My Alter-ego.......

Sudha Murthy

2012-02-08T21:28:00.000+05:30

I read two novels of Sudha Murthy, Dollar Bahu and Mahaswetha, in the last few weeks. Its a quick and breezy read dealing about the current social issues with women as a protagonist. Mahaswetha is a 'little' better read than Dollar Bahu. The writer has all the right intentions of writing a good book, but just the good intentions doesn't make a good book, the novels are too basic, predictable and preachy.

Sudha Murthy is a prolific fiction author and she has published several books that espouse her philosophical views on charity. Some of her more better-known works include:

How I Taught My Grandmother To Read & Other Stories
Wise & Otherwise: A Salute to Life
The Bird with Golden Wings
Gently Falls the Bakula
Old Man And His God
Magic Drum & other Favourite Stories
Fasal Cut
A Wedding in Russia
Sweet Hospitality

Sounds Of Silence

2012-02-06T23:35:00.004+05:30

check out this small video, It’s a typical boy-meets-girl story – except the girl is deaf. The short film Sounds Of Silence is a wonderful love story about an unusual relationship, without a single word uttered, I bet most of the married men would be wishing even their marriage went through the motions without a word uttered ... it would be absolute bliss ... and men wouldn't have slipped to woods to attend Nirvana.

I just have a another wish, neither Karan Johar nor Sanjay Leela Bhansali get their hands on this small clipping, else it will end up as a three hour bollywood love saga ...

okay here is the link http://www.youtube.com/v/Bo7fAjfp098

Gokarna

2012-02-01T23:36:00.002+05:30

There are two kinds of visitors to Gokarna, a small coastal town in Karnataka. One group comes hoping to discover its temples and its ancient dwellings, and look for the sea for cleansing their souls. The other type of visitors comprises those who worship the sun, sand and beer and anything that comes with these ... Whichever group you belong to, you’ll certainly find this ancient town’s coastal beauty a blessing and a close rival to distant Goa.

Legend says that when Shiva returned after prolonged meditation, Mother Earth took the form of a cow and Shiva emerged through her ear at Gokarna. That is how the kshetra derives its name as Gokarna (cow’s ear).

If picture is worth thousand words, a collage would speak for itself ...

2012-01-23T22:22:00.000+05:30

~~forgotten less known beauties pieces~~ ... okay yesteryear lesser known Bollywood beauties from 90's. Few were the toast of Hindi cinema, are long forgotten now and lead secluded lives ... and once they were worshiped, so fame is fickle. Don't brood over the picture and be caught napping, u'r grand dad might have also adored them ... did U dream of them in u'r hey days and can U identify them ???

over heard in Oz

2012-01-16T23:55:00.001+05:30

... about Indians performance in Test matches.

It will help Dravid, if the title of 'The wall' instead of just being his nickname also gets between him and the wickets ....
The Aussies are racists, instead of fining Dhoni for slow over rate, they should be appreciative of the entire Indian team for winding up the match in just three days.
and the good news for the tired and tested trio, the Adelaide test will be India's last away from home over the next two years, so they would have 2 years for redemption and for the God to score his 100th century.
A collective failure, says chief selector Srikkanth, and that includes players, BCCI and himself.

Inglourious Basterds

2012-01-16T23:26:00.001+05:30

Watched 2 movies over the week-end, Amelie and Inglorious Basterds.

first lets talk about the second movie Inglorious Basterds from the year 2009, its goes with the theme the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi. Its written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, master of non linear stories. Its a WW2 movie based in German occupied France and the ultimate fantasy revenge story of Jews over the Nazi. Though Brad Pitt is a leading character , the real star of the SS Officer Landa played by Christoph Waltz. So catch up with the movie when time permits.

Einstein & Kerala

2012-01-03T21:54:00.002+05:30

In today's newspaper, The Hindu, amidst the political news and other cacophony two articles stood out, one was the traversing from Kanyakumari to Delhi by foot by few energetic youth to bring awareness of corruption among people. Check the link in the paper for further details.
http://expressbuzz.com/topic/an-honest-step-for-a-corruption-free-india/343529.html

and another on Einstein being offered post of Travancore varsity Vice-Chancellor in 1937 and if it was to be offered in the present times, I bet Left and Congress would have vehemently voted against it. http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/kerala/article2769514.ece

Now let me reason out, Einstein is a Jew, Israelites are Jews, they screw up Palestine when they get bored, all Muslim nation support Palestine symbolically because of religion, and Congress think they can lay their hand of minority vote bank by appeasing them and BJP would have supported Einstein because they 'oppose' everything thatz proposed by Congress, thatz Indian politics in short ...

TOI, morning aphrodisiac

2012-01-02T22:14:00.002+05:30

its been a month since I switched my morning fix, from TOI (Times of India) to The Hindu ... and I have not looked back. Though Hindu is bit bland and over prescriptive in news content but I can vouch for its supplements, they are a notch above the supplements of TOI.

TOI is soft porn in the form of newspaper, so unless U are looking for a cheap aphrodisiac as u'r morning fix, U can switch to any other news paper. One would do a bigger favor if he all together closed his mind to newspaper and news channels.

Across most of metro India all English newspaper would show a skew to TOI except for Chennai. The thambi's city has its own aphrodisiac in idly, sambhar and amma.

funny tweets

2012-01-01T22:41:00.003+05:30

2011

2011-12-31T16:16:00.000+05:30

few things year 2011 will be associated with,

India woke up to new concept called Civil Society and social activism. The urban educated middle class was the fountain head of this new awakening. Internet and media feed into this new frenzy. Anna Hazare was the new demi good ... I bet India would be a better democracy minus the power hungry politicians now we need to find how do we make them dispensable and remove them out of the equation.
had enough of SRK's R-One and Don2. Loads of bad big budget movies and few good already forgotten small movies.
if India laid their hand on the World cup after 23 years, they came with their tails between their leg after their 0-4 loss against English.
a song called Kolaveri di went viral breaking all language and cultural barriers, even a Sardarji was humming Kolaveri in Montreal.

It’s the end of the year and instead of trying to take stock of what has already happened, lets loom forward and plan for what next. so 2011 is over, lets move on with renewed vigour and zest for life. hmmmm yeah its a another year gone by in a flash ... few years down the line we will be wondering how the hell did we get to be 40+ and wondering when and how did it happen and also wondering 'why' ... so get going when u'r balls are still in the right place and its never been more important to look ahead and say, One LIFE, Live it.

The United Colors of Capgemini

2011-12-30T23:03:00.001+05:30

THIS IS YOUR LIFE

2011-12-30T22:51:00.000+05:30

Srinivas Ramanujam

2011-12-28T08:44:00.000+05:30

Einstein, Srinivas Ramanujam ... we talk and hear so much about these geniuses but know so little of their work. Recently India commemorated the celebrated Mathematician Srinivas Ramanujam birth anniversary on Dec 22nd and the year 2012 is declared as National Mathematical Year and Ramanujan's birthday as the National Mathematics Day every year.

The story of Mathematician genius Srinivas Ramanujam is a story of human triumph against all odds, just imagine survive on curd rice in cold wintry days in England, anyway jokes apart lets get to know a little more about the genius and his work and be proud and inspired.

The Hindu did a great job, as this news paper always do, by publishing an entire supplement on Ramanujam, here is the link and this article is very motivational and educative particularly for our young aspiring buds.

