Manmohan Singh loses his clean image with 2G scam

Here's a good article on ExpressIndia website about 2G scam: PM’s ultimate humiliation

A wasted weekend?

There were several important tasks to be done this weekend, and I didn't do any of those. I was so bored that I just whiled away the weekend doing nothing. By Sunday evening I was bored to death. Finally, in the evening Poornima and I went out to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part I. That proved to be a silver lining to the otherwise dark weekend.

Deathly Hallows - Part I was a very engrossing movie. I am a fan of Harry Potter books. I haven't enjoyed each of the Harry Potter movies equally. I liked this one was better than most others. I am glad I watched it. It would have been even better if I had watched it in IMAX.

Journalists as "Dalals"

Bad web design - 2

I am quite sensitive to user-friendliness (or unfriendliness) of software, and of web pages in particular. I am really annoyed, when I come across poorly designed web pages. I find it very surprising that even popular websites that receive crores of hits everyday make some poor design decisions. For instance, let's look at the Amazon home page. It looks clean and convenient. However there are some annoying flaws in its design.

Let's say I want to buy eBooks for my Kindle. I will have to navigate to Kindle on the LHS pane, which would open up new menu options, and the click on eBooks.



The red line shows the natural path for my cursor to navigate from Kindle to eBooks. Unfortunately, that won't work. Because the moment cursor my crosses the line into Computers & Office, Kindle menu options would close and options for Computers & Office would open up. Ugh! :-( I will have to go back, and try to follow the green path. Unfortunately for me, following the green trajectory is not as easy as designers of Amazon like to believe. I keep crossing the line into Computers & Office, or Digital Downloads, with obvious results.

I once told a friend of mine who works at Amazon (and is involved in the design of their homepage) how irritating this is. He told me many users have complained about this and other quirky features on Amazon homepage, but the company is adamant about its design, and refuses to make changes. He also narrated that many people find the absence of Sign Out link confusing. Instead they have a Not user name link. Many users (including me) find this annoying. But it seems that Amazon has some ideological belief in support of it, and refuses to listen to its customers.

When do you switch off your car stereo?

If you have traveled in private buses in India you might have noticed this - the driver switches off music or video several minutes before reaching the destination. With entertainment switched off, those last few minutes of a tiring journey become even more restless. I had always wondered why they switch off the music too soon.

Recently I have observed that the car radio becomes extremely distracting in the last few minutes of my drive. My concentration and alertness are considerably increased if the radio is switched off before I reach my destination. Even when I am driving a very familiar route, like commuting home from office, I find that it makes a big difference to my concentration if I switch off the radio a few minutes before reaching home. It seems as if I have to make greater mental effort when I am close to my destination, than in the middle of my journey. I don't know why it is so. I also don't understand why I had never realized this earlier.

Have you also observed this?

And we danced to the stars!

I had a wonderful evening yesterday. I came home after a long day at work, so hectic that I had to skip lunch. After I had my dinner, when I learnt that Vedika had been unusually peevish that day, I thought it was time for us to have some well-deserved fun.

I switched off the lights in the room and switched on the new lamp we have bought that projected stars and moon on the ceiling and walls of the room. On iPod docking station we had playing Celine Dion's "A new day has come", and then Chris de Burgh's "Lady in Red". Then I held her in my arms and we danced to the music. And all the while she stared wide-eyed at the spectacle of stars all around us!!

At 8 weeks, Vedika is the most interesting person I have ever met in my life!

Less News from Times of India

About 8 months ago, I had written about not being to customize Google News to exclude news from bogus news sources. I had done some workarounds to achieve that. But I wished there were some easy way to do it.

Today, when I clicked on News Settings, I was delighted to see options to personalize Google to have more or less news from certain sources. It did not take me long to update and save my settings.

Quote for the day

Don't aim at success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run - in the long-run, I say! - success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.

- Viktor Frankl
Psychotherapist, Holocaust survivor, and author of Man's Search for Meaning

"Secularists" stoking fire

Swapan Dasgupta is one of few sensible intellectuals in our country. His articles are balanced, and well thought of, unlike those of the "secular" (read anti-Hindu) intellectuals of the country. It is on such sensible thinkers like Swapan that our hopes of Indian intelligentsia guiding the country on the right path of justice, peace, progress and self-respect rest.

The Sunday Pioneer published a good article by Swapan Dasgupta on how the "secular" intellectuals are whipping up Muslim passions against the High Court verdict. Instead of putting end to the dispute, the so-called secularists are stoking fire against a popular and reasonable verdict, which the common man - both Hindu and Muslim alike - has accepted peacefully.

Here is a brief excerpt from the excellent article:

For two days and courtesy some TV channels, the "secular" modernists attempted to whip up Muslim opinion against the judgement and use the community's apparent displeasure to force the Government into using its proverbial 'good offices' with the Supreme Court. The overall idea is to build up an intellectual climate so forceful that the Supreme Court would think it prudent to overturn the HC judgement.

Historic Ayodhya Verdict - time to construct and move on

Yesterday's historic verdict by Allahabad High Court on the Ramjanmabhoomi case should pave way for a process of reconciliation and construction of a temple on the birthplace of Lord Ram. Some Hindus might be disappointed by the decree to give away a third of the Ramjanmabhoomi land to Muslims. However, it would suit Hindus to be magnanimous at this point, and accept the verdict with an intent at rapprochement.

