Memory overflow dump

How to Fund a Project

2009-11-24T23:55:00.001-08:00

A project can be funded in the following ways

Debt - An amount owed to a person or organization for funds borrowed. Debt can be represented by a loan note, bond, mortgage or other form stating repayment terms and, if applicable, interest requirements. These different forms all imply intent to pay back an amount owed by a specific date, which is set forth in the repayment terms.
Permanent Financing - Develop long fixed assets like factories and machinery. Since the payoff from a long-term asset tends to be over a period of time, financing through long-term options reduce the risk of principal payoff not being made (in the case of debt financing).

owner financing - A home-financing technique in which buyer borrows from the seller instead of, or in addition to, a bank. Sometimes done when a buyer cannot qualify for a bankloan for the full amount. also called seller financing or purchase-money mortgage.
asset financing - Financing for which assets are converted into working cash in exchange for a security interest in those assets. The most common kind of asset financing is to extend loans against accounts receivable, but other kinds of asset financing, such as lending against inventories, is becoming more common.
internal financing - Funds produced from a business' operations, as opposed to external financing, such as the issuance of debt or equity.
institutional financing - Financing provided by an institution, as opposed to retail investors.
permanent financing - Long-term debt or equity financing. In general, permanent financing is used to purchase or develop long-term fixed assets like factories and machinery. Since the payoff from a long-term asset tends to be over a period of time, financing through long-term options reduce the risk of principal payoff not being made (in the case of debt financing).
interim financing - Short-term financing issued in anticipation of longer-term financing. also called interim borrowing.
owner financing - A home-financing technique in which buyer borrows from the seller instead of, or in addition to, a bank. Sometimes done when a buyer cannot qualify for a bank loan for the full amount. also called seller financing or purchase-money mortgage.
asset financing
- Financing for which assets are converted into working cash in exchange for a security interest in those assets. The most common kind of asset financing is to extend loans against accounts receivable, but other kinds of asset financing, such as lending against inventories, is becoming more common.
internal financing - Funds produced from a business' operations, as opposed to external financing, such as the issuance of debt or equity.
accounts receivable financing
- The selling of a company's accounts receivable, at a discount, to a factor, who then assumes the risk of the account debtors and receives cash as the debtors settle their accounts. A firm that sells its accounts receivable may not be confident of its ability to collect those debts, or might think that the cost of collecting that debt is more than the discount which must be provided to the factor when of selling their receivables. also called accounts receivable financing.
back door financing - When a government agency borrows from the U.S. Treasury instead of relying on congressional appropriations.
bridge loan - Short-term financing which is expected to be paid back relatively quickly, such as by a subsequent longer-term loan. also called swing loan or bridge financing.
broker loan - Money lent to brokers by banks, for financing the underwriting of new issues, financing customer margin
accounts, and other purposes.
discount loan - A loan on which the interest and financing charges are deducted from the face amount when the loan is issued.
equity financing - Financing by selling common stock or preferred stock to investors.
external financing
- Financing through the issuance of debt or equity. also called outside financing. opposite of internal financing.
inventory financing - A loan made to a manufacturer using its inventory as collateral. Inventory financing is often used by manufacturers of consumer products, for whom inventory tends to form a significant percentage of assets.
outside financing - Financing through the issuance of debt or equity. also called outside financing. opposite of internal financing.
mezzanine financing - Late-stage venture capital, usually the final round of financing prior to an IPO.
refinancing
- Paying off an existing loan with the proceeds from a new loan, usually of the same size, and using the same property as collateral. In order to decide whether this is worthwhile, the savings in interest must be weighed against the fees associated with refinancing. The difficult part of this calculation is predicting how much the up-front money would be worth when the savings are received. Other reasons to refinance include reducing the term of a longer mortgage, or switching between a fixed-rate and an adjustable-rate mortgage. If there are prepayment fees attached to the existing mortgage, refinancing becomes less favorable because of the increased cost to the borrower at the time of the refinancing.
off-balance-sheet financing - Financing from sources other than debt and equity offerings, such as joint ventures, R&D partnerships, and operating leases.
direct financing
- Financing without the use of underwriting.
round of funding - The stage of financing a start-up company is in. The usual progression is from startup to first round to mezzanine to pre-IPO.
staple financing - A financing package provided to potential buyers of a company by the investment bank advising the selling company. By providing information regarding the financing structure, including price and fees, investment banks increase the odds of a deal going through. It is referred to as "staple" financing because the options are said to be stapled to the back of the acquisition terms. Conflicts with staple financing can arise if the investment
bank advising the seller also provides the financing for the buying firm.

Google Wave

2009-11-11T12:34:00.001-08:00

Google wave announces itself big today. It gave invites to all the users and we will see its population multiply many times in the next few days. So its sure that google is creating waves. Now is the big question for all small business owners. What can the wave do for us. How can it be utilized in creating that little competitive edge, to add the little zing to our businesses.

For one don't expect to change anything drastically. At least for now till we have paid applications coming in.

I was thinking it to experiment it for doing client / opportunity management by the sales team. Multiple team members of the sales team can have a client specific wave. The marketing people can update all client communication on the wave. And then a team discussion could be had with the wave running.

I am not able to think of anything else where wave would be able to do what IM and Email don't do well enough right now. Would love any comments with any ideas links on this.

Reading.

2009-11-09T09:01:00.000-08:00

Books I am reading these days

1. Catch 22

2. Freakonomics (had read it few years back)

3. Managing for Results - Peter Drucker

Recently Read

1. Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

2. Good to great - Jim Collins

3. Getting Things Done - David Allen

4. Execution - Ram Charan

can't remember more. Will update as and when I remember.

Focus

2008-11-17T22:16:00.001-08:00

About balancing customers. Focus on existing areas of profit. Some times we tend to lose focus on which areas are generating money for us and which areas are not. 80-20 rule is very much applicable here. 80 percent of your sales and profits come from 20 percent of your customers. It is really important to focus on this 20 percent and give them the due time and representation. Running after the other 80 percent is important but not at a cost where there is a possibility of losing this existing 20 percent. And how often do we find our self just taking this 20 percent of regular customers as a granted thing and tend to lose focus.

The same focus principle holds true for life as well. 80 percent of one's success, mental satisfaction and peace comes from a mere 20 percent of the total activities. Its important to identify these 20 percent and be able to hold on to them. In general the things we do in our daily activities sometimes these 20 percent are the most ignored because we never focus on things going right. Instead the stress is always on things going wrong.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

2008-11-11T08:13:00.001-08:00

The gull sees farthest who flies highest

-Richard Bach

The Buzinezz

2008-10-13T18:27:00.001-07:00

Since I joined the business I have found it really difficult to actually discuss my work, the exact work with others, specially friends. Not that it is shady or anything but really difficult to explain.

