All that Glitters is NOT Spam.

We live in an age of style.
Glossy, lustrous and slick magazines, newspapers, and Pamphlets,
Sweet innocent voices selling everything from ring tones to Washing Machines.
Naive kids vying for our attention in the form of ads.



We also live through a plethora of spam, from unsolicited sms's to shining emails. From slick pamphlets to unsolicited calls.

Due to easier and cheaper communication channels today the amount of spam has increased much more than the real content. Hence, at no point in history has the ability to separate the grain from the chaff been more important or more difficult.

I see people rejecting pamphlets or emails without a first glance simply because of their high style quotient. This often deprives them of good deals and offers.

If one directly dives into the content, its easy to separate the content from the medium. Thus do not reject anything outright, give every email/sms/pamphlet atleast 30 seconds. You will be surprised that's just how long it takes to separate important communication from the spam.

If you are wondering as to why The calling cards are spam and the laptop deal is not, you have grasped the logic behind the post. I.e what is spam to you could be useful for me, and vice-versa.

So go ahead and avoid those glittery mails at your own peril..

Was Newton actively researching Gravity when the apple fell or was Columbus looking for a new continent when he found the Americas ?

A tale of Two India's

The recent surf excel Mitha pani advertisement and people describing the kid in it as cute remind me of a similar although much more real scene from Swadesh.

The kid is bringing water in both scenes but can you spot the real India ?

Who will have to die for me to cry.

Devastated as i was at losing four loved ones in the recent Mumbai tragedy. I could not bring myself to cry?

I saw my grandmom break into tears at the remembrance of her preteen grand kids. I spoke to my friend in Mumabi who could not contain himself while informing us of the demise of one of our special friends.

Yet, i could not cry, what is wrong with me.

All I could think of is why?? What forces can motivate a person to take anothers life? Who could possibly have gained anything from this exercise in futility. And i will not rest till i find an answer.

The words from Sholay ring through my ears.

"The worlds biggest weight is that borne by a father carrying the corpse of his son. But if I have learnt one thing from life, it is to allways walk with the head held high"

What matters the most to me and why ??!!

Is the title of an essay my roomie is trying to write in an attempt to apply to the Stanford biz school.
I can not understand why this is a tough essay, got me thinkin on this from my angle.

I believe the world respects two things:- Knowledge and Power.
Either without the other is useless.

So to put it in words what matters the most to me is the quest for knowledge and the strength to implement my ideas, and respect for what i have done.

My uncle allways tells me, whenever in a dilemma about your career, think of your coffin, imagine what you would want people to say about you whn you are gone.

Well, I believe i would like to be thought if as a person who explored the depths of knowledge, and had the courage and dedication to pursue his dreams. Thats all i ask for...

aaachooo

I have a confession to make, people blowing, sneezing and spitting really irk me.

Through no fault of my own i get nauseated at the sound and thought of mucus (green and fresh, yikes) near me.
Please guys use the rest room, or work from home if you are not well.

Inspirational stuff.

Seven of my all time favorites....

A little girl - the 20th of 22 children, was born prematurely and her survival was doubtful. When she was 4 years old, she contracted double pneumonia and scarlet fever, which left her with a paralyzed left leg. At age 9, she removed the metal leg brace she had been dependent on and began to walk without it.


By 13 she had developed a rhythmic walk, which doctors said was a miracle. That same year she decided to become a runner. She entered a race and came in last. For the next few years every race she entered, she came in last. Everyone told her to quit, but she kept on running

One day she actually won a race. And then another.
From then on she won every race she entered.
Eventually this little girl - Wilma Rudolph, went on to win three Olympic gold medals.

A candidate for a news broadcasters post was rejected by officials since his voice was not fit for a news broadcaster. He was also told that with his obnoxiously long name, he would never be famous.
He is Amitabh Bachan.

A small boy - the fifth amongst seven siblings of a poor father, was selling newspapers in a small village to earn his living. He was not exceptionally smart at school but was fascinated by religion and rockets. The first rocket he built crashed. A missile that he built crashed multiple times and he was made a butt of ridicule.

