Mr. Ponting, you need a break!

Just heard about Ricky Ponting's spat with the empire which is one of his many incidents of unruly behaviour on the filed. And the question asked was 'Is Mr. Ponting cricket's Mr.Shame?' which is of course, a very valid and reasonable question.

Was just wondering, that  a majority of the veteran cricketers and game experts agree that in the foreseeable future if there is anyone who has the slightest chance of  getting close to Sachin's record of maximum tons, its Ponting. And yet so much difference in the way people see these two cricketers who are undoubtedly the best in their business.

Some people are able to keep their feet on the ground despite their huge success, and may be thats what separates the greatest from the pack of greats. And the fact that Sachin was able to do it from an age of 16 is quite a remarkable thing and truly beyond words.

Confusing argument

Binayak Sen's life sentence has raised a quite a lot of eye brows. Some term it as pretty harsh and some, as complete failure of Indian judicial system.

I really don't know whether he is guilty, but the charge on him was of sedition which if proved right has to have a harsh statement. One can debate over the authenticity of the evidences and logic of the prosecution's argument, but once proved guilty, i don't think one has to expect any mercy for that serious charge.

And the argument that i get to hear repeatedly, is that why is he given such a cruel statement, when the rich and the powerful are getting away with their crimes.

Two things are to be noted here.

One, just because some people with influence are getting away, it makes no sense to let loose the less powerful people to what they want. No system is completely fool proof. We can work to improve it to catch the rich, powerful and the influential. But that doesn't mean we can turn our back on the smaller criminals till then. We need to keep filtering with filter that we have till we get a better one.

Two, the charge here was for sedition which is by far a very serious crime compared all the scandals the we ve had in the most scandalous year in the history of Independent India. The judgment has to be just and also act as deterrent for other people from joining enemy forces to conspire against the nation.

I only hope that if Binayak Sen innocent, he be freed with an apology. And if he is not, his sentence be upheld.

After dreaming for almost 8 years, I have finally my own bike. And trust me, it’s a wonderful feeling.

I finally have my Pulsar 180. Certainly not the most happening bike around, but definitely the most happening I could get in my budget!!

And also, once you own a bike, it’s like getting married. You have to love it no matter what. 

Though am not allowed to go above 55 kmph, am still loving it.

There were so many thoughts before I got the key in my hands. To buy or not to buy, 180 or 150, blue or red, but now with the key in my hands, am a happy man.

I remember it all started when Bajaj fellows aired the ‘Definitely male’ ad.  Those days, Plusar was by far the most stylish bike around with round headlight and a ‘raging bull’ look.

As a school going kid who had just learnt to drive a bike, I was completely fascinated by what this bike had to offer. And not just me, I guess it was on the wish list of all the guys in the neighborhood. 

8 years of waiting and I finally own one. Pulsar has come a long way since then. So have I.

Another stage of life completed. One more on the list of things to do before I die, accomplished.

I stand by you, Sir

I completely agree with Chidambaram’s statement about migrants in Delhi. Ignoring the facts completely to be politically correct is what Chidambaram refused to do and in my opinion, rightfully so.

I never saw any visual where he pointed to any particular community, yet Lalu comes up and says that his comments were an insult to Biharis is not just worth a ridicule but also very amusing. 

Chidambaram is by far the most elegant and well mannered minister India has ever had. He has shown his class in any portfolio he has handled, be it the Finance ministry or the Home ministry.

People like Sitaram Yechury and Lalu Prasad who have done basically nothing except giving ‘bhaaashans’  all their life ,don’t have any moral responsibility to point a finger on Mr. Chidambaram.

I d never to Manipal again, i would prefer Apollo

I am one of those guys to whom visting doctors is as tempting as it is for atheists to go to temple. But then at times, you are really left with no option. It was one such occasion and to minimize trauma, I chose to go to a hospital which claimed that ‘they care’. They had put posters everywhere outside the fences, just in case anyone didn’t know that some monthly had put them in the list of the best hospitals in India.

Yes am talking the famous Manipal Hospital, near Domlur in Bangalore. 

As I entered the hospital, it was quite evident that there was nothing good about this place, and unlike to their motto they really ‘didn’t care’.

Queues at the reception were empty though the main hall looked similar to a scene from HAL market. The lady at the counter, without even asking for my preference for the mode of payment, generated cash bills. When I said that I would have preferred payment through card, she said a loud and unapologetic ‘sorry’ as if she was telling me ‘get the hell of here and don’t teach me my job!’.

The file was given to me and I was supposed to carry this to the doctor. They also gave me card like one of those ATM cards. Till now I couldn’t figure out what purpose it served. For if it was just a proof of registration and nothing else, they could have done better with a plain bill. Those electronic cards can do a lot more than just use as registration card. May be the self proclaimed ‘India’s one of the best hospitals’ didn’t know that!

The experiences with the doc were no good either. Despite poking down my throat all the metal things that they had at their disposal, they couldn’t really find out what actually is my causing me discomfort. I wish they had only let me say it. They held my tongue with a cloth and asked me to say ‘eeeeeeeeeeeee’. 

How can u say ‘eeeeeeeee’ if your tongue is held by some one? And when I was almost on the verge of throwing up, she quiet efficiently transferred the blame of her inability to diagnose my problem on to my not being able to say ‘eeeeeeeee’ when my tongue was held by someone else!!  Its like Ashish Nehra saying that he couldn’t hit a century because somebody was walking by the side screen!

It cost me almost 890 bucks for the whole thing including blood tests which I had already done outside. And what did I gain in the end, nothing!

They send me home with a bunch of paper (Yes they kept the file with them). They could have at the least put all the reports in an envelope so that everything stays together.

Compare this to Apollo Hospitals (Not the Sagar Apollo)

You register; the file is taken by the secretary of the doc whom you want to see to them. You wait  for your turn in a very clean and neatly maintained lounge. When you are done with the doc, you file automatically reaches where you might have to conduct your tests. You don’t really have to know anything. At the end of visit, they hand you over a very neatly filed diagnosis report for the next follow-up.

Not just about the process they follow, they have excellent doctors. I went to Apollo for almost the same reason I visited Manipal.  For lesser cost, Apollo gave me quality service and what’s even more important, a lot more better treatment!

I swore that day, if I have to I would never ever go to Manipal again. 

The 'panchayathi' verdict

"I am proud belong to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions are true."

In the September of 1893,Swami Vivekananda's address to The World Congress of Religions in Chicago had opened the doors of India's philosophy to the western world.

Afer hearing the Ayodhya verdict and the reactions of the so called guardians of Hindutva, i wonder if this the same religion that Swami Vivekananda preached. 

A place of worship was vandalized. Instead of bringing the culprits to the book, Indian judiciary  try a compromise formula so that every one is happy. And some say, the court have shown 'courage'. i unfortunately cannot see any courage in verdict.


Funny that people kill to reclaim the land that they believe is 'Ram Janmabhhomi' and forget to follow the concept of sacrifice that the Lord symbolized. On the contrary, some of them go on record asking the Muslims to surrender even the 1/3rd of that land that has been allocated to them.