A friend of mine was tagging me for a day a few days back just to get the feel of how marketing in a medium scale Indian company looks like. I promised him a really different day and boy did he have one. I could imagine my first few days after fidelity as a software engineer of working here. It is different in so many aspects that it actually feels odd to classify both as work for someone with same qualification and credentials. That's the beauty of engineering isn't it, that you are essentially good for nothing so can do anything.

Coming back to day I actually was more conscience about the overall actions, the kind of consciousness when someone is observing you. A few things which have become such an integral part of daily work life here, which I had been doing without even realizing were suddenly evident to me.

We went to a government office. At the entry there is a police team who greeted us with open hands. Why would they do that? I could clearly remember me asking my self the same question when I had first visited that office. Its just that you are their guests when you enter that office and the will offer you complete courtesy to ensure you are comfortable filling up the visitors form and you get the entry gate pass in a matter of seconds. Reason. Well once you are inside you are theirs. Exit pass (unofficial) is only available in exchange of a Rs. 50 note.

We had a letter with us which we had to submit in the office. All it needs is a stamp from the postal department there stating they have received that letter. Stamping fee another Rs 100. No master card allowed. The Gandhian option. Wait for 2 hours for the guy to finish his tea, coffee gup and shupp and then may be if he is not about to plunge into his skiing holiday dream he might stamp it.

Outside the chairman's office. Peon's fees. Rs 20 for 1 hr wait. Rs. 100 for 10 minutes break. For Rs. 150 the lowest rank peon in the office has full rights to barge into the chariman's office, interrupt whatever meeting is going on, place our card on his table and stand in front of him to ensure we meet him in the next 5 minutes. This is true for every damn government office in the country.

Overall I paid Rs. 2 Lac as government unofficial tax on that day and wouldn't even have realized it but for that conciseness.

Why would someone do such work? I had asked this question over and over again. The system is such. You either become a part of it or perish. It is not survival of the fittest. Its in the literal sense paisa fek, tamasha dekh. The overall system has evolved in such a way that it ensures value for everyone. That's the sad but very much true state of things.

There is just too much content to write on this subject. Will continue on this post soon...

MBA FMB @ SPJIMR

2008-10-09T12:49:00.001-07:00

Recently took up this course at SP Jain Institute of Management, Mumbai in Family Managed Business (FMB). After a couple of years of working in the family business this course did seem like the right option. All the alumni I managed to spoke to also gave a big thumbs up to go for the course.

Now I am one contact old into this program and can say a few things about it.

What could be gained?

Contacts: I always that that this would be the last thing I would ever require. That surely proved to be really wrong. The kind of people you meet here, the varied businesses you get to hear about and more importantly you get to meet same aged people doing your kind of work which is a rarity. I've hardly had a friend before joining with whom I could actually discuss work with both being able to relate to it.

Faculty: So far so good. Few of them seem to be brilliant. Knowing them is a good long term asset and will defiantly have short term benefits like knowledge sharing and business consulting.

Facilities are good. Have to be there once a week. Attend classes from morning 8 to evening 7 30. Accompanied by loads of semi sensible assignments for the rest of the three weeks back home. I have spent too less a time there to be commenting confidently on these details. Will update.

Balance

2008-10-09T12:19:00.001-07:00

What is the correct balance. So many variables weighted against each other. Some day will have the perfect answer to it.

intellectual epitome

2008-06-09T09:55:00.000-07:00

Moral policing in our country is in its all time classical high. They finally have their hands on Savita Bhabhi (Pun intended). Savita Bhabhi is an excellent creation satisfying the biggest Indian male fantasy of hot Bhabhi (elder sister in law). Here's a message by the team.

Its a website which serializes the sexcapades of a fictitious cartoon character called Savita Bhabhi a true custom creation for the Indian male fantasies. Well that sure was appealing as a business idea until moral policing got to them. Some one probably complained that why is she not a gujjar. Scope for creativity is insane. when the bra salesman goes ”Thank You, Thank You, Thank You GOD!” Damn I need to change the topic.

Ah. What next. I think its time to switch business i guess. Research sounds like a good option. How about A stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown. "Assuming that the female is naturally endowed to supply the vertical force V, the problem is still left incomplete unless an analysis is made of the structures supplying this force. These structures are of the nature of cantilever beams." Feels like I missed something in the short time I spent slogging in my dingy office. It seems we are headed towards intellectual epitome.

It feels good to be back though...

help!!!

2008-03-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

a blog a day keeps the doctor away. I am on the brink of hospitalization.

The African IPOD

2007-08-26T21:42:00.001-07:00

Interesting but kind of sad.

Scott Adams on Career

2007-08-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:

1. Become the best at one specific thing.
2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.

The first strategy is difficult to the point of near impossibility. Few people will ever play in the NBA or make a platinum album. I don’t recommend anyone even try.

The second strategy is fairly easy...

-Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert,

Fighting the China Stratergy

2007-06-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

In business there is only one fundamental question - How to make money? But there are two fundamental answers to it.

First would be take a rupee from a lac customers and you have one lac. This is the China Strategy. The Americans will swear that it never works and its just pure fluke that Chinese have been able to sustain if for this long.

Other is just the opposite. Make Rs. 100 from 1000 customers and you are there. Which one should you or your business choose? That’s the question all the small businesses of the world are trying to answer.

If I was asked to put my money on one of the two I would choose the latter. It is the correct way with better returns in the long run. And it applies to any business, ranging small shop, or a wada pao vendor, to the largest of the large corporations.

Reason. Simple math. It generates more revenue per sale. In a little more detail - how much ever hard you work or how much ever efficient a system you create ultimately there will be a fixed cost per sale. Cost includes time spent on the sale. This will bottleneck the revenue after a while. Initially the low price model will look very attractive as it generates instant sales and the turnover shoots but sustainability is a serious doubt.

More margins per sale don’t necessarily mean that it should be some kind of an up-market product. It could be a regular middle class product selling probably half the number of your low priced competitor but delivering quality to the customer and higher revenues for the business.

Few of the most regular successful products today will tell you the same story. Be it Microsoft Windows or an iPod or even a Pizza Hut Pizza or a regular Barista coffee. They have huge margins, targets the huge customer base of upper middle class, and are way ahead of their half price competitors.

An excellent article here about fighting the China Strategy.

Dissected

2007-06-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

There are pictures here which are gross. They are painful to watch. If you have a week heart kindly refrain from clicking here. They are dissecting a baby part by part. Its worse than Texas Chainsaw - II. Its an iPhone being disassembled hours after its release.

