Umm... Yeah

Back to blogging

2012-01-03T12:55:00.001-08:00

I was using facebook to share with the rest of the world what a good writer, thinker i was and it started sucking after a few weeks. Persistance is lost and I have to compete with more important photos and idiotic posts about why their politician/god/movie star/person in the occupation of the day was the best for eye-balls and mindspace. Archival sucked big time too, I was not able to link to something i wrote earlier - i couldn't find it in the first place, and i can't link. My audience was limited to my friend circle and remotely thoughtful posts in friends' wall was limited to their friend circle. How else can i ejaculate my mind to the world? As long as blogger is free, i will be here.

School memories

2010-01-28T22:02:00.001-08:00

That is one picture I will never forget. It was in 5th standard that we had to read about this picture in our English book, and we had to "analyse" this picture. We had a great teacher for that class, who I can never forget. In fact, we had many teachers in my school, who made me who I am today. Why wait till teachers' day to thank them?

Alabama 3 - Woke Up This Morning - Spoken intro

2009-11-21T13:32:00.000-08:00

One of my all time favourite bits.

ID15

2009-08-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

Mr. Brown: happy indepenece day
Mr. White: likewise
Mr. Brown: indian independence just cost me 20 cents
Mr. White: likewise

Procrastination: 100+ Reasons You Shouldn’t Be Reading This

2009-06-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

1) I will write later

Quit Whining, you sound like a sissy girl...

2009-06-04T07:34:00.000-07:00

"Race is involved in these attacks, but it's also about classic masculinity and working-class guys trying to prove their worth by picking on a group that is marginalised," he said.

I am not surprised by this Australian's quote, after all, only the manly guys get the girls...

This comes soon after the authorities said that the attacks are not racist

Maybe the "curry niggers" should just pack and leave, not just the students but also all of them who are "stealing" Australian jobs. After all, casteist Indians are a thousand times worse than the average fun-loving Australian, and they are not the only group to be bashed -- let them just shut up and sit in the corner.

Everybody is only worried that the more the worms come out of the wood, more they will lose of the $15 Billion (and more).

Disclaimer: Indians are not exactly saints...

WTF quote of the day

2009-06-02T09:30:00.001-07:00

"No matter how big an Aussie player in IPL team is, he should removed and told that it is impossible to keep him in the team till the blood of innocent Indians is shed on his country's soil," Thackeray said.

This coming out of the mouth of the same senile Bal Thackeray, whose goons attacked innocent coconut sellers in Marine Drive, and in Girgaum Chowpatty; the same Bal Thackeray who wanted every muslim dead during the Bombay riots; the same geezer who lauded the terrorist who killed MK Gandhi, saying he was a "great leader"!! What about the innocent Indians - Malayalees, Tamils, Muslims, Biharis, etc, attacked by his trusted rowdies? Should Maharashtrians stay out of IPL too?

Rediff about a "Desi"

2009-06-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

Rediff has an article about "Ramit Sethi," an American of Indian Origin, who has a written a finance self-help book. Supposedly a best seller, one part of his interview that caught my attention was

In general, we Americans are not very savvy about personal finance at all.

WE AMERICANS?

He goes on to say

There are reasons for that. The first thing we can blame is our education system. We are not taught about personal finance in schools, and even if we are, these are old boring classes with boring topics.

If that's what he has to say about American education, what will he say about Indian education, which is focussed only on memorizing whole paragraphs and vomiting it all over the answer paper?

Not even one word related to India, he has uttered in his interview, and this was published in "Indians Abroad" magazine!!

Firefox incompatible government websites

2009-05-30T09:53:00.001-07:00

I've been having trouble using Firefox with many government websites, the last being the official site of the Indian Railways.

I can open the website, however when I try to check the ticket status,

It seems to process properly,

Oh, it makes me wonder if I visited some other website by mistake..

No, it leads to the same page as before!!

Tanishq gold scheme

2009-05-25T16:56:00.000-07:00

I got a brochure from the Tanishq showroom near my house, which said about a gold savings/purchase scheme, and said that was the best savings scheme available.

The scheme is, pay Rs. 500 a month for 11 months, the 12th month is free and Tanishq pays a bonus of Rs. 300. So, by paying Rs. 5500 over 11 months, you can purchase Rs. 6300 worth of gold at the end of the year. This seemed too good to be true.

I thought, what if I purchased Rs. 5500 worth of gold now, and see how much I get at the end of the year?

Let's assume the gold price today is Rs. 1500 (yesterday, it was Rs. 1480), and I buy exactly how much I can purchase for Rs. 5500 or 6300. I also assume a 10% increase in gold price the next year (actual increase from last year was 4.5%) and over 5 years, gold price will increase a modest 1.5 times (over the last 5 years it was 1.46 times)

Increase Gold Price Wastage Purchase Price Purchased Gold (g) Sold @ T5 Profit @ T5 Outright – Tanishq scheme
T0 1500 15.00% 1725 5500 3.19 13152.17 7652.17 256.52
T0 1500 15.00% 1725 6300 3.65 15065.22 8765.22 1369.57
T1 10.00% 1650 15.00% 1897.5 6300 3.32 13695.65 7395.65
T5 150.00% 4125

There is no option of buying gold coins, the item with the minimum wastage.

This option is available in UTI Gold ETFs, which I assume, going for the SIP plan, if that exists for gold ETF. UTI roughly traces the day's gold price.

Month Amount Price Units purchased
T0 500 1500 0.33
T1 500 1513.5 0.33
T2 500 1527.12 0.33
T3 500 1540.87 0.32
T4 500 1554.73 0.32
T5 500 1568.73 0.32
T6 500 1582.84 0.32
T7 500 1597.09 0.31
T8 500 1611.46 0.31
T9 500 1625.97 0.31
T10 500 1640.6 0.3

5500 3.51
Average purchase price 1568.1
T5 After 5 years 4125 14468.18
Profit 8968.18

A Bank FD (6.5% ROI, Rs. 5500 for 5 years)
Principal 5500
RoI 6.50%
Duration 5
Amount 7592.31
Profit 2092.31

Thus, Tanishq doesn't seem to offer me the best savings plan as it claims in its brochure. Outright purchase is more profitable than going for this dubious "best savings scheme".

This scheme is definitely not geared towards anyone from middle-middle class or below, since gold is always sold at a premium over the other shops. They wouldn't purchase here in the first place, and they definitely would be prudent enough to see through the smoke.

Some Nice Songs

2009-05-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

From one and a half decades back... I feel so old...

Ye teri aankhen juki juki - Fareb

Chappa Chappa - Maachis

Returning to India

2009-05-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

In the last few months, I have seen many of those "onsite" guys coming back to the home office, and a sudden spurt in the number of "US return" people flaunting their designer sunglasses, "original" nike shoes, and the costliest car in the block. News websites say they return mainly due to "sentimental" reasons, decreasing wage gaps, and other BS reasons. I talked to many of them. Initially they gave the same kind of reasons - being close to family; came here for a vacation, will go back there after taking care of this problem project here; etc. Prodding further, or making them speak their mind, the real reason seems to be the IT companies recalling them, either due to project cancellation, or cost cutting over there, "resource rotation", and mainly the expiry of their visas. Even some greencard holders have returned - that was due to losing their jobs (and their sponsors). While it is a face-saving way to hide the real reason, why do those newspapers and websites give a phony reason?

To all those supporting LTTE

2009-05-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

To all those morons supporting LTTE and quoting from its propaganda website, those who want India to send troops to "save Tamils", THIS is what LTTE thinks about India. The above picture shows Indians killed by the same Tamils India supposedly went to protect.

We don't want a repeat of the above scenes.

This is how our former PM was treated , first by the Sinhalese, we all know how the LTTE handled him...

Sri Lankan Tamils lost their cause when they, the LTTE, and the Sri Lankan government hounded IPKF out of their country. All those people empathising for their "Tamil Berthers", why don't they sympathise for the lesser "tamil berthers", the dalits of this state? Caste affinity makes some politicians (Thevars, Vanniars, and Gounders) vociferously support Prabhakaran (Karaiyar) and the majority Sri Lankan Tamils (Vanniars, Vellalars), and the "enemies" of this caste (Pariahs) shamelessly toe their lines even while they are weighed down their whole lives here, and their equivalents in Sri Lanka (Rodiyas) live a life as bad or worse than the untouchables in India. Politicians make strange bedfellows!!

Why don't these politicians talk about
1) the bigotry against Muslims
2) the increasing violence against Christians
3) the atrocities against dalits
4) the exploitation of tribals

I would say, that's because they have more in common with those people (caste) than with these people!!

A Diamond is forever, a mere piece of overpriced carbon

2009-05-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

There are carbon forms and compounds much more precious than diamonds. If there is one industry that I would like to see go down during this recession, it is the diamond industry...

“If you don’t support the price,” Andrei V. Polyakov, a spokesman for Alrosa, said, “a diamond becomes a mere piece of carbon"

Tata Apartments - Nano or No-No

2009-05-09T14:29:00.000-07:00

The project is over-over-hyped for 3 reasons

1) 100 kilometres away from the city, 50 kilometres away from the nearest suburban train terminus, 80 kilometres away from the centre of the city

2) with an average car speed of 40 kmph till Virar, and 20 kmph from Virar will have a 3.5 hour commute each way -- 7 hours wasted just on the roads. That's a whole work day!!

3) So far away from the city, and still someone has to shell out 1500 per sq. ft. -- for a 250 sq. ft. apartment?

No one in their right minds should go for that.

In the picture, the red marker is Boisar, where the project is to come up, and Mumbai is far far away!!

On the other hand, had they come up with the same apartments atleast within Virar limits, then it would've been a good option. Or, if the apartments were not directed towards those people who commute to Mumbai everyday, it would have been much better. Why centre everything in India around Mumbai and Delhi?

And the media (including websites) shamelessly think this is a great idea!!

I Hope...

2009-04-28T11:45:00.001-07:00

I Hope Samata Party loses so badly in the elections, that they won't thinking of contesting elections again.

We opposed the goons of Raj Thackeray - he was fighting the correct evil, but not in the correct way.

Idiotic quotes by a moron standing for elections in Mumbai

"We will definitely make an effort to emulate Chennai and Saudi Arabia's systems of purifying sea water and making it fit to drink." -- Not sooner, he also said "Machines create loss of jobs". How is he going to achieve this -- by manually making people from Bihar move all over the coast to purify sea water?

He also vomited, "And we are not saying that English shouldn't be taught in schools -- we are only saying that all government work should take place in our national language, Hindi." Bollocks to that. Hindi should be banned anywhere outside BIMARU states.

Continuing his verbal diarrhoea, he said "But if we computerise things in the villages also, people won't have any work." What he meant was, he won't be able to fill more people from his state as pan-Indian clerks.

I hope someone throws one truck-load of shoes at each of these guys guys, along with the truck. Or, make that two.

What the great UP-wallah Nehru wanted, these guys are trying to achieve.

Tamils??

2009-04-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

While the should've-retired-by-now Thief Minister of Tamil Nadu has been flipping and flopping over the "Tamil Cause", the only Tamilian in the Sri Lankan cricket team is "happy to be among wickets," captaining Chennai Super Kings.

Why are those protesting in Europe simply termed as Tamils? Just because they speak the same language?? Going by the same logic, there are no Americans or Australians, only English, and no Austrians, only Germans.

Mobile Penetration - what changed in 4 months?

2009-04-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

December 2008, Delhi supposedly joined the "elite" club of cities with more than 1 mobile phone for each person. Source: Economic Times. Chennai was not even mentioned as passing gas.
April 2009, it is 0.83 mobile phones per person. Chennai is "lauded" as the "topper", with 1.11 mobile phones per person. Source: Rediff.

What happened in these 4 months, that brought about this change - did those multi-phoned Delhi dudes move to the stagnant backwaters of Chennai?

Fish Fry

2009-03-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

Seer fish slices - ½ kg ~ 6 slices
turmeric powder – 1tsp
red chilly powder – 3 tsp
coriander powder – 1 tsp (optional, increase chilly powder and pepper powder by 1/2 tsp each)
Pepper powder – 2 tsp
table salt – 2 tsp
water – as much as required
juice of 1 big lime

Mix all the powders together in a small bowl with salt, little water and the lime juice. Smear both sides of fish slices with a slightly thick layer, and let it soak for 30 minutes. Pour a little oil in a frying pan, and place the fish slices, two at a time. Turn every two minutes. Fish is done when it starts smelling nice, usually 12-14 minutes in total, per slice.

Goes well with beer, whisky.

Chanakya's quotes - relevent even today!!

2009-03-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

If Chanakya lived today, people will just deride him as pessimistic, crooked, wily, etc.

A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and Honest people are victimized first. --applies even outside politics. Look at road accidents, majority of the people killed were just following the law when some duffer drove either drunk or rashly or both.

