BIAL - Howzit ?

Its almost been a week since BIAL has started functioning. I haven't been to the new airport and hence don't have any personal experience to share. But here is some hearsay stuff from blogs and friends.

1. The new airport kicks ass!
2. The Volvo bus service (for arrivals) is fantastic. And at Rs.150 extremely affordable (for somebody who can afford air travel)
3. The Volvo bus service (for departures) is slow and at times doesn't stop at the designated places.
4. There are services like this, which come close to shuttle service, but since they provide some luxury, its for the upwardly mobile.
5. Taking a generic City Taxi or the all Logan fleet is extremely costly.
5. ATC still has some issues and flights do get delayed or routed to the HAL airport.

Looks like BIAL had an OK first week.

I told you so....

Have a look at the first news heading here. Remind you of anything ? :-)

Krriminal budhi boyz and galz all over the place, I say. :-))

ControversyTube.com

Most of us visit youtube at least one a week for watching some video or the other. The youtube service was launched with the intent of enabling amateur videographers to get their content online and get some viewership and critical feedback, maybe. But what it has turned out into is the dumping yard for anything and everything legal and illegal, just like bittorrent. :-)

Seeing the obvious interest of people to watch free TV or movie via youtube, the big honchos like viacom and warner brothers have a dedicated team (some warm bodies) of online drones/bots whose only job is to pull down content on sites like youtube that are a copyright violation. Youtube, being the good guy here, pulls down the content the minute someone raises an objection. We, of course would like to see the "objectionable" data... always! So, here is something that comes close to doing this for us, YouTomb. This is a pet project inside MIT which keeps track of all the videos that are pulled down from youtube because of copyright violations.

While this is nice start, I think there is scope for another niche web2.0 company to grow here. :-) Yes, I have another product idea and you can blame it all on this conference call I am stuck in, which I don't want to be in!! Anyway, getting back to topic. What folks (definitely me) would be more interested in would be to view these oh-so-bad banned content. Since it is copyright violation content, no legit site would want to host it. But since almost all such content is usually downloaded by someone and uploaded somewhere, there should be a bunch of insignificant sites/blogs that have the same content. The media mafia is unlikely to have the patience, energy and drive to bring down each and every such lowly site/blog. So, what we need is a service which can keep track of the content that is brought down because of copyright violations and then crawl the world wide web and find all the sites that have this content mirrored.

Since I have the time to come up with such ideas (mostly useless) with no intent of ever doing anything else with the idea, I need a sounding board, and I am gonna start being active here. :-) . Of course, feedback from the readers of this blog is always welcome! :-)

Mr.Transformer: Tiger To Wuss

My interest in IPL has increased over the course of the tournament, simply because we are able to witness some good spirited performances from old, new and unknown cricketers. But the fact that the Bangalore Challengers team sucks has not helped my interests in any way.

Though the IPL is yet to come even close to the rage following that something like EPL has garnered, I think it has started in the right direction. So, even though I don't care much if Bangalore loses, the caring is not nil either. I think Dravid, Charu and co. have to be blamed for the team selection, coz the team does suck, comparatively. This being said, for someone who claimed fame because be brought back Tipus sword and oozing with compassion for Karnataka, and strong local interests, the business beast inside Mallya didn't take long to surface. His decisions and his comments stink of typical board room moves. You throw people out of a company and then manage the outfall. But in the world of sports, things are a little different, as he has quickly learnt. He threw Charu out and Brijesh Patel came in, what changed ? Nothing! He apparently cut short Venkatesh Prasads opinions when it comes to team selection, what changed ? Nothing! He made the worst of comments against his team captain, what changed ? Nothing! So, Mr. Mallya... understand this... this is unfortunately business in sports, but as you can see, there is a different way of going about the business of sports!

I don't know if, like the EPL, the bottom feeders are relegated and some other team is given a chance. If so, first off Mallya and secondly Bangalore don't deserve to be part of the next edition of IPL!

Needed...

Since I have gotten home early from office and since there isn't much to do at home, the devil's workshop is in full gear today. :-)

Here is another startup web2.0 idea exclusively for India ;-). Most of urban India spends at least an hour a day in front of the TV. Most people (including myself) are channel surfers. But this is probably because I don't have an easy way to know what is showing on which channel. I need to hunt for the days paper, and search through the fine print for the program schedule. What I suggest we need is an online TV guide for India, much like this or this or this.

What say ? Will it fly ?

Chit-Chat

I read an article in TOI today about the WWE Wrestler Khali meeting the President of India, Smt. Pratibha Patil. The article seemed so improbable and meaningless, that it was funny!



I double checked with a google search and rediff too had reported the same! Imagine what a 7ft 3in 400+ pound man, who is used to shouting at the peak of his voice and a hardly 5ft, feeble sounding first lady (president?) have in common to talk about. What would they even discuss? Here are some questions they could have traded...

P. How many eggs do you gobble up everyday ?
K. What kind of weight training are you on ?
P. Have you ever tried using cotton pants for your matches ? I can help you with the selection.
K. You should try the undertaker pile driver, Clears your sinus.
P. Hope you are a vegetarian. What is your favorite vegetable ?
K. Thanks, no coffee or tea. Can I have the chicken broth soup with some beef jerky to nibble on ?

I can go on... but timely inspiration eludes me.

Movie Review: Tashan

Its been a while since I have blogged on a movie review. Its not that I have not been watching movies but no movie evoked a strong enough response in me to blog about it.

Then came Tashan... wow, what a movie! As soon as the movie ended, the first I wanted to do was blog about it! The movie was horrendously disappointing!! Yashraj films never had it off late (IMO) and they have proved it with Tashan. The films has pathetic performances from everyone. The most irritating was Anil Kapoor with the screwed up Hinglish or whatever you call what he was talking. Saif Ali Khan does nothing, and Kareena's performance was a huge let down after Jab We Met. She has got a great bod, but there is only so much crap that can cover up for. Akshay Kumar was ok, let me reemphasize on the OK.

The music is decent, at least 3 songs which you can hum to. But what really lets the movie down is its lack of a concrete script. Too filmy a story for this day and age. Imagine 100 people firing machine guns at a target which is some 30 feet away and not a single bullet hitting the target! There are some gross oversights too.. for e.g. in one scene Akshay does get shot by a bullet, but the very next scene there is no sign of the bullet wound.


Anyway, a real crap movie, 4 on 10.

Keep Waiting!

The international airport at Bangalore is ready for use. Bangalore has been waiting for this airport for a long time and its now a reality. We will now have 747s and 380s taking off and landing in our very own Bangalore.

Wow... all the above sounds so good, nice and a done for deal. Just that all of the above are true and still no flight is gonna take off or land at the new airport any time soon. The politicians are at it again! Craving for election issues, they have now landed on this issue. The problem that people claim is that infrastructure to get to the new airport is bad. All understood, well intentioned and well pointed. And how is the situation being construed by the politicians ?? They are now going from Governor, to Prime Minister, to President to Supreme Court to keep the HAL Airport open till infrastructure improves! This time around, they also have all the people of Bangalore frustrated with the infrastructure in general supporting them too.

The point being missed here is... why the noise now ? Did a genie come and magically create the international airport in one day ?? Nope... all these politicians knew very well, that this day would come and there were no concrete steps taken to solve the problem before it hit us. I remember numerous statements made by one and all for each days delay in the opening of the international airport. All this pressure... for what? To see this day ?? We are now, point by point, going back on the very basic of agreements based on which we had international funding garnered for the international airport! How sick is that!

Now lets take a different view to the whole problem ? How many in Bangalore can afford to travel by air ? The answer to this question already brings us to a very small percentage of populous of Bangalore. How many of us who can afford air travel use this mode of transport ? Thanks to budget airlines, this number is quite a bit. That being said, how many times a year do we travel by air ? I would say 3 or 4 times a year should be a healthy average. Can't we take the pain of a few hours to get to the airport these 3 or 4 times ?? Is all this hoopla for a few sales, marketing, wealthy people who happen to travel every week ? If so, why don't they shift their residence to some place close to the airport and put all of us out of this constant ruckus! Lets have the politicians concentrate on getting their manifestos more focussed on the real issues!

