’t because of the 3 things: bike wasn’t mine.-. It was 15 past 11 in night.-. I didn’t want to bribe anyone. But this is not the issue. The issue is unequal treatment. The auto rickshaw driver who charges more than the meter is never punished. (at least in Chennai), and then there are scores of citizens who escape with a bribe. At the end of the day, I’m not motivated follow the law. So the next time when I break the law, I won’t budge in.

Alumni Meet Poll- for IMNUians/NIMites

2008-09-04T08:43:00.002-04:00
http://snappoll.com/poll/290537.php

Bchlr begins life....

2008-09-03T14:04:00.003-04:00
PF, life insurance, ULIP, stock investments, Gold, PPF, medical insurance, tax, 80c, education loan repayment, certifications, appraisals.....
guess the "mera-beta-apne-pairon-par-khada-ho-gaya-hai" part of life has started....

Powerful women on top

2008-08-28T22:48:00.003-04:00
It was bound to happen... simple logic.. u use power, people (read forbes magazine) perceives u as one..
Mayawati has finally made to the list of 100 most powerful women on earth. And only Sonia Gandhi is the other Indian on the list. So guess, mayawati's mehnat has finally paid off. hope she is satisfied with it and won't contest for PM's seat.
But, this is not the end. there are others too who'd be in the list next year... Mamta "bengal tigeress" banarjee anyone??

Mid Night Radio

2008-08-20T03:16:00.000-04:00
Our savior during 2nd year of B-School.... A program telecasted (or multicasted to be more precise) every night at ... u guessed it right... midnight, 00:00 hrs.... Discussions on the show included everything under the sun (read campus)... from campus gossip... to mess food... from students to professors... from holidays to tests.... from summer internship to placements.... from break-ups to company mergers. It also featured interviews of celebrity of the day......

Now vinaytosh... chief presenter MNR.. has started posting the broadcasts on blog... here's the link....
(((((( Mid Night Radio ))))))

take a test ride today... and share the experience here.....
NJOI listening.....

Finally...!!!!!!!!!

2008-08-11T16:01:00.002-04:00
With the tricolour at topmost position, india's national anthem was played at olympics after a gap of 28 years... and for the first time for an individual event....
guess the pic says for itself...

pic courtesy: DD Sports

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GOOGLE's stake in AOL?????????

2008-08-08T11:04:00.004-04:00
And i thought Google was sensible enough to venture into the right areas. But, who could have had ever thought that Google has stake in AOL.

"The Mountain View-based company disclosed in a quarterly report filed late Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the 5 percent AOL stake that it bought in 2005 "may be impaired."

AOL Time Warner is today trading at around $ 15. Compared to a $18.59 at the start of FY2005. That means a CAGR of around -9%.
Now you know in which direction is the red line going....

see the connection here

ps: chart is courtesy ... who else.... google/finance ;)
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मात्रभाषा में प्रथम लेख

2008-08-06T05:09:00.006-04:00
नमस्कार | इस मेख को लिखने से पहले मैं इस विचार में था, कि अपने 'ब्लॉग' पर नया क्या लिखा जाए | बहुतविचार करने के बाद मैं इस नतीजे पर पहुँचा कि अपनी मात्रभाषा में लेख लिखा जाए (जो आप इस वक्त महसूसकर रहे हैं,पढ़ रहे हैं) | किंतु, मेरे पास कोई सॉफ्टवेर तोह है नहीं, जिससे में शुद्ध हिन्दी में, बिना कोई गलती किएलेख लिख सकूं | थोड़े शोध के बाद मेरी नज़र 'गूगल' के अंग्रेज़ी-से-हिन्दी अनुवादक पर पड़ी | यूँ तोह यहअनुवादक बहुत सहायक है, पर इसका उपयोग अक्षरों तक ही सीमित है | यधि आप अंग्रेज़ी मेंलिखे हुए पूरे लेखका अनुवाद एक साथ करना चाहते हैं, तोह फिर 'गूगल' अनुवादक ज़्यादा उपयोग का नहीं है|

पर फिर सोचने की बात यह है, कि हमने यह लेख लिखा कैसे | तोह कहानी कुछ ऐसी है कि हम तोह ठहरे गूगलप्रेमी | तोह हमने यहाँ वहां हात पांव चलाये, और अंत में 'ब्लागस्पाट' के में लेख लिखने वाली नई विशेषता कोखोज लिया | अब हिन्दी में लेख लिखना हो गया सरल, और इसका सबूत आप के सामने है |

पाठशाला में अंग्रेज़ी में पढ़ाई करने के बाद मैंने कभी सपने में भीनहीं सोचा था कि ऐसा भी दिन आएगा जब मेंहिन्दी में कुछ लिखूंगा | वैसे हिन्दी में लिखना आसान है, पर इतने दिनों बाद आधे से ज़्यादा अक्षर याद ही नहींआते | धीरे धीरे हिन्दी में लिखने से शायद यह कार्य और सरल हो जाए |

जयहिंद |

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Analysts and film critics

2008-07-30T09:02:00.002-04:00

Analysts are like film critics. And for the uninitiated, by analysts I mean company analyst, those who come with buy/sell recommendation for stocks (and also do much more than that).

I am of the opinion that (well that’s how analysts generally give a disclaimer: P) that analysts mirror film critics to a large extent. Here are the commonalities:-

They both give out predictions
They both change their predictions based on latest available information (company earnings report in case of analysts and movie release in case of critics)
They both are the not the target customers neither the target beneficiaries for their covered companies/movies. Movies are for the masses and their results benefit the producer. Companies on the other hand, give out results for equity holders and their target customers are definitely NOT ‘Analysts’
They both have their own performance measurement scales in place. Critics have different measurement scales for different genre of films. Analysts too have different measurement scales (which analysts love to call ‘models’) for different type of companies
They both are loved by the public/investors and hated by the film_makers/companies
They have their own set of favourites. Critics have their set of directors whom they intentionally or unintentionally favour. Analysts too have their own set of favourite companies.
They both have a rating system. Critics have a star rating system (generally a 5 point one). Analysts too have some thing similar (strong buy, buy, hold, sell, strong sell)
They both have immense knowledge about their subjects but will never enter that field to make a film or run a company.
They both go wrong
But still, majority of the population go thru’ their review/report before watching/buying film/stocks.

Btw, film critics are also known as ‘Trade Analysts’.
So, the moral of the story is that... to become an ace Analyst, start watching movies... ;)

Darkest Knight

2008-07-26T23:51:00.003-04:00
The Dark Knight. A lot has been said about this movie, but in my opnion it is the scarriest movie ever. Scarrier than even any horror movie. horror movies are spooky. It takes ghosts or supernatural powers for them to frighten us? "the dark knight" has ten times the impact and dosen't even use a single ghost. Instead it uses the smallest yet the most powerful thing to deliver the impact- human psyche.
I won't spoil the fun for those of you haven't watched it (and if you are one of them, then book yourself a ticket NOW). but to sum it up... "If haar ke bhi jitne wala baazigar hai... then the Joker is the baazigar"

Escapade to the unkown

2008-07-21T13:09:00.002-04:00

When was the last time you went on for a unplanned journey? Well thanks to Amir Khan (yeah u read it right… the actor), I went on an unplanned journey last weekend.

Flashaback

It’s Thursday and the watch reads 10:23pm, I’ve returned late from office and am having dinner while watching TV. Suddenly I see this new Titan ad. Aamir khan asks us to “be more”. Among a lot of other things, he asks the viewer“kabhi kissi anjaan sheher ka ticket kata ke dekho” (get urself a ticket to an unkown station). Maybe I haven’t been outside Chennai much, or maybe I desperately needed a vacation or maybe out of pure excitement, I decided to spend the weekend doing exactly this. Escapade to an unknown destination. I asked ‘mb’ (my flat mate). He gave the idea a thumbs up….

And 33 hrs later, on a Saturday morning, I’m at Henry Irwin designed railway station. We tried getting others in the adventure, but some where either busy with work or sleep. Anyways, we proceeded with our unplanned plan. A quick look at the destination chart, and we had chosen our destination. It was to be a town called kavali, 227 kms away from the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The name sounded more like the style of sufi devotional music, made popular by the likes of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

It took some time for us to reach there ( 240 mins to be precise). Since we did not know the arrival time, we kept looking out for our station. On our way we passed thru’ a fairly big city called Nellore. And we finally reached the place. The town is a nice small sleepy one which gets active at dawn. We had lunch and then went on to explore the area. To our surprise, a beach called ramaypatnam, was just 12 kms away. We hired an auto and went for the place. The beach was amongst the best beaches I’ve ever seen. All pristine beauty. Far from all the crowd and clutter of city beaches. We roamed around the beach. And then, took an hour long nap on the beach. However, thundering clouds made us do some thinking, and we headed towards Nellore.