Here are the other to do list,

pick the biography 'The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan' by Robert Kanigel.
PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), in 1988, in one of its acclaimed documentary series, NOVA, telecast an hour-long episode called "The Man who loved numbers" on Srinivas Ramanujan. It is a wonderful documentary worth watching about the self taught Mathematician.
and last heard we will have a movie on Srinivas Ramanujam.
and from the popular culture, its about the anecdote involving the Mathematician and Hardy and the number 1729. Hardy arrived at Ramanujan's residence in a cab numbered 1729. Hardy commented that the number 1729 seemed to be uninteresting. Ramanujan is said to have stated on the spot that it was actually a very interesting number mathematically, being the smallest natural number representable in two different ways as a sum of two cubes:

DON 2 - Slick and Sick

2011-12-24T20:59:00.002+05:30

One can't make a good movie with exotic locales, good action scenes and with an ensemble of few actors, all the other actors of the movie are caricatures with specific role to play ... Priyanka Chopra to be love interest of our Don so few love scenes are inserted at random in the movie in fact one just before Don defuses the ticking bomb. Om Puri to render some senseless and dumb dialogues. Boman Irani to be a mean side kick and yeah Lara Dutta for an item song and coy looking Kunal Kapoor, a hacker with a good heart and German white girl friend and yeah he always has to wear the hat to prove he is an hacker. If the movie starts with Don intentions to rule the drug world in Europe then why the f*** bother to steal the Euro printing plates, wow wow with the European economy on decline, its better to steal Pakistan money printing press ... hehehe

In the recent past every movie I watch of SRK, I feel sorry about King Khan ... History will not be kind to the King Khan, people will have nothing to remember except for hand full of good movies of SRK, it would be a huge talent wasted dancing for numbers in marriage cermonies ... SRK U are getting desperate.

Six Easy Piece

2011-12-15T23:57:00.000+05:30

A poet once said, The whole universe is in a glass of wine. We will probably never know in what sense he meant that, for poets do not write to be understood. But it is true that if we look at a glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe....

These are the interesting lines from Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman, a book containing the six easiest chapters from Feynman’s landmark work, Lectures on Physics. The book is designed for the general, non-scientist reader, yup its Physics for dummies ... hehehe.

Nobel Laureate Feynman gave these lectures just once, to a group of Caltech undergraduates in 1961 and 1962 to popularize particle physics or was it Theoretical Physics, anyway I don't know the difference between the two ... but his earlier book 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard P. Feynman was an interesting read, so picked this book for a quick read.

Feynman was considered the rock star of contemporary Physics and one of the twentieth century’s greatest minds. He is Einstein of modern era and check the site for further reading, http://www.feynmanonline.com/

Khan Academy

2011-12-13T23:31:00.000+05:30

I guess its high time we brush up our basics on elementary maths and basic science before kids start growing up and start throwing up questions to quench their ever growing curiosity ... and few years down the line we will be learning differential equations to teach our kids ... check this site http://www.khanacademy.org/

Its an interesting library of over 2700 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history, they are on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace. The founder of the site, Salman Khan, a hedge fund analyst, began posting math tutorials on YouTube. Six years later, he has posted more than 2,000 tutorials, which are viewed nearly 100,000 times around the world each day.

So the only thing U might end up disliking about the site is the name of the founder 'Salman Khan', one Salman sheds his shirt and well almost everything and everytime ... and the other Salman makes shed our ignorance and well lets us learn almost anything for free.

Quick, free, and easy to understand ... so get going.

Ladies Vs Ricky Bah

2011-12-13T00:25:00.001+05:30

Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl is a con movie and the only one who gets conned after watching the movie is the viewer ... and I bet it never happened earlier, I quietly slipped into sleep only to be awakened by senseless songs and now the cliche ... the best part of the movie was its 'intermission' and I mean it and of course the saving grace, it was my first gold class experience in multiplexes and looking at those big double couches, don't think its just meant for watching movies .... For all its feminist charms, Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl deceives everybody including itself (I know it doesn't make any sense) and that's the only con in this film.

Srirangapatna

2011-12-06T21:40:00.001+05:30

Weekend visit to Srirangapatna, a small town located near the city of Mysore is of great religious, cultural and historic importance and yeah of personal importance as well. The entire town is enclosed by the river Kaveri to form a river island, while the main river Kaveri flows on the eastern side of the island, the Paschima Vaahini segment of the same river flows to its west and they meet at Sangam, one of the places of religious significance.

One will remember the town for two reasons, Ranganathaswamy temple which dominates the town and for the warrior Tippu Sultan, The Tiger of Mysore.

The magnificent 9th century temple of Sri Ranganthaswamy is dedicated to the Hindu God Ranganatha, a manifestation of Lord Vishnu. The vast temple has an impressive gopuram, high ceilings and fort like walls. Ranganatha is portrayed as reclining on the bed of Aadi Sesha and its a magnificent site.

Srirangapatna was the historic capital of Tippu Sultan known for his struggle against British rule. Several monuments relating to his rule like Dariya Daulat Palace, Tippu's Fort, Gumbaz, Juma Majid and Dungeon are sprinkled across the island town and are worth the visit.

Week end drive to Srirangapatna is worth every penny one spends ...

Bangalore Mayor

2011-11-30T23:40:00.001+05:30

Population of Bangalore city ?
1 lakh

distance between Bangalore and Mysore city
20 Kms

List popular sweets of Karnataka
Jelabi

Name any cricketer from Karnataka who played for India
Tendulkar

hmmmm not to be worried too much, these are the answers from first citizen of B'lore city in an interview on one of the radio channels, Mayor Sharadamma. She is the one managing our Bangalore City's budget of close to 10,000 crore for 2011-12 , but the question everybody wants to ask Mayor Sharadamma is not 'Where’s the money?' but 'why do U think Tendulkar is from Kalasipalya?' no doubt even Google can just guess when U search for 'Bangalore Mayor' ... Mayor Shardamma has just returned from New York and guess what she learnt from the junket? That the “Indian currency is not accepted in America” and that is why she could not buy anything there.

2011-11-29T22:18:00.001+05:30

Everything you always wanted to know about boobs but afraid to ask ... I bet I will loose some of the viewers with this post but at least I will educate few of the men ... hehehe

KBC - Double dip or 50/50

2011-11-27T22:55:00.001+05:30

It doesn’t matter if U are a TV buff or not, but U can’t getaway from KBC …. KBC in its nth form is back to small screen for prime timeviewing ... Now this post is not about KBC bashing, it’s about the new lifeline Double dipwhich replaced the earlier 50/50.

Just in case U don’t know what are they, here is the quickexplanation,

Formerlifelines

Fifty-Fifty (50/50): If the contestant uses this lifeline, the host will ask the computer to randomly remove and eliminate two of the "wrong" answers. This will leave one right answer and one wrong answer, resulting in a situation of eliminating 50% of the choices as well as having a 50% chance of getting the answer right if the contestant is in a situation of making a guess. In 2010, 50/50 was replaced by Double Dip.

Double Dip: This lifeline allows the contestant to make two guesses at a question.

So now thequestion is, what was the better lifeline for the participant, was it 50/50 orDouble dip, I have worked out the probability but not sure if I got it right,let me know u’r thoughts.