I am in no way saying that the infrastructure is fine, no way is it even close to bearable. But then, the people who should be fried or fired for the pathetic state of affairs that we are in today are escaping it all by telling us that not having the HAL airport is bad for the public and that they will lose a tooth and limb (never will they ever) to ensure that the old airport is kept open or the new airport will stay closed!

Pricks! @#$%^&

Obviously shocking

The Indian Premier League T20 tournament is going great guns! I seriously am not interested in the tourney as its hard to not applaud a sehwag slog or a dhoni catch just because they are playing against the Bangalore Royal Challengers. This being said, I find myself spending a good 1-2 hours daily watching live action of IPL and this is exactly the reason why this tournament has become such a big success.

One thing that has come good out of this tournament is the obvious shock that the old guard does not fit into the new scheme of things. Dhoni was right!! There is no place for a Dravid or Laxman or Ganguly in this form of the game. Sachin has not played a single match, else I think he too would have been a failure, though he is the only one who has even a slight chance of success. Each one of these stalwarts is more of a liability in their team, creating batting order chaos and nothing more. Imagine Misbah-ul-haq sitting out of the Bangalore team or Herschelle Gibbs sitting out of the Hyderabad team or Gayle/Brad Hodge not in the playing 11 for Kolkata. Look at who from India is performing well... its rohit sharma, its uthappa, its sehwag, its dhoni, maybe even yuvraj. Basically, the new guard is doing the job and justifying why Dhoni took the bold decision (and all the flak) to drop dravid first and then ganguly from the one day squad.

I hope this tournament lays to rest the otherwise constant crib of each of these states on why their star player is not part of the ODI or T20 squad!

Thought for the day

There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

:-))))

Its Different

Nice clock to stare and spend some time on... maybe even get a bit scared.

Wakeup Call

I noticed the below sign board near the K R Puram bridge and was not sure if its a promo for some movie, like this, or if it was for real.




I went to their website and they look like its an honest attempt to get people out of the "hum kya kar sakte hain" attitude into "chak de!" way of looking at things. How valuable my vote is, I really don't know. But if its worth anything, I would rather give it to a party I can relate to and the current national or regional parties don't seem to fit my bill. But this party... maybe I will vote for them.

We won... sigh

India just leveled the series against South Africa and have retained the fear of touring the sub continent. This is one of those very rare occasions when the result is in India's favour and yet I feel this sense of sadness. The world No:2 and No:3 test teams have lost a total of 32 wickets in 3 days. The match is comfortably finished by the end of 3rd day. Morne Morkel bowls a good length ball and the ball fights to even go above the shoes of the batsman. Harbhajan Singh bowls the first over of the second innings even though we have 2 fully fit fast bowlers in Sreesanth and Ishanth.

All in all, a desperate attempt for victory by India. We have gone to the extent of making the Green park in Kanpur void of the slightest bit of grass and in fact, it was a bigger dust bowl than one has seen in the most gloomy of days of Indian cricket. I am sure history will remember this series as a 1-1 draw and nothing more. But lest we forget, the more pitches we create like this, the lesser we become as a cricketing nation. In fact, the pitches in all the 3 matches of this series have been disappointing. The first one at chennai was a dead pitch, the second one was more green than it should have been and the last one was more brown that it should have been. I don't believe in changing pitches in India to be similar to Australia or South Africa. The Aussies or Springboks cannot be expected to create a spin friendly pitch and similarly, there is no need for us to make pace friendly pitches. But that being said, we need good cricketing pitches. Test cricket is interesting when matches go the distance, not when things end on the 3rd day, with one team having the obvious advantage, like what happened in the 2nd or 3rd tests of this series.

Anyway, yippeeee... we won! :-(

Flattery?

Someone once said "Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery". I am sure this was coined by some guy who plagiarized his way to the bank and then when he got caught, he had a well phrased statement coined and ready for use.

During the usual weekend manga sessions, me, my wife and cousins usually discuss about bollywood, movies, music etc. One of the constant topics over the last year or so has been the hits being delivered by the combo of Pritam, Kay Kay and a band of unknown singers. The constant in the equation is always Pritams music. I always had this gut feeling that he was definitely copying stuff from somewhere, but could never really find out from where. Even while watching his latest blockbuster Race, I was getting this nagging feeling... "Man, this guy has gotta be lifting this stuff!". My dad, who could care less about Pritam and his music, actually liked the songs of the movie and therein lies the secret to Pritams success. Every song revolves around 2 or 3 notes and catchy lyrics to go with it and viola you have a hit album. His music is shallow but peppy and that is apparently all that people need.

Unlike his predecessors like Anu Malik, Pritam does an extremely good job of choosing songs that he gets "inspired" by. During some general youtube browsing I came across these 3 videos which makes quite an eye popping revelation of Pritams flattering ways.







Since its unlikey that this info will ever reach the bigger audience, the hit music director, Pritam, will continue to make oodles of money on someone else's hard work. :-)

Spoiler

Had a hearty laugh when I saw this. :-))

Product Idea

I am a reluctant orkut member. I don't necessarily like the idea of orkut, but apparently many near and dear ones of mine do like it and hence I am on it. Another such social networking website which is gathering some momentum in India is facebook. They have smartly tied up with the yuppie youth channel, MTV, whose VJs try to coax you into getting onto facebook. We also have fringe players (in the world scene) like hi5 which are quite popular in India. Similarly it won't be too far in time when other sites like myspace or bebo, which got bought for $850M by AOL try to expand their horizons and get to India in a big way.

With such a plethora of social networking sites, the story is going to be very similar to the Instant messaging world. It started with AOL, then ICQ, then Yahoo, then MSN, then GTalk, then rediffbol etc etc. People will try all and eventually will have settle on one. They will do so not because they don't have friends on the other IMs but because they do not have the patience to manage multiple apps and also the CPU sap that would result out of running all these apps. Similarly, people will want to receive scraps or whatever from all these sites, but their inability to spend the same kind of quality (questionable) time on each of these social networking sites will hurt them socially, so to speak.

I think, in this crammed world of web innovations, here is a niche space for a company to flourish. How about a website that aggregates your data(scraps) and contacts from popular social networking sites and show them on a single page ? Something like a trillian or an orgoo for the social networking world.

Will this fly ? Anybody interested in funding me ? :-)

Beat this!

I remember having a discussion with a NRI a while back on the telecom sector in India versus the one in the US. He was talking of how fantastically cheap billing was in the US and that he had to pay only $60 for a fantastic tariff plan. I of course countered his tariff plan with my Rs.250 (then $6) tariff plan and then factored in all the freebies he got and had my total bill come to less than 50% of his. He then shrugged it off by telling, "Wait for the market to mature, and then lets talk".

Well, its been 2 years since this discussion and even as I agree that its not enough time for the market to "mature", it sure is long enough to know the general direction of the maturity :-), and this is the way its headed. Virgin Mobile has launched its CDMA services in India and apart from having attractive phones on offer they have a very unique feature in their plan. You will get paid for incoming calls (10 paisa/minute)!! US is still trying to get free incoming for prepaid and here we are... paying people for getting incoming calls. Damn, c'mon market, mature! ;-)

On a more interesting note, lets see if we can run a scam here. I am sure we all have changed mobiles in the last year or two. Lets assume we have not sold the old GSM mobile we had. Now, I am relatively confident that if I hunt hard enough, I can get a tariff plan from some service provider which will have all calls to one mobile free or some ridiculously low price of 1 paisa or something. Now start a call from this mobile to the virgin mobile and leave it on the whole day. You will be making approx 9 paise/minute. I am sure someone will catch this and ban the number or something, but by that time we would have made some money off the service providers.! :-)

... And it gets better!

I had already blogged about MTV Roadies 5.0 and how I have really gotten into it. Now, the folks at MTV and of course GiftMate have sweetened it for me and I am sure for many others.

Giftmate in an attempt to get more popular and gain userbase have tied up with MTV and have made the Roadies show not only entertaining to the eyes, but also very pocket friendly. Though Roadies is not a SMS based voting system, they have a number that people can SMS too, to voice their vote on who would go out. Giftmate will give a Rs.200 voucher for anyone who sends an SMS (which costs Rs.3) to MTV Roadies. These vouchers are accepted at almost any e-retail site in India, like indiaplaza, rediff shopping, indiatimes shopping, bookmyshow etc etc.