Nellore is famous for its food. So we tried out a pure Andhra tiffin (meal). Never ever has I eaten rice in so many combinations. There was chutney, sambhar, rasam, curry, some masala, curd, and god knows what…. But all to eaten with rice. Post meal, a Russian variety of potato extract made sure that I sleep well in the hotel. Next morning and it was already more than 24 hrs since we last saw Chennai central. But, we had more to explore. A small trip (1hr btw…) to krishnapatnam port and we realize the port is still under construction. Then a bystander came to our rescue and led us to krishnapatnam beach. Once again we were mesmerized with the beach’s sheer beauty. But, we couldn’t stay there longer,for we had to catch a train back to Chennai. We thought the escapade couldn’t get better, but we were in for some big show. The train got cancelled. We had 2 hours to kill before the next train. So we came up with this daring idea of searching any wheat based food item. Roti/chappati/sandwich/burger/pizza… we had a long list, but no where in Nellore could we find these. We had to give in and settled for dosa and idli.

And now as you are reading this, I am back in the city, in my office, in my cubicle. Waiting for another escapade.

Ps: If you go for an escapade, make sure that u hit the sack on return. And sleep for at least 8-10 hours before going to your office. Or else, you’ll end up sleeping in the office like me :P

Best email forward till date

2008-07-16T14:07:00.007-04:00
Every morning i religiously check my inbox for new mails. and more often than not i end up reading (read glancing) and deleting forwards (nomenclature: FWD). I was about to delete this forward, but a quick glance made me read the whole. i have done 70 things out of the list, and my fav being point 63 (for a totally diff reason ;) ). So wot's ur score???

You know you grew up in India in the 90s when:

1) You know the words to 'In-pin-safety- pin' and 'akkad-bakkad' by heart
2) Cricket is almost a religion for you, and you idolize at least one of Kapil Dev/Rahul Dravid/Sachin Tendulkar/Saurav Ganguly
3) You have read at least some Chacha Chaudhary or Tinkle comics
4) You've watched Shaktimaan on TV at least once in your life. And you can immediately recognize the character when you see him.
5) You have some 'NRI' relatives.
6) You couldn't wait for it to be December so you could have the Toblerone chocolates your NRI relatives brought you
7) You watched Cartoon Network, and then the late night movies on TNT that came after Cartoon Network ended.
8) You watched corny dubbed versions of Small Wonder, Silver Spoon, and I Dream of Jeanie
9) You were THRILLED when McDonald's opened in your neighborhood (or even eight kilometers away)
10) Your first burgers were at Wimpy's or Nirula's.
11) A visit to Pizza Hut used to mean a special treat
12) You have seen Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun at least 5 times each
13) You still remember the theme song to Hum Paanch.
14) You have played hours upon hour of Pukdam-pakdai, oonch-neech, kho-kho, 'Doctor, doctor, help us!', 'Lock and key'
15) You have played 'Uma Joshi' more times than you can remember.
16) Dog 'in' the bone was your favorite co-ed game.
17) Much of your free time in school was spent playing UNO.
18) You collected trump cards of wrestlers, cricketers, and airplanes, and did not quite understand why your younger siblings were obsessed with Pokemon and the other Japanese trends that followed.
19) Your summer vacations were often synonymous with visiting your grandparents
20) Your parents, at some point, told you 'Dark Room' was a bad game to play. But you still loved playing it.
21) Bole mere lips, I love uncle Chips!
22) You know the song 'Made in India' by Alisha Chinoi
23) You have seen many many many episodes of 'Antakshri' on Zee TV and know the only thing constant in the show is Anu Kapoor.
24) Amy evenings have been spent watching little kids gyrate vulgarly on Boogie Woogie on Sony.
25) You were the coolest thing in class if you had a computer in your house while it was still the 90s.
26) You learnt LOGO in school!
27) You couldn't wait to start 4th/6th standard so you could start writing with PENS instead of with pencils!
28) You often you terms and phrases like 'kutti', 'abba', 'same to you, back to you, with no returns', and 'shame shame, puppy shame, all the donkeys know your name.'
29) You most probably saw Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge at the cinema at least once. You also fantasized singing songs in mustard fields like in the movie.
30) You have seen David Dhawan and Govinda movies and laughed at them.
31) You have said 'haw' or 'haw ji ki pwji' when you saw people kissing in English movies
31) You have seen Titanic at least 12 times.
32) You thought seeing English movies and speaking English made you the coolest thing ever.
33) You remember the Orissa cyclone, even though you didn't know what a cyclone was.
34) You remember the Gujarat earthquake very clearly and could possibly tell everyone EXACTLY what you were ding when the earthquake occurred.
35) Barbies for girls, and GI Joes for boys were the ultimate status symbols. You just wanted more more more and more. And how can I forget Hot Wheels, for both boys and girls? I personally have a collection of over 200 little Hot Wheels cars.
36) You have worn Osh-Kosh B'gosh and United Colours of Benetton clothes while growing up. And you thought 'imported' clothes were definitely way better than 'made in India' clothes (never mind that a lot of clothes brought from overseas by NRI relatives were actually made in India, before 'Made in China' started appearing on EVERY existing thing)
37) You know the words to 'Posham Paa', and like it better than 'Oranges and Lemons' even though you'd sing the latter to sound cool (see 32 above).
38) At some point or other, cool was your favourite, and therefore, most overused word.
39) Captain Planet was your first introduction to environmental consciousness.
40) You have tried to convince people around you to not burst crackers on Diwali, and then gone straight back home and burst them yourself.
41) You have had endless packets of Parle Gluco G biscuits, and of Brittania Little Hearts biscuits.
42) You loved licking off the cream from the centre of Bourbon biscuits.
43) There were no Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Puma- Bata and Liberty was the way to go for your sports shoes.
44) You have probably consumed more Frooti in your lifetime than there is oil in Iraq.
45) You watched Baywatch on Star World even though (or because) your parents said you shouldn't watch it.
46) You bought packets of potato chips for the specific purpose of collecting Tazoa. And you had Tazos depicting everyone from Confucius to Daffy Duck to Daffy Duck dressed as Confucius.
47) For the longest time, the Maruti 800, the Premier Padmini, THE Fiat, and THE Ambassador were the only cars you saw on the road, and the Contessa was cool because it was bigger.
48) You would literally jump up in excitement if you ever chanced upon an imported car (Oh my gosh, is that really a MERCEDES?)!
49) You spent a good part of 1998 drooling over the Hyundai Santro and the Daewoo Matiz , debating which one was better.
50) You used to Fuzen gum. You also chewed Big (big) Babool and/or Boom Boom Boomer chewing gum. They were bright pink and disgusting tasting, but you loved them for the temporary tattoos.
51) Talking of temporary tattoos, you sometimes had contests with your classmates about who had more tattoos on their arm, leg, knee, hand, forehead, wherever.
52) You thought Mario and Tetris were the coolest things ever invented, especially if you were a boy.
53) You knew that having the latest Hero or Atlas bicycle would make you the coolest kid on the block.
54) You can imitate Sushmita Sen's winning gasp to perfection.
55) You have, at some point of time, worn GAP clothes (real or fake) like SRK in KKHH.
56) Seemingly senseless acronyms like SRK, DDLJ, KKHH actually make sense to you.
57) You have at some point debated who was more beautiful- Aishwarya or Sushmita.
58) If you lived in Delhi, you went bowling at Essex Farms, or Go-Karting at 32nd Milestone and couldn't think how you could get any cooler than that.
59) Baskin Robbins ice-cream was THE thing to have!
60) You know what Campa Cola is. And you also knew that Coca Cola was THE drink.
61) When you would watch WWF keenly every evening/afternoon and really think that Undertaker had 7 lives and he made an "actual" appearance in the Akshay Kumar- starrer Khiladiyon ka Khiladi.
62) When all backpacks (or 'schoolbags' ) and water bottles and tiffin boxes had strange cartoon characters that were hybrid versions of seven or eight different characters, and you still bought them, because a green man wih a water pistol, boots, a jet-pack, Johnny bravo hair, a rajasthani mustache, gloves, and underwear (long johns) over his pants, called 'Mr. X' was OBVIOUSLY a status symbol.
63) You remember the Nirma tikia jingle.
64) You remember the Nirma girl.
65) You remember the 'doodh doodh' ad and also the 'roz khao andey' ads.
66) You grew up reading, if you read at all, some or all of Nancy Drews, Enid Blyton books, Hardy Boys, Babysitters Club, Animorphs, Goosebumps, Sweet Valley series, Judy Blumes, and Tintin, or Archie comics. Because naturally, reading foreign authors made you much coller than reading Tinkle.
67) Towards the late 90s (1998-99) at least some of us started our Harry Potter obsessions!
68) You absolutely HAD to go to Essel World if you wnet to Mumbai! "Essel World mein rahoonga main, ghar nahin nahin jaaonga main!"
69) You watched the Bournvita Quiz contest on TV pretty religiously. The smarter ones amongst you actually took part in it and had your entire school and your entire extended families watch you on it!
70) "Jungle jungle baat chali hai, pata chala hai. Chaddi pehen ke phool khila hai, phool khila!"
71) Maggi 2 Minute Noodles = ultimate snack (and tiffin, lunch, dinner)!
72) If you grew up in the early 90s, you recall the nation's obsession with Mahabharata on TV
73) In the later 90s, you religiously followed Hip Hip Hooray on Zee. Maybe Just Mohabbat on Sony too.
74) You eagerly awaited Friendship Day, so you could give friendship bands to all your friends, and get bands from them in return. Then, of course, those with the most bands loved to show them off (and on Rakhi, boys with the most Rakhis loved showing those off too!)

