Reading

What am I reading these days - John Grisham's Playing for Pizza....
though I better be reading Rita Mulcahy's PMP Prep Guide!

Loose English

People often confuse between similar sounding words while talking or writing. We often see people incorrectly using ‘there’ in place of ‘their’ or ‘your’ in place of ‘you are’, etc. However, I haven’t seen any other word used incorrectly, more frequently than the word ‘loose’. I have seen people using the word ‘loose’ in place of ‘lose’ in personal emails, official emails, word documents; and today I saw it incorrectly used in Oracle User Guide.

Support the troops

Not so frequent this time around, however, when I visited the US in the fall of 2005, I frequently saw cars inscribed with message "Support the troups". Even then the US was fighting the war in Iraq. Ordinary Americans know well that often we can do very little for those who are risking their lives and fighting for us on the frontlines, except for providing them moral support. We, the people of India (belonging to religions) should give our moral support to the determined fightback being given by the Hindus of Jammu to long established policy of our governments of giving in to demands of Muslim seperatists and fundamentalists in Kashmir.

The lost inspiration

Where is the belief that made me wise?
Where is the inspiration that made me rise?
Where is the belief that defied the reality?
Where is the inspiration that delivered victory?

Where is the belief that made pain bearable at least?
Where is the inspiration that killed the beast?
Where is the belief that made this life worth the fight?
Where is the inspiration that made each dark day bright?

"Child, I led you this far. Now you go alone", are these words real?
Oh God! Say that not to me for I am still not able
How do I lead myself to inspiration?
When lost is the desire for salvation

Losing Trust & Confidence

Don Manmohan Singh and his gang of thugs took Indian democracy to a new low with most blatant use of bribery to stay in power. The whole thing was so shamelessly open that people are stunned to silence. This corrupt Congress government of crooks has lost whatever little moral right it had to rule the country.

Taller than the Statue of Liberty

The tallest of them all!!

Stop this!

Stop these unethical conversions. And preserve our culture and the integrity of our nation.

My nieces - Monu & Sonu

Monu on her baarasa.

Chocolate bones for loyal dogs!!

Political masters throw bones to their loyal dogs.

Lies about the man who stood for truth

“Right from 1948, I have been saying Gandhiji did not utter a word when he died. But no one listened to me. Tushar Gandhi has not even seen his great grandfather. How can he say that Gandhi said ‘Hey Ram’ while dying?” wondered Kalyanam. “While Gandhiji had repeatedly said that his wish was to die uttering the name of Lord Ram, that was not to be. He could not say a word when he was hit by the bullets,” added Kalyanam, Gandhiji's personal secretary, who was standing right behind Gandhiji on that fateful day.

Read the complete article: Mahatma did not utter a word when shot: personal secy

Wasn't it Nehru & his gang who perpetuated such lies about the man who is a symbol of truth and honeshty? Sixty years after Gandhiji's death the truth is being brought to light.

Day after so-called "Super Tuesday"

I hope he wins Democratic party nomination for presidential election in US. Why we do I support Obama? There are two reasons that come to my mind immediately - one, due to his multi-cultural background, he is more likely to be sensitive to the opinions of the rest of the world (something that most of the US don't even know exists), and two, he is not a spouse of an ex-President. It would ludicrous if Bush dynasty is voted out only to be replaced by Clinton dynasty.

Poornima's recipe site

Savour it.

Good article on Gujarat elections. Read it till the end.

Sri Lanka to promote Ramayana sites

Sri Lanka to promote Ramayana sites. Interesting!!

Know the facts

Over last one month almost every news article on Gujarat elections mentioned one ugly word about Gujarat riots - "pogrom". Yet our so-called "secular" media avoids using this word when (on rarest of all occasions) they write about the 1984 anti-sikh riots executed by Congress following Indira Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh bodyguards.

Every Indian voter who is concerned about communalism in India should read about what happened in 1984. Mentioned above is a good link from wikipedia. Only thing the wikipedia article does not mention is that in 5 days of rioting, 2733 Sikhs were killed (these are official figures, real figures might be higher), while the entire government machinery watched in silence. (On 4th Nov 1984 alone, 1000 Sikhs were killed!). Compare these figures with 254 Hindus and 790 Muslims killed in over two months in post-Godhra riots in Gujarat.