(link) - http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3026

Where is our race headed?

Test

2007-06-16T01:05:00.000-07:00

Test Post

The Timepass Theory

2007-05-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

Finished reading this book "It happened in India". It covers the professional life of Mr. Kishore Biyani, the big bazaar tycoon. He gave one of my psycho thoughts a name - The Timepass Theory. Somehow I have believed in this alternate interpretation of life for quite some time, knowing very well that one has to be some kind of a lunatic jerk to have such thoughts. Hearing it from someone else that too in his biography came as some kind of relief. Enough to make me post about it.

I interpret life very differently and I have this belief that we all come to this world to kill time. Therefore, we pick up some activity that we like doing and call it our profession. I call this the Time Pass theory.

I work to build a business, an organization. But what I am essentially doing is trying to spend the time I have in this lifetime. Every morning, I get busy getting ready to leave for work or some meeting. I am doing it not because I have to do it. I am doing it because I will not have much else to do through the day.

Through this work-life of ours, we tend to create our own world. We make our own definitions of success and failure, of victories and defeats. And we use these not only to judge our own selves, but also to judge others, without ever realizing that all we are doing is basically digging holes and filling them up. Yet I have seen so many people take their life too seriously, not realizing that what they are essentially doing in this world is time pass.

(Kishore Biyani is the CEO, Future Group and author of
It Happened in India)

How the hell did he motivate himself to achieve those monumental feats with such negative thinking?

Tagged

2006-12-28T02:33:00.000-08:00

Yeah tagged. And this is not one of those blog tags which you have to reply to. I had a tag put on me today. A price tag. Have left all my work and decided to post after the long blogging vacation.

Today my dad got the first marriage proposal for me. A day to celebrate for me ;). Dad called me to his office and casually told me "rista aaya hai". I was dumb stuck for a while just trying to make sense out of those words. Is it for me? Is he joking? Nah can't be me? He wouldn't be telling me so seriously about it. May be cousin sis? May be. Hopefully. "Kya". "Tumhare Liye, Noida ki koi industrialist ki beti hai". Phew it is for me. Why is he telling me this. Isn't it obviously no even without consulting me. What the hell is happening. "Bulwa diya hai ki abhi thoda time hai shaadi me". Thanks goodness gracious. That was one awkward moment to forget.

Yeah after that moment passed I asked my dad that how and how in the bloody world did they know that I even existed and how did they approach us.

"Kuch nahi manoj jee aaye thee aaj.Direct bole aapke ladke ke liye pooch rahe the gupta jee apnee beti ke liye. 75 se 1 tak ka offer hai."

Difficult to believe right. This happend to me in a space of 2 minutes. Even I wouldn't have believed it before. They formally call it ARRANGED.

A moment of Eureka!

2006-10-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

If there is a problem then there is a solution. It totally depends on how much time one is willing to devote to it. Depending on the comlexity of the problem the solution could take ages to strike. And at the end of it all it takes is that one moment of intense thoughts warfare, not controlled, which results in that ingenious solution which you always believed was there. What follows is a feeling of excitement, a feeling of stupidy of not having solved it earlier and above all the joy of success.

Its 3 A.M in the morning and I am nerd enough to have these thoughts. I have been thinking about blogging on this subject for a while now. And one small experience finally provoked me into documenting this at this hour. I had a work related problem irritating me for a couple of days now. It had reached a point where somewhere in my subconscious I had assumed that there is no solution to it and I would have to start over again and find ways around it(the usual give up tendency). I sat in front of my comp at around 11 PM today and worked another hour without any success towards it. Frustrated I decided to lay off and started my usual Internet chores mails, orkut and messenger bla bla. A continuous thread of thoughts were still hovering around that problem without any concience effort of doing that. Somewhere in the middle of all this there was this spark, a feeling, which made my adrenalin rushing, heart pumping. A sudden sense of excitement gripped me. And the best part was I had no idea why was this happening. Some intution told me that I had found the solution. Did I? If I did then how? What was it? All these quesitons still unanswered. Careful cogitation revealed that the back of the head processing had actually come up with a solution to the seemingly impossible problem. It took me about 5 minutes to relax myself and collect my thoughts and "BANG" the solution was there. I had no idea from where. It felt like it was always there right in front of me and I always turned a blind eye towards it. How could it be so simple. There has to be something wrong. How could it be so perfect. Well it was, it had to be, its right there in front of my eyes.

All that was an hour ago. The solution as it turned out was flawless and unbelievably simple mocking me on the face for not having seen it for so long. That moment was a small insight for me to the feeling of Eureka. When after years of probing into a question people finally find answers to something that they been trying to figure out for ever.

Simon Singh in his Code Book cites many examples of how the code breakers never say die attitude helped them achieve the impossible. Outcome of World War I was changed because of one such dedicated cryptographer.

Einstein always believed that his wave theory was correct even if it meant proving centuries of study by millions of scholars wrong.

Its like a poet fighting hours together to get that one word right. Nothing but perfection satisfies him. Achiving that perfection is his problem. His fight is to find a solution to it. One could call it his profession, they might beg to differ though.

Just for this moment I would like to believe Impossible Is Nothing. A cliched sentence which has been used just too many times with too many contexts.

The Indian problem

2006-09-07T06:33:00.002-07:00

Technological update..argh kind of

Doctors and engineers have developed this amazing artificial heart which could completely replace a human heart in case of total failure. It even has a battery backup of 2 hours, after which you will have to plug the chord coming out from your heart into some terminal to recharge.

They forgot to consider the Indians I guess. What happens in case of power cuts. The agonizingly long ones that too lasting 6-10 hours during regular shortage and no limit during crisis. Now what?

When in India, do the Indians. Get a inverter to back it up. Get a generator to back up the invertor. And in order to keep the heart up and pumping keep the generator's tank up and pumping. And what's so funny in that. Every one knows that increase in fuel prices increases our living expense. That's how our other energy needs are satisfied anyway.

Hiccup ja ja ja

2006-09-04T03:20:00.000-07:00

Had this hiccup syndrome a couple of days back. It went on for more than 24 continuous hours, prompting me to do a Google search on it. That says something about the dependency on Google we have these days.

The search turned out to more interesting than I imagined. Below are a few details

World record

The world record for the longest continuous bout of hiccups (1922–1990) goes to Charles Osborne (1894–1991) from Anthon, Iowa. The hiccups started in 1922 at a rate of 40 times per minute, slowing to 20 and eventually stopping in February 1990 – a total of 68 years. [3]

The poor guy died a year after his hiccup stopped. The next few links revealed a few useful remedies .

