The responsibility of Telangana burning...

The Congress I government in Centre is solely responsible for the mess it has created in Telangana/AP. Telangana issue is the latest addition in the list of historic blunders committed by successive Congress governments that have caused our nation dearly.

How I got my ring back

Here's an interesting incident that occurred a couple of weeks back. One Thursday over coffee, I showed my friends my gold wedding ring and told them how careless I am about it, and how I misplace it at home all the time. I narrated a couple incidents about it, and we had some good laugh. The next day in office, I noticed that I wasn't wearing my ring. "I have forgotten my ring at home as usual."

The next morning I searched for my ring at the usual places. However, I couldn't find it. I asked Poornima to look for it and she couldn't find it either. Under normal circumstances, I would have let it go. However, we had scheduled an appointment for carpet cleaning that day. That worried me. If the ring were lying somewhere on the carpet, it might get sucked in by the vacuum. Or if the cleaner spotted it somewhere, he would quietly pocket it. I didn't want that to happen. So I searched all over the house for the ring. However, I could find it nowhere. Disappointed, I gave up, hoping that the carpet cleaner doesn't notice it lying somewhere on the carpet.

A few hours later, the carpet cleaner knocked at the door and asked permission to enter. As he entered the house he said, "There is a gold ring over there". "Where?", I asked. I was stunned when he showed me the ring. The gold ring was sitting delicately on the railing of the staircase! I had left it outside the house for more than 24 hours! I don't recall when and why I kept my wedding ring on the staircase! What was I thinking when I removed the ring from my finger and kept it there? To this date, I have no clue! I was lucky to get it back. It was a real eye-opener on how careless I can be.

It was also an eye-opener for one more reason. I had assumed that if the carpet cleaner spotted the gold ring, he would steal it. What actually happened was to the contrary! The ring was outside the house. He could have picked it up even before he knocked the door and no one would have never ever known. I realized how wrong we can be about people! How easily we assume that other people are dishonest! How ready are we to doubt everybody else's character! We take for granted that everyone wants to pull a fast one on us. Events like these remind us that there is still honesty and humanity still left in the world.

Art of Living course complete

Today I completed the Art of Living course that Poornima and I were attending. It was a "really nice" course (as Abhishekh Shah, who was our instructor/teacher might say it). This is the second time I have attended the course. For some reason (not fully clear to me), I think this one had more impact on me. Probably because I was more in need of it this time than earlier.

I think I have drifted away from my principles of life further than ever before in my life. Many things taught in the course were a timely reminder of what I should be knowing and practicing, that I am not doing at present (but was unknowing or knowingly doing in the past).

Over last few years I have given up forcing myself to follow my ideals. Consequently, I have gone far away from my ideals. I am going where my heart is taking me. If it is taking me away from my ideals, I am willing to go there.

The heart and the intellect have to work together for a person to live normally. If the heart is not following the intellect, let the mind follow the heart, until the heart realizes its follies, learns from its experiences and realizes the right path. There will be lost time and lost opportunities in the meantime. But so be it. Until the heart experiences and learns what is right, I will have to bear it.

The heart will realize its follies and come back to the right path. Because although on the surface it seems that everything is cold and hard, the fire beneath is burning. It will keep burning and some day it will incinerate every that that is fallacious. The fire of ideals can never be extinguished.

Where will I be one year from now?

Art of Living

This week, Poornima & I have been attending The Art of Living basic course. This is the second time both of us are doing it. I have attended it in 2005 and Poornima had attended it 2006. I think somehow I am gaing more from it this time. I feel my mind is calmer since last two days and my concentration has improved. I feel better. Let me see if I continue to practise the kriya regularly after the course ends.

Like countless other gifts, Sri Sri Ravishankar's The Art of Living concept is yet another gift Hinduism has given the world.

Corruption in the media

Indian Express writes on corruption in media

An amazing Skiing Experience!!

Ravi, Amit and I went skiing at Snoqualmie. It was the first of this season. It was the most amazing skiing experience ever. Ravi and I were skiing down the slope effortlessly and with very few incidents of slipping. We started skiing at 11 am. and skied till the skiing range closed at 4 pm. It was snowing throughout that time, and sometimes heavily. Although the snow affected visibility and sometimes made it harder, it was very helpful as it is less slippery. That made skiing easier for us. I have never had such a wonderful skiing experience. I am looking forward to my next visit to Snoqualmie.

Sub-zero tempretures

For the past two days, we have been having sub-zero temperatures 24 hours. Yesterday night mercury dipped to -8 degrees centigrade! Temperature is expected to remain below zero for a couple of days more. Later in the week, it is expected to rise above the freezing point.

