A Tyrovial Pursuit

Off facebook for the second time

2011-12-23T13:22:00.000-08:00

So, have deactivated my facebook for the second time. Feels like a vaccum created from all the time you earlier used for doing sensible stuff and then started diverting into checking friends' status updates.

It's so difficult rewiring your brain into doing sensible stuff again.

Giving up and claiming back

2011-12-23T02:50:00.000-08:00

Haven't had the time to write a lot of stuff this year - work, life has got in the way. As I look back, I am definitely in a better place compared to last. But am I in a place that I think I deserve. Probably not. Some of the problems that have plagued throughout my life remain and have become more intense now.

One of them is my appearance. Unfortunately, through genes on my father's side, I look like I am in my early twenties. Also, I don't have the height (not my fault) or demeanour ( my fault) that impresses. Most people assume that I don't have the experience desired for jobs I should be getting. I believe this youthful demeanour had a big hand to play in a really nasty episode early this year, when my manager - completely new to the whole consulting world (I think also to the concept of professional decency), accused me of being incompetent. This was 10 days into the start of the project. For these 10 days, we were not working closely (I was in the UK for some of them and the summer riots were happening very close to where I stay), and he was not seeing what I was up to. He assumed I was up to nothing. Without checking my previous credentials, I think he assumed I was just incapable for the job.

It is difficult for someone not in my position to see this as a problem, but it genuinely is. I am not overtly able to state my age and experience in every initial interaction with everyone - there is just no right or subtle way of bringing it up.

Also, even when you do bring it up, people have already made their minds up. We have so little time to do research, that we go by appearances and gut-feel (even more so than before I think). There is this typical conceit of rationalising their call by saying, "Oh, well, age or experience didn't matter in my decision making".

The burden to fix this issue is completely on you. But as you and people around you grow old, your ability to change yourself (say to be more agressive or sociable) and to change their opinions dimishes. You will largely remain what you are, and they will think the same of you even if you improve dramatically.

So, why do I say I am in a better place if I am here wallowing in self-pity? Well, having seen the worst in my professional career, I am now more fearless than ever. I can clearly see the trend in how people perceive me professionally, and think there is no point in me trying to change opinions. I can try to take remedial measures, and be more communicative, and project more authority and gravitas in my professional dealings.

But still if my abilities are not recognised in the time that they should be, then there is no point letting that slide. I have lost my patience now and don't care if people think any less of me.

Mumbai under attack

2011-07-14T07:34:00.001-07:00

I predicted in Nov 2009 that a terrorist attack with happen in Bombay within a year. I am glad the prediction didn't come true. But ultimately it happened and not too long after the Seige of Bombay

The reason is simple. Because to execute such an attack is simple. There are ample holes in our security apparatus - right from intelligence to disaster management. Even a child (remember how old the 2008 terrorists were) can punch holes through it using rubber pellets, and then shoot real bullets on the innocent Mumbai citizens.

The policitians, bureaucrats, police will continue to be brazen and incompetent.

I know why I don't want to be back in Bombay. But not everyone has the means or willingness to get out.

Another Adarsh - Kalpataru Towers Kandivali

2011-05-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

The storm has kicked in already around another Adarsh-like Defence land scandal. In my view, it is on a much bigger scale than Adarsh.

The land under dispute is right outside the present walls of a large Defence complex. On google maps, it is marked as Food Corporation of India. But I can safely say that it is anything but.

A large number of Defence personnel stay there, there is a sign of an Army Hospital pointing towards the complex. During the first Gulf War, there was huge artillery and army vehicle movement from the complex. I still remember tanks, and big rugged trucks lined up outside the main entrance to the complex marked 'UN' waiting for their desert safari.

Everyone living in the area always knew that the land outside the main entrance was anything but private -either it was used as a defence complex extension or as a park or hospital or some other public scheme. But suddenly one day about 4-5 years ago, huge corrugated sheets came up, and construction started at a break neck pace. They dumped so much debris and mud in the whole space so as to raised the ground level of this entire plot by about 5 feet, completely changing the topography of the place. Every since, Arya Chanakya Nagar, has become a low lying area that is easily inundated by moderate rains.

They also completely mangled the already small nullah adjacent to the land. Mind you, this nullah carries all the sewage and rain water from right from the National Park Hills through the large shanty settlements. They reduced the width of the nullah about a third, and made a road leading to the multi storey car park. In the last 5 years, all ground floor flats have been submerged under 5 feet water. Extract from DNA,

The residents allege that the developer has closed one of the three outlets for drain water, which may cause a bottleneck during heavy rains, leading to flooding. The nullah originates at Borivli’s hills and merges with the nullah in Poisar.

Read the full story here.

Until almost 6 months - 1 year after the construction began, no one knew who the builder was. Later the Kalpataru sign went up. They had such a substantial cash flow, that there was no booking done on any flat, until the building was almost 75% complete.

And what a monstrosity it is. It is 31 storey high multi level car park. Multiple building wings all attached to each other so as not to waste inch of the precious (I am sure very) space.

Most of the flats overlook straight into the defence land. Without a doubt, it is a massive security threat, and can be used easily for espionage or target defence installations.

There is no doubt in my mind, that huge sums of cash changed hands to make this deal happen. I am glad that the allegations are getting huge media coverage now. Based on the size and scale of the project, the scam looks bigger than Adarsh to me. For the latest news on this, subscribe to the RSS feed

I hope the opposition (go Kirit go!) are able to pursue the matter to the end, and bring the truth out in the open.

Solvency II article on CIOL

2011-04-21T03:05:00.000-07:00

My article about The data challenges in Solvency II implementations is published in CIOL, a leading IT portal in India.
The article (with its originally intended formatting) be accessed is here.
Previous article, Indian IT Industry: Coping with the US recession, is here

The awesomeness of The Social Network

2011-04-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

After Udaan, no movie has excited me more than The Social Network. I must have watched it in full about 4-5 times, and seen it in parts about 20. Having fully internalised it with all its strengths and failings (minor ones at that), I can safely say that The Kings Speech comes nowhere close to the genius, audacity, and showmanship of The Social Network. It is as if The Social Network embodies in itself all the qualities of the idea on which it is based upon – Facebook. And King’s Speech falters like its stammering, insecure protagonist, The King, Bertie.

There is such a lack of judgement in awarding The King’s Speech the main Oscar gongs; people will continue to make sappy, period films, trying to find historical figures with a minor deformity or handicap. Kirk Lazarus, you were right!

On the other hand, everything about The Social Network is burnished in dazzling intelligence – right from the imaginative storytelling to its explosive screenplay to the superlative ensemble acting. Having an edgy and creative director of the stature of David Fincher is a great start. But the real tone of the movie is the mastermind of Aaron Sorkin. The dialogues are paper-cut sharp and allow no one in this movie to be stupid (even though to Winklevii seem to in real life). In fact, the minor problem that arises due to this is the vicious sarcasm uniformly spouted by most of the characters stops their true personalities coming across.

Here are a few delightful nuggets

Cameron Winklevoss: Because we're gentlemen of Harvard. This is Harvard, where you don't plant stories and you don't sue people.

Divya Narendra: You thought he was going to be the only one who thought that was stupid?

****

Erica Albright: As if every thought that tumbles through your head was so clever it would be a crime for it not to be shared.

****

Tyler Winklevoss: I'm sorry President Summers, but what you just said makes no sense to me all.

Larry Summers: I'm devastated by that.

******

Eduardo Saverin: I...I'm not a psychiatrist but...

Sy: Well, I'm glad we've got that on the record.

******

Gage: Your best friend is suing you for 600 million dollars.

Mark Zuckerberg: I didn't know that; tell me more!

******

But this is a minor quibble. In fact, it is these spite-filled gems that make the movie so engaging and entertaining. Even when you see through the customary Hollywood scene-writing tricks, you applaud because these tricks have been served up delectably and intelligently.

The framing of the movie as well is also extremely inspired. The depositions, which are the only reliable part of the movie, are used as the anchor, and the audience is flung back and forth through the episodes as described by several different people. Thus what happens in flashbacks is only a version of the narrator, and may not have really happened. Thus, it allows the audience to make up their minds, while still doing justice (I think) to all the people who contributed in their own way in making Facebook what it is.

In spite of the drama, and the complex setting, The Social Network provides a great deal of informative trivia that helps you connect the dots. Some of the interesting bits for me

Larry Summers – President of Harvard was also the Secretary of Treasury, among other things, and also believed to be responsible (along with others) for the sub-prime crisis through the repealment of key financial regulations

Sean Parker – Napster’s early employee, and also being a key figure in launching Facebook into the stratosphere. Also, the movie touches upon deftly on his problems with drugs and underage girls.

Hidden thank you note to Natalie Portman, a Harvard alumnus.

I also have to mention the acting here. In spite of a primarily young cast, the acting showed spark and maturity. Jesse Eisenberg was riveting, with his mannerisms, his delivery, and his command our scenes. Savour this scene, if you don’t believe me.

I just love the way, his carves up his enemies with his finger when he barks

The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing.

It’s a bit disconcerting at times how intelligent movies like The Social Network make you think you are.

CBIP - more questions

2011-04-01T02:56:00.000-07:00

Answers to some more CBIP questions that I got through mail recently. I was recently reading your posts on CBIP examination that you took in Nov-2008. It was good to know your experience and hope its proving beneficial for your career now. I have my first exam - Core IT on 17th April and have just started studying for it. I was wondering if you I can help me clarify few doubts please::

1) How much study Core IT exam demands - I am have basic understanding of the Information Systems and familiar with the technical terminologies like Storage Management, Networking Concepts , Computer Architecture but NOT at all with datawarehouse concepts.

Answer - Core IT exam is not DWH specific. I searched online for INformation Systems, IT basic/fundamental tests. found about 5-6 of them, which were free and quite useful.there are a lot of soft questions as well about how to manage teams, how will you approach conflict/problems, how to plan, but these are pretty straight forward to answer.

2) Any specific books you can recommend? I have purchased the Exam Guide but that lists lot on study material which I think is not possible to go through in 2-3 weeks. If you can suggest few books that covers major portion of the exam that will be very helpful.