Jump out of a plane.

Breathe slowly into your shirt.

Take a finger full of hair from the crown of your head and as hard as you can stand (though not hard enough to pull the hair out) for 10 seconds.

Say "pineapple."

Stand on your head.

Make yourself vomit.

Talk non-stop for ten seconds.

Scream for as long as you can.

(Women:) Stimulate your clitoris.

Fart.

Burp

ok enough here's the link

And the winner is

Cure number one: Do a Google search on hiccup.

Time to switch

2006-08-22T23:17:00.000-07:00

Rude India..

2006-08-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

Had a weird encounter today. Got elbowed by someone while getting into a metro train. Generally its such a common thing that the brain doesn't even bothers to inform me about it. But this time it did, so there had to be something wrong. Looked back and saw a Foreigner elbowing everyone around and shouting "you Indians are dogs? That's how you should be treated." We got in, the train started and he continued with his blabber.

A group of boys started taking his trip the typical dilli style, asking him single or double worded questions in English and them a truck load of Hindi swear words and laughing away to glory.

Sensing a joke on himself he replied, "You are dogs, you need to just piss off"

This went on for some 5 minutes before even he was added to the ignore list of everyone around. (Typically Indian).

I finally asked him, "You mad or what? What's your name?"

"John" (name not changed)

I asked, "what the fuck is your problem?". Before he could start answering back a college girl standing next to me barged in "Dude you can't go around shitting all over the place the way you are. You are freaking blah blah"

His reply. "Sorry I didn't get you. You Indians are the rudest people in the world."

She said, "you are a gone case". Another hunk joined, "You have the balls to say that in public. You know where you are standing"

The discussion got really heated up thereafter, so ignoring the details.

"I am a traveler. I travel the world. This is the 24th country I am visiting. Haven't seen people ruder than this. Do you read Reader's Digest? You have to start reading a little. Its report says that Indians are the rudest in the world. Have you ever heard the word excuse me here. People just push. In the queue for metro, 4 people jumped in front of me. The smartest brains in the world behaving like this. Pity. You guys live like dogs. Day before someone stole my passport. Just took it out of my pocket. The metro police found it today on the tracks. I missed my flight because of that. I am stuck here in this shitty place. When I went to the police station I saw a guy being beaten up with sticks. Even dogs are treated better. Siting examples of Bill Gates and Microsoft in garbled English"

All this happened by way of a heated conversation. He got a good lesson about his country with cash rich filthy people never in their lives having to think about earning a daily bread. How racist they were. He had no business being here and stuff. But all that is off topic.

He had made his point. True ones as well.

Funny moments: One good point by the hunk, "why are you are obsessed with dogs. It is the same animal you guys make porn movies with". Such a statement in public. Priceless.

Aunties around discussing. Aunty 1: "Usne pata hai Indians ko dog keh diya". Aunty 2: "Han main bhi sun rahi thee, accent wali bhi samajh aa jati hai." Making this one up but something very similar was happening all around.

Everyone suddenly had an accent while talking to him. Most sentences with more accent than rammer.

MP's salary hike

2006-08-20T01:16:00.000-07:00

How cool is to be a MP. Today is their appraisal day. Yes they get a salary hike. Based on what. Hmm..lets see.

A lot of factors have to be considered obviously. With their limited salary they have to manage their household for one full month. And with the increasing fuel prices, attrition, house/land prices, they better get a good hike. Who cares if roti, kapda aur makan are free and nothing but free for them.

Wish all companies were like this. Instead of those illogical meetings just to decide how many pennies are going to be added to your salary one should get to appraise himself. One can argue that, who knows me better than me, so it should be me should be appraising me. Wishful thinking. What possibly could my manager know about me, that I don't. That's how the MP's work at least. No fighting, no arguing about this in the parliament. No absentees either.

Here's the link

Great Gate Grash

2006-08-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

Disney's latest flick Cars has inspired one and all. It shows cars coming alive on screen, something on the lines of toystory.

Well we have to agree we are a bit harsh on them. Parking in harsh summer sun with sunlight only allowed to enter, to rough rides through our roads.

Fed up with all this my car decided to revolt. The other day I forgot to put the hand breaks and sensing its moment my car decided to make a dash for its freedom.

It started rolling backwards, ramming my latched gate open on its way, and then hitting the fencing outside. The twelve inch fencing was partially broken. And all this after I had locked it and entered the house.

When will a movie come inspiring me this much?

Photos of the same

1. Gate which was latched and the space where car was parked.

2. The discovery of the broken wall next morning, providing my neighbours enough gossip massala for a day.

What happend to the car butt? It had to pay a price for the car's outragious, stupid adventure trip.

Imagine two aunty cars having a discussion in a car park. Car A, check out that silver bitch, calls itself Merc, total snob, who the hell she thinks she is. Car B, oh don’t worry about her, I saw her today morning at my garage, with a pipe shoved down her ass checking for her gas quality in full public view. I don’t think she will have the ball bearings to act over smart again.

Warning: Last Paragraph is not to be read.

Windows Live Writer

2006-08-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

Windows Live Writer is here. More advanced than any web logging tool that I have seen so far. The interface is kick ass and integrates perfectly with most blogging sites.

Only catch I could see in the first few minutes of using it was that its typical Microsoft. And if you are not a Microsoft fan this will be noticeable. It has a toolbar for IE only and the default blogging site is windows live.

But overall a great tool.

Update: Found the first bug. A post saying this is a temporary post, delete it if not deleted appears on your blog if you try to download the template.

Also takes a lot of memory. Took about 60 MB of my memory the first time it was open after loading and close to 30 thereafter. Thats a lot of space and a preview of the to be launched vista world.

U2: Doesn't support direct photo upload. It has to be through some FTP host.

Here it is.

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (snob snob)

2006-08-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

How do you make a movie? If you think it’s a difficult equation, trust me it is. Ask Karan Johar how complex it could get at times? But also ask him how he handles this complicated art.
His reply. “Oh come on”. Have good celebrity friends, especially few hot ones who make good sahelies. Have a dad who can throw money. Then take the most important thing in an Indian’s life, his relationships, magnify it by a factor of infinity and make a movie.
Nice Mr. Johar, so what about the story?
What? Story, ah story. Well it’s the easiest job.
Ok so what was the inspiration behind the story of KANK(kabhi alvida naa kehna). Well it’s my chemistry teacher. Whenever she used to do equations in school all I could think of was how this convert into a movie. And one night I came up with this brilliant and simple idea. All you need to do is replace those chemical names with few film stars. Movie tayiyaar.
That’s how KANK looks like. Confused, agonizingly long, pathetic story, and no bathtub scenes for Sharukh. And the movie will scream at you for three and a half hours, KABHI ALVIDA NA KEHNA MERE KO.
Oh how could I forget the opening scene. Sharukh Khan is a budding football star, playing some champions league finals and with 2 minutes to go in a tied encounter, tackles as the last defender, takes the ball all the way cutting across 12, no actually 13 people on his way, with stopovers and back flicks, no headbutts, and scores a goal typical Karan Johar way.