The verdict gives a feeling of justice being done to the case to the extent that it accepts the garbhgriha as the true birthplace of Lord Ram. It also asserts that the ASI research findings from the site conclusively prove that the disputed structure was built on top of a demolished Hindu temple.

Here are the key excerpts from the Ayodya verdict from the BBC website.

Here's how Ramjanmabhoomi will be divided:

The happiest day of my life!!

It was the happiest day of my life. Our cute little angel - Vedika - arrived, bringing with her indescribable joy to our lives! I had never imagined what an amazing feeling it would be to hold my little baby in my hands. I can look at her and talk to her for hours. And when I see her smile, it is a moment of ecstasy!

Akbar's harem

While browsing the internet, I came across an article that said that Akbar had about 5,000 wives! After my initial surprise, I did some research on internet, which led to the conclusion that this was probably true. The wikipedia article on Akbar (with a disclaimer stating "the neutrality of this article is disputed") mentions that Akbar had a harem, but does not mention its size. Most other websites agree that the number is around 5,000.

I don't remember my history textbook mentioning this fact about Akbar's life. That's quite understandable as Indian government is notorious for purporting bogus history, and glorifying those who committed atrocities against Hindus. Akbar was one such tyrant, who is fallaciously glorified in government published history text books.

Here's an article on Akbar, that you should read, and re-evaluate your beliefs about him. Here's another article that discusses Akbar's life and ends with the question: Why don't the Indian school texts give these details of Akbar, and what else are they hiding?

The Hindu Encyclopdia

I came across this interesting website: Hindupedia.com. It's an attempt at creating an encyclopedia on Hinduism.

Beautiful Seattle Photos!

Last weekend we went Alki Beach. It was very sunny, with temperature of around 25 degrees centigrade - beautiful weather to be on a beach. I shot some cool pictures of Seattle skyline. Here are a couple of them.

Seattle Downtown Skyline (click to enlarge)

Seattle Space Needle (click to enlarge)

World's largest economies

Did you know that India's economy is larger than that of Russia? I was surprised to know that. India's economy (measured in terms of nominal GDP) is larger than that of Russia, but smaller than Spain, Brazil and Canada. Check out the list of top economies of the world in 2009.

US GDP is bigger than the GDPs of next three nations put together! Japan was number 2 until last month. In August China pipped Japan to become the second largest economy for the first time. India's GDP is about 1,200 billion USD, approximatly 55,000 billion INR.

Amazing football goals

Here's a good collection of clips of extraordinary football goals. And the HD effect is really amazing! Jump ahead and ignore the first 50-odd seconds of the clip.

Something to write about - my favourite movies of 2009-10

After writing post titled Nothing to write about, I thought for sometime, and remembered something to write about. Something that I wanted to write about for a long time, but kept forgetting to write. I wanted to write about the best movies I saw in last one year. And here it goes.

I saw quite a few movies in last one year. Let me recollect the names - The Last Emperor, Driving Miss Daisy, The Pursuit of Happyness, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Chariots of Fire, One who Flew over Cuckoo's Nest, Three Idiots (Hindi), I Hate Luv Stories (Hindi), Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani (Hindi), Avatar, Up in the Air, Night at the Museum II. These are the ones I could remember right now. There might be other movies that I don't remember right now. However, it doesn't matter, because if I don't remember, they are probably not the best ones.

The top 3 movies that I enjoyed the most were:

1. Chariots of fire

2. The pursuit of happyness

3. The last emperor

Chariots of fire was best movie of all and the biggest surprise of all, because I had never heard of the movie before. It's a well-deserved winner of four Oscars, including the Best Picture, at 1982 Academy Awards. The amazing true story depicts the "fire within" of two British athletes (Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams), who go to 1924 Olympics at Paris to win two Golds for their country. It's a engrossing story of triumphs and tribulations of the two Cambridge students, whose crisscrossing paths cause them to confront each other at times and collaborate at other times.

Nothing to write about

Not sure what to write about.

I watched TV

What's in it to write about, you might ask. We all watch TV, everyday, don't we? Yes and no. Most people watch TV, everyday. Most, but not all. There are few like me, who have given it up almost altogether. In last 7 years, I have spent more time brushing my teeth, or tying my shoelaces, than watching TV. I get my news on the Net. There is little else of value on TV. Yes, I know, there is that one amazing serial that you are so fond of! But for me to figure out when and where it is aired, would be like searching a needle in a haystack. Easier it is to give the remote a pass.

On Saturday, however, I purposefully watched TV, just to give myself a break from it all. I watched Dominick and Eugene, which turned out to be a decent movie. Kind of drama that I love to watch - about people and relationships, plausible and realistic. It's a story about two brothers - Nick, who is mentally retarded, and drives a garbage truck to earn money to send his brother Eugene to medical school. I not a must-watch movie, but it did entertain me enough to keep me glued in front of the idiot box for an hour and fifty minutes - not a bad achievement, I would say.