Answer - I found the top 3-4 books suggested in the study guide from the library. If your company has an online books resource like books 24x7, then it is extremely useful as well..

3) Last - Is 90 minutes sufficient to answer 110 questions? Or one needs to hurry from the first question itself? Are questions easy to understand?

Answer - Yes, it is is sufficient. but you need to keep time.

TOGAF 9 certification - preparation tips

2011-03-15T04:50:00.000-07:00

I completed my TOGAF 9 certification yesterday. It was definitely tougher than I expected based on all the mock tests that I had given. The questions were tougher, with multiple choice answers in Level 2 similar enough to trip you up.

I was already TOGAF 8 certified, so just took the Bridge exam, which is a single exam of Level 1 (20 simple multiple choice questions) and Level 2 (8 complex multiple choice questions). Both levels are open book in the Bridge, but you still need to know your stuff, and can use the book for verifying/correcting 30-40% of your answers. Else, there won't be enough time to do the rest.

What worked for me

1. Preparing for a period of two months – 1 hour a day was sufficient. In fact, I lost momentum towards the end, as I just didn't have enough motivation to revise.

2. Documenting all inputs /outputs for ADM phases,
a. which phase new deliverables are created

b. which phase deliverables are signed-off
3. Taking all available mock tests
a. Those sent out by through my firm

b. From Books 24 X 7 books – Foundation Part 1 and Part 2 (can be used even for Bridge) by William Manning

c. Previous TOGAF 8 material
d. Chris Eaton's blog - check out the right window pane
4. Watching Knotion TOGAF videos to get a different/more palatable flavour of TOGAF

5. Other material on the net for general browsing– e.g. slideshare, training sites etc.

For the Bridge exam, focus on

1. Differences between TOGAF 8 and TOGAF 9

2. Study Guide 2

3. Remember where in the book the index and the main sections are (quite important as both parts are open book for the Bridge)

4. ADM

5. ADM Techniques

During the test

I took the test in the QA Ltd, Holborn centre.

1. Scrolling through the pdf is clunky, so go to the index first, find the page number and then use page number search (note that pdf page numbers and book page numbers are 34 pages out).

2. Word/phrase search works (definitely use it), but the word is highlighted only for a flash, so pay attention. Sometimes (especially for checking best description of a particular item, summary section may provide answers more easily than the main section)

3. 2 rewritable scratch pads are given (at Holborn test centre), take tissues with you so can rub the notes and reuse again, if needed.

4. For the bridge exam, both the levels are in a single test, so you can start with Level 2 if you want (as it involves a lot of reading).

5. Definitely use the mark feature, but also use the comments feature. You can put comments that you want to specifically consider while going back to the question and referring to the TOGAF book.

10 years as a professional

2011-03-09T05:40:00.000-08:00

On the 4th of March, I completed 10 years of my professional career. There were certainly some high points and low points during that time, and some useful lessons.

1. Having a fun time at Infosys during the 3.5 months induction. Realising that I am not a hacker once again, and also realising that IT is not about coding at all. In fact, guys who progress quickly are good at the softer things rather than at ‘hard’ coding.

2. Being fortunate enough in not being transferred to Hyderabad like the rest of the batch purely because had got a project. Was a BI project. Pretty much have stayed in the same domain since.

3. Understanding the importance of diplomacy and patience at work. Work gets completed only when it wants to complete (especially if it involves more than one person).

4. Fortunate enough to travel to the UK. My family has found a very nice Bed and Breakfast. Lunch and dinner may be elsewhere.

5. Swiftly deducing that working in Mumbai is not for me. Probably, the long term move there will only be of my ashes.

6. Moving from IT delivery to IT consulting to Business consulting. Landing in the Big 4. Realising why they are called the Big 4. And all the hard work that needs to be done inside of me.

7. Giving up on the MBA dream, and sacrificing a million bucks (INR anyway!) for reserving the seat and then not taking it. But ultimately making one of the best financial decisions of my life.

8. Realising that I am a fairly decent decision maker (not just based on 7), just that I need to put myself out there and make decisions that have bigger impact in the organisations that I work in/for.

In the 10 years, haven't done too bad. But there is a lot more that I could have achieved. I could have been more driven, focused, and generally a better professional.

On the personal front,

1. Getting to live near London, one of the best cities in the world

2. Discovering some of the things I am – cyclist, runner, but always a dilettante in everything (and don't mean that as a compliment!)

3. Finding love and losing it.

4. Getting married and having a daughter who makes me feel special.

Zor ka jhatka - Totally wiped out

2011-02-25T02:50:00.000-08:00

I am so glad to hear that the show Zor ka Jhatka has failed. All three of us, that's me, wife and my 3 year old are big fan of the original, "Total Wipeout". It is for those who like "Ninja Warriors" and "Takeshi's Castle", where what matters is the skill (or the lack of it) of the participants to provide you with laugh out loud moments. In Total Wipeout, the host, Richard Hammond does add some humour quotient, but works strictly as a narrator, and not the hero. To emphasis his role as an ancillary, he is even not present in the main location, Argentina, and appears to sit on a railing in a disused studio corner.

The fun of the show comes through some really unfit participants setting themselves by taking on the ridiculous obstacle course. Navigating the four giants balls provides the greatest laughs as you see the bodies of the participants twisted and mangled in all weird angles.

The host frankly doesn't matter. There is no need for the paricipants to be celebrities. Just show us people going over the big 4 balls non-stop, and you will have record TRPs.

Panasonic-SD-257WXC breadmaker

2011-01-28T05:57:00.000-08:00

Have bought the Panasonic-SD-257WXC breadmaker from Amazon

Bought if after reading glowing reviews on Guardian and Amazon

I am well and truly chuffed. Just waiting to bake and smell some home made bread.

P.S. Need to let people know that on Amazon the price has drammatically increased. I bought it for £98 at the start of this year. and now it is retailing at £128. Incredible price hike!!

Glassdoor

2011-01-25T02:30:00.000-08:00

Glassdoor is a great site compiling all the important and interesting details about various companies. You create a login, enter your own salary details, reviews etc. and voila, the full compilation of data from other users is avaiable to you.

So, it a service similar to what Vault provides, but its free. I am sure Vault provides much more. But really if you want sufficiently exhaustive salary details split by roles and location (and also perks), then there's enough data on Glassdoor

The reviews about companies are really informative. There are interview tips and tricks which will also help you prepare in case you are looking at switching :-)

The reason for this blog is to advertise Glassdoor so we have more reliable and accurate data points.

Udaan - The dreams in your wings

2011-01-21T08:02:00.000-08:00

With every passing day, its going to take even more of an herculean effort to get me writing a decent blogspot. Udaan demands such an herculean effort.

Who would have thought that a story of a boy and his father altered decisively by the presence of a step-brother would have made such compulsive viewing.

There isn't much of a story in Udaan. It really is about a boy growing up in a completely unexpected way. THe way it unfolds is extremely riveting and touching.

Rohan wants to a writer, his dad like most other dad wants him to complete engineering and join him in business. Rohan isn't your typical hero. He has been 'rusticated', he smokes and drives his father's car to the bar in the dead of the night. He knows that he is a writer, but nothing much else. He is still very much in search of his identity.

That reveals to him slowly through in sudden ways - his adorable chachu who wants him to do want he wants, and even ready to take him under his wings (to disastrous effect), his college mates who initially try to rag him, and then turn into thick friends (even castigating him for wallowing in self-pity). But his inner resolve comes to the fore in wanting to protect his step-brother, Arjun from the tryanny of his father. There is a potent chance of Arjun being shunted off to the boarding school becoming another version of Rohan and ultimately growing up to become just like his father.

People will have complaints about the slowness, stillness and unevenness of the film. But I think that is a key part of why this film works. It really seeps into your phyche, makes you relate to Rohan, Arjun, Jimmy and even on occasion, Bhairav Singh. YOu can see that there is some truth in what Bhairav Singh says or wants from his sons. But, there is no denying his methods are all wrong. At the same time, he himself doesn't seem to have the guidance and love from his parents which he can draw on.

A big part in why the movie works is the music and the lyrics. The soundtrack is nothing short of haunting. Rohan leaves his school and the track goes "Kahaani khatm hai ya shuruvat hone ko hai". You wonder what's going to happen now in ROhan's life.

Rohan's decision of disowning his father and his home has the refrains

Peron Ki Bedia Khwabon Ko Baandhe Nahi Re, Kabhi Nahi Re
Mitti Ki Parton Ko Nanhe Se Ankur Bhi Chire Dhire Dhire

and then the words again...
"Kahaani khatm hai ya shuruvat hone ko hai"

You really are astounded by the strength and courage that Rohan finds in going back for his brother, and taking the decision to raise him single-handedly with love and care that he never had. It makes you feel small, put in (a very low) perspective whatever sense of achievement you have in life.

But, you fear for the two of them. Would Rohan be able to support both of them. Will they both be ok in the big bad world out there.

I think they would.

P.S. Showed it to new niece of 6 years. It was a really long day of travelling, and we started the movie at 11 pm. I thought she would fall asleep. She saw it right through, and guess what liked it.

Of course, she is intelligent.

Commonwealth Games - At least no one died

2010-09-21T04:45:00.000-07:00

Could there be any greater embarassment?
Of course, there is. Another train crash

Great North Run - Abhi conquers Newcastle

2010-09-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

Another Marathon under my belt. First in the UK. 1:55 the time. Almost 1/2 hr than my aspirational time. 10 minutes more than PB.
But, with no training for more than last 3 weeks, it was going to be more perspiration than aspiration. Aspiration my ass!

Newcastle is not plain sailing anyway. Wavy roads, down, up, up, up, down. My legs have been battered. They have turned to both stone (as in can't move) and jelly (when I do, they wobble). No dead nails though.

Raised 100 pounds in charity (exact!). So, all not lost! Donate more here

Here's how it went. Good that its gone. Next year, want to be back though. 1:30. Here I come.

Aawaz de kaha hai?

