Whatever...

All of us must be well aware of the Lead India campaign started by the Times Of India group. Yet a brief overview in their own words. I think this is just another talent hunt program and is not going to help India politics or democracy in any way. The very reach of this program is limited to literate English speaking class of Indians. That could be hardly 10% of the total voting population. The real aam aadmi who decides the governments and hence the policies that govern us is far from basic primary education, leave alone English newspaper or television medium. As I have written in my earlier post real politics will still be nothing but manipulating numbers. As atanu says in his post here , untill basic education is given to each and every Indian citizen, it is stupid to expect rational thinking and unbiased opinion from him/her. All that this contest will do is provide limelight to a bunch of opportunistic small time socialites, bring dinner table discussion on national television a...

Found this article while surfing the www the other day. I think its a question that needs to be asked. It my sound like a party pooper to the SRK fans, but take your time and ponder over it. Although the the writers other posts are pretty ordinary, I found this particular article quite interesting. Go on...read it.

The big day draws closer. The early visitors have arrived. The houses will slowly be filled and packed to their capacity. Everybody's eyes will be settled on the two people in the middle. As I write this post, it is just 4 days and 23 hours to time zero (25th November 9.31 AM IST). Moods are changing in the dressing rooms. The preparations are fierce and the stage is all set for the big match...

काल आँफिसांतल्यांन घरी जात्ना मी कसला तरी विचार करीत होतों. तेद्वां अचानक लक्षांत आलें कि मी विचार जर भटींत करतों जाल्यार भटींत ल्हियत कशा नाय ? म्हणुन ह्येँ भटींत. ह्या फुडें भटींत ल्हियवेशें दिसलें जाल्यार सवय असावी म्हणुन...

After having shifted to Pune , I didn't get the time to put my bike in shape again and take it out for a ride. Actually it is not so much about time as it is about motivation. There is a threshold motivation one needs to reach. When this motivation exceeds the laziness, you are game! In my case, it happened yesterday. I walked half a kilometer, got the tires inflated, put in a nut that I had lost to transporting, got some lubricant on the drive and I was ready to go. It was a ride with a purpose as I was going over to the Jawdekars for wedding invitation. Now I know why pune was once a city of bicycles. Once you cross over the hill of chandani chowk , it is fairly cyclable . Also the air is so chilly, you don't sweat much. It was a tough task for me although since I leave on the other side of chandani chowk . While coming back from the city chandani chowk is one hell of a uphill task. I got out of breath mid way. The air being chilly and heavy was the real problem now, as...

As I was travelling from Goa to Pune in a Bus, I overheard some conversation and could see a lot of dilemma on the face of a fellow passenger. As the story evolved, I could connect with him. Thus it went: They were a couple, he was with his fiance/wife/girlfriend (a non-ma/behen relationship). There was another girl (pretty) who wanted to a lady's seat. She could get it only if this gentleman would give up the company of his travel mate as there were no other female passengers on the bus. I have been through similar situation and have said no and felt guilty about it till the society at large did something equally unjust to me. But this incident in the bus the other day, sparked off some more such dilemmas that I have come across quite often. I thought of having a golden globe of dilemmas; put them on the blog and see which is the most common dilemma. First being the one above, the second dilemma that comes to my mind is of cheating in exams. No No. Me cheating is taboo enough! It ...

OK! For once a blogger is inspired instead of the readers. And I want to start a venture in product development. I have something in my mind on the lines of SaaS. I intend starting a company at my home (preferably in my garage so that success is guaranteed). But the main question is, is it the right time to start a venture? With rising salaries in the industry, one will have to cough up a lot of money to hire good people. Although, the venture may be easily financed, break even may take a loooong time knowing the cost of recruitment in the industry today. So, wouldn't it be ideal to wait for a slow-down, may be a few lay-offs and a bit of panic in the industry. It will then be time when people will be ready to work for much lesser wages. I may put a post on my business plan someday. But as of now, what is your opinion?

