Gan-Speaks

2009-08-04T00:53:00.000-05:00

यहान् सब् कुछ् है माँ फिर् भि..

लगॆ बिन् तॆरॆ मुझ्कॊ अकॆला..

Happy Birthday!!

The Inheritence Of Loss

2009-02-20T15:51:00.004-05:00

I just read this book which won the Booker prize a couple of years back. The book overall was'nt much to my liking but it is an undeniable fact that the book was beautifully written and for that reason ranks as a great book to read. I loved the characters Sai, Biju, the Cook and the Judge and most of all the Dog 'Mutt' and especially Sai's description of Mutt when she first sees him.

h(O)pe it is..

2008-11-11T13:14:00.006-05:00

Last week America made History by electing Barack Obama. It was good to see among many things respect bestowed upon America and its people by the International community after eight years of .. (Im out of words here).

His promises of change were obviously important (hopefully he keeps them) but the most important policy decision for me would be that towards India (No.. I am not referring to outsourcing here). Economic policies would continue to thrive under any administration but I hope he changes the political landscape which has been skewed for so long in favor of Pakistan. India did make its fair share of strategic blunders in the past but I hope all that changes and America adopts a more 'la israeli' kind of policy towards India.

The pro-israel policy did not happen overnight but happened because of the strength of the its diaspora, Lobby and the influence they have on the various walks of American life.

Indian Army Loses Two Majors

2007-10-05T19:32:00.000-05:00

“Don't let any militant escape,” these were the last words of Major D Raghuraman as he was airlifted from the gunbattle site in north Kashmir after being hit by a bullet in the chest.
Two army officers died in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday in an encounter after killing nine terrorists. But in their deaths, two deep tragedies have played out in two famlies across two cities.
Major KP Vinay and Major Dinesh Raghuraman, were the two soldiers who did their job - protecting the country. And in Srinagar where the men were bid a heroes' goodbye, the atmosphere was sombre as people gathered to give an emotional farewell to them.
It was great tragedy that hit the lives of the two because one was to get married and the other’s wife was expecting a child.
The last time Maj Vinay spoke to his family was when the told them that he wanted extra cards printed for his wedding, which he wanted to distribute to his friends. He was to return to Hyderabad for his wedding at the end of this month.
However, as the family was getting ready to celebrate his wedding, a phone call from his colleagues in Kashmir on Tuesday turned the celebrations into mourning.
“Ever since he got into the defence forces, we were prepared that his life was now dedicated to the nation,” says KP Vikram, Maj Vinay's brother.
Meanwhile, in Delhi, a flat in Lodhi Colony where Maj Raghuraman lived looked deserted as the family made way to the airport to receive his body.
His young wife hasn't stopped crying ever since she heard of his death. In two months, she is expecting their first child.
And at the airport, even as his son's body was taken away, S Krishnamurthy, Maj Raghuraman’s father, who himself is an army man, looked stoic.
“I am proud of my son as he laid his life down for the country,” says Krishnamurthy.
However, before his emotions failed him, a family yet to reconcile to their loss left the airport.
It will take a long time to come to terms with their personal tragedies for the two families.
But hopefully in the months or years ahead, they will look back with pride at the enormous sacrifice their sons made for the country.

Give Me Strength

2007-08-23T19:20:00.000-05:00

This is my prayer to thee, my lord---strike,
strike at the root of penury in my heart.
Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows.
Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service.
Give me the strength never to disown the poor
or bend my knees before insolent might.
Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles.
And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love.
-- Rabindranath Tagore

Measured by the Ages...

2007-01-29T11:52:00.000-05:00

A 2 & a half day car rental.. $$$
A Tank of Gas and 3 hours on the road... $$$
Battling sleep to watch the Maestro win.. yet again... Priceless!

Yeah.... Its me.

2007-01-26T15:02:00.000-05:00

whats your animal personality?

Tribute To A Legend..

2006-09-04T02:34:00.000-05:00

Hair-A-Gone!

2006-08-25T13:37:00.000-05:00

After a long time Im posting about my once favourite sport.. after the matchfixing row I have not been following the sport with the same vigor as I used to.
I am more neutral when it comes to this particular controversy involving Hair, even though I partially support this particular decision of Hair's and the Pakistani team being my least favourite team, I still believe that Hair has made many incorrect decisions in his career and does not deserve to be on ICCs elite umpires panel, a list from which he was omitted back in 2002, then reinstated the following year.
He according to many observers has been indifferent to Asian teams, subtly indicating that he is racist! Most of his controversial decisions have come against Asian teams- Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India (The infamous war of words with Kapil Dev). As a neutral observer I believe the decision was quite harsh.. but one still has to keep in mind that no team or individual is greater than than the game itself!

Luka Chuppi

2006-08-16T14:38:00.000-05:00

Luka Chuppi bahut huyi, saamne aa ja naa
Kahan kahan dhoondha tujhe, thak gayi hai ab teri maa
Aaja saanjh hui, mujhe teri fikar
Dhundhla gayi dekh meri nazar aa ja na..

I remember the days I used to skip this one song from the album.. and now it has become my favourite song in the album, I think it just goes to show how poorly defined my musical taste buds are, for it has taken me so long to like this song.. and for that matter I have had similar experiences with many Rahman's songs, but very few slow numbers of his.

According to the lyrics of the song a mother is singing to her son, asking him to stop hiding and come out as she is tired and worried looking for him. Lata Mangeshkar plays the mother (female vocalist) and the son(Male vocalist) is played by Rahman himself.
It was interesting to note that Rahman had taken the center stage with majority of the vocals, or atleast I got the feeling at the end of the song that he sang a greater portion.

Interestingly this is also my 100th post officially, even though I havent posted all of them!

My Birthday Cake & Gift!

2006-08-10T11:27:00.000-05:00

Blogging from a land far far away.. After a long time I had a birthday cake, I think after exactly 4 years.. and the Seinfeld dvd gift with seasons 1 & 2 kick starts my attempt to collect all 9 seasons covering around 10 years and 180 episodes of the show. If I had to rank all the tv shows I have watched since I was a kid, a lot of HBO shows would rank right on top but Seinfeld would rank as the numero uno! So I decided that Seinfeld would kickstart my dvd collection.. and so it happened!

Top ten reasons I've got to watch 'Superman Returns'

2006-06-26T16:37:00.000-05:00

Very few movies are on my must watch list, after DVC, its now Superman Returns, Some of the reasons I've got to watch..

10. The Megafranchise, from comic books to toys to electronic games, clothes, novels, DVDs, TV shows etc.. it is one of the biggest in franchise history.

9. The greatest superhero ever.

8. The 260 million dollar budget (Supposedly the most expensive movie ever made) Jus the curiosity to see what they have accomplished pumping in all that money.

7. Special effects, computer graphics & technology as such has come a long way since the superhero days of Christopher Reeve.

6. The cast including the new superman, a hollywood rookie carrying the weight of one of the biggest movies ever made. Brandon Routh as Superman is reminiscent of the late Christoper Reeve.

5. Bryan Singer,the highly talented director of X-Men, Usual Suspects , parts of King Kong to name a few.

4. The great Marlon Brando- recreated.

3. Kal Penn(Yeah that Indian guy from Harold & Kumar, American Desi..) plays a negative role! Kalpen Modi plays Stanford, a henchman to Spacey in what would be his greatest exposure yet.

2. Oscar winning actor Kevin Spacey who is one of my favorite actors plays the villainous role of the diabolical Lex Luthor.

1.And now on to the number one reason why I've got to watch the moviebeing one of the greatest fans of Christopher Reeve, I hope watching the movie will be a nostalgic experience

How beauteous the scorecard is..

2006-06-22T11:06:00.000-05:00

No prizes for guessing.. 'The You-nited states' (as forest gump says) is out of the world cup with a loss to Ghana! Nevermind the fact that my prediction has gone a little wayward(I predicted the Czech to go all the way to the quarters) , Im still happy with the end result in group E.

I cleared..

2006-06-19T13:00:00.000-05:00

Last week I cleared an 8th grade math quiz!
My Score:

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

http://www.blogthings.com/couldyoupasseighthgrademathquiz/

The other quiz I took was to determine which city is best suited for me..

The answer after a series of questions: Denver!

Tharoor it is..

2006-06-15T13:38:00.000-05:00

India is set to nominate U.N. Undersecretary-General Shashi Tharoor to succeed Kofi Annan when the U.N. chief's second five-year term ends at the end of this year. India will now lobby hard for Tharoor with other nations. The country will need nine of the 15 votes in the Security Council with no vetoes from the five permanent members.

Excerpts from www.shashitharoor.com

Born in London in 1956, Shashi Tharoor was educated in Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi (BA in History, St. Stephen's College), and the United States (he got his PhD at the age of 22 from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University).
Since 1978, he has worked for the United Nations, serving with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, whose Singapore office he headed during the "boat people" crisis. Since October 1989, he has been a senior official at UN HQ in New York, where, until late 1996, he was responsible for peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia. From January 1997 to July 1998, he was executive assistant to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. In July 1998, he was appointed director of communications and special projects in the office of the Secretary-General. In January 2001, he was appointed by the Secretary-General as interim head of the Dept. of Public Information. On 1 June 2002, he was confirmed as the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information of the United Nations.

FIFA Fussball-Weltmeisterschaft

2006-06-14T10:32:00.000-05:00

The Road to the final.. my prediction..

Group A
Winners - Germany
Runners Up - Ecuador

Group B
W - England
R - Sweden

Group C
W - Netherlands
R - Argentina

Group D
W - Portugal
R - Mexico

Group E
W - Czech Republic
R - Italy

Group F
W - Brazil
R - Croatia

Group G
W - France
R - Korea

Group H
W - Spain
R- Saudi Arabia

Pre- Quarters:
Germany vs Sweden; Netherlands vs Mexico

Czech vs Croatia; France vs Saudi

England vs Ecuador; Portugal vs Argentina

Brazil vs Italy; Spain vs Korea

Quarters:
Germany vs Netherlands; Czech vs France

England vs Portugal Brazil vs Spain

Semis:

Germany vs France

England vs Brazil

-----FINAL--------

Germany vs England

WHO WILL WIN??

I support Deutschland!

RDB!

2006-06-08T14:18:00.000-05:00

I watched the movie Rang De Basanti today, a movie I have been wanting to watch for a long time now. It was one of the finest cross over movies I've watched in recent times! Though a number of such movies are made, they are not sellable because of the lack of star power. Thanks to Aamir Khan the movie was able to pull the initial crowd and sustain because of its technical superiority, good screenplay and above all great background score by the maestro. Aamir has done a great job by simply agreeing to be part of the project unlike other Indian actors who care more about their image than the quality of the movie.

I feel a movie like this succeeded where other good movies like Swades failed because in Swades the director fresh out of a historical tries to cater to the masses as well, he tries to weave in a love story with numerous songs and consequently many dull moments, but here the director Rakeysh Mehra, who second film it is has done a good job allowing no boring moment in the movie. Incidently his first movie was Aks which was quite boring!

The movie also stars Madhavan Ranganathan, Soha Ali Khan Pataudi, Siddharth Narayanan, Atul Kulkarni, Kiron & Anupam Kher and a host of others including a firangi whose name I cant remember.

I learnt that Shah Rukh Khan was the first choice for Madhavan's role, and Hrithik Roshan was the original choice for Sidharth's. It would have been an epic had the three reigning superstars(Aamir,SRK and Hrithik) shared the screen and maybe Amitabh as the villain!!;)

The movie concludes with the followig statement:
MiG Fighter Planes have served our country since 1964 and have been instrumental in winning us wars.

However over the last 15 years, 206 MiG planes have crashed and 78 pilots have lost their lives.

In their memory and in honour of our Air Bourne Warriors who have laid down their lives for our country.

"The bh is back" - Elton John

2006-06-03T12:43:00.000-05:00

Back again after a brief hiatus, I have been extremely busy and not found time to blog, and I thank you for coming back;!

First things first, being a great fan of the Da Vinci code, I watched it on the first weekend of its release, even though the movie has been ripped apart by critics I felt it was a good movie, no other actor or director could have done justice to the novel. The director has dealt well with a complex plot with a lot of intricate details. Unfortunately for viewers in India the movie has been banned in 5 states thus far in India including Andhra, TN, Punjab and a couple of north eastern states.

X-Men 3 released a week later on the memorial day weekend and created a new record for the second or third best opening ever at close to 122 million, after Spiderman and Star Wars.

Talking about records, Exxon Mobil Created history after being the firm with the highest profits ever at a staggering 36 billion. Its CEO Lee Raymond's pay package for last year was nearly 50 million and his retirement package included a lump sum payment in excess of a 100 million.
Thanks to Hurricane Katrina, an excuse for oil companies to hike gas prices, the worlds largest public company has been able to post such earnings.