He is the person to have scripted the Space Odyssey of India single-handedly - Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

The Moral of the above Stories:
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet - Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

You gain strength, experience and confidence by every experience where you really stop to look fear in the face.You must do the thing you cannot do. And remember, the finest steel gets sent through the hottest furnace.
In LIFE, remember that you pass this way only once! let's live life to the fullest and give it our extreme best.
'Failure is the pillar of success'!!!
'Never Say ,Never Die' !!!

Men have emptied entire clips at them and hit nothing but air, yet their strength and their speed are still based in a world that is built on RULES. Because of that, they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be... Morpheus

Life is not about how fast you run, or how high you climb but how fast you bounce back.

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bike. Then I realized that The Lord doesn't work that way, so I stole one and asked him to forgive me.

"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."
Winston Churchill

I love this video.

Legendary pieces form the vdo.... uhhh i cant remove anything from the text at all the whole thing is legendary

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.


Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't, maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself, either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance. Even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

Sunday/Race/Dil Dosti etc.

This blog is about the last three Hindi Movies i have seen, in decreasing order of my liking them.

Sunday

Sunday is one of the better movies Bollywood has produced in the last few quarters. A lightweight story line, lively comedy (courtsey Arshad Warsi, Irfaan Khan), good action (Ajay Devgan) and a cutie female protagonist (Ayesha Takia).

All these and an intense murder mystery with the suspense unfolding slowly out of an item number (kashmakash) leave very little else to be desired in this movie. Good Timepass, can watch with family.

A weakness in the movie is that the climax is not as strong as its made up to be. And oh the best part, the movie finishes in 2Hrs 10 Minutes.

Race
Race sanson ki...

This song pretty much summarizes the whole movie up, the entire 3 hours are full of intense action, some body showing by Saif and Bipasha and the cute Katrina shaking a leg.

Zara Zara touch me and Khwab dekhe Jhute Muthe are very well choreographed with Katrina sizzling as usual. Pehli Nazar is a soulful melody by atif aslam and grows on you every time you hear it.

The first half is much better with Saif clearly stealing the limelight, what could have an excellent movie losses steam after the intermisison , with cheap comedy by Anil Kapoor and Johhny Lever.

Dil Dosti Etc...
DDE is a soft emotional movie, with too many small little things which make for a great movie.

Excellent display of Bihari Acting by Shreyas Talpade. The movie is basically a contrast between the college lives of Shreyas ( typical Middle class Bihari boy with dreams of winning the college elections) and on the other side Apurva ( a tall, fair, rich and flashy Delhite).

Apurva finds himself lonely and friendless even after enjoying amoral relations with one woman after another.

Shreyas lives a simple spartan life his ancestors would be proud of, but manages to impress a girl after a colege gang fight, only to later discover that she's a fashion model and their tastes do not match very well.

A communications/negotiations game

If you are anything like me and browsing around with no real purpose in mind (easy ;-) ) read on..
If you have seen and enjoyed movies like Enemy at the Gates, Schindlers List and old Bond movies you had better read on.

Oh and also required is a passing interest in European history and geography during the early 20th century i.e the period of the world wars.

Diplomacy is a game set in Europe, with 7 players representing the 7 major powers of that time i.e UK, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Russia and Turkey. The entire rule set is beyond the scope of this blog and can be found here, instead i am going to just give you a brief overview of the game to get you all excited about it.

Diplomacy begins with all 7 powers equally poised, i.e they all have 3 army or fleet units. And every unit is equal in strength so there is no scope for individual heroics or (hollywood like!) one man armies who can defeat everybody else.

The only way for a unit to defeat another unit and the game to progress is when 2 or more units collaboratively attack a single unit (If 3 units fight against 2 units the side with 3 units wins and so on).

The beauty of the game is that initially none of the powers have enough units to launch offensive attacks by themselves, thus begin pacts, counter-pacts horse trading and back stabbings.

