Unhandled Exception

Stopping Tiger Woods on a Snowy evening II

2010-02-08T13:34:00.000-08:00

Though this gentleman has already made an Elin version I am writing my own Tiger Woods version of the fiasco - Here goes

Which club she held the caddy knows
My birdie game was over though
No one had seen me f%&* around
Or saw my texts or checked my dough

The Escalade must think it queer
To smash into the Hydrant near
My Windermere home with Mrs awake
I shudder thinking 300 million at stake

She calls 911 I dare to shake
She tells me Ive done a huge mistake
The only other sound seems TMZ
Of easy scandal if Rachel Spake

Tiger's Woods are lonely dark and deep
I have my prenup agreement to keep
And holes to go before I sleep
And holes to go before I sleep ...

Courts and Bans

2010-01-06T15:35:00.000-08:00

A Mumbai HC Bench recently upheld a ban on the Book - Islam - A Concept of Political World Invasion by Muslims by R. V. Bhasin.

Firstly this anachronistic Judgment in the time of internet and e-books not only highlights the ineptitude of the Indian judiciary (not to mention its decades long prosecution delays and pilfering judges) but also raises the serious question of how the authorities or the nation itself which ever so tightly controlled the media and public information in the past handle the enormous sea of information that the internet offers! No form of information can be banned or censored as there are a million ways to avoid it. The publisher may not make money but the writer can simply email the soft copy to millions of people or upload it to a website or ask people to take printouts and distribute. The speed of promoting a fact has increased exponentially with the internet as propagating any information incurs minimal delay. There are millions of ways to encrypt, surpass censor, anonymize and promote any form of data. It is also very simple to cross check facts as most ancient manuscripts and documents are digitized and uploaded onto many independent websites which serve as evidence for any publication making it open to both scrutiny and critique.

While the hysteria and slander should be downplayed and discouraged as bad taste, the concept of banning information is dead. The court has little control over the internet. The internet provides a real platform for freedom of speech and expression free from any control. Even the Chinese Government has given up trying to run the Great firewall. The use of rotating proxies, onion routing, hacked boxes, encrypted/private browsing, anonymous remote sessions, P2P file sharing and TV, coupled with cheap printing, mobile devices, ever increasing network speeds and ease of access has downplayed all attempts to control the internet since it is so easy now to thwart censorship. The government cant shut down the internet as without it the communication systems and hence the economy will literally collapse.

Be it the Mohammed Cartoons, M.F. Hussains paintings of Hindu deities, Marathi play Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoy, this book, Jaswant Singhs Book on Jinnah, movies Parzania or Da Vinci Code, no form of any human created work of art/literature/ciritique can be ever banned. It can be criticized, questioned, doubted, debated, shunned, downplayed or contested. But it cannot be banned. As Print media dies in the next few years (It will start in India as soon as 3G with cheap plans become a reality) and 3G wireless data network being unleashed in India in the middle of this year, there will be instant access to the internet via cheap netbooks and cheaper and powerful phones to millions in the country without connectivity. It wont take more than a few months before educated Indians will start using the internet like Americans do which makes them more likely to behave like them too. I wonder how will the Indian Government handle the sea of information on say the Islamic atrocities in Muslim India or say massacre of British wives and Children by the Mutineers of 1857 or the atrocities done by XYZ community or ABC person or millions of hate communities, online fraud, harassment, fake identities and criminal activity that it will unleash. While this sounds bizarre the real losers are the extremists (mostly Muslims) because they are the ones who quickly get indoctrinated over the internet faster than the world realizes the threat. With mobile internet it will become an even larger problem as extremists from any communities will start seeing/reading content focused and targeted at indoctrination and brainwashing being sent to them via Social Media/email/MMS/blogs/X-tubes/photos not passively but on demand on the minute.

Moreover the court should re-examine its own verdict which says that the book will incite violence, when in fact it should have questioned why books, cartoons or any publication should ever call for violent behavior from any group? The concept of a free civil society revolves more or less upon how serious the administration or constitution of the country is in protecting the rights of the people. Curbing freedom in any form is equivalent to not giving freedom at all which is similar to denying justice.

After All the Quran itself (which is nothing more than a 7th century goatherd's laments) call for violence against infidels (us free citizens), then why doesn't the court ban it? There are numerous lines in the new testament too that call for punishment of those who don't believe in the end of days too. If I published something like this satirical poster of Gay Jesus with Mohammed, or made lascivious jokes about Sita and Ravana would the court say that I am inciting violence? Will it ban this blog? Will it recall all emails I send with this message (citing the actual verses from the official books)? Will it erase this from the minds of the people who read it? Well it cannot, let them try I can guarantee that they can't. Once I hit the publish button its there, archived and cached, stored securely in multiple hard drives, printed out by people who care, reposted, quoted, linked, copied, cited and debated. I hope our archaic ways of banning books and hiding truth or curbing debate are done away with for good!

Update: The absurdity continues nearly 2 years since I originally wrote this with Kapil Sibal asking Google and Facebook to human screen every post. Sigh :(

The Journey

2009-11-04T23:45:00.000-08:00

I found myself at crossroads often
I took that road the one less taken
Although they said it ain't worth it
I knew that they were all mistaken

Onward I trod with a bold resolve
Kept on following my spirit divine
Through dark woods through shady streets
Through lonesome trails through crowded line

Task after task Herculean each
I had to endure the perils and dreads
As every milestone came and went
Both soul and sole had visible treads

I claimed that glory comes as a fruit
I aimed to clinch the olive wreath
As I vanquished the demons and ghosts
I even mocked at mighty death

But as the journey went on forth
To the edges of the world I'd ever been shown
The great Rewards I eagerly sought
Seemed I could never come to own

The trophies I craved as the justful end
The titles and fame for wanting to dare
The urge to bet and play the game
All seemed less thrillsome I stopped to care

I paused and stared back at my past
The ungotten accolades the unwon triumph
I failed to grasp why I was forsaken
Why my ways were now causing me to slump

And as I stared down deep onto my self
Etched upon and forever to stay
Were the humble scars and the enduring signs
Of all those gusty and perilous ways

Alas it all quite came to me
Grandeur isn't there to attain
The journey, the trials and the travails of life
Are the real fruit, which is worth the pain

- Theodore "Todd" Klarke (thats actually my western name)

Pakistan's Bhasmasur Moment

2009-10-11T17:06:00.000-07:00

This week marked 8 years of Unites States Presence in Afghanistan after Bush ordered attack on Taliban controlled Afghanistan using the Northern Alliance of Late Ahmad Shah Masood in late 2001. Lot of events have happened after that. Almost every nation on the planet (barring Latin America) has been involved in some way or other with Islamic militancy and terrorism. Everybody knows but is not saying that the centre of all this is Pakistan and is funded by Arab oil funded Wahabbi Sunni Islam and Iranian Oil funded Shi'ite Militancy. Leading analysts and states-personnel are wary of how to handle the countering of Islamic terrorism.

Interestingly from a India-Pakistan conflict standpoint, Pakistan has seen more suicide attacks and casualties on its own land since 2006 than India has seen from start of Islamic militancy in late 1980s. This weekend Pakistan's Army Headquarters was attacked by Taliban. After this embarrassing standoff Pakistan is more and more having its Bhasmasur Moment.
You may know the legend of Bhasmasura, who was the demon who had the vardaan that he would turn anything he touched into ash. And eventually he turned one Lord Shiva and other devas after which Vishnu intervened in Mohini roopa and made Bhasmasur touch his own head.

Pakistan is now reaping with dividends what it sowed. The much praised dud operations in Swat valley seem to have only increased teh Zeal of the Taliban Militants. It is not surprising that Muslims in Indian Kashmir (forgive me for the political correctness wrt the west), have become wary of both independence and Pakistan. An Independent or Pakistani Kashmir will only lead to the doom of their life and livelihoods.

So Pakistan has a double whammy against it. First - It had almost lost the Kashmir war, and the Kashmir issue has tilted in Indias favor thanks to the Taliban attacks and instability in Pakistan. This undermines the only reason of Pakistans existence which claimed a nation for Subcontinental Muslims. The second whammy is the threat to Pakistan from US's weariness in Afghanistan. With huge natural gas supply boost from Alaska, Canada and Russia, the Afghan gas reserves no longer seem a good prospect for any US company. Also day in and day out from radio and TV shows in US the US feels that the only way to negotiate with the Taliban is like compromising with the enemy. This will only boost the resolve of Taliban. Every intelligent man knows that Taliban, Al Qaeda, LET, Hamas, Hezbolla, Mehdi Army, The regular armies of Pakistan, Afghan tribal Fighters, Militant Uighurs, radical Indonesians all form not a loosely connected force, but a strong ideologically connected Muslim army at war with the infidel world.

The biggest mistake the west and US is making is that it feels that the terrorists are a separate entity from the regular civilians. A recent explosion in Peshawar, the accused was a respected school teacher and was aiming at blowing up US and UK troops in Afghanistan. The school teacher was arrested and was remorseful for killing Pakistanis but said he will beg Allah for another opportunity to kill Americans or Britishers. What kind of moderation is this? All around the Muslim world an increasing majority of people are now baying for the blood of Indians(Hindus), Israelis (Jews) and Christians (US and UK). It should be noted that this is completely different from the earlier presumed notion that the majority Muslims were moderate and only a select minority were brainwashed for Jihad. From Britain and Denmark to Nigeria and Philippines, everyone is

Muslim faith is only nourished by the oil and natural gas money that flows into the Middle East and North Africa. Other than that there is drug money from Marijuana that grows in Central Asia. Although on the outside, this may not seem to be a holy war, but in reality the entire muslim world is indefinitely at war with the Infidels. They are bolstered not only by the violent words of the Quran, but also by the oil-drug money and nuclear capabilities of Pakistan, Iran, Libya.

