@ blog

if "You Gotta Curse Someboy"

2011-08-04T14:14:00.003-04:00

if you gotta curse somebody....if you gotta rant...this is how you do it -

bobdylanstyle-

the last paragraph is amazingly blunt -

"And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead."

Full lyrics -

Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly.

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain.

You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion'
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud.

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins.

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do.

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul.

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead.

nice show window

2011-07-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

The show is not over !

2011-04-19T16:52:00.003-04:00

Well, United look crap a lot of the time, Nani, Rooney etc have all had bad patches. Chelsea looked crap and Essien, Malouda, Drogba, Anelka all turned in pathetic perfomances from time to time this season. City and Tottenham got found out a lot when they attempted bigger feats, and Liverpool were shit for patches in almost every game they played.

Its a bit unfair to pick on the fact that Arsenal gave away a penalty so late, and forget that it was your second choice Eboue, in place of the injured Sagna, who anyway had shown great heart and energy throughout the match. So what if you come 4th or 5th in the league....didnt these lads sweat blood for the team throughout. They played through injury, exhaustion, chaos and humiliation and picked themselves up and kept slugging it out, and are still standing in the ring. What display did any English club give this year that can compare to beating Barcelona 2-1. At the end, the players looked exhausted and running on pure will power, and they kept taking the punches and kept believing and they counterpunched late and won it. They did it again in the return leg and this time the dice rolled the other way. Thats what it is, its a game.

There are shortcomings, they are immature and not 100% professional and focussed on winning. More focussed teams would not be distracted during a match by the referee or the opponent. They would not kick the ball after the offside whistle went, they would not take their shirt off and celebrate and they would know enough gamesmanship to slow the game down and kill the opponents tempo when needed.

Man U LOST to City and still no ones head is being called for, and Arsenal DRAW to Liverpool and people want the head of the manager and the players. What nonsense. They are learning and they will learn. They may have won and they may never win or they may win next year. Its a game, its unpredictable and it can change in a flash.

This year they learnt to be more physical Now we dont hear that they are soft and dont like it up to them, do we. They also can dive and get a penalty or free kick sometims now.

Now they need to decide if they really want to win. If they do, then they will need to learn gamesmanship. The art of slyly fouling like Barca, the Art of targeting oppostion players of suspect temperament, the art of managing and pressuring the Ref throughout not after a bad decision, the art of kicking out a dangerous opponent or disrupting the tempo, even if a player is sacrificed to a red card. The press will hound them, saying that they are playing dirty, but thats the game isnt it. The Scholes, De Jongs and others are on the same field arent they.

Chelsea missed Ballack this year the most, because now they didnt have the dirty snarling mean blackguard element in them. Its needed and sometimes a player like Rooney whacks a opposition player in the face with his elbow, just to keep that aspect of his game alive.

Cesc says Arsenal has to decide if they want to win. If they do, they will get some muscle in attack, midfield and defence. 3 big strong players who are a bit dark and mean, to keep on the bench and throw in when needed to rough things up.

Personally, winning means a lot, but I wouldnt take it at that cost. Create a stronger bench by all means, but simply so that it helps to keep the players fit and you can rotate more. I like this team. They fuck up now and then. They produce magic now and then. I would like to see them with the same best XI for one more season, after a couple of months proper rest and pre-season with a settled board and revamped bench. If you gave the project 6 years, give it a seventh. Its always darkest before dawn.

Another thing to remember is that soon the game will be faced with a choice, is it sport or is it entertainment ? Money will win, and it will be entertainment, a form of a reality show. Results will be manipulated to maximise viewership etc etc... that time will come too. Till then, lets enjoy the pure fun of a bunch of kids playing. People criticise Arsenal by labeling them as kids. I say, that is a compliment. Its better to play the way kids play. Thats the true spirit of football.

Balls !!

2010-07-05T10:42:00.003-04:00

Craig Johnston Ex Footballer with Middlesborough FC and Liverpool FC England. Technical Observations of the Jabulani Football… Craig Johnston …South Africa June 2010

To Mr Joseph Blatter President FIFA FIFA-Strasse 20, P.O. Box 8044 Zurich, Switzerland 2nd July 2010

Dear Mr Blatter, If a sponsor came into your office before the World Cup and said. “ We are going to give you a new, perfectly round match ball…the players wont like it at all…and there will be more mistakes made than in any other World Cup…” “ There will be less goals scored…less free kicks scored...less passes complete…less control by players….and roughly 70% of crosses and shots on goal will miss wide and go way over the crossbar…” What would you say to them..?

My name is Craig Johnston. I am risking my reputation and goodwill within certain football circles by writing this open letter to yourself and anybody else who is interested in the Jabulani ball issue and why its endorsement by FIFA could ruin the game as we now know it. I am however not only writing with the problem, but also an easy solution to the problem… I am a former football player with Liverpool Football Club in England, and I am also known for inventing the adidas Predator football boot, the adidas Traxion sole system…and the research and testing done on previous World cup footballs. I am a big supporter of the FIFA Goal initiatives, and we have met many times over the years, on various football issues.

I have also presented to you, the executive committee and the FIFA Technical team many innovations in football and specifically youth development over the years. I am therefore writing to you as a friend of football, a friend of FIFA. I am also writing to you as someone who actually knows what they are talking about when it comes to World Cup footballs and their flight characteristics. A lot of things have been said and written about the new Jabulani Ball…but the word disaster is on a lot of players and managers lips...

Pazzini -Italy “ The Balls are a disaster, both for goalkeepers and for attackers.” David James-England " Dreadful and Horrible..." Fabio Capello-Manager England " The worst Ball I have ever seen." It is very alarming that the best players and teams in the world are struggling to control this ball to their own satisfaction. What is even more alarming than the players‟ assessment of the „bad ball‟, however, are the statistics of „ bad play‟.

What this means to the quality of this tournament in South Africa is quite shocking. The statistics are showing that is the worst passing, shooting and controlling of the ball of any World Cup in history of the competition. That cannot be ignored…and it cannot be fixed up later..as we are being told.. The problems with this ball will not go away and they need to be understood by the FIFA Technical department and addressed immediately…before there are any more on field disasters. I know you and FIFA are under pressure at the moment. The issues such as Goal Line Technology and poor refereeing decisions are not as important compared to the Jabulani Ball issue and the poor quality of play that it is causing.

There was a furious global public reaction to Frank Lampard‟s goal against Germany that was denied by the officials… By my calculations we have been denied at least 10 more goals that were not scored in this World Cup so far, because of the erratic and unstable flight of the Jabulani football..but nobody is jumping up and down…yet…! Who is taking responsibility for denying us these goals and bits of magic.. To make a get a goalmouth call wrong and make a mistake happens once or twice a year. To get the actual football itself wrong, affects every single touch, pass or shot that a player makes, in every single game. And there are an awful lot of mistakes happening at this showcase tournament.

Daniel Agger-Denmark- Dead Ball expert "It makes world Class players look like drunken sailors" The erratic behavior of this ball is ruining the flow of the game and downgrading the quality of play. This is an absolute disaster for the purists…and it cannot continue in this manner. Just listen to the players ….just look at the statistics…they are very very damning of this ball. Robhinho-Brazil “ The guy who designed this never played Football.”

The fact is that the Jabulani ball with its new materials and new construction methods simply does not behave in the same predictable aerodynamic manner as the old ball we have all been using perfectly well for 40 years previously... The players are all saying that the Jubalani has a mind of its own... I have a trained eye and have been watching these things for years. If you watch carefully, and know what you‟re looking for, you can see it move erratically, even on television... I have seen hundreds of basic trajectory miscalculations so far in this World Cup where the ball usually ends up going out of play… Surprisingly, nobody has made a big deal out of it yet…but football people who really watch for the art and craft are starting to notice…like the players…like the managers…like the purists…like the statisticians…its all starting to add up.

I have outlined the more scientific reasons for the balls unpredictable behavior in a separate section below…please read it and you will understand the problem immediately….then count the on-field mistakes… In short, the new ball does not translate a lot of the backspin, topspin or sidespin…all of the special language that a player normally applies to a ball to make it behave properly in the air. Why is this so important…? This language is the real art and craft of the footballer and of the game.. This is what we really pay all of our money to see. This is what makes these guys so different from us…this special language is the genius.. Asking players to Shoot or pass with this new Jabulani ball is like asking Picasso to paint a picture without bristles on his brush…to paint without the usual texture and without all of the feeling…

I have spent 3 weeks in South Africa at the World Cup and I have seen the Jabulani ball move more than 2 feet in the air in some instances when it is not supposed to move in the air. I have also seen the ball go absolutely straight at other times when clearly the player has tried to put a bend on it of 2 feet or more. Luis Fabiano-Brazil " All of a sudden it changes trajectory on you...I think it is Supernatural.." Unfortunately the ball is also very nervous and jumpy to the touch when controlling it close to the body and when dribbling it. Julio Cesar- Goalkeeper Brazil " A Ball you would buy in a Supermarket..." So the ball is a disaster… and because of it there have been many mistakes...more than any World Cup ever…I really believe that FIFA cannot continue to endorse this ball… Why...? Because by endorsing this ball, FIFA are endorsing every mistake that that has been made by the players using it during this World Cup...

By endorsing this ball, FIFA are endorsing the removal of the players‟ art and craft at the very top end. The most frightening thing however is that by endorsing this ball, FIFA are allowing a sponsor to alter the very dynamics of how the game is played… and for the worse. Not just in this competition, but going forward…into schools and youth leagues the world over.. Players are very clever and are adapting already technically and tactically to the balls idiosyncrasies… The German team knew exactly what they were doing when their goalkeeper kicked the ball deep into the edge of the England Penalty box, up and over the English defense for an unchallenged 1st goal. No other ball could ever have traveled that far… That is also called Route One Football and soon everyone will be doing it because the ball is encouraging it… To change the dynamics and the craft of the game like this is not a call that a vested interest sponsor should be allowed to make…they have got it horribly wrong already…

Mr Blatter, I know you are horrified about the poor play because I know you are a football man. We have heard the excuses from FIFA but who is really making these critical footballing decisions about the players craft..? The governing body of a sport needs to be independent from the sponsors products. FIFA should have been far more diligent in their own tests….and should have binned the Jabulani ball before the competition.. This is what a very respected goalkeeper said a week before the competition started. Tim Howard-USA Goalkeeper "It's tragic that you‟re going to see good players look foolish. Defenders are having a tough time judging it, strikers are having a tough time judging crosses as well and for goalkeepers it's murder so what can we do?'' "I think you're going to see some really weird and unfortunate goals.''

From day one I have been saying that there is a simple solution and back up plan for this World Cup. You can easily apply exactly the same Jubalani ball graphics onto the traditional construction of your sponsor‟s previous Buckminster construction World Cup balls. Two of the best footballs ever made were made by your sponsors...The Fevernova and the Tricolor Ball from the Asian World Cup and French World Cup‟s respectively… The normal Buckminster construction has given us every glorious moment of football we can ever recall... As players and as fans…it set the standard for the very craft and soul of the game…it has proven reliable, predictable…dependable… This new Jabulani ball is unnatural, unpredictable, unreliable ... and it is totally unacceptable how this ball has been endorsed by FIFA for this tournament and going forward..