The game progresses with the 7 great powers expanding there region of influence and ends when one power obtains control of 18 units out of the initial 34 units ( 3 into 7 plus 12 neutral plus R gets one extra unit).

Diplomacy can be played as a board game or online (at www.phpdiplomacy.net) with players spread all over the internet and the only way to contact the other players is via the inbuilt message system.

Do not expect any exciting animations or gut wrenching action on this site, the beauty of the game is that every move (representing 6 months of actual time) takes 24 hours. So basically you get that much time to make pacts and talk to other players and finalize your moves.

So go on! here is your chance to make history its free and fun.

Oh and before i forget the legal stuff, a company called Avalon hill holds the copyright for this. game. There are plenty of other sites offering this game, you are free to explore.

Skyscraping Singapore

At 704.0 km² (272 sq mi), Singapore is one of the few remaining city-states in the world and the smallest country in Southeast Asia.

Singapore gained independence in 1963 from British rule. A fact which would lead any self respecting Indian to shame. The pace of development brings it close to any developed US city. Public transportation, Roads, Airways, Housing.. all point to an increasing standard of living.

Exports, Manufacturing, petrochemicals, tourism, Real Estate and financial services.. are all booming and the Economy is flourishing, with the Singaporean Stock exchange SGX a strong indicator of South Asian Economy.
Situated just 137 Km away from the Equator the climate is horribly hot and humid. This has its advantages too, with t-shirts and shorts being the national attire.
Singapore is a mixture of an indigenous Malay population with a third generation Chinese majority(yum!) , as well as Indian and Arab immigrants with some intermarriages.

But the most most striking feature of Singapore is the rampant commercialization. Eg. a mundane forest barely 20 km² has been converted into an exotic Night Safari. A pretty ordinary offshore island has been made into a tourist hot spot with cable car rides, downhill skating type rides, horizontal giant wheels covering most of the island, exotic boating and fishing, and you get the idea. Everywhere you'll see cameraman ready to take your pictures for free. Beware! they are professionals and the pics usually come out pretty nice and you have to pay to take those pictures ;-)

The only distressing thing about Singapore is that it is over popluated but perhaps that is to be expected with its mix of Indian and Chinese people.

Barriers break when people talk

Rarely have i seen a better advertisement.

Summary
Two kids from diff countries, cross borders to play football / Cross barbed wire boundary lines on either side and play between the boundaries / VO -There's no war or barrier that can keep people apart if only they can talk / Airtel signature tune / Barriers break when people talk.

Two kids from diff countries, cross borders to play football / Cross barbed wire boundary lines on either side and play between the boundaries / VO -There's no war or barrier that can keep people apart if only they can talk / Airtel signature tune / Barriers break when people talk

The one with the truth about US aka Which country II

Names have been avoided to protect the identity of some of the people involved

So here it comes, the unfortunate details of the case leading to the arrest of one of my friends on our recent Mt View trip. Many of you may have heard variations of this story depending on just how embarrassed i was when telling you the story, but what follows is the absolute truth.

Tuesdays were always stressful for me, what with early morning meetings 9 AM to 12 noon and that day was even worse with some deadline pressures, and on the personal side had to shift my home as well. After a horribly tiring day at office and packing all my worldly wealth i set out for a drive to my new home. Its around 1 AM and i think hey a few drinks would be nice and stop by a friends place. This friend bores me by working from home even at that ungodly hour and i decide to drink by myself while watching him work. I spend the hour trying to make a radiohead cd, and by that time i am done he is done too and has started his first peg. While i am on my third.

Now people have got to stop listening to me when i am drunk, here's why. So this god forsaken idea of going on a mid night quick drive with radiohead blasting outta the speakers enters my head. As soon i step into the cold icy night i realize i am to wasted to even open the car doors and the bright stud i am i let my unlicensed friend into the drivers seat.

Now this friend is no ordinary person, he can drive almost straight with no alcohol inside him and an he is an expert nfs player to boot. Well he was probably tired from all the work as well, so he decides to check out what the 2.0 L Turbo LNF I4 has under her bonnet. Well the road lights keep changing to green as soon as we reach them and there is not a soul in sight at that hour.