2010-08-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

HT reports

A jar of air exhaled by Hollywood's 'It' couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie has been auctioned for $523 on eBay. The jar of 'celebrity air' was put up on auction in June by enterprising celebrity spotter Joe Wilson r has been bought by an anonymous buyer, reported Daily Mail

I am guessing their fart (captured in a hagarbatti) will be worth much more.

Great North Run

2010-08-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I am running the Great North Run, the world's largest half marathon.

This is my fourth attempt at the half. My personal best is 1 hr 45 minutes. I am aiming at 1 hr 30 min this year. If I achieve the £500 target, then I will do my best to achieve the time. If not, I will cry trying.

Akansha is a charity I have come across when I was at Accenture. They do loads of fantastic work for kids, primarily in the field of education. I have interacted with the kids they support and could see first hand, the great work done by the charity.

People in the UK can donate via "Kids in need of Education" charity.

http://www.justgiving.com/kinoe

People elsewhere can click on appropriate links here

http://www.akanksha.org/

Back in Brighton

2010-07-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

Am in Brighton this week due to en-masse trainings scheduled by my division at The Firm here. Great opportunity to get to know the rest of the team on speed, considering I just joined last week.

THe sessions have been quite useful and the evening programmes are also good - you get to mingle around a lot, you are allocated random seats at dinner tables, so you have to make conversation with new folks. Works for me.

Didn't realize that the guys didn't have a habit of withdrawing to their rooms immediately after. People go out in clubs etc. and are awake, drinking, having fun into the wee hours. I am not one for talking over the din and after a couple of drinks - its not a trait I have been able to develop in spite of umpteen attempts. I am not going to start now.

Have gone around running though along the sea-face. Has been lovely to see the city slightly differently. Have stayed here more almost a year and a half, and have very fond memories of the place. Still a tourist destination, beaches are busy, and has a fantastic vibe.

My second most favorite city after London. Though, my first love :-)

God takes centrestage!

2010-07-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

A R Rahman show at the Wembley Arena. This Sunday, the 25th.

Met him once almost 15 years ago. For the music launch of Love Birds ("Cmon Cmon O Kamachi" - loved it!!) at Rhythm House. There was Nagma, Prabhu Deva and A R Rahman. I had won some on the spot prize and was called on the stage. Royally ignored Nagma. Just shook hands with my idols - Prabha Deva and the real Deva, the man himself.

After that, saw him in person only this April at Southbank Centre, London, where the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed his music. It was a pretty good show, but Rahman didn't play or sing. Just spoke a few words during the show, and then at length, in the interview after the performance. He was in his element though (plenty of witty answers, and I can't remember anything). THough he did promise that he was going to be back.

The Jai Ho Tour is going to be all-out extravanganza. A full-on spectacle. Don't mind if the man still keeps the shell around himself -like he always does even when he is belting out the most moving numbers. I just want to be there.

Sit straight or relax?

2010-06-29T02:20:00.001-07:00

BBC has a report on how it is not right to sit upright, but rather to sit leaning back at an angle of 135 degrees celcius.
But what this study misses is that most office workers now used laptops, or computer screens which are about 10-15 cms high, ie, the close as high as the chest max. So if you leaning down in the manner suggested, you have to tilt your head at an angle at about 30-45 degrees to look at the screen. The reason for severe back injuries is the position of the screen with respect to the eyes. If the worker has to significantly tilt his neck forward, it results in slip disks - the disks on your spine start jutting out and cause the nasty back-problems. To avoid this, the laptop of the screen should be at the eye level or above.
So indeed, it may be good just to sit leaning back IF you are not working on computers, but, it is certainly more preferable to sit straight otherwise. Best is to adjust the height of your screen.

English Football Juggernaut coming to naught

2010-06-15T01:32:00.001-07:00

Supporting India and England (when they are playing other teams, not each other) is a nerve-wracking affair. I am specifically talking about when these nations are playing their favorite sport - for India, it is cricket (the only sport), and for England, it is football (and followed by rugby and cricket).

Both the teams never make it easy for their supporters. Their approach is never cohesive, assuring, and you never have a guarentee of a flawless performance in big matches. And invariably, it ends with a disappointing loss.

It is really sad especially with the kind of disproportionate attention and money cricket and football get in India and England. I think the best approach for stopping the associated hair loss is not follow the games closely, i.e. not be a devout fan. If the team wins, a bonus. If it loses, who cares!

BTW, I definitely feel England have no chance in winning the World Cup. Nor does the much favored Spain. My money for some reason (gut-feel) is on Argentina.

Lets wait and watch.

Stampede due to Sabotage

2010-05-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

Stampede at Delhi Railway Station.

Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee called the stampede ‘unfortunate’ and ordered a “high level inquiry” into the incident.

“We have to find out whether the accident occurred due to anyone’s fault or if it was an act of sabotage,” Mamata said in Kolkata.

Mamata Banerjee of course doesn't need to apologize, forget resignng. It was an act of sabotage!!

Derailed thinking

2010-02-24T00:49:00.001-08:00

The Railway Budget for 2010-11 is out. One particular announcement caught my eye.

Railways to set up Rabindra Museum in Howrah and Geetanjali Museum in Bolpur -- both in West Bengal -- to commemorate Rabindranath Tagore's [ Images ] 125th birth anniversary.

Precious!!

Mamata Banerjee should also start broadcasting Rabindro Sangeet on the train platform PA system between announcements.

Burning the soul and loving it

2010-02-17T10:21:00.000-08:00

After a year for fairly rigorous sedentary existence (bar the few arm stretches done playing badminton at weekends), there is promise and sweat in the air.

Have managed to get into my dream race - not the 7 km SCMM race, I am talking about the Great Run.

To keep my training for that on track, have registered to three low mileage runs during the spring and summer.

So, here's my schedule

1. Hyde Park Jog - 14/04/2010 - 5 km
2. Tower of London Jog - 06/05/2010 - 10 km
3. Canary Wharf Jog - 02/06/2010 - 10 km

The great thing about them is that entry is free, t-shirt is free, they are in London (home of free-running!!?) and they are well-timed (evening after office hours means free weekends).

Nice run-up to The Ultimate Event - 19/09/2010

Happiness Writes White

2010-02-15T06:36:00.000-08:00

A lot of folks ask why bloggers are always ranting, raving, complaining, and being generally angry with the world.

Well, there is a simple answer.

"Happiness writes white. It does not show up on the page”.

Unfortunately, I like the times when I am not blogging

Terrorist attack in Pune

2010-02-15T01:10:00.000-08:00

I had predicted a terrorist attack this year. Less as a brag, it was more a commentary on how the Indian "system" never learns its lessons and continues to make the same mistakes.

In mean, wasn't the German Bakery one of the blindingly obvious targets after the attack on foreigner frequented locations on 26/11? The attack on German Bakery feels like an execution of something planned as a part of 26/11.

Of course the attack in Mumbai hasn't yet happened. But in a way, it did.

I continue to hope I am wrong!

Great North Run - Here I come

2010-02-11T01:59:00.000-08:00

May be God realized that I was turning into a lazy bum, and needed to get the laptop off my lap and my ass off the couch. He's given me a place for Great North Run, one of the largest half marathons in the world.

It is in September normally, so have got plenty of time to prep. But am well-chuffed to be finally running my first long distance race in the UK.

Here's to plenty more.

Beyonce wins the Song of the Year Grammy

2010-02-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

As I said...

When the world is full of morons...

2010-01-21T03:41:00.000-08:00

...its stupid to be sane!

To bridge the chasm

2010-01-20T04:40:00.001-08:00

A very long time we needed the SarcMark. It is excrutiatingly difficult to write even slightly humorous mails without the fear of upsetting people. Writing masks the emotions of writer, and it is easy for the reader to misinterpret the message. After all, what we are asking him is to not intepret the message as it was written, but as it was intended. An intention is abstract, unquantifiable.

We can't get all uppity and say, "D'oh, the reader is a dumbass, and isn't getting the irony". Also, one might question, well, the old authors - of books and newspaper articles - didn't face the problem.

Well, that writing is completely different to email, or texting. Email and text can be one to many (where many can be privy to a barb sent to one). It might just be upsetting that the receiver to whom the sarcasm is intended gets it, but others cced in, don't and think that sender has actually insulted the receiver.

The sarmark eliminates that ambiguity. Great invention, I think.

Will I pay to download the SarcMark. No, I would rather insult people (Sarcmark here!)

India losing territory

2010-01-10T06:08:00.001-08:00

Something that I always feared might be happening . China is encroaching on Indian territory without any firm challenge. They are drunk with power and have history behind them, and the Indian government lack will and courage to take on the mighty neighbours.

They will continue to claim more Indian territory and put Indian government on a diplomatic backfoot (if you are fighting for your terrirtory all the time, you dont really have time to look at their disputed territories and historical LOC issues). The people who will suffer are the native tribes, and long term, it will cause loss of control over the nearby areas that India continues to hold on.

Grammy Song of the Year 2010

2009-12-09T05:23:00.000-08:00

Goes to Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it). Prediction.

In fact, going by the difference between a record and a song, I thought that it was the awesomest record (singing, music, production, mixing) but it is not nominated in that category.

The words to the song are alright, but thats not what makes the song special. The whole package (99% of it is Beyonce) is brilliant.

In case you haven't seen the song, its here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mVEGfH4s5g&feature=related

Its the first song that my daughter 'tuned into'

There's more where that came from

2009-11-21T11:05:00.000-08:00

I am one for predictions. And betting. I want to put my money where the mouth is. It also gets people who sound cock-sure to reevaluate their belief.

I get some right. Then gloat when I get it right. This is not a place to gloat about them.

I am going to make another one. And I will pray to God that it doesn't happen.

I predict that in the next year, there will be at least one significant terrorist attack in Mumbai. I don't want to measure the significance in terms of number of deaths. But its a terrorist attack, so we are looking at atleast 5 innocent people dead(one can never underestimate the impact that a single life lost has).

THis will happen because in the last year, the situation in Pakistan has worsened considerably. And our politicians, police, intelligence etc, have just found excuses and reasons for absolving any responsibility for the Siege of Bombay.