Many learned people have already commented on the unjust nature of the verdict, but what gets my goat is the fact the jury of the so called "wise men" took 16 years to deliver this "panchayathi" formula. Even an ordinary Indian housewife would have delivered this verdict in a week's time.

As a Hindu, i believe that all religions are true and all of them lead to The merciful. Vandalizing a place of worship is a crime not just by my faith but also by the rules of my land. The crime was witnessed by more than a million people on their TV sets and still the so called wise men of our society are bothered about the temple which may or may not have been demolished at a time when the Indian constitution itself did not exist. What about the demolition of the mosque?

As an Indian am disappointed and as a Hindu at heart, am ashamed. Because my religion teaches me to respect others' beliefs as much as i respect mine.

On this Independence day....

How many people here think that democracy is the best form of government??

I don't.

Democracy is perfect form of governance in a ideal sense. By ideal scenario, i mean where people are mature, intelligent,patriotic and economically sound enough to understand whats good for them as a nation.

Does a  real democracy exist in the current world?  

No it doesn't!

Is India not a democracy?? 

Yes it is, but not a complete democracy.

The president isn't elected.Neither are the governors! Even the election commissioner is not elected!!  There is still a provision for invoking emergency. There is a provision for invoking President's rule.

Is 100% democracy achievable??

It might be, but its not very practical

Then what is the best form of government?

I would say democratic dictatorship!

For example: US is a perfect example of democratic dictatorship. You elect the dictator and he is answerable only to a another select few dictators.

These are elected representatives, then why are they being called as dictators?

Because once they are elected, they become dictators till next elections. They are not punished for not following the manifesto, they can only be 'not elected'.

Once they are elected, people do not have any power to remove them unless there is a next election.

Which means, that if they want they can go on free run. But then they are elected and can be removed in the next term. But still they have powers till next term.

Is India an example of democratic dictatorship??

No, India is an example of dictatorial democracy.

Oh really?? so who is the dictator here?

There are many dictators here. Caste system is one dictator, Religion another. Corruption,Poverty,illiteracy, unemployment are other dictators. Similarly there are more less powerful dictators here and there.

Ha ha ha ha ha.....how can you call these as dictators?? They are just some of the problems that we face. These are the problems that any third world country would face. They are not dictators!

Yes they are. And they are more powerful than any other dictators the world has ever seen.

They are dictators, because its on the basis of these factors that we vote. We rarely dare to rise to disobey these dictators and think as a nation. We cry for our jawan when the nation goes to a war at Kargil. Our blood boils when our national symbols are taken hostage. Just when we think, we are going to break free from these dictators, they strike back. And ultimately they win. And we.....we forget all these and get busy with our daily chores!

They are dictators because they dictate the voters' mind. The guy from the backward caste votes for the guy who promises to increase their quota at the cost of merit. A religious die hard votes for the guy who promises to build temple on the disputed land. An impoverished labour who doesn't have enough money to serve his family a day's meal votes for the person who gives him 500 rupee note on an election rally!!

If these are not dictators, what are they??

Oh really, then how do we break free of these dictators?? You think these dictators can ever be eliminated??

Not unless we try.

Try....Try...huh? Do you think corruption can ever be eliminated??

No.

So you mean to say that these dictators will always be there??

Yes

So as per what you say, we can never be a perfect society?

No

So what can we do??

STRIVE

Strive to achieve a perfect society. Corruption cannot be eliminated. It can only be brought down. Bring it down. Resist whenever possible.

Educate people to think ahead of religion and caste.

Of course like the Rang de Basanti guys, you cannot go and shoot at corrupt politicians or organize a mass gathering.

Use the skill that you are gifted with, to do your bit.

Writers write blogs and books encouraging people to think as a nation. Painters, paint beautiful and meaningful pictures showing how good it be if can conquer these ghosts. People with good speaking skills, talk....talk talk till ur throat is dry on how we can play our role in nailing these evils.

Similarly people with other skills, do your bit.

Do something,

Even if its something as elementary as creating a facebook page, do it! Even if one guy is inspired out of it, he can be a source of inspiration to others.

And last but not the least, follow what you preach!

Perfection can only be pursued. It may never be acheived, but its definitely worth giving a try!!

A few good men(Software engineer's version)

The other day i recommended watching the movie, "A few good men" to my roommate. Little did i know, that it would have such impact on him. Now he recites Jack Nicholson's climax dialogue even while he is asleep! For those who haven't seen the movie, this is the scene that am talking about.



Its one of the best Jack Nicholson performances i ve ever seen. I don't think anybody could have portrayed the ego of a person who takes this amount of pride in what he does, better than him.

Coming back to my roommate, this thing happened the other day, while we were returning home after having our breakfast and he was repeating the Col. Jessep's lines for nth time(it was just 9:30 in the morning and he had already recited it enough times to make me think its logical not to count it), i thought that some where those lines had got embedded deep in his unconscious mind. And given a similar situation, the dialogues would flow of him even without his knowledge.

But he or rather we, cannot be working in a more different situation than Col. Jessup. We are all software engineers! We cannot possible encounter such a situation ....a situation where these lines would flow spontaneously of him.

And then i thought about the quality guys in my company!




Now read below:


                                                            SCENE 1
************************************************************************************

 Characters: Software engineer(SE) and Service Delivery Manager(SDM)
 Scenario: Conversation between a SDM and a developer(SE). Software engineer is accused of missing the deadlines by  SDM
 Location : Conference room 1

************************************************************************************
SDM: Any chance that you were not aware of the deadlines?

Software Engineer: Not aware of the deadlines?

SDM: Any chance that your colleagues ignored deadlines?

Software engineer: No

SDM: Any chance that you ignored the deadlines?

Software Engineer: Have you ever worked in prodouction support?

SDM: No

Software Engineer: Have you ever solved a Severity 1 issue?

SDM: No

Software engineer : Have you ever tested another man's code, asked him to test yours??

SDM: No

Software engineer: We follow deadlines son,
                        we follow deadline, or managers get screwed! Its that simple. Are we clear??
                    
SDM: Yes sir

Software engineer: ARE WE CLEAR

SDM: CRYSTAL!!




                                                             SCENE 2
************************************************************************************


 Characters: Software engineer(SE) and Service Delivery Manager(SDM)

 Scenario: Conversation between a SDM and a developer(SE). Software engineer is questioned for NC(non compliance) in the quarterly quality report
 Location : Conference room 1


************************************************************************************



Software engineer: You want answers??

SDM :I Think am entitled to

Developer: You want answers??

SDM: I want the truth!

Software engineer :

"YOU CANT HANDLE THE TRUTH!
Son, we live in a world thats run by softwares. And those softwares have to be developed and maintained by men with brains. Who's gonna do it? You? You, QA in charge?
I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for a non compliance and you curse the developers. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that this NC, while tragic, probably saved time. And my logic, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves time...

You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at team meetings, you want me to write that code. You need me to write that code.
We use words like process compliance,peer review,customer-satisfaction...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent developing something. You use 'em as a punchline.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very code I write, then questions the process compliance of my code! :-)

I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a workstation and write your own code. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!"
:-) :-) :-)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FACEBOOK IS A STUPID IDIOT

Very meaning full song!

