Live and let live

Terror has a new face.
No wonder many Millitant outfits wanted to be reffered to as Millitants and not terrorist.Perhaps, They knew better.

Innocents have died, but in a state at war, innocents have always died.
But we are hardly at war? Then why the killings?
What does an innocent shopper have to do with Kashmir or islam for that Matter?

There was a time when I used to think that there must be some truth to the cause, when someone is ready to die for the cause. Nobody would be willing to die for a cause that is not worthwhile. Nobody would be willing to strap a belt full of plastics if the cause was not worthwhile. But seeing where they are going, I have slowly realised that they are bunch of demented minds.
No, No cause is worth a human Life. And no cause is worth a thousand human lives. These are nothing but craziness.
They have been thoroughly brainwashed by a select few who enjoy the perks of power.
Are they willing to die, I don't think so. But of course, they would say who would be leading if they were to die. Good excuse.
In the end, who dies, the innocen victims and the terrorist at the bottom of the food chain. They die to get to heaven quick, where virgins are waiting for them. So much for a cause. They are filled up with so much lies, they become willing to die and to kill. When someone is filled with so much, the lie becomes a Truth to Him. That is what is happening to the youths. Like the adage, hate the sin not the sinner. The perpetrators are not even sure what they are doing. They only follow orders, the famous nazi excuse.

But when I say, hate the sin and not the sinner, I am not being very compasionate with the sinners. These are no petty thieves, but killers and willing to die doesn't Give any men the right to Kill. But then it would be much wiser to look at the root of the sin and try to uproot it. By violent or peaceful mean whichever is sucessfull. Running after a few bombers and suspects will not be a solution.
Pre emptive strike is not the solution. Premptive strikes will only breed more terrorists. They must be dealth with at the grassroot. Priority should be stop breeding further terrorist and not breeding more like in Iraq. Iraq has bred another generation of terrorist. Does India want them too. Why don't we do anything. Why don't we Uproot the fanatics, negotiate what the poor sections want. Just because a group demands something with force doesn't mean they must be wrong. One men's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. Even India had its own Bhagat singh and Jatin. Are we so big now that we won't listen and only heal the symptoms and not the desease. We need much more than immediate measures, we don't want a war, we don't want security beef ups but we want parmanent solutions. Instead of targeting the bombers, find the leaders. Take more drastic measure. Give education to the poor, catch them before the madrassas catch them, give them jobs. Don't start a war with the terrorist. Solve the problem instead. War have never solved a problem, less so if the enemy is invisible.

Solving this kinds of problems need a lot more than politics.
If the govt knows how to solve the problems and if they are not doing it, then the govt is as much responsible for the killings as the terrorists are.

Live and Let Live.
Happy Diwali Friends.

Casablanca

If someone loved you so much, so that your happiness was the only thing she wanted in the world, and she did a bad thing to make certain of it, could you forgive her? -Casablanca


I just finished watching Casablanca. And I can’t but help writing it down. This would be one of the best movies I have ever seen, for a long time to come. It made me confused about love, made me confused when Ilsa(Ingrid Bergman) came to ask for the transit visa Rick(Humphrey Bogart), didn’t know if it was love or she was pretending, But I would have readily died for her. Anyone would have.
I had made up my mind on how the ending would be, but it wasn’t what I expected.

They sure made movies those days, movies for real. And they wrote too..

ON@TCC

One Night at the Call Centre.

After reading the review/post of Chetan Bhagat's new book, http://www.chetanbhagat.com, by jabberwock, I went and bought the book right after office. It was a good story told in an intersting way, said jabberwock . How could I resist a good story, the only good stories I have missed have been the harry Potter series and LOTR. I will read them someday soon.
ON@TCC was a nice book. I finished it without a Bio Break. Reached Home at 9 PM, got freshened up, made the bed and started reading it.( I have had my dinner already, a sumptous Marwari Thali. Those with many small katoris). By 1 AM, the book was finished. I don't remember getting up for bio Break. I savour good books, take my own time and don't try to complete at a go. But a good story, I can't wait. I use to read the last page first whenever I read Shidney Sheldon Books. It was written by an American, New York Times might have called it a page turner. Yes, Chetan is a very good story teller, and it was nice of him that he told in the beginning, if one were to look for a serious (posh was the word), one had to go elsewhere. It was just an easy read, a story well told. Not very verbose, full of witty remarks, and a pinch of comedy. He put life into each character quite well.

PS: I thought it would be about the call centre scandal at A Gurgaon call centre where a couple was caught caught on tape having sex in the bathroom. I never got that mms :-( . Just Kidding
And,
Soumyadip tagged me today. And I inflicted myself to a psychometric tests. Below are the outcome of the exercise.


Seven things that I plan to do

1. Learn Tai Chi.
2. Start my own Company.
3. Cut down my mobile bills to 1500.
4. 2nd MBA from an Ivy League School in US.
5. Start Saving money.
6. Stop speculating and Invest.
7. Be the CM of Manipur.

Seven things that I can do

1. Learn any new language.
2. Fasting.
3. Roll my stomach in waves like in the yogas.
4. Wiggle my ears (Yes I also can).
5. Watch 3 movies in theatre non-stop
6. wake up early.
7. Cook anything.

and some that I can't announce here :-) Like I can *** 7 times...

Seven things I can’t

1. Float/swim on the back.
2. Watch blood and gore.
3. Stop using Credit cards.
4. Stay up all night.
5. Start a day without my morning cup of Tea
6. Stand Liars, ever.
7. WAIT for anything.

Seven things I say most often

1. How you doing ?
2. That's great!!
3. I will see.
4. What the F***?
5. Don't be the football of someone else' Opinion!
6. Just Kidding.
7. Market keisa hein?

Seven people I want to tag, Difficult...