Know the facts, then read your favourite newspaper.

How Indian "secular" media labels events

While reading news reports on BJP's election victory in Gujarat, I came across this post by a reader on rediff, which is a beautiful expose of the India's "secular" media. Here it goes:

---
* Sikhs getting slaughered in thousands = A MISTAKE.
* Hindus getting killed in Kashmir in thousands = Political problem.
* Muslims getting killed by a few hundred = Holocaust.
* Poor protestors getting shot in WB under Left Govt = Misunderstanding.

* Banning Parzania in Gujarat = Communal.
* Banning Da Vinci Code and Jo Bole So Nihaal = Secular.

* Kargil Attack = Government failure.
* Chinese invasion in 1962 = Unfortunate betrayal.

* Fake encounters in Gujarat [Sohrabuddin] = BJP Communalism.
* Fake encounters under Cong-NCP in Maharashtra [Khwaja Younus] = Police atrocity.

* Talking about Hindus and Hinduism appeasment = Communal
* Talking about Muslims and Islam = Secular.

* BJP freeing 3 terrorists to save 100 Indian hostages = Shameful
* Congress freeing 4 militants to save just a life of one daughter of a
Congress minister in Kashmir [Rubina Sayed] = Natural Political dilemma.

* Attack on Parliament = BJP ineptitude
* Not hanging Afzal Guru the mastermind despite Supreme Court orders =
Humanity and Political dilemma.

* BJP questioning Islam = Communal.
* Congress questioning Lord Rama existance = Clerical Error.
Is there any end to Congress and it shameless supporters hypocrisy
---

Depressing days

My last 2 months here in US have been so depressing. I had thought that my confined state, on account of not having a car, was causing me to be depressed, and that once I get a car, I will start feeling better. However that has not happened. Although the car has made life easier, it hasn't alleviated the general gloom that I am experiencing. I am feeling home-sick. I wish I were in India. Much of what I feel is because of the situation at work than anything else. I must bear this situation for many more months. The weather in Seattle doesn't help make things better either. (Seattle has the highest rate of depression and suicides in US, and it is largely attributed to its perennially overcast weather). I pray to God to give me patience and strenght to go through this depressing days.

Minorityism at its worst

Good editorial from The Statesman: Minorityism at its worst

Little to write about

There is little to write about.

Missing India

It's two months since I came to US. And never before have I missed India so much. Every moment I feel that I was better off in India. I have stayed in other parts of world, outside India. I stayed for six months in Korea; seven months in UK. I had come to US before. But never before have I missed India so much as I do now.

Patna University tries to break down caste barriers in its hostels

What is a "Smiley Curve"?

China is said to be at the flat middle portion of the smiley curve.

But what is this "Smiley Curve"?

The curve is named for the U-shaped arc of the 1970s-era smiley-face icon, and it runs from the beginning to the end of a product’s creation and sale. At the beginning is the company’s brand: HP, Siemens, Dell, Nokia, Apple. Next comes the idea for the product: an iPod, a new computer, a camera phone. After that is high-level industrial design—the conceiving of how the product will look and work. Then the detailed engineering design for how it will be made. Then the necessary components. Then the actual manufacture and assembly. Then the shipping and distribution. Then retail sales. And, finally, service contracts and sales of parts and accessories.

The significance is that China’s activity is in the middle stages—manufacturing, plus some component supply and engineering design—but America’s is at the two ends, and those are where the money is. The smiley curve, which shows the profitability or value added at each stage, starts high for branding and product concept, swoops down for manufacturing, and rises again in the retail and servicing stages. The simple way to put this—that the real money is in brand name, plus retail—may sound obvious, but its implications are illuminating.

The implication of this is that although Americans import huge volumes of manufactured goods from China, most of the money spent on those imports stays in American hands. For e.g. not much of Apple's iPod is manufactured in the United States, but the majority of value added is captured by Apple... Apple made $80 in gross profit on a 30-gigabyte video iPod that retails for $299. Its profit is 36 percent of the estimated wholesale price of $224. [Not to mention the retail profit, if it is sold in an Apple store.] The total cost of parts was $144.

