Sinusoidal

Bullshit

2011-08-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

It all fits into a pattern, they[Republicans] say, of a leader who shies away from necessary conflict, refuses to understand the intaransigence of his enemies, would rather split differences than make a firm stand and lacks the courage of his own convictions.

~ Economist's article titled "An underperforming president"

Now the below line is from my earlier post on Obama

"I always got a gut feeling that he’s just a populist, and a good orator ofcourse – but someone who lacks conviction and wisdom"

and

"This is where I feel Bush was different, the kind of conviction that he had about whats right for the country and whats not, Obama clearly lacks it."

and

"These days - the Indian parliament is sounding wiser (Superlative) and that is when you know this isn’t going to be America’s Century. Go Obama Go!!"

What is interesting is that the people have finally started understanding that Obama turned out to an orator and not a president.

Here's a comment from 'PerryMyk' on this article :

"Barack Hussein Obama mmm...mmm...mmm has yet to present a budget for America in 2 1/2 years - the one early this year was such a joke that all Democrats voted against it. The Dems never have either.
In the debt ceiling fiasco Obama never put a single item on paper. He could not think of 1 dollar to cut anywhere.
Obama voted "Present" on the debt ceiling mess.
And then S&P downgraded him on top of all that. S&P will continue to downgrade Obama until we hit BB - Junk Bond ratings.
You wacko Liberals can blame Bush, Santa Claus, and the Tea Party but nobody believes you any more - nobody but fellow Marxists.
America's problem is that we have a Marxist running a Capitalistic country - oil and water don't mix either......"

And Here's Obama's Rhetoric from yesterday :

"No matter what some agency may say, we have always been and always will be a triple A country"

Apart from the Indian Ministers, who talks like that? Wait,Hollywood?
Yeahh...Why doesn't Obama try Hollywood?

I notice I have never been a fan of Obama.Infact I have bashed him 4 times
before on this very blog.

"His living standard worsens if he is married"

2011-06-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

Laughter is the best medicine and here's the dose for today.

TOI breaks its own record and comes up with the stupidest piece ever :

Indians spent Rs 5.8L crore extra due to inflation in last 3 years

As if this wasn't enough, I was totally floored by the below comment :

===============
There is no need for an economist to understand the scenario or to provide suggestion. If only we could stop BPOs and Software companies we could have controlled inflation. The employees are in their twenties and they get highly paid. They just waste their money on electronics and clothing's. But yes the purchasing power increases and so the GDP is high. But due to the purchasing power the prices of things goes high. Which in fact is difficult for a common man. For example, a BPO employee can afford a rented house for Rs7000-10000 contrary to a regular employee. Cos of this a common man settles down for a low cost house. His living standard worsens if he is married. His children dont get good education and good schooling cos of high donation and fees. Our GDP and economic growth is high cos of the purchasing power of the few young BPO and software employees who dont know to spend money. And our stupid government and its policy fails to understand and tackle this simple thing. Our education system doesnt focus on farmers but computers. a day will come when One Thaali food will cost 1 lakh rs and there will be people who can buy that...lol... Its high time we realize that working in front of computers will gives as money for food but what if there is no food to available in the market....
===============

How do we even manage to produce such people?:-)

Edited to Add:

This just keeps getting better and better..

Another commentator,another solution :

==========
Inflation is in fact the biggest scam of government in collaboration with RBI. Inflation occurs only because of EXCESSIVE increase in printed Currency. Since Government/RBI prints huge amount of Currency in form of Rs500 and Rs1000 Notes, the currency in Market Increases but the commodities like grains, pulses, vegetables, milk etc, remains limited. As a result, the thing (Ghee) that one used to get for Rs100 per kilo is now available at Rs300 per Kilo. The Only Way to Reduce Inflation and than Deflation and similar Bubbles of Indian Economy is to Discard Government printed Currency and to ADOPT FOR GOLD STANDARD or Gold Standardized Currency. this is the only way for reducing GAP between Poor and Rich. However, Government will never agree for discarding government printed money and adopting for gold currency because if it do so, it will loose the strongest and best weapon to ROB poor and middle class Indians. According to a report shown on Zee News today, 72% of Indians uses Rs2, Rs5, Rs 10 and Rs100 note (everyday), while merely 12% use Rs500 note and only 2.4% use Rs1000 note every day. The remaining are those who often fail to use even a Rs 2 note. So why is Government adamant to keep printing more and more Rs500 and Rs1000 notes? In fact, Indians don't need any note. People will do much better with Gold Standard currency and it will solve Inflation problem too because Gold cannot be created or Inflated/increased.
===============

What a Shame India!

2011-04-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

National player thrown off train in UP, loses leg

For those of you who say "India toh India hai(India is India afterall)"... there...your India! It is a shame that your national player had to travel in a general compartment, it is a shame that a robbery attempt was made and she was thrown out of the train.

India Today reports

"A profusely bleeding Sonu was rushed to the district hospital here. "

It is a shame that India today uses the word 'rushed' whereas it isn't probably true,

Hindu reports :

"The injured and unconscious Arunima was cited by the tracks by a cabin man. No passenger or official of the train-guard, driver or the police force lodged a complaint at the next stop, let alone bring the train to halt or provide care."

It is a shame that she was offered a paltry sum of 25,000Rs and only when she snubbed the offer was she offered 2lacs and a railway job.

It is a shame that a national level player was to attend a recruitment examination of CISF.

It is a shame that a complete fool like Mamta is our railway minister and a thug like Mayawati is UP's chief minister.

Mind you - this is definitely not an isolated incident. It is just a high profile case that was worth publishing according to the calculation by various media groups.

Police will probably not even be able to catch the culprits, and even if they do, what is the guarantee that the case will be solved in the next 5 years?

The despair you feel.Such shame India, such shame!

This isn't working

2011-03-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

Just came across this in The Hindu Business Line:

DMK vows to oppose FDI in retail

Excerpt from the article

"But the highlight of the manifesto is the goodies that it promises — free mixies and grinders to women, free laptops to students belonging to Scheduled Tribes/Castes and 35 kg of free rice to below-poverty-line families. It also promises free bus travel to senior citizens."

And I am pissed to an extent where I think the whole idea federal system isn't working. We are even too silly a bunch to be under democracy.

'Everybody has options' over Gulf compensation

2011-02-04T02:58:00.000-08:00

BBC-Radio has this interview of the lawyer who is managing Gulf Oil spill fund of 20 billion USD, for BP.

I loved hearing this lawyer, he's so clear with the choice of his words (which is how a good lawyer should be).The lawyer doesn't instantly negate what the interviewer asks, yet proves him wrong. Amazing!

Subsidy Junkies!

2011-02-03T07:46:00.001-08:00

For someone who is interested in trade talks – this one is a must hear:
It talks about the illegal subsidies (in various forms like low interest loans) that American and European Govts pay to their aircraft makers.

Boeing v Airbus

I have coped the heading of this blog from the Economist itself , because I just loved it.

Silly Charges!

2011-02-01T08:01:00.001-08:00

NDTV reports :-

Air India responds to allegations of overcharging Indians in Cairo

“Air India Ltd would like to clarify that it ONLY recovered costs and NOT made any "huge profits" as alleged/propagated by some quarters. “

I find these charges totally silly. There is no way Air India will make profit if it wants to – they just don’t know what “profit” is.

TOI getting Dumber each day

2010-09-13T13:42:00.001-07:00

This is how you misread stats or this is how ‘the glass is completely full’.

“The great Indian dream of pursuing an MBA in the US seems to be on the wane.”

and Why?Proof :

“In testing year 2005 (July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005), when over 43,000 GMAT scores were sent to management programmes in the US by Indians, a mere 19,196 GMAT scores came from Chinese. Till 2009, India maintained its lead over China. But in testing year 2010 (July 2009-June 2010), for the first time the number of Chinese far outnumbered Indians: 80,000 to the Indians' 65,361.”

Second Argument is equally Dumb :

“In testing year 2010, over 17,000 Indians sent in their GMAT scores to Indian institutions. Meanwhile, only 1,743 GMAT scores from mainland China (and 5,184 from Hong Kong) were sent to Chinese B-schools in the same period.
While the last five years saw only a marginal increase in GMAT scores sent by Chinese in their own country (but a steady growth in those sent to the US), there has been an almost four-fold rise in the number of Indians applying to Indian management institutions—from 4,879 in 2005 to 17,087 in 2010.”

And Ergo :

“Ashok Sarathy, vice-president, GMAT Programme, feels this may have a lot to do with the emergence of high-quality management education in India.”

Do I explain it or does everyone get how stupid TOI can be?:-)

Or wait, is fall in 'logical reasoning’ ( an area tested in GMAT) the reason :-)?

Mr Popular

2010-09-09T18:19:00.001-07:00

Populist Obama does it again :

“Obama vows to end outsourcing US jobs”

Excerpt :

“Because I don't want to see new solar panels or electric cars or advanced batteries manufactured in Europe or Asia. I want to see them made right here in the US of A by American workers”

Yes – you want it made there! But Mr President – who’s gonna buy them if they turn out to be costlier than the ones from Japan or Korea?Or will you give them tax incentives by borrowing some more from China?

America will probably see the effect of Obama’s policies a decade later, but I think its gonna hurt them.

Kamala Nath – India’s Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways gives his reaction :

“US is not doing any favour by outsourcing work. This is an economic issue”

These days - the Indian parliament is sounding wiser (Superlative) and that is when you know this isn’t going to be America’s Century. Go Obama Go!!

Corporate lesson 1

2010-08-21T06:27:00.001-07:00

One of the things that I have learned in my corporate IT life is that the employees of client company (the company that has outsourced its IT work) do not have the “one team” attitude towards employees from third party IT companies even though they are all literary working on the same team or project.

A client side line manager probably feels that since they are paying us for the job – it is totally upon us to deal with the problems we are facing in operations.This is a disastrous attitude as we are all finally running their own operations.Showing empathy to our problems instead of “your management problem” attitude will go a long way in building a strong unified and highly productive team.

To Pakistan.... With love ... US of A

2010-08-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

Slow response of Pakistani Govt to the flood relief operations in north-western part of the country might be because of the fact that they are probably wanting more F-16s from US to help "rescue" stranded people (just like they want to fight terrorists with F-16s). No?

AND..

Don't be surprised if the US actually gives them.:-)

BP and the great leak.

2010-06-12T12:53:00.001-07:00

My perspective on the BP oil leak is shared by few other people as mentioned below :

“

The multibillion-dollar, multinational company found support for its efforts. In New York, that support came from billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"The guy that runs BP didn't exactly go down there and blow up the well," he told a radio program. "And what's more, if you want them to fix it and they are the ones with the expertise, I think I might wait to assign blame until we get it fixed."

In London, England, a Downing Street spokesman said Prime Minister David Cameron spoke Friday with BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg.

"The prime minister explained that he was frustrated and concerned about the environmental damage caused by the leak, but made clear his view that BP is an economically important company in the UK, US and other countries," the spokesman said in a news release.

"He said that it is in everyone's interests that BP continues to be a financially strong and stable company."

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg appealed for a reduction in the vitriol that has gripped many observers. "I don't, frankly, think we're going to reach a solution stopping the release of oil into the Gulf any quicker by allowing this to spiral into a tit-for-tat political, diplomatic spat," he said.

“

I have no idea – how is a protest going to stop the leak any faster?? This is because I believe BP is already doing all it can to stop the leak, unlike ofcourse the shameless Union Carbide India ltd – which got away with a slap on the wrist.

While all this is happening, Obama is delivering populist dialogues. Yes – dialogues.