In my earlier post, I spoke about the predicted downfall of Indian IT/ITES industry. The comments were on either side and one of the points that came out was the quality of India products. Be it manufacturing or services, India hasn't been spokes of much about for its quality. India Inc. has not spent significantly on R&D. In case of manufacturing, R&D requires huge investments in terms of infrastructure where as in case of IT/ITES, the investment needs to be on people along with that on infra. Now, for a better R&D in ITES, are we equipped peoplewise? To begin a massive overhauling in the outlook of the industry, where do we begin? We begin where it all begins. Education. Let me talk a bit about education. Do we have an education system that promotes an inquisitive mind? (a mind that will R&D!)Or are we simply creating labour, such large in number and so abundant in supply that nobody bothers about the quality .The price of this labour is bound to go down. When we ...

What does an IT consultant do on a weekend? Discusses global economics with his friends and tries.. neah gives consultant answers to 88.3% of questions of the world (you wont understand the arithmetic behind the percentage...it's too complex). That's what I did to the best of my ability and knowledge. But my friend ( he has an MBA from the real world and no B-school crap) posed a question "How long will the tech. boom last?" and I heard it as "How long will guys like you keep receiving hyped up salaries?". That was a dream shattering question. I saw a Royal Enfield Bullet (the bike of my dreams) fading into the distance. Would I still be affording Rs. 1 Lakh for a bike, say three years down the line? Would I be flaunting proportionate income X years (which I hope is multiples of 10) down the line? Well, my friend has a fair idea of M&As happening across the globe in BPO , KPO and ITES sectors. He also knows of emerging countries who can prove t...

I know 2 posts in a day is an overdose. But this is not really a post. Its a promotional campaign. Hit my blog as many times as possible. I got a moral booster. And may be that will get the best out of me some day. Right now all that's coming out of me is cough (eeeeeeeeeeewwww!!!)

I keep wondering ... so many thoughts cross my mind every now and then. I also feel like sharing them with people. But then there is the initial hiccup of putting it in words, typing it, giving it direction and shape. but now-a-days a strange feeling overcomes me as I begin to type a post. On more than one occassion I have typed quite some content and then decided to delete it altogether. I think I am bogged down by a limited number of visitiors to my blog. Or may be I need a 'hit counter' to keep track of hits although people may not be leaving comments behind. I will try n get one soon... Also after having shifted to Pune a lot of thinking is happenig in Marathi. So there is an extra effort that goes into adopting it in English. May be I will start a blog in Marathi... There is also a general lack of activity in life. I mean I have begun to think I am not quite adding value to the readers of this blog. If I was 'doing' something new/ different I could have shared with...

For those who have been out of touch with the events in the world that are effecting everything from the sensex bull run, the Indian Cricket team's loss right upto the instability of the UPA government, I am getting married on the 25th of November 2007. So shopping should supposedly be my top priority right now. However, I have managed to wash my hands off it except for the farments which need to fit me and need my measurements. So I am off the hook for quite a few decisions and 'to do' lists. I pitty Shveta however. She has to make choices that need to be acceptable to one and all. right from her mummy, my mummy, her sister, chacha, mama, phupha and even the shopkeeper. I think marriage is the most interesting time in a girl's life. How much ever I try to think from her perspective, I will never unerstand the way she feels. Its a mixed feeling of leaving you parents for good and feeling bad about it while at the same time feeling good about the fact that you will be sp...

There is a new marking system for this play. It will be in kilometers. I cycled 15+15, 30 Kms (Chandanagar to Banjara Hills Rd. No. 8 and back) to watch this play. Dont ask me why. I just did it (and now 'feeling' it!!). So whatever Kms I give will be out of 30. That means that is the effort I would have put to watch the show, for what it was. Overall the play gets a 17 Kms. A little below 60%, falling just short of first class.  Neem Hakeem Khatra-e-Jaan is a an adaptation of an english play The doctor despite himslef which is a translation of original French play Le Médecin malgré lui by Molière. The play is set in Hyderabad I guess. The central character is a good for nothing drunkard, Nathulal Bankepuria who has lost his job as a compounder with a doctor. He has been in this job for 6 years. He has a wife who always troubles him or vice versa but there are always quarrels. To get back to him, his wife convinces two courtiers of a deewansaheb that he is a Hakeem . These co...

