Stopping Tiger Woods on a Snowy evening II

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

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

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

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

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

Two must watch videos!

Understand the Credit Crisis

Watch This Please to understand Money

Whew Finally I am done with the academic world

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

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

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

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.....

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

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

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"

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

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

The Hindi - No Hindi Debate

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

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

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 ????

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

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)