1. Sadik
2. Neetie
3. Navjot Kashyap
4. Rash
5. Ektz
6. Hul
7. ThalassaMikra
One more
8. Arunima

Oh! The book.
Me: Its about a night at the call centre.
You: Yeah! I know that. I know the name of the book you know.
Me: Oh! You want the Plot?
You: Not the plot, Stupid. Don't you know how a book review is done.
Me: Oh I did a book Review Once.
You: Not again! Please don't start the story of The Goal again. Tell em about ON@TCC
Me: Oh! Its the story of six call centre agents. How they spent the night at a call centre. What they were going through in their lives, their confrontation with Life's Miseries, How they are hooked to the job knowing no end yet being stuck there because no other Job would pay them as much. the story goes mostly as a conversation.
You: Oh! Like this review.
Me: Almost! Its mostly a series of conversation and so reading it was like eaves dropping into their conversations. The reason I liked the book was, maybe because of my human tendency for eavesdropping. Everybody loves to eavesdrop, and if the conversation is interesting, making which Chetan Bhagat seem to be expert, the story is a sure winner. The book was light on the mind and on the pocket too, a deadly combo.
You: yeah, I heard it cost only 95 bucks.
Me: Yeah and I got a 20% diwali Discount as well. I say it was more interesting than his first book. Yeah, what I liked most about the book was his Ability to breath live into the Characters. All very different and unique and yet bound by a common thread. A thread of loss, of being unsure, of struggling, and of working at connexions call centre. But the ending was a bit melodramatic. But again, I 'd say he had foresight. He would surely want to make it into a Movie, and when he does so he won't have to change much to appease the Indian directors. Just a few pages but the last few pages would make great bollywood material.

You: I will go and get a copy today. If it turns out bad, I will skin you.
Me: Oh Cumon, its a matter of 95 bucks. Less than a Movie ticket at a multiplex. believe me you will enjoy, in fact I am going to buy a few more copies as Gifts. And, yeah It was so cheap I wanted to buy some more book and yes! I got Catcher in the Rye and The Tipping Point too. Been thinking about the books for so long, but i keep forgetting. Happy Diwali to YOU
You: Happy Diwali.

Me: By the way, haven't you read my blog on My Home Place Manipur, and please spread the word about it. We need to let people know that there is also a place called Manipur, the land of the jewel ... I am not selling tourism :-) . Just letting the world Know.

Tuxedo Imperialism?

Me: Dulhe ke side se ho ki Dulhan ke? ( are you from the bride's or groom's side)
He: Mein Sehnai bajata hoo. ( I am the musician/flutists)

The office place is abuzz with a festive mood, pre-Diwali Buzz
more so because everyone had come in their traditional attire.
I also have come in a traditional attire, not my tradition though.
I have come in western traditional Attire. Shirts and trousers?

Set me thinking, when did men start to wear the ubiquitous shirt and the trouser?
With an occasional tie or a jacket, or do we call it coat or blazer?
Shah Rukh Khan even wore a Double Breast Jacket without an inner shirt in his earlier days in bollwood, read Ram Jaane. I am too lazy too google, so I am not writing the History.
But I guess it was the British, who made the suit into an international dress, like it did with English. Not that I am complaining. I wouldn't want to wear or a dhoti kurta or a Scottish Skirt( Kilt?). The jeans are T shirt I believe started from the slightly lesser formal Americas. But, our dress is Limited to either a Suit, a shirt-trouser or a jeans and Tee. Female folks of course have a whole lot of Dresses to choose from, be it a business formal. Is it because, the Ladies didn't have to work in the olden day and so the British didn't have the need to standardise a Business formal for the she. A ladies business formal can quite vary, where we men can get to wear just a Suit, a brown suit, a navy blue suit, or any other suit. We have pin striped as well, is it still in vogue?

But without anyone realising it, the British seem to have left another legacy much more common than the english itself. A chinese official not speaking english don't seem too out of place, but a japanese Business men in a Kimono would look rather out of place.


Its not an uncommon sight, in the TV during business meetings or trade meetings of country heads, where a Non-English Speaking Japanese Businessmen appears in a neatly tailored Saville Row suit. Well, more often than not, the non-English speaking Japanese businessmen do happen to know English Very well, they only choose not to speak the language of the infidels, not realising that They are wearing an English Suit. However, Indians have been known to carry the Dislike of the British Dressing sense up our sleeves. If not in a Khadi Kurta, our statesmen turn up in at least a bandhgala, invented by Nehru as the Indian Suit. We burnt British made fabrics during our freedom struggle, and the leaders who spearheaded the textile inferno planned the particular action in Impeccable English. We are more accomodating to the language than their Dress. Afterall, it is our English that gave us the edge in IT and ITes and not the saville row suits. Its a different matter that The Chinese and Japanese are quite a long way ahead of us in all the other RACE than call centres.

Oh yes, my point being, can we do something about this dependence on Suits and other western Clothing sense (we make and export the cloths, we only import the sense of clothing). It would be pointless to try to boycott English( half of us would be out of jobs then), and we can't do without cricket. But changing our dressing sense wouldn't dent our economy, nor would it put Sachin Tendulkar out of business. And the ladies look particularly sexy in some specific colours of the sari( read black, red and maroon). The guys of course look like they are in a marriage party. Some are like Sehnai players. On hindsight, I guess I had settle for a Shirt and Trouser or a Jeans and Tee at best. lets not boycott the dress either. The ladies may choose to come in Sari everyday, if the colours be Red, Black or Maroon.

The British, did gave certain good things in Life.

Also, Read about my Home, Manipur I have taken it as a social responsibilty to educate everyone about Manipur. We are not so bad a Race. Manipur

Blog Quake Day

Today is Blog Quake Day.
A tribute to the 09/10/05 earthquake that shook the Indian sub continent.
Many Blogs had put up post about the Quake the same day, but it could not generate the effect on the blogosphere like the Tsunami or the Mumbai Floods. No, it was not because the quake took its toll mostly in Pakistan and most desi bloggers are Indians. No, Bloggers don't discriminate, not on their blogs. We bloggers are a liberal lot, some maybe a little to the left and some libertarians but we don't discriminate between class creed or sex.
What eclipsed the Quake was something much less significant than the Quake but something that had a more direct impact on the bloggers. Well, the IIPM story, you got it right. But it taught us Bloggers that we can sure unite for a cause, if we could unite for Gaurav and Rashmi, can't we do something for the Earthquake again. Ash is spearheading the effort at desipundit. Click here for more. The idea is to dedicate today's post to the earthquake and to direct, if possible some readers to a possible donation site. Well a list of sites where you could make any contributions are listed at Desipundit. Please visit Desipundit for the same.

