Lies, Damned Lies and Blogs

Independence Day Special!

2007-08-15T18:47:00.000+05:30

Happy Independence Day to all :-)

The pace is too fast...

2007-08-10T01:42:00.000+05:30

IIMB sports team is visiting Calcutta this weekend for Samhaar - the C-B sports meet. We made a build up video for the same!

Check out!

(Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9Sz8u4GcX0)

Dil Hai Hindustani

2007-07-30T01:28:00.000+05:30

Made a video for a course project. Check out!

Edit: The youtube link, just in case you want to embed - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiAn6mszyr4. Feel free to do so :-)

Poster We designed

2007-07-05T12:31:00.000+05:30

I've joined the design team for the Entrepreneurship Cell at IIM Calcutta. This my first poster for them. The logo at top right is also designed by me. The caption, "What goes my daddy?", is the campus translation for "Mere baap ka kya jaata hai?" :-).

The idea was to catch attention of all the facchas (using the caption) and inspire them to attend the club crasher. The writeup is most likely taken from some Steve Jobs' speech. Fits well tho'.

What say?

Maggi ad gone bad..

2007-06-25T13:17:00.000+05:30

Listen

Bhen of Brothers

2007-06-25T12:49:00.000+05:30

The idea came to us in a general bakar session. May be we'll shoot a spoof on this. Just made the posters. What say?

London Update

2007-05-13T18:11:00.000+05:30

Went to Edinburgh, Scotland. The trip was a dampner, mainly due to bad weather and somewhat due to our bad luck. We wanted to hire a car and drive & enjoy the beautiful country side of Scotland. Couldn't do since we didn't have any credit cards on us. It might have worked with our debit cards also, we didn't have the pin numbers! The highlight of the visit was our trek up the Aurthur's Seat (which I abandoned mid-way :-). But it's a great town and nice place to visit. May be some other time I'll make a better visit to Scotland and spend more time.

***

The TV channels we get at our service apartments suck big time! Very rarely do we get to see some interesting program. Between time to watch a cricket match & telecast of that match, till now I've been able to get just one. I missed the world cup final too (oh well, but that was a let down anyway).

***

Routine during weekdays has ceased to look so bad. I've got used to it, I guess. I get up around 7, reach office by 8:30, lunch at around 12:30 and dinner around 7:30 (in office), be back home by 8:30-9 & sleep by 11:30. Started to get hang of the work also, actually liking it. Another three weeks before I fly back to India. Got somewhat encouraging feedback from office junta, but have to push a little more. I guess coming three weeks are going to be busier (wish me luck ! :-).

***

Things I learnt the hard way -
1) You can visit Switzerland on UK work permit, but 3 months' work permit won't do.
2) £80 can get you round trip to Geneva with Easyjet.com.
3) Easyjet.com refund in case you want to/have to cancel.

Sigh!

Deja Vu

2007-05-13T17:30:00.000+05:30

Proud to present - Deja Vu. A film by IITB alum, Anshul Singhal, dealing with the issue of suicides at the campuses. The film has been received very warmly, it seems.

So impressed was Bollywood screenplay writer and actor Ranjit Kapoor (of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron and Kabhi Haan, Kabhi Na fame) with the film that he said after the premiere, "With a little bit of trimming, the film can actually be sent to Cannes. I thought I would view Deja Vu a bit patronisingly, but this film has taught me a thing or two."

While I'm not totally convinced that the suicides were totally due to the academic pressures, any step towards addressing them is appreciable. And what better way than a film by friendly neighbourhood directors & actors.

I tried searching for the movie on youtube and all, but obviously it isn't uploaded over there. They are planning to send it to various national and international film fests with the active support of IIT. Great!

In a way, they are living my dream. Me and couple of friends are also very enthu about film-making and likes. Our music video - Early Days @ Joka - was our first foray in this field. It was frantic! We didn't start with a proper script or anything; most of our ideas evolved while shooting and we learnt a lot about it, while filming. But it was fun too. We had a great time as a team! We did shoot lots of redundent footage, which now won't see the light, most likely.

Anyway, don't mind the ramblings. Looking forward, we are getting together again in June and planning to work on some short fillers, advertisments and kinds. One constraint we face is the camera. We shoot with Sreeni's panasonic and tho' we still have to try a lot with its controls, I doubt it has all that professional jazz to offer. Another constraint is the lack of actors; at the campus we can find people within certain age groups. If the story demands some child or old people, we don't have any way to get 'em. Anyway, these certainly won't dampen our spirits and we shall keep trying. You keep watching this space.

P.S. : Jagmohan Mundra (of recent Provoked fame) is the bigger name in film-making from IIT Bombay. I hope Anshul will go on to be the bigger name eventually!

दिलचस्प, बेहद दिलचस्प!

2007-04-19T01:57:00.000+05:30

"जे तो घनो ही अच्छो हो गयो रे ताऊ! इब तू हिंदी में भी ब्लॉगर को युज्ज कर सके है।"

हाँ भाई, हाँ. पता है कि पुरानी न्यूज़ है, पूरी दुनिया को पता है। मैंने भी देखा था कभी तो, पर आज मेरे घनिष्ट मित्र स्वामी हग्नेश दास कि ये पोस्ट देख के दिल जिगर गुर्दे फेफड़े मचल उठे। तमन्ना जाग उठी कि मैं भी हिंदी में लिखूं। एक ज़माना था, मैंने भी हिंदी ब्लोग शुरू किया था। अब अलग ब्लोग तो चलने से रहा, यहीं पर हिंदी शुरू कर रहा हूँ। वैसे हिंदी ब्लोग्गिंग इस गूगल टूल की मोहताज नहीं, इसके आने से काफी समय पहले से ही हिंदी ब्लोग्गिंग का परचम पुरजोर लहरा रहा है। अक्षरग्राम पर सक्रीय नारद आपको बहुतेरे हिंदी ब्लोग्स की लिंक्स देगा जो की content में अंग्रेजी ब्लोग्स से कम नहीं हैं।

पर एक बात तो है, हिंदी ब्लोग्गेर्स अक्सर क्लिष्ट हिंदी का प्रयोग करते हैं, जो कि आम बोल-चाल वाली हिंदुस्तानी भाषा से थोडा हट के है। मानो या ना मानो, उर्दू, अरबी की ही तरह अंग्रेजी और कई पश्चिमी भाषाओं के भी काफी अलफ़ाज़ हिंदी में इस क़दर मिल चुके हैं की उन्हें अलग करना सही नहीं होगा। जैसे, बस, ट्रेन, सिगरेट आदि। अब बचपन में सबने इनके हिंदी शब्द सुनें होंगे और हँसे होंगे, पर कोई ये नही कहता होगा कि "सवेरे लौह पथ गामिनी, छुक-छुक वाहिनी से चले जायेंगे!" खैर।

अब एक unrelated बात, सबने देखा होगा, हर बिल्डिंग में FIRE लिखे लाल अलार्म बटन. सबमें शीशा लगा होता है। आग लगे तो शीशा तोड़ो, घंटी बजाओ। अब शीशा क्यों? यहाँ तक की शीशा तोड़ने को हथोडा भी साथ में लगा देते हैं। तो फिर, शीशा क्यों? जैसे की कईयों ने सोचा लिया होगा, मैं भी सोचता हूँ कि ऐसा इसलिये कि कोई बिना किसी urgency के घंटी ना बजा दे। थोडी गूग्लगिरी करके देखा मैंने, पर इस रहस्य पर से पर्दा ना उठ सका। (Q. लिफ्ट्स में "Stop" और "Alarm" buttons पर शीशा क्यों नही है?) Main कारण यही है कि - Prevention is better that cure. अमेरिकी इस राय से कतई इत्तेफाक नही रखते। हाल ही Virginia Tech में हुआ shootout ऐसा सबसे बड़ा हादसा था, पर ऐसा पहला हादसा नहीं था। हर दफा ऎसी किसी घटना के बाद US में एक lobby जाग उठती है। ये वो लोग हैं जो चाहते हैं कि आम जनता से घातक हथियार रखने का हक वापस ले लिया जाये। ऎसी ही सोच वाला एक शख्श है Michael Moore। फिल्म Bowling for Coulmbine में उन्होने Coulmbine High School में हुये बेहद similar हादसे से जुडे तथ्य दिखाए हैं और कई सवाल उठाये हैं। पर नतीजा कुछ ना निकला, और फिर जो हुआ वो शायद रोका जा सकता था।

***

मेरा time यहाँ अच्छे से ही कट रहा है. हफ्ते भर तो घर से ऑफिस और ऑफिस से bed ही चलता है, weekends का इंतज़ार है.

यही कहानी है, इतना ही फ़साना है,
8 बजे जाना है, 9:30 पे आना है :-(

Namaste London

2007-04-15T19:19:00.000+05:30

First weekend in the city. Glorious day; bright, warm, sunny. Will go and check out the various summer sales going on in the city. Only hitch - short on cash before the first stipend payment. But hey, window shopping doesn't cost a penny! And since I've got the monthly travel card made, travel is also free. So, wait there London city, me cometh.

***

First day in office, day filled with form-filling and other stuff. The highlight of the day was the walking tour we had around the office with an official walking tour guide. As the gentleman said - "Every stone has some history in London." Starting with the Roman era, to the great fire of 1666, to the Victorian times - the city is filled with relics and monuments. Of course, we Indians do have lot deeper historical roots, but one has to appreciate the way the Western World preserves its past. Makes me sad to think about all the history spread all over India, ruining & dying slow death.

By the way, death does have some part to play in the history of London. All big monuments are either churches, with big grave yards (tombstones are still there, though all the bodies were exhumed and taken out of the city sometime in 1800's) or have someone important murdered there, after elaborate torture, of course. We saw a square where William Wallace, aka Braveheart, was executed.

[..]On 22 August 1305, following the trial, Wallace was taken from the hall, stripped naked and dragged through the city at the heels of a horse to Smithfield Market. He was hanged, drawn and quartered — strangled by hanging but released while still alive, emasculated, eviscerated and his bowels burnt before him, beheaded, then cut into four parts — at the Elms in Smithfield. His preserved head was placed on a pike atop London Bridge. It was later joined by the heads of his brother, John, and Simon Fraser. His limbs were displayed, separately, in Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling, and Aberdeen.

Who the hell used to come up with all that. Yikes! And yeah, the guide told us the executions there were still carried out even after London got the tube in 1860s. So you could actually come using the tube to see an execution. Beat that!

***

First day at the desk - mostly easy. Some stuff to be read and understood. Met almost the entire team. Had lunch at Subway with the two analysts from IIT Delhi. Left early. My manager was not in. London accounts for almost 50% of credit derivatives volume in the world and the volume runs in billion $; sitting on the floor where millions are made and lost was some thrill. Still don't understand many things, but surely this stuff ain't no rocket science!

Eventually got to meet my manager on the next day. Pretty busy and pretty aggressive guy. Heard he joined here after working in Chicago for quite some time. No wonder he is all full of the typical american aggression. Check out the meeting we had recently (all in good humor, mind you. Not really menacing)

Manager: We seriously are f**king around here. What happened to the slide I asked you to do?
Subordinate: Oh yeah. I know I was supposed to do it, but I guess it got lost in the process.
Manager: Yeah. In your world its "lost in process", in my world its called "f**king around!" See basically you f**k around because I am basically a nice guy.

Only if I could get a penny everytime he says f**k, my cash crunch will be solved for a very long time. Almost the entire desk works pretty hard and leaving before 7-8 is kind of stuff hallucinations are made of. Around me, I keep hearing lots of different languages, seeing lots of different colored people. The office is quite cosmopolitan and location wise its in the downtown London, sitting pretty just opposite the London Stock Exchange.

***

The place we (six of us: 3 from IIMC, 2 from A and 1 from B) are staying in is pretty cool too! Full of interesting restaurants (Indian, Chinese, Lebanese, Malaysian, blah blah) and shops, its considered among the better residential areas in London. We of course are staying in the company provided service apartments. The room, although a bit on the smaller side, is sufficient and quite comfortable. Usually I take a 15 minute ride in the tube to reach the office. The morning rush is nothing compared to the rush in Mumbai locals or even Kolkata metro.

So there, the routine is almost set and life is good.

Lasting impressions

2007-04-11T00:31:00.000+05:30

My wing at IITB - The Outlaws. The name painted on the wall and the Name-room no.s on left are no longer there.
L-to-R: Me, Dasa, Jha saab, Mamu, Rizvi & Saras

This year it'll be four years since I graduated from IIT Bombay. Time flies. I realized this when I visited the campus back, couple of days back when I was visiting Mumbai to board the flight to London. It was great to have old friends, Nandu & DRS, with me. Torrents of memories rushed back, overwhelming me. Things have changed there, but not much, thankfully.

Bikes are obviously banned inside the campus now and I'm sure people aren't missing them much. I spent my entire 4 years without a bike (I once bought an old bicycle from an auction, but I used that very sparsly during her brief stay of about 2 months in my company) and if anything, it makes you enjoy the long walks. My department's (Comp. Sc & Engg.) old building is now abandoned, due to bad design. It was definitely "different", it boasted of design such that no two walls in the entire building were parallel. I'm sure not what exactly was the problem, but even during our times it had developed couple of cracks. Anyway, the department has now moved to the soulless KReSIT building. They have improved the tennis court; new ones look very sleek and posh, quite an improvement over the old ones. I saw some new shops in the Gulmohar building too.

What made me most happy was the visit to my old room. Hostel 9, room 224. I spent about two and a half years in that room. And it hadn't changed much.

H9-224. Home.
The murals are still preserved by the current resident

The hostel was almost the same too, barring the mess which was Hafeez-Contractor-ized after renovation; but I'm sure even Hafeez can't do much about the "mess" they serve in there! There was a swanky billboard outside the hostel, welcoming people to "Hostel Nine - Pluto." Neat.

Coming back to room, I gathered my guts and knocked the door. The room now belongs to a PhD candidate; I was shocked when he commented - "Oh! So you came to check out the old room. May be the old graffiti." And there it was! My wall. THE wall. Amazing sight! During my days in the room, I had made couple of figures on the wall. I was totally touched watching them still there. The same Popeye & Flintstone smiling back. The present resident told me that he loved them there and made sure that when they paint the walls they don't paint over them. Thank you my friend! Though they painted over the wing's name (Outlaws), but atleast the room still has my impressions.

Biz-cket

2007-04-03T23:27:00.000+05:30

Subhash Chandra, of Zee fame, has announced the formation of new cricket series, the Indian Cricket League. Apparently Chandra was miffed by the poor performance at the World Cup and wants to develop "a reserve pool of cricketers who could play for the country." No one minds making millions in the process, of course. "We are not shying away to tell that this is also a business proposition but at the macro level, this is a passion of the group to promote cricket," Chandra said.

Whatever be the intention behind it, this can make difference. Check out Chandra's plans -

Format: Six teams will participate in this year`s league, which would start any time between July and August. The number of teams would be extended to 16 in the coming three years. Each team would comprise of two national, four international and eight budding players, who would be selected by the talent scouts. The matches will be played both in the ODI and Twenty20 formats with teams playing on a home and away basis.
Ball's in BCCI's court now.

Infrastructure Support: The league will be supported by cricketing academies across the country having state-of-the-art facilities headed by international and domestic coaches. Talent scouts would pick talents from across the country and groom them in academies to provide a pipeline of reserve players.

Chandra did mention Kerry Packer - "No, that was a coup. All the players of Australia were signed and he also chose not to get the telecast rights of the Australian board," he reasoned. Chandra has seeked support from BCCI & state cricket associations and said, "If BCCI wants to draw from the talent pool, they are welcome to do so." BCCI is yet to respond, but I guess they won't be happy to lose the monopoly control they have over Indian cricket.

This thing looks good. The point about searching talent at the grass-root and grooming them at state-of-the-art academies and giving them chance to rub shoulders with international players, all this sounds too good to be true! This should definitely bring forth some quality competition in the domestic circuit. Chandra is basically offering to do the work BCCI should be doing, and taking the bounty in the process, sounds fair to me! However, we presently have a mechanism in place to find players from the member states of BCCI. All players representing the teams in domestic tournies are basically held by contracts. If BCCI puts its foot down and outlaws it to play in the ICL, the league might get reduced to all fizz and no fun. Some players might get lured by the money, but I doubt if it'll be a big number. Then we'll have probably retired or forgotten players; Vinod Kambli might just get another chance there :-).

"At present there are only 20 players contracted with the board and there is a restriction that they cannot play for anybody else. From each state only 25 players can come up as registered players. What about the millions of boys playing cricket in schools and colleges? Do they get a chance?" Chandra said. Not another reality show, I hope! But if Chandra's league doesn't get the top 20-25 players from the states, I doubt if their talent scouts can hunt plenty of good ones. Hence, the ball essentially lies in BCCI's court. As per the good of Indian cricket, Chandra's plans definitely have my thumbs up. It's essentially an open market vs monopoly situation and I would always go for open market.

Domestic cricket in India

2007-04-01T01:34:00.000+05:30

The recent World Cup performance by the talented Indian team has stirred the hornet's nest. Heads are rolling in Pakistan and the blame game is just about to start in India. However, I doubt if anything meaningful would come out of it. Ramachandra Guha describes cricket as a "special game" in India in his outstanding book on Indian Cricket - A corner of a foreign field, and one has to agree. More than just another sport, it's now another icon of national pride. When tension mounted between India & Pakistan, Indian government was quick to snap all cricketing ties, however, the Pakistani hockey & TT teams were touring India, that too without a whimper from Thakre and likes. Every year the broadcasting rights for cricket in India are fought over intensely with the amounts going up astronomically. Every cricket match in any corner of India, featuring the Indian team, sometimes even without them, meets full-house with thousands turned down!

If such is the love for the game, how come no one cares a damn about the domestic cricket in India? Before delving deeper, let's see if it is really the "love" of the game or just fanatic following of the home team. The Indian crowd has given diametrically opposing impressions over time. Compare the standing ovation received by the Paki team in the Chennai test and the unruly crowd of Calcutta in the '96 WC Semifinal. So, do people want to see good cricket or they just care for their team's win? The truth lies somewhere between these two extremes. I think, people have some idea (almost fair) about the team's calibre and when they perform below there capability, they face the fan's ire. Indian team's ouster in the first round was definitely below their capabilities. It's not that the fans expected them to win the cup; they were hailed as heroes in the last WC when they played out of their skins to reach the finals, only to get hammered!

Coming back to domestic cricket, one most common argument is that the Ranji Trophy has too many teams, thus diluting the quality of cricket. I quote from the wikipedia page -

Up until the 2002-03 season, the teams were grouped into five zones - North, West, East, Central and South - and initial matches were played within the zones on a league basis. The top teams (two until 1991-92, three after that) from each zone played in a national knock-out competition, leading to a final which decided the winner of the tournament.
Kids playing cricket near Payakara Falls, Ooty

Starting with the 2002-03 season, the zonal system was abandoned and a two-division structure was adopted: the Elite Group and the Plate Group. For the 2006-07 season, the divisions were re-labelled the Super League and Plate League respectively.

The Super League is divided into two groups of eight and seven teams, while the Plate League is divided into two groups of six teams each. In both divisions, the top two teams from each group advance to the knock-out phase. The finalists from the Plate League are promoted to the Super League the next year while the two teams at the bottom of the Super League are relegated.

If this seems too many, we've got Duleep Trophy, with just 5 zonal teams. I quote -

Five Indian zonal teams regularly take part in the Duleep Trophy - North Zone, South Zone, East Zone, West Zone and Central Zone.

The original format was that the five teams played each other on a knock-out basis. From the 1993-94 season, the competition converted to a league format.

From the 2003-04 season onwards, the five original zonal teams competed along with a sixth guest team which was a touring foreign team. The first guest team was England A in 2003-04.

If you say the slow test cricket is the deterring factor, we've got Deodhar Trophy, 50-over one-day competition played on a league basis among the 5 zonal teams since 1973!

So there, we've got all flavors of cricket in the domestic competitions, yet it's not able to pull the apparently cricket crazy crowd of India. It has to do something with the quality of cricket played. The difference of quality between international fixtures & these domestic ones has to be huge, thus not attracting the attention of people. This again is a mind-boggler! Cricket is played almost everywhere in India and yet we can't produce ample number of quality competitors for the domestic cricket? This points towards the callous attitude of cricket governing body in India. We should do more to train & prepare cricketers from their younger days. There is another anamoly here, our under-19 team was among the strongest & in the final of last two U-19 World Cups! How do you explain this decline of form of the same players when they graduate to the big league? It's as if they stop adding value to their cricket while their peers from other countries move on.

There is another deterrent, parents skepticism towards career in professional sports. I don't know if we can tackle this problem in the short run in a third-world developing country like India. May be BCCI can announce some comprehensive scholarships, may be they have these even now. But the fact remains that the parents are scared to let their kids chase their cricketing dreams at the cost of sound academic background, thus increased probability of a decent career.

Another face of the problem is the media coverage of these games. I do get to read about them in the newspaper, however no channel is ready to air these games. We do get to see the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy, but not other games. This again depends on the fact that there aren't many buyers for these games, because these are low quality matches. Some vicious cycle we've got here! We can't relate with these matches, because we can't see them. They can't broadcast the matches, because no one sees them!

These definitely aren't the only problems with the Indian cricket. Still, I feel if we can address these one fast, the Indian cricket will be benefitted a lot and fast. Depleted bench strength & mediocre domestic cricket are holding back Indian cricket big time.

April Fool's Pranks

2007-03-31T22:23:00.000+05:30

Dilbert creator Scott Adams has mentioned some of his favorite April Fool's Pranks in his recent blog. Pretty neat, I say. Reminded me of some of my own pranks. Now, I'm someone who'd go to quite some lengths to play pranks on friends and may I add I have quite some reputation as a prankster. So, here I present my favorite one. It's the biggest prank I pulled off and an act of total brilliance, I say with all the modesty.

I was working as a software engineer with a name big enough to provide me with an SMS gateway, although an US one, but using it I could send SMS to Indian numbers. So one fine day, I sent an SMS to couple of my friends saying - "Congratulations! You are our customer of the month. You winning number is XXXXXXX. Please wait as we'll contact you again to tell you more about your prize. In case of any clarification, please feel free to contact us at ZZZZZZ." The contact number given was my office desk's number. Within minutes, Thakur called in. In fact his call caught me off guard as I hadn't planned it all by then. However, to make it look genuine, I asked his confirmation number & phone number and in my most call-centerish voice I exclaimed - "Oh! You must be Mr. Thakur, our customer of the month!" Thinking on my feet, I gave him two options to choose from, 1) A Laxmi Juicer-mixer-grinder & 2) Rs. 2000/- worth of talktime. He told he'll confirm later. After this call, I dropped emails to his roomies, explaining the situation to them. They chipped in, asking Thakur to go for the mixer.

Next day, I sent him another SMS saying - "As per your instructions, we're giving you the Laxmi Juicer-mixer-grinder. Please collect the same from our office on coming Sunday. Please do not forget to get you previous month's bill." As expected, I received another call from him on the "call-center" number. This time I made one female friend of mine to attend the call, to make it look more genuine. Clearly, Thakur was distressed about the choice forced on him. We asked him to come to the office to sort it out.

The fateful Sunday, I was present at their house. Since the Airtel office was towards my side of the town, I offered to accompany Thakur to the office. Pankaj also came with us. By now Thakur had got the printout of the last month's bill and the congratulatory SMS ready to flash. We reached the office. Pankaj and me stayed out, Thakur went in. The attendant present couldn't comprehend what Thakur was saying and took his mobile to show the SMS to her superiors. Now, I went inside to burst Thakur's bubble.

Priceless! The look on his face said it all!

Withdrawal Symptoms

2007-03-30T01:39:00.000+05:30

Ever tried getting down a running bus? Yup, the inertia funda. Physics, class XI, CBSE.

My prolonged stay at home, after the months spent at IIMC, has put me in that kind of situation. When I was always chasing deadlines at IIMC, I would have laughed at someone had he suggested that nothingness can bore you. And yet here I am, toppled into the abyss of deep boredom. Despite the long sleeping hours, longer hours spent in front of the TV, the days just don't get over.

And the mercury is rising too! Its tough to imagine that the day I arrived here I slept in a rajayi. Now its almost imbearable to be out in the sun. The ceiling fan is no longer adequate to beat the heat. Glad that I won't be here to face the worst.

All's not lost tho', all the cricket happening about half the globe away keeps me company. The idleness compels me to listen to the pre-match chat show too, not that it makes me any wiser or happier. Tut-tut, India's out; but still the arena is wide open! My predictions: Semifinalists - Aus, SA, SL and NZ & Dream Final - Aus vs SA with SA claiming the cup. Long way to that though.

And I'm reading again. A lot, by my own standards. Some recommendations -

A Corner of a Foreign Field - Amazing work about mostly pre-independence history of cricket in India. Even if the WC debacle left a bitter taste in mouth, don't miss this masterpiece, for the love of the game. Hat's off to Guha for doing all the hard work in researching the anecdotes and stories to present in such lucid form! (and if cricket still fancies you, pick Pundits from Pakistan also!)
Above Average - Doesn't dwell too much on the IIT connection. Very interesting, very piquant. Very nostalgic for any IITian, more so for IITD junta (I guess). Its characters reminded me of many lost faces from my IIT days.
Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan - The story is definitely very thrilling & impressive, though the narration lacks punch. It's told just like a chronological record of facts. Bit drab in parts, still quite enjoyable as a whole.
Being John Mcenroe - Rather than being just descriptive, this book tries to analyze the reasons behind & effects of John Mcenroe on Tennis. Great insights about the genius and his times.
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Masterpiece! Absolute masterpiece! Would appeal to anyone with slightest bend of mind towards Science & tiniest tinge of curiosity towards Nature. Simply unputdownable.
The IITians - Just started this one. Starts on perhaps a bit too laudatory note, but is building up nicely. Should be a good read.

