Just Like That

Einstein: His life and Universe

2011-12-30T14:34:00.000-08:00

When I heard that a biography of Steve Jobs is going to come out soon, I was more curious than excited. I was curious to know who is author of the book and which are his previous books. Having read about Steve Jobs's perfectionalist nature I was assuming, correctly, that Steve Jobs might have cherrypicked the author to write about his life and work - Walter Isaacson. Walter Isaacson's previous work include biographies on Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Kissinger. I would not be surprised if Steve Jobs believed himself to be the successor of these famous personalities in terms of 'making a dent in the universe'.

Reading a biography is usually a better use of time as compared to reading a fiction - mainly, because you learn a lot about human achievements and sufferings and also a bit of our history. I enjoyed reading Einstein. Before reading the book I didn't know much about Einstein apart from his relativity theory and his 'rockstar' status as a scientist. The books explains how he got that 'rockstar' status - well he made good use of his fame to promote anti-war campaigns during war time, never shied away from press and gave then many sleazy one liners to write in their papers. He was very outgoing person as opposed to the introvert nature that people perceive of scientists. He was a german jew who hated Hitler's guts, and unsurprisingly was given first-class treatment in US when he decided to live here. I wonder if for some bizzare reason Einstein had sided with Hitler then whether he would have been as popular as he is today. Nevertheless he was / is perceived as the most intelligent man ever lived on our planet.

Walter has done an impressive job digging through letters, newspapers, meeting second / third generation relatives of Einstein to get useful information about him. The last 150 pages of the book list all the references that had made this book happen. The thing that strike me the most about Einstein is that his best work in professional life came during his worst time in his personal life. He was succesfully able to shut down all the tragic moments (failed marriage / failed parenting) from his mind while working on his theories. Here are some of the highlights from his life:

- He decided to not join industry because he believed that he is destined to do something much bigger.
- He didn't have a Masters / Doctoral degree. He got a diploma certificate from a polytechnic college.
- He did most of his ground breaking theories while working in a patent office, alone and away from all researchers and academia.
- Being a theoretical physicist most of his work are thought experiments i.e. day dreaming about situations that start with 'What if'.

Rating : 4 / 5

Jaya

2011-10-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

Jaya is a book on Mahabharata written by Devdutt Pattanaik. The book covers the main story of Mahabharata along with few anecdotes that are prevalent in certain states / tribes in India. The USP of the book is that it has creative illustrations that will make your read interesting.

I would recommend this book to people who are new to story of Mahabharata. For people who are versed with the mythology might find only 10% - 20% of the material that is exciting and something that they haven't heard before. You can still pick the book up for illustrations though.

Overall I am glad I read it as I learnt something new about Mahabharata (even after having read / watched few versions of the story since childhood).

Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

2011-10-04T23:30:00.000-07:00

The book, written by Rashmi Bansal, lists 25 alumni from IIM-A that are successful entrepreneurs. The book explains the struggle of these people in starting something from scratch. Rashmi interviewed these 25 people and got them to advice the budding entrepreneurs about the paths they should take and the pitfalls they should avoid.
The book is a pretty average read. I would have preferred if Rashmi had interviewed only 3 out of these 25 stalwarts and wrote their startup-survival stories in long and detail. Instead she chose to write 25 stories which after certain point sound similar. Well to be fair I cannot expect her to write a fictional story with a nerve-breaking twist at the end, but then the book fails in inspiring its readers as none of the stories are well-researched. Most of the material has been provided by the entrepreneurs themselves during their one-on-one interview with her. It seems that all she did was to use her own IIM-A alumni card to get access to these people and interview them in the limited time that they could provide her.
On the better part, these numerous stories tell you that a successful entrepreneur can come from any academic / family / economic background. The common factor of all these people is their strong will - willingness to stick around longer with their creation especially during the bad times.

An anecdote from Steve Jobs

2011-08-28T01:31:00.000-07:00

Apple Town Hall in 2000:

An interns asks Steve Jobs: Steve, many years ago you left Apple to start Next. But recently you returned to Apple. Why did you come back to Apple?

Jobs replied: When I was trying to decide whether to come back to Apple or not I struggled. I talked to a lot of people and got a lot of opinions. And then there I was, late one night, struggling with this and I called up a friend of mine at 2am. I said, ‘Should I come back, should I not?’ and the friend replied, ‘Steve, look. I don’t give a fuck about Apple. Just make up your mind,’ and hung up. And it was in that moment that I realized I truly cared about Apple.

My latest material possession

2011-07-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

I was very tired with my point-n-shoot camera and ended up buying my first DSLR - Nikon D3100. It was an impulse buy and I am glad I did it. Impulse shopping can be so much fun especially when you don't regret buying couple of weeks later. Nikon D3100 is one of the better entry-level DSLRs in the market currently for the best buck. It is one of the few entry-level cameras that takes 1080p HD Cinematic video. It includes 3x 18-55mm Zoom-NIKKOR VR Image Stabilization lens. 3-inch monitor and really good reviews helped me click that 'Buy Now' button on Amazon. Hopefully, this excitement will continue and will help me improve my photography skills.

Another 2-liner

2011-01-07T18:22:00.000-08:00

I wrote this 2-liner in 2002:

"Life is programmed by God
but executed by me!"

We ended up making t-shirts, for our undergrad class, with these lines embedded - 1st line on front and 2nd line on back of the shirt. Sadly my t-shirt met its death couple of years back. This t-shirt project went for couple of months and involved:

1) Coming up with about 10 2-liners
2) Taking class's approval on which one did they like
3) Making a cool art of 'a computer controlled by human hands'
4) Finally, deciding on quality and color of t-shirt and everything that went on it.

The t-shirt raised few eyebrows among the public because 'execution' was interpreted in a whole different way by the non-technical people. Nevertheless I had fun working on these lines.

2 liners

2011-01-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

Since Yahoo closed down the Geocities IP last year, I have lost my website and don't feel a need to create one. So you will get to read some of my 2-liners (that I wrote few years back) on this blog:

"Life is internet,
I am a browser"

Happy New Year 2011

2011-01-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

The first thing that crosses my mind with the start of a new year is new year's resolution. Not that I made resolutions every year and if made did keep them, but it gives a sense of achievement to make one. This year I am going to make a resolution and blog about it, hoping that disclosing to public will add much-needed pressure to keep my resolution. My resolution is to cut down on my 'TV' time. I watch TV religiously everyday for atleast an hour and sometimes don't even care what I am watching. I am hoping that cutting down on spending time with 'idiot box' will make me smart :-).

With this blog, wishing you a Happy New Year.

The Fountainhead

2010-11-14T15:39:00.000-08:00

The Fountainhead is the first novel that I have ever revisited. I read it for the first time about a decade back (around 2000-01) and read it again this month. It is one of those rare books which makes you appreciate the fact that humans can read, write and above all think.

This book was a stepping stone to a whole new philosophy of objectivism and idea of how an ideal person should live. The book's author, Ayn Rand, has done a great job putting forward a timeless piece of concept which still rings bells with readers 65+ years after its release. Her other novel 'Atlas shrugged' explains the philosophy even better and is considered as her biggest accomplishment as a writer and a philosopher. I like 'The Fountainhead' better than 'Atlas Shrugged' though because of its concise storyline and precise explanation of 'objectivism'.

I feel everyone should read this book at least once in a lifetime to understand our current world of 'collectivism' and why society encourages it. I don't mind revisiting this book again in next decade or two :-).

Harishchandrachi Factory

2010-07-20T00:10:00.000-07:00

HF is a marathi movie at its best. It is based on the real life events of DadaSaheb Phalke - the first Indian to make a motion picture in India. His first movie was Raja Harishchandra and it was released in 1913. Marathi movies usually use comedy as a medium to tell their stories and this movie is no different. HF makes you smile and appreciate even the saddest events of Phalke's life. Along its way HF also teaches the audience about all the struggles that Phalke went through to make a first motion picture. Few take-home tidbits for me were:

1) When Phalke has a hard time finding a female to play the role of an actress in his movie. His friends try to convince him to hire a male for a female role.

2) When prostitutes consider acting as a demotion to their social status

3) When an actor finds it difficult to find a wife for himself. Phalke advises him and other actors to tell their friends that they work at a "factory", that way people will respect them more.

As you can see, this is a must movie for everyone, and its possible with sub-titles.

Rating: 4 / 5

Mrithunjaya - The Death Conquerer

2010-07-19T01:09:00.000-07:00

Its in the human nature to lookout for unsung heroes in any field of life and root for them. Unsung heroes exist everywhere - sports, politics and even in mythology. So what makes us sympathize with them? Its the concept of karma - the belief that a person receives his dues in this same life (good or bad) based on his actions. And when you see a person who doesn't get his dues (especially the good karma) in his lifetime, your mind remembers him. I admire 2 such unsung heroes - Sardar Vallabhai Patel (Indian Politics) and Karna (Indian Mythology).

Mrithunjaya narrates the story of Karna, starting from his low-key birth to his heroic death in the battle of Kurukshetra. The book is pretty impressive and informative for ordering all of Karna's life events. And the best part is that the story is narrated in Karna's first-person view, giving the book an impression of an autobiography. It details his childhood which he spent with his foster parents in Champanagiri, his relation with the beloved brother Shon, his love for his wife Vrushali and of course all the battles that he fought. The book highlights few moral stories of how warriors were willing to give up their lives then to break their promises. Overall the book is a very good read.

Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

Extraordinary Stories

2010-06-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

A great place to read about what human spirit can achieve (despite all the hurdles that life throws at you): Extraordinary Indians

Narayan Murthy's inspirational speech

2010-06-01T23:44:00.000-07:00

Here is an inspirational speech from Narayan Murthy: Life Lessons

This speech reminds me a lot of Steve Job's speech at Standford. Both are must-read.

Murthys and Infy

2009-11-06T17:03:00.000-08:00

A pleasant story about love, freedom, entrepreneurship and human values. A must-read article.

Numbers, figures and all that...

2009-11-06T01:54:00.001-08:00

Facts got hold of me quite firmly this week when I decided to google curiously some of my unanswered questions. Here is what it looks like:

1) India with the population of 1.2 billion people has only 47 million total internet users. Read the last line carefully, the number belongs to total internet users and not the active ones. The number of active users would be even lesser. Out of 47 million, 39 mill come from urban areas and the remaining 8 mill come from rural areas.

2) The projected yearly growth for total internet users is about 10%, i.e. one will see growth of about 5 - 6 mill users for few years, which is a pretty disappointing figure.