Birthday - A lost charm

2006-08-10T23:16:00.000-07:00

Still remember those childhood birthdays when the anticipation and the wait for the day used to start months before the actual day. The only regret I had then was why does it come only once a year. Why can't we have more of such days. A day when you were made to feel special. Happy birthday song in front of the entire class followed by toffee distribution. Day's preparation decorating the house, balloons, ribbons, caps, cake what not. Friends and relatives all there because its your birthday. And most importantly all carrying that shining packet. Eyes used to remain glued to them trying to find the biggest of them all. The excitement used to late into the night after all the unwrapping of the gifts is done. Then the early experience of a hangover used to start. The day after used to be only that. When the realization sets in that the day has passed and it will take forever for it to come again.

One more thing that used to happen on these days was a feeling of having grown up used to set in. Those days when you are 10 a 11 sounds grown up and it used to take just one night to tick over. Next day onwards I could proudly pronounce myself 11 in front of my 10 year old classmates and friends whose birthdays were still a month or so away.

Things have changed so much now. Am 22 and can't see anything positive coming out of the birthday. In fact dreading that will be 23 after the day passes. I always wanted to grow up fast but now its probably one of those phases of life when you just want to stop. I guess all birthdays hereafter will remind me that I am not getting any younger. And the same friends who used to regret being 10 then can come and mock me.

Don't Waste Timepass

2006-08-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

Here is an article about how self discipline and will power helps in getting better grades. This made me think of my college days. During exam times my room, in fact my entire corridor used to be a converted meditation camp. Nothing could distract us and get us away from our books.
Except the 2-3 hours spent on playing counterstrike on all exam days including the nights before the exam. It helped us in ensuring good efficiency during our study hours.
Except the 1 hour spent at the night canteen. All our discussions here used to revolve only around non-exam topics. This helped us improve the logical thinking part.
Except the long sessions of time-pass or better known as gand ka khel (gk2). Our exam time motto used to be “Don’t Waste Timepass”. This ensured a repository of positive energy, much desired during exam time.
Except the long hours of football. Played in a huge group, ensured about one touch per hour, and time well spent.
Except the extended mess table discussions, the renewed interest in “F.R.I.E.N.D.S”.
And last and the best of the lot is the minimum 8-10 hours spent sleeping.
We were really serious about our exams.

Happiness Quotient

2006-08-09T02:49:00.000-07:00

What exactly is happiness? Who exactly are happy? Can we measure it?
An excellent article by JUDY STOFFMAN of Toronto Star should be able to answer these.
Its a point in my case that happiness is a relative thing. And it is best consumed in small frequent packets rather than big one time doses.

People would would swear before a big final that they would be the happiest guy living if their team, club could win the big cup. And if the team actually does win the excitement, the satisfaction and the joy extracted out of that victory is just short lived, sometimes not even lasting a couple of days.
Make sure to grab all opportunities yielding happiness, however small they might be.
More reading.

Chowki Dhani

2006-08-07T12:39:00.000-07:00

Speed thrills so who the hell cares if it kills. I would have sworn by this yesterday after an impulsive rush of blood to the rusting nerve endings of our brains made us take this decision. It read “LETS GO TO JAIPUR FOR DINNER AND COME BACK” at 5:30 PM.
Spontaneity is one of the biggest sources of adrenalin, total lack of which could lead to a super dead lifestyle and boredom in even the best and coolest of things. For example, however good the destination might be, a trip cannot be enjoyable until a few things are left to the on the spot last minute decision making and some risks taken. Especially with the dead corporate culture where one look into the outlook calendar could tell one, his marriage-date, lose-virginity-date/time (if at all) even sending a 15 minutes prior reminder, it becomes an everyday battle to find little outlets to fool the outlook.
None of this had crossed my mind when I took that decision to drive down 260Kms one way for a dinner. A fast car, bottle of absolute Vodka, loaded IPOD, a good music system, a flat never ending stretch of road, a good dinner and good company is a combination made in heaven. What more incentive do three freaky minds need. Before today the thought of driving after getting high used to scare me, and here we were stretching the car to 190Kmph at one point of time in that intoxicated state. Reached the place by about 11, had dinner and back to Delhi by about 4:30 AM. Have done such things before but a few personal craziness records were broken. What next? Wish someone knew.

PS: Chowki Dhani is where we had our dinner. It’s a group of ethnic village resorts, water park and entertainment oriented cultural site. The pakage of 225 includes a visit to the entire site which has camel/elephant rides, traditional dance, snake charmers, palm reading, Hukka, the ice chuski and lots more with a Rajasthani style meal which is out of the world. A must visit in Jaipur.

La Mala educación

2006-08-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

My driver asks me

yeh suraj ek din prithvi se ek haat ki duri pe hoga. Us din sab khatam ho jayega. Par aap daro nahi abhi kafi time hai.

Jahan sare samundar ja ke milte hai wahan kya hota hai.

Kya prithvi sahi mein gol hoti hai.

Other day his daughter in KG got 28½/30 in Math and he was carrying the answer sheet all day in his pocket showing it to everyone and asking “hamari bitiya bahut padegi na”

Such simplicity is sometimes unbelievable.

He sometimes makes me wonder that we complicating an already complicated world. I with my “educated” mind, can never feel satisfied with these small things in the world out of which few people can extract tons of happiness.

What is this entire existence all about? About staying happy, enjoying whatever this life has to offer. And in an attempt to achieve this we struggle all our lives.

Get into a good school where nothing less than first position is considered respectable.

Slog your ass off to get into a college, which is nothing less than torture. Go through the entire course.

The above product is something like this-a well educated guy with a graduate degree. Educated enough to get a so called good job, with a so called good company.

End product. May be a MBA. Own Car. Own house. Own everything. But a happier driver.

Why because he has this corruption to his mind which teaches him how others have struggled to attain happiness and how he has to better them and nothing else will suffice.

This corruption is nothing but education effects of which are irreversible.

Just a thought.

PS: La Mala educación - means The Bad Education in spanish. Its also a very popular movie.

We don't need no Super Man

2006-07-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

Finally watched the long pending superman. The IMAX plus 3D combination was just about able to compensate for the endless predictable storyline and the super expensive ticket.