Even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.

Never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you.

There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no Friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth. --What will proponents of the "unsinkable ship" say?? There's a reason why USA is best friends with Pakistan ;-) and why Thirumavalavan is friends with Ramadas?

As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.

Once you start a working on something,don't be afraid of failure and don't abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest.

The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direction of the wind. But the goodness of a person spreads in all direction. --so does the stench of corruption in India.

A man is great by deeds, not by birth. --!!!

Treat your kid like a darling for the first five years. For the next five years, scold them. By the time they turn sixteen, treat them like a friend. Your grown up children are your best friends. --advice to all dads, old and new.

Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.

Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.

Conduct certificate to join orkut community?

2009-03-05T10:23:00.000-08:00

If someone wants to join a government job, they must produce 2 conduct certificates - from school/college, from an "outstanding citizen", from previous/current employers.

Saw this in an orkut community -- "Indian Politics"

To become a member, show evidence of your conduct in debates by e-mailing the URLs of threads of other Orkut communities that you are a part of to

Hmm...

Cost of green

2009-03-03T05:52:00.000-08:00

I had been thinking a lot about installing a solar water heater for two reasons - decreasing my electricity bill, and to make use of the 10 hours-a-day sunshine here. I called up the dealer of a famous solar water heater manufacturer and found out it was not worth buying a solar water heater at all!
1. I can't have hot water whenever I want, even during the day time. I was supposed to let the sun "boil" the water for a whole day and I can use the water heated today only the next day.
2. The cost is prohibitive - Rs. 20,000 + taxes + installation charges + "misc. expenses". The cost of an instant water heater is Rs. 4000, and the annual electric bill (all the appliances) is only another Rs. 4000. So, if I get this installed, it will take me 4 more years to break even.
3. I can't install it in my flat as the heater has to be placed only on the open terrace.

Why go through all this trouble if I have to lose all the convenience??

Yahoo Messenger Spam

2009-03-01T08:50:00.000-08:00

I've been having this problem for the last few days - with spam messages coming from my contacts. The case used to be that I got lots of spam messages from people I've never known, nowadays, these messages seem to come from people in my contact list!!

The messages come with the audible Ping, which till now I've understood to be followed by an urgent message by my friends...

Mutiny

2009-02-28T22:09:00.000-08:00

1971: India helps Bangladesh free itself from brutal Pakistan.
2001: Bangladesh returns the favour - sending back the mutilated bodies of BSF soldiers tied up like they were game gathered by the maharaja's hunting party.
(Image from Sify)
2009: Bangladesh Rifles in the news again
(Image from BBC)

The number of dead bodies in the grave could rise as the search continued, fire service operations chief Sheikh Mohammad Shahjalal said.
“It’s beyond comprehension how one human could have done this to another. They not only shot them dead but some bodies were badly mutilated with bayonets,” he said.

I wonder why nobody in Bangladesh asked this question in 2001. Maybe they don't consider citizens of a "Hindu country" as humans?

It has been known for some time that Pakistan's ISI has had a free reign within Bangladesh for creating trouble in India. If it is proved that ISI (or some other Paki organization) is behind this mutiny, will Bangladesh kick ISI out of the country? Or, will it try to "forgive" this mutiny and show some other reason?

Economy

2009-02-09T08:34:00.001-08:00

If there's anything I would like to see go down because of this bad economy, that would be Dubai and it's associated hype.

Then and Now

2009-02-03T08:09:00.000-08:00

pre-1987: Ceylonese government creates an apartheid state, with Sinhalese only as full citizens. Contrary to widespread belief that Buddhists are peaceful dopes, Tamil Hindus and Muslims are massacred and maltreated throughout the country by them.

1987-1991: Civil war in Sri Lanka, government forces fought against LTTE. Tamil Politicians openly supported the resistance/separatists. Indian armed forces forced to intervene by Tamil and Union politicians. All organizations, except LTTE lay down weapons; LTTE calls IPKF the "Satanic Force", "get the hell out of our country!" LTTE and Sri Lanka got together to fight back IPKF. IPKF Withdraws after huge losses. An ex-Prime Minister assassinated by LTTE.

1991-1996: See-saw between LTTE (now the sole "representative" of Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil politicians' shrill voice is mostly muted due to aforementioned assassination.

1996-2005: See-saw between LTTE (now the sole "representative" of Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil politicians' shrill voice raising slowly. Tens of "sole voice of Tamil conscience" join hands, along with Dalit "leader" Thirumavalavan.

2005-mid 2008: Civil war in Sri Lanka, government forces fought against LTTE. Tamil Politicians openly support LTTE. LTTE wants India to intervene now and save their arse.

mid 2008-present: LTTE on verge of losing everything tries to whip up emotions comparing what happens in Israel/Palestine to this Civil War. Both are sad events, but LTTE is not truly concerned about the civilians, they just want to hold on to the power they have tasted, and not getting killed once they lose their status. In Tamil Nadu, anyone who criticizes LTTE or the "Tamil Cause" is immediately denounced and silenced ever since a guy burnt himself up.

Aruva Culture in London

2009-01-31T11:25:00.000-08:00

A common complaint on rediff is tamils create problems wherever they go ... example vs. Karnataka, vs. Kerala, vs. AP, HINDRAF vs. Malaysia, Sri Lankan Tamils the world over, Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha, Vaiko, etc... Had this conversation today with some dost...

Dost: dei
<<a link he sent>>

Dost: read this
this happened just 1 mile from my place
day before

Manojar: oh
pathu poda...

Dost: yesss

Manojar: how is crime in london generally?

Dost: blacks and srilankans
thaaan problem

Dost: now aruvaaal culture also started

Manojar: ennathu???
aruva culture

Dost: yess
all our tamil guys only

Manojar: our tamil guys illa -

Dost: not lankans

Manojar: ltte tamil guys... ceylonese?
oh ok

Dost: tamils from tamil nadu
lot of illegal immigrants are there

Manojar: madurai tirunelveli thuthukudi guys ;-)

Dost: yesss
mostly from karaikudi
pattukottai

Dost: they come in tourist visa
Dost: over
stay
yes

Manojar: what abt u?

Dost: there are many agents
dei i am a proper resident with valid permit to stay
i am paying tax and filed tax also

My theory is, greater the Tamil Nationalism/Chauvinism of the people, greater their tendency to be violent and stupid. Just look at how peaceful the people in Madras are, compared to the people in south Tamil Nadu (also include Karunanithi, Jayalalitha, Vaiko, Ramadoss, Thirumavalavan, and many more). Also, peace is a relative term :D.

Chennai Metro

2009-01-29T06:12:00.001-08:00

With the people signing the deal for Chennai Metro, many may expect it to be the greatest thing to happen here. However, will it go the way of the MRTS - be inaccessible and underutilized in the catchment area due to poor planning?

Previously by Manojar - Chennai Local Train map

Even the Metro is for the benefit of South Madras, and tries to include some areas of west Madras, let's see how it fares.

Local trains in Chennai

2009-01-22T11:37:00.000-08:00

Totally vetti, so plotted the existing local train map for Chennai. See how much of the city is unrepresented here!!

7 not greater than 6?

2009-01-22T09:16:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to help someone apply for a bank job. All the Indian banks use the same website for receiving applications. I get an error saying that IE Version 6 and above has to be used. I tried Firefox, and Chrome, and finally came to IE. Even when I have a higher version (version 7), I get the same error. What can be done? Wonder if anybody else get the same message.

Police Stories - India

2008-10-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

The Hare runs like crazy through a forest and meets the Wolf. The Wolf asks: "What's the matter? Why such haste?" "The camels there are caught and shod!" The Wolf says: "You're not a camel!" "When you are caught and shod, go then and try to prove them afterwards that you're not a camel!"

---

The British, the Americans, and the Indian police are all trying to prove that they are the best at apprehending criminals. The UN decides to give them a test. They release a rabbit into a forest and each of them has to catch it.

The British police goes in. They place animal informants throughout the forest. They question all plant and mineral witnesses. After three months of extensive investigations they conclude that rabbits do not exist.

The Americans go in. After two weeks with no leads they burn the forest, killing everything in it, including the rabbit, and they make no apologies. The rabbit had it coming.

The Indian police goes in. They come out two hours later with a badly beaten bear. The bear is yelling: "Okay! Okay! I'm a rabbit! I'm a rabbit!"

---

Saare Jahan Se Accha

2008-10-13T05:41:00.001-07:00

As we all know, India is the most secular country in the world. Whereas in other countries, people are persecuted for their religion, they will be protected in India? Didn't you know that?

Whereas in countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, where you can get killed for moving out of Islam or for simply practicing your religion, or places like Malaysia where you are accorded the state religion after death. There are also growing levels of religions intolerance in Russia

“The motives for spreading such hatred are clear – it is an attempt to discriminate and harass the Hindu community in Russia and stop them from building a temple,” explained Ramesh Kallidai, secretary general of the Hindu Forum of Britain. “It is unbelievable that a leader of such a powerful Church can make such disgraceful and dogmatic attempts to instigate tension between different religions. This is completely against all principles of multi-faith co-existence and cooperation that ancient and inclusive religious traditions like Hinduism stand for.”

Did you know that these things can never happen India? The only country in the world where a sikh can become a PM, a muslim and a dalit become Presidents, and a christian can become the leader of the ruling party? What more do they want? New Zealand and USA are aberrations - only once in a blue moon can an Indian become the Governor General of New Zealand or Bobby Jindal can become the Governor of a state!! Let's see if THAT happens again there or anywhere else!!

6 burnt alive - including 3 babies
The victims have been identified as Mahboob Khan (55), Safiya Khan (50), Rizwana Begum (22), Arsulam Khan (6), Numan Khan (3) and Sabat Khan (2).

Where else can we speak out against forced conversions while doing the same?
'Once a Hindu converts, his loyalties shift'

Firstly I would like to say that the VHP has always maintained that it was against conversions. People have been taken to prayer halls forcibly and made to pray four to five times a week [citation required], again forcibly why someone should force people to take up a certain religion? Why do a drama in the name of service to God and then end up converting people? If the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, the law also says forcible conversion is an offence

Once a Hindu converts, his loyalties too shift. Once a person is converted, his loyalty is to the Vatican. This means we lose one Hindu and gain an enemy in the bargain. Again let me make it clear, we have nothing against Christianity. We are just raising our voice against forcible conversion.

Orissa Christians made an offer they can’t refuse

Many of them want to return to their villages. They say they have been asked to embrace Hinduism, or else they would be either killed or treated as pariahs.

His hands trembled when he picked up the burnt Bible lying near the door. "This was the only religious book I had when I was a Christian. Now even that is no more. I may have turned a Hindu but my heart will never accept this religion," he said.

“I do not have anything else to fall back on. If converting to a different religion ensures safety for my family and me, then let is be so."

A Dalit was shot dead in Nalanda district of Bihar as he tried to make offerings to goddess Durga ahead of upper caste people.

Pregnant women bear the brunt of Orissa violence

That's just religion... don't get me started on language, region , or caste!! And there are more factors I don't even know that exist.

Saare Jahan Se Accha.... Vande Mataram, Vandu Emathrom

Subprime crisis explained

2008-10-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought hundreds at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts.

At this point the man announced that he would now buy at $20 each. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.

The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so limited that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 each! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf for him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers, "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys.

They never saw the man nor his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have a better understanding of subprime crisis...

Breaking News

2008-10-11T04:11:00.000-07:00

Seen all day today on Indian TV Channels - Amitabh Bacchan not well, complains of tummy-ache, maybe indigestion? FTW!
Headlines Today

Times Now

CNN-IBN

Some time last year - Amitabh Bacchan catches cold
some hindi news channel

Rahul Gandhi has Dal-Puri and Vegetables for breakfast during some campaign
Aaj tak hindi news channel

Cat climbs on a wall, refuses to come down for 6 hours!!
Aaj Tak hindi news channel

Police Commissioner's lost dog returns!!
Star News hindi news channel

p.s.: Ab's latest news - photos by me, other news items - email forwards...

Prophecy?

2008-10-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

Vanity :-)
I was when I got an email from one guy today..
---

From: One Guy
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 2:53 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: Really GREAT!!Read it...Do we want to be Shopkeepers or customers? --- Must Read

What you said (a year back in the below e-mail) is what is happening now. Great ! You are a real genius !

Regards,

One Guy

From: Me
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 12:49 PM
To: Old project folks
Subject: RE: Really GREAT!!Read it...Do we want to be Shopkeepers or customers? --- Must Read

The supposed “Indian economist” who wrote this absurd piece is a complete moron!

Read some quotes from reputable economists, rather than some free market enthusiast who is part of a (imperialistic?) right-wing establishment – the globalization institute (really, that’s the name – globalisation.eu) – GI has recommended many hare-brained schemes like privatization of public water supply in developing countries, which led to riots in Bolivia, Columbia, Ghana, uruguay, etc. this concept has been banned in other socialist countries like Netherlands!! (bloody commies!!!!)