I want to write more about the quake, cause and maybe preventon rather than finishing off the post with a Donate here Link. Another mail came to me in the morning stating that the Winter would cause more dead to the victims than the quake actually did. I almost forgot that Winter is setting in since it is still very warm in Mumbai.


I have written about Natural calamities earlier as well, and have been quite vocal about it. Maybe, I will start to dedicate a Blog on the same soon. I wrote about it when Hurricane Rita happenedin my old blog. And again when Plastic was banned in Maharastra.

My concern! What is happening to the world? Are we comming to an end. Was the story of the day after tomorrow a premonition of what is going to happen to us, to the world, to mankind. Science have progressed so far, Information is at the tip of our fingers, Human can almost be Cloned, men are playing God... Yet, are we doing enough to save the world. We have long since known that energy resources will dry up, and yet we still don't have a viable alternative energy resource so that we may give nature some relief. We know that Pumping out Fuel(crude) from the innards of the Earth disturbs the System, yet our economies (Stock markets and interest rates etc)still get more than a tremor when the rich trades and speculates in the Crude Oil. the rise of crude oil prices is more shocking to the world than the fact that it is drying up and the environment is getting raped. Where are all the sciences? Are we only good in nanotechnology and Hi-tech and cloning. How about the energy to run those, or are the energy lobby still very strong that they have supressed the development and progress of any alternate fuel.

When I was in high school, I had attended many science exhibitions and many of those exhibitions had pollution as the theme. As a highschool student, I knew the effects of Carbon monoxides and Benzopyrenes on the atmosphere and us. I knew about global warming and CFCs and ozone holes. I knew about radio active waste. We were aware. But it is very scary to think that I am no more aware, and that when information is at at my finger tip, just a google away. And I am not sure if the high school students are aware. Do they teach about pollution in High School nowadays. Or are they busy preparing for IITs. In the 10 years or so since I finished High school, the awareness level have drastically decreased, maybe the economic liberalisation have drastically shifted our focus. In the same time the levels of pollution and global warming have only increased and increased alarmingly. I don't know, I just don't know what is happening. In the last 10 years, the matter has only grown worse.. the snow fall at UAE at ras al khayma, the Tsunami, the mumbai Floods, The katrina and Rita, AND THE EARTHQUAKE . They should not be considered in isolation. Everything is related. Earthqaukes happen because of movements on the faults or tectonic plates. It happens naturally, but it can be aided by the doings of mankind as well. The nuclear tests, Minings, Dams and what not. I might sound like an Activists, but its the truth and we have to wake up to it. It is happening at our backyard. The temperature of many places are increasing every year. Bangalore used to be so pleasnt 3-4 years back and even more pleasant 6-7 years back. When I went to bangalore In 2004 summer, the temparature was no more the temperature that I fall in love with First time I went there. Kolkata is known to be humid, very humid and quite hot, but this may/June the temperature was just unbearable. This are global warmings at our doorsteps. As a Highschool Kid I was only aware and knew about global warming only as a definition. It was a topic for science exhibition, today it is at our doorsteps. I am hearing that there are floods in bangalore as well. Maybe, it is justsa local phenomenon, caused by over population and overworked drainage system, but they are the work of solid pollutants never the less.. I like to help the eartquake Victims, and I shall donate one days salary, but more than that is there anything we can do to help ourselves. Can we help ourselves from future calamities. How much longer must we wait, how many more calamities must we face before we realise it. Bush wants to Rebuild New Orleans but has he even mentioned anything about stopping pollution. His rebuilding efforts will only generate pollutants that might be enough to cause another Katrina.
But of course, pollution control measure costs a lot of money though generating money generates Pollutants. Afterall, what is Kyoto protocol. The developed nations, instead of cutting down pollution in absolute terms, they can buy Carbon Credits. At least it motivates some companies in developing countries to cut down pollution.. Like they say, Something is always been better than nothing.

Live and Let live.

My previous post on Pollution here and another post here on my old Blog.

Chinese Medicines and Illegal immigrants

Don't expect any relations between the two.
Or maybe We will try to relate.

I don't know, and I haven't tried either, but I have seen many articles about wildlife on neighbouring coutries being exported to China endangering many species into extinctions. Many Turtles, Bear and an assortment of Lizards and pythons are being consumed faster than the poor animals could copulate. Read this particularly interesting article on Time. Other than the medicinal purpose, seems like the meat of some wild fauna like Pangolins and Pythons are a delicacy. Pangolin meat retails for as high as $100 a kilo. But I am more interested in the medicinal values. Do they really work? Crushed Seahorse powder is known to be a great aphrodisiac, and if it were true why is it true only in Asia? Why aren't the Aphrodisiac starved world using it. Maybe its only a myth. But that particular article on interesting article on Time mentioned another animal organ based medicine. The bile of the Bear. Bile is a very bitter liquid found in the gall bladder of animals. It is believed, in my place and is used like a traditional (not unlike ayurvedic/herbal medicine) medicine, that Bile of bear cures many ailments like pain and fever. I still remember, when travelling tribes used to come and sell these medicines.

Illegal immigrants seem to be reaching all the major cities of India. Where Assam and West Bengal are busy fighting the politically organised immigration of Bangladeshis, there seem to be no dearth of the same even in Mumbai.

And, pavement dwellers seem to have a communication system better than Ant's, thanks mostly to the cheap communication revolution in India. A few weeks back, I saw a few pavement dweller setting up open homes on my way home from work. Next day some more families arrived and in about a week, the whole stretch if the pavement has been filled, I guess they are waiting before they set up a slum somewhere nearby or maybe they are waiting till the time it is decided whose votebank will they become. And BTW, they eat pretty wel though. I saw one family cleaning Chicken a few days back. Not to mention that when a lady approached me, baby in her arms to beg one Hijra quickly moved in to shoo her away. No trespassing...