I visited the Niagara falls over the long weekend, I think its a spectacular worth the time one spends to get there. There is a boat ride with a nice name, " Maid of the mist" which lasts around half hour and there is the visit to the "Cave of the winds" if one wants to get drenched under the falls.

The French Open got under way at roland garros with top favorite and second seed Rafeal Nadal cruising through the to the round of 16. The others still in the fray are top seeded Federer, Ancic, Nalbandian & French teen Monfils. On the womens side cruising through to the final 16 are Hingis, Clijsters & Venus along with a host of seeds except top seeded Mauresmo who was upset by Czech teenager Vaidasova.

Apprentice season 5 reaches its finale, the finalists are 33 year old briton Sean, and 22 year Cornell grad Lee Beinstock who is an analyst out of Business/Consulting firm Accenture's, New York office. This season involves voting by viewers to help Trump decide the winner.. This might give the American an edge over the Briton, but lets wait and watch.

And finally something I have been wanting to blog about for a long time now, about the Chennai born teen Kaavya Viswanathan who was accused of plagiarism after her first book "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" was published. The novel was about a driven, high-achieving Indian-American teen trying to get into Harvard and it seems similarities were found between her writing and those of Megan McCafferty and Salman Rushdie. Her second novel, part of the original contract has now been cancelled and to make matters worse her former employer a local Jersey news paper has said that it will review all the articles she wrote while an intern back in 2003 and 2004.

I feel even if similarities were found, it may have been purely coincidential because I personally feel the girl is very gifted to be studying at Harvard and to have graduated from a high school, Bergen County Academies, where the acceptance rate is one in four and the average college admission's exam score is 30 percent higher than the state average - She also attended the school's premier Academy for the Advancement of Science & Technology. I dont think a girl of such talent could have knowingly plagiarised, anyway I hope for the best for her future.

Facts about India..

2006-05-20T22:39:00.000-05:00

Recently I was at a seminar on Human Capital Management and one of the sessions was about how India is emerging as the back office capital of the world. The following facts are based on a research by KPMG, most of these facts we know but some of it was so candid I was quite impressed..

There are 1600 languages spoken in India.

18 official languages with Hindi as the national language.

English is the language for national, commercial, and political communication.

People in North of India cannot understand people from South of India

4th largest economy by Purchasing Power Parity at $2.6 Trillion due to a growing middle class of 250 million people.

The Education system is based on British system there are India has one of the largest "higher education systems in the world" with more than 7 million graduates of which 3.1 million join the workforce each year.

Only 20% of the population speak English.

There are still More English speakers in India than in England and roughly equivalent to the no of English speakers in the US -200 million

India emerging the back office capital of the world, with the IT Enabled services projecting employment for 1.1 Million professionals by 2009

"May you be tough as a rock"

2006-04-25T10:20:00.000-05:00

The title is a quote from the Rig Veda which happens to be the motto of an ambitious political party whose candidate Ilanthirumaran, an iit alumna, is all set to take on DMK supremo, chief ministerial candidate & the grandfather of corruption- Karunanidhi.
The party has fielded seven candidates across the state in its maiden venture in the forthcoming assembly polls which happens to be the most complicated and closely faught polls the state has ever witnessed, with more tax payers money being pumped into the election campaign than ever before, a battalion of celebreties endorsing various political parties. All trying hard to break away from the bi-partisan politics that has been controlling the southern state for over 3-4 decades now.
Look out for the Axe & Drum(LP's Symbol) on the EVM!!

Where is the media??

2006-04-08T08:25:00.000-05:00

"ISB grad gets one crore salary" screams a news headline. Personally I have no doubt that the guy is probably a CEO in the making. But what suprises me is the amount of coverage Business Schools have been getting in recent times. In the last couple of years it looks like the B-Schools have resorted to advertising to increase student input.

Businesss Standard, Financial Times & Rediff seem to be covering news on Indian B-Schools almost like paid advertisements. On any given day there is news about an IIM or an ISB or even an ICFAI. Prestegious B-Schools like Wharton, Kellogg & Tufts dont brag about the multi million dollar pays awarded to some of their graduates.

A bomb blast in the holy city of Varanasi, what happened to the coverage? An Indian Scientist killed at India's leading research center, where is the media?

Interesting points of view via this article on IBN & the comments that followed:

A Suicidal Divide

Skyrocketing is no longer enough to describe the salaries of top 'B' school graduates. But I'd leave it to that till oxford comes up with a better replacement of the word.

I was anything but surprised when five ISB graduates got a package of a crore plus. Something like the upward graph of the sensex doesn't have a similar effect on my eyebrow.

I in no way question the ability and merit of these fairly young corporates and entrepreneurs. But what I do question is how is it that a largely agro-based economy will benefit from this? What probably affects our economy more is not the closing of the Bombay Stock Exchange for a week but a poor monsoon and a failed crop!

While these 20 something's were celebrating their mammoth salaries, a 32-year-old farmer in the onion belt of Maharashtra committed suicide because he could not pay back a loan of 40,000 rupees.

While these MBA's prepare to chalk out investment plans and analyze risk factors for big banking firms, can no one offer a suitable solution to the suicidal risk involved in the meager loans these farmers take?

These helpless farmers living on the edge continue to harvest hunger!

It's this growing divide... the crack that threatens to snap the very backbone of the Indian economy.

An interesting comment follows:

I fail to see the relevance. I ask all these havent u guys ever spent on luxuries - iPODs, PDAs, fancy mobile phones? Why not use that money to pay off some of their debt or contribute to some charitable cause. Or have u not spent money in some expensive restaurant? Very easy to preach.. Pls understand that there will always be some people who will have freakish fortune good or bad. What issue we have in our country is diferent.. I am happy that these guys are successful and since these B school guys have made us incur any social costs.. Good wishes to them

Inside Man

2006-03-28T14:47:00.000-05:00

The past weekend I was in Chicago to visit some of my friends. We went over to amc and after a lot of debate between V for Vendetta and Inside Man we decided to go for the latter.

The movie starred some big names like Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster , Clive Owen, Willem Dafoe(Spiderman I) etc. The movie ended up being good (3-4 stars) but defenitely not great. The plot was very unique and it all boiled down to how well the twist would shape up, and it ended up being a very simple twist that reminded me of how i felt after I watched a movie called collateral damage. (something that was expected)

The timing of the release was well planned because with not a lot of competition the movie is expected to gross atleast a 100 mn in the US alone.

The best part of watching the Inside Man was the OST of the movie, Chaiyya Chaiyya (from the bollywood flick Dil Se) by AR.Rahman.

Creativity at its best!

2006-03-19T13:08:00.000-05:00

Nine out of ten advertisements here are very creative and atleast one out of them ends up truly awesome. Here is one of the best ads I watched in recent times.. the amex ad featuring Night Shyamalan.

http://www.psfk.com/2006/03/m_night_shyamal.html

A trip to remember

2006-03-18T18:53:00.000-05:00

So the past weekend I went for a ski trip to Killington mt in Vermont. It was a fun filled three day getaway which I almost missed. I signed up for a one day package where I was given basic lessons and a complete equipment rental. After the basic training which lasted around 3 hrs, the overconfident sportsaholic that I am, I headed out to the hill meant for experienced Skiiers, and the next thing I knew I was falling all over the place. with every fall my heavy metal boots would hurt my leg, my five foot ski would twist my feet and the snow would seep into my clothing and by the time I got to the foot of the hill I was totally exhausted. I was reminded of one of my friends saying.."eehmm ahmm onnum mudiyale" The worst part of my experience was watching in awe, young 2 and 3 year old kids ski down the hill without even a pole as I was tumbling all over the place. I guess training at such a young age is one reason why this country produces phenomenal athletes.
But anyway all that hasnt dettered my spirit as I have decided to head to Aspen next season in my quest to become an accomplished skier ;).

"Persistence is the twin sibling of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time."

Aspen.. here I come..

From This Moment On

2006-03-13T09:49:00.000-05:00

Im back again after a brief hiatus to post the song of the month. I was trying to think of a good one for the past week and I settled for "From This Moment On" by one of my fav country artists, Shania Twain.

Hope the rest of the week turns out to be as pleasant as the voice. Yours too. Enjoy your day!

I wonder why she did it?

2006-02-11T23:36:00.000-05:00

I was shocked when I read this piece of news, I wonder why she did it?

4 hrs after chat with sister, actress found dead

One-and-a-half years after close friend and co-actor in the Sony serial C.A.T.S Nafisa Joseph ended her life, former Gladrags model and TV actress Kuljeet Randhawa (28) was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her living room on Wednesday evening.
Randhawa’s domestic help, who came twice a day to cook food, discovered her body at around 7.50 pm, when she opened the door to the posh three-room flat at Krishna Co-operative Housing Society, Juhu, with a pair of spare keys. Randhawa had been living there since July last year. “The external examination suggests death due to hanging,” said V N Tasgaonkar, medical officer at R N Cooper Hospital.
The police said Randhawa left behind a suicide note addressed to co-star Bhanu Uday, who plays the lead in Star One’s Special Squad. Randhawa’s eldest sister Kittu and Bhailal Gupta, her estate agent, both spoke to her hours before she was found dead.
“She called me at around 3.30 pm and sounded slightly low,” said Kittu. “She was probably missing home... she was a little disturbed but not this much, I mean, I never thought she would commit suicide.”
Kittu said Randhawa seemed happy. “There’s nothing that could have bothered her so much. She had recently joined a gym to keep fit... these things show that she wanted to live,” said Kittu. “I just cannot understand this. She was very impulsive and probably, it’s an impulsive thing that made her do this.”
Gupta also got a call at around 3 pm. “She said she wanted to vacate the flat because she was planning to go to the United States of America (Randhawa’s brother stays there). She wanted her Rs 1-lakh deposit back,” he said.
Gupta told her she would need to give a month’s notice. “She agreed and said she would vacate the flat by March 8,” said Gupta. “She sounded normal.”
According to the Juhu police, Randhawa had just returned from Delhi. “Just three days ago, she returned from Delhi after meeting her parents and relatives,” said Investigating Officer Police Sub-Inspector Manohar Desai.
Friends and actors, who interacted with Randhawa said she was a go-getter and a thorough professional, who was reserved and extremely emotional.
“She had a very strong connection with Nafisa,” said photographer Vikram Bawa, a close friend of Joseph. “When Nafisa died, Kuljeet cried and cried. It took us almost half a day to get her to stop.”
Sources said small incidents upset Randhawa and she took the slightest criticism from directors to heart.
Manish Wadhwa, Randhawa’s co-star in Sahara One’s Kohinoor, said she was strong and confident. “She was always on time and professional,” he said. Shivaji Satam, who starred with her on CID and earlier on Khaki, said, “She never had any temper tantrums.”
Anchor Mini Mathur interacted with her because Randhawa was Joseph’s close friend. “She was a little reserved, but I knew that all her co-actors were very fond of her,” she said. Randhawa was cremated on Thursday afternoon.

Excerpts from the suicide note:
Dear Bhanu,
You are the most beautiful person I have met in my life.... you taught me the meaning of love... Some cheques need to be cleared, keys to be given to my father... Everything in life is according to plans... As for my parents, I’m sorry. I’m sorry Mama. Keys of the car are to be handed over to my father. No one is to be blamed for this and it is entirely my decision.

My Life. My Card.

2006-02-07T21:05:00.000-05:00

Here's an original post.. the rare questionaire from Amex..

My Name- Rahul

childhood ambition- to be a pilot

fondest memory- too many

soundtrack- "Right here waiting" by Richard Marx

retreat- home in chennai

wildest dream- Winning the championship at Wimbledon.

proudest moment- everyday;)

biggest challenge- patience

alarm clock- perpetually silent cell phone which rings only to wake me up with the most irritating ring tone.

perfect day- A holiday

first job- cleaning the living room of my house for 5 Rs.

indulgence- procrastination

last purchase- Starbucks Coffee

favorite movie- Good will hunting, Satya, DDLJ

inspiration- SNG

My life- is not bad.

My card- is American Express.

Go Steelers!

2006-02-04T18:14:00.000-05:00

Tomorrows football game will be the years greatest tv event in the United States, the Super Bowl XL where in Detroit, the Pittsburgh Steelers(one of the teams from my state of residence) will take on the Seattle Sea Hawks(owned by microsoft co-founder Paul Allan). I am no fan of any team on the NFL, I feel unless and until you grow up with a team you cannot be a die hard fan, atleast in the short span that I've been here. but i do enjoy watching the sport. From the outside it looks like a sport involving nothing but muscle, but I have never seen more strategy implemented in any other sport- each team goes in with around 18 coaches for a game that plays 11 players on the field.

An added reason to watch the super bowl are the advertisements, all ads for the year will premiere on this day. In general the ads in the states are very creative, inspirational yet manipulative and I have succumbed to them on many occasions... from expensive digital cameras to late night drives to grab some food. I feel this talent is inborn and the people here are gifted when it comes to advertising and marketing. They well realize that for the economy to thrive people have to spend and they will stop at nothing to achieve it. A marked difference from what I saw back home, every other ad involved celebrities and numerous ads that never changed in decades viz, Vicco!