Apart from all this, I've also started reading blogs again. But my BSNL dial-up doesn't allow me to surf much. By the way, till very recent I wasn't aware that you can just put the BSNL phone cable in your laptop, do simple registration once and can start surfing @ ~40 kbps on totally on-use-basis rates! Check out Account free Internet dial up access based on CLI.

All my bags are not yet packed and I'm not yet ready to go, still another week left. But most of my shopping is done, barring some last minute items. Not yet thinking much about the upcoming internship, but I hope it would be interesting time. Reminds me of an ancient Chinese curse - "May you live in interesting times." Hmm, we'll see that.

Couple of things I have to do in London -

Watch a cricket match, county-shounty, anything!
Watch a soccer match. Some decent clubs whose names I know, hopefully.
Visit some typical Irish pubs (just to check out the atmo, Mom!)
Buy long-pending lenses for my camera and click loads of pictures.
Travel a bit. Bath, Oxford, some coastal towns, perhaps.

Time to hit the bed.

Film Review: Just Married

2007-03-23T00:55:00.002+05:30

It seems a whole lot of Bollywood directors discovered Love Actually recently. The funda of having multiple parallel love-stories, capturing various shades and emotions, is literally beaten to death in last couple of months.

No "action" for Fardeen
No action for audience

In the race of duplicating ideas, its the laggards who lose worst. Thats why after Salaam-e-Ishq & Honeymoon Travels, its just impossible to digest Just Married.

And that's just first of the many MANY problems with the movie! The pace of the movie is another. The movie just drags and drones, without any point in sight. The story has loopholes of the size of India Gate where from Siddhu can pass with his tractor! I don't think there are still homes in uber-urban Delhi where US-return Marketing Heads would agree to marry some girl without even talking to her. And someone please tell me what actually was the issue in the film? Why was Isha Deol screaming - "Kya sex hi sab kuch hai aapke liye?" Because Fardeen touched his shoulder or because the cockroach touch her legs (eh.. talking to Fardeen or Cockroach)? Oh, and there were other couples too. Mostly artificial and boring. Faces from the TV serials, bringing the typical rude onslaught of emotions from the small screen. Waaaay over the top! See, the issue with the movie is - there is no story!!

Which is saddening, given the fact that it the debut movie of Meghna Gulzar, daughter of famous poet & lyricist Sampooran Singh aka Gulzar. Coming to that, the music of the film was another flop show. Only one song - "Gudgudee" - is worth noting.

Now the acting, Fardeen Khan gave yet another Man-Behind-The-Iron-Mask performance. He definitely beat Isha Deol in Look-I'm-So-Expressionless contest, but by a very narrow margin. I can imagine both set of celebarents (new term coined by me - celeb+parents!) scratching their heads (Firoz very delicately) about where to fit in their wards. Action didn't work, neither did emotion. No chance in romance and too young for bhabhi-bhaiya roles. Well, tough luck. But please move over and spare the poor audience.

And if you've read till here, you must be rewarded with my own PJ. The mention of cockroach brought it forth in my memory. So,

Q. What did the nephew roach call his uncle?
A. Kaka-roach! :-P

One year at Jokaland

2007-03-17T16:35:00.000+05:30

The terms are done, exams taken & projects submitted. No matter how far it looked when I started, the end of the first year at IIM Calcutta came a little too soon. The year was more or less kind to me. Along with the usual stuff, I did many unusual things too. The campus band, JBS Baro-C, composed a song about the early days of students in IIMC ( http://music.cooltoad.com/music/song.php?id=296339 ). Song contains swearing/explicit lyrics! I made a video on the song along with some friends. Here it is -

The response to the video has been very encouraging. In the first 4 days at youtube, it gathered around 1200 hits! This encouragement has motivated us to make more videos under the banner of "Between the Lines" production.

However, the movie-making would have to wait, for the summers are here and all of us are to leave and join our respective organizations for the summer internships. I'm leaving for London on 9th April and would be back on 2nd June, good one week before the next term start.

One regret after the first year - I virtually abandoned this blog and my photography. Since this was something I really enjoyed, I'll try my best to revive my interests and devote more time to them.

That we'll see, for the time being, please check out the video and some feedback, may be?

A Rage For Perfection

2006-09-20T19:55:00.000+05:30

McEnroe

John McEnroe
"Needed to lose head to play good"

named his autobiography "A Rage For Perfection." As Harsha Bhogle recently quipped in an informal talk here, perhaps he was the only player who needed to lose his head to play better. I'm on hunt for the book, if you find one, don't think twice before dispatching it to me :-)

Anyway, the title got me thinking. Quite recently I've realised something about myself - I don't have the "rage for perfection." This is not to say mediocrity doesn't bother me, but competition surely doesn't. I'm not someone motivated by the vision of the accolades reserved for the highest achiever. Even from the very start, in school, I was never pushed for the first place, by me or by my folks. I was among the toppers, but rarely "the" topper. During my preparation days for JEE, I didn't use to think in "top 10, top 50" terms. Till the results came out, I thought anything in top 500 would be cool. Then in IIT, I let it go loose. Even afterwards, in my job, I never aspired to be the best or whatever. I wasn't bad, mind you :-), just not the best!

Does that mean achievements don't matter to me? My proudest achievement in recent times has been my success (however miniscule) in photography. I started with absolutely no credentials and did reasonably well. Many, many people have looked at my flickr account and praised my work. Nothing makes me more proud! Same for my blog; I started as another anonymous blogger. Now after some 1.5 years, I've got more than 50,000 hits. No mean feat :-) And mostly I have written whatever fancied me. Not for the readers, just for me.

So the way I've explained it to myself is that may be competition doesn't push me, but once I set my eye on some job and if I really enjoy doing it, then I do it well. And so well that, often I would emerge decently placed in the competition!

Just wanted to tell someone.

An Appeal

2006-08-23T18:52:00.000+05:30

Couple of days back, one student at IIMC met with an road accident and after about 1 week in the ICU, succumbed to the injuries. It was shocking, disturbing, but more than anything else, it was unfortunate. I personally didn't know the guy, but it disturbed me. "Could've-been-me" feeling! The guy was riding a motorcycle, without a helmet and possibly under the influence of alcohol. He crashed with a bus and hit his head on the road. Pity. Foolishness? Waste!

Kolkata road accidents data.

Couple of years back, I would've put the entire blame on the foolhardiness of that guy, but somehow it doesn't seem right anymore. Most of us aren't aware how easy it is to lose our lives. Just a little misfortune and there's no tomorrow! Most of the time, most of us don't give any thoughts to such possibilities and the consequences. I had my own little face-off with it once, about an year back. And it sets you thinking. One of our professor, whose tongue can sting at times, said,"This is perhaps the most mindless way of dying." And I couldn't agree more.

More fortunately than unfortunately, early in my biking days, when I was still a noob, I had a little accident. I was learning biking and it skidded. I landed safely and absolutely no harm was done. But that incident never left me, it's always there at the back of my mind. Result: I developed as an extra cautious biker. Of course, I've had my moments of madness. Fortunately, I survived all of them.

There isn't much to say. The sad incident can end up being just a statistical data point, unless we take a lesson from it. Sincere appeal to all bikers - please get a helmet!

Skeptic Youth vs Confident Veterans

2006-08-20T01:38:00.000+05:30

The panel discussion I mentioned in my last post turned out to be quite an interesting one. The topic of discussion was - "100 Indian MNCs by 2020." The panelists were -

Mr Sandipan Deb : Chief Editor, Financial Express
Mr Hemant Kanoria, Managing Director, Srei Finance
Mr D K Chaudhuri CEO , Skytech
Mr Barun Das, Exide, Company Secretary

Sandipan started with his views, which unfortunately didn't look very well prepared. However, he was lucid; talked much without saying much. Rest three had solid experience in industry, extending the operations at the world stage. They talked with more authority and shared their experiences. All of them were very sure that the dream of 100 Indian MNCs by 2020 is well within the reach and sort of underrated. It was quite inspiring hearing their first hand experiences.

Like all good panel discussions, this one too ended with a Q&A round by audience. Like all good audience, lots of questions came out after a little prodding. What was most interesting to note was that the crowd - comprising the leaders of tomorrow, yada yada yada - was quite skeptic about achieving the goal! There were questions about the government and its ineffectiveness, about sustaining the current wave of growth, about population & literacy, about infrastructure & investment - all of them showing how improbable this goal seems to be. On the contrary, the panel maintained its stand that India will have to do too bad to miss this one!

Their settling argument was that India has reached this stage even with the kind of government & stifling regulations we've had, so there is every chance that now that the condition have improved a lot, India will bloom even more. The post-lib generation hasn't seen those days, when Infosys almost died as an infant after frustrating experiences trying to work for global client, mainly due to the policies in 1989!

What will happen remains to be seen, but this skeptism in the youth of the nation, crème de la crème, worries me. Not like OMG-India-is-screwed-now worry, just a little concern.

PS: Just a small note, reply to Jeet's comment on my last post where he said, "I don't agree with Sandipan's only one answer theory.. I don't know about comp. sci and engg. but Civil Engineering was all about evaluating multiple correct answers and 'choosing' one of them." Still, you'll find the management education a whole lot different than engineering. CS is mainly about optimizing; space, speed, transfer, safety.. So in a way, you are confined in your pursuit of the answer. You can say that A is better than B and like that. Civil, as I understand, does have an element of subjectivity to it. In the managerial world, I'm told, there are many situation where nothing's universally better or worse. It all depends on what you decide.

MBA vs Engineering

2006-08-12T23:46:00.000+05:30

One among various good things about IIMC is that it provides you opportunities to interact with various leaders from different walks of life. I attended couple of presentations from top consulting firms, basically pitching consulting as a career to us students. They had sent IIMC alumni, who were placed at top positions. It's definitely inspiring; sets you dreaming.

Tomorrow, that is Sunday, we've Sandipan Deb (Managing Editor, Outlook magazine and editor of Outlook Money) coming over to the campus for one panel discussion. He happens to be an IIMC alumni. Sometime back he was interviewed by the alumni magazine. Couple of interesting points he made:

We came from a very closed quantitative engineering system, in the sense that engineering education inculcates the philosophy of one right answer to any problem. That if you follow the flow chart, if you follow the algorithm, if you do the steps properly, there is only one answer possible. I think I gained hugely from the exposure that IIM gave me to - economics, sociology, political science, psychology, behavioral sciences etc. It really broadened my horizon.

That is exactly what I'm going through. But it isn't all rosy; atleast for me it's little tough to adjust. It's easy to think that it's much easier to give gyaan on such subjects, it's not! I guess, I'll take some time to get used to it. Sandipan further added:

Our batch was quite an exceptional batch. There were about fifteen of us in the same wing H2-top and I was very fortunate to have these people to interact with. We had toppers and we had bottomers. We had brilliant bottomers, we had people who slogged, and we had people who never went to class. They were also extremely talented. In those two years, most IIM Calcutta teams-quiz, debate, drama, music etc-had representation from our wing and we won almost every festival that we went to. So that made my two years totally worth it.

That is so true! You learn a lot even outside the class, among such a great gang of selected few. I've had the same experience at IIT Bombay and I guess I'm in for good two years in Calcutta too.

PS: Not getting much time to read/write. Hence this inactivity at the blog.

The Campus

2006-07-15T15:37:00.000+05:30

The IIM Calcutta campus or Jokaland, as we call it, is almost like an island amid lakes.

The IIM Calcutta campus, courtesy Google Earth.

As it's evident from the Google Earth image, there are three major man-made lakes surrounding the academic block, the campus KV and library. Our hostels are along the lakes on the outside. The setting gets more clear in the Wikimapia image, as it has proper labelling too.

Compare it to the IIT Bombay campus and you'll find many similarities. Both the campus have the serene presence of beautiful water bodies and dense greenery. Right now the similarities get thicker, since the Calcutta weather nowadays is quite like Mumbai monsoons; it stays cloudy with frequent short showers. Due to the lakes, it stays humid at the campus and if it's not windy, it can get really stifling. The IIMC campus is much smaller than IITB campus, and obviously since IITB is meant for much bigger number of junta. It used to house 4 BTech batches, each of roughly 500 plus huge number of MTechs and few PhDs too. Here at IIMC there are just two batches at a given point of time. My batch's strength is around 310 and that's the largest number they've ever had.

One thing paining me is the distance from the downtown Kolkata. Last night I enquired about ordering pizza and I got to know that the minimum order they take is something as obscene as 6k!! That's because the nearest outlet is at Camac Street or like that :-). But, the food in the mess & (almost) 24 hrs canteen in the hostel is much better than IITB. But eating out is still an issue. Nearest Metro station is some 100 bucks away from IIMC and there aren't many options to reach there. I guess things would get brighter once my bike reaches Kolkata.

Today I took some pictures at the campus. I've uploaded them at the Flickr page. Most of them need little bit of postprocessing, which I plan to do soon.

Kolkata Chapter Begins :-)

2006-07-14T17:49:00.000+05:30

This would be the longest stretch when I didn't blog, since I started blogging, but it's like that, and that's the way it is. First I was stranded, disconnected at Jaipur for a while, which now seems like pretty comfortable setting.. sigh. Then, once I touched base at Kolkata, things got hectic, and I didn't have a computer for a while. Now that things have more or less settled and I've bought my self a rather sleek Compaq Presario v3000, it's about time I resume blogging.

First things first, Kolkata and the neighbourhood, looks totally amazing from air, after first few days of showers. From my SpiceJet flight, I was gawking, spellbound, at the marvellous view below.. lush greenery, numerous big & small canals and all! Then we hit the ground (pun intended). Let's just say, for someone new to the city, it's not very tough to not like the city, going by the first impressions. The IIM Calcutta campus is good 90 minutes from the airport! The area neighbouring IIMC, it's called Joka, is rather unimpressive to say the least. However, the campus is breathtaking with its 7 lakes and lush greenery. My hostel room, I found is more comfortable than the room I had in IIT Bombay. It's bigger, better planned and it has a balcony which opens to the patch of jungle behind my hostel. I haven't clicked snaps of the campus, but I intend to do that pretty soon. The downtown Kolkata, essentially Park Street area, is light-years away from the campus and it takes huge effort to make it to there. Till now I've been there only once, and even then it was disappointing as we couldn't catch any movie! The movie buff in me is still very pleased to be here; the LAN is virtually full of movies! My new 250 GB external HDD might getting full to the brim, is looking like a possibility.

The academic load looks manageable. I have five courses, all of them interesting. Especially the Organisational Behaviour course, which has interesting mix of Psychological studies in it, pretty impressive! Then there is Indian Economic and Political History, which is also pretty interesting to study. Midterms are still (just?) 2 weeks away and things are chill (as we say here).

I guess, I'll start with such banal posts; it should take time to get back the flow for blogging :-)

Back to Home

2006-06-08T11:33:00.000+05:30

Reached Jaipur on 5th morning. Since then, life has been laid back. Sleeping late, waking up early (!!), going for morning walks and sleeping again after that. Eating a lot and having long siestas during hot afternoons. Lots of TV - cricket & tennis. Soccer should start in some time. Meeting with lost acquaintances, uncles & aunts; explaining everytime what I was doing and what I am going to do. Taking all the insinuations about my marriage & elbow-in-ribs jokes from middle-aged uncles with a straight poker face.

Not all rosy, but closer to it. I'm loving it and praying it to end soon :-) Bundle of contradictions, eh?

Leaving for Calcutta on 23rd. Taking SpiceJet this time, after vowing to never take an Air Deccan flight again. That's a long story, some other time.

Be Good people,
- Varun

Closing the Bangalore Chapter

2006-05-29T19:54:00.000+05:30

16^th July, 2003: I reached the company guest house in Jayanagar, wet, tired & hungry. Things could've gone only better from there.

And how well things turned out to be! As the time for me to bid adieu to Bangalore is sneaking close, a mix of melancholy & nostalgia is setting in. When I first came to Bangalore, I was a fresh out of college, wide-eyed kid of 21; tired of scraping my time for the degree & bumbling with anticipation towards the corporate world. Coffee machine & the biscuits in the office pantry excited me, so did the free stationary (I did build up a mini ball pen collection of my own) & the wall-to-wall carpet in the office. I already had some of my closest buddies working in Bangalore then and later on I made many more good ones, at work. Sadly, many of them are no longer in touch. Not everything was as rosy though; coming from the soggy & warm Mumbai to wet & windy Bangalore, messed me up bad and I was in-n-out of viral fever for about one month. Then I guess, I just got used to it. The rains in Bangalore, though no lesser in the vigor, don't last for as long as those in Mumbai and they have assuring surety of schedule, unlike the ill-tempered rains in Mumbai which visit at the most inappropriate hours.

In last three years, Bangalore has given & taught me a lot. I have changed jobs twice since my first company and finally acknowledged that this is perhaps not what I would want to do all my life. The software industry, with all its lures & charms, failed to excite me for long; but it wasn't just the job. I was feeling a bit jaded for a while, by the city, by its people, by the mundane routine. Almost all the people I know in general, have one tiresome similarity - all of them are software guys! And the city, it has perhaps the greatest weather in India, but I think I've had enough of Bangalore. Nothing against the city, but I guess I would relish the change right now. Incidently, Bangalore is the city where I've spent the second longest continuous spell of my life (After Mumbai, where I spent four years of college. So much for being a Jaipuri :-) ). I guess, the wanderer in me is still not ready to settle. At the same time, if Calcutta wouldn't have happened, I guess I would've stayed back in Bangalore for another year or so, and happily. Who knows?

Change comes with a price tag; you need to get out of the comfort zone and go through the ordeal of settling up yet again, in a new rhythm. To accomodate new people, you need to get away from the existing friends; to venture new places you first need to leave the comforts of your home. Ironically, often we seek change to get rid of the monotonous rhythm only. It seems contradictory, but such is life.

There is just less than a week before I fly out of here, and yet the feeling isn't sinking that I'm leaving Bangalore. I guess it would start settling once I leave the city & its heavenly weather, to get roasted in the ruthless Jaipur summers :-) So here's me, off to yet another new city.

Prelude to Hell

2006-05-28T23:57:00.000+05:30

All hope abandon, ye who enter here!
- Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy

I'm reading Snapshots from Hell currently and it looks like an interesting book. The very first page quotes Dante, establishing the analogy between life in a prestigious B-School (Stanford in the book) and Hell. I picked this one up expecting insights & musings over Hell as I would be joining IIM Calcutta, another B-School, pretty soon myself. Entering the gates of Hell, so they tell me.

Some of my closest friend just graduated from IIMC and I've discussed with them about life there. We've also got a mailing group active, involving most of my would-be batchmates & few seniors. I've been gathering information, anticipating & gauging all the time. Though I have got a few contradicting bits, mostly what has settled in is -

It's not going to be easy. No where near the breezer we had in Engineering.
It's not going to be that tough either. Most important is to strike the right balance.
It's important to learn things, but most important are the grades.
You learn as much or perhaps more outside the class, then in the classroom. This much I understood in my stint at IIT Bombay.
Finally, it's all about how you sell yourself.

These are the starting points I'm taking with me. Back to academia, more matured & experienced this time, hopefully. It's rather tough to not get nostalgic about the last time. I didn't do particularly well in my under-graduate course at IIT Bombay, I think mostly because I didn't apply myself, at all. As per the reputation of B-Schools go, they bury you under so much work, that you don't get many choices. And choices, given to a feckless mind, can sum up to disaster. So it's good in a way.

The feeling of exclusiveness eludes me, again. Exclusiveness, among the peers and not the entire population. The biggest group at IIT Bombay was of Rajasthanis, mainly from Kota, mostly from one particular coaching. I was the member of every big ruck. After finishing B.Tech. I joined one huge software firm and become another bit in the Indian silicon valley. Bangalore made me feel very another-brick-in-the-wall-ish, if I may. I writhed and tried to break the shackles, but I was caged in the jargon & the keywords. I was stamped - "Java/J2EE developer, CSE IITB." And I hated that. Going to IIM Calcutta, things haven't changed much. IIMC has a tradition of admitting engineers in big numbers. The batch of 2006 had 56% engineers plus 28% IITians. My herd is defined, I guess.

There is comfort in groups, they say. Along with comfort, there is conformity & submissiveness. I think we all (taking the refuge of groups, again) yearn our undivided & exclusive spot, in life, in history. Make our mark on the sands of time. Need not be Einstein-like, but we all long to be distinguished from the herd. That, my friends, is the core dream I'm carrying with me to the Joka-land. I might end up taking up the beaten path, lured by the riches & comforts. You never know.

PS: I was travelling for a while, hence the break in blogging. However, I shall leave Bangalore in another week and that would mean another silent period for this blog. Regular blogging shall resume once I reach Calcutta, hopefully.

IITs: The Selection-Effect Institutions

2006-05-17T03:31:00.000+05:30

The archive of the articles Malcom Gladwell wrote for the New Yorker is full with his profound insights on various interesting topics. Recently, I was reading his article on the social logic of Ivy League admissions; the strategies they apply and used to apply, the kind of profile they seek and all that. I think the article is also relevant in the current discussion over the reservation in education issue, go ahead read it. But a certain part caught my attention and got me thinking about JEE & IITs. I quote:

Social scientists distinguish between what are known as treatment effects and selection effects. The Marine Corps, for instance, is largely a treatment-effect institution. It doesn't have an enormous admissions office grading applicants along four separate dimensions of toughness and intelligence. It's confident that the experience of undergoing Marine Corps basic training will turn you into a formidable soldier. A modeling agency, by contrast, is a selection-effect institution. You don't become beautiful by signing up with an agency. You get signed up by an agency because you're beautiful.

IITs are definitely selection-effect institutions. This is to say that almost all the students who make into IITs are excellent at problem solving & analytical thinking. The time spent in the IITs, though contributes a lot towards the holistic development of the individual, doesn't add that much extra value. Of course, the teachers are good & the facilities are better, but if say an entire batch of IIT would be swapped with the batch of students from say another lower ranked engineering institute, would that affect the bigger picture? I would like to say here that success (the way we define it in the materialistic sense) depends on a lot more than mere ability. You need to apply yourself, persist in tough times & keep on proving yourself again-n-again. So, would that make the original IITians less successful? I'd dare say no. Now, is it the IIT brand name which makes the students, or vice-versa? What makes the IIT brand? The placements, or the quality of students, or the rigorous academic schedule of four years?

In my opinion, its the JEE exam. It makes sure that only the students with great IQ make it into IITs (of course, it isn't exhaustive). This fact is reflected in various other facts, the average GRE & GMAT scores (at least in the analytical section) are much higher in IIT as compared to other colleges. IITians do relatively well at exams like CAT where your analytical abilities are put to test. Recently, most of the software companies & lately, financial firms too, go to various IIT campuses and pick up coders/number crunchers for their work, irrespective of the branch the student studied in IIT. Of course, the coursework at IITs doesn't inculcate the required abilities in the students; they came in with them. I remember, during my very early days at IIT Bombay, the dean once addressed us "freshies". Amidst all the gyaan, he told us that its the five pointers, who go ahead to become millionaires. Of course some of us took this as a cue and went ahead to bask in the notion that they've just got to get a 5 to become a millionaire, but that's not the point. The point is, even the students who constitute the lower half of the class are observed to do very well later on in their lives, enjoy success. Doesn't that say that the contribution of IITs (as in the learning inside the classrooms) in making them what they went ahead to become, was not much? Of course, bad grades mean those students did not apply themselves and have a tendency to lose the focus (if we assume the focus should be on academics).

So what would happen if this quality gets diluted, by let's say, 50% reservation? That would mean that half of the class is made up of the students who didn't do as well in the JEE as the other half. Roughly, it can be said that this would mean that their analytical skills are not at par with their general category colleagues (I say roughly, because I'm seen many exceptions. But in the end, that's what they are, exceptions). It might kill the brand in the longer run, the companies wouldn't get what they pay for and thus would shun IITs. But another outcome, which seems more likely to me, can be a fractured student society at IITs. Since its mandatory to declare that they are from quota at the time of placement, if would divide the placement scenario in two tiers. Different for general quota & reserved quota students. There are only about 10% of students from the SC/ST quota in the IITs, so no such phenomena is observed and they too are benefited from the IIT brandname. But if their percentage gets something like 50%, it might actually affect their chances adversely.

What's the solution for that? Reservation in private sector? To cover up their incompetence? To me it looks as if the government is standing with its back to the Sun. Instead of going in this direction, they should try and provide better education & better access to the primary & secondary educational institutes. If equal opportunities are provided at that level, I don't have any doubt that it will reflect at the tertiary educational level.

Sadly, the logical things almost never fetch the votes.

First week of Photophilic

2006-05-16T02:00:00.000+05:30

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Friday, May 12, 2006

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Monday, May 15, 2006

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

My new photoblog, Photophilic, is now one week old. The first week has been quite satisfactory one for me. I got Jha to comment twice, without taking him at gunpoint :-) Though he still have to comment on his own pic, two comments within a week is *huge* success!

I'm trying best to maintain the quality there. Last week I posted some pictures from our recent Ooty trip, some from the Goa trip at the new year's. This week I'm concentrating on portraits. Jha's stunning "Vijay Dinanath Chauhan" pose has already captured the fancy of many. No wonder that picture tops the number-of-comments chart with 12 comments so far :-)

Please take a tour. If you like the stuff, you can always subscribe to the RSS feed, or bookmark it. Keep visiting & commenting on the pictures. Also, please spread the word among your friends and all :-)

Chalo fir,
- Varun

Euphoria Mehfuz. Really?!