References:
The Personal Computing Industry Center at the University of California
More on the "smiley curve": China makes, Apple takes

Philanthropy

NRI doc donates $20 mn to a village

India needs more such philanthropists. Nay, we have to be one of such philanthropists.

upaas

Peace of mind

I searched for "Peace of mind" on google. The second link I got was from hinduism.about.com -

Ten Commandments for Peace of Mind

The ten commandments are -
1. Do not interfere in others' business
2. Forget and forgive
3. Do not crave for recognition
4. Do not be jealous
5. Change yourself according to the environment
6. Endure what cannot be cured
7. Do not bite more than you can chew
8. Meditate regularly
9. Never leave the mind vacant
10. Do not procrastinate and never regret

Read the full article for elaboration.

Our car, Getz!!

Snaps from Cambridge

 

 

 

Relaxed but bored

It is a holiday today. I slept all through the morning and continued my reading of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility in the afternoon. It is good relaxed day. Something that I haven't got in a long time. But I am bored and feeling a bit dull. I need something to keep my mind engrossed and alert.

Back in India

I am now back in India. Getting used to Pune life. Busy in completing a lot of activities that were pending since long. Nothing much to write about. One interesting episode. After coming back from UK, I visited a cousin of mine. He told me of another mutual relative of ours who stays in US. Speaking about his stay in US, he told my cousin, "When I go to US, I miss India, and when I come back to India I long to go back to US"! This is a very common situation of many NRIs. My cousin asked me whether I felt the same. I said that when I love my stays abroad, and when I am back in India, I love the life over here. Baba commented that it's all about considering the glass half empty or half full. On a different occassion, but on the same subject, Poornima said that when we are abroad we long our friends and relatives to visit us, and when we are back in India, we wish we got more time to be alone.

What happened under Aurangzeb?

"Aurangzeb ordered all Hindu temples to be destroyed. The number of temples destroyed by Aurangzeb is counted in four figures. Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded because he objected to Aurangzeb's forced conversions. Nehru might have known about them, but chose to keep quiet and instructed his historians to downplay Aurangzeb's destructive drive and instead praise him as a benefactor of arts. Since then Indian historians have done the same and betrayed their allegiance to truth. Aurangzeb was the Hitler, the asura of medieval India. No street is named after Hitler in the West, yet in New Delhi we have Aurangzeb Road.

People might say: 'OK, this is all true, Aurangzeb was indeed a monster, but why rake up the past, when we have tensions between Muslims and Hindus today?' The first is that no nation can move forward unless its children are taught to look squarely at their own history, the good and the bad, the evil and the pure. The argument that looking at one's history will pit a community against the other does not hold either.

Today the Shariat has been voted in Kashmir, a state of democratic, secular India, UP's Muslims have applauded, and the entire Indian media which went up in flames when the government wanted Vande Mataram to be sung, kept quiet. The spirit of Aurangzeb seems to triumph."

These are some excerpts from Francois Gautier's splendid article on Aurangzeb and our outlook towards our history.

About Scotland and a bit of its history

Haven't you wondered on seeing Scotland's football team playing in world cup why do we have Scotland's football team in the world cup? After all we don't have Maharashtra cricket team in cricket world cup, we have Indian cricket team. So why do we have Scotland (and England and Wales) team(s) and not a British football team? After all England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland are four "states" that make up UK. I am sure you would have wondered. I too could not understand this until I came to UK and visited Scotland.

The reason is that Scotland is not a "state" of UK in a way Maharashtra is a state of India. In fact England, Scotland, and Wales are never refered to as "states" of UK. Even in UK, England, Scotland, and Wales are refered to as countries that make up UK. Well, if England, Scotland, and Wales are countries, then what is UK? UK as the name suggests is a Kingdom. And England, Scotland, and Wales are component countries that (along with N. Ireland) make the United Kingdom. It takes some time to understand this and being here in UK helps.

When I was in Scotland for a few days in November, I spotted a very widespread and conspicuous contempt among the Sctoish people for England and Englishmen. A little knowledge of history of Scotland helped me understand why it was so. All through the Medieval period England and Scotland fought each other, with England often having an upper hand. The way we feel about Shivaji and Rana Pratap, the Scots talk about William Wallace, who fought fought for Scotland's freedom from English occupaction. (He was captured by the English in 1305, beheaded after brutal torture, and his limbs thrown in four corners of Britain. He was 35 years of age then).

