You'll always end up 2'nd....

AT&T blocks 4chan

http://status.4chan.org/

Oh boy! this is going to get real ugly and if I were a AT&T employee or a customer, I would be shitting in my pants right now. They are taking on the wrong kind and it's gonna cost AT&T big unless the moron who did this owns up real fast and apologizes for his/her act, that would mean just his life being taken apart.

P.S: http://timesonline.typepad.com/technology/2009/07/att-takes-on-4chan-everyone-stand-back.html

Update: The war has been called off and AT&T was just saving their bandwidth.

Comic Con!

Was giving it a royal ignore this year because you could take only that much from those batcrazy Twilight fans & the franchise. But the mother of all announcements albeit a slip-up has all but made up for all the pretty boring thing that's been happening over there.

The "Batman 3" Announcement Slips Out at Comic Con.

It was never a question of whether the 3'rd film would be made but it was more of like when it's going to be made and now thanks to commissioner gordon now we know that it'll be starting next year. Yeah baby! 2012 summer can't come any sooner.

Beyond WTF'ness

It would seem that in Pakistan, there is nothing you need to watch out for more than making a joke about President Asif Ali Zardari by SMS (Short Messaging Service).

If you mistakenly, or just for fun, share with a friend one of the hundreds of derisory jokes about the leader floating around electronically, you could get a 14-year prison sentence.

Pakistan’s interior minister Rehman Malik announced last week that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has been tasked to trace SMS (or text messages) and e-mails that “slander the political leadership of the country” under the vague Cyber Crimes Act. In addition to facing up to 14 years in the jail, violators could have their property seized, Malik said, adding that the government would seek Interpol assistance in deporting foreign offenders.

Seriously man! Is this even a priority for someone who is the president of a country leave alone being one to country so fucked up as Pakistan but then maybe since he is the President of Pakistan, hence explains this WTF'ness.

I'd love to be the interpol agent who would be given the task of apprehending those foreigners who forward those silly forwards.

Ozzies

You are killing me guys and if there is anything that gets my goat then it is the English gloating about them. Now I have to put up with it for the next don't know how many days but you guys better chin up and win the next one at least for my sake. Mitchell be a man and front up or fuck off you MFO.

P.S: Dammit man that good for nothing ape who is nothing but shitz. Who is looked up as some kind of a god given gift to the cricketing world has some how managed to get a 5-fer, seriously 3'rd time in his whole career and still he is supposed to be a damn good at what he does which if you ask me is another way of pepping up your mediocrity. Anyway after the series is done it'll be a good riddance of him and can't wait to see him get pasted all over the park in IPL, remember a bugger called Nayyar eh! Flinty?

Ouch it hurts...

It's not Skynet silly, thy name is Google

Chrome OS on the way.

They control the stuff I need on net, as do the means by which I access net and now the mother of all OS too. But still I'm all for this just so that we get a good and a light OS.

Some passing thoughts

It is always about being sad or happy- why isin't there a middle ground? And does one have to be either sad or happy all the time, can't we be just in a transitionary mode as in with no sense of feelings or what ever the hell that is.

Some Ramblings...

Many of us including me, are often found mulling over the failures in life. That the lines we were sent with on earth, make us struggle more than others. And that some of us invariably have a tougher time striving for the same things, than some others. What is ironical here is that all of us think so.

It holds most true of all that fear can hold you prisoner, and hope can set you free. There is too much bad luck flying around, and it has to fall on someone. But the dire-est of the circumstances can be taken care of, with a right attitude towards life.

Keep the bird called 'Hope' flying. Destiny will give in sooner or later. No dream, however big, is unachievable.

Terminator: Salvation

The trailer of Public Enemies was the best part of the movie and boy am I excited about this movie. With Johnny depp & Christian Bale in it and Michael Mann at the helm you can be sure of getting your moneys worth at least from one movie this summer. Get down to the movies near you on july 1'st because this is going to be the movie of the summer, and the feeling only gets stronger with the initial reviews being promising.

Anyway what is with this summer and big name movies? Al most every movie is turning out to be crap. It is as if everyone in hollywood has suddenly had a brain freeze.

It's really disappointing, specially after a great summer last year where finally the movie makers seem to have found the fine balance between the substance and wow factor. You had great movies like Ironman, Wall-E & The Dark Knight last year while this year you are stuck with Terminator Salvation, Transformers 2 & Ice Age 3 with only the exception being UP, again it's from Pixar and that had to be good. The point being that this summer has been really bad, one of the worst movies wise.

I wanted to write about Terminator Salvation but seriously there is nothing much to write about the movie other than mindless action sequences that never seem to end and to make things worse, one of the worst background scores that I've come across in such an iconic movie for a long time.

It's really not worth watching even on a DVD, better still get the T2:Judgment day and watch it all over again if you feel nostalgic about the series.

Academy has gone bonkers!!

Academy Awards to expand to TEN Best Picture nominees!!

Seriously man al ready the thing is such a drag and with two fold increase it'll only increase the run-time. You gotta love the buffons who come up with these crazy ideas. Still wonder what good is it if the old foggies who cast the vote won't give the mainstream movies their due?

The Brangelina industry

Each week celebrity magazines breathlessly report yet another twist in the Jen-Brad-Angelina love triangle. But where do the stories come from? Are they ever true? And does that even matter?

Never did care much for this stuff but gotta say that I once had a crush on Jennifer but that has passed long time back. Anyway feel so lazy today so reading anything and everything that comes my way. Pretty interesting peek in to the world of tabloids.

Ignore everybody.

The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you. When I first started with the cartoon-on-back-of-bizcard format, people thought I was nuts. Why wasn't I trying to do something more easy for markets to digest i.e. cutey-pie greeting cards or whatever?You don't know if your idea is any good the moment it's created. Neither does anyone else. The most you can hope for is a strong gut feeling that it is. And trusting your feelings is not as easy as the optimists say it is. There's a reason why feelings scare us.

And asking close friends never works quite as well as you hope, either. It's not that they deliberately want to be unhelpful. It's just they don't know your world one millionth as well as you know your world, no matter how hard they try, no matter how hard you try to explain.

Plus a big idea will change you. Your friends may love you, but they don't want you to change. If you change, then their dynamic with you also changes. They like things the way they are, that's how they love you- the way you are, not the way you may become.

Ergo, they have no incentive to see you change. And they will be resistant to anything that catalyzes it. That's human nature. And you would do the same, if the shoe was on the other foot.

With business colleagues it's even worse. They're used to dealing with you in a certain way. They're used to having a certain level of control over the relationship. And they want whatever makes them more prosperous. Sure, they might prefer it if you prosper as well, but that's not their top priority.

If your idea is so good that it changes your dynamic enough to where you need them less, or God forbid, THE MARKET needs them less, then they're going to resist your idea every chance they can.