Hint – when I say, whatz better lifeline, we are talkingabout the probability of guessing the correct answer.

comedy movies

2011-11-22T23:13:00.001+05:30

In the evening when surfing channels, I ended up watching Munnabhai MBBS and I am not sure the number of times I have watched this movie without an iota of boredom ... so thought of listing the Top 5 wholesome comedy movies (just the Hindi and not including the regional ones, because if I do so Bollywood movies will not stand a chance) and I bet this one will be right on the top of the heap.

Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.
Chupke Chupke, the one directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and not the one funded by underworld :-)
Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin
Hera Pheri, the first installment and not the subsequent ones
Bheja Fry

weekend movies ...

2011-11-21T20:37:00.000+05:30

The Number 23, My best friend's wedding, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Sound of Music

The Story of My Environment - Purnachandra Tejaswi

2011-11-20T18:38:00.001+05:30

Keen to read Kannada books but with poor language skills (i meant reading skills), I thought the next best would be to pick up its English translation ...
.
I reading a book The Story of My Environment, a collection of short stories written by K P Purnachandra Tejasvi and translated to English by Dr K M Srinivasa Gowda. The short stories is related to ecology and Environment. The stories are narrated in a rather light-hearted manner and easy to read, the narration is humorous and excellent characterizations and it would make a memorable read on nature and the environment we are ripping apart.
.
Just in case, author Purnachandra Tejasvi is son of legendary "Rashtrakavi" Kuvempu.

2011-11-17T21:52:00.001+05:30

Sunny Leone and Big boss were high on twitter trends, I am not aware (and don't bother either) of Big Boss but Sunny Leone Yes ... and for new comers and pretenders, she is not related to Sunny Bhai, but yeah she is dhai kilo extra at the right places. So if U are going to search for her image on the net, just take care to set the option 'Safe Search Off' else U will find none of her images ... hehehe and I bet whatever she does in Big Boss, it can't be any more interesting than what we've already seen her do :-)

king of good times

2011-11-13T10:20:00.001+05:30

Richard Branson of India, our very own B'lore big boy Vijay Mallya is on the roll these days, though the roll is downhill ... If the fact of taking dig at one's misery is true, we will find plethora of Vijay Mallaya jokes on the net, media and every where including 'calendars'. Here are quite a few, my picks from the articles and few my own creation (U can spot them) ...

as the saying goes, the quickest way to become a millionaire is for a billionaire to invest in the airline sector.
Vijay Mallaya planning to sell his Kingfisher Calendar's to raise money to save his airline ... U buy one calendar U get one model free.
Scotch on the rocks works, but Kingfisher on the rocks doesn't ...
Since the downslide started for 'King of Goodtimes', the first to disappear from the 'balance' sheet is Deepika or is it between the sheets ... oops

The reason why popular sentiment is so against Mallya is because of the image that Mallya set himself against, brash and flamboyant ... one can't have the cake and eat it too.

Meet the Fockers

2011-11-12T19:18:00.001+05:30

watching the movie 'Meet the Fockers' was due for a very long time, so watched the comedy movie. If U given a miss to this movie, U can continue doing it and be happy as well ...and its not a bad movie as well :-)
Its about two disparate families trying to discover each other only to realize they are poles apart.

L I F E

2011-11-11T20:25:00.001+05:30

2011-11-10T22:57:00.001+05:30

If U thought U were a Geek, at least I thought I was one, check this article on Wired website. Just for kicks, the Wired Science team has gathered nine of Science favorite equations with the article title ...

9 Equations True Geeks Should (at Least Pretend to) Know

when I started reading the article, I thought I will know few of them and the most famous equation, even Naren knew it, E=mc**2 will be there right on the top.

but I was proven wrong on both counts ... hehehe so much for pretending to be a geek.

2011-11-09T20:26:00.002+05:30

Chitrahaar

2011-11-09T20:14:00.000+05:30

when I was lazily surfing channels today evening, I stumbled on the programme 'Chitrahaar' on our good old DD National channel. My memories jogged few years down the lane when it was a prime 30 minute programme running Hindi songs.

The key difference was the Hindi subtitles of the sings running across the screen and it looked like a good idea of learning the lyrics of the song and when I googled about the program 'Chitrahaar', it was all for different reasons.

From Wiki,

Lately, Chitrahaar has started using Same Language Subtitling (SLS), where Hindi subtitles of the song's lyrics scroll across the screen. The idea behind SLS is that people who are just learning to read would benefit by reading lyrics of the songs they are listening to and watching. It's an engaging way to promote literacy, especially in villages. This initiative of Doordarshan has been technically supported by Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.

Isn't it a kool idea, so watch Chitrahaar and improve language seems to be the message, so for beginners on the path to literacy (need not be just children) watching Chitrahaar has now become a tryst with literacy.

We Kare

2011-10-24T23:42:00.000+05:30

okay atleast we should care ...

Diwali

2011-10-24T00:23:00.001+05:30

We never short run of festivals, we celebrate it with all pomp and show and miss out the reason for celberations ... atleast thatz been the suitation with me, so lets sort it out. Lets know about the one coming up, Diwali.

Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, is the most popular of all the festivals from India. This year it is celebrated on Wednesday October 26 and is an official holiday in India, and got to know it holiday as well as in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mauritius, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, Malaysia, Singapore, and Fiji. So now U know where our ancestors took the boat and landed few hundred years ago. It celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance, although different legends exist in different parts of India.

The interesting part of the festival is its celebrated over five days, (from wiki)

The festival starts with Dhanteras on which most Indian business communities begin their financial year. This day is regarded as the birth anniversary of God Dhanvantari, the Physician of Gods, who came out during Samudra manthan, the churning of the great ocean by the gods and the demons.

The second day of the festival, Naraka Chaturdasi, marks the vanquishing of the demon Naraka by Lord Krishna. Amavasya, the third day of Deepawali, marks the worship of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth in her most benevolent mood, fulfilling the wishes of her devotees. Amavasya also tells the story of Lord Vishnu, who in his dwarf incarnation as Vamana vanquished the Bali, and banished him to Patala. In Karnataka, it is celebrated as Bali Padyami.

It is on the fourth day of Deepawali, Kartika Shudda Padyami, that Bali went to patala and took the reins of his new kingdom in there. The fifth day is referred to as Yama Dvitiya (also called Bhai Dooj), and on this day sisters invite their brothers to their homes.

Visual DNA

2011-10-20T19:00:00.000+05:30

from NY Times ... infact its from their marketing department to make personalized product reco's, so its little bit of fun when not taken too seriously. They say ... Self-discovery starts with an insightful quiz that understands who you are ... so here is my Visual DNA and here is the link, if U want to give it a try.

American Beauty

2011-10-15T14:48:00.004+05:30

Remember those posters that said, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life"? Well, that's true of every day but one - the day you die ... so watch this 1999 Academy award's best picture ... its a dark and twisted comedy about American middle class family, their value system, their mispaced aspirations and the darker side.

Rhododendron

2011-10-15T12:55:00.000+05:30

On our last visit to Fabindia store in Koramangala, wait a minute it was our first visit to the store, I picked a exotic looking organic juice. In fact these days, anything in the name of 'organic' sells and I guess i picked it up for its strange name 'Rhododendron' and of course 'organic'.

When the curiosity get better of me, googled for 'rhododendron' and here is a little bit of info ... Rhododendron is a high altitude woody flowering plant and the juice is extracted from blood red colored rhododendron flowers. These flowers grow in abundance in the upper regions of the mighty Himalayas and it is the national flower of Nepal and state flower of Uttrakhand, India. So the juice is not a fruit extract but a flower extract, thatz interesting ... okay at least for me ...