(hope to continue later)

Beautiful Thames

A beautiful snap taken from the Golden Jubilee Bridge on Thames river in London. On one bank is London Eye (the huge wheel) and on the other bank is Westminster (British Parliament) & the Big Ben (the tower with the clock). Rays of of setting sun are beautifully reflected from a skyscraper.

Let the truth be known to all

There is a quiet controversy going round with a website alleging Rahul Gandhi having gangraped daughter of a Congress party worker in Amethi. As expected, the Indian media has swept the issue under the carpet. If it had been any other politician or celibrity the media would be sensationalized the issue, held its own investigation, given its decision and convicted the person. But not when somebody from the Nehru-Gandhi family is involved.

Internet Service Providers in India have blocked the website. The so-called intellectuals of our country to whom freedom of speech is so important are silent about it. Again that is to be expected. However other websites across the globe have picked up the issue. So you might be able to read the same stuff here, assuming that this site isn't blocked in India.

These allegations may be false. They may be true. In either case, the truth has to be investigated, told to all, and appropriate legal action has to be taken. Unfortunately like all alleged crimes of the Nehru-Gandhi family, this issue too will be covered up. Those who loathe the Nehru-Gandhi family would blindly believe this allegation to be true, many others would blindly believe it to be false, while most of the people of our country would never hear about it at all. And that's not a good thing to happen. The truth should be known to all.

Sanskrit

Our President Dr Abdul Kalam on the importance of Sanskrit.

Surya Siddhanta

I have written only 25 posts in 2006 (of which 4 are still in draft state), compared to 179 posts I wrote in 2004-05. It is not because I was too busy last year or because I have lost interest in blogging (after getting married, as you would be tempted to add). It's because I didn't have internet at home last year. But now I do have internet connection at home, so I think there will be more frequent entries on this blog than in near past. And hopefully most of those entries won't be links to articles from newspapers and other sources.

Having said that, I am too tempted to refer you to this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Standard_Time#History

An excerpt:
"One of the earliest descriptions of standard time in India appeared in the 4th century CE (i.e. AD) astronomical treatise Surya Siddhanta. Postulating a spherical earth, the book defined the prime meridian, or zero longitude, as passing through Avanti, the ancient name for the historic city of Ujjain (23°11′N 75°45′E), and Rohitaka, the ancient name for Rohtak (28°54′N 76°38′E), a city near the historic battle-field of Kurukshetra."

Unfortunately, you will never read this in any history book in India. Because the government-published history of India begins with the Mughals and ends on 15th August 1947 (while remaining silent on all the atrocities commited on the people by Muslim rulers in this period). But our great nation existed before the the marauders conquered it and has great stories to tell of that era. We have to read about it and tell it to all. In my own insignificant way I continue to do that here.

Who was Bhai Taru Singh?

Hindu temples should be for all Hindus

No Hindu temple should be out of bounds for any Hindu man or woman irrespective of his or her caste. Yesterday dalits entered Jagannath temple in Orissa. This is good news. The fact that they faced no resistence is also heartening. The Jagannath temple of Puri is an important temple in our country and every Hindu should be allowed to pray at the temple.

I am reminded of the "Patit-Pawan Mandir" in Ratnagiri. Built by Veer Savarkar, it was the first Hindu temple for harijans. Savarkar appointed a harijan as its priest, who probably was first harijan priest in the country.

Recently there has been a controversy over allowing women into Sabarimala temple in Kerala. I perfectly agree with the RSS's view that women should allowed to enter the temple. Hindu temples should be for all Hindus.

Reporting corruption made easier

Anti-Corruption Bureau’s mobile van will be stationed in neighbourhood to register complaints. Read.

Trip to Scotland

13th November was first wedding anniversary for Poornima & I, and there was no better place for us to be than Scotland! The beauty of Scotland was so overwhelming that I consider it as one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. I do not remember any previous trip in last few years to any part of the world (and I have travelled a lot in last few years!) when I was so swept away by the natural beauty of a place. Not even in Mauritius. Scotland was absolutely amazing!! It was inconceivably beautiful.