Resolving the Kashmir Imbroglio

Even as the clueless Manmohan Singh government refuses to concede that it has failed in its primary duty to maintain law and order in the country, the only sensible reaction to the relentless violence in Kashmir has come from Maninderjeet Singh Bitta, chairman of the All-India Anti-Terrorist Front (AIATF), and former chief of the Youth Congress.

In his statement Bitta has:

• opposed a special package as that would amount to conceding victory to militants
• asked for abrogation of Article 370, which confers special status on Jammu and Kashmir
• felt that governments were more worried about rehabilitating the militants than providing relief to the Kashmiri pandits
• disapproved of the India-Pakistan talks, and
• urged government to press USA, UK and Russia to declare Pakistan a terrorist state

It is rare that we see such sensible suggestions from either intellectuals or politicians, big or small. The fate of Kashmir problem is sealed with Article 370. No lasting peace in Kashmir is possible until Article 370 is abolished. The earlier India develops gumption to accept this fact, more likely Kashmir issue will be solved, and lasting peace be established.

Our New Digital Camera with "Intelligent Face Detector"

We decided to buy a new camera last November. After our initial research, we shortlisted two cameras - Canon Powershot SX 20 IS and Panasonic Lumix FZ-35/38. The two models are top-selling non-SLR digital megazoom cameras of the day. As we soon learnt, the choice between the two is a difficult one. There are many forums on internet where people have vented their frustration at not being able to decide which one of these two cameras should they buy. Each camera has its pluses and minuses.

Canon is the leading brand in digital cameras. Powershot SX 20 IS has 20X zoom. It supports 12 megapixel resolution, and has quick autofocus. To top it all it has fully articulate LCD display, which many consider an extremely handy feature. Panasonic FZ-35, on the other hand, has a close 18X zoom, and 12 megapixel resolution. Its major drawback is it's fixed LCD display. To its advantage, it has a better image stabilization. It is considerably lighter (~420 gms, in comparison to ~680 gms for Canon SX 20). And it has excellent performance in conditions of low light - an area where it beats Canon hands-down.

All in all, it was a difficult choice to make. We agonized over it for several months. Finally, one day I said enough was enough. We had to buy one of the two cameras that day. After another agonizing hour or two at Fry's, we bought Panasonic Lumix!

I have posted several photos taken from our new camera on this blog (see below - Chicago and Hawaii). The camera has lived up to our expectations. Although we were satisfied with Panasonic's performance, the thoughts of how life would have been with Canon continued to bother us.

The ghost of the torment of the decision to buy Panasonic continued to haunt us. It returned again and again to vex us. However, when we saw this advertisement for Panasonic Lumix with "Intelligent Face Detector", it was finally buried once and for all. The moment we saw the ad, all our doubts vanished. We had made the right choice. No other camera would have suited us better this day than Panasonic Lumix!!

"Panasonic Lumix - with Intelligent Face Detector"

My razor journey

I was never a big fan of hi-tech shaving razors. Until I finished my B-school, I generally used double-sided razor blades (remember Supermax?!) and a basic plastic case to hold the blade. I had tried Gillette Presto a few times in my college days (do you recall the famous "saTaa-saT vaah!" ad showing a young boy and his dad trying out the newly introduced twin-blade shaving razor). When I started working after completing my B-school, I felt I should move up to a good quality razor and purchased Gillette Sensor Excel. Although I felt that the cartridges were too costly (at about Rs. 40 each?), I loved using it. Until last year, when I lost the razor handle, and I was left with a box of cartridges without the handle. I scoured several stores in search of Sensor Excel handles, but couldn't find one. In the meantime, I purchased a bunch of use-and-throw razors and used those for a few months.

Last week, finally I gave up my search for Sensor Excel, and decided to buy a new razor. After considering options at Fred Meyer, I finally decided to go with Gillette's latest introduction - Fusion ProGlide. I bought it a bit grudgingly - like Sensor Excel, I felt Fusion ProGlide was a bit too pricey. However, the moment I used it, I was pleasantly surprised; I would say, I was almost stunned! The shave was too smooth! More importantly, I didn't feel that I had shaved. There was absolutely no scratching of the skin. I could almost throw away the after-shave, because with Fusion ProGlide, after-shave is redundant! When I bought the razor, I thought that the 5+1 blades of Fusion were just a marketing gimmick. "They are just adding more and more blades to the razor 'system' hoping to impress consumers. But the trick won't work on me", I thought. But after using it, I am willing to admit that it seems that it (I mean, the razor, not the trick) does work, and it (again, razor) works better.