Do not read beauty magazines, they make you feel Ugly!

2010-06-03T08:33:00.001-07:00

On a lighter vein, enjoy this :

Love this, don’'t you?

Israel’s Attack on “Aid ship”.

2010-06-01T09:21:00.001-07:00

All the opinions that one might form of Israel after its soldiers attacked the so called ‘Aid ship’ should be formed after watching this video that Israel has released :

BBC link here

It is a disturbing video. Only idiots can believe that these were ‘aid’ or ‘peace activists’.

World’s intelligence is probably plummeting, when it stridently opposes this incident. Ofcourse these people were only self proclaimed ‘peace activists’ . To me they were just malevolent ‘pro-Palestine’ Jihadists.

I agree with Israel’s ambassador to India when he says

“First of all any loss of life is tragic. This loss of life yesterday could have easily been avoided had the organisation that had been running it (flotilla) been a true humanitarian organisation dedicated to aid,”

You go and mess with armed soldiers, then you whine about the fact that they retaliated?Highest form of idiocy.

The world bias rankles me.And you??

Apologies from PCPA

2010-05-31T02:00:00.001-07:00

“sorry-we-attacked-the-wrong-train”

-- PCPA leader Umakanto Mahato

Oh common, we understand, anyone can commit mistakes. We totally forgive you.Things like that happen. Try not to repeat it though, but don’t worry, in case you repeat it, we will forgive you again.

“There must have been some miscalculation”

MUST ??

I like the tone of the statement..

Wiki Answers …. Almost anything..

2010-05-29T10:25:00.001-07:00

Have you ever visited Wiki Answers ? It answers quite useful facts such as these :

Click on the image to view it clearly.

Link

I liked the question

“Has shahrukh khan ever had sex?”

Even more the line after that :

“The question has not been answered yet”

:-), Oh Boy! Now, thats a mystery !

Link

Another one , Just for fun

Q : “Has Kareena has exposed herself”

A : “Yes she was exposed”

:-).. Active and passive voice,, huh??

Link

There are tonnes of other.. I can do this whole day , but just one last one :

Q : “You want to marry a kashmiri girl?”

A : “Yes I want to marry a Kashmiri Girl?”

Notice the question mark .. :-)

Link

Fun, isn’t it??

Am I really “spoilt”??

2010-05-27T07:58:00.001-07:00

Why do people think they know what’s best for you? Why are they sure that their decisions and only their decisions are what are going to keep you happy? Why do they not trust you with your own decisions?

Why should I do what ‘society’ will like and accept? If I do so, I will not be the person I am. How will I ever have self respect if I go against my principles? Will I not always and always remember that I did something I thought was wrong, but had to do it just for the ‘society’ that otherwise doesn’t even care about my existence? Am I indebted to society that I sacrifice my happiness for them ? Will, what I know is right become wrong just because the society doesn’t approve of it?

When I say society I am talking about Indian society. Ofcourse – the people elsewhere are more humane.The great Indian society where neighbours are more interested in what is happening in your life than the events in their. Surprisingly everyone seems to give a lot of importance to what his/her neighbours think of him/her. Although you will always be taught that your neighbour is a bad person, you will also be taught to give a damn about his perception of you. If he ain’t approving something, you are spoiling the family name if you still do it.

Almost all your relatives will take it for granted that they have the right to control your life too.The thing is even they will care more about the ‘society’ than they will for you. Finally, its all about the ‘society’. ‘Society’ will control your life till you reside in India. Oh, and if you leave India and talk of never coming back, you are “spoilt”.If you are open about your feelings for India – “I hate it“ , no one will still know – “why?” .You will have to hear to “Money is not everything in life!” sort of stuff. May be they just don’t get it and may be they never will.

Is it only about the comfort that I would never want to come back to India – No! Its the people, who interfere in my life, the people who judge me at every opportunity that they get . Its the sudo independence, the lack of freedom to act on my own decisions. You will almost read this piece few times a month :

Couple stoned to death

Indians are typically judgmental people – the sort that I truly hate. For us a divorcee is a bad person – an untouchable.For us a gal who drinks is bad.For us – 2 people who have consensual premarital sex are “westernized” and “Spoilt”. For us – a gal who can wear shorts outside the house is “spoilt”. We like to hide our judgmental nature under the cover of "our culture". What rubbish! I don’t get it – how does someone become good or bad because he/she had sex before marriage ??This disturbs me! And by the way because it does, I am “spoilt” too!

We also a cynical group, may be because of post independence lack of opportunity meant that we step on our neighbour’s shoulder to reach the top.I am taught that the whole world but my family is after my life – they are all here to fool me and take advantage of me. If I don’t get it, I am “naive” and “immatured”, “I have not seen the world”. What if I have seen the world, what if my world is different from yours?

“But… But.. you were born here” …

I did not have a choice! I did not choose to. I am an Indian only by birth, not by choice.

“But .. there are so many good things too “ ..

Ya, may be I want a little more than you do..

Do people love you only as long as you listen to them or agree with them? I guess so .. else you are just too “spoilt”.

whom do you believe?

2010-01-18T08:10:00.000-08:00

IBN:

3 out of 9 dead terrorists Indians, says Kasab

CNN:

Mumbai suspect claims four gunmen were Indians

Times of India:

All terrorists who stormed Taj hotel were Indians: Kasab

Ha! the best part is, I don't believe any of them - including Kasab ofcourse . :-)

Rebuttal from Shashi Tharoor

2010-01-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Shashi Tharoor's Rebuttal on the controversy here:

I believe it is our duty, to counter media everytime they go for such cheap marketing to increase readership.I am disgusted with TOI right now.

The damage would have been done by now. Media should be sued for every such mis-information they sell. I mean - atleast what they put inside the quotes should be correct!! But then, the courts.. Ha!

Without warranty

2010-01-09T09:32:00.001-08:00

Indian villages along Punjab border came under attack from Pak

“Six rockets were fired from Pakistan into Indian territory shortly past Friday midnight.”

“Luckily, the rockets did not explode.”

Why buy ‘made in China’??

Bloody showoff

2010-01-09T09:13:00.001-08:00

Why can't Australian govt nab those behind attacks, asks India

Yeah! I mean common – Indian Govt takes such good care of us in India after all. It even makes sure that every single criminal in the country is put behind bars, mind you even if he or she is a govt official or from civil service..

Ha!

Karma V/S Dharma

2009-12-01T11:38:00.001-08:00

For those of you who don’t understand the title, here’s what it means :

‘Karma’ or ‘Deed’ V/S ‘Dharma’ or ‘Duty’.

I found these thought provoking videos on you tube.1st video is an interesting debate between Ram Jethmalani and Sagarika Ghose (w.r.t JM fighting for Manu sharma ). If you are not aware of who these people are, I encourage you to go through the links.

My friend wrote to me :

“cut out the rhetoric and heed the point the old bloke was trying to make. 'EVERYONE is entitled to an unbiased trial and best available defense'. That is the crux of his argument... Professionalism does not preclude a conscience, it fosters it..”

I was impressed, but knew something was wrong.

I was quite restless about the whole video that day. I mean, this doesn't sound right – but its defended so perfectly. I went to you tube and started watching other interviews of JM (Jethmalani).Almost immediately, I found this :

Nobody could have done a better job I guess. I was all smiles after after watching this.

This is what I posted to my friend:

“No one is denying the fact that 'every case is indefensible' .. Who would? All I want is for you to not fall prey to JM's trick of putting the values of his institution as a defense against what he is justifying. Hypothetically ,If we were top lawyers, would you or Jose or myself take up Manu Sharma's case? We probably won't, right?That's the difference!
In saying that you believe 'everyone is entitled to an unbiased trial' , you are hardly defending JM or Manu Sharma, you are just defending the values of court as an institution which no person in right frame of his mind will disagree with...But it is his cheap trick to confuse simpletons like u and me by putting fwd something so undebatable. Watch the 3rd part where Karan repeatedly questions his conscience, and that's what its about.”

Many of you would have probably seen it, but I am so cut off from Indian news channels , that I was able to locate it only now.

Which of the two videos do you root for??

Religious Fanaticism

2009-11-15T14:42:00.000-08:00

One of the status meme on FB reads

“2012 gives people false hope. with satellite off track, whatever evacuation plan cannot even be carried out. i'd rather place my hope in Jesus.”

I wonder if the person is confused between ‘believing in god’ and ‘discrediting humanity completely’.

I have seen hindu fanaticism in India. Now, I am in Singapore and I must admit I have never come this close to Christian Fanaticism. Also – I believed the problem could almost be conquered with education and better economic conditions. But no!I think it might have been a naive calculation.

I have this another guy who posted the below video on his profile with message “A true story... Please share this video with your friends or by posting it on your profile”.

Same guy has an album titled ‘Fellowship | Discipleship’ in his Facebook. He’s also running a cell group with all its members under age 21, some non-Christians and we probably know the motive.

I don’t know if you find it disgusting, but I do. I have read and heard of Christian Fanaticism in India and the violence by Hindu groups against churches and Christian organisations that follows.Now, I am so close to it, and have a much wider perspective on the whole subject.

Why can’t people simply follow their religion?Why do they have to manipulate it ?The above cases are just examples from today - SINGLE DAY!

Note : No offense to any particular religion.No offense to any particular person. I am just against 'Religious Fanaticism' as a larger threat to a peaceful society.

Freedom of Speech

2009-10-26T08:07:00.000-07:00

Freedom of speech is being misused in US.

Excerpt :

"Hollywood actor Charlie Sheen has requested US President Barack Obama to hold a new investigation into the 9/11 attacks as he believes them to be staged by the Bush government."

On a similar note have a laugh watching the below video :

Those days…

2009-10-21T07:56:00.001-07:00

Came across this wonderful summarization of pre-1991 era (in India’s context), from one of Gurcharan Das’s articles :

“Dreaded days prior to 1991 when our government did believe that the way to make a poor person rich is by making the rich poor”

Gurcharan Das almost always impresses me.A lot of my thoughts are reflection of his.

Whats with the statues?

2009-10-04T13:38:00.001-07:00

Seriously! What’s with them? Are we unable to rise above statues?

As if Mayawati’s statue-shopping wasn’t enough, we have a real competition going in here.

Excerpts from TOI report :

“Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on Sunday described the Congress-NCP government's proposal to erect a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji in the Marine Drive, Mumbai, as "foolish".”

It is indeed “Foolish” and even the Thackeray’s know it, which suddenly makes it all the more "Foolish”!!

“However, Sena chief executive Uddhav Thackeray clarified that Balasaheb was not opposed to the project as such. He told TOI: "The Congress-NCP has been in power for the past 10 years. Why did it not implement the project? It announced it only on the eve of the assembly elections with an eye on votes. It is the non-serious attitude of this government which we find objectionable. It may be recalled that Balasaheb himself had inaugurated a huge statue of Shivaji Maharaj outside the air terminal at Sahar."”

Eye on Votes?? Why do politicians even blame other politicians for doing things “with an eye on vote”??What’s the point?Hmm…They must wanna prove that ‘moron population is in majority’?

Have a look at this ( Heart patients, stop right here! )

“Meanwhile, the politics of statues has taken a new turn with senior NCP leader Vijay Kamble demanding a memorial to Dalit champion Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar at Dadar at a cost of Rs 700 crore.”

Even if I was uneducated, why would I vote for some ABC party because it is spending 700 crores on building XYZ’s statues??WTF?