Read Outlook special issue special issue. The response on the other side has been really pedestrian - what is needed is new processes, much advanced training (not just new vests), and better communication between various teams. There should have been a coherent action plan to tackle this - as far as I know this is none.

People will die.

Nahi chalegi, nahi chalegi, gandi bhaasha nahi chalegi!!

2009-11-17T02:03:00.000-08:00

Cross posted here.

Bound scripts, targeted audiences, massive publicity budgets, media tie-ups, and merchandising - Bollywood has indeed turned a corner in the noughties.

One clear sign of an increasing corporate hold over the film industry is the instillment of test screening. Good, bad? Well, definitely good for producers who want the film not to bomb for the lack of UAT and appeal to the widest audience possible. By the same token, bad for audiences with a keener palate.

Take the case of Ishqiya. During focus group screening, women squirmed and shifted in their seats. Indeed, they found it uncomfortable to watch. (give them cushions I say!)

Now, I wonder if Satya had been shown to such a focus group. Would Bhiku Mhatre saying "paagal" instead of "chutiya" conveyed the same nuance?

Ishqiya seems to be of a milieu where people swear to punctuate their sentences (the male protagonists are thieves, you ar*3$0735!). Indeed in my opinion, expletives qualify and elaborate the exclamation mark oh so wonderfully.

Why, oh, why, should we then curb the beauty of the rustic lingo?

Uneventful Life

2009-11-05T08:18:00.000-08:00

It has been fairly uneventful few months. You won't have guessed looking at the update to my blog!

Really, apart from my daughter having learned to stagger (and she IS an ace staggerer!), and learning to alert us of her excretions AFTER she's done it, there's nothing much really that has happened.
You shout, nay, say calmly, "soo, soo, sheee shee, in the pottyyyy!", and she repeats, "Shee, in the pottyyyy!". Cute but deceitful!

Have been working quite furiously for the last couple of months. There's huge responsibility of making the right architectural decisions, or its literally, my (as a tax payer's) money down the drain. Yes, working for one of the UK banks nationalized to save it from going under during the financial crisis. It's difficult to keep your sanity about you, with all the chaos happening around you - absence of business involvement, poor IT engagement, EU issuing orders effectively undoing part of our work. The good part is that the work is in London, so have been able to spend them with my drunken, uncivilized daughter.

Spending time with the family also means coming home to a war-zone - toys lying around, empty coffee mugs tipped over the sofa, food (that followed a kid's mouth now embedding itself in the carpet, overflowing laundry bag, crumb-infested dining table, perpetually crumpled beds and scattered wet towels! Wife refuses to clean because, as per new rules of conjugal partnership, both husband and wife are supposed to 'share' responsibilities. I don't know who invented this drivel, but that person needs to die!!

So, you see, all in all, I have been extremely happy, nothing wrong at all, thank you very much.

Scrubs - Season 8

2009-06-29T06:55:00.000-07:00

What's your name?

You really are new here!

IIFA Showdown-आशु आग बबूला हो गए

2009-06-16T12:06:00.001-07:00

Rather than What's your Rashee, Ashutosh Gowariker should be asking Where's your Sense of Humour. With his humour caught in severe downturn, I wonder if the historical पितामहा will be able to make a decent comedy.

(BTW, the 'a' to 'e' for Marathi kar names has gone badly out of fashion)

Prediction for Britian's Got Talent 2009

2009-05-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

I predict that Susan Boyle will not win Britian's Got Talent.

My money is on Diversity. I am of less sure of them winning, than Susan Boyle losing.

I think the shock value (extraordinary voice of an ordinary looking spinster) has propelled Susan Boyle in super stardom. But the novelty has worn off and people have seen in the semi-finals that her isn't the greatest they have heard.

Diversity, on the other hand, have significantly upped the ante. They are radical, nimble, and eminently likeable. And they are so many (think of their family and friends all voting for them).

And I hope they win.

Update: 31/05/2009 - Hahahaha!! Hahahahaha!!

NEWS: News Effectively Worth Squat

2009-05-26T08:39:00.001-07:00

Why do I need to know that Mike Tyson's daughter is critically ill.

Or that her name is Exodus for that matter.

Update - More of the same.
Chitra Singh's daughter commits suicide

Article published in Integration Consortium

2009-05-22T07:15:00.001-07:00

My article on "More the data, less the business intelligence" is published here.
On my blog here

Respect vs Authority - IT view

2009-05-15T03:46:00.001-07:00

In one of the training sessions I attended recently, I was involved in a fierce debate about the 'need to reign in IT programmers'. A lady said that on many occasions, the programmers go on and do things as they want and there was a need to check this. ANother gentlemen piped in saying that,"this is the only profession, where you don't need to have any qualification to be called an expert in". That's where he thought, "IT ALL WENT WRONG".

The disdain was rankling. For one, I think the advances that have happened in/using IT has far surpassed anything else in the last two decades. Think of home pcs, mobiles, gaming, internet for God's sake (the lady chose to differ!!). One of the primary reasons It has happened because of the immense freedom that the IT developers get. These programmers has been either working independently or have got enough freedom in their job to go away and do something that they thought was path-breaking, interesting and fun. Because the resources available to a programmer are essentially available free, he can go about this task all alone, with minimal supervision, and funding.

IT is a field that allows for the greatest exchange of ideas, simply because you can share the essential building block - the code - with anyone in the world. You can copy already available code and create something completely new. If what you come up with is good, people will use, approve, and promote it. If not, you get feedback to improve or bin it.

To say that management needs to always reign in these guys is not understand how fundamentally different things operate in the computing world. Creativity in any field is fostered through breaking down barriers and allowing maximum freedom. It's especially so in IT. Of course there needs to be checks on what the final output is, but even here, the old way of using authority to do that is obsolete and obstructive. Rather, we now have what is called respect. If you create something great - an article, paper, code, or design - you publish it to the world. The world studies it, reviews it, and scores you on your artifact. This is much more democratic, personality independent method of weighing the value of a creation.

You see it in blogs, movie rating,articles and code. Many times the rating is accompanied with enlightened comments from the reviewers, clearly articulating what aspects they liked or disliked. This feedback is much more useful than quality checks done through a single dedicated team of people.

Of course, sometimes the artifact you create, cannot be published to the whole world. But then, you can use private cloud / intranet to access vast pool of people in your organization to review your product.

But the moot point is, in World 2.0, RESPECT WORKS BETTER THAN AUTHORITY. Its high time we recognize and use it fact to our advantage.

CBIP recognition in UK

2009-05-13T06:08:00.001-07:00

From my experience, it seems that there isn't enough recognition of the CBIP certification in the UK. The best measure of this is to compare the number of data warehouse / BI jobs advertised here in the UK and US.

In the US
Lets try Monster - It throws 3 jobs with CBIP as a requirement or prefered

At Jobster - it has 7

In the UK
Monster - 0

At IT Job Board - 0

Any given day, you will find similar trend - definitely recognized in the US, but not in UK. Wonder why that is? Not enough marketing/awareness building by TDWI

More the data, less the business intelligence

2009-05-08T00:32:00.000-07:00

SUMMARY

Often, there is a quest to do more with the data we have. The notion is - "We have this piece of data, probably, it means something important. Lets find out!" This has led to creation of mammoth corporate data warehouses which are poor in imparting knowledge and big on maintenance. Most of the data that they contain is fractured, incorrect, and redundant. Good decision making doesn't need ALL the data that is available. In fact, good decision making demands limited data, i.e. KPIs. This means that data warehouses which are our decision support engines need to built as per specs (not as per what source systems contain). Moreover, we need to educate ourselves to look beyond data - recent global events have highlighted acutely the inherent limitations of data and people who use it.

DATA WAREHOUSES AS DUMPING GROUNDS
As organizations become more tech-savvy, they want to do more with the data they generate. Letting the data be just created and consumed for its fundamental need – facilitating a core business transaction - is unacceptable. Organizations want to store, examine, tweak and mix data, and hope that it will be useful in some way.

More and more buzzwords – Business performance management, digital dashboards, scorecards, web analytics, on-demand BI – have added to the confusion in the information management space, all the while, making the CIO worried that he is not doing enough with the data he owns. Organizations are trying to extract the last ounce of meaning from the smallest data element. The notion is - "We have this piece of data, probably, it means something important. Lets find out!" I wonder if it is the right approach.

Data stores are typically built for analysis and provide "business intelligence". Large ones - data warehouses - contain aggregate of all the organizational data. Data marts focus on specific subject areas or departments. Operational data stores cater to immediate needs - minute-by-minute or daily updates, and are smaller in size. The thing to note is that these stores are not core transactional systems themselves. They are decision support instruments that help the management in their decision making process and come up with business plans based on them.
Capturing all the available data in these stores is fraught with numerous problems.

1. More data we bring into them, the more noise we add. Some of this noise can be attributed to incorrect system entry or untidy manual processing. However, sometimes, there is a genuine anomaly e.g. sudden freak rains on a given day mean that footfall on the high street was reduced by 40%. But does this information help us in business planning? Not really.

2. It is difficult to sieve through loads and loads of data. It obscures rather than informs. You might organize all the data in neat multi-dimensional fancy reports. However, someone has to trawl through them to understand what the hell all those arrays, tags, and numbers are. By the time you do that, the time to make a critical decision may have already passed.

3. Capturing minutiae into a data warehouse requires huge spending. The infrastructure to clean the data, pump it into the warehouse, and store it adds massively to the costs. For companies already struggling to build a plain vanilla data warehouse, it's a plain vanilla foolishness to waste money on a real-time all singing, all dancing BI- behemoth.

4. Be prepared for poor performance from large data warehouse – normal databases cannot match the performance of data warehouse appliances, which are specifically targeted for large data volumes, and sophisticated data analysis. However such appliances are extremely expensive. Regular RDBMS databases struggle to process vast quantity of data, the load times and SQL queries are much slower, whatever the optimization strategy used. A lot of the user queries result in full table scans and fetching of millions of records at a time. This is thanks to the approach "Let's see what I can get out of the system" rather than "What do I really want?" It puts undue pressure on the system leading to poor performance. No wonder, it leaves users dissatisfied, who in the end, turn away from the system.