Now that I am thoroughly impressed by Fusion ProGlide, and will be happy to shell out unjustifiably exorbitant price for the cartridges, I am still pondering over the oft-asked question, "should it cost a world for Gillette to develop a new razor"? Reportedly, Gillette spent $750 million in developing Mach3. R&D costs for Fusion would be on similar scale. No matter how good it is, is such expenditure to modify a petty shaving razor justifiable? I have no answer.

myaanaatun usaLe

No matter how far we are from our country, we are never far away from the memories of our great nation. No matter how long we stay away from our motherland, the memories of those great men, who have inspired generations, are always with us. The songs that narrate the heroic feats of our fathers, visit our hearts ever so frequently, and remind us that we are inheritors of a great courageous legacy. Here's the lyrics and audio of one such favourite song of all of us:

म्यानातून उसळे तलवारीची पात (listen here)

म्यानातून उसळे तलवारीची पात 

वेडात मराठे वीर दौडले सात 

ते फिरता बाजूस डोळे, किंचित ओले 

सरदार सहा सरसावुनि उठले शेले 

रिकबीत टाकले पाय, झेलले भाले 

उसळले धुळीचे मेघ सात निमिषात  

आश्चर्यमुग्ध टाकून मागुती सेना 

अपमान बुजविण्या सात अर्पुनी माना 

छावणीत शिरले थेट भेट गनिमांना 

कोसळल्या उल्का जळत सात दर्यात  

खालून आग, वर आग, आग बाजूंनी 

समशेर उसळली सहस्त्र क्रुर इमानी 

गदीर्त लोपले सात जीव ते मानी 

खग सात जळाले अभिमानी वणव्यात  

दगडावर दिसतील अजूनि तेथल्या टाचा 

ओढयात तरंगे अजूनि रंग रक्ताचा 

क्षितिजावर उठतो अजूनि मेघ मातीचा 

अद्याप विराणी कुणी वार्‍यावर गात

Lyrics taken from: गीता मंजुषा

Top link on Google - a pleasant surprise!

To be displayed among top three links on a Google search - isn't that something! If you search "Chicago snaps" on Google images, the top three images displayed are from my blogsite!

A few days back I noticed that my blog is getting increasing number of hits from Chicago. That piqued me. I wondered whether it was due to new friends I made on my visit to Chicago in April. But I wasn't convinced. Then I speculated whether Google is directing people from Chicago to my site. That sounded intriguing. I scrolled down my blog to see what could be causing it. When saw my blog entry on April 12th, titled Some Chicago Snaps, it clicked. Immediately, I opened another tab and searched for "Chicago snaps" on Google. Bang! Right there, I could see that the top 3 images were from my blogsite!

Quote for the day

Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.

- Muhammad Ali

A walk down the memory lane

Today, I landed on Spring road in Ipswich, UK, and walked up and down the street until I reached the front of the house we stayed in 2006-07.

Hey, no! I am not on a tour of England. I am sitting at my house in Seattle! I am just looking at Google maps. Google maps is getting better every day.

Sitting at home, I could virtually walk on a road in UK. I could zoom in on the house, and see the the "For Sale" board in front of the house. Frasers Estate Agents Ltd, Queen Street, Ipswich, have put it up from sale. It seems they took it over from Paul West, the estate agent who dealt with the property when we were there. One fine guy he was - Paul West, unlike most of the real estate agents we met during our stay in Ipswich.

The house might have already been sold off, because what we see on Google maps is not a real-time image. We don't know when the photo was taken. Only thing we can tell is that the photo was taken on a Wednesday - it is evident from the the black garbage bin brought out from the backyard to the front of the house.

I wished I could walk up to the house and knock on the door, or take a peek inside! :-)

A satire too good!

Read this one: It's nobody's fault. Too good!!

An Article - India's Democracy Weakened

An excellent article on how the evil nexus between politicians, bureaucracy and judiciary to protect the interests of the rich and the powerful has weakened Indian democracy.

Dr. यमराज !

"Hi there! Pleased to meet you. I am यमराज. And I will take care of you." Not the kind of words, one would be "dying" to hear! When I was ill last week, these were the words said to me, almost. Here's how it happened.

I had slight cough, cold and fever last Thursday. So I took a day off from work and rested. I felt much better on Friday, and I went to office. In the evening I had dinner at a friend's place. I was feeling just fine when I went to bed that night. But when I woke up next morning, I was in terrible pain. I was having difficulty swallowing, and my throat pained like hell. The first thing I did was to call my doctor's clinic. The receptionist told that my doctor was not in clinic that day, but someone else can look at me, if I were okay with that. The situation I was in, I wouldn't have mind visiting a vet! I instantly agreed to visit the other doctor and took an appointment. (Getting a doctor's appointment on the same day in US - that's a miracle. I was lucky, I thought!)

A couple of hours later, I was in the doctor's clinic. The nurse measured my weight and checked my blood pressure. I waited for the doctor. Then suddenly a young fellow in white suit entered the room, shook my hand, and said, "I am Dr. यम. I will take care of you. How are you feeling?" "I was feeling good. Though I am not so sure of it now", I said to myself!

Serendipity!

I made a serendipitous discovery of 39 episodes of Malgudi Days on www.malgudidays.net. I watched the first episode in which Swami becomes the hero of the town.

Malgudi Days was unarguably one of the best TV serials in India. When I think about programs like Malgudi Days, I miss the good old days of Doordarshan.

We did not have 24-hr TV back then. But boy, did we have quality! And to contrast it with the junk saas-bahu crap and plotted "reality" shows of today, makes us so nostalgic. Isn't that so? Well, if you wish to relive that nostalgia, you can go here - ddnational.blogspot.com.

Measuring distances in a jiffy!

How would you like it if you were able to tell the exact distance between any two places in your city without referring to any map? Won't that be very convenient? I have discovered a way to do just that. It works most of the time, and it is very easy. Here's how it goes.