AOL-Weblogs Inc Continued

Just added a footnote to my morning post( read post written in the night and posted in the morning due to connection error at residence) a few hours back.. Its regarding the "AOL just bought a blog" Deal. Yes, a blog, well a blog farm, was bought for 25 Mil Dollars. Not a huge Amount, but it was a blog afterall, not that Blogs aren't great, I only wish it were greater... Had it been the lated 90's, it could have fetched $250 Million but we are in less greedier times now.

Now Why Am I posting this. Well I don't have much work at present. Just Been alloted to a new project and shall be free for a little more time before the project starts. And I happen to come across this amazing little plaything called How much is your blog worth . Based on the valuation of the weblogsinc deal, A valuation can be found for your blog. its very interesting, click the link and see.

I played with the thing for sometime. Keyed in some rather famous Indi blogs.. And since IIPM has been the talk of the town, and the blogs of Gaurav Sabnis and Rashmi Bansal were amongst the most linked blogs, they were pretty attractively valued. The valuation was arrived at by calculating how many websites are linked to your blog, much like google pagerank.

Was just playing around :-)

Gaurav Sabnis is worth $ 204,928
Rashmi Bansal - $118,553.40
Kiruba at $176,136.48
Lazygeek at $134,360.52
Sidin at $72,261.12
K at $16,371

I don't Know why Kaps was valued at 0.0, Maybe I typed wrong or something wrong with technorati as kaps pointed out.. San=mbharmafia is one of the most linked Indiblogs.. Try who wholinkstome from his page

Try for yourself and enjoy.. they even have a Pic that could be displayed at the Blog.. Find how much is your blog worth now Click here to find out.

I couldn't stop fooling around with the how much is ur blog worth, so here goes some more


Anita Bora at $88,068

Interestingly Pallavi's old blog is at $49,114.98 where as the Her new Blog, which is yet to be linked is at $6774.8

If we apply the same to normal websites and other protals, even
Rediff is only valued at less than a million at $921,893.82
while Google is at less than 100Millions at $99,720,910.14

Not that they are related.. Just playing around...

Butterfly

Some problems with the RWorld connection/ rather the data cable, so I missed yet another BM, it was a VBM this time unlike the last two CBMs.

I am not a Thinker but my mind never rests. An unsettled mind, like a butterfly some people say. I am always thinking about something or the other. I am always asking.. God, Space, life, Science, Terrorism, politics, Democracy and on the other hand my mind is very very unsettled. I still don’t belong anywhere. Today, I am here in Mumbai, but I don’t quite belong here. Its not because I wasn’t born here or rather I was born in a place far away. I never belonged to my home either. I prefer to call it my parent’s home. When I was in Kolkata for more than a year, I lived every month like it was my last month. I thought of buying a car many times, but I always thought where will, I carry it next. I didn’t even carry my Bike from Pune. Just left it there and was sold much later. When I signed the lease with my new landlord here, the first question I asked was how soon he can arrange to give me back my security deposit. When I went to buy a TV yesterday, I ended up buying a small one. Something I could afford to leave behind though I wanted a nice Big TV.
When I was in hostel, I used to change the direction of my bed quite often.. north-south, east west, right in the middle. Only variation I didn’t try was to have it diagonally placed. I guess It more to do with my mind than me getting bored…
Maybe, I grew up in a boarding school. It’s been 16 years since I left home. And the longest I stayed home was between my HS exams and Engineering school, about 3 months. After that, I don’t know if I stayed more than a month. Oh yeah, my mom was sick in 2002. I had to stay for a month but then I stayed at the hospital only, and grew fat :-) . I camped in the hospital for a month and my relatives used to take turn bringing me my lunch and dinner and everyday day was a treat, everyone trying to outdo the other because their favorite nephew, grand nephew, cousin was back home albeit the Hospital was home and was gracing their culinary skills, one month and I never had the same dish. I was 68 kilos, quite lean and mean and I became 80 Kilos, fat and chubby when I left home again. And then a series of places.. Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai.


But of late, I have been thinking if I should start thinking of a place where I can nicely settle down. Plasma TV, nice Bed, Nice living room, and stop living out of the suitcase. But then, it would be so boring. Bangalore used to be a nice place, but the way it is going now, I don’t think it would be a nice place. Pune seem a nice place, or maybe Delhi but for the weather extremities. I had also kind of started to like Kolkata and for 2000 per Sq feet, you get the best location. In Mumbai you don’t get a house for 2500 even in Navi Mumbai. Or maybe I will travel around a world.. I would have been the happiest in the foreign services maybe. Before you get a bored of a place, you are transferred to Tanzania. lol. My Age says, settle down…My mind says who the hell cares about Age. My parents still think I am a kid. They don’t realize they have been married for more than 27 years now. Marriage Hmmmm. Good news though.. Suddenly my parents are no longer in a hurry. They don’t want to get old :-) .

But its been a nice journey so far. And I have so many stories to tell my grandchildren :-) ..before we start on an adventure, back in boarding school and we had many, we always told the less adventurous ones,"You won't have stories to tell your Grandkids", well some stories we could never tell our grand children though.. Live life so that you have no regrets.. the regret minimization framework of Jeff Bezos..

Continuing on, the LOTR fellowship. the craracter Gollum is very interesting. Torn between two characters, his alter ego. And Tormented by the love of the ring that have already ruined his life. My precious.........

1:00 PM And hey, Blogging has arrived.. after the 410 Million Dollars Buyout of About.com by NYTimes, well About.com wasn't truely a blogging site but it was almost ABOUT Blogging..All the sites are like blog and many affiliates are blogs. I specially like alanebyday and transformist... Yeah but this time a real blog..a collection of blogs Weblogs Inc has been bought for 25 million by AOL. Read the links via uRmad's .Weblogs inc owns a collection of about 90 blogs, mostly niche blogs, and was earning kostly through Google Ads. Google Ads? again?????

3:30 PM: Was reading a Nirav's Blog when i learnt about dansh. A movie on the north east. Read the review .. The North East India, an Enigma to many, a reality nevertheless..