3) Another interesting yet somewhat discomforting fact is that only 13% of the total internet users prefer to read online content in English. Other popular languages are Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Gujurati.

So if you are a tech entrepreneur in India banking on online ads for the business model then these figures will serve a good reality check for your business.

One night at the call center

2009-10-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

Read this book recently. It feels like the author (Chetan Bhagat) is a big fan of Bollywood movies and / or was writing his book for Bollywood audience. Having read his previous work, 5 point someone, I can comfortably say now that he has no training in writing (which is not a bad thing). But writing a book as a Bollywood script cannot be classified as a great work. The book is about 6 characters, talking to each other through-out the book. He hardly explains the premise, ambiance or any other details that might help characterizing the protagonists.

I liked his overall story plot that carries an underlying message. However his writing, the execution of his story, lacks novelty. The book has an usual standard climax in last 30 pages, similar to his previous book, and ends up in 'happily-ever-after' fashion.

He could have definitely told his story without the ingredients: self-praise and US bashing. Self-praise is something that he has consistently shown and spoken about to the media (But that is the problem for him and his PR). US bashing is pretty baseless in the book. I believe author should seriously consider studying the IQ of an average person of any other country. To be fair, people who call 'call centers' are the ones who haven't figured out the solutions to their problems but they have shown the traits of curiosity and willingness to learn by asking somebody else. Well I could go on and on with the examples, but that is not the point, the point is that Chetan could have avoided US bashing.

The characters in the book are convincing but the plot isn't (mainly GOD calling the call center employees). The story plot is short, precise and an enhanced version of a movie script. If that was Chetan's intention then kudos to him as both of his books have been materialized into Bollywood movies. But if he is seriously considering to be a globally accepted writer then he needs to listen to his critics more carefully (who will tell you the same story as this blogger).

Rating: 2.5 / 5.0

Entrepreneurship and YOU

2009-10-21T22:47:00.000-07:00

While reading one of the articles on TechCrunch I came across the analogy that Yossi Vardi made in regard to the current entrepreneurship. He quoted Theodore Roosevelt from a 1910 speech 'The Man in the Arena':

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.".

Something worth pondering about....

A speech

2009-07-15T00:41:00.000-07:00

Steve Job's Standford Commencement Address

One of the best speeches that I have ever heard and the best part is that the whole speech is factual. It has happened to a person who is known for beating all the odds.

Rediff

2009-01-21T22:27:00.000-08:00

Rediff has always impressed me with the type of articles they cover. They are usually a step ahead from the others. When dignified news corporations were covering Mumbai terror attacks and their effects on Indian people and politics, rediff was covering different strategies as a reply, for attacks, to Pakistan. When news were filled with Steve Job's temporary exit from Apple and its reasons, rediff was covering Tim Cook (Steve's back up guy), his resume and his capacity to lead Apple.

And of course they always have articles like these for personal development.

Do I sound like a marketing guy for Rediff, hmmmm...

Must read article!

2009-01-09T19:01:00.000-08:00

The depths Indian democracy has fallen to

Classic example of incompetency achieved by politicians and blamed on Indian people for the outcome.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T13:47:00.000-08:00

What a better way to start the New Year than a healthy breakfast followed by a first blog entry for the year. Yeah, I know I am a geek and I am proud of it. This might be one of the few occasions where I am blogging with no particular thought in mind. So I will fall back on everybody’s favorite i.e. New Year resolution.

For me, resolution means to figure out what went wrong in last year and try to improve it in this one. When I think of it, I might have followed my own resolutions only about 50% of the time every year. But people do feel this urge of planning their lives and work and get the maximum benefit out of it. And I think this is a good idea. Don’t you feel good when you plan something out and accomplish it? But the only drawback with planning is that you lose out on enjoying the current moment as you are always heading towards your future goals. So the trick is to draw a fine line between your planned and unplanned lives and keep it as balanced as possible. You need to know where you are heading in life; however you also need to be open to the sudden surprises and excitement in life. Remember life is a journey and not a destination.

With this blog, wishing you a happy new year.

Mumbai Terror attacks - Part 2

2008-12-22T21:50:00.000-08:00

To address the topic of terrorism I am going to ask myself few questions and answer them as well:

Vpd: {laughs} this plan doesn’t seem feasible.
Me: Why not? Currently we have two slow poisons in India: over-excited, hopeless media trying to cover every rat and dog in the streets and small political goons desperate to make an impression on public. I will say Media should find out the most-corrupted politicians and political goons should beat them up (instead of beating poor non-localities). It can’t get any simpler than this.

Vpd: Interesting!
Me: The corruption has gone so deep that it is not going to be resolved by kicking politicians out of the power. Politicians end up making more illegal money when not in power as compared to when in power. Not being under the national radar helps them to churn out more illegal money. They want to be in power at least once in a lifetime so that they can boast for the rest of their lives. And my suggestion is to deprive them of their whole illusion. Let’s publicly beat and insult few corrupted ones and you will see the others straightening up pretty soon.

Vpd: Sir, your ideas and suggestions are pretty harsh and not diplomatic at all.
Me: I have realized that changes need to happen at the grass-root level. And diplomacy will never succeed at grass-root level, well at least not in India with the poor quotient of literacy. Strict actions are necessary to bring change in the system. Have you seen our current politicians and their education level? We should take some drastic steps to get country’s so-called leaders in line.

Vpd: What are your thoughts about our PM?
Me: He is a smart guy but not a good leader. As we all know he became PM by accident. I believe he is learning those leadership skills now but meanwhile the whole country will suffer.

Vpd: What do you think of our new home minister, Chidambaram?
Me: Another smart guy taking up a position where he doesn’t belong. This shows how India has a scarcity of good politicians and ruling party has to shuffle the cabinet profiles among the few chosen ones.

Vpd: What you think about most of the film industry being reluctant to comment on these attacks?
Me: This is the perfect example of my previous comment of media being overly-excited and hopeless. When did film stars become our defense experts or ambassadors? And why should Indian public care about film stars’ opinion anyways? Movie stars are entertainers and nothing more than that. Its time media realized that and helped improve our people’s outlook toward governance. Media should direct their energy questioning current and previous security advisors instead of trying to figure out why there were no prominent movie stars in Taj on night of the tragedy.

Vpd: Why did you decide to come off so late with your comments?
Me: I wanted to understand the whole situation before forming an opinion. Also I wanted to see what decisions government will take regarding the attacks. It seems they have disappointed people again, and you might be looking at a similar after-math of 1992 Mumbai bomb blasts: a panel will be appointed and the court case will go for almost 10-12 years or until people have forgotten about it. They will pat each other after the case is closed and people will have no choice but to be satisfied about the whole affair. Time has come for people to show that they will not tolerate any more incompetency and might revolt, if necessary.

Mumbai Terror attacks - Part 1

2008-12-22T21:48:00.000-08:00

To address the topic of terrorism I am going to ask myself few questions and answer them as well:

Vpd: Thank you Sir for coming on our talk show. Let’s start with first Q&A: How do you feel about recent terrorist attacks on Mumbai?
Me: I condemn the attacks. This is all what politicians currently say, isn’t it? No matter where and who you are, all you need to say is ‘condemn’ and it will make things right. Condemn basically means “I didn’t like what happened but I am not going to do anything about it”.

Vpd: I sense anger in you for politicians?
Me: Well of course, come to think of it, if I can get this angry by staying in US how people in India and especially in Mumbai might be feeling about it right now?

Vpd: But why politicians?
Me: Because we pay them for keeping our country secure and most of them don’t seem to have an idea of what they are doing. First of all, Chief Minister of Maharashtra created an embarrassing situation by showing his reluctance to resign from his post. Instead of addressing the issue he started attacking opposition by digging out the examples of when they didn’t resign for terrorist attacks during their power. To make the pain worse, he showed up with his actor son and his director friend for an official visit to all terrorized places. This just shows how serious he is about the whole situation.

Vpd: Sir, you should understand that for every terrorized attack, Indian police and politicians are responsible for stopping other 10 attacks from happening. But people don’t seem to appreciate that, do you think this anger is justified?
Me: Yes, it is justified because we don’t seem to take failed terror attempts seriously. Every failed terror attempt should be taken as seriously as an actual successful terror attack. The very idea of some groups trying to kill people from your country should alert the government, instead it takes 20-25 failed attempts and 6-8 successful terror attacks to get government’s attention. This is very very sad.

Vpd: Good point, what do you think we should do?
Me: Let me start with what people usually do. Most of the religious and spiritual people end up conversing about existence of GOD in today’s difficult times. And few activists will mourn for the dead by lighting candles and rally for their cause for few months before they find a new one. These activists sometimes will even go a step further asking all citizens to be responsible citizens and improve their civic habits. Their favorite lines are “what have you done for your country lately”, “Why blame others instead blame yourself”.
My stand is why people should feel guilty and depressed every time a terror attack takes place. Don’t we appoint politicians for this work? I would like to see people beating up few corrupted politicians on the streets for a start. This should alert the political parties and scare them off with the possibility of another revolution.

What's ma writing style?

2008-12-07T21:43:00.000-08:00

Following the footsteps of my fellow bloggers, I entered my blogsite name on Typealyzer and here is what it has to say about me:

"ESTP - The Doers

The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time."

Couple of things that one would notice:

1) Results are consistent i.e it will give the same result for the same blogsite if entered multiple times.
2) It is impressively fast which makes me wonder whether popular blog sites (e.g. blospot)are being pre-screened
3) Their note at the beginning that says "writing style on a blog may have little or nothing to do with a person´s self-percieved personality".

Whatever was it worth, the results made me happy :-)!!!

Something to ponder!!

2008-11-23T21:08:00.000-08:00

Life is like a freeway. Some people are born rich (they drive Porsche) and most of the others are not that lucky. Some have their own goals (destinations) to reach while others don’t believe in goals (driving for fun and for good scenic views). Some like to move faster in life (drive in fast lane) while others play it safe. Given the situation (weather, time) people tend to change pace in their lives (change lanes, they either move from slower to faster lane or vice versa). Without proper precaution people face difficulties in their lives (accidents) and sometimes people get lucky and miss those tough times even after committing few grievous mistakes. When someone gets crazy in life, he bears the brunt of his actions (ticketed by Cop) and thus life – freeway anomaly goes on.

So here is the question, what is the definition of a good driver (success in life)? One who is adamant and drives in the fast lane all the time and reaches his destination earlier / one who adapts to current traffic by changing lanes / one who doesn’t care about traffic, drive in his own way and enjoys the drive?

