From The Land Of The Free

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

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

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

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

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

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

// 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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.