5. With the oceans of data available, the decision makers are free to glean information that fits their views or needs. This phenomenon is called confirmation bias. Managers can use it to justify the spending last year or budget for the next, demonstrate exceptional performance, or apportion blame for poor performance on some external factors. It doesn't matter whether people do this selective data filtering consciously or sub-consciously. The fact is we do it.

WHY DOES ALL THE DATA GET ASKED FOR?
Most of the projects are still run as IT change initiatives. This means that business is considered ancillary to the whole activity. The IT project managers don’t put sufficient demand for business resources. Unfortunately, the team managers do not want to take out key resources from their day-to-day activities to engage in something that provides no immediate value-add and may harm their team's performance. In the absence of clear business requirements, the IT team is forced to design a system to cater to any eventuality. Alas, that is not possible.

Some blame rests on the IT team as well. The business representatives don't know what features or functionality will be available in the new world. Business can do with some handholding about the capabilities of the new architecture – screen layouts, filters, collaboration, scheduling, security, flexibility etc. so business knows what to expect and provide their requirements accordingly. A few mock-ups go a long way in flicking the light bulb on, giving the business users a number of ideas about ways to use the new architecture effectively and also demonstrate its limitations. In the absence of any business-IT workshops early on, business will keep drifting and won’t knowing what to expect. They will keep ask for everything.

DATA AND DECISION MAKING
Decision support stores provide a chance to see through the convoluted, shifting data spaghetti and glean out the most pertinent information from it. The starting point always has to be 'what do we need to find out' backed by a strong 'why' and then move to 'How can we achieve this?'

We fail to understand the intrinsic difference between data, information, and knowledge. Data is unprocessed content. Information is a higher abstraction which provides additional meaning to the data. Knowledge is application of the underlying information or data, it's about true understanding of 'what lies beneath'. The important thing to note is that more data doesn’t mean more knowledge. And, more information doesn’t equal more knowledge. In fact, just the opposite may be true.

Good decision making doesn't need ALL the data that is available. In fact, good decision making demands limited data, what is known as KPIs - key performance indicators. E.g. KPI for recruitment team is recruitment increase percentage. It can be derived by number of new recruits this year over previous year. You might capture a whole lot of information about the new recruits, but most of it is peripheral to the success of the recruitment team. A doctor doesn't need to record all your physiological variables to correctly diagnose a problem. Just 3-4 key indicators are enough to tell him if you are having a heart attack. However, as we humans believe that more information one can acquire to make a decision, the better. This is known as information bias. However, extra information cannot affect our decision – what is not worth knowing is not worth knowing. Based on this, it is critical to limit the content of any design support system - be it a warehouse, or operational data store.

Some of the really good decision making is intuitive. With just handful of information and unconscious rapid cognition, we can arrive at an accurate judgement very quickly. It is what Malcolm Gladwell calls thin-slicing in his fascinating book, Blink. It is a powerful, sophisticated tool for taking quick decisions with minimum information. In fact, in the face of mountains of data, this ability no longer functions. Intuition, by definition is fragile and short-lived, and too much information can often paralyze it.

WHAT TRUE ANALYSIS DEMANDS
Real, meaningful analysis needs time and distance. There is no benefit in seeing all the variables right this second to be able to make a decision about the ‘next XYZ strategy’. Over a period of time, the data will be sufficiently stable to be able to give a reliable picture of current business trends and decide on how to tackle the future ones. Distance refers to the fact that one doesn’t need granular, detailed data for analysis. One needs to zoom out slightly to see it in a broader context. Summarized data rolled up at reasonable levels spliced across relevant dimensions will provide a more substantive, vivid depiction of the overall performance and help sharper, quicker decision making.

It’s a fallacy that ALL the answers are there in the data we capture. A school might be deemed to have exceptional teaching model based on the performance of the students at Grade 10 tests. However, this conclusion doesn’t take into consideration the fact that the school has a rigorous test based admission process, ensuring only the best students get admitted to the school. No school maintains un-admitted students on their rolls. This is called survivorship bias or problem of silent evidence.

The other trouble is inability to predict cataclysmic events like earthquakes, terrorist attacks, fires or for that matter, a recession. Such is the disruptive force of these events that the forecasting and predictive models just don’t stand up to scrutiny. This, at a time when you expect such tools to guide you the most. The need is to look beyond the obvious.

Massive data stores give us a sense of being all-knowing. We think we can just immerse into them and we will come out enlightened. The truth, as explained, is not that simple. In reality, the tools are as good as the data they contain and the people that use them. Unfortunately, both are inherently flawed. We need to remember two things - Data doesn’t tell everything, and you need to know what you are looking for.

What beautiful scroll

2009-03-24T14:23:00.000-07:00

Just extraordinarily peculiar.

Whole story here

Tiger numbers diminishing rapidly

2009-03-20T03:02:00.000-07:00

Tendulkar dedicates ton to tiger conservation

Hamilton (PTI): Master batsman Sachin Tendulkar today dedicated his 42nd Test hundred, which put India in command against New Zealand, to the cause of tiger conservation.

"I would very much like to like to dedicate this hundred to tiger conservation because that is what right from the start of this tour the whole team had decided. I have given couple of messages as well in this regard. So I would dedicate this one to tiger conservation," said Tendulkar, who smashed a sublime 160 at the Seddon Park.

On the eve of the first Test, Tendulkar had supported the cause, expressing his concerns at the dwindling numbers of tigers in India.

"At the start of the century, there were nearly 40,000 tigers in India. Today, that number has shrunk to 1,700 and we are losing at least one tiger a month. The rate at which the tiger is being hunted down is alarming," Tendulkar had said.

Tendulkar has got the rate of 1 tiger loss per month wrong. There were 40000 tigers at the start of his century and by the end of it, there were only 1700. So, that would be a loss of 13.82 tigers every 1 second.

That's a truly staggering rate of decline.

P.S. I am just kidding of course, Tendulkar's concerns are well-placed.

Practical advice

2009-03-16T02:31:00.001-07:00

Well, the governments, banks, social services are all giving us practical advice to cope with the recession.

No, I don't want practical advice. How about just some theoritical advice?

Listen till the very end - Jon Stewart, the bond!

2009-03-05T10:54:00.000-08:00

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

The servility towards "criminally rich" CEOS is vomit inducing.

Curious case of Benjamin Button

2009-03-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

Terrible waste of my time. A movie without a soul, purpose, or any need to exist.

Predictioner

2009-02-23T07:12:00.000-08:00

I think I can be a good jyotishi.
Here is what I said about the Oscar for Supporting Role

And the result - Heath Ledger wins

Anurag Kashyap for Prime Minister.

2009-02-17T16:02:00.000-08:00

I am pleased. Very very pleased. It's been a heady night getting high on some fantastic music. Heard Delhi 6 first and now bloody this. India, I am so fucking proud.

Hallucinating about mosquitoes

2009-02-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

I took my daughter - aged 1 year and some - to India to meet my family and friends. I didn't consider mosquitoes in that list. Evidently the pests didn't take well to that and ravaged my daughter all over. She had chicken pox just a while ago. She recovered but her face now looks worse. Also, being fair (both her chromosomes seem to come from her mom), her skin turned crimson red.

On the plane to London, people were asking me if I was a millionaire, because I (naturally) and my daughter (thanks to the scabs) were looking like we lived in the slums. I said no, we don't live in slums, thank you! But the mosquitoes don't know that and keep bugging us.

While people were asking inane questions, I also noticed two mosquitoes on the wall opposite (we get front seats thanks to the little one). They had boarded the flight without passport, plane tickets, security checks, and worse, were not wearing seat belts. I couldn't debase myself by reaching for them and trying to squash them. Instead, lost about 0.01 pints of blood stoically getting bitten. Finally, killed one of them while it was in the act.

Back in London, I still couldn't get over those rascals in Mumbai and the ones with unknown address. While cradling my daughter to sleep, I was hallucinating that mosquitoes were prancing around us. I could hear the buzzing in my head, just like you hear it in cell-phones in vibrating mode. I was reaching for the bat (its actually a racquet, except you don't play with it, but zap mosquitoes. Which means it may not be a racquet. Hmmm!). Except, there was no racquet. And there were no mosquitoes either. Except those in my head.

At night, I was covering up my daughter in quilt, not because it was cold, but because I was afraid more mosquitoes would bite and her face might start looking like a monkey's bum (and people would then think that both her chromosomes came from me). Realised through the jet lagged sleep that there are no mosquitoes here.

Yanked the quilt from her and wrapped me warm!

Rahman should popularise ghazals

2009-01-30T04:10:00.000-08:00

Rahman should popularise ghazals, says Jagjit Singh

And Jagjit Singh should populatise EVERY other music style. If thats possible.

Actually the idiot said, that in the earlier decades Hindi film music was ghazal based. Hello! Apart from a few exceptions like Umrao Jaan and the nasal Salma Agha's movies, ghazal has never been central to Hindi films. But the moron is too insular and petty to recognize the place of ghazals (important)and that of Rahman (very important)

Slumdog Millionaire

2009-01-07T08:39:00.000-08:00

For a Mumbaikar turned radical Mumbai-baiter, Slumdog Millionaire should be such a great mouth piece. Showing Bombay in all its gory, disgusting, repulsive, and obscene glory, it should have made me say to the city loyalist, "Look, is this why you really like the city. Look at this ugly mess of the city you got!".

But somehow, it made it long for the place. Because for some reason, the ugly mess is mine (may be I even contributed to it before shamefully copping out ).

I am glad I didn't have a life anywhere close to Jamal's. I did start out in one of those millions shacks near Golibar road, Santacruz, but thanks to the resilience and grit of my grandmother and my parents, I came out of that pretty quickly. At age 5, I was living in a 1 BHK flat - a place a million worlds apart.