I have sent the SMS, got the voucher and used it already, so it all works. :-) So, what are y'all waiting for...

Brave or Cornered ?

In what can be considered as one of the bravest decisions by the software giant, Micro$oft has decided to provide online access to their office suite of products. We all know that the cash cow for the company has always been its office suite of products and providing online access to it is proof of 2 things:
1. The other online office competitors like zoho and writely (google) etc etc have gotten to M$
2. M$ realizes that with net becoming so big, exposing itself to this market sooner than later makes sense.

None the less, it does come with a catch, as its meant only for those who already have an office license. Anywayz, if anyone wants to give it a shot, here is where you can do it.

Enzoy maadi!

Obvious Design... but, money ?

I use skype everyday mainly for office and sometimes personal stuff. A lot of the time on skype is spent on conference calls and I have many a time felt a need to avoid the headset with mic as I don't have access to it all the time.

Some company has apparently seen a significant enough business case of people who will pay to solve this problem.



Though the pic is obvious, a little explanation. This special keyboard automatically selects the onboard receiver to be the audio in/out for skype and makes skype more mainstream, so to speak.

Smart idea but wonder if people will spend money for it! I love it, but I won't pay for it if I have to spend 10% more than a normal keyboard.

Road Rage Is Fun!

Don't read too much into the subject, as road rage is never fun. But when this rage is from a bunch of guys and girls on a show which is always on the road, then, well, it sure is fun! I am referring to the MTV reality show "Hero Honda Roadies". The show is in its 5th season, and is unique among the plethora of reality shows that flood all the tv channels these days. For a change the channel is not trying to fleece you off your money, at least not directly. There are no sms based voting eliminations! Yipeeee!! The commercial breaks are also less than 6 minutes, which is about 3-4 minutes less than the average commercial break time for other reality based shows. Add to this, the creative team behind the Roadies earnestly works towards making every episode unique with a guaranteed surprise element to boot.

This year the roadies selection process, which is one of the highlights of the show was as entertaining as ever. And when the actual show started with the 13 finalists, there was bound to be a lot of fun. Since this is their 5th season, people came in more strategically prepared, more emotionally prepared and most importantly more prepared attitude wise.

Its been a treat watching the first 3 episodes and sure promises to be a great season ahead. When I talk of surprises, lemme take the example of the first 3 episodes.

1st episode: All the contestants know that they had to vote one contestant out of the show. The groups have already started forming, the votes had been more or less decided. The surprise factor: Change in plans, they now had to vote 2 people out of the show. This changes all the equations and in fact 2 of the stronger contestants leave the show, instead of the forming villain of the group.
2nd episode: The villain of the group continues to be the overwhelming favourite to leave the show. But again, 2 relatively strong contestants seem to have polled all the negative votes and one of the more confident looking contestants leaves the show. The villain doesn't get a single vote against him!
3rd episode: Again, the group villain goofs up even more and looks like the absolute bakra to go out. But again, the person who was thought of as one of the most scheming guys on the show is voted out.

Watch it guys... its definitely much better than the rest of the crap reality shows on tube these days! I am loving it!!

Its Working!

I don't know if anybody has ever used my method of getting Google calendar notifications to on your mobile as an SMS. This post of my mine was specifically meant for Airtel Karnataka subscribers and I have blissfully used this feature for all of 1.5 years and was very very happy with my improved productivity, thanks to Google calendar doing the remembering and my mobile doing the reminding.

About a month or so back, as a new year present, the email portal for Airtel Karnataka subscribers stopped working and promptly so did my productivity enhancement tool. I resorted to only email reminders and since I am not always in front of the comp, I have missed many an appointment (movie :-)).

Some 4-5 months into me using this tool of mine, Google introduced reminders to be sent to your mobile and this worked in India with some service providers and unfortunately Airtel Karnataka was not one of them. I did give it a shot then, and as documented, it didn't work. At that time I could care less, as I had my tool working and that was good enough. But after the Airtel folks blocked the email portal, the desperate me just gave the Google calendar to mobile one more shot and to my surprise, it worked! I promptly got an SMS from Google with a reminder I had set in the calendar. Airtel Karnataka is still not listed as a supported carrier, but I guess Google just got lazy (who doesn't!) with document updates.

Go ahead people... give it a shot and get productive! :-)

Ban them all!

I was getting back from office today and it was 7:30PM. This is peak traffic time in the evenings and I was having enough trouble already with the unruly traffic. Add to this is my current tryst with ligament tear, which make the continuous use of the break/accelerator to give me enough pain to last me till I sleep.

As if this was not enough, some genius big shot (dunno if its a politician or movie star or whatever!) decides to have his entourage go right through the city. To make his/her life easy, traffic is halted and re-routed. Traffic police are doing their job, but there are now a bunch of well minded Samaritans who also wanna help! They helping is fine, but who gave them the right to hurl abuses at anybody who is just trying to get home and doesn't know the reason for the detours or the detour routes ? I didn't get any abuses as I just followed the car in front of me, who got a healthy dose of expletives in Kannada.

I demand that we stop this practice of helping these VIPs get past all the traffic mess! Let them feel the pain! Its their short sightedness which has resulted in this infrastructure chaos we are in today! Even after the last 3-4 years of non-stop abuses being hurled at the politicians for Bangalore's bad shape, they still don't do things fast enough to make a difference. For e.g. the international airport is almost ready and people will have to travel 2hrs in some cases to get to the airport for a 20 min fight to chennai! There is no concrete proof on the ground of things being improved in this regard.

Wanna be a good Samaritan ? Take a leaf off the book of the old man who stands at the Meeras school junction near Cambridge Road directing traffic and kids day in an day out without losing his cool and even in the worst of weather. The rest of the instant Samaritans are more pain in the ass than anything else!

Our Planetary Neighbours

NASA's Spirit has picked up some strange human looking life form on Mars. Yes people, the answer to our question 'Are we alone' (as if the 7+ billion was not enough) has been answered. We are not alone! Like this is what we really wanted at this time! We have so few humans around, why not get some Martians to stick around!



Too bad the Martian doesn't look anywhere as cool as depicted in the movies. :-) And since this picture is just as grainy or hazy as any of the ones of Sasquatch or Loch Ness monster, it must be true. :-)

Anyway, some more fuel for the SETI gang to continue their search.

Silly Billy

The final test between India and Australia is winding down to a draw and the main culprit for the result is probably the lifeless pitch. So much for cricket friendly Aussie pitches! :-) But then, this is apparently the first draw at Adelaide in 10 years! Can't blame the pitch much I suppose. Probably just 2 teams who played well when it mattered and hence the draw.

We had Billy Bowden as the umpire for the 3rd test match along with Asad Rauf, and the same pair officiated in the 4th test too. This was after ICC booted Bucknor off the series. After the 2 tests that Billy has officiated in, what is the general consensus on his umpiring? Was it better than Bucknors? At first glance, and considering the furore at Sydney, the answer would probably be yes. A good umpire is supposed to make the right decisions, be it out or not out. And with this as the context, on a closer look, you would see that Billy has taken the easy route out. He has played it safe by not giving any of the LBWs, even ones which were out. I think Billy's umpiring has been just as bad as Bucknors, just that people won't be as critical because, there is always the matter of the umpire being consistent and secondly, no one lost the Adelaide test specifically because of Billy decision making or the lack thereof!

Broadband alternative

Internet access in India has been around for a long time, but broadband access is relatively new and its now pervasive enough to reach the larger audience. The next step in net access is the mobile/wireless reachability. Though we have WiFi at home, we need to get to WiFi on the streets. Since that is a bit of a stretch, atleast in India it is, we have WiMax, which is much more suited for this application.

Reliance communications has gotten into this business in a BIG way and after initial hiccups have started their WiMax broadband availability.



Though this is still fixed wireless i.e. they will have a wireless modem/receiver on your roof and what comes into your house would be an ethernet drop. You can still choose to have WiFi inside your house. The dream is still to have access all over, but that will take a while. Rest assured, we are getting there. :-)

The R.I.C.E way...