We left for Scotland knowing that it's a good place to visit. But little did we know that it was going to blow our minds off! The first hint of what really lay ahead for us came during the train journey to Edinburgh. Just as the train crossed Berwick-upon-Tweed, the last town in England on the route, the railway track ran parallel to the sea, less than 100 meters from the shore. Every other moment we could see beautiful blue sea in front of us with flocks of seagulls hovering over it. The wonderful views of sea would only be interrupted by equally thrilling vistas of green trees that were changing colour in anticipation of the advancing winter. Since then it was a journey to the heaven for the next three days.

In Marathi there's a phrase, "DoLyAnche pAraNe fiTaNe". That's what you experience in Scotland ... wherever you go.

Pathetic Governance

The current central government has absolutely nothing to boast off. It's long list of transgressions run from Oil for Food scam to attempting Mandal II, from toppling state governments illegaly to neglecting work on the Golden Quadrilateral. However it is not often that the Congress' stooges in our media like to admit this. There are a few exceptions like Tavleen Singh, who writes audiciously. Here's an recent article by her in Indian Express (of course, it can't be from The Tabloid of India).

Second Trip to London

On Saturday, we went for our second trip to London. We walked across the London Tower Bridge and then spent hours at London Tower. We saw the Kohinoor diamond. I was more interested in Shivaji Maharaj's Bhavani Talvaar (sword), but it has been shifted to another place and is no longer available for display. In the evening we sat along the banks of Thames and ate puri bhaaji which we had packed for the trip. We went to Nilesh Gujare's place for dinner and ate paav bhaaji for the first time after coming to UK. On the whole it was a great trip to a great city, London.

More on password change

But alas! I can no longer escape from the grave danger. I have to change the password. I muster up courage and read the email carefully:

---------------------
From: System Administrator
Sent: Fri 20/10/2006 06:04
To: Jayprakash Keshav Acharya
Subject: Password expiry notification ... Open this mail for details !!!

Dear Jayprakash Keshav Acharya,

Your E-mail ID password is going to expire in next 7 days on 10/27/2006 9:04:27 AM at Indian Standard Time. Change your password NOW!!! It is recommended that you do not wait till the last day of password expiry!!!
Refer FAQ on Password Policy for the procedure to change the password and the precautions to be taken while changing password to avoid account lockouts. Extranet users can refer to FAQ by accessing Main Page -> Mail -> FAQ on Password Policy.

Please note that your password must be a combination of uppercase, lowercase, numeral and non-alphanumeric (special) characters. For example, it may be like "$M1cH37Bo".

Upon changing your password, you need to WAIT at least for 15 minutes, before you can use the NEW password. We recommend you to change the password while you are connected to LAN and just before you logout for the day.

Contact your local CCD for any further help.

Thanks for your co-operation,

System Administrator
Computers & Communication Division

Note: This is an automatically generated message. DO NOT "Reply" back to this ID. Please contact your local CCD for any assistance.
---------------------

Some of sentences in the mail, such as "Change your password NOW!!!" are in bold red, just to make it more frieghtening!! I take a deep breath and click on "FAQ on Password Policy". I am going to do this. I am going to understand this and do it correctly. So I click on FAQ on Password Policy. It opens up. And it is six pages long!! I need to study a six page document just to change my password!!! That's ridiculous. How can anybody be expected to read a six page document to change his password?! Why can't simple things be kept simple? Why are things made so complex? That's the reason I hate it.

I suffer from technophobia

Everytime I have to do something new with technology, I am in fear. Most often it is routine task like changing a password. For last several days, I have been getting mail suggesting that my password is about to expire and I should change it. I am panic striken! Everything is working fine on my computer and so I don't want to change my password.

I am afraid that if I change my password, some software will fail. If I change my password, I may not be able to login to corporate network when I get internet connection at home. Or because I am changing my password from my office computer, my laptop at home won't be able to connect to my corporate network. Or I will not be able to login to network because I am changing my email password and since we have common password for email and network login, I will not know whether I should use the old or the new password for logging into the network. If the network password is changed automatically on changing the email password, then the network password cached on my laptop at home will be different from my most recent network password. So I may face problems when I try to connect to corporate network from home. Or the worst of all, I may not be able to login to my laptop at all! :-O I hate password expiry policies!!