Ever wondered why does the super man always operate during the US night time covering only the western hemisphere. Agreed that the work load will be tremendous if he was to relieve each and every Indian from dangers. Plus the hot babe hit rate in India would be a low. But the dude seems to be missing out on big bucks here.

If superman was to operate in India.

He would have an office in Karol Bagh, New Delhi with a branch in Mumbai.

All criminals who want guaranteed protection under the superman raj have to pay a hafta there.

All ghoos accepted in cash only. The sums should include the cuts from the peon to the secretary.

He has to remain loyal to the UN so he will turn a blind eye towards Kashmir related issues as solving those could render more people jobless in UN.

He will have a quota in a select few halls in Delhi as getting tickets otherwise would be impossible even for him.

Oo chidia hai ka, na manne ko toh havai jahaj lage hai, abe u toh superman hai, krris ki copy.

Rude Delhi

2006-07-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

Readers Digest says that people in Mumbai are the most rude. Prime Minister tells the people the people in Bangalore to be move civilized on the roads. I don’t understand what wrong did Delhi do to be left behind. What I remember of Mumbai is of being the only city where people still queue up on bus stops. Average honks per minute in Bangalore is a zillion times less than that in Delhi. The shoving and pushing is the second nature of the people here. Be it for the Metro, the malls, the buses you name it.
The road rage is unbelievable. You will get honked at for maintaining the speed limit, for changing lanes or not changing lanes, going an inch per hour slower than the guy behind wants to go at or even for walking on the footpath.
It’s a fist fight when people are trying to climb the metro, even after the constant announcement asking them board and de board from their lefts.
Spitting, pissing wherever they feel like, run blades through the bus seats, picking up fights just for kicks, eve teasing, cursing is what I see all around this city. This is indeed how we Indians are. Delhi is just an amplified version of the rest of the country.

Black Friday

2006-07-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

Death is one of the harshest realities of life. You don’t realize it until it befalls some one close.
Today will go down as the blackest day for me and my college batch, as one of our friend, our brother was killed in a road accident. It was a great personal loss as well as apart from being a close friend he was my teammate, my captain, an inspiration for one and all. There are no words to express how it feels when a tragedy like this strikes. May his soul rest in peace and god bless his family and give them strength to bear this massive loss.
You will always be with us AP.

Almost the next Bill Gates.

2006-07-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

I should have filed a patent for this long back. In school days when the Lab computer used to have trouble booting the best solution was to whack it...
Whack.....and the black and blue display used to glow. Its supposedly become cutting edge now

knockAge is a Linux program for IBM and ThinkPads that lets you control your system by physically knocking on the side of it.

Only difference is the sequence is unique. Well even my Lab computer had this unique code. In fact the harder it got hit the better it responded. video at YouTube.

Now its too late to repent I guess.

Scream of the Ants

2006-07-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

Quote from Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s new film Shaere Zobale-Ha (Scream of the Ants)

The Catholics say, “Shit happens.” The Protestants say, “The other guy is responsible for the shit.” The Muslims say “The shit is the Will of Allah.” The Jews go, “Why, oh why, is all the shit falling only on us? The Buddhists reply, “But there is no shit.” And the Japanese Zen masters whisper, “Listen closely and you will hear the sound of shit falling.”

The reviews are really bad though.

Jabberwock's
mixedbag

Still dying to watch it..

Namma Bangaluru ya Saddi Dilli

2006-07-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

Namma Bangaluru Banam Saddi Dilli

Phew..Back to Delhi after 5 years of deportation. Its like an all new city for me now.

This city is hot. One just can’t miss that. The weather, the babes, you name it, the hotness quotient is way above the limits of any barometers used in Bangalore. It’s a vicious cycle it is, where increasing heat results in decreasing clothes which in turn results in more heat and heat on heat makes a HOT combination. People and the general attitude is very different. There is a much more helpful and sober breed available down south. There you don’t get stared upon by an auto rickshaw driver for asking the way. Be prepared for such experiences in Delhi.

Traffic conditions are much better in Delhi. Concepts like lane discipline, seatbelts and helmets are at least existent. Bangalore could have competed wish only if they had enough roads do drive on.

Different flavors of Hindi is back. From the Punjabi remix “assi dekh lenge paaji…O tussi tenshon na lo” to the Jat-De-Phattes “main nu kahe raha the ki us behen de takke nu kuch samajh na aave hai”. It happens only in dilli-wa. And also a special mention to the use of slang language with all the maa’s and behen’s having a difficult time coping up with all the attack on their izzat’s.

English is still cacophonic and if anything then worse than that in Bangalore. Murderous pronunciation is the problem with South which is better than the non existent grammar here.

Metro is one darling heart winner. One day of it and I see it as a part and parcel of my life here. It is the one and the only solution for Bangalore. Its just way too convenient to have places which were more than 10 kms away now just a walk and a metro ride away, that too without the hassle of parking and an irritating drive.

It happens only in India

2006-07-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

India has extended the support of its highly efficient police and judiciary system to animal world also. Now if a lion eats a deer then the deer family can file a charge against the lion.
This article in times of india today is a proof of how Idiotic the system has become.
I am just hoping my dog doesn't get life for the public rapes it has performed thinking it was his fundamental right in the non-human world.
Next up. All the dogs in the state lodge a FIR against the kids for inappropriate behaviour. Or may be an appeal for animal's quota in all educational institutes. Ok I am getting carried away now.

Ok...

2006-07-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

My good old horny Times Of India is back...

This pic on page 21 today

My reaction to it "ok if you insist, I'll try to be extra nice from next time onwards"