So tell me, what’s with the statues?Are they In-fashion?? I would wanna build one of my own, in my garden, and I swear to vote for you if you give me a 100 crore subsidy, if not finance it completely.After all I am from ‘Blah Blah’ caste, and any denial in releasing the funds will be considered as a contempt of people of my caste!!

Edited to add the below Link provided by 'phase shift'

Cong plans 30 YSR statues in Hyderabad

America’s U-Turn!

2009-09-25T05:58:00.001-07:00

Another Populist move by Obama.

U.S. Adds Tariffs on Chinese Tires.

“President Barack Obama slapped punitive tariffs on all car and light truck tyres entering the US from China. Beijing decried the decision, saying the move sent a dangerous protectionist signal before a G20 summit and could stoke reactions impeding global recovery.”

Below excerpt from WSJ

“The decision is a major victory for the United Steelworkers, the union that represents American tire workers. And Mr. Obama cannot afford to jeopardize his relationship with major unions as he pushes Congress to overhaul the nation’s health care system.”

Let me tell you that since taking office, President Obama has frequently declared himself a free trader. In several appearances over the last few months, he has driven home the message that protectionism is dangerous to economic health.

Now - do you guys get a feeling that he’s just a populist – but lacks true wisdom?Ever since he was elected – I always got a gut feeling that he’s just a populist, and a good orator ofcourse – but someone who lacks conviction and wisdom.He’s someone who tries to take everyone on the same boat, take his policy in middle east for example, but this is not going to work in long term.

Anyway, this move is definitely protectionism! Now – I am not an expert on this – but isn’t it already a proven fact that it does more harm in the longer term.Who knows it better that we Indians, right?Look what we made till we were living under protectionism – a scooter!

Considering that Americans have been preaching against protectionism to the whole world, this would be a hypocritical move.What right would America have after this to ever talk against protectionism?

This might not only back-fire America, but could slowly lead to something which the world is not ready for.This is a wrong approach to a right problem.

1930 great ‘depression’ was after all a just a ‘recession’ which was badly handled

“There is nearly universal agreement among economists of all ideological persuasions that trade protectionism (i.e., the Smoot-Hawley tariff) was a primary catalyst for the Great Depression. Tariffs in the 1930s originally were intended to protect agriculture, but by the time other special interest groups had climbed on board, an average tariff of close to 60% was imposed on more than 25,000 items. Retaliation by America's trading partners was swift and fierce; the entire system of world trade then was dysfunctional for a decade.”

One of the reactions :-

“The effect of new U.S. tariffs on Chinese tires is as clear as day: U.S. consumers will pay more for tires.The point is to reduce our standard of living by denying us the products of overseas trade in order to benefit a few U.S. tire manufacturers and their union members.”

Similar issues had come during Bush era but he chose a different, clearly the better route.

Below excerpt from WSJ

“President George W. Bush received four similar recommendations from the trade commission, the most recent one involving steel pipe in December 2005, but he rejected all of those recommendations.”

An interesting and welcome development is giving China some hope on their export dependent economy :-

“China welcomed the decision of the United States Court of International Trade to rule the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) as "unreasonable" for its imposition of anti-dumping duties (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) on tires from a Chinese maker”

However the below news is depressing

“Three paper companies and the United Steelworkers filed an antidumping case Wednesday against China and Indonesia, making good on the union's threat to protect other U.S. industries after winning a recent trade decision against China.”

What remains to be seen is how would Obama react?If he goes for tariffs on imported paper – he will almost create a panicking situation.He might want to refrain from doing this, and be seen as protectionist but how would he then justify tariffs on Tires alone? Now this is what happens when you lack conviction!!

Exploiting Dumbness!

2009-09-11T11:18:00.001-07:00

This is disgusting

Now, a search engine for Muslims only.

Has the Muslim religion become synonymous to conservatism..Er, or not even that, because this sounds plain dumb and not conservative.

“A Dutch company has launched a new search engine that aims to protect Muslims from accidentally bumping into explicit material while surfing the Web. Called ImHalal.com, or "I am Halal," is the world's first Muslim search engine.”

Really?Accidentally bumping?When does that happen?I use google whole day, I never ‘accidentally’ bump into porn. I am sorry – does anyone else reading this post ‘accidentally’ bumps into explicit material??

Even if you do – why do you think has the Microsoft,Google,Firefox given the ‘Back’ button in their web browsers?Makes no sense, right?

I mean, I understand if they were developing this search engine for Kids, but What the hell does this mean : “world's first Muslim search engine.”..?? Are there gonna be more? Do we really have Christian search engines, or Hindu search engines, or Jew search engine?I have never heard of them, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

“Reza Sardeha, founder of AZS Media Group, which runs the search engine, told The Daily Star that the idea grew after his friends complained of bumping into sexually explicit content when using search engines such as Yahoo or Google.”

HA?What an idiotic excuse to exploit and capitalize on someone’s beliefs, rather stupid beliefs!!

“According to The Daily Star, the site's filter examines the user's search terms and the websites that are returned, trawling for a 'non-halal list' of words that may indicate forbidden fruit. On the site, sex-related terms such as 'gay,' 'lesbian' or simply 'sexy' merit a haram level of three; the highest score on the list.”

The word ‘sexy’ too???

Whose problem is it anyway?

2009-09-10T02:11:00.001-07:00

Everytime – Pakistan BEGS for more resources to fight taliban in their own courtyard, why do they do it as if they are doing a favour to the world? I mean – wouldn’t they like to take on Taliban and save their own ass if other countries don’t chase them to do so???

Below excerpt from TOI report quotes Zardari :-

“"If the world's armies and the world's budgets cannot look after (the Afghan) side of the border, give me more time and give me the resources that I need and we will deliver," he said.”

Why doesn’t someone tell them FO??huh..

Note : I know Taliban is a global problem ofcourse, but I only want to prove one point here why the hell does pakis behave as if its not their problem at all???

Rules and Free market!

2009-08-12T09:21:00.001-07:00

Paul Romer talks about RULES - free market, capitalism , market driven economy, globalisation, special zones, though he doesn’t use all of these words explicitly in his talk.

He starts by analysing how almost everyone seems to have a mobile phone but people don't have access to electricity - a comparison which fits in India's scenario too.

Regulation is important, but years and years of over regulation have left us with no electricity, no drinking water etc. Telecom sector was de-regulated in late 90s and the sector flourished, I believe its high time water,insurance, electricity,retail, rail , infra like airports should be de-regulated too.Government has really stifled sectors like electricity, rail by not allowing private participation at all.

Then he talks about ‘one nation partnering other nation’ . India will not do this, probably because of the colonial hangover that we are still carrying. I do get shivers where he gives example of Cuba going and asking Canada to administer a part of their land.I ask myself - How much is too much?Should Globalisation have a limit?These are unanswered questions.

He proceeds to propose "Charter cities" which sounds good though I don’t agree with the Naive belief that cities are safe from crime.I also like the fact that the example of HongKong and China was used.Now, China did get some of its motivation from HongKong. India can copy the western model too – but the right wing dudes won’t let that happen – why? Just because its “western” apparently. I hate these guys, enough is enough, Indians deserve basic amenities if not luxury – even if it comes from a “western” idea. I don’t see the west shunning the idea of YOGA and CURRY saying its “Indian”. Why are so many of us still so xenophobic?Arghhhh

The power of Google

2009-07-18T04:26:00.001-07:00

Google is amazing and most of us know it. One of the new things that I have learned to ‘Google’ is my symptoms when I am sick or when I have any kind of medical problem. I leave doctors baffled , when I guess the problem they are about to tell me.

Recently I had a skin problem, and I ‘Googled’ my symptoms. When my doctor started asking me questions like ‘do you have it on your knees and elbows’ and blah blah, I knew where it was heading. I told her if she was suspecting XYZ, and she looked at me and started smiling, and confronted me as to how did I know. I replied ‘My job involves computers, I read it on the Internet’. Not just that, once you know where it is heading, you also precisely know the biological cause and the treatment.I am serious, doctor had nothing new to offer me, I knew more than she told me (I am not saying 'I knew more than she knew' ).

This is not the first time I have done this, last time I left a doctor baffled was in Bangalore.The doctor there did not even tell me the ‘side effects’ of the medicine which were pretty serious in nature. I had to confront him as to what if I have the side effect XYZ.

I am sure we software engineers can make these doctors feel really insecure, with the knack that we have for googling any damn information.

Google has become synonymous with Internet for so many of us.I don’t know about you, but I have no clue what will I do without Google or what will the Internet do without Google for that matter.

Alright - Time to cook. Ah! Wish google knew how to cook and serve food..:)!!

Why do we do this?

2009-07-17T22:33:00.001-07:00

This is really cute :-

Its not about Air India

2009-06-25T08:16:00.001-07:00

Some developments on Air India’s Financial woes and my views :-

AI Chief Jadhav told Patel that AI urgently needs equity and soft loan infusion from the government to be able to keep flying. To tide over its problems, the airline is learnt to be eyeing Rs 10,000-15,000 crore as bailout package. But since the finance minister has already told them to get real and seek a `realistic' figure. Any amount higher than Rs 4,000-5,000 crore is being billed as unrealistic.

The cause of this misery can’t be attributed so much to a ‘slack in demand’ as much as it can be attributed to the inefficiencies within which the airline operates – to name one - Highly paid and inefficient staff responsible to no one but god .Yes! Thanks to tough labour laws – it is impossible to remove someone even if he simple declares that he is not going to work and this actually happens.

Now – I wouldn’t mind baling out AIG so much as I will mind bailing out Air India – why? Simple – my lack of trust, not in Air India or its staff – but the system that encourages inefficiency and lax competitive spirit.

AI also requested for a relook at the massive bilateral agreements India has signed with foreign countries in past few years that has allowed their airlines to virtually flood Indian cities big and small with flights at rock bottom fares.
The cash-strapped national carrier has also asked the government to make it compulsory for government employees travelling on official trips to use only the AI which would inturn get some revenue. At present, officials can take any airline they want with AI featuring pretty low on preference list.

What does both the above points tell us?

Socialism produces ‘losers’ who fear at the very word competition and these ‘losers’ want free lunches..!!

Reversal of ‘open skies’ policy would mean monopoly, thereby Higher costs and lower service levels.This would effectively be travelling back in time to socialism.Huh!

"The Prime Minister has said that the entire weight of the government is behind Air India. It is a national carrier and it is our pride. But there is a condition that Air India must put its best foot forward. The employees must realise that there is a problem and it is a cumulative problem," Patel said.

Now, only if Mr Patel himself ever sat on an AI flight, he would realize that it is not a ‘national pride’, it is a ‘National Shame’. Air India gives you a look and a feel of how things work in India much before you actually land in India.

This problem is bigger than they are making it sound, its not just about Air India that I am talking about. It is a generic problem.Isn’t it time for some labour reforms?Can’t India get someone like Deng??

Got hold of an interesting piece from Bloomberg which says that the chief of Airline’s parent company V.Thulasidas had expected the airline to return to profitability in the year ended March 2009. Considering that the airline made a loss of 5000 crores last fiscal – I wonder what the hell was that man thinking!!??

In my previous post, Charakan wanted to know my views on “hundreds of bankruptcies in US including that of General Motors and the way the Government is trying to bail them out”.

Hmm..Now – I am no financial expert ( as yet ) , but I would rather study it case by case instead of just answering that question in one shot – if you know what I mean.

I certainly believed that AIG was too big to fall and the world would have come crashing down if AIG was allowed to fall.I don’t see any such thing happening with the fall of Air India. The next point as I made above is – its not that I believe in AIG or its employees - its my faith in the system to return to profitability and its competitive attitude that I believe in.