If the US negotiates with terrorist Taliban - It is bound to commit a huge blunder that will rip Pakistan apart and create a huge threat of global Islamic Terrorism more formidable than ever.

Poem time - For Software Engineers/Programmers only

2009-05-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

Ode To The Codesmith

The die is cast in the brain storming session
Specs, docs, designs outline the mission
As every hour passes the deadline looms
The focus then moves off the conference rooms

Deep in the mire of the cubicle maze
Blending in the mist of the LCD haze
Armed with all high tech gizmos to play
The legendary codesmith toils night and day

Powered by caffeine and Diet Coke
Bemused so often by the mathematical joke
The codesmith has no sense of earthly time
His clock just ticks at a bit wise rhyme

The cubicle looks like a scientist’s den
With unopened figurines and light saber pens
And spaceships and toy trains and robots for gimmicks
Darth Vader and Cartman and Sméagol he mimics

He downloads and installs all tools of the trade
Just as the swordswright welds the blade
The codesmith gets the machines to train
And make them behave like a human brain

Alas, this is easier said than done
Software battles are seldom won
As soon as the coders may pull the plug
There appears the dreaded and treacherous bug

With break points and logs and step run modes
The codesmiths try to cleanse their code
Though his lieutenants (QA) will try their best
The codesmith himself does all sanity tests

The battle still on, the managers speak
The program is scheduled for release next week
The codesmiths will putsch for a final stand
Their battle cry reads "nothing should hang"

And then as the dreaded release day dawns
Bloodshot-eyed they trickle in with incessant yawns
As the CEO speaks, they listen, all breathing bated
"Gentlemen, the software we released is already outdated"

- Shriniwas K

This is a ~~program~~ poem I wrote as a tribute to all software engineers! - enjoy responsibly - and excuse/forgive me for using the male gender in the poem. Also I wanted all to be in this note, but there is a limit of 30 tags (duh why 30? I would have accepted even 32, 64,128 or 256 but 30 ????)

Comments welcome!

© Creative Commons Attribution - All the copyrighted names used belong to their respective owners...

Money As Debt Series

2009-01-31T22:51:00.000-08:00

Two must watch videos!

Understand the Credit Crisis

Watch This Please to understand Money

Whew Finally I am done with the academic world

2008-12-09T20:29:00.001-08:00

At last - After 21 months of nerves, Monster (which I think is better than Red Bull) powered night outs, a seemingly impossible to do thesis, lots of anticlimactic exams and 4 semesters, I finished my MS in Computer Science from ASU.

Hopefully thing will turn around in a few months...

MS was a nice experience and it has gotten me much needed maturity as a professional. Also my present workplace (although it has very small teams and not many employees) has taught me to be much more professional and independent as a software developer than I could have ever been in PSPL or in any Indian company.

So far so good - keeping my fingers crossed!

Caste - Justice Vs Opportunity

2008-06-22T16:55:00.001-07:00

I feel no shame for the crimes of my forefathers. Reservations were a painful phase of every "open category" students' life - The inefficiency of caste based reservations and the wastage of valuable Government resources were fiery topics of debate, they were a cause of anguish for many hard working students, the result probably was exactly to make upper castes feel bad that they were born in that caste. In vengeance, the open category students detest the backward caste students even more - what kind of foolish social justice is this?

Ranking backwardness by any standard is wrong - race, religion, sex, caste, descent or patronage. Equal opportunity should be equal opportunity - in education - housing - jobs - benefits.

The Indian caste based reservation policy is only reserving opportunity as a solution to provide justice.
Social amalgamation of the untouchables and tribes was successfully implemented via reservations - but do we still have caste free society - no. Social Justice to the "backward" seems a legitimate step forward. For years we (the upper classes) exploited, oppressed and nearly crucified the untouchables (Harijans) and the tribal folk (Adivasis). How to mete out social justice in a modern democracy seems to be a forgotten question now. Its just a rat-race for quotas and percentages and petty political games.

Providing "Social" justice is more about social cleansing and healing of feelings than economic assistance. A reserved class IIT-ian or IIM-ite is still shunned by upper castes when she/he goes to temples or when in upper class company.

Each caste, sub caste and tribe has a case by case basis story in history and the only way to provide them social justice is to hear their case and raise their social standard. Economic help will never alleviate the "backwardness" as it was social and mentality based backwardness.

Let us separate the 2 domains economy and society to provide the necessary social justice - each caste should have educated representatives battle out social justice issues (not reservations, quotas or scholarships).

We have to make SC ST OBC DT NT all these categories feel proud that they belong to such and such caste (irrespective of whether they get jobs, get funds or get seats in top notch institutions) - they should be brought to the same level of upper castes not by economy but by pride. That will only happen if we launch a forum of caste based justice and decide on the right solution for each caste.
From the ashes of the reservation policy and Mandalization, we should construct a new social justice system - a true tribute to Dr Ambedkar's vision of caste free India.

Proud or what

2007-10-07T01:37:00.000-07:00

There seems to be such a hullabaloo of India's rising stock market and our so called booming economy, growing cellphone usage and many spin-doctored figures that people "proudly" forget the 2 most inhuman and shameful features of our nation - hunger and sex-based discrimination

Hunger and Destitude -

The WHO, FAO and UNDP have found that India's number of hungry and undernourished increased in the last decade and suspect that it still is increasing due to lack of reach to them from any of the concerned. Shows how much our media and our government is out of touch from the harsh realities. Here are some articles.
http://www.iies.su.se/publications/seminarpapers/699.pdf
http://www.mospi.nic.in/mospi_social_pr.htm

Numbers - though we have 6 billionaires in the top 20, at least 233 million - a staggering fourth of our country is still hungry and does not get 2 square meals.
another 37.1 % people are below the poverty lines which suggests that only a third of the poor are able to feed themselves fully despite having the world's largest grain reserves and potential to buy out the shortage of rice and a vast PDS. Causes extreme strife, school dropouts, rise in crime and social backwardness and ignorance and disharmony with the big picture.

The growing discord between impoverished masses has led to communist revolt in the eastern belt from Nepal to Kerala and from Vidarbha to Assam thanks to the strong presence of the Communists in Eastern India and Nepal and the source of revolution that is present in our powerful neighbour. The sting-operation-obsessed, spin doctored news channel oriented and haplessly retarded media of ours has neither the courage nor the conviction of reporting any of this.

Sexual Discrimination against Women -

Although well known and documented, the statistics and numbers still show rise in the massive scale of injustice meted out against women in India.
Lower estimates itself say are that 42 Million - that is 4.2 crore Girl infants and foetuses were killed in cold blood by our people upto 2001. (Leading were those who were educated, wealthy and having access to the world class health services) The sex ratio is so skewed in Punjab, Haryana, North Rajasthan and Gujarat and now spread widely all over the nations big cities that trafficking of women has increased and women are being sold as commodities in all these places. Human and girl trafficking has reached new heights with victims being innocent children mostly girls being sold off in big cities into flesh trade.

Not only this women in India are still subject to more torture domestically, including forced work, teenage pregnancy, denial of education or health care and purposeful undernourishment to favour the male child in the house. Add to it the bane of dowry violence and domestic sexual exploitation makes it probably the worst nightmare for any woman. I am really surprised that chain e-mails saying this never circulate among us the more fortunate lot.

Articles /Research -
http://www.iheu.org/node/1049
http://www.ideajournal.com/articles.php?id=37
http://www.saidit.org/archives/jul01/article3.html

IS this to be proud of or to be ashamed of ?

Another Semester - This time in ASU

2007-04-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

After sufferring 8 grueling bi-annual torture sessions in Pune University which were interspersed with week long "vacations" and month long "PLs", the American semester seems quite tame. There is no fear of miserable failure and there are no "submissions" in the UoP sense. The best part is that the grading is done by your own professor and not some random fellow as it was in my Engineering Degree time. After a long time it really feels nice to undergo education without the academic pressure but this time I face other problems - like the exhorbitant fees that I am paying for a Master's Degree and occaisonal homesickness.

Still hoping for the best to come out of this new experience ...

Its painful, its mean, its absurd, its life.....

2007-03-30T01:48:00.000-07:00

At times you are so happy that you are living your life happily as a human being and enjoying this beautiful world...but most of the times you are sad, depressed, lonely, angry because something went wrong and you seek answers to questions that defy logic...
The last two days have been the same for me. In a flash from a position of high hopes and great prospects, I am back in a dark deep well. Hope can no longer keep up with the darkness, the fathoms of depth that fate can push you to. Near and dear ones, friends and family who are half a planet away try to convince you that not to worry, somethings are meant to happen and better things follow... but your mind does not listen... its just darkness, hollow endless darkness.....