2006-05-14T01:45:00.000+05:30

Zindagi hai dhuan to kya

Too little, too late.

Bujh gayi har subah to kya
Rootha mujhse khuda to kya
Ho gaye hum juda to kya

Faasle they hazaaron darmiyan,
Waqt ke they hazaaron imtehaan

Fir bhi ban ke nishaan,
Tere honthon ke kisi kone mein,
Hansi ke tarah, main mehfuz hoon

Teri aankhon ke chipe dard mein
Aansoo ki tarah, main mehfuz hoon

Bewajah har wajah to kya
Begunahii hai gunaah to kya
Beasar hai dua to kya
Ho gaye hum juda to kya

Raaz gehre hazaron bepanah
Lafz thahare hazaaron bejubaan

Fir bhi ban ke nishaan
Tere honthe ke kisi kone mein
Hansi ki tarah, main mehfuz hoon

Tere gesu ke ude pannon mein
Yaadon ki tarah, main mehfuz hoon

Teri aankhon mein
Mehfuz hoon
Teri yaadon mein
Mehfuz hoon
Teri baaton mein
Mehfuz hoon
Tere baalon mein
Mehfuz hoon

Faasle the hazaron darmiyaan
Waqt ki thi hazaron aandhiyan

Fir bhi ban ke nishaan
Tere honthon ke kisi kone mein
Hansi ke tarah, main mehfuz hoon

Tere kaandhe ke chipe til mein
Vaadon ki tarah, main mehfuz hoon

- Lyrics for "Mehfuz" from "Mehfuz (Euphoria)"

The curly haired medico with a guitar, is back! As is typical of Euphoria, their new album - Mehfuz - has some good ones, piled under some really mediocre stuff. I am not particularly against their music, I loved Maeri and before that, when they came out with Dhoom Pichuk Dhoom, I was very impressed with their authentic Indian sounds. But, just like almost all Indian bands (Silk Route, Aryans, etc.), they gave us very few and very rare good ones. I initially thought that here are some Indians who might give Pakistani Junoon a run for their money. Now even the comparison looks ludicrous. I will never forget the night Euphoria played at Mood Indigo; when their originals couldn't hold the high-energy crowed, they resorted to playing Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams! That night they lost whatever respect I had for them. A career span of almost a decade and all they've given are less than half a dozen good songs! Duh-de, Paki kid bands can kick their butts! IIRC, they jammed with Junoon once, where Junoon sang Maeri and they sang Sayonee. It was really embarrassing to see them butcher the Junoon classic.

Coming back to their latest album; I liked the title song - Mehfuz. It has the best lyrics in the album (produced above) & has slow soulful music. Palaash Sen's voice suits such slow songs better. Though he can sing well at high notes & fast songs, his voice has a hint of shrillness which doesn't really gel well there. Soneya is the song whose video is being aired these days. I liked the day-to-day conversation like lyrics & energetic music, but the song doesn't really capture your fancy. Out of playlist, out of mind types. Polly-Ghami Bewafa starts with beautiful shers, but then descends fast into mediocrity. Other than these few, there are some mediocre ones and some real crappy ones.

I could not understand what audience are they targeting. Its worth applauding that they have tried various different stuff in their album, but in that attempt the album has lost the direction. It doesn't have any signature style, not much in common between the songs. They are singing Punjabi & Dohe & English & Guitar Solos .. what kind of stupid musical cocktail is that! And of course, they aren't that versatile to pull it all off well.

All in all, the album is a disappointment, if you really had some expectations from Euphoria.

P.S.: If you want the lyrics for their other songs, you should check here & on their official website (which surprizingly has some mp3s too!).

Photophilic is up!

2006-05-12T01:18:00.000+05:30

Check it out at Photophilic.blogspot.com. I have copied the template I developed and tested here and started posting pictures. Should you be interested in subscribing to the atom feed, its available here. I have also put up a Creative Commons license, which basically says -

You are free:
to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
to make commercial use of the work
Under the following conditions:
Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

Bookmark it, be a regular, keep commenting, yada yada yada. I have decided to not put any tracker or anything there to keep the worries about traffic and all away. Comments would be the only way to know if there's anyone checking the pics out. That doesn't mean I wouldn't advertise it per se :-D. Now you know what would be my status message for coming days ;-).

Though I would try to post daily, I have decided to not compromise on quality for this. That is to say, if someday I don't find any picture worth posting in my stock, I shall give it a skip. Two things, this should keep me clicking more often & secondly, who doesn't like a "quality" photoblog. Of course, I define "quality" here.

Everything set. That leaves us with one question - who's gonna be my model? Send mugshots, fast.

Photophilic

2006-05-10T01:06:00.000+05:30

I have designed a template for the new photoblog. Please have a look at Photophilic. Suggestions are most welcome. I have yet to put this into "production" mode, but I'm more or less pleased with the look & all.

And oh, I wanted to name it "Pixellaneous" but sadly that one's taken. "Photophilic" though was my second choice, looks cool to me. Suggestions for the name are also requested.

Update: With everything else, now Photophilic has the functionality implemented to display the image EXIF information when mouse hovers over the image. Just check out the first image by hovering over it. Is that cool or is that cool? B-)

Why Isn't Socialism Dead?

2006-05-08T10:48:00.000+05:30

Even after the grave failures of many socialist experiments, why isn't socialism dead? Why is it still growing in the Southern American countries? I got hold of one excellent article over this, and since my understanding isn't very deep, I'll just quote from the article. Read the full piece here, its intense but extremely interesting.

[..]The Peruvian economist, Hernando de Soto, has argued in his book, The Mystery of Capital, that the failure of the various socialist experiments of the twentieth century has left mankind with only one rational choice about which economic system to go with, namely, capitalism. Socialism, he maintained, has been so discredited that any further attempt to revive it would be sheer irrationality.

[..]When Hernando de Soto asserts that capitalism is the only rational alternative left to mankind, he is maintaining that capitalism is the alternative that human beings ought to take because it is the rational thing to do. But what human beings ought to do and what they actually do are often two quite different things. For human beings frequently act quite irrationally, and without the least consideration of what economist called their "enlightened self-interest." And it is in this light that we must approach the problem, Why isn't socialism dead?

The Role of Myth

[..]In short, revolution is not a means to achieve socialism; rather, the myth of socialism is a useful illusion that turns ordinary men into comrades and revolutionaries united in a common struggle -- a band of brothers, so to speak.

Sorel, for whom religion was important, drew a comparison between the Christian and the socialist revolutionary. The Christian's life is transformed because he accepts the myth that Christ will one day return and usher in the end of time; the revolutionary socialist's life is transformed because he accepts the myth that one day socialism will triumph, and justice for all will prevail. What mattered for Sorel, in both cases, is not the scientific truth or falsity of the myth believed in, but what believing in the myth does to the lives of those who have accepted it, and who refuse to be daunted by the repeated failure of their apocalyptic expectations. How many times have Christians in the last two thousand years been convinced that the Second Coming was at hand, only to be bitterly disappointed -- yet none of these disappointments was ever enough to keep them from holding on to their great myth. So, too, Sorel argued, the myth of socialism will continue to have power, despite the various failures of socialist experiments, so long as there are revolutionaries who are unwilling to relinquish their great myth.

Can Socialism Die?

[..]It may well be that socialism isn't dead because socialism cannot die. As Sorel argued, the revolutionary myth may, like religion, continue to thrive in "the profounder regions of our mental life," in those realms unreachable by mere reason and argument, where even a hundred proofs of failure are insufficient to wean us from those primordial illusions that we so badly wish to be true. Who doesn't want to see the wicked and the arrogant put in their place? Who among the downtrodden and the dispossessed can fail to be stirred by the promise of a world in which all men are equal, and each has what he needs?

[..]The shrewd and realistic Florentine statesman and thinker, Guicciardini, once advised: "Never fight against religion...this concept has too much empire over the minds of men." And to the extent that socialism is a religion, then those who wish to fight it with mere reason and argument may well be in for a losing battle. Furthermore, as populism spreads, it is inevitable that the myth of socialism will gain in strength among the people who have the least cause to be happy with their place in the capitalist world-order, and who will naturally be overjoyed to put their faith in those who promise them a quick fix to their poverty and an end to their suffering.

The piece also talks about the theory of Scientific Socialism by Marx - "Capitalism, he argued, had been a good thing; a necessary step that mankind had to take to advance forward; but, according to Marx, capitalism would eventually suffer from an internal breakdown. It would simply stop producing the goods. Like feudalism before it, capitalism was inevitably bound to pass away as a viable system of social organization, and then, and only then, would socialism triumph." With the current capitalistic tendencies, its not very hard to see that the gap between the rich & poor is widening. Laissez-faire would most be one extreme of free-market economy, which would crush the poor totally, hence we need government to make policies to control the market forces. But what if the goverments aren't up to it? As the number of have-nots would grow to be manifolds of haves, wouldn't the utopian dream of a socialistic society catch their fancy? That's what I think is happening in the South America.

Pixel Blues

2006-05-07T22:12:00.000+05:30

Clicked this one at the Leela Palace hotel. I like this frame, mostly because the inclusion of the leaves makes it look like the "God of Small Things" cover design.

It's almost a year since the photography bug bit me hard. I was always interested in clicking, but not really deep into it. It started with the Pune-Bombay trip with Jha & Rg. Jha had bought the beast named Canon Powershot S1 IS and the train journey was just long enough to get me interested in the camera. After that, I clicked a lot using Jha's camera; on weekends, during lunch hours, at nights. I even started a photoblog on blogger and started posting an image daily. The photoblog got reasonable success. Then I bought myself a bigger & better beast - Panasonic DMC Lumix FZ 20. By this time, I was majorly into photography & photoblogs. I learnt mostly using online resources. My first ever entry at the PhotoFriday.com challenge got me a podium finish, but since then I haven't been lucky.

Then something happened I had always feared. Don't know where exactly it started, but I guess sometime around the start of this year, my interest in the art started to wear off. May be it was the job change, the new job demanded a little bit more than the last one, or the pantry in office which made it unnecessary to have the lunch outside, or the rising temperature. I shut down the photoblog and even the uploading at my flickr account (which went pro, courtesy Rg & Jha) reduced to a trickle. I lost the inspiration and my photos stopped to excite me.

Now, I'm pushing myself hard to get going once again. Ooty wasn't a big success, with the bright glaring sun. I went to the good ol' Leela Palace and clicked some good ones. Soon I'll be moving to Calcutta, which is one city that excites many renowned photographers. The IIMC campus is quite picturesque in itself, I'm told. Right time to start it all over again. Thus, I have decided to revive the photoblog. Though I did write some Javascripts to implement some of the essential functionalities (like the "previous" & "next" links), I'm not very happy with the blogger.com photoblog. They're really lagging behind in this, they should provide some decent templates for photobloggers too. But sadly, other than Blogger.com there aren't any free blogging services which provide better support for photoblogging. At least, I haven't came across any. I have to read more about Pixelpost, but AFAIK they need some online space to work with and that would mean doling out some bucks. That wouldn't be the most prudent thing to do before plunging once again into the student life.

So, if you guys come across some easy solution, puhleeeeeez let me know. In the mean time, I'll carry on some experiments with the blogger templates to make it look something as simplistic, yet cool like this or this. And yeah, I'm also kinda looking out for someone who won't mind modeling for me :-D

Comment on "Quota Raj Cometh"

2006-05-02T20:55:00.000+05:30

Someone anonymously posted a comment on my blog about the reservation in IIT/IIMs. I would have liked to have a name associated with it, but anyway, I think the comment deserves a reply as a post (at least half as big as the comment :-). A search on Copyscape showed that someone with name Shylock is spamming the blogosphere with the same comment (here). It raises some arguable points though. The comment-

We must investigate the term "merit".Is "merit" just a score in entrance exams at age of 17?

Take the claim of "merit based" entrance to all IIMs and dozens of other institutes.

The CAT exam is based on the SAT exam in the USA . It has been proved beyond doubt that the SAT test is culturally biased . Blacks and hispanics do poorly at it year after year .

If a student who is eligible for admission to IIM on the basis of his CAT score, were to take the same CAT exam in which he/she cleared in a language that he/she did not understand then he/she would be at a disadvantage compared to someone who was schooled in that language . Not knowing that language does not mean you lack the capacity to clear that exam.

Approximately 25 % of CAT test is about English! Another 25 % is about English Comprehension!!!! There you are !!!! About 50 % so called aptitude test is a hoax for someone who is from a non-english speaking background .

This is how the CAT like the SAT is discriminatory .

See the full form of SAT - Scholastic Aptitude Test . The problem is aptitude testing is not so simple . There is no test on earth which can reliably tests aptitude .

Aptitude tests such as the SAT have a historical tie to the concept of innate mental abilities and the belief that such abilities can be defined and meaningfully measured. Neither notion has been supported by modern research. Few scientists who have considered these matters seriously would argue that aptitude tests such as the SAT provide a true measure of intellectual abilities.

It was found that people could be coached to better their scores at SAT . The name SAT - Scholastic Aptitude Test could not be correct . So under such valid criticism the name was changed to Scholastic Assessment Test, since a test that can be coached clearly did not measure inherent "scholastic aptitude", but was influenced largely by what the test subject had learned in school. Even the College Board which conducts the SAT has beaten a hasty retreat.This was a major theoretical retreat by the College Board conducting SAT, which had previously maintained that the test measured inherent aptitude and was free of bias.

About ten years back , however, even the redundancy of the term assessment test was recognized and the name was changed to the neutral, and non-descriptive, SAT. At the time, the College Board announced, "Please note that SAT is not an initialism. It does not stand for anything."

The framers of these SAT tests assumed that intelligence was a unitary inherited attribute, that it was not subject to change over a lifetime, and that it could be measured and individuals could be ranked and assigned their place in society accordingly. The SAT evolved from these questionable assumptions about human talent and potential.

More and more people are questioning the validity of SAT . In the past MENSA used to accept high SAT score individuals . For the past decade it has stopped accepting SAT scores .

The whole exercise of deciding merit based on CAT scores discriminates against those from lower socio-economic status.

Though many non-IIM institutes have started accepting CAT scores, the application fee of these institutes is still inexplicably high.

The CAT is primarily an exam of Math and English. Logical and Analytical Reasoning is nearly absent (except for some verbal reasoning which again depends on knowing English well!!!!).

CAT is a clever way to keep those from lower socio-economic strata away Institutes funded with tax payers money .

So claims of 'Merit' based on CAT scores is hollow and discriminatory against those of lower socio-economic strata.

Dhirubhai Ambani had a poor command over English . He would not have made it through CAT. So what "merit" are we talking of?

Merit, as I understand it, is the quality of being worthy & better equipped for some thing, in this case the chance to study at the coveted IITs & IIMs. Note that, merely being better equipped doesn't ensure the success, it simply increases the chances. So, if someone has done well at the JEE, it shows that s/he is good at problem solving and is more likely to succeed at the undergraduate level.

Like it or hate it, but you can't deny it that English is the language of business in this new world global economy. A clarification though, you can take JEE in various regional languages, but the medium of instruction at IITs remains English. CAT stresses on English comprehension, and rightly so, since for the managers, its almost indispensable. Dhirubhai Ambani was a genius, but even he didn't take any chance with it and sent his sons for the best education.

Both the entrance procedures are biased towards those who had quality education in their schools. If you see the crowd at IITs, most of them are from the urban centers. Rural kids lag behind because they didn't get good education at the school levels. They either have to move to bigger centers to study, or lose out to their urban counterparts. This is the place where the government should concentrate if they really want to eradicate the bias. Curing the symptoms, by allowing them back door entry, isn't going to cure the ailment.

The logic government is giving behind the reservation system is that this should be done to compensate for the centuries of discrimination against these castes and tribes (Although Ambedkar himself thought that 10 years of reservations should level the ground.) I personally feel that it would make more sense to provide help to those who are in a disadvantageous position today. Thus, reservations & financial help for those belonging to economically challenged families would be more appropriate.

I Resign

2006-05-02T11:45:00.000+05:30

Drafting an appropriate resignation letter can be a headache. You want to sound honest, but not rude. You want to sound polite, but not wishy-washy. It takes a lot of jargon and b*llshit to get the perfect resignation letter.
Right?
Wrong!

Is the resignation letter holding you back from resigning?
Are you googling your nights away for that perfect letter?
Are you begging your friends for that ultimate template?

Voila! Not anymore. Because I-Resign.com is here.
Yes, I-Resign. Say it proudly, say it loudly -- I Resign. Tell your manager, tell the HR -- I Resign.

"But whaaat it eez?"
I-Resign brings you the most suitable templates for all kind of situations. Going for further studies? Leaving for the fatter paycheck? Or even leaving to have a baby? They've got it all covered! Just check out this page. You can even customize the templates according to your details and download the letter as word document!

I used the website. Check out the letter-

Dear XXX,

I write to confirm that I am resigning from my position as Software Engineer.

I have decided to realize my professional and personal goals by accepting a formal offer to study for an MBA in IIM Calcutta. This was not an easy decision and took a lot of consideration but I believe it is an exciting step forward and one that I hope you will understand and support.

My contract of employment requires me to work here for a further month from the day I give notice. Hence I request you to release me on June 2nd, which would complete the notice period. Please be assured that I will do all I can to assist in the smooth transfer of my responsibilities before leaving.

I wish both you and YYY every good fortune and I would like to thank you once again for having me as part of your team.

Yours sincerely,

Exquisite! This you won't find on the website. I thank Reshma for this wonderful piece.

Lament

2006-04-29T01:17:00.000+05:30

शिकायत है, शिकायत है,
मुझको दिल से यही शिकायत है,
जो उसको मिल नहीं सकता,
क्यों उसकी चाहत है?

A movie a day: The way to live

2006-04-28T01:39:00.000+05:30

I've vowed to watch one movie a (working) day till the day I leave Bangalore (That day is fixed BTW, I'm flying out on 4th June. So, now my days are numbered.. har har har). This week, I've watched four movies till now and I'm set to watch another this night. I don't think I can add more to the tally during weekend as we are planning to visit Ooty during the three day weekend. Anyway, I'm putting up my comments about the movies I watched this week. Check out - Water, Grave of the Fireflies, Pyaare Mohan and Memoirs of a Geisha. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Water: Water for me is a movie of what-ifs and could-have-beens. As her reputation goes, ~~Mira Nair~~ Deepa Mehta has taken up a strong script and made a thought-provoking film out of it.

Lisa and John: The Weakest Links?

The story, set in late 1930s, is clearly the best part of the film. The film starts with excerpts from Laws of Manu, according to which a widow must lead a life devoid of all worldly pleasures. The film makes a good case against the treatment of widows in the traditional hindu society of 1930s. The hypocritical dysfunctional society, where the dominant males used to interpret the scriptures according to their likes. In one scene, an old decadent Seth says,"Brahmin kisi ke bhi saath so sakta hai. Is mein bhala us aurat ka hi hai." (A Brahmin can sleep with anyone he likes. Its better for that woman too.) The film covers many such iniquities prevalent in the society that time. Of course, many still are, and that makes the film relevent in today's times too.

Now some shortcomings of the movie, had ~~Mira Nair~~ Mehta gave the casting a more serious thought, it could have been a masterpiece. Acting is probably weakest part of otherwise a very good film. Seema Biswas is one seasoned actress and its very difficult to find any fault in her work, but other than her, their are not many strong performances to carry the film. Lisa Ray has shed some weight after "Bollywood-Hollywood" and is looking absolutely ravishing, but she just can't act! John Abraham tries, but even after that he can't create the charm Saif Ali Khan created in Parineeta. John simply could not convince me as a nationalist in the turbulent 30s. Perhaps his image was a hinderence, but I'm not sure if he was the best choice for the role. The hindi dialogs too are banal at times. With such a strong script, equally sharp dialogs could have added much more. Not the mention the poor delivery by Lisa Ray!

The film has many heart-touching scenes. When the old Bua, pining for sweets but not getting any, lets out the final breath after Chuiya gets her a laddu. Or when the Pundit, stuck between the pity for Seema Biswas & the religious diktat, asks her if she feels close to moksha (salvation) and she says if moksha means vairagya (insularism), then not. Another one, when Biswas and John are mourning Ray's death and Biswas asks him why are they (widows) forced to live there (ashram), to which John replies,"Ek bistar bach jata hai, khane wala ek munh kam ho jata hai.. aur koi kaaran nahi hai." (It saves an extra bed, reduces the number of eaters .. there is no other reason.)

The irony with the movie is, it tells a story with which not many among the multiplex crowd would be able to relate. And this movie is not going to be released outside the multiplexes, if at all it arrives in India. I guess, its an insulting movie to our great Indian culture, hah!

Get a DVD. Watch the movie.

Rating: 3/5

"The best film you would never want to watch again."

Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no haka): Some user has described this movie at IMDB as "the best war movie you would never want to watch again." I don't think anything more profound can be said about the movie. As the tradition of Hollywood war movies go, they are more concerned with the heroics and the win. What about the price which has to be paid, by both winning and the losing sides? This film captures the plight of two small children, Seita & Setsuko, stuck in the second World War Japan. Their father is already fighting for the navy & they lose their mother to an air-raid. To survive in the war torn Japan, with rationed food and scarcity & fear spread all over, is one challange the children fail to tackle. Despite every possible effort by the brother, he could not save the little sister. For Japanese people, their pride means a lot, but in those miserable times, the brother had to steal food for both of them. It's never enough for them anyway. He even risks his life by running to the city under bombing, to steal whatever food or valuables he can find in the deserted houses.

The story is as simple and as heartbreaking as any real life story can be. This film is based on the novel with the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka. Nosaka lost his younger sister during the war to malnutrition and blamed himself for her death. I had reservations about the movie since it's an anime movie. But that doesn't holds the movie back in any way. The emotions and the predicament of the characters, be it the siblings or their grumpy aunt or the hopeless farmers, come out very well.

Another good thing about the movie is that it doesn't take any side and doesn't point fingers to anyone. It doesn't say that those kids are suffering because of Americans. It doesn't waste time in establishing good & bad sides and heros & villians. I'd keep this along all time best war movies, along with "Life is Beautiful".

Rating: 3.5/5

Pyaare-Mohan: Avoid.

Too alien a story for me.

Memoirs of a Geisha: My understanding of the Japanese culture of early last century is very limited. Samurais are perhaps the only funda I know. Hence, Geisha.. was an eye-opener of sorts. The movie is based on a novel which covers the life on a small girl, who grows up to be a hugely popular Giesha, in the pre-war Japan.

The movie is well made and definitely worth watching. But I could not relate well with the Giesha concept. They are escorts, trained in music, dance and the art of conversation. They aren't prostitutes, still they'd auction their virginity. It gets a bit confusing.

The story is good. It starts with a father selling his two daughters, for medication of his ailing wife. The two sisters are seperated at the okiya and follow their destinies to become Gieshas. Chiyo, the younger one fails to join her sister in their plan to run away. Now she is doomed to live as a slave. That is until an celebrated Giesha, Mameha, takes her under her wings to train and make her the most celebrated Giesha. Chiyo turns into Sayuri, a bundle of mystery & charm, and enticing the rich & successful in Japanese society. But in the deepest part of her heart, she desires to be with no one but the Chairman. She has been in love with the chairman since she was 9 and accidently bumped in to him and he bought her an ice-cream.

This angle about a precocious girl in love with a man, thrice her age and the chairman loving her back, is a bit too much to digest for me. The chairman asked Mameha to take Chiyo under her and train her to be a Geisha, so that he can be with her .. uggh!

The presentation and the execution of the movie are brilliant, though. The acting is flawless and utmost care has been taken to get the era presented rightly. Just that I couldn't relate much with the story.

Rating: 3/5

Chernobyl: 20 years of disaster

2006-04-27T13:41:00.000+05:30

26th April 2006 marked 20 years of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident, which remains world's worst nuclear disaster.

On 26 April 1986, at 1:23:44, reactor no. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power station exploded. One hundred times more radiation was released than by the atom bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The sequence of events according to Chernobyl.info:

The accident in reactor no. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power station took place in the night of 25 to 26 April 1986, during a test. The operating crew planned to test whether the turbines could produce sufficient energy to keep the coolant pumps running in the event of a loss of power until the emergency diesel generator was activated.

In order to prevent the test run of the reactor being interrupted, the safety systems were deliberately switched off. For the test, the reactor had to be powered down to 25 per cent of its capacity. This procedure did not go according to plan: for unknown reasons, the reactor power level fell to less than 1 per cent. The power therefore had to be slowly increased. But 30 seconds after the start of the test, there was a sudden and unexpected power surge. The reactor's emergency shutdown (which should have halted the chain reaction) failed.

Within fractions of a second, the power level and temperature rose many times over. The reactor went out of control. There was a violent explosion. The 1000-tonne sealing cap on the reactor building was blown off. At temperatures of over 2000°C, the fuel rods melted. The graphite covering of the reactor then ignited. In the ensuing inferno, the radioactive fission products released during the core meltdown were sucked up into the atmosphere.

For more, go to National Geographic's documentary and an excellent photo-essay by Pixel Press. The accident is very well covered on the Green Peace website too.

Inevitability

2006-04-26T02:46:00.000+05:30

~~अंजाम~~ अवश्यम्भावी

ज्यों कोई ताज़ा कली किसी मज़ार पर,
अधखिली, कोरी, कुँवारी,

ज्यों फैले हुए ओस के आखरी मोती,
सिमटते हुए पुराने पत्तों पर,

ज्यों कोई नाउम्मीद सी आवारा सुगंध,
फैली हो बयार में,

युँही सब खत्म होना है,
और पीने की प्यास में,
झुलसाती इस धूप में,
तमतमाती गर्म हवा से टकरा कर.