Most of the roads in Bellevue are either North-South or East-West. North-South roads are called Avenues and East-West roads are named Streets. The roads are numbered in sequence, for e.g. 148th Ave NE or NE 12th St. Every increase or decrease in a count implies a distance of 100 meters. That is, the distance between 148th Ave NE and (its adjacent avenue) 140th Ave NE is (148-140)*100=800 meters. Once you know this simple fact, finding distances is simple arithmetic. For e.g. distance between Crossroads mall (junction of 156th Ave NE and NE 8th St) and Bellevue Square mall (104th Ave NE & NE 4th St) would be: (156-104)*100 + (8-4)*100 = 5,200 + 400 = 5,600 meters = 5.6 kms. Now, isn't that easy?

When 10,000 Indians die, what does our Prime Minister do?

Dec 3, 1984:

Over 10,000 people die of methyl isocyanate leaked from Union Carbide factory in Bhopal. Over 5 lakh people affected.

Dec 7, 1984:

Union Carbide CEO, Warren Anderson charged with manslaughter, arrested and released on bail.

Warren Anderson flies from Bhopal to Delhi on Congress I Chief Minister Arjun Singh's aircraft and flees India at Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's connivance.

Shame on our nation :-O :-( :_(

Indian Express: Crisis manager confirms: Arjun ordered release, at Rajiv behest

Hindustan Times: Rajiv Gandhi was involved in Anderson's release: former principal secy, CIA

Times of India: Rajiv govt bailed out Anderson: CIA note

Press Trust of India: Rajiv Gandhi government at Centre hastened release of Anderson: CIA document

Press Trust of India: Rajiv may have had role in Anderson's fleeing: Alexander

India Today: Rajiv decided to let Anderson go, hints PC Alexander

The Pioneer: Centre helped Anderson: CIA

Central Chronicle: Alexander, CIA see Rajiv's role

Late and tired

It's late and I am tired. Tomorrow's productivity at work might be affected due to lack of sleep tonight. Nothing new, of course. How long can we IT professionals go on this way? What should we do to overcome this sick work culture? I hope and try, but rarely succeed. And I have no hope of achieving that in near future. :-(

Yet another good editorial

Here is another good editorial from The Hindu. A few days back The Hindu had analyzed the arithmetic of Lok Sabha and the behaviour of Central Government inside the Parliament. Today's editorial analyzes the Government's actions and policies outside the House, as the government completes one vain year in office.

The best of our friends and the worst our enemies

Today I was contemplating about the necessity of having more steadiness of mind, and what I should do to develop greater equanimity. Then I opened my diary to pen down my thoughts. As I turned the pages and opened today's page, it had this verse from Hinduism's greatest gift to mankind - the Bhavadgita:

बन्धुरात्मात्मनस्तस्य येनात्मैवात्मना जितः|
अनात्मनस्तु शत्रुत्वे वर्तेतात्मैव शत्रुवत् ||

Chapter 6, Verse 6.

"For one who has controlled the mind, it is the best of friends, but for one who has failed to do so, it remains the greatest enemy."

What an apt quotation for the mood of the day!! It is such coincidences that makes one think that God exists and is every present to guide us!

"Artificial" life has arrived!

This news from The Wall Street Journal just left me dumbstruck!

Scientists Create Synthetic Organism!!

The news is so overwhelming, I am almost numb! It is difficult to say what should be the right reaction to this event.

The debate about cloning and genetic research has been raging along for quite some time now. With new developments taking place in genetic research, this news was bound to come. But I had not expected it to arrive so soon. Subconsciously, I had assumed it would take several decades, if not a century or two, for man to achieve this. So, reading this news was indeed stunning.

I was stunning in both positive and negative ways. On the positive side it opens limitless possibilities for the benefit of mankind. For e.g., the article mentions a possibility of creation of artificial algae that would convert carbon dioxide from atmosphere in to fuel. Million other possibilities would open up. However, at the same time, there will be perils more than one could imagine today. My mind shudders at the thought of epidemics of artificially created micro-organisms.

Every development that man has made has been put to good and evil uses. So doubtlessly, the invention of "artificial life" will also have it's evil effects - unintentional and intentional. And mankind has to be prepared for it. For the march of science cannot be halted - even if brings with it possibilities of annihilation.

An excellent analysis of state of affairs of UPA government

Here is a very good analysis of the numbers position in the Lok Sabha, and the condition of present government at the Centre . As usual, The Hindu's slight leftward tilt is perceptible in the article. Yet, on the whole, it is a very fair analysis.

Maharashtra tops in over 2 lakh farmer suicides in India

Close to 2 lakh farmers have committed suicide in India in last 12 years. Maharashtra topped the chart for highest number of farmers committing suicide. It is deplorable that the Congress governments, both at center and state, remain apathetic to such a grievous situation in which the poor peasants in our country live.

Right to Information Act

A good article on how Right to Information Act is helping citizens keep a tab on the government.

Here's a related article on how the government is trying to blunt it.

It is important that RTI isn't weakened. Especially the current UPA government, which has put India among the top nations requesting google to censor internet data.