Stephen Roach, the chief economist of Morgan Stanley, argues that empires are not built on debt and that the explosion of the US asset bubble in the late 1990s revealed the unsustainability of the US position: "This saga is not about the bubble. It is about the unwinding of a more profound asymmetry in the global economy, the rebalancing of a US-centric world . . . History tells us that such asymmetries are not sustainable.

"Can a savings-short US economy continue to finance an ever-widening expansion of its military superiority? My answer is a resounding no. The confluence of history, geopolitics, and economics leaves me more convinced than ever that a US-centric world is on an unsustainable path" (2).

---

To be fair, thanks to the Federal Reserve's expansionary monetary policies over the past five years, U.S. asset-prices have risen considerably; also known as the "wealth effect". At the end of last year, the market capitalisation of the U.S. stock market rose to a record-high of US$20.6 trillion, matching the value of household real estate, which also rose to a record-high at the same time. On the surface, this may seem like brilliant news, however you must realize that this "wealth illusion" achieved by an ocean of money and record-high indebtedness is only a consequence of inflation. Moreover, history shows that although asset-prices can come down rather abruptly, debt must always be repaid. So, I remain cautious of this engineered American "prosperity".

---

While you may recommend “borrowing and spending over your limits” remember the time will come when you have to repay these loans… when countries start cashing in their promissory notes and/or securities, then the usa will go into another depression like the 1930’s, while countries which save AND spend, the ones in EU, China, India, will not be affected that much…

Regards,

Me

From: Another
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 12:28 PM
To: Old project folks
Subject: FW: Really GREAT!!Read it...Do we want to be Shopkeepers or customers? --- Must Read

Thanks & Regards

Another guy

From: Some other guy
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 12:21 PM
Subject: Really GREAT!!Read it...Do we want to be Shopkeepers or customers? --- Must Read

An interesting article on USA's Spending, written by an Indian Economist:

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also Japan exports far more
than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over $100 billions. Yet
Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.

Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports. Has an
annual trade deficit of over $400 billion. Yet, the American economy is
considered strong and trusted to get stronger.

But where from do Americans get money to spend?

They borrow from Japan, China and even India. Virtually others save for
the US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars.

India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US
securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities. Japan's
stakes in US securities is in trillions.

Result:

The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world saves
for the US, Americans spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption
going, that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit
$180 billion every quarter, which is $2 billion a day, to the US!

Otherwise the US economy would go for a six. So will the global economy.

The result will be no different if US consumers begin consuming less.

A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in
China, or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what
China has invested in US. The same is the case with India. We have
invested in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than $20
billion in India.

Why the world is after US?

The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In fact
they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US
spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US. So US imports more
than what it exports year after year.

The result:

The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening
culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US
consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the
world provides the money. It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a
customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. If the customer
will not buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds
him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless
shopkeeper financier.

Who is America's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course. Yet it's
Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that Japanese
do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the
Japanese government exerted it self, reduced the savings rates, even
charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend (habits don't
change, even with taxes, do they?). Their traditional postal savings alone
is over$1.2 trillions, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings,
far from being the strength of Japan, has become its pain.

Hence, what is the lesson?

That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just
spend, but borrow and spend. Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born
economist in the US, told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask
them to spend, on imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This
will put India on a growth curve. "Saving is sin, and spending is virtue."
Before you follow this neo economics, get some fools to save so that you
can borrow from them and spend.

Poem 2

2008-09-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

Vasco da Gama
Went to a drama
Without pyjama
People said
Ayyo Rama!

Elephants never forget

2008-09-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

A young man was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from college. While he was walking through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air.

The elephant seemed distressed so the man approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot.

There was a large thorn deeply embedded in the bottom of the foot.

As carefully and as gently as he could he worked the thorn out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man and with a rather stern look on its face, stared at him. For a good ten minutes the man stood frozen -- thinking of nothing else but being trampled.

Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away.

The man never forgot that elephant or the events of that day. Twenty years later the man was walking through the zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to where they are standing at the rail. The large bull elephant stared at him and lifted it's front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times, all the while staring at the man. The man couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant.

After a while it trumpeted loudly; then it continued to stare at him.

The man summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder.

Suddenly the elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of the man's legs and swung him wildly back and forth along the railing, killing him.

Probably wasn't the same elephant.

Diary of an MBA

2008-09-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Diary,

I can't hold myself down. My FIRST day on the job!! And I like it already.

"Assistant Junior Deputy to the Vice Chairman - Manufacturing" . My dad was thrilled when he heard my designation.

"What the f!@#!!!" were his exact words. Oh I love it when my parents are happy...

Need to meet HR in half an hour. I can't wait to get my first Employee ID Card and cubicle. I hope Parthasarathy Whatayblouse Crappers (PWC) is the beginning of great things.

P.S. I have brought my favorite textbooks back from the institute OD, OM and HR should help me grow rapidly in the organization. And I WILL handle soft issues before facing hard issues here at PWC.

July 28th

Dear Diary,

Had a lot of fun with HR yesterday. The guy who had recruited me had left a month ago. So they didn't know I was joining. We had a hearty laugh over that one.

I'll get my cubicle in a few days time. For the time being I am sharing a nice one with Claire. She's with Corporate Communication.

The phone doesn't work though...

August 2nd

Dear Diary,

Met my boss today. He spent a lot of time with my CV and then asked me how I managed to get a job with them. (Even he knows how lucky they are to get me..) He told me to review our material ordering system in the err... umm... the... the "big yellow and blue noisy machine section" of the plant.

Claire is working on an "Our Employees Love Us" campaign. The office boy had just resigned. So she got me to pose with an apron and a tray of cookies for a photo. They are going to call me Ramon and use it for ads. I am going to be famous.

August 7th

Dear Diary,

My first breakthrough. I have decided to order nickel ball bearings using the EQO.. QEO... whatever formula. It takes into account item cost, holding cost and weight of ball bearing I think. The purchase guy gave me a funny look when he saw my annual requisition contract form. He is obviously not an MBA...

Claire resigned today. She told me carry on with the "Our Employees Love Us" campaign.

P.S. Lesson for the week. You cannot order 0.7564 of a ball bearing. It has to be in whole numbers.

August 11th

Dear Diary,

I just got a shipment of 4384 ball bearings. I checked up with Engineering.

They said that should be enough for around 14 years of requirement. I gave them 3 and stashed away the rest in a cupboard in my room. If prices of ball bearings go up, I see a lot of potential savings.

I have decided to develop informal channels of communication. From tomorrow I will spend a little time next to the coffee machine to understand the unspoken messages within the underbelly of the firm.

(That OD book is good)

August 14th

Dear Diary,

I sent my first official letter today. It was to our Facilities manager Merry Le Bian. She is a hottie. I told her that the Coffee Machine takes too much time to reheat between refills. Wrote it in a WAC format and all with a table of contents and everything. She is sure going to be impressed!! I spell checked it in MS word and emailed it to her an hour ago. No reply yet.

They scrapped the "Our Employees Love Us" campaign. The photo shoot was taking up too much time, and people were being forced to stay late without extra pay. Someone finally went and vandalised the banner. It now reads "Our Employers Shove Us". I offered to model for all the snaps and videos. They called me a dickhead. I was delighted. Dickhead is internal slang for "Big Stud". HR told me. Everyone calls me that...

P.S. One more shipment of ball bearings came. Again 4384. The contract can't be changed now. I dont have too much space left in my cupboard.

August 25th

Dear Diary,

My letter came back. It had a pink post-it on it from Merry. "Please proofread" it said. It was CC'd to my boss. How was I supposed to know MS Word would spell check her name and change it to Merry Lesbian????! !!!

Where's natural justice?

Today five minutes before a meeting the cupboard door broke open. It took me ten minutes to pick up all the ball bearings from the floor. I had to run to the board room for the meeting and slipped on a bearing which rolled under the door. I fell on the coffee machine and tipped coffee powder into the polymer mixing matching tray. No one saw anything.

P.S. Sorry for the long break. My computer crashed. There was a mail from an old friend. She's now married into the Welchia family I think.

Crashed after that. Strange name that Welchia...

September 2nd

Dear Diary,

My boss told me I may not last the probation period. I was mighty thrilled to hear that. Imagine!! Permanent in less than three months!!

That should be some sort of company record.

I made a presentation to all the staff yesterday. Some 300 people were there. I think I sent good vibes. Everyone was smiling and nodding their heads during the presentation. Someone later told me my fly was open the whole time. But I don't think anyone noticed. The presentation was on "An Open Culture: Let the feeling show!!"

p.s. 17156 ball bearings. I floated a scheme to give each employee a ball bearing for every year of service. The HR manager immediately convened a meeting with my boss. Every suggestion counts here at PWC.

September 4th

Dear Diary,

I have been transferred to the office in Sub-Saharan Africa . I will be heading the Room Heater and Hot Water Geyser products division. They have also told me to pay for all the ball bearings I bought. I think it speaks much of the entrepreneurial spirit. I have been told to leave immediately for Kujumbinana.

P.S. A foreign posting in under a year!!!

September 5th

Dear Diary,

I am in Kujumbinana. We don't have a branch here...

Grape Juice

2008-09-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

A farmer handed an empty bottle to his farm- hand and asked him to get him some grape juice from the juice stall down the road.

"What about money?" asked the man?

"Any fool can buy grape juice if he has money," replied the farmer. "The skillful man is he who can buy grape juice WITHOUT money!"

The farm-hand returned after a while. "Here's your grape juice." he said, handling over the bottle to his employer.

"Hey, but there's nothing in it!" said the farmer, peering disappointedly into the bottle.

"Why don't you try drinking it?" suggested the man. "Any fool can drink grape juice when it is there. It requires skill to drink it when it is NOT THERE!"

Pome

2008-09-25T11:53:00.000-07:00

I prayed to God,
Lord! Take me away!
God replied, I will take thee,
what shall I tell her,
she who prayed for your long life?

Hindi as the "National Language"?

2008-09-12T12:01:00.000-07:00

What's your thought on the whole "national language" debate in India? Any discussion forum talking about this issue is polarized into two groups. One group says the national language is Hindi and it is said so in the Constitution. The other group says there is no national language (or 22 national languages) and that's what is mentioned in the Constitution. Irrespective of the facts, what are your thought's?

Just for the record:
According to the official version of the Constitution, there is no mention of a/22 national language(s). However, there is a directive for development of Hindi...

Note: I am copy-pasting all the comments received in the comments section. It is meant to simulate yahoo answers, where the question was originally asked.

Anti-south Songs Updated

2008-09-12T11:47:00.000-07:00

Updates to the Lyrics

Hotel Kerala-Fonia

Sambar of '69

Anu Shakti Indica-Americana's Open Letter

2008-09-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

something good on rediff...

I am just one day old, I am newly born Nuke Power in India by the NSG approval and Indo-US congress marital agreement. In just one day I felt so many critisism about my birth, even my legs has been stretched from both supporters and opponents. I am happy as I am the only child born by male mr. Singh, who was driven by female mrs Gandhi as well as NRI Mr Bush.

As some community and party like BJP and CPI-M are not happy with my birth because they all actually want to be guardian or parent of me.

Today, I am just small, if my parents (Singh & Gandhi) will allow me then in my young age I will only serve the people or party who had supported of my birth. Rest all opponent will not get any of my service. I think this would be the best punishment for them.

As here with my first letter I am warning all the party/people/individual, whoever is not happy with my birth, they will never get light from me.

Everybody are fighting and pulling others leg but none are thinking about my growth and usage. I know if I will be used by wrong hand then I can be a Bomb and I can even destroy entire world. Whether I will be terrorist Nuke-Bomb or your life by Nuke-Power, it all depends on you.

Thanks,
Anu

Iron Bridge, Chennai

2008-09-05T10:22:00.001-07:00

One of the famous landmarks in Chennai, it is now known as Napier Bridge. I vaguely remember a time (80s and pre-IT 90s) when it was called the Iron Bridge. Why and when was it renamed as Napier Bridge?

This is one of the earliest structures to use RCC (re-inforced concrete). The design seems to be very popular, i have seen it in so many bridges, mostly in Tamil nadu.
Photo: Thanks to Velachery Balu

Petrol Saving Techniques

2008-09-05T09:52:00.001-07:00

· Ride at a constant smooth speed. Maintain the speed around 40 kmph inside the city, and around 60 on the highways.

· Be in the right gear for the right speed. Step-up and Step-down gears at the correct RPM. Let the engine hum, not whine. Don't race the engine. In addition to wasting petrol, it will reduce the life of your engine.

· Avoid breaks, instead let the natural breaking of the engine slow your vehicle down

· Avoid clutch riding. It will not save fuel.