Slumdog Millionaire makes you believe in your heart that even fantastically great things do happen to good people. Most of the poorer folks work incredibly hard to earn a living, without purposely trying to subvert the system or break the rules. I think if most of these guys who keep trying and fighting come out winning. Bombay offers them the opportunities to work. They toil terribly hard, subside on vada-pav, send their kids to school, put money away for the rainy day, and find themselves in substantially better place than where they started. I truly think there are a million Slumdog Millionaire stories out there. And I feel proud that a city that is filthy, cramped, and insensitive is still a place where such inspiring stories bloom.

Rabbi Shergill - Jinhe Naaz Hai Hind Par Wo Kahaa Hai

2008-12-21T08:24:00.000-08:00

For all that is wrong with our country, for all those things that rile and rankle, for all that disgusts us, for all those things that make you go, "When will we ever learn?", there is a truly the most amazing song.

If there needs to be a patriotic song in these times, then this is it. For in the last few days, it is not the external factors that have threatened India. It's the ugliness within. The insurmountable agonies, the unspeakable debasement, the sheer insensitivity that ordinary Indians have to face. 26/11 is NOT an external attack. It is direct result of the callouness of our government and bureaucracy.

The song so beautifully summarizes our inadequacies in that regard. After all, Bilqis Yakoob Rasul, Manjunath Shanmugham, Satydendra Dubey and Navleen Kumar were not victims of the criminals who killed them. That were victims of the system that never enforced and ensured decent protection for those who stood up or swift and suitable justice to those who fell.

Criminals in this country (especially politicians, police and bureaucrats) and outside (terrorits) know this and play to its weaknesses.

Slumdog Millionaire - Indian Film?

2008-12-16T10:48:00.000-08:00

It is galling, the ignorance of some of our Bollywood actors. Anil Kapoor says in this interview that Slumdog Millionaire, a film in which he plays a pivotal role (and not just a walk-in part) is a Hollywood film. Now it was ok for our entertainment reporters with their low IQs and poor GK to say something like that. But AK has worked on the film, got paid by the producers (Celador Films and Film4), taken instructions from the director, said the lines that the writer, Simon Beaufoy wrote.

Can you tell me AK, where does Hollywood come into the picture.

CDMP using CBIP

2008-12-12T07:45:00.001-08:00

The credits you get on CBIP can be transferred to get CDMP - Certified Data Management Professional. Most speciality exams on CBIP are valid to get a CDMP. All you have to do is to contact ICCP or DAMA, send an application to transfer the credit (admin cost $50).

CDMP is conducted by ICCP and DAMA (Data Management Association)
Previous posts on CBIP 1, 2 and 3

Lloyds TSB is terrible

2008-12-02T07:52:00.000-08:00

Following is the official complaint I made with Lloyds TSB. I am definitely moving my bank to protest against the ill-treatment and brazen rip-off I was subjected to. Please don't fall prey to their cross-selling tactics.

*********************************************************************

I am furious at the way I have been literally duped by Lloyds TSB with my credit card account. I have faced recurring problems with Privacy Guard and then again with Payment protection and have lost almost £50 which I have been surreptitiously and incorrectly charged.

Privacy Guard - I took up the Privacy Guard facility based on a cross-sell that it was going to cost me £1 for the first month and that I would get my credit report from Privacy Guard. I was unable to get my credit report in spite of trying thrice. Subsequently I called up before the 1 month period to cancel my account. However, due to appalling processes, the cancellation was not registered in their systems. I was subsequently charged for the next month and had to call up again to cancel the service (not surprisingly, they didn't have any records of my previous call).

Payment Protection - I signed up to this when I visited York branch (Pavement) for some other banking needs. I clearly remember being rushed into this, and more importantly not being told anything about any monthly charge (my wife, who is an Accountant, was with me at the time and for a change, agrees with me on this one). I was not explained at all that this is actually an insurance for which I need to pay a monthly premium.

When I called up Lloyds TSB, it was made as my fault that I did not read the documentation that was sent later. That may be the case, but the advisor in the bank should have explained the main terms and conditions clearly to me, which he didn’t. The documentation is written obviously not to be read; else it would be simple, summarized and intelligibly show the charges with examples. It may be my fault that I did not read the documentation, but I have no doubt in my mind that I was misguided when I was sold the scheme and that the cost implications were not explained at all.

I think on both cases Lloyds TSB has used unscrupulous means to sell new schemes to an unsuspecting and gullible customer like me. I am hugely disappointed and angry at having being cheated by your bank.

I will be moving my credit card account soon to somewhere else and subsequently do the same with all my accounts with Lloyds TSB – current as well as online saver.

*********************************************************************

article from outlookindia.com

2008-12-01T13:18:00.001-08:00

From Outlook

magazine | Dec 08, 2008

Link to this Story : Ah, Bombay...
Falling to the mother of all security lapses

Subscribe Online: Outlook Magazine

Seige of Bombay - The ugliness within

2008-12-01T10:35:00.001-08:00

In the aftermath of the seige of Bombay, there is a lot of praise and pride of how the security agencies performed. I want to only focus on the ugly.

I think thanks to the utter failure of the top brass in the police to manage and control the situation, exacerbated no doubt by complete lunacy and depravity of the government, as also lack of training and common sense, the security forces deployed - police, commandos, army - have been exposed badly.

Exhibit A - Inadequately armed policeman runs away from the crime scene.
Exhibit A - Armed policemen unwilling to fire a single shot.
Exhibit C - Killing the terrorits who could have been captured
Exhibit D - Still some terrorists are at large.

Heads need to roll everywhere. Good that Home Minister has FINALLY resigned. Hope he dies of guilt tomorrow. CM, Deputy CM should go, too. For too long, they have sat there impotent, giving undue attention to dance bars and family weddings. But more than that, the heads of most intelligence agencies need to go. The work of these agencies is shrouded in secrecy - not only for outsiders but also for the guys who work there. They have no clue what they are supposed to do. If you don't know, I will tell you.

Protect Indians, you motherfuckers.

The whole response to the attack, particularly at Taj hotel was nothing short of a farce. Police turned out in shirt and jeans, many of them still without bullet proof vests. Some of just chatting away to each other, in the cover of a car or a wall.

Failure to control the flow of information was also stupefying. Why should anyone on the ground be ALLOWED to speak directly to the media, when the top officials themselves are clueless. No clampdown on media itself to stop images of a covert operation from being trasmitted live. Similarly mobile jammers are now used in schools, colleges and conference rooms. Have you even heard of the technology. Why were people in the Taj and Oberio able to communicate to the outside.

This is most retarded I have seen the establishment to be. But politicians and all officials come from the amongst us. I wonder if there is something fundamentally wrong with us. We are after all fine within the confines of our homes, but outside, we are a callous lot. We dont care of others, we disrepect our poor, and our general involvement for larger public causes is abysmal. Our organizational and planning skills in social environments (where the incentives are not directly aligned to your abilities) are inadequate, which is why no one got a measure of what the terrorists were upto.

Yes, I think the attack came from within India.

Mumbai nightmare continues

2008-11-28T04:50:00.001-08:00

There are no heroes. Only victims.
How many wake-up calls does our fucking government need.

If you are laid off, you will most likely not get laid.

2008-11-21T04:52:00.000-08:00

Tracking the lay-offs world over at news.com.

Tucows is restructuring - Will become Onecow.

LinkedIn slashes 10 percent of its workforce - the fired people will use their linkedin network to find new jobs.

Freescale dragged to loss; will lay off 10% - The scale was breaking, they had to downsize.

Anadigics cuts 15 percent of workforce - by giving them an overdose of analgesics

Pandora cuts 20 employees - they had a staff of 20.

Jive Software lays off 1/3 of staff - 200 staffers will be dancing without their partners.

Micron to cut workforce by 15 percent, slash flash output - Will be called Picon

Centipede caught in a stampede. Loses a leg.

2008-11-20T13:21:00.000-08:00

The new breed of cricketers have sure achieved a God like status. A near stampede (for God's sake!)

Stampedes at Indian temples happen like floods in Bangladesh

Quantum of Solace

2008-11-20T12:40:00.000-08:00

Quantum of Solace. Stupid movie. I saw it yesterday. I couldnt remember most of it within an hour of the movie ending.
I think Quantum of Shoelace would have been a much better watch.

Loved Mystic River (there was a massive feeling of deja vu, can't pin it down still, only means one thing - I am getting old). I thought Marcia Gay Harden (Marcia Hay Garden would be such a funny name) was FAN.TAS.TIC. Just extraordinary acting skills. I couldn't take my eyes off her.

P.S. Didn't I say I was getting old. My older blog post on Mystic River here. Couldnt remember most of the movie (though I had seen just 2 years ago. Vaguely remembered who the killer was, but nothing much beyond that. I am turning senile quickly and irreversibly.

Hee Hee Hindus...

2008-11-17T11:58:00.001-08:00

Guess what, most Hindus will take this statement at face value

Orkut profile deleted

2008-11-17T08:40:00.001-08:00

Hurray, Hallehujah, Joy Be to the World, Three Cheers..

I HAVE DELETED MY ORKUT PROFILE. PERMANENTLY.

I am glad I did it, without much thought.

P.S. actually, I don't feel that happy, but I think it's a Monday thing.

Dreams are made of cheese. They go bad.

2008-11-11T03:07:00.000-08:00

I have been obsessed with doing at MBA for such a long time. Doing my masters from IIT was no good. There was no recognition of that in the offers I was got (though I think it was academically the best 1 1/2 years I spent). It wasn't even considered equivalent to 1 1/2 years of experience. So, basically, that period is counting for nothing.MBA even from a shit institute has always been worth something.

Obviously the degree matters, but for me, the education was more important. A chance to learn from others. A chance to get my finance fundaes ironed out. A chance to study with no distractions. And also a chance to critique what I had done at work so far. From afar.

A shit institute - no I wasn't looking at one. I gave my GMAT, got a okish score, and apped. Got through into Instituto de Empresa, one of the top 10 b-schools in the world. But then, I was encumbered by too many responsibilities - marriage, a baby on the way, a massive home loan. They just got the better of me. I postponed my MBA.