Rhododendron Juice is refreshing and has great medicinal value so next time when U spot a bottle of Rhododendron juice, pick one for u'r self.

who needs an iPod ???

2011-10-13T21:46:00.002+05:30

no doubt one can manage without an iPod ... swalpo adjust madi

Home coming - Kulla and K

2011-10-08T00:24:00.000+05:30

2011-10-06T21:10:00.002+05:30

The Deer Hunter

2011-10-06T14:18:00.002+05:30

Watched the movie, The Deer Hunter, in fact yet to run up to the credits. Unlike other Western movies its a three hour long and its excruciatingly violent Vietnam war saga. I guess I need to watch it again to make an opinion but here is the one that describes the movie closest to what I can think off ... the movie demolishes the moral and ideological cliches of an era, Vietnam era and it shoves the audience into hell and leaves it stranded without a map.

Its one of those numerous movies on Vietnam war, did U know there are at least 100 of them at the last count, If I can recall them and list of a few, here is the list. Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon and of course the most loved movie of Tam Hank's Forest Gump.

KBC & INC

2011-10-05T00:37:00.000+05:30

KBC in its nth form is back to small screen for prime time viewing ... and the host just loves the program because he is the only guy who walks with a crore everyday and the poor participants left gasping with crumbs. Now this post is not about KBC bashing, its about one of the question that popped on the screen.

Who founded the Central Hindu College ?
A little history about the College and its signifacnce, the college was later merged with the other new initiative in 1915 by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya to form Banaras Hindu University, BHU as we know it now. Now back to the question, Annie Besant is the answer, she was a prominent British women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.She also became involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress and among the key person who built the INC as a formidable force to counter the imperalist forces.

So I keep wondering its the same INC, the now defacto political party of India ripping the soul of the country. So if it was a British lady who laid the foundations of the party, would it be a Italian lady who will sing the swansong ?

insanity in slow motion

2011-09-27T22:19:00.001+05:30

Sometimes one has to just go through the motions and when its done, its not only tiring but stinks as well ... Singham was one such crap from Bollywood in the name of mass entertainer and Devgun not only acted but partially stripped as well ...

Singham is anachronistic, i doubt the word exists, meaning its misplaced in time. It takes audience back to 1980's, Hindi cinema's most pathetic decade in terms of movie standards. The movie is about an honest cop fighting the corrupt elements in the society and it's his fight against the system.

The movie has its funny bits, though the movie makers didn't intend to do so. I guess its the first scene of our hero, he walks from the temple pond, yeah in slow motion and if his waist clothing was any lower the movie would have been rated with adult certificate.

Singham, like other Salman new movies, will likely make a lot more money than any other small budget well crafted movie and when its all that counts is money audience need to get ready for more such shit.

did U know ???

2011-09-22T23:27:00.004+05:30

Did U know, there are 11 ways a batsman can get dismissed in Cricket, I have been watching cricket for the last 25 years, but had never given a thought about it.

Lets list them for u'r benefit, now that I am aware of it ...

Bowled, Stumped, Caught, LBW or hit wicket, the bowler gets credit and if the batsman is run out, handles the ball, hits the ball twice, or obstructs the field the bowler is not credited and these dismissals can occur even if the ball bowled is a no ball. The other two ways can be retired out and timed out.

Jnanpith, India’s Highest Literary Award

2011-09-22T21:52:00.001+05:30

A blogpost on Jnanpeeth award was long due, seven Kannada literary giants have been honoured with the highest literary award conferred in India and the list had a another addition. Kannada writer Chandrashekhara Kambara in recognition of his work to the Kannada language in general and to folk literature in particular was awarded Jnanpeeth.

Now enough of browbeating about language pride, If Chennai thambi's are proud of their superrr kings winning IPL in a row, we have 8 on the list ... hehehe now the biggest challenge is to pick their books and read them.

A Search In Secret India

2011-09-19T21:28:00.001+05:30

I had picked this book A Search In Secret India when we visited Sri Ramana Maharshi few months ago. Its an acclaimed book of Paul Brunton. Paul Brunton (1898-1981) was a British philosopher, mystic, jjournalist and traveler. He travelled India in the early 19th century to study and understand Oriental religions. He journeyed across the country in search of people of high spiritual attainment, Yogis, Mystics and Gurus and his aim was to seek path to enlightment.

I am half way through, but yet to find the book any interesting, it's just biographical and his personal account of travel across India, I keep wondering if some books are over rated, or have I missed the point. Anyway let me complete the book and make my opinion.

If Brunton can not be credited with introducing Yoga to the West, at least he holds a pre-eminent position in bringing to the West the best the Orient has to offer and it was more than just spices and curry ....

Manhattan

2011-09-15T23:44:00.001+05:30

Youth for Seva

2011-09-14T00:48:00.003+05:30

Last week as part of lets-do-something-to-society initiative, our team members from Capgemini, as non-medical volunteers, volunteered for Eye pre-screening camp. Eye pre-screening is the first step in the 3-step process to address vision difficulties among government school children in Bangalore.

As part of pre-screening, we visited the school and drew out a list of those children that require further, specialist attention and it typically would be 20% are short-listed at the end of the entire process. Once these lists are submitted to Sankara Eye Hospital, they shall send their team of optometrists to these schools to screen the short-listed children.

Together we screened around 200 students, covered close to 90% of school strength and shortlisted around 75 students in whom we observed some abnormality in eye vision and they would be consulted by a team of specialist for further treatment. It was fun interacting with these kid. One of our team member noticed that many kids had assumed that, by default they’ll have holiday after this whole exercise, but to their surprise and disappointment we had to send them back to their respective class rooms. It was a sense of joy to go out or our way to do a little to the less privileged kids.

The whole initative was organised by Youth for Seva org, http://youthforseva.org/. Please get in touch if U are interested in any voluntary activities.

2011-09-09T23:09:00.000+05:30

Ladakh Annual Festival is a window to life in Ladakh and about Ladakhis, its indeed a colorful one. This year the festival starts on Sept 1st and continues for a fortnight, its pitched it to promote Ladakh tourism. The festival begins with a spectacular procession of various cultural troupes and village contingents participating in their traditional attire. Hundreds of traditionally attired men and women participate and line the route of the procession, adding to the carnival atmosphere.

When the procession terminates at the Polo ground, the participants break into groups and present the best of the region's performing arts. Designed with an objective to revive and promote the richness and depth of Ladakh's centuries-old culture for worldwide appreciation and enjoyment, the Ladakh Festival offers a unique opportunity to witness many of Ladakh’s traditions and folk heritage in a fortnight.

Here is the collage of photos from Ladakh festival,

LEH

2011-09-09T22:56:00.003+05:30

Leh, the land of mountains, the land of passes, roof of the world, a quiet Buddhist corner in the war torn state of Jammu and Kashmir is a land of many paradoxes. Its a high altitude desert in the Himalayan mountains. Leh sits pretty at an altitude of 3524 metres (11,562 ft) in the Himalayas. Its the former capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh.

Its a town dominated by monasteries and Western travellers. This is a land of bare mountains and brown landscape, its breathtakingly different. Why Leh as a blog post ? We were there ...

We were there ...

2011-08-24T23:18:00.001+05:30

and the question that lingers, what would one more ordinary citizen do to the movement. It reminds me of a squirrel's story from Ramayana.