Continuing with the Fellowship

Well, I went back to gandalfwhite's blog and yes he still haven't updated his Blog. I was more worried than wonder. he could at least leave a comment, a little post. i sent a maol to his email ID posted there and the mail bounced back. He hasn't checked his mail for along time and his Mail ID has become invalid. I just hope nothing is happened to him. There are other blogers who have ceased to write, but more often than not they announce their departure from blogoshere, and some move to a new blog leaving a note, some delete the blog.. but when even the email start giving mailer-daemons, My conspiracy theory happy thinking HAT always make me think all the possible ways.. Perhaps he is writing in a new Blog.. Mant bloggers prefer to remain anonymous..

I am not being dramatic but this is what I keep thinking to myself for sometime now. If some one was to die, and no, Bloggers are not Elves, but are mere mortals. What will happen to his/her net presence. Will people keep sending him/her emails, will people keep leaving comments on my blog. Well I better write down all my user ids and password and keep them in an envelop along side my will, if i vere have a will... Well, forget it... Too Eerie..

So, the LOTR bug got me after a long time again and I visit a few sides, and well I found that it was Viggo Mortensen's birthday Yesterday.. Happy Birthday Viggo..

My After Hours

I bought some VCDs and DVDs and then packed them in my Suitcase.
Since I shifted I hadn't opened them, there are still some work going on the bathroom and i have left a key with the Builder so I just kept my Suitcases Unopened. So when I was going through my Credit card bills and saw some entries marked Planet M, I rememebered that I had some movies unopened.. so last two evenings have been spent watching The Lord of the Rings I and II, the third one I will watch maybe on Monday evening. And Since I hadn't bought a TV yet, for the same reason that I don't stay home when the worker come and work on the bathroom, I watched them on the Laptop.. the 12" screen though great for mobility and gives no problems on excel-powerpoint-Wordpad-explorer and Messenger, But for the movies, I would have preferred my old 15" Sattelite anyday. But still, it wasn't a problem as I watched from close, very close. But what made all the difference was I had to watch with earphones. I have pair of good earphones from Sony.. and watching with earphones made me realise many things I might have missed when I first watched LOTR. I don't know if I missed them or have forgoten( my memory is pretty low on the long term faculty). But watching with earphones made me take each and every word. And it was good. I didn't even know that the real name of Gollum was Speagol and that it(sic) refererred to itself(sic) as us/we.

By the way, whatever happened to that Blog on LOTR. There was a pretty popular blog maintained by someone who called himself gandalf white. http://gandalfwhite.rediffblogs.com, he had been dormant for more than year now. I will just check out if he is back. One of my early Blogger circles..

India Post is considering a foray into banking into Insurance and Banking.

If a company doesn’t have the management will to expand its own market even if they have the money, they often diversify. But lack of will might not be the only reason but I believe it is a common reason. When the management becomes sure that, further pumping in of the funds would not necessarily translate into revenue growth, the company looks for diversification. Some does it for various other reasons like backward or forward integration. Or that a new venture might give a better Return on Investment than the existing ones. For the later case, if that be the case why not sell out the whole business and start the new venture all together. But then, there is the security of an existing company that is doing well, so sell out and start something that is totally new and apparently with no prior expertise. But diversifying into a purely Unrelated field have often proved painful unless you are a conglomerate like GE, or tats and Reliance or a Chaebol like Hyundai and Samsung where you have ready pool of talented managers and experts to draw the talent from. Even Chaebols have failed, read Daewoo, but it wasn’t due to diversification per se. Another good reason for diversification might be for the same reason you diversify your investments. If this industry suddenly gets expired, gets extinct Like Video tape player, Snail mail.

Oh yeah, I was writing about the snail mail. India post. India post is planning to foray into banking and Insurance,read.. Will Email be the death knell for Snail mail. A topic often debated about ever since Email became free. It is not whether Email will kill snail mail or not, at lest in India. Millions of Labourers from Bihar toiling in the construction sites of Gurgaon, Mumbai, Guwahati will not write emails. They still use the post. Another Million of Jawans still write Chithi. The core business of India Post still has a good chunk left in the life Cycle Curve. But foresight is never bad and it’s a very welcome thought that India post wants to diversify. But why Banking? Is reach Reach the only key for a Bank to succeed ( India Post has the Reach). Why can’t India post diversify and expand into the Courier Business. Logistics and Courier service is a Huge Industry ( I don’t want to google just now to find the market size) and India post can very well leverage to become a modern Courier company. Why US post and Deutsche Post have done extremely well by foraying into the Couriers delivery business. That is what India post is good at. Why not leverage? Leave banking to SBI with its reaches.
Read about deutsche post

First it was epost, now it is banks. I guess India post is already into insurance for Central Govt. Employees. For the uninitiated, epost is a hybrid mail where you send an email to India post and India post print and delivers it. Well, won’t it be a one way communication? Whoever will receive an epost will have no access to an email. To reply the mail do he/she go to a post office and dictate a mail or does he/she go directly to a cybercafé. In which case won’t he be better off having an email account in that post office. No hassle for printing?

I shall gamble no more

I have been a bit of a Gambler. Aquarians are I believe, Pathetic Gamblers.
I read in one of those know your Lover articles that if your Lover boy is an Aquarian, “don’t ever take him to a casino, ever”. I like playing with my Luck, I guess it is more so because I have been a pathetic Gambler. I have lost a great deal of time and money in gambling. If I were a Billionaire, I would certainly lose my fortune in Las Vegas. I like playing Flush(teen patti), and Poker during Diwali despite the fact that I have only . I like playing the Tambola or Housie during Parties and get together.

Tambolas used to be a huge affair in Manipur, where I come from, during the Hindu festival Holi, we call it “Yaosang” and continues for 5 days unlike the one day holi in other parts of India. Like everything else we Manipuris try to exaggerate everything that we do. I shall write about it later. Most locals in Manipur Organizes local Sports events and festivities in the evening and Housie seem to be the preferred choice of Fund raising for the local Clubs organizing the event. We play housie for as high as 10000, 15000 Rupees, considered a Bumper prize in Housie. And as a kid I used to wait for Holi to come so that I may Play Housie on the first day of Holi. I used to buy 4/5 ticket and play them together with the hope that I will win someday. I have never won.