Hindi unicode doesn't get rendered well in FireFox. If you're having problem with the text (garbled text, obscure symbols) read the poem in this image file.

Anchalia's Death Covered In The Media.

2006-04-24T00:15:00.000+05:30

British journalist, Onnik is keeping a close eye on the issue along with his Armenian colleague, Hasmik. Please visit Onnik's blog for detailed coverage on this issue. I quote from his latest report, Indian Students Carry On Protesting:

On Saturday the students walked to Republic square to hold a peaceful demonstration there. The Police and Red Berets were again there and looked pretty much tired. They were really surprised by the persistence of the Indians and other international students in attendance.

Indians say they will stay here until evening and will be back tomorrow, the day after that and every day until the rector resigns although they were less confident than two days ago, slightly confused and disorganized. Now, on the question of what they will do then if it doesn’t work, their response is that they don’t know. “We’ll see,” is the most frequent reply.

However, many students prefered to stay in their rooms instead of coming out to protest. Perhaps they had lost hope.

I must admit I'm very proud by the way those students have protested. It was through Onnik's blog that I got to know that The Telegraph has covered this issue.

The Indian embassy in Armenia had called up the family on Church Road here last evening to give them the news, said Pankaj, Prashant’s elder brother. “They said it was suicide, but we don’t believe it. We suspect he was murdered.”

“No official intimation has as yet come from the university even 24 hours after the incident,” he added.

[...]

Pankaj and his family suspect that Prashant’s roommate in Armenia could have had a hand in his death.

“He (the roommate) had borrowed a few hundred dollars from my brother and did not return it. It’s quite likely that Prashant had an altercation with him over this. My brother was not the type to commit suicide,” Pankaj said.

[...]

Prashant’s father Parasmal said his family has written to the President, the Prime Minister and the Lok Sabha Speaker asking them to intervene.

Let's hope this would work. Perhaps if more of the mainstream media players would cover up this news in details, the increasing awareness would pressurize the government to take some steps.

(Plea For Help From Indian Students In Armenia, Indian Students Protest In Yerevan, Armenia)

Plea For Help From Indian Students In Armenia

2006-04-23T23:46:00.000+05:30

Reproducing the statement from Nanyaar's blog, Does it concern you??:

To Whomsoever It May Concern

This is to hereby inform that a tragic incidence of an Indian national’s death has taken place on April 20, 2006 at 1:00 pm in Yerevan Armenia .Which to eyewitnesses appears to be due to medical negligence. There were 4 eyewitnesses of Indian nationality and six witnesses of Armenian nationality and three witnesses of Syrian nationality. According to all Indian and Syrian national witnesses, the demised was alive and communicating, requesting help for at least 45 minutes and breathing his last. All the witnesses affirm that the ambulatory service arrived too late to help him in any form whatsoever. Following this unfortunate incident all Indian students demanded clarification for the Rector (equivalent to Vice Chancellor) but were given no satisfactory explanation. Students who were agitated by this act decided to go to Armenian parliament. During the protest march, when all Indians were moving towards the parliament there was no Indian official present from the Indian embassy in Armenia. It is more than 48 hours now as this application is being written and there is no official statement from the Indian embassy in Armenia yet on the sad incidence. We nationals of India studying in Armenia demand from the Indian embassy to give an official statement on the incidence and the results of the investigations which have taken place , who is in charge of the investigations and what are the requests which the embassy has made to the government of the republic to Armenia to avoid occurrence of such incidences in future. We Indian students in Yerevan state medical university, Yerevan, Armenia request the authorities to protect our civil rights as Indian nationals and enlighten us .Being the largest Indian population living on the Armenian land we hope that our pleas would be considered. Oblige us by acting, we all are Son’s and Daughters of India.

Requesting help
All Indian students
Yerevan State Medical University
Yerevan, Armenia

To say the least, I'm very disappointed by the way the Indian Embassy has dealt with this issue. The least they could have done was to back these students. Young boys & girls, living in an alien culture, don't deserve this kind of cold treatment by the official representatives of their own community.

This is my sincere request to all, if you have some contacts in the Indian media, we need to pick this issue up with them. It doesn't look like a big issue from our comfortable lives here in India, but please spare a thought for those kids stuck in that horrible situation. We atleast need to support them if nothing else!

(Anchalia's Death Covered In The Media, Indian Students Protest In Yerevan, Armenia)

Prakash Jha, showing the way.

2006-04-22T19:55:00.000+05:30

According to this report, film-maker Prakash Jha has offered to build a four-lane super express-way between Hajipur and Muzaffarpur.

Filmmaker Prakash Jha, known for his bold allegorical films, has offered to construct a four-lane highway in Bihar - a project no private company wants to execute due to the prevailing poor law and order condition.

[...]

When a tender was floated for the Rs.4 billion project in 2004, no private bidder applied for it. Government officials admitted that private construction companies were not willing to take up the project due to a perception that Bihar was India's most lawless state.

I have always loved the way Jha's films depict the rustic India. But with this, respect for him, as a person, has gone many notches up.

Jha campaigned for Nitish Kumar in the last elections. What good this pair can do for Bihar, will be known in some more time. I just hope they stay sincere & keep up the good work.

Indian Students Protest In Yerevan, Armenia

2006-04-22T13:54:00.000+05:30

Sometime in 90's the trend to go to Eastern European countries for Medical degrees started. How useful this practice has been to the students, is yet to be seen, but the trend hasn't slowed down. Armenia is one such Eurasian country, bordered by Turkey to the west. At present, about 800 Indian students are studying in their Medical Colleges. On April 20, one Indian student, 21- year-old Prashant Anchalia, fell down from his hostel's sixth floor window (He was a student at Yerevan State Medical University, which is the recommended university according to the website of the Indian Embassy in Armenia). The reasons to that are yet to be known. What followed can only be described as criminal apathy, from the university's dean - Anna Sargsayn, even after being a Doctor, refused any first aid to the student and warned any other student against helping him. Although, it happened in a medical college, the ambulance arrived about 45 minutes late, that too without any basic life saving equipments. Anchalia succumbed to his wounds on the way to hospital. The students, mostly Indians, enraged after this shameful display of indifference, gathered in the dean's office demanding an explanation. The newly appointed Rector Gohar Kjalyan, responded in totally outrageously manner. Without any context, she referred to Indian girls as prostitutes, and showed the students the middle fingers of both her hands!

One Indian student from Armenia, Nanyaar, has blogged about this incident (Its bye, We protest for justice). I was skeptic that he might get a bit too much biased about the incident. But then I found some articles by one Armenian journo, Hasmik Hovhannisian & ~~his~~ her British colleague, Onnik Krikorian, adding credibility to the news. I quote from We Protest for Justice, Nanyaar first hand account of the events :

We could see that he (Anchalia) was finding it hard to breathe and had to put him in the recovery position, against the hostel warden’s shouting. His breathing became better, the pulse steady but he was fighting for his life. His legs were broken, a deep cut in the forehead from which a pool of blood was forming, and also occipital bone seemed to be cracked. He definitely had to have fallen in a sitting position.

The dean for foreign student arrived, a doctor herself, and did nothing but watch his helpless bodies fight against pain.

The ambulance arrived; 40 minutes later, by now a crowd had been formed. I was told later; that 3 minutes after the ambulance departed he had passed away.

[…]

He was a quiet guy. Never spoke much, confided to his room, small circle of friends and I remember the bargain he had got on an old yellow Armenian guitar on which he used to practice. Just today’s back he had asked me if I was going to sing this time at the Garoon (spring) festival, and that he was planning to. The media had portrayed him as a drug addict and a psychologically affected person which he definitely was not.

[…]

The death comes in as a surprise and the news of the ambulance reaching there after 40 long minutes and the negligence of the hostel warden and dean makes the Indian student body to meet the Rector, Gohar Kjalyan. Students refuse to meet her in the Red hall and demanded for an answer to be given right there, she walks away and then seconds later walks back, abuses the Indian girls to be prostitutes and shows both her middle fingers.

[…]

Finally at 10pm it was decided that they will be meeting in the University Red hall. Questions were raised which only resulted in diplomatic answer by the Vice chairman of the NA. The education ministry tried to come on stage and give a politician’s speech by quoting “don’t you want to know what really happened to your friend?” But all we needed tonight was for her the rector to resign and actions to be taken on the dean who as a doctor did nothing to see her student dying in front of her.

The Rector apologized at 12 midnight, and she still could not understand what we wanted, while she thought she could just walk away. All Madam Ambassador did was to sit next to the VC and give him tips on what to talk.

What is the Indian Embassy doing to help the students. Apparently nothing. I quote from Hasmik Hovhannisian's report:

The Embassy representative, Mr. Bali, advised the students to disperse and let them settle the matter the diplomatic way.

The Embassy told the parents of the dead boy that he had committed suicide, without even waiting for the investigation to be concluded.

The students do not believe it was suicide.

“He was a balanced person. He had many plans for the future. He could not have killed himself,” they said.

The four-person delegation came back from the meeting with Tigran Torosyan and said that Torosyan had asked them for two days to get acquainted with the matter and decide what to do.

After that, Torosyan met with the Indian ambassador, Rina Pandei.

Meanwhile, Anchalia's body was flown back to India on 21st April.

(Plea For Help From Indian Students In Armenia, Anchalia's Death Covered In The Media)
(Thanks Namit, for the tip. Cross-posted at DesiCritics.)

Important: I see loads of traffic coming to this particular post through some mail (various email-clients). Could some one please forward me the email at vasingh[@]gmail[.]com, please?

Imran Pakoda on JAM Mag

2006-04-21T02:42:00.000+05:30

Quite some time ago, I wrote one farcical post on equally farcical dude, Imran "Gobhi Pakoda" Hashmi. Much water has flown under the bridge & Hashmi has kissed many more babes since then. Today I found out the link to the article on the JAM Mag site. Actually their editor, Rashmi, wanted to publish it in their Valentine's Day issue (for reasons unknown to me). Later, I got to know through a friend that it was published. It just skipped my mind. Today, I finally googled it out.

Though my article is quite openly mean & jealous towards Hashmi's tryst with luck & his lips' tryst with ... anyway, I should thank this dude, however grudgingly. That post brings maximum traffic to my blog via google. Numerous people from various places (India, Pakistan, Malaysia, USA, UAE, Venus, Pluto, Kryptonite, et cetera) google him out and many of them land up on my post, expecting news/accolades for their idol. I do feel a tinge of sadness for them, majorly because Hashmi is their idol (how pathetic can one get?).

Meanwhile, Hashmi dude would be least bothered. He is into the big league finally. The news channels were showing that he is getting about 80 lakhs per movie nowadays. This sudden raise is due to the rumours that the kissing scenes in Brokeback Mountain were performed by Hashmi, acting as a "lip double". He is supposed to lick the Hollywood soon! However, the Brokeback Mountain adventure has got his folks a tad worried. Just after he got back from Hollywood, they got him engaged, even before he could put on his lip-gloss. Of course, this doesn't hold him back from screen kissing, till it's just plain hetro stuff. His parents' worries are quite justified, when you see that his forthcoming movies are mainly multi-hero stories. And one of them is named "Good Boy, Bad Boy" (How gay can you get!). Looks like simple ladayi-shadayi pyaar-vyaar eshtory, with apna lemur faced Tusshar Kapoor. Hashmi has set the bar reaaaal low or what? They are also planning a hindi remake of Brokeback Mountain - "Chalo Pahad Ke Us Paar", with Hashmi and Ashmit "Wooden" Patel. Hindi version will have many more kissing scenes than the original, mainly because Hashmi can't do anything else and director doesn't want Patel to open his mouth. Just like the original story, two heroes would get stuck together and Patel would be talking in his stones-talk-with-more-emotions mode, and Hashmi would have to kiss him just to stop the verbal diarrhea. .. Aur Pyar Ho Gaya.

There, got what you were searching about Hashmi?

Absurd are the ways of our government.

2006-04-18T00:09:00.000+05:30

Last time when I was waiting in the queue for security check at the Delhi Airport, out of curiosity, I checked out the list of VIPs/VVIPs who are exempted from security checks at all the domestic airports in India. All of the entries were posts and not individuals, like President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, former PMs, Speaker, CJI, Leaders of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, CMs, Ambassadors, et cetera, but for the last two entries. At number 22, the list had Nobel Laureate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The last name on the list surprized me - Shri Robert Vadra. The entry added, almost apologetically, “while travelling with SPG (Special Protection Group) protectees.”

Why O' whay O' whaay O' why? No one's got a damn clue. I googled for the list of VIP who don’t have to go through a security check, but the Indian government hasn't put any such list on the net. But I did find an Indian Express report about this issue (link, dated November 13, 2005). I quote from the report:

Son-in-law of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Vadra’s name was added to the list on September 28 in a circular issued nationwide by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) under the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
...
As husband of Priyanka Gandhi, who is an SPG protectee like her mother and brother Rahul, Vadra does get SPG protection when he travels with either of them. But no other spouse or family member of any SPG protectee has been so named in the list.
...
Why is he the only spouse named in the list? BCAS Commissioner S R Mehra declined to comment despite a faxed questionnaire sent five days ago. On November 10, when The Sunday Express contacted his office, Deputy Commissioner R D Gupta said: “We have no official reply. BCAS just took out the order as advised by the Ministry. Please talk to MCA Under Secretary L Haokip for clarification,” he said. When contacted by this newspaper Haokip refused to comment.

Just taking out the orders, aren't we. Incidentally this issue has been discussed in the Supreme court too, according to this Hindu report (link, dated January 23, 2006).

The Bench, therefore, asked Mr. Vahanvati to find out "why Mr. Vadra has been granted this exemption. Tell us which other spouse is given this exemption."

In its SLP, the Centre said exemption from pre embarkation security checks was not only based on the Warrant of Precedence but also based on compelling factors such as level of government security coverage on the dignitary which would virtually preclude the possibility of any prohibited/dangerous items from being introduced on board an aircraft through dignitary, his or her baggage.

Whatever that means! Some serious bullshit being thrown around here. I've very little doubt that this exemption would create a serious security threat, but 1) why should this favour be extended to Vadra, and 2) Why only Vadra? Is he really what Congress-wallahs love to think - Damaad of the nation? Why not give such immunities to people who deserve it many times more, like Amrtya Sen? Didn't the Sarkaari airlines give golden pass to Amrtya sen?

Absurd are the ways of our government!

P.S: I so badly want the photograph of that notice. If anyone of you is going to fly soon & has a camera-phone, do me a favor and get me a photo. Ye ehsaan main marte dum tak nahi bhoolunga :-)

English, August

2006-04-17T19:02:00.000+05:30

I'm reading Upamanyu Chatterjee's profoundly absurd book, English, August. Chatterjee's writing style is totally engrossing; his grip on the language impeccable & his descriptions brilliant. If you liked The Catcher in The Rye, you'd like this one too. Some would find some similarities with Catch-22 too. The blurb of the book says - "Agastya Sen is a young civil servant whose imagination is dominated by women, literature and soft drugs. As the novel opens, he has been posted to the small town of Madna. English August is a funny, wryly observed account of Agastya Sen's year in the sticks."

I could relate very well with the confused soul, Agastya. Though he does get a bit condescending at times towards almost everyone around him, which gets irritating & seems snooty, most of the time he just can't get less interested. He is really bored with his life and doesn't really know what he wants to do. He has made it to IAS, which is of course dream of millions, still he can't really fit into the life style, however hard his father and peers try. I'm yet to finish the book, perhaps I'd write a detailed review, perhaps I won't. Meanwhile, following is one extremely profound excerpt from the book; I really feel like this some time! Do get hold of the book, ASAP.

In his state of mind marriage was awfully remote - like a death in a road accident, it was something that happened to other people. It was inconceivable, sharing his room in Madna with someone unknown - perhaps a twenty-year-old girl with an MA in English, and getting stoned in front of her to read Marcus Aurelius. While Manik chatted with Pultukaku and elicited from him a few misanthropic monosyllables, the familiar feeling of the absurd, as much a part of him as his names, overwhelmed Agastya, and he wondered whether, when married, he would be able to exercise in front of his wife, and what he would do if, just when he was lunging for a push-up she were to say, For someone who exercises so much you're in awful shape. And suppose she stole his money? And the all-important subject of kinky sex - she might not like sharing each other's used underwear, then?

Eventually, he knew, he would marry, perhaps not out of passion, but out of convention, which was probably a safer thing. And then in either case, in a few months or years they would tire of disagreeing with each other, or what was more or less the same thing, would be inured to each other's odd and perhaps disgusting ways, the way she squeezed the tube of toothpaste and the way he drank from a glass and didn't rinse it, and they would slide into a placid and comfortable unhappiness, and maybe unseeingly watch TV every evening, each still a cocoon, but perhaps it would be unwise to be otherwise. And his once-secret life would be entombed in a mind half-dead to an incarcerating world, and he would remember, with a sense of bemused embarrassment, and in epiphanies flashes, brought on by uncontrollable jolts to his memory through a smell of some unexpected sight (perhaps the view from a train or an ad on TV), his this experience of Madna, that once the restlessness of his mind had seemed the most important thing in this universe, and that he had once been shaken by the profundity of an ancient Hindu poem.

Incidentally, this would be my second book by an bureaucrat, after We Weren't Lovers Like That by Navtej Sarna. Upamanyu Chatterjee, born in 1959 at Patna, Bihar, joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1983. In 1998, he was appointed Director (Languages) in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

Geeky love!

2006-04-17T13:59:00.000+05:30

Geeks are quite infamous to be aloof towards the softer emotions in life. But there are some really buttkicking geeky ways to confess your love. Take a look at this amazing thing! Apparently, some dude (possibly some dudette) painted this on some roof in Queens, NY. Quite possibly, when it was covered by Google Maps (see link), he/she would have mailed the link to the lucky one. Alternatively, he/she would've rented a plane/baloon to surprize the love interest. Seriously, how can someone say no to this :-)

Hail the geeks because the geek shall inherit the Earth :-)

LICK-ed

2006-04-15T11:08:00.000+05:30

Hold your dirty minds! The IIM results were out on 12th. I was in a train from Mumbai to Kota, Jha called me up to tell me that I made it into IIM Lucknow, Calcutta, Indore & Kozhikode (LICK ;-). Right now I'm at Jaipur. Will reach Bangalore on 16th night. Details later.

chalo then,
- Varun

The Times They Surely Are Changin'

2006-04-09T01:33:00.000+05:30

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
- "The times they are a-changin'", Bob Dylan

Friends getting married. Friends fathering babies. Of course, this is all very good and all that, but along with all the excitement & joy, it makes me feel old. Rather older than my mental image of myself. You know, you would think its just a few years ago I got out of school and one fine day, while filling some form, you see that you completed class 10th nine years ago. Nine years?! Yeah, that sinking feeling. The sand of time slipping out of the fist, and all those clichés. ".. And accept it that soon/You'll be drenched to the bone."

Another one of the torchbearers of bachelorhood (no pun intended) has bitten the dust. Close friend & wingmate from hostel days, Amit Jain, is getting married in Kota on 13th. I shall be there to see the stone sink. Should be back to Bangalore (and blogging) on 16th. By then, IIMs results are expected to be out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

..Main Hoon Kaun?

2006-04-07T19:01:00.000+05:30

I'm positively bored with "Lies, Damned Lies & Blogs". Its funny (punny) in someways, but not really related to me in anyway. When I chose it, I didn't want to keep blogging suspended just for a name, so I chose this one. Just like that.

I'm not really narcissist kinds, so there go all the "Mogambo's Den", "Dr. No's Lair" and likes. This blog is not deeply related with any topic, like Bollywood or cricket or politics; the name should reflect that too. Above all the name should represent me well.

I'm hunting for some thing more quirky, more appropriate. Any suggestions? Do drop in a line or two.

Update: Some very interesting suggestions -

War-un Xing: I used to sign emails with this name for a while in college. Incidently, this is also the name of the central character of Vivek's best-seller coming out on Diwali. Which year, I don't know.
Blogivision / Prime Time Blogivision: Pun on television
Don Blogsco: Punny, very punny :-)
The Boy Who Cried Wolf: The title I earned in college

I got few other suggestions too. Thanks a lot bhai log, for your suggestions. I'm feeling kinda ashamed, but I still haven't found the best fit. :-( May be I'll leave it as it is, what's in a name anyway.

The DNA Article.

2006-04-06T10:53:00.000+05:30

Regulars here would remember that I talked about DNA publishing my photos, in my IIM Calcutta interview. Actually, their editor had contacted me asking for some photos and some inputs on the changing face of Jaipur. Apparently, he got to my blog via Google. So, I provided him with some photos & a write up. I was under the impression that they are interested mainly in the photos.

The article was published on Friday, March 3 (Page 14, DNA Mumbai), but I got hold of the article just now. As it came out, they have published just one of my images, but have given my write up an entire column. Excelente! Here's the article -

Here's the entire page -

PicSquare - Upload, Share, Print.

2006-04-05T17:33:00.000+05:30

Now that digital photography is attracting many more yuppies than the old film photography, storing & sharing of digital images has turned into an important aspect of it. Not that there is any dearth of online webspaces to store the pictures - Sony's ImageStation, Yahoo's Flickr and many more. Most of them provide the facility to get the printed copies on your doorstep by mail. But, sadly, that's limited to just US & Europe. While the demand of such a service in India has raisen considerably in recent times, we are yet to see any such service take off.

PicSquare is one such service introduced very recently in India. The brainchild of two young entreprenuers, it is still taking baby steps, but promises a lot more. The two masterminds behind this venture - Manish & Kartik - are undergraduates from IIT Bombay. Manish graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2002 and went on to pursue his MS from Purdue University. After completion, he worked for a while and later on gave it up to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams. Kartik completed his Bachelors in Chemical Engineering in the year 2004. He was working for about 1.5 years before joining Manish in this venture.

I have used PicSquare to get some of my photos printed. I guess it doesn't make much sense for me as a person living in India, ordering prints to be delivered locally, but if you think about Indians living abroad & wishing to share their memories with people back home, this service does make a lot of sense. E-Mail the pictures, you'd say, but then the internet penetration in India is still as low as a meagre 5%. Even for someone like me, living in a different city from my parents, it makes sense to get the printed photos delivered directly to my parents in Jaipur (They don't access the net, of course). Its also quite hassle-free for both the parties. One point I'd like to make it here is, the service as such is expansive if we compare to the local GK Vale printing (It costed me ~ Rs.90 for 11 4x6 prints, including delivery).

The print quality is very satisfactory. I guess they process the images a bit before printing them. Hence the richer colors & sharp images. No complaints here.

Their website is rather simplistic. I personally like to-the-point websites, without all flashy mumbo-jumbo & the cluster of buttons & links. The navigation is also quite intutive. They have implemented the functionality to upload multiple images in one go, which is utmost important for such a site. You can edit attributes for multiple images together, which is again an important desirable. They have borrowed the idea of tags from Flickr, which is another nice-to-have feature. They claim to provide unlimited image storing space, but my experience with them doesn't give me any chance to support or deny that. I can't say how gracefully their system will handle it once the bulk uploads start to happen.

You can select photos from the uploaded ones and put them in the shopping cart and order prints; quite standard process as far as online shopping websites go. Presently, they are charging Rs 4.50 ($0.10) per 4x6 photo, Rs 13.50 ($0.30) per 5x7 & Rs 67.50 ($1.50) per 8x10 photos (On a local printing shop, they charge about Rs 3.50-Rs 4.00 for one 4x6 print). One problem I found in their payment module is that it refused to work with my Visa card. Manish & Kartik later acknowledged the problem and hopefully they'll iron out such issues soon.

For the future, they have quite a lot planned. Personalized greeting cards, photo-printed T-shirts, customized coffee mugs, photo frames, calendars, etc. If we go by the testimonials on their site, they have already made many patrons. Hopefully, they'd make many more in coming times.

Keep up the good work, fellas!

Raat se samvaad.

2006-04-03T03:29:00.000+05:30

रात से संवाद

ये जो ठहरा-ठहरा चाँद है, चाँदनी सोई-सोई,
रात की जो राख है, दूर तलक बिखरी हुई,
कुछ तो है ये कह रही, या शायद कुछ भी नहीं,
अलसाई सी एक फुसफुसाहट, गले ही में दबी-दबी,
मुझे है ये बुला रही, नाम मेरा पुकारती,
"अबे मेरे बाप, तुझे नींद क्यों ना आ रही!"

Its hindi unicode font, doesn't work well with FireFox. If you see just garbled characters, you can see the text in this image.

V For Vendetta

2006-04-01T13:14:00.000+05:30

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
gunpowder, treason and plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.

This Guy Fawkes rhyme plays a part of central importance in this superb film.

Wachowski brothers are back and back with a bang. "V For Vendetta" is their first film after the Matrix trilogy & the movie justifies the wait totally. The idea is borrowed from the 80's Alan Moore comic book. This would make it my all time best comic book adaptations, long with the Spiderman series.

Not really unlike the Matrix trilogy, the film is set in another time-line, in a dystopian future United Kingdom, ruled by a facist government. The government maintains control of the country through food shortages, government-controlled media, secret police, a planned economy, and concentration camps for racial, political, and sexual minorities. The protagonist of the movie, "V", is the result of one such concentration camp. V is a self-proclaimed freedom-fighter, a terrorist for some. Incomparably charismatic and ferociously skilled in the art of combat and deception, V urges his fellow citizens to rise up against tyranny and oppression. Just like Guy Fawkes' failed plan, he blows up the parliament building in the end, a symbol of the facist government.