I hoped things would get easier in a year's time.Well, they worsened. Now, the world is conspiring against my dream. Even the IIM graduates aren't getting good offers. My school though highly rated, has been so-so in terms of placement. Bringing a family (with a baby) is extremely difficult in the UK, esp if you are not a UK citizen (no benefits). So, I just can't take the chance of taking on another massive mortgage for my MBA and hoping I would land a high-paying job later. Considering the economic situation we are in, the probability of me getting placed in one of the blue-chips is small.

So, basically, I have bid my dream good bye. MBA definitely counts to get top jobs. It will be longer and more difficult for me to get there. Calibre doesn't count, if you work in isolation from your supervisors - like I have to. Its been impossible for me to get my voice heard so far. Will it get easier? Will I get there?

Who knows?

CBIP certificate

2008-11-07T04:05:00.000-08:00

I have received my CBIP certificate. My marks for the three exams are 69, 67 and 71. Which means, I have missed the expert level certification by a fraction (70 in each exam).

The certificate is fantastic - bound in a folder, with detailed assessment for each group of questions.

Hope it counts for something.

People needing help with the type of questions asked etc, mail me (atoras at gmail). Please go through my previous posts on the subject. 1, 2

Dad, can I eat jargon?

2008-10-15T07:12:00.001-07:00

What this downturn has given us - new buzzwords

1. Credit-crunch

2. Black swan

3. Austrian theory of business (though it was around, people just ignored it)

It has also given us a furrow on the brow, less cash in the pocket, and uncertainty aplenty.

Chamunda Devi stampede

2008-09-30T08:14:00.000-07:00

Its happened again - another stampede at the foot of the Gods. Its not the people to blame, or the Gods. It's the temple trustees, who have such poor crowd control mechanisms and terrible disaster management systems.
I did ask the question then - When will we ever learn.
Never.

Madaross strikes (a match) again

2008-09-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

40% of India's health problems linked to smoking: Ramadoss

Remaining 60% are linked to Ramadoss

Mr Patil does it again

2008-09-17T05:43:00.000-07:00

While people get blown to bits almost every fortnight, our be-luv-da Home Minister, Mr Shivraj Patil, is busy changing clothes like a model on catwalk.

What the fuck!

STAY OFF THE STOCK MARKETS

2008-09-15T05:39:00.001-07:00

This is more about reminding me than anyone - THINGS WILL GET A LOT WORSE BEFORE THET BECOME BETTER.

The bottom is no where in sight and there is no point surmising that the market is fallen a lot and so stocks valuations look attractive.

No, they don't, not in the current scenario. More bad news will come, most definitely. If we are talking a recession of 12-18 months in the Western world, then, then it will be after that, that markets really stabilize in India.

So, STAY OFF THE STOCK MARKETS. Else, you will make a killing - yours.

Masumeh, Masumi etc

2008-09-14T12:28:00.001-07:00

I am not sure, but I think I first saw Masumi as a participant on Antakshari, where - and this was like 10 years ago - she wasn't particularly good. I mean, in her knowledge of songs and stuff.

Would be great if someone extracted those episodes out
1. to confirm whether I am right or not. and
2. do a compare with how she looks now- she looked extradionarily average then.

Run baby run

2008-09-09T14:14:00.001-07:00

By the by, just for the record, I have a nice paunch whose arrival coincided with my daughter's arrival, and I believe at the exact moment that she was born (why should I just thank her for all the happiness in my life, my problems are her courtesy too).

I am trying to get rid of it, one paunch at a time. Have started running.

P.S. - Its incredible how the body (not the mind) remembers. How to breathe, how to pace, I could just go on and on, and I am not talking about praising the body, but about being able to run for a long time, in spite some really really slothful couple of months.

Away from DWH

2008-09-09T14:01:00.001-07:00

After a career of more than 7 years in pure data warehousing and BI technologies, I am finally out of the space. No, if that sentence reads like a sigh of relief, it is not.

It's just that it was difficult getting any work in that space after my stint up in York, and this new one is a good opportunity, if not better. Working in Solution design space, with the same client, though now, for a different technological unit. I have come to like the solution design space, you learn about stuff, propose how to improve it (with due diligence, cost benefit analysis, feasibility etc), write the overall design and move on to the next piece. Don't really involve with the deliveries themselves, which invariably tend to get messed up with poor management, budget and time constraints, and lack of good technical resources.

But no longer doing DWH, hope the separation doesn't last too long

Bata ke joote

2008-09-03T03:03:00.001-07:00

Yes sir, Bata is a multinational. It is NOT an Indian company and the owner is NOT a Parsi.

CBIP certified professional - third paper update

2008-09-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

Finally gave my third paper - data management. And guess what, I passed. Just missed the mastery level by a whisker. But its fine. Overall, I think the exam was tough and I did well.

I took the exam by remote proctoring. I am not sure of the extent of control of your laptop that the proctor has, I mean, to what extent he checks on programs open on your laptop/pc. I played it safe and didn't have any reading material on the laptop or paper. Anyway, there is hardly any time to refer to notes as you have to answer 110 questions in 90 minutes. That's less than a minute for a question.

Some of the questions didn't make sense, but overall the exam did test your knowledge of the domain quite rigorously. I have jotted down areas that are not that common but brought about a lot of questions. Will write in subsequent posts.

Kosi breaks banks and lives

2008-09-01T15:58:00.001-07:00

The river is the people.

I don't think we have seen the end of such catastrophes. India has one of the poorest defences against natural disasters and ZILCH understanding about environmental matters.

More and more of this will happen. It's inevitable.

Update-Great article in rediff showing a litany of fatal mistakes regarding the Kosi embankement management strategy.

Wipro Technologies registers 64 as TOGAF 8 Certified

2008-08-28T04:13:00.001-07:00

Great achievement this, I think.

The course itself was so-so, and the TOGAF framework itself needs LOTS of rework, overall, I came out benefitting from the training, due to the fantastic thought provoking discussions. The training group consisted of really experienced, hard boiled architects, so the insights from their previous projects were just really really useful.

Country for old men

2008-08-26T12:35:00.001-07:00

What a perfect foil this video (even though from the US) is for my article on old age crisis in the UK
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-walt-babyboomers-blurb,0,1036393.blurb

Enjoy!

What does pro-poor mean?

2008-08-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

Chiranjeevi's party is pro-poor. Without going into the details of party's policies, let's just say that Chiranjeevi hasn't thought about any as yet. Well, this is India, you don't have to worry about boring details such as policies and plans. You invent them as you go along, based not on whether they benefit the people in the long run, but on whether you can fool the people with them.

Chiranjeevi's party is pro-poor. What does that mean? Will there be no policies for the middle class and the rich? What happens when the poor upgrade themselves to middle-classdom? Are they doomed into obscurity and neglect.?

Will they have to pray to Lord Balaji for mercy? And offer atleast Rs. 2000 in the 'Hundi'?

I am sure Chiranjeevi's party - Pro-ja Garibyam, I mean Praja Rajyam will win a lots of votes. I just hope, he doesn't start singing and dancing to the tune of 'Abba Nee Teeyani Debba' when things go belly-up (God!, As a teenager, I used to think that the dancing was stupendous)

Stephen Colbert out of character at Harvard

2008-08-23T03:52:00.000-07:00

One of the very few rare occasions when Stephen Colbert is out of character. And probably the longest he has been so, in public. A truly delightful exchange.

Because he the character most of the time - this ego-manic, right-wing, rigid fool- it makes you wonder if he really is a smart guy at all, or is he just playing himself.

This video sets to rest all your doubts. This guy is a genius. He is one of the most intelligent, gifted and witty tv personality ever. It is clear that not just the writers writing top-class material on his show, but Colbert's owns insights and spin of the news would be responsible for more than 1/2 the funny stuff on his show. His off-the-cuff remarks about J D Salinger testify to this guy's intellect.

The way he acknowledges Jon Stewart without being fawning was touching; he could easily slip into his character and make impudent remarks about Stewart and get away with it (the audience were laughing even when Colbert paused between serious statements).

Mr Colbert, I bow before thee.

Children outnumbered by over-60s

2008-08-22T04:56:00.001-07:00

Children outnumbered in the UK by over 60s

Soon, the business model for baby shops will change. They will change the name from Mothercare to Grandmothercare. Mamas and Papas to Grandmas and Grandpas. No prams, only mobility scooters. Nappies, well... they will still keep those.

Toys are Us will be Bowls are us. Largest selling oral hygiene product- Pepsodenture. All public transport will go bust giving free service for over 60s. Government income due to speeding fines will decrease drastically as no one is driving above 30 mph. In the tube, instead of finding people plugged into their iPods, you will find them plugged into their hearing aids.

50% of the GP appointments would be missed by those seeking treatment for Alzheimer's. They will be found at Bingo or Bowls.

The cakes will be bigger; you can't fit 60+ candles on normal cakes, can you? Bakers and candle makers (incl. Kapadia Limited) will rake in the moolah.

Flats all over the country will be razed to make way for lavish retirement homes (Motto- We care coz there no one else left to). Britain from Above will look like a mass of grey.

Replaced Hip, hip hurray!

TISCO and TESCO

2008-08-12T03:19:00.001-07:00

Tata Steel was earlier known as TISCO (Tata Iron and Steel Co Ltd)
So, what a concidence that TATA is now going into a joint venture with TESCO.

For those of you who are not aware, TESCO is the largest supermarket chain in the UK (similar to Walmart in US). Of course the supermarkets in the west are veritable warehouses - massive complexes almost always greater than one football field. We still don't have them in our Indian cities as yet. But I guess a lot of these supermarkets will sprout in these satellite cities that are coming up all over the country

CBIP preparation - my experience

2008-08-12T03:00:00.001-07:00

Recently took 2 papers of CBIP. CBIP is Certified Business Intelligence Professional. You can specialize in a number of streams - details here but you have to take 2 main papers - Core exam and Data warehousing.

Core exam is about general IT fundaes - software engineering, hardware, program management, processes, system design etc.
Data warehousing about the basics of data warehousing which any BI professional would be expected to know.