Sometimes you seek solace in prayer, sometimes you question Him, how could this happen, why me, why now, how long will Thy testeth me? Sometimes you deny He exists, sometimes you just crack under the pressure. You break in silent tears, it was not my fault God ! This is just something that destiny puts you through... After all ...the fruits you are expecting from your efforts ... are they worth the pain and suffering? From the eternal darkness and eerie shadows, there is hope - there is strength - great men might have derived it.. I remember the story of the Count of Monte Christo - How hard fate is on Edmond Dantès and how it turns for him.

but if good days are due to come is it worth the wait? Is success measured in making a billion a year or a simple smile a day .... Darkness has its say ...Life has its way !

Mac Vs PC - Enjoyyyyy

2007-03-10T17:24:00.000-08:00

With baring Sabers and gnashing teeth - Cool, smart and "successful" Steve iCon Jobs Fights the dorky glassed and fat William Gates - this is how Apple's ad campaign targets American buyers and tries to prove users that the Mac is cool whereas the PC is just for nerds. (Though I have seen people buying Apple mac books and simply running XP on it. )

Here are the few ads of Apple for just enjoy.

And thats not it Later I found this video which is a movie version of Bill and Steve fighting.

Mac Vs PC Animated

And for once people visit my blog now onwards - me gonna upgrade !!!!

Internet - tainment

2007-03-08T13:43:00.000-08:00

My TV addiction is finally cured - Web based video Channels like Sopcast, Youtube, Peekvid and interesting India's own Rajshri, and many other Movie casting sites offer a treat for everyone who wants on demand videos and don't care about the quality.

Though I doubt that these Internet based video sites can ever replace the spontaneity of television, or replicate the awe of a movie theatre, but when you are stuck anywhere in the world and long to see that old Mahabharat episode, reminisce the great Indian Laughter Challenge, or relive the "Fusilli Jerry" or the "Soup Nazi"or sit back and enjoy Dexter's Laboratory episodes, or Go down to Southpark and meet fat ass Cartman and his buddies, you got it all up there. Even old DD serials, and even all the Tintin comics ..and everything else is up on the web... Enjoy !!!! Truly as long as I have fast Internet, I won't miss TV.... but here having both TV and high speed Internet is like having icing along with the cake ...

My Friday Movie - "Black Friday"

2007-02-24T17:06:00.000-08:00

Having missed the movie screening at the PIFF 2005 for reasons known to all Engineers (read Pune University) as "Fearum Factorum Endum Termum Submission-itis", and having struggled to find time to watch it later, I knew that I had not seen a great movie - so I gathered all my resources and finally saw the movie on my PC. My rating - ****1/2 (though nobody cares)

And in true appreciation of Anurag Kashyap's cinematic excellence, I felt that I was seeing the revival of Indian "sensible" cinema through this film - I am assuming this revival already happend in the late nineties and is now gaining foothold in our multiplexes. I kept in mind the context that the movie was made in 2004-end, and was really amazed by the awesome work of ACP Rakesh Maria by Kay Kay Menon (he wasn't that critically acclaimed then) and Tiger-"bhai" Pavan Malhotra and the rest of the cast. (distinguish Menon and Memon please !!!)

The attention to detail is critical in the movie, be it the gruesome images of the blast victims (I remember the fear since my father was in his office near Crawford Market that day but luckily was safe), the sequences shot in the Sion, Malad and Santa Cruz slums, the railway overbridges and the police stations, villages, cities and all the neat closeness to reality - make it a technically perfect movie, topped with really mind numbing music sequences - like the "arey ruk jaa re bande" and some other folk songs - really good work.
Throughout the movie Kashyap makes sure that the movie does not look like another Ramu Underworld movie (mainly because the characters here are real people and not fictitious) and has used his skills to portray the behind-the-scenes reality of the Bombay Blasts.

Personally the events that led to the blasts have had great impact on me as a child. I remember the turmoil of those times, as I was once on the street shouting "Mandir Wahi Banayenge" in 1989 for my shakha, and witnessing the rath yatra in the city and also remember being worried about my father who was posted in Bombay (Mumbai from 1994) from 1991 through 1994. I know friends and relatives or someone who were in the trains of the Ghatkopar blasts, the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts, and know how close they came to being the victims. These events always reminds me of how we take things for granted and how harsh reality can be.

-- Spoiler Warning (parts of movie added)--

And the last epilogue part is really the crux of the reality in the movie. The D-company - ISI meeting where the entire plan is hatched, with the sending of bangles to Dawood Ibrahim mocking him for not taking care of his folks, you see kar sevaks, Bombay Riots, and real TV footage in true-blue 1990s style, Yakub Memon's interview, the Paki foreign minister's "bayaanbaazi", background talks by Advani, PVN Rao, and some other leaders, all look just too realistic .....

"Black Friday" is a must watch.

Also Read -
Ramanand's Review

Digital Reincarnation

2007-02-23T20:16:00.000-08:00

Got a new title (will keep this one for a long time) and a nice new layout.

The Hindi - No Hindi Debate

2007-01-28T17:43:00.000-08:00

Watch non-multilingual Indians lash out at each other here and refer the story above too ...
the first comment (from some Debashish Roy) seems to me is a Bengali who is in USA lashing out at Tamilians who don't know Hindi.. Ha ha .. talk about the diversity here :D

Grow up folks ... If we really have a national language, it must be gibberish !!!! Best option is as thus - let each Indian have her/his own national language :D -

The National Language Algorithm v1.0
// Hindi Speaking Area includes the "cowbelt" and Mumbai which is the capital of UP
enum Lang GetNationalLanguage(Indian desi)
{
if( desi.mother_tongue != Lang.Hindi)
{
if(desi.AreaOfStay == GetAreaByLanguage(Lang.Hindi) )
{
if(desi.wellKnownLanguage == English && desi.dontLikeHindi)
{
LearnLanguageToSurvive(desi, Lang.Hindi); // study only little Hindi to survive
return Lang.English;
}
else
return Lang.Hindi;
}
else // if you stay in a non-Hindi State or out of Mumbai (capital of UP)
{
if(desi.wellKnownLanguage != Lang.English)
LearnLanguageToSurvive(desi, Lang.English); // study only little English to survive

// Now you must know English
return Lang.English; // English becomes National Language if u dunno Hindi

}
}
}

Problem Solved .. If you stay up North learn Hindi. If you do not stay in Hindi areas - you should at least know English ...
Don't be freaking Language imperialist in your own nation... our heritage is too precious and too ancient to be involved in a linguistic majority-minority debates and brawl ..... ... Let's just be Good Indians .. Good desis ...

The Grand Canyon State

2007-01-21T10:31:00.000-08:00

I am here and really homesick... This happens when you have lived your entire life in the same city (from kindergarten to the last day of my job i was always in Pune) ... SO I am hoping to get over the feeling soon. But being soooooo far away from loved ones is the most depressing thing in life. Though I have found a pretty decent place to stay and good roomies, there is a lot left to be desired since we are all on strict stingy budgets.

As of the University, so far I am finding ASU a pretty good place to study, just wishing and praying that the fairly high tuition fees get waivered off as soon.

My latest experience in America is that winters really do get too cold.(Even Sunny California is experiencing bouts of very cold weather.) The long walk from my apartment to my university buildings seem to take an eternity eventhough we are in the "milder" winter of the desert state of Arizona (3 degrees Celsius is causing so much pain - imagine what minus 30 would do!!!).

Hoping that I will make it through this tough time on my own ... but will need all the help possible from well wishers to keep my spirits up !!!

Going, going, ... finally really Going

2007-01-05T01:22:00.000-08:00

Quitting a decent job does seem to be the toughest decision to take in life which I did last month and now I am all set to go for me masters. I enjoyed a nice month off from work and got ample time to prepare for my haul in USA as a student. Hoping everything turns out fine !!!!

Do I need to Go ????

2006-10-08T10:18:00.000-07:00

I am all geared up for my 3rd innings in the US and am hoping this will be a long one.

Suddenly I tell my self Whoa whoa whoa whoa .... Wait a Minute dude!!!!! Why the heck am I going to the occident for higher studies ???? What the f*** do I need now?

Money - No.
Better Job - You bet No.
Relationships - No. (I meant greenery)
Seeing the world - No.
Better Roads - (Probably yes but on second thought - no)
Good Safe Life - A Big NO - its still the gun toting Wild West out there...
"Quality of education" - NO man I will miss Arindam Chaudhury's Sunday Sh** Magazine re !!!
Food and Water - 'Warning: No Vada Pav in the US - another BIG NO
Desire to Bunk classes - No man we have done that en masse
Chance to watch good TV - NO NO NO-Not Glenn Beck Again - and DishTV India Rocks !!

What Is the mysterious force that is driving me towards America?? I am not a Poor Huddled Mass, am I??

I have amazed myself already of whatever I thought I would gawk at after going to the land of the free. My aspiration to experience western civilization have been fulfilled thanks to my two fruitful visits to the Silicon Valley. On the professional front, I have already experienced the life we now know as confined-in-the-cubicle-5-days-every- week life that I was expecting to enjoy after a quick 16 month stint at a Masters' degree abroad (lack of moolah kept me home till now). I already have made great friends and live in a great environment (minus Pune's Roads and Traffic) which I aspired to live after I did my Masters and secured a great job. I have already enjoyed life as it came and introspected my failures and smiled at (very few) successes which I planned to do once my engineering degree was over and done. In a just about a few weeks of work, I suddenly realized that the search for true love is futile and "the partner of your dreams" is just a floating myth often boasted by optimistic not-yet-disillusioned folks; sp that takes care of all my heart's desires. I have realized through the myriad machinations of my workplace that how easily the good become bad and the good looking become the star-performers or fast-track employees (note that I am neither). I will soon join a driving school so that in case the Industry busts I can drive cabs to survive and thus I will fulfil my final "ambition" as such. Since I have mastered the art of how to "pretend" to work I can now easily spend about a decade more pretending to work at the Indian IT/Software Industry and make cool cash outta it. I can marry some rich man's daughter and live an even more cooool life. My other meek ambitions in life included taking take part in the democratic process of my homeland which I have done by voting thrice, being member of a group of "thinkers" which I have done via the Pune Quiz club and to express my opinions on any and everything which I can do through blogs.