Adios Bangalore

2006-07-23T03:46:00.000-07:00

19th July, 2006 10:30 PM

Leaving Bangalore would be difficult. That’s what I always thought. But the actual experience turned out to be worse than my worst nightmare.
Right now I am inside the flight having taken off just 10 minutes back, winding up one of the most brutal yet amazing day of my life. One thing is for certain that sometime later if I were to make a list of ten days all time which changed my life then this day would surely figure in it. So I better document it before it fades away.
{Dinner break} Ah dinner at 11 15 PM thanks to the slight delay to the 8 o clock flight.
Tears trickled down my cheeks moments after entering the craft. Something which I dreaded all day long but luckily managed to keep it under control until now. Thankfully there are no spectators as in my row of 6 there is only one more old lady who couldn’t keep her eyes open the minute after the aircraft doors were closed. Was really scared of an outburst during the airport farewell but I did a great job of controlling my self and managed to remain calm. Ok not that good a job but pretty decent one. Ok fine Biyani I sucked at it. Wiping off the tears while the plane was still on the runway, sudden realization hit me about how much I loved Bangalore. This was surely something new, something which I hadn’t ever realized. Immediately I had this huge instinct that I am getting back real soon and Bangalore still hasn’t written its last chapter in my book. It was very loud and clear and I am sure it was true. I tried looking for the office building at the end of the runway and after the plane gained some height I kept looking down towards the city until it was lost in the abysmal darkness of the night.
My attempt to sneak away silently meeting everyone before the airport was another deadly flop, thanks to my smashing friends. One long photo/video session, typically Aayush, followed by a tickle attack and bumps, all in the crowded airport was how it looked like for about fifteen minutes. Every moment of it is embedded in my mind and it will join the list of millions others from Bangalore which will stay with me forever. This fanfare surely helped divert my mind from other depressing thoughts.
Got up today morning having no recollection of how and when I had gone to sleep the previous night. All thanks to the goals scored during the tiring soccer in grassy fields with SJ, Kunal, Patrik and a last minute substitution for Ankit. The first thought of the morning was “postpone the ticket”, something which my mom had been suggesting me for quite some time now, to take some workless time off in Bangalore before moving to Delhi making the transition easier. Within two minutes my senses were restored and logical thinking took control of the decision making and postponing was immediately out of question. Next up the towering task of packing. I had lived up to the reputation of being the laziest with a chronic will do later disease leaving entire packing for this last day. After being left alone in the house for some time the horrible feeling about leaving Bangalore started setting in. It was worsened by a call by Samarth and a mail by Manoo, after which I totally lost it and just couldn’t continue packing.
Back at the airport I had ugly scenes with the airport authorities. My luggage was some 10 Kg’s over the limit and so I tried to convince a few people around without any luggage to carry one of my bags. Air Sahara people saw me doing that and they put a tail on me warning every one that taking my luggage could be a big security risk could land them in a soup. Obviously no one was willing to take the chance after hearing that. I had friends waiting outside so there was no way I could continue pleading with people and paid the 1500 bucks fine, cursed a little and walked off. Bombay blasts had ensured that security was at its peak with the police trying to find bombs from inside pen covers to newspapers. This led to my second argument for the day with the security not allowing me to leave the building once the boarding pass was issued. After a lot of requesting Sahara guys issued special permission allowing me 2 minutes outside which I extended to more than half an hour.
In the afternoon with that horrible mood I couldn’t continue packing as it was adding to the depression. A refreshing chat with Bora and a few cigarettes kept me going at a snail’s pace. Got a haircut and a shave as didn’t want to give my parents a shock.
Thanks to Mehta I loaded about 35 Kgs of my luggage into the cargo saving a fortune. I rushed back to the office to meet everyone for the last time. Found everyone on the same old level 5 which remains as the quintessence of all the fun that I’ve have had at the office. Kavitha missed her cab and thanks to that I could meet her. Kunal got belted for the blunder he made by telling me about the gift even before it was delivered.
This gift led to the next adventure at the airport. After saying goodbye to the guys I entered the security line length of which a true image of India’s burgeoning population. After crossing the endless clue I was told that it was not allowed as hand baggage and I will have to get rid of it if I wanted to board the flight. This really scared me as the official departure was just minutes away and the thought of losing the gift even before opening it was unthinkable. My boarding pass was cancelled and I had to get out of the terminal. I frantically requested people for their cell phones, called up Ankit, spoke very rudely ordering him to get back, all in a desperate fit trying to protect something priceless. With about ten minutes of boarding time left, I went outside the airport this time requesting people to keep the gift explaining them that my friend would be there any moment to collect it from them. Here first time in the evening the luck was on my side. Found one old friend from college there. I pushed the lighter in his hand without any hi or hello, asked him to call Ankit and ran like all hell had broken loose. I had to get a new boarding pass and during a repeat security check I realized that sometime in the past half an hour I had left my camera somewhere, and considering the amount of running around I had done it could have been anywhere.
In the evening after level 5 we walked down to the food court to meet Bora, PK and Bapu. Picked Kuta on the way who was coming back from his team outing. Was joined by Aone and Mehta there. Aone got nostalgic about her previous food court visits. Got a couple of parting gifts here. Taking gifts is something I totally hate. I seriously don’t know how to react when being presented and start making awkward gestures. Secondly it’s an emotionally charged moment and it can trigger weird reactions in the body by product of which could be salt and water. Bora had very urgent work but having sensed the onset of some fireworks and entertainment after seeing my reaction, which included my triple goodbyes to Aone, he decided to come to the airport. Mom had lots of work and so I met him at his home’s basement parking only.
This was the second time the luck was on my side. During the second security check my computer bag was caught as suspected baggage and I was called for questioning when I heard a policeman shout asking someone to report a lost camera and make an announcement for it. This was when I actually realized that my camera was missing and I went over and claimed it although I had to show them my recent photos inside to prove that it was mine. Race against time was finally coming to an end and with less than five minutes to go for boarding to end I called up Ankit from a landline explaining him the situation before boarding.
End of the day was the right icing on cake when my cargo luggage was lost in baggage and I was stuck till 4 AM at the airport trying to recover it. But this little adventure was nor in Bangalore neither a legitimate part of the same day as it was all after 12 PM so doesn’t qualify to get more than a mention here.
Reflecting on my stay in Bangalore I was wondering how different my life would have been if I had not taken the decisions to join RV and Fidelity. Have made enough amazing friends to last more than a lifetime. This is something I can write endlessly on and should spare this post from it.
Want to end this with a few thank yous to all you guys for being so wonderful and for being for me every time I needed you.

Ragging Latest block buster on TV

2006-07-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

Ragging – Latest bakara for the news channels

Ragging or Introduction. Is it good or not. It is the latest TRP booster for the news channels today after the new session started in Delhi University today.

Do you enjoy watching such coverage’s on TV. Do they successfully infect your own views on things? The latest non issue about ragging also puzzles me with the similar questions. Why is all the coverage of ragging related incidents revolves around Delhi University? Is there a shortage of colleges around the country? Obviously not. Is ragging more intense or brutal there? Again by experience it is not even close. What is it that drives these news channels to cover Delhi University and nothing else?

The answer is pretty simple. It’s a TRP game after all. And with more number of people joining or wanting to join Delhi University covering it is the natural choice. Even if ragging there is bare minimum and could give tickles to someone who has graduated from some engineering college staying in the hostel. And the so called ragging which is nothing more than some introductions or may be a harmless prank or two, is exaggerated so much that it manages to keep everyone glued to the television.