Again, that's human nature.

GOOD IDEAS ALTER THE POWER BALANCE IN RELATIONSHIPS, THAT IS WHY GOOD IDEAS ARE ALWAYS INITIALLY RESISTED.

Good ideas come with a heavy burden. Which is why so few people have them. So few people can handle it.

A long read but well worth spending time. Now just if I can get hold of the book in India.

Still puzzling?

Some 3.9 billion years ago, a shift in the orbit of the Sun’s outer planets sent a surge of large comets and asteroids careening into the inner solar system. Their violent impacts gouged out the large craters still visible on the Moon’s face, heated Earth’s surface into molten rock and boiled off its oceans into an incandescent mist.

Maybe somethings are never meant to be understood.

'Millionth English word' declared

Is Web 2.0 though personally would have liked it had it been N00b.

Thank God that it ain't 'Jai ho' or 'Slumdog.'

Team India

For winning you need to play, just by turning up for the matches won't cut it. Now that you are out of the world cup maybe it's about time you learned how to play the short ball.

Dhoni, mate you are in for hell and the media won't let you easy. In normal times I would have stood by you but you have really run out of excuses with some idiotic calls that you have taken in a couple of games neither has your style of playing like a drunken sailor out of rum really suited this format.

Oh well! DC won, India lost. Sort of balanced so I'm not that bummed as I was during WC 2007. From here on I don't really care who wins the cup but do hope that it is either South Africa or Sri lanka that go on to win it this time.

P.S: It really hurts losing to England of all the teams, losing to any team is fine as long as it's not the queens team. And what do these dick heads do, go and just do that.

P.P.S: Reasons are aplenty for the loss but it doesn't change the result so I'm not big into analyzing but lets just say that 10 wides that bajji bowled or the decision to field on winning the toss or sending Jadeja at 4 when all & sundry know that he is not capable of big hits or even Yuvraj's fielding which was the reason why India gave away 3 extra runs, the margin of loss and many more like how can you get ambushed by the short stuff after the game against WI etc etc... But the cold fact is that India is out of the tournament.

The masterpiece that killed George Orwell

1984. Enough said and it's almost like we are living in the world he wrote about in the book.

In other news, heard that Karnataka tourism Minister Mr. Janardhan Reddy, ertswhile son of a police constable has donated a 45 crore diamond studded crown to Lord Balaji of Tirumala. Now if only 10% of that money was earmarked for the destitute of his constituency. Why don't people believe in service to the mankind is service to GOD as told by their own Lord Krishna ?

Problems are solved by sleeping

Sleeping on a problem really can help solve it say scientists who found a dreamy nap boosts creative powers.

MITTAL-MIKATI Marriage

What does the CEO of a company do when its best growth years are behind him, when the recessionary times fear even the greatest of the visionaries? If you're Sunil Mittal, who runs giant Bharti Airtel, in the world's fastest growing telecom market, you go shopping.

MTN would have been a significant acquisition target for many Telecom players as it is present in many developing countries and showing an impressive revenue growth of almost 40%, even higher than Bharti Airtel.

The deal if happens will provide long term benefits to Bharti Airtel as it would be able to ride the emerging market bullishness with the help of MTN, and creat a telecom powerhouse for the economies in making. The overall efficiency of Bharti would come in handy while managing the global behemoth operations and thus taking its India growth story forward to the whole world.

The deal came at right time for Bharti when after recently acquiring its 100 millionth subscriber, it could see that next 100 million customers would be far more difficult for Bharti to bring in.

Oprah Fans Out there..

This is just the beginning... How I feel vindicated after all those arguments I've had with so many people. Seriously I still wonder why it took so long for someone to call her out. But man this feels so good.

P.S: Cover story that was published in Newsweek.

Racism in Australia?

Oh! please Indians should be the last people to say that, probably before preaching they can practice that right here by going easy on the students who come from African countries. Also showing respect for those students coming from north-eastern part of India would do too.

While I'm sorry for that dude who is in coma right now but what was he expecting when he threw a brick at them? And coupled with it you were playing some stupid desi music at inanely high volume. World is a rotten place people, and everyone gets mugged no matter who they are if they are stupid enough to leave caution to wind and venture into the no-go areas.

Go easy on the whining and stop going to foreign countries for further studies or better still get our politicians to set-up facilities right here in India so that you can be protected by our own police. Scary ain't it now?

Bing goes live

As usual MS is way behind the pack, sometimes wonder why do they even try. Google is the King of search, leave it al ready and get your OS working properly.

Just give it a try and see for yourself about what I am getting at.

A Promise to Be Ethical in an Era of Immorality

Like they'll really stick to that oath, who are they really trying to fool?

About time...

Google is considering removing the beta tag from Gmail - and other online services - a mere five years after it was first launched.

About time they did that, already the beta versions are way ahead of their competition so it makes no sense to have that tag hoovering about.

Fighting paid election coverage: Women Journos Show the way

The “deal” between the newspaper managements or their representatives and the candidates was that the “coverage” would begin from the date of election notification or whenever the deal was agreed upon. Women journalists write to the chief electoral officer in Andhra Pradesh.

It's another matter that nothing came out of it or will ever come out of it. At least some one had the balls to do the 'RIGHT' thing.

Kanimozhi

Freedom Fighter and the said person is all off 39 years? It never ceases to surprise me this family starting with the head-honcho MK.

She was a sub-editor for hindu and then disapeared for a good 2-3 years before coming back into the public as a 'poet' and now supposedly is on the way to become a cabinet minister. It's one helluva ride and dude MK, three wives and still you get all moralistic and crap on others?

Holy Shit

I've seen it all now, Stupid Ben Stillers crappy movie getting more numbers than T:Salvation? Oh! come on America! Are you becoming that stoopid? For heavens sake it's Terminator series. Mind boggling really. Screw you American Public, you've lost it completely.

P.S: North Korea Announces 2nd Test of Nuclear Device. And looks like this time it is the real deal. Serves you right biatches.

DECCAN CHARGERS

WIN THE 2009 IPL!! Woohoo.....

From the bottom of the table last year, to the top of the pile this year!

Thanks Gilly! You D man of word. Oh yeah! not only have we got something to cheer about this year, we even have the bragging rights of being the champs, no less. All the best for the Champions league in October.

Have Tarantino and his 'Inglourious Basterds' got what it takes?

Heck yeah! And Roger Ebert thinks so too...

August 21'st it is then.


P.S: The Weinsteins were once kids here without a ticket. "We were hanging around the stage door, hoping to get in and make our way around to the front," Harvey told me. "An official festival limo pulled up, and Clint Eastwood got out. We probably looked needy. He sized us up, held open the door, and let us in. To this day, we both make it a point to let someone into the Palais."

Maybe I'll be the lucky one in 2015.