How to make a good Blog curry

Welcome to phalana ttikaaana.

Today we will see how to make a good blog curry. Blog curry is an extremly delicious easy to make curry with lots of medicinal values and has known to cure diseases like boredom,loneliness,solitude,insomnia etc..

The ingredients to make this curry are

50  mg Ideas(Original)
10  mg common sense
10  mg English grammar
250 mg humor
Finely ground sarcasm according to taste.

Fry your ideas till they become golden brown.If you don't get any original fresh ideas, borrow it from other blogs!(Now a days Plagiarism is seen more as a virtue than an offense) Add chopped common sense to it and stir continuously till they become a homogenous mixture. Add a mix of nicely dried humor and melted sarcasm to it and allow it to boil till it becomes thick. Finally garnish with some good English grammar and allow it to settle.

Aur swaaadishhtt blog curry taiyaaaar! Best when served hot.

IF YOU THINK THAT THIS IS THE MOST STUPID DISGUSTING AND OBNOXIOUS BLOG YOU EVER CAME ACROSS,WATCH THIS:



JUST TO PROVE THAT THERE ARE THINGS IN THIS WORLD THAT ARE WORSE THAN THE BLOG U JUST READ :-)

And the mallus, watch this as well:

Food for thought!!

Why in most of the love stories mother agrees and father disagrees??

Because mother knows what is love.......and father knows what life is!!

A white paper on best practises of boozing!!

This blog is a result of 'kadi tapasya' done by me and my friends over a period of 6 years. This has been tested in bars from Kothamangalam to Amsterdam(Jaggu..hope you are reading this) and on brands ranging from 'Jawan' which cost 120 per liter to Jack Daniel's ( i dont know the price, i never paid for it :-)).
Readers(if any) are welcome to put their own research theories and also contradict with us provided that they meet the basic criteria which is given below.

1.Must have the ability to drink at least 6 pegs without puking.
2.Should have experience in this field for minimum five years without a gap of not more than 2 months.

So anyone who matches the above two criteria is all welcome to put up his hypothesis on this blog.

GOLDEN RULES OF BOOZING:

1.Never booze when upset. Booze only to celebrate.

2.Boozing is never addictive. So don't even try!!(to get addicted)

*. Never booze alone.

3.Call up your GF after the third peg. Tell her how much you love her and how nothing else matters to you other than her. When you ve had your third peg, you have this strange ability to speak as if there is no more blood flowing in your veins but alcohol and yet manage to be in control of what you speak.Girls are more often than not fool enough to believe that when a guy drinks, he speaks nothing but truth. Exploit this to the maximum!!

CAUTION:
Never call your GF after the 6th peg. Who knows you might just start speaking the truth!!!

4.Booze slowly and steadily. Booze to be on the high and not to tumble down and puke all over. If you just wanna sleep, try sleeping pills instead!

5.Never go by the society rules of taking sips. If you feel uncomfortable with the taste, gulp it down immediately. After all, the whole purpose is to get the kick! If its the taste that you are looking for, try ice cream!

6.Dip your finger in the spiciest of pickle, rub it on your tongue and exhale as soon as the liquor traces its way down your throat. Helps to overcome jerk which might be a result of resistance offered by your body. This may not be correct scientifically, test it your own risk.

This is applicable only if you are not a seasoned drinker!! For a seasoned drinker, there is no jerk in the first place!

7.Now this one is scientific .Drink a lot of water! Alcohol has a dehydrating effect on your body. So compensate for the lost water by drinking more(water of course!!)

8.Your liver generates in every 6 months(My friend says so and generally he is right!). So no matter how much u drink, you can always take break and start again!

To be continued......

Where is the passion??

Starting something of my own has always been a dream for me. And when you have a dream that you see with your eyes open everyday, your mind unconsciously works towards achieving it. At least i believe so.

I understand the risks involved in leaving a high paying job in one of the biggest IT companies to start-up your own business especially when you are just a 'toddler' in the industry with no previous experience in business. But then, that's how everything started. Those who succeeded were not exceptionally great men. They were also once like us who just believed in their dream.

Yet, there are so many people around who are convinced that i can never make it big. Why, because i am just 2 yrs old in the field. Because i will not get clients. Because i don't have initial investment. The list is unending.

But then without all this, so many companies started, and some of them managed to become "the changing face of India" and their leaders, "New gen enterprenurs".

"You will not understand the benefits of being in a job. You will understand it later" said a very matured friend of mine. Yeah i wouldn't understand. I can sit in this company and have people who i know are not half as capable as me, deliver me lectures on the process i should follow here. I really don't understand it, please help me understand.

"There are so many advantages of being salaried professional". I am sure there are! But they don't interest me. Ships would never drown if they stay in the harbor, but is that why ships are made for?

"Hey N, look Anoop is going to start a business. Why don't you invest some money?" V called out sarcastically to N

"What am i mad or what? Business...hhmmm. The guy is out of his minds. Dont worry he will be alright as he begins to understand the world"

Its always easy to take the easier path. The path that has been traversed by so many people before you and and will be traversed by so many after you. Does that excite you. Not me. I read somewhere that a very famous university conducted a study on two groups of people. One who wanted to make money, another who pursued what interested them. And they found that 20 years later, it was the latter who were richer than the former.

Its not about money. Its about doing what i feel like doing. Its about driving your own show. Its about eliminating all that i think is just a waste of time and resources and putting a better and more efficient working model.


A is a nice guy and happens to be my roommate. A is what you call a satisfied person,contented in all sense. His daily routines revolves around three 'S'. Sleeping, sex and shitting! He spends as much time in lavatory as he spends in his bed. And when he is not sleeping or shitting, he is thinking about sex. So much, that if mind-raping had been a punishable offense, he would have been awarded death sentences each day since he attained puberty.

Just before i started writing this blog, i had a big argument with him. As he got up from his 16 hour long sleep, i advised him to get up and do something with his life. He said he is thinking about it. He said he doesn't feel passionate anymore about anything. He blames it on his failed love. Nothing irritates me more! He said how he was passionate back then and since she left her, he lost interest in life. With this he walked to lavatory to experience what he says is a divine pleasure. One and half hours later he emerged with a satisfying look on his face. This was probably 5th or 6th time he had been to "London"(that's his code word for lavatory).

Then he advised me like a grand old man "There is more in life than this work"

Yeah i see that.He had kept the door of the bathroom open,just in case he wanna go back in, he need not take extra effort to open it!

"For you, starting your own business is a passion. But what after that. While you die, you cant take anything with u rite?"

"What nonsense" I was in no mood to give up. "At least i will not regret that i didn't do what i wanted to. Its not what you take with you while you die, its how you have been living your life till then. Life's is a journey and death is the destination. If i pursue my passion, i will enjoy my journey and embrace my destination without any regrets". I was rather surprised by own philosophical spontaneity. Lately i have become quite a philosopher. J would agree!

"That is your view point,Anoop. Just like you enjoy dreaming about the unachievable(sucker!! i wanna give a punch rite on his nose), i enjoy my sleep. I enjoy my food. Ultimately what matters is whether we are happy or not. Living my life like this gives me happiness." He has a point there and i cannot deny that!Though i simply cannot believe that anybody can be happy by living a life like that.