Hyderabad got bombed, again yesterday. Around 40 civilians are expected dead. My Baba asked me if some militant organisation has taken responsibility. I am not sure about the organisation, but am sure it is headed by one hell of a moron. He seems to have no hint of a brain in his head. Why then would he decide to kill Indian citizens. I am not going to argue like a socialite saying it is inhuman to kill innocent civilians. But I have a case for him. Obviosuly some one is trying to make a point to the government through these bombings. But what is the purpose of the bombings? Does he expect the citizens of India to rally behind the goverment to meet his demands? Arre bhai, we cant make the goverment do something for us, how can we make them do something for you? And if you want us to represent your demands, what are they? Who are you? Let us know each other well and then we can have a deal. Or does he expect that the goverment will be touched, moved by these killings (although ministers...

Sometime back I made a post titled "Happiness sale and other things". I got a comment from my friend Sumit on this post. It seems there are many people who are questioning their own definition of happiness. In my opinion its our entire generation. Some may come forward and agree to it. Some, choose to ignore, push it under the carpet, come to terms or simply give up. Happiness as we all would agree is relative. What can make me happy may not make you happy. So what is the difference between you and me that makes us happy by different things. In my humble opinion, the answer is Maslow's hierarchy of needs . A person will be happy because of an event depending on where he is in the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. A hungry person will be happy if he gets food, a jobless person will be happy to get a secured job. We need to identify our position in the pyramid and strive for what we don't have. The achievement of that will definitely make us happy. In my opinion what we ...

Do you ever feel guilty? We all curse the polution, we all curse the traffic congestion and we all curse the rising fuel prices. But have you ever given a thought to the fact that you are the root cause for it? Because you think it is un dignified to take public transport. Because you think you are so busy and your time is so valuable that Car Pooling is a dumb idea. A car is for four, and you are underutilising it by travelling alone. If any of a loner in a car is reading this, I challenge them to give me 5 logical and worthy reasons that  makes one chose a car for daily commute and not share it with anyone. Remember that these are the reasons you are chosing car over pollution, health & traffic congestion.

First thing first! I am using an unconventional way of blogging here. I am posting this feed by writing a mail to certain id and I think thats cool! :-) This was a pretty good weekend. I was busy and relaxed on both the days in just the right proportion. Feels goooooood! Now about Happiness Sale. Hyderabad Central, the shopping mall has a happiness sale every now and then. I went there ones, say 6 months back and bought some things I did not want. That, I think best describes what our life has come to. Our happiness is now driven by Sales, discounts and offers. A software professional couple earning more than half a lakh a month, staying away from their parents, having given up their passions and interests for a 'career' have only deals and offers to look up to. Is that all that makes us happy? Maximum stuff for less? Getting maximum 'things' for our money? What makes you happy? Laukik http://globestop.blogspot.com

Its been around a month since I started cysling to office. Not that I cycled all the 20 days. But at least 10 days out of 20 I must have cycled all my way to and fro. Now people have started becoming a bit inquisitive about cycling. How I do it? Why I do it? I just met someone at the ATM yesterday, who was surprised that I cycle to work. Even he thought it was a good idea to cycle but gave me number of reason why he won't be able to cycle to work. Its funny that people dont mind sweating it out in a gym on a bicycle that goes nowhere. They tell me they wouldnt mind coming to office also on a bicycle only if didnt make them look tired. So now it turns out that its not actually the comfort/effort that petrol gives you. Its more of a cosmetic fuel. Because you burn it just to look good in office. Else you wouldnt mind cycling. Funny!!! Another commonly said reason is the road safety one. It seems our roads are not safe enough for cyclists. I am not quite sure of the statistics, but mo...