I remember my dialogue with Ramna few years back. The company had shifted to newer version of VPN software and had asked all users to upgrade to the latest version. Ramna asked me whether I had upgraded. I said that I didn't upgrade because the older version is working fine for me. He said, "Let me do it for you", and despite my protests he began uninstalling the older version from my laptop. I sat there in mortal fear!! "I NEVER uninstall a software that is working fine", I said. The new version worked fine. But my fear with technical tasks like software installations and password changes remains.

On my desk, I have a phone with 41 buttons!! I don't know why we need more than ten or twelve buttons. Three times in last two days my phone dialed a number that I did not ask it to dial. Today I was toying with some of the buttons when suddenly the speaker phone got switched on and someone screamed "hello!". I hastily scrambled and pressed a few more buttons at random, and thankfully that shut it off! Oh God! What a narrow escape!! I hate this hi-tech phone. :-(

Sometimes some of my friends ask me why I am still using the cell phone that old and outdated. They show me their hi-tech phones that can do magic. Well, they will not understand. All I need is a phone that has ten digits and a button to dial numbers and receive calls. That's almost all that I do with my cell phone. May be once in a while I send and receive an sms or save a number
in my address book. But anything beyond that is rocket science.

Weather not so nice anymore

Carrying on from where I left last time - We have moved to a rented house and it's quite pleasant at home. However the weather is no longer so pleasant. It's getting cold and it has been raining since yesterday, and we haven't seen the sun.

Destination Ipswich

70 miles NE of London - that's where Ipswich is situated. And me and Poornima are here. We reached here a week back. Still haven't settled in. We are put up in a sub-standard B&B (Bed & Breakfast ... search for Bed & Breakfast on Wikipedia, if you want to know more of what it is. That's what I did when I first heard the term. I like Wikipedia. It's almost as good as google). Life would be as pleasant as the weather here once we get our own home.

Alt-R for reading

Reading Microsoft Word documents is always awkward. It is more convenient to take a print out and read the document. For some reason reading .pdf files isn't so irritating. .pdf documents are "cleaner" and resemble paper documents more closely. Now MS has added a feature to Word in Word 2003 that makes it easier to read Word documents on screen. This feature appears in the toolbar as a pushbutton labeled "Read" (keyboard short-cut "Alt-R") . On clicking "Read" Word reformats the document so that it is easier to read it on the screen. The reformated document is
"cleaner" like a .pdf file. I liked this feature and use it almost every day.

Nice Time

Yesterday was a nice evening. Although I reached home later from work, at 9 p.m., I did a lot things that I don't usually get time to do. I had my dinner, lot of talk with Poornima, chatted on phone with family, went for a evening walk, read both the newspapers (Indian Express and Business Standard), taught Poornima how to do meditation, and shaved for today. I finally went to bed at 12:30 a.m. Today I was up in the morning on time at 6 a.m. That gave me time to do some jogging, few suryanamaskars and some time for meditation. I reached office at 8:30 a.m., swiched on the lights on the floor and got down to work.

About my new car

I got delivery of my car on Friday night. I have already driven more than two hundred kilometers in the first four days. It is running good and I am enjoying driving it. I have taken some snaps of the car, which I can upload here, but I haven't yet copied them on to my laptop.

On the very first day I brought the car to office, some scratched the car. A more than five feet long scratch running from the front of the front wheel to the rear wheel is faintly visible on the right side. :-(

Waiting for new car

I am eagerly awaiting possession of my new car. I hope I get it tomorrow.

Back

Well, well, well ... I am back after a long long time. It's almost six months since I blogged! So much has changed in this time. I changed my job for the first time in my life! I moved out of Bangalore and into Pune. Me and Poornima are staying together alone. So many things have changed in this time. Changing job was a period of confusion. Even now I sometimes dream (in sleep, not day-dream) that I am repenting quit a good company. I think, but I am not sure, that I did the right thing in quiting my previous job. The question is whether it is right place that I have landed into. Let's see how things turn out. As of now things are okay. They would get even better tomorrow when I book Getz!