The sponsors and FIFA marketing seem to be the tail that has been wagging the FIFA dog…and so far they have got away with it… The only people that can make the call to radically change the dynamics of the ball and therefore the game itself…. are the players…. And no….not the players that are already being paid by the sponsors…! For me, probably the post prophetically damning statement about the Jabulani ball comes from the English midfielder Joe Cole.. „‟ It took a bit of skill out of the game…but It's the same for everybody.” Wow…what an unbelievably sad statement… I am not employed by anyone...and I am not looking for a job…I also know I won't make any new friends at FIFA, in-fact, I will probably be blacklisted, but it‟s a price I am willing to pay. I owe it to the game to speak up...so does anyone that believes in skill and craft as the ultimate attributes for a footballer…

Mr Blatter, and FIFA…this has been a fabulous World Cup in many many ways, and you all need to be congratulated. I am sure that the ball designers, manufacturers, sponsors and testers of the Jabulani ball will not have been as honest and straight with you as I have in this letter….and that is the big problem.. But why would they…? They are making hundreds of millions of dollars already out of this perfectly round football.. So, having had the benefit of understanding the problem, I will ask you the simple question one more time… If a sponsor came into your office before the World Cup and said… “ We are going to give you a new, perfectly round match ball…the players wont like it at all….and there will be more mistakes made than in any other World Cup…” “ There will be less goals scored…less free kicks scored.....less passes complete….less control by players….and roughly 70% of crosses and shots on goal will miss wide and over the crossbar… What would you say to them..? …

Unfortunately, the players do not know WHY or WHAT is causing the Jubilani ball to behave., so erratically, I do have some knowledge of the reasons, and that is why I am writing to you now to explain why this new ball is behaving in the manner that it is. First of all….How do I know all of this information.....? I know it because I personally designed, built and set up the original testing Lab for adidas In Herzogenaurach Germany in the early 90‟s... In my role as lead innovation consultant I created the Predator football boot, The Traxion sole system...and tested the original prototypes of a ball that would fly further …the Questra World Cup Ball for USA 1994... It was also at this Lab that I pioneered the use of super slow motion footage with Oxford scientific Films and digital techniques with the Frauenhoffer Institute. This was specifically to study and understand the moment of contact between boot and ball and the following aerodynamic characteristics of the football in flight… Although this was conducted with scientifically controlled parameters ... I did it with a footballers touch and sensitivity always in mind...and a solid vision and feel for the end result...

First of all however, just a bit of background is required to put the balls behavior into a more scientific context... Each kick of a ball can be quantified as a mathematical equation ...and some of the forces important to this equation include but are not limited to velocity, trajectory, lift, drag, external and internal air pressure and of course gravity... You and I, and Pele and Franz Beckenbauer , and every other footballer on the planet grew up kicking a 32 panel Buckmister construction hand stitched football....It had 20 hexagon panels and 12 pentagons (small black ones). The design and shape of this Buckminster ball that we all know so well, is not spherical, but is called a Truncated Icosahedron. It is not rounded until it is blown up with air and forced, with a butyl bladder...into a ball shape. This football with its 180 panel edges, exposed to the elements, is far from round and far from perfect.... ...and these very imperfections are what gives it it's unique repeatable feel to the footballer. These imperfections help produce an optimum flight trajectory that players have been able to depend upon, every single time they kicked or received a ball...before even the World Cup Telstar ball in Mexico back in 1970. This ball has a soul…it is predictable… reliable… beautiful.... Technically speaking, the construction of this normal ball, with its exposed panel edges and stitch lines, give it high lift and drag coefficients which in turn, encourage a high rotation rate around the balls axis...

It is this rotation, when propelled forward which help create the drag and lift properties which magically seem to hold the ball up in the air. This is called the Magnus effect…and it impacts the many types of technical kicks in many different ways The long Pass The Magnus effect happens at a optimal velocity when the airflow around and perpendicular to, the balls rotational axis, become a different pressure, and the ball starts to deviate substantially in the air... This is usually when a ball has decelerated and is closer to the target. This is what we call swerve or curl...where the ball literally bends it's flight path in the direction of the spin that has been imparted... We have all kicked a ball into a strong headwind and witnessed the huge and dramatic swerve effect that extra lift and drag have on a normal football...or cricket ball..or golf ball… This phenomenon, is what allows a player to shape and curl each pass or shot on goal with backspin, topspin, sidespin or a combination of those attributes.... This is what you and I and every other footballer grew up with...and this, is the ultimate craft of a footballer...

Unfortunately the designers of the Jabulani have totally misunderstood the importance of this as their ball doesn't behave in the same way… It has an artificial feel and trajectory and only about 20% of the craft a player is putting on the ball is being translated. This equates to about 70% or more of crosses and dead ball free kicks being overhit… The passing in this World Cup has been the worst ever. Unfortunately the problems with the ball do not stop only with the craft of passing of the ball... Straight Shooting With Power It is a little known fact but once a ball has been kicked it is always decelerating… With a hard straight shot towards goal, that is, without spin, the drag and lift on a normally constructed ball is roughly equal on both sides…. The balls forward movements are therefore stabilised, predictable and repeatable... that's why golf balls have dimples...

On the Jabulani ball the flight path is unstable, erratic and unpredictable... This World Cup has seen the worst long range shooting ever... Shooting with Accuracy On a hard shot for goal, drag on the ball is really important to keeping it stable, to keep it flyng straight and steady.. With this technique, the ultimate objective of a players strike is to get the centre of percussion (sweet spot) of his kicking foot, through the centre of the ball.. With traditional footballs, the kicking foot sinks deep into the panels and deforms the ball substantially, therefore the foot is in contact with the balls surface for longer. This extra time, even if it is measured in milliseconds, allows a player to be far more accurate with his strike... It is also the extra time that allows the secondary movement of the foot to put the spin or movement of the ball that the player wants to shape the shot…as in passing above…

With the Jabulani, the ball seems to jump nervously off the foot before the required deformation and therefore before enough purchase has been achieved by the kicker...which has ended in the disastrous number of strikes over the crossbar or completely missing the target on either side of the goal... This lack of purchase issue, combined with the unstable flight path, can also account for the many mistimed headers and volleys in the competition so far... The accuracy of shooting and heading is the worst of any World Cup...ever Goalkeepers and Attackers Receiving the Ball It is not only the goalkeepers who have been complaining about unstable and erratic movements of the ball. Many attackers have complained about the ball moving at the last second as they attempt to head or volley the ball from crosses or set piece plays...

Refereeing Errors I believe that the erratic and unpredictable flight paths of the Jubilani balls are the cause of many strange refereeing errors and have also contributed to controversial goals and penalty decisions… The pace of game itself has become faster and more frantic, at this World Cup, specifically because the Jabulani ball is hyper sensitive to the touch. It is nervous and flighty to control, and to the players feet it has an artificial and jumpy feel. The players are all making simple mistakes…and the referees simply can‟t keep up with play.. Craig Johnston July 2010

electric thoughts

2010-03-16T23:44:00.000-04:00

puducherry

2009-12-28T05:09:00.000-05:00

Pics on the weekend - Gurgaon

2009-12-07T23:28:00.000-05:00

something new

2009-11-09T23:23:00.000-05:00

just when you thought what scope is there when designing another stack of matchboxes in the sky. architect jeanne gang brings us this....

Baltimore to Fort Hood

2009-11-08T07:12:00.004-05:00

just read this on the Fort Hood shootings....and i quote.."So Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan is a 'devout' Muslim, we are told, who prayed several days a week at a Mosque in Silver Spring, Maryland. He’s also a native born American of Palestinian parents. My Muslim friends tell me Islam is a peaceful religion, with dozens of references in the Koran rejecting violence. We don’t know if his religious beliefs played any part in his alleged murderous rampage, but the case of Maj. Hasan, who technically at this stage is only a 'suspect,' is not helping the image of peaceful Islam. While we withhold judgment awaiting more facts, it’s safe to say this terrorist act will only deepen the mistrust many Americans have for those who follow the Islamic faith. And that is a sad truth."

This made me sit up a bit....thats a place I have been to...and I have some friends who went to the very same mosque. I lived in this area for a few months and did meet a few very very religious people. Fanaticism has been growing in america nourished by a state that forgot its role of building communities and caring for all its citizens. The public area of being a benovelent daddy, vacated by the state, has been occupied by religious focus groups....

kid on bed on cow on road

2009-11-02T12:15:00.001-05:00

ok...thats not a cow...thats a donkey

slight shift in perspective

2009-11-02T12:10:00.000-05:00

View from the cubicle

2009-11-02T12:09:00.000-05:00

Not bad .....for a view from the office..... sometimes while busy in the latest work related emergency you catch sight of the view from the window.....and its like a sudden shifting of perspective.....sweet..

visit to D Farm

2009-10-27T05:47:00.000-04:00

dotcom entrepreneurs from roorkee....about time

2009-09-26T04:02:00.004-04:00

this website ...is a nice idea...just like facebook allows you to stay in touch with your friends without having to jhelo them face to face... now you can do the same with your neighbours....

interesting that 25 yr old from roorkee are showing up in the young entrepreneur brigade..... the winds of change managed to sweep away some of the cobwebs in the laidback old alma mater it seems...or is this the exception that proves the rule...

Familiar College Blues

2009-09-23T03:41:00.001-04:00

Nice stuff on the IT BHU page on facebook....would be familiar to most ex hostelers...

You know you went to ITBHU in the '90s when:
1. Mochu was the biggest food brand you knew
2. Munna Maharaj was the best chef
3. You ate aloos till you resembled one
4. Lankating was your favorite sport
5. Girls were the beings that did not resemble men (in an obvious manner) and were few and far in between
6. All your afternoons were spent at corners, Limbdi, Rajputana etc.
7. Grass was not green
8. Bhoot stories abound esp around DG and Morvi hostel
9. Everyone south of Vindhyas was a Makku
10. You had a nickname you don?t want to remember
11. Maggus were half the class population
12. Tattas were not round objects
13. Everything was arbit
14. Mandir was for drinking shakes and generally lounging
15. Jawani series movies were hot and had some decent following
16. Mastram was your fav author
17. GRE was the ticket to success and GRE scores were your achievement
18. Endless nights spent on discussing useless things
19. Career was a something you got with a job (usually with Infosys)
20. Topo was your strategy for passing sems and tests
21. At least 100 males had a crush on 1 female
22. Ayn Rand was your philosophy teacher
23. La Be La was your favorite Chinese restaurant (& for some their fav dating place)
24. Talli till death was your favorite pastime
25. PLD was a nice to have title

nice coffee architecture

2009-09-22T03:21:00.001-04:00

http://gizmodo.com/5361661/mcdonalds-lamp-post-makes-me-doubt-my-mental-sanity-even-more

nice article about auroville

2009-09-17T00:28:00.001-04:00

http://business.in.com/article/work-in-progress/commerce-in-a-cocoon/3722/1

how dare he have a sense of humor

2009-09-17T00:20:00.001-04:00

?Absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows,? Mr Tharoor had replied to a question on whether he would travel ?cattle class? to Kerala the next time.

Mr. Tharoor is a minister in the Union Cabinet and an author of best selling books.

Humor and politics, can they mix ?

metro-politan

2009-09-16T03:00:00.000-04:00

the heart of new gurgaon...metropolitan mall with a metro station in front.

playground images

2009-09-15T11:50:00.000-04:00

playing by the side of the road...making mudcakes...

view in the rear view

2009-09-15T11:48:00.000-04:00

best way to ride a scooter when you are small

view from window in gurgaon

2009-09-15T11:47:00.000-04:00

bet no one would believe that one day sleepy old gurgawa would have a view from the window like this.

strange designs for sinks

2009-09-14T08:45:00.001-04:00

http://weburbanist.com/2009/09/13/15-more-spectacular-sinks-strange-wash-basin-designs/

Street Pics - Connaught Place, Delhi

2009-09-08T00:22:00.000-04:00

mumbai buildings going hep

2009-08-31T05:29:00.002-04:00

amazing new shapes in poor old mumbai.... read here

street views of delhi

2009-08-31T01:04:00.000-04:00

Virus kills 200 in india. no cure.

2009-08-26T03:27:00.002-04:00

As the BBC reports....<br />
A virus, which kills children every year, in the heart of india, in the eastern part of UP. No one can cure it and no effective vaccine. Still there is no fuss about it. 900 children are sick with this virus and in hospitals, still there is no panic. 40 have died due to the swine flu H1N1 virus, and the media is full of it.....

thats how it goes....even diseases need to have glamour, a catchy name and good PR.