When the vanaras were busy constructing Ram sethu to Lanka, the work was going on with great speed and enthusiasm. The bridge was a hundred leagues long and ten wide. One-fifth was built the first day and whole construction was over in five days.

Sri Ram and Lakshman sat on the shore and watched the work. It is said there was a squirrel who wanted to help Lord Ram used to wet his fur, roll in the sand and then go and shake off the dust on the bridge, since that was the only effort he was capable of making. The vanaras made fun of him and told him to go off or he would be trampled by their feet. He was frightened and sad and went and nestled close to Ram, who took him on his lap and comforted him by passing his three fingers down his back. Ram calmed his fears and told him that his tiny efforts were as valuable to him as the gigantic achievement of the monkeys. The sand he had brought was as precious to him as the rocks of the vanaras. Thus the little squirrel also found a place in Ram's heart ... so is the moral of the story :-)

Every citizen however small is contribution, every blog posted, every tweet adds its own momentum, infact every thought ...

I'd rather 'be' Anna

2011-08-24T19:14:00.003+05:30

Initially they (the state) ignored him, they ridiculed him, then they intimated and fought with him and now they are pleading with him ... thatz the fight between between the State and the man with the people support.

The middle class of India all the while being indifferent to Indian politics got a new Hero to push their vision of India shining. The path of development through parliamentary elections not yielding required results, the way out would be being apolitical and pushing for effective reforms. We have had RTI (Right to Information Act) and now its Jan Lokpal bill and we will get to see few more on Electoral reforms, Judiciary reforms, administrative reforms ... so its these reforms the political class is fearing and resisting.

In the last few days, everybody had their say about the new movement ... if Arundathi Roy doesn't want to be 'Anna' as its undemocratic but she is with 'Moaists' who are Gandhi's but with guns. Jama Masjid Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari had reservations about Anna and his movement but never hesitated to voice his support for Taliban cause few years ago.

I guess, the apolitical movement by Civil society is just the beginning, if the state fails to get its act right ... we aren't very far from a revolution.

India aginst Corruption

2011-08-18T22:16:00.002+05:30

It was bound to happen sooner or later ... it was just a disparate million mutinies against the state, the biggest perpetrator of crime against its own people. Anna's and his fight is the "second war of Independence".

Anna Hazare might have given the cause a credible face, but the anti-corruption movement that is spreading wide across India does not depend on one man or his team. Its made up of hundreds of thousands of aspiring voices, who need a fair opportunity and life of dignity, are fed up with a system they believe is corrupt and driven by greed.

The current UPA government, which is widely perceived as the most corrupt in the history of independent India but led by a 'honest' Prime Minister. So much for electing a honest and clean politician is turning out to be scumbag. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government revealed its ugly, repressive face when instead of honestly dealing with the issues raised by successive corruption scandals, the government chose to cover up with a 'joke' pal bill. A corrupt and immoral government devoid of moral authority is ill equipped to deal rationally with legitimate public anger and aspirations.

The single biggest hindrance to India's growth is neither terrorism nor slower economic growth but the corruption and degrading moral values. The greater danger in 'our' apathy, indifferent behaviour and general pessimism. But the last few days has reinforced my thought that a change is possible however small and incremental when I see fellow citizens providing wholehearted support to Anna Hazare.

So tonight, I will again have my fix ...

2011-08-14T20:38:00.005+05:30

Only during my last visit, I realised we have our own 'Broadway' street in B'lore ... It is also one of the most ‘happening' areas of the city (not pun intended) and has an active nightlife, though not a nightlife we expect in terms of late night bars and cafe ... all cosmopolitan sense of the term, but an active nightlife nonetheless. The food stalls on the street offer various assortments of street food and it is at its best during the month of Ramzan.

So tonight, I will again have my fix. I keep wondering about the paradox, the place as we know it and the name tagged to it 'Shivaji' nagar.

Pudhupettai

2011-08-14T20:17:00.000+05:30

As one of the reviewer tagged, its about Soulful voilence. Despite some unkind reviews and its unaceptablity as a mainstream cinema, it scores on various counts - realisitic plot, good script and good performances by lead players and the supporting cast.

'Pudhupettai' tells the tale of of a local lad and his rise and rise to a gangster in the underbelly of Chennai. The protoganist ends up in a life of crime when his sheltered life is thrown into shambles. If its a gangster movie, one can pick sub plots inspired by 'Godfather', the godfather of all gangster movies. If U have penchant for hard hitting movies spilled with blood and gore, watch the movie. It can be counted among the good movies.

e n g l i s h

2011-08-12T22:49:00.002+05:30

The floodlights temporarily stopped functioning at Edgbaston on the third day of the match and this was the closest Indians came to save the match ... so it was elements at play.

With the near completion of the match the scoreline would read 3-0, this is the second instance English boys have humbled and humilated India and the last time was when they ruled the sub continent for 300 hundred years.

Delhi Belly

2011-08-02T22:29:00.001+05:30

'Have U watched Delhi Belly ?', 'No, not yet' I would say. This has been the conversation with quite a few Friends in the last few weeks, so few days ago I managed to catch up with the movie though not in the theatre.

The disclaimer about the movie had to be, you'll need to indulge the wackiness and absurdity, but there's something appealing about it and Amir Khan once again hits the bulls eye with the audiences. I bet its a coming of age bollywood comedy movie. One of the highlights of the film is its script peppered with swear words. Few of the acts are too surprising for a Bollywood movie, like the one where Imran gets busy under the sheets and his girl is moaning to glory.

Glad we have fresh minds with bold concepts making movies ... just hope their breed multiples. Karan stay with u'r coffee shows and don't venture behind the camera, we are tired of u'r sweet candy movies...

Namitha

2011-08-02T21:49:00.003+05:30

y'day at work, myself and a friend of mine were ~~secretively browsing~~ oging through the snaps of Namitha, the ~~great~~ very big South Indian actress but without a temple (not yet) in her name ... a team member dropped at our desk and said 'ahh ... boyz will remain boyz' and my friend had a cheeky response 'yeah thatz true, at the worst they grow up to be men and anything for Namitha'.

One Nation

2011-07-29T23:46:00.011+05:30

http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/analysis_how-to-wipe-out-islamic-terror_1566203-all

true blue Kannadiga ...

2011-07-26T23:46:00.001+05:30

2011-07-19T00:54:00.000+05:30

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

2011-07-16T13:42:00.002+05:30

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, aka ZNMD, is a full fledged road movie about three friends on a all-boys-road-trip. Its about liberation of spirit, male bonding, living the moment and not about dreaming of things one is planning in his twilight years ... the underlying theme of the movie “seize the day” and this theme in itself is as old as movies.

... so sounds confusing and cliched right ? me not to be blamed the credit should go to the movie. Though the movie trys hard to get into the mould of the cult movie Dil Chata Hai but fails to do so ... when the movie ends none of the moments from the movie lingers in u'r mind nor the characters.

y'day, Once more ...

2011-07-11T23:51:00.002+05:30

I do listen to music but I am no big fan of it ... infact music of any kind, yeah U would say what the hell (if U are kind enough) or what the f*&$ (if U are just normal and hate me).

The last week end we attended a concert 'Evergreen Burmans' with the theme of remembering y'day once more. The concert celebrated 50 glorious years of father and son (RD Burman) combination. Legendary Kishore Kumar’s son Amit and Sumit paid musical tribute to the Burman’s at the concert and the original musicians played the instruments in the concert ... even for a novice and non starter like me, it was a magical night.