Tis' should be interesting

Another mockumentary which will be pretty in-accurate and over-hyped is on the way folks.

Michael Moore's movie about the economic crisis will unspool during the fall.

Are we true to ourself?

Ellen DeGeneres at Tulane's 2009 Commencement Speech.

How many people live their life as they want and not give into peer pressure?

One heck of a commencement speech, show our brains people thats' the secret.

Notice the Google Logo Today?

"MISSING LINK" FOUND: New Fossil Links Humans, Lemurs?

Take that you religious nuts.

P.S: Interesting back story behind this discovey, do read it here.

SEBI?

Bennett, Coleman's private treaties business sees sharp value erosion.

“Private treaties” was one of the most innovative revenue schemes thought up by Bennett, Coleman & Co, which publishes the Times of India and other titles. In return for advertising in group publications, Bennett would get equity in the company doing the advertising. The pay-off would come when the equity was offloaded for a profit (with long-term capital gains being free of tax).

If this is not insider trading then what is?

I guess even Hindustan Times is into this business model so can't really go by what MINT says. That leaves Business line, but its' more into presenting news as is than specualting so not much fun there.

Terminator: Salvation

A movie review by James Berardinelli.

3 stars, not bad I should say and more often than not berardinelli gets it right for these kind of movies. Now waiting for Eberts' review. Keeping my fingers crossed for more than any other movie, this deserves to be this years blockbuster, i.e. before Avatar hits the screens.

Wolfram Alpha

Basically its' a search engine but with a difference, in normal search engines once you input the query, links are generated from which you might get an answer for your query. But in this case, it wades through huge databases of information to throw accurate results and answers to queries, instead of a link where you "might" receive an answer to your query as in conventional search engines like google and MSN.

It's pretty cool do check it out.

And here is a query that I tried out and the info was generated pretty quick.

Is it going to be a google killer? I am keeping my fingers crossed because it is still in alpha stage and is pretty limited in scope. And also the small thing of how they will generate revenue based on this model is something which'll tell us a lot about the acceptance from the public at large.

The Years Are Short

The Days Are Long, But The Years Are Short.

This movie can get even the driest of eyes moist, real story.

Satyam may lay off over 12,000 employees

http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2009/may/15/slide-show-1-satyam-may-lay-off-over-12000-employees.htm

Maybe it'll happen or not, but what they do is completely upto them and I don't want to hear from anyone saying that their families will get effected and crap like that. Agreed losing a job is a hard thing and getting another is even harder but hello India ain't a socialist state any more.

And please for heavens sake companies exist only to make profit, think otherwise maybe it's time for you folks to get a time machine and go back into the glory days of Nehru & Indras' India. You can't have the cake and eat it too folks. If you are willing to embrace the capitalist world then do it completely don't dither, it'll only end up making things much worse.

Seriously if this sort of a thing is what is in store, then the governments that are going to rule both the center and Andhra Pradesh will have a lot on their plates even before the swearing-in-ceremony.

Oh & btw a little birdie tells me that everything is in place for Raju to come out of judicial custody/jail before the end of summer and after that it'll be a very prolonged battle in the courts of law that maybe his great-great-grandson will get to penny up the mistakes of his not so great-great-grandfather.

IPL Semi-finalists

Delhi, Chennai & Deccan in that order for sure. It'll be between Rajasthan & Bangalore for the fourth place and I think Rajasthan will sneak through.

And there are others out there who think so and are backed by science.

Holy Moly

The Mumbai slum home of one of the child stars of the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire has been demolished by city authorities.

What else do you expect give their house a legal status? Give it a rest al ready. Seriously if you want to help those kids, leave them alone and let them get on with their life.

No alcohol?

WTF!

Every idiot has taken it upon himself to predict (scientific & otherwise) how the general elections in India will go but me not being an idiot will take it upon myself to tell all those people who are lapping up these exit polls that come May 16'th these exit polls done with a sample of 1000-10,000 constituents in a population running into lakhs in each constituency will matter a zilch.

Take them with a pinch of salt or even otherwise no matter who comes into power, it is a moot point since that ain't going to change anything for you either today, tomorrow or in the distant future.

So I say give a three fingered salute to all those freaking idiots who have ruined your day with all sorts of inane chatter on the idiot box about something which no one really cares in the end.

In the end it's all a joke and no one realizes it till it's too late or it ain't matter any more.

P.S: I'll end this post with something which is amusing & beyond WTF'ness, only pig is one thing but to have it in a zoo enclosure? Ah! the fallacies of religion and it's stupid followers.

Afghanistan's only pig quarantined in flu fear.

What goes around comes around....

Many mutter darkly about the use of hormones in rearing livestock, and they seek out vegetables that have insect bites on their leaves - a sign that they have not been drenched in pesticides.

So true...

Lets see...

It's about time I started to blog about more mundane stuff. And with me starting my summer internship from 18'th of this month I've just found the right thing about which I'll have a lot to say about.

Well its just going to be little tid bits about how, what, why & where of my summers'. Read more about it here.

This is strictly going to be a two month affair and will be updated every day for the next 60 days. So make it a point to visit the blog everyday lest you miss out on my exciting life.

Want Press Coverage? Give Me Some Money

Ajay Goyal is a serious, independent candidate contesting for a Lok Sabha seat in Chandigarh.
Never heard of him? Neither, probably, have a lot of people in Chandigarh because when it came to getting press coverage for his campaign he was faced with a simple message: If you want press, you have to pay.

Why is this a news again?

US Troops Proselytizing in Afghanistan

American troops proselytizing in Afghanistan.

Are they out of their freaking minds? Oh boy! this can't end well the way I see it.

Free Data Recovery Tools

If I had a penny everytime someone asks me this question by now I would have made nearly thousand bucks. Search no more here are the five best (free being their calling card) recovery tools that you can find. My personal choice is Recuva.

Prediction Time

DC has gotta win this one against CSK and have a feeling that it'll be a close fought win for DC.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Watch the trailer over here.

It's bigger, meaner and badder and that's basically what makes me scared, with Michael bay at the helm you wouldn't expect otherwise but that's the whole point. Hoping that this movie, if not better will be on par with the first transformers.

DC Vs RR & CSK Vs DDD

DC after a blip in the last match should have it easy against the sheiks' boys. I think we are due for a Gilli special today.

Should be DDD all the way, maybe his lordness Shewag will finally wake up from his slumber.

The cutest ass

SWF.

Prediction time

DC should prevail in the fight with DDD, that'll settle the title for the team to beat this around once and for all.

CSK should have it easy over RR, though what RR did against DDD in the last match.

DC Vs CSK & MI Vs KKR

It should be another easy win for the boys from the lands of Nizam.

In the other match, MI should easily put one across KKR.