Nehru’s Legacy

2009-06-22T10:51:00.001-07:00

Nehru’s Legacy continue to disappoint us :-

Air India Bankruptcy

I bet the 30,000 crores that we got from ‘disinvestment’ over the time looks like 'peanuts' now??

It is not just Air India, our whole economy typically worked like that before 1990.

More of Tioman

2009-06-07T03:50:00.001-07:00

Here's More of Tioman :-

The Corrs

2009-06-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

These guys are probably the best, I love their music, way different from others and very relaxing.

Fan of 'Corrs' ,, anyone??

Here's one master piece 'Corrs- Joy of life'

Scuba Dooba Do

2009-05-29T05:26:00.000-07:00

This is damn cool, this is something that I never even dreamt of doing in my life.Last week, I did deep sea diving(DSD) level-1 in Tioman Islands, Malaysia.I cannot describe the experience in words nor have the pics done justice to what I saw.

Click on the pics which will take you to my flickr, where I have written comments too, also view the slide show (which I have also put up on my blog).

Tioman has crystal clear water, something that I have never seen before. We also ended up doing snorkeling in the clear waters, it feels as if someone has put you into a big aquarium, beautiful corals and fishes, what an experience!!I don't have the pics to prove that though.

Malaysia is a beautiful country.If any of you guys are planning a trip to South-East Asia, do cover Malaysia, it has loads to offer, and yes do go to Tioman.Let me add that it is amazingly cheap, so don't worry about the costs.To put things in perspective, Tioman is cheaper than Bangalore,India.

The whole experience was truly surreal.

I will share more pics of Tioman soon.

www.flickr.com

Scuba Dooba Do

2009-05-29T05:16:00.001-07:00

Strike-Throughs in Blogger

2009-05-29T00:01:00.001-07:00

To create ~~strikethroughs~~ in blogger, download Windows Live writer, it also comes as a part of windows live essentials (set of tools which also includes messenger).

Its a nice tool, and I have been using it since more than a month now.

You can insert tables, size up your pics, save a local copy of your post, post draft to blog, directly publish post to your blog,use bullets, numbering, check word count, and ofcourse create strikethroughs, and all this in the same environment as your live blog.Other features are for you to figure out.

Its free, so you might wanna try it out, specially those who are longing to use ‘strikethroughs’ in your blog.

IDEAS : Nandan Nilekani

2009-05-18T11:47:00.001-07:00

I agree with with everything in here.

The ‘anti-technology’ that Indians were, the ‘anti-English’ Indians were,‘anti-computers’ Indians were,primary education, people being assets, everything.Brilliant!

I certainly acknowledge the role played by Dr Manmohan Singh, P.Chidambaram, Narasimha Rao, in 1991 in achieving all these ‘Ideas’.

I first saw this video on TED, but the blogger doesn’t allow you to embed videos from TED I guess ( May be because they are flash videos), so I had to search the video from YouTube, download it, then convert it to MP4 and then upload it here.

If someone has any clues regarding how to embed a video from TED/You Tube, please let me know.

After this, I read Nita’s post here.

One of the comments said

“Our media is obssessed with the rise of middle class and put no light on the growing wide gap of income between rich and poor. Lack of attention to agriculture sector by educated class is the root cause of poverty problem in our country.It is said in your previous article that trade is better than aid. Subsidies on fertilizers and seeds are not reaching to the farmer directly. When loan are sanctioned to farmers , the banks and brokers are ready to take huge bribe before crediting the loan to uneducated and poor farmers.
Isn’t it sad that one-fourth of the world’s farming population — 600 million farmers are on the mercy of monsoon than a good irrigation system. Since 1997, more than 1.80 lakh farmers have committed suicide. The tragedy is that even this human sacrifice, massive from any political standards anywhere in the world, has failed to shift the national focus on the plight of farmers.India is the ungrateful nation be in a hurry to dump its farmers, the real backbone of the economy for implementing world bank policies.And still we ignore fundamental flaw in our development pattern.”

Then, I was like…Hmm..Guess ‘Nilekani was being over-optimistic’ with the whole thing. I mean, we still have socialists who believe that the basic purpose of an industry is not to make profit but to employ huge number of people, not realizing that it doesn’t do any good to either parties involved, and I was left disappointed.

Myself, being capitalist to the core, tried to do some arguing.I said

“The problem with socialism is that it sounds good only on paper, and history has proved it.

History is an interesting subject indeed because it tells you about your mistakes, but clearly some of us are still to learn from our mistakes.

Stressing on the same line again –>

We were so concerned about distribution of wealth that we forgot about actually creating it.

This is what Indian did till 1990, achieving nothing. Why would you wanna go back on the same track again??”

The reply that I got was

“Unequal distribution of Economic Freedom is at the basis of India’s uneven development. The reason is simple, the areas in which the middle and upper classes make their living have seen the highest degree of liberalization, while the areas in which the poor earn their livelihood have seen the fewest reforms.All the countries today shouting for open economy had developed in the past either due to imperialism and protected economy. How can you measure the ‘comparative advantage’ of a commodity which is highly subsidized with an output that does not receive even a fraction of the subsidies received in the US? Today production is don for the consumption of masses, not by the masses.This has lead to current crisis. And the country whose 90% of GDP is consumed in loans(Sources:Business India 5,October 2008) ,you are following the same path.Today we are growing due to bliss of outsourcing but soon this job will also go to small countries like South Africa and Vietnam etc less developed countries. Creation of wealth and progress can only be maintained by manufacturing sector and self sufficiency in the agriculture sector is required for supporting such huge population.Example, For creation of wealth in future, we need to transfer Infy &Wipro into product based software companies like Adobe,Google and Microsoft.Do you want always profit to be privatized and losses to shared by your tax.”

I can probably reply to each and every sentence above with a one page article. But , I did not see any point in that, I mean, you can argue with Charakan ofcourse because he gives you logical points, but what can you say to above comment where each and every logic is so illogical??I did not bother to reply. I gave up! Remember in my ‘25 point someone’, how I said

“I am confrontational...but I really don't believe in confronting a Dumb person, I generally agree with Dumb people. I am serious!! you cannot convince someone who has no idea about a subject but still wants to speak about it.”

While I am not saying the guy is ‘dumb’, but he does seem to have no idea of what he is talking about.Not exactly that too.He does seem to know what he’s talking about, but his basics are all messed up, he has learnt his lessons precisely the way that he wasn’t supposed to. :(... ha!Never mind! Socialism is still haunting us.

Then came the election results, where ‘LEFT’ was LEFT out and marginalized to 24 seats.I was again like…”Yea!! Not so bad for capitalism after all..Hope they completely disappear by next elections”.Whatever was the reason for their poor performance, the means need not justify the end always, right?..which reminds me of Lord Krishna..:-)!

ISRAEL V/S PALESTINE/HAMAS - Perspectives

2009-05-15T08:00:00.001-07:00

I am posting the discussion between me and Charakan on the ISRAEL-PALESTINE/HAMAS issue. I believe it is worth reading.

As it turns out, both of us hate HAMAS but I also Kinda took Israel’s side between ISRAEL-PALESTINE, but at the end of it, I guess I am pretty convinced that ISRAEL isn’t doing all that good in Palestine and we do need to see things beyond what ‘western’ media says.So I kinda stand confused on this issue now,I would love to see what you guys think..even if that involves changing my opinion.

It all started when I wrote the below paragraph in my last post

I was irritated when Israel was asked to stop their confrontation with HAMAS recently. For me, it was the same thing,, hello!! Israel did not call for it, they even gave up GAZA, hoping for peace, you freaking come and fire rockets at them, what do you expect back? I know that innocents get involved and loose their lives, but then there are innocents loosing their life on Israel’s side as well, right? A country has every right to protect its citizens.

His replies in blue.

Mine in Red.

I do not agree with you on Israel.May be you should read about the history of Arab-Israeli conflict in detail and come to a conclusion rather than depending on Western Mass Media.
few links from anti-zionist jewish websites which may help you
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?ar=10&pg=4
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/101conflict.shtml
You can also read a recently published Book titled Broken Promises Broken Dreams by a Jewish doctor named Dr Alice Rothchild.

I will go through the link, but my point is, that time is over, now if you don't fire rockets at Israel, they ain't gonna simply attack you.The world has changed now. To stick to old causes and still develop suicide bombers is not justified anymore.Same is the case with LTTE,they came into being for a reason, but now they just kill innocents, like HAMAS does,,so I am pretty much not interested in what happened 30 years back and why they were formed, if you are killing innocents now, you will get what you deserve.

I cannot understand what you meant by World have changed.Nothing has changed for those in Gaza.Palestinians are facing an occupational force all these years.Even if 150 years pass occupation is occupation.
The attack on Gaza by Israel just before Obama's coronation was an election ploy.Israel had an election in February and the various Israeli Political Leaders involved wanted to depict themselves as more aggressive than the other at the expense of lives of about 1200 Palestinians. Go through those links when you get time.It may be interesting if you like history.

Well, our thinking is pretty much the opposite in that case, I really don't think ISRAEL will attack palestine NOW if HAMAS stop firing its rockets. If you remember just when ISRAEL declared ceasefire after a month long operation, HAMAS was still firing rockets.
I mean, I indict HAMAS for all the innocent lives that were lost and not ISRAEL. If they stop goading ISRAEL, I seriously doubt ISRAEL can do any damage to PALESTINE NOW ( And by now - what has changed is that countries need to justify their attack on someone, even US by the way ). If you don't give ISRAEL a reason to attack, it CANNOT and WILL NOT.
How come, you support my view on LTTE and Not on HAMAS? Even LTTE was formed for a noble cause by the way.

Chikki,you talk as if Israel and Palestine are 2 sovereign states. And you said Israel even gave up Gaza Strip as if Britain will say we even gave up India in 1947.Israel is a Nation created by Britain and US in West Asia on the Palestinian homeland. Main root of the problem is that.Israel still contorls all the routes to West Bank and Gaza and decides what happens there.The missile strike was against the Isreali blockade of the border crossings resulting in severe food shortage and economic hardships. I do not support Hamas which is an ultra extremist Islamist force.I support Fatah.Systematic undermining of the moderate and somewhat secular Fatah by US and Israel by sabotaging all peace deals signed by Arafat resulted in the rise of Hamas.Israel likes Hamas the same way hindutva forces likes jihadists.Both feed on each other. You can also read the open letter to Obama by Teachers of major universities of US in my blog about Palestine issue.

http://mytake-charakan.blogspot.com/2009/01/open-letter-to-obama-about-gaza.html

Sorry for the long comment.I am and I believe most freedom loving liberal people all over the World are emotional about this.

Gaza was a territory won by Israel in a War in which it faced troops from almost 6-8 countries or say the whole Arab-world'.Can you beat that?Do you expect China to give 'Aksai Chin' back to India?
By the way, rockets are not aimed at Blockade alone. I have no idea how do I reply to this. I think HAMAS will be ashamed too when they hear this, I mean, even if they fired a rocket or two at blockade, you ofcourse know that even HAMAS claims responsibility of rockets they fire inside Israel, don't you??You do know they claim responsibility of the suicide attacks that happen inside Israel, right?

About your open letter to Obama?I don't see it eulogizing HAMAS, but I do see it criticizing ISRAEL.Interesting, you should probably read LTTE's history too, I am sure, you will start criticizing Sri Lanka.Allthough I must say I am a bit confused as you said you agree to my points about LTTE and Sri Lanka but not Hamas and Israel.
You talk about freedom?What about freedom of Israel to exist?Do you know HAMAS doesn't even recognize Israel??