Interestingly the super bowl is probably the only major sporting event in which delays are perpetrated so as to fit in advertisements, but its hard to be ethical when revenues are at the rate of $100,000 per second. Hell.. I'd retire in a few seconds!

Aussie open favorites

2006-01-18T01:08:00.000-05:00

My favorite tennis player on the WTA is back, Martina Hingis. I hope shes stays on the tour for a long time to come!
My favorites for this years title are Roger Federer(cos Agassi is not playing),Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis (even though she may not win).
Also on the list are Davenport(SNG's fav), Marat Safin, Mario Ancic(aka baby Goran) and Nalbandian (the good thing for Federer is that they are in different sections of the draw).
Maria Sharapova and the Williams Sisters probably will never make my list of favs and for some strange reason I dont have Sania Mirza among my favorites even though shes Indian, probably the first Indian Athlete(phenomenon) I dislike! If she improves on her demeanor in the years to come she'll probably be back on my list(the coveted list;)! like Andrew Roddick, I used to hate him now I dont as much!

New Year Resolutions

2006-01-15T00:18:00.001-05:00

How many dreams will end,
How long can I pretend,
25 years have now passed me by..
~ A corruption of RM's balled (Richard Marx, not me;)

Have you ever taken resolutions on the eve or at the begining of a new year? Me? Every year from the age I remember! :)) This year is no different, hopefully I'll keep them. A lot of people say they dont believe in them, they feel guilty when they are eventually broken, so why take resolutions etc, which is true, but I feel even if its a week or a day, its still something. So I continue in the tradition of making, then breaking :))

Why the Marx lyric? cos I dug into my classic collection and spent a bit of new years eve listening to some of them, "Until I find you", "Right here waiting" etc.. listen to them if you get a chance.

A Good Feeling!

2006-01-13T00:04:00.000-05:00

Walking down Chicago's O'hare airport one can notice flags of various countries hanging down the ceiling, there would probably be around 40-50 flags in line spaced a good 5-10 feet away from each other. Alongside the flag are wordings that welcome people - for example, the flag of Ireland, and the wordings would read "Welcome to Chicago- Sister City to Dublin, Ireland", the flag of Japan would have -"Welcome to Chicago- Sister City to Osaka, Japan", I always thought of this as an innovative/creative way to promote camaraderie among countries and people alike. But the only problem- every country's flag had wordings attached, except one....the Indian national flag!

Everytime I arrive there, enroute exit I would walk by those flags for the sole purpose of seeing if they have attached wordings for India, and I would always be disappointed. Even countries like Ghana, Nigeria & Azerbaijan had wordings attached to their flags, "not that there is anything wrong with it" (courtesy- Seinfeld) but not India. did they not care about us Indians??

When I arrived there this new year, I finally saw the wordings for India. Better late than never.. It was a good feeling!

"Welcome to Chicago- Sister City to Delhi, India"

Im back.. In black..

2006-01-10T11:40:00.000-05:00

Posting after a long time.
Well wishers keep the link.
For their sake i think,
Im back..

Fed-Ex Derailed!

2005-11-20T15:28:00.000-05:00

David Nalbandian celebrates his first major tournament victory

The Boss aka Fed-Express, was derailed finally by Argentine David Nalbandian at the final of the season ending masters in Shnaghai.

In a victory that defied comprehension, Nalbandian came back from two sets down to pull off a five set victory in nearly 5 hours. Federer had his Open Era record streak of 24 consecutive final wins snapped after this loss at Shanghai. A win here would have put his winning percentage at 82-3 on par with John McEnroe's 1984 open era record.

Moving into the final Federer was the favourite more because he had finished off former French open champion Gaston Gaudio in the semifinal 6-0, 6-0 to notch his first career "Double Bagel"!

David Nalbandian is like the Goran Ivanesivic of the present generation, easily one of the best players out there, but yet to win a slam, Goran did win a slam but not at the prime of his career. But David is still in his prime and im sure his time will come sooner or later.

Rahel - Ammu - Estha!

2005-11-14T13:09:00.000-05:00

"They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved and how. And how much."

I spent the weekend reading this book by Arundhati Roy, the book is a semi-Autobiography and captures most of her life's experiences through the character of Rahel. Ammu is her mother, and Estha her fictional brother, Rahel and Estha are "Dizygotic" twins.
The story is about a Syrian Christian family in the Kottayam district of Kerala in the 60's when Communism was at its peak, the novel also captures a prominent facet of Kerala life, the caste system.

The God of Small Things- anchored to anguish, but a good read.

Mid week crisis!

2005-11-09T11:31:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I went over to amc for yet another movie.. this time starring Kirsten Dunst,Orlando Bloom,Jessica Biel and Susan Sarandon. I decided to watch Elizabethtown a long while back but kept postponing, I figured they might stop showing it if I waited another week, so I decided to go for it a day after I watched Jarhead.
Looking at it from the perspective of an average movie goeer, this movie is not meant for everyone,a boring movie by all means, But I enjoyed it! Its about a young mans journey to find the meaning of life, its about the south, the so called 'southern hospitality', Country music, Country music and.. did I say Country music?
So if you live in the south or if you love country music, or if you like Kirsten Dunst or even if you are a fan of Orlando Bloom, you will love the movie, otherwise it'd be a wise move to stay away. I decided to sit throught the movie only cos Im a fan of Kirsten Dunst.

The male lead, Bloom plays Drew Baylor who is a loser, which again I could relate to in many ways! Actually he calls himself a 'fiasco', now hopefully I wont turn into one. He plays a shoe designer who spends hundreds of millions on a shoe for nearly a decade and when the shoe debuts, it flops big time, plunging the company (An Oregon based company, they probably meant Nike!)into some serious trouble, obviously he is then fired, then he is dumped by his girlfriend, following which he turns suicidal.

Being an designer, he devices an innovative way to commit sucide, by taping a sharp knife to his excercise machine, which when moves forward will kill him! But to add to his cup of woes, just before he attempts to commit sucide he receives the sad news that his father had just died. He then has to leave to a small town in Kentucky called Elizabethtown to retrieve his fathers body. On his flight from Oregon to Louisville,KY he meets hostess Claire Colburn a die-hard optimist played by Kirsten Dunst. He unexpectedly falls in love with her and their romance helps him get his life back on track.

Critics have hit hard on this movie, I would not totally disagree with them, the movie is more like a subtle art movie, boring to most eyes, sometimes you might feel like you are taking a tour around the south or at times like watching some kind of tourism promotion documentary. But you can also notice the characters are very ordinary or uneventful, unlike the typical heros/heroines potrayed in most movies but more like the people we might meet in our day to day life, the movie captures the private emotions of the characters, overall an optimistic movie that tells you to live life to the fullest and withuot fear.

In conclusion a nice dialogue of Claire, "I'm impossible to forget, but hard to remember!" - True!

Welcome to the suck!

2005-11-07T00:18:00.000-05:00

..Yes I watched Jarhead- a very intense war drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx. It was one of the most awaited movies of the year, based on the life of Anthony Swofford, a former marine and the author of a best selling book by the same title. The movie comes from the creator of American Beauty, Sam Mendes, so you know what to expect! Jarhead is a slang for U.S marine enlistees, they are called 'Jar'-'Heads' because their heads resemble Jars after they get their military haircut.

-Spoiler Warning-
The story follows Anthony Swofford's journey as part of a specially trained sniper unit of the marines after the troops are deployed in Saudi during the Gulf war back in the early 90's. Jarhead is a very unique war movie, because it shows the side of a war hero that many people dont know of, it takes us thro the emotional intensity of a soilder who is obsessively trained and given no opportunity to use the training.The movie covers the sadistic minds of soilders deployed 1000's of miles away from their home,where they have to continue their rigorous regimes in soaring temperatures, their loved ones turn unfaithful during the hiatus and they never get to see the enemies they were supposed to kill and throughout their deployement none of these soilders fire a single bullet, All these trying situations nearly drive these already sadist soilders insane. The movie concludes with Swofford saying that, whether he holds it or not, his rifle will always be a part of his body.

"Every man is different. Every man is the same"

SOS..

2005-11-03T14:08:00.000-05:00

Hello friends,

I have been trying to raise funds towards helping a college mate of mine, I was wondering if you would help me.
He is trying to save the life of his fiancee who suffers from Leukemia or Blood cancer and is desperately seeking financial assistance. Any contribution would be greatly appreciated. If possible please donate what ever you can.

Thank you for your time,
Sincerely
GS

Name of account holder : S. Saravana Kumar
ICICI account # : 603801502982
www.money2india.com

"I do not believe in a God or religion which cannot wipe the widow's tears or bring a piece of bread to the orphan's mouth." Swami Vivekananda.

TGIF!

2005-10-28T09:04:00.000-05:00

In every Ocean of difficulty, lies an Island of
opportunity.

I have just completed reading a Vikram Seth novel, a novel I started last week. The story is set in the formative years of India post Independence, and revolves around a Mother's search for a suitable boy for her daughter and along the way the stories of various families whose paths intersect. The book includes an enormous cast of characters but each of them are easliy distinguishable from each other The book is deftly written but very lengthy.

I was very impressed with the way Seth has gotten into the skin of each of his characters from toddlers to teenagers, from the middle aged to the old.. After reading the book I feel like I have gotten to know all the members of the various families so well. One difficulty I faced was properly understanding the 'Ghazals' even though the urdu poetry was translated. Some of his other works include 'Golden Gate' and 'An Equal Music'.

Seth now lives in Salisbury, England. He was born in Kokalta and interestingly the novel 'Suitable Boy' is set around the time he was born. Seth studied PPE(Politics, Philosophy and Economics) from Oxford and spent 11 years at Stanford and failed to get his Phd. He has just launched his 'Two Lives' published by Time Warner.

Great Minds Think Alike.. Or Do They?

2005-10-25T15:22:00.000-05:00

Once when Gandhi visited Tagore's school at Santiniketan, a young woman got him to sign her autograph book.

Gandhi wrote: "Never make a promise in haste. Having once made it fulfill it at the cost of your life."

When Tagore saw this entry, he became agitated. He wrote in the same book a short poem in Bengali to the effect that no one can be made "a prisoner forever with a chain of clay."

He went on to conclude in English, possibly so that Gandhi could read it too, "Fling away your promise if it is found to be wrong."

Headliners & Legends!

2005-10-24T10:01:00.000-05:00

"Mr. A takes center stage!"
Legendary film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan received the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award for the year 2004 from Indian President Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The Dada Saheb Phalke is the most prestigious award for contribution to film making. Mr Adoor is the first living person to be awarded the Phalke award.

"Quake rocks PoK & J&K.. "
A girl holds her younger brother as they walk through a makeshift refugee camp in Muzaffarabad, eight days after a 7.6 magnitude earthquake shattered the region. Pakistan has said that the last week's earthquake have killed at least 38,000 and left 3.3 million people homeless.

"The name's Bond, James Bond"
Actor Daniel Craig is unveiled as the new James Bond 007, ahead of the forthcoming filming of the 21st installment in the series, Casino Royale, on the River Thames in east London. To date, six actors have been signed to portray 007(Double 'oh Seven) in the official series (in chronological order): Sean Connery ,George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton , Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig.
I still think Sean Connery is the best! A true legend!

"Deserved thee not.."
Saif Ali Khan receiving the National award for the best actor for his performance in "Hum Tum!" :(. His mother Sharmila, happened to be the chairman of the selection commitee!

"Daddy's day out!!"..
Rahul: "Guess what Andy? Its official, Im now Captain!"
Andy: "Yeah.. that bloke sucked! So will you.. Im gonna remove my shirt & celebrate.."
World XI bowler Andrew Flintoff, left, of England celebrates with teammate "Father & Captain" Rahul Dravid of India in their ICC Super Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

"Dada- Fall from grace.."
Prince of Kolkata, Sourav Chandidas Ganguly talks to the media after a morning workout at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Ganguly was removed from the Indian squad for the forthcoming one-day series against Sri Lanka and South Africa by Indian selectors.

"Boy Genius"
After launching "Two Lives" across India in four major cities, it was the final stop home that Vikram Seth must have loved most. The launch in Delhi, on Thursday evening, coincided with his mother Justice Leila Seth's 75th birthday. I have just started reading Seth's novel "A suitable boy". Im outa words to describe his genius!

"Legends unite.. For a cause.."
Acting legends Richard Gere and Kamal Hassan at a function called 'Atime for heroes' organised in association with the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS.

"INFOSYS-GOWDA SPAT.." <..continues.. <..Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor- Infosys)
How we Indian citizen's respond to the spat....>

"One for a Billion"
Narain Karthikeyan of Jordan Toyota team (centre) poses during a team group photo session at Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai. The second F1 Grand Prix of China took place at Shanghai.