· Keep a safe distance between you and the vehicle in front of you, atleast 2 metres. 1 metre if the traffic is heavy. If the traffic is bumper-to-bumper, none of these will be applicable, anyway.

· Stick to ordinary petrol, and avoid branded petrol - they cost more and give slightly more mileage. The increase in mileage is not worth the extra money.

· Find short routes between two places. This is becoming important in Chennai due to congestion along almost all main roads, and circuitous one-ways. I won't recommend breaking rules, however, like, inching against traffic on the wrong side of the road, going the wrong way in one-way streets.

evolution?

2008-09-02T20:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I started Internet Explorer (Death to the Infidel) to download Firefox (PBUH).
Today I started Firefox (Death to the Infidel) to download Chrome (PBUH 2.0)
Tomorrow I will start Chrome (Death to the Infidel) to download the new Browsah Messiah (PBUH)!

Free Wifi Hotspots in Chennai

2008-08-25T18:30:00.000-07:00

Those searching for Wifi Hotspots in Chennai and landing on this page, if you know of/find any other place, please post that here.

---
Are there any wifi hotspots in chennai? Where i can go with my laptop and hangout?

I tried the one in Ascendas ITPC. But the guys there told me it's monday to friday only , though i got some decent connection for some time on saturday also. I had to buy some overpriced food to sit in their food court.

I heard there are hotspots in the Airport and Central station. Obviously, i can't go to the airport just for wifi. How about central?

Chennai, then and now

2008-08-24T00:45:00.000-07:00

Chennai 1925

Chennai 2008

I was walking from Park Town station to Park station when I stopped and remembered the vintage photo. I tried to capture central station like it was in the picture, but looks my memory failed me to get a close replica.

For sale, fraud

2008-08-24T00:39:00.000-07:00

If a 2 rupee coin can be sold for 300 times its value, because it contains an elephant, then jesus is my uncle. Ganesha is an elephant, ergo, all elephants are ganesha? No wonder we worship cows and monkeys and elephants and snakes.

ARR

2008-06-12T18:37:00.000-07:00

One of the few Indians who's lifted by others - A R Rahman.
Even if I am not fanatic about his music, I like it. A R Rahman definitely defined the Generation X in India and lifted Tamil movies music out of the rut especially the pathetic post-disco music. Being a city boy, i could never identify with the "sound of village". Maybe a lot of people liked it and like it, i never did and may never will. A R Rahman gave the paisans something to dance to.

Nonsensical Gibberish

2008-03-14T04:24:00.000-07:00

Interesting observation

Tales of the tainted governor took up so much ink and airtime that the potentates of the press didn't even notice the sex scandal that claimed the career of another powerful hypocrite: Tehran's brutal police chief, General Reza Zarei. The general, a favorite of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been responsible for "moral enforcement" of Sharia law, including "dress codes" that require women to be covered from head to toe. The chief "stepped down" after he was caught nude in a Tehran brothel accompanied by six naked prostitutes. It's a shame our press corps missed this one.

A situation like this, those talking about morality of others, are not so innocent, should we reexamine Sushma Swaraj and her ban on FTV, leading to me cursing her till now?

I cant control myself even imagining this hot grandma watching something more than FTV...

Arranged Marriage

2007-12-15T07:52:00.000-08:00

Arranged Marriage is not just a song by Apache India. If any Indian females come across this, can you give your perspective or thoughts or comments on this things? What you look for in a prospective husband - height weight mentally etc? If you were give a chance to talk and make a choice what would you discuss and what will you consider before your decision?

Thanks in advance

Abominable creature, I am!!

2007-10-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

Reliance doesn't want to do open business with me, because...

A rather unusual matter was brought up at the AGM by a shareholder. If Reliance had large retail plans, then would the company be also selling meats, poultry and fish, a staple at comprehensive super markets?

This would be abhorrent to a large section of the (Gujarati family promoted) company’s vegetarian shareholders who came from the Gujarat-Rajasthan belt in the country, said this shareholder.

And we know, as vegetarians, Gujjus are peaceloving people, and are highly principled - they respect all people irrespective of religion, caste, colour, or food preference, have high principles to uphold, don't do anything illegal, and their businesses are ethical and force other businesses to be non-discriminatory.

Hmmm, what will Reliance guys do? Effectively give out a lucrative, high-margin business to others, or face the wrath of those peace-loving Jains again?

But, while the name ‘Reliance’ will not be associated with non-veg, Mr Ambani added that the company’s retail operations would still “do that business,” either through a subsidiary or by some other means. “There is an integrated India,” he reminded his audience, implying that there are different cultures in the country and that business should cater to all.

Firefox problem

2007-09-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

I'm not able to download anything in firefox now
when i try downloading, i get the following error in the firefox error console

Error: not well-formed
Source File: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/lumbergh%20in-training/ Application%20Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/ e4zmx864.default/downloads.rdf
Line: 1, Column: 2
Source Code:
j��h`��Tg�wӨ�`lI��ڛH)�siI mU�b'!��Z-^

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsITransfer.init]" nsresult: "0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://global/content/contentAreaUtils.js :: internalSave :: line 352" data: no]

Error: not well-formed
Source File: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/lumbergh%20in-training/ Application%20Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/ e4zmx864.default/downloads.rdf
Line: 1, Column: 2
Source Code:
j��h`��Tg�wӨ�`lI��ڛH)�siI mU�b'!��Z-^

Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "ServiceManager::GetService returned failure code:" nsresult: "0x80570016 (NS_ERROR_XPC_GS_RETURNED_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://mozapps/content/downloads/downloads.js :: Startup :: line 476" data: no]

I got rid of this by removing the default profile and creating a default profile again. I forgot to back up and lost all my bookmarks and downloaded plugins.

De-brate....

2007-09-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

Some quotes!!

Most sensible comment seen there: End of the day, use what works for you.

Other, nonsensical comments!!

Linux - vim
Windows - Notepad

The answer is obvious for the people out there with half a brain…get OpenOffice.

But what about the average family who doesn’t need X amount of extra features?

First, most people don’t need the advanced features of MSWord, so OpenOffice - for free, will do the job just fine.

so, don't format your documents, resumes, flyers printed for your home business... here, take this toy, oooh, look at the pretty colours...go play with it, you don't need any of them jazzy features...one size fits all... Non-geeks like Office? death to the non-geeks...the geeks shall inherit the earth, until then, death to micro$oft...go through the 3000 page manual and memorize it before you even think of asking me some question...i'm too busy and cool to think about you user people anyway, and to boot you people are insects inside my bottom....just nuisance factor....sigh! what paradise it will be if there were no users in this world...

What is this?

2007-09-08T00:18:00.000-07:00

Can anyone identify this jelly fish like thing? It is more or less the size of a thumbnail.

The photo i took somewhere south of Thiruvanmiyur, Madras.

This is the response from a group:
Google on "Irukandji' and see the images. It closely matches the images in the pic....though I know that Irukandgi is mostly colourless very difficut to detect with naked eyes. This jelly fish is the most poisonous organism know to man. Its a recent discovery and very few clinics in the world have managed to successfully persons stung by this fish.

This is the deadly Irukandji fish, but my 'discovery' is different from this in some ways:

1) mine is a cobalt blue in colour, while Irukandji is transparent
2) Irukandji has only 4 tentacles, mine has more than four.
3) this was found in India, whereas Irukandji is supposedly found only in Australian beaches

Grandma and her guns

2007-08-22T12:36:00.001-07:00

My grandma's sisters will do the same..

Be careful, Indian grannies are trained by the Indian Army!

Observation Baba

2007-08-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

Saw this billboard near Gemini Flyover a long time back, coming back from Marina Beach.

First billboard is about the godman Sai Baba's visit to Chennai; the second is an ad for a radio station - someone imitating thala Rajni's Baba. The caption for the second says "Beware of duplicates". Just wondering, towards which Baba is this comment directed? hmm...

you are suffering for any disease :)............

2007-06-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

This is a sight now very common even in Tamil Nadu - a bunch of northies travelling in a home-made caravan, selling very "powerful" medicines that can cure "all diseases". You can see one on road-side, in a black tent with a board explaining the cures - this is one such picture, very funny!!


ARATI AURVEDIK CHIKITSA

You are suffering with any disease. Are not working
one your body. Because you are discourage. Lets come
to me and get and get healthy. Medicines were cured of
your disease we will take mony or gift from you. The
se are the diseases we are cured.
Gas trick, stomach pain, acidity, ulcer, urine unable
to come, stones are stored in the kidneys, heat, shankroid,
senses are weak. sugar, blood pressure, to be come
hypertension, lung diseases. 14 Types of diseases were
cured women diseases, white dots, egjima, skin diseases,
who become marriage and no childrens will be
ger childrens, phyles, liver diseases, elergy. t.b.
disease of lungs, all types of secret diseases
were cured from you, wee see the pulese and
give the exact medicines. First you have to check
the medicines and give the money.

To see the pulse fee 10 Rs.
The medicines will be provided by credit
if you are present govt. service certificate

India on Speed

2007-06-15T06:04:00.000-07:00

Old Mahabalipuram Road
feb 2004
(OMR) is, in fact, a lot better today than what it was about one year ago. And things are bound to get better still. With a six-lane expressway project having received the all-clear, by the end of 2004 a drive on this road is expected to be as exciting as a weekend cruise on a luxury ship.

it is june 2007, and the "exciting weekend cruise" is limited to the stretch between Madhya Kailash and Tidel Park, after which the road has completely disappeared and became a dirt track, with big ditches filled with water rotting on either sides of the road (can water actually rot?).

Feb 2004:
Realtors say that thanks to this silicon-based commerce, land prices are shooting up like a bottle rocket. "Prices have doubled in the last two years or so," says Azeem Ahmed of Property Care. "Earlier, people bought land here as an investment, now they do so to live here."

"In areas close to Tidel Park, ground value ranges from Rs. 12 lakhs to 15 lakhs. Compare this with what it was six years ago - Rs. 4 lakhs to 5 lakhs. Other areas have also recorded steep run-ups. Ground prices in Sholinganallur now range from Rs. 6 lakhs to 8 lakhs. In Padur and Navallur, a ground sold at Rs. 1 lakh-1.5 lakhs four years ago. Now it sells at Rs. 4 lakhs-5 lakhs. Old Mahabalipuram Road's growth has been IT-centric all the way," explains M. M. Ahmed of Mariam & Co.

June 2007:
Ground value has trebled all along the highway in 3 years!!

MRTS
Feb 2004:
As of now, there is MRTS service from Beach Station to the Thiruvanmiyur-Taramani junction. It is said that before long the service would be extended to Velachery.
From Projects Monitor - http://www.projectsmonitor.com/detailnews.asp?newsid=4488
Work on the Thirumylai-Velachery project is expected to be completed by this year-end. (16/4/02)

June 2007:
Nothing has changed. and the stations still haven't been completed.
People's expectation: Work on the Thiruvanmiyur-Velachery project (Thiruvanmiyur is halfway between Thirumylai-Velachery) is expected to be completed by this year-end.

Flyovers
And, we've been waiting for the completion of Padi flyover for many years now, they constantly say it will be over by the end of this year. It's like the government is Sausage Charlie, and we the Turkish tell Charlie - "It was two years five years ago."

Non Resident Indian?

2007-06-15T05:26:00.001-07:00

Sunita Williams - was born in USA to an Indian dad and a Slovenian mom, she is married to an American, she has been to India ONCE to visit her dad's family, her hobbies are running, swimming, biking, triathlons, windsurfing, snowboarding and bow hunting (none of which are encouraged among Indian girls. I might be wrong, maybe Indian girls outside India do this, though even football was prohibited for Jesminder Bhamra.) I don't find any other Indian connection - then why do the Indian media and Indians harp on her "Indian heritage"? Why don't I hear anything from the Slovenian side? She took The Bhagwad Gita, a Ganesha statue, Samosas, and Carniola sausages (a smoked sausage from Slovenia). She is also the 'third astronaut of Slovenian descent to fly to space after Ronald Sega and Jerry Linenger' (according to the Slovenian Government's website - http://www.ukom.gov.si/eng/slovenia/publications/slovenia-news/4057/4075/). Why have these been conveniently left out of all news reports? Is it because the "Indians" (we) are "ashamed" that their (our) "non-violent heritage" and "vegetarian culture" would be tarnished by someone eating "rajasik" non-vegetarian food? What's wrong with sharing their (our) pride with the Slovenians?

Anti Valentine Day

2007-02-14T02:18:00.000-08:00

To all those opposing valentine's day because it's supposedly corrupts "indian culture"::

Kaaman Pandigai is our Valentine’s Day
Wednesday February 14 2007 09:45 IST
CHENNAI: With Valentine’s Day gaining increasing popularity in the last few years, it would be interesting to know that Tamil culture and literature have celebrated love and given importance to Manmada or Kaama (Cupid) and his lady love Rathi from time immemorial.