I attended a 4 day part time workshop organised by Sutradhar Casting Agency   . The production at the end of this workshop was a more body based form of theatre performance. The performance was based on a selected poems of Chera Banda Raju and other revolutionary poets of Telangana. These poets triggered a social revolution merely by the content of their poems. As a result for the first time in the history, they were convicted of a conspiracy, arrested by the police and bruised both mentally and physically. Although the content was from their poems, the underlying theme of the performace was state violenece arising out of religion, castism, poverty, arising global economy, graught or a disfuntional state.  Through the course of the workshop, i wasnt quite sure how the production would turn out, its impact. Having come from a more vocabulary, diction, voice throw and modulation based background in acting, I was a bit apprehensive of the outcome of the workshop. Pranab (the digdarshak-as...

Havent been able to Manage my blog from office for quite along time owing to "restrictions". Found this wonderful online tool to do that for me. So, expect more. 

Confused?? Dont be. I am just going to try something new with my life. Expectation is it wont cost me much, will make my life interesting at least for some time (months) and will probably 'repace' my life. I dont know if this word - 'repace' has been used before; not at least in this context i guess. I am not saying my life will be faster or slower, better or worse it will simply be not in the same pace it is now. I am getting a feeling our entire generation is rushing through our lives. There is a hurry, to get somewhere. I am thinking of not sprinting, but taking a marathon. This I know will come in steps. Will keep you guys posted.

Found this nice piece worth reading. Matches my thoughts to a large extent.

In a not so unique step to increase employee productivity, my company has blocked blogger as well as bloglines. The firefix addon is not working as well. So there has been a sudden drop in the posts and all of you in large numbers who follow my blog (hehehehe...feels good seriously), accept my apologies for not being able to initiate the series that would lead to the big day. hope i will be more regular hence forth. As a first step in the direction I got engaged on 2nd of June 2007. I wont write much, but let me agree, it does feel different. Take care all. Be good and do good.

I think somewhere our thoughts meet or my thoughts are inspired by his. Read this article to know what i am saying. powered by performancing firefox

For those of you who don't know me or hardly know me or don't know enough about me, I am getting married...soon. I am going to start a series of post in which I will try to do what a good blogger should. Share. Share my experiences as I go through 'the process'. The thoughts that inhibit my mind. My dilemmas, frustrations and joys. This, I hope, will be a guiding light for the 'wanna bes', a nostalogical (this is my special creation) moment for the 'been there done thats' and we all will probably end up sharing. So keep watching this space... powered by performancing firefox

Asit bought a Bajaj Pulsar 180CC. I had a 2 km test sprint with her. She was what she was...a 180CC machine driven by a crazy road maniac. Right now I own a Bajaj Boxer 100CC city bike, so simple arithmetic for me was I could do twice the 'stuff' on this bike. But looks like bikes are like wine (or women!!!) they need to age a bit. Asit's bike is too young to 'satisfy' me. She should be couple of 1000 kilometers old and then I will sprint her again. She couldn't cross 70KmpH and the front was a bit wobbly. But the sprint made me realize one thing ... it's time! powered by performancing firefox

Prof. Gopal taught me costing, M etc. at GIM. Am posting some of his one liners for the aam junta. (courtesy Swastik Rath) Hitler did Genetic cleansing, and today genetic cleansing of brain is done by LIC if u say that insurance is a tax saving mechanism. U can use a low quality tube light flickering all the time. But that wont look good in a hotel. But use the same tube light in a disco with a low quality coloured paper and a choke and u can cut a great deal of costs. The way this discussion is going i feel like spraying pesticide on my face coz if i do it on someone else's face then there is no guarantee that someone else will not come up with something more stupid "The government ought to charge entertainment tax for my lectures..." "You go to the company's website, cut paste the intro page. Then you cut paste the company's balance sheet, and the competitor's balance sheet. Then you paste finance ministers photograph. And it becomes a case study....