Oh yea, I remember, you casually mentioned that you hate HAMAS too, then you should probably read my post again.Infact I wonder, what were we even debating then?I am not sure, what is the point that you wanna convey? Is it something like , you wanna say - you hate HAMAS and you hate Israel too??By the way you should also read how Jews residing in the Arab world were oppressed after the war.
I am against LTTE , I am against HAMAS, I am against any damn terrorist outfit, that kills innocents, that has no regard for human value, Ofcourse I support offensive against them, and that is why I was so pissed off when ISRAEL wasn't allowed to pursue its bombing of HAMAS targets, and that is why I get pissed off when I hear Tamils across the world sympathize with LTTE.

By the way , I stand by my point, I take HAMAS responsible for innocent lives lost in Gaza.

Chikki,you said,
Gaza was a territory won by Israel in a War in which it faced troops from almost 6-8 countries or say the whole Arab-world'Can you beat that?

Do you mean to say that if a foreign army invaded a part of country and established control then they have the legitimate right there for ever even if they withdraw? By that logic Germany which beat the Allies in World War 2 and occupied France and other European Countries should have all the rights there for ever? Will you call the French resistance movement terrorists then? In any resistance movement there will be extremists.Hamas is an extremist organisation whom I do not support.
Difference between the Srilankan Tamils cause and that of Palestenian cause is that Srilankan Tamils are facing discrimination in their homeland from a majority ruling class while Palestinians are facing Occupation by an invading force. Discrimination by a democratic ruling class is different from Occupation by another country.

Invading force'..?? Who wanted to capture Israel and who refused its existence??who wanted to invade Israel? Who massed up army along the border which led to war??Who wished that Israel should cease to exist?? Errr....Arabs..!!

Just because they Lost the war, and the opposite happened - Israel ended up capturing some of their territory, you can't cry foul now..That would be so lame..Why was a defeat not expected in the 1st place??why were the pros and cons not carefully weighed?
I believe Israel does better than Arabs would have done if god forbids the result would have been opposite. In 2004,Israel agreed to return land captured by them, if HAMAS stopped the violence. Unilateral disengagement from Gaza was a result of this.But what did HAMAS do??continued its violence and broke the peace accord. Why would a country not get pissed?Specially when it also HAS THE POWER TO GET PISSED!!

Chikki, Israel is a Nation created by Britain and US using their colonial power in West Asia on the Palestinian homeland. Do you agree?
Zionists are settler minorities who is trying to displace the majority Arabs from their home land. do you agree?
If a large group of ppl come to your native land and try to settle there and carve an exclusive settler only nation there will you welcome them or oppose them?
Above points are the root of the problem.Rest of the discussion depemds on how you answer the above questions.
If your answers are supporting Zionism then I will beg to disagree and stop this discussion because there is no point in continuing.

"Israel is a Nation created by Britain and US using their colonial power in West Asia on the Palestinian homeland."

Agreed! That happened after the holocaust.
And ofcourse you don't disagree with the fact that JEWS were not there before creation of ISRAEL, do you??
From what you have been writing, it looks like - even you don't recognize the right of 'ISRAEL to exist' which is very disturbing to me.

"Zionists are settler minorities who is trying to displace the majority Arabs from their home land. do you agree?"

I think its the opposite happening - Arabs just can't recognize the right of 'ISRAEL to be'. why can they 'Live and let live'??Why do they keep goading ISRAEL all the time?? and when ISRAEL retaliates, they start looking around the world for help. Wahhh!!

"If a large group of ppl come to your native land and try to settle there and carve an exclusive settler only nation there will you welcome them or oppose them"

First of all Israel is not on a 'conquering spree' and we are not living in an 'imperialist age'. ISRAEL is a NATION now . It is not practicing 'Slavery' either.
You attack ISRAEL, ISREAL doesn't attack you and take your land away!! It is even ready to give your land back. All it wants is peace which you can't seem to believe in because if peace prevails, you will obviously not have an agenda to live and you will become so Jobless!!

To all the ARABS -->
'LIVE AND LET LIVE' guys please. 2nd World war is over long back.A lot has changed, but please MOVE ON you guys!!

Ya, thats all! I hope you did not skip anything.;-)!Its an exhausting post again with more than 1800 words. These ‘55-ers’ are gonna hate me.

IHM – I remember the strikethrough post, I will do it I promise.:-).

Things I am emo about

2009-04-30T06:49:00.001-07:00

Hmm..Things that I am emotional about??..I was told that ‘irritation’ is also an ‘emotion’, and its a lot easier to write about things that irritate you, isn’t it? So yea, let me start with sharing the things that irritate me, later I can share other emos like things that make me cry, laugh,frown etc etc.

1)Tamils who support LTTE ; countries asking Sri Lanka to halt their military operations against them.

Finally Sri Lanka is doing something that it should have done long back, it is something that India should have done long back. Wipe out the terrorists in a planned offensive!!

Demand for separate land?WTF? Why can’t you stay in harmony with others? And as if a separate land will solve your problems? What happened to Pakistan?what happened to Bangladesh?

For those of you who think that Sri Lanka is bombing innocent civilians who are trapped, let me tell you a responsible Govt will always try its best to save innocents, its the cold-blooded terrorists who will not care for innocents, have a look at TOI’s report which confirm that LTTE is infact using civilians as human shields.

LTTE-killed-civilians-Surrendered-leaders

I did not actually need TOI to confirm this for me, this was something which was so obvious to me.These terrorists will go to any extent to save their ass.

For those supporting ceasefires, it is a truism by now that ceasefires only helps these terrorists as they come out stronger and kill more people.

For those against violence, I say Sri Lanka did not call for it, it was not their first choice, but what the hell are you gonna do if people come and kill your innocent civilians every alternate day? and the death toll is about 40,000 for your information.

For those supporting political resolution, or resolution through talks, I think the Govt tried it for 2 decades, but as they say laato ke bhoot baato se nahi maante.

People still want Sri Lanka to stop?Why not use your channels and pursue LTTE instead to give up??Huh??Very simple right??

The best part was, when the assholes were subjugated in a 6KM sq area, they declared ceasefire, just as I was reading the news, I thought “what a fucking Joke” and next day Sri Lankan Govt comes out with the same word “A Joke”.

I do know the purpose of why LTTE came into being, but what the hell, if you deviate from your very purpose and start developing suicide bombers, then you will have no sympathy atleast from me and BUSH.

On Similar lines, I was irritated when Israel was asked to stop their confrontation with HAMAS recently. For me, it was the same thing,, hello!! Israel did not call for it, they even gave up GAZA, hoping for peace, you freaking come and fire rockets at them, what do you expect back? I know that innocents get involved and loose their lives, but then there are innocents loosing their life on Israel’s side as well, right? A country has every right to protect its citizens.

You don’t expect every country to be an India showing so called ‘resilience and restraint’ even after people come, enter your house, kill your civilians, but you show world-famous ‘restraint’!!

For those Indians who espouse LTTE, they should probably feel for local banned outfits like SIMI etc etc too, otherwise you are just a hypocrite.

This is why I probably like Bush and even Bhagat Singh for that matter!!

Oops! I had a few more ‘irritations’ to write, this was just one, but may be I will divide this subject into parts – a hundred of ’em?, so that I don’t end up writing an exhausting post again.:-)

God! when will I ever be able to write a 55 word thingi??

Recommended Link : some-species-are-better-extinct

IHM, you had once asked if 'violence is justified for any goddamn reason', here is my answer, I probably did not comment then, because I knew I could write a dozen posts on that topic.:-)!

My try on ‘55 words Thingi’

2009-04-21T08:49:00.001-07:00

IHM gave me an idea of writing ‘55 word fiction’ because she thought my posts are too long and it will be like a ‘self-challenge’ for me to limit myself to 55 words.So, here is my 1st attempt to write a ‘55 WORD ~~FICTION~~ FACT’ ( we will leave FICTION for some other time’ – lets take it one by one people, phew!)

A lot of urban ‘sensible’ urban voters are entering the election fray this time. My take…

We have Captain Gopinath of ‘Air Deccan’ from Bangalore, then we have Meera Hiranandani from Mumbai – a banker unhappy with the way Govt handled 26/11, then we also have a new party – loksatta –from Hyderabad – “voice of the urban” – supposedly.I am sure there are few others that I am unaware of.

My fear is that these people will take away votes not from the most ‘undeserving candidate’ but from the most ‘deserving candidate’ from among those who are fighting ( even though my ‘most deserving’ candidate can be a jerk too – but what I mean is he would still be better than other jerks – or say the ‘least bastard’).

Why?I presume that it is the ‘sensible’ voters like you and me who are going to vote for these ‘sensible urban candidates’.Whom do you think we would have voted if we were not voting them?Ofcourse the ‘least bastard’ one.So, we end up harming our ‘least bastard’ candidate instead of the ‘most bastard’ one. To add – I do believe ‘sensible’ voters are in minority in India and hence our votes might not help these ‘sensible urban voters’ win anyway.:-(. Sad – but I do believe my presumptions are logical.

I repeatedly choose to classify you and me under ‘sensible voters’ category because I presume that ‘you and me’ are not going to vote for a candidate because of his caste/Religion/Sex or for a bottle of liquor, nor are we gonna fall for any of the fake promises or any ominous agendas like ‘hindutva’ or ‘culture’ shit.

Having said all this – I want to convey that I definitely don’t encourage you to ‘not vote’ for these ‘sensible urban voters’, lets atleast give motivation to others to join too, today or tomorrow they and hence we -- might win.

I guess I have ended up crossing a little over 320 words.Never mind, lets call it a ‘55 355 WORDS FACT’. Yea, something new for a change.

55 355 WORDS ~~FICTION~~ FACT

A literary work will be considered 55 355 WORDS ~~Fiction~~ FACT if it has:

Three hundred and Fifty-five words or less (A non-negotiable rule)

~~A setting, One or more characters, Some conflict, and A resolution.~~

And if it is a

Fact

Thats all.

Piss Offs piss me off

2009-03-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

Some Piss offs in the last week or so

Piss off no 1)Me finding the secret appraisal document of my team and finding out what,

One Team Lead has given a rating of 4 ( 4 is considered above average and only 10-15% of people get it) to a gal he is dating (she deserves a rating of 2).

Second team lead who is a marathi has given a rating of 4 to another marathi in his team, who joined the project 3 months back and barely knows anything.

Third team lead who is a tamil, has given a rating of 4 to two of his tamil team mates, out of which one guy totally doesn't deserve it.

And then I have some seniors in project who deserve 4, but are stuck with 3. I feel so bad for them.

I was told that I had performed much above their expectations, expectations that they have from a college passout, and that I was the best among freshers in my project. I have received a performance award, numerous client appreciations, but what do I get --> 3.3..normalised to 3.WTF?Just because I don't belong to their states?

I Have decided to try and not to work with Indians in future, do my MBA from Singapore, and stay away from Indians at work as long as possible.They can mess up even the best of work cultures.Yeah, I am an Indian who is not very fond of Indians.I am sorry.

Mai apni pehle appraisal report pe haath rakh ke kasam khata hoon ki jaan lagadunga magar MBA ke baad Indians ke saath kaam nahi karunga.

Piss off no 2)Maneka Gandhi's allegation that a Muslim police officer had injured 25 of Varun's supporters.The SSP said that the Muslim officer was not even present in Pilibhit on Saturday, having been transferred to Bilaspur to prevent controversy.