There are references in ancient Tamil literature to celebrations of love in the form of Indran Pandigai or Indran Tiruvizha and Kaaman Pandigai or Kaaman Tiruvizha.

Kaaman Pandigai and Indran Pandigai have several similarities to the Valentine’s Day celebrations.

Not only these festivals glorify love, they are celebrated in the month of February. Dr Navaneethakrishnan, retired professor in Tamil folk studies at Madurai Kamaraj University, says Indiran Pandigai used to be held even during the time of Raja Sarfoji who came from Maharashtra to south India.

“When Kaama was burnt by Lord Shiva, Parvati protested his action and said Kaama had to be alive for people to find happiness in love,” he says.

Eminent folk singer Pushpavanam Kuppusamy says Kaaman Tiruvizha is a 10-day celebration when villagers get together and offer prayers to Lord Manmatha. “In the month of February, even today, in some places in Thanjavur district, people go to the Manmatha temple and offer prayers. Devotees are given poree and kadalai” he says.

The significance of this celebration, he says, is that love unites the families of a village.

On similar lines is the Indran Pandigai which also is celebrated in February to welcome spring.

“The Indran Pandigai has a lot to do with ecology and environment,” claims Dr Navaneethakrishnan. “Indra Vizha is usually celebrated to pray for rain which brings prosperity which in turn will make people happy and contribute to a full family life,” he adds.

“Holi and Bhogi are also closely connected with celebration of love,” claims Sukhi Sivam, a well-known Tamil scholar.

However, Bharathi Thirumagan, daughter of Villu Paatu vidwan, Subbu Armugam, suggests there is a story in the Silapadigaram that relates to the festival. “Sage Agathiyar instructs Thoonkayil erindha thoditol Chemabayan Raja to celebrate Indran Vizha for 28 days which will ensure a happy life for the people of the kingdom failing which the saduka bootham and naalangadi bootham will destroy the kingdom.”

“These festivals propagated love,” she adds.

There are also references to Indran Pandigai being celebrated with fervour by couples on the banks of the rivers. They enjoyed the beauty of nature in each other’s company during this festival, it is said. “Kaveri Poompattinam was a place where many couples enjoyed the scenic beauty,” points out G Premeela, HOD, Music Department, University of Madras.

‘In the north, they celebrate Vasanth Utsav. The festival dates back to the era when Lord Krishna along with Gopikas celebrated spring with colours and flowers,” she says.It is thus clear that the celebrations are just not limited to lovers or couples. They propagate love as such and the joy love brings for all of us. They glorify the beauty of love and nature.

So, i put the whole article...

Two sentences stand out prominently...

>>> Devotees are given poree and kadalai
>>> Indran Pandigai being celebrated with fervour by couples on the banks of the rivers

Not to mention the stories of playboy god Krishna. If Krishna is not part of "Indian culture," what else is?

I don't like V-day myself, but to appease all those RSS/BJP/VHP/SS type goons who want to eliminate this, instead of a "foreign" valentine's day, I recommend having an annual pilgrimage to Kajuraho, like the annual muslim pilgrimage to Mecca or the Kumbh Mela.

Linkedin Bug

2007-02-10T05:11:00.000-08:00

I got one invite from some guy, and when I clicked on the invite, instead of going to MY linkedin page, it accidently logged in with his name, and showed me everything of his!! I don't want someone to access my stuff when I send them an invitation. Hope the folks at Linkedin correct it soon!

160.9344 kilometers and runnin'

2007-02-07T05:11:00.000-08:00

FYI, this afternoon, I missed all the buses to my workplace and decided to go by bike. I wanted to reach there ASAP. Suddenly on the way, one police uncle suddenly stepped on the road and signaled me to stop. Why? I didn't know. I was going at a moderate speed, had all my papers OK, didn't jump any signal - in fact, there were no signals anywhere on that road. Then the pig came near me, checked my license, the bike papers, the registration; everything were A1. In the meanwhile, another pig comes over, switches off my engine and takes the keys away. I couldn't say anything. #1 tells I was speeding, going 50kmph when the limit was 40kmph. Nowhere was this limit posted anywhere!! He tells me, his ins will book a case against me, and won't let me go till I paid the fine, or I can pay 400 rupees and go immediately. I tell him I don't have that much money. #2 hears "don't have" and gleefully asks "no insurance?" That was a bigger case, worth a thousand rupees. I didn't really want to get involved in this shit. After all, they are traffic pigs and who knows what case can they write? But I knew this was not about speeding, it was about the money, honey. I take out my purse and tell him again, I don't have the money he asks for, #2 grabs my purse, sees there are two hundreds and three tens in it, takes the two hundreds and tells me to 'keep the change.' I didn't really know how to react to this situation. So I just got back my bike keys, started it and tested then and there whether my bike could really go 0 to 80 in 10 seconds - I did it in under 10. After all, I've paid for it.

pakis rule!!

2007-01-31T23:29:00.000-08:00

pakistan is the biggest ally in the war of terror, i mean, war against terror, and also during war against communism...so those fukcin pakis got a lot of air space and hence lot of mind space...
just look at the following media examples - one hit movie, and one hit comedy series, one hit drama series
mrs doubtfire, when "mrs doubtfire" talks with the puppet at the end of movie, the puppet asks if they speak "pakistani" in england and she replies that is one of the languages spoken there. the fact is, there is no pakistani language, like a hindustani language. hindustani, the last language to be created in india; hindustani - visualised in devanagri script for hindoos and in arabic style script for moslems; hindoo version became hindi and moslems' version became urdu; now hindi is being shoved down the throats of all indians, all in the name of "national unity"; if you oppose that, then that's because you are not patriotic, and you are ashamed of india, and you are a commie follower of mccaulay's education system devised to destroy the indian prosperity, because mccaulay went around all over india and couldn't see even one beggar, so he wanted to destroy india. the reality is, everybody looked the same that time of the year, annual famine festival, you see...so, he thought even beggars were just ordinary indians.
even baboo bhat, with an obviously hindu name, is shown as a hard working pakistani (!), and there is a pakistani doctor.
in west wing, a war starts between india and pakistan - even though history shows otherwise in 3 previous wars, india is shown as the aggressor here. the president martin sheen goes ahead, murders the nehru-jacket wearing indian ambassador and shows india he is tough, and the bloody indians stop the war.

news at around 10

2007-01-31T21:56:00.000-08:00

some new items since 1-1-7 with bloody indians in them

1) jade goody called shilpa shetty a f-ing indian
worthless news, worthless program, worthless shilpa shetty (unless she is shaking her booty in some song)
2) india gets american made military ship.
so did germany before world war 2, iraq, iran, taliban in afghanistan, and a host of other "nations" and look at their condition now. well, they did not get ships, but got gunships and guns.
3) tata wins over corus.
hope they have the liquidity to handle all the weakenings in the future. this shouldn't become a phyrric victory. i dont wanna say tata bye bye.
4) after a very long time, a eastindiaman comes to india, and anchors off madras, just like its granddaddy.
i wonder why there were no protests by our deshbakth, your friendly neighbourhood patriotic, sangh-fucking-parivar folks.
5) putin sees russian arms in new delhi, republic day parade.
he must've felt back home in moscow, just the crowd has brownies in it instead of whiteys.
6) india routs west indies 3-1, with the people pleasers performing perfectly everywhere, except the only backward place in the whole of shining india - the land of the lungiwala, the home of the tigers, the glorious place where people are cheap because they still use 50p coins (according to the true indians - north indians, in orkut) - madras chepauk ground. there were a lot of mounties on patrol, havent seen them anywhere outside the beach and egmore stables. i saw two policemen on horses and was reminded of a small joke.

On Christmas morning, a cop on horseback was sitting at a traffic light, and next to him was a kid on his shiny new bike. The cop said to the kid, "Nice bike you got there. Did Santa bring that to you?"
The kid said, "Yeah."
The cop said, "Well, next year, tell Santa to put a taillight on that bike." The cop then proceeded to issue the kid a $20 bicycle safety violation ticket. The kid took the ticket.
Before he rode off he said, "By the way, that's a nice horse you got there. Did Santa bring that to you?"
Humoring the kid, the cop said, "Yeah, he sure did."
The kid said, "Well, next year tell Santa to put the prick underneath the horse, instead of on top."

Word!

2007-01-03T02:43:00.000-08:00

Do not point your nose too high
Do not swell your chest too much
Do not boast too loudly
Do not be puffed up
Let not your ambition be inordinate
Or take a wrong direction
Remember you have done nothing at all
You are just the same member of society you were last week
You are on no higher plane
Deserve no new consideration
And will get none
No man will think a bit higher of you
Because your complexion is the same
Of that of the victor at Reno

Then and Now

2006-12-20T07:15:00.000-08:00

I had read Ayn Rand's Fountainhead when I was in college, my dad's colleage gave it to me. I didn't like the book - it was just like any other "romance" "novel" read by chicks. I didnt know about Ayn Rand at that time, she is supposedly a great author and a beacon for atheists and some sort of free-market enthusiasts everywhere. All my b-school aspirant buddies and most of my b-school buddies rave about her. Now I read that book again and still couldn't find it interesting. Now I know she is a famous author, so am I supposed to like her? Like her, because she is famous and liked by others?

Radio in Chennai

2006-08-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

This places seems to be very famous with spammers :-( Anyways, I have been listening to the radio for the last 2months in Chennai. Chennai has sort of become a pioneer, but not for the usual reasons. Till a few years back, before I left this place, radio was heavily censored for "vulgar" content - only the clean version of any song was played, even words that can have a political meaning were blanked or bleeped out. But, I have noticed that the explicit version of the songs are played - using words that mean various things from dangly bits to synonymns for copulation, and various nicknames for the females. I don't know how no one is saying anything.
When I came back, I noticed many billboards around my house (which happens to be close to a women's college and school) advertising a female contraceptive "Miss-Take" The ad showed a happy female hugging a male with his face hidden. The next week, there was a report on Kumudam Reporter (or Nakkeeran, who knows, all these mags seem the same) about how Miss-take is "encouraging teenagers to make mistakes" (clever wordplay, huh?) I was expecting this sort of a thing and wanted to take a photo of the boards, but it was too late. I didn't make the connection between the position of the billboards (4 of them) and the college/school (which I now think were the target audience ;) But I noticed the prepare to get assaulted billboard featured here (Conservative City) with the manly part covered, was still up (the board I mean) with the part still covered. This board is in Loyola College, and Loyola College is one of those straight-laced Christian run colleges!

Yauwee! (or My Boring Life)

2006-08-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

It's been over a month since I blogged last. I am not dead yet, but I have been sent to Heck, where this not so mean looking guy spanks me everyday with what looks like a big spoon. I also go everyday to a place, where there are lots of boxes filled with people in it. I think, they are being put there to be harvested. Once they grow out of that box, I think they will be moved to a bigger office with windows. Don't believe what dilbert says, those places are not as cozy as a womb. My routine has been set here, no mountains to trek, no places to hang out all night. I am now spending all my free time looking after two kids - one 3 year old and a 1 month old - the former always crying and the 2nd always sleeping, eating, and pooping. Good boy, he doesn't cry that much, like what Emma does in Friends or something or the other. Au revoir!

Sigh

2006-06-30T06:17:00.000-07:00

I am spending the last few minutes in this office now. I quit it and am going back to my home town, Madras.

Namesake

2006-06-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

Just following some intermanational nooz...
This American soldier killed in Iraq has been revealed to be a madrasi!! From Madras, USA, not the Madras.
Still, sad news.

Anti-south Songs

2006-06-22T01:55:00.000-07:00

Nothing to do, so some south bashing songs.

-----

HOTEL KERALA-FONIA
Copyright The Yeagles

On the road to Trivandrum
Coconut oil in my hair
Warm smell of avial
Rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance
I saw a bright pink tube-light
My tummy rumbled, I felt weak and thin
I had to stop for a bite
There he stood in the doorway
Flicked his mundu in style
And I was thinking to myself
I don't like the look of his sinister smile
Then he lit up a petromax
Muttering "No power today"
More Mallus down the corridor
I thought I heard them say

Welcome to the Hotel Kerala-fonia

Such a lousy place,
Such a lousy place (background)
Such a sad disgrace,
Plenty of bugs at the Hotel Kerala-fonia
Any time of year
Any time of year (background)
It's infested here
It's infested here

His finger's stuck up his nostril
He's got a big, thick mustache
He makes an ugly, ugly noise
But that's just his laugh
Buxom girls clad in pavada
Eating banana chips
Some roll their eyes, and
Some roll their hips
I said to the manager
My room's full of mice
He said,
Don't worry, saar,I sending you
meen karri, brandy and ice
And still those voices were crying from far away
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them pray

Save us from the Hotel Kerala-fonia
Such a lousy place,

Such a lousy place (background)
Such a sad disgrace
Trying to live at the Hotel Kerala-fonia
It is no surprise
It is no surprise (background)
That it swarms with flies

The blind man was pouring
Stale sambar on rice
And he said
We are all just actors here
In Silk Smitha-disguise
And in the dining chamber
We gathered for the feast
We stab it with our
steely knives
But we just can't cut that beef
Last thing I remember
I was writhing on the floor
That cockroach in my appam-stew was the culprit,
I am sure
Relax, said the watchman
This enema will make you well
And his friends laughed as they held me down
God's Own Country? Oh, Hell!

