Give Nothing and Take Everything

Are you Listening?

2011-07-17T02:46:00.001+05:30

If only any of you are listening, if only if:

@Kenny Dalglish – Enough of overvaluing players. Do not sell Aquilani.

@ Arsene Wenger – Let Nasri and Fabregas go. No player is bigger than the club. Step up Ramsey and Wilshere. Buy Samba/Cahill and you have Mata/Parker/Yoann Gourcuff/Arteta/Elano (low cost, highly effective) to choose from and may be even Melo/Gago.

@ Villas Boas – Just Save Torres and he will win you the Champions League. Would love to see Kaka or Modric at Stamford Bridge.

@ Mancini – Out: Tevez, Adebayor, Santa Cruz, Wright Phillips; In – Aguero; Balotelli, Johnson, and Silva are the future.

@ Ferguson – The blue half is rising.

@ Jose Mourinho – Remember the name ‘Kaka’.

@ Guardiola – You will not win the Champions League next year.

@ Moratti – Do not sell Sneijder. You should have not let go of Leonardo.

@ Allegri – Good luck.

@ Luis Enrique – Bojan is a good signing. Looking forward to see a fully geared up Roma this time around.

@ Jupp Heynckes - Looking forward to see a rejuvenated Robben, Ribery, and Schweinsteiger in the Champions League.

Let the season begin.

Sunday Chronicles

2011-05-31T01:51:00.001+05:30

Perhaps this is the firsts of many first things that I’ve been doing over the past two years in Uttar Pradesh to be precise. Uttar Pradesh – Noida for me is a state full of dust, state of the art auto rickshaws, and crisis. No where in this planet, you get to travel along a Kareena Kapoor and a Katrina Kaif, at every dawn and dusk in the auto rickshaw. I am referring to their king size snapshots. Perhaps this is one similarity, which almost every auto rickshaw has in Noida. Some do have Preity Zinta as well :). Coming back to the day, I set off to watch ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ and then instantly sat again for “Fast 5’. Both are amazing flicks. At one end, you have Po, joining forces with his group of kung fu masters to take on an old enemy with a deadly new weapon. In the other end of the spectrum, you have Dominic and his crew joining forces to pull one last job together, which is worth a $100 million. Both the movies began from where they ended last time and as anticipated, had loads and loads of stunt sequences. “Fast 5’, was perhaps the best of its kind so far. ‘Rock’ against ‘Vin Diesel’ was almost similar to the ‘Rock’ against ‘Austin’ at the Backlash or Wrestle Mania. Nostalgia! "Fast Five" is a movie about tactless materialism, masculine sentimentality, and acute violence, all of them exaggerated to the point of caricature. However, Kung Kung Fu Panda 2 has been set in such a way to answer and cover up a loop hole that existed in the first sequence; the goose being the father of a panda. The main story is compelling, an account about Po's journey of self discovery and his efforts to make peace with himself, but there is also plenty of humor, which sets nicely off the strong characters. I am not sure, if Fast 5 will have another sequel to it, but Po seems to have another one in the loop already. I guess, it will be worth a wait.

The Correllation Between India, Sachin, and Poonam Pandey!

2011-04-03T04:52:00.001+05:30

First things first. Honestly, I am a big fan of the West Indies and the South African cricket team. After watching, West Indies at Chepauk, I felt they can never make it past Pakistan unless something sensational happens. As far as SA is concerned, I just felt sorry. If De Villiers had not run that single, we could perhaps be seeing an India-South Africa final. Now coming back to the day, I set off to watch the World Cup final on a giant screen in the heart of Delhi with a few of my friends. As I wished, Sri Lanka won the toss and Jayawardene played an amazing innings. I was very disappointed that Sachin got out early after looking very composed and secure. Still, India won and then started something that I had never ever experienced before in my life.

Thousands and thousands of individuals started walking out on the streets and India Gate for the first time in its history, looked like a monument that was built with a purpose. I am sure, something like this has never happened before in India. I could only hear “India, Sachin, Dhoni, and of course our Poonam Pandey’s” name everywhere. The scene on the roads were euphoric as people were seen travelling on top of cars, sitting on the windows carrying tricolour and literally screaming. People marched, marched, and still kept marching. It was the real blue army. Boys and girls, and children of all ages with the Indian flag and team India T-shirts, kept marching and India gate had an unbelievable atmosphere. I have seen a lot of victory marches of teams such as Italy, Chelsea, Barcelona, Spain, etc., but to be a part of it is something extraordinary. Everyone on the pavement gave a high five and people were so united and happy just for one thing – India won the world cup. There were terrible traffic snarls but still no one complained. People broke into frenzied celebrations, setting off fireworks, jamming main thoroughfares with vehicles and partying hard on the roads in front of the India gate. Now this is what you call a victory lap.

My only appeal to every Indian is that we have to just stop talking about the 1983 world cup from now on. Enough has already been said about it. Dhoni has won everything in life except the ICC mini world cup. If Sachin decides to play the next world cup, the entire nation would love to see him in Australia.

@Poonam Pandey – India, Indiaaaaaa!

As I sign off to bed, I must state that, I have under no circumstances felt as proud as I am today to be an INDIAN. Jai Ho!

Election Freebies

2011-03-25T01:46:00.000+05:30

The ICC Cricket world Cup is getting hotter and hotter and so is the Champions League in Europe. IPL is all set to begin in another 2-3 weeks, and it’s also election time in Tamil Nadu. Only once, did I vote till date in my life (I have had only 2 chances till now). It’s that part of the time in TN, that political parties across the state are pulling out everything they have in their efforts to attract voters. Some of the freebies floating around this time include

Gold for women
Laptops
Rice, rice, and more rice
Cable TV connections (Last time, it was free television sets)
Bus Passes
Mineral water (This one was really surprising)
Free Meals (Usual stuff)
Grinders
And many more........

Last time, I guess our very own Captain promised ‘free cows’ if I am right. Imagine, if our captain had come to power, everyone would have had a cow? Wouldn’t that be a sight? I always wanted to buy a cow. Last time, when the DMK Government started distributing free television sets across the state, the prices of CRT television sets dropped like anything. Infact, the market for second hand TV sets had no demand. Almost everyone had a TV and, I guess, this was a strategy to increase the subscriber base of Sun TV, and thereby increasing their revenue. Anyway, I hope the parties also make sure that they rule the state ethically and effectively. I anticipated free mobile phones this time around. I think the parties missed it.

I am sure, people would be happier and would definitely vote, if any of the parties promise a breakfast daily (idli/dosa + chutney) rather than offering grinder and rice individually.

The worst ever feeling!

2011-03-19T04:27:00.002+05:30

Frankly, this is heights of embarrassment and weirdness! I should have certainly not done this today. I just don’t recognize why I did this. I feel absolutely perturbed after doing this. This is the heights of mortification. Damn it! Phantoms in my mind!! The first and the last time. Seriously!

150 minutes!

2011-03-19T01:33:00.002+05:30

I am writing this on my way to Chennai today. Right next to me, sits an unshaven, brittle Spaniard and in the window seat sits a woman who should be probably in her late 40’s. In the front of us, there are two more women again in their late 40’s and an old man with a pair of reading glasses and books. I assume, The Spaniard has been living in Noida and these women (madisar mami’s) are on their way back to Chennai. Now our Spaniard is probably a singer, trying hard to learn and master carnatic music. He has come all the way from Spain to learn this in India. Sensational! Frankly the flight duration between Delhi and Chennai is like 150odd minutes. In these 150 odd minutes, the Spaniard and our women band started discussing from carnatic music, food, and even soap operas. Usually, in flights, I sleep. In almost a majority of my flights, I end up sleeping for at least an hour. The best place to sleep without much disturbance, but here I found it really odd. Are all women gossip mongers? I don’t personally think so, but let us look at some of the questions and answers here. All the questions I have given here are asked by these women (Q) (madisaaru mamis), and were answered by our very own Spaniard (A).

Q1: What do you eat in Noida in the morning?
A1: I always eat Idlis outside and I really love it.
My reaction (MR) is, I have been here in Noida for about a year now and tell me one good place which gives hot idlis in the morning before 10am. The only restaurant that opens before this time is our very own McDonalds. And even the restaurants that open after 11am sell 2 idlis at 75bucks!

Q2: Do you get Sun Tv in Spain? In that they show a lot of family dramas which portrays the plight of Indian women.
A2: I really would love to watch it.
MR: Plight of Indian women? Bullshit. People are jobless.

Q3: When I was young, I used to get up at 4am in the morning in Chennai and start practicing singing for two hours, in front of my guru and in weekends, I used to stand in the river and then practice.
A3: Oh wow, that’s amazing. I have also read about this, and I really want to try it out.
MR: River? Chennai? Coovum? Well, I really am not aware about any other river. I guess, Coovum, is not considered a river anymore.

Q4: Do you watch cricket? Sachin? He is a genius. I leave all my work and start watching Sachin whenever he bats. Spaniard nodding his head.
All others: Yeah. I really like Yuvraj Singh
MR: All work? Yuvraj? Does Yuvraj know this?

Nonstop radio it was. I am no big fan of a radio. I don’t like listening basically, that’s something different. But here, one thing that really blew me out was the way the woman in their mid 40’s behaved. All were dressed up in their madisar’s (In the Brahmin community, this was the compulsory method in which the sari was supposed to be worn by a female after her nuptials). Though I was asked a few questions like what phone is this and are you from Chennai types, our Spaniard was interviewed left, right, and centre. In fact, all these women are put up at Adyar and have even personally invited this guy to come in to their place, shared their email id’s and mobile numbers. In fact, one of the ladies had an IPad. She even knew the cost of a blackberry phone and their model number by just looking at the phone. The discussion started from idlis and ended with our captain Vijaykanth. Looks like our captain already has four votes. Thank god, the flight landed. Home!

Do Not Disturb

2011-03-10T22:37:00.002+05:30

One of the most recent emerging developments in the telecommunication sector that really caught my eye apart from the brand new tablets, 2g-3g scams, is the ‘Do Not Disturb’ registry. Though it was introduced way back, I think of late, it has been functioning quite well. I guess I did register with the DND service about 15 months back and realized that in India, it takes at least a minimum of 2 years for a set system to function properly. Till recently a minimum of 3-4 sales executives will push in their effort to sell their cards and vouchers by calling at all times in the day. Now what is happening is (in the past 2-3 weeks is) corporate houses have started sending text messages stating that your number has been registered in the DND category. We request you to reply to this test message to continue receiving our texts. Wow!

Now I think the Indian Government and the Telecommunication Consortium will join hands in setting up a ‘DNDv.1 – Do Not Disturb those in Do Not Disturb Directory’, something similar to the service pack 1 of Windows 7. I believe that the telecom companies here might lose a premium which they regularly attain from various commercial houses for putting together a list of numbers. Let us take a case here. Assuming Vodafone is having a total of 10 million customers in the last 5 years which makes it almost 548 new connections every day, and Vodafone charges 50paise for every text message sent, and if all these customers are in the DND directory, Vodafone loses around half a million INR from a single corporate house. So these telecom companies have also started adopting sustainability. Here they make sure, text messages to the users are sent reminding them about the DND Registry (Ethical Behavior) while also, putting in a novel strategy at place to make for the lost returns. Even, I somehow have a feeling that all the text messages and other forwards floating around in India, all the dumb jokes, puzzles, riddles, etc., are fed into the networks by the telecom companies themselves, just in an attempt to boost their revenues. I read some time back that companies providing antivirus software for desktops feed their own in built program capable of acting as a virus onto the PC’s through a network and then come up with a solution that their competitor cannot mitigate. You generate a problem, you bring in a solution and you grow rich. Keep all your money in the big brown bag inside the zoo. Isn’t that a sight?

300.

2011-02-26T00:57:00.000+05:30

At half past 12 today, I had an abrupt urge to put pen to paper and here it is. Well, I thought, I can update my blog, by updating about my blog.

This is my 300^Th post in my blog. Wow! Have I written so much? Or why did I write so much? What was it that was driving me to write so much? With an eye for detail, I have been writing for the past 3 years and that makes it almost 8 posts a month. In fact, money was the only motive behind which I started this initially. I went on to make close to $170 in the first 4-5 months, during my last year in the college. For making this odd amount, I used to spend one hour every night looking out for opportunities. After the first 5 months, I thought it was not really worth it. There were a very few opportunities in the first half of 2008 and then the global economic recession bought in a very few advertisers who wanted to splash money. Big Bang Boom! I actually thought, I shall put up my own website for writing but, then I decided, it might not be worth the shot as blog spot looked more credible and appealing.

Slowly, I started updating my blog, every month with my notes, thoughts and interpretation of the real and virtual world from sports to politics to movie reviews to poems. There was no particular rationale behind the choice of the topics, but still somehow, I loved writing and wrote then and there. All I can say is, I am no Paul Krugman, but still, I have a good number of people coming over to my site every week. That makes it really cool. Overall, the experience till now has been nice. Owning a blog is nothing at all. You go onto a blog spot or a word-press and start blogging. That's it. It is not like owning a Ferrari, Bentley or any other SUV. But still a blog is a blog.

Ok!

2011-02-08T01:22:00.001+05:30

I am 25 years old and it turned out to be like another day that came and went. I have always loved my simple life and I have enjoyed every moment of it till date. I could perhaps continue leading my simple lifestyle in the next decade too. I barely desire to be rich so that this lifestyle can be a real asset!

The Social Network

2010-11-13T03:19:00.000+05:30

The late 90’s saw the Y2K problem emerging and experts started stating that the World Wide Web will be a part of our life in the future. In the first half of 2000, WWW became a part of life. By 2010, facebook has become a part of the entire biosphere rather than other things. I am really surprised by the stat that every 14th individual on this planet has a profile on facebook. Great tool to really get connected with your friends from your school, colleges, neighbourhood, work place among others and thanks to Mark Zuckerberg, we are really connected. Indeed we are, and here we have David Fincher, making a masterpiece – The Social Network. It had all the element to it and the story was backed by a very strong screen play and screen presence. After all, when you feel that this billion dollar venture was driven primarily by Zuckerberg’s girl friend, you slightly have that tingling effect across your cells. I did know parts of the history of facebook, thanks to Discovery Channels’ The Story of Internet, but this movie really pulled it through. Though, this has been based on the adaptation of book “The Accidental Billionaires”, I still feel this is one movie that is really worth watching rather than worth reading. Zuckerberg is shown as a weird guy who is a bit socially inept but highly talented. There is that bizarreness surrounding Zuckerberg’s personality who is more intended on succeeding and making it big in life rather than being a social networker. Here is a guy who has created the most powerful social networking tool but does not really network himself.

Coming back to the movie, the movement of the script which goes to and fro is really pulsating and you don’t really want to take your eyes of the screen. Three characters – Zuckerberg, Eduardo and Sean Parker really drive the movie ahead and each of them has been portrayed remarkably. At one point, you really feel a bit sorry for Eduardo and start questioning the real motives of Sean Parker (thanks to Justin Timberlake). But the real essence is that here you have the story of the youngest billionaire in this world in front of you for little less than 2 hours. This indeed is a story about a generation that really haunted the Internet space and venture capitalist firms with their beliefs and ideas.

This certainly is an appealing and visual treat of the events that led to arguably the most influential invention of the early 2000’s. The ending was a bit jaded but “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies,” perfectly conveys the inherent dramatic quirk of fate. I also feel, this story is not “The Facebook Movie” but it’s about ideas, betrayal, the costs and burden of triumph and relations. If you are a frequent user of facebook and know ‘The Wall’, ‘Like’ and ‘Poke’ buttons, go watch this one. In other words, you don’t really have to know what the “Like” or “The Wall” buttons are to appreciate this film. The Social Network is for people who like elegant, engaging and thoughtful films.

Welcome to the Facebook!

One man saw it coming!

2010-10-02T03:33:00.001+05:30

Chitti is 1 day old. He weighs close to 150 pounds. He is less than 6 foot tall. He has black hair and a brown skin. Can walk, run, fight, dance, speak, cook and clean. Processor speed is 1 Terra Hertz and memory capacity is 1 zeta byte. His love is real. But he is not.