"Less endorsements.. More wins please!!"
Sania Imran Mirza, the Indian tennis sensation at yet another product launch! I hope she continues to live up to her billing!

"How Jobless is Jobless"
Not Katrina Kaif, but the people who voted for "Blistex India's Most Beautiful Lips" award. And how jobless am I to post this!

Random thoughts.. contd

2005-10-20T12:54:00.000-05:00

On the corruption index, India seems to have dropped two places to 86th most corrupt nation, whoa! Anyway, the article also says that Indians pay 210 billion in bribes every year!! and kerala is the least corrupt state in India, while Bihar the most corrupt. Corruption in India comes in different sizes, once there was a police officer who too Rs 5 from me cos I was driving without a license! and the best case was a friend of mine who paid 1 Rupee to a police guy in Kolkata to get off being charged for running a red light! Some of my friends have even paid Rs 1000 to get off being charged! At the higher end are politicians who make millions from tax payers money. An example is the construction of needless flyovers in chennai during the late 90's by the then mayor of the city- MK.Stalin, who got a fat cut from each one of those!

I missed the last episode of the apprentice but I checked out what went on from the nbc website, as expected the women lost, Toral was a Total disaster, and she was fired! Trump said he felt bad he had to fire someone that smart (A wharton graduate)! I feel there should be some kind of psychological screening before entry into prestigious B-Schools!

A list of funny and nice names I have come across-
'Apple' Paltrow (Funny) - Gwynyth Paltrow's daughter.
'Salma Hayek' (Nice) - Actress
'Murasoli' Maran (Funny) - Industrialist
'Vijay Mallya' (Nice) - Industrialist
'Mammooty' (Funny) - Actor
James 'Gandolfini' (Nice) - Actor
'Ho Chi Minh' (Funny) - Leader
'Augustine Cheung' (Nice) - A friend
'Kurian-Kurian Cherian' (Funny) - Doctor
'Abbas-Mustan' (Nice) - Directors
'Puli' (Funny) - A common name in South India
'Achamma' Puliyanthil (Funny) - A friend
'Alessandro Del-Piero' (Nice) - Soccer Star
'Raji Rajan' (Funny) - A friend
'JFK' (Nice) - Politician
'Murtaza Bhutto' (Funny) - Politician
'Ashwathaman Menon' (Nice) - Journalist
'Maman Matthew' (Funny) - Journalist

After a long time I burnt a music CD a couple of days back, cos I found it cumbersome to keep switching CD's which had my fav songs, so I burnt 3 CD's- 1. English, 1. Hindi and 1. Tamil, This gave me the freedom to play 3 CD's over and over again instead of playing over a dozen! And now I have given my iPod a break. Of late I've started downloading a lot of Indian MP3 but very rarely do I download English MP3, Why? cos Indian cyber laws are not very strict! and here they are not really bothered about Indian music anyway!! Man.. that makes me feel guilty!!

My favourite Brands..
Levi's Jeans
Starbucks Coffee
Apple
American Express
Google
Coke
Marlboro
IBM
Blackberry
Nike
Lockheed Martin
Boeing
Tommy Hilfiger
Sean John
Bose
Infosys
Heineken
Police
Booz Allen
Ben Sherman
GAP-Kids
Audi
Sony
Visa
GE
Roc-a-fella

A list of cities/countries that I have really enjoyed my stay at..
Chennai- India
Coimbatore- India
Goa- India
New York- U.S
Chicago- U.S
Boston- U.S
Philadelphia- U.S
Columbia- U.S
Arlington- U.S
Miami- U.S
Washington- U.S
Colombo- Sri Lanka
Neuralia- Sri Lanka
Male- Maldives
London - England
Manchester- England
Singapore- Singapore

Random Thoughts..

2005-10-18T21:39:00.000-05:00

Its close to 2 a.m and here I am with so much work to do, yet doing nothing but writing a blog! My work is going haywire, I missed an important call today. I have to prepare to make up during another at 8 a.m tomorrow. Im looking at a modest target of 7 a.m so that Ill have atleast an hour for the 8 a.m call, I need to prepare cos I always goof up. But its already late and I doubt I'll make it. Nothing seems to be going my way!!

Now onto the subject of random thoughts- I was reminded of a famous tag line "The future is bright, the future is Orange" and my personal tag line now reads, "the future is blank, the future is black"

I feel like I've lost my mojo, I thought maybe if I re-started my excercise regime.. might be able to find it again. So I started that off- cos im paying a good price each month and atleast for that I decided to go, then I shaved and went for a haircut(after a long time.. ) It did some good, cos atleast I dint feel like a beggar, but im still searching...

There was a Nike ad campaign before the Copa America in 1999, it showed a football stadium on fire, but the football players still playing on.. and the ad ends with a line.. "The game must go on.. Nike.. Jus' Do It". So I tell myself "My future beckons.. so the game must go on!".

During a conference once, each one sitting in the room was asked what car they would like to own, most people responded with BMW, some with Acura and I responded saying an 'Audi', a voice from behind me asked me "A4?", the only model I was familiar with was the A4, cos I remember Ravi Shastri and Aravinda De Silva winning A4's for the Man of the Series awards at the world series and world cup respectively, so I said "A4" :).

At the same conference we were also asked what our favourite cuisine was, I said Afgan! cos I thought tandoori stuff is Afgan! I hope I am right!

Back in college days there were a number of clubs, for the first three years the most prominent of them was Dramatics, I always used to wonder how they come up with the ideas they ended up with cos none of the members seemed really creative.

Sometimes I look around to find a lot of ACDC's (Already Confused De-C) this is an abbr I coined so I hold the copyright! ACDC's are basically desi people with thick Indian accents, mostly middle aged or atleast nearing their 30's, who so badly want to be american and in the process they end up looking very cheap! They try hard to fake the accent and the lingo! Kyon? insecurity I guess! I dont intend to offend anyone, so in conclusion dont be fake!

I also got a request from a friend to fill up a loong 'get to know me' tag, so i thought Ill fill up what little I can, come back and do the rest later cos Im a little tired now.. Ill be back with more random thoughts..

1. FAVORITE BREAKFAST IS... Anything other than cereal!
2. THE MOVIES I'VE WATCHED MOST NUMBER OF TIMES ARE... Good Will Hunting, Company
3. LEAST FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL... Chem-Mystry!
4. SPEND MY LEISURE TIME . Sleeping, Driving around playing my fav music!
5. WORST SMELL? A Fart I guess!
6. IF I COULD HAVE ANY CAR IN THE WORLD,WHAT WOULD IT BE?... An Audi Baby!
7.FAVORITE COLOR/s? Gray! Blue.
8.FAVORITE MUSIC Bolton, Vandross, Rahman, Burman
9. IF I COULD REPEAT COLLEGE, I'D TAKE- Economics & Math!
10. THREE THINGS I CAN'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT?... 1.My Wallet 2.My Cell Phone 3.My Car Keys.
11. FIRST THING I BOUGHT WITH MY FIRSTSALARY... Later!(Too late to think)
12. I'D LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED AS.. Raul!
13. SPECIALTY IN COOKING? Chicken!
14. PRESENT CRUSH? None.. maybe Kavya Madhavan!
15. FAVORITE HANG-OUT? "The Signature Room" in Chicago! & Four Seasons in Coimbatore!
16. BEST PLACE TO SHOP? Hechts!
17. FAVORITE PLACE IN YOUR HOUSE? Bedroom!
18. BEST GIFT YOU'VE GIVEN? A 'Love Actually' DVD!
19. WEIRDEST GIFT YOU RECEIVED? Later!
20. GIFT THAT YOU WANT TO RECEIVE AS OF THIS MOMENT? Some good sleep!
21. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE BEST QUALITY OF THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Talkative!
22. YAHOO OR HOTMAIL ? Hotmail!
23. LEFT OR RIGHT? Right Handed, Right Conservative ;)
24. BLACK OR WHITE? Black
25. BLACK OR BLUE PEN? Black
26. SANDALS OR SHOES? Sandals
27. COKE OR PEPSI? Coke!
28. LAST PERSON WHO MADE YOU LAUGH? Pars!(A friend)
29. LAST PERSON WHO MADE YOU BLUSH? Later!
30. THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED Laters!
31. SOMEONE TO BE WITH Laters!
32. CELPHONE UNIT Sony-Ericsson!
33. FAVORITE CHOCOLATE Toblerone!
34. FAVOURITE NOVEL Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less!
35. FAVOURITE ACTOR .. Denzel, Damon, Rajni, Mohanlal

Boy that was quick!!

Pick of the month..

2005-10-17T08:16:00.000-05:00

The top five songs of the month are..

At 5. a time pass song- Aap ki kashish - Ashique Banaya Aapne
Himesh Reshammiya

At 4. is an old timer - Tumse Kitna Pyar hai- Company
Altaaf Raja/Snadeep Chowta

At 3. is a very catchy number- Oru maalai ilaveyil neram- Ghazni
Karthik/ Harris Jayaraj

At 2. by best rapper of all time - Gold Digger - Late Registration
Kanye West

And at 1. is my pick of the month by one of my fav bands- Wake me up when September ends
Green Day

September has ended.. Adios!

Top 10 Corporate leaders- 2005

2005-10-14T14:06:00.000-05:00

I remember thinking about doing my MBA a couple of years back, my family still wants me to pursue an MBA, but I have given up on that- yes totally, unless I sit someday post quarter life crisis, and decide that I need to make more money, but that doesnt look like it will be a priority and taking up to books again is not exactly some thing I am motivated to do, though in recent times I have started reading extensively, though not on the technical or the fictional side, more into biographies, autobiographies and philosophy. It is one of the best ways to relieve oneself from stress at work and personal life.

Now coming to the elite list I intended to create, it is a list of the most prominent Indian leaders amd entreprenuers this year. I have not considered including the 'old horses' like Azim Premji, Narayana Murthy, Rahul Bajaj, etc.

10. Ram Shriram- Making the first cut at no.10 on the list is a venture capitalist and one of the earliest investors in Google, he is still a member of the Google board of Directors. Ram counselled Google’s founders during the earliest days and has a book titled “Ram’s Book of Mistakes”. Google follows Ram's advice of hiring only the best, and makes hiring decisions after a gruelling four hour interview. Ram believes in hiring only the A people, Someone asked a good question: How did Shriram decide who are so-called “A” people? and his response- Grooming is a part of it. “I try to find out who their mothers are,” he said. If they are raised well, they’re more likely to make good citizens, employees and entrepreneurs. Shriram went to Loyola college in Chennai and later to UMich at Ann Arbor for an MBA

9. Malvinder Singh- At no.9 is Malvinder Singh, the President Pharmaceuticals and Executive Director of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (RLL), India's largest pharmaceutical company that also ranks among the top ten generic players in the world. Malvinder Singh is the elder son of the iconic Parvinder Singh who turned Ranbaxy from a middling Indian company into a growing multinational giant. Ranbaxy is India's pharmaceuticals giant, with ambitions to be a global major. Given the nature of the pharmaceuticals market, much of the growth will come from abroad. Malvinder has an MBA from Fuqua at Duke.

8. Lakshmi Narayanan- Making the list at no.8 is the CEO and president of Cognizant, a New Jersey based consulting firm. Lakshmi began his career at Tata Consultancy Services, growing through the ranks from developer, to technologist, to program manager, to business leader. He was a regional head of Tata in India when he joined Cognizant as CTO. Lakshmi has an MBA from IISc Bangalore.

7. Dayanidhi Maran- At no.7 is a young Harvard graduate, Dayanidhi Maran, a successful businessman- formerly the head of SCV is currently the Union minister for Communications & Information Technology, he is part of the Ivy league trio with pivotal portfolios in the central ministry's cabinet, Palaniappan Chidambaram(FM) and Manmohan Singh(PM) are the other two.(btw Manmohan was conferred a doctorate by Harvard adding to his Oxford/Cambridge Phd's) Dayanidhi has been doing a phenomenonal job and India has been taking rapid strides in the already flourishing tech sector.

6. Nandhan Mohan- At no.6 on the list is the youngest of the Infosys co-founders, Nandan is presently the CEO of Infosys, took over from Narayanamurthy in 2001 and has been leading the Indian I.T giant very efficiently. The firm seems to be raking up profits quarter after quarter, beating its revenues by nearly 40% each quarter. Nandan got his bachelors from the Indian Institute of Technology.

5. Anil Ambani- The younger of the Ambani brothers, the business magnate with political influence edges out his brother to make the list. Anil is the chairman of Reliance Capital, Reliance Infocomm, and Reliance Energy. His more recent moves includes a stake at 'Adlabs films' and is set to invest 100 crores in entertainment, extending the reach of India's largest conglomerste into entertainment. Anil is a graduate from the Wharton business school.