-----

Sambhar of 69

I had my first real six rupees,
stole it from my father's pants.
went to a madrasi hotel,
to eat the sambhar of 69.
Me and some kadke dost,

had it all and we caught bukhaar,
jimy puked, joey got ulcers,
and Bagga ne maari dakar.

Oh when I went back there now,
the food was as stale as ever,
and though it was 1999,
still the sambhar was being served over there,

that was the worst food of my life.

Therez no use in complaining,
when you got no other place to eat,
rushed in the evening to the doctors clinic, but he too was at the toilet seat, yeah

standing there waiting outside,
nurse told me I will wait forever,
oh and when I held my breath,
I knew that I had to use that loo there
That was the worst food of my life.

Back to the sambhar of 69.

Man I was getting killed,
I was full and restless,
I needed to unwind,
I guess nothing can wait forever - FOREVER... NO!!!!

And now the dhabas are changing,
new dishes have come and gone,
sometimes when I pass that old madrasi lane, I still smell it, I can't be wrong.

Standing in those unwashed clothes,
the waiters still call me in there,
oh the way my nostrils burn,
I know that it will be served forever,
what was the worst food of my life.

yeah it was the sambhar of 69,

the sambhar, the sambhar, the sambhar of 69

-----

No analysis of these songs.

Papillon

2006-06-13T00:40:00.000-07:00

I completed the book Papillon last night. It was a rivetting story, something along the lines of The Count of Monte Cristo, or Robinson Crusoe.
There was something I found very funny in this book. When Papi lands in Trinidad, there is this captain who says how a 'civilized country' like France treats people inhumanely, and the King would never approve of such ill-treatment. Supposing the story is true, and the captain indeed said this in real life, I wonder if he knew about the penal colony in India, Andamans? Was he aware of how His Majesty's Indian Subjects were treated in such places? They were not even common criminals, they were political prisoners. Or was he aware of the treatment of Indians in British India?
Makes you wonder, huh?

MP3 Player

2006-06-10T06:18:00.000-07:00

Got a 6-mo old mp3 player (MuVo 512MB) today. Sounds ok, not bad! No text display, don't know in which order the songs are played. It was only for 2000 rupees, which one guy in office says is a steal. I hope it doesn't conk out too soon!

Some people hike it a lot!

2006-06-05T07:51:00.000-07:00

Yet another trek, but this was my first monsoon trek. I should say my pre-monsoon trek, as it was very hot and dry going up, and cool and very wet coming down.

This thursday Gautam calls me up and says they have planned a trek to Gorakhgad, somewhere near Kalyan. It was supposed to be a simple trail, followed by a steep climb to the top.

As usual, we met at Dadar station, but very early in the morning, at 6 am itself. Me, Gautam travelled together to Dadar, and as luck would have it, even our stud, Arjun, was in the same compartment as us. The train is fast becoming a rendezvous point for us now! He had a friend with him this time. There was a big group in Dadar, and we took the super-fast local to Kalyan. The train sped towards Kalyan through tunnels and over hills. From Kalyan, we caught a state transport bus (ST bus) to Murbad, and another ST bus from Murbad to Dehri.

Gorakhgad, about 2300 feet above MSL, with a set of caves at the top; dead-drop cliffs and drop-dead gorgeous views.

The group this time was Nisarga Brahman, a group started and run by Rohit of Peb-Matheran fame. This was a varied group, with high profile people like Abhijit, Abhi of DeepAbhi.tripod.com, the encyclopaedia which everyone consults before trekking around these parts, a professional from TrekShitiz, and two 12th standard students!

We thought this was a monsoon trek, so less water would be required, we were close to wrong. It was hot, humid, and sultry during the climbing part, which made us sweat even more than a summer trek. Atleast the sweat evaporated quickly in summer. But the view, even halfway across the climb was awesome. There were quite a few balconies where we stopped and enjoyed the view. We enjoyed the city in the last trek (night), we enjoyed the vertical faces of hills in this trek. There are so many places to trek in Maharashtra! No wonder the Sahyadris is called the Trekkers' Paradise. If I did one climb every weekend, I guess I would require two years to do everything, and still have some left. Makes me wanna stay in Mumbai more.

We reached the trekkable part, and came to the rocky area, which we had to climb through a staircase carved into the rocks. Thankfully I didn't worry about slipping this time. I even saw a tiny snake at the entrance to the fort, so tiny I could close it in my fist. I didn't try, it was supposedly a poisonous snake.

We reached the caves and explored around the ledge, which led us to a regular carved-into-the-rocks reservoirs. Some of the group started playing and horsing around, throwing ice-cold water over everybody, stepping down into the pool, etc. Even as we were climbing, the sky was partially cloudy with chances of showers When we were by the pool, it suddenly started pouring - rains with heavy wind. I swear the rain clouds opened up just a few metres above our head. Some of the group had climbed up to the pinnacle (I had avoided it) and they were stuck up there, and the rest ran back to the caves. While we and they waited for the rains to cease, we started with our lunches. Tepla and sandwich were the most popular food that day.

The rains ceased, they people who went up came down, and we began our descent. The rains had cleaned every one of us (most of us, I wore a raincoat) and the hills, and made the descent slippery. Quite a few slipped and landed on their butt in the wet clay. We got down to a temple in the base where we cleaned ourselves and started our return journey. The trip from the village to the bus stand was crazy - two jeeps were arranged, and there were 10-12 people in each jeep. Three each were hanging on the outside. I sat next to the driver, behind the steering wheel, while the driver sat next to me, half out of the cabin. Sounds funny!!

Then it was the routine way back, bus, and train, back home at close to midnight, wake up late and come to the office late, etc.

Developments, developments

2006-05-31T04:50:00.000-07:00

It was coincidence, reading about Indians getting outsourced - one in Economic Times, and another in Dilbert! RBI employees are now demaning their jobs not be outsourced. Irony?
RBI employees demand barring outsourcing of services

Who is this new Sandeep coming in? Will he be as naive as Asok? Would he be an IITian too?

Ah! The irony of everything!

Someone on the net told this

Most of the time Asok is treated like dirt by the pointy haired guy. so much for "indians arriving on the global stage"

I am not being anti-IITian, or jealous of IITs, obviously!

A lot of developments in the office in the last 2 months. I am dazed by everything that happened, and the speed in which it all happened.

Now, it has started raining in Mumbai, very nice. A year back, I had no worry about getting soaked in the rain while coming to office. Now, I have to worry about both coming dry to the office, and coming in on time!

Peb-Matheran

2006-05-22T03:23:00.000-07:00

It all started as an email from Gautham (Visapur, and Peth-Kothligad). He mailed the original Orkut gang about a night trek to Peb, and a 'stroll' to Matheran. I was enticed about sleeping in a cave, walking into Matheran without paying the entry tax, etc. Only Shishir and Aditya did not join this time. The plan was almost cancelled at the last minute as the person who knew the trail was not coming. Fortunately, he (Rohit) confirmed at the last minute and I started packing my bag. This time there was no arranged bus or taxi, we just took a local train from Dadar to Neral, and started walking from Neral station.
It was late in the evening, and the sun was just about to take a dive. We started walking towards Peb fort. We took a lost of rest stops, and as it turned out, it would be one of the easiest patches of the trek. By night, we had reached a patch of rocks, climbed up it and came to a ridge between two peaks. The view from there was awesome. From there, we were saw a huge rock and thought we had reached the peak, but when we went up, we came to another clearing and another cliff, which we thought was the peak. Even that was not the peak, we still had to climb. From this tiny clearing, we climbed up that rock face, and came to another clearing and another rock-face. This was not the peak, yet. We saw two paths circling from that clearing - one to the left was 'blocked' by a jutting rock, and we realised we had to crawl under it to reach a set of caves. The other way was a very narrow path which led to a different set of caves (the main ones), but the path was missing at some places, and only some footholds carved into the rock face. We didn't want to take a risk in the darkness, and decided to camp in that clearing. We had our dinner - bread, butter & cheese, chocolate bars, and teplas. It was beautiful, sleeping under the stars.
The next morning, Gautam and Andre decided to explore the two routes.
They found out one led to a set of caves, and another led to the original caves and a ladder. We decided to take the ladder route and started walking. The ledge was very narrow, and at some places, the trail abruptly stopped and reappeared a feet ahead. We found out that we were at one end of the fort, and our destination was the other end, and we had taken a different route.
We reached the caves. Two gurus were supposed to live in the caves (and they were said to meditate for months together in the other set of caves). We thought they were like those Himalayan swamijis, totally away from civilization, rolling ganja and smoking pot. They were not. We did not see them at that time. We walked through a set of slippery patches, with very little foothold and hand support, and reached the pinnacle. Surprisingly, this pinnacle had a well maintained (with modern tiles) samadhi or something. From up there, we could see Matheran's Panaroma point, a lake in the distance, a watchtower ahead, and lots of monkeys. The pinnacle even had a tall makeshift flagpole attached with a ladder.
We didn't know where to go from that place. But, in the ledge below, we could see some people waving at us, and we decided to walk down. We quickly found out a steep trail, and took that down to what we thought was a village. It was the temple where those swamijis lived, with a heifer, and a dog.
All through this while, we were overcautious about water and carried about 4 litres a head, which turned out to be an overkill. But, better safe than sorry. One of the swamijis prepared tea for us; he turned out to be part-time swamiji, doing his MBA, and had come up for vacation! They told us the correct way to Matheran, and we proceed towards Matheran.
It turned out to be one scary experience. Earlier it used to be a simple trail that went along the mountain, and joined the railway road to Matheran. About a year back, the trail had been washed away in mudslides, and what remained was just a narrow path which went missing at places, filled with scree, and loose rocks. We inched our way towards Matheran, careful not to slip and fall anywhere. Thankfully, the railway people had put up some ladders at crucial places, without which this trek would've been impossible. At one place, Gautam, started slipping down, and Arjun, the unshakeable guy, started shouting for help. Thankfully, Gautam did not fall down, and we reached the railhead to Matheran.
We walked along the rail route to Matheran, towards Matheran. It was a scenic tour. We could also see many places were the rail road was washed away, or covered with mud from last year's mudslide, blocked by huge boulders, etc. Unfortunately, there was one guy who was waiting at the tracks, and did not allow us to go ahead; instead, we had to walk through stinking horse-stables, through the main entrance. In Matheran, we befriended a nimbu pani seller, went to his house (for a fee), had a bath, had lunch, and took off for sight-seeing. We went to most of the places from my first Matheran trip. Unlike last time, it was very dry and dusty this time. Late in the evening, we took a taxi to Neral, and headed off to Mumbai.

Trek to Peth, Kothligad

2006-05-15T02:57:00.000-07:00

Another trek this weekend. There were mails from Asif and Dnyanesh about a "hot trek" to Peth and Kothligad. The mail was enticing, about trees shedding leaves, golden grass, a test of survival, etc. I was not so sure at first, but at the last moment, I called Asif and confirmed my trip. I also got Gautam (from Visapur trip) to join me this time. Gautam, the epitome of stamina, joined us from another trek the day before! Apart from Dnyanesh, the entire troupe was different this time. New people, more fun!

Peth (village) and Kothligad (fort) are about 30 minutes away from Karjat. Peth village is at the foot of the fort, at a considerable height! To go to Peth, you have to walk from Ambivli village (in the flat ground). We had our breakfast, Poha and tea, at Ambivli village, and started walking up towards Peth. The ascent was a little difficult - considering the hot sun, dry weather, and my not-used-to-exercise body. Along the way, Asif taught a lot about the various trees, showed us birds building nests, and interestingly, fire ants building nests in trees! They build by joining together leaves with their saliva and possibly sap from the tree itself. The hike up took some considerable time, as I and some people took frequent rest breaks. Thankfully, this time we took sufficient water to last us till we reached Peth village.