             First day, last show is what I could manage for Endhiran. But still, it was worth the wait. I have never seen an Indian movie with such a powerful package. Right from the word go, Endhiran starts with superstar Rajnikanth and ends with him as well. The anticipations were above the roof into the sky and Shankar comes with a presentation that has surpassed all these. A new benchmark has been created and one could really see the amount of hard work and effort put across the entire movie. The thought process of the entire script was crisp and the movie stuck by its theme from the first frame to the last. The movie begins with a brisk pace and accelerates with top momentum in the second half.
              It is indeed a roller coaster ride and in fact the longest roller coaster ride one can really imagine. This film is an experience in itself and I strongly feel that this movie does not lack logic at all. Certain reviews in the media have claimed that one should leave his/her mind outside the movie hall to watch a Rajnikanth movie. Well, I think otherwise. When a script such as Inception or Avatar or Terminator is accepted widely and acclaimed, it is high time that one sits back to understand that Endhiran is logically worthwhile and on par.
              A powerful dose of complete entertainment is all you have at the end of the day. Movies with robots are nothing new, but this stuff is completely original and a visual treat. Background score synchronizes perfectly and the songs have been shot at exotic locales. I personally feel that not only the cast in front of the screen have been chosen perfectly but the cast behind the screen have also given the right mix for Shankar to create this presentation.
              The story is crisp – Rajnikanth creates a robot, injects emotional and hormonal patterns. Man v/s Machine – Power, Greed, Romance, Dance, Action, Special Effects is all one can say to sum it up. The Man v/s Machine sequences have a lot of twists and turn and make you sit up and take notice.
To sum it all up, here is a movie where Rajnikanth is the single largest driver and carries it completely on his shoulders from the beginning to the end. Shankar’s framework and Rahman’s score add to this magnum opus. The sets erected and the action packages have been captured beautifully. You are taken to a journey where a single robot dreams and desires new things.

This war between man and machine is not going to end and will last forever!

The festival has begun!

2010-08-21T10:46:00.001+05:30

The monsoon in India is setting its pace across the lengths and breadths of the subcontinent and to add more flavor and spice, the football season in Europe has begun with a big bang. This transfer season was not really that great compared to last one though teams such as Manchester City (big clowns) and Real Madrid have made a few key signings. To me the biggest signing of this season would be Silva, Balotelli and Yaya Toure for City, as these three players are very well versatile and cover multiple positions on the field. The same with Real Madrid where they have signed Angel Di Maria (the next Robben), Ozil and Khedira (another unwanted signing at this stage) and this has given multiple options for Jose. The only concern here is again City and Real will have the same problem of a very strong set of players trying to come in. Chelsea too showed their strength by signing Ramires who is likely to play in a sweeper position and has come in as a good replacement for Ballack. Maroune Chamakh also looks a very good potential striker with his physical presence and his pace will likely provide the much needed options for Wenger. Roy Hodgson did have the last laugh by singing Joe Cole for no costs at all, but it remains to be seen how this underrated/overrated midfielder will support Gerrard and Torres in their quench for the title and Champions League spot. I only hope Mascherano and Aquilani are fit enough through out the season and Mashcerano does not leave Liverpool for Inter. Barca signed Villa who once again proved how good he is playing on the left of the midfield and also upfront as the only striker for Spain and this will surely be a wonderful addition to the already star studded Barca squad. I just cannot wait for the new season to begin in Spain as even clubs such as Villareal, Sevilla and Athletico Madrid look very strong and are likely to push Real and Barca upfront.

In Italy, things looked a bit calm and Milan is yet to recover from the global recession and have not really showed their force in this transfer window. Galliani would be hoping for his players such as Pato, Ambrosini, Pirlo, Nesta and Zambrotta to be fit through out the season. He would also definitely hope that one day or the other Ronaldinho captures his pace and prowess which he exhibited in Barca and Paris Saint Germain. Inter would have been happy to load Balotelli off and Moratti would be definitely looking to sign more youngsters for the future as already a team with a system is in place for the next 2-3 seasons. Roma have signed Adriano and I only hope is that he gets connected with Totti and De Rossi to form a good partnership for getting back the Scudetto. I hope Felipe Melo shows the same prowess and flair for Juventus as he did for Brazil and it is time Amauri finds the back of the net. A new Italian coach, a new formation with Balotelli, Amauri and Cassano upfront looks promising for the country as a whole.

I just cannot wait for the Champions League to begin as this is going to be one of the most interesting and fiercely competed leagues ever in its history of the game. I would have been very happy to see Kaka come in to Chelsea but that never happened. For Chelsea to challenge the Champions league, they definitely need a player who is as versatile as Kaka. Look at all the teams around and with players such as Messi, Sneidjer, Ronaldo (when at old Trafford) looked better and won it all. I won’t be surprised at all if Real make the last four in the highly coveted crown as I am sure, Jose will put a very good formation in place with Ronaldo and Kaka at the helm. The festival has begun and all is well.

The Rising Sun sets behind the Land of Dragons!

2010-08-17T21:28:00.001+05:30

Well, it’s official and as expected China overtakes Japan as the world’s second largest economy. But what exactly do these signs mean? What is it for global trade and world economy? Where exactly is the world heading and what do these signs refer to? From an underdeveloped economy to being one of the world’s largest power houses is indeed a story of richness and superior growth. Chinese exports have actually increased the consumer confidence and spending across the globe especially in countries such as the USA and in regions of European Union. China’s major economic driver was high economies of scale. Countries such as the United States could not achieve high economies of scale and started falling behind China in terms of controlling global trade.

One also should understand that when a developing economy is growing at a faster rate, often richer countries accuse it of cheating by keeping its wages and exchange rates low. This is an actual stage of development and it will slowly come to an end over a period of time. The rising labor costs are one significant indicator for China that the end is not too far off. It is also a fact that the economy in China is driven by exports and government backed small private enterprises. But if one looks at the numbers with a lens in their hand, one can clearly observe that fixed asset investment has also been a major driver of the economic growth. “Rapid Urbanization” it is and this is indeed one of the largest factor that is fueling the economic growth. The government initiative to increase the number of Special Economic Zones across the coastal regions of China has indeed given benefits for the economy. Though, majority of suppliers in China have been depending on exports to survive, the local consumption is also on the rise. This indeed is a sign of things to come. Some of the major worrying factors for China will of course be its internal consumption and natural resources. There have been many reports as to how China is trying to control the global oil market by controlling oil wells in Northern and Western Africa by funding weapons and money, but all these have been very well planned and are being taken ahead by benchmarking against the global economies such as the USA, Russia and Japan. The three major regions that are indeed propelling the Chinese growth are Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin corridor. Look at the number of small and medium sized firms in these regions for various commodities and end products. Almost every enterprise is backward integrated and is offering a wide range of services to come.

While India is struggling to hold the Common wealth games with an overall estimated investment of around $ 2- 3 billion, China brought the world under the bird’s nest at a whopping $28 billion. Global MNC's are trying to enter and utilize the Chinese economy to make more revenues. China has a lot of recent additions to its belt of achievement such as becoming the global leader in exports and in becoming the largest market for passenger vehicles. Indeed, it is an achievement and the Chinese economy will definitely stand stronger for years like the great wall of China.

Greg Chappell and Fabio Capello – Twin Tower Saga

2010-06-29T20:41:00.001+05:30

Background:

The hunting begins!

England did not qualify for Euro 2008 and India needed a high profile coach after disappointing results against Pakistan and Australia.
In England, numerous profiles such as Luis Felipe Scolari, Jose Mourinho, Frank Rijkaard and Mark Hughes are analyzed but Fabio Capello is bought in to deliver the World Cup.
In India, profiles such as Desmond Haynes, Tom Moody, Amarnath, Sandeep Patil and John Emburey were analyzed but finally it was Greg Chappell.

Objective:

To win the next world cup, no matter what the cost is.

Features:

Fabio Capello: Italian, Consistent, Flamboyant, Has showed his worth at very high levels, consistently managed top clubs, Does not give a shit about reputation no matter what (Ex:. His bust up with Ronaldo, Beckham, Del Piero etc), Admires and believes in youngsters, very highly paid (No England coach has ever been paid so much before).

Greg Chappell: Australian, Cunning, Provocative, Known for joining the World Series Cricket breaking away from Australia, Underarm controversy, likes, identifies and promotes youngsters, the term reputation has no meaning in his dictionary as well and highly paid.

Summary:

Fabio Capello: He brought in consistency into the England team and gives the arm band to John Terry though many pundits wanted Steven Gerrard to have the arm band. Capello went on to build a team around a strong backbone (Terry, Ferdinand, Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney). Tried a variety of formations and gave numerous chances to youngsters such as Walcott, Phillips, Dawson, Gibbs, Agbonlahor, Lennon and followed them closely during their premier league matches. He made sure England finished at the top of the qualifying group with the most number of goals and finally realized that he was short of world class defenders and holding players. He somehow convinced Jamie Carragher(another mistake of having him) but failed to pull in Paul Scholes (another mistake of ‘not’ having him). Also just before the selection dilemma, he had to do things against his own principles – Takes injured players to the world cup (Ex: Barry, King(Slightly unfit)), study the bed time stories of John Terry and fails to identify a good striker for partnering Rooney. Gerrard is named the captain after Rio gets injured but is asked to play in the left of the midfield which goes out to be the biggest ever mistake in the world cup. Alas, no one gets the ball to Rooney and England fail. The golden quartet – Terry, Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney fail big time.

Greg Chappell: He knew that the backbone of the team was Sachin, Sourav, Dravid, Zaheer, Harbhajan, Yuvraj and Dhoni. He sticks with Sourav as the captain, though every night in his dream he sees himself firing Sourav Ganguly. Yes, reputation does not count and Sourav is stripped one fine day. Dravid is new the captain. Irfan Pathan, Munaf, Raina, RP Singh, Chawla, and Uthappa are identified analyzed and a strong 15 men squad is selected for the world cup. India slams Sri Lanka a dozen times before stepping onto the WC. Goes into the world cup 2007 possibly considered the strongest team in the Indian history and also takes Dada along. Fails to get past the first round and loses to even teams such as Bangladesh. The biggest mistake Chappell made was to play Tendulkar as a second down batsman in the 50 over format and that too in the world cup. India’s golden generation fails again. Dravid and Co., sink the ship together and alas, he is fired.

Key Findings:

Steven Gerrard and Sachin Tendulkar were played at different positions which really did not at all suit them.
Did continue relying on oldies such as Jamie Carragher and Sourav Ganguly. Both these guys played a crucial role in their team’s losses.
England could never get past teams such as Algeria and India could not get past teams such as Bangladesh.
Both the teams’ collective salary levels are the highest in the world and their coaches were the highest paid.
IPL and EPL are considered to be the best leagues though there was no IPL during 2007. But both suck.
Greg Chappell was screwed royally when he went in public against Sachin and Capello is getting royally screwed for playing Gerrard on the left.
Both Terry and Dada would have been happy after the result as they were not the captains to take the blame and both failed miserably.Both went publicly in a mild manner against their coaches.
In both the teams, the so called golden generation fail miserably, pathetically and sadistically.

Alas, this is what you call coincidence.

The most powerful AAAAG!!

2010-06-24T01:21:00.000+05:30

We are in the world's new battle field - Twitter, whose tag line is Twitter is without a doubt the best way to share and discover what is happening right now. Well, its all happening there right now. On one side, we have one of India's most prolific director and on the other side, we have the most dumbest idiot who felt that his movie would sell like pan cakes. Karan v/s Ram it is folks. Well, Ram Gopal Varma is right up there in terms of innovation, creativity and presentation, a film maker from the same school of Mani Ratnam and Shekar Kapoor. Karan Johar, the only meaningful movie he had ever taken is My name is Khan. Nothing else. The only guy who will try to make a family drama with a NRI is Karan Johar. Family, tears and SRK are the only things associated with his movie. Will Karan Johar have the guts to make a sequel? May be ' Kal Ho Na Ho' and the sequel would be 'Kal Hua Tho Kya Hua'. Well, Ram Gopal Varma had the guts to come out and say his 'Aag' was a flop. May be yes, sometimes when you think too much, you land in concepts such as 'Aag' or 'Phoonk'. Who knows, after Ramu's 'Aag', the sequel might be named "Ramu ki Paani". But one has to really appreciate the thought process of a Ram Gopal Varma or a Mani Ratnam or a Shankar. May be yes, Karan Johar tries to make you feel the importance of relationships and emotions but this is all crap. A film can move you emotionally - Seven Pounds was right up there. My Name is Khan is nothing but a series of advertisements from SRK. I really liked MNIK but Rann and Raavan were better than MNIK.

May be, it is time, twitter has a new tag line - Twitter is without a doubt the best way to fight in a non violent , cunning and humorous way for the world to discover and take notice.

Raavan – Textual brilliance

2010-06-22T23:46:00.001+05:30

Plot: Kidnapping, Chase, Murder, Love

Story: Ratnam says that he has adapted it from Ramayan. Though it has a few resemblances, the correlation coefficient between the two is very low.

Well, you either fall in love with a movie or hate it or kind of interpret that it’s “Ok”. Here I find people either hating the movie or loving it. Many though have ripped it apart from scene one. I have watched Raavan and will be tuning in for Raavanan as well later this week. Right from the word go, I felt Mani Ratnam who always had a penchant for naming movies differently could have titled the movie “Beera”, or may be something else in the name of the protagonist. He should have also kept people guessing by not doing any publicity. I guess this is the only Mani Ratnam movie to have been publicized so well. He went the other way round this time. He should have waited for the movie goers and fans to make a statement that this movie has a very few resemblances with Ramayan. Now that he very well stated initially, that this is an adaptation of Ramayan, people were only interested in finding the similarities rather than appreciating the movie or the presentation style. I am sure Vikram as Raavanan would have done a much better job than Abhishek as Raavan though I am yet to see Raavanan. Ramayan was more from the eye of an enemy’s perspective which was attributed from the kidnapping of Sita. Here in this movie Ram’s moral stand point comes into the picture and at one point you feel that in the movie, the modern day Ram is associated with serial rapists (guys who raped Priyamani). Though Surphanaga’s lust/love(what ever you might call it) for Laxman was also a reason, the main reason was Sita. Well, you can look at a movie from all angles. In fact, Ram here is never shown doing any good deeds and its only Raavan who has much more at stake. Sometimes you wonder at the end of the movie, did Ram really suspect his wife or he wanted his wife to lead to Raavan? It was not answered clearly though.

But one thing has to be said and appreciated. Mani Ratnam has again presented it very beautifully in locations never known or seen before. Rainfall, waterfalls and forests were all awesome and the way it was shown was mind blowing indeed. At one point, you feel a movie like Iruvar which was just a set of high voltage drama is safer bet than this. I have watched all Mani Ratnam movies till date and certain movies such as Nayagan, Thalapathi, Dil Se, Bombay and Roja, I would have landed more than 10 – 15 times.

Raavan would definitely not be Mani Ratnam’s best but it still stands tall. Amazing stunts, stunning localities and brilliant visualization keep the movie ticking. I am pretty sure that Santhosh Sivan will land yet another award for this spectacle.

Raavan: Ten Heads. Ten Minds.A Hundred Voices. Three men - Mani Ratnam, Rahman and Sivan!!

Insects, Washing powders and “EYE” PL

2010-06-17T23:32:00.000+05:30

Well, the football world cup is driving me crazy but I thought let me just take a small break from it and write about India’s most famous and loved sport – Cricket. I love sports and I almost track it like Bloomberg. Over the last two years, football played in Europe in particular has been on the highest levels and grades, thanks to the million dollars that are pouring in every year. What about cricket then? Now let us do a small rewind in all our lives, use a time machine and land in 1900. Stop. Play again.