Then Why? What is it that makes me go to a foriegn land? Is there an ulterior motive that I am destined to accomplish? Or is it some mysterious force that wants me to go out of my homeland?

I can't cancel it now - My tickets are booked, my VISA date secured, my papers ready, my plan ready, my money ready. How is it that I am going for something I feel there ain't no valid reason?

Maybe the decline of my intelligence at the ripe age of 23 is the reason why this question still remains unanswered. The answer might be the same as the answer to that to what life, the universe and everything is all about - was that 42????

[I would like to un-burden myself by saying that the 2 times I went to US on B1 was sheer serendipity and I thank "project requirements" of a generous PSPL Client for those].

BREAKING NEWS: The Death of TV journalism

2006-08-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

From today on, I can solemnly declare (or for my own good - can assume) that TV Journalism in India is dead and buried. From now on the only news I will be watching on Television is the evening 7 ' o clock "Baatmya" on DD-1 Marathi.

Are these stupid "Olds" (refrain from using the word news) channels begun hiring their news readers right out of Commerce or Arts Junior College (some of them look like and sound worse than my Bhaajiwalla)? Does it mean that the only criteria for becoming a news reader is to have the guts of reading out pre-determined script and and asking illogical ratta-oed cliche'd questions (Deepak .. O Deepak !!!!)?

Does it mean that the only qualification needed to become a news reporter (sanvaad-daata) for a TV channel is to possess a hand and a mouth - a hand to hold the channels Microphone and then yell out poorly constructed sentences amid senseless chaotic places and events and try to make a BREAKING NEWS out of every brownie points earned over rivals?

I have read and written about India's biased, lunatic and over-enthusiastic media. They have made a mockery of our well earned freedom of speech.
Please forgive us humble viewers for losing faith in television news .... even the great TV News personalities of India - namely Prannoy Roy, Vinod Dua, Saeed Naqvi, Karan Thapar, Barkha Dutt, Mrinalini Srivastava, Malvika Sanghvi, Arun Singhvi can't save the nut-houses that are our 24x7 News channels.

Lastly - Breaking News !!! GET DISH TV and stop watching the stupid news channels. Enjoy all the goodness from Cartoon Network to the History Channel in English (not the dubbed boring Hindi versions we get through these criminal cable-wallahs)

Freedom of Speech - Whatever is that !!!

2006-07-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

USA First Amendment states the following

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Being a Liberal Democracy India should hav e a similar clause - We have something like this

"

To freedom of speech and expression;
To assemble peaceably and without arms;
To form associations or unions;
To move freely throughout the territory of India;
To reside and settle in any part of the territory of India;
to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business.

Nothing in sub-clause (a) of clause (1) shall affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the State from making any law, in so far as such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause in the interests of _16[the sovereignty and integrity of India,] the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.

Nothing in sub-clause (b) of the said clause shall affect the operation of any existing law in so far as it imposes, or prevent the State from making any law imposing, in the interests of _16[the sovereignty and integrity of India or] public order, reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub-clause."

This Mumbo Jumbo is enough for our (Indian) Government to impose sanctions on its citizens - Like they banned PTV in Kargil, blocked satellite TV for Kashmiris, blocking cellphones during the blasts, lathi-charging innocent youth who protest unjust policies or the recent ban on blogs ... Have we become another Pakistan with a senseless political and legal agenda to keep the public quiet...

Does this eventually mean that the sacrifices of so many Indians for getting her freedom are eventually going down the drain !!!!

Where is Mr Aamir Khan and his RDB bullsh** now !!

As far as the blog-blocking is concerned, we saw this guring the Gaurav Sabnis Episode and now we see it again - If Terrorists want to spread hatred, I guess us bloggers are mature and mentally sound no to fall into the vice and hatred that most of the terror organization are brainwashed for - (I hope enough virgins are available Up there - sadly our foeticides will add more numbers in heaven, I guess)..

And people's angst against our stupid TV journalism was vehement for showing the ugly and gory scenes - but many people are hurt and feel disgusted when they see death live especially people with weak hearts or high BP ... then I guess TV folks realized the potential ease of the Internet to spread the individual views and first hand experiences.. and seconded blog-banning !!! What the F is happening to the world :(

No doubt India's Second Most Popular Sport

2006-07-15T20:07:00.000-07:00

My first tryst with WWF came in as a strange pack of "Trump Cards" (No Donald in this one) during my 3rd Standard Lunch break . I don't know how but in less than a week I was totally hooked onto WWF - The small screen and the cards made the mere mortal wrestlers seem to be mythical Gods - Hulk Hogan, British Bulldog, Undertaker, Yokozuna, Bret Hart the Hitman, Shawn Michaels and many more superheroes became household common names. Strangely it was the school kids who were so much interested in wrestling. And with help of Star's Prime Sports channel and later Star Plus - Star Sports duo, there was constant access to the match ups.

I guess not even a single rupee was spent in propmoting WWF in India - it grew on its own. When I was in 7th or 8th, somehow TNT broke up WWF and a small lull followed only to bring on The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Trissh Stratus and the entire McMahon family out into an even more frenzied fan following - this time it was WWE - Sports Entertainment the ultimate place for kids to see and enjoy senseless violence, intense made up rivalry and theatrical dangerous stunts - better than Bollywood anytime dudes !!!

13 years after my first tryst with WWF/WWE I still joyfully enjoy the both the NBC Saturday Main Event in the US and the TEN Sports RAW and Smackdown every Monday-Tuesday nights in India. There is this strange vibe that makes you feel that the senseless pre-planned and practiced wrestling matches are real and lifelike. It makes you forget the painful realities of everyday life.

In my opinion TV wrestling is our nations second most popular sport which neither needs a BCCI or an AIFF or IHF -- it needs not a single rupee spent for promos or associatins or for training. It needs just the awe and cinematics and excitement through the small screen....

America v/s India

2006-06-24T17:42:00.000-07:00

The bay areas ethnic diversity is profound and quite visible. Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, African American and now South Asians mingle amoong the majority Caucasians.

Also as expected, except us techie Desis and a few richer Chinese, the other groups seem to be pretty much occupying the "lower middle class " here .. as far as income is considered.

I read some cool statistics of the San Fransisco Bay Area here.
Notable is that over the past few decades the number of Asians and Hispanics has almost doubled here mostly dou to a mix of growing opportunity and growing illegal immigration.

It is worth noticing that although from the outside it may seem that America is a nice racial and cultural mix, but outside business its always starkly visible that people from these ethnic groups do not mingle with people from other groups. Something very different from us cosmopolitan Indians, where even if we come from so many parts of India, Bhaiyyas, Mallus, Surds, Gujjus, Marus, Bongs, Kobras and Debras, we never distance ourselves from other groups. Maybe we are more secure about our identity in India. I think, America as an entity does not exist, so people here stick to their original ethnic roots and superficially pretend to be Americans.

Back in California

2006-06-01T14:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back in the Golden state. This time had a fabulous Memorial day weekend spent in short but fabulous visit to LA - visiting Disneyland and Hollywood - Universal Studios.

Also This time the weather in CA is awesome.

A Good Movie and A Great Book

2006-04-02T22:31:00.000-07:00

I blew my weekend this time by reading a fantastic book DOT.CON by John Cassidy. To top it I saw (V) for Vendetta - the much awaited Wachowski Bros. movie on Sunday.

To start I have few comments about the Warner Bros. film - It is pretty cool. It has some really great action sequences, and fine dialog delivery and mature acting. The story though is a mixture of many classics - A pickle of "1984" by George Orwell, "The count of Monte Christo" by Alex Dumas, more recent "Along Came a Spider" By James Patterson. Set in London in the near Future, the background contradicts the free world we live in today, London (and UK) is under dictatorship by a Big Brotherish leader and the public is in fear of terrorism and biological warfare (by terrorists), (V) whose face is hidden by a Guy Fawkes Mask, takes vendetta using unrealistic methods. (please London, 2025 A.D. is not the Matrix) Also the Orwellian London setting is too 1984ish to believe. But the movie is a nice entertainer and pretty decently done it is worth the money you pay.

Next is the fantastic book I read DOT.CON, which is a delightful story of how the dot.com bubble of the late nineties and early 2000 was created and how the DOT COM bubble burst.
Strikingly familiar to previous stock-market crashes, the dot com bust did not create a Depression, only because the overall economy (the old economy) held on despite 9/11 and the aftermath of the dotcom bust. I recommend that every aspiring entrepreneur and wannabe investor and economist should read this book. Available in Paperback for about 200 bucks.

Al Syriana

2006-03-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

Frankly, my friends invited me to watch Syriana and they thought that it would be an action packed thriller or something. Little did they know that this was more of a Geo-Socio-Politco-Economico-Non-Thriller film. Many of the 300 odd folks in the E-Square - Screen 4 were equally confused and later disturbed (most of them were engineering and management students and yuppies like me) by the fact that this movie was too much to take for their "specialised" brains.