75) This list made you smile.

a day in annaland

2008-07-12T15:49:00.006-04:00
A day (evening to be precise) at my karmbhoomi (read "pays my bills"bhoomi).....

its 6pm.... i got some work.. but before that, i'm on office terrace for quick snack break....
then... back to work.. and more work.... now it's 9, and i leave for home.... i reach home only to find my roomie on his new bike....

.... but to my dismay.... he's just checking out the bike.... (the bike belongs to Rao, the one in the background, he just gave the bike... not the keys... smart guy... ;) )
anyways.... after dinner.... i go for a walk... although the roads are deserted by time... but this one had a special guest.... no prizes for guessing her name... ;)

And if u culdn't yet guess whr i am.... this road side graffiti should clear all ur doubts.....

ps: pics courtesy, my mobile cam (hence the low quality)

Stock market lingo

2008-07-03T04:05:00.002-04:00
Here is a lowdown on the latest stock market lingo...

PE - Plunge Endless
EBITDA- Exit Before It Tumbles Down Again
QIB - Quixotic Indian Blunder
HNI - Has No Idea
FII - Furious Impoverished Investors
PMS - Premeditated Scam
SIP - Suicide by Investing Patiently
Fund Manager - Last year's ace stock picker now locked up in an asylum
Investor - Someone who is broke
Broker - Worse off than an investor
Correction - The next day after you bought shares
Momentum buying - The fine art of buying high and selling low

ps: an email fwd

Looking back

2008-06-11T16:08:00.003-04:00

Was gettin a bit nostalgic..... posting from one of my previous posts......

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So how have these 4 months been? To start with, we had lots to study. And One whole term went by to make us realize that. We had many sleepless nights, but mind you it wasn’t because of studies. We had a welcome party thrown in by our respectable seniors, talent night by adorable batch mates , Management Conclave and HR Conclave , Goalzzz: the inter B-School football tournament, Lakshya : the inter Class sports challenge, PPV (which for the uninitiated stands for Pre Placement Visit) ,some Exams thrown in here and there, Lots of movies, LAN games, LAN wars, LAN quizzes, Lunch-Dinner at Maduria/Rajasthan/Tandoor and sometimes even at our humble MESS; Snacks at Pantry, NIT canteen and TAPRI; Celebrating festivals: Ganesh Chaturthi ,Independence day, Navratrti, Diwali & doin bhangra instead of garba at navratri; Attending various Bschool competitions; Break-ups and Make-ups ……… and the list goes on……and on….and on. Moreover, this was just for the first 4 months. Many months are yet to come filled with love, happiness, sorrow, grief, excitement and what not. Looking forward to the next 4M .
And to end with one senti line: “It’s not the journey , but the company that matters”
- M2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- now M3

Sunday at Murray’s

2008-06-10T02:19:00.001-04:00

300… 350… 400… 450… 500… 500… 500… 500… 500 One… 500 twice… 500 thrice…. Sold to the gentleman in 5^th row.

My first time at an auction, and I get a rosewood TV table (or a radio table, even the auctioneer couldn’t decide) for Rs 500. Not bad haan… Its Sunday morning, and we (read me+bansal+omkar) are sitting in Murray’s auction house. We are surrounded by at least 20 typical south Indian rosewood cupboards, 10 sofa sets, an equal number of dining table sets, antiques, chandeliers, ACs, refrigerators, chairs, beds, stamp books, antiques, wrist watches, TV, Sofa, dining table, designer mirrors, PCs, Phones, Fax machines and what not. You name it, you got it. And once the feeling sinks in, you take notice of the bidding wars going on. And if you thought the whole process was boring, think again. The auctioneer makes the process interesting with his witty comments. And if an antique is on display, he gives some gyan about the same (mostly from wikipedia… hail wiki). And there’s always the “guess the final price” game you can play.

The place is excellent for bachelors who want 2^nd hand stuff for their new house. The place is also a must for antique collectors and art lovers. But an important disclaimer: The goods are auctioned in “as it is” condition. No guaranty/warranty is offered on the goods. So it’s better that you first have a look at the items on display a day earlier.

Some tips on buying through auction (am no pro, but they’ll come handy ;) )

Set your upper price limit for the goods well in advance.
Don’t go with a pre decided mindset of buying any specific item. Buy only if you like it and it’s below the set price limit.
Don’t bid aggressively. It shows that you are desperate for the item.
However in a one-on-one bidding situation, you have to get aggressive. But even in such a case never forget point 1.
Never ever forget point 1 and 2.

And even if you are not interested in buying, I suggest just try it for the experience. Moreover, you never know what you could find there.

Venue: Murray’s auction house, LIC compound, Mount Road (Nr. Spencer Plaza) Chennai

Date & time: Every Sunday 10.30pm – 4.30pm onwards.To inspect the items on display, one can visit the auction house a day before, i.e. on Saturday.

Happy buying… :)

Vodafone-Happy to help, Demon-Unhappy to ask for it

2008-06-02T04:56:00.001-04:00

The complaint letter I sent to Vodafone.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,
My Vodafone prepaid number is 99628xxxxx. I have recently shifted to Chennai and got this number 2 weeks ago.For the first week the service was good, but from the past week, the service quality has gone bad.Even though I stay in the heart of the city (T.Nagar) the signal reception is very poor.
Apart from poor signal, I face the following problems:
call disconnections (even when my balance is Rs 400+)
One way calls, where either I can hear what the other is saying or the other way round.
SMS sending failure
SMS received very late
Failure to dial phone numbers.
And this is not any single instance. These problems are also shared by other Vodafone customers.
Vodafone is a multinational brand, kindly make sure you atleast deliver the basic promises which your brand has made.Today, when Telecom companies are taking about 3G service, I fail to understand how they could deliver the same when small issues like connectivity are not addressed properly.
I tried calling your helpline number, but the call got disconnected twice. Your poor service is not even letting you to help your customers.
Kindly look into the matter. I have used Vodafone in Gujarat and expect similar services here, ATLEAST.
Regards,
Maheep Mandloi

You got to move....

2008-05-29T04:34:00.001-04:00

Finally, we came closer to reality. The hotel guys kicked us out (company stay u c…. only for 15 daysL) and so we (read me + 3) had to shift to a new house. Searching for this house was nevertheless a daunting task. Thanks to the IT and booming financial services industry, the demand for houses has gone up. And so have the prices. But even that wasn’t an issue, as I had teamed up with 3 others to rent an apartment. The major hurdle was “us being bachelors”. Apart from singletons, no one wants a bachelor.

Landlords in general are very suspicious of bachelors. From the company we work for to the company we keep, they want to know everything.

And once you are pass the negotiation, comes the fatal blow called DEPOSIT. For bachelor who hasn’t even got his first pay slip, a Rs 80000 deposit is too much.

After all this, you leave the hotel and make a gala entry in your apartment, only to realize that you havn’t bought the necessities. A visit to the market, something which you have been avoiding, now becomes necessary. First you get mattress, bed sheets, bathroom supplies, house cleaning supplies, snacks, hangers, rope… and so on. No matter how extensive shopping list you make, you always end up buying much more than that.

Once the supplies are in place, you look for drinking water supply and ‘tiffin wala’. This ensures you never go thirsty and hungry. Get yourself a paper every morning. Milk supplies, cooking gas, stove……….the list never ends.

Anyways, I have moved to an apartment and still halfway thru’ my shopping list. Lets hope I get what all I want for the apartment.

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My new number

2008-05-16T14:42:00.002-04:00

Day 1 of many

2008-05-14T02:36:00.001-04:00

As I left gujjuland for Annaland, many said it won’t be easy. “The weather is different in erstwhile madras, the food is different, roti/chapatti is a delicacy rarely found there and its better not to say about the language” and so on…. However I being the person I am choose to ignore the warnings. But as they say, “seeing is believing”. or here is another one… “you never learn from other’s mistake”.

The weather is obviously diff, for the city being a costal city. But, coming from Gujarat, it hasn’t troubled me much. Finding good north Indian style tiffin service is bit tough here. The restaurants here are decent, but you can’t eat there daily. The language is new for me, so it becomes difficult to communicate. We generally use to address shopkeepers or people in general as “Bhaiya” or “Bhai saab” or “kaka” (please excuse me for using only the male version). But out here, no one responds to these, and some times not even to plain English “Excuse Me”. Me and my friends tried various combinations, and finally settled upon “Anna”. Hopefully it’s working with no negative side effects till now. And the other day, we ate this place only because the waiter knew hindi, and the place served rajasthani thali :). Of course the quality can’t be compared to that available back in aravalli’s, but “andhon mein kaana raja” (among blind men, even one-eyed is the king).