I injured my leg last week playing football and it looked quite bad. I initially thought it was a fracture and that was a scary thought. I have been playing different types of sports for many years but never had a fracture or for that matter the serious kind of injury I had last week (touch wood!). I had a few friends at office who had faced similar injuries in the past assure me that it was not a fracture. This did bolden me when I went to visit the doctor.

He pressed a few of the bones and joints near the ankle area (the problem area) and since I didn't shout out, he figured it was not a fracture. A friend at office did the same to say that it wasn't a fracture. The doctor later told me to take an X-Ray and confirmed after looking at it that it was not a fracture. He later said:

"Have a lot of rest, put some ice near the swelling, put some crepe bandage to keep it tight and ensure that you put your feet "up" i.e. fighting gravity." To my surprise, another colleague of mine later pointed me to this, which is exactly the same stuff that the doctor said. Either I have an office full of orthopedics or this is very common knowledge. The doctor looked earnest in opinion till this point and then the financial reasoning came forth and he asked me to come to his hospital and start on physiotherapy. He didn't want to understand that I have to get to office and to start physiotherapy at 10:30AM is not something that will work for me at all. But nope, he wanted me to do it and didn't encourage me to get it done somewhere closer to my office. I have boldly decided not to do the physiotherapy as suggested and trust the wiki page or some other specialized website for directions on what I could do in "MY" time!

I may regret this decision to not go with the physiotherapy, but the inflexibility of the doctor to place the welfare of the patient ahead of his own business needs didn't appeal to me at all. Yes, we all work for money, but a doctor is not expected to talk like a salesman. In the software industry, we have specialists to do each job. Some of us code, some of us test, some of us manage, some of us sell, some of us do the marketing and so on. Shouldn't the practice of medicine also be similar ? Should a person in a higher position of trust, like a doctor, try to talk you into something that is forced more by the needs of business rather than the needs of the patient ? What does such talk by a doctor do to the faith bestowed on him by the patient? In our hour of desperation and pain, we will tend to listen to "whatever" the good doctor has to say. Misusing this trust points to a question of ethics, at least for me it does!

As previously written, the profession of medicine is so much more different from any other and continues to intrigue me.

p.s: I have very few friends who are doctors. :-)

Queen Maker?

Coalition politics are here to stay in India and since Congress and BJP can never partner with each other, the local players of each state will be the king makers in each state. At the center the story is different but not too different. The power players of each state do have a role to play, but we then have a few big players too. For e.g. the left parties and more recently Mayawati.

Mayawati understands that she has her very best chance of becoming the PM now. She sees the Congress losing in most states, BJP winning in some. If the nuclear deal results in India going for mid-term polls, she knows that there is a very good chance of neither of the big guns getting a majority. This opens the door for her and she is readying herself. If she manages to split UP into 3 states (which is good, but being done for the wrong reasons), her party will now have majority presence in more than just one state. This will give her more bargaining power and don't be surprised if she does a Deve Gowda and ends up becoming the Prime Minister of the country!

Here is a preview of her fancy plans.

Not Funny!

I initially intended to post the new concept DAPs at CES 2008 by iriver, but was halted and veered away to another post by this rather bizarre happening at the CES this year.

Gizmondo is a very respected gadget guide website, one which I frequent often for getting the latest on gadgets or to catch a review of something I wanna buy. This being said, they released the below video on their blog of the bizarre happening I was talking about and I certainly didn't enjoy it!



This prank to shut off some of the LCD screens at the CES show was the brainwave of editor of Gizmodo! He has since been banned from this years show and the site probably has a lawsuit on their hands. If you have seen the above video, you would see many of the presenters being presented with their worst presentation nightmare, and not just once! The motorola guy tried to recover by moving from his primary LCD, which had stopped working, to the secondary LCD, which also went off within seconds.

Pranks are fine if this was a convention for college kids. But this is CES, one of the most looked forward to events of the tech calendar. There are serious companies showcasing there path breaking or at least money making (hopeful) products for the coming year. And to have such a serious event be disrupted like this is just childish!

Edit:
The above video has been removed by youtube. Here is a link for the video right from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

Monopolistic

The Indian government supported bodies or companies always seem to get the better of the rules of the land, thus making them monopolistic in nature. I had written a while back about how doordarshan gets to relay the live feed of cricket matches from Neo Sports without paying them any money and yet make money themselves on Ads in between overs. The situation in the fuel market is not very different.

I choose to fill petrol from the Shell outlet on Old Madras Road. The reasons for choosing them over a HP or IndianOil petrol pump are many fold.

1. I don't have to keep my eyes pinned on the money or fuel meter to see if they are trying to pull a fast one on me.
2. They don't make the choice of premium or normal petrol for me!
3. They clean the windshield of my ever dirty car. :-)
4. They give me a bill for every transaction without asking for one.
5. I have a smiling face welcoming me to the petrol station, and not someone who seems to think that he is doing a favour by pouring petrol into the tank.

There are more reasons, but then, they are not big enough to mention, but significant enough to make you feel more comfortable.

Last week, I went to the Shell petrol pump and got to know that they have stopped selling normal petrol in Bangalore and Chennai and that they would now sell only their premium version of petrol and diesel. The reason cited is that the subsidies provided by the government is only for the PSU Oil companies, but the private players are expected to keep the price fair inspite of not having the subsidies. They were kind enough to warm me before they started filling up and also had the below notice given to every customer who had any query regarding this.



I better reacquaint myself with the skills needs to fill petrol elsewhere!

Small is Big

Finally we have a few glimpses of the 1 lakh car from Tata.

The Looks:


The Details:


Tata is clearly trying to woo the low end car market (Maruti 800) consumers and the high-end 2 wheeler consumer into switching to the 1 lakh car. The current market leaders of the high-end 2 wheeler segment, Bajaj, cannot let this happen without a fight and they have released some news about their own version of the 1 lakh car.



More details here.

The small car market is pretty big in India and these guys know it. Let the wooing games begin! :-)

Outrageous!

I didn't plan to write this post, but I just couldn't contain my anger. Here are a series of events in the second test between India and Australia in Sydney.

A delve into the past... In the 1st test between India and Australia, Yuvraj is unhappy with a very bad decision given and lingers a little longer than he should have. He is held up by the match referee and then let go. The ICC chief is unhappy that yuvraj is let go scot-free. Now to the present... where there is an ongoing investigation against Harbhajan for alleged racist comments against Symonds, one in which the match referee didn't see anything, the umpires didn't hear anything, but the aussies go to media with statements like "we have a strong case against Harbhajan". All this happening in the middle of the match!

Now, lets get to the center of all the controversies and we have many in this match.

