Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Bollywood and Cricket in Australia

Based on the recent India-Aus cricket spat (the fracas is infinitely more entertaining than cricket), can I make a hypothesis?

I think the number of movies shot in Australia will dramatically reduce. Australia has been a popular shooting location for Bollywood films - Dil Chahta, Sunday, Salaam Namaste, and Chak De India to name a few. I don't think it will last.

The reason being that Indian movie makers are big cricket fans (some like SRK and Preity Zinta have already bought IPL teams) and I don't think they will take the unrelenting abuse from the Aussies lying down.

Keep watching.

Bollywood and Cricket in Australia

Based on the recent India-Aus cricket spat (the fracas is infinitely more entertaining than cricket), can I make a hypothesis?

I think the number of movies shot in Australia will dramatically reduce. Australia has been a popular shooting location for Bollywood films - Dil Chahta, Sunday, Salaam Namaste, and Chak De India to name a few. I don't think it will last.

The reason being that Indian movie makers are big cricket fans (some like SRK and Preity Zinta have already bought IPL teams) and I don't think they will take the unrelenting abuse from the Aussies lying down.

Keep watching.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Bhau Wow!

MNS to start Marathi classes for non-Marathis

This is just hogwash. Not a single class will take off. Shiv Sena and by extension, MNS, are not doers just ransackers.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Mirthful world

The Onion has a useful world atlas for dummies.

Before you get upset about how India is represented (truthfully), have a look at other countries of the world. Funny.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Mithun Chronicles - School Days

Mithun remembered a day from his school, he was in the 8th grade and on the cusp of adolescense. The class was geography - his favourite subject. The teacher was a short stout lady, who was teaching islands that day (Wisdom No 5 -"Every man is an island, but then some lands are also islands" Fact No 2 - "The biggest island is also a continent"). It was a boys schools, so all teachers had abandoned their civility, mild-mannerdness (if any) and a general caring nature in the interest of self-preservation. The geography teacher bellowed,"What does Sri Lanka resemble?".

Class fell silent, heads dropped. Mithun had done some homework the night before, interspersed with sideway glances at 'Yeh jo hai Jindagi'. He loved the sitcom. Mithun was confident he knew the answer. His hand shot up. "Yes, Chirag", the teacher said.

Mithun was used to teacher's persistent nominal gaffes, and blurted out "A tiger! Sri Lanka resembles a tiger".

The teacher paused for a second. And then burst into the most devilish fusillade of laughter. The class followed suit. Visualizing the scene now, it seemed as if all the fingers were pointing in his direction, as all the jaws went full circle in delirious amusement and heads bobbed back and forth as if trying to send their noses into orbit.

Tears streamed down Mithun's face. He couldn't believe that all of the class was mocking him. His friends were giggling underneath the desks. Mithun sniffled, "Agreed, Sri Lanka may not look like a tiger, but why am I being derided for saying what I think is right. It's the teacher's fault anyway. I am sure there is some association between Sri Lanka and the tiger. It's Madam's fault she didn't make it clear. Else it would have registered. It surely would have”. "

Mithun wiped his tears and sat at his desk staring at the blackboard.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Aa Raj mujhe Maar

Mumbai Mirror says
"Cops to oppose bail for Raj"

Why? Is the bail from Uttar Bharat?

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Menace - se Mumbai hogi fishing town

Fasnastic. Cabs are off the road. Personally, support the reasons. But also glad that there is less pollution. Cold weather is not good, the smog just refuses to lift, and that's why we have so many chest and throat infections around.

Anyway, I wish all non-maharashtrians gang up and go on strike on a single day (ADA switches of electricity, UP cows refuse to be milked, bhaajiwalahs refuse to do business, Palanpur Jains stop trading diamonds, Bombay House shuts shop and all bawas deliberate on how to advance the Parsi clan ("I got an idea. Why don't we have more sex?").

Future of any city depends on business. I had a fascinating conversation with a kurta trader (Jain btw) a couple of days ago. His view was that, Bombay's reputaton as a trading hub (may be not as a financial capital) is being fairly quickly eroded. A lot of new jobs have moved to Pune, textile manufacturing (Girgoan to Bhiwandi) has been usurped by Surat. Gujarat has done away with octroi - one of biggest roadblock (literally) in an efficient business transcation. Infrastructure has improved leaps and bounds there. Smallest of towns there are now buzzing with business activity. Narendra Modi is a zealot (my thoughts), but he is a superb administrator (his thoughts and I am inclined to agree), who has improved the lives of average Gujaratis and made one thing that they are good at - enterprise - easy.

It's increasingly common to see massive paradigm shifts in the blink of an eye. If Gujarat and other states continue the onward march and Bombay continues to plagued by governmental neglect and mental bigotry, then Bombay will return to how it was - the land of the kolis.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Arajak

"Mummy, mummy, mein bahut bore ho raha hoon"

"Ja baher jaun khel mitran barobar"

"Mummy, naahi, mitra sagale seriously parikshe chi tayyari karat aahe"

"Tu pan abhyas kar na mag"

"Chchya, yevdha traas kon ghenaar? Kaka chya navane guruji malaa paas karnarach"

"Hehehe..
(in an indulgent tone) Shahana maajha por. Thik aahe, mag kaay karnaar aahes?"

"Hmm, maahit naahi. Vichar karto, te navin Uttar Bhartiya aale aahet naa aaplya societit, tyancha thoda chal karun yeto"

"Thik aahe, pan tujhya chaalitlya mitranna gheun jaa. Maarmari jhaalich tar tu palun ye. Te nistartil sagale"

"Yes M'am!! Bbbyyyyyyyyeeeeee"

"Bye Raj! Aik, yetanaa tya baniya kadun 1 kilo tandul gheun ye haa! Kaay re!! Aiktos kaa??"

Here goes the sun...

Worrisome signs in the IT martket are evident from the news from TCS and IBM.

I think software business as it - volume driven, mass recruitment, US focus will be definitely dead or be very close to demise in 5 years time.
We should be seeing a stablisation of business and resources if not a drastic reduction in that time.

We already are seeing poor resource quality in the haste of recruiting new resources and it will be impossible to use such guys in any useful way. I am primarily embarrased about such guys travelling onsite and screwing up the reputation of everyone at offshore.

I am also not convinced of our average project management capabilities either. We do well in support/maintenance projects, but invariably screw up in large development programs. When the push comes to shove, then these 'bad' managers make their resources work over-time.

In times of crisis (when the projects dry up) these issues will become major headaches.

Katlene ke tarike dhoondhna abhi se shuru karna chahiye