Gotta go now 4 training@office. Till my next blog, happy reading :)

Ahmedabad Checklist

2008-05-09T15:36:00.003-04:00

As i bid farewell to this city of mine for 2 years, I tried remembering the best places in Ahmedabad. I came up with this checklist. Checlist for a person to be called a Amdavadi.....

1.Have been to Kalupur Station atleast once.
2.Have seen movie in any of the multiplexes, be it Rworld,FR,WideAngle,CityPulse,CityGold,Adlabs etc.... and are proud for ahmedabad being the Multipex capital of india.
3.Have been to aleast one mall.... (Himalaya,Iscon etc...).. .and are excited for the new mall to come up
4.Had Jasuben's Pizza (even though the pizza is more like a biscuit)
5.Had Cold coco or Cold coffee at commercewala (or neother shop 4 that matter)
6.Been to Science City...(eventhough its just for children, u ought to b thr atleast once...)
7.Had late night dinner at honest or choice.
8.Had tea and maska bun at IIM ketley.....
9.Been to CEPT or NID atleast once....(to check out the hep crowd)....
10.Been to Friends or any big Navratri event only to find out that u need to shell out over 1000 bucks just to dance in an open field, that too w/o a DJ :(
11.Been to Durga puja mahotsav organised by Bengali samaj of Ahmedabad in navrangpura.
12.Strolled around the river, or walked on any of the city bridges.
13.Been to ManekChowk and had desi food, and did not care about higene for a while....
14.Had 6 flavor 'pani puri' at murlidhar or other good pani puri walas
15.Flown kite from the roof top on 14th jan only to realize that ur kite string has been cut by ur frnd/brother/sister using scissors.
16.Had Dinner at Patang..the revolving restaurant
17.If you know the short cut between IIM and University road goes through ISRO PRL.
18.Driven over 100kmph at ring road/Expressway/SG highway etc...
19.If u come to SG highway to spend ur weekend.
20.Been to Kankaria lake, had bhel and did boating
21.Had Ice dish and soda during summers
22.If u know atleast 4 "darwajas" of Walled City.
23.If u have visited at least one home in the walled city area.
24.Walked down from Lal darwaja to Station
25.Bought/Sold books at Fernandes Bridge.
26.Had all gujju delicacies... fafda,jalebi,undhu,mathiya,gota,dhokla,khamand,shrikhand,chaas etc....
27. and can come up with 30 more places like minars at station,crossword,adalaj stepwell etc.....

To the center of INDIA and back!!! - part 2

2008-04-28T16:10:00.001-04:00

The other day I was traveling in this bus (tata city ride). The bus seemed new, but it was in very poor condition. Rolls Royce’s famous ad-line used to say – "The only sound one can hear in the new Pierce-Arrows is the ticking of the electric clock.". The same for this bus would go like this- “"The only sound one can’t hear in this bus is the horn". But travel no more than 3 kms and you understand the reason. The roads are filled with holes or are under construction. It’s a wonder how the bus runs.

Nevertheless have a look at the dashboard, and it’s all crystal clear. One can find photographs of various gods. I guess it’s the blessings which helps the bus. Religion of the driver doesn’t matter. Unfailingly, drivers make it a point to burn Incense sticks at dargah and temples on the way. The drivers are highly superstitious and leave no stone unturned. If a cat crosses the road, the bus stops immediately. The driver performs his ritual to offset it, generally by throwing lighted matchsticks on both sides of the road. Only then does he proceed.

Now since the bus travels in rural parts, it’s difficult and costly to get the services of a garage. So, it runs on ‘jugaad’. For eg. In this bus, the driver used to pour petrol in engine to start a diesel bus. 5-10ml of petrol and the engine starts. By the way, the engine starts by push, and not self start. So whenever the bus stops, 5-6 men get down to give it a push. In a way, this is also self start… what say????

To the center of INDIA and back!!!

2008-04-28T15:33:00.003-04:00

Talk of INDIA and snapshots of recent developments flash in front of our eyes. Brand new airports, 6-lane highways, modern skyscrapers, IT and mfg hub, Dozens of SEZs, integrated townships.... and what not.

But amidst the fanfare, we forget a different part of India… the non-urban India. In my Rural Marketing class, this part of the country is addressed as “The Rural India”.

It covers all the non-urban towns and villages through out India. Not that I’m not aware of its presence, I myself belong to a village in MP. But due to studies and other commitments I had not visited it in the past 4 years.

I recently got a chance to visit this very India. Things have changed in the nearest city (read Indore). and definitely for the better. But, the villages remain more or less the same. They are still not connected properly by roads. Only the state highways have been developed, that too thanks to toll roads. The “Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Vikas Yojna” or the PM village road development scheme is no better than lip service. The approach road to my village has been built twice, but still the only thing left out of it is the sign board. That too is covered with bills.

The condition in non-industrialised states is very poor. The rate of power cuts is very high. Cities face with 4-5 hrs of power cuts. Whereas, villages receive power for no more than 4-5 hrs.

To be continued in the next post

S.O.R.R.Y.

2008-02-18T13:30:00.002-05:00

there is this jain tradition of asking for forgiveness from everyone you know. Knowingly or unknowingly we hurt others.... and specially your loved ones.....
so here it goes from my side....

I don't want to be this way
But I am
Maybe I'll change someday
For now, all I can do is apologize
I'm sorry for the words I spoke
I'm sorry for the way I treated you
I'm sorry for all that I broke
I'm sorry for being distant
I'm sorry for the way I look
I'm sorry for the way I think
I'm sorry for how much time I took
It's the way of Fate

I'm sorry

HDR

2008-01-18T02:11:00.001-05:00

Being a Photoshop fan,i tend to browse the net for photography and editing related material. and one fine day i discovered HDR..... HDR stands for High Dynamic Range
Wikipedia says : "high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allows a greater
dynamic range of exposures
(the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital
imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent
the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from
direct sunlight to shadows."
more can be read on - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging
some professional material on HDR can be found at
http://www.hdrsoft.com/resources/dri.html

HDR,
as of now, is a process which combines capturing the image and then
editing it on softwares like photoshop, hdrsoft, corel etc... However,
there are cameras in pipeline which will be HDR compatible to a certain
extent.... With resolutions already reaching hig levels.. like my point
n shoot cam has a 7MP resolution, the new cameras would differentiate
themselves on the basis of the quality of the pixles. Info on this
aspect can be found on

http://www.cybergrain.com/tech/hdr/

The two most imp things reqd for
HDR are - SLR cam and tripod..... software can be easily downloaded and
there are many freewares available.....

and for those who can't get the first two, Photoshop is there for your help. Through Photoshop you can edit pictures to get the HDR feel, but then a fake is a fake.

hope
this helps....

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i'm gonna build a parachute

2008-01-17T10:37:00.001-05:00

in my final trimester.... i have thought... or i must say made my mind to build a model working parachute. as usual i googled bout it ... nd found this interesting concept of a tetrahedron parachute.

I've now finalized upon building a tetrahedron parachute. well first i'll hav to calculate the required dimension. I'll keep it small for ease of manufacturing. maybe 1/2 mtr to 1 mtr high. i'm not sure about the material. as of now i'd be goin for polyethylene, or light plastic sheet. Well i guess i forgot to mention one more thing. THE BUDGET. I intend to make it for less than Rs 499.
So as of now i'll be searching materials for my project.
i have pated a rough diagram of the parachute (as given here ) below. The upper diagram is the top view, and the one below it is the front view.
l

Pour in your suggestions. And if u'd like to sponsor the project, u r more than welcome... :)

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halla bol

2008-01-15T01:21:00.001-05:00

HALLA BOL.... after watching the film i feel more like "HALLA BOL" against the director. What could had been another Rang de Basanti turned out to be more like a film from the 80s. It talks about everything from corrupt politicians to selfish socialites to high society murders to scandal hungry news channels and what not. But, it fails to make an impact on any of these. The cinematography is not that good either. Script is very crude and might appeal only to rural folks who understand hindi. Reiteration of the same old plot leaves the viewers wanting for something more or extraordinary, which this film certainly dosen't provide.
If you have nothing to do, and are ready to which the worst film of the year, even then don't commit the mistake to watch this one.