To his credit the Cobalt has a horribly smooth pickup and without warning we are cruising at 70 MPH, and the first warning escapes my lips as i watch a road light shrinking absurdly fast in my rear view. This warning was lost out in the mesmerizing lyrics of where i end and you begin. To our discredit, i had even rolled my window down to enjoy the icy wind in my hair and the screaming wind should have given us an idea how fast we were going.

And suddenly the shrinking road lights in my rear view are not the only problem any more, i see a weird sight, i see 2-3 police cars right behind us..... tailing as they may a multiple homicide suspect. I switch off the cd player and the blasting sirens hit us with that sinking feeling in the stomach.

Now i have never had single cop behind me in my 3-4 years of illustrious driving history and i have to pinch myself to believe i am not dreaming. Now totally to my discredit i advise my friend to keep driving at a slow pace, hoping against hope that the cops overtake us and are actually on a real suspect chase. After a couple of blocks we know its after us and pull over on the side.

As soon as we get out in the now freezing night the chilling tone, 'suspect apprehended' mixed with radio static enters our ears and i am ready to pass out. After allowing us to freeze for 10 minutes they start the questioning, we are grilled as to what our motives for over speeding and not stopping immediately when tailed by a cop at that hour were. My friend is made to perform various types of maneuverer's and subject to a breath analyzer to check if he is drunk or not, luckily he passes all those.

Actually had we just been over speeding i think the cop would have let us go, but what pissed him off was that we didn't stop immediately and my friends had left his license back in India. Actually that was not all, I even had an open bottle in my hand which i did not know was such a big deal. In my tiny mind i kept thinking whats wrong if i am drinking as long as i am not driving. But apparently as per California laws, even the pillion can not drink.

I hear the chilling words, please turn around and keep your hands together addressed to my friend. Unfortunately, my car was towed away. Leaving me quite alone in the freezing cold in an unfamiliar city, with no money in my pocket. Actually not quite alone, remember i was shifting houses, so all my luggage in the boot is strewed on the street along with me. I could not even begin to comprehend what must have been going on in my friends mind, sped away in a police car to an unknown destination as he was.

The rest of the night is spent in calling relatives and 911 to find out how to get him back, and then later on how to find a lawyer in case he is not freed immediately. Finally he is let out with a court date and charges of reckless driving, attempting to evade arrest, driving while unlicensed, and driving with an open container in the car

Later we fight our case in court and as it turns out the lawyer finds fault with the prosecution's case on every charge except the open container, and the fine is reduced from $2500 to just $270.
The case is not closed yet as the fine has not yet been paid, we can still appeal against the open container charge, however we decide to pay the fine and get the ordeal done and over with.

Whew!!! so lesson learnt, never drink and drive, its a surefire way to end up in trouble.

Another lesson, while out of desh, do not try any funny stuff, you never know when Big brother is watching you. Tell me really which cop in desh pulls you over for overspeeding at 3 in the night ? and if so actually ends up arresting you.... I guess we are so used to the fact the greasing his palm will get us out of trouble that we never think that an arrest may be made, the only trouble in our minds is that he would ask for too much money and how we would have to negotiate.

Insomnia

Grrr. Cant sleep again. This used to happen all the time in 2006 but 2007 was much better.
So here i am at 7 AM giving up all hope of ever being able to sleep again , yawnnn!!!

So what did i do the day before to deserve this, first i cooked us some yummy schezwan rice, then i made myself a nice cocktail with coke, black label, and some everest chat masala ;-)... it was exotic. while still high on it i did the cardinal sin of watching some yummy gals on the net... twice, blissfuly went of to sleep at arnd 5 PM, only to be rudely woken up at 5:30 to meet a jogging appointment, excersised a bit and was expecting to sleep really sound. After that i didnt eat any dinner, but had some soup, fruits and juice instead along with roadies 5.0.

So why cant i sleeeeppp.. am i too stressed out or what ?? huh
have written this crap and still not an ounce of sleep, let me try writing a really long blog.