Rabbi Shergill - Jinhe Naaz Hai Hind Par Wo Kahaa Hai

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?

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

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

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.

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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.

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article from outlookindia.com

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From Outlook

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magazine | Dec 08, 2008

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

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Subscribe Online: Outlook Magazine

Seige of Bombay - The ugliness within

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

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.

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.

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

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...

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

Orkut profile deleted

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.

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

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?

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

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

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

Remaining 60% are linked to Ramadoss

Mr Patil does it again

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

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

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.