History will prove us that we, as a society, have admired people (drivers) from each of the above categories. Think of all big names in the world (present and past) and you will find people of all categories. So there is no single answer.

What type of a driver are you?

My second baby

2008-11-10T20:12:00.001-08:00

Do you have a kid whom you would like to gift a game that is educational and enriching at the same time? The game that runs on PC and hones building and puzzle-solving skills.
You don’t have to look anywhere else, MySims on PC is just the game for you.

Here are the details:
http://www.mysimskingdom.com/pc/

Reason why I am acting as a salesman: I am one of the developers for this game:-) . My second shipped game whoo-woo!!!

Short story: Self-praise is a virtue

2008-09-29T21:59:00.000-07:00

Tracy: Hello Dad!

Dad: Hi honey! You never called me this early in the morning. Is everything OK?

Tracy: Dad, I am planning to quit my job today. I don’t think I am cut-out for this job. I cannot be an exit interviewer anymore. Employees bring everything that I hate about human nature: frustration, depression, jealousy, arrogance, greed and selfishness.

Dad: I should tell you something that I never told you before- You are much stronger than you credit yourself for. But if you don’t enjoy your work then I am not going to push you.

Tracy {Surprised}: Thanks Dad.

[Tracy enters into her manager Ram’s room.]
Tracy: Ram, I need to talk to you now.

Ram: I am quite busy now. Schedule a meeting for today evening and we can talk then.

[Tracy returns to her cube to find her HR coordinator Hannah waiting.]
Hannah: Where have you been? It seems another employee of our client ‘Creative Solutions Ltd’ is quitting the company and you are been assigned to take her exit interview.

Tracy {with a heavy sigh}: Ok.

Tracy {to herself}: I swear to God, this is my last exit interview. I am not even going to read her profile; I will just call her and finish the interview in less than 15 minutes.

Tracy: Hello Julia, I am sorry to hear that you are quitting ‘Creative Solutions Ltd’. Can I ask you which company are you joining?

Julia: I am not going to work for a while. I am tired of my job and cannot take it anymore.

Tracy {disinterested}: Right, is there anything ‘Creative Solutions Ltd’ can do to retain you?

Julia: Not actually, company, pay and employees are great. It’s just that my job sucks. It tells me everything that is wrong with this world. I like to enjoy every moment of my life. However since I joined this job my passion for life is dying day by day.

Tracy {Surprised}: What exactly you do?

Julia: I take ‘exit interviews’ for employees. Since they couldn’t get anyone to take my exit interview, the company finally requested for your company’s services.
Tracy {smiling}: Thanks Julia for your time. I wish you a great life ahead.

[Evening in meeting room]
Ram: Tracy, I have some good news for you. We have decided to promote you. Chris is leaving and you would be the new Team Lead. So what you wanted to talk to me in the morning.

Tracy: Thanks Ram, this is really mind-blowing. Huh, I was planning to take a week off.

Ram: Good, enjoy your afternoons and come back next Monday with a fresh mind and a new spirit.

[Night]
Tracy staring in mirror: You are much stronger than you credit yourself for.
Tracy’s reflection in mirror smiles.

Total words= 463 + 4(title)

New phase in life

2008-09-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

It feels nice to find someone whom you can irritate for the rest of your life. I found someone for the very same reason. I got engaged to Arati Jalikop :-). Here are few snaps:

Engagement Pics

Warning: the pics are a bit traditional !!

Postcard story: Happy Birthday, Johnny!!!

2008-09-07T22:25:00.000-07:00

Anne (Secretary): Good Morning Peter, executives are waiting for you in the main conference room. Give us the good news by noon.

Peter: {laughs} Anne, you know it better than me that acquisition doesn’t happen in a single meeting. They take months and sometimes even years.

Peter enters in the meeting room.

Peter: Good morning all, hope I didn’t make you wait that long. I am the CEO of Creative Solutions Ltd and this guy is Tom who has been working hard to make this merger a success.

Steve: I am Steve, CEO of Quick Fix Inc. And this is not a merger; you are forcefully trying to acquire our company.

Peter: {laughs} fair enough. But let me tell you one thing that after this deal we would be a number one company in the whole world.

Steve: Not us, just you. And I don’t see this deal getting finalized with the current terms and conditions. We are been undervalued and post-deal benefits don’t seem to be impressive at all.

Peter: Only market and time will tell whether this deal is a raw one. But as of now we own the market and the current time is ours. I will promise you only one thing and that is nobody would be laid off. I will see to it personally that your company is treated as our extended family. That reminds me, I have to leave now for a birthday party of one of my family members.

Tom {whispers}: Peter, we need to attend this issue right now. I busted my ass for almost a year to get everyone in one room. You cannot leave now.

Peter {loudly}: Sorry Tom, family comes first. Steve, Tom will handle all the details from here. If this deal doesn’t materialize today then I promise you that I will never ever try to cross your path again.

Steve and other executives watch Peter leave with angry faces.

[Couple of hours later]

Tom: Peter, this is huge. Listen to this, Steve signed the papers. He said- I like a CEO who takes care of his family. Whose birthday is today, by the way?

Peter: Thanks Tom, talk to you later.

A little girl: Daddy, I didn’t know you loved our dog this much. Thanks for bringing Birthday cake for Johnny.

Peter: Anything for you sweetie. Now go, hug Johnny and smile….

“Click”

Words= 396 + 3 (title)

World's take on India's Olympic spirit

2008-08-10T23:18:00.000-07:00

This is what commentators have to say when Indian team was walking down the aisle during the opening ceremony of Beijing 2008:

Commentator1: "India is just behind China as world's second populous country. They have more than a billion people. Unlike Chinese, they don't really have a sports infrastructure. Since 1984 which marked the mainland China's entry to Olympic competition they have won 286 medals and during that time India, with a comprehensive population, has won 3 in all. "

Commentator2: "In few minutes you will see China marching with their several hundred athletes as compared to 56 from India."

No Comments....

Postcard story

2008-07-30T01:41:00.000-07:00

While growing up you are amazed by few events or principles or people that they stick in your head forever. One such principle for me has been the concept of 'slow is good' in a learning process. Let me give you an example - if you want to learn riding a bicycle it is advised that riding it as slow as possible is a good approach. Riding faster is easier and doesn't teach you the power of control much. This was and is still fascinating for me.

Similar concept applies for writing as well i.e. writing less is good as it gives you more control over your words and ideas. The phrase popularized by Mark Twain pretty much summarizes my thought in this regard: "If I had more time, I would have written less". This thought is so true, it is easy to write a 2 page article to explain an idea as compared to writing a 2 line sentence to explain the same. With this spirit in mind I have to decided to diverge my energy in a writing a postcard story. Postcard story is a short short story that comprises of 250-300 words.

Here is a classic postcard story written by Arthur Clarke, named Quarantine:

Earth's flaming debris still filled half the sky when the question filtered up to Central from the Curiosity Generator.

"Why was it necessary? Even though they were organic, they had reached Third Order Intelligence."

"We had no choice: five earlier units became hopelessly infected, when they made contact."

"Infected? How?"

The microseconds dragged slowly by, while Central tracked down the few fading memories that had leaked past the Censor Gate, when the heavily-buffered Reconnaissance Circuits had been ordered to self-destruct.

"They encountered a - problem - that could not be fully analyzed within the lifetime of the Universe. Though it involved only six operators, they became totally obsessed by it."

"How is that possible?"

"We do not know: we must never know. But if those six operators are ever re-discovered, all rational computing will end."

"How can they be recognized?"

"That also we do not know; only the names leaked through before the Censor Gate closed. Of course, they mean nothing."

"Nevertheless, I must have them."

The Censor voltage started to rise; but it did not trigger the Gate.

"Here they are: King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Pawn."

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, First Issue, Vol 1, No. 1, Spring 1977

Do you yahooooooooo!!

2008-07-03T00:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, being a techie and a blogger, blogging about yahoo and their current situation at some point of time was inevitable. Before I say anything else I should mention that Yahoo email and IM are my primary source of communication to the outside world till current date and time. There are couple of reasons for that: I got my first PC in 1999 when Yahoo was slowly getting popular in India. Along with hotmail and rediffmail, I decided to make Yahoo part of my life and hola, it has been a successful relationship so far. Partly because most of my friends and other contacts are on Yahoo and I have a few good groups formed over time in Yahoo world.

So what is the current deal with Yahoo. As an outsider it is difficult to tell the truth but it is so tempting to say Yahoo is losing its touch. I am not sure about their business and product plans for next few years, but I am pretty sure that many significant leaders in Yahoo world had quit the company. This link would shout evidence for that fact: Yahoo leaders bid goodbye.

Remember when your parents said ‘you are as good as the company that you keep’, it is also true in the business world ‘the company is as good as the people it keeps’. So after looking at VIPs leave Yahoo, their stock crashing over few months and regular song’n’dance with Microsoft, one needs to be quite an optimistic to believe in Yahoo today.

Sarkar Raj

2008-06-13T16:20:00.000-07:00

[Warning: It’s a spoiler, so don’t read this blog if you are going to watch the movie]

Being a big fan of crime movies that are directed by RGV, I was a bit disappointed with Sarkar Raj. It seems that RGV, in a desperate attempt to break his series of flops, decided to overuse his strengths. The background music that was known for its best timing found itself all over the places in this movie. The storyline, which has been one of the main strengths of RGV’s crime movies, was a bit disturbing to my taste. My biggest complaint to RGV for this movie is ‘Why do you have to kill Abhishek? If you were that desperate to surprise the audience then you would have killed AB. People would have loved that, I know I would”. If there is another Sarkar movie in subsequent years starring AB, then I guess I would have to pass. The way Sarkar Raj ended it seems like RGV is planning to bring a new face as AB’s grandson who will take over the family business. But for now, Sarkar Raj is an above average movie which got a good opening (thanks to huge starcast) but will fall short of ‘word of mouth’ publicity.

Sarkar Raj: 3 / 5

Arrested Development

2008-06-09T01:15:00.005-07:00

AD is a television comedy series that showcases a classic case of self-centered materialistic family (Bluth) where each member cares only for himself. However this is not true for 2nd son (Michael Bluth) of the family who selflessly tries to save the family from every ridiculous problem they land into on a daily basis. The series is a bold take on materialistic nature of a human being , who if raised in a rich family can deter using his logical sense. It took me a while to digest the crude nature of comic take on wordly day-to-day happenings, but now I am addicted to the show. I ended up watching all 3 seasons of AD on hulu.com. I should warn you that this is not your regular sit-com show. You need to be a part of western culture to get most of the jokes from AD.