100 days

So has the promise of change delivered or at least in the pipeline? Well I can't see it any where near the horizon, like I kept saying he is all rhetoric and of little substance. But still GOBAMA!!

Prediction time

More power to deccan chargers today, should be an easy win over Mumbai.

In the other match, KKR should continue losing.

Ranadeb Bose ?

Is he the Fake IPL player? At least if you go by the artice in Indian Express. It doesn't go on to name the player but Ranadeb Bose fits into the bill alright but he ain't playing for KKR this season and this is where it gets interesting, the article goes on to say that maybe it's Ganguly who is providing the cannon fodder for Ranadeb. That'll be something if it were the truth.

Who is the mystery blogger?

P.S: Happy b'day Sachin.

Edit: Looks like it's not him, this is like playing 'where in the world is carmen Sandiego.' Who ever it is, has started blogging again and the fun continues. More power to who ever it is, real or fake.

Yahoo!: We will be closing Geocities later this year.

I had my first ever webpage over there and kinda felt so nostalgic when I got a mail today from Yahoo! to this effect, didn't feel so bummed even when they did the same with yahoo photos.


P.S: Oh and btw my webpage is still under construction and now I don't think it'll ever see the light of the day. ;)

PJ

Q) Why do we see so many banks offering cheap loans for the Nano?




A) They want Nobel Prize. If someone wants can get one for micro-finance, why not for Nano-finance?

IPL-day 5

Deccan chargers FTW!! Seriously B'lore? for heavens sake you can't have Kallis, Kumble & dravid in the same team for a 20-20 match no matter what the last two did in the match against Royals, that's asking for trouble even before a ball is bowled. And on top of it you have Boucher sitting out while Uthappa is keeping? Are you freaking kidding me!!

R.I.P. Sun Microsystems (1982 - 2009)

From: Jonathan I. Schwartz

To: allsun@sun.com

Subject: Today's Sun/Oracle Announcement

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 04:34:16 -0700 (07:34 EDT)

Today's Sun/Oracle Announcement

This is one of the toughest emails I've ever had to write.

It's also one of the most hopeful about Sun's future in the industry.

For 27 years, Sun has stood for courage, innovation, a willingness to blaze trails, to envision and engineer the future. No matter our ups and downs, we've remained committed to those ideals, and to the R&D that's allowed us to differentiate. We've committed to decade long pursuits, from the evolution of one of the world's most powerful datacenter operating systems, to one of the world's most advanced multi-core microelectronics. We've never walked away from the wholesale reinvention of business models, the redefinition of technology boundaries or the pursuit of new routes to market.

Because of the unparalleled talent at Sun, we've also fueled entire industries with our people and technologies, and fostered extraordinary companies and market successes. Our products and services have driven the discovery of new drugs, transformed social media, and created a better understanding of the world and marketplace around us. All, while we've undergone a near constant transformation in the face of a rapidly changing marketplace and global economy. We've never walked away from a challenge - or an opportunity.

So today we take another step forward in our journey, but along a different path - by announcing that this weekend, our board of directors and I approved the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by the Oracle Corporation for $9.50/share in cash. All members of the board present at the meeting to review the transaction voted for it with enthusiasm, and the transaction stands to utterly transform the marketplace - bringing together two companies with a long history of working together to create a newly unified vision of the future.

Oracle's interest in Sun is very clear - they aspire to help customers simplify the development, deployment and operation of high value business systems, from applications all the way to datacenters. By acquiring Sun, Oracle will be well positioned to help customers solve the most complex technology problems related to running a business.

To me, this proposed acquisition totally redefines the industry, resetting the competitive landscape by creating a company with great reach, expertise and innovation. A combined Oracle/Sun will be capable of cultivating one of the world's most vibrant and far reaching developer communities, accelerating the convergence of storage, networking and computing, and delivering one of the world's most powerful and complete portfolios of business and technical software.

I do not consider the announcement to be the end of the road, not by any stretch of the imagination. I believe this is the first step down a different path, one that takes us and our innovations to an even broader market, one that ensures the ubiquitous role we play in the world around us. The deal was announced today, and, after regulatory review and shareholder approval, will take some months to close - until that close occurs, however, we are a separate company, operating independently. No matter how long it takes, the world changed starting today.

But it's important to note it's not the acquisition that's changing the world - it's the people that fuel both companies. Having spent a considerable amount of time talking to Oracle, let me assure you they are single minded in their focus on the one asset that doesn't appear in our financial statements: our people. That's their highest priority - creating an inviting and compelling environment in which our brightest minds can continue to invent and deliver the future.

Thank you for everything you've done over the years, and for everything you will do in the future to carry the business forward. I'm incredibly proud of this company and what we've accomplished together.

Details will be forthcoming as we work together on the integration planning process.

Jonathan

Every thing Oracle touches turns into crap, hope Java doesn't go that way. IBM loses out once again and now begins the courting of SAP.

Is Indian media in denial on Indian recession?

At least two major newspapers have informed their desks that the word “recession” is not to be used in connection with India. Recession is something that happens in the United States, not here. The word stands exiled from the editorial lexicon.

And is one of the newspapers Hindu? Maybe the rural editor is myopic or am I missing something. Probably N. Ram can cut short his Tibet trips and get his house in order.

Finally we are charging

Yeah! baby Chargers are on the prowl and this time it's gonna be mauling time for the other teams. Really a perfect performance today, can't get better than this. Everyone played their parts including the cheer girls.

I think I've now perfected the art of predictions with both of them turning out to be bang on target today. For tomorrow lemme stick my neck out for eem ess dhoni.

Veterans' day out?

You had sachin carrying his bat through the innings and then taking two catches to complete a perfect day out for him and his team. Then you had Rahul Dravid playing his skin out to dig his team out of trouble, with Anil Kumble later coming on to bowl Bangalore to win over Rajasthan but not before Shane Warne once again proved to all & sundry as to why he is called as the sheik-of-tweak.

Now that my predictions for today's matches turned out to be partly correct lets make this a regular thing for the remainder of the IPL.

Tomorrows' winners will be Deccan chargers and Delhi daredevils.

Must I say, not bad for the oldies to come good and maybe it'll be gillis' day tomorrow.

The Silly season is upon us...

The second edition of IPL is all set to take off tomorrow.

Let me stick my neck out and predict the results for the matches being played tomorrow.

Mumbai shouldn't have much problems in disposing off Chennai and so should Rajasthan prevail over Bangalore, which could go to the wire.

And yeah it'll be Deccan Chargers who would lift the DLF cup come the finals.

Things I will never understand in life

Why is it that every time you do a good thing, people assume you have an ulterior motive?

How can someone not like Sachin?

Why is it that everyone thinks they got the raw deal? I mean there should be someone out there who must've got what they wanted but I'm yet to see a person who says so.

Why do we long for winter in summer and vice-versa?