It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Cricket was a sport familiar in a very few countries. Though certain research works and books date it back to the 15th century or in the period of dark ages, let me narrow down the scope. Zoom in, here we go:

BC’s: Cricket is an Insect.
1900’s: Cricket is a gentleman’s game. No ICC but only MCC.
1928’s: West Indies cricket is born. Ah, another team is born, who cares!
1950’s: The white jerseys became much whiter. May be people tried showing that it’s the purest form of all sports. Loads of detergents used. Demand is high and supply is low.
1960’s: Advent of the ODI.
1970’s: Advent of the world cups and day night matches.
1980’s: Cricket is now only about Windies. A paradigm shift from the Whites to the Blacks. Lincoln’s vision though. I assume the concept of rocket launchers came into frame only after seeing the West Indian pace men. Stumps rattled, helmets broken, Jaws jittered and WI rule.
1990’s: You see people getting attracted to the 50 over format rather than the 5 day version. Match fixing begins. Let the battle begin.
2000’s: More money, batsmen valued more than bowlers, grounds becoming smaller and then finally you have 20 – 20.
IPL: A Bollywood movie – inclusive of hot item numbers for every four/six/wicket. More money, more wine, more women, more money again, more controversies and less cricket.
Modi v/s Tharoor: No wonder, Jack Dorsey would have ever realized that his online application one day would have resulted in such a big media clout. To this, I add Shilpa v/s Preity (on whose team will finish last in the table), SRK v/s Ganguly (On who is the captain), ESPN v/s Set MAX (Who should telecast Bollywood movies), Twitter (Cricketers v/s team owners v/s politicians giving updates for every ball bowled) and Mukesh Ambani v/s Bhajji (No Comments).

Well, sadly the movie ends. Watch out for more in this space.

One Voice – 180 million customers, 18 countries, $12.4 billion revenue

2010-06-09T21:05:00.000+05:30

Someone invented the telephone,
And interrupted a nation's slumbers,
Ringing wrong but similar numbers – Ogden Nash.

Airtel stuck gold when they announced that they had closed the deal to buy the African assets of Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Company or Zain Telecom. Sunil Bharthi Mittal toiled hard to tie up with MTN but more than MTN, I think Zain telecom makes more sense. An important thing here is that a majority of the regions of Africa is a book of untapped potential secrets in the telecommunication sector. Even though the Tata – Corus deal is right up there in terms of the value, I personally feel, the amount of benefits Airtel will make out of this deal is going to be tremendous. Airtel would have already spent millions in their 3G spectrum auction in India and the acquisition of Zain would come as a significant relief. The important thing here is that this will mean more revenues for Airtel from Africa as it will try to penetrate deep into the markets. Now Airtel will be up against the arms of Vivendi, Orange, Vodafone, Orascom and MTN. In the past decade, these companies have invested in total a sum of more than $22 billion in Africa to tap unmapped potential. It will have to make sure that the marketing strategies are in place to work out wonders in Africa and also ensure that they introduce lower tariffs to gain significant share of the major pie. The present financial crisis is likely to see consolidation in the telecommunication industry which is taking place at a faster rate.

Africa is the fastest growing cellular market in the world. It represents around 10% of the total cellular connections worldwide and around 450 million connections are expected by the end of this year. The majority of the fastest growing markets are in Northern and Western Africa which represent altogether 63% of the total connections in the region. The majority of the competitive markets are in Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Congo, Kenya, Algeria, Tunisia, Ghana and South Africa. These markets are facing stiff competition from Vodafone, Orange, Zain(Now Airtel) and MTN and these are companies that benefit from larger economies of scale and substantial liquidity, enabling them to face short term challenges. This is really not surprising as even Steve Jobs has made it clear that Apple is expanding the sales of IPhone 4G on the global scale by September, 2010.

May be this is just a start from Sunil Mittal. Who knows, Airtel might even next year jump on to Latin American markets? With Airtel, it’s very clear in India – Low Tariffs, Higher Usage (Sometimes, even no network). Some of the most probable constraints are that Airtel needs to get the tower deals, base stations and network expansion strategies in place and will need to build on existing paths created by Zain.

In India, even though there has been a high growth rate in the telecommunication sector, we tend to pay higher rates for data on the go rather than voice. With 3G set to get in, the rates might get controlled but in regions of Africa, there has been a very high growth rate with several players entering the field. Now Airtel might also need to plan strategically for every country under its belt as the regulations and other barriers might differ. May be this is not the real picture. May be the picture has just begun and we are drawing conclusions only with the telecom sector where as Airtel would want to explore the wealth of Africa in other areas such as retail, real estate, manufacturing, food and financial services. So the first step should always be the safe and the most secure bet. Hence they landed with their telecommunication arm rather than any other. May be Airtel is on its way to achieve “One Voice, One Nation, One Africa”.

The Apple broke the Window(s)??

2010-06-03T00:34:00.002+05:30

Finally, we hear that someone has broken the window(s) with a fruit with the whole world watching. What does it really signify? Who is growing stronger and faster? Or did the window(s) even break or was it completely rattled? What is the global impact of this battle? Well, Microsoft is a company that has $58 billion in sales which is bigger than Apple and Google.

Now the perception of the consumers are changing and the perception is Microsoft is being overtaken, sorry overthrown by companies such as Google, Apple or even Facebook in the battle of tech giants. The number of iphones sold might be 10 times higher than the number of X box sold, may be; Google’s search engine would have been 5 times faster and effective than Bing, may be; but one thing that has to be realized is in terms of pedigree, value, growth and standards, Microsoft has always been right up there. If you look at Google, they are omnipresent on the Internet and Microsoft is omnipresent on the desktops. May be Facebook, is also vying for its share in the technological battle. It is expected to become public soon and has more than 100 million users globally. One thing is certain, we are all watching the tech giants fight for the pie and the only outcome is that the world is becoming more globalized and developed. Everyone is impacted. Today I am using Windows 7, searching for someone’s profile in Google, and in that search landing on Facebook and at the same time charging my ipod. Well, today the world would not have been a better place without these tech companies. May be if you put it the other way round, the tech companies would not have been better if not for us being there always. May be in this race a few companies such as Xerox or IBM fell apart but still doing well.

From the IBM PC and Xerox Star machines to the latest Ipad, technology has been an evolution. In this progress, we are encouraged more to be online and become more tech savvy. Oh, rather we are even limited and forced to become addicted to the gadgets and online world. Sitting back, we might realize that Jobs never wanted to overtake Gates business in the 80’s and 90’s or did not do what Gates did. One important thing was Windows OS was licensed to the PC maker which never happened with Apple. You get a Mac OS with a Macintosh computer or if you wanted Apple software, you had to buy Apple hardware. Now Microsoft by licensing their OS made sure that there are more programmers that write applications for Windows, it became more and more attractive and slowly Mac never found its way. The message is very simple. There is only one Mac – Love it. Cherish it and Live with it but in the case of windows, you get it everywhere with any PC and you instantly fall in love though Apple looks more hot. May be someone here does not want to be the market leader and the objectives are clearly different. May be the battle has just begun and we are entering conclusions or may be the battle will never end. Or we are witnessing a battle between someone who wants to make money and someone who just wants to make the perfect product.Though sometimes, the perfect product fails to give what we need such as say flash content in the case of an Ipad, or we don’t have ‘THE’ product in the other case.

Let the battle begin and in this battle the undisputed winner will be "The Consumer".

3G - Galacticos, Gadgets, Gigabytes

2010-05-24T02:59:00.004+05:30

Someone once put that “Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping”. Well, the 3G spectrum auction has been remarkable in many ways for India. Look at the amount of money that was involved in the auction – Rs. 67,718crores . This is way ahead over the initial estimates and no one ever predicted this much money to enter the auction. Here, one should understand the importance of the auction as well. Without this, no way the Indian government would have generated so much revenue. This is considered to be ten times higher than the revenues obtained from 2G by the Indian government. Some companies such as Idea have been brave enough to get 11 circles at a much lower cost than Vodafone. Though one can question the regions obtained by Vodafone, I would say that with the Indian economy booming, one can relish the chance of getting a lot of revenue from the rural circles as well. Now I guess, BSNL and MTNL have already set the benchmarks for the cost of 3G services. I wonder how the private entities will price their services as there is going to be a tough competition and I also wonder whether short term profits can be made. The amount of money ditched out is very high and in terms of profit, I believe short term returns are out of the equation. Now, let us take an example. If you consider Bharti Airtel, there is a wide chance that it might lose some of its existing customers in Gujarat. Bharti Airtel will not be able to provide 3G services in Gujarat as Vodafone, Tata and Idea have got a pie of Gujarat. So will Bharti lose some of its customer base there or was it planned by Bharti Airtel to retain areas which it generally dominates? It is really not surprising of the fact that none of the biggies landed a pan India license. The other important thing here is that people of India will be pushed to another platform – 3G. Now you can also expect the rates to fall apart and remember that BSNL has less than a million 3G customers and these guys have access to 300 cities across India. You never know and don’t be surprised if the common man of India roams around with a blackberry or a 3G enabled phone. Remember that today there are a lot more 3G phones in the market. So I would not believe that the companies who shelved out millions of dollars will run into bankruptcy which had occurred in Europe earlier for 3G auctions. Remember, companies such as Google, Microsoft and other application and OS developers such as Symbian will try to dig in deep to pull out revenues. Advertising revenues will be one stream and with India's customer base set to grow, every company would want its share of the pie.

Key Takeaways:

More Transparency Needed – Government has made a huge profit and I hope RBI or any other commission is involved in every transaction so that there is less corruption and gobbling involved.
No Power – Solve some of the major issues such as power shortage across India especially in Noida
Too Fast and Too Furious – We are still battling out for 3G which had happened in 2001 in the West.
4G – Did companies such as Tata or Idea play it small by not investing in 3G and waiting for 4G which will provide 5 – 10 times more speed than 3G?

P.S.

The future can be seen. Murder can be prevented. The guilty punished before the crime is committed. The system is perfect. It's never wrong. Until it comes after you.

FIA needs to rethink

2010-04-19T04:42:00.001+05:30

Mclaren proved too good this weekend in terms of strategies and pit stops. Button and Hamiltion were too good and Vettel simply lost the plot. In general if you look at 2010, F1 looks more interesting and impressive expect for the points system. The biggest change in my perspective would be the banning of refueling during races which means pit stops will have more focus on the kind of tyres used depending on the weather conditions. This will have a bigger impact as the sizes of cars are expected to change and there will be an increase in the size of fuel tanks. How ever of all the rules and regulations imposed, the points system looks sick. Well, last time the point system was proposed in such a way that there were marginal differences between the racers finishing first, second and so on. But now, there is a bigger difference. If you actually compare both the systems, the proportionality remains the same. Say for example, under the new regulations the basic difference between finishing second or third or fourth compared to winning remains the same. Second place will give a driver 80% of the points and third gives 60% of the points if compared with the previous system. Basically it’s an attempt to make sure the championships go down the wire and winning counts. If one looks at it from this angle, that since more teams has been added, there is a wider split up of points. Well, I feel the difference between two places should not be more than 3 points and this will actually give a tighter finish.

A driver such as Massa, who finished in the podium to a greater extent than winning showed his consistency through out all races. Now this is what is really essential. If a driver needs only one point to grab hold of the championships, he will definitely try to finish within the top 10 and 10th place would get him that much needed point. Now this point system would directly influence the constructor championships. Well, its good to have changes but again changes should not spoil the sport as such. It is not a great spoiler though but if there is a difference at the top, the same difference should be reflected at the last places also. In this case, European football looks better. Whether a team from the bottom half of the league beat a team from the top half or vice - versa, the difference is more or less the same. Either of the teams gets 3 points and irrespective of the amount of goals scored. Now in the previous system, the difference between a driver finishing 8th and 1st is 9 points. Now that difference is 24 points.

Do a deep dive here, you will probably feel that it will make a very little difference and encourage drivers to settle for a lower position instead of trying to move up a place. The difference earlier was (2,2,1,1,1,1,1) between various places but now it is (7,3,3,2,2,2,2,2,1) between various positions. So its time to play again with the rules!!

Italy - Last eight...a probability!!

2010-04-15T00:03:00.003+05:30

The world cup is almost around the corner and I already had given my best XI for England(Eng XI) that should be fielded by Capello. Now let us turn our attention to Italy, and my favorite team. Well, first things first, I won’t be surprised if Italy fail to reach the last four. Lippi won last time largely attributed to their defense and the presence of players such as Pirlo and Totti. This time around, defense is old and tired; no pedigree and energy in attack and it’s completely disoriented. Cannavaro will lead the team, no doubt about that but he is par below his best and was struggling at Madrid one year back and is struggling now at Turin, Juventus. Well, Buffon should come into goal, no doubts about that and Cannavaro and Chiellini would be the two best center backs at this moment with Nesta having retired. I hope these guys don’t perform in the same way as they are doing for Juventus week in and week out. If they do, Italy will definitely fail to reach the last four. Zambrotta should be the best option for right back with Grosso as left back though I would use a youngster like David Santon as a potential replacement. Daniel De Rossi should be the straight choice for center mid field with Pirlo getting right and Mauro Camoronesi getting left. Perrota, Gattuso can be potential replacements along with Ambrosini but I doubt whether Lippi will take the Milan captain into consideration.

The real problem for Lippi would be his choice for attack. I am 100% confident that Lippi will not play the 4 – 4 – 2 system and it will most probably be the 4 – 3 – 3 system with a holding midfielder and an attacker in the hole. My choice would be very straight – Bring back Totti as the attacking midfielder, Balotelli and Amauri up front. It will be a deadly combination with Iaquinta, Toni and Gilardino as potential replacements. This would be a real threat and this team will be more like the Inter Milan under Mourinho but we have Lippi at the helm. If Lippi fails to take Balotelli, Santon and Amauri out there to South Africa, it would be a very big blunder. Most probably, Lippi will put Iaquinta up there and would fail to convince Totti. At present with this line up, Italy can and should reach the last four. I won’t be surprised if Gilardino starts with Iaquinta and Toni as that is how Lippi will think and approach the game. He was very successful last time as every one supported and fell in line but that was last time. What about this time?

Italians have a very easy group and should progress through the stages. They would definitely want to avoid Netherlands and possibly face, Cameroon or Denmark in round 2. In the last 8, they are likely to meet Brazil provided Brazil qualifies and this would be a very interesting contest. Brazil can make it look like a no contest also but it all depends on how Italy is planning to put its formation and players in. It is now upto Lippi, he can even make sure Italy progress all the way till the end and defend the crown and for that he should field in players such as Balotelli and Amauri(though out of form but is sure to rise) along with Totti.

Lippi are you listening?

Google fires China and Bing Awakens

2010-03-24T08:20:00.000+05:30

The one thing that immediately strikes my mind when China comes into the picture anywhere is the manner in which it organized Beijing Olympics and of course Kung Fu Panda, on a special note though. Well, China has been under valuing its currency – Renminbi on the global stage in the past decade to be highly competitive with its exports. This was very much criticized to a great extent especially by many and the Chinese currency policy only added materially to the world’s economic problems at a time when those problems were already very severe. Now Google has come out in public especially in the last few months and has expressed its unhappiness with the Chinese regulations. Also I wonder, whether hackers in China forge into various international operations under the influence of the Chinese government. The most important thing now is that Google has come out of China and is directing search users in China to its uncensored search engine based in Hong Kong. Well, I won’t be surprised if Google’s search engine is completely blocked by the government authorities even in Hong Kong.

One must recognize the stand taken by Google. None of the American companies such as You Tube (part of Google now), Facebook, and Yahoo entered and dominated the Chinese internet space. China had its own brand names such as Baidu and Tencent which were more popular. I even remember my colleagues in China who relied more on Baidu than Google, used QQ rather than MSN or AOL or Skype. The revenue of the home grown companies in China has increased three folds in the past two years. Google’s earning in China is less than 2% of its global revenues. May be, Google did not do the right thing in coming out of China or we are in a situation where the whole world is divided into two regions – “Googling countries’ and ‘Non Googling countries’ (China, Russia where Yandex rules the internet space). Did Google really miss out the opportunity to rule China in the online space? Well, Google is a company that relies heavily on its advertising revenues and China can do anything by showing its dominance in the currency market globally with its reserves. May be yes, China’s links to the global domain and economy is going to further get weakened. In a country with absolute rule, political control will come to the fore always. And I don’t think any other company other than Google has given so many offerings at no costs literally. All this means China will no longer keep ‘googling’ but might start ‘binging’ or stick with Baidu itself. This will be a bigger loss for Google as such than China who already have enough reserves.The important thing many fail to identify is that Microsoft will definitely try to penetrate the markets as such with Bing. The search engine space in the mobile sector will have loads of revenue and this would be one place where Microsoft will try peg in for.