Though I was relatively free and had loads of time for preparation, let me tell you it is extremely hard to prepare. One, because the scope is vast. You are not expected to deep dive, but cover a lot of different areas and topics. There is lot of stuff that you would obviously know, but then there would be some basic terminology that you might have forgotten or never come across due to the nature of your work. eg. RAID (in networking), SDRAM, Gantt chart etc. So, you do have to ensure you cover all those subject areas and atleast get a basic understanding of these terminologies. But again, due to the questions being multiple choice and mostly of the nature, "What is XYZ NOT used for?", you just can't rely on the basic understanding but actually have to go into the details as well. Thats why I am in a major confused state during the preparation - to skim over to cover all the topics or get into the details to ensure you can trick those trick questions.

Overall, I would rate the tests as tough. It will be difficult to pass without ANY preparation, even though you might be top of the class IT and BI professional. With a week's preparation, it is easy to pass, though to get the MASTERY level (70%) in each test, 2 week full time preparation is mandatory.

More updates

Look how I resolved my mid-life crisis

2008-08-07T11:02:00.001-07:00

Mean riding machine. Traffic Obliterator. Road Marauder. King of the Urban Jungle.
This is my latest acquisition.

Cannondale F6 (Hydraulic) Disc 2008.

While you drool over the beauty, why don't you marvel at the disc brakes?
Please don't assume that I am amongst those you has 'gone green' just when the oil rates were burning the pants off half the world (the other half been Middle Eastern). I have always been a fan of bikes.
* My first videshi love -whose seat was stolen
* My second bike - whose seat was stolen along with the rest of the bike - within a day I purchased it.
* My third bike - which the owner couldn't understand, but the one that I tamed through incessant riding.

And now, the Katrina Kaif of all bikes. Hmmmm, yummm!

Killer Deol

2008-08-06T01:52:00.001-07:00

According to Hindustan Times,

Bobby Deol will play an assassin in the film Ek – The Power of One.

Yes, he will be killing the film!

Sensational joke from Moi

2008-08-05T08:15:00.001-07:00

Nelson Mandela is on a state visit to Mumbai. After a 2 hour mandatory delay at Shivaji Chattrapati Hawai Uddan, and some snide remarks from the immigration officials ("Kiti kaala aahe haa manus!"), Mr Mandela finally came out of the Hawai Uddan.

Chief Minister of Maharashtra was waiting impatiently outside to garland Mandela Saheb. As soon as they saw him, some one in the crowd went, "Mandela aale, Mandela aale"

CM, a bit irritatedly said, "Tuesday la kaa naahi aale. Monday la amcha adhiveshan asta ki ho"

Naina devi stampede

2008-08-03T12:36:00.001-07:00

There are some gruesome pics on NDTV showing just how terrible the tragedy was?

150 dead within a few minutes. Notice the bodies - most are women and children. Just heartbreaking and plain wrong!!

What price negligence? Our places of worship are blemished by poor ventilation, lack of hygiene and cleanliness(except the santum sanctorum), complete disrepect for the devotees and absence of any crowd control plan. Something like this is just waiting to happen.

I have been in one or two places like this, and after standing in the queue for about 2-3 hours, when I am closer to the darshan of the God/ess, I am filled with dread. The jostling, the shouting due to the complete absence of crowd management could result in a situation any time. I don't want to be crushed under the fat pujari. I do a quick namaskar, and get the hell out of there. With such chaos out there, how does anyone get a chance to be one with the Almighty?

Compare our temples with other places of worship. There is peace, order and discipline invariably in a church. Even when it is crowded, it is NEVER noisy. The whole aura of the place makes you want to talk in hushed tones. I haven't been to too many gurudwaras, but judging from the few I have been to, I feel it is always sane, and orderly there. Even though they serve free food, there is no pushing and shoving around.

We are the oldest religion in the world. When will we learn?

Scribd

2008-08-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

Scribd is a extremely useful file-sharing site. By files I mean, documents, pdfs, slideshows, books etc. In case you are looking for some academic material, then it's a great first stop.

I was looking for material for a test that I am preparing, and certainly found a lot of useful stuff there.

It is very high on usability factor; I like the way it indicates download progress for large files, and also page number indication (such simple trick, but never used before) while scrolling pages of documents.

Bomb Minister - A minister who supervises endless terrorist bomb blasts

2008-07-27T05:43:00.001-07:00

Possibly, the worst home minister ever.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Shivraj Patil.

The Village

2008-07-25T05:51:00.001-07:00

I found The Village extremely riveting. Silly of me not to have guessed the twist early on. As they say, it was as clear as air.

Though the structure, story and technique is a rehash of the age-old Shyamalan formula, still the presentation, the editing, and overall direction was thoroughly engrossing.

It's a pity Manoj N Shyamalan's story-telling though has gone consistently downhill since The Sixth Sense. He is a man of unquestionable talent, but his insistence with suspense, dark, faux-horror genre makes him look lazy, arrogant and banal (though I think, he should still give The Life of Pi a try.)

Hope he find his mojo and treats us to some amazing pictures.

Governent stays

2008-07-23T04:20:00.000-07:00

Glad, glad, glad that the UPA has won the trust vote. The left had got their comeuppance. The arrogance of the infidel Mr Karat! Hope the Peking ducks in the CPI(M) get infected by Bird flu and bird STDs and die horrible deaths.

What completely beats me is the brazenness of the Opposition in resisting deal for completely absurd reasons. BJP -ShivSena have never said they were opposed to the actual deal (to say that they will renegotiate the deal later was a hogwash). All they were against was the Congress. Same thing with the other BJP allies - BSP is opposing to teach SP a lesson (and give M a shot the PM post). TDP is opposed because ruling AP government is Congress.

To top it all, worst of enemies - CPI(M) and BJP find themselves on the same side, not because they agree about something, but because they want to destroy a well-entrenched, fairly well run government at ALL costs.

If you are for a particular deal/agreement/treaty, then will you not, as a consequence, vote in favour of it. Right?

No, not in India. Bizarre.

Oscar prediction - before

2008-06-25T05:57:00.001-07:00

I am going to go out on a limb and set me up for my biggest debacle ever. Note - The Dark Knight is yet to be released, Christopher Nolan isn't a dependable, moolah -raking, mainstream director, and it's afterall a superhero film franchise we are talking about. And I haven't seen the movie.

So, here is my ultimate prediction

Heath Ledger will win the Oscar for the Best Actor in Supporting Role for The Dark Knight

Jane McGrath - another breast cancer victim

2008-06-25T04:00:00.001-07:00

Touching photos of Jane McGrath's funeral.

Hindustan Times - chronologically challenged

2008-06-05T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hindustan Times does have good website, but sometimes it does a google news on you.
Here is a glorious example.

Here is the page it links to.

Black in this 2008 ? Cmon, even if Amitabh Bachchan has a lot of stake in IIFA, he won't let Black hog all the limelight this year.

Indian blood donor in the UK

2008-06-04T02:47:00.001-07:00

The blood group was persistent. No let me begin again. The National Blood Service, which takes care of organizing for blood donations and providing it to hospitals, was persistent. They sent me letters, one every month. The last one was really really disapproving. This is how it sounded to me like
'In spite of sending you repeated reminders, you still have not donated blood. Tsk, tsk. That you are busy doesn't mean you are allowed to let so many people die. Get your bloody arse out of that chair and go donate'.

Now I have been a prima donor, having attended and donated a number of times (atleast 5). So I called up the blood service booking an appointment. Well, they make me fill all my personal details (2 pages of them). And... they find that I am an Indian. Oh my God! Everyone run! Houston we have a problem. A person from a malaria prone country is giving blood. Some twisted bio warfare assault on the malaria virus -mune people of Great Britian. Get lost, you filthy Indian, you can't donate blood. Come back after 6 months, if you want to. An Indian cannot donate blood within 6 months of coming from India.

Let me calm my nerves here for a while. Lets go by stats. There were 890 malaria deaths in India in 2006 . Based on the population of India, that's 0.00009%. 890 in terms of human loss is hardly disregardable, but does that mean, we treat every Indian as a malaria carrier? That risk is so low as to be insignificant. Not accepting blood based on some trivial, unsubstantiated risk, is actually doing great disservice to those in UK who are desperately in need of blood.

Is there a way to mitigate the risk? There definitely is. Allow for a blood donation and then test it for malaria. If it is infected, discard it. The cost of taking and storing the blood is far far less than the use that it can put to, in case it is clean.

Am I going to donate after 6 months? Who knows. I think the NBS lost a great chance for some free blood. Esp, considering that it is in dire need for blood from ethnic minorities. Now, here's a stat.

Only 3% of the UK donors are ethnic minorities. Know why?

You can't hide when you write

2008-05-29T07:17:00.001-07:00

Isn't it superfluous or just plain lazy to write to someone that you don't know something. You know, like I don't know who or what Kaiser Soze is or which is the 10th closest star from the earth, or just where do we get hing (asafoetida) from?

Or when someone writes "You, noob!" on chat, you can't just reply, "I don't know what you mean". That will make you more of a noob

You know, if you are writing, then you are either on email or chat (who writes on the paper anyway, apart from the devil printers) And in that case, you can easily find out the information for yourself - google is at your fingertips. So, why can't you not know?

It doesn't matter that you didn't know stuff, and it doesn't matter that you don't know stuff when you talk to real people. But when you write, you are all-knowing. You can be a wise erudite info-whore.

NB - Does excessive pursuit of knowledge make you a wikipedo-phile?

Paisa hi paisa. But remember paisa hi

2008-05-29T04:45:00.001-07:00

I wish everyday is a claims settlement day. The flush of happiness that floats over you on seeing an mail with the Subject, "Your reimbursement claim has been processed", can only be matched by a dear one affectionately cooing, "You dirty simian". Though no one calls me that, I think the simile still works.

I am loaded with reimbursed money and the salary is still due. So, if you want to ask for some cash, don't hesitate. I can lend you a penny or two. I mean it - the lending bit as well as the denomination.

Good article about blogging

2008-05-27T16:42:00.001-07:00

I kept coming back to the idea that I had a right to say whatever I wanted. I don't think I understood then that I could be right about being free to express myself but wrong about my right to make that self-expression public in a permanent way.

Good article about blogging