Peth village was very dry this time of the year. We rested for some time in the village where we had aam panna, lots of glasses of it. I think aam panna is raw mango juice mixed with salt and spices. It was very tasty and refreshing in that hot climate. After spending some time there, we started climbing up towards Kothligad fort. The big part of the trek was up to the village, and the fort is not far away from the village. Towards the end of the ascent, it became very scary (especially for a person scared of heights). Some parts of the walk were along narrow ledges, with only the rock to provide a little grip. The fall down would've been the fastest descent, down hundreds of feet, and an even faster ascent towards heaven. Thankfully, Dnyanesh was there to encourage me and helped me climb up to the fort. At one point, he left me to rest in a safe cave, went round the fort on that tiny ledge, circled the fort and picked me up to the right place! I am absolutely mortified even by the thought of it.

Kothligad is a small fort, with a lot of caves, a water tank, and a temple. The temple was that of Lord Bhairoba. The fort was specially designed for stocking armaments and ordnance. Once we went up there, there was aam panna and lime juice waiting for us. Again, we had lots of it. From the fort, there was the pinnacle, which could be reached through an enclosed staircase. This was the first pinnacle I reached in all the treks I've been to. After some time, we started our descent to Peth village. It was much faster this time, and through a simpler route. We had two kids acting as our guides and they showed us the right way down. Once in Peth, we had our lunch at 5.30 pm - food made in the village itself. The rice reminded me of my village. We had rice, bhakar (rice chappati), drumstick curry, dal, and aam panna again. We were now ready to reach our buses so that we can be in Mumbai to go to our offices the next day. The descent down to Ambivali was much faster this time. We almost ran down the hill!

In the village, we rested for the last time, washed our faces, and had some cool drinks. I had a pepsicola - not the american cooldrink, but the indian pepsicola, frozen juice inside a thin, long plastic pouch. We used to have that a lot when I was a kid, but they don't exist anymore in the towns. We then took the bus back to Mumbai, and I just crashed down into the bed after a refreshing bath. I was so tired, I couldn't open my eyes in the morning, but got up anyway and reached the office.

Jeep Safari, Trekking, and Valley Crossing

2006-05-03T00:15:00.000-07:00

It was a very hectic three-day weekend this time, and more adrenaline filled than the last week.
On Saturday, André (from Visapur trek) and I (from this blog) decided to join up and go climbing mock-rocks in Hiranandani Complex, Powai. The route itself was very scenic at some places. We stopped to have our photos taken at Powai Lake. I was awestruck at the beauty of Hiranandani Complex itself when we entered it - broad roads, splendid architecture, only rich people, no slums or homeless people, etc. There was this place called Hakone, where we climbed an artificial rock and went go-karting. The climb itself was very small. There were three levels - easy, medium and hard; we both did the medium one pretty easily (60 bucks each). We met this girl called Tina, who was the 'instructor'. We wanted to try the hard level, for which she said, we can pay her directly and she will 'talk with her manager to get us a discount' We all knew there was no manager and it was going directly into her pockets, still, being Indians, we paid her and did it (André did it, I could not cross three-quarters of it). Next, we went go-karting. It was a small track and I had not ridden any car before, just those hot-wheels kinds. I could say that my first time was on a race-track! My lap timing was 34 seconds (average 34)
I've been a member of Ryze for about 6 months now, but haven't used it. This Friday, I just logged in, went to the list of events and activities to do something over the weekend, and saw that a group called Nature Knights was going on a jeep safari and valley crossing trip to Ratnagiri. I thought maybe I should join and gave Dhyaneshwar, the event organizer, to be included. This was on Sunday, early morning 6 am. The trip started somewhere in Marol and I joined them in Andheri - met a few good people. We went around Mumbai - Bandra, Chembur, Sion, etc and took the highway to Ratnagiri. Early morning was very pleasent. We stopped for breakfast and tea somewhere near Panvel, and the details get hazy from there.
We stopped at Pali, so that we can conquer the fort Sarasgad. Somehow, we had split into two groups, and our group did not have water. The other group had loads of water, but ran out of water by the time they reached the top. The view from above was spectacular. There was some water collected in artificial pools all around the fort. The method of collecting water was very ingenious - they had cut pools into the rock, below a main rock. When it rained, the pools first filled up and then water starts flowing down, the water might hold till the next rains. At that heat, it was the coolest water I washed myself in. Coming down was not so difficult, but treacherous. Still we managed to climbed down, right down to a well. We were so overjoyed by the sight of the well, we threw out cautions to the wind and gulped down buckets of water, supposed to be some kind of poison for city-slickers.
After Sarasgad, we were on our way to Ratnagiri town, another Shivaji-era fort, but near the sea. On the way, we saw a river and stopped our jeeps for a quick dip. A quick dip translated to 45 minutes in real-time. I found out something there - when you want to sink, the water makes you float; but, when you want to float, you sink anyway! We stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch. As soon as we got into the jeep, I fell asleep and woke up maybe half-way across the ghats. A few hours into the remaining distance, I puked. We reached Ratnagiri late night at around 10.30 pm, where food was waiting for us - very good pulao, and very good aam-ras. That night, after a very long time, I slept in the open air - in the terrace of a temple. This fort was a little different - there was a motorable road which led us directly to the fort, and a good view of the harbour and the sea on three sides.
Next morning, we woke up pretty early and I couldn't wait for the Valley Crossing. We had planned to finish valley crossing, take a dip in the sea, take another dip in a river, and head back to Mumbai by evening. But plans did not go through as planned. There were a lot of people trying to cross the valley, along a single set of rope-and-pulley. The organizers pulled you across a valley, with you strapped in a rope. I had assumed we had to crawl upside down, along the rope. Still, it was hard work for the organizers - as they had to pull a lot of people , non-stop, from 10 am to 7 pm. I would like to see the buffy people spending so much time and money in gym try to do a tenth of what these "skinny" guys were doing. We started back at 7.30 am, and again, somewhere along the ghats, I puked again. We reached Mumbai at around 3 am. That was not the end of that three-day long weekend, I couldn't open my eyes the next morning, so it got converted into a four-day weekend.

Harvard Author Caught Plagiarizing

2006-04-27T22:45:00.000-07:00

Commentary on The Onion:

Harvard Author Caught Plagiarizing
Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan, who was paid the largest advance for an unpublished author, admitted to having "unintentionally" borrowed passages from author Megan McCafferty for her book How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. What do you think?

Kim Bellings,
Croupier
"It's sad when a negative stereotype is reinforced by incidents like these, but I've always said: Indians are dirty plagiarizers."

In another news, Sanjay Kumar, formerly of Computer Associates, is not an Indian but a Sri Lankan. Still, he is a Tamil. Is that reinforcing a negative stereotype that Tamils are crooks, and corrupted?

The Case of the Boss' Minion and the Mysterious Timesheet

2006-04-26T22:16:00.000-07:00

He comes in on time and leaves on time. He spends an hour chatting with his buddies here, an hour or so in lunch, fag breaks, etc. That's 6 hours a day available for work which translates to 30 hours a week. He also spends a lot of his time trading online, searching for household items, planning trips, etc. That can be maybe an hour or so, which effectively leaves him 25 hours a week.
Basically, he does actual work for utmost 25 hours, but his timesheet always shows more than 40 hours. How is that possible?

I wonder how many of the valued employees out there have to fill in timesheets, and how many fudge the time entered? Yesterday morning I filled in my timesheet and realised I can fill in enough time on the work completed in the previous 16 hours to satisfy 28 hours!

Chennai in Google

2006-04-25T04:03:00.000-07:00

Hi resolution satellite image of Chennai is available on google maps now, after debuting on google earth a couple of weeks back. Now, LTTE can use it to plan some stuff!

Chennai on GOogle Maps

For some odd reason, they have left out Chennai city and centred it on Chennai Airport! You can see runway 07 clearly along with some planes (they look like ants.) You can see Meenambakkam, Guindy, Saidapet railway stations, Guindy race course, Velachery Aquatics complex, Mount Road, River Adyar, Guindy Engineering College, IIT Madras, the elevated MRTS, the Raj Bhavan.
Surprisingly, Chennai looks green, and the traffic density is very low!

Almost all the people I went to college with gave me a piece of trivia - the main building of my college looks like "E" when viewed from above, because, according to them, it is an "E"ngineering college. I disputed some, and realised it was fruitless. Now, I present the proof

Guindy Engineering College / Anna University

Orkut Banned, please help

2006-04-24T03:47:00.000-07:00

Orkut, the site of choice for friends and others, where I met some good people recently, and found some long-lost friends, has been blocked in my beloved company. I've tried everything I knew - using IP number, orkat.com, and proxies, but I've been unsuccessful till now. What would little Manoj do to play now? For the last two weeks, I was spruced up and ready to go (to work) that I have been working 5 hours of my 8 hours spent here, clearing all my backlogs (except a few remaining) I am so dedicated that I even slept in the office a week back; nothing official, but neither I nor my roommate had our keys after we saw the movie Munich, which ended at 1.30 am. Instead of waking up our neighbours, who had a set of keys, we just decided to go to our offices and sleep there. Now, I think the vanity is wearing off. Anyway, saw Ice Age 2 last night, and went back to Jai Jawan ~~Chicken and~~Fish Centre - they stopped selling chicken after the birdflu scare, but restarted it. It is very difficult without having a non-veg activity partner in this city.
If anyone could provide a workaround to this Orkut ban, I would erect a statue in your name.

Poly ticks

2006-04-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

if JJ,MK,VK,Vaiko,Ramdoss,Thol Thiruma,Vasan,Tha Pandian and Mahendran are travelling in a boat and the boat capsizes, who will escape?
Answer: The people of Tamil Nadu!

Take a Hike, to Visapur

2006-04-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

Read the description of the trip to Visapur.

The sun is too lazy to come out!

Good Morning Sunshine

Visapur Fort - 1

Visapur Fort - 2

Visapur Fort - the other side

Cruel sun, taunting us; Peek-a-boo, I see you!

Hanuman, guarding the gates to Visapur Fort

Visapur Fort, the ramparts

André & I, in that order. I am not fat; I am wearing shorts and that is not a big bottom, it is my rucksack, hehe.

Slip means instant death

A Chakki in the fort's centre

The buffaloes that were threatening us

The singing girl

A Cricket match in Lonavala

Lohgad Visapur Fort

2006-04-17T07:45:00.000-07:00

This was by far the most exciting and adrenaline filled weekend in the 25 years and a few months of my existence.

This weekend, six people came together on orkut, and after much deliberation, decided to hike up the hills to a Shivaji era fort, Lohagad, in Lonavla range. The decision was made quickly and the planning even quicker. Six of us, five initially, including me, decided to meet at Dadar station, take a train upto Malawli village, and start our trip to Lohgaon, the base for climbing up to the fort. Unfortunately, we missed the last train at 11.30 pm. We were now left with two choices - either take a private taxi to Malawli or a bus to Malawli. We went with the former and got a Tavera. It was crowded with 10 people, still it was fun to begin. André and Gautam couldn't stop chatting all the way :-) The taxi driver didn't know the place we were talking about and overshot Malawli and led us up to Kamshet. Now, he was in a desperation to ditch us and make his trip to Pune. The first major bad thing to happen was when André lost his wallet in the Taxi. I still have a suspicion that he dropped it in the taxi and one of the four other riders (who were got by the driver to fill his quota) must've found it and kept it. We got down at Kamshet and waited for the first local between Pune and Lonavla. Instead of waiting in the railway station, Aditya, Gautam, André, and I decided to go for a small warm-up trek in the nearby hillock. It was a cold night and by the time we reached the top and came back (it was very small) we were feeling very hot! The other two had gone down to Kamshet station and found benches to sleep peacefully. We caught the first train to Malawli and walked towards the village, crossing the place where we were supposed to have got down in the first place. After some watery tea and a couple of cigarretes, we decided to start walking to beat the sun. Little did we know that the sun is all too powerful and would beat us black and blue by the time we finish the trek.

The trek started at around 7 am in the morning; we were all raring to conquer a fort. After about some 30 minutes, the sun had come out completely and was showing just a part of its power. Three of us couldn't walk that much, so we slowed down and fell back. Fortunately, we found a small shack selling very good Nimbu Pani (lemon juice). We all had 2 glasses each and got charged up. It turned out we were on the foot of another hill, and Lohagad was another, just across us from that point. We gave a look at that fort (Visapur) and thought we could do both of them in one day. So we started walking up towards Visapur fort. The path was full of thorny bushes and rocks. After walking for maybe 30 minutes, there was no path going up - just a path that seemed to go downhill again, and a tiny clearing towards the steep face of the hill. After some deliberation, we just walked along the path. Instead of a well defined path like in other treks, it just narrowed down into a single track through the brush and bushes. We decided to take a chance and tried to find the road to the top of the hill through that thin line. This took us almost two hours at the end! Sometimes we went through flat ground, sometimes we had to climb up steeply. Sometimes the path disappeared completely, only for us to walk through the step-like structures created by seasonal waterfalls. All through, we could see the coming closes towards us, our only fear was what if turned out to be a dead-end, like thousands of Mughal soldiers had found out the hard way a few centuries back? We had almost run out of water by the time we reached a small temple just below the fort, carved into the hill. It had a carving of Hanuman, but it was painted bright saffron! The trek uphill was coming to a close, and just a few metres ahead, we reached the ramparts. We were told that there would be a lake in the middle, but what we found was just a small tank filled with mud and very little water, a big disappointment.