4. Vinod Khosla- The man with the midas touch, considered one of the most successful and influential personalities in Silicon Valley. He was one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems and is currently a general partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, where he has been since 1986. Khosla is an IIT/Carnegie/Stanford pass out.

3. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw- Making the list at no.3 is the only woman on the list, and among the few women who were shortlisted. She is the founder of the Biotech major Biocon's Indian arm. When Kiran founded the pioneering biotech company, no one would work for her. Today she's the richest woman in India. She has a B.S. in zoology at the University of Bangalore and an M.S. in brewing from Ballarat College in Australia.

2. Shiv Nadar- Forbes magazine describes Nadar as a self-made software billionaire. Shiv Nadar restructured his $907 million (revenues) HCL Group, India's leading IT group, which fell prey to the global tech spending slowdown. Merged all software business into flagship HCL Technologies in a bid to shore up its stock price, off nealry 30% last year. Diluted his stake in computer education firm NIIT, a declining business,while his firm invested in IT joint ventures with British Telecom, Jones Apparel Group and Deutsche Bank. Spends most of his time in California, drumming up business. Nadar has a Bachelors in Engineering from PSG tech

1. Lakshmi N. Mittal- Mittal has been the most dominant Indian entrepreneur this year and aptly is numero uno on the list. Lakshmi N. Mittal is the Chairman and CEO of Mittal Steel Company. He founded the company in 1976 and in about a decade, Lakshmi Mittal built Ispat International from a wire rod manufacturer in Indonesia to the fourth largest steel producer in the world, largely through a series of strategic acquisitions. Mittal has a Bachelors degree in Commerce from St. Xaviers Calcutta.

The list of the final 25 contenders :

Mukesh Ambani - Reliance Industries
Anil Ambani - Reliance Infocomm
Kumaramangalam Birla- Aditya Birla Group
Dipak Jain - Kellogg B-School, Dean
Vivek Paul - Ex -Wipro
Phaneesh Murthy - I-flex, Ex- Infosys
Lakshmi Narayanan- Cognizant
Shiv Nadar - HCL
Nandan Mohan - Infosys
Ram Shriram - Google
Gururaj Deshpande - Sycamore
Vinod Khosla - Ex - Sun
Arun Netravali - Ex - AT&T Bell Labs
S Ramodorai - TCS
Dayanidhi Maran - IT Minister
Kalanidhi Maran - Sun Network
Malvinder Singh - Ranbaxy
Lakshmi Mittal - Mittal Steel
Sabeer Bhatia - Sify- Ex-Hotmail
Krishnan Suthandhiran - Best Medical
Barath Desai - Syntel
Padmashree Warrior - Motorola
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw - Biocon India
Rajiv Bajaj - Bajaj Auto
Sunil Mittal - Bharti Telecom

The Apprentice 4 and more..

2005-10-12T10:06:00.000-05:00

I feel like it has been ages since I last blogged, the last week wasnt particularly pleasant.
I sat at home sick and tired, watched a few movies and slept most of the time. I happened to watch the Apprentice on TV after a very long time, I remember watching every episode of the first season, but since then lack of time and my forgetfulness dint let me watch any of the episodes from the other 2 concluded seasons. The most prominent of the candidates on the Apprentice 4 is an Investment banker named Toral, a native of Philly and of Indian/Punjabi origin she attended the Wharton Business school at the University of Pennsylvania. At 29 she is the Vice President of a major Investment Bank in New York, She is a self made multi millionaire and an expert in closing multi millon dollar business deals. It is almost a certainity that she will not make it as the Apprentice as her aggressiveness is unbound and she is simply hated by her teammates. My pick is as the fourth Apprentice is Randal.

Now on to some of the movies I watched during my hiatus.
Parineeta- The celluloid version of a Sarath Chandra Chattopadhyay novel. Like his other novels such as Devdas, even this novel has had many adaptations and this is the 5th or 6th version. The last one I remember watching was with the legendary Meena Kumari and Ashok Kumar. The movie has been produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra who has made some good movies like 1942 a Love Story, Mission Kashmir.. etc. And after the super successful Munnabhai, VVC is back with Sanjay Dutt again playing the stellar role of Girish, the rest of the cast includes Saif Ali Khan as Shekar and a new face Vidya Balan as Lalitha. Lolita(Lalitha in Bengali) and Shekar fall in love before they know what the word means -- They share joys and sorrows through childhood and adolescence, and unknown to them the relationship of an unspoken right they hold over each other meta morphs into a love so intense, they can't even sense it coming. It takes an outsider, Girish, for them to discover that there's something between them that's bigger than both of them. Sans the climax the movie was pretty decent.

Ghazni- A story about a short term memory loss patient who hunts down his lover's killer with photographs, notes and tatoos, a rehash of the critically acclaimed hollywood flick 'Memento' starring Guy Pearce and Carrie-Anne Moss (Of the matrix fame). There have been many movies remade or inspired from hollywood, but most of them are simply cheap imitations, very few of them stand out like the famed 'Nayagan' (Inspired by Godfather and listed among Time magazines 100 greatest movies), 'Dalapathi' (Inspired by Mahabharath) and more recently Sarkar (Remake of The Godfather) All these movies were rehash's of preexisting concepts yet stood out because of a common link- great directors and great actors, Ghazni may not be on par with the ones listed above but wasnt a bad watch, because of good performances from the hero Surya as a business tycoon Sanjay and his lady love Asin as Kalpana and excellent music by Harris Jayaraj.

Crash- Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters: a black police detective with a drugged out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the distracted district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist veteran cop (caring for a sick father at home) who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful black Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter who is afraid of bullets, and more. Overall a strong, provocative movie starring Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Brendon Fraser, Ludacris and a host of multiethnic characters.

Maria Full Of Grace- This is my first time, watching a Spanish movie, I guess theres a first time for everything, A story of a pregnant seventeen year old Columbian girl who decides to become a drug mule for the sake of money for her family. She is detained at the New York airport under the suspision of being a drug mule, later her urine samples reveal that she is pregnant and they are forced to abort the x-ray test that would reveal the drugs concealed in her stomach. These drug mules are expected to swallow anywhere between 60 and a 100 heroin capsules, each weighing 10gms, 4 cms long and 2 cms wide. If any one of these capsules break, it would result in the death of the person carrying it and on each flight to New York from Columbia, nearly half a dozen such mules are sent so that even if a few are caught, the others can still make it across. If they make it, they are paid $5000 which is supposed to be nearly 10 million in columbian currency. After the ordeal in which Maria loses her friend, she decides to stay back in the US for the sake of her child, as she does not want her child to grow up in Columbia. This movie is supposed to be based on a 1000 true stories and has won numerous awards including an Oscar nomination.

Now on to some news stories in the last month or so:

A massive quake in South Asia, hit Pakistan occupied Kashmir and parts of Jammu & Kashmir. the toll in PoK is nearly 40,000 while the toll in J&K is nearly about 1000.

GM's spinoff Delphi, an autmotive parts supplier has filed for bankruptcy, paralysing the giant automaker which is still liable for a host of payoffs that may account upto $11 bn since the spinoff had taken place less than 8 years back.

Apple has launched its latest iPod called the nano, the impossibly thin iPod can hold anywhere between 500 and a 1000 songs.

Conservative leader Angela Merkel is all set to become Germany's first female Chancellor.

I Hope to be back soon, and not take any more unexpected breaks, signing off with a nice quote.
"Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness."- The Architect of the Matrix

2005-10-05T09:27:00.000-05:00

Salaam Namaste

2005-09-25T14:08:00.000-05:00

Today ends another mundane weekend! I watched a few movies to kill time as a bad head ache was killing me!
Pinjar- this movie stars urmila matondkar, manoj bajpai and a host of unknown actors. The only trouble I faced was understanding all the dialogues/lyrics, because a lot of it was in urdu. The story is set during the partition of India and is well taken because it does not seem to be biased in anyones favor. I felt there were too many songs and the movie was a bit too long. The movie was distributed internationally by the renowned 20th Century Fox. Over all it was a long but good movie.

My Wife's Murder- this movie is a typical 'Andhrawala' Ram Gopal Varma movie, very much like his other thrillers 'Kaun', 'Road' 'Vaastu Shaastra', 'Bhooth' etc.., Even though he did not direct the movie, he is the producer. He has not spent a penny more than the reunmeration for the actors because 90% of the movie is shot indoors. The lead role is played by Anil Kapoor and Suchitra Krishnamoorthy plays his wife whom he kills accidently, the rest of the movie is about what happens after that.

Ashiq Banaya Aapne- I dont know why I took this movie, it was a waste of time. I heard the songs some time back and liked it, especially the title song. I was really shocked to see a hindi movie with so much sleaze, I have learnt that however bad a Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan or any known actors movie may be, it can still be watched with the family. But i you choose to go for a movie with new faces, all you are goin to find are girls wearing skimpy clothes still trying to expose themselves, and guys who cant act, but can flex their muscles well.

I also had the opportunity to listen to some old hindi songs the pick of them was 'Kabhie Kabhie Mere Dil Mein' beautifully written by Sahir Ludhianvi, I tried my hand in translating the poetry..

Kabhi Kabhi mere dil mein khayaal aata hai- Ki jaise tujhko banaya gaya hai mere liye- Tu abse pehle sitaaron mein bas rahi thi kahin- Tujhe zameen pe bulaya gaya hai mere liye
(Sometimes the thought comes to my mind- that you've been created just for me- before this you were living in some far off star- and you were called to the earth just for me)

Kabhi Kabhi mere dil mein khayaal aata hai- Ki ye badan ye nigaahein meri amaanat hain- Ye gesuon ki ghani chhaon hair meri khatir- Ye honth aur ye baahein meri amaanat hain
(Sometimes the thought comes to my mind- that your body and eyes were mine- your dark hair is for me only- these lips and these arms are for me)

Kabhi Kabhi mere dil mein khayaal aata hai- Ki jaise bajti hain shehnaaiyaan si raahon mein- Suhaag raat hain ghoonghat utha raha hoon main- Simat rahi hai tu sharma ke apni baahon mein (Sometimes the thought comes to my mind- just as one hears music of the shehnaiyi on the road- Its the wedding night and I am lifting your veil- you come into my arms all shy)

Kabhi Kabhi mere dil mein khayaal aata hai- Ki jaise tu mujhe chaahegi umr bhar yoohin- Uthegi meri taraf pyaar ki nazar yoohin- Main jaanta hoon ki tu geir hai magar yoohin
(Sometimes the thought comes to my mind- that you'll love me all your life- you will look at me with love in your eyes- I know you are a stranger, but still.. )

Salaam Namste!

Mixed Emotions

2005-09-17T11:04:00.000-05:00

Exhausted#:-S
This week has been really hectic, we had to hit some really tight deadlines and had to put in some crazy hours. But the week has seen a lot of highs and lows, so i thought i will go through some of the events and how i felt and reacted to them.

Pain:-&
I had a bad cavity to add to my cup of woes, due to which I could not even drink cold water. I went to the dentist to get it fixed.

Relieved#:-S
In the midst of a very hectic week I received my performance appraisal, which wasnt great and wasnt too bad either, so even though i wasnt totally happy i was kind of relieved to get it done with.

Sad:(
The US open championship concluded last week with Kim Clijsters and Roger Federer winning the womens and mens singles titles respectively, I was cheering for Andre like most fans must have at the Arthur Ashe stadium and across the US, but Andre ended up loosing to the "Boss". He was up a break in the third set and I thought he would pull it off but Roger then raised his game to a whole new level and the veteran could not really do anything. I was really pissed off when the match was over.

CoolB-)
H1bees: this is the name of the music album released by a few south Indian software engineers living in the US. The seven-song, tri-lingual album — in English, Hindi and Tamil — celebrates the life of the immigrant techies starting with their encounter with the US visa officer.'Standing in line, papers in my hand, All my answers, practised and planned, He asked,/ would ya ever come back home?/ Yes sir, I will, but first give me that H-1B!, Give me that H1-B!’ goes a song." The songs convey the sentiments every immigrant goes through at different stages in life. This is a journey of independence from frugality to conformity," says Srikanth Devarajan, a computer engineer who leads the band. Some 600,000 highskilled Indian guest workers are estimated to have come to the US since the start of the H1-B visa programme in the early 1990's.
The following are the songs on the album, and my ratings::
H1bees [English]- **
Thedi Thedi[Tamil]- ***
Dollaril Income/Varavu Etanna[Tamil]- ****
Dhiku Theriyadha Katil[Tamil]- ****
Kanale Ambu Vitu[Tamil]- ****
Engineering Markku[Tamil]- *****
Hibees[Hindi]- ***
There was an auction on e-bay for the items used in the superhit south Indian movie 'Chandramukhi', the first item sold was the sun glass used by the ''Rajni', they were sold for Rs25000, the proceeds of the auction will be used for charitable purposes.
Google launches its new tool specifically for searching blogs at blogsearch.google.com.
Indian teen sensation Sania Mirza hits a career high ranking of #34 on the WTA.