I have decided that India is not worth a place coming back to.Life comes just once,I cannot afford to come and waste it in a country where majority are fools and they don't even realise it, so they condition their offsprings to become fools too, and the trend continues.Why else will a country entertain such bastards?

Piss off no 3)Three Rapist Fathers (in India)

What the hell is wrong with our society?Talk about Indian culture, ah?Its time we start importing prostitutes, so that these guys will atleast stop fucking their daughters.

Piss off no 4) IIT classes from Std VII, 6 years before test

WTF?Why are parents in India so obsessed with just one exam - the IIT?Have a look at your dull kid, who does nothing but slog all day, and has specks in class 5, don't you pity him?Its not like, others who go out and play games don't succeed in life.Big Thumbs down to parents who play no role in overall development of their child.

Piss off no 5)Probability that Mayawati might become PM of our country, and then from no where, some people turn out who actually don't see any problem with that.

This is what I called "Adaptation".A typical stage where you are so fed up with the bad things around you that you try to do reasoning with your mind and see good even in bad.Good for you, but what about the whole country?Rather be a critic.

Piss off no 6)Obama's words

"We will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas"

This is precisely not the time for cost escalations.

Now, won't this move make the already ailing companies even less competitive compared to their peers in other nations who will continue to ship job overseas and reduce costs?Companies world wide, be it America or Europe or Australia are trying to reduce costs to come out of this difficult times, why would Obama not want to get this basic thing right?Ofcourse you will have opposition from simpletons who just see and hear on TV that their job is going away.

But as a Leader, shouldn't Obama see the larger picture?Atleast he should know whats good for his country in long term.It should have been an established fact by now that if you not reducing your costs, you are not going to survive in a increasingly globalised world.The Job losses then will be much more than now, duh!

As long as their are countries who can provide the same output at much lower costs, it does make sense to shift non-core jobs to that country, doesn't it?After all, aren't you responsible to your millions of investors as well.

What an Irony indeed.You badly want your companies to come back to profit, but you are the one who's standing in its way!!

Piss off no 7)90% tax on employee-bonuses, only for companies which have been bailed out by Govt money.

This is precisely not the time when AIG and others can afford to loose its people.90% Tax on employee bonus?WTF?I can understand 20, 30 or 40, but 90%?

If you are going to take 90% from the bonus, which by the way is a big part of overall compensation, chances are you are not going to attract the creme, but rather loose the ones that you already have.

The companies who did not get the bailout will still pay bonuses to its employees and retain the creme, all the more essential in tough times, whereas the already failing ones which unfortunately had to take Govt money will fail even further because nonprofessionals on the street will now decide its future.

Isn't it sometimes better that we leave it to our parents to decide what is best for us?Like the numerous decisions taken by my mom and dad for me, that I would have previously thought are so crude, but now realise were what was best for me.

As expected Mr.Obama again doesn't get it and makes a populist statement again?This is where I feel Bush was different, the kind of conviction that he had about whats right for the country and whats not, Obama clearly lacks it. Don't you guys feel the same?

Read this somewhere,

Diplomacy is best conducted in secret,media and parliament in democracies tend to confuse the issues with moral considerations and this will lead nations to take irrational positions that did not necessarily further their own interests.

Isn't that line amazing?Doesn't it apply to India as well - at times atleast?

Battery powered Cars in India?Are you sure?

2009-03-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

Going green with Battery powered Cars,,, Really??

People go home and charge their batteries with electricity which inturn is generated out of coal (Yes, world still uses Coal for generation of electricity ).What is so Green about a Battery powered car??

About 40% of world electricity comes from burning Coal, about 49% of USA's electricity comes from burning coal.The figure is 70% for India.

Facts about Coal -->

Gross carbon dioxide emissions from coal usage are slightly more than those from petroleum and about double the amount from natural gas.

The thermodynamic efficiency of Coal at best is 35% which means, 65% of the coal energy is waste heat.

Coal is the largest producer of Carbon di oxide, a greenhouse gas, in environment barring the natural processes.

Coal-fired power plant releases emissions including mercury, selenium, and arsenic which are harmful to human health and the environment.

Consider this -->

Calculation says, a KG of coal is burnt to produce 2KW-hr of energy.

Now, if you keep using that electricity to charge your car batteries every alternate day, I wonder how much amount of Burnt Coal will you be responsible for??

However, if a country uses non renewable sources to generate electricity, battery powered cars are a go-ahead to them.

Considering the fact that more and more Electricity will be generated from non renewable sources in future, we should give a lot of thrust on developing Battery powered Cars, but as of now, I think, it ends up polluting more.

India's case

I came across an amazing article which I think all of you should read. Do read all the 6 parts

Knowledge-allianz

Some interesting points from the article :-

(India's)Estimated annual CO2 emissions: 1.275 billion tons in 2003 (4th biggest worldwide, not including entire European Union)

According to Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the renewable power capacity was around 8 Gigawatts at the end of March 2006, roughly 6.5 percent of the total power generation capacity.

Nearly 70 percent of the country’s electricity is generated from the inexpensive and abundant, but environmentally hazardous fossil fuel - Coal.

According to researchers at Stanford University, replacing 30 GW of coal energy with nuclear energy would save India up to 218 million tons of emitted carbon dioxide each year.

No, wonder I wanted to personally shoot down everyone from left (party) when they were against the Indo-US Nuclear deal.Anyway, Its a different issue, will discuss about it some day.

Now,why would someone want to use a battery powered car in India if only 6.5 % of electricity is coming from non-renewable sources??

I wonder when will Coal be replaced as a source for producing electricity?? not anytime soon I guess, atleast not in India!! So is battery powered car really a good deal for India?I don't think so.

You can also check out India's energy information at,

Enery-Information-Agency

Weirdly, the statistics are a little different here, that too for the same year.For example, the below line

Hydroelectricity has been a consistent source of power in India, accounting for nearly 16 percent of power generated in 2006. (Remember the other article says, renewable power capacity is roughly 6.5%).

But even this article says

Nearly all power in India is generated with conventional thermal sources, which produced over 80 percent of electricity in 2006.

So, yeah the bottom line is!!

If you are in India, Don't use Battery Powered Cars as of now :-)

By the way, all the users of REWA in Bangalore, Pune, the car has miserably failed German crash tests, and is banned, refrain from using one.Either ways, it doesn't look like it can take a crash even from a cycle.

25 Point Someone

2009-03-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

1)Popular demand, and numerous calls and emails are making me write 25 points about myself. ( Don't ask me how people arrived at the magical figure of 25 :-) )

Ha, Yeah, I am aware that I can Beat my own drums..Infact I can beat them louder than they are actually allowed to be beaten..;-)..

But I use it Purely as a tool for Humour, and it doesn't generally mean that I am an Over-confident, arrogant chap, ...:-)

My History, Geography :) -->

School Life, Naughty me ;-) -->

2)In my school's 30 years History, only 3 guys were ever removed, thrown out,kicked out....and I was one of those 3...Hurray..!!:-)!!

Ya, I was over-naughty in school.When I actually got removed I was kind-of falsely implicated though. I Cried , I cried a lot.I was only 16 then.:-(...awww..poor me!!

Hyderabad/Pune connection -->

3)I joined a Boarding school in hyderabad and I got really Home sick(Ya, 'Taare Zameen par'--Types) . May be that's why I cried when I watched 'Taare Zameen par'..:-)...I completed the year and then Joined Fergusson College,Pune... What a college!!! Till day, I am proud of being a fergussonian.One of the most popular T-shirts in Pune read

Fergusson Rules..........

"Down to Earth, but still above you all"

Even Those who did not belong to Fergusson would buy it.

Pune was Fun. But I was sick of the fact that the when you wanna shop, there is absolutely no where to go.. Till day, I don't buy anything from Pune. Also I hated the infrastructure.It was irritating, it was always a Tier-2 City for me.

Bangalore connection -->

4)From Pune, I moved to Bangalore, I was really fascinated by Bangalore even before going there.

I was a bachelor in Electronics engineering, married to software engineering now..Don't get me wrong..I mean, my course was 'Electronics and Communication', but just like the millions other passing out of engineering colleges in India, I became a software engineer by profession. But trust me,even now, if given a choice, I would not become an Electronics engineer, its too complicated, the circuits i.e..:-)!!!

Though I was a Rank Holder in my school, I did not get the best of grades in my degree. No excuse, but how could I do something which did not even motivate me. Also, I don't believe that all those who got better grades were actually smarter than me!!Pleaseeee...!!They are a result of Indian Education System.Nerdy but Dumb (Not all though).

Though Bangalore has a major traffic problem now, its by-far my Favourite place to live in, don't mind the Rowdies, and rowdy like Auto walas in Bangalore..!!

Singapore connection -->

5) I am working with Perot systems (American MNC), My 1st very project turned out to be an onsite one, so here I am, in Singapore, working with my client UBS ( Yeah, one of those investment banks ;-) who are in deep shit)

Its a year in Singapore now.I love my work, I Hate the management, Somehow I have noticed that Indians believe in Micro Management, and most of us cannot become good Managers.I work with people from all nations and I see such stark contrast in the way Indians Manage work and a/an European/Australian/American Manages work.

On a personal note, allthough life is much more comfortable here, and the money is amazing, I miss my friends in Bangalore. Though Singapore has so many amazing places to hang-out, I just don't have someone to hangout with.Finally when I can afford to go to the costliest of places, I don't have anyone to go with. God really doesn't give us everything, does he?

what Next?? -->

6)I am a wanna-be MBA. If possible, I want the degree from Singapore itself.

Random Facts about me -->

7)I do not read Fiction, but I have read 'Five point someone' and I loved it. I read fiction only in school, ya 'Enid Blyton', :-), Hardy Boys. :-).

I love reading Finance/Economic Articles.Though I still don't understand very complicated articles, I do better than most engineers when it comes to that.

8)I hate commitments, I don't think I can say those 3 magical words to a gal unless I am sure I am not gonna get bored of her down the line..;-)..and my past has taught me that by the time, I realise the fact that 'I am not gonna get bored of her', Its generally too late ( she's already taken).

The typical conversation is like this

Me : I am in love with you

She : You know, I have a BF, right?

ME : Ya, I know. :-(

Anyway.....

8) I prefer dating, infact I love it. I can never Date a woman who can't talk.I love woman who can talk, but she should also be a good listener when I wanna speak, Yes, I hate woman who can cut me off and start Blabbering again.Thankfully I have few wonderful friends I love dating and can probably date every single day of the rest of my life and still remain excited about the next date ( Ya, Mary/Sneha, if you are reading this , you were on my mind when I wrote it )

9)I love hanging out as well, I can endlessly hangout with my friends at coffee shops, multiplexes, fast food outlets, any damn place. We used to sneak out of hostel at 2-3AM in night to go to Bangalore Airport and have coffee at the COFFEE day.Not that we were big COFFEE fans, just the thrill..;-)!!

10)I am confrontational..( Yes, IHM, the point is stolen from you, Its only that, I wrote the opposite )..but I really don't believe in confronting a Dumb person, I generally agree with Dumb people. I am serious!! you cannot convince someone who has no idea about a subject but still wants to speak about it.

11)Someday, when I get settled in Life,I wanna have a Dog as a pet (Not a pomerian...Ya, I am Racial ;-)).

12)I am very Kitchen and Bathroom Conscious. I want my Kitchen to be very clean, I can't tolerate a Dirty Kitchen. I love the sight of a bathroom which is Dry, clean and spacious. When I have a house of own, I am definitely gonna spend a lot on my Bathroom.