Moral of the story:

Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well – Google shuns China and Microsoft is ready to BING in!!
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid of standing still.
Seize opportunity by the beard, for it is bald behind.

http://www.bing-vs-google.com
BING - But it's not Google

Strategy it is for Inter!!

2010-03-17T02:58:00.003+05:30

What a night it was? Here we go, Inter beat Chelsea in and out. I never expected a game of this standard from Inter’s players though I always felt Inter can only win against Chelsea if they come out of their box and start counter attacking. First things first – The left and right back’s of Chelsea were not strong though Yuri Zhirkov impressed and even saved Terry on occasions in the second half. Essien would have been a big difference had he been not injured in the place of Obi Mikel. It’s not that Mikel did not live up to his standards but Essien raises his game above the set standard. Ballack was not the usual and he should not have been replaced by Joe Cole who was not in his prime form. Lampard and Drogba were halted again and again and again by Lucio and Walter. They simply had no answer to get past these two guys who were rock solid. It will be great to see Inter lift the Champions league though they have Arsenal, United and Barca upfront.

Mourinho knew one thing very well. Chelsea can be defeated only if the contact between their central midfielders and forwards were stopped and blocked. This is what really happened. Cambiasso and Motta were highly effective. They not only halted Chelsea’s midfield but made sure Lucio or Samuel had enough assistance in their defensive strategies. All this was only possible because Mourinho knew Chelsea in and out. This is why people call him the special one. I have been watching quite a number of Serie A games of Inter and take it from me; this is not how they play. They try to keep their ball in the mid field and pass it on rather than completely counter attacking. Credit should go to the players as well for executing it to the core. If one looks closely at the second half, Chelsea could not get the ball onto Drogba. Kalou should have been introduced a bit early which would have been a bit more menacing for Inter. Ancelloti was also very predictable in terms of formations and strategies. The basic difference in AC Milan was Kaka was there who saved Ancelloti and Milan majority of the times when they were in trouble. Here he had Drogba but the Ivorian was halted with two men marking him and he had no clue of what’s happening.

This means, Inter have a very good chance to lift the Champions League and with players like Balotelli(Hope he realizes the significance of the Champions League) available, Inter will be a very big threat for the big crown.

P.S Finally an Italian team is proving its worth and this itself signals the raise of Serie A in Europe. Hail Inter!!

Window Blinds

2010-03-12T00:26:00.002+05:30

The windows of our living rooms are very small but it opens on to a magnificent huge beautiful world. Now with BCCI literally pushing for a window for the IPL, will it really make any sense to have a separate window for the IPL as such? I would say, “A big YES”, but will it get a separate window? I would say ‘NO, not really'. The reason is

The IPL is promoting Indian Cricket as such on to a global stage by providing opportunities for Indian cricketers rather than global cricketers.
With every team allowed to play only 4 cricketers of foreign nationalities every game, you cannot ask the ICC to give a separate window. Imagine this state. There are currently 10 test playing nations and imagine there are 15 players in each team vying for a place in their country’s national team, the IPL teams will take in only 4 players into their playing 11. This literally means that out of the entire 150 odd players globally, 32 players will get a chance to play in the IPL. Add another 32 to it, assuming that there are 4 players of foreign origin in their bench, then you again tend to ignore 86 international cricketers. This is not at all good for cricket as such.
IPL is expected to be staged only in India in the future except for the last time where it was pushed onto South Africa which means it is not a global event at all. Bring into your picture all the global events such as the Champions league or FIFA World Club Championships. Here a separate window is given by FIFA as it promotes football on a global stage. Say Europe as such. Any number of players from any nationality can be hired into a particular club. The Champions league finals will be conducted in various cities every year. Here football as an asset is promoted. In IPL, India as an asset with cricket is promoted.
The IPL’s governing body is the BCCI and not ICC. This leads to further miseries as today all the owners and directors are Indians. Am very proud of that and is very good for India but will global brands or associations be allowed to invest in IPL teams?You have selection problems as well. Say, there might be a problem where Jayawardene or Sarwan might be asked to take the bench to accomodate players such as Karan Goel will be allowed to play. This literally means Karan Goel is a better player than Jayawardene. Common, no one is blind.
Please do not say that the so called Cricket 20 – 20 Champions league should atleast be given a window. No other sport allows you to play for two separate clubs. Say for example, Duminy represents Mumbai Indians in IPL, and since Mumbai did not qualify for the Champions League, Duminy will appear for Cape Cobras. Well, Duminy is one of my favorite cricketers but here he is after money and not cricket.

Why in the hell cannot ICC promote test cricket? Why can’t they bring in more historic test tournaments like The Ashes or Border – Gavaskar trophy? Believe me, Lalit Modi, Shilpa Shetty, Preity Zinta, Vijay Mallya, and SRK are all after money. Nothing else. Promote cricket, not Shilpa Shetty (who is after Shane Warne and vice versa). IPL is good for India. It is good for cricket. It will be good to have an international window but ICC will definitely consider all these points before granting it.
Yes, of course, IPL – Indian Premier League is a patented product of India which means Indian cricket should be promoted. We can demand a window but ICC will have to consider all these points before giving it.

P.S – From a true cricket enthusiast!!

Go MI!!!

Real Madrid – Complete “Failure, Break down, Collapse and let down”

2010-03-11T03:32:00.003+05:30

Well, first things first – I never expected Real to draw the second leg against Lyon. It all begun very well for Real. Kaka, Higuain and Ronaldo ran through the defense of Lyon and completely attacked them with their pace and agility in the first half. Come the second half, it’s a complete disappointment. This result saw Madrid crash out at the first knockout stage of this year’s Champions League for the sixth successive season. The most important thing is that Perez has invested close to a quarter of a billion euros in players last summer. Where are we guys? Again the immediate thing that should literally happen is Pellegrini should be fired for putting such a poor formation. How can you replace Kaka with Raul with 20 odd minutes to go? Kaka was on fire yesterday. Why in the hell did you bring in Diarra in the dying seconds? Any sensible coach will try to bring in a striker which means Raul could have been bought in for the big mouth Arbeloa. The only best thing that should happen is that they win the La Liga which I think should be very much possible from here though I have my own doubts. Real should very much play in a diamond with Higuain and Ronaldo upfront behind Kaka. This is happening but where are the three midfielders? Alonso is not the same Alonso at Liverpool. Lassana Diarra is good enough but we need some one better enough. Am deeply gutted by this and the important thing here is that you do not get to see guys like Kaka or Ronaldo or Ramos in the final stages of the Champions League. The most important of all is that the final is at Madrid this time around. Now what next? Most probably, it should be a 100 million ditch on the defense. Are you crazy Mr. Perez?

Bring in Mourinho or convince Hiddink to quit Ivory Coast and join Madrid. But the best man should be a long time investment and you can find this in only one man today in this world – Arsene Wenger. The right guy for the right job at the right club at the right time and everything will definitely be right. If at all Perez is listening? You made a mistake in pitching in for Benzema. Balotelli would have been a better choice. You let go Cannavaro. Look at Barca’s defense. Abidal, Puyol, Marquez, Maxwell, Milito, Alves, Pique, Chygrynskiy and some times Yaya Toure and Keita fall back to play these roles. They have a complete back up for every position. Real need not have a complete one but at least the primary line up should be good enough. If Barca buys Ribery this time around, Real are sure to be totally ripped apart by Barca. Selling Robben to Munich and Cannavaro to Juventus was a big mistake. No use repenting and am not expecting anything big from Real next time either unless they shun Perez.

Perez - Invest on Arsene Wenger and no one else!!

England's Best Formation To Date

2010-03-06T19:07:00.000+05:30

First things first - No more bed time stories with England players getting roles. Let us talk about something away from the bed. The ultimate show on this planet – FIFA World cup is not far away and I would feel, England is one of the top contenders along with Spain and Brazil (though I root for Italy). With the type of players in this England line up, and with Capello at the helm, one can expect England to go all the way unless their players falter and screw which is more likely to happen. Capello always has plans and strategies with respect to his opponents on that day. This is one thing which I widely saw in his line up this time for England and also during his tenure at Real Madrid. Now coming back to the formation which England is going to adopt, has always been a matter of concern. They have too many players who play the same way which is a big matter of concern for Capello. The best formation for England at this point would be to adopt a 4 – 1 – 3 – 2 formation which can also become 4 – 3 – 3 sometimes. I would prefer Joe Hart in goal and avoid ‘Calamity’ James. Terry and Ferdinand should start along with Glen Johnson who should be fit. The left back position will be a problem of concern if Ashley Cole is not fit and with Bridge ruling himself out. My best bet would be to convince Bridge to play rather than playing someone else. If nothing happens, one should go with Upson. For Upson I would prefer King if fit, would be deadly though he is a center back by choice. Coming to the midfield, Barry would fill into the holding midfielder role straight (No doubts about that, may be Hargreaves but I wonder when he will play again). Lampard on the left and Walcott on the right should be the best choice with Gerrard playing behind Crouch and Rooney. The only problem is, Lampard and Gerrard will play similarly and will find themselves in the same position again and again. If this is unavoidable, England should go for 4 – 4 – 2 with Barry playing in between Lampard and Gerrard. Capello should also make sure Gerrard plays in center midfield rather than in the wing. Crouch should start with Rooney for sure. He gives you the physical prowess in the air and with Barry playing deep, Walcott and Lampard in the wings; one can expect a lot of crosses. My best bet would be to start Crouch and Rooney. Now Defoe, Wes Brown, Joe Cole, David James should make it to the bench. One should have good bench strength as well and that will be where Joe Cole will come into the picture. If Joe Cole is fit and is in superior form, you can pack the mid field with 5 players and play Rooney as the striker but this might not sound ideal when you are face teams like Spain and Italy who can be ferocious in defense and counter attack. So to prevent the counter attack, it’s better to have one holding player – Barry and also ask Gerrard to move forward behind Rooney. Micah Richards can start if Glen Johnson is not fit.

England has I would say some of the best players in the world. Forget John Terry’s saga, he is truly the greatest defender this generation has had along with some of his contemporaries like Puyol, Nesta, Cannavaro and Lucio. Gerrard to me is the complete footballer in this planet who will run every inch of the field and in Rooney you have a young dynamite that is waiting to get exploded at this big stage. The problem here again will be definitely the formation. I am 110% sure, England will play a defensive mid fielder which they lacked at the last world cup and some one has to link both the defense and midfield. Barry is the ultimate choice. Going by all it, England has a wonderful chance.

P. S. Team England sings, "There are several miles to go before I sleep with some one's wife", not atleast until this world cup.

The New Age - Advertovie age

2010-03-02T01:40:00.000+05:30

Summer has begun in New Delhi and it looks like it is no way related or similar to the ones in Chennai from my initial feasibility study. But anyway, all is well. I caught up watching ‘Karthick calling Karthick’ this weekend and I don’t want to review another ordinary movie. To put it in simple words, if you are a fan of Deepika Padukone, I bet you would like it. A good first half and a dead slow second half is what it has got. Now after watching SRK’s MNIK and Farhan’s KCK, one gets the feeling that we are entering a new age of advertising through movies in movies. SRK had Samsonite, Airtel, Nokia, Fevicol, and Reebok among a few brands while Farhan had Bausch – Lomb among others. I would say Farhan had missed thousands of dollars by not utilizing his movie for making money. Though many would feel, a movie is a movie and money is money and blah, blah, blah..... What one got to see in SRK more than his movie was his business oriented mind in this abnormal world. I really appreciate that as here we see a man bringing advertisements or increasing values of these brands through his movies. Now a channel like UTv, need not turn a 2 hour movie into 4, as the movie itself will carry a few brand names. One way the viewer is benefitted. From now on, one can expect the following products/brands in movies as such:

1.Whenever a phone is being used, one can show the model and a tag line runs through the screen that the character is using this particular network.

2.Shoes – Again the same tactics, may be who knows next time SRK will pitch in for socks as well.

3.Clothes - This is one thing I would say Farhan missed out in KCK as the costumes wore by Deepika and Farhan himself were too good.

4.All gadgets – Television, Camera, Mp3 players, Watches etc will all be on air.

5.Next time we get to see John Abraham and his six packs who knows, he might even advertise for inners.

6.Shampoos, Soaps, Creams/Moisturizers, Tooth paste, brushes etc are sure to be utilized in every movie.

7.What Farhan also missed out is alcohol. The ruling by the Indian government to prohibit all forms of alcohol advertising may be controversial. Alcohol companies in the UK spend about $1.5 billion on promotion and advertising every year (the total Indian advertising industry is worth $3.6 billion...A bit old data though). Look out for the Indian government.

Well after all, we are in the age where when we watch a particular show/movie on television, we generally switch channels with our remote system during intervals and breaks. But this time, it might not be possible as we are entering a new age, a new age where movies will bring in brand names into their scenes. It’s all about making money baby at the end of the day. If one watches ‘I am Legend’ you can find that Mustang (a car from Ford) is in your face in the first few minutes. The biggest challenge in future will be to find public and private spaces that are free of advertising. Well in 2008, America regarded Barrack Obama as the biggest marketer in USA. Well, I would feel this is also one way to make sure the film industry and makers stay afloat in this pirated world. Just to tell you guys how pirated this world is, one can find a movie print within one day of its release in torrents. At least someone like Kamal Hassan or Mani Ratnam make a few dollars which will help them invest in their next big project. But anyway, I welcome you all into the next age of advertising.

In the eyes of Nostradamus...

2010-02-19T01:06:00.000+05:30

Well folks, today the Eden Garden erupted in joy as Harbhajan took the final wicket of the South African team. But let us look at it this way:

There are lots of speculation that if Dravid (The second best batsmen India has had after Sachin) had played in the series, India would have not lost the first test: Yes, you are right. The point is India would have not lost the first test if Dravid had played. Very well accepted, which means the second test would have ended in a draw. India won the second test because their batsmen kept scoring at more than 4 an over and this would have not happened if Dravid was there. The last 6 tests matches of Dravid, India has run rates of more than 4 but it was due to Sehwag, Gambhir and Sachin. Apart from that, you can hardly see India's run rate above 4.In the last decade against SA, Sehwag and Sachin had strike rates of 82 and 52 and batting averages of 58 and 42. Dravid is a distant third with 34 as both strike rate and average. If Dravid had batted, Dhoni could have not come in early to keep the score ticking which means the series again ends in a draw.
The India sub-continent is no more a fortress: If you look at the last ten years, India has played 14 tests against South Africa. India has won 4 and lost 7, out of which India lost 4 of its test matches in India (Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Nagpur). So looking at the last decade, still SA looks like a better team from 2000 to till date.
One dayers are even more pathetic: India has lost 15 and won 11 in the last decade out of which 4 have been lost by India in India against their 5 wins. Again Sachin is the key here as well. Sourav has the most number of runs but he is no more in the team and Sachin comes in at second with Dravid at third who is also no more in the ODI team. Sachin will be the key for he upcoming series as well.

I don't want to talk much about T20 as it is not the true form of cricket. Now, put both the team in papers, yes, Sachin, Sehwag, Kallis, De Villiers,Gibbs, Duminy(pathetic performance in tests), Yuvraj(fitness concern), Dhoni are all up there and playing in the series but who is going to stand tall. India does not look good without Zaheer Khan and Ishant is just finding his rhythm back. Bhajji is not in for the first two ODI's and so it is upto this trio of Sachin, Sehwag and Dhoni to perform. One should not rule out Raina and Kohli as well. If you look at SA,Smith is missing and Duminy is missing his form. Otherwise it is an above average squad and on any day, SA will have a good go at India. Should India win, it would be largely due to their batting skills and should SA win it should be largely due to their bowling skills.

Looking forward to see a good tri-series.

P.S - SA to win 2 - 1.

A Colored, Conquered, Conjured and a Cornered Life

2010-02-17T01:47:00.001+05:30

Here we go…

Foot runs forward,
Thoughts go backward,
Life is wayward,
Hair stands upward,
Eyes gaze downward.