2009-08-26T03:22:00.001-04:00

rather than defend its turf from the apple iphone, nokia has executed a classic counterattack ...and launched a netbook, or booklet as they call it...

ashes to ashes

2009-08-25T08:26:00.001-04:00

England won the ashes. Its tough to understand how Australia could lose, but the answer is simple. They just ran the contest too close. When it gets down to just one game, a single standout performer can swing the game. Like Ajit Agarkar in Australia some time back, Stuart Broad got into rythmn, settled into a groove and just kept sending beautiful deliveries down, one after the other. When the dust had cleared, he had 5 wickets and Australia had folded.

on the itenerary for the next decade of wandering

2009-08-23T02:08:00.002-04:00

Owned by a local Navajo family, the View is the only hotel in the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. It was designed with meticulous care to blend into and capitalize on the splendor of the landscape,

check the slideshow here ....

If you wanted to invest 1 lakh in Indian Stocks

2009-08-22T04:16:00.004-04:00

Here is what I bought recently....and am sharing, in case anyone wants to figure out how to invest a lakh in indian stocks =

Stock Symbol Qty Current Market Price Value At Market Price
LICHF 25 625.20 15630 LIC HOUSING FINANCE
HINCON 200 106.00 21200 HINDUSTAN CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
JAIIRR 25 717.00 17925 JAIN IRRIGATION
APTTRA 50 215.50 10775 APTECH TRAINING
FIRSOU 250 33.50 8375 FIRSTSOURCE SOLUTIONS
BHATE 50 409.50 20475 BHARTI TELECOM
GTLINF 50 36.45 1822.5 GTL INFRASTRUCTURE
TOTAL 96202.5

lyrics to remember

2009-08-22T02:00:00.001-04:00

Where were you when I was burned and broken
While the days slipped by from my window watching
Where were you when I was hurt and I was helpless
Because the things you say and the things you do surround me
While you were hanging yourself on someone else's words
dying to believe in what you heard
I was staring straight into the shining sun
Lost in thought and lost in time
While the seeds of live and the seeds of change were planted
Outside the rain fell dark and slow
While I pondered on this dangerous but irrestiable past-time
I took a heavenly ride through one silence
I knew the moment had arrived
For killing the past and coming back to life
I took a heavenly ride trough our silence
I knew the waiting had begin
And headed straight... into the shining sun

Pink Floyd Coming Back To Life lyrics

stocks to buy

2009-08-20T00:39:00.001-04:00

lupin - good
cipla - good
irb - good
jain irrigation - good
walchandnagar - good
ahluwalia -good

aptech
firstsource
hcl tech
indian hotels
unitech
icicibank
bilt - ok
cairn - ok
mahindra holidays
moser>suzlon>praj

microsoft retail stores being designed.

2009-08-17T06:19:00.001-04:00

10 Ways Microsoft Stores will be Different to Apple Stores
Microsoft announced plans to open retail stores, hoping to boost visibility of many of its products and its brand. The move seems to be an effort to mimic the success that Apple has had with its retail stores. The news is just too tempting not to have some fun with. So here are some yet-to-be-officially-revealed details about the Microsoft stores.

1) Instead of Apple's sheer walls of glass, Microsoft's stores will have brushed steel walls dotted with holes -- reminiscent of Windows security.

2) The store will have six different entrances: Starter, Basic, Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. While all six doors will lead into the same store, the Ultimate door requires a fee of $100 for no apparent reason.

3) Instead of a "Genius Bar" (as Apple provides) Microsoft will offer an Excuse Bar. It will be staffed by Microsofties trained in the art of evading questions, directing you to complicated and obscure fixes, and explaining it's a problem with the hardware -- not a software bug.

4) The Windows Genuine Advantage team will run storefront security, assuming everybody is a thief until they can prove otherwise.

5) Store hours are undetermined. At any given time the store mysteriously shuts down instantaneously for no apparent reason. (No word yet on what happens to customers inside).

6) Stores will be named Microsoft Live Retail Store with PC Services for Digital Lifestyle Enthusiasts.

7) Fashioned after Microsoft's User Account Control (UAC) in Vista, sales personnel will ask you whether you're positive you want to purchase something at least twice.

8) Xbox 360 section of the store will be organized in a ring -- which will inexplicably go red occasionally.

9) DreamWorks will design a scary in-store theme park ride called "blue screen of death."

10) Store emergency exits will be unlocked at all times so people can get in anytime they want even if the front doors are locked

Check out China could attack India before 2012, claims analyst

2009-07-12T13:28:00.001-04:00

I want you to take a look at: China could attack India before 2012, claims analyst

Ronnie Cummings: How Industry Giants are Undermining the Organic Foods Movement

2009-07-09T12:21:00.001-04:00

Ronnie Cummings: How Industry Giants are Undermining the Organic Foods Movement

Shared via AddThis

Getting on the road.

2009-05-18T14:35:00.003-04:00

Today in suburban cities like Gurgaon, the supply of public transport is woefully inadequate for the daily commuters. Traditionally women, students and elderly have been more dependent on public transport and are hardest hit by failure of the public transport system. As our cities grow and public transport is not able to keep up, most people feel the need to own a vehicle. After a few attempts to use public transport, a daily commuter or suburban resident soon starts to evaluate which vehicle to buy and how to drive and maintain it.

In places like Gurgaon, it is not uncommon to see someone learning to drive a car that he or she has just bought. The requirement for a commuting solution is immediate and a new car owner is in a hurry to get up and running on the road. They have to quickly get up to speed on

-Learning to drive
-Getting a driving license,
-Deciding on the vehicle to buy
-Selecting and buying car insurance.
-Learning to maintain and protect your vehicle.
-Navigating and staying calm on the crowded roads of India.

The first milestone on this journey is getting your first driving license. The law is clear on this, “No person shall drive a motor vehicle in any public place unless he holds an effective Driving licence issued to him authorizing him to drive a vehicle of that particular category”.

There are two steps to acquiring a driving license and both involve a trip to the RTO office. First time you get checked for color blindness, take a simple objective type test and get a learner license issued. This license allows you to drive on the road provided you have someone with a valid driving license sitting along with you. Second time you return after learning to drive to get a Permanent license. This second visit should be within 30 days to 6 months of issue of learner license. You need to take your vehicle with you, demonstrate your driving skills, satisfy the examiners and become a proud recipient of a driving license. It is advisable to use a good professional driving school to help you through this stage.

At some point along the way you will also need to decide which vehicle to buy. Consider both second hand cars and first hand cars while comparing so that you get a full picture. While comparing various options, take into account the total cost of ownership per year to decide which fits your budget. A common mistake is to only consider fuel economy while assessing the ownership cost.

Total Cost of Ownership includes -

-Fuel Costs
-Insurance charges.
-Maintenance costs.
-Depreciation
-Interest if car loan is taken.

Take the example of a new 4 lakh rupee car, which is driven 1000 km a month with a petrol fuel economy of around 15km a litre.

-Fuel costs – about 3000 rupees a month.
-Car insurance policy would be about 10 – 12 thousand a year, or 1000 rupees a month.
-Depreciation would be 5000 – 10000 a month, considering that the car value goes down by 15% to 30% in a year.
-If you took a car loan of 75% you might be easily paying 4000 a month in interest alone.
-Servicing and maintenance charges - About 800-1000 per month.

So fuel economy though important, is just one cost among many associated with vehicle ownership. Lets compare this with a second hand car bought for 2 lakh.

-Its fuel economy would not be too different from a new car.
-Its maintenance cost might be higher, say at 2000 rupees a month,
-Its insurance would be lower at 100 - 500 rupees a month since the car is of lower IDV (insured's declared value)
-the depreciation would be lower for the same reason.
-You might be able to buy it without needing a loan.

You have to choose between having the greater reliability of a new car versus the lower cost of ownership of an older car. The prestige value attached to a new car may tilt your decision. On the other hand you may want to commit the beginner's mistakes, minor accidents, clutch plate burnouts on an older car and so opt for the latter.
Now that you have your car and your license, its time to get on the road and drive on towards a different lifestyle. Make sure you have the contact numbers of your dealer and service network with you and don't hesitate to call for help when facing any problems on the road. Inspect your car from time to time, by walking around it, bending down and looking at the undersides, kicking the tires and lifting the bonnet and having a look at the engine.

Your car is a machine that will carry you at high speeds in dense and chaotic traffic and you should tend it with care. Avoid unnecessary manoeuvres on the road, aim to protect your car and your car will protect you. Renew your insurance on time and never drive when you don't feel fit enough. Check the engine oil and coolant levels regularly and get the tires air pressure checked routinely. Ignore distractions, keep your focus on the road, stay cool and always wear a seat belt.

When one is commuting by bus one looks at cars and thinks they have it easy. When you own a car and realize its responsibilities, you may end up looking at the people riding on buses and thinking that they have it easy. No stress of driving, no worries about accidents and maintenance and no hassles over parking. Don't worry when you sit in your own car, turn up the music and rev up the engine all these thoughts will disappear as you get on the road and get going.

times change

2009-04-26T12:31:00.001-04:00

fake ipl player...;

2009-04-25T13:05:00.002-04:00

amazing creative discussions happening on fake ipl player blog .... sample below ---

to go there click this ...

the blog is hilarious..specially liked the part where fakie wonders if he can stick a cable up a big eared bowlers ass and see if receives satellite tv.....

A is for Awpheesh (as in Office). This is where the average Kolkakatan goes and spends a day hard at work. And if he works for the 'Vest Bengal Gawrment' he will arrive at 10, wipe his forehead till 11, have a tea break at 12, throw around a few files at 12.30, break for lunch at 1, smoke the 7th unfiltered cigarette at 2, break for 5th cup of tea at 3, sleep sitting down at 4 and go home at 4:30. It's a hard life!

B is for Bhision. For some reason many Bengalis don't have good bhision. In fact in Kolkata most people are wearing spectacles all the time....Bhishon Bhalo and Bibhotso.... though means opposite ...used for same situations.. .depending on the Beauty of fairer sex...are close ...almost in a tie for second spot....

C is for Chappell. Currently, this is the Bengali word for the Devil, for the worst form of evil. In the night mothers put their kids to sleep saying, 'Na ghumoley ebar Chappell eshey dhorey niye jabe.'

D is for Debashish or any other name starting with Deb. By an ancient law every fourth Bengali Child has to be named Debashish. So you have a Debashish everywhere and trying to get creative they are also called Deb, Debu, Deba with variations like Debopriyo, Deboprotim, Debojyoti, etc. thrown in at times....as creations of God himself !!

E is for Eeesh. This is a very common Bengali exclamation made famous by Aishwarya Rai in the movie Devdas. It is estimated that on an average a Bengali, especially Bengali women, use eeesh 10,089 times every year. 'Ei Morechhey' is a close second to Eeesh.

F is for Feeesh. These are creatures that swim in rivers and seas and are a favourite food of the Bengalis. Despite the fact that a fish market has such strong smells, with one sniff a Bengali knows if a fish is all right. If not, he will say 'eeesh what feeesh is theesh!'

G is for Good name. Every Bengali boy will have a good name like Debashish or Deboprotim and a pet name like Motka, Bhombol, Thobla, etc. While every Bengali girl will have pet names like Tia, Tuktuki, Mishti, Khuku, et cetera.

H is for Harmonium. This Bengali equivalent of a rock guitar. Take four Bengalis and a Harmonium and you have the successors to The Bheatles!

I is for Ileesh. This is a feeesh with 10,987 bones which would kill any ordinary person, but which the Bengalis eat with releeesh!

J is for Jhola. No selfrespecting Bengali is complete without his Jhola. It is a shapeless cloth bag where he keeps all his belongings and he fits an amazing number of things in. Even as you read this there are two million jholas bobbling around Kolkata, and they all look exactly the same! Note that 'Jhol'with mysterious condiments.. . as in Maachher Jhol is a close second. Jhaamela and Jachhetai are distant 3rd and 4th

K is for Kee Kaando! It used to be the favourite Bengali exclamation till eeesh took over because of Aishwarya Rai.Kee mushkil is a close second.

L is for Lungi, the dress for all occasions. People in Kolkata manage to play football and cricket wearing it not to mention the daily trip in the morning to the local bajaar. Now there is talk of a lungi expedition to Mt Everest.