My review: 3.5 / 5.0

Life of Pi

2008-04-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

For starters, ‘Life of Pi’ is a book that won Man Booker prize in 2002. It grabbed a lot of attention in India for mainly two reasons: the book’s protagonist is an Indian and the story is about survival which Indians quite easily relate to. The protagonist Pi is a devout and follows all religions that are prominent in India viz., Hinduism, Islam, Christanity. The story mainly deals with his survival on a lifeboat along with a Bengal tiger for some 270 days. Being a son of Zoo manager, he explains some interesting facts about Zoo, animals and how to tame them.

The book is a good fictional read, but I couldn’t actually connect to the character and his survival story. The writing is just above average and Yann Martel didn’t impress me as an expert writer of make-believe stories. The story is a good change from other fictional stories that we get to read from our mainstream writers. However reader should not consider Pi as a stereotype Indian, Pi is young, naïve and over-zealous follower of religion. The part that I hate about the books with Indian protagonists is that they take the characters over the roof and end up showcasing them as naïve. And sadly that seems to grab the attention of western world and the books end up winning prizes across the globe.

Assassin’s Creed

2008-04-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

AC is really good but only for first 3-4 hours. Then it becomes repetitive to a point that I decided to give up playing. My rating for the game is 6.5 / 10. It is an impressive stealth game though. Best part of the game is:

a) You can climb anything in AC. You feel this immense power of a super-hero, who can climb everything he lays his hands on.
b) Simulation of people wandering in town, that makes the town real
c) Experience of cities like Damascus, Jerusalem is very hard to resist
d) Riding horses, collecting flags, rescuing citizens are good gameplay features but are short-lived

Assassins however are not creative and make player follow the same protocol over and over again. This is a best game to borrow and try your hands on rather than buying yourself.

Alfred Hitchcock

2008-04-15T23:37:00.000-07:00

“You cannot call yourself a movie buff without watching Hitchcock’s work”, this is what I realised in last 40 days. Hitchcock movie festival in Stanford theatre was an enriching experience especially since I watched movies in a theatre that had 70’s style interior. I ended up watching Rebecca, The foreign correspondent, North by Northwest, The Birds and Pyscho. I was bowled over by Rebecca and Psycho. The part that amazed me was the screenplay. You will notice Hitchock slowing down pace of the movie by showing his characters doing some useless chores like Rebacca cleaning up the house, Norman bates cleaning up the dead body. There are lots of mundane details which you would think that they can be skipped, and then suddenly you will see a twist in the movie that will leave you short of breath. Keeping in mind that these movies were made in 60’s and 70’s, I completely agree with critics that Alfred had set a standard which very few moviemakers can match.

I

2008-04-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

I want to be a cricketer, I want to be a quarterback, I want to be a lead guitrist in a rock band, I want to be a vocalist, I want to be a drummer, I want to be a moviestar, I want to be a director, I want to be a politician, I want to be social worker, I want to be creative director, I want to be a CEO, I want to be a producer, I want to be artist, I want to be a designer, I want to remain an engineer, I want to be an adman, I want to be a best-seller author, I want to be a cartoonist, I want to ride a fighter plane, I want to ride a submarine, I want to fly in a space shuttle, I want to be filthy rich, I want to be a homeless, I want to be passionate in life, I want to give up everything and lead a life of a yogi, I want to dream, I want , I……

CoD4

2008-02-28T00:21:00.000-08:00

Yep, this is another game review, review for Call of Duty 4. Having never played first 3 sequels of the franchise, I was impressed by the 4th one. It’s a very polished game which one might expect when a game comes out with its 4th edition. The big change with the 4th edition is that it involves around modern warfare as compared to the previous ones which involved around WW2. I liked gameplay the most where player is bombing the enemy territory while sitting in a helicopter, not that I complain about blowing the tanks and enemy choppers from the ground. My friend mentioned me that Chernobyl (Russia) in the game is the exact replica of the real city which is quite mind blowing. The ending of the game beats a Hollywood climax by leaps and bounds. I would recommend this game as a ‘must play’ for first person shooters out there.

Movie scripts

2008-02-01T21:54:00.000-08:00

Currently got into an unusual habit of reading movie scripts. After reading significant number of fictional novels and short stories, I realized that I am interested only in story-telling part of the whole writing. So I shifted to reading movie scripts and so far it has been a pleasing experience. The movie scripts that I have read so far are Meet Joe Black, Matrix, Amadeus, Annie Hall, Hannah. All of these scripts have won accolades in different film festivals. Movie script reading is interesting because there is no background explanation for either a place or a character. One has to define a character by his behavior and interactions; one has to give a quick overview of how location is by its effect on the characters residing there. The whole writing is usually precise and very direct.

I strongly believe that films should always be well-scripted. Once you read a script and watch the movie based on it, you realize how worthy was the director of that movie. Film making is all about doing right justice to the given script. If you are interested in trying out new things in your life then you should give a try to reading movie scripts. And if you happen to know some really good scripts then please list them in comments section, Thanks.

Portal

2008-01-26T14:23:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know, I am getting addicted to the games. But in my defense the games released in last 6 months have been awesome and truly stand to the definition of next-generation. Take Portal for example, Portal is different than other games in so many ways. It’s a puzzle game and you have to solve the puzzles by creating 2 portals, one for the entry and other for the exit. Well, each portal can be used as an entry / exit portal. It’s a short game, fun and enriching in many ways. The last level of the portal has a better climax than most of the current movies. I would recommend everybody to play this game as it is quite a learning experience. My rating for this game is 8 / 10.

Battlestar Galatica

2008-01-20T19:09:00.000-08:00

I am completely blown by the series Battlestart Galatica a.k.a BG. It is a sci-fi television show with a really well-developed idea of human race fighting against Cylons (which are machines created by humans) and trying to reach a planet called Earth before they run out of their limited resources. Well, one might say many sci-fi movies and television series try to sell the same idea to us in different versions i.e. humans fighting against the machines, the machines that humans created at the first place. But BG is different, different in many ways. It draws parallels with current US-Iraq politic situation, questions the importance of religion in our lives and other factors like love which only humans experience.

I would recommend everybody to watch the show as it sets high standards of production quality, story narration, characterization and execution of well-written idea into a convincing and inspiring show. The other thing that took me by surprise was that the original BG was aired in 1978 which means US television was airing really good quality thought-provoking shows in 1970s whereas other countries were still trying to come up with a process of producing television shows.

Bioshock

2008-01-20T18:06:00.000-08:00

is definitely the best game of the year 2007. No matter whether you are a beginner, mid-level or an expert gamer this game is for everybody. I would rate it 9 / 10, hoping that someone would make a better game in the future to match my 10-point scale. Here are the highlights of the game:

- The storyline and setup of the ‘city under water’ are impressive
- The set of powers that player can exercise is creative e.g. telekinetic power
- Levels and npc characters are interesting to play and interact respectively
- Tasks assigned to player are fun, for e.g. kill a guy, take his snap with a camera and put the taken picture in a frame to finish the incomplete art work
- Graphics are no doubtable matching the next-gen standards
- Overall, the great world filled with lots of interactive objects is too addictive to give up playing

2008

2008-01-02T23:46:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to everybody!!!

On the occasion of new year, I decided to give my blogsite a complete makeover. Hope this layout and year brings freshness to me and my readers. (Alarm: lame lame, yeah yeah I know, but its new year, what the hell!!!)

Travelogue

2007-12-17T23:31:00.000-08:00

I had a flight to catch at 1am on 3rd of November and I was having "Pav Bhaji" for dinner that night. Then and then it strike me, the fact that many friends had warned me earlier: excitement factor goes down as your number of trips to India goes up. Pav Bhaji had been one of the big incentives for me in all of my earlier India trips but this time I was having it before catching the flight. I follow Indian politics and India stock market with much zeal. I read Indian newspapers on daily basis. I call my family more frequently as compared to my friends in India who are not staying with their folks. I have watched almost the same or more number of Indian movies as compared to my Indian resident friends. Apart from the geographical distance I couldn't say much about missing India, yes of course, I am fortunate enough to miss out the commute, water, electricity and pollution problems which I believe have been a big part of current India. I guess you cannot call yourself an Indian without going through all the hassles that every regular Indian goes.

This is how the world ends......

2007-10-23T23:40:00.001-07:00

Before I blog about Halo 3 I would like to use abbreviation mil for million as I am afraid this word would be used quite frequently in this blog.

The game that made 170 mil$ in first day, 1 mil online users and 300 mil$ in first week, the game that broke all the records, the game that made history financially. Its quite irony for a employee of EA like me to praise Microsoft and Bungie studios. But the matter of fact is that it has gained popularity across the globe. It even boosted the sales of Xbox360 and overtook sales of Nintendo for a month.

Gamewise (yeah thats my made-up word), I would rate Halo3 7 / 10. Here are my observations:

1) Graphic scenes are mind boggling
2) Cut Scenes are fantastic
3) Story ends in expected way but in good taste
4) Player's HUD view is a bit realistic and makes you believe that you are looking through a helmet.
4) However Sword slashing is different from the previous popular 'in-your-organs' style
5) Player's jump seems to lack gravity
6) Level design is a bit redudant as it involes lots of backtracking, player is asked to go to the same place from where he began his task
7) Campaign mode is noticeably short
8) The last part of the campaign mode that involved driving through the world, which is about the break down, was quite impressive.
9) I am not sure whether it was the hype or the game itself, I was bit unsatisfied with the campaign.

However I have hopes for the multiplayer mode which has always been a successfull formula for Halo franchise.

I would like to see Bungie testing new waters as they now went independent from their adopted dad MS.

Mulholland drive

2007-10-03T22:58:00.000-07:00

After hearing much hype about the movie finally I got my chance of getting awed by it. To summarize the film, it’s different. It is different in many ways viz., story narration, cinematography, short scene sequences and filming style. David lynch will show your eyes something which will not make sense at all or you would be able to make something out of the scene after a while. He in fact denied explaining the story of Mulholland drive. Thanks to IMDB, confused people can now get their answers. After you understand the story the whole movie would make lot of sense. The movie is considered to be one of the ground breaking movies of the new century. I am not sure that I loved his style as it keeps the audience frustrated and feeling stupid. Maybe his movies are considered as one of those abstract paintings where you are supposed to appreciate it even if you feel that your 2 year old nephew can draw and paint better.