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Taare hi Taare

2007-12-28T02:07:00.001-05:00

Ok... so here is the situation.... i've got project based viva coming up in the next 4 hours, but i cant concentrate on it. My mind is still in the cinema hall. And all this.. thanks to the positive feedback on "Taare Zammen Par" i got from my classmates and friends. After waiting for a whole week, i finally saw the film yesterday. The only drawback the film has... its a bit slow.. or u could say that some scenes have been stretched too far. The rest is excellent. Aamir does an amazing
job of engaging his audience, introducing a brilliant main character
(Ishan), and making the audience experience the reality of children's
paradise & their inner world. Once could easily relate with Ishan. Coz at some or the other point in life we have faced the same, and i'm not talkin about dyslexia here. For instance how many students want to excel in studies or whatever they do?? Children don't even understand the word "First" or "excel". Most of the times this word comes from parents. Parents have seen the world, and recognize the importance of competition, but force upon their way instead of letting the child deal with it in his own way.
My parents never forced upon anything on me. My mother always used to tell me "your competition is with yourself", and has never ever compared me with any of my classmates.
But apart from this, the film has excellently explained the term "dyslexia" which no doctor, google or wikipedia could have ever done.
So in the end, TZP is an emotional, commercial, educational film focusing upon a very new and rare topic ever discussed.

and for my friends.... "you don't have to shed tears to understand the depth or emotions in a film"

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diu - discovered ,not visited...

2007-12-22T15:15:00.001-05:00

back from my holiday at diu, i was asked by friends about the trip. And my words were:
"for the first time in my life, i haven't visited a place, but have discovered it".
My trip began on ahmedabad station. Me, avi and nidhi boarded train to veraval. and then took a bus from there to diu. Avi being the most vella of all, had got his hands on lonely planet India guide and took photocopies of info on diu. Must say.... the guide was very useful, and we had holidayed in pure "lonely planet" style. We stayed at hotel sea village. it's a small hotel, with dingy rooms made out of shipping containers, but is right next to a wonderful beach (known as jalandhar beach). Instead of hiring any taxi, auto rickshaw, or 2 wheelers we hired bicycles to roam around. Diu being a small island, cycles proved to be the best way to discover it. The lonely planet map helped us in it a lot.
We had Portuguese style HEAVY breakfast and then use to roam around on cycles till evening. visited beaches, churches, diu fort, shops and what not. It was great fun there.... and to quote nidhi after returning from the trip:
"I'm excessively staring into diu pics, get strong urges to run out of class.. withdrawal symptoms have gripped me too... I want to go back to the land of lovely beaches and sand."

so next time u r there.... or visiting any other place, try discovering it.....

ps:
1. you can buy the lonely planet guide from crossword or ne known book shop.
2. cycles are the best option, but make sure you get good ones, otherwise ur rear will hurt like anything.

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Looks.......

2007-11-17T01:48:00.001-05:00

I still cant believe this. I, knowing the person i am, cant still believe that i am writing something on 'looks'. But then, my recent course of actions have prompted me to proceed with this writeup. What i am discussing here might sound trivial, but i just wanted to get it out out of my head and so you are reading this piece.
I have two contradictory statements in my head, and am not very sure for which one to go with. They are
One should not judge someone on the basis of his/her looks. i.e. looks can be deceptive, or Don't judge the book by its cover.
Majority of the judgements are made on the basis of one's look
One says dressup coz this is ur last chance, while the other says Dressing up wont make any difference. One says "its the matter which matters" , the other says "When there is no matter to matter, Its the look which matter".

someone.. please help me out with this ambiguity.....

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Lyrics - Bavara Mann

2007-11-12T14:28:00.000-05:00

Bavra Mann Dekhne Chala Ek Sapna
Bavra Mann Dekhne Chala Ek Sapna

Bavre Se Mann, Ki Dekho Bavri Hain Baatein
Bavre Se Mann, Ki Dekho Bavri Hain Baatein
Bavri Se Dhadkaane Hain, Bavri Hain Saansen
Bavri Si Karwaton Se, Nindiya Door Bhaage
Bavre Se Nain Chaahe, Bavre Jharokhon Se, Bavre Nazaron Ko Takna.
Bavra Mann Dekhne Chala Ek Sapna

Bavre Se Is Jahan Main Bavra Ek Saath Ho
Is Sayani Bheed Main Bas Haathon Mein Tera Haath Ho
Bavri Si Dhun Ho Koi, Bavra Ek Raag Ho
Bavri Si Dhun Ho Koi, Bavra Ek Raag Ho
Bavre Se Pair Chahen, Baavron Tarano Ke, Bavre Se Bol Pe Thirakna.
Bavra Mann, Dekhne Chala Ek Sapna

Bavra Sa Ho Andhera, Bavri Khamoshiyan
Bavra Sa Ho Andhera, Bavri Khamoshiyan
Thartharati Low Ho Maddham, Bavri Madhoshiyan
Bavra Ek Ghooghta Chahe, Haule Haule Bin Bataye, Bavre Se Mukhde Se Sarakana,
Bavra Mann, Dekhne Chala Ek Sapna

Nice lyrics.... it very well captures the essence of the film.... nice film too.... "Hazaroon Khwaishein Aisi"

One Way City

2007-10-10T08:55:00.000-04:00
Que-Which is the garden city of India?
Ans - Bangalore

Que-City of Lakes?
Ans - Bangalore

One Way City of India?
No prizes for guessing this one. Bangalore, always admired for its greenery, the number of lakes it has was also known as retirees paradise. But the recent IT boom has transformed it into an IT city. With tech parks coming up at every street and corner, it has now transformed into youngsters paradise. The city was never made to bear the load of this burgeoning population. The city planners could not timely gauge this growth. And the result in the form of traffic problems is in front of us. And to cope up with the traffic the planners have declared many roads fit for one-way traffic only. It was predominantly evident in the city area, near station, near market road, near brigade road, near commercial street and other places in central Bangalore. But the disease has now spread to places like koramangala, electronics city road, hosur road etc...
My recent visit to bangalore (or shall i say Bengaluru??) made me sit and wonder...... what will happen to this beautiful city in years to come. lets just hope that the developers come up with an efficient public transportation system and world class roads which can handle the traffic with ease....

Be good... OK

2007-08-17T02:27:00.000-04:00
nice ad for WWF......

Advertising Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Mumbai, India
Executive Creative Director: Piyush Pandey
Creative Director: Abhijit Avasthi
Art Directors: Shankar Kamble, Samir Sojwal
Copywriters: Yogesh Mani Pradhan, Rajneesh Ramakrishnan
Production Company: Campfire Tales, Mumbai
Director: Binay Pradhan
Cinematographer: Binod Pradhan
Music: Deep Pradhan
Via: 10ad

Chak de India

2007-08-12T23:21:00.000-04:00
The last sports based film i saw was IQBAL. Liked it very much. And as my friend Arri used to say - "It's a simple film, told even simpler" . The film had a strong plot, coupled with great actors ( not stars), awesome script and was well directed by Nagesh Kukunoor.
Come 2007, and we have Chak de India. A film made on a bigger budget, has SRK, splendid cinematography, excellent story line again and pictures Delhi and field scenes beautifully. The bigness doesn't stop there, but unlike Yash Raj's previous films it doesn't have any other star. It has a dozen of not so well known (till know) girls. Where IQBAL talked about the journey of a person in the field of sports, Chak de India takes it a step forward by showcasing the journey of a TEAM from being a hopeless national team to becoming World Champions. I won't be surprised if any B-School comes up with a case study based on the film. Chak de India is more about India than sports.
In simple words the film says - United we stand, divided we fall.

and to end with..... my DEMON "moral of the story"
- You fail to score in Men's WorldCup , u bring in Women's World Cup

the IMNU CS gang

2007-07-29T07:18:00.001-04:00

Enlisted prodigy- raveesh laroia
Slasher skirge- tosh baghela
Count of monte cristo- vineet
Roadkill- malhar rajseshwarkar
Dare/myth - prasoon sharma
Joss drago - jagdeep singh dhillon
Vijay dinanath chauhan - tushar
ACP Ajay Singh Rathod - tushar
Professor Parimal Tripathy - tushar
Ramprasad Dashrathprasad Sharma - tushar
Baburao Ganpatrao Apte - tushar
Octon - yetan
Baazigar - arun negi
Ice man- vishal nebhani
Godfather - ajit (sac)
Maya dallas - debashis sharma
Gulmohar- prerna kapoor
Against all odds- shivaditya singh
Scorpion - ashutosh nautiyaal
Bandit- mohit bansal
Demon- maheep
Max payne - nitin jha
Tamraj - mahesh loya
Sikander- vijay nema
Blitzzz - joe koshy
Dady - shakti
Rotoler - vaibhav kalani
Dove/devil - rishi
Stone cold 3:16 - dinesh(anna)
Freddie mercury - chandru
Hitman - hitesh
Nemisis - thejaswi
Pearl - riddhi
Morpheus - thomas
Mr. Hyde - raja swaroop
Mussa bhai - rishub tater
Zietsev - shahzaad
Slevin - rohit kumar
Rohitash - neo
john galt-vikrant
Optimist-Isha Jhala

long drive

2007-07-27T10:39:00.000-04:00
whr do u go out on a cloudy day????

on a cloudy day like this... u could go shopping, to some museum, visit the lake, go to eat out, to some mall, plan a trip to other city........

but the simplest and best thing to do is to take out your vehicle... take the road u know... go bit far and then take the road u dont know.... keep goin till u make sure u r lost... now keep travelling... if u spot a maize vendor.. then have some barbecued maize......

Now that u hav done a lot... just keep driving and go for a long drive.....

u hav the whole concrete jungle to u....