Money remains the buzzword,
Research is be the keyword.

Dreams always battered,
Hope sometimes shattered,
Questions remain unanswered,

Time is hampered,
Moments not pictured,
Happiness remain shuttered,
Loneliness is captured.

And

One step forward,
Two steps backward,
Three steps sideward,
And life will be centered.

Here we go….

My name is Khan and I am OK with it.

2010-02-13T04:14:00.000+05:30

Well, Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar have finally made a very sensible movie(May be it is mind blowing because you don't expect it from Karan). Life these days at airports are really tough and I was checked at 3-4 points within the Chennai and Mumbai airport before I could enter the plane(Well I am not a terrorist though). I don't know about the airports in USA and Europe but I feel it is getting sicker as days pass on. May be yes, SRK was clear enough to state that life is now demarcated as pre and post 9/11 where panic is just a button away and paranoia is second nature.The movie begins with SRK himself getting into trouble with the security guards and there comes the series of episodes of how he got into this situation. Kajol has did a wonderful job and so has the little kid who comes as their son. I think this is one of those movies where you will feel that the roles and the characters chosen for it are perfect. The film really picks up very well in the second half after intermission and is presented in a wonderful style. Ravi K Chandran once again has proved his mettle and so has all the songs. I think Shankar- Ehsaan - Loy could have added a bit more into the background.

Clearly the spotlight is on SRK who has did a wonderful job and is portrayed as a walking encyclopedia. May be Karan has tried to retain a meager 15% of SRK from his previous movies and present a completely different SRK. I bet this has worked very well. Sometimes during the movie you feel that the bollywood tone to it should have been cut short. I also felt that SRK has bought a lot of his real time experiences in airports within this movie. There are also a few scenes which make you laugh in the first half. Speaking about the much hyped SRK - Kajol reunion, I should say it has worked out very well. If you look at the trailers of the movie, they really look pathetic but the movie is really good. It is worth watching but you cannot call it the best. The one thing that will make you wonder by the climax is whether this movie was really made by Karan himself. Apart from that there were a few twists and turns which keeps you focused onto the screens till the end. Karan's style of story telling is bang on target right from the first frame and keeps you engaged throughout. We watch the character ‘Rizwan’ and not SRK struggling to win back his love. SRK's role transitions at various stages in the movie from a traveler to a salesman to father to a messiah. One should compliment him for doing it well.

Finally you get a feeling that yes, Muslims are treated badly after 9/11. The ending, however, could have been better. The problem is, ending is very much predictable.

Key Take Away's:

Not all muslims are terrorists.
Hum honge kamyaab ek din/We shall overcome.

From a deeply and terribly hurt WI fan

2010-02-12T03:00:00.004+05:30

Two world cups, one mini world cup, domination of all forms of cricket till the late 1980’s, a dozen genuine fast bowlers, a heap of fascinating all rounders, majestic batsmen and many true legends of the game – West Indies Cricket Team. This was how West Indies were and how I would like them to be now but unfortunately, that is really not happening. When Ambrose and Walsh started charging down, batsmen around the world felt the tremor. When Richards and Lara entered the grease, bowlers had a tough time. But where has that aura gone and who is responsible for it? Last week, I really felt very happy when Gayle came out and said that Australia will be beaten 4 – 1. Now that’s no more a reality thanks largely to the rain today and their batsmen. You can say that they did not come into Australia with their best XI as players such as Bravo, Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Barath, Edwards and Taylor were injured. If you look at the past 10 years, I really feel hurt and ex – cricketers such as big mouth Ian Chappell have gone on the record to even state that WI should be banned. (F*** Off Chappell…I had too much respect for you) Gayle and Co., did really prove their worth and mettle in Australia down under this time but the bottom line is that not a single test was won. One good thing that happened in the first decade of the 20th century for WI was that they won a mini world cup largely due to Bradshaw and Browne. They went on to win the penultimate mini world cup also but so near yet so far. Well the team really performed miserably in the world cups. To me, WI has got a solid line up of 7- 8 players but what is it they are really lacking? Take it from me today - Any team without even 3 of their major players will lose terribly. The best example is India - Attributed to the absence of Dravid and the madness of the selectors, India was hit hard by one man – Dale Steyn. Now what are the solutions really and where is WI’s cricket heading. I do not certainly want WI cricket team to lose out and I hope they win the world cup when they land in India. This is what should be happening:

Settle out all the player contract disputes immediately with all the players.
Hire former greats such as Walsh and Ambrose as their bowling coaches.
Build a formidable line up for batting and try to stick on to it at least for 3 tournaments.
Hire a fielding coach to improve the fielding aspects.
Start identifying batting and bowling specialists apart from all rounders. In the all rounder’s section the major problem is that WI relies on Bravo only. They should bring in Dwayne Smith and Kieron Pollard more frequently.
Make sure no series is boycotted by the team’s main men such as Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Bravo, Edwards, Taylor, Roach and Ramdin.
Ramdin should definitely improve his batting skills and should prove as a useful batsmen as in every country you have a keeper who bats really well.
Start developing the youth teams and increase the amount of investments made on these players. (Unless you win, you are not going to attract people and only when you attract large crowd, sponsors will ring your door bells)
Above all, please make sure WI cricket is given more importance and encourage the players to play for the country rather than for IPL or Big Bash or the so called crazy Champions League.

No doubt today, WI had and now has a very good bunch of cricketers. No one played Warne and Murali better than Lara. No one was as consistent as Viv Richards. No one was fiercer than Walsh, Ambrose, Holding, Marshall and Roberts. No one was better than the greatest tactician – Clive Llyod. May be this is a thing from the past. But look at the present. No one was as consistent as Sarwan during his early years (where is that now?). No one can stand and deliver like Chris Gayle (Sehwag is the closest but prone to bouncers). No one can finish the game off like Chanderpaul and be consistent enough. No one can be a more genuine all rounder like Bravo who fits into all the forms of games perfectly. Edwards and Taylor are really a deadly combination and you add Roach into the list. I bet you have a very strong team and Gayle should lead from the front. I always felt Sarwan was a better captain but I hope Gayle stands, proves and delivers the world cup.

Go Windies Go!!

Noboru taiyō no tochi

2010-02-10T00:44:00.000+05:30

Toyota and the Land of Rising Sun , ‘Japan’ has a lot of unique distinctions. Once it was a leading symbol of Japan’s raise to the global economic might and today Toyota is I guess for the first time pulling out cars from the market amid break failures and other problems. Looks like there are a plenty of problems associated with its pedals and floor mats as well. Toyota no doubt was hit hard by the global economic crisis but with signs of recovery, people were expecting newer models and fuel efficient cars. China is already becoming a major player in the semi conductor industry and is expected to be a global leader. Manufacturing sector and exports have been the two major avenues for Japan’s might in the global economy. It’s high time that Japan also concentrates on the service oriented industry and high end products. During the crisis, consumers in the Western world cut back their consumption of automobiles, television and camera sets. This directly hit the Japanese economy to a great extent. Apple’s Ipod sold like pan cakes and hit Sony’s walkman. May be this is the right time for Japan to wake up and start focusing on innovation and tricky (funky) products that will hit the consumer straight on his/her mind. Products like Ipod and Google’s Android are certain examples. May be this is the right time to shift out of concepts like Kaizen and JIT and start running newer concepts. Who knows, with Japan anything can happen. The general assumption in India to my knowledge is that people are more oriented towards products from the Western World and Japan rather than products from the Chinese market though it is cheap. Recently even the Indian government tried to stop all kinds of mobile phones that were into the market from China and Korea. But products from Japan have always been a good value addition. Companies like Sony, Nintendo and Canon produce quality products. May be yes, this is the time for Japan to raise and show its might in the field of service oriented industries such as IT and ITES. Change is the word that is not new to Japanese people and I believe we are seeing signs, may be hearing them.

P.S - noboru taiyō no tochi - The land of rising sun...;-)

The chronicles of Terry and Tiger in the tabloids

2010-02-04T23:20:00.002+05:30

Well, its now the turn of the English tabloids. American tabloids, tore apart Tiger Woods reputation which he had gained over a period of 10 years from 'Be a tiger' to a 'Don't be a tiger' campaign within hours. Now I guess the Americans showed their prowess and skills and this syndrome has badly hit the English press. Now it is their turn to bring down the country's most loved footballer. Now again, I found a few strange similarities which are as follows:

Hours and girls are directly proportionately to each other. Every hour one can find the number of girls increasing in both sides.
The women involved in the controversy in both the cases were offered thousands of dollars to come out in public and have a go.
Both the player's wife/wives, fly out of the country immediately along with their mother.
Both the player's were considered the best of their times in their own leagues and were considered to be legends.
PGA and FA both refused to comment.
Both belong to the multi million dollar industry in the west and every sponsor started slowly withdrawing the contract.
Both were considered to lead the country to greater heights.

The most important thing here is, if Terry retains captaincy for the world cup (Fabio Capello is not mad enough to fire him) and lifts the world cup, then tabloids will have to shut big time. I wonder why Tiger Woods did not come out in the public and prove his worth like Terry. Media is playing a wonderful game by digging deep into their lives. You cannot expect players to be like Mother Teresa or Mahatma Gandhi. These guys have reached the legendary status because of their ruthlessness. Sports people are just ordinary people who, if they are lucky, get paid extraordinarily well for doing extraordinary things with their bodies. But that doesn’t make them extraordinary. Some of them are barely literate. But if Terry scores a World Cup-winning goal, or if Woods breaks Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors, then they can be assured of love from fans for years to come. If the media and the tabloids are listening, please remember that these were the players whom you respected, cherished and praised. Its better to shut the hell up and let the player's live with their privacy. Right from my childhood, I have been keenly following these guys. Terry is not new to controversies so is FA. USA is also not new to these kind of controversies. Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Salman Khan, Bill Clinton, Ronaldinho, Tom Cruise, Marion Jones, Lance Armstrong, Brian Lara and the list is endless. Everyone has had their share of the pie. This is nothing new and it is high time that some one hits back at the media. Well as I was thinking about it, Ram Gopal Varma's new movie Rann, is the beginning of the media boycott era. So welcome to the "Media Boycott era".

All hot girls put your hands up and say, media sucks!!

All cool boys come on make some noise and say, media sucks!!

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2010-01-29T02:45:00.010+05:30

I always felt modern India was based upon the idea that all its citizens are equal and that its rulers represent the will of not just a few, but of all the different communities that make up this country. But sometimes there are no sentiments and emotions, the true forms of attachment in this real world. In the late 90's, I used to always keep my eyes and ears hooked on to the television set when ever “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara” was played. The song will begin with the great Pandit Bhimsen Joshi rendering his voice and it will cover almost the entire nation. I always felt proud watching and hearing it and that song to me really portrayed India in the late 90’s. Now an updated version of it has been released and to be very frank, it’s a typical modern masala and it does not portray modern India at all. Well, if you look at the video which roughly runs for 15 minutes (approx.), you would feel gutted by the kind of people chosen. Now for such a song, I feel icons of modern India should be chosen. One should also keep in mind that the entire nation is to be covered. The video opens with AR Rehman, followed by Big B, with the 26/11 ravaged Taj hotel in the background. I felt happy as they have made the right thing in putting Rahman ahead of all others as he portrayed and depicted modern India through his music to the entire nation and humanity. The producer/director of the song has gone insane in the rest of the parts. I really don’t understand as to why Shilpa Shetty , Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor were chosen. Do they depict modern India or are they youth icons? Well, my answer is a big no. I strongly feel the best in the industry should have been portrayed. Just because Deepika Padukone is related to Prakash Padukone, does she deserve a place in this song? Where are we folks? The producer had deeply disappointed me by doing being so insane and stupid to do this. Thank God that Rakhi Sawant was not asked to do her part. Just because a woman wins Big Boss by crying in front of the audience and has a stake in an IPL team, you cannot portray her as the symbol of modern India. Where are legends such as Vishwanathan Anand and Sachin Tendulkar? The producer/director was cunning enough not to portray even a single cricketer but all other individuals outside cricket. It would have been great if they had ended the song with Abdul Kalam as well, a true icon and an inspiration to all the million students across India. That could have been a fitting tribute to the great legend. More than 60 of India’s icons have lent their support to this initiative which has taken almost a year to create. It took more than 60 days of on-location shoot, across 15 cities of India, 30 days of post production, 22 of India’s biggest superstars, 18 of India’s best musicians, 13 of India’s best artists and singers, 15 of India’s most renowned icons to create this magnum opus. Well, at the end, it is a complete disgrace. It would have been really wonderful of them if they had also shown Amartya Sen and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan.

All I can say is that it’s really not worth watching it and could have been definitely presented in a better way. Just for the fact that India is full of young guns, one cannot give screen space for Ranbir and Shahid Kapoor. I have nothing against them but there were better people and numerous areas that they should have been touched upon. Does this show the advent of Page 3 into the nation? Well, if I was given a chance to suggest artists, I would have given a big thumps up for Amartya Sen, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Ratan Tata, Vishwanathan Anand, Sachin Tendulkar, Kalam, MF Hussain and the common man. The number of artists from the movie industry would have definitely been less in my version and I would have portrayed India as a mix of cultures and age groups giving equal space to both the artists from the old and newer version. They could have shown all the Khans (Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir) in one frame. Thank God Jaya Bachchan was also not given a frame. I am sure there are a dozen directors that are better youth icons and models than Karan Johar. Well, it is time for modern India to really wake up and stand tall. The original “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara” still stands and is better by all standards.

As the world largest democracy, India has a strong shared belief in the values of liberty, pluralism, and religious tolerance. More than just a holiday, it is time for India to re think its basic values and people such as Arti and Kailash Surendranath should have made the song more crisp. It should have created a passion and a sense of attachment to mother India but it fails in its attempt but the older version succeeds.

Avatar and America

2010-01-27T03:15:00.001+05:30

Yesterday was the first time I landed on a night show for a movie in my life and this time it was Avatar (22 45 IST). During my stay in Noida from 2010, I have watched more than four movies in theaters and it was almost like a movie every weekend. In the 23 years of my life, I had watched less than 25 movies(including this) in theaters and now in the past one month I have landed on 4. Well, of all the four (3 idiots - Ok, Sherlock Holmes – Not bad, Chance Pe Dance – Very bad, Avatar – Good), Avatar was splendid with some wonderful action and amazing visuals. I could hardly find a difference between 3D and normal vision and this was attributed largely to the glasses they offered in Big Cinemas(pathetic glasses). Now James Cameroon I feel has customized this movie to show the real truth of what the United States of America did to Iraq. Imagine Iraq to be Pandora in which the American army hit Iraq hard and strong to unearth nuclear weapons/WMD and end up with finally hanging Saddam. President Bush destroyed Iraq's military, political, social and economic infrastructure overnight using conventional weapons. Something similar happens in Avatar. Avatar begins very well, drags tremendously in between with some very boring scenes just as in Lord of the Rings and picks up on its pace towards the end. One can get to see the amount of effort put in by the production team of Avatar as its visuals keep the audience spell bound. There is a scene where Jake Sully lands on one of the most dreaded beasts in Pandora, a Toruk to control it and this has been presented wonderfully. Sometimes it was also pretty weird when the inhabitants from Earth were called the sky people by Jake Sully himself.

Overall, I feel the movie is good and worth watching. People who love movies such as Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Matrix etc will really love this one as this also presents itself with a different case. Whether we travel into the future or into the past, one brings his imagination of how the future or the past would have been. Though the imagination power is high in terms of future, past too also has its high points. For example, James Cameroon shows all the human avatars to have 5 fingers but the natives have 4 which shows a simple difference between the natives and the humans converted to Avatars. One thing which caught my attention was usually the US marines are called as Devil dogs but Jake calls it as Army dogs (may be there is another name to it) . To summarize, James Cameroon has clearly stated the following things:

1. The United States under Bush did a very wrong deed by attacking Iraq and Afghanistan using powerful weapons killing innocent people and should have taken the non violence route.

2. Do not exploit mother Nature as she is very powerful than your artificial weapons. Save and protect her to lead a peaceful life. "THIS IS OUR LAND".