The Next Blog is not random

Most blogs on Blogspot display a "Next Blog" link on the top of the page. I have often browsed blogs using the "Next Blog" link. Successive clicks on Next Blog would throw up random blogs from across the world. It seems that blogspot has modified this feature and put some intelligence behind which blog to show next. Today, every click on "Next Blog" brought up another blog from India. And most of the blogs that came up where quite interesting. For instance, one the blogs was from a journalist reporting from Manipur.

I keep myself current on happenings in India - especially about political events. So I was surprised how little I knew about happenings in Manipur! Like, in Dec-09, it was reported that all schools in the state have been shut for more than four months! That's shocking - and news like these are hardly reported in our media.

Hawaiian Sunset

Shot at Kekaha beach, Kauai, from my new Panasonic Lumix FZ-35/38.

Quote for the day

Nothing is worth doing wrong for ... because nothing is ever so good as it seems.
- Nancy Lammeter in George Eliot's Silas Marner

Seattle skyline

New blog on SCM & PM

I have started writing a new blog on Supply Chain Management and Project Management to share my knowledge of the two subjects.

Some Chicago snaps

Here are some snaps of Chicago. The first one is view of Lake Shore Dr taken from Hancock Tower. The second snap is also taken from Hancock Tower. The third photo is of Cloud Gate in Millenium Park.

Chicago!!

We reached Chicago this evening. In the evening we visited John Hancock Observatory. It's a 94th floor observatory with an amazing view of downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan! I will post some photos I took with our new Panasonic FZ-35.

Chicago seems to be an amazing place! So lively! So full of energy! In contrast to sleepy (not sleepless) Seattle! I just love these big and fast cities. After all I am a Mumbaikar to my core!

Quote for the day

All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.

- Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)

A Beautiful Rainbow

A couple of weeks ago we saw a beautiful rainbow from our bedroom window. I quickly grabbed the camera and took a few shots. Here's one of them:

Amazing video!

Watch this most amazing acrobatics performance!

It's difficult to say which feat is the best. I liked the stunt at 3:56, when the topmost boy on the right of the screen jumps up in air and another takes his place, just before the boy in the air falls down and stands on the shoulder of the newcomer.

The Amazing History of the Battle of Pratapgad!

It's a long time since a great movie like Gladiator has been released. I love to watch the battle of Germania scene from Gladiator. It watched it a few times today. Then I watched this interesting re-creation of the battle of Stirling Bridge. The battle of Stirling Bridge is one of the most memorable battles in first war of Scottish independence. On September 11, 1297, Scottish forces led by William Wallace trounced the English, although the Scots were outnumbered 1:4!

The history of battle of Stirling Bridge, reminded me of a slide show on the battle of Pratapgad prepared by a retired school teacher in Mahabaleshwar. The slide show was one of the most interesting experiences on my pilgrimage to Pratapgad in 2001. Like the Scots, Shivaji's forces were heavily outnumbered by Afzal Khan's strong army. The slide show narrated the incredible rout of Afzal Khan's army at the hands of Shivaji's Mavalas. Here's a brief excerpt of the story of Pratapgad from wikipedia:

Battle
After starting from Bijapur, Afzal Khan began by destroying the temple of Bhavani at Tuljapur. He moved on to the Vittal temple at Pandharpur. He was trying to entice Shivaji out of the mountainous areas he occupied and onto the plains.
Hand to hand combat of the forces
Maratha troops commanded by Shivaji's captain Kanhoji Jedhe, swept down on Afzal Khan's 1,500 musketeers; resulting in a complete rout of the musketeers at the foothills of the fort. Then in a rapid march, a section of Adilshahi forces commanded by Musekhan was attacked. Musekhan, Afzal Khan's lieutenant, was wounded and subsequently fled the field.

Meanwhile, Moropant led the Maratha infantry toward the left flank of Adilshahi troops. The suddenness of this attack on Afzal Khan's artillery at close quarters made them ineffective in providing artillery cover for the main portion of their troops. And as a result of this the rest of their troops rapidly succumbed to an all out Maratha attack. Simultaneously Shivaji's Sardar (captain), Ragho Atre's cavalry units swooped down and attacked the large but unprepared Adilshahi cavalry before they were able to be fully geared up for battle and succeeded in completely routing them in short order.

The Maratha cavalry under Netaji Palkar pursued the retreating Adilshahi forces, who were attempting to join up with the part of their reserve forces stationed in the nearby village of Wai. They were engaged in battle before they could regroup and were defeated prior to reaching Wai. The Adilshahi forces not withstanding the onslaught of the Marathas started retreating towards Bijapur. The Maratha army chased the retreating army and on their way captured 23 Adilshahi forts. In fact, the Adilshahi Killedar of the Kolhapur fort himself handed over the keys to the Marathas.
Aftermath
Adilshahi forces lost their artillery, 65 elephants, 4000 horses, 1200 camels, jewels worth 300,000 Rupees, 1,000,000 Rupees, heaps of precious cloths, tents to the Marathas. They also lost their money and grain stored at Wai. 5,000 Adilshahi soldiers were killed and almost as many were wounded. 3,000 soldiers were imprisoned, and the remainder were allowed to go home in defeat.

The battle of Pratapgad took place on November 10, 1659. It marked the beginning of the end for Adilshahi and laid the foundation of benign rule of Shivaji, and eventual independence of our nation from tyrannical foreign rulers.