As i pen this,i don't know if he is really happy or he said that just to win the argument(he is in lavatory,anyways) but i am not happy. Am not at all satisfied. I cannot spend my whole life like this. I want to do what i love to do and not just "work".

And with a belief that someday i will be able to prove all these people wrong, i conclude.

PS: A is not as bad as he would seem in this post. He is a real nice person,rather a gem of a person.Just that, he is one big lazy bum and is suffering from never ending stomach disorder.

Nostalgic Videos!!

As i was youtubing around, i found this video. This was one of those good old NFDC presentation which would keep me glued to TV sets back when i was studying in primary school.



Now this led me to do a bit more youtubing in search of similar nostalgic videos. And then i found this one. I remember not missing a single episode of this 'MOGLI'.



More searching and i came across some of the good old ads. One of them is the "Hamara Bajaj" campaign. I remember back then most of Bajaj scooters would have "You just cant beat a Bajaj" caption on their Stephenie cover.As a kid, i used to stand in the space between the driver's seat and the handle with a lot of pride!



And the Lifebuoy ad: "Tandooristhi ki raksha kare Lifebuoy, Lifebuoy hai jahaan, Tandooristhi hain wahan"




And finally how can any Indian not have seen this video. The remake of this video by a popular production house was as disgusting it can get.In fact,to say it was disgusting would be a understatement. I didn't see a single word of praise from any one over the cyberspace for the newer version except the makers themselves and the actors in the video who claimed it be historical.Reminds me of sprite ad caption "logon ko paisa do, kuch bhi bol daalte hain"!



And now the remake version of this. This video seemed to me more than about achiever's kids than acheiver's themselves.The most disgusting part is when the song is retuned on the notes "aati kya khandal" for Aamir's screen presence.For me that was the lowest point. But then there are plenty of blunders in the video for every one to have a pick of their own. Shirtless Sallu, Deepika in minies...i wonder how they missed out Rakhi Sawant!

Kill IPL !

"An embattled IPL commissioner Lalit Modi refused on Saturday to resign from his post and dared BCCI to sack him at Monday's IPL governing council meeting. While the BCCI brass went into huddle to chalk out a strategy to remove him,Mr.Modi showed no signs of backin down"--The Hindu

Two weeks after setting in motion a sequence of events which would lead to the resignation of the man who is no stranger to controversies,Mr. Shashi Tharoor , Lalit Modi himself finds in troubled waters.Such is the impact of introdouction of Kerala team.  And here am thinking that malayalees have no role to play in IPL!!

For the past three days, IPL controversy has occupied the front page of all major news papers except TOI which chooses to put some sex scandal and pictures of bikini babes instead!Thats what i like about the TOI :-).

From allegations of rigging in the team allotment process to match-fixing, IPL seems to be unfolding enough melodrama to put Kavitha Kapoor's saaas-bahu soaps to shame. And its just started!

As a person who was very passionate about his cricket in his teens, i ve come to understand my cricket and hence  appreciate the beauty of a classic stroke play.For me batting is a bit more than bang bang.
In a 50 over match, you need to save your wicket and cannot throw your bat just at anything. Thats when the batsman's true skills are tested. In IPL, you just need to be bothered about 20 overs, which means there isnt a lot of need to save your wickets. Its just hit as much as you can or die doing so.

Thats not the only reason why don't like IPL.i dont feel the same passion seeing IPL that i get when i see India taking on Australia(forget Pakistanis, Australians are our new enemies!).

Sony's IPL campaign showed picking up sides in IPL as trendy and soon people started choosing their teams for support. The element of glamor involved also played its part in making the IPL popular. But do my hairs stand up like it does when Sachin faces Shoaib....naaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! I am a big time Sachin fan and hence i support MI, but even when they lose, i dont get that dejected feeling that i get when India loses to Australia. The only time i clapped hard was when Bhajji slapped Sreesanth! He long deserved one :-) didn't he?

And the fuss about IPL being a wonderful concept and a unique business model is again baseless.
It was ICL that came up with this idea in the first place. If not for BCCI's arm twisting and cut throat techniques to establish monopoly, IPL might have been a different story altogether. They didnt follow ethics of fair competition from day 1, but now when Shashi Tharoor come gate crashing to Modi's party and demanded that he give his state an IPL team, Modi's plans of making a few extra bucks for himself by allotting the ownership of the new teams to a premier industrial house of the country took a beating. An outraged Modi questioned the Tharoor's ethics, which triggered a chain of events which led Tharoor to resign from his ministerial post.

At least now he can tweet in peace!!

Little did Modi know that, his actions were to backfire on him sooner than he anticipated.Now he is on the brink of losing his job as IPL commissioner, if he hasnt already. And now BCCI is going to setup all kinds of enquiry commissions that you can possibly imagine (and some that you cant possibly imagine :-) ) against him. Poor Modi! Is this what you call "apne pairon pe khuladi maarna" ?

People who live in glass houses shouldnt throw stones at others.

Kapil Dev and the entire ICL team would be watching the events with a lot of interest.And why not,BCCI issued threats of bans and used its influence with the cricket boards of friendly countries to burn down ICL to ground. They should have something to cheer about after all.

A read from Neo's blog! Awesome!!!

Why it is meaningless to say you’re proud to be an Indian

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” – Barack Obama.

“More than you know it I’m aware,
Of this connection that we share.
I know it seems like sometimes I don’t care,
But you are the colors that I wear” – “3 AM”, Poets of the Fall.

“I’m proud to be an Indian ” – Twitterer, January 26th, 2010.

“You were an Indian in America, and now you’re an American in India. Always confused.” – Neo’s Uncle Abhay on Neo, January 26th 2010.

“What time is Lost?” – Neo, moments ago.

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On Republic Day, Uncle Abhay kept trying to get Neo to enjoy the parade, but Neo was more interested in spending quality time with his Google Reader, podcasts and wine – only two things were “dry” on Republic Day at Neoville: the municipal water supply, and Abhay’s throat because he couldn’t stop talking.

Uncle Abhay finally gave up: “Are you even an Indian? What the hell are you doing in India? Why did you come here? Aren’t you proud of being an Indian?”.

No.

Neo has plenty of time to listen to Raga Marwa, or wait for his turn at the traffic light, but he has no time to waste watching parades, waving the flag of any country, chanting slogans or reading @nevervotes92’s tweets on how he’s proud of being an Indian. Saying that you are proud of being an Indian isn’t much different than saying you’re proud to be born on a Monday – being an Indian is just a fact, not an achievement to be proud of. Would you be less proud if you were born Romanian, or on a Tuesday ? You could say you’re lucky to be an Indian – millions of Bangladeshis would agree.

The ridiculously sloganeered and caricatured shows of patriotism that occur in India (and every other country) on “national holidays” are an insult to the intelligence of its citizens. What happened to the thoughtful, deep India ? When did we choose gaudy weddings over happy marriages, not-stalgia and past glory over reality, rutty careers over our real aspirations, pretentious religious ceremonies over what they actually mean, deep-fried over grilled, elder-worship over thinking for ourselves, the display of money over tastefulness and rote-memorized slogans over an intuitive understanding of civic duty ? You can get a kid to recite “Mera Bharat Mahan” or the sugary-sweet “All Indians are my brother and sisters” until his face is blue, but he’s still not going to stop throwing his fucking candy wrapper on the road until a parent teaches him to.