However for me Syriana was a much awaited political, realistic and conspiracy-driven film that I was dying to see. (Also looking forward for "V For Vendetta" coming soon in Pune).

It is also an intensely complex and Multi-Threaded movie - follows the so called the Hyperlink Paradigm of film-making.

Here are the Threads -
George Clooney plays a CIA Agent and more looks like a fat Americized Sean Connery.
Matt Damon is at his ambitious best (I have liked many of his roles including the one of PRivate James Francis Ryan in SPR). There is a ficticious Arab Emirate whose control is t stake, There is a story of Pakistani migrant labourers working in the oil wells - Lot of hindi dialogues.
There are 2 Oil conglomerates finalizing a merger. The dept. Of Justice is investigating the allegations of corruption in the merger. There are Oil Barons, an Investigating attorney and betraying agents - all intermingled in the movie. Also there is Amanda peet playing Matt Damon's wife. You have to watch the movie and make sure you conect all the links.

Also the entire cast is well selected. The film is all about the Gulf-Oil and the politics, corruption and deception that revolves around control of the world's oil reserves.

Please read candid reviews later.

If you know the recent situation in the arab world (Pakistan to Morocco), I guess the film will definitely be thought provoking if not "thrilling" or "entertaining". If you expected that Syriana is an entertainer or block-buster then this film not the right dose of meidcine for you.

Where have all the Good Women Gone ???

2006-02-09T01:34:00.000-08:00

[Continuing discussion thread here on Amardeep's Blog]

Its really shocking and apalling that female foeticide is co-inciding with wealth, irrespective of religion, caste, lifestyle or region.In India, abortions following the sex-determination tests have become a way of minting money for both India's high-qualified as well as quack doctors. Take the wealthy areas like Western-Maharashtra sugar belt, Haryana-Punjab, NCR, Greater Bombay, Gujarat, western UP and South Indian capitals; data from all these regions show that the sex ratio has declined to alarming levels. Now-a -days the dowry system has been superceded by lavish marriage-parties. My friend says in her community (Agarwals), the cost of a girl's marriage easily costs 50 lakh bucks (thats more than a hundred thousand US $). Indeed such mind-numbing figures are one of the main reasons for parents to opt out of giving birth to girl child and murder the baby in the womb. The doctors who gleefully abet this crime are all linked amongst each other. The Ultrasounds often is connected to the abortion centre and the gynaecologists. The lure of easy money has led to several cases where eventhough the child whose sex was determined was male, the USG doctor declared it (him) to be a girl (business for the abortion doc)!!!

To make matters worse its often seen in adoption centres that only boys are adopted. Orphaned girls are left in the lurch and you all know what happens to them when they grow up (unless they are very fortunate to get education). Also the percentage of girls dropping out of schools is alarmingly high than that of boys. Add the fact that still in 2006 girls are married off at ages of 15 to 16 (now it is 100% legal), we see that we are moving back to the dark ages of society.

In work too, it is so abvious that women are forced to the back-seat even when they deserve to be ahead. Be it panchayats, our parliament and legislatures, our companies, commercial and media establishments, we see that only a handful of women are in charge. India's inability to even out things related to sexual discrimination against women has been very poor. My sister who is studying post-grad radiology in the local Government College often has seen cases where parents never let girls get any check-ups done, but if its a boy they are ready to spend every last penny on him. I have also heard more first hand reports on various such things - like girls being forced out of school and also forced into work by their families.

In affluent classes and the middle class, the situation only worsens in previous mentioned communities during wedding time. When will people ever awaken? Coming from the city of Pune that pioneered women's education in India through great examples like Savitribai and Mahatma Phule and Anandi Gopal Joshi (India's first/second lady-doc), I am really ashamed by the depths that our society has reached in being so prejudiced against the female child. No matter what the government, NGO's or police does in this regard; female foeticide and injustice against the female child cannot be eliminated without socaial uprising.

Rang De Basanti, which wanted to awaken a generation, perhaps forgot concerns like this one and went ahead with a hopeless message to kill corrupt politicians. I hope some director comes up with a better theme especially like the issue I have discussed here!!!

Cartoons v/s The Islamic World: Blasphemous Or What

2006-02-08T05:32:00.000-08:00

The hulla-bulloo over the Danish Paper Jyllands Posten's cartoons (links here and here) that caricature Prophet Mohammed took an even more violent turn with a shootout in Afghanistan.

While the west defends the freedom of speech and expression (as we all should), the Islamic world has erupted with anguish, provoked by French, Italian, German and other European (and later websites) widely publishing the same cartoons.

Being strongly anti- fundamentalist and pro - freedom of expression, I stand in support of the Danes who are using web forums (fora?) and other means to justify their right of freedom.

Too bad no one can police or censor the Internet completely ...

Nyaa na nana naa naa

PS: Will we be provoked by this brilliant Big Bazaar Women's Day Ad ??

is the question

I still hope IIPM sues me !! :)

Mother, I bow to thee!

2006-01-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

First of all visit here to know our national song fully (I have put the English Translation as the title).
Wee hours of Monday 26th December 2005. After 18 ardudous hours of cattle class travel, the 747-700 is finally gonna touch down at Chattrapati Shivaji International terminal 2A in Mumbai. At that point all I was thinking was - Vande Maataram.

So what if the clock was showing 14-50 at two fifty am outside the airport.

So what if the taxi drivers spit on the footpath (no longer sidewalks).

So what if I saw two more toppled trucks on the Expressway.

So what if I had to take my bike to office (at 10 am - though I just reached home at 8 am)

So what if I had to endure the same Nal Stop madness.

So what if I had to open the newspaper and read the news of some rich kid murdered for ransom by a son of a Bihari Judge (satra nyayadheesh).

So what if I watched on TV how the aam aadmi's government does not bother to pay the soldiers guarding the Kargil-Drass sector of LoC.

So what if another plane (this time a Jaguar and later Kiran Trainer and not a MiG 21) crashed.

So what if another senior citizen fell victim to rash driving.

So what if the baggage counters at Mumbai Airport take 1 hour to dispense luggage to passengers while every other country manages it in 20 minutes with half as many employees.

So what if the kachra petis are still overflowing.

So what if the Shiv Sena Split (again)

So what if Red Brinda is out all guns blazing with (Thanda matlab Toilet cleaner) Ramdev Maharaj (Yog va Ayurved dwaara asaadhya rog theek karne waale shraddheya swami .... )

So what if my tire got punctured again on Bhandarkar Rd while I tried to dodge Rainy Season leftover potholes.

So what if the first gift I got on my return from USA was a nice 3 hour power out by MSEB (Now the MAHA-DISCO !!!)

So what if my company makes sure I am home for 2 hours a day only.

So what I still cannot get my favorite cartoons on TV shown in English (that Hathway asked me for 4000 bucks for tht - huh I can download all that stuff in a tenth of that amount)

So what if the fruits of four years BE was conferred to me by a peon who shouted "Ikde thambaycha nahi ugach gardi karoon line lambvoo naka - he kon ahe Kulkarni Shriniwas - he ghe ani pal" !!!!!
...
...
...

The bottomline is that, whatever be - its my home land - my mother land, my sweet hometown, my very own Punya nagari, Mamma I was coming home.....

To her sujalam and sufalam and malayaja sheetalam self.

From The Land Of The Free

2005-11-29T16:52:00.000-08:00

After Four Days of Landing In the US I have so far found the following strange features of USA-

1) There are more cars than People here in America.

2) There are way too many good roads, more than what these cars will ever need.

3) I saw more cargo planes than passenger jets.

4) All the TV Channels here are American Only - no BBC, no DW, no Nothing.

5) All the cab drivers here in Bay Area around SF are Punjabis, or subcontinental.

6) No Stray Animals (they probably eat everything), no street hawkers, nothing free actually.

More From America Coming soon...

The Most Hilarious Stuff on Indian TV

2005-10-31T11:56:00.000-08:00

I would like to list the things that come on our channels and you (rather I) just cant stop laughing (these are not meant to make you laugh) -

1) Telebrands ads specially this one (Allah ka Darwaza !!!)
2) All Ramanand Sagar's Mythological Serials - plz notice that "Brahma Ji"s left (or right) head is crooked (waakda)
3) Tau 2 Rupiye ki chaai kam pee lena par hamesha - dandi namak :)
4) Yaadasht Kho jaana in almost all serials !!!! (What are the odds of that)

I have omitted other ads like - Muh Mein Rajnigandha and Waaghbakri Chaay because I believe too many such ads will pile up in the list...

Of 11/9 and 9/11

2005-10-20T22:23:00.000-07:00

11/9

I recently read Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat. He speaks of the reasons the world became flat and first reason is 11/9 (11th November 1989) when the Berlin Wall fell. I grimly remember that day in history, I was 6 yrs old, and color TV (notice the missing 'u' in color) had triggered a sort of neighbourhood competition as whose TV is the best, when Prannoy Roy's The World this Week covered the event . During that time I somehow recollect the coverage of the fall of the Berlin wall and the ceremonial removal of Felix Dzerzhinsky staue in Moscow that occurred after 2 years (December 1991), shown on the now defunct Doordarshan. Then I used just see the pictures in India Today (The copies are still lying in the raddi of my old house) and I had felt somewhat bad that East Germany was no more. (That was because I hated West Germany because they had beaten Maradona and I hated Steffi Graf for no particular reason - any guesses which F1 racer I don't like ???). But that was then.