How can you even sit through SRK movies or bollywood movies in general without cringing even once?

Why do we get the burnt Roti, every single time?

How can people not watch sport?

How can people fall for the same old populist schemes every 5 years?

How can a major political party say that they don't want to have anything to do with computers or english, the only two things which give Indians a competitive advantage in the world market and still get away with it?

Why do people find solace in herd mentality?

P.S: List is not exhaustive but I'm exhausted with all the typing so feel free to add your own stuff in the comments or wait for me to update em' some other time when I'm suffering from Insomnia.

The Dark Side Of Dubai

I think Dubai is like an oasis. It is an illusion, not real. You think you have seen water in the distance, but you get close and you only get a mouthful of sand.

An eye opener for all those who keep harping about Dubai. Btw it's a very long read but sure worth your time.

TechM... Heads I win Tails You loose!!!

When back in 2005 Roubini said that the home prices were riding a speculative wave which would soon sink the economy, he was called a Cassandra. Cut to present, and he is a sage.

Satyam fraud hit the India Inc when the global economy was in shambles and ours had caught this bad cold because of their fever. But one's loss is a gain of the other. There are a plethora of those who understand that the best and infact the only way to grow given the current scene is through mergers and acquisitions. Of all, Tech Mahindra grabs the lucrative deal of purchasing a 31 equity in Satyam at Rs 58 a share which is a tenth of pre-fraud-hit satyam share price. The company is betting it can plug the leak, cut the flab and yet make a meal out of Satyam Computer Services.

The actual cost for acquiring Satyam is just the money that has to be paid towards open offer. The fund being used to subscribe to the equity will anyway be with the company itself. With the expected Rs 200 crore profit, it would take about five years for Tech Mahindra to get its entire money back. In fact, it is a low-risk game for Tech Mahindra. Satyam will also bring in non-telecom expertise for the company. TechM plans to finance the deal through debt.

The main challenge for Tech Mahindra is to maintain value proposition to Satyam clients. It needs to iron out conficts of interest. It would be useful to examine how the implicit walk away option can prove so damaging to the current Satyam shareholders and how it can be hugely beneficial to Tech Mahindra. This analysis confirms what has been argued for some time now: the decision to sell a partial controlling stake instead of selling the whole company was not in the interests of the shareholders.

The implied valuation of probably less than six months revenues for the transaction is quite low except for the unknown liabilities of the company in several US class action law suits. It is these unknown liabilities that make the walk away option hugely valuable. What makes walk away feasible is the fact that Satyam’s value is not in the form of tangible assets, but largely in the form of its customers and employees.

Over a period of two to three years, Tech Mahindra which is itself in the same industry could transfer the entire Satyam business to itself. This could be done as new contracts are signed or existing contracts are renewed. Over the same time frame, the employees of Satyam could also be shifted to the Tech Mahindra payroll. Once this process is complete, Satyam would have some cash and other assets and potentially huge liabilities.

The walk away option is that if the liabilities turn out to be larger than the cash and other assets, Tech Mahindra can walk away and put Satyam into bankruptcy. If the liabilities turn out to be small, then Tech Mahindra can merge Satyam into itself and absorb the surplus assets. Option pricing theory teaches us that the more the uncertainty (volatility) the greater the value of this walk away option. Since the uncertainty today is huge, the option is hugely valuable.

The fact there were (as some people put it) only two and a half bids for Satyam suggests that a number of potential bidders who thought that they would never exercise the walk away option (for reputational or other reasons) chose not to bid at all. Without the walk away option, the risks were simply too high.

There are two other reasons why Tech Mahindra would prefer to transfer the Satyam business to itself. First, it owns only 51% of Satyam and therefore earns only 51% of the revenues of Satyam. If the contract is renewed with the parent company itself, it gets 100% of the revenues. Second, Satyam commands a low valuation in terms of price-revenue multiples (less than 0.5 at the bid price) while Tech Mahindra commands a higher valuation (about 1.0). Moreover with the Satyam acquisition, Tech Mahindra would try to position itself in the league of the top tier software companies which command multiples of about twice revenues.

Even if we consider a price to revenue multiple of 1 for the parent and 0.5 for the subsidiary, a dollar of revenues at the parent adds a dollar to the market capitalization, while a dollar of revenue at the subsidiary adds only 0.25 to the parent’s market capitalization. The financial motivation for shifting business to the parent are very high even without the walk away option.

What this means is that while today’s sale is great for the employees and customers of Satyam and for the Indian software industry, it is not so great for the shareholders. They get very little money now (except for the 20% open offer) and might find after three years that they own shares in a shell company that has little or no value.

The shareholders would certainly have preferred a sale of 100% of the company that gives them cash now.

Wells Fargo out of Red?

Wells Fargo earnings surprise sends market surging

Stocks surged Thursday to their highest levels in two months after banking giant Wells Fargo & Co. surprised the market with an early profit report that blew past analysts' expectations thanks to a strong increase in its lending business.

Wells Fargo says it expects 1st-quarter profit of $3B, easily surpassing expectations

It's be a interesting week ahead with most of the banks coming out with their 1st-quarter results. This ain't a bad start and lets just hope that they have done well too.

Things Change

All the time and the sooner you get used to those changes the better.

Everyone knows that but they still cling on to their old times and expect that it'll get back to how it was even when they know that it can never be back to what it was. Ah! the optimism, sometimes is a wee bit stifling and doesn't let you grow.

Well

Does it really matter if Rahul Gandhi is from trinity college or not as long as he is not a stupid? And what the hell is wrong with media both print and electronic; elections are not about personalities they are about policies and do us the aam-junta a big favor by focusing on that rather than who said what or did what or wore on the day of putting up their nomination papers. I would be more interested to know what people make of the speech Rahul gave in Nasik and how he went on to the neighboring state and contradicted what he said a mere 3 hours back. Question his motive behind his double speak not why he submitted a false affidavit.

Knowing

Sometimes you read a book or a movie which complete shakes up your belief system and then starts’ the struggle to come to terms with the fact that something which you have believed all your adult life might not be sound, after all. Given a chance, I don’t lose an opportunity to ridicule all those creationists and the same goes the case with those who believe in intelligent design. I being a firm believer in the theory of evolution couldn’t imagine or dream of questioning this theory, ever. Now for the past 24 hours I’ve been wondering whether there is actually some invisible force out there guiding the mankind or which can predict what might happen in the future?

Actually do I believe if things happening all around us are some random sequences of events or if there is a method to this madness? Till yesterday for me, they were all random events with no relation to each other and only by coincidence did some of them fit together but now wonder if they are all a part of big plan, whose plan? I don’t know.