And have you noticed ? Around the world, the more pathetic the condition of its citizens, the grander and more pretentious are the patriotic celebrations and the forced, fake statements of pride. If the Martians were watching the parades on TV, they’d think North Korea was the leader of the world. The lipstick on a prostitute gets more garishly red as dawn approaches, or as the drugs wear off.

A few of Neo’s family members and friends serve (proudly) in the Indian armed forces. None of them are impressed by the Facebook status updates, tweets and blog posts proclaiming pride for India on national holidays or disasters. This Republic day, Neo’s friend said “We serve in the army so the rest of you motherfuckers can be safe and change India, not so you can sit around forwarding patriotic songs and feel happy.”

How about we replace all the parades, speeches and sloganeering with a simple ceremony that honors the men and women who would run towards a gunshot rather than away from it ? The ceremony can end in a simple wish – “we honor the Indians who died for our country this year, and we hope our enemies will soon have the opportunity to die in very large numbers for their country.”

Hello, and welcome to Neo’s blog. He is Indian, and he’s proud of many things. But he’s not proud to be an Indian. He just is an Indian.
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Source url: http://neoindian.org/

Random Thoughts:State of journalism in our country!

Past few days news papers have been buzzing with Shoaib-Sania marriage. To add more fuel, Mr. Thackarey, the self declared guardian of "Bharatiyatha" went down to threaten Sania for falling in love in with a Pakistani. Man, this guy comes right out of cartoon network!!

A veteran journalist and a self proclaimed "Mr.Right" tweets about professional ethics of a journalist when he sees Shoaib Sania saga in the front pages of all major newspapers. And what does his channel do, they show live pictures of NSG commandos landing on the Nariman house.In his defense,he asserts that Govt. must have restricted them. There is no denying the fact the govt. and the army should have cordoned off the area, but does it take anything more than pure common sense to understand that showing live pictures of military operation can end up in a disaster? Its so obvious,that you have to be Rajdeep Sardesai not to have  foreseen that!! Did he forget the term 'collective responsibility' which he uses so often while he grills the top notch politicians of the country.No intentions of finger pointing at the gentleman, just wanted to say , if you cant do things right, go easy on preaching!

The media, in the present day, is just a medium to sell whats hot! Open up the middle page of the very famous TOI and there wont be a day when you wont see a bikini clad model there.There may not be anything wrong with that, but do you have to go to that level to increase your circulation. And we were the ones who screamed when FTV was launched in India.

Headlines Today is more about whats happening in reality shows. They seem to be more bothered about Shweta Tiwari wore in "Mujhe Jungle se bachao" or how "Rakhi ka swayamvar" is shaping up. Aaj Tak holds its own survey and always rates itself as the no.1 news channel. They seem to have taken a lesson from a very famous "management guru" who also runs a business school which also rates itself as better than the IIMs :-)

There was this incident when one of the very famous lady journalists in the present day, ventured into Kargil to show the world what women are capable of ! And she did show what she was capable of. Two jawans lost their life, when she flashed her camera at Pakistani forces, disclosing their position and making them a clean sitting duck. And God, did we see any remorse from her.

More surprisingly, this issue was never given due importance by the media.Did we see a discussion on "Big Fight" or "We, the people" whether journalists should be allowed on war front or not?
You spare nobody, but when its cases of  lapses on your own side,you play it down! How easy!

Quite recently, i saw this program 'Being a Muslim' on one of the premier news channels. They showed how they are the only ones in the entire country who treat muslims as our fellow brothers and the rest all of us working for their annihilation.I feel that particular feature would have done more good for to the terror recruiters than to anyone else.

There is no denying the fact that muslims do at times get subjected to stringent security checks. But we need to be aware of the fact that this is more required to in national interest and not aimed at creating a divide. In fact this is eliminate those who are hellbent on creating a divide. If we want to get away with stringent checks, we should make it a point that we don't blame the security agencies with terms "Intelligence failure" which is first thing the common man in the street speaks of, should he hears about a bomb blast. How easily we ignore how many of 26/11 s were avoided and nipped in the bud by our good guys. But that never seem to excite the  media nor the general public. .

'Tehelka tapes' were undoubtedly an important chapter in the history of Indian journalism. It showed the difference the media can make when it comes to exposing corruption to the public. Since then numerous sting operations have been undertaken, some genuine and some not so genuine ones. One good thing about the sting operation is that it brings about instant response. Today sting operations have also turned spicy! No am not referring to "Emotional Atyachar"!! Out of the 10 sting operations carried today, 6 are  to expose sex scandals. Not that these guys feel a lot for morality, its just it adds up more masala, more audience and hence a better TRP rating. Mission accomplished!!

The latest figure to be caught with his pants down was none other 'Baba Nithayananda'! Unlike all other times when the feeling was more of outrage, i felt rather amused by this episode. I mean the people who trusted this Godman or any other Godman for that reason, didn't deserve anything better. I feel pity for the "bhakts" but you asked for it, and so you got it! Nobody to blame.

Random thoughts on religion!!

Spirtuality is all about connecting to God and how do u do that? Simple, by connecting to your ownself. So do have to be in saffron and chant mantras to do that? No. Then why do people do that?


All religions have symbols,practices and beliefs. How did these beliefs come into existence. Once upon a time, there were so very intelligent people who found the path to connect to God. Like true scholars, they wanted other men also to discover this secret of life and attain moksha. When i say moksha, i donot mean anything thats after your death. You attain moksha when you discover the purpose of your life.

Since these people found that the common folks didnt have the bandwidth to understand their teachings, they tried to explain it to people by telling them a story.Its like your physics teacher explaining you nuclear reacton by linking the neutrons to Arjun's arrow which would multiply over the flight to its target. And the story covered all aspects of life. It stressed on all the values that all of must have heard from so many priests and swamys. Its a waste of html space to list them here.

And like the students we were, instead of understanding the core concept of God, the disciples of these great men gave more importance to the story and its characters. And so Ram,Allah,Jesus came into existence. The scholars , created characters in a way that ordinary people would relate them to their own local environment. To make it easy, they wrote the so called holy books. And thus, Quran,Geetha ,Bible and more holy scriptures came into existence.

There is always some essence of knowledge lost when you pass it to the next generation. Its like the game thats played most of the personality development classes, the instructor lines up people in a line and to the person standing first, he would whisper a message in his ears and would ask him to pass it down the queue in a similar fashion. The last person in the queue says the message loud and more often than not, its completely different from the original message.

Similarly generations later, the original message the true scholars had intended to pass on somewhere got lost and a completely different set of concepts emerged. The dumb disciples started respecting the scriptures,the characters and all the symbols that they thought identified them while completely ignoring the core message which the scholars had intended to deliver. The religion united people and with it came a false pride which seeked to destroy anyone who would question their practices. Soon there was a strong sense of competition between religions with their heads taking a dig at each other's traditions. Heads ordered,the disciples
obeyed and nobody dared to question.This happens to a lot of extent in the present age also.