I reread these articles of India Today when my mom made me clear the age old 'raddi' sometime when I was in 10th or 11th and saner. I realized that the media was really unaware of the reasons that caused the breakdown of Communism. Freidman in his book, mentions three major reasons that the "evil empire" collapsed - The Afghan War, Reagan's Arms Race and Buildup of forces in Europe and most importantly the Information revolution (the early Internet). Also there is a mention of how Mikhail Gorbachev's failed Glasnost and perestroika. In that same December 1991 Issue of India Today I remember having seen a cartoon Harkishen Surjeet, Jyoti Basu and Somnath Chaterjee (Hon'ble LS Speaker) as Gandhiji's three simians with the hammer and sickle stuck in their mouths. Also I have seen the 2 phenomenal shows by Discovery and BBC - Days That Shook The World.

Now back to the main point, 11/9 was really historical. It was the victory of freedom and the best part was that this "UNREVOLUTION" was mostly peaceful and was an implosion where the people themselves overthrew the Commies. Not only was it a victory for Individualism but it was an example of how Globalization was impacting the world. Today while, it is so easy to communicate with any email user in the world (barring North Koreans) it is really amusing to know how politics had kept minds apart from each other during the cold war. My Multimedia book described how PAL, NTSC, SECAM were developed in such a way that Eastern Bloc nations people wouldn't be able toreceive any other TV channels than their state owned ones. Actually the black markets in the Communist countries were selling Video cassettes of all Western Shows, which contributed to the demise of the State run media concept. Later on computers which ran DOS and Unix (even in the East Bloc) also helped work against the totalitarian top-down regime. The stories of freedom were there for the people to see and beleive and they demanded their share.

I have gone through a lot of stuff about the fall of Communism, most striking detail is that the CIA which worked day and night to bring down the "Evil Empire", had no clue of both 11/9 and Yeltsin's victory. The war they fought for aver 40 years ended on their TV sets. Thus, globalization hit the world in a big way making the world flat (according to Friedman). Even now everytime anything about these events is shown on TV, I watch it wth intrigue.

9/11

The seeds of "terrorism" were sown way back during 1945-49, first when Ben Gurien was supported by America after the MiddleEast mess leftover by the Brits and the Holocaust causing the Jews to flee to their promised land. Another seed was the US collaborating with the Shah of Iran and the King of Saudi Arabia. The third seed was the Afghan Mujahideen and strangely US support to Saddam wasnt directly causing any sort of terrorism. Thus global terror networking began. Today terrorism is rooted all over the world, epicentre - Pakistan Kashmir, Ireland, Indonesia, Half free Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Saharan Africa, Spain, Chechnya, Latin American Druglords, African Minelords, Nepali - Indian Leftists, Sri Lanka and so on. Unlike the old days when ideology was of major concern terror nowadays is mercenary activity. While brainwashing is the cause of suicide attacks, deadly weapons are easier to get now.

Global terror is a real problem but nobody is there to stop terrorism. America's war on teror is just a shameless way of justifying America's hunt for OIL. As world oil prices soar, maybe alternative fuels will emancipate man from the dependancy on arab oil. But one thing is for sure Globalization has helped incease terrorism than reduce it.

ReChristening

2005-10-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

I have renamed my blog - something Latin was all that I was lookng for. Fortunately I got a phrase that suits me. I have always been second. third, etc, never the best in no matter what I have tried. So this title suits me.

Way to go Gaurav

2005-10-11T01:47:00.000-07:00

I am highly impressed by Gaurav's step. While showing immense bravery and prudence in taking this step, Gaurav also has challenged the self-styled hyped Institute(s) for a fair duel.
We must remember "SATYAMEVA JAYATE" - truth always persists - and no matter how hard "they" try to out-publicize the issue in their favour. Read the truth here.

On the one hand it is really disheartening to know that Private Colleges and Universities use newspapers and magazines to publicize and hype their institutes and rope in as many students as possible charging the students large sums of money. On the other hand it is a big relief to find out that crusaders of truth are trying to stop the madness by exposing these private institutes. A few months ago there were similar controversies involving a university named after the surname of India's second Miss World and another University that has its name as a synonymn for friendship - mon ami. While all such matters were hushed up by the media who have more interest in the advertisement money they get, no one came out in support of the students who were duped by these institutes apart from some overworked cops who failed to understand why people paid lakhs of rupees to get their son an MBA while he wasn' t even capable completing an arts degree in the first place.

While I am wholeheartedly supporting Gaurav for standing up for the truth, I am really appalled by the means these institutes are using for "selling their college". I would like to shout out my opinion on MBA. Historically MBA was never meant to make good managers out of any Tom, Dick or Harry. The fact that 60% of the IIM grads are engineers and 20% are science grads is ample evidence to prove that qualities needed for becoming a better manager include a strong scientific approach to management. While science students are trained to ask questions, the same is not the case with India's burgeoning commerce studying junta. I am very sure that 90% of our commerce undergraduates do not know who P Chidambaram is or what kind of Government runs in China. This hapless crowd of wannabe MBA's then shell out their parents' hard earned (?) money in getting admission to MBA. The lure of earning large amounts of money once you become an MBA even when you are not competent, has helped the fast growing "business of education". Not only has the quality of MBA programs reduced to mere "rattaoing" answers and copying projects, even the placements are being rigged in numerous ways. Private Management Institutes, unlike Private Computer Training Institutes do not need specialised staff or special infrastructure. Any building with rooms can be converted into a n MBA college and staff doesnt matter anyway. And there is also no credible method to evaluate the performance of the students in private and deemed institutes. While professional degrees like medicine, law, engineering require huge amount of effort in order to be completed, MBA has become synonymous to a bunch of subjects and a project. While many institues private or university - affiliated, are trying hard to maintain the standard, few institutes have actually succeeded in doing this.

I am feeling personally hurt because of this whole episode because eventhough it was the victory of truth, a brilliant guy like Gaurav had to quit his IBM job where he worked an basis of his technical and managerial merit and skills. I am hoping that his action will cause furore among the thinking community in India and justice will be served to the Institute that counts its chickens (or rather bills its students) before they hatch !!!!!

Omkaar Swaroopa - Tujha Namoh

2005-09-09T02:34:00.000-07:00

The Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Sarvajanik Ganpati Trust, based in Pune was established in he year 1893 and has thus been in the service of devotees since 108 years.

It was in 1893 when Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak gave a public form to the celebration of the festival of Ganpati and made it a genuinely peoples festival. The Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Sarvajanik Ganpati trust exists from the year of the inception of the sarvajanik (public) Ganpati festival and is the fulcrum of all sarvajanik(public) celebrations in Maharashtra. Dagdu Sheth was a friend of Lokmanya Tilak. When Tilak started sarvajanik Ganeshotsavs in 1893, Dagdu began as well. The first Dagdu Ganpati was a simple mud one. This is the third idol.

(I have confirmed it with ol friends as well - The new Idol's year of sthapana is not known to me yet but i will soon find out when i visit ABC)

Tis the Ganpati festival and it brings out a real warm spirit of faith. Ganesha, being the Lord of Intelligence and Knowledge (Buddhi cha Deivat) we all should worship Him in order to be blessed with the power of Intelligence and Bigger Better Brains.... so that we can wipe out ignorance.

Also this time we should solemnly pray for everyone's well being, especially since we all saw how nature can be harsh on mankind - Kalina to Katrina,..... atheists ... art thou listening?

Anyways I can assure one thing - sincere prayers especially to Lord Ganesha will always do wonders to you ...

Hence I am posting some spectacular views of everyone's laadka Ganesh..

My Own TV Favorites

2005-08-24T04:20:00.000-07:00

// Comedy - Sitcoms - etc
Favorite Comedy (Hindi) : Sarabhai v/s Sarabhai (coz it covers all aspects of comedy)

Favorite Comedy (English) (FRIENDS not Allowed ;) )
Drew Carey Show (Amazingly Sarcastic) and equally Goodness Gracious Me (Really Hilarious) and more equally Mr Bean

// Soaps Reality Action etc etc
Favorite Show (Hindi) Movers and Shakers (was it Hindi ...)
Favorite Show (English) Worlds' Greatest Magic and Magic Tricks Unveiled (* World)

Favorite Cartoon(s) (no comments on language ... huh)
Equally : Dexter's Lab and The Simpsons

//Movie time
Favorite Hollywood Movie seen on TV only (Be honest) The Mummy and Mummy Returns

Favorite Bollywood Movie seen on TV only (Be honest)
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron

Favorite DD program (National or regional) (Chitrahaar excluded)
There were 2 programs (similar) > Living on the Edge (Niret Alva)
and Turning Point also The World this Week (NDTV)

Most Enjoyed Sport on TV : WWE Wrestling and Soccer

Favorite News Anchor: Vinod Dua (Parakh is/was amazing )
Favorite Talk Show anchor/hostess : Shekhar Suman

//Extra
My Wishes/ opininons about the following channel groups (At least 2) :

Star Movies, HBO, Zee Studio: They are really good

Cartoon Network, POGO, Nickelodeon: Please Let user select the Language (i.e provide service both in Hindi as well as English coz 90% of their target audience knows English well)

Discovery Channel, Travel n Living Animal Planet, History, NGC:
Same As Above

Channel [V], MTV, ETC, ZeeMusic:
Less Ads will Help

Star World, Zee Cafe, Hallmark: They are the best too

Sports: DD Sports is redundant must try to improve quality

Others: News Channels of India need better Weather Predictions (Learn from BBC's Amazing Weather Reports)

ICC Subscribers can Curse Krackjack (Razzaq) Here (optional): No Comments

Hey hope this MEME is Not boring

A Good Lesson from an Ad

2005-08-08T23:46:00.000-07:00

IF YOURE GOOD TO MAMMA, MAMMA's GOOD TO YOU

- Its from the Lipton ice tea ad - says that u shud be good to mother nature

The Great Deluge

2005-08-08T23:13:00.000-07:00

During the last 3 weeks, nature's wrath sank most of Maharashtra; and Mumbai bore the brunt and boy, was it terrible! Almost all my friends and relatives in Mumbai were affected, some stranded on Kurla Station, some walking from ChurchGate to Andheri, my friend's (Udas's) building submerged, my uncle's factory sufferring losses, Abhijit Erande, a good friend (and fellow quizzer) had to wade through chest high water from Andheri to Santacruz, while one of my friend's mother (who had gone to Elephanta for Inspection) was stranded there for 2 days with Navy Boats rescuing her, my Panvel relatives all had water in their houses...... whew !!!

