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.