As Imeperialism started showing its ugly side, the so called disciples took up a mission on civilzing people by passing on their misunderstood values and beliefs to the so called 'barabaric tribes' across continents. These barbarians on the other hand were more civilized as they had learnt to respect nature and to live in harmony with it where as the so called reformists were going on complicating their environment in attempt to make their life easy and in the process ended making it even more complicated. Rightly said in the movie "Gods must be crazy" as a result of that his children are sentenced to spend more than a decade in school and
college just to learn how to survive in the complexity.

Religion was no more about connecting god. It was now more about who dominated. The think tanks now spent more time on how to get people from other religions to to accept theirs and they didnt hesitate to use all possible means to do so.

And this continues till date.

Pray before you sleep, do what u feel is right and try not to hurt anyone, unless its a case of your own survival. I guess thats all u need to be spiritual. Saffron is just a colour and so is green and white. Bothering about them is just a waste of time. I d rather blog than thinking about it!!

A post from Prof. Ray Titus sir's blog.

'There are also other concerns expressed by academics. Will teachers flee for greener pastures? Will quality higher education become the exclusive privilege of the rich? Surely, these questions must be reflected upon before Sibal pushes through his reforms.'

I picked that out of an Outlook article on the Foreign universities Bill.

I wonder who these academics are who've expressed such concerns. May I venture to say, despite having raised 'pertinent' questions, the questions are also a reflection of their lack of understanding of the world of business.

Consider the questions.

The first one's about academics fleeing for greener pastures. I wish the academic who raised this question knew how factors of production behave in markets that allow for mobility. In such markets, factors go to wherever the returns are greater. For example, if you had capital to invest where would you consign it to? Into a venture that gives greater or lower returns? Labour too like capital, will seek those engagements that pay better. Of course, pay may not be the only consideration. But whatever the considerations are, labour will engage with those activities and institutions where it believes its returns will be enhanced.

The second question's about quality education being the exclusive privilege of the rich. The answer's pretty simple. That will depend on what the giver of that quality education is going to price it at. If it's going to be a premium price, of course it will be accessible solely to the rich. But lets assume there are stiff admission criterion set. The entry then will be available to the rich but intelligent ones. Let's again assume the banking industry is willing to finance studies in such institutions knowing fully well their graduates will be able to secure jobs that can pay back the education loan taken. Then maybe the middle class, intelligent kid who's taken a loan may also find access.

I'd recommend minimum sentiments when it comes to debating the Foreign universities bill, because sentiment clogs up rational thinking. Foreign universities aren't and mustn't be about anything other than more institutions that sell education services in this sector. The fallout of which is buyers will benefit, despite there being few.

Remember, the Blackberry is not accessible to all because of its pricing. But that's no reason for it not be sold. If some can buy the Blackberry, congratulations, if some can't, that's okay. Because they've got other basic mobile phone models they can buy from. Insisting Blackberry be available to all or not be available at all is simply stupid.
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The original post at http://buyerbehaviour.blogspot.com

Solitude

I always thought that i would keep this blog strictly non personal. And i wouldn't have any acquaintance know about this. May be it was because i was too shy to share my thoughts.

And then i stared following J. Thanks to her, i now realize and most important, i accept that blogging isn't for others to read.

Its more for our own self. And now i know the reason, why even i despite repeated attempts to control personal stuff getting to HTML format, i unknowingly write something out of my own personal space!!

Back in my previous city, where i was staying for past two years, i would never find time to blog. May be its because there were so many other things to do. And now here, i ve kinda become a regular blogger,completely unmindful of the potential psychological torture, the readers might just be subjected to! And that's may be because there s nothing else for me to do!

To some extent, i believe solitude is an important part of life, of course everything depends on how you approach it. Its good way to relax your mind and soul and to do a bit of self discovery. Its time to go back rediscover all those dreams you had nipped in the bud for all sorts of reasons. And I ve just begun to realize that!

How much salary is enough salary.

Very recently i quit company H and joined company O for a hike that raised quite a few eyebrows!! All the time when i was serving my notice period in company H, i thought the salary that i would be getting in my new company would be good enough to meet the ends and also to have decent savings. But little did i know, that with the new job would come a new location and which is as of today, giving Delhi and Mumbai a tough competition for "the most expensive city in India" status.

Welcome to bangalore!

Maddening traffic. Sky high rents. Street dogs chasing the bikes. Pubs, Malls, Discos,Multiplexes. 30 storey apartment complexes. 1 bhks within just 250 odd sqrft.

Just some of the common sights u d see here.

But not everything abt bangalore is bad. If u are single and eat outside daily, u have lots good clean and cheap places. The local population understands Hindi. So u dont have to learn the local language to bargain it out with the auto driver!

You have some real beautiful serene townships...like Defence colony in Indiranagar for instance. Was put up there during initial stay when company provided the accommodation. Couldnt believe that u can have such green place within a city which is known for its "Traffic blocks" and congested living quarters. Wonder, when would i have enough salary to buy a flat there!

For the last two weeks, i have been on house hunting mission but without much success. The rates they ask for a 1 bhk makes me faint! Cannot believe that its almost 3 times what i paid back in chennai and has lesser facilities!

When i got my offer letter, i thought it was a good enough salary for me to settle down in bangalore...and here am not even able to take a 1 bhk!!

I remember my mother telling me once that no matter however you earn, its only sometime before u get a feeling that u are not getting enough! To remain happy in
what you earn is quality in itself.

And that makes me think! Whether i want to be rich or to be happy? But are they not related somewhere? Some where yes! If you have the money to get what u want and do what u want to, u ll be happy! i will be. i get sad when i see my friends venturing into differnt things and i have to sit back and watch them just bcos i dont have financial bandwidth to do so. Agreed...that money is not sole reason for the happiness!But still........

So coming back to where i started.....how much salary is a good enough salary?
May be there is noting like a 'good enough salary'. With the increase in salary, the human greed also increases and our dissatisfaction with the pay is only resulting phenomenon.


PS:I know its a tottaly rubbish blog, but then i didnt have anything else to write on as of today!! :-)

Happy bday to me!!

And another year of my life goes by! Less midnight bday wishes and less excitement. I guess, am getting old!
Or may be its just that iam getting more lonely.

Reminds me of the good old days...back when we were in school, how my friends would pretend that they ve forgot my bday for the entire day and then before we left school, would ask me stay back and then.....surprise!

Though it was never a surprise( as i would always know about the surprise from the very begining itself) , it was always fun to be acting as if u were completely taken aback and that a surprise cake was the last thing u expected!!

College days were completely different! The standard practise of celebrating bday hadnt changed in decades in our college. The room mates would wake u up exactly at 12 and carry u to the tv room where everybody from the hostel(except the warden) would be already present to make a "dhol" of ur butt! They hit u so hard, that for the next few days u prefer to stand than to sit! And u cant say a word!!

In the final years, a new custom was also introduced where in they would drench u with cold water. And then comes cake cutting...

And then Hexaware days, corporate style. Team mates arrange a cake, they circle around u while they sing happy bday and u cut the cake. They wish, they eat and then they go! If u are lucky some guys would come and smash cake on ur face! But chances of that are very less! Pucca corporate style!