At the end of the day, I realised I am so ignorant of Indian old time bollywood music and the legends ... here are my learning's.

SD Burman and RD Burman's are the father and son duo ... SD being the senior, yeah I know everybody else knew it except me.
Kishore Kumar and Burman's made an unbeatable pair all along 70's and 80's.
Kishore Kumar was Kishore Ganguly before he made it big, I guess it was trend those days to have a simple filmy name ... so we know Kulbushan Pandit by Raj Kumar and Yusuf Khan by Dilip Kumar.
The Ganguly brothers - Anoop Kumar, Ashok Kumar and Kishore Kumar.
and Kishore Kumar married 4 times ... he was a stud :-)

Quote for the Day

2011-07-07T18:33:00.000+05:30

isn't it a interesting thought by Ralph Emerson

'For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.'

A Better India A Better World

2011-07-03T13:35:00.001+05:30

a book by Narayana Murthy would have set ripples among the business community and book readers, though it doesn't disappoint in any way, it doesn't make it a great read as well. If readers expected the book to be an autobiography of the founder its not and neither is it about the story of Infosys. Its a collection of lectures, speeches from the founder and former CEO of Infosys.

If Infosys is considered one of the role models in India's new economy, Narayan Murthy is its poster boy (both for Infosys and liberalised India). Middle class values, creating and sharing wealth, English educated, articulate, leading by example, being rightfully critical of important issues have stood in good stead for NRN.

The book delves about important national issues, leadership challenges, education in India, entrepreneurship, corporate governance and yes about Infosys. Though few of issues and its solutions look idealistic and skims at the surface without delving deep into the issue nevertheless its a well argued book and helps us to peep into author's mind and thought process. The author has peppered his speeches with quotes from famous personalities making it important to the context and cliched at few places.

NRN had his fair share of criticism and critics. They accuse him of making his fortune by providing off-shore cheap labor for Americans corporates but he is a better bet for India championing compassionate capitalism than being a socialist and sharing their poverty ... yeah equally. NRN's biggest legacy will be the dreams and chutzpah his company’s success has fostered in a whole generation of middle-class India, now making money (ethically) is no more unkool.

2011-07-01T00:40:00.002+05:30

is the poster from recent campaign in our company ... and i am tending to take the message pretty seriously, so the day I walk into my manager's cabin with my future plans, I would have this poster message with me.

dress circle

2011-07-01T00:23:00.000+05:30

watched few movies in recent times ... a classic, a new Bollywood thriler and a wanna-be action movie ... it was mixed bag.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

2011-07-01T00:00:00.000+05:30

so this was one long due ... visit to Sri Ramana Maharshi ashram in Tiruvannamalai and the bike ride, so we did both bike trip to ashram.

Sri Ramana Ashram, is situated at the foothill of Arunchala in the pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai, infact every alternate town in Tamil Nadu has its claim as a pilgrimage center. Sri Ramana Maharshi was born Venkataraman Iyer to a Tamil-speaking Brain family in Tiruchuzhi, Tamil Nadu. After supposedly having attained liberation at the tender age of sixteen, he left home for Arunachala, a mountain considered sacred by Hindus, at Tiruvannamalai, and lived in Arunchala for the rest of his life.

He recommended self-enquiry as the fastest path to moksha and I understand neither, so to get hang of the concepts and the great man, I got hold of the book 'Ramana Maharshi and the path of Self Knowledge' written by Arthur Osborne and however, Sri Ramana only became relatively well known in and out of India after 1934 when Paul Brunton, having first visited Sri Ramana in 1931, published the book A Search in Secret India, which became very popular.

Sri Ramana lived in the early 19th century, the period another great soul was fighting the mighty British empire for liberating the country and I guess Sri Ramana had taken it to the next level, in liberating Self.

We rode back to B'lore after staying two days in the ashram with the promise of a another visit ...

2011-06-29T12:10:00.000+05:30

Wall vs The GOD

2011-06-28T23:59:00.001+05:30

http://iandmyalterego.blogspot.com/2011/05/argumentative-indians.html

its the link to my earlier post of the list of topics we have discussed (argued) at the water cooler and lunch table in office, today added another one to the ever growing, unsettled list of topics.

We, a group of 5 from our team, were in the lift after sumptuous lunch and the topic of Cricket dropped in, one of our team member said with lot of authority 'I would say, Dravid is the best test batsmen ever played for India, in fact better than Sachin', there was moment of silence in the lift. The rest couldn't take the blasphemous statement and here are the turn of events.

The lights go off in the lift, the lift slows down to sixth floor, just before the lights are switched on, one could hear few loud thumping noise, lift stops at the sixth floor, as the door opens a guy walks out limping with bruises all over his face ... and now we all are looking for stat's on why Dravid is second best and not the best.

Here is a teaser of stat's ... and the simplest one to look at would be the batting averages (to indicate consistency over the years), their contribution in the matches India have won and their individual performances in 'away' matches and the biggest surprise to me was not that Sachin tops the number game but how close is Dravid's performance to Sachin's ... isn't that a compliment to 'The Wall' of Indian Cricket.


	Overall				Matches Won				Away Matches
	Mat	Runs	Ave	100	Mat	Runs	Ave	100	Mat	Runs	Ave	100
Dravid	151	12215	52.7	32	53	4775	65.41	13	84	6936	54.2	18
Sachin	177	14692	56.9	51	61	5473	67.56	20	98	8145	57.0	29

More to follow ... because for some guys bruises aren't good enough.

know your people from History ...

2011-06-19T19:25:00.000+05:30

Shaitan

2011-06-19T13:14:00.002+05:30

Shaitan narrates the story of this bunch of youngsters. No its not kinda of Dil Chata Hai feel good movie, in fact in runs in the opposite direction. Its about hedonistic life of youngsters from the upper strata of society and the havoc in their life (or the one they create) when their fast life takes a twist. The film has had it share of good reviews, but I guess I need a another viewing to understand and appreciate.

Though directed by .... forget no one will remember him, the movie will be known by its producer Anurag Khyshap ... he is turning out RGV in the making, hope he holds on to his threads and better sense of film making.

Janapada Loka

2011-06-12T23:18:00.002+05:30

We have driven on B'lore-Mysore road 'n' number of times ... literally countless number of times and while on the drive have rarely missed Kamata Lokaruchi for sumptuous meal. Right next to the restaurant is Janapada Loka, a folk art village and museum. Janapada Loka was established in 1994 on a sprawling 15 acres of land full of greenery. It has grown into a hub of Folk cultural activities.

The art village has museums displaying artifacts from different regions of Karnataka and from different times. The village hut, community house, man made lake, pottery center, handicraft unit, a colossal open-air theatre in the Greek style with a capacity to seat 1000 people, boating facility and playground for children are the attractions at Janapada loka.

The best of the art village is a temple of Ganesh built in a typical village style. The whole atmosphere makes the visitors feel one with the nature around. A large collection of stones are arranged around the temple and they are not just ordinary stones of the present day but special stones dating back to a period more than thousand years and thatz lots of years from the history.

Don't miss the folk art village if U are driving on the B'lore Mysore highway and have few hours to spare to walk back into Karnataka History. Check the website http://www.janapadaloka.org/

r a i n b o w

2011-06-11T19:14:00.000+05:30

spotted a beautiful rainbow today evening ... as an incentive it was a double one. I guess its nature way of saying don't miss all the beautiful colors of LIFE looking for that pot of gold

2011-06-09T22:31:00.000+05:30

We see things not as they are but as we are. - John Milton

the Legends ...