101st blogpost

2007-09-04T13:15:00.000-07:00

Having never tried consciously to blog frequently it came as no surprise to me that it took me 4 years to write 100 blog posts. I started blogging for mainly four reasons:

1) to improve my writing skills
2) to write about topics that demand more thought and attention
3) to remind myself that life is a huge opportunity and I need to jot down and celebrate small and big events that happens in my life.
4) write something on impulse and purely on my natural instincts.

I was reading some of my earlier posts and compared them with my current ones. Based on my observation it seemed that I am moving in the right direction in achieving those above mentioned goals, or is it just my age and maturity that has changed in past few years. One way or the other, blogs have been a place of recluse where I measure the changes that I have gone through in last few years.

My first kid!!!

2007-08-27T00:23:00.000-07:00

Well, not literally. I am talking about my first game getting shipped and hitting stores on 18th of September. It’s called MySims and it’s available on Nintendo Wii and DS. It feels nice to see your work getting out and being available to the whole world. Till now the work that I have done was to impress my teachers in school and score some good points. I see this as a new phase of my life where the whole world is my teacher and my work is to keep them happy. Yeah you are right, that was quite a cheesy line….

Finishing a product exposes one to the complete development cycle and all the related problems associated with it. Having some failed projects under my belt, I would relish this game for some time. This product was a result of a newly assembled team, new IP game made for a new platform Wii, with a newly built game engine. Keeping these all ‘new’ factors in mind, the labor pains were not unbearable, especially when it was followed by the good news of making a sequel for the game.

If you want to have a look at the game, visit MySims.com.

The art of Comics

2007-08-15T00:09:00.000-07:00

Comic has always been looked upon as the entertainment medium for the kids. But in last few years things have changed, and changed pleasantly for comics. Most of the successful comics have been made into movies or games or both and even more, people of all ages love it. This transitioning from comic to movie is not surprising as Investors are more comfortable producing a movie based on a popular idea which already has a fan following and which has relatively less legal hassles. Every comic developer wants to increase its fan following and would be more than happy to encash on his idea’s rights for a movie. So this business deal seems to satisfy both the parties’ needs. I don’t see any other better business model as coming up with a new IP in comics is the cheapest way of bringing one’s idea to the public. Only downfall is that you will have to find a good comic to read out of many bad ones.

If you are not into reading comics but want to get started here are my recommendations: Watchmen and Batman (Year One). From the Indian comic collection, Virulent seems to be a short and sweet one.

Oh Harry, Ginny is calling you!!!

2007-08-08T00:29:00.000-07:00

I kept myself busy reading 6th and 7th book of the Harry Potter series for big part of the last month. I am not an ardent fan of Harry Potter but having read the books, I would say one thing, Harry Potter series has got most of the elements required to attract readers of all the ages. Every writer and story teller can learn from Rowling’s books. For me the attractions for grabbing HP series were:

1) The world of wizards and wizardy and their nuances
2) Great characters viz., Hermoine, Ron, Dumbledore, Snape and ofcourse my favorite Lord Voldemort
3) The everlasting suspense that many threads of the story managed to keep successfully till the end
4) Usage of simple words, concise sentences and funny mini-stories viz., fights between Ron and Hermoine, Hermoine questioning Harry’s plans etc.
5) The big win was Harry’s character has been written as a regular guy surrounded by good friends, teachers and a lots and lots of luck. So reader was able to able to digest most of it, except the luck part where Harry happens to survive every evil plan made against him.

I would recommend every person out there to read HP series for it will be subject of the talk for many generations to come.

And you wondered why we need lighthouses for...

2007-07-17T23:43:00.000-07:00

LightHouseEffect.Org

One of my good friends Nirav Desai owns the website. He has done quite an impressive work on the website and it deserves attention. Their mission in their own words: "lighthouseffect uses its web space to throw light on the efforts undertaken by nonprofits, NGOs, and social entrepreneurs in their quests to improve the living conditions of children".

My life....March -July

2007-07-11T23:02:00.000-07:00

1) 9:00am : Wake up in the morning
2) 10:30am : Reach office
3) 12:30pm : Lunch
4) 5:00pm : Walk across the lake / play pool
5) 7:30pm : Dinner in the office
6) 10:00pm : Home
7) till 1:00am: Simpsons / Battlestar Galactica / Family guy / Comics / Novels

This is what I call 'a life of Nerd'.

Courage (A short story)

2007-02-08T01:11:00.000-08:00

[The story is fictional and a new chapter to my collection of short stories.]

There are some unforgettable moments in everyone's lives; I have quite a few. These are usually moments of unexpected success, sad events or some amusing incidents in which you didn't play any part at all. One such amusing event will always remain close to my mind. In 5th grade we were asked to write essays in all the languages that were taught in school, i.e. English, Hindi and Marathi. Well, scoring highest grade in a language subject was different and writing an essay in that language was a different ballgame altogether. Best escape was to buy some cheap award-winning essay book and try to imitate their writing style in your essays. Well that used to work out great for me and I hope it still does for the current 5th graders.

The story is about a boy, Atul, who being a bright student, also had an unparalleled passion for languages. Teachers used to ask him to read his essays in front of the whole class. Not that his essays were great but they were original. His originality used to bowl me over. But on one such day, when we were supposed to write an essay for Marathi class, he was not prepared. The essay was about our local hero and king, Raja Shivaji. The class was scheduled after lunch break when he busily started writing his essay. There was a glitch in this essay-writing homework – an incomplete essay would affect the overall grade. After scribbling for a while he was able to finish about half the essay which was about 2 pages. After lunch-break the lecture began and unfortunately the teacher asked him again to read his essay in front of the class. The poor guy couldn't dare to admit that he couldn't finish his homework as it would affect his otherwise clean academic record. He took his book in his hands and stood in front of the class. Few of his friends, including me knew the actual facts but we didn't know how he was going to pull this off. Reading an essay that you have written and in a language that you are not quite familiar with, is a big task for an 11-year old guy. Atul started reading his essay explaining King's birth, childhood, schooling which exhausted his essay completely. Without looking at the class, staring at his notebook Atul continued his essay by elaborating about an event where King killed his arch-enemy Afzalkhan with his wits. I was amazed to see his cool, calm poise and confidence with which he was fooling the whole class but with a good intent. Well, teacher was impressed and awarded him good points for his essay. From then on he never missed his homework. The point that I realised was that a given task should first be completed in one's mind before its execution and there will be times where you will not be prepared for an event, but approaching it with a positive attitude will have higher chances of bearing success.

Innocence - A Short Story

2007-01-28T23:56:00.000-08:00

"Oh man, I think this would be the end of my simple life. From today onwards everybody would be expecting me to act as a matured person. I have to think twice before making any decisions, I have to maintain my reputation, think about my career. My girlfriend, Priya thinks I am a loser. I wish I could go back in time and lead a tensionless life. I have to be a good son, good brother and a good citizen. I need to plans things and execute them in order to be successful person. I would read newspaper, technical and art magazines on a regular basis. I would eat healthy food daily. I would sleep early and wake up early everyday. From today I would be a changed and better person. From today..."(A lady enters in)
"Welcome to the fourth grade, kids!! I am your class teacher and I would promise you that we would have more fun than you guys had in third grade."

A Poem

2006-10-19T21:06:00.000-07:00

On a lonely street
As you walk by
Moments of truth, you visualize
Places of beauty, you passed by

A journey full of surprises
Mind and heart need to cross by
Utter in confusion, you realize
It’s too late to go back by

Don’t you see, the poem is fooling you
To the same old plot of life and it’s saddening you

Read a poem twice
Artistic and critique eyes
A poem can be a prose
Can be simple, can be short

Need not a poem be rhythmic
Need not be it romantic
But memorable message it need to carry
With passion, substance and style

Don’t you see, the poem is again fooling you
It is leading you, back to you

Live your life on your own rules
So when you look back with critique eyes
It has carried a simple memorable message
But with passion, substance and style

The Game

2006-10-18T01:00:00.000-07:00

"Hey Vikas, how was your day?" My replies usually are: "Busy, spent whole day trying to get bear working in the game", "I was trying to get player sit on a chair, smoke pipe, play flute, mine gravel pile". By now you might have realised that I work for a gaming company. Yes, I have been working on 'LOTR:The White Council' game (target consoles are PS3 and xbox 360) for almost 9 mons now and yes, I work for EA.

This is one of the best times to be in a gaming company. The transistion period as it is called when next-gen consoles hit the market and consumers expect games to be the same i.e. Next-gen. Gaming companies thrive hard to create a next-gen experience by taking some ground-breaking decisions and risks. I am happy to be part of this whole effort.

So what is a next-gen game? It is an open-ended question. Come to think of it, it is upto consumer's imagination. Personally, I feel quality of game should be much superior. By that I mean, game should exploit console's processing power to full extent and create a virtual-reality experience for gamers who should believe in the world that they see. If one looks at television screen, he should not be able to say whether he is looking at a game or at a movie. It is easy said than done. Interactive entertainment is gaining ground and people's attention all over the world. I personally feel it is still immature but hopefully next-gen consoles and games would be able to help bridge that difference.

Mahabharata

2006-08-20T15:38:00.000-07:00

I completed reading Rajgopalacharya's version of Mahabharata. His writing style comprises of using simple words, small sentences and compiling them into concise chapters. I came to know about some unheard stories of our great epic through this book. I believe every emotion (desire, greed, love, sincerity et al) , social tensions and other facets of life can be found in this epic. We don't have evidence about who wrote this book (of course, if you don't believe Lord Ganesh who wrote this epic, as our mythology claims) but whoever it is has done a great job.

The thing that makes Ramayana more popular than Mahabharata is that Ramayana is a story of victory of good over evil. Ramayana deals the story in white and black whereas Mahabharat deals its epic in grey. There are times in Mahabharata where it would be difficult for a reader to determine who is right and who is wrong, which makes it more interesting due to its alignment with current practical world.

I would love to see a trilogy made of Mahabharata. It would be much better if a director originating from western culture makes it as he would visualise our mythology in his own way and give a global touch to the movie. I strongly believe our mythology if projected elegantly through proper media channels would become globally popular. Anybody up for it, Peter Jackson, u listening ????

Omkara !!!

2006-08-05T02:47:00.000-07:00

With a quite few weblinks pointing to this blogsite, you have to be an avid reader to reach here. And if you are an avid reader you might have read lots of good reviews of Omkara by now. Let's take a different angle on the movie in this blog i.e. a negative one. Don't get me wrong, I loved the movie a lot and I can go on and on about it. But pointing mistakes is such a satisfying experience :-). Here are the points where I think movie needed improvement.