3. 3D is the next big thing and more movies are likely to follow this trend and pattern.

Well, directors like James Cameroon are very few in this world and I would suggest these guys come out with more movies often.

P.S: You are like a tourist taken to Pandora by James Cameroon the guide and finally you are tired as the journey is very long(sometimes exciting and in a few cases its boring....may be if it was cut short, you could have enjoyed more but its definitely worth traveling.

No Chance At All.........

2010-01-25T01:02:00.001+05:30

"Chance Pe dance" was one of the latest movies I landed on. Well folks, its two hours of irritation, madness and every frame is a complete disappointment. One of the slowest movies of the decade and it hardly had a story in it. Shahid Kapoor and his antics were really very bad. Genelia was even worse and there is hardly any substance associated with her character. She was not that pretty also in this largely due to a lot of make-up. Shahid Kapoor has no money for rent and finds himself living out of his car literally. He has no money and has take to up a dance-teacher's job at a school. It doesn't take a genius to predict that he will lead the school to a championship, and finally become a movie star. Well I wonder how these odd students won the event. The way Shahid Kapoor acts is even more worse and the only plus point I think he possess is his physique. Nothing else to be very frank for this movie. Adnan Sami has disappointed even more except for the first song but no one knows why there was a song in the first place even before the movie begun except the director. Finaly to summarize I would say that there are millions of reasons that one feel demoralized after watching the movie but I would like to give eight things that completely demoralized me and they are as follows:

No story at all in the movie and the screen play is damn slow.
Adnan Sami has composed pretty dumb songs.
Even though Shahid is shown as a guy struggling in life, one gets the feeling that he is acually enjoying his life.
Shahid's face is all over the entire screen and it would have been a blessing in disguise for all his female fans but the point is that I believe his fan community is going to hit a rock bottom after this debacle.
There is a scene in which Shahid scrapes his nails against a blackboard and this complete scene is one of the worst ever scene I have seen in my life.
They have also portrayed Shahid as a born genius as he hardly does any practice or work out. Well this born genius has failed to really impress me. Good luck next time.
The movie had an interval after 90 minutes and this really irritated me more as I was desperate for a break and the second half was hardly 30 minutes. Well, here I would like to say that movies should never have an interval and they should just keep us hooked onto the screen for all the 120 odd minutes. But again the theater needs to sell to survive. :-)
Of all the things, Genelia completely disappointed me with her make-up. Very bad Genelia.

P.S :

There is a lot of dance but no chance for the fans.......;-)

A leaf from the past....

2010-01-22T02:01:00.001+05:30

Well, finally I have my hands on to a lenovo. Of course I did want to write some events that really got me shaking this time around in the past decade. Let us get things straight and of course let me begin with some things on the field. I am not really putting it in an order but i think this list looks good. The most surprising thing of course is to see Kaka move out of Milan. I never expected this to happen but it did happen. Secondly, legends- Lara, Michael Schumacher, Warne, McGrath, Hayden, Inzy, Astle, Sampras, Rafter, bid farewell and it is really sad that these people quit. Then its “Lightning Bolt”. A man who is truly the greatest sprinter the world has ever seen till date. One should also not forget the records set by Marion Jones. You also got to see the raise of another big generation of great players in the NBA in the form of Garnett, Carter, Le Bron, Bryant, Howard, Shaq, Allen, Duncan, Nowitzki and Iversen who won matches single handedly and you could find these guys almost in every All Star Game. Then you have Rafael Nadal vs. Roger Federer. Well, I would just say that guys such as Murray, Djokovic to really trouble these two guys. In the women’s arena, there were a lot of raise and falls but William sister’s really proved a bit more consistent than others. In terms of big thrillers, I would say that the last 3 editions of the Champions League were too good, don’t forget the ashes 2005 – Raise of Flintoff, Pietersen, Jones and Hoggard (The most amazing this here is that it was the first time English bowlers were associated with the concept of “Reverse swing”). Well, I would like to single out some top events like SA run chase at Johannesburg, Gerrard's 2005 Champion's league glory, M Schumacher in Austria with a burning engine and Ronaldinho’s performance against Chelsea are some of the real sporting spectacles that always stay in my mind. All these things really happened from no where. You saw a miracle in front of your eyes actually. Let us not forget Hansie Cronje also, one of the greatest captains to have led a wonderful team. You also have Woods on one side hiding but did have a wonderful decade except for the ast quarter with Vijay Singh constantly trying to pull him down.
Well finally, my main of this decade would be the bengal tiger - Sourav Ganguly. Just for one thing he did. He built a team from scratch and built a fortress. India finally announced their presence on the global arena and it was no more a one man team. The team that is today is largely due to this guy. Let us look at him as the real one source. I would also like to single out Arsene Wenger (built an amazing team at the Emirates with young guns), Totti and Gerrard (for not accepting any offers from big clubs), Muralitharan (for just spinning and spinning and spinning...), Cannavaro for taking Italy all the way to 2006 finals, Mourinho and Rijkaard for making Chelsea and Barca rule, Valentino Rossi for being the most dominant sports personality and Messi.

To determine the the best….from the Rest....

2009-12-26T10:17:00.037+05:30

From the first FIFA world cup in the year 1930, life in football has become tough and when the going gets tough the tough get going. Recently I came across an article comparing Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo comparing them on various parameters and finally settling that Ronaldo is better and the best. What they did not do of course was to include the other players in contention as well. Now its high time that I bring them in place and you can see it in the above pic. I have compared players in the current playing lot in Europe and rest of the world. Players from different leagues and countries have been compared on a scale of 10. Here we go!! (One exception here is that I would have not included the goal keepers and the parameters considered would be totally different for them.) The minimum criteria I have considered for players to enter the list include their current and past forms over the past 10 years. The player should be currently playing and also should have played club/international football for a minimum of 4 years. I have been very honest here and I was a little surprised by the results myself. It took me more than 4 hours and here are my calculations (above pic).

My research shows that Gerrard is the complete footballer and fits in every category of a team. Well done Gerrard.

Umpire Decision Review System is a disgrace!!

2009-12-20T10:41:00.003+05:30

Life is complicated and so is UDRS (Umpire Decision Review System) which is more complicated than life. Australia today defeated WI 2-0 in the 3 match test series though WI almost won the 2nd and 3rd test matches amidst call that WI should be banned from test cricket. Well, WI were without key players (Chanderpaul and Barath who missed the 3rd test, Fidel and Taylor missed the series as such). It is my gut feeling that if Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor had been a part of the team, Aus would have collapsed in the 3rd test and the series would have been 1-1. Now coming back to the interesting part of the test series, the UDRS, which was implemented by ICC from the NZ-Pak series, cricket has been complicated. A simple example of how complicated the review system: WI needed 35 runs and Roach is facing Bollinger . Australia have appealed for a caught behind and Roach has been given out, he wants a review, it's so marginal, Roach should not have been given out because replays didn't show an edge. I don't think that's how it works. Billy Bowden gave him out on the field and since replays did not prove that he didn't nick it, the on-field decision should stay. The irony is that, if Bowden had given him not out, and the Australians had asked for a review, Roach might well have been given not out after the review because replays didn't prove that he was out. It's complicated, this UDRS. I couldn't tell whether he nicked it or not. Hot Spot didn't show much, but it often doesn't pick up faint edges. Again the point here is that in spite of the UDRS in place and ICC wanting the decisions to be correct, life has become miserable for players especially in the WI camp. Chanderpaul was affected and these are decisions where it changes the whole game.

Well, if ICC is listening, You are the worst governing sports body present today and FIFA, UEFA, FIA, NBA, ATP, WADA etc are all far better. And to all those who bring in theories like referrals will spoil the criticality of umpires are again making it complicated as the real idea should be decisions made should be perfect and technology should aid umpires in giving right decisions. Who knows, if Kemar Roach was not given out, they could have won the match. The series would have been tied at one a piece. Ian Chappell's mouth would have been shut for coming out in open and saying Chris Gayle should step down and WI should be banned (though giving a hint). Who knows!!But anyway WI played really well and I am sure WI will pull it out in the ODI series in February.

Tiger is now in the Woods

2009-12-14T21:12:00.001+05:30

‘Go on and be a tiger’ what one gets to hear before Nov 25 and of late one hears ‘Go on and don’t be a tiger’. Life can change with one win and one shake. Around Nov 25^th, The National Enquirer published a story claiming that Woods had an affair with nightclub manager Rachel Uchitel. The story began to attract media attention when Woods had a car accident a day and a half later. There was more spice added when Woods refused to speak to the media and his mother in law was admitted to the hospital. From then till date you hear that Tiger Woods is not what he was and all sorts of rubbish, awkward claims and digs. In fact everyone is trying to take a dig on this guy who was on his way to overtake Jack Nicklaus. All the big MNC’s have removed his name and will even change their tag lines except for Nike. This is nothing new but is totally uncalled for. The same thing happened with the Brazilian Ronaldo, Kobe Bryant, Ian Thorpe, Marion Jones etc. All of them dropped from their heights they set which no one else had seen but a few emerged winners and I feel Woods would also come out stronger, sharper and faster. Woods' absence will have an influence for the sport as when he doesn't play TV audiences drop and big money sponsors stay away.

Tiger Woods was a whale. In fact he was one of the biggest and most coveted in a multimillion-dollar industry that stretches from London to New York. And it is testament to the success with which the VIP nightclub scene quietly facilitates the indiscretions of not just Woods, but scores of other actors and sportsmen, that the scandal which prompted him to quit golf "indefinitely" to concentrate on being "a better husband, father and person" took so long to emerge.

Well, the media is stronger and can even tarnish the image of any great guy, say even Achilles or Alexander and bring it down in a few minutes. I wonder what Tiger will be thinking about his future and time is the only solution for this. “Kiss and Tell” the world is becoming more popular. When Bipasha met Cristiano Ronaldo, Indian news channels went hay wire. There is a small difference here. In the US, stars like Woods, picked people like Uchitel and Moquin and paid them to protect their lucrative reputations. In Europe, stars like Cristiano Ronaldo picked up women from bars and night clubs and paid the tabloids to protect their lucrative reputations. In India, luckily men don’t worry about their images and women get caught and after 24 hours you find their mothers/sisters/aunts coming out to protect them.

P.S: Tiger is in the woods and can pounce any time.

Double standards!

2009-11-21T14:30:00.004+05:30

Of late there have been many views on who is the greatest to have played cricket. There have been theories supporting players from different eras, different countries and different personalities. Now if one goes with the sheer consideration of the record books, they land in front of Don Bradman, Gary Sobers, Vivian Richards, Brian Lara, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and Sachin Tendulkar. May be we have not considered legends like Sunil Gavaskar, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev, clive Llyod, the three W’s, etc. There are even wild theories as to players from different eras should not be even compared. Well folks, if you don’t do this, you are losing something that is really interesting. This happens in almost every sport from tennis (Bjorn Borg ….Pete Sampras…. Federer…Nadal...), football (Pele….Maradona…Ronaldo…Kaka…C Ronaldo…Messi), F1 (Aryton Senna….M Schumacher…Hakkinen….Hamilton), NBA (Kareem Abdul Jabbar…Larry Bird…MJ…Kobe…LeBron…Garnett). The most important thing is that the role played by the English Media who keep supporting only the guys from in and around UK. Be it any sport. Even though the world’s best football players are in Spain in the La Liga and rivalry is up in Spain, one gets the feeling that the EPL (BPL) is the best, thanks to the English Media. Well, if someone starts watching football on a weekly basis following up and catching all the action, you will definitely say that the premier league is interesting but the teams from La Liga are better and well suited to play any kind of football. Now coming back to cricket, Michael Artherton (has been dismissed for a naught more than 20 times, failed miserably as a captain, has been dismissed 19 times by Mcgrath, "dirt in the pocket" affair…..etc) has recently come up with an article indirectly giving a thought that sachin is not the greatest to have played. The reasons attributed towards it were very awkward and irrelevant which included Tendulkar getting hammered by a bouncer from Anderson, protective gear and that Sachin never played in the bodyline series. Well, if this was about Kevin Pietersen, the whole story would have been different. It is not only in cricket, even if one has a closer look at the Wimbledon in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, one who follows and knows tennis to some extent will feel that Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman are given more importance than Sampras and Rafter. The same is about Andrew Flintoff, David Beckham, Rooney, and Hamilton (But these guys have proved their worth considerably). The real concern here is that recognition and rewards will follow if you really stand out but not in Britain. Even if you make it to the semifinals of Wimbledon, you will be considered to be the next big thing. England has not won a FIFA world cup since 1966 and if the quality of football is best there, it is also attributed to the fact that the presence of foreign players increases the standard. No doubt, Gerrard, Terry, Rooney, Lampard, Cole are some of the best in the world but still they are not able to turn it around. So if you are really passionate about sports, you will start comparing players from different era’s and this is good for the sport. Even though you have better bats/racquet's/studs, protective gear and good sophistication, it is up to the players to prove their worth and it is only talent that gives/drives recognition and rewards.

Well, Atherton if you are listening, as a player Sachin Tendulkar is/will perhaps be the greatest to have played the game along with Brian Charles Lara. These guys have played the masters of swing, pace, spin, bounce and even fought against tough weather conditions and Warne/Murali is/will be the greatest ever bowlers to have played against these two legends. There is no doubt here.

Finally F1 ends-Vettel looks promising

2009-11-02T15:42:00.005+05:30

2009 has been a good year in the racing arena. We had a season full of drama. From no where came a team called Brawn GP and they came with a bang. Jenson Button and Brawn GP were simply amazing through out the year. New rules were in place to cut costs and make the cars easier to pass. The big guns seemed very quiet and the minnows started ruling- Brawn GP and Red bull. Though every one expected Vettel to have a good season, no one expected him to rule the calendar. Button lead from the first race and Brawn GP had everything set to win every race on the calendar. Ferrari was no where in the horizon and to add to their woes, Massa injured himself at the latter half of the season. Raikonnen hardly provided any threats to Button though Alonso pitched in then and there along with Hamilton. Barrichello, Vettel and Webber were the major threats but full credit to Button as he kept his composure through out the season. There were some bits and pieces of information that Schumi was about to return but that never happened. Mclaren must be happy to have finished above Ferrari and Force India should have felt happy that they were on the podium for the first time. 2010 looks a bit strange with Raikonnen heading to Mclaren and Alonso to Ferrari. I am not ruling out Brawn GP either but beware folks, Red Bull is on the prowl and do not be surprised if Sebastian Vettel is crowned the new world champion in 2010.

More=Less

2009-11-02T15:31:00.005+05:30

Folks, this was one interesting article I came across. "Less is more" is a proverb one can come across in the poem by Robert Browning titled Andrea del Sarto. The actual meaning was if you keep it simple and straight, you will reap the fruits of your effort. But now there is another important thing one can find which is a bit scientific though. It is generally said:

Knowledge is Power.
Time is Money.

If you look at it scientifically, one can also get to know the following:

Power = Work / Time

And fyi

Knowledge = Power
Time = Money

You have the following finally:

Money = Work / Knowledge

Money and knowlegde are indirectly proportional to each other. So when one increases the other decreases. Time to think about this.........;-)...am impressed!

Agriculture-Part 3

2009-10-21T23:14:00.001+05:30

Agriculture has moved a long way and the major challenges include the demand of food with the ever rising population. The amount of arable land should be properly utilized and mainly in regions like Africa and Latin America the unexplored lands must be made cultivable. The prices of land in these areas are very cheap and in United Kingdom the prices have said to be increased by 40%. Strutt & Parker, a leading property consultancy in the U.K. has given facts that over the last year, in Scotland alone, some 25% of agricultural land sales have been to non-U.K. residents. Often purchases have been by Irish and Danish investors, for whom the cost of such land in their home countries can be 50% more than it is in the U.K. In U.S.A agricultural land prices have increased due to a weakening dollar and inflation. Countries like Bulgaria are selling land at a cheaper price and the prices are soaring in the Asian countries.
One thing is certain that the demand is going to be high and will increase as we move further more into the future. Stronger growths will be seen in countries like India and China. Russia is set to follow in their footsteps. The amount of arable land is around 4000 million hectares but still there are a lot of potential arable lands in African and Latin American countries. These lands will play a major role in determining food production across the world. The use of fertilizers must be reduced and other techniques must be explored and found so that the chemical composition of the land is not getting degraded. There must be some equal proportion between demand and supply. But today there are alarming facts like the demand being high. Also the amount of arable land must be properly utilized which to a great extent depends on the farmer. Governments should provide more benefits to farmers and increase the availability of loans. In developing countries like India the prices of lands are set to increase and this will be the case in all developing countries. Tax benefits must be given to investors and potential arable land must be identified and explored. Farmers must be given proper encouragement and crop rotation must be followed. Good agricultural management is the key to achieving high productivity with minimal impact on the environment. More research and education is needed in meeting the demands of the consumers.