The consequence of this has been that any water fallen on road has turned into ice. This has made roads slippery. Today, I slipped over ice while cleaning my car's windshield with water. I hurt myself in the fall :-(. Curiously, the ice had been formed due the water I had poured yesterday to clean the the windshield of my car! That reminds me of the banana story - a person throws a banana peal on road and himself slips over it!

A quote - Our battles

For many of us, the greatest battles of life are those we have with ourselves.
- H. Wallace Goddard, Ph.D.

The worst mobile phone ever designed

My company has a policy of issuing Moto Razor to its employees. Many people consider Moto Razor as a good sleek phone. If you have ever used it, you'll know that its the worst phone ever designed by any cell phone company. The user interface is especially pathetic. Here are some of the irritating features that the phone has.

Moto Razor Crib#1
-----------------
If you remove the SIM card, you do anything with the phone except make emergency calls. At first this seems reasonable. However, consider this.

I removed the SIM card from the phone and put it another hand set, and switched off the Moto Razor. Next morning, promptly at 6:00 a.m., the Razor alarm went off, and I couldn't switch it off because the phone didn't have SIM card!

Today I ran into another problem because of this "feature" ("bug" is the correct word). I have stored all my phone numbers in the phone memory, instead of the SIM card memory. However, since I have removed the SIM card, I can't access the phone memory and read any phone numbers. The numbers are there, in the phone memory, but I can't access those until I insert a SIM card in the phone. This is similar to the Canon copier-printer-scanner that I have, which doesn't scan documents if the printer cartridges are removed!!

Mass Media = Masses of Money

Find out who is paying for the junk that you are reading or viewing in the name of news. Read this and ponder.

GDP by Purchasing Power Parity

Found this interesting map on wikipedia -

Here is a link to interesting set of maps, to which this one belongs.

Buy More Stuff!!

On Black Friday there were many people in downtown Seattle standing with placards saying "BUY MORE STUFF!!" Shot a picture of that in my cell phone.

I am reading Ramayana

I am reading C Rajagopalachari's translation of Ramayana. I admire C Rajaogopalachari not only as a freedom fighter, a scholar, a liberalist, an extraordinary intellectual, and one of the foremost politicians of independent India, but also as a one of the prominent statesmen who opposed personal hegemony perpetuated by Nehru after independence.

Look, it's going ot rain ... no, no, it is raining

I have never known any job easier than being the weatherman of Seattle. From October to June, the forecast for Seattle is one of the two possibilities - overcast or rain. And more often than not, it's the latter. For instance, here's the forecast for the next ten days. This is a bit better than the forecast we had ten days ago - this time there is one day when it's not going to rain!

The Last Emperor

Yesterday I saw The Last Emperor. It is no wonder that the movie won 9 Oscars, including the Best Picture Award. It's an amazing movie. It's a long movie (more than three hours long) on a serious topic, and yet it keeps you glued to your seat. The way Bernardo Bertolucci has recreated early twentieth century China is definitely admirable. It is very interesting narration of the life of the last emperor of China, Puyi, who was crowned emperor when he was just 3 years old, lost his seat when he was just a teenager and ended up in prison after the Communist revolution of 1949.

After watching the movie a thought crossed my mind. Is it because of the constant fighting between different warlords that Chinese people finally thought that the best option available to them was single party rule and Communism. Is that why Communism has survived sixty years and is seeing no threat in near future?

Crouching Tiger ...

Yesterday I saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It's a movie I always wanted to see. When the movie won the Oscar for best foreign language film, it evoked mixed response from people. Many people told me that it is an excellent movie, whie others condemned it for being nonsensical.

My reaction after seing the movie was that it's a good movie. The cinematography is great. The plot is interesting. Acting is good. Pleople flying in air and jumping over rooftops can be tolerated and is compensated by some great photography of martial arts. On the whole, it was not a bad movie at all. Worth watching once.

Some interesting news

Here are links to some interesting news articles I came across in last few weeks:

First one is about the extent of corruption in Indian media. Almost all the news printed before elections are published by bribing journalists.

As yet, only The Hindu has written about rampant corruption that exists in Indian media. Hindu followed it up with an editorial titled Journalism for sale. Of the political parties, only the CPI(M) has openly spoken about the corruption in the media.

Second one is from The Times of India: RSS service projects multiply ten fold. Number of RSS run social development projects now number 1,57,776; up from 15,063 ten years ago.

Finally, today is the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. We can only imagine what that moment it would have been for Germans.