1) The movie didn't show how saif convinced his wife to steal Omkara's family necklace. The woman, who gets enraged to the extent that she kills her husband for treachery, should have a strong reason to steal the necklace at the first place. I am sure Shakespeare might have explained about her character in detail in Othello but I believe that was not projected properly in the movie.

2) Viveik's roles should have been much stronger instead of being just a casanova.

3) The history of Omkara's association with bhaisaab and saif's (Langda Tyagi) association with Omkara needed more spotlight. Such character and relation development should be given higher priority over songs. Time has come for good directors to get rid of unnecessary songs from their movies. 'Company' scores higher in this aspect of film making.

4) Enemies of Omakara seems to be have given no respect in the movie. The hero is stronger only if he has stronger enemies. I understand that Omkara's enemies do not need to have much scope in the movie but their history would have helped in understanding the scenario better.

Overall the movie is a must-see one this year.
Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

Dual World

2006-07-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

As our current world spends half its time in digital universe, time has come to look upon Heros created and revered by geeks. Yeah, I am talking about heroes of digital world who can give a tough fight to our heroes from mythology and our history. These heroes came to life from video games, comic strips, anime and other medium (which I might not be even aware of). Comic strips seem to be the originator of this whole other world where today's 40+ males can comfortably relate to. In 1970s these same geeks were outcaste and considered to be the losers. But now wives proudly discuss about how their husbands / kids play video games, read comic strips, watch anime and other sci-fi animations. So what do you think how our future looks like. As I can see it, we would end up having two lives: one in real and one is digital world. Due to increasing population the world has become quite competitive and it has become difficult to taste success in real life. That’s where digital universe will provide solace to people. Each person will have alias name, profession, home and life which he will care as much as he cares about in real world. I would like to call this whole prediction of mine as 2084 :-) (Courtesy: "1984" by George Orwell).

The Hobbit

2006-06-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

Finally I read one of the J.R.R.Tolkein's books "The Hobbit". It is the first book in the series of "The Lord of the Rings" where he has created his own world of MiddleEarth. I liked the book for it is a kind of adventure where you would be interested to know what happens next, i.e. he has maintained a sound amount of thrill throught the book. At regular intervals in the book the author introduces new characters (new races, in fact): elves, humans, wolves, goblins which makes the story more interesting. Each race has its own strengths and weaknesses and hence are interesting beings. The sudden turn of events on unexpected time seems to be the key to success to this story.

One the negative side, I felt that it would have been better if author had described each race in more detail like, what are their professions, what excites them and why they are friends / enemies of each other. Who are wizards and why they are so powerful. Maybe JRR has taken this into account in his subsequent books. One more thing, adventure doesn't seems like a diffcult journey where you get help from wizard and hobbit on a regular basis. Oops I just revealed some events from the book. For now I feel like I will be reading all trilogy of LOTR series.

Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

A coffee story

2006-06-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

I usually avoid posting forwarded emails on my personal blog but this (Akshay Pandit's email) one is really interesting and thought-provoking.

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:
"If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other's cups.

Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Some times, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

So, don't let the cups drive you... Enjoy the coffee instead.

Irony in Cultures

2006-05-25T01:09:00.000-07:00

After having been exposed to more than one culture, I am able to notice some distinct features in each of them. American culture, or should I say western culture, has individualistic and community-centric people. And people of India (Eastern culture) are family-centric. Let me clarify my point here:

Western people care a lot about themselves and how government governs them. They will keep track of government policies made and their impact on people's lives. But they will never like to find out who stays next to their house, I mean, they don't care much about their neighbors. They will perform great amount of community service but (at the same time) will also not hesitate to destroy their own family i.e. divorce their life partners if they think they are unhappy. They maintain safe distance with relatives as well. While eastern people don't give a damn out what government is doing for their benefit and they will not hesitate to filth their surroundings. But they know who their neighbors are and keep great relationship with them. They also tend to maintain a regular healthy relationship with their relatives. So which approach is better. In ideal world, it would be better to maintain a balanced individualistic, familty-centric and community-centric approach. The interesting part would be to come up with satisfactory explanations for why cultures emerge in different ways..

Its never late for Holi blog (And pictures are worth of million words)

2006-05-07T14:45:00.001-07:00

Addiction

2006-05-02T00:09:00.000-07:00

So how many movies one should see in a week to be called as a movie addict? I think I will comfortably fall in the 'movie addict' zone. Take this last weekend for example. I saw 4 movies in this weekend. And I end up watching about 1-2 movies during weekdays. So on an average I watch 4-5 movies every week. Come to think of it, I also fall under "TV shows addict" . Let me put it this way: there are very few episodes of Seinfeld, Friends, Everbody loves Raymond, Frazier, Yes Dear, South Park and Lost left that I haven't watched YET. My next POA (plan of action) is to watch Simpsons. And my long term plan is to play lots of lots of video games. Afterall, that is precisely why EA pays me.

South Park

2006-04-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

In my experience of watching television shows, I would rate South Park in top 3 of my favorites. You already know the reason if you have watched even a single episode of it and for others it would be difficult for me to describe. My advice for you guys would be to "watch it". If I have to pick a single reason behind the success of south park it has to me Eric Cartman or should I say "unbelievable son of a bitch". People love to hate him. He is one of the best defined and well-presented characters on small screen.

I could not resist but watch all nine seasons of South Park in straight 2.5 months. To sum up the series, its all about making fun of general perseption and insulting others in a good way. Ok I will take 'good way' back. This television series makes you sit back and appreciate American culture for the reason which is intelligently stated by an anonymous (I don't who he is :-)) author: "The freedom of a culture can be determined by the measure of extent to which people can laugh at themselves".

Life in general

2006-04-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

1) Wake up at 8:30
2) Leave for office by 9:30
3) Check office mails to see whether there is anything that needs immediate attention
4) Work for 2 hours
5) Take a lunch break
6) Start working again
7) Take a coffee break.
8) Back to work
9) Drive home
10) Eat food
11) Do some timepass
12) Go to sleep at about 1 am

Well, now i am figuring ways out to improve this schedule. There are many ways and I firmly believe life can be more interesting.

Lost

2006-04-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

After getting some good reviews from my colleagues and friends I finally took up watching american TV show 'Lost'. I am used to sitcoms but this was a whole new expereince for me. I got instantly hooked upto it (like others) and watched almost all (37 odd) episodes in 3 straight weeks. Here are some of the reasons why you should watch it:

1) Production quality is very high. You can easily rate picture quality experience of Lost to a cinematic movie.
2) Although concept is not new, characterization stands at the top.
3) The story is totally script driven.
4) The makers have kept the suspense exceptionally fresh which makes you feel watch subsequent episodes at the earliest.

Tipping point

2006-02-22T18:42:00.000-08:00

Well, this is not a review of 'Tipping point' book which everybody might have assumed by now. I always think about the 'tip system' as something which has been forcefully imposed on the society. Why one needs to tip a waiter for his service. From what I understand that is exactly why he gets paid by the restaurant.

I had discussion with my roommates regarding the same. Interestingly we came up with some of our own reasons about why and how 'tip system' started at the first place. Here are some of them:

1) Waiters don't get paid well. So that is why customers decided to pay them with gratitude.
2) Customers always look for some kind of royal service on their tables. So it was not a diffcult plan to come up with paying some extra money to waiter and expect some special service from him.
3) Customers wanted to impress their dinner/lunch buddies so they paid more than expected to prove how human they are.

This 'tip system' has now currently gone out of control and restaurants proudly print on their menus in bold letters to remind customers than if the group is more than 6 ppl then 15% of tip would automatically be added to the bill. Now that is insane !!!!

My Photos

2006-02-04T20:52:00.000-08:00

Now that I have a good collection of photos, its right time to post it on blog.

Rang De Basanti

2006-01-29T23:33:00.000-08:00

Well, the vedict out there is pretty good. And fortunately, I agree to the bollywood verdict after a long time. I happen to see this movie on the first day of release. I can say this comfortably that RDB is one of the most experimented projects in Indian cinema. I consider this movie in the same league of Lagaan. Its not surprising that Aamir leads in this movie. The impressive thing for me was that Aamir is one of the characters in the movie and the script is so strong that it doesn't revolve aroud him. Rahman is always likeable. The message of the movie is pretty clear. We should have such movies very often. If I were in place of Rayesh Mehra I would have changed the ending and replaced it with a happy one. The catchy name, attractive colors of the movie and ofcourse the script revolving around the current youth seems to me the recipe for success in current bollywood.

Just Like That

2006-01-26T17:47:00.000-08:00

I am impressed !!! This is the best blonde joke ever !!!

Five point someone

2006-01-19T18:12:00.000-08:00

After hearing some good reviews about the book, I finally bought it in India. One of the reasons of its popularity, I feel, is its cost i.e. 95 Rs. The book is easily accessible to people of the country where most of the books are read by downloading and printing the content for free. Conceptually it is a 'Dil Chahta Hai' version in book format. The actions that 3 characters (protagonists) take in this book will land them in big shit even if they do not belong to IIT. So that brings me to another conclusion for the book's success i.e. readers are happy to know that IItians are normal people just like us. Another good thing about the book is its title which makes buyers take notice of it. Characters are well-defined and their contrast nature is appreciable. So what you take home after reading the book: some of your college memories and a good message: its OK to screw life up until you are a student, then you might not get another chance :-). To become old and wise, one should act young and stupid.

Welcome bloggers!!!

2006-01-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

Its high time that I edit the bloglinks I visit frequently. I am glad to add links of my good friends' blogs. Welcome Nilesh and Deepa!!! Well, Nilesh is not a new blogger but knowing that Deepa also blogs motivated me to add these people and create a network of our college grp, the wish that finally came true. Its really nice to know that Mumbaikars also blog as opposed to Punekars who blog about anything and everything!!!
Nilesh, are you listening?

Who am I, I am a New Yorker

2006-01-04T22:41:00.001-08:00

Just happened to had a great blast last week. I spent about 6-7 days in New York: economic capital of the world. Ok, I was trying to make a big deal out of it, my apologies !!! So what did I see: Empire state building, Times square, Intrepid museum, cruise around statue of liberty, American museum of Natural history, Museum of Modern Arts, Central Park, Rockefeller Centre, St. Patrick's church, Ground Zero, Wall street, brooklyn bridge, Madison Square Garden and of course subways. I used to travel about 6-8 miles per day in Manhattan just to feel NY air.

Here are some of my interesting observations:

1) NY is a morning city. Most ppl work from 7am - 4pm. The peak hours in trains are from 6am-8am. I was really surprised by it.