My father, a very strict Patriarch who didn’t believe in luck and considered drinking, smoking and gambling (that includes lottery and Housie) to be the vices of the devil. He found out once that I had developed this strange romance for Housie when I didn’t return home till late one evening. They housie was getting too interesting and in Manipur I was suppose to be back home by 6 PM. It was around 7:30 when my father came looking for me at the Venue. Well, we met halfway since I was already returning. I still remember when I swore to him that I will never play Housie again. He was using a watered belt to drive the devil out of me. Unfortunately, he couldn’t. It was the only vice he couldn’t force me off.

Till today, in my last company, during the outings I was the first one to suggest if we shouldn’t have a Housie. Of course I am still on my losing streak and still believe that someday luck will turn. If there was ANY way I could lose in a gambling I would certainly lose, even if it a 1 in a 100 chance to Lose not Win. I have never confessed that though, before today. A gambler, like a magician never tells. During one of those Outdoor trips during my MBA, one evening I challenged my Friends into a game of Flush. I lost everything I had. I told them maybe it wasn’t my day.

But, since I stated earning, I have graduated to a better form of gambling. It is Trading. I am as Dumb as my losing streak seem to suggest, and I learnt the intricacies of investing in the stock market and I have picked some very good stocks since I started trading( I won’t say investing) 3 years back. Of course the markets have been doing very good and my medium term investments opps trading of 1-3 months horizon have given me Returns that some people only dreamt of. But this is not what I am going talk about. This not the gambling I am talking about.

Since I do a fair amount of research and take Informed decisions and I am making money on them and given the fact my pickings have helped some of friends make some money, I am doing a fair job and I will not consider it as gambling. But some where when I was starting out, a batch mate of mine by the name of Kads, a thorough Tam, introduced me to Derivatives trading. And the devil in me suddenly fall in LUST with Options. I read up all the available material on options and Futures in our Library, committed copyright crimes by making photocopies of books, and suddenly I knew I was going to be a Hedge Fund Phenomenon. Kads also lots a mini fortune in Options. I guess he has also learnt.

Well, I seem to have ignored premise that hedging is the exact opposite of gambling, and Option are to be used for Hedging against your Bets. I used options for gambling. And all my profits from my short term investments/long term trading have been parlayed in my Options Gambling. I have won some and gained some but I have lost a hell lot of money. Good news, I have quit Options since August. I bought my last Put option in July. I bought a July nifty option and lost 18K. The same month when I booked a profit of 33K in Spel semiconductors. I will stick to my short term investment/long term trading for now. I have also decided to invest a little money every month for a very long term.

More on stocks some other day. BTW I have re-entered Spel semiconductors. This time, for long.

What is the motive behind the post today. I have decided that I shall never Gamble again. Its alright to burn your fingers in the stock market, but what I burnt on derivatives has been much more than a finger. I will use derivatives diligently, for the purpose it was invented for. HEDGING. I shall refrain from any form of Gambling. And this Diwali is going to be the first of many such Diwalis. By the Teenpattiparty.net is a great site.


PS: Wrote this article yesterday night when I was studying my trades History from icicidect and found that more than 60% of my gains I have wasted on options and Brokerage. With the money I am paying Icicidirect, I realise that the only only people who made real money during the californian gold rush were the hardware shops who dealt in Picks and Sieves and othet mining tools and the only company that made money during the dotcom where the networking hardware manufaturers like Cisco.

If birdflu comes to India, will the stock of Venky's get a Hitting. Why there are always buyers and sellers in a Market. Somepoeple will that Venky's will loose money because of birdflu and go short on venky's stock. Some will go long because they will think that since people will disrust local retailer during an epidemic, everybody will buy chicken from venky's. How ill I make money, I will go short for short term and when they have got enough beating I shall buy at bottom. I loose if the stock doesn't get a beating. Oh,. I just swore that I will not gamble. OK so I will not touch venkys and only buy if the stock goes very cheap.

My Last IIPM Post

The IIPM story have all but died down, and for everyone Life goes on. I wrote an I support You post on the Monday after the weekend of that incident and forgot about the incident and only read a few post like Arjan's and Kautilya's and Varna's. The story had dragged on for too long, but then I kept thinking about it. Like I said in the earlier post that I am always thinking about something or the other. I was just wandering in the markets, shopping for small Knick Knacks, small nothings for my house and I was just thinking, my silly mind never rests anyway, Why did IIPM threaten to sue Gaurav and Rashmi and Varna? Why?

Lawsuits are only common in the USA, where millions are lawsuits are filed each day. But even in the USA, lawsuits are only good if one wins. And not everyone in a Lawsuit win a Suit. Winning a lawsuit is a far cry in india. Union Carbide would have been long gone of bankruptcy, had Bhopal happened in the US. But we are in India, and A guy in Kolkata won a lawsuit against a Shoe manufacturer in India for giving him false promises after 15 years and he was awarded a princely opps measely sum of 50000 Rupees. Millions dollar lawsuits happen mostly in Novels Written by American Writers. So why did IIPM sued Gaurav and the ilk.

I believe it stems from the fact, "any publicity is good publicity."Well not so with Education institutes and not at all if the institute spends crores in building a good Image. Gaurav's Blog was pretty up in the popularity chart amongs indian
Bloggers, in fact it ranks no.2 In Blogstreet. And so any search query for IIPM sure would have thrown up the post by Gaurav. how else would the guys at IIPM come to know of the Post. They certainly are no Bloggers, that was clear from all the IIPM blog-clones that came up. Not a single old Blog. Well, since a search query for IIPM threw up gaurav's blog, it would have caused a great deal of bad publicity for IIPM and that too at a highly targetted Audience. I won't be searching for IIPM in google for sure. It would have been prospective IIPM students. Now, bad publicity is not good publicity for IIPM. We are not talking about rok Sako to Rok Lo here. Each ticket here cost 4-5 lakhs unlike the 100 Bucks Rok Sako Tickets.. Well well, if only Gaurav would remove the post from the Blog??