Sunday the 1st April'07, I had been to Telugu university, Nampally. Sutradhar was staging a couple of short plays starting 7 o'clock. On Saturday when I called Vinay ji for inquiry, he told me that he had read my last post . That made me feel good for two reasons; one, people read what I write and two, Sutradhar takes feedback and acts on it. Now for the plays. I would give 90 of 100 for script selection. Good stuff. Let me give my opinion on these plays one by one: Shanivar dopahar 2 baje : This is the tale of an illegitimate extra-marital relationship between a man (not so happily married with a daughter) and an aging spinster. They seem to have lost it on the 'family' life front and have sex every Saturday afternoon at 2. The affair has been on for last 2 years. The play is nothing but another Saturday afternoon ordeal happening in front of the audience that gives us a glimpse of their lives. The script is well written. At least the subject appealed to me. There a...

I thought I knew everything about it. And I thought there would be economic reasons behind India reaching semi-finals (thats what I had predicted). My opinion was that there were MNCs who had invested in the Indian Cricket team and on promotion and advertising in the World Cup '07 and there cola and telecom giants would 'make sure' India played till the time their marketing departments wanted it to. I now think the game is not so bad after all. India might have lost, but I am glad, the game has won. powered by performancing firefox

Its fashionable to be confused in our generation. Its like cloths. Everyone wants to wear the Dhoom2 range, and Pepe is selling it. The entire generation wants to follow people with no ideology. Its hep to be confused and our film industry is selling it. There are scores of Indian mainstream Films that portray the central character playing a son of a rich father clueless of what he wants from life and falling in love as a major pass-time. Let me say what I mean more clearly (lest you confuse yourself). If I have an ideology ( a thought process) that says that certain people are wrong in what they do, I run the risk of being treated as an extremist with an added classification as a Hindu extremist, Muslim extremist etc. A large chunk of my generation has no opinion on matters of politics, national security, policy matters or agricultural reforms. rather than going into the depths, these issues are dealt on some blanket statements like "Politics is a dirty game", "Politici...

I have been known for my humour ( in both bad as well as good ways). I have hurt quite a people because of my humour, demeaned myself and many such things have happened. But what hurts me most that people think humour is easy. "Its easy to just say something stupid enough". Trust me, it's not. Over the years I have learned a lot of what humour can do to situations, relationships, meetings, speeches in both positive and negative ways. This piece of writing is dedicated to a serious thought to humour and going into the technicalities. Let me first try and take the reader (that is you...) through all the types of Humour that i know of: Sarcasm: * noun [U] the use of remarks which clearly mean the opposite of what they say, and which are made in order to hurt someone's feelings or to criticize something in an amusing way. You look at me and you say "Looks like your are really sweating it out in the gym" Thats sarcasm. Can be effectively used in meetings, with ...

In KBC that is..."Who could have done a good job?" .( I love the way I have framed this question...it also says a lot about my take on the current KBC host). For my favourite alternative had been considered it seems...check out the link. I would go with the chota B everywhere there is unavailability of the Big B. Not only because he is the son of Amitabh Bacchan, but because he has a personality of a cool, humourous and chilled out bloke. He would have to compete although on doing a good job with some people. Here is my list: Javed Jafferi (humour+voice+i love him in takeshi's castle) Harsha Bhogle (has a good vocab+very approachable personality ..more than the current host trying to portray himself) Madhuri Dixit Nene (for the same reason as the Big B...thoda jyada ho gaya nahi?..but take it with a pinch of salt) Kay Kay Menon (I dont know why...my gut feeling) My big time No Nos: All Khans Anyone from Karan Johar film Anyone from the "K" Serial Rekha...hehehe ...

I thought I would be called an optimist for being shortsighted about disasters. But I guess its an important quality in good managers. They always sense what can go wrong in a project. My mind now a days is dwindling on a big road less plateau. There are people who can always tell you what is going wrong, without knowing what is the right thing to do. How good is such a person? He will tell you everything that can go wrong before you are all charged up to take the big leap of faith. I absolutely agree that you should be taking a informed decision, knowing all the cons especially. I would like to be such a person, who always knows whats wrong. But unfortunately, I haven't been bought up that way. I only give my opinion, and if there isn't any better solution I can give, I am game for an experiment. But there is merit, when someone says "Its better not doing something than doing it wrongly and messing up further". May be its more to do with whether you are a thinker or ...