Saw knowing yesterday and this movie in normal times shouldn’t have made any sense to me but the circumstances and the way the movies’ plot is built up makes it very believable that an Omnipotent force or entity does really exist. If this is the case then from here where do we go, will the world end? Basically every religion talks about the end of days, then what? What was the whole purpose of who ever that invisible force is, in creating this world when in the end it’s getting destroyed? Or like in the movie will a select few get to start all over again in some other distant earth like celestial body. But that doesn’t answer the question of why go through the pain of creating something which you know that come the time, will be annihilated.

Coming to the movie, the premise is pretty formulaic once the initial 20-30 minutes is done. Who else but Nicolas cage can make a pretty watchable movie into a boring one with his come-what-may-look like a douche or a guy on the verge of puking his guts out. Seriously, why do they even bother having this guy in movies? Haven’t they learnt their lesson from all those great movies ending up mediocre with his association. There is nothing much to write about other aspects of the movie other than it being your usual end of days movie, where everyone actually dies in the end.

I don’t think there is some invisible force out there playing the puppet master with us but it doesn’t hurt to think that there is one. At least that way you will be in peace with yourself knowing that there is some one out there who knows what he is doing but then if in the end, everything is destroyed what was the whole purpose of letting this go on for such a long time? If you can predict when the world ends, then why wait for it till the last moment and why pick only a handful of people to start it all over again? Why not just transfer instead of starting all over? At least with transferring you have the liberty of watching life go on from where you left, instead of watching the whole thing play out all over again.

You can catch the movie once the DVD is out but don’t expect much from it. It’s one of those movies which makes you think but at the end of the day leaves you with more questions than answers. Well that’s life I guess everyday you end with the questions of yesterday unanswered but still keep going in the hope of finding the answers tomorrow.

Guha breaks the 1 crore barrier.

Contemporary history’s best-known ‘fakir’ has landed his latest biographer the fattest kitty in the annals of Indian publishing. Penguin India has offered an advance of Rs 1 crore to bag historian Ram Guha’s two-volume project on Mahatma Gandhi in a quiet but stunning recession-era deal that has wowed the competition and pitched Indian book industry into the global league.

Tis' crazy, even the more considering the subject which has been beaten to death but tas' how things work.

Obama’s Nobel Headache

Paul Krugman has emerged as Obama's toughest liberal critic. He's deeply skeptical of the bank bailout and pessimistic about the economy. Why the establishment worries he may be right.

Chicago Sun-Times files for bankruptcy

The company that owns the Chicago Sun-Times and 58 other newspapers and online sites said Tuesday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Who is it going to be next in line? New York Times or Washington Post?

In the end

You're not how much money you've got in the bank. You're not your job. You're not your family, and you're not who you tell yourself.... You're not your name.... You're not your problems.... You're not your age.... You are not your hopes. You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

Till there I'm with tyler but then he doesn't really tell who we are, does he? Well my take is that all we have that are really ours are our memories and that defines what sort of a life we have lived. Gosh! tis' getting too heavy, lets leave this over here and just live for the moment, and the future, there is nothing that can't be handled while past, nothing can be done. Take care of your present moment and everything falls into place be it your past or present.

Proof: Picture Speaks 1000 Words

Enuf said....

The Devil is in the details

Godavari the picturesque (for the tourists) and Godavari as money (for those building the dam) are twin realities of today. For the tribal people, it is the same old struggle — land, forests and everyday survival; with Godavari, the lifeline.

This has become a kind of a regular feature every time an irrigation project or a power project is taken up in India. Either they are up against the project for ecological or displacement reasons and one emminent personality went as far as saying that it's better to live in darkness then go this way. Mam, very easy for you to say this since your house is not in some remote pocket where the very survival for day-to-day revolves around the electricity and the amount of water being pumped into the fields

Is it ok to sacrifice human opportunities to preserve nature and way of living. Obviously, we must protect nature and the usage rights, but when it comes to a choice, the needs of human beings at large, I think, must precede nature. To believe to the contrary is not only elitist but also immoral.

At the end of the day, one way or the other this project will be taken up so instead of fighting it why not try and make a better deal out of it. Pick up from where you left in a new place.

Ignorance!

People don't even know that there is no Uniform Civil code in India. Really it's mind boggling that these are the educated urban populace, imagine the state of rural dwellers. Two things BJP is identified with are one Ram mandir and this the other, still people are so ignorant of this fact is beyond me.

PetreIiance: Elephant plays StRaTeGiC Tiger

CaVeAt EmPtOr!! The oil sector is on the verge of deregulation.. to take on the high profile international competition now expected in the domestic market, a high cash flow generating entity with a strong balance-sheet was indispensable. And the RIL-RPL merger could not have been timed better. The move should not come as surprising at all.. but when it did happen, it caught company watchers and market alike off-guard...
The move looks to be a masterstroke but the shareholders' benefits are unclear... RPL's refinery is considered to be more efficient than that of RIL. Concurrent with the market value criteria, the swap ratio turned out to be 16:1, which could have been quite different, had RIL waited for RPL to start production, what would then have been a fair value based on the projected strengths.
Both companies enjoy a tax holiday: RIL's refinery has export oriented unit status till March 2010, but after that there is no clarity. RPL's refinery will have tax-benefits for five years from the first day of commercialisation, anticipated to be sometime in April at the latest. There is another catch for competition in the merger. As a separate entity, RPL would have to make public its refining margins; to the convenience of investors, as they would have been able to compare the margins of RPL vis-a vis RIL, to their advantage. With the merger, there is just one number which it has to publish.
Not having to incur double tax cut on dividents sounds music to investors' though...

Gobama... faux pas???

Republicans say he will bankrupt the country.....more on this here.

hmmm..

The Nano debuts.

Interesting times, will it be a success?

IPL, not in India?

Whoa! seriously the state can't provide security for 7 matches being played across a duration of six weeks? Surely some heads should start rolling in an ideal world.

Don't get me wrong and I do agree that conducting the election is of utmost important compared to the frivolous cricket matches. Still you just need a heavy security cover for the polling and counting days, otherwise by and large the security apparatus will be quite free.

Is this something to do with Congress flexing it's muscle to meets it's own ends because only the states that are being ruled by their governments have been at the forefront of creating bottlenecks for the IPL. Whatever the reason, I think the powers that be should be made answerable to why they can't guarantee the security while the election process is on? Because if you go by that logic then the criminals can make a killing while the big brother is away trying to guard our right to vote in a peaceful and safe environment. Like that ever happens, truth be told they play their part in making sure that the government of the day gets an advantage over it's rivals.

Now coming onto the fact that 'Indian' Premiere league will be played in England or South Africa, it just doesn't have the same appeal as it was the last time around. Some how the second season no longer appeals to me any more, lets see if come April 10'th I'll even bother to catch it on television.

Sucks for the Haters

Freida Pinto will follow up her performance in the Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire" with a role in Woody Allen's latest project.