Agriculture-Part 2

2009-10-20T23:12:00.002+05:30

The development and sustainable use of all the resources depend on policy: land ownership, farm income, taxation and support, trade and access to technology and markets, political stability. Climate (which includes rainfall, temperature and light intensity) does put a ceiling on productivity, but is largely beyond human control. The existing and expected land use pattern is also in conflict with the National Forest Policy (NFP), which is an important yardstick to measure the state of the environment. According to the NFP, a minimum of 33 per cent of the geographical area should be under forest cover. However, the ground situation reveals that barely 17 per cent area is classified as forests. The overall land degradation is alarming, caused largely by unscientific agricultural activities. The prices of land are also determined by these factors. For example countries like Russia which is said to become the leading force in agriculture in another 10-15 years. This is going to happen just because of its mass. For instance, each member of the Sunrise of Communism collective farm was offered about $100 a hectare. Three years later, the land is worth about $1,100 a hectare, based on Black Earth Farming’s stock market value. So the land prices are increasing everywhere with the demand.

World demand for agricultural machinery and equipment is forecast to increase 3.7 percent annually through 2012 to $111 billion. Gains will be paced by the accelerating mechanization of the agriculture sectors in currently large agricultural equipment markets such as China and India whose farm sectors are nevertheless still significantly inefficient in comparison to those found in more developed markets. Moreover, rapidly rising global staple food crop prices and shortages in 2007 and early 2008 indicate a growing necessity to increase farm productivity and efficiency in developing countries. To some extent, gains could be hindered if energy prices remain at their current high levels through the forecast period and negatively impact global economic growth. China, India hold best growth prospects in developing areas due to the large amount of land available and the demand is also high in the regions. For example in a country like India which is considered to be a power house in agriculture, Green revolution brought a significant number of changes.

Agriculture -Part 1

2009-10-19T23:09:00.000+05:30

Agriculture is the art and science of crop and livestock production. Without agriculture it would have been very difficult for man to survive in this world. Agriculture encompasses the whole range of economic activities involved in manufacturing and distributing the industrial inputs used in farming; the farm production of crops, animals, and animal products; the processing of these materials into finished products; and the provision of products at a time and place demanded by consumers. This involves a lot of labor and many countries are entirely dependent on it. Countries like China, United States of America, Australia, Canada, Russia and India have a lot of money involved in this business. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, India has the most irrigated land in the world. The land prices are directly related to the country’s economy and the type of crop grown in that particular area. A lot of parameters determine the prices of land and the types of crops grown in a particular area. These include the type of soil, climate, water availability, and transportation facilities available to name a few. Certain areas tend toward a specialized agriculture, whereas other areas engage in a more diversified agriculture. The major agricultural products include crop plants for human stock and animal feed. Also the world population is increasing at a rate of 80 million per year and the expected rise in population will increase the pressure on agricultural land, especially in Asia which has the highest population density per hectare of arable land. This is one of the major challenges which mostly all the developing countries are going to face in the future. The prices of land are directly determined by the crops grown in that area along with factors like rainfall, transportation facilities available etc. The land prices are directly related to the amount of rainfall in a given area, type of soil, infrastructure, climate and the amount of yield the land is able to produce constantly.

Unnai Pol Oruvan.....Stands out

2009-09-19T20:57:00.002+05:30

Kamal Hassan is on target with his latest venture ‘Unnai Pol Oruvan’. No big fight sequences, a simple back ground score, wonderful screen play, excellent character potrayal and Kamal Hassan. This is what the movie is all about. Though it is a remake of Wednesday, Kamal Hassan has simply overshadowed Naseerudin Shah in his portrayal. The story begins with Kamal Hassan planting bombs in various parts of the city and the true hidden fact behind these boms is the crux of the story. If you have not seen Wednesday, then this is going to be a visual treat for you. Even if you have seen it, you will feel that the screen play and the characters portrayed are better in the Tamil version. There was a lot of hype about Shruthi Hassan and her back ground score along with the songs but there is nothing that was really impressive from her side. This might be even due to some good screen play and Kamal Hassan but again one feels that the contribution from Shruthi Hassan was not that great. Election Commission of India would have clearly taken note of the scene where Kamal Hassan says that he is no superman and only a common man, may be an invisible man as he has even lost his identity (Voter’s ID). Mohan Lal plays a determined police officer and so are the two cops who assist him. The arguments between Kamal Hassan and Mohan Lal clearly stand out and are the true highlights of the movie. This is indeed an excellent product and it is for and by the common man. All those who have not watched ‘Wednesday‘should definitely watch it for its story line and all those who have watched ‘Wednesday’ also should watch it for a better Wednesday. It is not definitely a documentary as there are many timely hilarious moments which also stands apart. This was a movie tailor made for Kamal Hassan and he carries the movie from the first frame to the last. If you have not watched it, you are missing some meaningful cinema.

P.S. Unnai Pol Oruvan ....Ilai

Expect the unexpected!!

2009-09-02T12:05:00.007+05:30

One of the most interesting spectacles that happen in Europe every year in July- August is the transfer season in football (in the UEFA zone). Well every club in Europe will have a look at its current team and where they are placed and also have an eye on their closest rivals. Newspapers, sports channels and websites keep buzzing every day about the transactions made and gossips and rumors rule the space. I believe the transfer season this year was the most interesting one which was dominated by the Spanish Giants Real Madrid and the Eastlands outfit City. Kaka, Ronaldo, Benzema and Alonso were some of the top guns that came into Madrid with Robben and Sneijder moving out. City did land players well within their own league in the form of Adebayor, Barry, Cruz and Tevez to name a few. The most interesting transfers were that of Owen to United and Eto to Inter. First Sir Alex paid nothing and pulled one of the most dynamic strikers in England but will he be back at his previous best will always be a question. Second, after the departure of Tevez, Owen will play as a central hit man for United. The other deal which really came by a surprise is Eto and Ibrahmovich getting swapped. Well, both are wonderful players and can destroy any team on a given day but Eto and more than 40 million USD went the other way which should have definitely kept Mourinho happy. Though they should be happy for Eto to arrive but Sneijder’s arrival should have satisfied Mourinho more and he is surely to fill the hole in the Inter midfield. On the other side of big losers, I feel Arsenal lost Adebayor and Toure which is likely to create a big hole in their lineup. Milan lost Kaka and gained nothing equivalent to it though they should have bought 2-3 quality players though they did get Huntelaar(Suited more for the benches and will rarely start with Pato around) at the end. Liverpool on the other hand lost Alonso but bought in Aquilani though the latter attacks less frequently and plays more as a holding player. Real went with a big basket and landed every one they wanted; Again the Galacticos period has begun but the only difference is that this time around, the guys in are a bit young. Bayern roped in Robben and Maxwell went to Barcelona. Cannavaro joined forces again with the Turin giants, his old club Juventus but they did land Diego from Werder Bremen.
Looking onto the new season, I feel Chelsea/Liverpool will win the EPL, Inter to win the Serie A, Barcelona to hold the La Liga with much pressure from Real. The season has begun well for many of the giants except for teams like AC Milan and Bayern. The final for the most coveted crown –Champions League at Santiago Bernabau, Kaka and Co., will be hungry as usual but Chelsea look hot favorites though I won’t rule out an Italian Renaissance (from Inter and Juve) or Spanish armada (Barca once again).

FLINTOFF-Am Stunned!

2009-07-15T21:14:00.007+05:30

Andrew Flintoff to me is one of the modern day greats and I was stunned when I came to know he is quitting tests right after Ashes. The man who can bat with the tail and hang around, with eight solid hundreds, 393 wickets in both forms of the game, great fielder in the slips, a giant by no ordinary means is sure to be missed. In the summer of 2005, Andrew Flintoff established himself as England's greatest all rounder and handed his team the ashes. England minus Flintoff is a walk in the park for any test playing today. He has had a lot of injuries and has missed more than 25 tests out of 48 playd by England in the last two years. Rehabilitation was the word associated with him always. Everyone knows about his beer drinking antics at Saint Lucia too. But still I would pick him up in any world 11. He belongs to the group of classic cricketers and if Flintoff is listening, I believe you have made the wrong decision at a wrong time. England should focus on cricket and not on Flintoff right now or they will be reduced to ashes by Aussies. All I hope is to see a couple of centuries/wickets from the most aggressive cricketer ever. Flintoff-If your are listening, I want you to hunt down the Aussies. You are the best ever. Freddie is today the world's best all rounder miles ahead than Kallis, Bravo, Albie Morkel, Afridi, Oram, Watson....Thanks for the memories.

PS:To all those who say that he wants more money from 20-20 blah blah blah....You guys s***!

Ice Age-Another Dawn

2009-07-15T10:23:00.003+05:30

It was one of those days where I came back from back to back calls and felt like handling more and more calls. Full of energy and wanted to go for more. Late in the night I landed up on Ice age-a good print from torrents as usual. I really loved the previous versions of Ice Age and the way the movie is presented and the mannerism of Manny, Sid and Diego along with Scrat are really too good. As always the movie begins with Scrat who is still trying to nab the ever elusive nut, but this time there is love in the air. The meltdown is over and life is changing everywhere. Manny and Ellie are expecting a baby and Manny is really very anxious and curious about this and so is Ellie. All sorts of arrangements are made to ensure that everything runs smooth until Sid lands up with three dinosaur eggs. It hatches and there begins the real plot (fun). These eggs lead Sid to a mysterious underworld full of dinosaurs and strange creatures-a life minus ice. Manny and Co. begin their journey in the underworld where they meet Buck (Weasel-This one came in Madagascar too if I am not wrong). Together they bring back Sid and everything ends well. The movie is full of fun and high class entertainer and a must watch too. Hope there is another part to Ice Age but would not like to see these guys grow older.

TRANFER SAGA....

2009-06-13T09:29:00.002+05:30

Kaka and Ronaldo are in and Milan and United will definetly penetrate the transfer market very well. Guys like Villa, Silva, Ribery, Pato, Benzema, Diego, Aguero may be the next in the hit list for both Milan and United. If they dont act Milan for sure is going to struggle in the Champions League this time around. Milan wanted money and they just pushed Kaka out though I am cent percent sure he would have preferred Milan to Madrid. At the other end, Sir Alex would have thought to bring in more players by pushing Ronaldo out who is always a concern. Tevez might stay back and if Owen Hargreaves is fit and if Ribery is bought they are still a world class team but so many "if’s". Well Real Madrid should play Robben on the left, Ronaldo in the Centre and Kaka at right and should they buy Villa, there will be no Raul. This is my gut feeling. Well Perez if you are listening try adding a attacking centre back like Santon or Zambrotta. That will be more helpful. Well guys-now looks like Spanish football is the best in the world. I am really sad that Kaka left Milan. Now the money rich City is still on the prowl. They have already damaged Villa by buying Barry. Whose on their hit list now? I predict Ribery, Villa, Silva, Benzema, Pato, Santon, Aguero, Diego, Tevez, Young, Alonso, Downing(With middlebrough out) will be the guys team will be looking for.

Indian Prime Time League!

2009-05-27T20:08:00.002+05:30

Well all that begins well ends well but for Vijay Mallya it did not begin well but ended well which he would have never thought of in the second season of IPL. Kevin Pietersen, one of the greatest batsmen of the modern era was roped in but he led the team to four defeats in the first six matches of the Indian Premier League before returning home on England duty. Captaincy was shifted to the man with the golden arm- Anil Kumble who inspired their team up to the finals and was winning every moment until Boucher departed and in came the miserable Uthappa. Mallya should be proud of two things- Got Kevin Pietersen and reached the final of IPL2. At the same time he should also feel disgusted about the fact that he never advertised his team in the manner he did in IPL1 and for buying Uthappa for Zaheer Khan. Well Mallya-if your are listening you have got it wrong this time but Kumble got it right for using his middle order-Dravid, Taylor, Boucher, Kohli well and the promotion of Pandey . Well done Anil. As for Pietersen is concerned, I was really surprised that he could not perform as these kinds of stages are perfect for the big man. On the whole IPL2 was a prime time reality and it is right to call it the Indian Prime Time League. On a sad note I would have been happier to see Sachin and party ruling the IPL2. They are sure to come back stronger for IPL3.

WIMBLEDON.........ROOF TOPS

2009-05-18T20:24:00.003+05:30

Wimbledon might no longer be the Wimbledon from now as a wonderfully engineered structure something similar to the Wembley has been constructed. We are into the new era folks and it is going to be different. No more delays and the play will get on and on. The All England Club launched a grand opening - or closing - of the new retractable roof over its historic Centre Court yesterday to celebrate one of the biggest changes ever at the 87-year-old tennis cathedral. Remember the indoor stadium for Cricket at Melbourne-Sometimes one gets the thought that man overcomes nature very easily. By 2013-14 even the French Open is expected to have a roof. The court, with a capacity of 14,600, was supposed to be ready for the 2012 Olympics but France's failure to secure the Games has delayed the project. Please note that even the Australian Open has two roofs and the one left is the US Open. It is also believed that the U.S. Open organisers are considering building a roof over its main court.

Looks like the days of rain have gone away.

MANCHESTER UNITED.......WINNERS

2009-05-16T19:54:00.003+05:30

Well well well, we have almost reached the end of yet another highly dramatic premier league. For the third consecutive time, United take hold of the trophy. They did play great football and full credit to Ferguson for again managing to win the title-18th title for United, Ferguson's 11th. It is a pity that Gerrard and Co. who fully deserved the title are not there. They were not unlucky but they drew and lost matches against weaker teams. It is pretty sad and Chelsea again missed it this time due to a highly ineffective Luis Felipe Scolari in the first half of the season. Now what is remaining is the FA cup final and the Champions League final. Well I am making no guesses this time though I would like Terry and Puyol to have their hands in it respectively.

IT IS INDEED A DISGRACE

2009-05-10T10:30:00.003+05:30

Those who had seen the Champions league matches in mid week would have definitely felt the same. It was really horrifying to see a referee make mistakes in this level and this not happened once but more than five times where a true football fan would say this is a penalty and this indeed is not a red card. I definitely appreciate the way Barcelona played but everyone knows it was Chelsea who were better that night compared to the one in Nou Camp where Barca were better. Terry, Ballack and Drogba-said it all after the game that this is not the standard UEFA maintains. When you compare both the legs, I would say that both the teams dominated the game in their home grounds-Stamford Bridge (Chelsea) and Nou Camp (Barca). It is high time UEFA tries to adopt methods to improve the standard of referees. If Chelsea were through they would have thrashed United and Co. for sure at Rome. But with Barca through and with their suspensions (Abidal, Alves) and injuries (Marquez, Henry) it is going to be pretty tough for Barca to eliminate Rooney and Co. I support Drogba, Ballack and Terry and I hope UEFA does not penalize them and they understand their sportsmanship. It is not easy sometimes but you have to live with it. Four penalty decisions against Barca(At least in the 93rd minute penalty should have been given where everything happened in front of the referee who was not even 10 yards away), red card against Abidal should have been avoided but either of these two did not happen. Well Mr.Michael Platini-If you do not want the English teams in the final then you are indeed a f***ing disgrace to the sport. Always the best will be there in the finals no matter what. Let the best win and the best teams never got a chance due to the fixtures-Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Inter-Someone has to put the blame on Platini that he has got everything wrong.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LARA!!