1. Aussies are in a spot of bother in the first innings, Ponting is batting on 14 and snicks a ball to Dhoni. He does not walk and the umpire Mark Benson does not give him out. No questions asked, India... tough luck.
2. Symonds is pulling aussies out of trouble, he snicks a ball and the catch is taken. He does not walk and the umpire Steve Bucknor does not give him out. Since Bucknor takes for ages to give any decision, Ishant Sharma continues to appeal. Bucknor complains about him to the match referee for sustained appealing. India... tough luck again.
3. Symonds is now playing well and Dhoni manages to get a stumping very much against the run of play. He appeals to the square leg umpire, who decides to go to the 3rd umpire. The replays show that he was definitely out, but again, the 3rd umpire has other plans. India... not your day, not your test.
4. Another stumping off Harbhajan by Dhoni on Symonds. This time Bucknor who is at square leg doesn't even go to the 3rd umpire. The action replays show that he was out! India... Bucknor eyes are as good as that of a bat in daylight, trust him!
5. Jaffer is bowled by a beauty of a yorker by Lee. Action replays show that it was a no-ball. India... the ball was so good, the umpire was distracted from seeing the no-ball.
6. Aussies see Harbhajan of all the people giving able support to Tendulkar and they can't stomach it. They start their needling and Bhajji responds back in as many words. The Aussies feel pissed and lodge a complaint. India... Shut up, we, the aussies can sledge, your part is to only listen and not react!
7. Michale Clarke into bat in the 2nd innings and slashes at a ball from Kumble and the catch is taken by Dravid in slips. There isn't even an iota of doubt, but Clarke doesn't walk. Indians are flabbergasted and finally the umpire lifts his finger. India... Its after all Clarke, the vice captain of the team, if he is standing his ground, there must be reason!
8. Kumble has taken 2 wickets in a row and is on a hat-trick. A very valid lbw appeal against Symonds is turned down. Since Bucknor is so slow in deciding, Kumble continues the appeal and Bucknor has a word with him on sustained appealing. Hawk-eye shows that the ball would have hit the middle stump! India... when will you realize that Symonds has a contract for one let-off for every 50 runs he scores!
9. India is playing its 2nd innings and trying to save the test, Dravid is decided to plonk is feet down and is playing very well. A loud appeal from Symonds for a brush off the pads, supported very ably by all the close in aussie fielders including the 'preacher' Adam Gilchrist. Bucknor doesn't bat an eyelid and gives Dravid out. A disgusted Dravid laughs his way back to the pavilion. India... if the aussies have to win dravid can't be around.
10. A ball from Hogg hits Dhoni on the pads and bounces up. Ponting dives for the ball and catches it, but comes up grinding the ball in the ground. A definite not out, but there is a huge appeal from Ponting. Luckily the bowler appealed for LBW and Ponting for cthe catch and the confused umpire didnt give either. India, see, you may not be lucky, but at least on this occasion you were not unlucky.
11. Ganguly in prime form has scored run a ball 50 and is looking to save the match. A snick from Lee goes to Michael Clark in slips. There is definite doubt on whether the catch was taken cleanly. Ganguly stands his ground. Umpire Mark Benson instead of going to the 3rd umpire to confirm, instead of going to the square leg umpire to confirm, goes to the opposing captain, Ponting, who gestures to the umpire and to the batsman that ganguly is out. India, you got to understand, Ponting plans on becoming an umpire after his active career and he needs the practice!

All these decisions have brought India very close to defeat, with kumble battling on with the bat. This has been one abysmal performance by the umpires and unfortunately all decision minus one went against the Indiansremoved from the e. If they are bad, they need to be bad to both the teams, not just one! Its about time Bucknor is removed from the elite panel of umpires or at least not officiate in matches involving India. He has been complained on by India in the past, and he still is persisted with. He is the umpire for the 3rd test even. We will be blessed to watch more of his wonderful decision making!

What action will be taken against the belligerent aussies after then very sportmanly conduct? What action will be taken against the umpires, who have made more than their fair share of mistakes and even worse almost all against one team?!?

Change Needed!

The telecom sector in India has changed the life of people by leaps and bounds and in the process has revolutionized the way we view the telecom industry which was monopolized by BSNL. I have had very little interaction with BSNL in the last few years. The last I had contacted them was to get ISD enabled on my landline and I had to wait for 2 months for it to be activated after providing a written letter with a photo attached requesting for the enabling of ISD services. I should have been happy that it at least got done and stayed away from BSNL till absolutely necessary, but nope, I am a sucker for hoping things will change! :-)

I had been to a BSNL customer care center last week to buy a landline prepaid card. I went to the lady who seemed to have nothing to do and asked her for the counter where I could get the card. The lady without raising her hand, without telling a word, just moved her eyes in the general direction of the counters. I figured she is keeping "Mouna Vratha" and moved towards the counters. She apparently is the person in charge of enquiry section! I go near the counters and wait my turn. In the meanwhile, our lady of inaction seems to be exercising her eyes ever so often, with every enquiry being pushed off to some other official or counter. Then is the icing on the cake, when one individual expects an answer from her and not just bharatnatyam movements! This irks her so much that she in fact fires the guy for not being able to help himself! The disgusted customer shouts a bit and then walks out. There goes more business away from BSNL.

Now continuing my time at the counter. I asked for the card and told the denomination I wanted. Later I asked for the call charges, for which the answer I got was "Same like all the other cards Sir". Was this answer supposed to help me? If all the cards are same, then why have so many different cards or so many different denominations. Further more, the official is searching away his small pile of cards for the right one. He is taking for ages and doesn't seem to know what is kept where. I am able to spot the card I want and tell him "The card is there sir, to your left". He doesn't heed my help as he goes about the search in his own slow pace and finally pulls out the card and hands it out to me. The cost of the card is Rs.312 and I pay him Rs.1012 to help him with the easy math to get back the right change. But I was surprised that he got the calculator in front to do the math and waste some more of my time!

The whole experience took around 15 minutes which I think could have taken less than 5 minutes. Its not the 10 minutes that matter, but the lack of adaptability by the BSNL officials to the already changed consumer mindset and expectations!

TOI Goof

Given more time, I am sure I can update the Times Of India goofup section almost daily! This is what is seen in todays paper.



Which Ind vs Aus match was the TOI following?

And this was in yesterdays edition.



How about a spell check before you increase the font on the headlines?? Will avoid us from becoming the victims! :-)

Music Review: M.I.A-Kala

To start off... Wish you and your family a very happy and healthy 2008!

A friend of mine pointed me to this youtube video. The music was extremely catchy and infectious! My friend and myself discussed this and felt it sounded a lot like dapang-koothu and very gaana sounding lyrics. To add, it seemed to have some sorta desi influences in the basic tune too. Now that it had got my attention, I had to dig around a little more...

The name of the artist is M.I.A and the name of the album is Kala. I remember seeing this as one of the best selling albums of 2007 on some music trivia page. At first sight, this reminded me of some hip hop artist from US and disregarded it. But after hearing it, was totally impressed with the peppiness. And once I got to the wiki page, I was convinced with whatever my friend and myself had discussed.

The artist M.I.A's real name is Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, a UK based artist originally from Sri Lanka. Her dad is a LTTE member and she has been shuttling between Sri Lanka, India and UK during her early years. Her first album is named Arular, named after her father and her second one is named Kala, which is named after her mother.

All in all, a very new and interesting sound. A definite must-hear.

The year gone by...

Only a philosophical sounding title and no more crap from me for this year. But I am sure you can do with some words of wisdom from Wally. :-)




Wish you all a fun filled evening/night ahead.... :-)

Digg This!

What does one need to do to get a recording contract ? Well, one needs talent and creativity and just as importantly needs to know how to use all the technology at ones disposal.

Kina Grannis has all of the above and she has reportedly been approached with the offer of a singing contract for her toils. Here is the video she released on youtube which has gotten very very popular thanks to the obvious dedication to digg and of course the instant fan following guaranteed by youtube.



Find more videos of her here.

Love it - Love it not!

I have been following the Barclays premier league quite intently and like widely believed is the best league in the world. I do think there are other European teams that are better that those in the premier league, but overall quality of the teams is definitely better in it.

Since most of the matches are on weekends, I get to see quite a few of them. Though there is some flair missing in the game, it is definitely pacey and well coordinated. This makes for good viewing and definitely keeps me glued to the TV set. But then, along with all the good stuff comes the ever so common, acting and even worse cheating! Almost every team is full of crooks who just want to act their way into get a foul or a penalty or getting the opponent yellow/red carded. Some argue, this is part of the game. I would have bought that argument, had it not become the biggest part of the game these days. You have the most talented players acting like they were hit by a rock when all that happened was a finger of the defender just grazing the players face.

I believe there is a severe lack of use of technology in football. Every other sport has embraced it to make itself better, but football authorities stay as stone-age friendly as ever. At least use technology to monitor offsides, it does not take much time, probably a single replay would do in 95% of the cases. I don't know how of much technology will be actually ideal, but right now, its the best acting team that wins, not necessarily the best football skilled team.

p.s: I have just finished seeing the Everton vs Arsenal match, where, Arteta, Evertons best midfield creative player got sent off with a red card for a "maybe" yellow card offense all because Fabregas(Arsenal) acted like he had been hit by a bullet instead of Artetas elbow! The match lost steam after this and a close match till then ended tamely with a 4-1 win for Arsenal!

Movie Review: I Am Legend

Long time since I saw a new release, and was hoping for a winner with I Am Legend. You mix Will Smith with weird beings or aliens and you have a recipe for a blockbuster or so I hoped.