reality electromagnetic data storage transfer conversion into display see/hear electronic impulses brain decipher feel store What happens when we watch a video from a website or on the television? What is the end to end process? Lets take a visual experience as an example. There is something happening. The light that is bounced off the objects is stored as electromagnetic data. This data is then converted into digital form and transfered through the internet or television signals. The display device at our end converts this data into a visual experience, the light from this display device is then converted into electronic impulses by our eyes (retina or some part like that). These impulses then travel to some part of brain which deciphers it for us to feel and store. To reduce the loss while converting from electromagnetic to digital, we have developed a technology for recording video in digital format. Why cant we record video in the same format as the one in which eyes do i...

Couple of days back Prajakta's first death anniversary was celebrated in Ponda (Goa). There were song and dance performances through-out the day. She loved to be there and performing at such programs. She must have been there this time around too... powered by performancing firefox

I am having this feeling I am not getting anywhere professionally or personally. I havent worked hard for anything repeat anything for quite along time now. Sucks!

I couldn't do it the next day. Sorry for that! Well the Question was who should have the right to vote? My answer is, "One who pays the taxes". If I am paying tax to the Government, which the representatives of "The People" are going to spend, then I should be "The People". Only those who pay have the right to decide how and who should spend it. If I don't have my money at stake and if I am so poor, illiterate and dumb that I have lost the power to think, I would rather take some money and vote for Ravan's Step Brother. Lets try a different approach. Allow me to paint two scenarios: Scene 1- There are two folks who say that they will give you a Ferrari for free if you vote for them. Remember you have limited knowledge about both of them. They are going to buy the Ferrari from someone else's money. May be they will take some 500 million from that "someone else" for the Ferrari and keep some for themselves. What would you do? Now wh...

Why are sensible policies rare in our country? The reason seems interesting to me. Who makes policies in this country? The Elected Representatives in the Parliament. How does one get elected as a representative of the people? Here comes the interesting stuff. I need to have majority of people voting for me. Now (suppose), I as a person, have the character of Ravan's step brother, morals as strong as a Parthiv Patel's batting. Who do you think will vote for me? Some dumb uneducated guy who has lost the power to think and whom I can bribe to vote for me. Now, I (having the character we assumed) would love to have more and more such people around me. So that I can be a Representative of the People of my country. That is easy if I can manage to to keep maximum people as dumb uneducated citizens who have lost the power to think and whom I can bribe to vote for me. So that is exactly what I do when I come in power to ensure my victory in the next election. I make policies that will k...

As I start my tax planning on the 11th hour, I keep wondering why I am doing this. Not the planning part, but the paying part. Why should I pay the Government of India? I don't pay any one just like that, for nothing! After all I am not the GOI. The Government can pay people because they are poor (probably because they are lazy, un-innovative or simply dumb), or because someone's husband/son picked up fight with another community and got killed in that. And The Government is going to pay all these morons from my money that I pay as Income Tax. While the one who has paid, gets back traffic congestion, power cuts, terrorist threats and much more. While I should get my money's worth, somebody else is getting something he hasn't even made an effort for. When I pay someone for some benefits/services he offers me in return, I am the consumer of his services. By this logic, can I sue the Govt. of India for misusing my tax? I, as a tax payer should have the right to decide how...

That's what I think! (before you wonder how you missed that news or rush to the nearest TV set or think of reporting this to the media) I think he should not be disposed off. Because a dictator who has ruled an entire country, knows a lot that everyone would like to know. Now for the info to be worthwhile you will need to know what it could be. I have some ideas. The gentleman can educate the world on: How to screw up Iran How to be a good dictator How to hide in rabbit holes How to hide money effectively The list may go on but for my lack of information, imagination and eradication of the source of this information. That is exactly the point I want to make. Had Saddam lived, he could be well utilised. The idea is like why my Mom keeps boxes and gift wrapping papers from the gifts we receive. Because she thinks that they may be useful sometimes later. And they do (very rarely although). And then I face the "See!!" expression. If nothing else. Some publishing house could ...