It also creates a panic in the hearts of the unsuspecting parents who have kids whom they have pampered all their lives and now they are preparing for their first exposure of the real world. Thanks to these news channels these parents have sleepless nights or terrifying dreams. Parents are afraid to send their kids to college I having personally witnessed one such incident. I like everyone else who has crossed the first year in college will agree that this is one of the most important personality development class, free of cost too, one could hope to get. It also helps in generating strong lifelong bonds, relationships between different batches. Life is so much simpler if you have your close friends by way of some seniors who could help or advice on almost every problem one might face. These anti ragging moves actually make them enemies even before they see each other.

Why? We have to stop trusting these news channels and have them affect our life to such an extent. It’s an evil of the society which threatens to have unprecedented control over out future generations. We have to learn to have our own views on thing while filtering all bull shit being thrown at us from all around.

Word Blogger Tool

2006-07-17T11:03:00.000-07:00

Found this add on for Microsoft Word. Makes it easier to post directly from it. Give it a try.

http://buzz.blogger.com/bloggerforword.html

Reservation. Truth and nothing but the truth

2006-07-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

Reservation has been the key issue hogging all our newspapers and airtime of news channels for the past couple of months. Everyone seems to have his or her own opinion about it. Or do they? I believe not. It’s more of a view created by what they see in the news channels and also driven by few vested interests and is not necessarily correct.

Its not fair on us. It is removing merit out of the system. The government is doing it for votes. Agreed, all are valid pointers. Government has no right to get caste in the selection process. It divides the community.

I’ll just go back a few decades to the time immediately after independence. In that era reservation was not even a thought. Then why suddenly implement it now. Well there is something which has changed since then. Every community has two sects backward and non-backward. And its not necessarily based on caste. It is based on economic barriers. In India the difference between the rich and poor has increased drastically. The rich have become richer and the poor if not worse haven’t progressed anything as compared to the rich. And we as a nation have to realize that its about time we intervened. The latter the worse. This difference will never be bridged if we don’t act now.

Majority of people who are involved in these protest marches have had access to at least private schools, city life, English as a spoken language, parents with stable jobs, etc. The list is quite long actually but the point here is there is still 50 percent of the country who has access to none of them.

The 80-20 rule is applicable here too. 80 percent of the elite professions are held by people belong to 20 percent of the population. Now don’t say that the other 80 percent of population is not intelligent enough.

This is where the point of equal opportunities comes into the picture. It’s all about equal opportunities. If the other 80 percent is as lucky as the elite 20 percent by way of opportunities then the ratio will surely be 50-50 wherein every section every community will have a representation according to their population ratio. Indeed there will be no community, no caste, and no rich, no poor left. That is a dream which was dreamt. Equality in all walks of life.

It still doesn’t justify governments move to push for 50 percent reservation as that is totally absurd. The reservation should be by way of economic status. Economically backward classes should have justifiable percent reservation in not only engineering, medical and MBA colleges but in every other walk of life. We have to realize that the competition we have is against the best brains in the top 20 percentile of the community. We have to ensure that the other 80 percent also gets involved instead of keeping our own vested interests ahead of such issues.

Also it’s very difficult to shake government on such a issue because this step is something that they can justify to the majority of the citizens. It’s only the smaller community, the 20 percent, which is against the move. That is something they can live with. So the drive has to be against the implementation and not against the idea. The idea is right; it's the implementation which has gone wrong. And this is a point which everyone fighting and revolting against the reservation have to understand.

Media-crity

2006-07-11T06:26:00.000-07:00

What is wrong with the Media these days?

I was watching news yesterday and there was one very intense discussion going on about who is better. Zidane or Pele. And with hi-tech SMS polls and live results update during news time one would be forced to believe that some national emergency is being discussed.
The question managed to puzzle most(filmstars) with the first doubt arriving by way of the riddle"Who is Pele?". Luckily god gave humans enough brains that even the dumbest variety is able to make a decision and come to a conclusion "hmm...I probably don't know Pele. But he has to be some big stud. That's why they are asking this question." This is followed by a labyrinth of thoughts trying to take a decision about who could be better. End result 60% Zidane 40%Pele. Why? Poor Pele is not to be blamed.
This is sad not because Pele lost or Zidane won. What is the sense of these polls, what purpose does this sensationalization solve? Increase TRP rating for the news channels. How does that happen? Because more number of people prefer watching "Sansani". That's their exit out of every day life frustrations. It's more like a source of entertainment than any craving for actual news. Leave alone the stupid question of Pele vs Zidane like some time back Sachin vs Bradman.
The entire business model revolves around extracting money out of common man's day-to-day predicaments. And looking at current trend I don't see it getting any better in the future.

Federer..Success getting to his head

2006-07-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

Men's tennis is going through one of those phases where one can look back upon in future and say "I was lucky to have witnessed it". There have been many instances of such dominance of one player/team being constantly nagged and pushed by a challenger. When such a rivalry reaches a state of equilibrium, that's when the sport benefits the most. And for the followers and spectators its more than an eye candy.

But it also hurts when the champion starts believing that he is invincible. That's something which eventually leads to his downfall.

After Sunday's match Roger Federer gave glimpses of that. He would have won it in the most convincing of styles as he did, he had no rights to speak in the way he did in the post match interview.

"I never thought this is possible. It is a great tournament for Rafael. I honestly didn't think he would be in the final."

What was he thinking? Who has given him the right to make personality judgments about his opponent. And more so this happened after Nadal was quoted praising Federer all through his speech. He truly displayed the respect a great player like Federer deserves. Its for Federer to learn there that there is some mutual human respect which he needs to develop and display towards his fellow players. The game is not just about winning.

Vamos Rafael.

Finally...

2006-07-07T09:45:00.000-07:00

Ah...the first blog. Its such a pain to get started. Not even sure if I will blog ever after this. How much ever I try to hide it, the fact remains I have a fear of writing. Can't even call it fear. Its more like a phobia. I am not even sure whether I want to blog or not. Its more like a fight against the fear and want to see if I actually want to blog. What will I blog. Not sure. may be thoughts. Could be a journal. Could be nothing. And this very easily could be my first and only blog. I am not even thinking in terms of serious blogging right now. Just hoping that the fear wears away and

hmm..the first paragraph is more or less out of the way. Feels so much better. Did what I am best at, giving funda. Life after the first paragraph is so much better.

Have to agree the short little blog above is the best masterpiece i have ever written. Ya its the only one in the long ever lasting list of my blogs.

Enough for today. Sweat,puff pants. Yeah that was hard work. I am sure I will keep a few people waiting eagerly for the next blog. Not assuring for the next laughter dose in the near future. Hopefully will get one such impulse again pretty soon.

Hasta luego....