13)I am a very cool person, I can't be formal for nuts, specially with my friends, and I don't want them to be formal with me as well. I can never be friends with someone who can continuously be formal with me.I start getting irritated and then avoid that person.

14) For me, my friends are really important. Infact some people believe that I treat them above my parents, I don't think that might be true, But yeah, I love my friends a lot.

15)I know people change, But I don't understand why they do. If I start getting a hint, that someone is changing, I normally rush to change myself before they do, and that is the time when most people think I start behaving weirdly.Some friends say I am possessive about my friends, which I don't completely agree with.

16)I am unpunctual. I can never-never come on time.I have never reached school on time, I have never reached college on time, I never reach office on time, I can't come on time -NEVER.I know it, and I can't improve.I have given up trying to improve.:-)!

17)I am a big believer of smart work. I don't believe in DONKEY/HARD work.Ages ago, I read it somewhere, I still remember the below lines :-

Practice does not make a man/Woman perfect.

Perfect practice makes a man/Woman perfect.

If you keep practicing something wrongly, you will become perfect at doing it wrongly!! so simple, right?

I wrote "/woman", because I am a little terrified of IHM/Surbhi...;-)..

18) Given a chance to be invisible --> I would kill all corrupt Indian politicians. They are a menace!!The only thing that is still going wrong in India..!!

24)I Love Indian food, to an extent that I am not ready to buy the explanation that it is because I was born here and I am used to eating it... I say, even If i was born in Honolulu, I would have still loved Indian food the most.

The fried stuff like Pakodis might not be good for health, but I can't imagine my life without Pakodis, samosas, Kachodis, Mirchi Vadas, Gujrati Fafdas, Pani/Bhel Puris, Cutlets etc etc.

25) I cry at a lot of Movies.I don't know why, But I do..Only one gal ( Rash..you..:-) ) has ever caught me doing that...and my explanation was ,, "ahh...just water in eyes"...I couldn't come up with anything better...:-(.

Ya Ya...for those of you who noticed that '24' came after '18'....Please don't freak out...If I can think of something, I will write again..Forgive me for now..!!Phew!!

I think, I am supposed to tag 25 people now? Nahh..I am not gonna do that..The "Tag" thing ends here...I declare it CLOSED hereby...Huhahahahaha...!!!!

Gandhi@Auction

2009-03-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

I have written the sequence of events as they occurred and have expressed my views about it. I am open to discussion if anyone doesn't feel like the way I do, because I feel this is what is a debatable topic ( I did not consider Mangalore as a debatable issue -- for me, anyone who did not oppose it, was a Jerk!)

My comments in purple

Events in Red

Double quoted words in blue

1)Mahatma Gandhi's personal belongings ( A Zenith pocket watch, steel-rimmed spectacles, a pair of sandals and an eating bowl and plate) to be auctioned.Estimated booty from the auction --> 30,000 to 40,000$.

2)Indian Govt unhappy over the auction,launches its protest with the US Govt. Doesnt look like US gives a damn (so you know, where you stand).

3)James Otis, the auctioneer, set conditions for withdrawing the items from the auction, which included a "substantial" increase in India's budget spending on health care of the poor.

What a Noble man indeed! But I guess Govt is interested in vote bank.

Increase in health care for poor will give them this vote bank??Might be , but negligible anyway!!

'Saving Gandhi's personal Belongings' will instantly catch an average Indian's attention who would then become a UPA fan.

What an opportunity to misuse emotions of many!

4)Just before the auction, owner of the items James Otis had agreed to withdraw them from the auction but the auction house did not agree. It argued that it could have a big liability if it allowed the items to be withdrawn from the auction as more than 30 bidders had already registered for them and some have even sent in written bids.

5)Mallya wins the bid, buys the stuff for 1.8 million dollars.(Crazy money!!). The controversy obviously helped in shooting up the price.

Don't know about you guys , personally, I don't give a damn, nor has my respect for Mallya increased/decreased in any way. Its just where it was. (The respect had increased when he bought a F1 team.)

Now, I am like -- "Ya, Ok, we got it, whatever".

If he would not have got it, I would have been like -- "Ya, Ok, we did not get it, whatever".

Allthough, I would totally understand if it is an emotional moment for some of us (specially the older generation).

I would have rather appreciated, if New Delhi had diplomatic power to convince the authorities in US against the auction, which they clearly lacked.Don't these people feel ashamed of the fact that no one gives a damn about them and what they want??

6)Culture minister Ambika Soni claims

"The Indian government procured the five personal articles of Mahatma Gandhi at a New York auction through the services of industrialist Vijay Mallya as it could not bid directly because of a stay order of the Delhi High Court."
"We were working on several options to get the items back. This is a victory for the UPA government"

Any Tom, Dick and Harry SHOULD be able to tell you, our Govt wants to piggyback on the goodwill Mallya would have managed to produce after this.

I said "SHOULD be able to tell you".because I know, an idiot Indian (and they are in majority in India) would have believed Ambika Soni when she made that statement.No wonder, these ministers have the balls to make such ridiculous claims.

I am telling you they probably did not even know that Mallya would be bidding.

Mallya later proves my belief by saying :-

"I am not sure if anyone was aware that I was bidding"

7)Times of India reports 'Mallya's shocker: I bid on my own'.

Is it really a Shocker? Not even a bit of a shocker to me!!

What do you feel about the whole set of events?

Overall My feelings are :-

Neutral --> Mallya winning the auction

Ashamed --> Of Indian Govt ( as usual ) for its lack of diplomatic strength in the world.

Ridiculous --> Claims made by Ambika Soni.

James Otis -->A good Business man.

Vijay Mlallya --> Did what he wanted to do, fine with me.

Ambika Soni --> What a Bitch.

Time to sleep, Its 5.30AM SGT.

SELF DEFENCE FOR DAUGHTERS.

2009-03-02T07:26:00.000-08:00

Just a cute incident, that I wana share.

While on an evening walk with a Girl ( I prefer to call her that) and her 17months old daughter.

Her daughter stamps on one of the many flowers on the ground and that is when this happens -->

She : <says some 'chepu' thing in Telgu>

Me : What did you just say?

(Note :I don't understand any language but hindi, english, hence the question.)

She : I am teaching my daughter not to stamp on flowers, and to do the same only for insects on the ground.

Me : what??Isnt that cruelty?aren't you teaching her aggression??

(Note: I am no freak opposing the killing of ants and blah blah, but this sounded so weird --> you cannot stamp on flowers fallen on the ground, but you can stamp on insects?? Hahaha)

She : No, I am teaching her self defence!!

SILENCE.....TO COMPREHEND WHAT JUST HAPPENED...AND THEN.....

LAUGHTER....LAUGHTER...LAUGHTER...

You need a lot of Cuteness to come up with such a reply..;-)! Don't you?

I am not forgetting this one.:-)!

INSECURITY or just a deep SLUMBER?

2009-02-23T08:02:00.000-08:00

First Things First. I am sorry if my last post offended anyone.Forgive me, I am just a 23 year old.:-).

Confession --> Out of my mind, I think I launched a personal attack on a woman in my previous post.I dint mean to, I just wanted to comment on her post, not on her, but yeah! I am not perfect.I kind of messed up out there, and someone actually called me a racist :-( (But sometimes, I do feel I am a Racist, ya I am an EVIL nvm :-) ).

Chances are I was wrong, my only reason to believe this is I don't think I have a support.:-(.

I couldn't help but dissect IHM's post. I am just presenting my Arguments.

IHM's post in blue
My views in Red

"Chikki's post on a woman's concern over an advertisement for a low calories cereal made me wonder how much are we affected by the way our advertisers want us to look"

Well, no, it is actually the other way round. Advertisers have no personal interest in making us look good or UN-FAT (I choosed not to say THIN, because we are talking about that specific Ad, and it promises only 2.5Kgs Reduction in 2 weeks, that won't make us THIN, Please! ). I will tell you what those marketing guys would have probably thought --> They were pretty sure that lots of people want to get thinner ( please!! deep inside, most fat people do wish they were thin ) and they are willing to spend an amazingly huge amount on that ( I don't think we still know how much VLCC earns, those programs are so expensive). So, why not lets market something which can make you loose some extra pounds (No arguments regarding if that will actually make you thinner, we are just talking about the Ad being "demeaning"-supposedly).

You get my point,?

ITS NOT

Ads --> Pressure to look good.

IT IS

Our Will to look better --> marketing ideas based on that --> Ads

So, lets not blame the Ad for the pressure in 1st place.

"The pressure is not to look good, but to look a certain way. Fair and Thin. Perfect teeth. All fine except that there are a lot of good looking people who do not fall into this set mold."

what pressure?Well, Again, there is No pressure!! I mean, no one can pressurise you without your consent.The Colgate Ads are exerting pressure on us for perfect teeth?No.I have never heard that before, seriously! Not even in my dreams did I think, The Ads pressurise us to look in a certain way. LOOKING GOOD IS A PERSONAL CHOICE, FOR SOME IT IS VERY IMPORTANT AS TO HOW THEY LOOK, SOME JUST DON'T CARE. IF WE ARE FEELING THE PRESSURE BECAUSE OF COLGATE, KELLOGG Ads, THERE MUST BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH OUR SENSE OF SECURITY.
We shouldn't really Blame Ads, they are there to sell.Get real.

NO ONE CAN HURT YOU WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT.

"Some of these advertisements can make our lives revolve around our weight loss. . . "

OK, again! I Think we should all be in total control of our lives, IF WE ARE LETTING OUR LIVES REVOLVE AROUND Ads, TRUST ME, DON'T BLAME Ads, THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH US.

"And our children will grow up believing thin(not healthy) is beautiful".

No, THIN is not same as NOT-FAT. we are talking about us being NOT-FAT. and FAT IS DEFINITELY NOT HEALTHY.

"A perfectly healthy woman can be made to feel too fat if she does not fit a certain size"

Really?Nooo...

I really pity that Ad now, All the poor bechara Ad said was "loose 2.5Kgs". :-(

"It starts with 'thin is healthy', although being too thin or even undernourished, is not any healthier than being too fat."

Under-Nourished? Some quick facts --> 6 out of 10 women in India are anemic ( well, most of them don't even know this and its definitely not limited to poor). That is Under-Nourished. But that is not the point.
FAT IS UNHEALTHY. Don't buy the product if you think you are not fat , simple! Why would someone wanna ban the whole Ad itself?

"It isn't really about being beautiful either, because many women are not skinny and they look great. (Including Jenifer Lopez, Lindsay Lohan, Mumtaz, many of our older film stars.)"

This is not fair, we are talking about BEING UN-FAT. Where did 'SKINNY' came in from?At least that's how I interpreted the Ad, it was always about loosing extra pounds, not being Skinny.
And again, isn't this our choice what we want to be -->Skinny, or healthy? Its an Ad..Buy the product according to your needs. Government of India is not coming out with a law to buy Kellogg's K and become thinner (not thin , thinner Is what I said!).

"Why then are we so obsessed with being thin?"

Exactly...Its us who are obsessed (well, some of us at least)! and this is precisely what Kellogg's knew, why are we blaming the Ad for pressurising us??Its so not Justified.I just don't get it.If I was the CEO of that company, I would probably give a promotion to someone who came up with that campaign.

"I think it is just a trend. Today we wonder at the Chinese binding their little girls feet, or at corsets that made Victorian women forever breathless (And gave Scarlett O'Hara her famous 17" waist).
Nature couldn't possibly have meant all women (men too) to be the same size?!"

Being thin MIGHT be a trend, but it is for us to follow it or not.However, if you can see to it that you keep yourself fit , UN-FAT, it would be wonderful. Its High time, we know the disadvantages of being FAT and do something about it instead of cursing the whole world for calling us FAT.