The storyline is fairly complex and subtle. Thankfully, they haven't tried to dilute it for the audience. The dialogues are more delightful! V is portrayed as a man of fine tastes & immaculate language. Some memorables quotes -

Evey Hammond: Who--who are you?
V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what... and what I am is a man in a mask.
Evey Hammond: I can see that.
V: Of course you can. I'm not questioning your powers of observation, I'm merely remarking on the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.
V: Would you like to dance?
Evey Hammond: It's the eve of your revolution and you want to dance?
V: A revolution without dancing, is a revolution not worth having!
V: Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate.This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

Album Review: Kailasã (Kailash Kher)

2006-03-30T15:17:00.000+05:30

Confession time: I tried & tried again to write a review for the album, but I'm simply pathetic at this. Thanks to Google, I found one thoroughly professional review of this delightful album. I don't have much to add to that, so read the review & get the songs! You can enjoy the songs online, here.

My favorite song from the album (mind you, all the songs are very good) -

Kaise Main Kahoon: A young girl’s in love for the first time, and is caught up in a storm of elation and confusion! Elated because she’s in love, and confused coz she just doesn’t know how to express herself, how to yell out to the world she’s in love. How on earth would you have thought an earthy, rasping voiced singer like Kher with his co music composers Paresh and Naresh have created a song to embody all this and more? But that’s just what Kher’s simple lyrics, his singing and the excellent composition does, with Kaise Main Kahoon Ki Mujhe Ishq Hua Hai. This one’s a lilting, frisky peppy song that rides on the soft tabla-dholak beats of Yusuf Mohammad and excellent violin and viola work by Jitendra Thakur, this very lovely song with a folksy, Rajsthani-Punjabi feel is definitely listenable.

Quota Raj Cometh

2006-03-29T11:11:00.000+05:30

Excerpts from today's Economic Times front page report: Quota Raj: Half of IIT,IIM seats may be reserved -

Competition to secure admission to the IITs and IIMs is set to hot up, as reservation in these institutions is likely to increase from the current level of 22.5% to a maximum of 49.5%. These institutions already provide reservations for Scheduled Castes (15%) and Scheduled Tribes (7.5%), as mandated by the Constitution.

I could never understand the logic these politicians give behind reservation. In my eyes its all simply vote bank politics. To start with, reservations based on castes & tribes don't make any sense! If the motive is to help the socially backward people to come up, reservations should be given to the economically backward population. After 59 years of independence & reservations, what relevance does the tag "socially backward" hold? I know, in the rural hinterlands, they still discriminate on the basis of caste & tribes. But almost all of such exploited victims would come under the economically backward cover. In addition, it would also cover the poor people who are born in the higher castes.

Its again a failure of implementation. There exists a notion of a "creamy layer" crowd in the SC/ST junta. If the family income exceeds a certain limit, they can no longer enjoy the benefits of reservations. But this is another one of highly misused rules. But if the reservations are made for the economically backwards, atleast some more deserving people can avail the benefits.

The entrance exams for IITs & IIMs are extremely tough and thus it can be taken that IITs/IIMs want only the best to come there. Now if almost half of the students are going to come from a backdoor entry, how's that going to help, both the students & the institutes. The demand for IIT/IIM education has raisen considerably since the economy opened up & brought along a whole new set of high-tech jobs. The pressure on the aspirants is already enormous. Now if the seats for general category will further be reduced, aren't we defeating the purpose of opening more IITs/IIMs?

Its not tough to see why government is increasing the quota in higher educational institutes like IITs & IIMs. Its the same reason why they were pushing for reservation in private sector. Now since the private sector is booming & demand for IIT/IIM seats has gone through the roof, reservation will attract that much more votes. If the government really had the good of poor & socially backward at their heart, it would've worked towards making quality primary education accessible to all. If we comb through the IIT/IIM crowd today, very rarly we would come across someone with a rural background. Simply because the primary & secondary education system in the rural India has totally collapsed and hence the rural students can't compete with their urban counterparts. Reservations & all in the tertiary education is not going to help if the primary & secondary levels are so wretched.

Sometimes I wonder why class divisions in India (rich-poor) is weaker than religion & caste based division. The political parties find it more rewarding to call religious minorities, socially backward people and all, but no one campaigns with pro-poor policies and all. IIRC, Indira Gandhi had "Garibi Hatao" on her agenda, but hardly anything happened. Education, and thus better-informed voters, can cure it all, but then this responsibility also lies with the neta-log.

"Hope and Honor" at Desicritics

2006-03-28T14:42:00.000+05:30

Slightly modified version of "Hope and Honor" is up at Desicritics. Do check out.

Nice Quotes

2006-03-27T13:29:00.000+05:30

"More Tears Are Shed Over Answered Prayers Than Unanswered Ones."
– Truman Capote

So reads the epigraph of Truman Capote's last (unfinished) work. I watched the film, Capote, last night. The film ends with this quote. This quote will stay with me, for quite some time.

"Do you know what happens when you hurt people? When you hurt people, they begin to love you less. That’s what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.”
– Ammu

I'm reading The God of Small Things.

Meter Down: Living as an Auto-Wallah.

2006-03-25T16:41:00.000+05:30

(Norah or Ned?)

Couple of days back I watched a program on TV about the author of the book "Self-Made Man", Norah Vincent. The book chronicles the 18 months Norah spent posing as a man, Ned. In her own words, Norah wanted to know "what it means to be a man". With her buddies on the bowling league she enjoyed the rough and rewarding embrace of male camaraderie undetectable to an outsider. A stint in a high-octane sales job taught her the gut-wrenching pressures endured by men who would do anything to succeed. She frequented sex clubs, dated women hungry for love but bitter about men, and infiltrated all-male communities as hermetically sealed as a men's therapy group, and even a monastery. After living as Ned for 18 months, Vincent's overall finding was that being a man is no better or easier than being a woman. Men, she tells us, have problems, fears, and societal pressures, too. Vincent decrees that the only emotion that society allows men is anger.

Fascinating stuff, isn't it? While it's the first study of its kind introduced to me, quite a few such studies have resulted in similar books. For example, Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin - he spent some time as a black in New Orleans to study racial discrimination closely; Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich - a study about millions of Americans working for poverty-level wages, working as one. I haven't read any of these book, but would love to.

I don't know what they call this kind of journalism; its not a sting operation, its not a routine interview-story. Whatever it is, I would love to see something similar in India. I had a thought some days back about the auto-rickshaw wallahs & how their lives turn out to be. It would be very interesting to spend some time as an auto-wallah & then share those experiences. Auto-wallahs do live an interesting life. They work mostly at odd & tiring hours; they interact with tens of different people daily. Its interesting, but definitely not an easy life. I'm sure they have their share of anxieties & problems. And one have to literally be in their shoes to know them. So far, Bangalore's auto-wallahs haven't left a very good impression on me. Most of them would haggle endlessly for money (outside the metered charges), they drive like manics & their autos are perhaps the biggest contributors towards the pollution in the city. I hope they have some kind of explaination for such a coarse behaviour, otherwise after spending some time as a autowallah, all that would come out would be - "Oh! They just love to be jerks".

May be the driving seat of an auto isn't very comfortable, thus causing the maniacal driving. Or perhaps they all suffer from some kind of mental disorder, so they consider themselves the kings of the roads (Long Live the King, rest get insured). Perhaps its all just some kind of inferiority complex - "haha! Earn as much as you want, we'll still haggle with you for chutta paisa". They could have some sort of Auto Wallahs' Book of World Records - "Manjunath drove from MG Road to Airport in record 12.37 minutes, killing just two pedastrains in the process" Or "Anees Abbas bumped into record 212 cars in the first week of buying his Auto". They might have some kind of gangsters, who'd torture the good natured auto-wallahs, who behave nicely with passengers & take the exact amount. "Chutta chahiye to pehle us aadmi se chutta le ke aao, jis ne mere haath pe ye likh diya - Mera Baap Imaandar Auto Wallah ~~Hai~~ Tha" or "Shyamlal, bahut imaandar banta hai na, ye dekh - teri biwi aur teri beti ko humne juke box se latka diya hai. Ya to tu passenger ko chutta de de ya jukebox mein chutta daal ke inko bacha le".

Whatever it is, I want to know it. Perhaps, I will spend sometime as an auto-wallah some day :-)

Book Review: We Weren't Lovers Like That

2006-03-21T11:18:00.000+05:30

Q. What's worse than a depressing book?
A. A depressing book you can't put down.

I'm afraid We weren't Lovers like that is one such book. It's depressing to start with, dejecting in the middle and it ends with a possibility, but without the promise, of something better. But at the same time, it's a treat to read with its almost poetry-like fluent language and strong emotional undercurrents. It doesn't put its characters in absolutely abject situations and induce pity. Its depressing quality comes from the mundane failures of the day-to-day life; from the realizations about the missed chances and what-ifs and from the familiarity of the plot to our lives.

Navtej Sarna tells the story from a first person perspective. This has definitely allowed him to depict the emotional state and the thoughts of the central character with more authority. I particularly liked his way of following the trains of thought and not hesitating to digress from the flow to capture some poignant moments from the various corners of the memory of the protagonist.

The theme of the book is a winner - Aftab's wife Mina walks out of their weary marriage for another man, Rajiv. Aftab, humiliated but not hurt, gives up his insipid job, pissed off by petty office politics, and takes the Shatabdi Express to Dehradun, following a frail hope of reunion with his long lost love, Rohini. The books covers his journey from Delhi to Dehradun; his journey from his conformist and timid past to the promise of a content future.

The book reminded me of The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. I wonder if Sarna took some inspiration from Ishiguro. Sarna's work shares its reflexive and introspective qualities with Ishiguro's work. Both the books tell their stories using the flashbacks and trail of thoughts. I personally found Ishiguro's work more complex and sophisticated. The reader has to interpret the thoughts of the Butler as the layers of information are made visible to him/her. It makes you want to read the book all over again, just after you finish it once.

In the end, Navtej Sarna must be congratulated for his marvelous book. What makes this feat more commendable is the fact that this is his first novel. I have read that his collection of short stories is set to come out next. Waiting for that one eagerly!

P.S.: Navtej Sarna, as you might know, is the spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. He isn't the only diplomat to write a book; Vivek, an undertraining IFS officer & my cousin, is writing one too!
(Recently I was invited to join Desicritics.org. This review is also cross-posted here.)

Gasolina - Daddy Yankee

2006-03-20T13:58:00.000+05:30

dame mas gasolina!

Pump up the volume and enjoy!

P.S. - Lyrics & the English translation.

Varanasi Blasts & the Rath Yatras.

2006-03-18T17:12:00.000+05:30

Whatever I want to say has been captured well in the following two articles. I'm posting some selected snippets, do take time to read the original articles.

Varanasi's Religion by Sagarika Ghose on IBNLive -

Never was there a greater contrast between Hinduism and Hindutva. Three bomb blasts shattered the calm of 2,500-year-old Varanasi on Tuesday, March 7. Immediately, the political party that claims to defend all Hindus, swung into action implying that this was an attack on Hindus. The BJP disrupted Parliament, the Lok Sabha was adjourned, BJP leaders unleashed rhetoric about "minority appeasement" and argued that the killers were emboldened by various policy initiatives of the UPA. But as Hindutva pointed fingers at "minorities", "anti-nationals" and "religious fundamentalists", what did Hinduism, by contrast, do? Hindutva blustered but Hinduism turned to prayer. Hinduism turned its back on calls to religious hatred. Hinduism came in large numbers to donate blood. Brave, forgiving diyas floated as a holy city asserted its magnificient dignity. Let the demagogues yell, whispered the Ganga, but I, too, am here.

Now the BJP is all set to launch its twin National Integration yatras, to be led by party president Rajnath Singh and leader of the Opposition L K Advani. The yatras, Advani recently said, are a response to the "wildfire of minorityism" lit by this government. In fact, "minorityism", according to the BJP, is the main reason for the Varanasi blasts. Lets examine the "appeasement" hypothesis. If I'm a "Muslim terrorist" and the UPA center is busy trying to appease me, would I suddenly set off bombs in Varanasi knowing that in any case the government is trying to please me? Not only is the logic linking "muslim appeasement" and the blasts a little faulty but this time Advani seems to be quite out of touch with the realities of a liberalising new economy. In 1989-90, Advani launched the famous Ram Rath yatra which catapulted the BJP to the national mainstream after the Shah Bano judgement and Mandal report had created a mood of Hinduism under siege. Yet India is now a different country from 1989-90. Also, sadly - indeed tragically - society is already doing what the BJP's politics is trying to gamely follow. We are already a hopelessly ghettoized society in which Muslims, even celebrity Muslims, find it difficult to find homes in south Mumbai or south Delhi.

However in spite of this daily social catastrophe, there is a new matter-of-fact togetherness: Aamir Khan, Tabu, Irfan Pathan and Munaf Patel are symbols of how a competitive talent-based society has no place for discrimination. Advani's rath yatra is hoping to capitalise on the isolation of the Hindu, but it is an isolation that the Hindu clearly doesn't feel. Many who remember the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition were expecting riots the day after the Varanasi blasts. The fact that there was no riot, that there was not even a whisper of communal trouble, that in fact Hindus and Muslims joined in condemnation, shows that we as a society may be polarised and ghettoised, but at the same time, we are looking forward not backward.

Will middle India speak up? by Barkha Dutt at NDTV.com -

Despite the lonely corner non -believers like myself inhabit, I am reasonably confident that the ordinary Indian is as mystified as me by the hysterical debate that has consumed our media these past few weeks.

The theme song, actually it was a duet, went something like this-Hindutva is simmering under the surface, waiting to leap out from the political grave into the warm embrace of a new life; and "moderate Muslims" must speak, not just speak, they must shout, scream, holler, be heard, so that there is no "backlash."

All generalizations are a gamble, but I would take the risk and say that Middle India (as distinct from both the fundamentalists and the liberals) wants to travel down the Middle Path; the age of shrill rhetoric is over, Indians, are increasingly impatient with extremism of any kind, in any faith, Hindu or Muslim.

I'm pretty sure that the ordinary Hindu, angry as he or she may be about the assault in Varanasi, and before that, Ayodhya, will also find L K Advani's Rath Yatra disingenuous and unnecessary; a poor caricature of himself.

I'm equally sure, that if I were a Muslim in India today, I'd feel under siege; claustrophobically caught between those who claim to speak on my behalf, and those who are demanding that I must speak up as a "moderate." Lost in the cacophony of argument is the clarity of exactly what we are asking them to speak up against.

Are we becoming like the United States? Fearful of minorities? Alarmed at their assertion, superior and scornful about their conventions? Unable to see them as anything but the "other?" Fifty-nine years after India was born, in a country where there are more Muslims than there are in Pakistan, we are still asking Muslims to wear their nationalism like an identity card; we are still asking for proof of loyalty. This is not their failure. It is ours.

Update: Vir Sanghvi has written a column in Hindustan Times on the same issue.

CAT and Work Experience

2006-03-18T14:00:00.001+05:30

Gammafunction left a comment on my last post about the CAT & MBA in general loaded a bit too against freshers. I did a little bit of reasearch and found the exact opposite to be true. Check it out -

(IIM Ahmedabad, Batch Profile - Class of 2007)

(IIM Bangalore, Batch Profile - Class of 2006)

(IIM Calcutta, Batch Profile - Class of 2007)

As evident, the number of freshers joining IIMs outnumbers that of the experienced guys by far (After breaking up the experienced fellows in different brackets as per the number of years spent working). I don't have any data for student appearing for CAT, but I think it would be rather safe to assume that the number of freshers taking the exam would be far far greater than the number of experience holders. Parental pressure, peer pressure, etc. make sure one does take a shot at CAT before taking the plunge into the work life. Of course, not all of them are serious, but still it's very likely that they outnumber the experienced guys in the number of final calls received too.

I'm not sure but perhaps each IIM keeps a predetermined batch profile in mind when issueing the interview calls and offers. Say, roughly 40% freshers, 10% with 1 year's experience and so on. I'm also told that the cut-off percentiles for experienced guys is generally kept a little below from that of freshers (Though, IIMB follows the exact opposite, it seems).

Work experience does matter, especially in a professional course like an MBA. You work in the industry, you see how things work and how to make them work. You learn a lot from good managers and even more from bad managers (I've had a mixed bag). And most importantly you develop a realistic idea about what exactly you want to do (or atleast what you'll never want to do again, as in the case of many software punters ;-). Spending some time in the industry does help, but that also means that you have to be prepared about a hell lot of things about your job, your company, the market, the competition, etc. along with the academics ;-)

As for the freshers, it is indeed a tougher competition. One, because they compete against a whole lot of other freshers (if we go by the predetermined mix formula). Second, they might come out as inadequate in the interviews simply because they are still wet behind the ears in many ways. I remember, when I had my first job interview - it went really well till I told them that as my future plans I'm planning to do an MBA after say two years of experience. I didn't get the job. Truth doesn't always pay. Of course, not all the freshers are as naïve as I was.

Disclaimer: Other than the pie-charts (taken from respective IIMs' websites) everything else are my speculations about the issue. "Any resemblence with anyone yada yada yada is purely coincidential" :-D

IIMC GD/PI

2006-03-16T10:31:00.000+05:30

Group Discussion

The group was the biggest I had this year. We were 12 on paper but one person didn't come, so in the end we were 11 around the table. The topic given to us was - "Freedom to choose is freedom to die". The discussion started with the obvious topic of euthanasia and after that people started to interpret the topic in total crazy manner. Bringing China-India, US-India, Rich-Poor and what not angles into discussion. It was peaceful on the whole, but some times few of the group members started to talk simultaneously. Once I tried to pacify them, but gave up soon. They asked me about it in my PI.

After the GD we were asked to summarize the discussion in a minute. My name came up after 8 others, so it was really tough to word it differently so that it doesn't look like I was just copying it. Overall, the GD went not too bad for me (and that was such a relief).

Personal Interview

In my panel there were three persons. All three of them looked like IIM professors to me, but I'm told the panel usually has one established alumni too. Anyway, they never bothered to introduce themselves.

P1: Where do you work, Varun?
Me: {Company}, sir.
P1: Which city?
Me: Bangalore.
P1: You've given the mailing address for Jaipur.
Me: I'm shifting house in some time, that's why.
P1: What are you, single or married?
Me: Single, sir.
P1: Why there aren't any software firms in states like Rajasthan & Gujarat?
Me: {Concentration of quality technical institutes .. Bangalore had them .. Rajasthan is coming up ... Infrastructure is another concern}
P1: That is for Rajasthan, what about Gujarat?
Me: {Lack of good institutes plus Gujarat doesn't has a reputation of being a peaceful state with all riots happening in Ahmedabad}
P1: You are getting good salary here, why do you want to do an MBA?
Me: {Money nakko, value addition mangta hai}
(P3 said "value addition" to P1 and both sniggered)
P1: So what are your plans; to be an investment banker?
Me: {Start a company .. as I have education & experience in software}
P1: Indian companies are losing out on software as the operation costs are rising in India, so why start another software company?
Me: This is a big matter of concern for all software companies. I think Indian companies should start to look out for Indian customers too. With ever-bloating upward mobile middle class with ready access to the internet, the Indian market can get big.
P1: Last thing, why didn't the Birlas enter into software?
Me: They already have this huge empire, so probably they didn't find it necessary {silent question-mark ;-)}
P1: But then, Tata entered into software.
Me: I think Birlas missed the bus. With players like Infosys, TCS, Wipro already in the market, it would be really tough for them to cut it.
P1: They could've bought stakes in Infosys/Wipro.
Me: I don't know, sir.
P1: Coming from Rajasthan, don't you praise the Birlas?
Me: They have done really good job sir. Coming from such background and to make such an empire.
(I'm now handed over to P3. P2 comes back to his seat now.)
P3: You went to Kota for IIT coaching?
Me: Yes sir, I was there for two years. 11^th & 12^th class.
P2: Oh, the famous coaching.
Me: Rather infamous sir {smiles, smiles}
P3: So what do you think about these coaching institutes?
Me: They definitely introduce a bias towards those who can afford their coaching. But then even traditionally all the IITians come from middle-class & upper middle-class. So more or less, it’s the same. It’s like saying that since America can afford to train its athletes better, its unfair advantage to America.
P3: You’ve written that you are interested in photography. Your photos got published in DNA.
Me: DNA was working on an article on Jaipur. I took some photos when I was there last time. I had put them on my website. One of the DNA editors contacted me on email for those photos.
P3: They contacted you?
Me: Yes, sir.
P3: Do you have any photos to show?
Me: No sir. (Should’ve carried some colored printouts :-( )
P3: You also review movies for a website. Which was the last movie you reviewed?
Me: Rang De Basanti, sir. I got busy after that.
P3: Interesting movie. What did you say about that?
Me: While reviewing movies, I usually divide the movie into presentation & content. RDB has excellent presentation but I couldn’t agree with the ending. {Gun is not the solution .. ULFA, Kashmir blah blah..}
P3: If you were to direct the movie, what would’ve been the ending?
Me: We can draw a parallel with movies like Yuva & Sarfarosh, where the solution is sought while staying inside the system. You don’t need to pick up the gun {blah blah}
P3: But RDB was a hit, wasn’t it?
Me: That’s because it was an entertainer, well presented movie.
P3: But the content wasn’t good?
Me: I don’t think Indian audience goes to movie to learn from the movie, they just want to be entertained. We had an very impressive movie – Bawander – on the Bhanwari Devi Rape case. It was a very well made movie, but didn’t do well on the box-office.
P2: You are so passionate about this, I can see that. Why go for an MBA? I mean today you can make good name while working in whatever field you like. AR Rahman is almost as popular as Bill Gates.
Me: Sir, I feel the coming time belong to generalists & not specialists. While I am very passionate about films, I’m also passionate about photography, software and business. I can pursue all of them simultaneously. These will be different aspects of my personality. (Generalist-specialist comment was stuck into my mind for quite some time, glad that I finally used it somewhere ;-)
P2: What do you think about the GD?
Me: I think the main meaning behind the topic was about mercy killing and euthanasia, I think the groups got a little bit too wayward at times.
P2: No, no, you are a presentation & content guy. You are talking about just the content, how was the presentation?
Me: Every aspirant dreads a fish-market GD, this wasn’t a fish market GD. Quite easy-going as everyone got the chance to speak up and make their points.
P2: You tried to stop them, what was that about? You wanted to say something and then stopped.
Me: Sir, that time two of them were speaking at the same time, I thought about stopping them. But then I thought it won’t be appropriate for me to do so. So, I stopped.

I think that was all. They gave my academic certificates’ copies back, but asked me to get the experience letters photo-copied.

Overall, the interview was very easygoing. When I came out of the room, I was glad about it. But later on, clouds of doubt rolled back – percentiles aren’t exactly brilliant, grades aren’t good, etc. etc. So, I’ve stopped thinking about it. Since IIMC started their GD/PIs this week only, the results are expected to come out in the second half of April.

I’m glad that it’s finally over. Now that the ever-nagging thought at the back of my mind, that I should read this and read that for the interviews, is gone I can read and do whatever I want. It didn’t use to stop me even earlier, but the weight of guilt kept piling up. ;-)

Also read:
IIM Lucknow GD/PI
IIM Kozhikode GD/PI
IIM Indore GD/PI

Freak Show!

2006-03-13T13:34:00.000+05:30

(Mark Boucher pumps the air after hitting the winning runs)

Can you believe this?! Would anyone believe this, who hasn't watched this match? I'm sure this match would remain like an one-off incident; one spike in the relatively saner landscape of one-day cricket; one deafening toll of some distant bell in the normal chitter-chatter in the world of cricket. Something to tell your grandchildren about. I say send this DVD to Mars and the outer space, this is the best we can offer to our alien friends!

Of course, the boundaries were short & the track was totally dead. Yet, there have been deader pitches - especially in the Indian sub continent - & shorter boundaries (Singapore pops into my mind) but never did we have a 400+ score, ever. But what makes the match extra-ordinary is the South African effort. After letting the Kangaroos run away with it and posting an impossible total of 434, one can imagine how gloomy the South African dressing room would have been during the lunch. Even the staunchest supporters wouldn't have seen any silver lining in that dark cloud. Yet, they refused to kneel down to the pressure and fought back & fought hard. And when the finally reached there, they had scripted an epic saga which made the tale of David & Goliath look like a cheap imitation.

Australian inning was dominated by their captain’s scintillating knock. There is something very chilling in the way Ponting bats. Right, he’s not the only one to play such aggressive cricket. We have Sehwags, Afridis, Gichrists & of course Gibbs, but there is a subtle difference in their approach to the game and Pontings’. While others take risks and make shots to get the scorecard hit the roof, Ponting approach is more calculated & easygoing. He has such huge confidence that rarely he mishits or looks like manufacturing shots. The difference is somehow similar to the game of Jayasurya & Arvinda D’Silva. While Jayasurya relied on high-risk shots, D’Silva could maintain the same run-rate in a very low-risk manner. And that was what made him more dangerous for the opposition. Ponting brings the same sense of danger to the opposition. His approach doesn’t have the belligerence of Afridi or makeshift brilliance of Sehwag, still he is no lesser than them in his own cool style. Lately, it looks like impossible to get him out early; his technique leaves no chink for the opposition to attack. That’s why he is the best ODI batsman in the recent times.