Fall Colours

As promised, some pictures of fall colours in Bellevue. This year, Seattle area is witnessing extraordinary display of fall colours.

ab teraa kyaa hogaa k k k

Bellevue Maharashtra Mandal's Diwali celebration took place this weekend with a big bang! Two extraordinary plays - ab teraa kyaa hogaa k k k, written and directed by Subhag Oak, and (pu la deshpande's) mahees, directed by Jayant Bhopatkar - were performed in Portland (yesterday) and Bellevue (today).

Poornima played the role of te ra koTee's sister in ab teraa kyaa hogaa k k k. The play was a humourous murder mystery. It was an excellent play; very well-written. The play turned out to be terrific, and everyone acted really well including Poornima. Hence it was a very exciting weekend for us.

Is it time to re-visit Swami Vivekanand?

During the darkest days of my life, it was Swami Vivekanand's writings that inspired me, gave me hope, and that propelled me to where I am today. Last few years I had been lamenting that I am missing inspiration in my life. I was living but like dead wood. No words were able to move me. But it seems that situation is likely to change. Last four months I have been striving to better myself. I have set out a program to instill in me good habits that will continuously improve myself.

Today after prolonged period of time did I feel a drop of inspiration when I read Swami Vivekanad's quotes. Here are some of Swami Vivekanand's quotes that I found inspirational today:

"Utter no words of condemnation. Close your lips, and let your hearts open."

"He who struggles is better than he who never attempts."

"Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles."

"Choose the highest ideal and live your life upto that."

"No man should be judged by his defects."

"He alone, who is always awake to the idea of freedom, becomes free."

"There is nothing holier in the world than to keep good company."

"Every great achievement is done slowly."

"Character is repeated habits, and repeated habits alone can reform character."

"It is character that cleaves its way through adamantine walls of difficulties."

"Unto him comes everything who does not care for anything."

"We want infinite energy, infinite zeal, infinite courage, and infinite patience, then only will great things be achieved."

"The cause of evil is our desire to be superior to others and our selfishness."

"No religion on earth preaches the dignity of humanity in such a lofty strain as Hinduism."

"Everything that strengthens the will by revealing the real nature is moral."

A nice poem

On my first job, I had posted a couple of lines on a poem that would remind me to do my work diligently, and not skirt or procrastinate my duties:

It isn't the thing you do; Its the thing you leave undone;
That gives you a bit of a heartache; At setting of the sun.
Much later in life, I found the entire poem to which those lines belonged. Here it is for you.

The Sin of Omission
by: Margaret E. Sangster

It isn't the thing you do, dear,
Its the thing you leave undone
That gives you a bit of a heartache
At setting of the sun.
The tender work forgotten,
The letter you did not write,
The flowers you did not send, dear,
Are your haunting ghosts at night.

The stone you might have lifted
Out of a brother's way;
The bit of heartsome counsel
You were hurried too much to say;
The loving touch of the hand, dear,
The gentle, winning tone
Which you had no time nor thought for
With troubles enough of your own.

Thoes little acts of kindness
So easily out of mind,
Thoes chances to be angels
Which we poor mortals find~
They come in night and silence,
Each sad, reproachful wraith,
When hope is faint and flagging,
And a chill has fallen on faith.

For life is all too short, dear,
And sorrow is all to great,
To suffer our slow compassion
That tarries until too late:
And it isn't the thing you do, dear,
It's the thing you leave undone
Which gives you a bit of heartache
At the setting of the sun

Beautiful Fall

I spent this weekend taking pictures of fall colours. I shot close to two hundred pictures. Fall is past its peak in Bellevue, but it is still very beautiful. I will post some of the pics over here soon.

EVM Controversy Continues

This time protests during Harayan assembly elections by all non-Congress candidates over allegations of EVM tampering by Congress.

Template botched

I have messed up the template of the blog a bit. The previous template was leaving too much margin at both the sides. I wanted to increase the width of the blog page. So I have modified the template. However, I am not an expert at HTML coding (any more). HTML standards have changed considerably since the days I used it.

Right now the box that encloses the body of the blog needs to be widened. It is cutting across the middle of the page and appears on top of the text. I don't want to spend more time on fixing it right now. I will fix it later. Until then, I beg your consideration. And any help is welcome!

Clustrmap of my blogsite

Found this when I visited Churumuri. Let me see how it works.



I have now moved the Clustrmap to the sidebar (29-Oct-2009)

On Courage

When I changed the template of my blog, I used a new feature provided by blogger. It allows you to add any content to the blog page from a set of applications. I have added displaying quotes at the end of the page. I don't always scroll down to the end of the page to see the quote. Sometimes I do, like today. And I came across this interesting quote by Mark Twain:

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

Well, now that reminds me of one of my favourite quotes of all time, which I have pasted on this blog before:

Courage is the price life exacts for granting peace
Amelia Earhart

Anand's Seattle visit

Anand, Mansi & Rishabh visited us last weekend. We had a great time. Unfortunately, it rained and we had to cancel our plan to visit Mount Rainier.