"Years from today our future generations will talk abut how women were coerced to starve and look anorexic (or be anorexic) and fit into standard sized clothes."

You really don't wanna take this line back?what was this IHM?:-)

"What can be more beautiful than good health?
Good health would mean you can run up a flight of stairs without feeling out of breath. Good health does not mean being size zero."

Yes, don't be size-zero . Clearly its our personal choice. But ya, FAT IS UNHEALTHY, LETS FACE IT. No pressure to become UN-FAT, but its for our own good, that we realise FAT IS UNHEALTHY.

Something, I wanna add from my personal experience, You know, of all the people I have met --> Western, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, Malaysians, Australians, etc etc, take my words, Indians are the one who are least worried about their health, we are the ones who are ignorant about advantages of staying fit,we are the ones with bulging tummies :) -- Generally.

I was surprised to see the kind of priority these people give to their fitness regime, you won't believe the distance people here can run on the field, I was really embarrassed on the field, No Kidding, but even the Grandmas and Granddads run more than me :-( ( Ya, I run 3kms without stopping, not so bad , right? well, apparently it is). I don't feel PRESSURISED to run more though, On the contrary, I am plainly impressed, and try jogging at least 3-4 times a week.

"And good health with good grooming can make anybody look their best. Without having to starve for it."

Well,,don't Starve!! Just avoid FATS..Try Fruits...that's not Starving, is it?

Its for us to realise the importance of being NOT-FAT, YES, ITS NOT HEALTHY, TRY GOOGLING FOR MORE INFO! Don't feel pressurised, Just for your own good, please Wake up, Don't blame Ads, don't crib about people calling you fat, don't try giving excuses to yourself, consult a dietitian if you are worried about being UNDER-NOURISHED while pursuing it, and please Don't blame the Ad, just Ignore it if you hate it. Chances are others out there might wanna give it a try!

Kellogg's Special K, and Body Image Issues

2009-02-22T07:57:00.000-08:00

Another disturbing perspective.Disturbing for me at least!Or I just plainly did not understand it.

The original post is here

Don't worry, I have not edited anything from there.Double quoting everything again.

My words in Red

Her words in Blue

"Yesterday just as we sat down at Coffee Day my seven year old eyed me and told me with twinkling eyes "Ma, You are fat." I gasped for breath. I asked him where he had heard about fat. He shook his head and gave me his usual - Don't know and dug into his Black Forest Cake."

"I wasn't about to give him an explanation about fitting into a size 12 jeans after 4 months of rigorous work outs or that giving birth to him, his sister and taking care of them had made me 'fat'. I wasn't going down the defensive mode with a 7 year old child."

"I was more interested in knowing where he had come across the concept of body image. And it didn't take me long."

Was going fine till here!!

"Today while the kids watched toons on POGO the Special K ad rolled in. And before my horrified eyes"

"Horrified eyes" ?? Why the over reaction?1st shock.

"I heard a small girl talking about her mom looking like Aishwarya Rai and her mom laughed and said she had lost two kilos by being on Special K. The little angel ranted about her mom looking the prettiest in the school and my mouth hung open."

So???

"Little angel Ranting"?? what?? I think you are the one who's ranting.

"What kind of shit was this? I looked at my son and then back at the TV. "

What Just happened?Anyone??No, seriously, a reaction of that sort, there has to be some reason, I am so confused, Can someone please explain it to me, what could have been going on inside her head?I am serious!! I am not getting into an argument, I just wana know, what is it that my brain completely refuses to understand??

"It was bad enough that cable channels were feeding shit to our kids about junk food but now we had cereals sneaking in body image neurosis to our underage children."

I am not married, but when I do get married and have kids, I don't think I am gonna start Blaming the whole bad world around me . After all what will my duty as a father be? Teach my child the difference between right and wrong.

And please, what do you expect? Mc Donalds, Burger Kings, Cokes, Pepsis, to be banned?

"Body-image neurosis"??Will someone Please quickly explain me what this women is going through??I don't think I will be able to concentrate on my work before I know, what struck her. All her kid said was "you are fat", which chances are, she is.

"Where is the protest from parents about these sorts of ads? Maybe its time Kellogg's was taken to court for propagating unhealthy habits to our kids. Can you imagine a kid asking just for sugary cereals for 2 meals to be skinny?"

"propagating unhealthy habits to our kids"??.. What just happened?The topic just changed, I thought its all about her son calling her fat and her getting hurt because of the truth.

"Can you imagine a kid asking just for sugary cereals for 2 meals to be skinny?"?? When did that happen?Again, I thought it was all about your kid calling you fat as you start your post with.And its not "skinny", its HEALTHY for god sake!! Do Indians still believe FAT IS HEALTHY or what???

"Anyone who has tasted Special K would tell you that its like sugary wood shavings. And to be on a cereal diet is the worst thing one can do to their body. Eating right and exercising is the best way to leading a healthy life."

Now, I have not tasted Special K or whatever, but if you don't like it, don't buy it anymore, why cry about the Ad?I mean, its pure marketing.No, what am I arguing!! What were we discussing?What is going on here!! Are you not satisfied with the product or fuming over the fact that your kid called you fat or are you not happy with Fast food chains?Whats going on,,,someone plz??

"Once the ad finished I spoke to my son and told him that not everything that is seen on TV is the truth. And that having a fat or skinny mother doesn't make the child happy, what makes a child happy is having a mommy who loves him."

Yes, but when did he say that he doesn't like you as a mom?whats wrong with you ladyyy!!!Are you just insecure about your looks?

I am sorry, I couldn't just control my feelings there.:(

"And that if I ever heard him say those words to anyone I would personally come and teach him the meaning of respect."

"Respect"? I am really crying now. He was just being Candid!! You are not not going to teach him any respect, you are gonna teach him to be politically right and at his age, plzzzz..we prefer kids being candid than being politically right.

IHM, You are a mother right? Am I gonna be a bad father? or plz tell me you agree with me!!:)

"He looked at me with big saucer eyes and asked 'Why?"

Like Duh!!! Anyone would!!!

"I replied that it was the meanest and most hurtful thing to say and he wasn't a mean boy."

Hmmm...Now I know, she's just pissed that her son called her fat.But truth issss bitter.Lets face it. Go gyming instead of cribbing about it.phew!

"His mind switched gears when he realized his mother was done lecturing and asked if he could go out and play. I nodded absentmindedly, still upset about the kind of bogeymen we were letting into our homes via kiddie channels."

Lady, you have no idea what you are blabbering.

I really want to know the other side too.If someone feels the way, the lady above does, please explain it to me too. I really wana know.

WOMEN WHO KNOW THEIR PLACE

2009-02-21T01:02:00.000-08:00

Recently, I read this somewhere and liked it so much that I have decided to put it as a post.

Barbara Walters, of Television's 20/20, did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted that women customarily walked five paces behind their husbands.

She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands. From Ms. Walters' vantage point, despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to walk even further back behind their husbands, and are happy to maintain the old custom.

Ms. Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, 'Why do you now seem happy with an old custom that you once tried so desperately to change?'

The woman looked Miss Walters straight in the eyes, and without hesitation said, 'Land Mines.'

Moral of the story is (no matter what language you speak and where you go):

BEHIND EVERY MAN, THERE'S A SMART WOMAN

Audacity - GD Birla

2009-02-06T16:15:00.000-08:00

I was reading a Book which mentions about GD Birla, I was so impressed with some of the facts that I decided I should put it up here in my Blog as a free service to those who are going to read it :-). Its Quite important that we know our hitsory and those who made it worth reading it, and it need not be about freedom fighters all the time. Industrialists have played a vital role in India's Growth from the very beginning.One such group is Birlas who have contributed to India's wealth since pre-independence era.

It might be a dull post, I have tried to make it as short as possible, and have tried to strike a balance between the length of the post and the information it delivers, to make it as readable as possible.

My words in purple

Collected content in red

Quoted words in blue

GD Birla,

Born: April 10, 1894

Achievement:

Laid the foundations of the Birla Empire;

founder of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) ( you guys knew this?).

Upbringing :-

Ghanshyamdas Birla came from a small village called 'pilani' in Rajasthan. His grand father Shiv Narain Birla made huge fortunes selling cotton to British at the the time of American Civil war in late 19th century.

GD Birla's school in village has no books and classes were help in open air.At 9, he was sent to a school in Calcutta and a private tutor was engaged to improve his English.

At 14, he returned to pillani to get married, and a year later he had a son ( whaaattt?? ).

Rise of the industrialist :-

The Birlas specialised in Opium futures, they exported opium to China in return for silver. At 16, he set himself up as an independent Jute trader. With the coming of 1st world war, he made a handsome fortune and so did the others in his family. By the time war ended, their fortune quadrupled to $4 million (80 Years down the line, i wonder if i can earn that much in INR also).

Impressive Struggle :-

After the war, GD wanted to set up his Jute factory, with the wartime profits.It wasnt easy to break the stronghold of scottish monopoly in Jute industry. Everytime, GD brought some land to start the factory, the Scotts brought the land around it and denied him access to the road.He finally managed to quitely buy a land along the hoogly river, but transport charges, specially river traffic were raised in an attempt to stop Indian intrusion into what had been a British Preserve. Under the influence of Scotts, Imperial bank charged him high interest rates for his loan for the machinery.

Next, the monopolists persuaded the machine makers in Britain to quote prohibitely high prices for machine, the cost of Jute factory balloned and the project became unviable.In despair he almost gave up. He agreed to sell the factory to Andrew Yule, his largest competitor. When GD walked into Yule's office, the Scottish manger chided himi for having the audacity to start a Jute mill. Stung, GD instantly withdrew his offer and decided to go ahead with the project (Thats the definition of 'confidence').

The rest is all history and he succeeded beyond everyone's expectations, Infact he brought over Andrew Yule's cotton (not jute though) mill 3 years down the line when Yule's mill desperately needed cash to pay its debts.

The second world war was another stimulus to the growth of Birlas and by the time the British decided to leave India, Birlas were worth $100 million (Phew!).

GD became the largest supporter of Congress freedom movement and a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi.They wrote to each other almost daily. Their correspondence now runs into 4 volumes, each of approx 500 pages (Can you beat it? I wont write half of that much to my gfs put together in next 7 lifes).

Lord Wavell, viceroy in forties once wrote

"I think, Queen Mary would find GD Birla better company than J.R.D Tata if she wishes to invite one of them to lunch.Tata is a pleasant enough fellow to meet, but I have not found him communicative, and as a casual acquaintance he is much the same way as any other wealthy young man who has had a conventional type of education. Birla has plenty to say, and whatever one may think of Marwari Businessmen and their ways, he is well worth talking to. I think Queen Mary would have a very dull lunch with Tata and quite an intesrting one with Birla."

A letter to the Prime Minister's Office, dated April 20, 1953, reveals the frustrations he faced post-independence.

"We have received proposals from Britain for manufacturing explosive substances and from Germany for starting a steel factory in collaboration. I am now 60 and am least interested in starting some new business merely for more money. My only interest is greater production in the country. I just want to know whether I can proceed in the matter. I want no commitment from the government but only want to know the policy of the government in such matters,"

GD wailed. There was no reply.

In the twilight of his life, when asked about his achievements, GD gave a profoundly simple answer.

"A good guy, that's all I've tried to be all these years. Forget G.D. Birla,"

he said in his last interview. But he was an unforgettable man.

Contents are taken from the book 'India Unbound' and internet ofcourse!