Suprised:-O
Oracle has decided to buy the leading CRM company Seibel for $5.8 billion. After Retek and People Soft, this is going to be Oracles 3rd big acquisition in about a year. I wonder whats next?
Vijaykanth a popular tamil actor launched his own party recently in madurai, the party is called DMDK. The last successful actor turned politician in Tamil Nadu was MG.Ramachandran. Like in his movies, he aims at a corruption free state. He also said the party would go into the general elections without any alliances in all the constituencies.
Microsoft to buy AOL. and two major American airlines have filed for bankruptcy after fuel prices sky rocketed after the hurricane.
The Indian cricket team's captain Saurav Ganguly was asked to step down by the coach Greg Chappel following his recent poor form.

You've got Tag-'d!

2005-09-06T09:01:00.000-05:00

7 things you plan to do b4 you die.
Visit the 7 wonders.
Be a sports coach.
Go for a bungee jump!
Do a stand up comedy show!
Be comfortable waking up early!
Be more courteous:).
Play 'JD' in "Satya";).

7 things you can do
Be cool :-)
Be funny.
Be intense.
Be generous.
Be lazy.
Be creative.
Be jack "of all trades".

7 things you can't do
Wake up early.
Remember names, dates and numbers.
Swim in an ocean.
Trek alone in wilderness or forests of amazon;)
Watch cartoons.
Tolerate sob's!
Be part of NYPD S.W.A.T team!(I wish;)

7 things that attract you to opposite sex
"A Secret"
Eyes
Smile
Honesty
Modesty
blah
balh

7 things you say most
Prayers..
Good.
Shi*! (variations.. sheesh etc)
What the Hell/Heck.
Damn it!
Wo!#@
fcuk (..french connection united kingdom;)

7 celebrity crushes
Kavya Madhavan
Kirsten Dunst
Amala Akkineni
Robin Tunney
Catherine Zeta
Martina Hingis
Aparna Popat

7 people you want to take this quiz
SNGanesh
Gaja
RSRaghav
Anup
Thomas
SVAvasarala
Phinu

The Children Of Beslan

2005-09-04T09:33:00.000-05:00

As the world mourns 9/11 and 7/7 not many people care to remember one of the worst terrorist attacks ever in history, the Beslan school hostage tragedy. On September 1, 2004, a group of heavily armed rebel extremists stormed into School No. 1 in Beslan, Russia. For three days, more than a thousand children and adults were held hostage in a sweltering gymnasium, denied food and water, and forced to keep their hands over their heads, the harrowing siege ended on September 3 with a series of explosions and a hail of gunfire that killed some 350 people - half of them children. I happened to watch a totally shocking documentary on HBO called 'The children of Beslan' , where the youngest survivors of Beslan tell their story.

Some facts about the Chechen war & the Beslan tragedy:
- Russia sent troops into Muslim Chechnya in late 1994 to squash the region's self-declared independence. The army lost thousands of troops in the fighting that followed.

- Since 1999, rebels have increasingly targeted civilians with suicide bombings and hostage-takings such as last September's Beslan tragedy when 331 people -- 186 of them children -- died after the siege collapsed into a bloodbath.

- The rebel group, which investigators say numbered around 30, drove to the small town from the Muslim regions of Chechnya and Ingushetia on Sept. 1, 2004, passing along some of the most heavily-guarded roads in Russia.

- There is only one surviving hostage taker Nurpachi Kulaiyev, an Islamic Chechenian militant who is currently facing trial.

Googleopoly!

2005-09-01T09:25:00.000-05:00

I am back after a brief hiatus, and as I write this 100's of 1000 people in the southern state of Louisiana are struggling to cope with the damages caused by the hurricane Katrina. This morining I was watching an interview of Indian born congressman Bobby Jindal, even he was left homeless stranded in the aerodome where 1000's are being provided with food, shelter and other essentials. Some insurance companies may even close down or file for chapter 11 as damages have crossed the 16 billion dollar mark.

As Katrina unleashed her fury on the oil rich Gulf of Mexico, the gas prices are expected to rise further, some gas stations have put up signs that they are running short or out of gas. AAA has even adivised that people use their automobiles less frequently until the gas situation comes back to normal. Gas prices may touch the $3.5 mark in certain parts of the country, but else where in the world in places like India gas prices are nearly at $4.10 a gallon and closing in on the $5 mark.

Recently I read a statement by George Bush which was totaly ludicrous, blaming India for the rising oil prices, he claimed that India had to find alternate means of energy and its growing demand for oil was the reason for rising oil prices. He fails to realize that U.S.A consumes 22 million barrels of oil a day more than any other country in the world, in comparison to a meagre 2 million barrels a day in India.

On the topic of automobiles and rising prices, about a week back I had a minor repair on my car where I had to replace my brake pads and shoes, this cost me in excess of $500 , something that would have cost me less than $100 in India. On another occasion the rear bumper of my freinds car was damaged and to get it repaired it cost nearly 20% of the cost of the car, so in reality rising gas prices are a very trivial issue.

Onto other stories, the U.S open tennis championship got underway this week with top favourites Roger Federer and Kim Clijsters. In a shocker, reigning champion American Andy Roddick was ousted in the very first round and so was Svetlana Kuznetsova, the reigning women's champion. This years championship might also be the last time we see American veteran Andre Agassi. There is good news for Indian fans as Sania Mania is still going strong, she stormed into the third round to set up a clash with a 42nd ranked WTA player, Sania is now ranked 43 in the world.

Now onto something I have been following very closely for many years now, we might be seeing the most important phenomenon in the world of technology as Google just launched two important programs this week, Google-talk and and its upgraded desktop search program Google desktop-2, being a self confessed Google fanatic, I call this "Googleopoly"! It seems like every industry is on the edge about Google. The company seems to be able to do anything and totally kick butt! Google all of a sudden now looks more powerful that the menacing Microsoft. Google is now pursuing its philosophy of "Google Everywhere" , finding ways to make Google a constant in everyones communications, entertainment and Information handling.

Google is this era's transformational computing platform!

The Rising

2005-08-21T09:30:00.000-05:00

More than a decade ago, ace director Manirathnam came out with his version of the Mahabharath in which Rajnikanth played Karna and Mamooty played Dhuriyodhana, Now years later producer Bobby Bedi who is fresh from his latest release 'The Rising- Ballad of Mangal Pandey' has decided to bring out the celluloid version of the epic in the form of a trilogy directed by none other than Manirathnam himself.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to watch the most hyped Indian film of the year, 'The Rising' which marked Aamir Khan's return to the screen after a four year sabbatical, the movie has had raving reviews floating around and I had no different an opinion. Aamir's performance was rivetting and so was Rahman's music. Aamir's intensity & amazing screen presence reminded me of a post scientology Tom Cruise.

The plot- The East India company introduces a rifle that used cartridges that sepoys had to bite into to release the powder into the barrels, the cartridges were sealed by cow and pig fat. At first, trusting the Company lie that the cartridges do not use pig or cow grease, Mangal bites the cartridge, but when the truth is revealed, he leads a rebellion against the British Empire, more like a wake up call for the Indians, who post 1857 started revolting against the 'goras' but attain freedom from them only about a century later. Rani Mukherji plays a prostitute in the movie, a character I felt was totally needless.

I remember my history text books with chapters about the 'Sepoy Mutiny' tipped as the 'First war of Independence' by Indian historians where the mention of Mangal Pandey was limited to about a line or two and now it is good to see that Ketan Metha has come up with a three hour saga on the hero. The movie also stars Toby Stevens, Rani Mukherji, Amisha patel and Om Puri as the narrator.

The movie seems to be drawing huge crowds even in Chennai where Hindi movies are'nt really a priority. In an innovative effort to promote the movie with msn, Aamir launched his own blog at
http://spaces.msn.com/members/mangalpandey/

Since its release, the movie (and its lead actor) has been plagued by numerous controversies, including distortion of historical facts, the government of U.P had even called for a ban on the film. Against all odds Aamir keeps rising!

Pillars Of Self Mastery!

2005-08-18T08:43:00.000-05:00

Today I arrived at work at 7:30 am literally half asleep, I checked in with security and took the elevator up to the 10th floor, the elevator stopped and I was asleep, the elevator door closed automatically and then all of a sudden I woke up and thought I was stuck in the elavator and was frantically searching for the emergency phone since my phone had no signal inside the elevator, then I tried pressing a few buttons at random and the door opened up, only then realized that I had already reached my 10th floor office. I got out of the elevator and approached the office main door only to realize that I had forgotten my swipe key, so I had to wait outside for about 10 minutes untill a colleague of mine arrived, What a start to the day!

So then I get to my workspace, set up my laptop, get connected & start doing the usual stuff. I opened up my personal mail, deleted a bunch of spam & reluctantly started reading the forwards that came by, for a change I had a nice forward, this time sent to me by my birthday boy buddy, the email was called 'Pillars Of Self Mastery', I am not very positive on the source of this email but I think it was excerpts from '200 secrets to success and the pillars of self mastery' by Robin S. Sharma. Here are some excerpts cos I felt some of them were inane, read on- you might find them useful.

Sleep less: This is one of the best investment you can make to make your life more productive and rewarding. (Judging by my day, this is something I got to do)

Set aside one hour every morning for personal development matters. Meditate, visualize your day, read inspirational texts to set the tone of your day, listen to motivational tapes or read great literature. Starting the day off well is a powerful strategy for self renewal .

Set aside every Sunday evening for yourself and your family and be strongly disciplined with this habit.

To enhance your concentration and power of focus, count your steps when you walk. This is a particularly strong technique. so many people allow their minds to be filled with mental chatter. All peak performers appreciate the power of a quiet clear mind which will concentrate steadily on all important tasks.

Enhance your will-power. You must first exercise it and then push before it gets stronger. When you are hungry, wait another hour before your meal. When you are labouring over a difficult task and your mind is prompting you to pick up the latest magazine for a break , curb the impulse. Soon you will be able to sit for hours in a precisely concentrated state. Newton had a remarkable ability to sit quietly and think without interruption for a very long period of time. If he can develop this so can you.

Never discuss your health, wealth and other personal matters with anyone outside your immediate family. Be very disciplined in this regard.

Cultivate the art of walking half an hour after your dinner. Walks in natural settings are the very best. Walking is, perhaps, nature’s ideal exercise.

Be careful about your reputation. Never do anything you wouldn’t be proud to tell your mother about. Have fun always but temper it with common sense and prudence.

Become your spouse”s number one supporter, the one who is always there supporting and fueling hopes and dreams. Develop together and march confidently through the world as an army of two.

A contented mind is a continual feast. Greed and material desires must be curbed to achieve lasting happiness and serenity. Be happy with what you have.

Aromas have been proven to be an effective means of entering a state of relaxation. Scents have a very noticeable effect on your mindset and moods.

Never argue with the person you work for – you will lose more than just the argument

Keep well-informed about current events, the latest books and popular trends. Many peak performers read five or six papers a day. You don’t have to read every story of every paper. Know what to focus on.

Read the biographies of the world’s leaders and learn from their habits, inspirations and philosophies. Cultivate the important practice of active role modelling.

Laugh at work and be known as a positive achiever

Develop the essential habit of punctuality for it is most important for high success. Punctuality reflects discipline and proper regard for others. Without it, even the most sophisticated person appears slightly offensive.

Winners do the things that less developed people don’t like doing even though they also might not enjoy doing them. This is what strength of character and courage is all about.

Fill your home with bright, fresh flowers. This is one of the best investments you can make. Let the sounds of great music, loud laughter and good fun fill the oasis of your home

Recognize the power of mantras and the repetition of positive, powerful words. Indian yogis have employed this technique for over 4000 years to live tranquil, productive and focused lives.

The World This Week

2005-08-10T23:05:00.000-05:00

The Nanavati commision headed by retired Justice G T Nanavati submitted his report to the Union Home Minister indicting the present Union Minister for NRI affairs Jagdish Tytler for organising crimes against the Sikh community. The riots in 1984 followed the assasination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, killed nearly 6000 Sikhs in India of which 4000 were massacred in Delhi alone. This also prompted the worst aviation disaster in history when Air India flight 182 was blown off by Sikh militants with 350 on board. Jagdish Tytler has submitted his resignation.

Leptospirosis epidemic breaks out in India's financial capital Mumbai: A dangerous epidemic that spreads (via the urine) from domestic animals has broken out in the city of Mumbai. This disease affects the human kidney and is fatal in most cases. A series of other diseases such as Gastroenteritis, Cholera & Dengue Fever have broken out all over the state following the floods.

Israel decides to pull out of the Gaza strip: Israeli Prime Minister Sharon & his cabinet have decided to pull out of the Gaza strip starting next week. Israeli religious rightists condemn the plan, saying it forsakes Jewish claims to biblical land and rewards a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000. Polls show a narrow majority of Israelis support the pullout.