The movie is all about a virus which infects all of mankind and other living creatures, killing 90% of humans and making most of the remaining into very physically powerful zombies. The only thing that they fear is light. Will Smith for some unknown reason is immune to the virus and lives his life with his dog. His daily routine is pumping iron, conducting experiments on rats with different variants of his blood in an effort to find a cure and then wandering abandoned streets in search of DVDs to watch. All goes terribly wrong one day, when he is trapped by the zombies using one of the contraceptions that he uses to catch them! In the fight that ensues, his dog gets infected with the virus and he has to kill it. He loses his cool and tries to kill how many ever of the zombies as he can. He kills quite a few and is about to become zombie food, when miraculously, a girl and her brother come from nowhere and save him. This is the most unconvincing part of the story.

The surprise inclusion to the list of human survivors sets up for a finale, wherein Will Smiths house is raided by the zombies and he manages to save the girl and her brother but not before he magically finds a cure and not without having to blow himself up. The girl and her brother escape to meet up with more survivors (wonder where they were all along) and who are expected to help use the cure on the zombies.

All in all a disappointing fair. There were moments of tension and newness, followed by absolute ridiculous turns to the story and in the end there are just too many questions left unanswered or answered unconvincingly. Will Smith is ok in the movie and can't say much for the acting of the zombies. :-). I would give it a 6 on 10.

Hopping Gavaskar!

Anyone who has been listening to Sunil Gavaskar as a commentator would have seen his absolute anger at some commonly used terminologies or common spectator practices. He almost sounded like he was from a different planet! For e.g. He doesn't like the Hindi film industry being referred to as Bollywood. He also hates it when spectators make caps out of the national flag or if the national flag is not with the right dimensions or if the chakra has fewer spokes etc etc.

Considering Gavaskar being such a strict customer, he would have gone bonkers at seeing the streaker at the MCG on Boxing Day and the preferred clothing provided to him thereof!



I must say... the picture shows some very inappropriate stop-gap arrangement by the cops. If the streaker wants to parade naked... let him! But does he have to be covered using the Indian national flag? Can't they get hold of some piece of paper or something? Even if they don't, is it more important to cover for obscenity at the cost of insulting a nations national flag?

Smart move...

ICL just finished its first tourney and gave us a glimpse of what could be. Though I didn't really find the interest to see the matches, the never before heard grounds where these 20-20 matches were played were chock-a-block. There is still no clarity of whether the young players in ICL will ever be considered to play for India. Also, international players who played in the ICL face the effects of BCCI trying to pull strings. But one section of people associated with cricket who are raking in the moolah and not facing any of the BCCI wrath are the commentators.

I remember seeing articles from Tony Greig in the newspapers and on cricinfo.com giving thumbs up to ICL, comparing it to the Packer series in the late 70s. He later went on to commentate as a special panelist for ICL. Surprisingly, I now see Tony Greig in his regular role as commentator with Channel 9 in the ongoing India vs Australia Boxing day test match!

Maybe its time for the oldies in the different international teams (Lara, Atapattu, Andrew Hall etc etc) considered taking up commentary rather than playing rebel tournaments. :-) Its less/not objectionable and yet makes lotsa money.

Slingling From Bangalore

I got my hands on my Slingbox PRO today! A minorly customized coax cable and 5 minutes later, I am Slinging! The pic below is taken with me sitting in my bedroom with my lappy and seeing Star Cricket while I work/browse at the same time...



I have to say, I have not setup any other gadget in as less time (minus the cable customization) as the slingbox. This is a really well engineering product and deserve the good publicity they get. I had my worries with coax being outdated in the US and with PAL/NTSC issues, but luckily all worked well.

Damn.... this is bliss!!

The business of medicine

I have been meeting quite a few doctors in the last 2-3 weeks. There couldn't be more contrasts in any profession like in the field of medicine.

1. You are earning direct karma points from God for helping people
2. You can goof up and screw lives of people
3. You are the saviour for most and reminder of pain for some
4. Most keep money before the passion of the profession

Some of the doctors I met are established, raking in the moolah and could care less about the patient. There is another lot, though established, is trying to promote their new hospital and hence are nice to you. There are also the ones who are new to this and want to earn some "good" name which will hold them in good stead in the future. Each one did their job with a different demeanor and yet, at the end of the day, I don't see any real big difference from one to another. Its probably because, deep down, I could sense that there was no genuineness in any of them. Everyone had a hidden agenda and everyone had an angle to work. But I also thank all of them just the same, as at the end of the day they all helped in their own way.

One always feels a very special high when we get to hear good stuff from customers who have used the boxes that run the code we write and of course feel the shame when the customer is furious over some bug. Imagine living the life where you can feel this high each day and also face the complaints live from the customer!

The world of medicine... maybe its worth the money.

Bengalooru Bangalore-d ?

A friend of mine recently pointed me to this article. I spent some time reading it and this was my reply to my friend.

Read the article... a very theoretical and derived view of what could be, not what is. Bangalore is still the IT capital even with all the political apathy. Like any other city, the present boom in India is not applying to all strata of society. Some of us, mostly the middle class and upper middle class seem to be able to make good in this situation along with the rich (who always make good). With all the influx of people, I, who is a thorough bred bangalorean does feel that, Bangalore is slipping away, but then, I am still part of it, thanks to IT, thanks to my pay check. But the not so well to do are feeling that Bangalore is slipping away and they can do nothing about it and have nothing to do
with it and may soon not be able to afford to be in it.

Of course, the economic disparity has increased, but Bangalore is not alone and definitely the IT industry is not the specific target of any ire.

Agree? Disagree?

Just 'E'scape

Gotta give it to Scott Adams, he sure can make every mundane yet passable situation in the IT industry abstracted into the most humourous cartoon!

:-))

Life happens

A longish break from this blog. Not planned, not intended, but it happened.

Anywayz, life is back on track, and so is this blog. :-)

That old *$/&#

The eternal bane of Karnataka and one of the shrewdest politicians around is at it again. Deve Gowda and JD(S) have withdrawn support from the 7 day old BJP government. Technically, they didn't withdraw support. They apparently put a bunch of demands which will govern the now popular term, CMP (Common Minimum Program)

Unlike the erstwhile Dharam Singh government, the BJP government realized that with these demands on the paper, its unlikely they would be doing the ruling. And hence, the BJP government resigned. Apparently efforts are afoot on one front to woo Congress to form the government or support JD(S) to form one and on the other end there is a desperate measure to split JD(S), as the party legislators are pissed off at being told to not support BJP at the 11th hour! While JD(S) is relatively quite about the whole thing, the BJP is definitely making a big hue and cry about it and that they were stabbed in the back. Trust ? Does that word have any place in politics? Who is BJP kidding? As if they trusted Gowda and gang! Deve Gowda is not dumb either. He would definitely know that something of this sort would hurt him and his party more than anyone else. Then why would the master strategist take such a decision?

Apparently U R Ananthamurthy, the noted Kannada writer has the answer. The whole thing has as little to do with clashing ideologies as the Iraq war had to do with WMDs. Its all about the money! What is thriving in Karnataka outside of Bangalore? most definitely its the Mining industry. Lots of money and very little supervision and hence a very lucrative ministry to hold. What is the most money making business in Bangalore ? One can confidently say, its real estate. Another very lucrative ministry to hold. The JD(S) held both these ministries for 20 months and as per the deal, it was time for BJP to hold them and make merry. But of course, Gowda couldn't let that happen. He asked for these 2 ministries this time around too, BJP refused, the government fell. Its all so simple!

The JD(S) surely doesn't want to go to elections with such easy negative propaganda available in the hands of the BJP. It most definitely has some backup plan with Congress brewing. And I am afraid Congress will trust the Gowdas and will bargain for significant share of the rest of the power.

Anyway, we the poor souls of Karnataka are destined to watch this mockery of democracy at the hands of the mighty and greedy go on for more time to come. Sigh!

Catching up

I remember the time when craigslist was launched. It was late 1999 or early 2000 I suppose, and it was a San Francisco Bay area centric website with classified ads. It was simple looking but very effective and instantly became very popular as deemed by an ex colleague of mine who was a resident of the bay area.

I had wished then, "someday we gotta have such services in Bangalore". And guess what... we are getting there. We had ask laila a while back and now we have another. Now along the same lines, we have city centric news, citizenmatters.in. This I hope will make up for the lack of quality local information coverage by big media houses like Times Of India and The Hindu.