The South African reply was hinged around Gibbs’ innings. Though half the battle was won when they believed that such an total can be chased, still it was an impossibly uphill task and if they were to even get closer to the Australian total, they needed a solid yet speedy start. Dippenaar disappointed but this couldn’t pull the team morale down. The partnership between Smith & Gibbs made it possible to even think that this can be done. Gibbs is one hell of a character! Immensely talented, extremely unpredictable. His arsenal has almost every attacking shot in the book. He reminds me of the Windies World Champion team. His game has the same gay abandon which was once associated with the calypso cricket. On his day, I don’t think he can better this performance. Though I felt a tinge of pain when he finally fell before going past the 194 run mark (Oh! How badly I wanted him to wash that scar off every Indian cricket fan’s mind :-), I don’t think I remember any ODI innings better than this one. Batting under imposing pressure of chasing an utterly impossible total, and then to come up with such a gem – truly awe-inspiring!

This match is definitely going to be my favorite match for quite some time. It is not always that you get to see such an entertaining freak show. That's what it was, an insane freak show! Pure madness & sheer brilliance!

P.S. - Good luck to the Indian team too. Com'on, kick some pommie butts!
P.P.S. - Wish me some luck too. Have IIMC interview tomorrow.

Hope and Honor

2006-03-09T22:02:00.000+05:30

Taxi was once a luxury, but now he didn't think twice before jumping into a taxi at airport. Coming back to the city after some time made him eager to explore her all over again. Now he had the time too.

As taxi crossed his college main gate, his mind reeled back. "This is where it all started".

***

Straight out of college with a degree in journalism, not much was expected of them. He was not to be one among "them". He started a story about child labour, as a freelancer. It started at the dhaba outside the campus. Chotu worked there. He started his story with Chotu's interview.

Chotu was not really unhappy or traumatized or anything; and he was pretty sorry for this. "What a start!". He took Chotu to the sappy questions -

"What do you feel when you see children your age going to school?"
"I will go to school some day. I want to go school."
"Don't you think you should go to school now? All the kids go to school."
"I can't."
"You shouldn't be working. You should be at school."
"I can't."

Then it finally dawned at him that Chotu works not because he doesn't know about the other cheerful ways to spend the childhood, but because he has seen many more dismal childhoods. And he doesn't want to be that way.

When leaving, he took a ten rupee note out of his pants and offered it to Chotu. An instant smile broke at Chotu's face. The note slipped out of his hands and landed near Chotu's feet. The smile disappered and now Chotu was staring him down, accusingly. He bleated a feeble 'sorry' and picked up the note and handed it to Chotu.

This was the moment. This was it! This would certainly melt the stoniest of hearts! How did he describe it? "Give them hope and honor. Don't rub the smile off their faces". Or something like that, hah! His piece was an instant hit and encouraged many similar articles on this gross implementational error on government's part; on the anti-child labour act. Government had a real tough time answering the opposition in the assembly and the press outside! They did try to curb child-labour for a while, or atleast made an impression that they are working on it.

Just out of college and he was already among the sharks!

***

"It has been a while now. Should start something soon."

The taxi stopped, with a jerk, at the traffic signal. The usual crowd of beggers fanned out in the traffic, trying their luck. He closed the window-glass, hurriedly and tried looking lost in thought as a begger boy started to knock on the window. Giving in to the weepy cries & to the stuck window glass, he finally looked at the boy.
"Familiar face?"
"Nah. Can't be!"
"Oh shit! This is Chotu!"

He was dumbfonded by the phenomenal act of chance. The begger boy finally gave up on him and was heading towards another auto-rickshaw when he hollered him back. "Chotuu. Idhar, idhar." Just as the boy came back running to the window, the taxi started to move. He hurriedly got a 20 rupees note from his shirt and extended his hand towards Chotu. The note slid out of his hand as the taxi farted and lurched ahead with a jerk.

He turned back to catch a glimpse. Chotu was picking up the note from a puddle of mud. He quickly pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and scribbled,

Rehab of child labour
???

He had a fairly clear idea about his next story now.

(Trying hands at flash fiction. What say? Hopefully, will get better.)

Heh!

2006-03-08T11:56:00.000+05:30

A Tale of A Long Night

2006-03-06T11:58:00.000+05:30

He missed her. The sullen gloom swallowed him, slowly. "What's wrong with her?!", he thought, cursing.

He tried sleeping. No, he can't sleep without her. Without her assuring presence, which he took for granted, always. Without her comforting existence.

He needed her badly. It was to be another long night. "Screw you, Monday mornings!"

The soppy wind at the window failed to lift his spirits. It wasn't raining furiously; it was more of an irritating, incessant rain. He stared into the vast nothingness. The fine sprinkling of water felt soothing. "Damn! The drying clothes!"

He opened all the windows of the room and returned to his bed. He tried sleeping. Just as he closed his eyes, lightening thundered. He wasn't sure if it really happened or his mind fooled him. "It'll be another long night."

Another bolt. Illumination. Electricity was back!

India - Pakistan Wagah Border ceremony

2006-02-28T11:53:00.000+05:30

I got this video at Upright Videos. Boy! Do they have some cool collection?! Do listen to the BBC commmentary in the video. Funny that I should get this video now, when I just finished "Pundits From Pakistan" by Rahul Bhattarcharya. Rahul was touring with Indian cricket team to Pakistan in 2004 and he has captured his experiences in this book. But to say that this book is just about cricket is like saying Ramayana is about touring Sri Lanka. I can't say anything about the book which hasn't already been said. Just read it.

In the last chapter of the book, Rahul describes the Wagah border ceremony. While BBC commentary in the video describes it well, it lacks the subcontinental sentiments attached with the Wagah Border. Rahul taps it well. I'm producing excerpts from his book -

We found the spot on the sidelines. Chants rented the air. Pakistan Zindabad. Allah-hu-Akbar. A cheerleader who had almost knocked over Saad with his flag at the stadium was running up and down, waving his crescented cloth, urging masses on like the coach at tug-of-war.

Barely had we taken out spot than the crowds erupted into a delirious roar: a guard had begun marching towards a gate, some metres past the brick archway. Marching is a euphemism. He stomped so hard as if to create holes in the earth, a severely built man in immaculate uniform, a magnificent turban, boots of gleaming black, and wearing hate on his face as he had been told to. Even amid the chanting and hooting and clapping, the clamping down of the hobnailed boots could be made out.

The guard powered on till the gate, where he spread his hands like a performer, maintaining the hate on his face, and shaking his head vigiriusly in the manner one does after downing a Patiala Peg; high on induced hate. The hands were lowered to the sides in a series of theatrical gestures. Another guard followed, and another. Sometimes they went in tows and threes. As they reached the gate, one after the other, and played out their hate, the crowd was stirred to a frenzy. A depravity hung in the air.

A chronicle by a visiting westerner likend the ceremony to a European football game. This was ironic, instructive. Where Orwell had likened sport to war minus the shooting, here was wilfully calibrated war minus the shooting - shadow-boxing, in uniform, as the border - being likened to sport.

At last a pair of guards from either side shook hands, and the flags were gently lowered. This signified the closing of the border for the day. Both gates were slammed shut together, with immense force. There was a sudden, shocked silence, and in the silence of the moment, the metal rang in the ears. The silence continued for several seconds. The silence was a lot of things: a brief mourning, the acknowledgement of an attachment, of a shameful history; it was a symbolic reconciliation; I think it was, in large part, embarrassment at the preceding depravity.

Even now I shudder at the mesh of emotions at that scene at the border on March twenty-third. The faces of some wore a disturbed look. Some looked distraught. Some chanted. Some looked fragile, shattered, tears in eyes. Some looked plain entertained. Some, like Mr Ansari, were furious, furious with the jingoism the ceremony was designed to generate. Saad and I discussed things with passionate angst. It was a confusing time.

Highly recommended, the video and the book.

Hi-Five!

2006-02-27T13:59:00.000+05:30

(Chatting in office during working hours. Typical day at office)

s.t: ok tell me this...
if u were to see 5 countries(india excluded) and then never get to see anything else, which countries wud these be?
Varun: egypt
south africa
new zealand
russia
aaaaand.....
brazil
Varun: you?
s.t: italy
french polynesian islands...
cambodia ... angkor wat in particular
peru
and the 4th place am not sure....btwn egypt and greece..
Varun: 5th?
s.t: most likely wud be greece

Looks like a tag to me! I tag Pankaj Jain, Himanshu, Vivek Kumar, Raj & Reshma.

Hostile Witness

2006-02-25T11:25:00.000+05:30

After the recent decisions on the Jesica Lall case & the Best Bakery case, the Indian blogsphere has a tag making rounds. I read first about this at Vivek's blog. Here's the tag:

Lets say that you are a key witness in a murder case. You saw the accused kill the victim right in front of your eyes. The facts of the case are absolutely clear to you, and fresh in your memory. Now, your testimony is up for tomorrow. You get a call during the night before the fateful day. The caller threatens to kill/harm either you or your wife/your kids/someone-very-dear-to-you. Alternatively, the caller could make you a different offer - that of money. Say Rs. 1 Crore (a little over $200,000). You know for sure that the accused can indeed shell out that much money. The condition is obvious. You must become a hostile witness. What would you do? And why?

The first knee-jerk reaction would be a 'No', simply because most of us like to see ourselves like someone with high morals and strong will. I shall not waste this space on that, I'm no Sunny Deol & this is no cinema. Answering this question is indeed very tough, mostly because its not very easy to imagine yourself into this horrid dilemma.

I don't think I would react to the money offered. Partly because I'm already comfortably placed in life; not playing in crores or stuff, but decent enough to have a decent upper middle class life. And partly because that it would be a burden on the conscience for the entire life; to sell yourself and causing injustice to come to poor victims. I think every one has some threshold and only after that barrier is crossed, people go against their moral sense of right and wrong. Money is not the one to tempt me.

Threat to my loved ones is a different thing. I don't think I can jeopardize their lives for anything. Keeping in mind that in most cases the police would not be able to protect my loved ones from the threat. And, after seeing that in many cases, even after few testimonies against the culprit, s/he was able to get free from some loophole in the judiciary system. This is to say, if I'm sure that the threat is real & the protection from the police won't be sufficient, most likely I would make a U-turn. Turning hostile would really be very burdensome morally, I would prefer to get disconnected from the proceedings, like saying I didn't see anything or I wasn't there.

I'm not tagging anyone, but if you like, post it on your blog. Don't forget to add the tag "Hostile Witness" to your post.

Tag: Hostile Witness

IIM Indore GD/PI

2006-02-19T13:16:00.000+05:30

IIM Indore has a very elaborate inteview form to be filled. Dreaded questions like "strengths & weakness in acads" & "failures at work place" can give many sleepless nights. Some say they try hard to copy IIM Ahmedabad's interview form. I'm not sure how important these forms are; from what I saw, these forms are mainly used by the interviewers to know more about what to ask. But I'm not sure if an articulately filled form has any edge.

Group Discussion
Each GD group has 7 aspirants in them, so it wasn't over-crowded. We were given a case-study which was about a family. Austen was working with a nationalized bank in Bhopal after doing his MBA. He married Dr.Sneha, who is now earning about 5 times more than him after setting up nice practice in Bhopal. Austen met his batchmates who are working with MNCs and earning much more than him. Without discussing it with Sneha, he takes up the job with an MNC in Mumbai and asks her to come along. In the end, she stayed in Bhopal when he left for Mumbai. Now when their son has done well in CAT, he is retrospecting upon his decision.

Fourteen minutes were a bit too much on this topic. Most of us were done in about 10 minutes. It wasn't a fish-market GD and everyone got ample chances to speak. The points were repeated quite often.

Personal Interview
They had told us that they will call us in random order. My number came after four others. It was a long wait since they were taking about 25-30 minutes per interview. Two professors, P1 & P2, were there for the interview.

P1: Tell me something about yourself in 3 sentances. Ok, 1 minute.
Me: {bak, bak, bak}
P1: You already have two and a half years' experience. In another 2.5 years where do you see yourself?
Me: {Managing a team}
P1: Very typical answer.
(Oh ok.. what about this one - "I see myself at Mars along with five handpicked female specimen, trying to populate the human coloney at Mars")
Me: {Want to open a firm later}
P1: I'm not convinced.
P2: Okay, what's your business model?
Me: Try to do stuff cheaper and maintain the quality. Just like BPO industry.
P2: Don't talk about BPO. We expect more from an IITian.
Me: I feel mobile communication hold immense potential in India. The penetration rose by 30% last year and as the connectivity grows, the businesses around it are likely to grow. Location based services are one example. They can be used effectively in transport industry to track their orders.
P2: But that is already being done in US.
Me: RFID is the upcoming thing. It can be done more effectively using RFID.
P2: What are the limitations with RFID?
Me: Range is one.
P2: What else?
Me: Orientation of the chip?
P2: What about the cost?
Me: As of now they are costly, but Walmart is pushing it hard and as the demand grows the prices are bound to come down. They are aiming for 5 cent chips.
P2: Walmart alone can't do anything.
Me: Walmart has initiated the process. Many others are checking out the RFID technology. Even Kingfisher Airlines are trying to leverage on it.
P2: What's Kingfisher doing with it?
Me: For most of the businesses, RFID is just another hot technology. They are searching for ways they can utilize it.
P1: (Cuts me) Tell me what's your business plan? You have written you want to start a company.
Me: I don't have a business plan ready as of now.
(P1 was neck deep into my grade cards by now)
P1: Why did you have course like IEOR and Linear Optimization?
Me: Computer science is all about optimizing stuff.. blah blah
P1: Can you tell me the optimum way to sort an array?
Me: If we consider the average case..
P1: (Cuts me) Tell me the best way, forget about the average case.
Me: Quick Sort.
P1: Are you sure?
Me: Yes sir.
P1: What's the complexity for Quick Sort?
Me: O(n.lgn).
P1: What kind of algorithm is it?
Me: {divide and sort..recursive}
P1: How does lgn comes into picture? What's the base of the log?
Me: e. It comes from summation of a series.
P1: Do you know about Simplex method?
Me: umm..
P1: What is the basic requirement to find the optimum solution using Simplex?
Me: Atleast some solution must exist (? with a silent question-mark :)
P1: What is this condition called?
Me: Solvability? (?)
P2: You have written about Photography. What's the latest technology in Photography? If you were to suggest someone what would you suggest?
Me: Today the best option is a digital SLR, if you can afford it.
P2: Don't tell me about DSLR. Whats the latest technology?
Me: {Tried telling about this mother of present cameras technology, got cut}
P2: What about signal processing?
Me: (Struggled with the name of charged plate in digital camera which captures the light) That's where this signal processing can be used?
P2: What about histograms?
Me: Yeah. ok, there.
P2: How does an LCD work?
Me: {Pixels}
P2: You are an engineer, I'm an engineer. Explain properly.
P1: You are a recent engineer!
Me: Don't know exactly.
P1: You said you've schooled in 9 different cities. Can you name all 9?
Me: Udaipur, Hanumangarh, Nohar, Anoopgarh, Bikaner, Bharatpur, Bikaner, Jaipur, Karuali, Kota.
P1: What was the difference when you went to Bikaner again?
Me: {First tried to babble about the change in perspective and stuff, got cut} Traffic.
P1: What the GDP of Bikaner? Of Rajasthan? Which state has the highest GDP?
Me: Punjab (?)
P1: Lowest?
Me: I'm not sure could be some state from the seven sister states in North east.
P1: What about Bihar?
Me: Though Bihar has been hit by the political scene in the state, but the area is more so I'm not sure. It could be Bihar.
P2: Do you know about Bimaru States? Which are the Bimaru States?
Me: Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh...umm.
P1: Did you take any coaching for this interview?
Me: I took some mock interviews.
P1: Did they help?
Me: I've taken 2 IIM interviews by now. The pattern is different from what I had practiced.
P1: So it didn't help.
(Both of them laughed at this point)
P2: How did you prepare for this?
Me: I try to keep myself updated with current affairs (was hoping to yak a bit about Mittal-Arcelor stuff).
P2: What did Laloo Prasad Yadav announce lately?
Me: A new shatabdi expresses between Delhi & Agra, fastest in India.
P2: That is already done.
P2: What about online ticketing?
Me: That is functioning for sometime now.
P2: What else?
Me: He abolished cold-drinks and introduced kulhars.
P1: That was long time back.
(Not older than online tickeing!)
P2: What about upgradation of tickets?
Me: Yeah, that.

They offered me chips in the end. People try to read into this giving chips, wishing good-luck, etc. omens. But I'm not sure how hopeful should I be after such a show.

Also read:
IIM Lucknow GD/PI
IIM Kozhikode GD/PI
IIM Calcutta GD/PI

BLAUPUNKT: The advantage in your car

2006-02-17T19:14:00.000+05:30

Sahi video!

L.N.Mittal or Alien Mittal?

2006-02-17T00:48:00.000+05:30

Someone really got to help me understand why is Indian Government trying to persuade the French & Luxemburg governments regarding the Mittal-Arcelor feud? Born in Churu, educated in Kolkata, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal moved out of the country in 1994 and at present holds an NRI status and stays in Britain. He has done well to be the richest man outside the US and the third richest man in the World, but what has he done for India? His group has presence in almost every country in the World other than India.

May be Indians are behaving in an emotional manner, biased towards their own son. The deal Mittal has offered looks fair and there are not many fair doubts the Arcelor shareholders should have, but that's not the point. Even if it is done for good, is there any place for such emotions in diplomacy?

Some further doubts -

What about Abdul Lateef Naushad, who was serving in a Saudi Arab jail for six months, waiting for his eyes to be gouged. His wife ran from pillar-to-post for saving her husband, the only earning member in the family. The external affairs ministry couldn't have been more indifferent. I quote from the Rediff.com report:
"This kind of rigid, eye-for-eye Saudi law has executed hundreds of Indians there. Hundreds of Indians are currently jailed in Saudi Arabia for no serious criminal reasons," says human rights activist K Gopalakrishnan.

One of the recent incidents was the execution of Naickam Ittiparambil Shahjahan last year. The Saudi Arabian government had charged Shahjahan with smuggling brown sugar in his shoes when he boarded the flight from Chennai to Dammam four years ago.

But soon after his execution, the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi received a message from the Saudi Arabian government, which officially admitted that Shahjahan was innocent.
What about Fiji's ousted Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhary? After George Speight staged a armed coup and threw Chaudhary in prison, India did little other than imposing some economic bans, despite some protests. I quote from the Tribune editorial:
There is some hope of improvement only if international pressure intensifies.[..] Australia and New Zealand have done some tough talking on the subject. ÂThere is no point in mincing words Â he (Mr Chaudhry) was kidnapped and detained unlawfully. It was a criminal act. He was democratically elected and what George Speight and his supporters are arguing for is a racially prejudiced Constitution,Â Australian Prime Minister John Howard has said. New Zealand has been equally forthright. The role these two countries play will determine to a large extent the future course of Fiji. The problem is that imposing severe sanctions will further damage FijiÂs economy, thereby hurting many of the people the world is trying to help. As such, it has to be two-track diplomacy all the way. India has not played as active a role as expected. The expulsion of Fiji from the Commonwealth is hardly its achievement because this course is already outlined in detail under the Harare Declaration and the Millbrook Action Programme. The diplomatic initiative by New Delhi has not gone much beyond discussing the matter with the visiting Mr Howard. Its argument that India would not like to be seen to be applying pressure on the present dispensation in Suva lest it has an adverse impact on Fijian Indians does not sound very convincing.
What about the whole "patka" issue regarding Sikhs in France? Did Indian government do anything for those Sikhs?

The point is not that government should've dived into all the aforementioned issues (I'm sure we can find many more indifferent moments from the external affairs ministry, if we rake through the history); the point is why is Kamal Nath playing hardball with EU over Mittal? The wikipedia page on LN Mittal provides an interesting insight:

In 2002 he was embroiled in a political scandal dubbed Mittalgate with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as many felt that a donation he had made to the British Labour Party had led to Blair's intervention (a letter to the Romanian prime minister) in a business deal favouring Mittal. On July 13, 2005 it was announced that he had donated £2 million to the Labour Party.

I don't think I'm very well informed to comment or speculate any further. However, I would like to see what Vivek Kumar, an undertraining IFS officer himself, has to say about it.

IIM Lucknow GD/PI

2006-02-15T21:59:00.000+05:30

(Strange things keep happening to me. The professor who took my interview for IIML last time was here this time too! Thankfully, he was in a different panel. My panel had two professors, one of them works with quantative methods (P1) & the other with agro-business and economics (P2).)

Group Discussion
My GD panel was a very docile bunch of 8 punters. This time IIML is asking aspirants to write a 150 words essay on the same topic, before the start of discussion. They take back the essay before the start of discussion. I guess its some sort of integrity test. The topic was a very general one - "Reading is the best thing solitude can offer" (The professor who announced the topic was really bad at pronunciation; I ended up writing "afford" in the place of "offer" :-). It was a typical garbage-in-garbage-out GD. The discussion never heated up and most of the times we were just repeating our points. It lasted about 15-17 minutes. This time I did the most of "halla" in our panel ;-).

Personal Interview
(I was the second one in my panel, so it didn't take much time after the GD. I was called in by P1)
P1: So, you are a computer engineer?
(Whatever happened to the good ol' "Tell me about yourself"?!)
Me: Yes sir.
P1: Why did your grades drop?
Me: {focus, priorities, yada yada yada}
P1: So you'll do the same thing in IIM.
Me: Sir, I regret that very much and I'm the kind of person who learns from his mistakes. I don't think this time I would commit the same mistake.
P1: You know, an MBA is much rigorous than engineering.
Me: I understand that sir.
P1: What's this? Your grades have been dropping consistently over the years in Engineering. You started with {this} and ended up with {that}. {that} is not good for a computer engineer.
Me: Sir, this pattern is not really uncommon. Basically the first two years have many courses with large class size. So the grades are distributed that way. Later, the grades are distributed between 40 odd people.
P1: Ok, so which subject should I take up for the interview?
(Subject.. shit, going into acads!)
Me: Sir?
P1: Do you want me to question you on your academics or the work experience?
Me: Sir, since the work experience part is more recent, may be you should ask questions on that. You can ask about my hobbies too.
P1: I'm not going to ask about your hobbies.
Me: As you please.
P1: You get X amount here, you might not get the same amount after MBA. Why do you want to do MBA.
Me: I think that shows how committed I'm towards the MBA program. I want to open my firm and {yada yada yada}.
P1: (Cuts me) Its just about the salary. You will start to think along the same lines if you came to IIML.
Me: I've had a look at the placements and I think I'm already getting what an average student from IIM can expect. Still I'm trying hard to get into IIMs because money is not the primary motive for me.
P1: Why don't you do MBA from some other institue?
Me: That, I think, would be a compromise on quality. We all know IIMs are best in the country when it comes to MBA.
P1: This is your misconception. Nothing like that.
Me: {WTF! I want my money back!} (smiled)
P1: {Asked about my company, my work and the software I'm working on}
Me: {Successfully established the fact that even though I work for a fin firm, I don't know much about fin :-D}
(P1 now "handed" me over to P2)
P2: You talked about bad debts. How can a debt go bad?
Me: {bakar-bakar}
P1: What about the credit risk analysis?
Me: Our software doesn't deal with the initiation of debts and since risk analysis is done prior to sanctioning a loan, we don't really come into the picture.
P2: How much do you know in Economics? Did you have any courses in Economics?
Me: We had one basic course in the first year of engineering. So, I'll try my best but if I can't answer your questions, you know why.
P2: If you aren't comfortable with Economics, let's talk about something else.
Me: No sir, test me on Economics.
P2: Whats the difference between GDP at factor cost and GDP at {something else}.
Me: umm..mmmm.. Don't know sir.
P2: What is fiscal policy?
Me: {Some bullshit with some jargon thrown in. Didn't make any sense to even me in the end.}
P2: Microeconomics?
Me: Macroeconomics.
P2: Tell me whatever you know about Economics.
P1: Just say two lines on it.
Me: In recent times we have debates on mainly FDI in retail and disinvestment of PSUs. {Left is this, this is right, blah blah}
P2: What's your stand about FDI in retail?
Me: It will help the customers in the end and help the economy grow. The flip side is that the small retailers will be out of business.
P2: But it will generate massive unemployment.
Me: In the long run it will generate more employment.
P2: What about the small retailers?
Me: There is this concept of "creative distruction". The same thing happened when the cloth mills ran our weavers out of business. But I think government should first think about what is best for consumers and about the workers later.
(This discussion went on for a little while and that was the end of the interview.)

In the end, I feel I did better than my last year's interview with IIML. And since I got a call last year, there are many good reasons to be hopeful. Didn't do too bad either, did I? Things to polish - economics!

Also read:
IIM Kozhikode GD/PI
IIM Indore GD/PI
IIM Calcutta GD/PI

Don't you have cobwebs in heaven?

2006-02-12T04:28:00.000+05:30

Don't you have cobwebs in heaven?

When I see the thin trickle of spilled tea, gravitate down adhered to the porcelain cup
Onto the wooden table, thereby adding
To the small tea-puddle on the varnished surface
A harbinger of a circular stain, so ugly in its appearance
Yet so inevitable in my indolence
That I wonder, whether there is any sense
Any purpose
Any meaning
In restoring,
Nay, Trying to restore
Order in this world --

Don't you have cobwebs in heaven?

Stolen shamelessly from my good friend Nips' writings' page. Its exactly the kind of poem which leaves me with a burning, bruising feeling of helplessness about my hopeless relationship with verses. Perhaps I would be better placed to write verses if I could understand them at the first place. I just can't make sense of most of the poems (unless they go something like "twinkle-twinkle little star".. wait! I have some doubts there too). And then I come across something so good (and understand it for once).

Bhison bhalo aachhe Deepu da!