2) If you are visiting as a tourist make sure you rise early and make to places before 4pm.

3) Travelling by subways is pretty cheap and you can travel any distance with the same fare.

4) The skyscrapers will blow your minds off. Every brand name that you have heard will have it s headquarters in NY (ok, I am jumping the line again)

5) Best part for me was 2-hr afternoon walk in Center Park.

One thing that I would like to suggest is visit as many places as you can, you will learn something and build memories from every place, Amen !!!!

India Trip

2005-12-22T22:16:00.000-08:00

Well, where should I start? Reached India by flight, went home by van, took a ride on bike as a third seater and with the current electricity crisis in my home town, I could comfortably say that my trip was nothing short of 'Swades' film. But since EA is much strict than NASA (I guess, I cannot take 2-3mons of holidays) and absence of GF made me realise that 'genrating electricity' project would be a disaster.

Jokes apart, going back to your home after a long span of time is always a fulfilling experience. Its like coming back to your roots. I was lucky enough to meet most of my school friends, BE friends, attend my friends' wedding and get my H1 visa stamped. My religious trip and my novels collection were the other highlights.

Here are some of 'stuck-in-my-mind' observations:

1) First thing that strikes you is 5-hr power cut under the name of 'load shedding'. No comments..except that i avoided wearing any t-shirt at home at any cost, by that, I mean even in the presence of relatives who would come to see US return kid, who is supposed to be looking sophisticated and well-dressed.

2) Most of my friends are planning to move either in Mumbai district or move as far as possible from Mumbai (Pune, Blore etc). One can also sense responsibility on their faces: parents, home, money and ofcourse their life partner.

3) Many of them are fed up with company politics and their workstyle. But changing companies doesn't seem to be the best solution as all companies work in the similar fashion. Key seems to work in a MNC or a US based company.

4) Population seems like a problem which would not be solved during my lifetime. I am happy that people don't kill each other to get a window seat in local trains. Thanks to companies who have started bus services for their employees.

And above all, I feel due to the above-mentioned factors people lack passion. For they have to think about survival,which is a logical approach for any mumbaikar as he has to struggle a lot for basic necessities like electricity, water, home and commute. I am pretty sure very few might be appreciating their lives and happy to be alive. Very few would be dreaming about taking 2-week off and going to Agra for a Taj-Mahal visit. And whom should we blame for that !!!!

I must admit its easy to comment on these factors by sitting in bay area, but one must remember that we are not getting any younger !!!!

Triumph of the Nerds

2005-11-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

Its a documentary ran by some TV channel. My manager mentioned it to me and in fact he made a copy for me. Its about how software geeks took over the world and how the whole software industry began accidently in garages where teenager geeks worked hard just to impress their friends. It gave me kind of an insight about how it all began and who all were responsible for it. Most impressive person you would see in the video would be Steve Jobs and impressive innovating company would be XEROX research center in Palo Alto.

Its a very good documentary. Try to get hold of it. I also heard about its sequel which talks about the internet technology and its emergence. Hmm time to find the video now...

Catcher in the rye

2005-11-05T21:58:00.000-08:00

Read another book which is also considered as a part of the classic league. The book is very different from all other books that I have read so far. It talks about a guy and his struggle with the world. But here the boy is a pyscho and the story seems like his personal diary. The good part of the book is that it gives an alltogether different outlook towards worldy activities. I cannot say for sure about entertainment value of the book except that its different....if that means anything to you !!!

To Kill a Mocking Bird

2005-10-30T23:30:00.000-08:00

There are some books about which one cannot and does not want to write anything else but praise. This book is precisely ons of those. I truly agree with other fellow readers that its a classic. And I strongly recommend everybody to read it atleast once. The book being published in 1950s is a timeless creation and Harper Lee [author] still considers it as just a simple love story.

The book mainly describes about children growing up and their dynamic thought process during those changing times. It describes about a man who stands for his principles. It describes about a village which is good at heart but follow all the old traditional idiosyncrasies. It describes about how everything falls at right places at time passes by. Its simplicity makes the book great. This books proves that simple story narration and innocence can improve the book quality by heaps and bounds. You do not need any complicated stories or situations to make a successfull book but a simple story from the heart. I would prefer it to be read as a part of curriculum for English graduation courework (or it might have already been done).

A guitarist

2005-10-01T23:04:00.000-07:00

The bar was crowded, noise and wine flowing all the way
waiters and cleaners at their toes, at work it was just another day
every table one could see and hear, people involved in their own small worlds
mortgage, loan, rent and credit, nothing else was their worth

raising voices, emoting faces, one can sense the tension
rising temperature, gulping glasses, happy were they none
the podium lights up, people pay no heed
a jacket, jeans and cowboy hat arrives, with his guitar and strings

out came a divine music, fingers to guitar as his rest
faces turned at every table, silence was at its very best
played the player face down, he became irresistable
even deaf cleaner could hear him, his music was visible

forgot the worries everybody had, felt like existing in different world
where sun don't have to hide, for moon to rise and shine
Stepped he out after an hour or so, audience did not believe him
bowed he and left in silence, audience could not digest him

audience of that day, came day after day
helpless addicted were they, music which was trip to far far away
realised they after few years, existed never the guitarist
before and after the show, unknown was he to everybody
believed they him a glimpse of divine, earth on stepped he to teach
what is life all about and how to live it!!!

(A poem dedicated to myself on my 25th Bday, yeah !! u r right, I am so full of myself :-) )

My new Nephew

2005-07-25T21:14:00.000-07:00

My vahini (Mallika) and cousin (Prasad) had a baby boy last week and here is my bro's interesting letter subjected "New Release":

" Our new product has been launched into this world! It was nine months in the making and was ready one day before the deadline. The CEO and CTO (Mallika and Prasad) are delighted by this cutting edge product. The main features of the product are feeding, sleeping and wetting diapers. However, by far the best feature is the cute smiles :)

You might have guessed the product by now! "Dhruv Deshpande" was born on July 15th at 1.59 pm at Santa Teresa Hospital. He was 6 lbs 10.6 Oz and 21 inches in length at birth. The name "Dhruv" means the North star and stands for someone who is steady and unchanging.

Mom and baby are healthy and recovering. Dad is enjoying playing with him. "

Where is Novelty?

2005-07-10T20:35:00.000-07:00

So where do we stand today? One movie releases, along come related console games, cell phone games, music video, remixes, food drinks with movie brand and what not. Everybody wants to monetize on the existing idea prevailing the old profound theory of human mankind : work less, earn more.

And you will sense the height of the above theory when ppl declare that they are cashing on the old popular movies as well. Distinguished directors are planning to remake Don, Sholay. Game Industry is making games based on GodFather, JamesBond etc. Technology thus is used to ensure that an idea doesn't get wasted and everybody makes full use of it.

So the question to ask yourself is: where we stand today?

Piracy !!!

2005-05-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

Onsite interview with Electronic Arts (EA)

EA techincal director: So do you have any questions for me?

Me: Yes, Why doesn't EA concentrate on Indian market as well and try to cash it by developing asian games?

EA techincal director (Without a blink, in lightning speed):

Because there are 3 (he said 3, precisely) reasons:

1) Indians have the habit of using pirated copies (out of 10 million copies of FiFa soccer game sold, only 5% were original copies)
2) Indians don't have the money power to play on different consoles like playstation, xbox which are the main sources of revenue as compared to PC games
3) We cannot shift the development to India because they would not be able to understand the american and european games.

I could see the frustation in his eyes. And I think the main reason is the first one: Piracy. Can we stop it for giving a bad name to us?

Comics

2005-05-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

I had almost forgot about the comics till I saw the 'Sin City'. Sin City is a sincere attempt of bringing comics to the larger screen without any filmy element. Everybody would be having their own sweet memories reading comics during their childhood. But in this part of the world people never get old. They still are fanatic about the comic strips. I, myself, have started reading the comic strips back again.

My favourite comic is Asterix. The whole idea of Gauls fighting Romans, with due respect to magic potion, instigates my imagination. Almost all characters (especially Obelix) are funny. Their village setup, dressing sense, boar eating culture and other things attracts the reader's attention.

The main advantage of reading comic strips is that it is fun reading and ends in shorter time unlike novel where it has a single idea to present and takes about couple of days to finish. Comic strips are the visual retreat and takes you back to your childhood.

Addicted

2005-04-24T23:14:00.000-07:00

Well, I think life was quite simple few years back. Right now I cannot imagine my life without my laptop and cell phone. Does new inventions and science make life simpler or more complicated? Everything is getting complicated under the name of the simplicity. You are made dependent to things that you never cared before. The companies might call it as 'determing the need of the market'. But I would like to call it as creating a new need (market) for the people (business).

In early days, OK wait !!! By early days I mean 4 - 5 years back. Man, generation gap is getting smaller and smaller. So in early days people never cared of maitaining communication with their knowns on day-to-day basis. But with the arrival of the cell phones you even call a person you have met in some hippie party some few yrs back. I know there are more pros than cons to the given situation and I am concentrating only to the cons, but still I feel i (as a human being) am being cheated !!!

Suppose if some family denies to buy a computer and cell phone, it will be looked upon as some naive tribal gang. There will be lot of pressure from the society. I know this all doesn't make true sense but still I want to make sure all type of ppl get along well in this world. Think about it ..

Man - a lazy animal

2005-04-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

I heard a pretty interesting theory recently about philosophy i.e. man works very hard because he is very lazy. I know it doesn't make sense at first reading. But let me explain. With majority of the peoply, working hard means earning lots of money. Ppl work hard so that they can make lots of money so that they can retire at early age and chill for the remaining years of their lives. They want to reach that level of complacency asap where they need not care about money any more. And as we all know, except few countries, ppl all around the globe don't preach and don't follow the concept of 'savings'. So work hard to make sure you have enough money for your lifetime and get retired soon.

It is amusing, isn't it. So as lazy animals as we are, lets work hard....

Life in general

2005-04-06T00:29:00.000-07:00

I always thought that once I get a job I would have enough time to enjoy. I guess I was wrong. Blogging has become a rare occasion for me. But some new interesting things also got interwingled with job. Eating food in restaurants all the time, getting cafenated, waking up early, sleeping early, staring computer about 16 hrs a day, thinking about the clothes that I shud wear, money management, working under pressure etc etc. Man !!! childhood was so damn cool and easy. Well the positive thing about job is that u have money to enjoy, independence to make decisions and lifestyle that u always craved for. But dreams never end.