It was during this visit that I came to of Anand's newfound(?) hobby of photography. He told me about his blogsite and his site on flickr. Check out his extraordinary shots. I have posted one here (without his permission - Anand, leave a comment if you want me to remove it!)

A very good read ...

I have been updating links to news reports and articles related to EVM manipulations in my post that I wrote on 2nd August. However this article by independent columnist Coomi Kapoor is too good to be buried among a list of links. So I am posting a separate link here for greater visibility.

Do read and let me know what you think. That's very important, because democracy is about what we, ordinary (or extra-ordinary!) Indians think.

Ciao! Take care.

What am I listening?

I have read Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time twice before. This week I am listening to it while driving to office. I have now discovered the "new" concept (new at least for me) of "books on CD". I often borrow books on CDs from the library and hear them while driving to & from office. It's good utilization of time. Before borrowing A Brief History of Time, I listened to You are Broke because you want to be, It's Not About the Coffee: Leadership Principles from a Life at Starbucks, and The One Minute Manager.

Hence I am enjoying my commute to office. And traffic jams don't bother me anymore!

What am I reading?

Jack London's The Call of the Wild. I found it on library shelf and borrowed it. I had never heard of the book earlier. However the subject of the book - Klondike gold rush of late nineteenth century, interested me. I had never heard of Klondike gold rush before my trip to Alaska last year. It was in Skagway that I heard about it as our tour guide explained us some of the astonishing and horrifying facts of the period. The Call of the Wild is about the savagery that humans have often subjected animals to and the shame thereof. Yet the story is told in an amusing way that keeps it light and humourous.

More ...

More demonstrations of EVM failings.


Poll panel allows petitioners to show EVM's tamperbility


And more

Chandragupta's research on EVM reliability

This is an excellent research on reliability of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), which Chandragupta sent me by email. I would like to post it here for the benefit of all. Enjoy!


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Chandragupta Acharya
Date: Sun, May 17, 2009 at 8:24 AM
Subject: Food for thought.....
To:

For the second consecutive parliamentary election, the results have defied pre-election predictions. How can political analysts, psephologists, opinion polls, exit polls, independent surveys, internal estimates of political parties (as reported in the media) etc - ALL go wrong? How come the Congress is consistently getting more seats than what is predicted by all of the above? It happened in the 2004 election and again in 2009. I find it curious and wonder if this is the magic of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) .

A short search on the internet threw up the following:
First, a detailed presentation and FAQ from the Election Commission of India on EVM used in the 2009 elections, including its security and integrity aspects:
Election Commission of India
(see 'Presentation' and 'FAQ' link on the bottom right hand corner)

For the recently concluded elctions, EVMs have been supplied by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bangalore and Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Hyderabad. About 1.36 million electronic voting machines were used in 828,000 polling booths across the country. An IIT Graduate from Pune has alleged that the EVMs are vulnerable to magnetic fields, but his claim is rejected by ECIL Chairman. See news report:
ECIL claim

BEL tried to export its EVMs to the US. But Americans rejected India's EVMs because they were not convinved the EVMs were tamper proof (This is from July 2004 - after Vajpayee's defeat):
EVMs not to debut in US

In US, the EVMs have been a subject of intense controversy, which is why US has not yet adopted fully to Electronic Voting. Machines can have problems such as counting some votes twice or making errors in adding up. (To be fair, the machines mentioned below are different from the ones used in India)
California Progress Report

Some people claim that the machines can be easily hacked.
Hacking an e voting machine

The first link below has several references to experts who claim EVMs can be tampered with, including a video which shows the machine making a 'mistake':
Independent.co.uk

WebIndia123.com

In fact, the following passage on George Bush's controversial election win in 2004 is worth reproducing here:
"Writing in the New Statesman way back in 2004, reflecting on criticisms of the electronic voting systems used in the presidential election that year, Michael Meacher MP pointed out that statisticians, academics and political analysts had highlighted significant voting differences between electoral districts that used paper ballots and those that used electronic systems. These cannot be explained by random variation. The investigators found a much larger variance than expected and in every case it favoured George W Bush over John Kerry. In Wisconsin and Ohio, the discrepancy favoured Bush by 4 per cent, in Pennsylvania by 5 per cent, in Florida and Minnesota by 7 per cent, in North Carolina by 9 per cent and in New Hampshire by a whopping 15 per cent.

Research by the University of Berkeley, California, revealed election irregularities in 2004 in Florida. These irregularities, all of which were associated with electronic voting machines, appear to have awarded between 130,000 to 260,000 additional votes to Bush.