This time it was a complete aberration. Stood up in terrace at midnight hoping against all hopes for a call which never came. But somewhere inside i knew it wouldnt come. But there is no harm in pinning some hopes anyway! And after all things have changed quite drastically from last year. A call did come, from the best of my college mates. And some good old friends! Thank u guys! I started this year of my life with a smile bcos of u guys!

And so here am sitting in The company. The last 20 min while i was writing this blog, it was almost like a flash back for me. I thought this happened only in movies!!

My take on Women's reservation bill

The more i see a feminist, the more i am convinced of their uselessness in uplifting women's status in society. Its fair to believe that man and women compliment each other. However, to say that, men and women are equal on all fronts is closing your eyes to facts. God made men more physically powerfull than women so that they can protect them. Similarly God made women more emotional so that they can love their men and children and guide them to lead a proper life. This no where means that men shouldn't help their partner in kitchen or a woman shouldnt go to office. It just means that, in situations where men are supposed to lead, women should respect and allow them to do so. Same is expected of men in situations where a woman can handle things better.

Woman has always been portrayed as a symbol of motherhood and compassion from centuries. The most strongest bond between two humans is that between of mother and son.Women along with men also understand that these are no easy things. They should start taking pride in what they do instead of challenging men. To have peace family, man and woman shouldnt challenge each other, rather they should support each other.


Back in the days when men would go hunting for livelihood, women used to stay back at home taking care of the younger ones.There was nothing called like 'feminists' those days and there was no 'women's right commission' also. Since today you have less risky ways of earning your livelihood, the feminists started complaining for more freedom, liberty and god knows what all!

The point i am trying to make is that men and women are made for different purposes in life. There is nothing like that one is doing a more important job and another is incapable of doing it. What women do is no less important than what men do. Feminists should understand this more than the society as such, as i feel, the very reason they make so much noises is that they themselves feel inferior about themselves. Why would some one who feels to equal with their counterpart ask for reservation?

My take is that a person who is capable of being true representative should to go to parliament irrespective of his caste,creed,colour or sex. The only determining factor should be the ability of a person to lead the mass in all respects.Whether in the form of men or women...nation wants deserving leaders and not those people who takes the help of the unfair and a completely idiotic concept like reservation to reach the positions which would decide the future of the country.

RiN v/s Tide

The recent Rin ad has raised quite a few eyebrows here and there. There have been ad wars in the past between competing brands, most famous being the cola wars in 90s. But an outright attack of this type without an element of humor must be unprecedented in the history ad wars.
What made cola wars popular was the way the used to take a dig at each other, which more often than not, involved an element sarcastic humor.
However this one was more like a punch on Tide's face.It would be quite interesting to see how Tide would respond to this campaign.Seems like they have already filed a legal suit in Mumbai high court. But it wouldn't be surprising to see if Tide comes with a campaign of their in retaliation.

I followed Pepsi-Coca cola ad war with lot of interest which always displayed a lot of creativity in the way pulled each others legs but even in its peak time, i don't remember if they ever came up with such a direct assault on each other. Onida while taking a dig at Nokia, does take the name in the ad but does so in a very smart manner.Audience love when competing brands take a dig at each other, provided that they do it with an element of humor so that it remains in audience's minds for quite some time. Remember the famous Shahrukh-Hrithik fights over Coca-cola and the very funny Sprite-Mountain Dew campaigns.

Whatever it is, i personally felt disgusted seeing the ad as it violated all norms of healthy competition. Not just that, as a person who loves creative ads, i didn't find anything in the ad to say that it was even an 'OK ad' except for the acrimonious attack on a competitor brushing aside all business ethics.Time will only tell if this campaign is just a start of big dirty war between the HUL and P&G.

What a fortnight it had been!!

"When was the last time u did something for the first time" was the tag in my orkut status for past few days and not without reason!

Last few days have been phenomenal for me. We had a small get together with my college buddies at Alleppy in a houseboat. It was as good as any of our college tours. As the concentration of antiquity increased in our blood levels, our minds wandered back to those days of pure madness, leaving behind the corporate and professional etiquette. Thank u, Jaggu.....without you driving the show, this just wouldn't have been possible.
This would remain embedded in my memory for years to come.

Back in Hexaware, it was farewell time for me. When Shan spoke at length about my achievements in Hexaware and at my project, i wondered if i really deserved all that.When Hari said, that i was handpicked form the best of peoplesoft guys to get trained , i was completely rendered speechless. Final when Ram said "Make your mark wherever you go" i was inspired.

Two days later, it was again time for me to do something i had never done before. To fly and to fly in King Fisher. It was excited like a kid as i approached the airport. Sitting in the backseat of the cab whose bill would be reimbursed by the company, i felt like a King as i admired the streets of Chennai for one last time.

At the airport, it was quite easy to understand why KF is the most preferred airline. They were better looking, more cooperative and showed more skin than any of their competitors. The red bird herself was as such was not very smooth though.

Bangalore traffic drove me mad on Day1 itself. I was surprised to see drivers taking tickets while they are driving. What can be more risky on road...that too on roads of Bangalore.

Back in the company i had a dream start. I was late on day 1 which prompted the HR to speak a few words extra on the need to cultivate qualities like punctuality,sincerity, dedication and few more, which i had mugged up in primary school moral science classes.

The HR lady collecting the documents almost fainted when she saw the no. of arrears i had! She gave me a look which was her own way of asking me "What the hell are u doing here?". i just smiled giving my silent answer which remained same throughout all the viva exams,i attended in my engineering days "i don't know!"

First day at work. I was very excited to be called for a meeting. One and half hours later when i came out of the conference room, i felt as if i am coming out of Thrissurpuram. There was a customer escalation and so it was all "dddddimmmmmm" "ddddoooooommmmm" inside. People exploding here and there. I sat there wondering if i really belong to this place.

And now finally am leaving for the day. Back at my guest house, i get really good food. what makes it more special is the fact that its FREE! I hadnt been eating there as some idiot had told me that i would have to pay for the food!! So i need to compensate for the days lost also!

Why does a resource has to resign before his aspiratons are taken seriously?

I recently asked this question to the CEO himself when we had an open house. As expected there was no concrete answer, just display of anger which clearly showed that they didnt themselves have a clue!

For me their answer doesn't matter at all, as i would leave the company in another week.But is this approach from the company doing good to anybody? I seriously don't think so.

One of the excuses that was made by the top level HR was that 'you should go and ask your manager'. Yes we have to! I agree. But how many times? Is compromising your humility the only way to move up the ladder? In that sort of a scenario, it becomes more honorable to drop your papers and leave.

Its been more than 85 days since i have resigned. There were no talks for the first three weeks. Then people came for 'casual talk'. 8 weeks later they began to sound serious! And now, it seems that they want me to undergo some mental stress exercises before i leave!

I wonder if it serves any purpose.

Why do people have to mix personal and professional things? They say they don't! But if they hadn't, why display emotions?

Probably the best way to keep your calm in such situation is keep telling yourself thats its just another 5 days more and hope that your next employer has some standard.