As if this was not enough, my uncle who is the Exec. Engg. for Irrigation in Sangli is now working round the clock to make sure rural Sangli people are moved to safety and we are worried sick about him.

To add more jets to the water spout (rather than fuel to fire) the politicians have shown how worthless and inactive they can be. Taking names, I would like to quote Milind Deora (by the way these "Youngster Politicians" have all won because of their fathers - Sachin Rajesh Pilot, Milind Murli Deora, Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia, Naveen OP Jindal etc etc)
Milind straight away said that the responsibility of ensuring well being of citizens is that of BMC and not the MP and MLA's. Also Govinda said that his constituency had not been submerged so he need not go to see his constituency, Vilasrao didn't go to Kalina fearing 5 feet water, Kalmadi has gone to Hel "sinki" and is enjoying the Scandinavian Summer. Moreover the internal battle in Shiv Sena took precedence in releif distribution with clashes between the defected and party groups. To make matters worse half of South Western Maharashtra is flooded because Maharashtra released excess water from its dams and Karnataka did not (from Almatty and Tungabhadra) fearing floods in the areas where the river flows after the dam. Too bad - the so called sugar barons could not do anything for this situation and crores of crops and millions of livelihoods were lost.

Now with floods in AP, Orissa, Karnataka, Gujarat, MP and forecasted floods in Bihar (when the Gomti overflows in September), most of India will this time experience the same problems. Then I wonder if anyone will be left to blame for the "POOR DISASTER MANAGEMENT" but mother nature herself.

Mumbai's case was more serious because nearly 1.8 crore people were affected (when floods hit rural areas affected people are often in few lakhs for huge expanses).
It is obvious that the Mumbaikars are feeling orphaned, ditched by their own elected reps, and no one for them to help. The media tried to masala - ize the flood and their pathetic coverage (barring Star News) was worth watching. Worse still, when people were expecting future weather forecast, the "NEWS CHANNELS" (all of them Indian ones) showed Max Min Temperatures in cities -- huh. (Try watching the amazing BBC Weather section)

Much has been discussed about this and much will be, but the floods that shook Mumbai will be one of the most remembered events, at least for me!!!!!

Recruitment Mania

2005-07-11T23:49:00.000-07:00

Seeing the sheer scale and the methods used by "Software companies" to recruit students from colleges, it comes as no surprise that this year, so many students were "picked up" without even a written test (forget the interviews) from many of Pune's Engineering colleges.
Such aggressive recruitment is often seen as a panacea to the rising attrition problem in the Indian Software Industry. Also there is tremendous competition between the "truck recruitment cos" (Infy, Wipro, Satyam, TCS, Cogni, et al) to get as many engineers aboard as possible. In a recent discussion with our senior quizzers like Ramanand, Gaurav and BVHK after the SOQ quiz, I found that each of these giants were competing for the same outsourced projects overseas and were showing off their spare staff to gain an advantage in the race. No wonder they are not bothered about the quality and skills of the students they "pick up". Well, this really puts serious questionmark on the whole system of recruitment through campuses.Perhaps, NASSCOM's decision of making a central examination as acriteria for getting into a s/w co. should come out as a solution.

Joined as an Outsourcee

2005-07-06T10:58:00.001-07:00

Just when I was beginning to enjoy my hard earned vacation after four years of "Engineering college", I had to quit enjoyment to join my job at Persistent Systems Pvt. Ltd.

As I begin my so called professional career, I really miss the fantastic college days when we could just walk out of college, go to see movies, bunk whole days, beg for "off" whenever we wished. I just hope I get the satisfaction I desire from PSPL...for Interesting views please visit Sudarshan Purohit's blog http://outsourcee.blogspot.com

CIAO

Book Tag MEME

2005-06-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

Ye ol' bookie tagg thats been doin rounds I say, hath finally come to me.

Here :

Total Number of Books I own:
None, ab tak baap ke paise se hi book khareeda. Wait till August 05, my first payday then I would have bought some and filled in something here. However the number of books I have Dhaapofied (never returned after borrowing ..has contributed to my nickname being Dhaps apart from the extra eyes) is pretty high .

Last book I bought:
With the help of my dad's money I proudly bought the Jigar Series of Paper Solutions. No comments on these "books" . The real buy was the pirated Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I admire this guy though I am finding a bakra (or bakri) to lend me Deception Pt. and Angels 'n Demons.

Last book I read:
The Leader and The Damned (Colin Forbes):
Another World War II setting where Stalin's treachery defeats the brilliance of an imposter posing as Adolf Hitler after the real Fuhrer is assasinated. Surprising data revealed in the end of the book and a good plot.

5 Books That Mean A Lot To Me:

1. Poona Company - Farroukh Dhondy
This amazing book describes childhood and youth of the author in the early and mid sixties in our very own Poona (not to be confused with Pune). This book was so amazing that till date I remember every main characters in it though I read it 5 years back. The book mentions Bishops , Vincents and my own Dastur schools; Wadia College and full Camp area in fine detail and the evergreen Parsi settins is still afresh in my mind. Must read for Puneites.

2. Obviously 1984 and Animal Farm
Though I have clubbed the two together, I find them together the most fantastic pieces of literature in the past, present or future (The 4 VEDAs are not literature for me). Unlike Salil, I understood Trotsky and Stalin very early and also WW2 in Animal Farm and while reading 1984 I achieved Nirvana in understanding socialism. Though in the back of my mind I admire the two totalitarians Nazi and Soviet these books left a deep impression on my approach towards society.

3. Treausre Island RL Stevenson
This classic is a classic Admiral Benbow, Jim Hawkins, Long John Silver, Benn Gunn, etc etc. Its a pity if you haven't read this book.

4. Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, Chamber Of Secrets, Order of The Phoenix, Philosopher's Stone.

Order Important. JK Rowling is great..

5. Too many books ...so I cut the list short

I would say that Dan Brown's a genius, The Enid Blyton Series and Hardy Boys-Nancy Drew Series were great, Michael Chrichton rocks (no matter how you pronounce his surname) and the fiction writers Archer, Forsyth, Ludlum, Sheldon, Puzo are all brilliant.

Five People to Tag:
I am new to blogging but would like to tag

Aditya Pethe :He Lent Me so many books
Mihir Shah: Lets learn about weapons
Ganesh Hegde : Let us C ??
Anish - the Hitchhiker
Myself : Recursion ki aadat jaati nahi.

Note: Did mention some guy called Doug Adams?

Some Poetry

2005-06-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

Since MSEB gives us 4 hours every day to use our creative skills, I finally used the time to write a poem. Please leave brickbats and bouquets(I hope) as comments here itself. :)

Here It Goes:

The Digital Age

- Shriniwas Kulkarni

As Mankind turns a brand new page
We find ourselves in the Digital Age
The Age of the silicon craze
Whose chips promise Happy Days
The Age of gizmos, gadgets galore
These toys that attract grown-ups more

The Age that speaks a language new
Of DIMM Sticks, Webcams, 3D view
Of bits, MPEGs, storage space
Of upgrades, downloads, the Cyber Race
Of Mother Boards and Serial Ports
Of Add-on-cards and EA Sports*

This Age that obeys Moore's Law
It captivates us with shock n awe
We plug ourselves to this crazy mire
Of Disks, Drives and FireWire*
Of websites, chatrooms, MP3*
We try so hard to use for free

This Age reads electronic mails
Has online auctions, online sales
We "surf the net" we scour the "sites"
We upload, download megabytes
We're crazy about network speeds,
Onboard LANs and E-Book Reads

This Age that harbors network spies
Has virus, worms and chatroom lies
An Age of hacking n DOS Attacks
Of Cracking Software, Service Packs
Of data streams and flow control
Of Instant Messaging n Blog Rolls

The Myriad World of Video Games
Simulate a City or Aeroplanes
Of 3D Wolf* and Counter Strike*
The Age of Empires* that few dislike
In Online chess we rack our head
In Need of Speed we race ahead

Our Cellphones to all we like to show
We stay connected, w'ever we go
We click and share, we tape what's said
We Transfer stuff through Infra Red
Always our gadgets follow us
We stay on track by GPS