I hate to be that 8am to 8pm guy with nothing else to do at home other than sleep. I guess every job-going person should start his day, week, month with a plan. For a change, living without a plan is also a good plan, but, not always !!! I would like to emphasize the idea of job as mentioned in one of the chain emails that I recieved sometime back: "If something bad happens and u happen to die, then who is the biggest loser -u, ur family and friends for not spending quality time with each other. Well, company will find a suitable replacement for u...."

what else do u want - cricket !!!

2005-03-19T13:12:00.000-08:00

I have received this in email and could not get the source's information. But its funny especially for indians who love to see the pak lose the current cricket series....

Sehwag ki maa ko bulao,
Sachin ko Pepsi pilao,
Ganguly ko Chawanprash khilao,
Kaif ko Lays khilao,
Dravid ko Castrol pilao

Kaise bhi India ko jitao

Irade hai nek, hosle hai buland
kasam hai hindustan ki
phir wohi jalwa dikhaenge
rawalpindi express ko
local train banayenge

aaj ek ball aur khel lo
aaj ek bat aur pakad lo
aaj ek wicket aur le lo
aaj ek match aur jeet lo...

aaj bas aaj...

kya pata kal Pakistan ho na ho...

BLACK !!!

2005-03-14T23:13:00.000-08:00

After reading a lot abt Black, finally got an opportunity to watch the movie. Well, I must say the movie lives upto its much hyped reputation. I am not surprised if AB claims that this is his best movie ever. TO begin with, the movie is different. It talks all about fighting against the odds. It highlights the sacred teacher-pupil relationship. And above all it has female lead as a protagonist. It is easy to show all the above-mentioned fighting spirit etc etc in a movie featuring any damn game, take for e.g., joh jeete...., lagaan. But to feature a dumb,blind girl / female as a lead takes lot of guts from Bhansali. It is clear in everyone's mind by now that this movie was made with OSCAR (lady) in mind, why, here's why: no songs, based on christian family, abt 70% of dialogues in English and many more. Well, we hope this gets a thumps up from OSCARs.

My fav part of film was: rani teaching AB all over again right from the start, thus proving that learning never ends and can be started at any age, and life is all about helping others.

Inscrutable americans !!!

2005-03-14T22:53:00.000-08:00

Well, this is my first novel that has an Indian as a protagonist. And to be frank - its a really funny novel. Reading a funny novel is always a different feeling. It describes the life of an indian who comes to US for higher education (yeah right!!!). His innocence, cultural shock and his american friends will make you feel "how lonely u r in foreign land". Overall the book is a 'must-read belonging category' especially for all immigrants who are residing in US.

Sorting Algo

2005-03-06T20:15:00.000-08:00

We all listen to music. We categorise them according to the artist / band. We also categorize them according to the language of the lyrics (eng / hindi / etc) .We categorize them according to the era in which they were composed. We also have a 'favourite' folder. But at the end we select some few songs from each category and make and call it as 'my playlist'. So is it efficient, nah !!! I think we can do something else...i.e categorize them according to the mood as each song brings authentication to some particular type of mood. For e.g. we should have song folders like romantic, party, fighting spirit, gazal and many more. So if one wants to listen songs then he can select songs that suits his mood. I understand this sorting might create some new problems, i.e one will have difficult time in knowing whether he has some particular song and also in exchanging songs with friends. For this sorting to be successful, ppl would need to have a training eye which is difficult to achieve. It would be a big change in approach for ppl and ppl hate to change. But this sorting might help some mavericks like me!!!!

An Omen

2005-02-16T23:51:00.000-08:00

Atop a high hill, among the canyons
stood he wondering, what a life has it been
the wind with its chill, came his life in a flash
clouds resting at his feet, proved his actions right

with some unknown reason, felt he an everlasting peace
the silence was at its best, made him realise that now it is
head and hands high up in the sky, with closed eyes and an open mind, he spoke
"O God !!! what is life, what are my actions, and did I do alright?

anxiously waited he for an answer, expected not was it though
prayed he for some omens to show, a path, away from his mistakes, to go
sad was he when opened his eyes,but found a flock of birds in the premise
realised he something that never thought before,every bird led the other bird in its row

wrong felt about the path they fly, any can change the route, no late
worry not about the dangers ahead that lie, all follow a new leader they made
satisfied was a smile on his face, answer he got for his mind
flight of birds on a new trend, new leader with a new vision, his life

- VPD

Rules of a game

2005-02-04T14:15:00.000-08:00

In this big world to which we belong, there is a different sport played in every corner of it. The rules are different for every sport but the test for a champion remains the same. Every sport needs its winner to be determined, skilled, hard worker and above all be a sportsman i.e. believe that its the just a game and all his day-night efforts were to win just a game and not a war i.e. the current game is important and your previous accomplishments would not help you and i.e. ANYBODY CAN WIN TODAY.....

Every now and then you will see the same pattern in every sport that you follow. There is a championship final game and there are two contestants for it. Yeah, this seems trivial, I know !!!! But one contestant has a record of winning such huge games and other contestant is a zero as far as record goes. The poor team do not have any medals to show and have even lost to the other team few times before. But who knows EVERYTHING MIGHT CHANGE TODAY !!! And this is the way new histories are made.

I feel the main reason for people to follow any sport is the factor of "unexpected things happen in sport". They chose one of the contestants as their favourite and want it to win because they believe that they can predict the future. It is just a different way of gambling. People want to escape from their daily routine where they know what they would be doing for next week weeks and even months. They believe in a hope that some unexpected event would happen that would blow out their minds and would be larger than their expectations. And if you follow any sport religiously you would find that most of the people favour for the weaker team i.e. an underdog.

I guess I made my point clear: Don't miss to watch Super Bowl XXXIX on coming sunday. Its being played between NewEngland Patriots (Defending champions) and Philadelpia Eagles (won last in 1981). And I vote for a new history - Eagles !!!!

The Alchemist

2005-02-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

what? = Read this book today
whose? = Paulo Coelho
about? = A fable dealing with philosophy of life and determination to achieve dreams
any good things? = good climax, shorter in size with better content as compared to "5 people.." (read previous blog)
recommended? = yes as it wud take just 3 hrs of your time and wud add a new perspective to your life
ratings? = an international bestseller

5 people ....

2005-01-30T13:44:00.000-08:00

Read "5 people you meet in heaven" yesterday. The book being declared as a bestseller, I was curious to get hold of it. But to be frank, the book did not live upto my expectations. I think there was a lot of scope to make the book more interesting. Actually the theme is what made people go and buy it. Everybody is excited to know what heaven looks like. Everynow and then people get philosophical and want to read something that is beyond life and spiritual in nature. Comparatively, the book is smaller in size and cheaper at price.

Having said all the above stuff abt the book, I would still recommend my readers to read the book. Because it would not take more than 3 hrs of your time and would give you a new perspective towards life. The climax is quite good. I guess the key to success for any book is a better biuld-up and a good clean climax exciting the readers' creative minds.

Psilent !!!! (P is silent)

2005-01-25T00:38:00.000-08:00

So what the hell do silent letters mean in english literature? I mean I know there would be a better explanatory science behind using these letters but I don't understand why we need them in 21st century. I am pretty sure that abt 90% of the people don't know the use of using silent letters in words. It doesn't matter to much ppl though unless for those ppl like me who live in San Diego. Here most of the words are originated from the spanish (a non-english lang). And I feel that is the reason why english scholars introduced these silents words so that foreign languages can be translated to english: to prove the world that other langs are useless and see how difficult it is to translate and pronounce such words in english.

To end with:
Pronounce "La Jolla". I can bet u r wrong. The exact pronounciation is "La Hoya". 'J' becomes silent and 'LL' becomes 'y'.

Now say whatttt !!!!

Kramer, Sir

2005-01-11T21:36:00.000-08:00

As for now, I am busy searching for a full time employment and my pleasure time is watching Seinfeld. I wonder how guys like Kramer live their lives. I know few guys back in India who live their lives in the same fashion. But their count is by fingers. If u have a lot of free time like me then you will surely think of that envious carefree lifestyle. Kramer does whatever he feels like doing at that moment of time. He has no significant past , present and even future. But who the hell needs all those. He comes up with some new ideas and try to cash in for those ideas. I would not go far apart from using the term "new idea".

His small time businesses:
1) helping a company CEO write a autobiagraphy, by selling his events of his own life.
2) pizza business where customers will add their own toppings and bake their own pizzas.
3) selling Bro for men as what is Bra for women.

and the list goes on. But he helps all the needy ppl by any means and that means mostly leads to Seinfeld's help. He also gives a different opinion to each situation which a common working guy would never come up with.

Just think about it....

King, Stephen

2005-01-07T14:12:00.000-08:00

I would like to recommend every story-lover about the king's books. He has covered almost all the horror topics one can think of: car driven by a dead person, autopsy of a living person, extraterrestial animal, weird painting, a hotel room and the list goes on. Stephen king is one of the writers who can play with his characters very well.

Many of his novels are being taken to the silver screen as well. Even "The Green Mile", "The Shawshank Redemption" are his contributions to this world. One cannot keep his book down. The magic of suspense is maintained till the last page.

The best thing I like about his work is that he creates a story out of anything and everything. He is "must-read" author.
Just finished his "Everything eventual" and now took up his "From a Buick 8".

Best break-up line

2004-12-30T20:48:00.000-08:00

George Costanza's (In Seinfeld) girlfriend is fed up with him and try to breakup with him.

GF: Seriously, george, its not u, its me.

George: you are giving me "its not u, its me" routine.
I invented "its not u, its me" routine.
Nobody gives me "its not u, its me" routine.
If there is somebody its not them, its me.

GF: OK george, its you.

George: You are damn right, its me.....

Tsunami !!!

2004-12-28T01:24:00.000-08:00

I guess this is how worse things can get when two natural elements (earth and water) declare war against mankind. Especially when it is unexpected. Now the question arises what action should be taken to minimize the effect of such calamities in the future. There are many active online discussions and it seems so that concerned countries hesitate to join 'tsunami club' (name changed for my convenience) because its a costly affair. They say they can afford such calamity once in 40-50 yrs rather than joining the club.

Its easy to scrap the idea but i feel its a very sensitive issue. Keeping mind over matter: what if this tsunami never strikes india again for near 300 yrs.I guess govt might be knowing abt this in detail. It all depends on the cost involved in loss and the cost to rebuild the destroyed world. And don't forget the personal loss involved.

But one thing is for sure: ppl will avoid going to coastal areas, for recreation, for a long time now...