Lets all be frank. If you were in Gaurav's shoes what would you have done. Few aggresive People might have filed a countersuit. I would have immediately contacted a lawyer. What would any other guy/gal do. The Email, asked Gaurav to remove the post. Kaput! End of the Story. And there will be no IIPM related Bad post/article when a prospective student types the search query IIPM. Any other person, well most of us would have quitely deleted the post. That is Human nature. Nobody likes anything to do with the law. Courts, Police Stations, lawsuits, all things are not things that a common Men, which many of us Bloggers are, would want to be a part with. The IIPM legal cell( if indeed the mail was sent by the IIPM legal cell as mentioned in the email ) knew this basic human nature very well. How could they ever suspected that gaurav would be different? Someone who contacted a lawyer would have contacted her/him to just delete the post and forget about it. There are more to do in life than getting in unnecessary legal hassles. If you really wants to fight, go fight against Child marraige, child labour, dowry, corruption, rape and what not. A sound lawyer would have advised the person like that.

IIPM Legal cell never thought someone could have Gaurav's sense of humour. Cheers to you Gaurav! You got a Legal notice, real or not, genuine or not, but you didn't know it then, if it was genuine or not, But did you get a legal notice and you had the blogger's sense of humour to name the topic as I am disconnectting my cable connection. Never in their dreams must the IIPM lawyers(or whoever) have dreamt that Gaurav would make the legal notice a Topic for a Blog. We Bloggers are a Topic starved community, if only IIPM knew. Gaurav by not quitely removing the articles stirred quite a huge hornets' nest.I don't know why gaurav posted the mail on the blog but he sure did a thing, that we all might now think, "we would have done the same" but most of us might seriously have had second thoughts before carrying on. The Email clearly mentioned that nio further action would be taken if the posts were removed. It was well thought of and well composed mail. Gaurav has shown his strength twice since the event. The second being his tactful resignation from IBM. You are quite a man Gaurav. I salute you. I don't know if you have always been like that, or that the event brought out the real Man in you, but what you did could have been done only by a man of character or someone with a seriously Black sense of Humour which i doubt you are. What you have done, consciously or not have started a
battle of sorts and it might not end here, but I am sure your strenghts will make you a very hard contender. Where I come from, honour and courage is something highly regarded and taken for granted that each Men have. You are one of us Brother!!


IIPM's ploy to kill bad publicity only back fired and it back fired real bad. Gaurav's post might have come at page 3 or 4 when u search for IIPM on Google but now the story comes right at page one and its the number 1 search query in technorati. So much for their hatred for bad Publicity. No wonder why they keep so quite.But K of presstalk mentions the official statement by IIPM about taking legal actions. I doubt if they will. There is something in Battle Strategy called tactical retreat. The best ploy IIPM could follow would to be to just let it pass. Till now they have denied having sent any legal notices and since the legal notice caused much more bad publicity than it had intended to kill, any further action will only drag them deeper into the mud. I doubt if they haven't fired the legal cell yet, for causing so much damage. They have done much more damage than Rashmi and Gaurav would have caused.
Consider that they continue with the lawsuit. It must be remembered that all the bloggers who have written about the same has commited as much libel( which ever is the legal terminology) as gaurav ever did and IIPM has to sue everyone. Now, IIPM might have the financial muscle and resources to sue a 100 bloggers but it must be remembered that when they sue a blogger, they are suing a Global community and tommorrow if a million Bloggers write the same or worse about IIPM they could not sue everyone and will make it worse for IIPM. In attle strategy, a wise general would have gone for a tactful retreat or face the MudSlings.


Like somebody wrote( i forgot who,), it would do very good for IIPM, if they were to take it as a lesson and start trying to improve on what they have to deliver. If all this episode makes IIPM a better institute, it would have been worth all the effort and lost time. Because bad or worse, india does need more institutes since the govt. doesn't do much about it. IIPM might be good, but they can be a lot better and if they try to compete with the IIMs by really becoming world class educationists, what more can a Men ask for. Even the Alumni would be much happier. Taking a book out of Marketing, Customers Always flock to good products. Google never advertised like Indya.com or Hometrade.com of the early 2000s did. If the product is really Good, word of mouth is enough to sell enough, if the product is bad, you need advertising to sell enough and if the product is worse you need salesmen to push the product. There are worse institutes to does roadshows in small towns and sends out agents to seek admissions.. Provide a good education, a better education and nobody will dare raise a finger againts you.

To sum it up it was just a matter of A good strategy gone awry from the side of IIPM. And Gaurav Hearing his Inner Voice. Hope the matter is well rested.

Read the whole story here on desipundit

Moved in!!! and I am back from the Death

Moved into a new flat yesterday.
Moved into this new blog. Well its not new but i have decided to move here for good.
Leaving my rediffblog after a very very long time.
However loyal I am to rediffblogs, at some point of time I have to let go.
Stayed there for more than 2 years. Despite having started my first blog 3 years back on Blogspot. read Where Am I which was discontinued after one post. I went over to rediffblogs, gave it a good look.. But I am moving here till the time I decide to host my own space.

Moved into a new House as well. No haven't bought it. I have just rented it. A 1BHK. And the owner haven't even put the curtain Rods. And the window opens right into the opposite apartment block which is close enough enough for snooping neighbours to take a peek.

Unfortunately, Mere Saamne Waali Khidki mein Koi Chand Ka tukra nahin dikha, oly some aunties cooking and Uncles satring at my strange face. Need to get Drapes soon.

Another foolish thing. I guess I have to post it. If i don't post it I am not a blogger..

I almost died on saturday.
I wouldn' have anyway, but I stopped a Train on its Tracks.
I guess I am the first blogger who ever stopped a train on its Tracks.
And I didn't pull the chain

Let me explain,
A most foolish thing ever occured to me.
Have i ever written that something or the other always goes in my mind all the time.
I think about Share Prices and i am having my lunch, i think about a Girl I saw while driving
And what not.. My mind never rests.. I have had at least three road accidents because i was Thinking or Singing..