At the top, Arjun, one of the trekkers, promptly went to sleep in what must've been the barracks, like a true urban soldier. Even Shishir, the most experienced trekker among us, was very tired, mainly due to lack of water. André and I decided to walk along the ramparts and took a few "action shots." André was born model material, he knew how to please a photographer. I just copied some of André's poses. Aditya and Gautam (the youngest among us) tried to do a level 3 trek, and climbed the small hill within the fort meanwhile. We had to share space there with a bunch of buffaloes, which must've been scared by the sight of people, and got ready to charge us. We met another group of 4 trekkers, who told they came up another way, in about 30 minutes! We were surprised. The other group decided to go our way and we decided to go their way - we decided to swap ways. Now we had to find a waterfall (dried up) and climb down that. After 30 minutes, we could not find it. When we decided to give up and walk back the tortuous way, Arjun found out the waterfall just ahead of him, and climbed down first to lead us by example. We got all our stuff ultra secure and walked to the bottom. The descend was almost vertical. At a point, there was a path visible to the right of us and just a few more metres of waterfalls below us. One group of three took the trail and another three (with me in it) went down the falls. We finally reached the trail and found out it was where we decided to follow the trail earlier. After carrying 60 kgs of me and my rucksack, my legs found themselves very easy to carry my a-little-heavy upper body, and I felt like I was floating. The other group meanwhile had some trouble due to the blazing sun and lack of water. The last few precious sips of water had probably saved someone from fainting. From there, we knew the lemon juice shack was just a few minutes away, and we walked as fast as we could towards that. We were very happy to reach the shack and sat down in the shade; the temperature in the shade was a few degrees higher than in the sun, still shade was shade and we all sat inside and ordered a round of nimbu pani for all of us.

There were three little kids playing inside the shack, one was the daughter of the lady running the shack. This little girl was very cute, and whatever her mother told her, she repeated the lines again and again as a song! I then ordered a Zunka-Bhakar (chapatti made of rice flour, and some vegetable stew) and found it very very tasty. I eat everyday in a Zunka-bakar shop, but did not feel like having that any time. The lady told us that the store was up only on the weekends, as no one else came that way in the week days. She was referring to people like us, the trekkers from the big city, trying to do heavy stuff that we don't normally do.

After sitting in the shack for about 30 minutes, we did not feel like getting up at all. Reluctantly, we got up and started walking down. Four of the gang went down fast and two of us (Shishir and I) fell back. We tried to follow the route taken earlier, but we lost our way and instead went into an orphanage. The people in the school started shouting at us and didn't even let us drink water from the cooler there. The manager told us to come to his office where, he said, he will give us water. With our parched throats, we went to his office only to be shown a store just inside the gate. We were not complaining and just bought a bottle of ice-cold water and sat for a few minutes. In the meanwhile, the other four had reached the base village where we originally started, somehow found an auto and went to the station. They had left one guy back to receive us, and sent the auto back to pick us up. Shishir told that the auto felt much better than any low-cost airline he had travelled in.

To finish the trek, we decided to take a train to Lonavala and decide there, whether to take a train or bus back to Mumbai. At Lonavla, we had a medium-sized lunch in a restaurant. Refreshed, we decided against the bus and took a train to Karjat. Gautam decided to stay in Lonavla, see a few of his friends, and come back the next day. Five of us bought tickets and took an express train from Kolhapur to Mumbai; we had to travel in the unreserved coach, the general compartment, which was very crowded. I had travelled in such coaches earlier, so I did not feel like it was overcrowded, while some did not like the journey, which they felt was awfully overcrowded. We had to wait for another 20 minutes in Karjat, for the Karjat local to VT. I was so high with the trip (the trek, not acid) that I even ordered an oily vada-pav from a guy in the platform. As soon as I sat in the train, being awake for over 28 hours, I immediately fell asleep, only to be worken up by Aditya just before we reached Dadar. The train ride from Dadar to Andheri was fun for me. I had never felt this dirty in my life and was proud of it for the first time. After reaching my house, I just hit the sack and woke up at 10:30 in the morning. So much for starting a work-week after a rejuvenating trip.

Freaky Weekend!

2006-03-26T21:39:00.000-08:00

This weekend started pretty normally, with me going home early on Friday evening, to this movie called "Being Cyrus." It was an Indian-made English movie, about a bunch pf Parsees. I think I was the only non-Parsee in the whole theatre. It was a nice movie. The next day was fine, too. I slept in till 3 pm, woke up at 5 pm, and went for breakfast, lunch, and dinner combo at 7 pm. I simply love days like these. The next day, I decided to go watch a Tamil movie in Matunga. The place was Aurora theatre in King's Circle, and the movie was "Kovai Brothers." I could say without thinking (also after thinking for a long time) that this is one of the worst movies ever made, but still better than most Tamil movies. I regret to say this, but the 'jokes' were funny in parts, and Nameetha was every Tamil guy's dream girl - fair, short and chubby. Later in the evening, I and my room mate decided to go to a bar. We had heared that the earlier 'dance bars' were convereted into live-band bars; so we decided to see what it had to offer. The bar we decided to go was 'Blue Eye' on New Link Road, Andheri West. The place was kept very dark, and the waiters were very friendly. They all wanted to shake hands as soon as we entered. There was no live band, but unlike other bars, this had many women. I thought there was some party or something. The bar didn't have a menu, they had only beer, whiskey, and vodka; and no mocktails. As soon as we ordered, we two were accosted by a pair of girls o-O then another pair. The waiter tells us that they are 'professinal entertainers,' they will sit and chat, timepass, will 'play with us' and we can take them out O-o. Bloody hell! Mumbai version of some very friendly people! We just gulped our drinks and ran out as fast as we can. After we came out, we could not stop laughing our arses off for a very long time, we didn't know why!

Really?

2006-03-24T01:51:00.000-08:00

What do you know? Looks like aamchi Britannica is not 'just 69% better than' Wikipedia. Nature (American) seems to have fudged the results in the comparison between Encyclopaedia Britannica (British) and Wikipedia (American.) Invested interests, eh?

Ayyaho!

2006-03-21T03:36:00.000-08:00

I am confused. When some US company wants to open a plant in India, to utilize Indian labour, pay them Indian salaries, sell the manufactured stuff in India, at US prices, get tax-breaks from governments in India, make US profits, take back all the profits back to the USA, why is it bad? Dell can't make computers in USA and ship them to India; General Motors can't make cars in USA to be driven on the wrong side of the road and export them to India where people drive on the right side of the road; Coca Cola and Pepsi can't make soft drinks and send millions of crates halfway across the world.
Apparently, there are no users of Dell Computers in India, only Customer support people.

Last night...

2006-03-20T22:16:00.000-08:00

Last night, we decided suddenly to go to Khar. No reason, just like that. There is this restaurant "Rajasthan" on SV Road in Khar (West). I thought it was a pure Rajasthani restaurant, with the waiters dressed in Rajasthani costumes - white kurtas, and big, colourful turbans. It turned out to be run by Rajasthani muslims, so they were all dressed like Pakistanis.
The roti I ordered turned out to be thick, like the lips of a camel (just a guess.) It was tasty, but it was too much for my madrasi mouth and tummy, so I had to stop with just one roti. As always, those muslim cooks make great stuff with goat; I had brain masala. Brain turned out to be too soft (North Indian goat?). After that, we threw all caution to wind and had Egg Briyani. With a full stomach, we then went to Bandra, again on a whim, this time to Bandstand. The time was half past ten, but the place was still crowded with overly amorous couples. If you concentrate enough into darks rocks in the dark sea, you can see various naughty things going on in the shadows. The main tourist attraction for me this time was Salman Khan's flat, Aishwarya Rai's flat, Sachin Tendulkar's flat, and Shah Rukh Khan's bungalow!

Syriana

2006-03-19T20:59:00.000-08:00

Saw the movie Syriana this saturday. Supposedly inspired by true events, but with fictional characters! I stand by what I said for Crash, except it gets upgraded to: Be a good man and die like a dog, be a prick and rule the world.

Cochin...

2006-03-13T23:45:00.000-08:00

When they say Cochin is the Queen of Arabian Sea, it is an understatement. It was a beautiful town filled with beautiful people. My rich cousin lives there with his flat by the backwaters, with a spectacular view. My routine for the last three days was wake up at 1 pm, watch movies till 6, and go out to some tourist attraction. The food in Cochin was also great, probably the few places in India where you will get beef.
I went boating on saturday, went to Fort Cochin, the first European settlement in India, on Sunday, and nothing on Monday. Fort Cochin was awesome, with small, clean roads filled with white tourists sitting by the promenade and eating fresh fish and prawns caught in the backwaters, buying a lot of junk, etc. Tried squid here, wasn't that great, but not bad.
I wish I had a few more days of holidays to spend in Cochin, could've visited Lakshadweep Islands, and a few more towns in Kerala.
I wish I could retire early, go settle in that place, and chill out all day by the backwaters. Maybe, buy a boat and become a tourist guide...

Mumbai Rains

2006-03-09T07:10:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning, and saw the sky open up in Mumbai. I was very surprised as this was not the rainy season here, and it doesn't rain out of turn. Looks like it has been raining a lot for the last few days in Tamil Nadu. It usually rains before the summer starts there; summers where the temperature can become as high as 45 degrees celcius.
This afternoon, I took a 3 hour break from office and went down to Fort area for lunch and to exchange a jeans pant that I bought which turned out to be too big for me! The total journey was for 2 hours 30 minutes, by the way. The climate was mild as we went and the sky was grey and dull throughout. Also, as the clouds cleared this evening, I saw two parallel rainbows - B-U-T-ful!
Maybe for the first time in my life, I was sad I didn't have anyone to spend the time with. Honest, just as the sky is blue.

The Third Eye

2006-03-05T20:30:00.000-08:00

Hindi - Teesri Aankh.
Supposedly a crime thriller, based on the high number of porn CDs involving college girls and the media's 'sting operations'. The hero is Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sunny Deol, who is somehow involved with this and goes to England's Mumbai, London to completely wipe out this porn syndicate. He also saves the honour of many college girls back in Mumbai.
My roommate, who has very low tastes in movies, agrees with me when I say: people must be made to watch this movie for small crimes. He also wants a ban on releasing these kind of movies.
The only saving grace that got me my 40 bucks back was the large number of British strippers shown throughout the movie.
A reviewer on mid-day called it the Turd Eye. LOL

Crash

2006-03-03T23:27:00.000-08:00

Saw the movie The Crash last night. The main lesson is if you are good, you will suffer. Be a prick and you will get things done your way.

What is democracy?

2006-03-02T07:31:00.000-08:00

Democracy is criticizing someone for criticizing others who are exercising their rights.

Some Guy: "May be after protesting in the day time,they get back to call centers for work in the evening.LOL"

Today I was interviewed (sort of) by a friend.

Q: what do u think of this treaty
A: nuclear treaty?
Q: ya
A: they had treaties with nazi germany, thousands of south american countries, vietnam, laos, cambodia, iran, iraq, ...
now they have a treaty with india
...
Q: whats the adv banner u see in this link
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/01/videotaped.assault.ap/index.html
iam seein incredible idia.com
A: i see cnn.com/international
dude, they are based on your computer's IP number and cookies...
Q: ok
A: if you visit india news regularly, then you would be targeted that...
if you visit pakistan news regularly, you would be shown "where to buy assault rifles and rocket launchers"
Q: lol
dei
A: sorry
Q: ipadi anupaathye

Banned Chinese Search Terms

2006-02-28T04:06:00.000-08:00

In the list of search terms banned in China, I am surprised India doesn't find a mention :o
Arunachal Pradesh (a little) and Aksai Chin in Kashmir ('gifted' by Pakistan to China) don't even find a mention. Isn't India worth much to China?

Taxi Number 9211

2006-02-26T21:12:00.000-08:00

This is the story of how seemingly unrelated events lead to people trying to kill each other. You know something like this will happen when the same scene is shown three times, from different perspectives. This was the earliest I had seen a movie, so soon after release - just a lag of one day (I must be growing up) Supposedly inspired by "Changing Lanes", maybe just the concept. Nice to watch, once.
You know the movie was nice, as the theatre was half empty. Bloody Indians, don't like good movies.

"I play a completely sensuous wife. The whole world is going to feel like marrying me -- I can bet on that. Every man who watches the film will wish for a wife like that,"

I agree wholeheartedly with her :D

Getting Ridiculous day by day

2006-02-21T06:14:00.000-08:00

Utterly disgusting