Freedom of Speech - Whatever is that !!!

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

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

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

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

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

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 ???

[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

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!

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

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