Mumbai Stands in support of its 'King'

I am not a Shahrukh fan by any chance but i sincerely hope that MNIK be a huge success.Not because the movie is good(i heard its phenomenal, i dont know, i have not seen it so far), but because people who do anything for cheap publicity should be hit and hit hard. Voicing an opinion over an incident is one thing and issuing threats of violence is another. While the former is guaranteed under our fundamental rights, the latter has to be dealt strongly. Its high time that we place these kind of vandals in the same category as SIMI or IM.

Maharashtra govt and the state police deserves a pat on the back for giving the multiplex owners the confidence they needed by dragging the culprits on to jail. Only wish they had done this during last valentine's eve when the so called Moral police resorted to physical abuse on women. Its irony that people who cant respect women themselves claim to safeguard a state's cultural identity.

I remember somebody had tweeted that "Shiv sena and MNS are nothing but political Rakhi Sawant". I cannot agree more.

Lots of respects to Shahrukh for standing up to these guys threats. I guess people like Saif and KJo will learn a lesson or two from this incident.

What do u need to do to be a successfull blogger?

Some people write very often while some use Shakespearean language. Some people write simple funny stuff.

So what are a good blogger's attributes and ultimately what makes a great blog. Recently i have been reading and following a lot of them. Especially after one of my well wisher called one of my blogs as "pukka idiotic". Must say it was an eye opener :)

I finished reading Chetan Bhagat's 2 States. I think he is one person who proved that two write a gr8 novel, all that you need is a catchy theme and a great story, something that strikes the right chords. Gone are those days when language used to define the quality of a novel. I believe its ultimately the reach of your writing that matters.To write a classic, u d still need gr8 language but whats the point when you are not able to understand some of those 'majestic words'

So coming back to the original topic......what makes a great blog?

It should depend on the reader. Some people read blog because they are keen about knowing more about some thing, some because they want to improve their language(myself) and some because they don't have anything else to do(me again). There may be a lot more reasons for people reading a blog,these are just few things that come to my mind.

To write a great blog, probably u need to understand your audience and what they expect you to write. I am in the process already! May be next time i write, i ll do better :)

Mile Sur mera tumhaaara :)

The latest avtaar of "mile sur mera tumhaaara" strengthens my belief in age old saying "old is gold". Not just the new version fails to strike the right chord, it fails completely as a song for national integration. The musical part of was the most disgusting part of it. Imagine the song being sung in "aaathi kya khandaaala" tune. And thats not all, Salman without shirt,Deepika Padukone in minis,Shahrukh acting as if he doing romantic no. in one of his stereotype lover boy roles.

I wonder why they missed out on Rakhi Sawant! :)

It surprises me how the whole video doesnt actually features acheivers rather the focus is on acheivers' kids. Am not sure if that sends out a right message.

For a change , i think they should have included few more people like Udhav Thackrey,Muthalik and also Mayawati and her statues.
This people contributed more to uniting India(though not intentionally :) )than anyone else in the recent past.

Am maturing as a blogger :)

So this is going to be my third post. I had planned for a pretty serious blog when i started it off. I thought,through idiotoscope, i will give my angle to things happening around. And here i am today,writing about nothing in particular! Thats me ;)

I have been visiting lots of blogs in the past few days, in an attempt to find what people around me are blogging on. And i was surprised to see the kind of widgets some of them have employed. Being an amateur i never thought such widgets even existed!

I have also managed to embed some of them to idiotoscope.But seems like my template has its limitations. Twitter buttons,shout box, sitemeter and so many more.The best part is all of them are for free.

Only god knows how my blog looks like now, after i put in all that widgets. I do believe in the old saying:'too many cooks spoil the broth'.Somebody post a comment on how it is and how i should be improving...please :)


Another thing i noticed about some very good blogs were that they followed KISS policy. KISS is of course the very famous "keep it short and simple". I have subscribed to a blog called Buyer's Behaviour by a gentleman called Prof. Ray Titus. Must say i found some high quality stuff in his blogs. The language and the logic used in his blogs are a class part.

3 idiots controversy through idiotoscope

So another year goes by. Quite an eventful year. The nascent energy of the new year sprouts out new hope. And what better way to start new year than by watching "3 idiots". A thought provoking movie in the light due to all wrong reasons. I still couldn't understand why the makers of the movie are so reluctant to share the credit with Mr. Bhagat. There is no denying the fact the movie is a good more than just 2 or 3% of FPS. And anyone who would have read the book and seen the movie would very clearly know that. And by sharing the credit with Mr.Bhagat, i don't see anybody losing out on anything.

This and all makes one wonder if this fights and war of words aren't just a publicity stunt. Considering the fact that both the movie and the book is benefited by this, this is pretty cost effective way of advertising. And if it is not, the people who are in charge of advertising should take a look at it in that perspective. Cost effective because you don't have to pay anything for airing your advertisements. The gossip hungry channels would always pick it up for free. With all due respect to the television media, the reason why they pick it up is basically because the public is gossip hungry! And its not just one side that is benefited here. I guess this is a perfect example of SYMBIOSIS.

Secondly this kind of publicity is more effective than showing trailers on music channels simply because this gets every body talking and the word gets spread. So next time you visit a bookshop and see a copy FPS, you think about the press conferences and the gentleman shouting "SHUT UP". Some one wise once said "Any kind of publicity is good publicity". Though i don't believe it is correct always, but it works if you are advertising movies. There has been various occasions where the makers of themselves circulated wild gossips to get attention of people.

I don't say that this was all fabricated to grab the attention of people. I just want to say if it is so, its creative thinking by the advertising managers.I would call this innovative marketing though it can be debated if it is ethical or not. Yes they are making fool out of the common man, but then some of advertisements also do same. Now if Mr. CB and Mr.VVC shake hands and finish of this issue, it can bring a perfect end it to the whole saga and every body stands benefited out of this. The book and the movies gets noticed and the tv channels get their TRP ratings.Even the gossip hungry public is also kept happy.

I wont be surprised if lot of advertising managers resort to similar tactics for advertising their products in near future. Especially in times of recession when you have a very strict budget controls, this is quite an effective way of making public notice.

Mr.Khan is himself famous for his unconventional methods of grabbing public attention for his movies.I would believe that "Mr.Perfectionist" tag that he carries itself is one good way of turning heads.Before Mangal Pandey was released there was a lot of stuff circulating in the media about how he had prepared himself for two long years for the movie. Before the release of Ghulam, i remember him saying in one of the interview how he hadn't washed his face for a week for a particular scene. And the list is long. When you hear that kind of stuff, unknowingly it stirs your interest in the movie. And that's what he capitalizes on and that's what any advertisement is aimed at. And i don't see anything unethical in this. If what he is doing is wrong, then its wrong to air advertisements also.I have great respects for Mr.Khan. And i don't know if really intends publicity by his actions or not.But if you look through IDIOTOSCOPE, this is what you will see!


I read FPS during my college days.Needless to say that it strikes the right chord with the youth and no wonder its still one of the most popular books amongst the college going guys.3 idiots is an equally good movie, i can see there has been a lot of effort taken to make a movie out of the book. The makers deserve their due of credit but so does Mr.Bhagat as seeds were planted by him.