The discrepancies between paper and electronic voting could be the result of simple technological glitches. But some experts detect something more sinister: outright vote fixing by interference with voting machine and tabulation software".

In fact, George Bush's 2004 election turned controversial precisely because the actual results turned out to be different from what exit polls predicted:
George Bush's 2004 election

Here is an 8-part interview series with Stephen Spoonamore, a US security expert who explains why electronic voting is inherently unsafe:
Stephen Spoonamore on youtube

Or read this book "Black Box Voting" available free on the internet on the website given below, written by two US computer security experts:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org

In the US, Voting machine security audits have uncovered serious vulnerabilities:
California voting machine security tests cover serious vulnerabilities

Food for thought.
-Chandragupta

Did Congress rig Lok Sabha elections by manuplating EVMs?

Many people expressed doubts on the results of recent Lok Sabha elections. Now we are reading something "official" about such possibilities. Read - Was Election 2009 rigged? on rediff.com.

What the h##l is Twitter?

Like me, I am sure you would have heard of Twitter. Like me, I don't whether you are ignorant of what it is. I was browsing the Net and somehow ended up on Twitter. So I said to myself, 'why not create an account? And I will soon find out what Twitter is.' So that's what I have done. While registering, it asked me whether I want follow some other Twitter users and gave some options. I have chosen to follow CNN and Time. Hopefully, I will soon find out what Twitter does.

By the way, it's Friday night. We will travel some place tomorrow, but haven't decided where. We have two options - Mt Saint Helen's and Mt Baker. I think Mt Baker is more beautiful, but I am tending towards Mt St Helen's because I have all the information about where to go and what points to see. We plan to leave tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. We will decide where to go in the morning. Well, I better go to sleep. It's close to 2 a.m. and I will have to wake up at 6 a.m. in the morning.

Bad web design - 1

There are some websites with good design and some with very bad design. Sometimes one wonders how very basic things are not considered while designing websites, even by leading websites. One example I came across today was of LinkedIn main page. By and large, LinkedIn is a successful and user-friendly site. However it's main page LinkedIn.com has one major flaw. It has fields for new user creation, but only a link to open the login page for registered users. Now, every person who comes to LinkedIn will be new user only once. Every time after that the user will have to click twice before being able to login. Isn't this is a very basic thing that a website like LinkedIn should get correct? I wonder these guys miss it.

What's the news?

I haven't written anything in more than two weeks. So let me give you a brief update of what's happening over here.

The days are getting longer and longer. There is natural light even after 9 p.m. I am really glad about it.

It hasn't rained in more than ten days. Not only has it not rained, we haven't even had a overcast day. It's been sunny for several days at a strech. This is not normal for Seattle weather. Shouldn't I be glat about this too? Well, yes and no! I am glad it's sunny and not raining. But I wish it would rain once so that the dust settles down a bit. In short, I am having ambiguous feelings about the sunny weather we are having, which is very surprising.

We had a good trip to Lake Wenatchee last weekend. We had booked a cottage by the lake. The view from the house was amazing. I have posted it here. Check it out:

aai-bAbA will reach here Wednesday afternoon. It will be fun to have them here. The weather is amazing and they will surely enjoy it.

Soon it will be close to two years since we came to US. One would think that I would be missing India. Altough I love Inida (or bhArat) more than anything else in life, including my life, I am not missing it so much right now. Much less after the recent elections results were announced.

The impact of election results can be summed up in the word - dejection. It is sad to see our most beloved nation sliding back into slavery once again. To see goons, rapists and debauched people ruling our beloved motherland causes so much heartburn. Often I fold my hands to pray and the only wish that leaves my lips is, "God, save yourself", from these dregs of humanity (and oppressors of Hinduism), who will now rule our country, the birthplace of countless Hindu wizards.

Biting my fingers

As I write this, the final phase of polling is under way for the 15th Lok Sabha. This election is supposed to be more closely fought than any other Lok Sabha election before this.

In the last year or so I have gained tremendous equanimity with respect to happenings in our world. It is not that I don't care what happens in the world. Far from that, I am really concerned about where the world, and especially India, is heading. But, of late, incidents in the outside world do not take away from me my equanimity. I feel elated or disappointed. I become happy or unhappy. But I do not feel depressed or demoralized. This world is like a dog's tail. No sooner than you think that it is straightened out, do you realize that is as curved as it ever was. Despite the imperfections of the world we have to go on doing what we consider to be best for the world and ourselves. Not only do I think this way, to a reasonable extent, I am able to live this thought.

Despite all this, the on-going elections is making me nervous. I feel attached to my desires. I desire certain result and it makes me nervous to think that it may not turn out to be so. My quiet continence only hides the flutter of the heart within. I have to try to be detached. Our great country will outlast impacts of a hundred elections. No power on earth can stop the forward march of our great nation. No matter what happens in this election, our country will continue to progress.