Now, it as late saturday night, around 11:30 and I was coming back by Mumbai Local Train. I guess i went to the wrong side of the station since I am not too familiar with the mumbai ocals and the stations, so i had to go the other side again via the station only. I had to take a stair and go out the other way, but i saw many poeple taking a short cut. They just went under the footbridge by walking near the tracks for a few meters and walk out by the road. By the way, nothing could have been more appropriate when my ex-boss said the longest rout is the short cut. HAd i died, it would haven been the longest route eh!!
So i just walked out via tracks, and a thought struck me as i was walking near the track.. Well i was away from the track but not far enough, you see a train is a much wider than the tracks.. so i was about a feet away from the tracks but not far enough not to get killed. I was thinkin about the absence of latrenes in local trains and how it have kept the tracks clean because of that.. remember how I used to hate going to railway stations because of the dreadful stench.. and i was engrossed in this thought when i heard a screeching halt of a train behind me. the train had apparently blew the horns but then you listens to horns all time in a Train station so i guess i missed it.. Onky when i saw the train in my back and people staring at me and when the driver shouted at me did i realised what just happened. the train ahd stopped at the staion, had it been a non-stop fast train.. I won't be writing this Blog today. I love you God.
I might have been arrested if it was in the daytime, but since it was late already the train just carried on, the driving shouting obsceneties.. And, strange thing, i was not even frightened or trembled.. I was more ashamed that people were looking at me. I just walked very very fast.
And threw a One rupee Coin as an offering. But thinking back, the situation deserved to be scary Eh!!!

The Movie

OK lemme review a movie..One of my friends wrote in our egroups that one who who doesn't write reviews for a living do so only on two conditions. The movie have to so good that he/she wants to spread the good news so everyone may enjoy or the movie had to be so god awful that he/shefeels a need to protect the masses from the assault on their senses by the travesty pretending to be a movie, in her words.So well put, Tarangini!!( she shredded a movie ‘The Wedding Date’ in front of maybe a thousand alumni, may god bless the movie)Chill now, I am writing this review, or maybe its not a review, Not for the awful reason. Its for the former.Well I don't have word to say how nice the movie was. Well I was sitting up for half time or more. I just could sit properly and my left hand was ever ready to throw that punch. And my jaw was hurting when I saw Russel Gladiator Crowe getting the blows too. yeah, I m talking about Cinderella Men.It thoroughly put my mind into a such a disarray, I went and bought the VCDs of Rocky . Mien gott, i had enjoyed Rocky so much as a kid, but after watching Cinderella Men, Rocky looked more like a play Boxing. Cinderella Men was a genre of its kind. My friend who went with me( he might be reading this now) kept saying that Boxing must be banned. He felt that bad, not the movie but what the movie was doing to him. The boxing scenes were superb, and I kick myself for not having seeen the movie earlier. The title wasn't too macho, and cinderella men. i thought i wouldbe a queer movie. How wrong I was?I realise what America had to go through to become what they are today. It depicted the great Depression so bl$#dy well. The growth of the America, i believe, is more to do with the collective dread of such a depression repeating again. I believed America worked so hard, and made all the measures so as not to repeat such a thing again and in doing so made the great AMerica of Today. Seeing the movie, when the protagonist's kids had to go hungry, i was suddenly glad I am not married. I mean at such a condition, it would be oh so difficult. I suddenly want to save money. And i suddenly realise the wisdom of my parents buying Agricultural land and keeping a whole year's stock of Rice. We will never go hungry. The movie was such a rude shock. I will surely start keeping some money out of the Stocks.At least in india the danger of the cold won't be there. the depression was follwed by the cold winter where they needed electricity to heat the room and when they couldn't pay for the electricity and power cut off leaving three kids in the cold. It just was heart wrenching. My freind said,"at least we don't have the cold in india".ALl the while we were watching the movie, we were actually living in it. We lived the Sorrows as much as the Joy when Russel Crowe become the world champ. I was virtually boxing and was on my best alert. It just was too good. And my my, Renée Zellweger delivered too well. I sure would love my wife to be like her. I don't want to do an injuustice to those who haven't watched it by telling the story but the story just was superb.The pain that parents went through, the hunger. And when Renee said, "everytime you take a punch, i feel like I am taking the punch and I am not half as tough as you are"She also delivered her punches well. there just were too many memorable scenes. Go and see for yourself..Liked it better than Million dollar baby.Russel Crowe RocksNet net, anybody who didn't like this Movie.. I pity Him/her.A must watch for everyone..

Lagging behind..

Am playing a little game.
Thought I will just repost frm my blog on rediffblogs, diary, so that if anything happens to rediff tecnically because for the past few weeks i have seeing errors while downloading the page. But i some how missed copyin here. maybe I will write about different stuff here.

Back to work

Watched a lot of movies of late.. I bought some VCDs and a coupla DVDs.. Suddenly decided to watch all the movies i remembered was worth a watch and a laugh..Golmaal, Kabhi Kabhie, Rajnigandha, Chitchor, Zorba the Greek, Ankur.. Will write about them later. Got me some work... I was going to write a long blog when i remembered i also work for a living, unfortunately. And i got some interesting work now.. Will keep me busy for a few days..
And... the weekly Astro forecast yesterday said that ganesha will give me both money and honey..
Well Well, i just checked my portfolio.. it has indeed inched up by a few percentage points since Friday. Well 2% to be precise.. But I have a whole week to go.
Also says that there will be honey. Which one could be that? Lord Ganesha, let it be the one I have in mind..Not that I would mind a surprise ..

OOOPS




Saw a HP laptop, 12 incher.. 1.7 Ghz, 60 GB drive with Lan blue tooth et al for 67K. dvd comdo attached.. 1.5 kgs
Broke my heart to think that I bought my Portege 1 Ghz, 40 GB, lan but no blue tooth with separate dvd-combo for 1.15 L, just because it weigh 900Gms. I paid 55K more for 600 Gms less.. I suddeny realise that if i have carry the two Chargers( separate for laptop and DVD), and the dvd drive as well, it would weigh more than the HP.. I suddenly want an exchange.. Any takers?? 1.15 Lacs laptop for a 67K laptop. :-)