M is for Minibaas. These are dangerous half buses whose antics would effortlessly frighten the living daylights out of all James Bond stuntmen as well as Formula 1 race car drivers.

N is for Nangto. This is the Bengali word for Naked. It is the most interesting naked word in any language!

O is for Oil. The Bengalis believe that a touch of mustard oil will cure anything from cold (oil in the nose), to earache (oil in the ear), to cough (oil on the throat) to piles (oil you know where!).

P is for Phootball. This is always a phavourite phassion of the Kolkattan. Every Bengali is born an expert in this game. The two biggest clubs there are MOHUNBAGAN and East Bengal and when they play the city comes to a stop.

Q is for Koshchen (question) as in "Mamatadi koshchens Cheap Ministaar in Writaars Buiding."

R is for Robi Thakur. Many many years ago Rabindranath got the Nobel Prize. This has given the right to all Bengalis no matter where they are to frame their acceptance speeches as if they were directly related to the great poet and walk with their head held high. This also gives Bengalis the birthright to look down at Delhi and Mumbai and of course 'all non-Bengawlees'! Note that 'Rawshogolla' comes a close second!

S is for Shourav. Now that they finally produced a genuine cricketer, that too a captain, Bengalis think that he should be allowed to play until he is 70 years old.

T is for Trams. Hundred years later there are still trams in Kolkata. Of course if you are in a hurry it's faster to walk....Trams are still existing in Paris too.......you see !

U is for Aambrela. When a Bengali baby is born he is handed one.

V is for Bhaayolence. Bengalis are the most non-violent violent people around. When an accident happens they will fold up their sleeves, shout and scream and curse and abuse, "Chherey De Bolchhi" but the last time someone actually hit someone was in 1939.

W is for Water. For three months of the year the city is underwater and every year for the last 200 years the authorities are taken by surprise by this!

X is for X'mas. It's very big in Kolkata, with Park Street fully lit up and all Bengalis agreeing that they must eat cake that day.

Y is for Yesshtaarday. Which is always better than today for a Bengali (see R for Robi Thakur)?. It is also for Jubraj Shingh and Joga.

Z is for Jebra, Joo, and Jipper.

cat pose

2008-12-28T08:28:00.000-05:00

palin drome

2008-10-08T07:47:00.000-04:00

uttarkashi

2008-10-06T07:01:00.000-04:00

Child's Guide To United States Foreign Policy

2008-07-31T04:53:00.000-04:00

Q: Daddy, why did we have to attack Iraq?

A: Because they had weapons of mass destruction honey.

Q: But the inspectors didn't find any weapons of mass destruction.

A: That's because the Iraqis were hiding them.

Q: And that's why we invaded Iraq?

A: Yep. Invasions always work better than inspections.

Q: But after we invaded them, we STILL didn't find any weapons of mass destruction, did we?

A: That's because the weapons are so well hidden. Don't worry, we'll find something, probably right before the 2008 election.

Q: Why did Iraq want all those weapons of mass destruction?

A: To use them in a war, silly.

Q: I'm confused. If they had all those weapons that they planned to use in a war, then why didn't they use any of those weapons when we went to war with them?

A: Well, obviously they didn't want anyone to know they had those weapons, so they chose to die by the thousands rather than defend themselves.

Q: That doesn't make sense Daddy. Why would they choose to die if they had all those big weapons to fight us back with?

A: It's a different culture. It's not supposed to make sense.

Q: I don't know about you, but I don't think they had any of those weapons our government said they did.

A: Well, you know, it doesn't matter whether or not they had those weapons. We had another good reason to invade them anyway.

Q: And what was that?

A: Even if Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein was a cruel dictator, which is another good reason to invade another country.

Q: Why? What does a cruel dictator do that makes it OK to invade his country?

A: Well, for one thing, he tortured his own people.

Q: Kind of like what they do in China?

A: Don't go comparing China to Iraq. China is a good economic competitor, where millions of people work for slave wages in sweatshops to make U.S. corporations richer.

Q: So if a country lets its people be exploited for American corporate gain, it's a good country, even if that country tortures people?

A: Right.

Q: Why were people in Iraq being tortured?

A: For political crimes, mostly, like criticizing the government. People who criticized the government in Iraq were sent to prison and tortured.

Q: Isn't that exactly what happens in China?

A: I told you, China is different.

Q: What's the difference between China and Iraq?

A: Well, for one thing, Iraq was ruled by the Ba'ath party, while China is Communist.

Q: Didn't you once tell me Communists were bad?

A: No, just Cuban Communists are bad.

Q: How are the Cuban Communists bad?

A: Well, for one thing, people who criticize the government in Cuba are sent to prison and tortured.

Q: Like in Iraq?

A: Exactly.

Q: And like in China, too?

A: I told you, China's a good economic competitor. Cuba, on the other hand, is not.

Q: How come Cuba isn't a good economic competitor?

A: Well, you see, back in the early 1960s, our government passed some laws that made it illegal for Americans to trade or do any business with Cuba until they stopped being communists and started being capitalists like us.

Q: But if we got rid of those laws, opened up trade with Cuba, and started doing business with them, wouldn't that help the Cubans become capitalists?

A: Don't be a smart-ass.

Q: I didn't think I was being one.

A: Well, anyway, they also don't have freedom of religion in Cuba.

Q: Kind of like China and the Falun Gong movement?

A: I told you, stop saying bad things about China. Anyway, Saddam Hussein came to power through a military coup, so he's not really a legitimate leader anyway.

Q: What's a military coup?

A: That's when a military general takes over the government of a country by force, instead of holding free elections like we do in the United States...

Q: Didn't the ruler of Pakistan come to power by a military coup?

A: You mean General Pervez Musharraf? Uh, yeah, he did, but Pakistan is our friend.

Q: Why is Pakistan our friend if their leader is illegitimate?

A: I never said Pervez Musharraf was illegitimate.

Q: Didn't you just say a military general who comes to power by forcibly overthrowing the legitimate government of a nation is an illegitimate leader?

A: Only Saddam Hussein. Pervez Musharraf is our friend, because he helped us invade Afghanistan.

Q: Why did we invade Afghanistan?

A: Because of what they did to us on September 11th.

Q: What did Afghanistan do to us on September 11th?

A: Well, on September 11th, nineteen men, fifteen of them Saudi Arabians, hijacked four airplanes and flew three of them into buildings, killing over 3,000 Americans.

Q: So how did Afghanistan figure into all that?

A: Afghanistan was where those bad men trained, under the oppressive rule of the Taliban..

Q: Aren't the Taliban those bad radical Islamics who chopped off people's heads and hands?

A: Yes, that's exactly who they were. Not only did they chop off people's heads and hands, but they oppressed women, too.

Q: Didn't the Bush administration give the Taliban 43 million dollars back in May of 2001?

A: Yes, but that money was a reward because they did such a good job fighting drugs.

Q: Fighting drugs?

A: Yes, the Taliban were very helpful in stopping people from growing opium poppies.

Q: How did they do such a good job?

A: Simple. If people were caught growing opium poppies, the Taliban would have their hands and heads cut off.

Q: So, when the Taliban cut off people's heads and hands for growing flowers, that was OK, but not if they cut people's heads and hands off for other reasons?

A: Yes. It's OK with us if radical Islamic fundamentalists cut off people's hands for growing flowers, but it's cruel if they cut off people's hands for stealing bread.

Q: Don't they also cut off people's hands and heads in Saudi Arabia?

A: That's different. Afghanistan was ruled by a tyrannical patriarchy that oppressed women and forced them to wear burqas whenever they were in public, with death by stoning as the penalty for women who did not comply.

Q: Don't Saudi women have to wear burqas in public, too?

A: No, Saudi women merely wear a traditional Islamic body covering.

Q: What's the difference?

A: The traditional Islamic covering worn by Saudi women is a modest yet fashionable garment that covers all of a woman's body except for her eyes and fingers. The burqa, on the other hand, is an evil tool of patriarchal oppression that covers all of a woman's body except for her eyes and fingers.

Q: It sounds like the same thing with a different name.

A: Now, don't go comparing Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are our friends.

Q: But I thought you said 15 of the 19 hijackers on September 11th were from Saudi Arabia.

A: Yes, but they trained in Afghanistan.

Q: Who trained them?

A: A very bad man named Osama bin Laden.

Q: Was he from Afghanistan?

A: Uh, no, he was from Saudi Arabia too. But he was a bad man, a very bad man.

Q: I seem to recall he was our friend once.

A: Only when we helped him and the mujahadeen repel the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan back in the 1980s.

Q: Who are the Soviets? Was that the Evil Communist Empire Ronald Reagan talked about?

A: There are no more Soviets. The Soviet Union broke up in 1990 or thereabouts, and now they have elections and capitalism like us. We call them Russians now.

Q: So the Soviets ? I mean, the Russians ? are now our friends?

A: Well, not really. You see, they were our friends for many years after they stopped being Soviets, but then they decided not to support our invasion of Iraq, so we're mad at them now. We're also mad at the French and the Germans because they didn't help us invade Iraq either.

Q: So the French and Germans are evil, too?

A: Not exactly evil, but just bad enough that we had to rename French fries and French toast to Freedom Fries and Freedom Toast.

Q: Do we always rename foods whenever another country doesn't do what we want them to do?

A: No, we just do that to our friends. Our enemies, we invade.

Q: But wasn't Iraq one of our friends back in the 1980s?

A: Well, yeah. For a while.

Q: Was Saddam Hussein ruler of Iraq back then?

A: Yes, but at the time he was fighting against Iran, which made him our friend, temporarily.

Q: Why did that make him our friend?

A: Because at that time, Iran was our enemy.

Q: Isn't that when he gassed the Kurds?

A: Yeah, but since he was fighting against Iran at the time, we looked the other way, to show him we were his friend.

Q: So anyone who fights against one of our enemies automatically becomes our friend?

A: Most of the time, yes.

Q: And anyone who fights against one of our friends is automatically an enemy?

A: Sometimes that's true, too. However, if American corporations can profit by selling weapons to both sides at the same time, all the better.

Q: Why?

A: Because war is good for the economy, which means war is good for America Also, since God is on America's side, anyone who opposes war is a godless un-American Communist. Do you understand now why we attacked Iraq?

Q: I think so. We attacked them because God wanted us to, right?

A: Yes.

Q: But how did we know God wanted us to attack Iraq?

A: Well, you see, God personally speaks to George W. Bush and tells him what to do.

Q: So basically, what you're saying is that we attacked Iraq because George W. Bush hears voices in his head?

A: Yes! You finally understand how the world works. Now close your eyes, make yourself comfortable, and go to sleep. Good night.
************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* *******

shared stuff on the net

2008-07-14T14:47:00.002-04:00

havent been blogging....but have been reading.....

click here.....or here.....or HERE ..... to see my virtual clipboard....where i share the stuff I find interesting...

gangotri

2008-02-08T11:45:00.001-05:00

a pal went to the source of the ganges...brought back some pics..the glacier is fast receding and so is his hairline...but whatevers there looks kinda good....see the album here

monkey see monkey do

2008-01-02T10:05:00.000-05:00

on the road

2008-01-02T10:04:00.000-05:00

streets of nepal

2008-01-02T10:02:00.000-05:00

pokhara - nepal

2008-01-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

happy new year !!!!!!!

2008-01-02T09:58:00.000-05:00

still alive

2007-06-24T13:49:00.000-04:00

alive.... but settling in....still dont have broadband.....been busy swimming n working ...will start posting again in july

outsourcing

2007-04-27T08:22:00.000-04:00

whom would you rather believe... this ....

or the wise guys at onion....

irshad!!

2007-04-24T07:55:00.000-04:00

And over at the tagging life blog, Westy has come up with this lyrical gem...

There is a valley in the east of spain
Where the clouds hang out, pouring rain
The valley is wiide and has a gentle slope
A fantastic place to have a dope

Boris...the spider

2007-04-24T07:01:00.000-04:00

As the New York times says in its take on Yeltsin and his era,

No one recognized more than he how far short he fell of his goal. In his resignation speech, he told the Russian people: “I ask forgiveness for not justifying some hopes of those people who believed that at one stroke, in one spurt, we could leap from the gray, stagnant, totalitarian past into the light, rich, civilized future.”