This awesome Age that's superfast
Whats new today, never lasts
We scramble for the latest stuff
We upgrade though its not enough
This Crazy World - a GigaByte Rage
We Proudly call The Digital Age

---------Disclaimer---------

* = These May be brandnames and copyrighted

So All the trademarked names used belong to their respective companies.
This poem does not mean to use them for any sort of commercial use ....
so please do not sue :)

No harm meant for Analog Electronics because it still rocks :P

Engineer Now you are, Student Forever you shall be

2005-06-17T10:48:00.000-07:00

Sunday, June 12th happened to be a momentous day in my life when I gave my possibly last Pune University Exam in the form of my BE Project Orals. Celebrations apart, I got to contemplate and think back about how amazingly wonderful and tough these last few years were.
Well being lazy just like most of "guys/men", I had to completely change myself the very first day of engineering. Though timepass "happened" and bunks were "maarofied", like all of us Pune University Engineers, I learnt some valuable lessons about hard work (hey didn't we all do that during submissions and PL's). Apart from unlazying myself I also learnt to be serious at the appropriate times and light-minded at other times and also to maintain composure and a cool head to be near to success.
Most Importantly the four years of slogging got me to be a student forever. In today's dynamic tech-crazy world we cannot afford to be not learning new stuff, lest we end up not only being outdated but totally obsolete. Then also, I learnt an important lesson about teamwork and camaraderie. Engineering college had its cons too, like we studied so many unnecessary things (at least we computer ppl) and also wasted valuable time and energy in writeups and assignments. Also too many things were crammed up in too little time and this caused many burnouts, night outs, blank outs, and formats :) .

As I await my joining date, I am thoughroughly satisfied with my decision to do computer engineering and I am hoping I fulfil some of my dreams in the near future. Also I am really content that I made so many brilliant, lovely and talented friends and I hope at least some of these friendships will last for a lifetime.

I think I must not eulogise much on this subject. But I sure hope my fellow batchmates and friends will have similar opininons on graduating with a BE Degree.But I sure feel I have completed a milestone in my life and not only my career. Well whenenver we think we reach a milestone in Life, it will be appropraite for me to quote Robert Frost's Stopping By The Woods On A snowy Eevening

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
- Robert Frost.

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it's queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep

2005-05-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

Another Miserable Semester draws to a gruesome end. Luckily its my last BE one.
There are very few steps to succeed in Engineering Exams:
Step 1: Buy Jigars
Step 2: Read Jigars' Questions
Step 3: Find out if that answer is correct.

By The Time you accomplish step 3 you will already have excelled in that subject.

Step 4: Do Jigars (u know the meaning by the time ur in TE)
Step 5: And did i forget "Jigars"

_______________________________

Some interesting lines I have come across in Pune's Local Author Books and Jigar's

1)
This question is wrong. (8 mark ques!!!)

2)
The author was unable to solve the problem, Kindly visit our website for updated answers

3)
Due to unknown reasons the authors of his book were not able to answer this question.

The most common Jigar Errors

a) Q2a May 2003 (8marks ) Please refer Q6b Dec 2001
Q6b Dec 2001 (6marks) Please refer Q 10c May 2002
Q10c May 2002 (6 marks) Please refer Q6b Dec and Q 2a May 2003
(I have actually seen this thrice in one SE subject's Jigar)

b) You get wrong answers for All the Solved Numericals in One Paper

c) 10 marks questions' answers in 3-4 lines

But Some papers would have never seemed conquerable if we didnt have Jigar's.

Well
and After nearly 6 months of slow reading
I finally finished "THE HITCH HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY"
(Upto 4 parts)

So Long and Thanks for all the Best Of Lucks For the Exams

Google Bombs - Any Others Please Tell

2005-04-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

Google Bombs are sites put up by people with critical sense of humour at Google

When you type these strings and press "I'm Feeling Lucky" you get a Humorous Parody or somethin like that

Miserable Failure - This Led to George Bush's page in White House Website

French Military Victories - ??? try urself what appears

More Evil than Satan Himself --> this gave Microsoft

Weapons of mass destruction --> gave a page saying DNS ERROR Cannot find WMD

Elgoog - The google mirror image site

Please let me know of any more google bombs.

Indian News Channels - See It To Beleive It

2005-04-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

The most hilarious stuff now a days one can watch are the number of Hindi (plus the few English ones) "NEWS Channels" (I am not including Business Channels).

The more you see it the more funny they get. The Aaj Tak News Readers have reached a new nadir where you can easily make out their fumbling and the way they try to ask questions to their own reporters.

"To Sudhanshu, Wahaan Vadodara Mein Kya Ho Raha Hai"
"Ji Shabnam, Yehaan jo rail haadsa hua hain, use dekhne bahut saare mantri aa pahunch rahe hain"
"To Sudhanshu Yeh Bataaiyen wahaan abhi kaun kaun se Neta Aaa Rahe hai"
.... Blah Blah Blah
Laloo Blurts out some "Chooha" and "Kuttey" to NM and Bajrang Dal
...Yada Yada Yada
"To Sudhanshu ab bataiyen whaan abhi kya honey walla hain ?"!!!!!!

and after 1/2 and hour the same questions were repeated ...

Even the weather is so stupidly boring (they dont even get satellite pics)

Hullo Intelligent Audience here ....
Atleast Sensible Audience Here
More So Sane Audience here...
Still More educated audience here...

Aren't These channels supposed to report news rather than discussing the "exact" happenings at the appropriate locations.

The ludicrous questions the readers ask must be recorded and played back for entertainment.
Still more almost all the channels (NDTV included) seemed to be biased towards the someone.

Worse still, check out the advertisements on INDIA and Aaj tak News . from genuine cotton underwear to genda brand Jhadoo all are covered ,the best being the Chainy Chainy paan masala and 502 pataka.

Then you must see the way the amateur news readers "READ THE NEWS" they get literally stuck at tough hindi words . Do you want a Sonia-like roman hindi ? So then should we watch these channels at all....
Yes coz there are true gems

The only saviours are listed below:

Prannoy Roy - He is the best guy for news (Remember the World this Week from 1987 to 1991)
Vinod Dua - creat cynic (Parakh was the best)
Rajat Kapoor - Great Composure
Saeed Naqvi - also writes in Editorials of leading newspapers
Karan Thapar - Hmm no doubts
Vir Sanghvi - Good one
Nalini Singh - Aankho dekhi
Prabhu Chawla - India Today ! and Tomorrow? (due apologies to Arindam Chaudhari and IIPM )
and a few others whom you ppl can remind me

I hope the aaj Taks and India Tv's and Sahara Samays and Zee news n Star News and NDTV INDIAs and others learn from their own goof ups and try getting Good News Rather tan more news or breaking News...

As an example of excellence we do have is CNBC TV18
- Profit from It and more so Learn from It

Losing My Religion ! Or What?

2005-04-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

Eventhough we met for probably the last time in college, we folks ended up discussing some silly topic as we did the first day of engineering (Our College started on 12th September 2001 and the topic was obvious -- In Pune Any "Intellectuals" start discussions on wierdest topics remember "Bajri Varche Keed" and "Thorle Bajirao Yanche Shudhdhalekhan"!!!).
This time it was - Have Hindus Lost Their Sense of Identity of Belonging To "Hindu" faith or some guys put it as Hindus feel ashamed of their religion. The topic rose from the fact that many people like me (a Kulkarni) met a fellow Marathi (a Pethe) and started talking in English. The discussion imbroiled into a debate on World Religion and Religious Politics.
The points that were stressed were "How do Catholic Missions Get So much Funding" whilst the new generations in the west are indifferent about religion. Also since there were no Muslims or Christians of my class involved (Who comes in Beginning of PL's anyway) we also discussed lots of stuff about Religious fundamentalism and how it is being used as ameans to get Power and sustain it.
Then again I tried to defend the Hindus saying that it has survived 4000 + years (with proof some say its 7000 years) of persecution and has evolved whereas other all used forced conversions and those religions who didn't spread through "evangelists" or "luring" never survived. By Its own openness and greatness our Hindu Religion has survived and is thriving.
Finally we all agreed that in few years Indian Youth read us will sowly pay less attention to religion (similar to the west) and then what about the Hindu Faith Identity crisis???
None of us Hindus ever have a common ritual (religious) by which we can proudly say that this and this is done by all Hindus. Well we concluded that the main feature of being a Hindu is to accept the right in your own way (but then the lines between right and wrong are so obscure).

I wonder if this discussion served any purpose but it was enough to pass time till the peon put up notice for our LAST EVER Oral and practical exam.

Please let me know some of your views on Hindu faith or religion...

My First Blog Created At Last

2005-04-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

Hey Folks,

Finally I have my own Blog.

I have chosen "googlespeak" as it resembles NEWSPEAK (read "1984 "if you haven't). Well, I mean to convey that I rely on Google so much (and will continue to, till a better Search engine arrives) that I speak and think like Google (hey thanks to Larry and Sergei again).

Firstly I would comment on the Title
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
were the principles of INGSOC in Big Brother's Oceania (1984 again)
So I combined it with another well known proverb...

Secondly I would like to thank Salil Bijur who inspired me to create my blog
Atta boy Bijur - Don Quick Sort :P

Last But Not The Least I would like to mention that as my BE closes to an end I feel more and more worried of my future, and others' futures too. I hope to get valuable feedback from this blog.