A break...

For a few months now, I have been following a strict regimen. The fact that I have stuck to it for so many months has amazed many I know, but none more than yours truly! :-) I have been getting up early, getting to office early, getting back from office early and finally sleeping early. This makes for great work timings and truly frees up time to do a lot more with your evenings, though, to confess, I haven't been doing too much.

Thanks to Deepawali, I have had a few days off now and the weekend still ahead to vile away. Normally, this is vacation time, but for various reasons, we are bound to Bangalore this time. But the last few days I have been having a vacation of a different kind. Almost like a relapse into my disorganized past. :-), with no worry or having to get up early, I have been sleeping very late (3AM+) the last few days. Watching TV, browsing the net and generally doing nothing, and before I realize it, its time for me to force myself to bed. Sigh! The good ol' days. :-)

As much as I am loving this brief peek into the past, I am waiting for Monday, to get back into my groove. Too much of a bad thing can be bad. :-)

Movie Review: Jab We Met

When was the last time I saw a movie during the weekend that it released? I think it was Matrix Revolutions. Sheer chance saw us getting tickets for Jab We Met in its opening weekend. I wasn't too anxious to see this movie, but then, 4 stars from TOI holds some promise. And there I was, at the multiplex I hate, Innovative, at 9:30PM, to watch probably the last movie starring Kareena and Shahid (they have apparently split in real life).

The movie starts off with Shahid being dumped by his girl and really despondent in life. He attends her marriage, drops everything on him and sits in some train (AC coach, no less :-)) and is off to wherever the train is off to. Enter Kareena, on her way to her hometown Bhatinda, for the last time, after which she plans to elope with her boyfriend, Anshuman. The ever talkative Kareena befriends Shahid and start their funnily adventurous journey to her hometown. Once they reach Kareena house, everybody loves Shahid and we have a couple of songs to keep us entertained. This is followed by Kareena seeking Shahids help to elope. He does manage this successfully and sees her walk off to her boyfriend. Unfortunately her family thinks she has eloped with Shahid and are mighty pissed off.

Shahid goes back to reclaim his life and does a great job at it. He sees Kareenas exuberance as his guiding force and sees things change for the better. Meanwhile, Kareena has not called her family in 9 months and when her family sees Shahid on TV, they track him down to get some answers. What ensues forms the climax and since its a hit, in typical filmy style, all ends well. :-)

But all said and done, this is a superbly directed movie, low budget, good screenplay and studded with a superb performance by Kareena and a decent one by Shahid. Its definitely value of money and more than worth a watch. I give it a 7.8 on 10. :-)

Lets Wi-Fi'fy the Cams

Digital Camera having Wi-Fi capabilities is not new. But they haven't caught on as much, because the consumers don't see the need to pay the extra bucks to get just wi-fi transfer feature.

But here is something that I think can definitely catch on. An SD card which has Wi-Fi in it. This means, even those digital cameras, considered archaic by the bleeding edge standards of the day, can have wi-fi upload services on them. Now, only if they could bring down the price from $99. ;-)

How Real is Reality?

There is a slew of reality shows on Mallu Telly Tube these days with Amrita TV leading the pack. But the talk of town in terms of Mallu reality shows is Asianet Idea Star Singer, a singing talent hunt show. And this happens to be the only mallu show I watch (only sometimes by choice :-) )

I have always been amazed by the ability of the TV channels to shoot reality shows almost live since the results are based on viewer SMS votes. There is hardly any time, and as with any live show, there is always the risk of something going very wrong, like what happened at 2005 season of TVS Sa Re Ga Ma or this year's Voice of India. And when most shows do this flawlessly, you do admire the execution of their event management team. Then... some news leak out!

About a week back, my wife told me about she having received an email which clearly stated the contestants of Asianet Idea Star Singer who would be in the danger of elimination and those that would actually get eliminated. We thought it must be some sorta rumour and didn't pay much interest to it. Come elimination day, the list of people who were in the danger of eliminations (8-10 names) and those who got eliminated (3 names) were exactly the same. The leak, also publicized in some forums (look at the post by Shivettan) went on to say that the elimination episode was shot on 21st of Oct, a good 10 days before it was aired. This by itself is not wrong, but when you request folks to continue sending sms's for the contestants who have already been eliminated on the 21st of Oct till the 30th of Oct, that is when things go bad. This amounts to cheating and if this were to be true, I can see a slew of lawsuits flying around!

Won't the contestants know this? Why don't they or their relatives (maybe the disgruntled ones of someone who got eliminated) blow the whistle on this sham? There is something amiss here and the wait for the truth continues. I have never voted for any reality show, so I am not as pissed off as someone who would have spent Rs.3 per SMS many times over. Did you?!?

Marriage-Divorce : The Gowda Play

Pardon me if this post actually gets outdated by the tomorrows morning news. Last heard, JD(S) has decided to forget their differences with BJP and have decided to keep the marriage of convenience going. Yediyurappa will be the BJP candidate for CM and the promises that the coalition will stay strong has started.

It looks like the thought of losing more than just power got the JD(S) supremo, Deve Gowda to agree to the alliance. One of the reasons for JD(S) to be so bullish about breaking the alliance instead of handing over power was because of it having comfortably won local body elections. This gave them confidence that even if there were mid term polls, they would come out better in terms of number of seats in the assembly. But after breaking the pact to hand over power to the BJP, the public backlash was so strong that JD(S) realized that things were not going to plan. One of the exit polls showed them winning a paltry 17 to 19 seats. Couple with this was senior JD(S) leader MP Prakash trying to get things going with the Congress again. With Sonia visiting China, there was no swift action on this front, but the fear of a party split was very real. The Gowdas quickly regrouped and got the alliance going with the ever ready BJP for the second time.

Lets just hope that after all this power struggle and spitfire comments we will end up having some decent governance from the next 20 months. (fingers crossed)

Feed the obese!

Harry Potter Series... by far the reading/viewing sensation for kids (and also strangely some adults) of this generation is nearing the end of its money making journey. At the end of this journey, book publications, movie producers, memorabilia makers and above all the author have made millions and billions of dollars. With the final book in the series being released and a movie to follow, JK Rowling doesn't want her current supply of millions to stop. To keep the flame burning, she has some fuel in store...

What fuel you ask? Rowling reveals that Dumbledore is gay! For all non-potter fans, and I hope there are many, he is an old wizard in the harry potter books, alike Gandalf in LOTR. :-). In my opinion, this is nothing more than adding the constant fuel needed to keep the book and characters and whatever else in the minds of the fans till the movie is out. Who would really care if the old wizard is gay?? I haven't seen any of the harry potter movies to completion and neither have I read any of the books and hence don't know if this news could have any significance in the overall context of the movies or books. I would think that this wouldn't have any relevance as the genre that the harry potter series falls into is mainly for the kids and they don't need to know these kinda details. This news was probably planted to enamor the gay brigade onto the harry potter groove and get some gay pride going. Also, this helps to get some more religious controversy going which can only help with the publicity. To be honest though, Rowling wouldn't be the first to use these kinda cheap gimmicks.

At the end of the day, the already over-fed harry potter fans get some more junk food to gorge on! Keep it going Rowling, don't let anything stop you from making your money!

GMail ups the ante!

GMail adds the one feature that was a request from many users for a long time, IMAP support. This is quite unique when it comes to a web based email client and kudos to GMail for getting it in and more importantly keeping it free.

GMail after the initial surprise factor of its unique user interface and 1GB of storage has done precious little to forward its case. The fact that its a Google product is good enough for many (including me), but then, new features are a must! GMail, I feel, suffered from what every Google product seems to suffer from i.e. lack of sustained interest. Google has been getting new products out, but doing very little on the old ones.

Anyway, the IMAP support availability with GMail sure is good news for many!

Closing loopholes

The finance ministry in India has notified the guidelines for ESOPs given by a company and the tax implications of the same. It apparently does not cover the situation regarding a company not listed in India giving stock options to its employees working in India. A friend of mine found this doc which helps understand this more.

Lemme ask for more official help and figure this out...

GDAD!

GDAD - Acronym For "Good Deed A Day". :-)

I aim to do one Good Deed a Day(sentance used only for dramatic effect with no real conviction), and all bloggable good deeds will be, well, blogged!