NASA set to launch latest Mars probe: Fresh from celebrating a successful shuttle mission, NASA on 12 August is due to launch the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The $720 million unmanned spacecraft is the largest and most sophisticated probe ever sent to the red planet. Its goal is to explore possible landing sites for future human travelers and to study the climate, geology, and distribution of water on the planet.

Ex WorldCom chief gets 5 years in Prison: Former WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan gets 5 years in prison for what is considered the largest accounting fraud in U.S history. The $11 billion fraud sank the telecommunications company 3 years back.

Dukes of Hazzard soars to top of U.S box office:
The big screen remake of the 1970's T.V series directed by Jay a.k.a Jumbulingam Chandrashekar soared to the top of the U.S box office despite being written off by critics. The movie has already grossed $50 million in the U.S alone. The movie stars Sean William Scott & Jessica Simpson.

In cricket Sri Lanka beat India to lift the Indian Oil Cup in Colombo & controversial leg spinner Shane Warne becomes the first bowler in test cricket to capture 600 wickets.

Swades

2005-08-08T09:39:00.000-05:00

I have been watching a lot of movies lately(in the past month)- thanks to a delay with proceedings at my project- Paparazzi, Taking Lives & Anacondas: The Hunt For The Blood Orchid on HBO, Waqt, Sarkar, D, Black and Swades on DVD. The pick of them all was Swades by Ashutosh Gowarikar(The maker of the Academy award nominated ' Lagaan'). The movie follows an NRI Scientist Mohan Bhargava(working at NASA's Goddard space flight center in the suburbs of Washington D.C)played by Shah Rukh and his journey in search of that metaphysical and elusive place called "home". The movie tackles many social issues prevalent in modern day India such as rural poverty, illiteracy, lack of basic infrastructure & hygiene and even child marriage. SRK's performance lacks intensity. The movies strengths were the background scores by AR Rahman, the elegant picturization of songs and the simple narration. The movie was inspiring, polemic and sure is worth the time.

Black directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali stars Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukerji and Ayesha Kapoor. The movie again was a masterpiece by Bhansali, it makes you realise that a different world exists where people who are unfortunate than yourself manages to pull through life against all odds. The movie's cinematography by Ravi K. Chandran was upto international standards. An excellent oscar nominated material.

Paparazzi starring Cole Hauser is the story of an up and coming movie star who becomes a victim of the Paparazzi and when one of their ventures nearly costs his and his family's lives he decides to exact a crafty and complex revenge. I wasnt expecting much out of this movie and it turned out to be 'pretty decent'.

Taking lives is a psychotic crime thriller starring Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawk. A very predictable plot but defenitely not avoidable, especially if you are an Angelina Joile Fan.

Sarkar is a Ram Gopal Varma gangster flick with all his stereotypical elements, slow yet gripping narration and brilliant screenplay as always. The movie starts with a testimonial that the director like millions, was inspired by 'The Godfather' and his movie is a tribute to the classic. Amitabh has done justice to the role of the 'Sarkar' and lives upto expectations donning Brando's role. Abhishek tries really hard but does not really come close to the Mike potrayed brilliantly by Pacino.

D- Another gangster flick, seems to be ghost directed by Varma, the king of the genre. Randeep Hooda potrays the dreaded criminal Dawood Ibrahim, the movie attempts to elavate Dawood status as this smooth & suave mastermind. Hooda has done justice to Deshu's role donned by Devgan in the Sequel 'Company'. If you liked company you will like this as well.

Waqt- Starring Amitabh and Akshay Kumar is avoidable and so is Anacondas: The Hunt For The Blood Orchid.

Counselling begins

2005-08-06T09:20:00.000-05:00

Prelude:
The TNPCEE(Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Examination) is a common entrance test(CET) for students aspiring to pursue professional courses such as medicine & engineering.
Recently the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa Jayaram of the ruling AIADMK party announced that the CET had been abolished with immediate effect, even though the students had bought the CET application forms for a significant fee and had already taken the tests.But this rule of the government was forcefully revoked for the current year, to the relief of 1000's of students, thanks to the intervention of the Supreme Court that upheld the ruling of the Madras High Court.
The reasons for the governments decision to abolish the CET were:
1. The move would benefit numerous students from rural areas, who do not have access or could not afford training for the CET.
2.Improvement candidates from southern districts had an unfair advantage and accounted for most med school admissions.
3. Curb growth of profit monging schools that have mushroomed all over the state focussing specifically on CET training.

Instead of focussing on solving the problem & empowering rural students with tools to succeed, the administration assumes the problem is solved simply by scrapping the CET. Many questions remain unanswered, mainly about the quality of student-input if admissions are going to be based only on the marks obtained in 3 major subjects- Math, Physics & Chemistry considering the fact that each year 1000's of students from State Board score 100% in these major subjects. The fate of CBSE(Central Board of Secondary Education) students? CBSE is considered one of the best and most challenging educational systems in the country. Scoring even a 90% in a CBSE medium is a daunting task. CET was the only hope for these students to salvage some pride & manage admits to good engineering schools.

Counselling begins:
After all the chaos and confusion the counselling via the single window system started a week back and the top 3 students chose:
Aeronautical Engineering in MIT,
Mechanical Engineering in CEG- Guindy and
Electronics & Communication Engineering in PSG Tech.

Hummer to hit the Indian Market.

2005-08-05T11:32:00.000-05:00

The Legendary American motor company General Motors(GM) is all set to launch the Hummer SUV (Humvee) to the Indian market. Manufactured by AM General and marketed by GM, the Hummer is known for its high price, low mileage and poor fuel efficiency.
India is known for its sky high fuel prices (in excess of $1.10 per litre, thats nearly $4.20 per gallon), but the selling point would be the Hummer's muscle to take on Indian roads. The lower end range of Humvee's would be priced in excess of 4 million Rupees upto 5 mil.

Other Top stories:
Adidas 'Just Did It'- Acquires Reebok. This would accelerate the pace of sports marketing, and the value of athletic endorsements. A headline on AMR read, "Adidas puts on Reebok to catch Nike".

Sania Mirza hits top 50 in the WTA ranking- she defeated world #9 Nadia Petrova at the Acura Open. The highest ranked Indian in the open era is still Vijay Amritraj (#23), The highest ranked Indian ever was Ramanathan Krishnan(#3).

The World has its first cloned dog- Snuppy(SNU stands for Seoul National University- Puppy), South Korean Scientist Hwang Woo-Suk had led the effort to clone the Afgan Hound.

NASA's space shuttle Discovery- so far so good.

Saudi's King Fahd Dies at 84 and King Abdullah takes over.

Six Feet Under

2005-08-03T21:27:00.000-05:00

One of the very few TV series I tune into religiously every week, infact the only one since The Apprentice- Season I, is Six Feet Under. It is one of TV's most acclaimed drama series,and has numerous Emmy's and Golden Globe awards to its credit.

This groundbreaking series into its fifth season focuses on the cathartic journey of the extended Fisher family,whose personal trials and tribulations are played out against the solemn backdrop of an independent funeral home in LA. To give you a better idea, the series was created by Alan Ball (The Oscar winning writer of American Beauty).Now you know what to expect!

I dont really watch any particular show on TV(Apart from SFU - Now airs at a new time, Sundays @ 9:00 PM) ,but the channels I surf through are
ESPN- I,II, ESPN-Classics,
MTV- II For shows like Punk'D, Damage Control & the hilarious Wild Boys.
Comedy Central- Chapple Show.
TBS- Sienfeld,
CNN,CBS,NBC & usa.

usa airs Monk- America's favourite (Obsessive Compulsive) detective, this is something i watch whenever I get a chance,cos I think Tony Shalhoub is awesome. Another series I used enjoy watching was Columbo starring Peter Falk- the classic 70's series was re-telecasted sporadically on various channels until last season.

Some of the good TV shows I used to watch back in India, were
'The World This Week' hosted by Pronnoy Roy on DD back in the late 80's and early 90's.
'The Eye Witness' hosted by Karan Thapar again on DD in the early 90's.
'Face to Face' hosted by Karan Thapar now airing on BBC India.
'Mastermind India' hosted by Sidharta Basu on BBC India, the original is aired on BBC UK and was devised by Bill Wright.
Shows hosted by Nikhil Chinappa, Cyrus Broacha and Maria Goretti on MTV.

Finally the shows that really miff me, 'Queer Eye For The Straight Guy', Dr 90210, reality shows on VH1 & Fox and now the one about Bobby Brown!

3 G's- Gods, Guns & Gays

2005-08-02T10:12:00.000-05:00

"Turd Blossom," is a Texan term for a flower which grows from a pile of cow dung, I am referring to the the most powerful political consultant in American history & the architect of George Walker Bush's remarkable political triumph, Karl Christian Rove. He was Bush's senior advisor & chief political strategist and now the deputy chief of staff at the White House.
Personally I am a centrist in contrast to most of my friends who prefer the liberal democratic policies. I have never been completely anti-Bush (I felt circumstances were such that a change of power might have jeopardized national security), nor have I supported most views of the Democrats.(Though I might consider voting for Barrack Obama whenever he runs- I was one of the millions who took notice of him after the Democratic national convention)
Now back to the role of Karl Rove-Like millions of Americans and people around the world I never expected George Bush to be re-elected to office, until I started following the campaign towards the end and noticed the strategy of the Republicans trying to woo the conservative bible-thumping population(against the conventional wisdom of appealing to the "Reagan Democrats", who ignored party affiliations to support a second term for the popular president) by favoring them in the very divisive issues of abortion and gay marriage, Rove set out a political message that would appeal to voters in the Bible Belt and then kept Bush on that message. He also played his own part, reaching out to evangelical leaders and other "people of faith" and attending to them personally.
Pundits thought that the Iraq conflict, terrorism and the economy were the key issues, but voters decided they were more concerned by moral values. Bush even joked "I try to tell people about the economy, but all they care about are the 'three Gs' ".

Tennis

2005-07-31T08:35:00.000-05:00

I am back after a tennis match early this morning, a match in which I was eventually outslugged 6-2, 2-6, 2-6 in 1 hour and 30 mins. This is also my third straight loss after just one win against the same opponent. But on the positive side I'm starting to feel good about my game a little bit and believing in it.

In the first set I jumped to a 5-0 lead, then I lost two strainght games , before eventually closing it out at 6-2. The second and third sets were pretty bad as I managed to win only my first and last service games, eventually losing the match. My opponent is a slow starter, but his first serve percentage keeps improving as the game progresses and he makes fewer unforced errors than me.

Tennis on Sundays is also my workout for the day, very rarely do I head to the gym on sundays.
My personal trainer, Chad (well I got a two session complementry service- cant afford to hire him cos he costs $30 an session!) was telling me what kind of diet I shoud l maintain.
Chad was one of the trainers who has previously worked with Richard Hamilton.

Richard Hamilton is an NBA player who represents the Detriot Pistons, This guy puts in more miles than a marathoner, more miles on court than any other NBA player. So the reason they say is his fitness regime and a totally organic vegetarian diet. Another celebrity who is now following a similar diet is Andre 3000 of the Grammy award winning group Outkast.

Now back to the vegan diet Chad was talking to me about:
Bread, Cereal and Grain Group: 6-11 servings daily
Vegetable Group: 3-5 servings daily
Fruit Group: 2-4 servings daily
Milk, Yogurt, Cheese Group: 2-3 servings daily
Dry Beans, Nuts, Seeds, Meat Substitutes: 2-3 servings daily
Fats, Oils, Sweets, Salty Foods: Use sparingly
and always- "Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince and dinner like Peasant."

Thanks Chad!

Page 3

2005-07-30T21:59:00.000-05:00

Recently I picked up a Hindi DVD from a video store, an award winning movie by acclaimed director Madhur Bhandarkar, 'Page 3'- Winner of the national award for best Indian movie of 2004. Suprisingly there was another award category for best Hindi movie which went to internationally acclaimed director Rituparno Ghosh's 'Raincoat' (Another abstract, offbeat film).

Back to 'page 3'-The title originates from the 'page three girls' published in the UK tabloid 'The Sun'. A Page Three girl is a woman who models for topless photographs, the writing that accompanies the Page Three girl picture usually explains the model's name, age, where she 'hails from', and some brief details of her personality.

Many people opposed the publication of 'Page three' claiming it to be sexist, demeaning and exploititive. Similarly Bhandarkar's movie is also provocative and hard hitting.The movie shows the naked truth about wannabe 'bollywood' starlets and exploititive film makers (the casting couch) and explores many other issues like dysfunctional families, (gay) infidelity, paedophilia, drug culture and even wife-swapping The movie proves that in Bollywood only Sex, Sleaze & 'SRK' sell.