I don't see why people are after her acting skills. She has not gone around claiming that there are lot of hollywood projects in the pipeline waiting for her green signal or even that she is the most sought after 'desi' chica! She even enrolled herself in an acting course, which shows that she is willing to learn unlike others. You go girl!!

The 2009 TIME 100 Finalists

I'll stick my neck out and predict that it'll be Barack Obama who will end up with the top honors this year.

Pretty interesting list with Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani & surprise surprise Sonia Gandhi second year running, made it to the list from India. The question is will they make it into the top 100? I doubt that, maybe Indra Noyi stands a chance and that Business consultant Ram Charan might make it and then the whole of desiland can go ga ga over it.

BTW from when did Sonia G start to combat poverty?

Test hundred No.42

Take a bow little Man.

P.S: Was watching Sachin make all this happen in front of our eyes, the ultimate answer to our life, universe and everything?

Bonjour people!

Why? The quintessential question. Because. The omnipresent answer.
Circa in 2009, one of my friends asked me to contribute on his blog which was already on the verge of registering it's 100th post... I instantly identified the latent need... Why? A number of reasons...

A. The request was from someone to whom I d give my right arm when needed..
B. A recognized need to record and share random thoughts
C. To be a physically identifiable entity in the cosmos in the absence of SSN... :P

The owner of the blog has set the standards too high for me to meet n I already find myself looking around and nudging for space... I ll try to be true to 100% effect with watever I divulge to you about my musings.. This post marks the coming of the 100th post . The new year came with a bang, with a message that if your outlook is sunnier, you seemingly have more at stake than just hanging in there. So if you believe there might be light at the end of the tunnel, you will be motivated to persist through these hard times. It does'nt matter if you are naturally cheerful or a worrier, just hang in there.. future is yours... and so do I come with the 'Hope'... :P that I ll be accepted in good spirits...

So, from this day onwards, this blog shall contain everything - useless ramblings, candid confessions, special incidents et al!

Keep visiting and feel free to criticize/appreciate, as you deem fit!

A New Beginning

Almost reaching 100 posts in this blog and not only do I have it up & running but also updating it regularly. That is something new for me, usually by two weeks the enthusiasm tapers down and I let that be....that is till the itch starts again and the same cycle is repeated again. But not this time, so yay! for that. A sort of monotony has creeped into my posts and I was wondering what I could do to spice this blog up, easiest way would be to convert it into a picture blog. Not this time though, have done with being immature to an extent that I no longer miss being immature.

By now most of the loyal & 'regular' readers of this blog might have got enough perspective from the left side of the spectrum and it is only fair that we get something from the right side too. Starting today, this blog will be a collaborative effort. You'll start getting a wider take on things from Niki. Finally you might actually get to read something substantial and useful stuff rather than my inane rants

What can you expect from Niki? Well lets just say that if Niki is yin, I'm yang and vice-versa. We have different views on a whole range of issues but deep down both of us are the same. Rest assured 'there will be blood,' once we get down to our own flame wars.

Whom am I kidding, Niki is like my master and I the young padawan. So it would be a great disservice to my master if I say we are both equals and like always with my masters association with anything, this blog will be taken to the next level.

With this change, the blog is no longer mine so be nice, lest you face the wrath of Niki. Don't expect any more niceties over here, you play ball, fine. Otherwise you are messing with the wrong kind of person. So don't come back saying that I didn't warn you guys.

And... here…we.....go!

Chiru going places?

Publicity has always been his forte.

But an article in economist, sure is a big thing; that too about a regional party. Or does it tell us about his left leanings, which I am quite surprised that they have been kept at bay, specially with a couple of people in his inner circle.

Jon Stewart gets it right once again

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=220533

I simply love this man, best talk show ever. Comedy central FTW.

What have we got here

Pretty interesting piece of news this.

Can Marijuana Help Rescue California's Economy?

Finally, stop it already with this socialistic crap.

Europe's Economic Stimulus Message: Enough Already!

Would Love this.

Padma Shrimati

Abhi is the real Padma Shri, I'm his shrimati: Ash

As usual, rest of the interview is also in the same vein, cute lil romantic musings. Saif-Kareena have started it and these two are hell bent on taking this to a new level altogether. Some how these sort of things work only if there is a large market out there for tabloids but in India this is not the case like say in US or UK. Or maybe this is a precursor of things to come in India, a new age of stupidity and idiocracy of tabloid stars might be starting and I'm bang in the middle of it without even realizing this fact or am I in a denial mode?

P.S: Seriously does Padma sri or Padma bushan or 101 other Padma awards even mean anything to the awardees, public or the government? If they don't, why waste precious tax payers money which could be put to better use. If they do, then give to people who really deserve them, lest they mock at the awards like this. But on second thoughts do people who really deserve these kind of awards require or ask for this kind of recognition? That again brings us back to the point that these awards are nothing but a huge wastage of time & resources of the government.

P.P.S:

Celebrated journalist P. Sainath of "Every body loves a good draught" fame has refused a Padma Sri.

In his own inimitable style he said “Journalism should not be judged by government and journalists should not accept awards from governments they are covering or writing about.” Sainath compared it to “The external auditor of a company taking an award from the company he is auditing or scrutinizing.”

Watchmen

Don't even bother watching it on a rainy day, doing nothing is better than watching this crap because this will bore you even more. Leaving aside the fact that I watched it on a not so good print, still you need to wonder what Zack Synder of the infamous 300 trying to prove? That he can make a more visually appealing movie than his previous one or that people will come out in droves to watch this crap on the back of it's Graphic novel??

Only person who comes out of this with his reputation intact is Alan Moore, and that he did by not having anything to do with this project. This puts a lot of things into perspective as to why so many directors have backed off from going ahead with this movie. Sure it took a long time in making but may be it would have been better if it was never made into a motion picture.

Ah! one more childhood memory spoilt, don't know why I even bother getting excited about these adaptions even after some many screwups. I guess some blame even lies in me and from now on, no more getting swayed by the hype and getting all worked up like the loser fanboys. That means Terminator Salvation is just another movie coming to the theaters this summer.

LMAO

Apparently 65% of us have lied about reading the great works of literature. We needn't have bothered.

That article reminds me of something that happened a few years back, this happened while I was in my second year of under-grad. We were watching Lost world and suddenly this guys gets up and says that the movie is a big tosh. We ask him why he thinks so? He then goes on to say that already a movie by the name Jurrasic park was made based on a novel by Michael Crichton and this movie is taking it up from where the first movie has ended and that he being a big fan of Crichton is offended by the way they have bastardized the masterpiece. All along being ignorant to the fact that even this movie was adapted from a novel written by the same author. From that day onwards we were spared the BS from him.