Good article on China

Here's a good article on China in Supply Chain Digest.

Read it and let me know your views.

Inflation in India

How to park a bicycle - method #132

Swimming and (no) sauna

I went swimming after a long time. I couldn't do sauna as I had to return back home quickly for my daily call with my team member working in India. Daily official calls are getting longer these days. Work is getting more hectic.

By the way, wet sauna is my latest discovery. It's a new addition to things I enjoy. 24-Hour Fitness Center, where I go swimming, has sauna rooms and jacuzzi, besides the pool. I had tried jacuzzi long time ago and enjoyed it. But for some reason I didn't try sauna for a long time. Once I tried the dry sauna, but I didn't like it so much. For long I didn't try wet sauna. Only recently I tried it.

I loved it the moment I stepped inside the wet sauna room. It was so hot and humid that I started sweating the moment I stepped in! It felt so much like home!! :-) I often say to Poornima that my definition of cold weather is when you are not sweating! When you are sweating, it's normal temperature! After all, I am from Mumbai!

I am wierd - I miss sweating, just as I miss noisy places! Mumbai does that to you.

Of Snakes and Dinosaurs!

Three large dinosaur eggs besides a river. One hatches and an infant dinosaur pops out. A snake, three and a half meeters long, encircles the hatched egg to make a meal out of the new born dinosaur. A storm blows and drowns the the snake and the dinosaur in debris of mud, causing instant death for both. There their bodies remain for next 6 crore 70 lakh years. Then one fine day someone discovers the two caracasses and the two unbroken eggs of species extinct long long ago. What an amazing discovery it would be!!

Customizing Google News

I am a great fan of Google. Google comes up with great products. However, in some instances they seem to be refusing adding simple features that people really need.

I use Google News to read news from different sources. Google news is a decent news aggregator. However there is one feature that readers across the world are craving for. The feature is to exclude news from a specific news sources in search results. If you google something like "google news exclude source", you'll find this issue being discussed in hundreds of forums. There is even a place where you can recommend this feature to google. I am sure hundreds of thousands of people would have recommended this feature. And it's a feature easy to implement. I don't know what's keeping Google from implementing it.

There are roundabout ways to achieve it. Someone suggested making changes to some Windows OS hidden files to block content from specific websites. Other simpler suggestions are like creating custom section with search string containing '-, for e.g. '-indiatimes.com'. I am trying that out. Let me see how effective it is. But it is really annoying that Google doesn't provide a easy way of doing it. For instance, why doesn't it allow customizing standard sections to filter out news from bogus sources, such as Times of India. Seeing news from from Times of India on my Google News page makes me sick.

Google Chrome, Google Buzz & Google Desktop

I have installed Google Chrome on my laptop. After getting used to Chrome, I find IE extremely awkward to work with.

Google, however, seem to have made a faux pas, the way they rolled out Buzz. There are several privacy issues that gmail users are facing due to not knowing enough about the features of Buzz and default settings decided by Google for Buzz.

Some years back Google had launched Google Desktop - a tool that allowed users to search the contents of their PCs, the way they search content on internet. Google desktop died because of privacy issues with it. (I had installed Google Desktop on my laptop, but uninstalled it when I realized that it searched and displayed contents of password protected file to anybody having access to my laptop).

Asia-Pacific Dance Show

Yesterday we attended Asia Pacific Cultural Center's new year celebration. There were going to a music and dance show. In the morning I said to Poornima, "I won't enjoy it. But I will come with you since you'll like it. You can also meet all your friends". Poornima was supposed to participating in a couple of dance sequences, but had to opt out. After extracting a promise from Poornima not to mind if I stole a few catnaps while the show was in progress, we set. I even took the liberty of sitting in the passenger's seat instead of driver's, and playing music of my choice (as if to compensate for the "sacrifice" I was making!) This year APCC had chosen to portray Indian culture. First half of the day was dedicated to Indian music and dance, and second half was kept aside for other countries.

When we reached there Indian instrumental music was being played. I love the sound of santoor. Needless to say, I loved the performance. Dance performances were scheduled after the music. Dance performances were divided into three parts. First they had classical dances - Bharatnatyam, Oddissi, Katthak, etc. That was followed by folk dances from different parts of India. And finally contemporary Bollywood dance.

Curiously, I loved the classical dances, especially the Oddissi performace was amazing. So was the jugalbandi between Katthak and Bharatnatyam. The folk dances where not bad either (I missed Bengali folk dance, but got to see Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Marathi, Tamil and Panjabi). It was good to hear Dhagaalaa laagalee kaLa (however the dance on that could have been better). In the Bollywood section, jugalbandi between Bollywood dance and Bharatnatyam was interesting.

After Indian dances, performances from other Asia-Pacific countries were presented. The first was Tearama te Fare O Tamatoa from Tahiti. Tahitian music was amazing - it was like war drums beating at a very fast pace. As far as Tahitian dance is concerned, I reserve my comments on it (search youtube for "Tahiti dance coconut bra" and you'll get a sample of what it was like!) The Chinese troupe presented a beautiful dance by Chinese farm girls reaping harvest. Some of the Japanese dances were also entertaining. We were among the last Indians to leave, although we didn't wait till the end of the show.