Konkana Sen Sharma stars as the protagonist, a 'Page three' Journalist madhavi sharma and the film follows her story as she frequents the ‘Page 3’ circuit of parties, events, and soirees, mingling with the who’s who of Mumbai(Bombay- Home of Bollywood). Gay fashion designers, wannabe models, aspiring actors, debauched socialites and moneyed industrialists all jostle for attention, and the need to be seen.

The movie stars also stars Atul Kulkarni, Boman Irani & Bikram Saluja.

The German impact!

2005-07-28T12:05:00.000-05:00

Tennis superstar & one of my idols Andre Agassi and adidas have entered into a long-term partnership starting with the Mercedes-Benz Cup in L.A. As of July 25 he started exclusively wearing adidas footwear and apparel, of the adidas-Salomon AG fame, headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany.
Agassi's move came as a suprise for me as he's has been associated with the Beaverton-based swoosh for nearly two decades now. Personally I have always loved the swoosh apparel, and this may sound weird, but I might now consider(seriously) flipping over to Adidas as well! I wonder how many millions of Agassi fans may switch over as well.
The reason for Agassi's jump to Adidas according to a spokeperson was because the swoosh company refused to contribute to Agassi's foundation, which focuses on children's causes and thus ending the $120 million deal! This agreement also offers a wide range of marketing opportunities for the German firm, as the world's most famous sports couple, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, are now part of the adidas family!
Suddenly Germany/German Firms are impacting my life in more ways than i know, to name a few- SAP AG(Software I use),Michael Salzmann(My German Manager), Lufthansa AG of the Star Alliance Fame( Airline(s) I fly), UBS AG (My Financial Services firm- Technically Swiss), "Audi" of the Volkswagen AG fame(My next car), Swatch AG(My first, & now only watch), Seimens AG(My GPS system) and now adidas-Salomon AG. By the way AG stands for the German term Aktiengesellschaft meaning a corporation which is limited by shares. The term is used in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, referred to as the ASG region.

Hail AG!

It's Eddy Merckx not Lance!

2005-07-27T00:05:00.000-05:00

Lance Armstrong recently won his seventh consecutive tour de france, a phenomenal achievement! yet he isn’t regarded as the greatest-ever cyclist! Great cyclists such as Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain say Lance Armstrong is not necessarily the greatest cyclist ever. Hinault won the Tour five times while Indurain won the Tour each year from 1991 to 1995.
So now who is regarded as the greatest cyclist of all time? the answer is Eddy Merckx.

In his Tour de France debut in 1969, Merckx won the yellow jersey (overall leader), the green jersey (best sprinter) and the red polka-dotted jersey ("King of the Mountains" - best climber in the mountain stages). No other cyclist has achieved this trifecta in the Tour de France, and only Laurent Jalabert has been able to match this feat at the grand tours level, in the 1995 Vuelta a Espana. If the young riders' white jersey (for best rider in the Tour that is under 25 years of age) had existed at that time, Merckx would have won that as well, as he had only just turned 24.

Eddy Merckx, has 525 pro victories that include four world championships , five Tours de France, five Tours of Italy (Giro d'Italia), a Vuelta a España and the hour record, cycling’s most hallowed benchmark. And he did all this in about 1,500 starts. With 34 Tour de France stage wins and 96 days in the yellow jersey — both records — King Eddy’s dominance is unquestionable. The fact that even Armstrong can’t eclipse the Merckx record for days in yellow (despite riding in 11 Tours versus 7 by Merckx) makes Merckx a Tour giant. The Belgian is still the only man to win the maillot jaune, King of the Mountains and sprint jerseys in a single year — and he did it at his first-ever Tour, which he won by a crushing 18 minutes.

Lance’s singular focus on the Tour, and only the Tour, is why he isn’t the greatest-ever cyclist despite those seven titles. No racer in history has enjoyed that kind of advantage. There have been other racers who built their seasons around the Tour, like Jacques Anquetil and Greg LeMond. But Armstrong is the only competitor to have an entire team built around him for the express purpose of riding into Paris in yellow.
In beating cancer, he’s an inspiration. But in beating cancer and conquering the Tour, he’s larger than life and where do I place Lance, Among the greatest sportsmen of all time.

The "A list"

2005-07-21T11:31:00.000-05:00

I'm not a big movie buff (certainly not the kind whos hooked onto Blockbuster or Netflix) but I consider myself a major critique, but there are days when i drive down to the amc a couple of miles away to relax, spend ten bucks (including the popcorn & coke) and watch a flick, typically once a month or so and more often on HBO. I like realistic movies, Romantic comedies and Action flicks.Im trying to list about 100 movies and why I like 'em, they are in no particular order but the not so serious ones would be towards the bottom, and might be pushed out as I continually update the list, so here goes first strike..

Sathya- RGV. Chak, Bajpai.
Good Will Hunting- Williams, Damon, Affleck & Driver.
Million Dollar Baby- Swank, Eastwood, Freeman.
Training Day- Denzel.
The God Father I,II- Brando, Pacino, Deniro.
The Matrix I,II- Concept,Story, Stunt Sequences, Special FX.
DDLJ- Songs, SRK-Kajol.
Company- Devgan, Lal, RGV.
The Great Escape- Sturges,Clavell,Attenborough, McQueen.
The Guns Of Naverone- Thompson, Peck, Quinn.
Jurassic Park- Speilberg.
Cinderella Man- Ron, Crowe, Zelwegger.
Farenheit 9/11- Moore, Hard Hitting.
The Gladiator- Crowe.
The Bourne Supremacy- Damon.
Seabiscuit- Story, Mcguire.
American Beauty- Alan Ball.
The Sixth Sense- Screenplay, Shyamlan.
Shiva- Amala, Nags, RGV.
Thalavattam- Lal, Priyan.
Hey Ram- Kamal.
Devdas- Bhansali.
Face Off- Travolta, Cage, Action Sequences.
Anniyan- Shankar, Kenny.
Kaakha Kaakha- Surya.
Super Size Me- McD's/Fast Food No More.
You've Got Mail- Meg.
Conspiracy Theory- Concept, Donner, Gibson, Roberts.
Spiderman I, II- Mcguire, Dunst.
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar- Aamir, Songs, Jhulka.
Dalapathi- Rajni,Mani.
Moonram Pirai- Mahendra, Kamal, Songs.
Page 3- Bhandarkar,Sen, Kulkarni.
Kireedam- Story,Lal.
Dog Day Afternoon- Pacino.
Devar Magan- Kamal, Nassar, Shivaji, Revathi.
Silence Of The Lambs- Hopkins, Foster.
Sarfarosh- Aamir.
Kurithipunal- Kamal, Screenplay, Gouthami.
Reservoir Dogs- Story, Tarentino.
The Titanic- Cameron,Horner.
Oru Vadakkan Veera Katha- Story.
Kilukkam- Lal, Innocent, Sreekumar, Revathi.
Sholay- "Gabbar",AB.
Fight Club- Concept,Screenplay.
Gangajal- Dialogues, Devgan.
Lagaan- Screenplay, Aamir.
Ayutha Ezhuthu- Screenplay, Surya.
Anbe Sivam- Story, Script.
Dil Chahta Hai- Story, Aamir, Khanna, Preity, Songs.
Kaala Pani- Lal, Priyan.
Iruvar- Story.
Douthyam- Story, Lal.
Ocean's 11- Clooney, Pitt.
Pulp Fiction- Screenplay, Tarentino.
Tezaab- Songs, Kapoor, Dixit, Pandey.
Nayagan- Adaptation,Mani, Kamal.
Mouna Raagam- Mani, Revathi, Mohan, Karthik, Songs.
Agni Nakshatram- Karthik, Prabhu, Amla.
Oru CBI Diary Kurippu- Story.
Iyer The Great- Story.
Cast Away- Hanks.
Police Story- Chan.
Catch Me If You Can- Di Caprio, Hanks.
Die Hard I,II- Willis.
1942 A Love Story- Chopra, Songs.
Mission Kashmir- Chopra, Roshan, Dutt Jr.
Man On Fire- Denzel.
Phone Booth- Concept,Schumacher.
Meet The Fockers- Stiller.
Saving Private Ryan- Speilberg, Hanks, Damon.
Ashoka- Sivan.
Mr & Mrs Iyer- Bose, Sen.
Monsoon Wedding- Nair.
Forest Gump- Hanks.
Enter The Dragon- Lee.
Kiss Of The Dragon- Li.
Indira- Chiru.
Baasha- Rajni.
Padayappa- Rajni.
Hyderabad Blues- Kukanoor.
Rockford- Kukanoor.
Darr- SRK, Juhi,Songs.
Terminator II- Cameron, Arnold.
There's Something About Mary- Diaz, Stiller.
Meet The Parents- Stiller, Deniro.
Gone In Sixty Seconds- Stunts, Cage, Jolie.
Munnabhai M.B.B.S- Screenplay, Dutt, Dutt Jr, Wasi.
Rumble In The Bronx- Chan.
Liar Liar- Carey.
Baby's Day Out- "Baby Bink".
American Pie I, III- Sean "Stiffler" William Scott.
Austin Powers-I,II,III - Myers, Hurley.
Dhoom- Bachhan, Abraham.
Home Alone- Culkin.
The Gods Must Be Crazy- Uys.
Mask Of Zorro- Jones.
Watch Out We're Mad- Hill, Spencer.

Jaya Jaya Lalithe

2005-07-17T09:10:00.000-05:00

This piece of news really amused me- Jayalalitha gets what Tansen did'nt.
The legendary musician who has created countless ragas and whose melodies are supposed to “have made rain” does not have a single raga named after him. Tamil Nadu’s Amma has.
Carnatic music great Dr. M. Balamurali Krishna christened a new raga Jaya Jaya Lalithe in her honor.

The Mysore born actress-turned politician was the first elected woman chief minister of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and she is also the first chief minister to be declared guilty under the Prevention of Corruption Act! Jayaram Jayalalitha has many firsts to her credit. As of now, there are as many as 15 major corruption cases against Jayalalitha!

She is now ruling Tamil Nadu in her second term.
Some of the successes to her credit are
The banning of high interest private loans .
The elimination of the much feared bandit Veerappan.
Introduction of Videoconferencing in Jails and Courts, thus eliminating the need to bring the accused to extend the remand every time.

Her failures that caused her party to be routed in the 2004 Lok Sabha election(some of which were rolled back after the rout)
Fired 200,000 government servants at one go,
Banned Lottery tickets unemploying 1000's,
Stopped free power to farmers
Increased the price of rice in the ration shops,
Cancelled ration cards of all those who earn more than Rs 5,000 per month,
Hiked power and bus charges,
Passed a law seeking to curb religious conversions,
Banned animal sacrifices in temples.

Her closing salutation is always "Periyar namam vazhga, Anna naamam vazhga, Puratchi thalivar naamam vazhga".

Shawn Corey Carter

2005-07-14T17:21:00.000-05:00

Here's a little about Jay,

Jay-Z (aka Jigga, HOV and Hova) born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4, 1969 in Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, NY. He was known as "Jazzy" in his neighborhood, a nickname he soon shortened to "Jay-Z" while in pursuit of a career in music. The name Jay-Z is also a homage to his musical partner Jaz-O as well as to the J-Z subway lines that go from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Besides pursuing his own career, Jay-Z was one of the founders of Roc-a-Fella Records, a successful hip-hop label which also launched the careers of Beanie Sigel, Kanye West, Memphis Bleek, Young Gunz, Freeway, and others. Jay-Z is one of the most respected rappers in the music industry before announcing his retirement from recording in 2004. Jay-Z is now the new president and CEO of Def Jam Recordings. As of 2005, he is estimated to be worth $320 million.

Apart from being President and CEO of Def Jam Recordings, Jay-Z is also one of the owners and founders of the Roc-A-Fella empire, which includes Roc-A-Fella Records, Roc-A-Fella Films and Rocawear, a clothing brand established in 1999. Roc-A-Fella also distributes "Armadale," a Scottish vodka, in the U.S. Jay-Z is a part owner of the New Jersey Nets NBA team, and is rumored to be one of the franchise owners interested in relocating the team to Brooklyn. He also co-owns The 40/40 Club, a New York sports bar, and has a line of Reebok sneakers called The S.Carter Collection. These shoes still hold the record for fastest selling Reebok shoe in history and made him the first non-athlete to have a signature line of sneakers.

Pyromania!

2005-07-10T20:30:00.000-05:00

Pyromania (literally meaning "a mania for fire") is the third album by British hard rock band Def Leppard, released in 1983. The album was produced by Mutt Lange, who came up with the line "All I've got is a photograph." This gave them the idea to write a song about a guy who's crazy about a girl, but all he has of her is a photograph.That went on to become the sizeable hit "Photograph".The lyrics tell of falling in love with a photograph of a model, but knowing that you'll never get to meet her.

I’m outa luck, outa love
Gotta photograph, picture of
Passion killer, you’re too much
You’re the only one I wanna touch

I see your face every time I dream
On every page, every magazine
So wild and free so far from me
You’re all I want, my fantasy

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