At the end, he was a man worn down. “I feel like a runner who has just completed a supermarathon of 40,000 kilometers,” he wrote in his memoir. “I gave it my all. I put my whole heart and soul into running my presidential marathon. I honestly went the distance. If I have to justify anything, here is what I will say: If you think you can do it better, just try. Run those 40,000 kilometers. Try to do it faster, better, more elegantly, or more easily. Because I did it.”

In an era of manufactured political leaders, Yeltsin was the last of the old school politico's. Someone who could orate, who could mingle, who could get drunk, who could shake a leg, who would use the local transport, who would remember what it meant to be poor and disenfranchised and who would get angry at the state of things around him. Power corrupts and Yeltsin too left the stage to polite applause and muttered whispers, but for a brief moment in time, he was the man who dared raise his voice and take a hammer to the machine-state.

Perhaps it would have been better if he had been a spider, able to weave his web and hang by a thread, play the parlour games and tread lightly on the ground...
Still we must judge a man by his actions in his youth and middle age, not in his dotage. For those who remember, Boris was not a spider, but a bear of a man, poking his nose where it wasnt appreciated, shoving his way into places where he wasnt welcome and forever ready to stand up and climb on tanks and talk to the people directly.

Look, he's crawling up my wall
Black and hairy, very small
Now he's up above my head
Hanging by a little thread

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

Now he's dropped on to the floor
Heading for the bedroom door
Maybe he's as scared as me
Where's he gone now, I can't see

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

Creepy, crawly
Creepy, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly

There he is wrapped in a ball
Doesn't seem to move at all
Perhaps he's dead, I'll just make sure
Pick this book up off the floor

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

Creepy, crawly
Creepy, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly

He's come to a sticky end
Don't think he will ever mend
Never more will he crawl 'round
He's embedded in the ground

Boris the spider
Boris the spider

and i aint no animal....

2007-04-22T11:31:00.001-04:00

excerpts from an article about a man from gorakhpur......full article here

"He apes buffalo's bellowing to such an extent that whenever he visits the cattle-shed, a simple call by him (Munna) makes all the buffaloes turn their attention towards him. Likewise, crows too hover around his head no sooner than he gives out a call of caw-caw," said Raju, one of Munna's friends. "

and another -

"It may be of interest to know that the famed hunter-turned naturalist, Jim Corbett had mastered the art imitating the roar of mating call given by a tigress. It is said that often, he relied on it to lure his game."

thank god for a free press.... we would be so deprived of astonishing information if not for them....

btw.. Shantaram, the book about a guy in mumbai, too had characters from Gorakhpur, the bear handlers who loved their bhaloo, went back with him to their home in Gkp.

message in a bullet

2007-04-19T06:05:00.000-04:00

Excerpts from the video message that Cho sent to NBC

"You had 100 billion choices and ways to avoid today but you decided to spill my blood instead," Cho said in one of the more coherent passages aired by NBC. "You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off. ... I didn't have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled. But no, I will no longer run.

"Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats," said Cho, the son of Korean immigrants who reportedly work in a dry cleaning business, in a passage apparently addressed to his victims. "Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. ... They weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything. "

shot through the heart...and you're to blame

2007-04-17T03:27:00.000-04:00

Quoted from the Guardian - She said the gunman "was just a normal-looking kid, Asian, but he had on a Boy Scout-type outfit. He wore a tan button-up vest, and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something

In virginia tech.... 32 people killed by someone wandering around in a boy scout outfit and spraying bullets..... hmmmmmm

totally wierd.... whatever happens... theres something rotten in denmark....why are schools and colleges the best targets? ..... why not target offices ( where people may actually thank you for giving them a break ) etc...why does it happen in schools and colleges mostly.....

One theory doing the rounds is that the guy was angry coz his girlfriend had been cheating on him.

wierder...

qant..ass

2007-04-13T06:33:00.000-04:00

Update .. an anonymous commenter informs me that i am an idiot for posting this....and its patently false and hopelessly outdated; since the current aussie humor standards are hovering at 73% below 1997 levels ....

note to anonieperson... please take up matter with Tamanna... see below...

Hat tip to Tamanna

"
After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form called a gripe sheet, which conveys to the mechanics problems encountered with the aircraft during the flight that need repair or correction. The engineers read and correct the problem, and then respond in writing on the lower half of the form what remedial action was taken, and the pilot reviews the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews and engineers lack a sense of humor.
(P = the problem logged by the pilot
S = the solution and action taken by the engineers)

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.
P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.
P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.
P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.
P: Friction locks causes throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what they're there for.
P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.
P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.
P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.
P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.
P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.
P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

:-D

Vonnegut 1922 - 2007

2007-04-13T02:20:00.000-04:00

Player Piano (1952), The Sirens of Titan (1959), Cat's Cradle (1963), God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; or, Pearls Before Swine (1965), Mother Night (1966), Welcome to the Monkey House (stories, 1968), *Slaughterhouse Five; or the Children's Crusade: A Dance with Death (1969), Breakfast of Champions; or, Goodbye Blue Monday (1973), Slapstick, or Lonesome No More (1976), Jailbird (1979), Deadeye Dick (1982), Galapágos (1985), Bluebeard (1987), Hocus Pocus (1990), Timequake (1997), Bagombo Snuff Box (stories, 1999) and on and on ...unfortunately the chain shall stop now...and Kurt Vonnegut, god bless him, will no longer pour out the molten lumpy crackling prose that made each book of his feel like a journey in a amateurish space ship.

I was doing my summer internship in an architects office in Calcutta in the middle of the worst spells of summer that Kolkata has ever seen. Luckily the American Centre was just behind my office, and I took a membership in their library. For a couple of months while I commuted in trams, buses and trains, I was lost in the world of American writing. Not knowing much about American authors apart from irving wallace and robert ludlum etc, I took potluck each time, choosing books based on their titles. It was a good move, and led me to discover authors like Mailer, Styron, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Saroyan, Dos Passos, Fitzgerald et al and I was having fun escaping from the heat of the city, sitting in the airconditioned library, when I should have been standing by a construction site taking notes....but hey...

So one day I chose Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut. With a title like that, you could hardly lose. Had a nice ring to it. By the time I had finished the book, I knew I had stumbled upon a treasure. Soon I had read the entire shelf and it was a lot of heavy reading to pack into a 19 yr olds head in the short span of a month, still I will always remember how it used to feel to dip into the purple-green prose of Vonnegut and emerge later refreshed and weary as if from a long journey.

Read yesterday that Vonnegut had passed away at the age of 84, in Manhattan. A giant, truly.

Links -
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2007/04/12/vonnegut_obit/

from those who knew him.

the official (sic) website

the wiki

Cold Turkey - An article by Vonnegut

Brief Bio

Quotes by Vonnegut

Fact of the day - go vegan

2007-04-11T06:51:00.000-04:00

Fact: -The United States alone slaughters more than 10 billion land animals every year.

Interesting post in "Philosophical Musings blog" which pointed me to this article from where I pulled out the above factoid.

An excerpt -

Last year researchers at the University of Chicago took the Prius down a peg when they turned their attention to another gas guzzling consumer purchase. They noted that feeding animals for meat, dairy, and egg production requires growing some ten times as much crops as we'd need if we just ate pasta primavera, faux chicken nuggets, and other plant foods. On top of that, we have to transport the animals to slaughterhouses, slaughter them, refrigerate their carcasses, and distribute their flesh all across the country. Producing a calorie of meat protein means burning more than ten times as much fossil fuels--and spewing more than ten times as much heat-trapping carbon dioxide--as does a calorie of plant protein. The researchers found that, when it's all added up, the average American does more to reduce global warming emissions by going vegetarian than by switching to a Prius.

According to the UN report, it gets even worse when we include the vast quantities of land needed to give us our steak and pork chops. Animal agriculture takes up an incredible 70% of all agricultural land, and 30% of the total land surface of the planet. As a result, farmed animals are probably the biggest cause of slashing and burning the world's forests. Today, 70% of former Amazon rainforest is used for pastureland, and feed crops cover much of the remainder. These forests serve as "sinks," absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, and burning these forests releases all the stored carbon dioxide, quantities that exceed by far the fossil fuel emission of animal agriculture.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the real kicker comes when looking at gases besides carbon dioxide--gases like methane and nitrous oxide, enormously effective greenhouse gases with 23 and 296 times the warming power of carbon dioxide, respectively. If carbon dioxide is responsible for about one-half of human-related greenhouse gas warming since the industrial revolution, methane and nitrous oxide are responsible for another one-third. These super-strong gases come primarily from farmed animals' digestive processes, and from their manure. In fact, while animal agriculture accounts for 9% of our carbon dioxide emissions, it emits 37% of our methane, and a whopping 65% of our nitrous oxide.

Its a college, its a university, no its Infosys Mysore

2007-04-11T06:42:00.000-04:00

In a story on how India is running out of tech workers, and the ways companies like Infosys are adapting to it, by setting up virtually their own educational institutions..the Time magazine reports

"It has 120 faculty members, more than 80 buildings, 2,350 hostel rooms and a 500,000-square-foot education complex. There's a movie complex built inside a geodesic dome. An army of workers sweeps the already-spotless streets and trims the already-perfect lawns.

Month by month, it's getting bigger. Today, some 4,500 students at a time attend the 16-week course for new employees. By September, there will be space for 13,000.

Infosys spent $350 million on the campus, and will spend $140 million this year on training, said Pai, the human resources chief."

april fools day

2007-04-11T06:28:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of the careerbuilder website...heres a list of the funniest 10 pranks pulled off at work on April Fools Day.

1. Sent a letter signed by the president of the company that informed employees they would have to take potty breaks in alphabetical order.

2. Decreased the size of boss's lab coat. Joke continued after April 1 with boss perplexed by his coats getting tighter each week while he was dieting so diligently.

3. Made for a very foggy day with dry ice in the urinal.

4. Changed all of boss's reading glasses to clear glass.

5. Sent a note to co-worker's pager that said to contact "George." The number was to the White House.

6. Employee went to the restroom and when he came out, he ran into a wall of tape draped across the doorway, courtesy of his team.

7. Put "random burping" program on boss's computer that would loudly burp every few seconds. It went on for days.

8. Brought in jelly doughnuts filled with ketchup.

9. Had someone with a "questionable" profession call the office and ask for directions.

10. CEO placed a very large and official-looking "For Sale" sign in front of the building.

The essential guide to email writing

2007-04-11T06:02:00.000-04:00

Interesting review in the New Yorker, about a book on how to email. This book seems to lay down the rules for this new medium, and it reads ....

Shipley and Schwalbe enumerate six essential e-mail types (the Ask, the Answer, Grovelling, etc.), eight deadly sins (too casual, too vague, too illegal, etc.), and a four-step checklist (S.E.N.D.) that reflects the authors’ broad-ranging e-mail conservatism. “S” stands for simple, “E” for effective, “N” for necessary, “D” for done. Generally, they’d have you hit “send” later and less often. They offer a hermeneutics of the cc, an invocation against the word “please,” and a number of rather chilling but by now self-evident rules (“Never forward without permission, and assume everything you write will be forwarded”). The reader gulps at the thought of unexploded self-incriminations ticking in servers around the world. The authors, astonishingly, come out in favor of exclamation points (“ ‘Thanks!!!!’ is way friendlier than ‘Thanks’ ”), abbreviations (“Is LOL . . . really inherently more opaque than FYI?”), and emoticons (those smiley faces and the like may “bug many people but they make us smile”).

and everyday the paperboy brings more

2007-04-10T03:48:00.000-04:00

News of the day.... After 60 years of independence, we finally got around to doing a survey of our children being abused...and the results -

"More than half of India’s child population has been scarred by sexual abuse. The nauseating statistic, indicating that 53 per cent of the country’s children are sexually assaulted, was revealed by the Government of India’s first survey on child abuse."

read more here -

Embedded :)

2007-04-05T05:04:00.000-04:00

You know when technology has totally embedded itself in your life when -

- after embedding the micro iPod chip in your testicle it can sense when you're having sex and play the right music.

a quarter empty

2007-03-29T07:51:00.000-04:00

A quarter of the year is almost over. 3 more quarters left to finish off 007. Its been a busy time, and now the summer is threatening to wipe out all memories of the season past. The north Indian heat will be on us soon. Power outages will be extremely common. Ice will be the most used commodity from the refigerator and the streets will have a deserted look in the day. Dust storms will swirl up and people will get thinner and wearier. We will be praying for the rain and clouds and cursing global warming.