Thirteen centuries ago a great child was born in the small village of Kaladi in central Kerala, by the Periyar river. The child grew into a boy who changed the future of this nation forever. Millions have followed his path and nurtured the soul of this nation. One moment, one election, one party, one family cannot impair the institution of four thousand years and cherished by a billion people.

Our beloved nation would go on, unfettered, unshackled, unhampered. I know should never be discouraged at failure. I have never been. Never will I be in future. If anything, not seeing success should only strengthen one's resolve to work harder, with greater detachment, towards a loftier goal, more wisely. That's the spirit I am made of. If not today, there will be success tomorrow.

The demolition man

Sometimes we come across very interesting comments on websites, left by ordinary readers. Here's a very witty comment I came across today on Indian Express' website:

Weak Prime Minister?
By: K.Suresh | 30-Apr-2009

Who says Manmohan Singh is a weak PM? Under him, the Congress has, single-handedly destroyed democratic institutions - Office of President, Election commission and now the CBI. No weak person can achieve this much.

New Template!

I have changed the template for my blog. I had the previous template for over 5 years. Of late, I had got bored of it.

I hope you like my new template. Please leave your suggestions and comments.

An opinion on Opinion Polls

Here's an hilarious clip taken from Yes Prime Minister on opinion polls.

One more blog

I have created one more blog: one-news-of-the-day.blogspot.com

Both, "the-news-of-the-day.blogspot.com" and "a-news-of-the-day.blogspot.com" were taken. Hence one-news-of-the-day.blogspot.com.

The idea is to post links to interesting (not necessarily the most important) news that I come across.

A few weeks back I had created impartial-observer.blogspot.com.

Changing the template for my blog

I want to change the template for my blog. However I have customized the standard template a little bit, by adding some of my favourite links in the right hand side pane. Hence I will have to be careful when I change the template, lest the customizations would be lost.

Can you suggest a good template for my blog?

Old Man and the Sea

Today I saw movie Old Man and the Sea, which is based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway by the same name. I had read the book during my MBA days. Old Man and the Sea is a story of courage and persistence of an old man, who was once the greatest fisherman in his small Cuban town. Hemingway describes poignantly the old man's three-day long battle against a 1,500 pound marlin. Although wounded, exhausted and hungry, Santiago finally conquers the giant fish, only to lose it to a group of sharks the next day.

The message of the movie is captured in Satiango's summation of this ordeal, when he confesses to Manolin that "it was sad to see it destroyed ... ", and then with a sense of satisfiction, "but not defeated!". It's amazing story of hope, courage, persistence and dignity. It's a must-read for everybody. It's no wonder that the book brought the Nobel Prize to its author.

A relaxed weekend

Last 3 weekends, I skied at Snoqualmie. When I went skiing for the first time 3 weeks ago with Ravikant, I was worried it would leave me too tired the rest of the week. However, I survived that week and went skiing the following weekend also. I decided I won't do skiing the next weekend and take some rest. However, the week after that, the weather was great and some of my colleagues decided they wanted to try skiing too. I couldn't have let them down. We did Skiing on Saturday. I took some rest on Sunday, but it wasn't sufficient. Fatigue made me sick the rest of the week. This weekend, I have decided to take rest. I haven't stepped out of house last 27 hours, and I hope I don't have to go out next 27.

I saw a nice movie yesterday. Richard Gere's An officer and a gentleman. It was a wonderful movie. I loved it. Right now I am half watching 1950's In a lonely place. I am half browsing the web. I don't fully follow English movies until I watch with full concentration. I think it's a good movie, but not a great movie. I plan to watch another movie tomorrow. But haven't decided which one.

A - Z of Congress achievements

I had read this on a message board on Rediff. I liked it but didn't copy it down. It reappeared in the form of an email from Vikas Kerkar:

Spread these achievements and help Congress and others to get back in power.