International Women's Day

Oh well by now most of us know that every year on march 8'th, all and sundry get out and celebrate women. In effect telling us that being a women is or can only be celebrated once a year while being a male is something which has to be looked down upon as we still don't have any sort of international mens day or something like that. Lets not get into the whole cynical part of this.

Was browsing a forum a couple of hours back and one of the threads that got my attention was, Name your favorite women and believe you me there were the usual answers like Bipasa, Aishwarya & their ilk to even Sonia Gandhi etc.. but it was really disheartening to see that only a couple of them mentioned their mom or sisters as their favorite women. Only thing I can infer from this is that for everyone except that two, women are symbols of sex/pleasure and not revered as done according to the so called "Indian culture." I am generalizing a lot over here but I don't think I'll be far off from my observations even if the sample is taken from a broader population. Alas! the more things change, the same it'll be.

No matter how many days you earmark in the calendar to celebrate or bring out special supplements in the newspapers, you can't really liberate women, if you can't respect them and show them some dignity.

Cotton done. Now onto Brinjal eh!!

Protest against Bt brinjal field trials.

And as usual no one is listening.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/03/08/stories/2009030856872000.htm


Hasn't anyone learned from the cotton experience? Ya I'm for the second green revolution but this is surely not the way, better still to keep it the way it is then to poison our lands and destroy the social fabric.

P.S:

Monsanto's Many Attempts to Destroy All Seeds but Their Own.

If some one were to ask why free market is a bad idea, all you need to do is say "Monsanto" period.

Entr'acte

I know have been away for a while and will surely blog regularly after a couple of days but till then will leave a couple of things on which my regular & loyal readers can ponder upon....

M.K. Gandhi was all about not giving a damn to your material possessions but I guess I was wrong or my fellow countrymen have all of a sudden got a collective myopia. And oh the irony of a liquor baron coming to save the day, really if at all God exists & has a sense of humor then this must be it. Will do a detailed post later on this whole saga.

The other day I was watching Sound of music and my my how did I even miss it, the movie was such a big hit only because of one reason and lets see if anyone out there can guess it correctly.

On that note will take leave for now but surely will start blogging more regularly from monday.

INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF BARACK OBAMA

'We seek a new way forward.'

Not bad, I should say.

From 'I Have a Dream' to Obama Inauguration

W've heard it for the umpteenth time, so let's get over it and say that yeah Americans have risen above the racial prejudices or have they? Lets leave that discussion to some other time some other place.

Will Obama walk his talk of change or not is the million dollar question and his inaugural speech today should give us the first taste of what is in store for the Americans and the rest of the world.

Chandni Chowk to China

Movie is pathetic. Already had a headache from the morning, it got worse by the end of first half and by the end of the movie, it's surprising that my head didn't explode. It's either a satarical movie or a full fledged family drama, don't know why Warner bros even bothered to make this movie. Now, ok you've made a movie but why hype such a stupid movie, maybe it works in US but over here in India; take my word if the movie doesn't reach the expectations of the filmgoer, there would not be many takers for the movie from the second day itself.

You can avoid this movie like the plague.

how the financial crisis happened

The End of the Financial World as We Know It.

And

How to Repair a Broken Financial World.

Pretty boring

So checking out some options in blogger.

Welcome back

Guy Ritchie, after the hideous Swept away & Revolver, I was worried that you were gone for good but you're back in your elements with RocknRolla. Though the movie is not upto the standards of Snatch or LSASTB, it packs those stylish frames, gangsters, drugs, monies & undercurrent of humor which were associated with the movies you made in pre-madonna days. Good to see that you went back to your style and may you continue to do so with the upcoming Sherlock holmes. Is it a coincidence or what that you got back all that creativity after splitting up with the material girl.

Go for the movie and don't expect it to blow you away like LSASTB, but it does have all those ingredients that we expect of a Guy Ritchies' movie.

Viva la Rohit Sharma

He becomes the sixth player to score centuries in each innings in the Ranji Trophy finals. Sachin Tendulkar last did it in 1994-95 against Punjab. Mumbai on it's way of winning the Ranji Trophy for the 38'th time.

How we fuel Africa's bloodiest war

What is rarely mentioned is the great global heist of Congo's resources

Sierra leone, Rhodesia and the list goes on....Congo is no different and if you think people care how their materialistic gizmos are made or at whose cost then you are all in la la land. Soon after blood diamond came out a lot of my girl friends swore off diamonds & de beers but come the time to get married, they were the first ones to ask for so & so cuts/ makes etc etc. People will react and on an impulse will get all moralistic & stuff but won't follow them up by taking the necessary action for that to happen.

How much is two plus two?

Dewang Mehta, the head of the IT industry body NASSCOM for a good decade from 1991 to 2001, used to narrate a lovely anecdote that needs recounting now that the Satyam fraud has hit the false-roofing.

***

An Indian IT company wants to appoint an auditor to look at its books. It floats a global tender. Since it is an IT company with global standards, the bar is high, very high. And since it is an IT company with global standards, only the best and brightest are expected to walk away with the contract.

Over a dozen applications are received from around the world by the company. The applications are evaulated and a short list is prepared. There are three companies left in the race to bag the prestigious contract: A European company, an American company, and an Indian company.

On D-day, the chairman of the Indian IT company, known for his extremely humble beginnings, himself decides to be present as the interview panel fires questions at them.

The European auditors are called in first for the interview.

Since the chairman of the company, known for his extremely humble beginnings, is around, the interview panel decides to ask a very simple question to break the ice: “How much is two plus two?”

The Europeans are aghast. They pick up their folders and walk out in a huff, unable to stand the insult to their intelligence.

Next, the American auditors walk in. Again the same question: “How much is two plus two?”

The Americans boot up their laptops, open their spread sheets, work the numbers, and arrive at their answer to show proficient they are with modern technology.

Finally, the Indian auditors walk in.

“How much is two plus two?” asks the chairman.

The Indian auditors gesture the chairman to step out of the interview room for a while.

Outside, they ask him: “How much would you like it to be, Sir?”

LK Advani bitten by the blog bug.

Welcome, friends, to my blog. My young colleagues who have created this website told me that a political portal without a blog is like a letter without a signature. I quickly accepted this compelling logic.

Interesting first two posts, lets just hope that he doesn't make a fool out of himself like Omar Abdullah or is it a coincidence that the younger Abdullah became the Chief Minister and the grand old man is looking for the same sentiment to work on his side, this being the election year.

Slumdog Millionaire

Once in a life time, no sir! good movie, even that I doubt. Good time pass flick as good as any bollywood one.

Cops have a new weapon to bully you...

Information Technology Act's amendment bill 2006

India Sleepwalks Into a Surveillance Society

Does this mean no more porn or regular updates on what SRK wore for some fest in some fucked up function for me?

Interesting ideas

Wish atleast 1% of them become a reality in my lifetime.