The year started off on a quiet note. The worst seemed over but noone was expecting a very quick upturn in the state of things. The world seemed a mess, with China becoming a capitalist sweatshop capital ( funny how the communists ended up exploiting the workers ), Russia getting scarily organised and authoritarian, America muddling along with George Bush and not really caring anymore, Europe not really looking outwards, Africa suffering from catastrophe overdose, the Muslim world trapped in a hobsons choice or either dictators or religious leaders and Australia having its taps run dry. Still everyone felt that it couldnt possibly get worse and maybe computers, education, internet and globalization would start moving people into more sensible endeavors.

got tagged...so here goes

2007-03-14T08:18:00.000-04:00

had an attack of the killer tomatoes....and they tagged me ..

so here goes....

There was a young businesswoman in a bar in brazeel,
I got close but she said it cost five dollars just for a feel,
To get more you have to pay more,
she winked at me as she closed the door,
These are hard times and this is my only marketable skeel!!!

suggestions for further stanza's are welcomed. If you get tagged..well you know what to do...write one...and tag someone else

world cup starts....

2007-03-12T01:13:00.000-04:00

well the cricket world cup is about to start....and 15 out of the 16 teams participating have been part of the british empire...with only the netherlands being the non colonial team... Its not a big thing for most of the world...but for Indians...this is the world series cup, the fifa world cup and the olympics combined into one long awaited sportsfest.. Its happening in the west indies...and this promises to be the best world cup ever, as it plays out in barbados, in jamaica, in port of spain and all the other beautiful sunny islands in the carribbean...

Google today had this logo .... pretty nicely done...

party on!!

2007-03-06T00:17:00.000-05:00

The Times of India reports - Among those arrested were call centre and IT firm employees, children of affluent businessmen, air hostesses and college students. The police seized seven bottles of phenylfine hydrochloride, two-and-half-kg of marijuana (ganja), 100 gm of hashish (charas) beer cans, cigarettes, music systems, 45 cars, 29 two-wheelers and an unspecified number of mobile phones were seized from the spot.

The revellers had come for the party from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Belgaum, Chennai, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. They were charged an entry fee of Rs 500 per person to enter the party zone.

Nangre-Patil told TOI that 50 per cent of the names and addresses given by the suspects turned out to be fake. Some addresses were correct because they were taken from credit cards and driving licences. Interestingly, at the (badminton hall) court, friends and family members provided cigarettes to the suspects from windows. As soon as the judge left the court room, a few youths started singing, clapping and dancing!

the indian hell

2007-03-04T06:59:00.000-05:00

An Indian dies and goes to hell. There he finds that

there is a different hell for each country. He goes first to the German hell and asks "What do they do here?" He is told "First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and whips you for the rest ofthe day." The man does not like the sound of that at all, so he moves on.

He checks out the USA hell as well as the Russian hell and many more. He discovers that they are all more or less the same as the German hell.

Then he comes to the Indian hell and finds that there is a very long line of people waiting to get in.

Amazed he asks "What do they do there?" He is told "First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the Indian devil comes in and whips you for the rest of the day." But that is exactly the same as all the other hells

Why are there so many people waiting to get in?" Because here there is never any electricity,so the electric chair does not work, someone has stolen all the nails, and the devil is a Govt. servant, so he comes in, signs in the register and then goes to the canteen!"

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

2007-02-23T07:27:00.000-05:00

I look at this woman and I can’t feel anything but rage. What did we gain? I know that looking at her, foreigners will never be able to relate. They’ll feel pity and maybe some anger, but she’s one of us. She’s not a girl in jeans and a t-shirt so there will only be a vague sort of sympathy. Poor third-world countries- that is what their womenfolk tolerate. Just know that we never had to tolerate this before. There was a time when Iraqis were safe in the streets. That time is long gone. We consoled ourselves after the war with the fact that we at least had a modicum of safety in our homes. Homes are sacred, aren’t they? That is gone too.

read this post by the riverbend girl in baghdad.

quote of the day :)

2007-02-12T04:17:00.001-05:00

Never have more children than you have car windows.

America

2007-02-08T00:38:00.000-05:00

Now that three months have passed since my return from America, I find myself able to look back upon visit there with more perspective. So here goes, " A beginners guide to America - The north eastern part "

Disclaimer - I only saw a few cities and towns. Bits of Boston, Manhattan, Baltimore, DC, Pittsburgh and Buffalo. I saw a lot of Air Tran and also travelled by Greyhound, Amtrak, Chinese Bus Service, Taxicabs, Cars and on foot. I had never visited this country and my first visit was if not an eyeopener, but definitely a fresh experience.

Ever since my return from the US of A I have been trying to put a finger on what exactly it was that struck me as different. What was the character of the place that I visited. How did it make me feel.

As always when I cant think of a one word answer, I settle for 10. So there goes - 10 words that describe what I felt -

1. Scale - I felt everything was a bit out of scale, or atleast in a different scale than poor old india. The cars were bigger and so were the people. The buildings were bigger and so were the styrofoam cups. It seemed like everything had 10% extra, to make it bigger and better. Coming from a place where a lot of people share less resources and can't really afford to waste anything, the feeling of being in a place of plenty was exhilarating. It however did feel out of place, and not in sync with its users. The scale was not really so firmly linked to the Human Scale and sometimes one felt out of place in some settings, as if we were preparing all of this for some super being who would come and occupy the world we were creating.

2. Rumble - This was the soundtrack of America. The deep rumble of rubber on tarmac. No horns honking, no whistles blowing, no voices arguing, no brakes screeching, no birds twittering. Just the steady sound of rubber purring over the roads. Wherever one went, one was followed by this steady buzz and hiss. The roads were smooth, the cars in good shape. So no creaking sounds, no bumping sounds. Just a smooth steady rumble all day and all night, everyday and everynight, everywhere.

3. Sugar - This was the taste of america. Specially corn based fructose. Sweeteners. Additives. Sweet stuff everywhere. On donuts, in milkshakes, in fizzy drinks, sweets, candy and desserts. Some cold drinks had so much sugar, that if you let them stand for a while and then take a sip you felt like you were drinking syrup.

got tired...will continue later.

back...

4. Alchohol - Alchohol was everywhere. Socializing means drinking alchohol. Having a good time means drinking lots of liquor. Amazing variety of wine, beer, whiskey, rum, vodka, tequila in the stores where one would almost get giddy drunk just browsing through the displays. Favourites- Sam Adams, Guinness, Jim Beam, all varieties of tequila. Put on lots of weight and developed a curious dependency on the divine spirit. Gradually returning to normal and drying out.

5. Sterile and Fertile - These two words kept popping up in my head when i roamed around america. Sometimes it seemed so cut and dried. So antiseptic and so squeaky clean. Sterile means

Not producing or incapable of producing offspring. Not producing or incapable of producing seed, fruit spores, or other reproductive structures. Used of plants or their parts. Producing little or no vegetation; unfruitful: sterile land.
Free from live bacteria or other microorganisms: a sterile operating area; sterile instruments. Lacking imagination, creativity, or vitality. Lacking the power to function; not productive or effective; fruitless: a sterile discussion.

It did seem like the last generation. There didnt seem to be anything new springing up, any new directions, new movements, fresh growths. America seemed stuck in the mould of itself. To grow is to change. To change one must shed some part of the old. Thats where I felt the society was a bit sterile, since to shed some part of the old now might get called Un-American. There was a bit too much predictability in the experiences one had there.

The land was fertile though. Very fertile. Lush turgid rivers, fat green trees, huge overfed squirrels and enormous quantities of food. The human layer which has been laid over the earth layer seemed incongruous, a sterile icing on a rich nutty cake. I kept hoping to find something organic, something that grew out of the earth and grew according to the constraints of nature. Instead of that, one could feel the heavy machinery and the imposing human will that had leveled mountains, flattened hills and build huge boxes of concretes called malls everywhere.

6. Smile - I never saw so many smiles in a day as I did in America. I felt happy thinking that the sight of me was making people light up with a big smile, but later I came to realise that its the default facial expression. Everyone had great white teeth, perfect dental work and the ability to keep smiling for longer than I would have thought physically possible.

7. Color - Black and White and the shades in between - For the first time I was living somewhere where most of the people didnt look like me, not even in the shades of their skin colors. I ended up sharing a house with a pale gentle commercial artist and a stocky grinning tanned engineer. It was nice feeling to see so much variety around. African origins, Asian origins, European origins, Middle eastern origins and the various other types were all mixed up in the malls and in the streets. DC was pretty nicely mixed up and I missed that when I travelled to Boston. Somehow there was less variety there. I saw a west african pub which was filled with the sound of reggae and shook with energy while besides it was a cafe pub with classic rock playing and white folks sitting around conversing. Parallel worlds which met and separated and met and separated again.

8. Sex

die tv

2007-02-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

TV is unique in the EEG activity it summons in the human brain, and unique as well in that it drastically reduces the metabolic rate of the human organism. When you sleep, you use more energy than when you watch TV. When you stare at a painting or read a book or knit or fart in bed, you use more energy. EEG activity during television-watching is marked by alpha waves, those dreamy, spacey waves that also exist between sleeping and waking--a passive state in which sustained intense critical thought is pretty much impossible. Alpha waves are also associated with coma.

the above was from a nice article i read. Read it here.

-- Disclaimer - I never owned a TV except for once in 2004 when i bought one as a package deal from a guy leaving town. After a few months, I realised my mistake and promptly gave it away to a pal who got married.

indian team for the world cup?

2007-01-31T00:43:00.000-05:00

I feel the following pick themselves.
The 11 member team would be -

uthappa
ganguly
dravid
tendulkar
dhoni
agarkar
kumble
2 out of - yuvraj / kartik / sehwag / mongia
2 out of - sreesanth/powar/munaf / Pathan / zaheer

All these names would be in the final 15 member squad.

I would go with

Uthappa
Ganguly
Dravid
Tendulkar
Yuvraj
Sehwag
Dhoni
Pathan
Agarkar
Kumble
Zaheer

new post #2 of the new year.

2007-01-19T04:33:00.000-05:00

2006 was not such a bad year after all. It was also a very interesting year. It marked the peak of the neo-conservative, american imperialist ideology and the latter part of the year saw the climbdown from the lofty peaks of righteous rhetoric.
As Nostradamus predicted, it was a man in a blue turban who rose in the middle east and threw down the newest challenge to the rather confused american war machine. In fact there were many men, and lots of differently coloured turbans which flickered on and off CNN throughout the year. Muqtada Al Sadr managed to become an increasingly important figure, while Nasrullah came from behind to capture the hearts and minds of a fractured middle east like no one had done before.

Sometimes the west forgets that the east is not different. Just like the pioneers in the west preferred to die in glory than live in slavery, so does the Arab. Nasrullah and hezbollah gave some pride back to the Arab world, and the arab world was ready to forgive the destruction of beirut and the loss of homes and infrastructure, just to be able to see someone at least stand up to the war machine. With the kidnapping of a few israeli soldiers, the destruction of an Israeli ship and the grim dogfight to the end with patched together katyusha rockets, Hezbollah at least managed to keep the hope alive in the hearts of ordinary arabs and served as an inspiration for others struggling to assert their independence.