A: Afzal guru not hanged by the congress government inspite of SC order.
B: Bomb blasts happen in hundreds, in 5 years of Congress misrule.
C: Cost of living and food prices rise, making life difficult for Aam aadmi.
D: Dr Manmohan Singh says muslims have first right to India’s resources.
E: Economy and business suffer like never before.
F: Farmer suicides continue. Where did our money for ‘farmers loan waiver’ go?
G: Gujarat police has to provide evidence to enable SIMI ban to continue.
H: Home Minister shivraj patil kicked out only after 4.5 years of sleep and 26/11.
I: India bullied by china, but NO diplomatic response by the government.
J: Jihadis offered pension in Kashmir by the congress government.
K: karunanidhi and congress insult Lord Ram and call Lord Ram a fake.
L: LeT becomes a household name, before congress forced to re-do POTA.
M: Media makes Hindu bashing a fashion.
N: Naxalism active in 165 districts of India.
O: Orissa conversions by missionaries lead to assassination of Hindu saint.
P: Padmashri awards not given to Olympic winners. Padmashris given to mediamen, who are now involved in pro-Congress propoganda.
Q: Quattarochi is helped to escape. Jai Mata Rome (sonia gandhi).
R: Report by Sachar committee advocates more minority appeasement.
S: SP’s amar singh calls Batla house encounter a fake.
T: Torture of Sadhvi Pragnya sanctioned by congress government.
U: UK rule over India was good for India, says PM Dr manmohan singh.
V: Vande Mataram NOT SUNG by PM and sonia gandhi. National shame.
W: Wheat imported by Sharad Pawar not fit for cattle..
X: (e)Xtremism bleeds our country. Soft approach on terror hurts us.
Y: YS Rajsekher Reddy sanctions subsidy for christians to visit Jerusalem.
Z: Zero development in fields like electricity generation, highways, etc.

Sikh massacre of 1984

3,000 Sikhs were massacred in 4 days by Congressmen in 1984 pogrom following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. 25 years later Congress government has given a clean chit to the perpetrators of the genocide. Read this report by two NGOs that investigated the carnage.

My Favourites

These are my favourites:

Favourite Novel: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper_Lee
Favourite non-fiction: What Religion Is by Swami Vivekanand
Favourite comic strip: Tintin
Favourite fictional characters: Salvatore Giuliano (The Sicilian), Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)
Favourite Hindi movie: Deewar
Favourite English movie: The Bridge on the River Kwai
Favourite song: Noori Noori ... of course not! :-)
Favourite actor: Amitabh Bachchan
Favourite actress: Waheda Rehman? Nutan?
Favourite singer: Lata Mangeshkar
Favourite place: Myeong-Dong (in Seoul)
Favourite cities: Mumbai & London
Favourite season: Monsoon
Favourite sportsmen: V Anand, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar
Favourite sport: Chess
Favourite freedom fighter: Lokmanya Tilak
Favourite politician: Atal Bihari Vajapayee
Favourite world leader: Abraham Lincoln
Favourite historical figures: Adi Shankaracharya and Shivaji
Favourite business leader: Narayan Murthy
Favourite scientists: Einstein, Darwin

What are yours?

I love DST

A couple of weeks ago when I left office at around 5:30 p.m. there was still some natural light. Until a few weeks ago it would be pitch dark long before 5 p.m. I noticed how the days are getting longer and was glad to see the change.

This Sunday the clock was moved ahead by 1 hour. At 2 a.m. on Sunday the clock skipped an hour and moved to 3 a.m. We moved from Pacific Standard Time (PST = GMT - 8 hrs) to Pacific Date Time (PDT = GMT - 7 hrs). This means that we have natural light for one more hour in the evening. This is such a welcome change after cold and dark winter. Today there was natural light even at 7:30 p.m.

A few months ago I had met someone from Phoenix, Arizona, who said that DST was useless (Arizona is the only state in the US that does not observe DST). I didn't think so, but I didn't argue with him, because then I wasn't so sure about myself. But next time some says it, I will surely support Daylight Savings. It's such a useful concept. Why waste an hour of natural light at wee hours of the morning when we are fast asleep (or trying not to wake up despite the light), when we can use it to light our evenings. I love Daylight Savings Time.

A plane with a view

It was not a part of our itinerary. When we planned our trip to San Diego and Los Angeles, we planned to see Sea World, Universal, Hollywood, and Disney. We even considered visiting LegoLand, an idea that we eventually dropped. However we never thought of adding Mount Rainier on our itinerary. You would say, it's obvious that you won't be visiting Mount Rainier if you are travelling to southern California.

To our utter surprise and much joy, we saw the most unexpected view of Mount Rainier on our way to California! How? Here's how it happened. The Seattle sky was covered with clouds as usual. For a moment we could see nothing as the airplane pierced through the layer of clouds. When the plane was above the clouds all we could see were clouds all the way to the end of the horizon, and one more thing - a huge Mount Rainier standing tall above all. It was a good view, but there was more to come. As the plane moved ahead it went very close to Mount Rainier. A few minutes later we were just top of Mount Rainier to its North West.

Then the plane took a turn and cruised to the south of the peak. The view that we had of the peak of Mount Rainier from the top was one of them most amazing views I have ever had in my lifetime. Unfortunately I did not have my camera at hand, and the fasten seatbelt sign was on. So I couldn't capture the picture for you all to see.