2011-06-09T22:20:00.000+05:30

back to the numbers, grand slams and little bot of Tennis ... yeah just for the love of Game and Stat's ... and yeah read the first blog to know how it all started :-)

for the love of the game ...

2011-06-08T22:10:00.007+05:30

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, and interpretation of data (the way U want) ... in good old days, Stats (in short) had a different meaning and a different perspective (no triple nut double meaning) but now when its part of my everyday work its curious to the get behind the numbers ... to take the quantitative leap, to make a story from the numbers sometimes provocative and intriguing but mostly looking for some entertainment and unexpected analyses.

So the recent victory of Nadal in French open hooked me to the data of winners over the last few decades in Grand slams, here is one snippet of the data ... If the last decade was dominated by two big guns Federer and Nadal, 90's was a solo show by Pete Sampras but 80's was inter spread with lot more colourful personalities of Lendl, Edberg, Becker, McEnroe and Jimmy Connors.

United Colours of Models

2011-06-02T22:59:00.000+05:30

boom boom ...

2011-06-02T22:18:00.001+05:30

the recent news reports of Shahid Afridi's retirement from One day format, though it would be reversed any time, sent ripples of shock among the cricket aficionados around the world. I admire Afiridi for different reasons ... he made his one day debut long long ago ... as a 16 year old rookie and he retires just before his 17th birthday and in between he has played 15 years of Cricket.

About the picture, one can't help, thatz how he plays his Cricket.

dress circle

2011-06-01T23:04:00.000+05:30

though watched the movie ages ago ... it still lingers in my mind at times.

Gandhi, but with guns

2011-06-01T21:55:00.009+05:30

Two contrasting views on how we perceive the role of state in the growth of a nation ... with the current breed of politicians and indifferent system, there is much left to be desired from the state and its importance in the growth of our nation and here are the contrasting views ... from Arundathi Roy and Ramachandra Guha.

Its a different story that they are at each other's throat. Guha describes her writing style as self-indulgent, hyperbolic, irresponsible and describes her as anti-patriot. Roy about Guha, he is a academics-cum-cricket statisticians who is skidding on his own tail ... hehehehe. So thatz mud slinging from the intellectuals ... go ahead with the article (I mean click the links).

Gandhi, but with guns: The Booker prize-winning author and activist gains rare access to the tribal people and Maoist guerrillas who - from their camps deep in the Dandakaranya forest - have taken up arms against the Indian state ... By Arundathi Roy

A Nation Consumed By The State: Myriad corrosive agents—even the Indian State—are eating into the idea of India. This isn’t the Republic we were meant to be... By Ramachandra Guha.

Working Harder Doesn't Get You Ahead

2011-05-31T23:35:00.003+05:30

Link to an interesting article on ... Working Harder Doesn't Get You Ahead and here is the take away from the article (if U are short of time to read through the article) and we always knew about working smart than just working hard will at least take us away from work ...

The counter intuitive secret to great, sustainable performance is to live like a sprinter. In practice, that means working with the high intensity, uninterrupted, for periods no longer than 90 minutes, and then taking a break to renew and refuel.

scorecard of LIFE

2011-05-31T22:47:00.002+05:30

I was part of blood donation drive last month, few years ago was part of eye donation drive and this year planted a sapling on the big b'day ... I guess there is a part in me thatz redeeming my sins from past life and there is another part thatz piling up sins this life to be redeemed in the next few lives ... and thatz balanced scorecard of my LIFE.

dress circle

2011-05-30T20:15:00.000+05:30

Ok, I picked this one to broaden my movie watching tastes, to look beyond Bollywood and English movies ... ended up watching Jackie Chan look like Thai movie and I think with little more meat, some seasoning and lots of reasoning will give the desired results.

Its a tri series ... watched the second part and will stop with that ...

Yahoo Travel Photo contest

2011-05-26T23:31:00.003+05:30

I was keen to participate in the 'Yahoo Travel Photo contest' that was widely promoted in our office, the requirement is to mail a travel photo with one line description ... I did manage to mail them today (last day of the contest). Let me post/share two of the snaps ... and then U can bet, if I will manage to pull through the contest.

The first snap is taken in London Underground (also called as London Tube, the local train system of London) and I was delighted to see the life size image of Mahatma Gandhi and his apt quote printed in bold letters, so the one liner that would go with the snap was 'Gandhi goes UNDERGROUND'

and the second one was from the coastal path walk in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Its from the i-too-did-this-trip and the one liner for the snap was 'Let your mind travel, your body will follow'

2011-05-25T23:21:00.000+05:30

Life Is A Journey

View more presentations from Coach Bay

Nothing philosophical about the presentation nor the message ... just a gentle reminder 'Life is 2 short to be 2 serious'

argumentative indians ...

2011-05-24T23:54:00.000+05:30

off late we are having heated debates (read it as arguments) over the water cooler in our team ... and the discussion runs through the entire day. The topics are wide ranging, from philosophical to trivial like 'What was Osama wearing when he was knocked down by 70 odd 'brave' Navy seals'. We have been arguing for so long that we decided to list them ... so if we have listed it, we need to have a post in the blog as well.

1. Was the world cup Ind-Pak clash fixed to favour India ???
2. The recent goof up by the Indian government related to 'Most wanted list' intentional, the one that is shared with Pak govt on periodic basis.
3. Is Ramayana myth or fact ?
4. Are we more advanced now comparing 1000 years ago, lets just compare Scientific advancement.
5. Medium of education - English or Vernacular language and the role of English in modern India
6. and ofcourse ... the foolishness of our CM Yeddi

and the raging debate goes on ...

Kolor and the Gender

2011-05-24T22:54:00.000+05:30

The image below was part of a forwarded mail, I received today ... as usual I am a bit skeptic of forwarded mails, I googled about the subject ... okay I 'googled' the 'subject line' of the mail and found an interesting associated article about gender and colours ... here is the link, http://blog.xkcd.com/2010/05/03/color-survey-results/

The Case of Bonsai Manager

2011-05-11T23:34:00.001+05:30

Gopalakrishnan’s book “The Case of The Bonsai Manager” uses Nature to teach lessons on management and intuitive leadership. I picked a Management book after a long time and read it too ... the reason being the Author himself than the book with an interesting title.

R Gopalakrishnan, executive director of Tata Sons, has been a professional manager for forty years. Here is his introduction to his profile. R Gopalakrishnan (called Gopal) worked for his first 31 years in India’s most Indian multinational, Hindustan Unilever. Since then, he has worked for India’s most multinational Indian company — Tata.

According to author a stunted manager, the Bonsai Manager, is one who is operating and working at a level which is well below his potential and the interesting aspect is he himself is the best judge of this, because he can sense such a condition better than anyone else ...

The author uses Nature to teach lessons to be a successful Manager and Leader. It discusses how qualities such as intuition, instinct and inventiveness are as essential as theoretical knowledge. The traits of what differentiates a remarkable manager from one who is merely good. The author wrote ‘The Case of The Bonsai Manager’ after a “10 year journey of enquiry and contemplation,” he said he eventually realised that logic and analysis are important, but they aren’t everything.

The book is full of anecdotes ... and it counts when it comes from the Horses mouth. The book mentions about Tatas buying an unused repair shop of the Railways 50 or 60 years ago and how they turned it into one of the largest truck manufacturing units in the world. It’s about seeing an opportunity when others pass it by.