In personal terms it was an interesting year too. I roamed around the country a bit and also started to throw my weight around work and home. After years of living in silence, exile and cunning, the combined effect of a months vacation and two months regular swimming made me sit up and demand more. So off I went to the US of A to see for myself what god and mammon hath wrought. The three months I spent there were very interesting. I didnt see much except the north eastern corner, but what I saw was fascinating. I still havent been able to figure out how to write what I felt and observed about the land of the native american, and maybe I will attempt something in the next post. I saw the summer and fall in the area between washington DC to Boston. I saw halloween weekend in manhattan and drove to the canada border to see the niagara fall. It was a lot of fun, but I couldnt wait to get back home :)

a new year..a new post...a new beginning or a new direction

2007-01-13T04:39:00.000-05:00

hi there.... hope you read this..because this is written for you. Hope you are having a great start to the new year and hope everythings going fine. I never thought when I started to write this blog a year ago that I would actually have any readers. I put links to it everywhere, in my emails, on my IM status messages and on my profiles in orkut, linkedin, ryze etc etc. Some time ago I started to monitor my site traffic statistics and found that there were actually a lot of people who landed up here while searching for the hundreds of little things that google is so useful for. There also were some regular readers who even came back to read this blog when there were no new posts. I would have stopped writing and lost interest soon enough if it was not for your constant encouragement... thank you!!!!!!

Now that I finally kicked the holiday rust off my typing fingers, I wonder what I should post about. So many things have been happening in this world. Technology has hooked us in its electric embrace and we are all connected, but now we come to the next question.....what do we do after we connect?

The last year was quite eventful. I had just moved into a new house, was about to complete a year in a job ( a first ) and was just starting out this blog. Looking back at the posts I find that the original purpose of the blog, that of a diary for myself got left behind somewhere and it ended up being more of a scrapbook of odds and ends which somehow got stuck in my head. I found I wasnt too comfortable writing personal entries like - I bought a new toothbrush and X didnt like it. She told me to get an electric one, but I went and bought a shaver instead.

Also I found that I read more and discovered more about the internet since I started blogging. Its so easy to research something on the internet and you can do your writing, communicating and research on the same machine, so really theres no excuse for not getting your facts right. Just a quick google search, a peek through wikipedia, some copying and pasting and there you are , with all the information at your fingertips.

The last year also saw me return to the pattern of my yearly vacation. I used to take a months vacation every year ( usually after quitting my job ), but had stopped doing so for the last couple of years. This year I did it in style, taking advantage of the low cost airlines launched in India, to spend three weeks roaming around south and east India. From the ridge of Bangalore to the coast of Pondycherry, to the delta of Kolkata to the valley of Guwahati to the hills of Shillong, it was a lovely mad swing with just a backpack and it was great fun.

This was also the first year after quite some time that I found a convenient and big enough swimming pool in the neighbourhood and I spend the summer happily splashing away. It helped clear the head, tone the body and get rid of the toxins and cut down on smoking. The lungs opened up, the complexion cleared, energy returned and life was fun again.

happy new year

2007-01-01T08:06:00.001-05:00

happy new year everyone.......have fun :)

Cricket: an indian player dishes it back to the s. africans

2006-12-18T16:34:00.001-05:00


Cricket: This is Sreesanth, of India, responding to Andre (the Giant) Nel of South Africa by scoring a six and..... (more)

i i t

2006-12-15T21:51:00.000-05:00

i i t. these three letters carry so much weight in india. entire industries have been built around these three letters. IIT, or the Indian Institute of Technology, is an engineering college setup to produce engineers. there are 5-6 of them currently in India, oases of academia among the chaotic bustle of India. Outside their gates young slumdwelling 9 yr olds wash plates in cold water early in the morning in winter preparatory to serving food to the IIT'ians red-eyed and famished from either studying or doing something else all night. Inside the IIT campus, acres of green land with buildings dotted all around give the lie to the belief that India is an overcrowded place.

Most IIT'ians end up outside india within a few years of graduating with a b.tech degree and go on to build stellar careers. 300,000 17 - 18 yr olds sit in an exam called the IITJEE ( Joint Entrance Exam ) which tests their ability in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics and ends up admitting only 4000 of them to its hallowed portals.

As wikipedia.org puts it in its inimitably droll style, "In order of establishment, the seven IITs are located at Kharagpur, Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati, and Roorkee. Some IITs were established with financial assistance and technical expertise from UNESCO, Germany, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Each IIT is an autonomous university, linked to the others through a common IIT Council, which oversees their administration. They have a common admission process for undergraduate admissions, using the Joint Entrance Examination (popularly known as IIT-JEE) to select around 4,000 undergraduate candidates a year. Graduate Admissions are done on the basis of the GATE. About 15,500 undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students study in the seven IITs, in addition to research scholars."

I became an ex-IITian after leaving college. Some years after I left college, the alma mater finally got seduced and accepted to join the ranks of the IIT and change its maiden name to IIT Roorkee. The wiki again describes roorkee as -

"IIT Roorkee, originally known as the University of Roorkee, was established in 1847 as the first engineering college of the British Empire.[10] Located in Uttaranchal, the college was renamed The Thomason College of Civil Engineering in 1854 and was granted IIT status in 2001. The institute offers undergraduate degree courses in 10 disciplines of engineering and architecture, and postgraduate degrees in 55 disciplines. It has 375 faculty members. The campus is about 1.45 km² (360 acres) in size and has eight hostels."

Over 25000 IITians have settled in the USA and many more join their ranks every year. The fees for a 6 month semester when I was there was about a 100 dollars. The rest was subsidised by the state, which led to jokes about India subsidising America's technological development, since in those days about 70% of graduates headed straight to the good old melting pot.

Many IIT alumni have become entrepreneurs, including N.R. Narayana Murthy (co-founder and chairman of Infosys), Vinod Khosla (co-founder, Sun Microsystems), and Suhas S. Patil (founder and Chairman Emeritus Cirrus Logic Inc.) Other alumni have achieved leading positions in corporations, such as Rajat Gupta (former Managing Director, McKinsey), Arun Sarin (CEO, Vodafone), Victor Menezes (Senior Vice Chairman, Citigroup), and Kanwal Rekhi (CTO, Novell).

One of the most famous IITians is Asok.

Recently the alumni have started to get together and try and leverage their collective strength. There have been several initiatives which aim at creating networking opportunities, help the institutes modernise and expand and to make a difference to society and community.

These efforts are still in the early stages and not really upto the level one would expect when the cream of india's technical talent comes together and creates something. Today, India and even the world, is crying out for genuine solutions to genuine problems. There is a need for someone to come forward with a reputation for incorruptibility, credibility, acumen and experience to show the way forward in the new millenium. The IIT's pass the test in all parameters. The selection procedure is still considered free from nepotism, corruption and bias. Their credibility is still intact, their acumen and experience acknowledged increasingly around the world.

Current and ex students together make up at least a 100 thousand strong team and they have money aplenty. So we have manpower, money and also we have infrastructure and a lot of bright minds with experience and innocent idealism teeming with ideas and a desire to do something for society. If the IITian organization can seize the day and lead rather than follow, the results could be magical.

We all know the familiar problems, the media is controlled by a few moghuls, the political class is venal, criminal and incompetent at times, society is divided by race, color, status, locatoin, language, caste and creed, the poor do not have access to the tools of learning, capital and community to better their life, the rich are increasingly divorced from reality and forced to lead lives of shallow desperation, while the middle class is caught between a rock and a hard place with costs of education and healthcare rising, social security decreasing and jobs not really a sinecure anymore.

What could the IITians do?

Well they could start a bunch of not for profit organisations which use the manpower of thousands of students, the capital of thousands of successful technocrats and the experience of the old hands married with the academic rigour of the faculty.

What kind of organisations?

well....let a thousand flowers bloom.

maybe a newspaper...there were lots of literary types around last time i looked around.

maybe a television and radio channel...maybe call it "technically speaking"

maybe a product company for the rural market?

maybe a software company for the domestic sector?

maybe a housing company, making small affordable slumhouses for the urban poor?

maybe ...maybe ...maybe...

yeah..i know....dream on.....

still its nice to know that it could happen ....u never know...

warnings

2006-12-14T16:19:00.000-05:00

WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is a major factor in dancing like a retard.

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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them.

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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to think you can sing.

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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to believe that ex-lovers are really dying for you to telephone them at four in the morning.

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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you can logically converse with members of the opposite sex without spitting.

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***WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may create the illusion that you are tougher, smarter, faster and better looking than most people.

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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to think people are laughing WITH you.

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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause pregnancy.

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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to believe you are invisible.

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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause a disturbance in the time-space continuum, leaving you unable to account for large chunks of time.

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***WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you have mystical Kung Fu powers, resulting in you getting your ass kicked.

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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to roll over in the morning and see something really scary.

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WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is the leading cause of inexplicable rug burns on the forehead, knees and lower back.

WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you are whispering when you are not.

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WARNING: The crumsumpten of alchlohol may Mack you tink you kan tpye reel gud!

fact of the day

2006-12-06T18:48:00.000-05:00

In the USA,

58 percent of all convicted drug felony cases involve African-American men-even though Black men are only 6 percent of the national population and 72 percent of all illegal drug users are white. 12 percent of Black men aged 25 to 29 years old are imprisoned compared to 3 percent of Latinos and 1 percent of white men. In 2002, there were 603,000 Black men in college compared to 791,600 Black men in prison. Black women are two and a half times more likely than Latinas and four and a half times more likely than white women to be imprisoned. In total, 49 percent of the U.S.'s two million prisoners-in prison or in jail-are African American. This is a shocking statistic considering that Blacks are less than 13 percent of the entire United States population.

the male child

2006-12-06T17:03:00.000-05:00

great post about sons and the joys they bring at momma's blog. check it out.

some samples

And you also find out interesting things when you have sons, like

1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.

2.) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.

3.) A 3-year old Boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and
a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20x20 ft. room.

5.) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a
few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.

3rd December 1984

2006-12-03T07:37:00.000-05:00

22 years later, we have forgotten something, which we never really wanted to remember. We have pushed it into one corner of our memories, and try not to stir up the ghost of 3rd december 1984 and face the disconcerting reality it represents. read it and weep

Where : - Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, ( literally meaning central province ) in India.
When :- 3rd December 1984
What :- 40 tonnes of MIC, methyl iso cyanide, a heavier than air toxic gas overheated and spilled out of its tanks in the middle of bustling heavily populated city in the morning hours, killing many while they slept, killing many as they ran to escape, killing many who were in trains passing through, still killing through toxic pollution and disease after all these years.

How many: - 20,000 deaths as a conservative estimate. 3000 killed initially...and the toll is still rising.

Who was responsible: - Union Carbide owned this company. It did not put adequate safety or warning procedures in place. Now owned by the Dow Chemical Company. The government did not do its part in making sure they checked the plant and the processes regularly.

Redress :- Average compensation paid to the families of the dead - $2200

Insurance coverage of the company - $10 Billion

Damages paid - $470 million.

What the company says : - A single employee deliberately pumped in water to the gas tanks causing the overflow and escape of gas. There was no fault of the company. This employee has never been named or any charges pressed against him.

What went wrong : - 1. Untested unproven technology was used. 2. No disaster management plan was ever made. 3. Warnings by scientists in Union Carbide were ignored. 4. Safety checks were infrequent. 5. Slip-blind plates that would have prevented water from pipes being cleaned from leaking into the MIC tanks via faulty valves were not installed. Their installation had been omitted from the cleaning checklist. 6. The MIC tank refrigeration unit was disabled to save money. 7.The gas scrubber was placed on standby. 8. Though the audible external alarm was activated to warn the residents of Bhopal, it was quickly silenced to avoid causing panic among the residents. Thus, many continued to sleep, unaware of the unfolding drama, and those that had woken assumed any problem had been sorted out. 9.The flare tower used to burn off gases before they are allowed to escape into the air was inoperational pending repairs. 10. The water curtain that may have reduced the concentration of the gas was only set to ~13 m and did not reach the gas.

why its tough to live anywhere else but india

2006-12-03T07:24:00.000-05:00

any why its so damn maddening to live here. :)

bet u didnt know this trick

2006-11-30T17:44:00.000-05:00

The most recent World Bank estimates for India are based on household surveys carried out in 1999-2000. It was found that almost 80% of purported superpower India's population was surviving on less than $2.15 a day (in PPP terms). That is, about 800 million people were living on $0.40 a day or less. Nearly 35% (350 million) were found to be living on $0.20 a day or less. Even if the proportion of poor people has fallen somewhat during the past 5-6 years, the absolute numbers would not look too different today.