Overall it was a very good entertaining day (even for me). I think the best dance of the day was the jugalbandi between Katthak and Bharatnatyam, which brought out the subtle similarities and differences between the two dances very distinctly and beautifully.

An appeal to stay calm

The most ridiculous reaction to (probably the first) bomb blast in Pune was from Pune's Congress MP Suresh Kalamadi, who "appealed to the people of Pune to be calm". India's problem is not that people become agitated by terrorism. Our problem is that ordinary citizens care less about terrorism. "It is neighbour's daughter, who died in the terrorist attack, not mine. Thank God! Now, let me get back to what I was doing" - that's the kind of attitude most Indians show towards terrorism. They are too busy on their jobs and their shopping that they neither have any time nor do they care for anything else.

We don't need people to remain calm. We need people to raise in rage against those people who are condoning and abetting terrorism. We must stop electing (and re-electing) politicians and political parties who overlook or tacitly support terrorism. Newspapers (such as Times of India) who create sympathy for terrorists and terrorism-sponsoring Pakistan should be burned. And we need to slap the so-called celebrities who have more sympathy for Pakistanis than for Indian victims of terrorism.

Impressive Super Bowl Ads

Interesting Google SuperBowl ad.

And here's one from Coca Cola

Second "reading" of Silas Marner

Last week I listened to book on CD Silas Marnar while driving to office. It was a good adaptation of George Elliot's literary masterpiece. I had read the book just after I had quit my first job and before my B-school started. It's a very poignant tale of an old blind weaver who is transformed by his love for an orphaned child, whom he takes in his care and brings her up. Good old Sesha had given it to me to read.

As I heard the story I was constantly reminded of Seshagiri. It's more than a decade, I have met or spoken with him. Recently I heard that he is in Hyderabad. I hope he is doing well, and I wish that I see him sometime. Of course, if we meet we won't play chess. He was always a better play than I (I vaguely remember he bet me in the final game of MBT chess championship, or was it a draw?). Given I am so out of touch (with chess) that our game would be totally one sided.

An interesting resume

While browsing LinkedIn, I came across this extra-ordinary gentleman with about 14 years of work experience. Here's summary of his stints on different jobs!

Job 1: May 1996 – February 1998 (1 year 10 months)

Job 2: March 1998 – June 1998 ( 4 months)

Job 3: August 1998 – July 1999 (1 year)

Job 4: August 1999 – April 2000 ( 9 months)

Job 5: May 2000 – October 2000 ( 6 months)

Job 6: November 2000 – January 2002 (1 year 3 months)

Job 7: April 2002 – September 2003 (1 year 6 months)

Job 8: September 2003 – September 2003 (1 month)

Job 9: September 2003 – November 2004 (1 year 3 months)

Job 10: November 2004 – April 2005 ( 6 months)

Job 11: April 2005 – July 2005 ( 4 months)

Job 12: July 2005 – April 2006 ( 10 months)

Job 13: April 2006 – February 2007 ( 11 months)

Job 14: February 2007 – September 2007 ( 8 months)

Job 15: October 2007 – April 2008 ( 7 months)

Job 16: May 2008 – August 2008 ( 4 months)

Job 17: August 2008 – November 2008 ( 4 months)

Job 18: December 2008 – March 2009 ( 4 months)

Job 19: May 2009 – Present ( 9 months)

He is probably looking for a change right now. Do let me know if you would like to hire him!

How often do I blog?

It was interesting for me to note my blogging statistics. 299 blog entries in 6 years. Close to 50 entries every year or 1 entry per week. I was very active in the first two years; then there was a lull for three years; finally, last year was an average year when it came to how frequently I blogged.

JDA completes acquisition of i2

The deal that fell through last year was finally closed this time. According to industry experts
JDA's acquisition of i2 would create a tremendous positive synergies for the two companies - i2 being strong in hi-tech and discrete manufacturing, and JDA in retail. It would create exciting opportunities for both the companies, with a combined customer base of over 6,000! It would be really good if i2's fortunes revive. i2 deserves to be a leader in SCM space. Let's hope things go well from here.

A good start to a new year

I don't party too much on new year's eve. After several years, it was a very enjoyable new year's eve this time. We saw Avatar in 3D IMAX at Pacific Science Center. The IMAX theater at Pacific Science Center is the largest IMAX in the world, with the screen as tall as a six storey building! It has 12,000 W of digital surround stereo. Although we were not the first to enter the auditorium, we were lucky to get seats exactly in the center.

The movie is a good, especially in 3D. Must see once. Generally I dislike sci-fi movies, movies on aliens with non-anthromorphic creatures. However, I enjoyed Avatar because it has extraordinary animation. The plot is decent, not great. 3D IMAX experience at Pacific Science Center is great!

After the movie we just hung around at Seattle Space Needle and saw new year's fireworks at the space needle. We got a good place to sit and eat aaloo paraThas that we had packed. The fireworks were short (about 8 minutes), but splendid.

On the whole it was a very enjoyable new year's eve. It reminded us of new year's eve of 2006, when we were in London. We had watched fireworks at London Eye.

Happy New Year!!

Wish you a very happy, prosperous and successful new year 2010!!