The only problem with the book is the title itself ... the book is not much about how managers get stunted in their thought or growth but how they can develop their intuition and the the lessons they can learn from Nature.

2011-05-08T21:06:00.000+05:30

tere bin Laden

2011-05-08T20:26:00.006+05:30

With everyone and everywhere going gaga over the Bin Laden's death, one bit of news was interesting ...

Osama bin laden 'would have to be naked for surrender'

As they say, every man get his last chance and Osama's remote chance of survival was 'to be naked' when US Navy seals ambushed is hideout (read it as ISI's transit house). The assault team sent into his hideout would only have accepted surrender if they could be sure if he was in his birthday suit, meaning his fate was sealed as soon as he was found in his bedclothes.

But considering the fact about Navy Seals and the bearded Rambo's not being so 'straight', it was better for Osama to go without his head than his honour, of whatever was left. There is good news for the other 'bad' guys on the wanted list as they get to move up in the rankings no wonder our Kasab was keen to know about Osama's death.

dress circle

2011-05-01T17:49:00.001+05:30

though watching movies is reduced to few and far between ... did manage to watch few movies more for the reason to clean up the laptop space. Watched the thriller Departed, one from the science fiction genre Back to the future and Alpha Dog a crime drama, infact I don't remember anything else from the movie.

just for laughs ...

2011-04-27T21:39:00.002+05:30

2011-04-26T00:01:00.002+05:30

I am half way through ... and its similar to looking at the half filled glass, some people think of the glass as half full and some people think of the glass as half empty but I think of the glass as too small ... hehehe

Rajini Sir

2011-04-03T14:29:00.001+05:30

somebody tweeted, Rajini Sir had dreams last night of India winning the coveted cup, he was in the stands to just watch highlights ... and make sure no body throws away the match .... yenna raskalla

2011-04-03T13:24:00.001+05:30

I don't remember 1983 ... and I will never forget 2011 !!!

the final hurdle ...

2011-04-01T21:43:00.000+05:30

million dollar (rupee) question

2011-03-30T00:14:00.003+05:30

Will India keep their score clean against Pakistan in the World Cups, its 4-0 now ...
Would it be a game or battle without guns in Mohali ?
Will Sachin score his 100th 100 ...
Can bookies tilt the match in India's favour ... hehehe
Will Cricket diplomacy work?
Yuvi's 'special person' ?‎ Sachin or Veena Malik
Will Poonam Pandey keep her promise & bare all if India lifts the World Cup :-)

and most important, will Dhoni's boyz bleed blue ???

the paradox

2011-03-19T14:35:00.000+05:30

Most of the good students, academically oriented get into professional services and become Doctors and engineers. They are the, in short, First Class students.

The 'Second Class' pass out and then become Mangers and administrators and control the 'First Class'.

The 'Third Class' manage to pass, enter Politics and control the lower in the pyramid ...

Last and definetely not the least, The 'Failures' get into or go underworld and control everything and everybody ...

thinking aloud

2011-03-15T21:01:00.000+05:30

would it go my way or highway for men in blue, not sure will they bleed blue ... they managed their way against the minnows and against better teams they lost the match the death overs, if against England they almost the match in the last two overs, they lost it in the final over against the Proteas.

down the memory lane ... till 1999

2011-03-11T23:32:00.002+05:30

One must have heard or read some where ‘I grew with Cricket in India … and I am nostalgic about the good old days of watching Cricket in b&w portable TV, watching the debut match of Sachin … well I am no different from those 30+ but then not old enough to remember the Indian teams heroics in 1983 world cup.

My cricketing memory jogs back all the way to Reliance Cup in 1987, so it was a good point to start the long Cricketing journey with India being the current champs and India was a firm favorite. Everybody dreamt of India winning the thrilling final versus Pakistan at the Eden Gardens, I bet even punters would have bet their money on the Asian rivals. India had a good run all the way to semi-finals with new stars emerging. If Sidhu got popular as ‘Sixer’ Sidhu, Gavaskar scored his maiden One day ton (can U beleive it) and Chetan Sharma getting the first hat rick of the world cup, I am not sure if it was Chetan Sharma's redepmtion from his Sharjah sin.

It wasn’t just Indian heroics, there are faint memories of David Houghton’s one-man show against New Zealand for a losing cause, Courtney Walsh epitomizing sportsmanship for not whipping off the bails at the non striker’s end when the non striker was running ahead of the bowler … hehehe and Viv Richards blasting the minnows, the Sri Lankans, but failing to take his team to the next round. It was all fun until Gooch swept India out of Mumbai game, I swore for the first time that I would stop watching Cricket …

The 1992 World Cup moved to Down under and was the first to feature colored player clothing, white cricket balls, d&n matches and South Africa, they weren’t to be minnows, into the big league. The biggest and surprising pack were the black caps with their innovative strategy of opening the bowling with slow spin of Deepak Patel and Greatbatch unleashing power hitting in the initial over’s with Martin Crowe at the helm of affairs. They went all the way until they met Imzamam, the man who was Paki's answer to our Sachin.

India did have its moments when they bet Pakistan in a low scoring match but ended up losing the rest/most of the matches … and I ended up with the belief that the nation that would lose to India would eventually lay their hands on the cup. I guess, by then I had grown up to be a Cricket connoisseur (atleast I thought so) as I applauded Pakistan when they bet our Colonial masters in the finals. The moment of the world cup was when Wasim Akram and bowled Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis with consecutive deliveries. England fell short and Pak had their glory and Imran funds for his Cancer hospital.

The 1996 Cricket World Cup, also called the Wills World Cup, was played in the subcontinent and inevitably raised the hopes of million Indian fans. It marked the birth of modern One day cricket the way we know it now. India progressed well, built around Sachin’s good form. He was the leading run scorer with 500 odd runs. India set up themselves against Pakistan for the Quarter final roundup. We ended up watching one of the best matches of our life time. If it started with good innings from Sidhu, Jadeja litting up the sky with his smart hitting and the icing on the cake was when local lad Prasad sent back the foul mouthed Aamir Sohail and Maindad making his last International appearance in a losing match. We thought we squared off for the Sharjah loss a decade ago.

If it was a game no one could ever forget neither could they forget the next match played in Eden Gardens. From 98 for 1, India collapsed to 120 for 8. If ever there was an agonizing day in the Indian Cricket History, this would top the list. Vinod Kambli was never to be seen again … The marauding Sri Lankans blew apart everyone (ask Indians) and every bit (ask Manoj Prabhakar in particular) that came their way. We had new Champions.

Memories of 1999 world cup is few and far. The Cricket mega event was back to Queen’s country and the Super Sixes, a new concept brought about in this World Cup. India did progress to the Super Six round but not before losing to Zimbabwe and they paid a heavy price for doing so. India did keep the score line clean of not losing to Pakistan in a world cup match, when they beat Pakistan in Old Trafford. It was a high pitched jingoism at its best considering armies were engaged in a stand-off over Kashmir in Kargil war.

The world cup did have its moments when SA lost the semi final against Aussies when Klusener and Allan Donald ended up on the same side of the crease and still didn’t talk to each other. Lance Klusener of South Africa was declared the Player of the Tournament for playing and not talking. Aussies had arrived to the top and none were aware that they would stay put for another decade to come … the world had started to hate the new Champions.

Walk down the memory lane post 1999 would continue ...