The Great Indian World Cup Dream

2006-02-12T03:21:00.000+05:30

(Rohit Sharma attempts to pull, India U-19s v West Indies U-19s, Colombo, February 11, 2006)

While the senior cricket team is toiling hard for success on the docile pitches of Pakistan, some young guns are blazing big time for India in the Emerald island. The Indian Under 19 cricket team has made it to the final four of the U-19 Cricket World Cup! Incredibly, they haven't lost even a match in their pursuit of the ultimate glory. India now face England in the semi-finals on Wednesday. The other semi-final would be between Pakistan & Australia. Its sad that almost no one in India is following their campaign.

While the semifinal line-up looks in perfect harmony with the respective senior teams' stature, the truth is infact far from it. Other than Australia, who are almost as rampant in their campaign as their seniors, its the subcontinent teams who are the major forces to reckon with in the junior arena. Even the Bangladeshis command the kind of respect their seniors can only get in their dreams. The result of the quarter-final match between England and Bangladesh, which the English won of course, is being considered a surprise! Indian U-19s have been among the toppers in their batch since the times when Kaif used to be their captain. Then there was one Indo-Pak U-19 tour where Irfan Pathan and VRV Singh unleashed hell on the Paki kids. Shikhar Dhawan, who is making a mark for himself in the domestic circuit, was their star batsman on that tour.

Now the question arises that if our kids are frontrunners in the U-19 scene, why do they fail to blossom in promising prospects for the senior teams? If our junior team can kick butts of their counterparts comprehensively, why do they shy away from this when they meet them in the senior circuit? I somehow got a hunch that while other U-19 players improve a lot on their games before and after getting into the senior side, our juniors' game kind of stagnates at that juvenile level. One more reason can be that quite possibly we send over-19-but-certified-to-be-under-19 players to the junior matches. Since such practices are not very uncommon in the subcontinent, it explains why the subcontinent does well at the junior levels.

The current Indian ODI team has some young & promising prospects, but over the time we had problem finding youngsters who can take the burden of the international cricket with great confidence. Yuvraj Singh showed glimpses of his immense talent in his debut match; Irfan Pathan had a decent debut tour; MS Dhoni became a household name is lesser number of matches than the number of alphabets in his name, but then I look at Mohammad Asif. Here is one young speedster, bowling to the likes of Sehwag - who is riding high on confidence after scoring 250 runs just two innings back, Tendulkar - who is considered the best batsman even today, Dravid - arguably the most technically sound player and other aces of the famous Indian batting line up and he bowls with such vigor & wile that all the big names failed to save the inevitable defeat. When will India produce such confident debutantes? What do our youngsters lack? We have to look towards Australia for this answer, where every other debutante is almost as competitive & confident as the senior members of the squad. If Chappell's grand vision of 2007 world cup doesn't include grooming young talents at U-19 and other junior levels, one day India will pay dearly for that. He seems to be concerned towards building a decent bench strength and a very flexible core team. Healthy competition and perform-or-perish funda should bring the much needed professionalism in the Indian cricket, sooner rather than later.

IIM Kozhikode GD/PI

2006-02-07T14:00:00.000+05:30

(Recording my experiences at this year's IIM GD/PIs, hopefully this would help someone.)

My GD/PI was scheduled at 2:00 PM, I reached IIM Bangalore around 1-1:05. At around 1:45 PM we were taken in for cursory check of certificates and attendance. Then we were spilt in three panels and taken into seperate parts of the building.

Group Discussion :
We were given an excerpt from Utopia (Thomas More) which talked about how "so many poor die every year while if we survey the granaries of the rich, there will be more than enough food to feed the poor", something of the same effect. I thought it was a typical communist manifest. We were seated around a rectangular table with 5 people on each side. I was sitting farthest from the panel and rather eclipsed behind 4 other candidates. Though I tried to get involved in the discussion, the seating was really an huge disadvantage and I didn't say much in the GD. Still, I won't say it was one of the fish-market GDs. One of my friends had the GD in the morning and their topic was about how sensex is a real indicator of the growth in the Indian economy.

Personal Interview :
(By amazing stroke of luck, I got the same professor (P1) to take my interview who took my interview last year. More amazingly, he remembered me! There was one more professor(P2) in the panel.)
P1: You didn't speak much in the GD.
(I was hoping they would start with the customary "tell me about yourself" question.)
Me: Sir I was seated at a rather disadvantageous position, eclipsed behind others. I had few points to make and I tried to get involved but I couldn't.
(P2 smiles)
P1: Ok, I'll give you another chance.
Me: I think the paragraph given to me was a typical communist manifest. I'm not in favor of distributing the results but the opportunities among all. The poor must be given the opportunities to earn for themselves. You give them fish for one day and they'll come back to you the next day, but if you teach them fishing, they'll be self-sufficient.
P2: But do you think it talked about the distribution?
Me: I talked about the disparity between the riches of rich & the conditions of the poor. It emphasizes on a fairer redistribution of wealth.
P2: Forget about the distribution for a while and then think what was it saying.
Me: It basically talked about the purchasing power of poor and how they aren't able to fulfil the basic requiements.
P1: Tell me about {my company}.
Me: {Some general things about the company then about my work in the company}.
P1: Varun, you're getting X amount of money here. You might not get so much after your MBA.
Me: Money is not the main motive for me. I'm looking at the bigger picture and I feel in the long run the value added to my profile will be more useful.
P1: You've written about the essay competition. Tell me more about the competition; what was the topic?
Me: The topic was about using strategic innovation to solve real life problems. I wrote about dealing with the problems pertaining to the corrupt traffic policemen. I suggested we give the policemen a cut from the eligible challans made so they get some incentive to make right challans rather than taking bribes. Similarly, the drivers too must get some incentives for paying up the fine and not the bribe. For this the fine can be made tax exempted.
P1: So do you think this incentive mechanism can be used in solving all kinds of problems.
Me: A mix of incentives & punishments. Hindu philosophy has a concept of "Danda" which is all about incentives & punishments..
P1: Basically carrot & stick. Incentives or punishments.
Me: Yeah, a mix of them.
P1: Do you know about a study of this system?
Me: ummm..
P1: Have you heard of Game Theory?
Me: No sir.
P1: Ok.
(Then we talked about film reviews, I had written that I review films for a website and for my blog. They asked me about the criteria. I talked about RDB & Yuva. They asked about cross-over cinema and asked me to name few movies. I talked about Gurindar Chaddha. They asked me to review "Bend it like Beckham".)

If you attended the mock PI sessions by TIME, you might assume interviewers are blood-thirsty hounds who'd nail you down as soon as you enter the room. Believe me, that's not the case. Anyhow, you should try to get hold of the reins of interview and steer it towards your strong points. Show them how well you'd fit into an MBA program and how you're an ideal candidate. 15-20 minutes aren't too many, plan well in advance about what to say.

Best of luck & wish me luck :-).

Also read:
IIM Lucknow GD/PI
IIM Indore GD/PI
IIM Calcutta GD/PI

Comments-Shomments Haaye Rabba

2006-02-07T10:42:00.000+05:30

Raj tells in his latest post that not replying to comments made by others on your blog is deemed impolite among the netizens. I reply to the comments made here often, but mostly to the recent posts. Many visitors drop on to this blog via some search engine (somehow "pakistani mujra" is among the top traffic-getters for this blog ;-) and they make some comments on some old posts. I don't really make sure to reply to them, but now I'm told many people visit back to check if any replies are made and all. I'll try.

Meanwhile, some of my recent posts attracted some nice comments which I feel deserve more than getting forgotten in the cyber space. Sadly, many of them are made anonymously.

On my post about Suicide in IIT Bombay -

Deaths of students

Students are committing suicides; it’s a national shame,
They should be brave,not should be tame.
They all are smart,intelligent and bright,
Why they are giving-up before any fight?
What is the pain ,they are trying to hide?
What is causing them to commit suicide?
Why they choose to be on their own?
Among so much crowd,why they feel alone?
These are the questions,needed to be answered,
Whatever are the problems,needed to be conquered
They should be taught,rules of life game!
They can still be winners,without money and fame!!
They should be made at ease!! So they can share,
They are India’s future,should be handled with care!!
To save their lives,we all should try,
We just can’t afford to let them die!!!

On my post on Emran Hashmi & Gobhi Pakodas (I think its Emran himself ;-)

Are you out of your freakin mind! Have u even seen the guy? He's extremely hot..if u got close to him u would burn down! Oh right you can't even get close to his shadow... as for his choice of movies i dont agree much with them but u can't deny his hotness based on his few stupid choices. and as for a pathetic adult stuck with a mind of a 10-year old i dont know how much i can expect from u! and if u hate the guy sooooo much would u like to explain why u have seen all 9 of his movies or at least kept track of all 9. i think that this is just a case of a secret admirer gone bad! kinda like giving attitude to the girl a boy really loves (in the 5th grade)... you you still sitting in class?

Update: "Death of Students" is written by Rachana Bajaj. After I posted her poem here, she showed me another piece of excellent poetry written by her.

Blogs
I was wondering, what are blogs all about?
I found that they are people’s SILENT SHOUT!!
Some laugh aloud, some scream with pain,
Emotions are coming out straight from their brain!
Young ones put up their personal issues,
You can find them sobbing without using tissues!
They can be boring, they can be nice,
But the language you get with added spice!
You can read them once twice or thrice,
The best thing is, they come without price!
Blogging can be good when you feel alone,
You can get some expressions as your very own!!!

Happy Birthday to me!

2006-02-04T00:57:00.000+05:30

Yaay! Another winter, another year .. tippity-tappity tam-tam. Life's been good. Thanks to Rahul, Jha & Nilesh bhai for the Flickr Pro Account they bought for me. For one year from now I can enjoy all their services. After that, another birthday comes (one official birthday comes in-between too ;-) .

About the pic, that's me. On my second birthday (when I got 1 year old. Is it the first or the second birthday?). Yeah man, I was *very* plump back then. You know, you eat & you sleep - its very hard to not gather some extra grams :-)

Dilbert does it again!

2006-02-01T22:20:00.000+05:30

.. and updated wishlist :-)

	Rajasthan Folk (VOL 1): Langas & Manganiars Someone please buy me this :-). I'm eager for the "Nimbuda" song in particular.
	The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity Waiting to get my hands on this book for some time now.
	The Algebra of Infinite Justice A collection of essays by Arundhati Roy on authorities abuse. Should be great read; the other side of the fence for me.

Rang De Basanti: Movie Review

2006-01-31T18:02:00.000+05:30

"Rang De Basanti" is a thorough entertainer, no two ways about that. But words like "The best three hours of the Indian Cinema", "An Inspiring Film", "A Generation Awakes" etc. are stretching it a bit too far. The acting, screen play, technique, camera work and all are simply superb. But I don't have many superlatives for the 'solution' given in the film. The first half is very engrossing! Rakyesh Mehra has read the pulse of the youth very well and the characters are sketched very realistically. I'm sure we all have met people like them and can relate very well to their anger against the corrupt system. Many of us crib incessantly about the hopeless state of India and how nothing can be done, knowing that its we who has to do something. That's why we can connect so well to the directionless, indifferent, devil-may-care youth portrayed in the film. But when film descend from a broad perspective to particularities, the script falters. The parallels drawn between the two stories, one in 1920s and one contemporary, seems a bit far-fetched. I'm not ready to accept that the impulsive decision to bump off a mean minister can be kept in the same league as the movement carried on by revolutionaries like Azad, Bhagat Singh, Dutt etc. The problem is - the buck is passed in the end of the movie. "Join Police, IAS, Politics"; may be they should watch Shool, Gangaa Jal, Sarfarosh etc.

To give the due credit to the film, it has atleast got the questions right if not the answers. Still, I won't call it inspiring. Let's forget about the big picture for a while, the movie depicts 5 young people, incised by one personal tragedy and further pissed off by the apathy shown by the authority. Solution, they picked up guns and bumped off a minister. Remember "Ghayal"? or countless movies by Dharamendra where Sadashiv Amrapurkar was the corrupt minister invariently? RDB is a notch above them for sure, but not for the script! Moreover, the young "guns" were not even showed to be sure about the whole thing, still they convicted the minister following their instincts and guillotined him. Pick any "terrorist" organisation and at the root of its birth would be an atrocity. There is no dearth of examples - LTTE, ULFA, Kashmir. Our terrorists are martyrs for some. The point is, its not easy to justify violence! Even in the era of Bhagat Singh, they had a hard time making it clear to the nation (and to Gandhi ji) that they weren't just enthused by the hatred towards Brits.

About the broader picture, the blogosphere is literally painted "basanti". I've read recurrently that this films "made them think". Think about what? The hopelessness spread over the sarkari machinery? Didn't they already think about it when they were asked to bribe a traffic wala? The target audiance - college going, 20 somethings - more or less arrive at the conclusion that its either "do-it-yourself" or "STFU", by this time. At the best, this film would present the questions again to them, wrapped up with out-of-this-world presentation.

As I said earlier, the movie is a thorough entertainer; not to be missed! Perhaps my expectations were a bit too high with the movie; still the first halfl kept up with it. Just don't go in expecting enlightenment and stuff.

(Written for InFiCA.)

Update: Check out the reviews done by Chandrahas & Uma. Whatever I wanted to say, they've said it better.

Wishlist and Jaipur trip

2006-01-30T11:01:00.000+05:30

Trip to Jaipur was as whirlwindish as they get. We went there to attend Vyas' marriage. Many of my good friends from college were there at the marriage, so it was a kinda get-together. Was fun. Since it was Jha's first time in Jaipur, we showed him around. Some of the forts and all, even we Jaipuris had forgotten :-). I strongly recommend "Chokhi Dhani" to everyone visiting the city. It's like crash course to Rajasthani music and rural life. Though the rural life isn't as hunky-dory as they have at Chokhi Dhani, still its the best way to spend your 225/- (unless you add 70/- more and go for "India Unbound - Gurcharan Das", but I digress). The thing is, I'm a big sucker for Rajasthani music. And its not very easily accessible! Probably, since I don't get to hear it a lot, that's why I'm so starved for it.

If Chokhi Dhani is a crash course, Bikaner's Desert Festival is the perfect setting to leisurely soak in the Rajasthani music. This time when I was at home, I saw a programme on the recently concluded Desert Festival. I had attended it once when we were in Bikaner, years back. I remember being mesmerized by the charming folk music! The Langas, The Manganiars, The Kaalbeliyas .. total godgiri! I think with good promotion they can get as popular as the Bhangra and stuff. Already Langas & Manganiars are quite popular abroad, but the awareness about them remains low among fellow Indians.

Rajasthani music wasn't marketed well even in Rajasthan just few years back. Not anymore. Veena Music came up about 4 years back and they haven't looked back since then. Already the company has released about 50 popular albums, out of 4 part of 'Ghoomar' has created a milestone in India as well as abroad. The ever increasing demand for "Veena" creation has prompted the company to start making CD of each cassette and around 40 audio CDs have so far been introduced. My parents are big patrons of Veena, I think they've about 6-8 cassettes by them. Personally, I think they concentrate more on the soft melodies and not on the raw folk music. They've hired some upcoming singers to sing for them, I would've preferred if they had recorded with the original folk artists. Anyway, their popularity only proves the point I made earlier - with proper marketing, Rajasthani music has the potential to make it big.

My Wishlist :-

Rajasthan Folk (VOL 1): Langas & Manganiars
Someone please buy me this :-). I'm eager for the "Nimbuda" song in particular.

The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity
Waiting to get my hands on this book for some time now.

P.S. - I like surprizes too :-)

The new iPod Shuffle

2006-01-24T20:39:00.000+05:30

This Saturday I went to The Oberoi to collect the iPod Shuffle my essay won at the contest held by the Tuck School of Business. Its a tiny thing; I expected it to be a little bigger, but I was pleasently surprized. I'm loving it! I can dump about 100 songs into it and its battery is supposed to last for about 12 hours. It adds something to the life I was missing for long - the background music. Its foreground music rather, who would prefer traffic's ruckus over Sukhbir's music? Now I want big sunglasses, just like Sukhbir's and a boom-box! And global wireless LAN. And a DSLR. And a studio with all cool lighting equipments. Never ending list, eh?

Ah, about the image. It reminds me of the dialogue from Iqbal between Naseeruddin Shah & Girish Karnad, where Shah tells Karnad - "Main aapse, apne baap se aur har us shaksh se jo mera bhala chahta hai, bahut dino se ek baat kehna chahta tha ... go to hell!". Best dialogue of the movie (umm.. the main character was a deaf-mute guy ;-). *sigh* Only if I wasn't looking that constipated.

Paki batting vs Indian Batting.

2006-01-24T14:03:00.000+05:30

India ended up with a meagre, yet moral-boosting lead of 15 runs over Pakistan in the first inning of the second test against Pakistan. The second session of the third day was worrisome for India and they lost wickets in a flurry. Solid resilience from Dhoni & Pathan and some innovative shots from lower order took India from a position where they were looking in the face of follow-on to a position where they've taken first innings lead. While this is a befitting reply to the total posted by Pakistan, Indian batting worries me. Take a look at the graphic (courtesy CricBuzz) on the left; while Pakistani innings had many healthy partnerships, Indian inning was marred by spans where the batsmen just lost concentration and wickets fell in quick succession. It had just two over-50 runs partnerships, which turned out to be real big ones. Other than these two partnerships, our batsmen couldn't build partnerships. Its ironic that while there are many contenders for the middle order and it has been the eye of the controversies for some time now, we still haven't got someone as solid as "The Wall" in there. Yuvraj Singh, with all his flamboyance and talent, again failed to pull team out of the rut. Sachin is playing quite uncharacteristically for quite some time now. He looks like getting very negative in his approach, while for the better part of his career his extreme positivity has been the key to his success.

I hope the top order doesn't skittle before the Paki bowlers at a reportedly fast pitch at Karachi. I feel top-order will have to shoulder the burden there since all-rounders like Dhoni & Pathan can't be expected to have the supreme technique to tackle the pace & swing of Paki bowlers in a more suitable setting.

Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics

2006-01-23T12:31:00.000+05:30

Take a look at this insanely cool website - Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics. They've vowed to bring out all the basic flaws pertaining to Physics in the Hollywood Movies. If only they knew about Bollywood and Rajnikant & Mithun da. Their introduction says -

Since its start-up in 1997, "Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics" has received hundreds of thousands of visitors including NASA scientists, high school and university physics teachers and at least one published science fiction writer. We have received many helpful suggestions and constantly consider them as we improve our site.

"Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics" has been reviewed or listed in Physics Today Magazine, The News Letter of the American Physical Society, The New York Times, and The Hollywood Reporter, as well as numerous other publications. It has been listed on Fark and Slashdot and been featured on the Osgood Files and NPR as well as many other radio stations.

Now, how cool is that?! They've devised their own rating system for the movies -

In the name of physics decency, to protect the minds of children everywhere, so that they may grow up in a world where they know the difference between speed and velocity, we have taken the responsibility to rate movies for their portrayal of excessively bad physics. The system is as follows:

* GP = Good physics in general
* PGP = Pretty good physics (just enough flaws to be fun)
* PGP-13 = Children under 13 might be tricked into thinking the physics were pretty good; parental guidance is suggested
* RP = Retch
* XP = Obviously physics from an unknown universe
* NR = Unrated. When a movie is obviously a parody, fantasy, cartoon or is clearly based on a comic book it can't be rated but may still have some interesting physics worth discussing.

Towards the end of their main page is the list of reviewed movies. Apparently, King Kong failed to impress them thoroughly (I am no great fan either). They've given King Kong a rating of PGP-13. Their review says -

As for the death scene, at an estimated weight of over 16 tons it's unlikely that King Kong could leap in the air, smack an aircraft, and land back atop the Empire State Building as depicted without doing major structural damage both to the ape and the building. The gigantic ape was repeatedly raked with .30 cal machine guns fired from biplanes. Given the size of the beast , he would most likely have died slowly from blood loss, yet little blood was shown. When he fell, Kong's gravity to air resistance force ratio would be about 3 times that of a human sky diver. A human jumper would hit the sidewalk at a terminal velocity of around 120 mph (193kph). Kong's terminal velocity would be about 3 times higher but he would never reach it. Even without air resistance the maximum velocity of a fall from the top of the Empire State Building would only be 193 mph (311 kph). Kong would hit the sidewalk with the explosive power of between 10 and 27 lbs of TNT. Ape parts and blood would be splattered all over.

What fun!

The Bangalore Bloggers' Meet & Akshara Foundation

2006-01-22T04:17:00.000+05:30

Met few fellow bloggers from Bangalore today. We had a nice time chatting over coffee at the St. Mark's Road Barista. Surjo left early but not before telling me about the NGO he works for - Akshara Foundation. After he left Bhaskar, Aravind and me chatted for another 30-45 minutes, discussed almost everything under the Sun. Got some valuable insight about the IIM GD/PIs from Bhaskar, who is an IIMI alum himself. Aravind brought up the issue of dismal attendance at the meet and the stagnated growth of the group. We need to address these issues soon. I think I'll post about the group at Bangalore community at Orkut. If you blog and are from Bangalore, join the gang at "Blogger's of Bangalore" group at Google Groups. Please spread the word among your friends/colleagues.

Among various interesting topics discussed, the Akshara Foundation demands the foremost mention. Remember all the discussion about India which ended up cursing illiteracy? The problem happens to be a lot worse than it seems. Even though we claim two-thirds of the population to be literate, the number of functionally illiterate people can be much higher than one-third of the population. Counting someone among literates just because s/he can write her/his name seems rather absurd to me. Its time to tackle the problem or atleast acknowledge gravity of the problem. I quote from Deccan Herald's second edit (21/01/06)

.. 98 per cent of children aged between 6-14 years are enrolled in schools in rural Karnataka. While this is creditworthy, what is shocking is that 45 per cent of them cannot solve simple numerical sums of subtraction and division. Around 53 per cent of children in the 7-10 age group cannot read even a small paragraph with short sentences from a Standard I text book. The Pratham survey reveals that standards of education in states other than Karnataka are no better, but this is no consolation.

It would be unfair to blame the teachers alone for the state of affairs. As a matter of fact, government school teachers are well-qualified. But the trouble lies with the kind of education provided. While the emphasis in Standards I and II should be on developing reading and writing skills, the focus is now merely on teaching from text books, which makes learning boring for little children.

The Akshara foundation is a part of Pratham Network which did the survey for this report. They have specific programs to deal with this particular problem. They call them Accelerated Learning Programs. Being a non-profit NGO, they need the support of the community to achieve the goals they've set. The bangalore blogosphere is contributing; a blogspace is maintained to keep other's posted about the proceeding - Everyman's City. Please read through their call for volunteers. Please join in and/or spread the word.

iPod-wa mil gawa!!

2006-01-19T11:36:00.000+05:30

Beta, aaj tere pitaji yahan hote to kitne khush hote.
(koi nahi, Jaipur mein khush ho lenge)

I participated in the essay competition of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in December. The topic was - "How can strategic innovation be applied to solve real-world problems such as corruption?" and the competition was open to only Bangalore people. The first prize was a swanky iPod Nano and I think the second prize was an iPod mini. I sensed an opportunity and muggofied things about Strategic Innovation and penned an essay for them. I had forgot about it amidst all the turmoil of last 2-3 weeks. Now the luck has turned again (I think with such a start of the year, it can only get better :). The results are out and my essay took the second place! One more thing to boast about in my IIM interviews :-). The essay -

Any company has to make strategic decisions on three basic levels: (1) Who are the customers? (2) What values are to be delivered to them? and (3) How to create them? All firms try to answer these to optimize profits. To outsmart the competition the only way isn’t to just play their game better, one can always bent the rules or introduce new rules of the game. It is known as Strategic Innovation.
Though practiced vastly in the corporate world, Strategic Innovation is just as relevant in solving the real world problems. We just need to put the real world problems in the right perspective. Let’s the example of a government, as a firm which is trying to provide various services (What) to the citizens of that country (Who) through various processes (How). Now we can start the analysis to explore the three-dimensional equation looking for gaps which can be exploited.

Taking a further narrowed example – corrupt traffic police is a quite common nuisance in the urban life. Let’s tackle this problem borrowing the ideas from Strategic Innovation. The firm here is the traffic police which is trying to provide smooth traffic & ensuring vehicle security on roads (What) to the citizens (Who) using their numerous procedures (How). Corruption is highly prevalent in the checking & fining process, i.e. when a motorist is found guilty and is asked to pay bribe which is less than the fine. In such a case, the bribe goes into the cop’s pocket & the motorist had to pay a lesser amount. The fact that both the parties are better off by paying the bribe, makes is all the more dangerous situation.

Since the What and Who aspects of the equation are pretty much invariant in this case, we need to analyze the How part. Since making a challan and fining the motorist doesn’t provide any incentive for the policeman, providing some share from the daily fine collection to the duty officer should provide some motivation to fine rather than accepting bribe. The risk attached is minimal, since no documentation is done. The risk can be increased by surprise inspections. The punishment for anyone caught red-handed should be severe so that the risk involved outweighs the reward. The motorist too should have some incentive to demand the challan - tax exemption on the amount paid can be introduced. Implementing such ideas should reduce corruption by some significant degree.

Zinda: Movie Review

2006-01-16T13:31:00.000+05:30

Cinema is an art but not a pure art. Its a highly commercial venture involving huge sums & everyone is in there to make profits. Hence, I don't scoff at movies "inspired" by some Hollywood success or by any film from elsewhere. It increases the chances to get a hit, or atleast so it seems. In the end, the movie should be entertaining to make money. Thus, it get very important to adapt the story & screenplay to suit the likes of Indian audiences.