2007-07-26T04:14:00.001-04:00

>>just sit outside ne mall
>
>hhmm.. that feels like "home"?

just sit outside a mall... whn its cloudy as its today....
its the place whr u can get maximum privacy....
no one will bother u.. u can hav ur own space....
people comin to that place would be shoppers...
they're mind would be preoccupied with their own thoughts ( shoppin,movies,food,friends, family with whom they've come etc...)
lookin at u.. they might feel that u r waitin for someone... so they'll just ignore u and move ahead...
they might just turn their head to c who U r? or How do u look, or how one is dressed... but that'll be temporay.. may be for some microsecs.....

then u hav the whole concrete jungle to u....
look whr u want to... do wot u want to...
take a nap on the stairs if u want to....
........
.......
......

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Interview with a Bureaucrat

2007-07-19T14:54:00.001-04:00

Today former Election Commissioner of India, Mr. T.N. Seshan had visited my coll. We all think of him as a hard hitting man, somewhat like an Iron Man, but he turned out to the unexpected. He, undoubtedly, is a very good orator. He made us laugh 75% of the time. And for the rest, he made us think. his knowledge bank deals in surpluses. He knows everything, right from Gautam Buddha to Orkut. Being a Science graduate, he has keen interest in technology and knows all about the YOUTUBEs and iPODs of today. He recommended one book for MBAs. And that would be the Vedas, and in particularly Arth Shastra. He also talked about the new class called FC (Forward Class).While the whole world is moving forward, or is atleast trying to, We Indians are trying are level best to move Backward. More and more communities are fighting to become backward class.He said that he can undestand why the youth refrains from getting into the IAS, and a lot needs to be done to improve or Civil Services.

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Solar- fuelling our generations

2007-07-02T00:50:00.001-04:00

One of my friends wrote this on solar:

The fast pace of technological development is one of the most significant characteristics of our time. Today it takes only a few months to achieve the same number of important inventions and discoveries that took decades, if not centuries, in the past. Technological development helps raise standards of living around the world. Diseases that afflicted humanity for centuries have been nearly eradicated, and life expectancy has lengthened in most countries. But many problems have not been solved yet, and others are in the offing.

The two common factors that underlie many of the problems threatening our future are the fast growing population and the ever increasing consumption of resources driven by the diffusion of life-styles that have developed in industrialized societies and are emulated in much of the world. Until the discovery of fossil fuels and the beginning of the industrial revolution, the sun's energy – in its different forms, direct and indirect (such as wind and biomass) – was the sole energy source that inspired and enabled the development of human societies. Since then, and especially in the past one hundred years - a relatively short span of time - a powerful energy infrastructure that now covers practically the entire planet and is based on fossil fuels and nuclear energy has been built. Today the world consumes 9 billion toe per year, compared with around 500 million toe in 1860. While these energy uses and infrastructure do not yet benefit billions of poor people who still try to make do with firewood, they give humanity a power over nature that earlier generations never knew; they had to survive with the renewable energy of the sun.

This power helps us live more comfortably than past generations, but while it meets new needs, it also carries the risk of irreversibly altering natural balances, both local and global. The world’s population has been growing rapidly over the last century and continues to grow. We were 1.6 billion in 1900; we have now passed the 6 billion mark. If this trend continues, the human population will rise to about 9 billion by 2050. The increasingly crowded world has also become a world of cities. Fifty percent of the population already lives in cities and the figure is expected to rise to 75 percent by the year 2050. Dozens of cities already number more than 10 million people. The invention and development of modern solar technologies began forty or fifty years ago. Tremendous progress has been made, especially in the last decade. A great number of solar, wind and biomass technologies for the production of fuel, heat and electricity are now available
or close to commercialization. They have been installed on a significant scale in both developed and developing countries. They are used in many different ways, stand-alone or incorporated in conventional energy networks and grids. They are already providing energy services to individual homes, villages and cities.

BLACK + GOOGLE = BLACKLE

2007-06-10T14:35:00.000-04:00

This is the latest equation, which has generated quite some interest around the world. Google is undoubtedly the most used Search Engine. I don't know about others, but i barely use any other search engine. We all love Google for its simplicity. A plain white screen with a box to key in your text. But a research just wants the opposite. Well not exactly opposite, but wants to invert the colours on Google home page. A study shows that a PC screen consumes maximum energy while displaying white colours, and least while displaying black. And so Blackle is born. Blackle is nothing but black google, or google in black. The aim is to save energy to the tune of 3000 MWh a year. That's enough to light a city. visit black google would save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year for all the mathematics behind this.
Its an excellent way to save energy, while googling all the way.

do visit www.blackle.com. And if possible make it your home page.

Technorati Tags: blackle

thought for the day

2007-05-30T02:21:00.001-04:00

"No theory or plan or government policy will make a business a success: that can only be done by people"

- Akio Morita ,from the book "MADE IN JAPAN"

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Summers

2007-05-25T14:38:00.001-04:00

Summers are here....

Well at our place (read hostel) it had arrived way ago. We first felt the heat when we cam here... but that subsided in weeks. But today as i type this note, my room is boiling at 35 degree centigrade . And its just past midnight.... gosh i fear for those who'd be running in and around Ahmadabad for their project. During the day, mercury touches 43-45 degrees. It' like being in Sahara. The heat kind of reminds me of an Ad. This one was for Bajaj Wind bike. The ad showed a man wearing washed wet clothes and as he drives to his office his clothes get dried up. Our condition is no different. If we do so, our clothes will dry up in 2kms of travel. And why the heck do they have Black Helmets. Of all the colours, why only black? Its like some conspiracy against us. In the heat, the helmet gets so hot that you could even make an omelet on it.

And the worst part being rains. Its bloody raining in each and every corner of the country. And not even a single cloud in Ahmadabad. The low pressure has reduced to such a level,that the scientist in me predicts heavy showers in Ahmadabad this monsoon.-amen

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MUNNABHAI - 4th best

2007-05-14T14:42:00.000-04:00

Lage raho munnabhai a desi flick starring one of India's most loved Actors.. Sanjay Dutt and Arshad Warsi is undoubtedly in the list of hall of Bollywood comedies.... but then wot bout the rest of the world? where does it stand. Well if IMDB is anything to go by, then it's the 4th best comedy ever.... on this planet...
don't believe me, check out this link

http://www.imdb.com/chart/comedy

Aunty's

2007-05-09T01:50:00.000-04:00

You realize one's importance when you are away from him/her. After completing one year away from my home, i too felt the same. Everyone says that "my mom is the best cook". But the realization comes only when you get to eat mess food for a year. I've been searching for a normal dining hall kind of place in ahmedabad where i could get food as good as my mom's preparation. My search finally ended on small place near himalaya mall, gurukul. After that i've frequented that place 'n' number of times, but i yet don't know its name. I've given a new name to that place.. and i call it "Aunty's". Coz the lady who runs the resturant is very nice, she treats the shops patrons like her children. And also the kind of rotis she makes..is something u get only at ur home....
when in ahmedabad, do visit that place... here's a google earth snapshot of that place.

Ctrl C + Ctrl V

2007-05-07T13:25:00.001-04:00

By the time i finish writing this, 2,487 students across premier institutes of India have prepared a report/assignment by merely copying information off the net. I can't vouch for the authenticity of the statistics, but i can certainly vouch for the phenomenon. And so can thousands of students worldwide. This has become a serious issue. Colleges and now even companies have started giving it a serious thought. But then why do students, or for that matter anyone else, do so? Well I'm no expert on this topic, but going by my experience I believe its due to the pressure to perform and also due to the "i don't wanna do hardwork" attitude. Many term it smart work -do what you can't find on the net.

Recently Yahoo came into news, because a third party content provider for its Malayalam website had simply copy pasted information (a recipe to be precise) from a malyali blog without even giving any credit to the author. Yahoo had to withdraw the article, but only after causing enough public outrage (only in blogosphere).

Writing afresh is not that difficult a task. Its just that some thinking and hard work goes into it. Lets not indulge into adamant copy paste, lets go for Ctrl+N instead.

New menu!!!

2007-04-23T15:04:00.001-04:00

Bheja Fry n.

1. Chopped and scrambled cow/goat-brain, served piping hot. Goes well

with most kinds of breads. too greasy.
2.

A first-time director's attempt at remaking a Canadian Film.

Largely unfunny, almost salvaged by the leading man. ekdum

cheesy.

So wot did u had today?

well for me it was the usual indian platter, dal-roti-sabji-chawal. And even if i wish to eat something exciting or new, all i get is Punjabi, Chinese or Continental. There's no change in life.

And then i get to relish my taste buds with Bheja Fry.