If any of you guys out there are as lazy as me, this would be a real boon.



2 Second T-Shirt Fold!! - More amazing video clips are a click away

Now, no more excuses for having a messy bedroom. :-)

Secret revealed!

India is on the verge of losing the 6th ODI against Australia. At 189-2, our required run rate was around 7.5 runs an over. With only 17 overs left, India chose to send in Rahul Dravid, who has been in pathetic form. People in the pavilion are Yuvraj, Uthappa and Dhoni himself. Why?

As I write this post, India has just lost the match. We lost the match not because of our bowling, it was again our batting. And the main culprit was our top scorer, Saurav Ganguly. He has opened the innings and scored 85 runs in 110 balls! That is equivalent to scoring at 4.6 runs per over when our required rate is 6.3!! This under normal circumstances would be considered ok, but when you are chasing 318, this is sacrilege. He has successfully managed to figure out the mantra to stay on in the Indian ODI cricket team. Keep scoring runs, no matter what the strike rate or situation. People will remember his 50's and forget how useless and sometimes detrimental the scores actually were. Here are his significant scores after his return to international cricket and the number of balls taken to get these scores.

73 in 99 balls (Strike Rate: 73)
42 in 75 balls (Strike Rate: 56)
39 in 54 balls (Strike Rate: 72)
72 in 104 balls (Strike Rate: 69)
59 in 79 balls (Strike Rate: 74)
53 in 60 balls (Strike Rate: 88) {Sachin in this match was scoring at strike rate of 120}
41 in 59 balls (Strike Rate: 69)
85 in 110 balls (Strike Rate: 77)

He is averaging around 53 in ODIs this year and we have not won a single match because of his performances. In the same time, Sachin and Rahul, the other two oldies have scored match winning innings on multiple occasions, but have a lot lesser average than Saurav. In fact, Rahul and Sachin are the first two in line to get dropped from the team in the "oldies rotation system".

Even in todays match, he played so slow that he left little too much for the rest of the folks towards the end. Today is one of the occasions where his batting has already cost us the match! I don't like Gambhirs technique, but his attitude is spot on. The selectors would be well advised to pack our team with match winners rather than folks whose performances make no or negative impact on the match!

Informed Criminal

I watched the movie My Wifes Murder yesterday. It was touted as one of the better RGV films and something I had missed watching in the cinemas when it released. Since it is not a new release, I won't go into a review per say. Its a decent movie and could have been a lot more better.

One of the things that struck me the most was how I was thinking about what the hero (Anil Kapoor) should be doing after his wife(Suchitra Krishnamurthy) is accidentally killed by him. Before anybody starts fearing the birth of a murderer in me, let me give you the reason for the same. I am an avid fan of CSI, a crime scene investigation serial. Its been on for 7 seasons and I have watched every episode and enjoyed it thoroughly. During the course of all these CSI episodes, I have seen the weirdest of cases being solved and each episode has got to be a different plot than any other that has been aired. Hence you understand the different methods used by criminals in committing the crime and the different methods used by the investigators to catch them.

By CSI standards, this movie has a lot of scope for improvement. Lemme give examples.

1. The hero mops the blood of his wife off the floor. This is absolutely useless as CSI usually have a torch which emits a certain kind of light that has blood glow in the dark, even though the blood cannot be seen by the naked eye. He had to use bleach to make this torch useless, but then, someone using bleach only for a portion of the house will also give rise to suspicion.
2. The hero dumps the body in a water body inside some forest. He places the body inside a cardboard box which he had taken from his house and dumps the body with the cardboard box. To keep CSI off his tail, he should have ideally disposed the body without the cardboard box.
3. If he was trying to make people into thinking that his wife was murdered by someone else and body was dumped, he needed to do something to make the police also think so. For e.g. he should have taken every last valuable off her body or should have cut off some portions of her body to make the police think it was some psycho at work or maybe fake a rape occurrence. None of these were done by our Hero.
4. He uses his colleagues (Nandana Sen) car to transport the body to the jungle. Another big error, as he has to now necessarily make her an accomplice at some stage, else he will not be able to explain why he borrowed her car.
5. He starts off the movement of the body from his house to the car when there were still a lot of people moving around in the apartment. Again, more leads that he has to plug in order to get his story right.

I noticed many such instances which by CSI standards would make this movie a joke. :-)

So, all in all, if someone is gonna make a murder investigation based movie, they have gotta have a plot that will have the CSI scratch their heads. If not, some sleepy couch potato like me will poke holes in the story. :-)

Disclaimer: No one be scared... I have not turned into a murderer or psycho. These are just observations. ;-)

Movie Review: Johnny Gaddar

There have been very few good movies hitting the theaters off late and a good review from a couple of friends and TOI got me off my butt to watch new comer Neil Mukesh (Grandson of singer Mukesh) get his career started.

Johnny Gaddar is directed by Sriram Raghavan, whose first movie Ek Haseena Thi was a decent start. The story of Johnny Gaddar is based on a gang of crooks trying to pull off a drug heist and of course the protagonist is part of this gang. All the money, all the lure and a bombshell as inspiration has our hero becoming the gaddar. Since the advancement of the plot is the only thing that is really interesting in the film, I will leave that to the interested to go watch at the theaters.

Neil has done a decent job with his acting, but nothing great. He does look quite handsome and this combination should keep him around for a while. Rimi Sen is the bombshell, and that is all she is. Thank god there is no expectation of acting from her in the script! Dharmendra is the leader of this gang of crooks and has actually killed a lot of his hamming and done an unexpectedly good job. Vinay Pathak is good as expected and provides the much needed comic relief. Zakir Hussain, who plays the role of Shardul bhai has gotten over the Ram Gopal Verma brand of acting, where he was expected to only look serious as hell, speak nothing and not movie a single muscle on his face. Here he has some good exchanges with Vinay Pathak and overall does a great job. The brief role to Govind Namdeo who is the corrupt cop selling the merchandise is also well scripted and well enacted. As can be figured out by now, all the main actors in this movie have given good performances and this is one of the reasons why the movie seems to somehow get out of rut that the screenplay seems to force it into and get back on tracks.

There was nothing much I could see as special in the music or background score. It is decent, but nothing really great. There is this one score featuring UK desi babe, Hard Kaur (Glassy fame), which is peppy and probably the best song of the movie.

Overall, a watchable movie and worth the 500 rupees you need to pay to get a pair of tickets during a weekend in Bangalore! I would give it a 6.8 on 10.

Too much of anything...

... is never good.

India lost to the Aussies at Kochi in the second ODI. This is not surprising and one could hardly feel bad, as the Aussies clearly were the better team. I didn't see the match live, but was witness to the last minute treatment of Sreesanth by the Aussies and later saw what Sreesanth had handed out to the Aussies.

Sreesanth is aggressive and is willing to lose a portion of his match fee every match! I must say, he is going overboard with it! Beyond a point, its no longer funny and it in fact starts getting embarrassing. I know he must have been advised by many people, but he seems to have next to no self restraint. The only way he will be back to his best senses is if he is dumped from the team for a few matches on clear disciplinary ground and then brought back.

This being said, the Aussies have no right to criticize Sreesanth. He was just giving them a piece of what they dish out to everyone in world cricket. What credentials do they have to say that he is crossing the "line"? What about McGrath going after Sarwan a couple of seasons back? What about Ponting shoving Sharad Pawar off the stage so that he and his team can jump around on the stage after winning the ICC Champions trophy? Or all the close-in chit-chat that Steve Waugh and Co were so famous for?


Those who stay in glass houses....

Once M$ always M$

Micro$oft released the next gen of its Zune media player, Zune 2. Though they have managed only some 3% of the number of Ipods sold, they are not giving up without a fight. They have added wireless sync to PC and also opening an iTunes like store for songs. The best thing about the store is that it sells DRM Free music. This means that you buy a song from the Zune store and transfer it out of your Zune player and still hear the song. You can give it to your friend too, but here is the fun part. Your friend can hear the song, but only 3 times, after which it will be automatically locked! I don't understand how they would do it, but they allegedly do it.

Trust Micro$oft to make DRM-free music DRM!