To make purchasing power across countries comparable, economists developed what is known as the PPP (purchasing power parity) index. Taking into account the lower cost of living in impoverished countries, a conversion factor is now applied to market exchange rates to calculate what is minimally necessary to survive there.

Using widely quoted World Bank numbers on GDP, this conversion factor for a country like India (2005) can be computed to be approximately 5.3. This means that $1.08 a day in India should effectively imply a purchasing power of about 20 cents a day to an American--or indeed anyone--unacquainted with the nuances of PPP calculations. However, given how the numbers are quoted everywhere, the dominant impression that is conveyed is that the poor are living on less than $1 or $2 a day when, in fact, it would be enormously more accurate, as far as everyday English is concerned, to say that the poor are living on less than $0.20 or $0.40 a day.

read more

want an english speaking ministerial horse?

2006-11-20T02:32:00.000-05:00

The Hindu reports - Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's prized possession-- a horse which responds only to English commands-- finally found a new master today.

'Pawan', who was on display for the last three days at one of Asia's biggest cattle fairs in Bihar's Sonepur, was sold for Rs 1.1 lakh to a farmer, Baleshwar Rai, who lives in Raghopur Assembly constituency of Prasad's wife Rabri Devi.

The horse had a price tag of Rs 1.51 lakh. "Since Rai belongs to Rabri Devi's constituency, it is expected that he will look after the horse carefully and that is the reason the horse was sold at a lower price to him," Prasad's Private Secretary Bhola Yadav told PTI.

Supporters of the JD (U) MLA from Mokama, Anant Singh, offered a higher price for Pawan, but Rai refused to part with the horse, he said.

Pawan, his trainer claims, "can race against a Bolero on a smooth road" but it can only follow commands in English, which put off most bidders at the auction.

Also there were no takers for Prasad's pet as it arrived at a time when most horse trades had struck deals and left the place.

apology letter

2006-11-20T02:27:00.000-05:00

A School Master from a remote rural area in Bihar was
transferred to a new School in Mumbai.

He reported for duty two days after the actual
date of joining.

Consequently he was asked for an explanation in
writing...

____________ _________ _________

Deer sur,

If small small mistakes getting inside my letter, I
big you pardon, ass I am not a good englis speaker.

This is my fist vijit to Bombai. Stickly speaking, I
wanted to joint your school more fastly,

but for the following region, too much time
lost in getting slipper reservation in three-tyre
compartment.

I tolded

I has head ache problem due to migration. Still the
clerk rejected to give ticket to I and my sun.

I putted a complain on station masterji.

He said I to go to the lady clerk.

At first she also rejected. I then pressed for long
time and finally with great difficulty

she gave a birth to my sun.

Anyway I thanked the station master also

because he was phully responsible for getting birth
of my sun.

Ass a hole it was a bhery diphicult experiment in my
hole life.

I hope u will look into explain my hole story after,
and late me joint first.

I am now ending this fastly. I am a waiter for
your responsement.

May God blast you!"

Yours awfully,

RAMKHILAWAN YADAV

an outsiders view

2006-11-09T05:49:00.000-05:00

My first passage to India - boom times trigger memories of dotbombs by ZDNet's Tom Foremski -- [This is an account of my first trip to India, traveling as a guest of Tibco Software, (an SVW sponsor). Vivek Ranadive, the CEO of Tibco is launching his business IT strategy book "The Power to Predict" in India, and he invited me to come along as he meets with politicians and some of India's top [...]

moon dust in the desert

2006-11-08T05:35:00.000-05:00

Some billed it as the indian woodstock, some as the next goa, and some as another cynical ploy to lure tourists. The villagers viewed it differently and the police always eager to investigate white girls dancing got into the act too.. A friend who went there says it was mindbogglingly awesome till they had to cut and run at 4:30 am.

The venerable Times newspaper in UK has this to say -

The days when India turned a blind eye to drug abuse by Western backpackers may be over It was billed as the biggest music festival of its kind in India — a four-day “psychedelic trance” party in the middle of the desert in Rajasthan.
But the inaugural Moondust Festival has been shut down on its second day in the latest sign of a backlash against the New Age culture that has attracted Westerners to India since the 1960s.

The move comes after a ban on all-night beach parties in the southern Indian state of Goa. Police broke up the Moondust Festival at about 3am on Monday after local villagers complained that the 3,000 guests were drinking alcohol, taking drugs and indulging in “indecent behaviour”.

read more

also other stories about this can be viewed here

been a long time

2006-11-05T16:09:00.000-05:00

been a long time since i up and wrote...its been a rather busy time at work...lots of stuff to wrap up...and have to see as much of americana as i can before its time to head back home....hope to get a little unbusy soon and then sit back and ponder over the last 3 months and pour out my impressions of the land of the car.

news from home

2006-10-24T12:58:00.000-04:00

Now I know what I am missing here in America... the Indian Express reports on a small incident that happened in Gurgaon while i was away - read the full story here.

Dr. Amit Diwan, a radiologist at a Gurgaon hospital, was parking his car at his Sector 10-A house when a speeding Tata Safari, bearing a Faridabad number, scraped it, police and eyewitnesses said. As Diwan objected, the driver of the Tata Safari reversed it and hit him. “The car then tried to speed away, but my son caught hold of the fender and was dragged for over 150 metres. The vehicle also hit a rickshaw and injured two other persons,” said Amit's father BR Diwan. When one its tyres burst, the occupants abandoned the vehicle.

Peek of the day

2006-10-23T23:56:00.000-04:00

courtesy - 9961 blog

batli more

2006-10-23T23:38:00.000-04:00

been busy drinking...was my birthday..then diwali, the festival of lights and then just happened to stop by an irish pub at midnight on sunday, when better sense should have prevailed. Been playing catch up ever since. Suffice to say that I roamed the area from Boston or Bastun to Batlimore or Bawlmer during these three days, and my chariots were winged, rubbertyred, steelwheeled and laced. I ate pizza and drank beer, ate a full indian wedding meal and drank whiskey, met a new born baby and drank whiskey, slept on the floor of an apartment without any furniture whatsoever and drank whiskey, played tennis, drank beer in the airport and in the irish pub and still had enough time left over to sing devotional hymns and the latest chartbusting hindi songs.... one wonders where all that time comes from. All this in one weekend and there was lots of time left over. Even got through 400 pages of a book called 1491 which is awesome and I shall be reviewing here shortly, if I can digest it. Right now its gotten inside my head and I suddenly feel like an expert in pre-columbus history of the Americas, but lets see what happens once i finish reading it.

Found a nice description of Baltimore, where i just spent 3 idyllic months wallowing in americana. This was in Salon.com, heres an excerpt -

To understand Baltimore, it's helpful to get a grip on its geography. Baltimore is one of those odd American cities that lies in no county; instead, it dangles in the water, surrounded by a ragged blob of land. It has been said that Baltimore County looks like a monkey wrench hanging from the Mason-Dixon Line, which makes Baltimore City the bolt -- one that has been tightened a hair too much. Incapable of expanding, the city has been losing population and political clout since the 1960s, when white residents began to flee for the suburbs. Fittingly, all quintessentially Baltimore stories have a "Wizard of Oz" quality: Characters dream of escaping to someplace new, only to yearn for home. Or, as we say in Bawlmer: Hooooooohme.

read the full article here, after watching the mandatory advert :)

8 years ago

2006-10-20T13:15:00.000-04:00

For those despairing of India's form and not fancying their chances in the current tournament, remember 1998. Also for those who say Sachin never wins us matches...read the below, courtesy - Scott Heinrich - Foxsports

Staged as the Wills International Cup, every match of the tournament was played in Dhaka - a third-choice venue behind Disney World in Florida and Sharjah.

The knockout format meant that the four winners of the qualifying finals progressed to the semi-finals, with no second chance for the losers. Australia was drawn to play India on October 28, a match which saw Mohammad Azharuddin become the first player to feature in 300 one-day internationals.

Australia was coming off a big Test series win in Pakistan - just 48 hours previously it had played out a draw in Karachi - but fatigue was not really the problem. The problem was Sachin Tendulkar.

After winning the toss and quickly reducing India to 2-8, Australia's pace-heavy attack proved cannon fodder to Tendulkar's class on the low, slow pitch of the Bangabandhu National Stadium.

Opener Tendulkar scythed 13 boundaries and three sixes in a majestic 141, scored off 128 balls and ended only by a run-out. Michael Kasprowicz took three wickets but conceded 71 runs off nine overs, while South Australian Brad Young's eight wicketless overs leaked 64 runs. By innings' end, India had racked up a formidable score of 8-307.

Australia's run-chase started well enough, with the top five all getting decent starts and Mark Waugh clubbing 74 off 79 balls at the top of the order.

But it was to be Tendulkar's day, the little master removing Steve Waugh for 7 and running through the tail to return 4-38 as Australia were dismissed 45 runs short of victory.

happy birthday

2006-10-20T13:04:00.000-04:00

to me :)

election time in USA

2006-10-17T00:50:00.000-04:00

This was an unusual statistic that struck me when i was surfing through the election news. The neighbourhood is awash with color printed campaign boards and it does give a rather pretty and festive look to the area. I wondered how the american system compared to ours, with its ballot box stuffing, booth capturing, multliple voting, shots fired into the sky and countless other uniquely indian expressions of universal franchise. The below statistic should be troubling for all americans, because this is basically reflecting a sense of alienation and distrust of the system.

Notably, African American voters express much more skepticism their votes will be accurately counted than they did in the fall of 2004. Just 30% say they are very confident their votes will be accurately counted, down from 47% two years ago. The percentage of black voters who express little or no confidence in vote-counting procedures has approximately doubled from 15% to 29%. More than three times as many blacks as whites now say they have little or no confidence their vote will be accurately tallied (29% vs. 8%).

An unrelated note- Andy Tanenbaum, who may be familiar to geeks and computer buffs as the guy who wrote all those textbooks, runs a site called electoral-vote.com which demystifies all the various trends and polls and makes simple graphical presentations on how the elections are going.

german prank - sponsored by adidas ?

2006-10-16T23:50:00.000-04:00

The short and long of it is this... Two Germans created soccer balls filled with cement, labeled them "can you kick it?" and chained them to posts all over the city. Supposedly they caused a lot of physical harm because a ton of Germans tried kicking the balls... The german police didn't think it was funny, and probably had their terrorist unit on the case. They hunted down the two... based on serious "leads"... found their "workshop" where they made the cement balls.

august in october

2006-10-16T22:11:00.000-04:00

Me friends swati and ammy been blessed with a baby boy this friday in boston. They are calling the baby agastya, as he is currently too feeble and powerless to protest. This is inspired by the novel english august by upamanyu chaterji.

Wonder if they call the kid ogu for short and if he grows up to embody some of the charecteristics of the original character. Ammy fell into the error which he had criticized in his blog, but I guess being a parent does that to you. I am anyway kinda thrilled as I look upon myself as some sort of godfather and look forward to initiating the kid into all sorts of bad habits :). Oh and for an explanation why this post has the links to roorkee and auroville...well its a long story.

quote of the day :)

2006-10-16T14:22:00.000-04:00

"A person with a social conscience can run an enterprise with as much dedication and drive as a greedy person - he is just running it to achieve social goals not to fill his pockets," he said.

"And if you put the greedy person against the socially committed person in competition, the greedy guy will fall because he has to make more money to make a profit, where the other guy just has to cover costs."

So what was his ideal world?

"There will always be some poor because everyone has ups and downs, but everyone will be keen to help because poverty will be a novelty."

- Interview with Mohd. Yunus - Grameen bank.
courtesy - the guardian. www.guardian.co.uk