Agreed i do eat non-veg, but not Bheja Fry. The Bheja Fry i am talking about is the newly released film starring Rajat Kapoor, Sarika, Milind Soman, Ranvir and Vinay (the last 2 of the great indian comedy show) and there is this second lady... but dont remember her name, anyways she is not that important. The film is a remake of a Canadian Film " The Dinner Game", but with an Indian flavour. The story talks about Rajat Kapoor bringing in Vinay (The Idiot), to showcase his talent (or the lack of it) in front of his friends, which his wife Sarika doesn't approve of. But unfortunately the party never takes place, and Rajat gets stuck with Vinay at his home, who makes life miserable for him, but tries his level best to bring back Sarika who had left home due to the "dinner game".

Well if you couldn't understand what the story is, then watch it yourself to take a feel of the laughter riot. And if you could, then what are you waiting for???????????????????

a still from the film "Bheja Fry"

-

M@#eEp

I do not.....

2007-03-31T16:34:00.001-04:00

The other day i was watchin Robin William's film Patch Adams. I really love his creations man... he expresses even subtle things in a very beautiful manner. Loved the way he described death in the film. also loved the way he described his affection for the leading lady in the film.....
The poem used is by Pablo Neruda. It is Sonnet 17 of Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets

available in English translation by Stephen Tapscott. It is this

translation that Patch reads in the movie. Here is the text of the poem

in its entirety:

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,

in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms

but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;

thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,

risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,

so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,

so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Love all his movies yaar.....

pure unadulterated fun..... :)

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Faring well

2007-03-06T12:21:00.000-05:00
Just came back from the farewell film. We bunch of students from 1st and 2nd year had come together to watch 'SHOLAY' in the audi. Felt gr8 out there among batchmates and seniors. But at the same time felt bit awkward. Well 'Awkward' is not exactly the word i'm lookin for, but then excuse me for my diction. Its just that time is running too fast... not even a year has passed by and the academic session is gonna end next month. Just 1 more year... and we would be dancing at our farewell party.
but wot makes it difficult is the feeling that i've done very little and could had utilized the time at the institute in a more productive and efficient manner. And its not just about Acads. but then as they say :"its never too late, than to be called Mr. Late"......
got to do a lot... as my dad says "baat kum, kaam zyaada" (talk less, do more).....

`, )

Marketing or Finance

2007-02-13T09:55:00.000-05:00

Today we had FM paper....

learnt an important MR concept:

"O X O"

here 'X' is the treatment variable... i.e. FM-II paper....

'O' refers to the test units i.e. the students who wanted to take up
Finance....(no random selection over here.... all had to go thru' the
treatment.....)

The following test was to measure the interest for Finance as Majors
among students of MBA - I FT
Observations of the test -
Pretest - atleast 70 people wanted Finance as Majors
Posttest - half of them backed out

LEARNING : either kidnap the 3 pointers.... or open the book.....

note: Just kiddin.... the paper made us think for the first time. There were no direct '2+2' types of questions. No questions which demanded mugging up theory. Guess time to seriously read Brealey and Myers.

Broke-heart

2007-02-06T17:03:00.000-05:00
While i write this blog, i'm bit confused. What do i write over here.... or what i'm writing over here.....
Am i writing , as someone had criticized, things external to me or matters close to me, my heart.
A close look at my previous blogs make things clear. Anyone can deduce from them that i've been writing matters external to me. But, the truth is that being an amateur, i'm still in the learning mode, and just wanted to try my hand on things like writing editorials or something.
Today i've thought of writing from my heart.
There are times in life when you feel completely broke, when your loved one is not with you. he/she may be not well, gone far from you or whatever the reason may be. But digesting that very fact takes time, moreover when every hour seems day long. You see everyone else happy with their's, and hope that your love comes back to you as soon as possible. But on the other hand,as i've noticed, one gets ample time for himself/herself. You get time to clean your desk/room/bed... to exercise, to wash your clothes, to study/read and to even clean yourself (sply for hostelites like me). But no mater what you do, you still are not in a position to forget her. And then comes a time when reunification takes place. You feel like you are on heaven. A feeling, which just like THE MATRIX, can only be felt not seen. The glow on ones face is like the dew drops which have just been touched upon by the first sun rays in the morning.
I finally got my Laptop repaired.

4M

2006-10-30T08:01:00.000-05:00

First it was 4 P’s, then 4 C’s and we even had 4 E’s. Now I have my own management jargon. I call it 4 M. So, what do I exactly mean by 4 M? Well one thing is sure, it has got nothing to do with Marketing, Finance, and HR or for that matter any other professional sphere. And neither does it have any connection with my name, which, for that matter, I am very obsessed with. Don’t pressurize your already overburdened tiny reddish white matter located behind your forehead called cerebellum , also known as “The Brain” to common people. The answer lies not in any textbook, magazine or web-page but in my cerebellum, which today has decided to play with yours.

Enough of playing around with cerebellum and words. The answer is pretty simple, which many might find stupid. It stands for 4 Months, in B-School. Now the very next question which pops up in one’s mind is that ‘what so great about celebrating 4 months at the institute’. I could’ve celebrated 1,2 or 3 months at the school, why only 4 months??? One obvious reason is that this is the only free time i could find to pen down my thoughts. For after a long (and this time it was really long… ) time I could update my Blog. Another reason, and a logical one is, that after joining the school, this is the first time when we all students have gone to their respective home and that too for 10 days. Not that it we didn’t had holidays earlier , but this time we ALL are back to our home and not on any PPV.

So how have these 4 months been? To start with, we had lots to study. And One whole term went by to make us realize that. We had many sleepless nights, but mind you it wasn’t because of studies. We had a welcome party thrown in by our respectable seniors, talent night by adorable batch mates , Management Conclave and HR Conclave , Goalzzz: the inter B-School football tournament, Lakshya : the inter Class sports challenge, PPV (which for the uninitiated stands for Pre Placement Visit) ,some Exams thrown in here and there, Lots of movies, LAN games, LAN wars, LAN quizzes, Lunch-Dinner at Maduria/Rajasthan/Tandoor and sometimes even at our humble MESS; Snacks at Pantry, NIT canteen and TAPRI; Celebrating festivals: Ganesh Chaturthi ,Independence day, Navratrti, Diwali & doin bhangra instead of garba at navratri; Attending various Bschool competitions; Break-ups and Make-ups ……… and the list goes on……and on….and on. Moreover, this was just for the first 4 months. Many months are yet to come filled with love, happiness, sorrow, grief, excitement and what not. Looking forward to the next 4M .

And to end with one senti line: “It’s not the journey , but the company that matters”

- M2

13 .....13......13...... Suroooorrrr......

2006-06-29T08:35:00.000-04:00

"13 .....13......13...... Suroooorrrr...... "
-Himesh Reshamiya (HR)

"Love him or hate him, Can't ignore him.........". Himesh Reshamiya, undoubtedly the best music director on the block (rating strictly based on Box office hits) , is also the most beloved singer. His creations top the charts every week. His career started of with a stint in the Bollywood film "Pyar Kiya to Darna Kya" & shot to fame for the film "Tere Naam". He then composed for many films, but what really brought him into limelight was the film "Aashiq Banaya Aapna" where he sang for his own creations. His contempary nasal singing style was criticized by a few & loved by many.

In the previous 6 months or so.. every second movie seems to be composed by HR. So let us find today the probability of HR Not Composing for a film.
Taking the data for last 6months.. .the total no. of films composed by HR is :
Aksar, 36 China Town,Humko Deewana..... , Chup Chup Ke , Phir Hera Pheri, Tom Dick & Harry.
i.e. 6

Now Avg. number of films released in India in a year = 800,
hence for six months = 400

Probability of HR NOT composing for a film = 1-(6/400)
= 98.5 %............. CHEEERRRSSS...

So all those who hate to love him Or love to hate him... there is one More reason to cherish for.......
And all those who hate to hate him Or love to love him.... there are many films for HR to work for.......