I'm told Zinda is a frame-by-frame copy of a Korean film which goes by the name Oldboy. No one would've heard about the Korean movie, so no problems there. Infact the extreme dull-n-dark cinematography & Kill Bill style fight sequences were never seen before in a Bollywood film. The story & presentation are different too. But being different and being good are two very different things. That's what Zinda is, it's different but not good. Not even average!

The first half of the film is intriguing. The viewers are left amidst a mystery when Bala (Sanjay Dutt) is kidnapped from his home in Bangkok and without any explanation or reasons is kept captive for fourteen years. An old television, a cryptic painting and fried wantons are his companions for fourteen years. And one day, he is let out of the hole, without any notice or clue. He is determined to find the person behind his 14 year long exile. He meets an over-the-top taxi driver, Jenny Singh (Lara Dutta), and his school time buddy, Joy (Mahesh Manjarekar). Eventually, he reaches the man behind all this - Rohit Chopra (John Abraham), a multi millionaire and Bala's junior from his school. You'll have to watch the movie to get the logic of the movie after this point!

The second half of the movie is a big let down after the "almost good" first half. The screenplay doesn't have the fire to carry the film for the duration of two hours. It simply gives in to the cliches prevalent in Bollywood since eternity. The reason why Bala was kept in that hole for such a long time doesn't get down smoothly. Sanjay Dutt has done decent justice to his character Bala. He does the roles with more action + style and less dialogues with great success. However, his hairdo is plainly irritating! You keep on guessing which bird made it it's nest. John Abraham looks too immature to play a 35 year old millionaire, doesn't go well with his image. Lara Dutta's character is a total misfit in the dark story! The chemistry between her & Bala is missing and thus the scenes involving them both are big drags. Mahesh Manjarekar isn't given much screen time, but even in his limited time on the screen he doesn't miss any chance to irritate. I think he overrates himself very highly as an actor! The songs are good and fit well into the screenplay. The locations (Bangkok) are great. The dialogues are minimal and effective.

Overall, the movie starts very promisingly. The silver wrapper wears off around the interval and the second half totally puts you off! Don't waste your money on this.

(Review done for InfiCA. )

Main, Meri Biwi aur Woh - Movie Review.

2006-01-12T18:45:00.000+05:30

Bollywood has a very limited perspective about India. Their stereotyped India consists of Punjabi families living in a big posh city (Mumbai) and never hesistating from breaking into see-my-armpits dancing routine at each and every joyous moment. Recently, they've moved out of Mumbai, out of India for that matter, and started to focus on NRIs. What about the rural India? and the small towns lost on the maps? What about the rustic cities in the hindi heartland? No sir, that doesn't translate well on to box office success! OK, we'll give you some imaginary Fursatganjs filled with idiotic "ganwaars". OK, show 2-3 tempo and cycle-rickshaw and voila! that's India for you!

Chandan Arora doesn't believe in that and has a point to prove. His last film, "Main Madhuri Dixit Banana Chahti Hoon", focussed on a small town girl and her dreams of making it big in Bollywood. His latest offering, "Main, Meri Biwi aur Woh", has the same flavour of middle class India living in "theth" hindi heartland of UP. Believable characters & realistic, yet fancy storyline and Rajpal Yadav have become the trademark for Arora's movies.

The story is based in the town of Lucknow. Mithilesh (Rajpal Yadav) is a librarian at the Lucknow university. He is forced into meeting a girl since he is well into the marriagable age. At first he was very hesitant, but when she finally meets Veena (Rituparna Sengupta) he falls for her immediately. Low on self-confidence, he doesn't feel that he deserves someone like Veena but to the surprize of many, Veena too falls for his simplicity. Mithilesh is very happy after marrying Veena, but somehow he can't do away with his insecurities. Just when he was getting a bit secure about his taller-than-him wife, Veena's college time friend, Aakash (Kay Kay), arrives in their neighbourhood. This pushes Mithilesh further into depression and insecurities. Watch the movie to see how he deals with all this and sorts it all out!

Rajpal Yadav won an award for his performance in "Main Madhuri.." and he has only improved on his performance in this movie. The movie belongs totally to Rajpal Yadav and he has played his role superbly. His character, Mithilesh, is a very lovable person, loaded with his insecurities and anxieties. Yadav has depicted the various moods and stages of Mithilesh's life very meticulously and right to the dot. Rituparna Sengupta & Kay Kay both have done very good work.

But the clear winner is the script. I'm sure everyone can relate to the script and the characters & incidents. The script contains some real rib-tickling moments and has ample space for emotions too. I was most happy to finally watch a movie which deals with the India which is not already sterotyped by Bollywood, which is still attached to the reality, which features real life people in real life situations. Its a simple and straight forward story but then simple things are the best in life!

(Review done for InfiCA. Yup, they need better web design :-) I'm sure they're gonna look into it pretty soon. Cut 'em some slack fellas!)

Pappu pass ho gaya!

2006-01-11T01:18:00.000+05:30

Got job.
Joining next Wednesday.
Good work, handsome salary.
Happy today.

Imran Hashmi vs Gobhi Pakoda

2006-01-07T23:27:00.000+05:30

Imran Hashmi is everywhere! His movies are coming (and quietly going) almost every month. No one gives a rat's tush for his acting but the tag of "serial kisser" is more than enough to sulgaao-fy many hearts! In his limited (thankfully!) stay in the tinsel town he has played tonsil tennis with more babes than the number of dialogues he has delivered. No wonder he works only in those "stree-pradhaan" (wink,wink) films from the Bhatt camp. Whenever he opens his mouth in his movies, bets are made about whether this is to kiss another girl or to actually speak. He doesn't disappoint too often. I mean, why cry over the casting couch & sting operation and show Shakti Kapoor in his lungi to the whole world? This Hashmi dude is "casting couching" his heroines right on the silver screen! I don't think any girl in his senses would kiss something which looks like Hashmi unless she is offered something big in return or unless Hashmi has kidnapped her entire family and is hanging them upside down over a pond full of hungry albino Alligators & 12 feet Anacondas.

For someone who looks as hedious as Imran Hashmi, its very hard to guess how he got so much *success*. He has kissed more chicks in his nine movies than Devanand would've kissed in his 90 (or is it hundred already?) years of film career. I'm hopeful for Dev sahab tho', that man has got what it takes. Probably he should giveup on movies like "Mr.Prime Minister" (just like the rest of the world) and enter the world of Hashmi! I hope his false dentiture doesn't come up as a hinderence to the lip locking venture. I can't help but feel sorry for any girl kissing Dev Dude (the new avatar), kissing him would look more like inflating a baloon with all those wrinkles and popla mouth.

Anyway, I digress. Coming back to Hashmi and Gobhi pakodas. Now, Hashmi is definitely worse looking than the ugliest Gobhi Pakoda I ever had (No offense to Gobhi Pakodas). And mind you, I've eaten much more than my share of Gobhi Pakodas. Why a Gobhi Pakoda, you ask. Now, we have Dal Pakoda, Palak Pakoda, Pyaaz Pakoda, Aloo Pakoda, Besan Pakoda, Mirchi Pakoda & Gobhi Pakoda, and many more I'm sure. Let me educate you more about the coolest of them all - Gobhi Pakoda. So, you have Gobhi and besan paste. Dip gobhi in the paste and deep fry them in oil (Try this sometime, DQ). Most of the pakodas are done now, not Gobhi Pakoda. Now you pachakao-fy (squeeze, duh!) them well and only then serve them to eat. The point is the Gobhi piece is a bit too big to eat at once, squeezing makes it feasible to chomp it down in bits. Also, squeezed Gobhi Pakodas somehow look like human heads (you need to have the wild imagination of a 10 year old!). So there I was, a kid of 10 yrs, fancying myself to be Saboo's neighbour from Jupiter, eating heads of Dhamaka Singh & Patakha Singh (Never Gobar Singh!). Last night, while watching Jawaani-Diwaani, his latest dim-film, all of a sudden I started to slabber just like Pavlov's dogs (and not because of Celina Jetly's bikini). After hours of tossing in my bed and opening various closed doors of my subconcious mind I found out the Hashmi-Pakoda connection. I hope no one from the Gobhi Pakoda species is reading this - Hashmi does look a bit like a Gobhi Pakoda, only that Hashmi has got a rougher deal in the looks department.

Another proof that life isn't fair!

The Auto Wallah

2006-01-07T01:24:00.000+05:30

- Boss, forum chaloge?
- Baitho saab.
(10-15 mins)
- Boss, ye auto ruka hua hai to bhi meter chalta hai kya?
- Nahi sir, distance ke hisaab se paisa aata hai.
- Idhar forum pe wait karna hai, saab?
- Nahi, main to picture dekhne ja raha hoon. Raat ko hi wapis jaunga.
- Saab raat ko dhyan rakhna, aajkal auto wale loot lete hain. Usi auto mein baithna jahan sirf ek hi aadmi ho. Do wale mein lafda rahega.
- hmmm..
- Waise koi bhi Hindu autowala aisa nahi karta. Ye sab to muslim log hi karte hain.
- hmm..
(silence)
- Saab, aap kya? Hindu ya Muslim?

Thank you Digital Camera!

2006-01-06T02:15:00.000+05:30

Digital Camera, especially cheaper digital cameras, have revolutionized the way junta takes photography. Earlier, it used to be on holidays & birthdays stuff, with very basic point-n-shoot film cameras. While albums from those days make great nostalgic items, it was really clumsy to get the negative developed & buy new films everytime, not to mention costly. With the advent of digital cameras & cell phone cameras photography is now almost a spend-once affair. Just buy the camera, click as many as you want and the battery allows, download on the computer, upload on the net, share with the world wide web!

This has given a new vent to the creativity of masses for whom serious photography was a too expensive hobby & films camera don't encourage them to experiment with their amateur skills. The result - the web is filled with all kind of amateurish, yet very interesting, experiments with the art. Take the website - http://www.photofriday.com/ - for example. It publishes a theme every week and accepts entries from anyone & everyone. Just check out the entries to see various interesting interpretations of the theme. Most of those pictures are taken by amateurs and are not really technical masterpieces, but they are interesting nonetheless.

The need for infinite web space to store this huge load of images was natural. Various websites came out offering free webspaces to the users but most of them died down under the enormity of the requirements. Flickr is one photo-sharing network (my flickr profile). For a free user it allow him to save upto 200 pictures as public (visible to anyone). Though the number of images aren't limited, a limit is there on the amount of upload that can be done in a month. The best feature about flickr is the concentration of photo-enthusiasts who are genuinely interested in reviewing & critiquing your work! The fact that you can link images from external websites/blogs is another big plus. Their professional membership at $24.99/year is a bit towards the costlier side, especially if you're paying in Rs. like me.

If you need to dump all of your photos on the web as a backup, Sony Imagestation is a great website for that. Be forewarned though, it doesn't allow linking to the images stored. They do have a limited free membership, but their basic Silver Membership costs a meagre $4.99/year. It is advisable to take the Silver membership, if not higher level of membership. You can order printouts or backup on DVDs, this feature is available with Flickr too.

Various online tools have come up recently to provide interesting options to the people who don't have the luxury of having PhotoShop or other highend photo editing softwares on their machines. Take FD's flickr tools - they have a captioner, a framer; you can make a movie poster or a magazine cover from your photo. The poster above is made using the motivator tool from the site.

Keep clicking, the future is bright!

Shikhar - Movie Review

2006-01-05T04:13:00.000+05:30

(Review done for InFiCA)

Seems like the latest fad in Bollywood is making "meaningful", yet mainstream, cinema. Director John M. Matthan's latest movie - Shikhar - tries to pass on a meaningful message to the audience, but fails miserably due to a weak screenplay & some mediocre performances. The underlying message is not new, it tries to present the perennial clash between capitalist & socialist ideologies. However, the story treads on rather hard to believe incidents & turns.

Gaurav Gupta (Ajay Devgan), better known as GG, is a shrewd builder who has seen meteoric rise in very less time. He doesn't mind getting the job done by hook or by crook. He has his eyes set on the Songarh area for his dream project - Golden Gate City, which will be a self-sustained city with all the modern facilities & luxuries. The only problem is a small aashram - Rishi Van - which is mentored by Guruji. Guruji himself owns a big garment firm but has abdicated it in pursuit of his dream - to turn the desolate hills of Son Garh into rich forest by planning trees and thus making the lives of natives better. Guruji's son, Jaydev (Shahid Kapoor), is a young fresh-from-school boy given the responsibilities to hold the reins of the corporate empire by his father. In order to get his work done, GG lures Jaydev into a partnership & feigns friendship with him. GG doesn't stop short of even using his girlfriend, Natasha (Bipasha Basu), to seduce Jay. How Jay deals with the contrasting values of his father & GG and the inevitable clash between the two, is the story of Shikhar.

Film's first half is relatively engrossing. The characters of GG and Jaidev are established in details. In the second half, movie gets derailed from the track. The climax of the movie fails to impress and looks somewhat ludicrous (If the CM don't see the plants, the lease will be cancelled - so burn the plants and the chief justice giving an arrest order on the spot!). Ajay Devgan appears once again as a cunning & shrewd 30-something. He could've done better with a little less styling & a bit simpler clothing. He has put honest efforts to play his part, but the script looked to let him down, especially in the second half where the spotlight shifts to Shahid Kapoor & Devgan's role loses the flow & smoothness. Shahid Kapoor looks highly inspired from Mohan Bhargava of Swades, down to the cotton check shirts! Its not without any reason that people take him as a SRK clone. His acting is the biggest drawback of the movie. Neither does he look mature enough, nor does his wooden acting skills make it any better. The ladies of the movie - Bipasha & Amrita Rao - are mere fillers & of no significance to the plot. Bipasha is restricted to his "Eye candy + 1 fight + 1 item number" routine. Amrita Rao plays a simple girl with strong values and blah blah blah for the thousandth time. Her character gets really annoying just after the interval. Her character could've been scrapped to save some time & to save audience from some serious torture. Tough luck for her, most irrelevant & irritating dialogues are given to her character, "Tum anaath nahi ho na", "Tum bigad gaye ho Jai"..etc. Javed Sheikh, who plays Guruji, is average. That role could be as well played by Aloknath, Anupam Kher, Kulbhushan Kharbanda or any other character artist. Then we have a apparently highly inspired from Paris fashion designer, who keeps on saying "Voila" anytime & every time at every single slightest opportunity. You feel like ~~hanging him from the Eiffel Tower~~ shoving the Eiffel tower up his @ss! He isn't the only unnecessary & tangential character in the movie. There is one shuddh-hindi-bhashi MA,LLB dude (Sushant Singh wasted in such a pathetic role) & Farha as workers at the Rishi Van.

The music of the movie isn't good enough to keep the viewers interested. No other song than the hit song - "Fitna Dil" - can be called good and most of them appear to be put in at irrelevant places in the movie.

Though Shikhar is a movie made with the right ideas in the heart & brings forth a relevant issue of our times, the slow and shady script makes Shikhar a below average affair. This is the second movie by Mathan after Sarfarosh which came out six years ago. Shikhar doesn't stand any chances against the chance less blockbuster, Sarfarosh.

My rating: 2/5

The Zero Income Credit Card

2006-01-04T23:11:00.000+05:30

- Hello, is this Mr.Varun Singh?
- Yeah, this is Varun.
- Sir I'm Sharmila from ABC Damroo Bank. Would you be interested in our life time free credit card?
- No.
- Sir, do you have any other credit card?
- I've a credit card from Eye-See-Eye bank.
- Sir take our card too. We've excellent benefits.
- Sharmila, my income is zero. Would you still be interested in giving me your card?
- Your card limit is zero, sir?
- No, I'm out of my job. I earn nothing at all. But I so dearly want your card.
- (nervous laughter) Wait sir, I'll talk to my manager.
(fus-fus-fus-fus)
- Sharmila, please give me that card. I very dearly want your Damroo card.
- Sir, let me call you back after some time.
- I'm noting down your number. I'll call it again and ask for Sharmila. Please give me your credit card.

Heh! This really happened. I'm still waiting for her call. It seems I've made many of you worry for me by the news of my company shutting down. I'm very thankful for you concerned mails & calls, but the fact of the matter is things aren't bad at all. Infact I'm kind of enjoying this time off the office. The only problem is that I'll have to prepare and appear for job interviews again. When you know how big a farce this whole thing is, its very difficult to motivate yourself :-/.

The shock value of my company's news is enormous. I broke the news to many of my friends with a smile and most of them were shocked beyond belief. I guess, since its a rare situation & leaves an impression that I'm depressed/distressed - it gets people very worried. But the situation isn't that bad either. I've no liabilities (loans etc.) and I'm confident of getting a decent job sooner or later. I have decent money to survive the wait, so no big worries there.

The wheel is already set rolling. I'm taking interviews with some of the better software firms here in Bangalore. I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile, thank you all for the support :-)

Home Delivery: Movie Review

2006-01-04T04:15:00.000+05:30

(Recently I joined the Indian Film-viewers' Critics Association (InFiCA) as a critic. They have established a systematic method to rate and review the Bollywood movies. The following review is my first contribution to the website. They are looking out for more guys who would be interested to review movies for them. Please take time to read more about it on the website.)

Confused actors & misguided script,
Ends up getting viewers flipped,
Put in some trust,
Avoid you must,
Movie like this better be skipped.

The expectations from Sujoy Ghosh were very high after his last movie - Jhankaar Beats. While his latest offering - Home Delivery - is *not* a beaten-to-death theme movie, just like Jhankaar Beats, it lacks the punch that JB had. The movie tries a tad too hard to look different and "cool" that it loses the its focus on the script. If the most essential part - script - is missing, its very difficult, if not impossible, to come up with an entertaining movie.

The story revolves around Vivek (Viieeviek ?!) Oberoi - Sunny - who is a "Gyaan Guru", an agony uncle who gives "gyaan" on love, relationships and almost everything under the sun and still finds time to work on a script for Karan Johar. However, he himself has serious commitment issues. By sheer stroke of luck, he bumps into his teenhood fantasy, Mahima Choudhary - Maya - and his lust for Maya leads him to a breakup with his steady girlfriend, Ayesha Takia - Jenny/Naani. Well, almost. It took an annoyingly imbecile Pizza delivery man, Boman Irani - Michael, to get Sunny back on the track.

The main problem with the story is that its very hard to relate with it. Especially the character of Sunny, other than some of the scenes, the character is so full of gas that after some time it gets very irritating. Its a complex character and both the writer and Vivek were not able to define it well. In the second half, the script gets really haywire. I'm still at loss to grasp how the incidents on that day changed Sunny OR what was the significance of the serial killer in the movie OR how come the "besura" neighbour got the contract! Sujoy has managed to put in some interesting moments in the movie but they are hardly good enough to salvage the movie.

The acting part was disappointing too. Vivek Oberoi is totally over the top in his attempt to portray the lecher gyaan-guru. Other than his efforts in Masti & Company to some extent, he has been far from impressive in all his films. Probably, its time for him to think a little harder about his career. Ayesha Takia has a relatively small role, which she has done fairly well. Mahima Chaudhary as the sex-siren Maya looks repulsively bawdy, which is perhaps the effect the director wanted! Other than the cleavage show, Mahima's role is quite limited. The two annoying neighbours were supposed to provide additional dose of comedy, but they end up stretching the movie unnecessarily. Biggest waste of the movie is Boman Irani. With an actor of his calibre & talent in your cast, it becomes utmost important to give him a decent role to deliver. His character - Michael - is really annoying. You need not be irritating to be an imbecile - Forrest Gump was too an idiot, but he wasn't irritating!

The music part doesn't have much to talk about other than the "Cuckoo-Cuckoo" song, which I feel was picturized superbly as a spoof on South-Indian movie songs. Extra care is taken to polish the look of the movie with neat sets & well-suited costumes for the actors. But all the embellishments look hollow as the movie doesn't have a good base to start with.

In the end, I think Sujoy should be given due credit to try and make a different movie than regular masala Bollywood stuff. Not to deny the fact - Home Delivery might be different from rest of the Bollywood movies but its not worthy just like most of them.

My rating: 2/5

Happy New Year - hah!

2006-01-03T03:19:00.000+05:30

Be careful what you wish for... you might get it!

Don't know who said that, but whoever it was - s/he hit the bull's eye. Not long ago I was thinking about how blessful it would be to get hospitalized for a while and thus having a good solid reason to skip the mundane routine of going to office and waiting for the evening. Reason I got and a real solid one too - my company is closed! In short the story is - they got sucked into some law suit and it was sent back to lower court for a jury trial. Attorneys cost about $3.5-$4M US and with this the risk of getting an adverse result was another factor. So, the investors pulled the plug. It came as a bolt out of the blue for all of us working here in the India office. What a news to get on the first day of new year :-).

Though I didn't have much work for last few months, I did work on some interesting things here. It was good till it lasted. Only thing pinching me is that we won't be getting any compensation. I don't think anyone, even among the higher ranks, is getting anything out of it, so it isn't fair to expect any compensation, I guess. Even without the compensation the situation isn't too bad. The job market is quite hot here in Bangalore and some of the consultants have already contacted me. I'm planning to take interviews from next week, should get some decent job sooner or later.

Another "good news" for the day - CAT results are out. I still haven't got hold of my percentile scores, but have got the call-results. IIMA & IIMB didn't find me worthy enough, I've got calls from rest of the IIMs. That can only mean that what I had expected (and mailed to many of you) to be my score isn't true. When I first calculated the scores, I was hopeful of getting all 6 calls. When I didn't get call from IIMA, I didn't thought much of it - they are known to hold strange criteria. But I was positively hoping for IIMB. Whatever. IIMC interview is scheduled for March 14th, I've decent time to prepare. Hopefully, I'll make it to IIMC.

What did I do after such a sterling start of the year? Went out to buffet at Three Quarters Chinese with ex-office mates (now the office is reduced to just a high-speed broadband cyber cafe), went out to eat a lavish dinner at The Legend of Iskandar, coupled with a movie at Inox :-). Shikhar - avoid it like plague!

P.S. - New year at Goa was fantástico, just that the 18 hours drive in Qualis was a big pain in the ass (literally). Check out some of the pictures I took there at my flickr page. I'll upload more soon.

Top 12 from the year!

2005-12-26T14:39:00.000+05:30

I started this blog on 11th January 2005. I just wanted to write, write arbit stuff. My first ever post - Agriculture in India: Road to future? - was a rather serious one. I was reading various documents regarding Indian economy and stuff for my upcoming IIM interviews and it all got rubbed to my blog. Once I got started I wrote almost about everything - economics, politics, films, humor, satire, cribs, etc. As the year ends in another week, I thought it'll be a good time to look back and select some of the better ones that I wrote and showcase them here. Actually, I got this idea from Creative Generalist's blog. Do read his list (but only after mine ;-)), there are some absolute gems there.

Why 12? I actually wanted to have top 10 sorts, but in the end I liked 12 and thought dropping anyone of these wouldn't be fair. So 12 :-). I'm not into tagging and stuff, but just to put the idea in fellow bloggers' minds - select your favorite posts and list them!

Here it goes -

Job Motivation - A satire on the mundane intricacies of the boring office life of a software engineer.
Gym Mis(s)adventures - A humorous misadventure, totally fictitious!
So, What are your hobbies? - Do we really need one?
Eminem meets Udham Singh - Two of the greats of our time :)
Business Plans - I'm still looking out for VCs.
My Baby - Yes, it happened!
Carobaar - Ratan Tata's 1 lakh car cometh.
Glamourizing the Gutter - Sick of gangster movies? Read on!
Software Engineer and CAT - A parody of Somebody to Love - Don't you want to take the CAT?
Planet of Eves - Females ruling the earth - rosy notion? Not really!
Stand Up Comedy & Follow up - My attempt at stand up comedy.
Suicide at IITB, Update I & Update II - A misfortunate incident which created a big buzz in the campus & in the blogsphere among alumni.

Yeh Bandar to Pyar ka Bandar hai

2005-12-23T12:28:00.000+05:30

Remaking classics is always a gamble. While the film-makers get an already proven script and can build on that using the latest technology, it's likely that the audience is much more "educated" now. Godzilla dealt with this by moulding the story to match the likings of the contemporary audience. The result - a fast paced entertaining movie. No Oscar material though, entertaining nonetheless. The makers of King Kong has dealt with the classic a bit more sacrosanctly. Times of India has rated it 4.5/5, so naturally my expectations from the movie were really high. The movie couldn't live up to my expectations.

The problem with the film is - its too long in the beginning. Once the hero - Kong the Gorilla - makes his entry, the movie gets paced, rather hurried, but before that there is too much of a buildup. It made the movie a good three hour long affair! They could very well have saved some time.

Some of the scenes are superbly crafted, but for an audience fed up on Jurassic Parks & Godzillas and much better informed about Dinosaurs & all than those from 1933 - the story goes a little overboard at times. The scene involving creepers gets a bit too gross and could've been handled better. Infact, the entire notion of the Skull Island stands on pretty flimsy grounds. But then, its a classic from 1933 and I can imagine how this stuff would've thrilled the moviegoers of that time (just like Jurassic Park thrilled me when I was 12 years old).

The makers must be complimented for superb work done with graphics & sets. They have taken all the pains to recreate the street scene & the Skull Island and of course the mighty ape. All the actors fit perfectly into their roles. Most of the screen time is claimed by Watts, who is looking beautiful as ever (Infact she is looking more-n-more like Nicole Kidman with every movie). The emotive scenes are handled very carefully, specially the way Kong reacts after the fight with Dinosaurs. The end, which is of course tragic, connects well with the viewers.

In the end, I'd say don't miss this movie for you'll miss the surreal world created by Peter Jackson, but don't go expecting a Sci-Fi. Its a fantasy thriller and thrill it will!

My rating - 3/5