The most interesting personal email I ever got

I am so pathetic at replying to friends' e-mails and returning calls that I often drive my friends crazy. Here's an example of a good old friend of mine who went mad at me.

---
From: My Friend <"my_friend@gmail.com">
Date: Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 4:50 AM
Subject: Congrats
To: Jayprakash Acharya <"me@gmail.com">

Dear Mr Jayprakash,

Congrats on your long journey from being a spectacular computer
engineer in an Indian MNC to top adviser to the Obama regime. I am
guessing by the lack of responses to my mails that you are actively
involved in battling the multi headed Hydra that is the current
financial mess. Infact its more difficult to get a response from you
than it is to contact Mr Obama.

I am confident that with such dedication napping at its heels the
financial issue is all but licked. Please accept my humble
congratulations again and do deign to respond at your earliest
convenience.

Thanks in advance for your valued response which shall be awaited with
bated breath and the right expression of fascination and awe.

warm regards
Real Name (aka Nickname)
---


My dear friend, you are amazing!

Monday musings

All things come to an end. My stay here will also come to an end some day not too far away.

One Oscar to Lagaan ...

This year's Oscars have been swept by Slumdog Millionaire. Earlier, there has been debate within India about this movie and how people reacted to it. Amitabh Bachchan in his blog had criticized the movie for showing India in bad light, but he was criticized by others for it. It is likely that the debate will be opened again. So, I would like to make my contribution to the debate by voicing my opinions.

Let me first begin by saying that the individuals (A.R.Rehman, Sampoorna Singh Gulzar, and the rest of the team) who delivered world-class performance need to be congratulated. No other team of Indians in the past has shown such a performance at the Oscars. So, kudos to them.

Now let's talk about the result of their work. The way the movie portrays India is not something that will make us proud. One might say that poverty is a reality in India and so there is nothing wrong in showcasing it to the world. Well, that's right. Poverty is a reality in India. It is only as much a reality as India's mission to moon or India's nuclear program or India's rise from a third-world country to a potential economic superpower within a short span of less than two decades. It is no more a reality than India being the largest market of mobile phone connections.

India has list of spectacular achievements and spectacular failures to its credit. What do we want the world to see and know about us? Our failures or successes? Things that make us proud or things that make us shamefaced? As individuals we have our short-comings and our achievements? Do you go around the world flaunting your weaknesses or your strengths? Why then should it be different for the nation?

Within the borders of our nation, let's talk about our poverty to the death. But why showcase it in international fora? Those who have worked on this movie haven't done anything wrong. But if we start glorifying them, it would not be right. We always knew that A.R.Rehman was a great music director. Was his music in Slumdog Millionaire better than that in Lagaan or Roja? Why did Slumdog Millionaire win Oscars, but not Lagaan or Roja?

Why does the western world fete only those creations that depict the poverty and degradation in our country? It's not just true about India, but it's true about the entire developing world. A couple of years back, the movie "Borat", which won several awards in the western world and was big commercial success, became a topic of debate in Kazakhstan, because it made mockery of the culture of Kazakhstan.

We should ponder whether anybody in Hollywood would ever make a movie on Virginia school shoot-out? If such a movie is ever made, will it ever win an Oscar, no matter how good the movie is? Will Americans go ga-ga over it?

Despite it's Oscar performance, Slumdog Millionaire is not something that would make us proud. We would have been proud if Lagaan or Roja would have won an Oscar. But we can't be proud of Slumdog Millionaire. That's why I believe that one Oscar to Lagaan would have been equal to a hundred Oscars to Slumdog Millionaire

Indian economy

Indian economy is in a bad state, and it's not just on account of global recession. Here's a good article by Bibek Debroy.

Oh! How I love these folks!

I love Congress party! These guys are amazing! The way they twist the system ... no one can beat them at that!

Buying MPs is dangerous and costly game. Why take the risks? Go to the root - buy the Election Commissioner himself. Then rule in peace for five more years!

I just love these folks!

Moved

We moved to a new apartment last weekend. The new apartment has lot of natural light. That changes the disposition for better.

What should be our response to Mumbai attacks - An excellent viewpoint

An excellent article on responding to terrorist attacks emanating from Pakistan. Thank you Jeffrey for sending this!

There are many (bitter) truths in this article. The words that I liked the most are:

... We should recognise that it is our war and nobody in the world is going to wage it on our behalf. What the Americans are thinking, or what the Britishers are going to do will not help. A determined country should have a sense of dignity and independence to fight its war.

A billion appeals to the rest of the world to brand Pakistan a terrorist state will not yield any fruit until we don't start treating it the way a terrorist state has to be dealt with.

How we forget to live