M@#eEp

ReservNation

2006-04-27T16:00:00.000-04:00

A Nation Full of Reservations
Ever been to Bangalore? Well I’d been there for my summer training and as a student my saviour in the chaotic traffic was the city bus service –BTS. I had always heard about reservations, seen them in action but had never experienced them. It was in these humble BTS buses where I had first hand experience with reservations. I generally sat in the back rows, a habit from my college, but here it was due to the mad rush. One fine day I was early and was surprised to find the bus sparsely occupied. I occupied the 2^nd row seat. The conductor came and said something in Kannada, which for me was all French & Greek. I paid for the ticket and tuned into Radio City on my walkman. After 15 minutes, when the bus was jam packed, the conductor came towards me and again said something in Kannada. Someone translated it for me in English and said that since I was sitting on a seat reserved for women I had to get up and make way for women to sit. I then realized that around a third to half seats, and those too front seats, of the bus are reserved for women (those marked in red on the back).
I somehow did not like this scheme of reservation, maybe because I was asked to leave my seat and was made to stand for rest of my journey. I’d experienced this scheme in other cities too, but there the % of seats reserved for women was not so high. After few more days, the reason for such a scheme was evident. When men treat men in dingily manner on the bus, just imagine how they will behave with women on it. To make public transport safe and easy for women, it is necessary to have such a scheme.
The ongoing debate on increased reservations in educational institutions is somewhat similar. Those who are asked to make way for people belonging to the deprived classes (and remember the word is Deprived not Backward), feel that their rights have been infringed upon. However, they fail to see the manner in which people from deprived classes are treated in schools, offices, in small-scale private entities, by bureaucrats and in various spheres of life. Majority of those voicing opinion against reservations are from Metros and Big Cities or belong to well to do communities, where discrimination is not so evident. But after having a look at the thousands of towns and villages, where majority of these deprived people live, one can’t deny the need for reservations
Students argue that there is no point in reservations, as the needy don’t get it. And this is why I have used the word ‘Deprived’ and not ‘Backward or Minority or SC ST’, because many well to do people from SC/ST/OBC etc… tend to take advantage of reservations and the system fails. But if the scheme is made limited to only the deprived sections, there won’t be such cases.
Another argument is that of maintaining Quality. It’s argued that students from deprived classes are not that good and would be a compromise on quality ,especially for esteemed institutions like IITs, IIMs etc.. But nowhere has it been proved that students from deprived classes have lower IQ or are less intelligent than others. Take the example of National Innovation Foundation where around 70% of awardees are school dropouts. The only area where they lag behind is English language. IITs and IIMs have been made exclusive preserve of the English-knowing social elites.
Those from Deprived sections need the right kind of support, so that they can climb the social ladder and help make India an egalitarian society.
To prevent anyone from taking advantage of such a scheme again and again, a clause can be added where a student would be allowed only once in his life to enjoy the benefits of reservation. After enjoying that benefit he/she should be placed under General Category. Also the Reservations should be there only for a certain period of time, as they where originally supposed to be, say till 2015 or 2020.
If we feel that only reservation schemes can bring equality in the society, then we are mistaken. Reservations are a part of the bigger scheme. As the Mandal commission had suggested that inaddition to reservations in educational institutions, govt. jobs we need separate coaching facility for students aspiring to enter technical and professional institutions, special vocation-oriented programme for deprived sections, progressive land reforms, creation of chain of financial and technical bodies to assist entrepreneurs from deprived sections , upgradation of skills of village artisans and providing loans for setting up SME’s , and over and above strict imprisonment for anyone discriminating on the basis of caste/religion….
Nevertheless, any of these should not compromise with quality , something for which India is known.

The Flight .....contd.......

2006-04-27T15:30:00.000-04:00

...........I asked her whether she was from Mumbai, to which she replied 'Yes'. She asked the same question and I replied Anand. Like many people, she didn't knew about Anand, but as soon as I mentioned about AMUL and its Anand connection she said "Oh...the milk city"(You know ,very few really know about Anand, so from the next time I’m going to say that I’m from the Milk City of India. Hope they get it). We then talked about our respective trips to Bangalore, the continental food served (about which none of us had any idea), poor condition of Bangalore Airport and so on... I came to know that she was into Event Management and had recently organised a concert in Bangalore. When she realized that I am an Electrical Engineer, she took out her Walkman and asked me if I can fix it. This is one situation I have faced n number of times in my life. Whenever there is some electrical problem in the house/appliance others expect me to fix it, But when will they realize that I am a god damn Electrical ENGINEER, not TECHNICIAN. However, I couldn't say NO to a beautiful lady sitting besides me, 30000 ft above sea level. I played with the walkman for few minutes and then gave it back to her telling that there is some trouble with electronics part which required replacement, even when I didn't knew anything about it. We both finished our food; Airhostess took the plates back. She continued with her reading, and I started peeping...outside… thru' the window.

After some time the plane descended, and I could see the lights of Mumbai. I had to catch a train to Anand from Central Station at 9.30pm and it already was 8. I knew that after getting down, I would have to catch local train to Central Station as Taxi and Bus would take lot of time in the busy evening traffic. To double-check my calculations I asked her and she agreed to it. I tried to act as if I was new to Mumbai and didn't knew much about Local trains here. She asked me not to worry. As she also had to catch a train, she would accompany me till Santacruz station. I tried to act a bit and said that I am not very sure about this whole local train affair and that I’m suffering from Slip Disk and can't stand for long time or lift weights/luggage (which was true),to which she replied that she would accompany in the local train till Central Station ,as she had nothing else to do that evening. I was delighted, but thought she was kidding. After circling around the airport for 15 minutes, the plane finally landed at Mumbai Domestic Airport. We got down and went to take our luggage. She was also standing besides me, maybe for her luggage. I took my bag and started moving and to my surprise, she too was coming with me. I realized that she had no bags apart from her handbag and was waiting there only for me. I was surprised, I didn't expect her to accompany me to the station, I thought it was a joke but she was serious.. We got out and hired a taxi to SantaCruz station. Now I got suspicious. Why would a girl, and that a pretty good-looking Mumbaikar, who most probably had a boyfriend, would come with me to station.

We reached the station. I paid for the taxi and she went straight to the ticket counter. She had bought 3 tickets. She said that as I didn't know much about local trains and had Slip Disk, she would come with me till Central and would then return to her home, which was in the opposite direction. I got more suspicious. Our train arrived at around 8.40. We got in. Surprisingly there weren't many people inside. We got two adjacent window seats. I couldn't understand why she was coming with me. I started putting the things together-here I am with a 20-23 yrs Female, from Mumbai, who earns and earns enough to afford Designer clothes/accessories and jewel studded cell phone, flying alone from Bangalore that too without any luggage except a small hand bag and who is beautiful enough to be a model. Then this strange thought occurred to me, Is she a...you know, into that business ….'No it cannot be' I said to myself, but then anything is possible these days. I stayed quite and acted as if I was enjoying the cool breeze. She too was looking outside, thinking something, and only god knows what.

At around 9.15 we reached Central Station. We got down and started moving. Anyone who has been to Central Station knows that there are two sections, one for Local Trains and the other for Express/Mails and other long distance trains. Both the sections are separated. She said that since she had to catch a local train to get back she couldn’t come with till my train. Suddenly she started laughing. I was surprised. She said that we were together since the evening and still didn't knew each others name. She said her name was Alps D'souza. I gave her my name. I was still suspicious. She looked at puzzled face and asked me what the problem was. I explained her that I couldn't digest the fact that she had come all the way from SantaCruz to central just for me, even when her destination was in the opposite direction. She took out her ID and showed it to me. It was some Event management company's ID with her photo on it, and had a Bangalore address on it. She told me the whole story.

She had arrived Bangalore 4 days ago for organising a concert. The airline guys had lost her luggage. All her money/clothes/addresses were in the bag. The ID had an address but since she was new to Bangalore, she didn't knew how to reach that place. One of her co-passenger, who too had lost her luggage, helped her out. On reaching that place Alps offered her money for the help but was turned down. In return of her help, that lady asked Alps to help someone else, Only then will she be content. Therefore, she helped me out. Her train arrived and she got on to it. She wished me a happy journey and said goodbye. We bid farewell to each other and her train started moving. At this moment, I was shocked. Actually not shocked, but ashamed. I wanted to stop her but could not. Bloody Mumbai local trains are fast and won't stop for me or at my will

It was 9.20, I had to move towards my train. I somehow dragged myself to the train. Even though I’m Six ft tall, I somehow felt small. Small as a human being. Here there is a lady who helps me out and I act as a stupid, thinking all bad things about her. Because of my suspicion, I didn’t even ask her contact number or mail id or address. With No contact how could I repay her for what she had done for me. Nevertheless, I knew the answer. “An Eye for an Eye – A Help for Help”.

And If any one of you meets Alps D’souza please Let me know. I have got Two Words for Her: “Sorry” and “Thankyou”.

The Flight

2006-03-23T13:41:00.000-05:00
whenever one travels alone......he/she expects the co-passenger to be of the opposite sex + attractive + humourous....and why not. I am no exception to that. Recently i had to travel alone. My Flight was a 1.5 hrs journey (or atleast it was supposed to be so). The airport was as usually crowded.....had no place to sit , and above that the flight was 35 min late. But with beautiful AirHostess around, passing time was no problem. Their were some pretty faces around, so i was busy playing the "Who will sit besides me" guess game. Finally, boarding call for my flight was made. All passengers approached the boarding counter. After the checking, i went and occupied my seat 26 A(window seat...you never know what u can see outside..). I started that guessing game of mine. A pretty(cant use that S word over here) lady was coming towards my seat. Age-- around 20-23, ht- 5'8'' - 5'10'' and everything else in perfect shape....she resembled more or less a model. She crossed the 20th row...21st...22nd..23rd...24th..25th...26th......27th.. .WHAT??...27 th row, 'common 26 B is still unoccupied'...She was searching plce to keep her abin luggage. An airhostess came and helped her..and then she turned around an sat besides me.....she was to be my co-paasenger fot the next 1. 5 + hrs.....Afer take off she said those 6 golden words...."Can you pass me the magazine".i gave it to her, and asked for one in front of ther. We had our coffee /breakfast...Kahana bhi kha liya aur Bhav bhi...After waiting for 30 min.. i asked her............................
.....to be contd........