2009-05-02T15:27:00.002+05:30

POLITICS AND LTTE

2009-04-25T22:19:00.005+05:30

LTTE is almost down and out. The Sri Lankan Army has almost demolished 90-95%% of LTTE and it is near its end. The same happened with Saddam Hussein when he was charged with the posession of WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) and was captured and hanged. The fate of a similar kind awaits Prabhakaran. If he is captured and if captured alive then there arises a lot of questions. How many politicians in India, especially in Tamil Nadu will be caught for funding and helping him? Seeing various news channels show images of the Tamil people in the no war zone would have hit every individuals mind in this world. But with the election around in India, the political parties in Tamil Nadu are playing a game by organizing strikes and show casing the Tamil people's suffering in Sri Lanka. They have missed the fact that their very own citizens of the state are suffering due to frequent power cuts, improper roads, very poor management of the states resources etc. It is really saddening and I would feel that the entire population of India is more concerned about India's situation rather than others. The politicians should have a plan where our growth rate is in double digits, create more employment opportunities, increase FDi's, organize the power sector and interlinking of rivers, etc. The situation is not only pathetic in Sri Lanka but also in India and also in South Africa. I never knew the Indian Premier league will be called as the International Prime Time League. Well, it is now. Pathetic is what I would say.

DOWN TO THE WIRE!!

2009-04-23T22:42:00.002+05:30

It is the hottest and largest tournament in Europe and I would rate it higher than Wimbledon, French Open, and Ashes etc. Champion’s league is down to the last four where only two can qualify. Have the best qualified? The answer is a very simple "NO". Well Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona and Arsenal are all in there. I would still put my money on two teams- Inter Milan and Liverpool. The former is never consistent outside Italy and the latter was beaten by a better team-Chelsea. Now to the finals I would definitely put my money on the first semifinal clash-Chelsea and Barcelona-The winner of this takes all! Messi will be a threat but will Terry and Alex stop him? Drogba will be a threat but will Puyol and Abidal/Marquez stop him? Here it is Lampard, Ballack and Essien and there they have Xavi and Yaya Toure. Chelsea if they beat Barcelona it will be due to their midfield and if Barca beats Chelsea it will be due to their forwards. In the other leg I would put my money definitely on Arsenal even though they are without Robin Van Persie. Rooney considering the form he is in will definitely be a threat. But for the second time there is no Italian team which is quite saddening and this time the final is also in Stadio Di Olimpico-Totti's den (I miss you Totti). It is the end of the season and players are tired. The one who stands longer will win and it will definitely be Barcelona if you go by statistics. But if you go by raising the bar of the game when needed I expect Drogba to be the difference. He must have memories of Moscow. Abrahmovich will expect him to deliver the goods. Let us wait and watch.

SALUTE THE LEGEND IN STYLE

2009-04-13T20:58:00.006+05:30

It was really amazing to see the wax statue of Sachin Tendulkar which will be unveiled at Madam Tussaud's. Here above Sachin Tendulkar stands next to a wax figure of himself set to feature at Madame Tussauds in London. Sachin Tendulkar trully deserves it in every sense. A true legend!

AYAN-30 min/150 odd min!

2009-04-04T21:39:00.005+05:30

When was the last time when someone has seen a movie which has been full of high voltage action? Well, I remember seeing Bourne Ultimatum which was cent percent action from the word go. The character which Matt Damon portrayed was the ultimate character any Tamil hero would like to portray. Ayan which has Surya in the lead was one movie which I wanted to see as it had Tamanna in it and she looked really hot in the posters and other ads. It started with Surya posing a look of a NRI and slowly it came into the local mood. Lots of smuggling and flying from country to another is what Surya does to a great extent. Then it is the usual stuff between Surya and Tamanna. No one really knows how it started except the director. Deva(Surya) is a carrier of smuggled articles bringing it from abroad-pirated CDs of newly-released movies to diamonds without getting caught by customs officials. Das(Prabhu) has done a good job and I feel Prabhu should choose more such characters! The villain is again the usual guy showed in many Tamil movies, hating the hero from the word go. Kind of amusing really. Well some guys might feel the story is old, but did this movie ever had a story?I don't want to speak about the story as I find nothing in it. Surya is good and Tamanna is really good. Surya and Prabhu have did a good job and so has the vision of K.V.Anand. The presentation was beautiful. 30 minutes of good entertaining movie is all that K.V.Anand has for us this summer. There is not a single dull moment in it but it is better if the movie literally moves you. I did not even move.

SEARCH ME...

2009-04-02T22:16:00.004+05:30

Internet bubble is increasing day by day. I find it really curious with the amount of IP addresses increasing and we are really entering the world of IPv6. Too fast and too furious is what I would like to say. A coin has two sides as is this Internet, the part of the world which has Internet in its hands and the other side where there is no light. I used to always have a tendency of searching a lot of things through the yahoo and the google search,two tools which I do use to a great extent daily. When I started searching 'Subash Chandar R'(My Name), I found it really amazing. This search I remember I had did a few months earlier and no where was my profile to be seen. Now it is almost everywhere. Thanks to my blog, linked in and face book I do carry a profile,might not be big one but a good one. In fact both the search engines are spot on. I would say Google is a bigger hit than Yahoo in many cases is a fact that Google gives only search as its priority in its home page whereas Yahoo has given a little more of everything here and there. Now Wikipedia who were about to own its search tool has withdrawn from the race. Well I feel the search never ends. Here is what I found while doing a small research on search engines:As of February 2009, Google sites had 63.3 per cent of the online search market in the United States, with Yahoo sites a distant second at 20.6 per cent. Microsoft sites were in third (8.2 per cent), while the Ask Network (4.1 per cent) and AOL (3.9 per cent) rounded out the top five.

BRAWN MERCEDES WELL DONE

2009-04-01T22:55:00.003+05:30

Formula I Is back and this time with a big bang and a surprise as well. Folks, Brawn Mercedes was simply amazing in their first race. Even though they could get those 18 points largely attributed to Vettel and Kubica, I felt their strategy was also cool. It is amazing to come back from no where. At the start of the year this team was under the brand Honda and now Honda is no where to be seen and at the start monopolised the front row and went on to win the race. I would love to see this team push both Ferrari and Mclaren to the extreme. Though the team ran on a mercedes engine, full marks to Ross Brawn. Ross Brawn racked up multiple Formula One titles as a master strategist for Benetton and Ferrari but it is Frank Williams he would most like to emulate now that he has his own race-winning team. The Briton, whose team enjoyed the most successful Formula One debut in 55 years when Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello finished one-two in Sunday's Australian season-opener, started his F1 career with Williams.

ARSENAL DILEMMA

2009-03-31T23:09:00.001+05:30

Robin van Persie is prepared to commit his future to Arsenal, providing the club can match his ambition. The Dutchman has been in discussions regarding an extension to his current deal for some time, but is yet to put pen to paper.He has just 18 months left to run on his contract at Emirates Stadium, a situation which is reported to have alerted the attention of Spanish giants Barcelona.Van Persie insists his refusal to resolve the ongoing issue regarding his future is not a matter of money, claiming he would happily sign if the Gunners can persuade him that they are capable of challenging for major honours on a consistent basis.

Arsenal without Van Persie is difficult to imagine. Wenger though should have his own plans.

IMAGE SEGMENTATION

2009-03-16T23:21:00.002+05:30

Segmentation subdivides and image into its constituent regions or objects. The digital image is partitioned into multiple regions called as pixels. The goal of segmentation is to simplify and/or change the representation of an image into something that is more meaningful and easier to analyze. Image segmentation is typically used to locate objects and boundaries (lines, curves, etc.) in images. The result of image segmentation is a set of regions that collectively cover the entire image, or a set of contours extracted from the image .Each of the pixels in a region is similar with respect to some characteristic or computed property. Segmentation algorithms for monochrome images are based on one of two basic properties of image intensity values which are discontinuity and similarity. In the first category the approach is to partition an image based on abrupt changes in intensity such as edges in an image. The principal approach in the second category is based on partitioning an image into regions that are similar according to set of predefined criteria. Image processing is any form of information processing for which the input is an image, such as photographs or frames of video; the output of image processing can be either an image or a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image.

INDIAN NUCLEAR ENERGY MARKET

2009-03-16T23:16:00.001+05:30

With a GDP growth rate of more than 8%, India’s energy is expected to grow at 6.4-8%. This would mean a fivefold increase in nuclear energy in the next 25 years. The power sector companies grew by more than 19% in the year 2007 compared to 16% in the year before. The per capita energy consumption in India is 2516 KwH and this is very low compared to the world standards. India has one of the largest reserves of the nuclear fuel, thorium but the nuclear energy program will continue to be uranium-based until commercial production based on thorium becomes more feasible.Many Indian companies like Videocon, Tata Power and Jindal Power are among the major companies interested in nuclear power generation along with their foreign counter parts. It is expected that more than 400 firms will build nuclear power plants in the coming years.Global uranium suppliers led by Australian, Kazakh and Canadian firms, are also eyeing fuel supply contracts with NPCIL.

Win A MacBook Air at no cost

2009-03-14T11:37:00.007+05:30

The whole world is into a recession today except a few countries here and there. I recently came across an individual named ben behrouzi who is a serial entrepreneur. He is giving away a Mac Book air for free. It is one of the simplest give away I have ever come across in my life. The Mac Book is the best ever that apple can give you in terms of its products. It is thinner and it has more features. It is one of the most stylish product and this has made mobile computing reach yet another standard. Ben Behrouzi is the CEO of Dot Next Inc and is also a consultant for young founders and start up organizations. He has guided a lot of young entrepreneurs and today he is simply giving away a Mac Book for free. All you have to do is to send him a message and you will also be added into the draw. The results of this will be announced by Ben at the end of March. This is a wonderful chance for everyone to win a Mac Book free of cost. There are no other requirements and this makes it even more wonderful. Get into his site and give him a simple twitter. You will be added onto the queue. Please do not wait and let this chance go by. This is one of the most wonderful give away I have ever seen in my life. I have also added myself in to the competition and I request you also to do the same. One has to be very lucky to get this but I am sure there are plenty more to come. This is simply the highest ROI ever and do not hesitate. Life is really funny at times and this proves it again.

CRISIS IN ASIA

2009-03-13T10:38:00.000+05:30

Countries like China had to cut its interest rates to a great extent. The exports in Japan declined to a great extent. The two major target areas for Japan were the United States and European Union. The economic growth of Japan fell by 0.6%. Mainly exports to the USA were stopped and the markets were hit to an all time low. In countries like South Korea auto exports produced an all time dip and loss. The Singapore government saw its economy fall down by 6%. Especially companies like Infosys, TCS, and HCL were hit due to their huge dependence on the American Markets. The markets of India fell to a great extent. The prices of many essential commodities were also on an all time high. The Reserve Bank of India adopted many policies and also allowed the free flowing of cash. Many analysts point out that Pakistan needs a bail out of more than $100 billion. Sri Lanka have started slowly shifted its garment exports to European regions.

NYCE BILLY IS THE MAN!

2009-03-13T10:10:00.008+05:30

Dance is a wonderful form of art where on can express any thing in this world. Recently I had a chance to see one of the greatest hip hops of all time. It was none other than Nyce Billy. His single pour on the floor is amazing and to be very frank I have not heard of such a beautiful number before in my life. Everything to Gain Entertainment is the only way in which a person can get entertained. Nyce Billy is really rocking and I would say that the next big thing in hip hop has arrived. ETG Entertainment myspace page has loads of information and I am sure you will not hesitate in checking this one. Music is always meant to pump in more energy into every one's soul. This guy does it and is simply amazing. I would also recommend you to check ETG Entertainment TV . The whole of New York City has been listening to him for the past few days and he has been simply amazing. It is not easy to survive these days unless you have enough pedigree and energy. I am sure this guy has both and is going to rock the entire hip hop industry soon. One should also check you tube for his videos. There are a lot of videos put in there. Hip hop is where one can get to hear a rap accompanied with some great beats. It is not easy to survive in this industry unless you have real talent. I bet this guy is here to survive and create a lot more enduring stuff. One should even check his profile at my space. He has composed a lot of songs and many of them are simply fascinating to hear.

NUCLEAR ENERGY IN INDIA

2009-03-13T10:10:00.001+05:30

India has a very flourishing nuclear energy program and is projected to have 20,000 MW nuclear capacities by 2020. By 2050, 25% of electricity will be obtained from nuclear plants. The nuclear non proliferation treaty is expected to play a wide role in strengthening the development of nuclear energy as foreign technology and fuel are expected to play a major role. It should be noted that India has large deposits of Thorium in many parts of the country. Today nuclear power provides 15% of world’s electricity and in OECD countries it accounts to nearly 24% and 34% in the EU.2.6% of its total electricity is derived from nuclear energy in India. This share is expected to increase by to 10% by 2022 and 26% by 2052.This will increase the amount of nuclear energy produced from the current level of 4,120 MW in 2009 to 40,000 MW in 2020 and 250,000 MW in 2050.There are 17 nuclear reactors in India and a majority of them are based on PWHR (Pressurized heavy water technology). The targets can be met only if more than 65 billion is invested in new power plants by 2020.

URANIUM and THORIUM IN INDIA

2009-03-13T10:05:00.001+05:30

India has a good amount of Uranium reserves with 54,000 tones as assured sources and another 23,500 tones is estimated to be present in various parts of the country. The major mines are located in Jharkhand and it accounts for the major share of Uranium in the Indian market. Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh are the other two states that have huge reserves of Uranium. India has a lot of thorium (290,000 tones) which is about one fourth of the world’s total capacity. India’s has not more than 4% of the world’s total uranium resources. Russia, France and USA have invested in a lot of mines and there are more mines still being explored. The concept of reprocessing the fuels will play a very important role as it will determine the capacity of energy produced from a single reactor.

URANIUM and THORIUM IN INDIA

2009-03-13T10:05:00.000+05:30

USER FRIENDLY MEDICINE

2009-03-02T20:48:00.008+05:30

From the so called first invention of man the wheel to the latest I phones, technology has been an evolution. So has been the life of a human being. We work day in and out just for our bread and butter. It is not quite easy these days and one has to be constantly innovative so that his market can be sustained. Recently I came across Beaute de Maman. Beaute de Maman is one of those products which are mainly used by women when pregnant. There might be a lot of psychological and hormonal changes in women during this period. This has been specifically designed to treat such problems. These products are widely popular in the United States of America. I would recommend you to order now so that you can have a lot of benefits. Hollywood widely uses this product and it has a lot of effectiveness. I would personally recommend you to buy this product so that one can have a lot of benefit. The cost is also not very high. It is highly competitive and very useful. Life is really beautiful and one can make it even more beautiful by using all these. So please do not wait and lose this great chance of buying such a product. It is one of those chances that can be utilized effectively. One of my sisters used this product and felt very comfortable. She even recommended to her friends. So please do not hesitate in using this. This is simply the best that is available in the market.

VANDE MATARAM.......

2009-03-01T23:03:00.001+05:30

One of the most beautiful songs that I have ever listened to and sometimes you get the feeling that this is what poetry is all about. Wonderful words and great phrases. I wonder what inspired Bankimchandra Chatterjee to write such a beautiful poem.

OUSOURCING IS ALL ABOUT...

2009-02-26T23:39:00.002+05:30

Chief financial officers at technology companies are increasingly seeing the U.S. as their most favored outsourcing destination in 2009 . People have found out that manufacturing (54 percent) and IT services and programming (46 percent) were the two functions most commonly outsourced offshore

62 percent of CFOs at tech companies say they outsource services or manufacturing.
22 percent say that the U.S. is the outsourcing destination most likely to be considered in 2009 followed by China at 16 percent and India at 13 percent.
19 percent have no interest in additional outsourcing

PASSIONATE SEARCH!

2009-02-26T10:47:00.006+05:30

Life is beautiful. Life is not a having and a getting but a being and becoming. Today the whole world has become a global village. People find it easier to communicate from one end of the world to another and this has been made possible only by Internet. You have loads of information on the net and I also recently had a chance to visit one of the coolest search engines of all times. This passion search is simply amazing and you can find loads of information on this site. I find it really interesting that this site has itself been named in such a wonderful way. People will definitely find it easy here and will have more fun.Life is only about having fun and pushing your sorrows behind. It is again not easy to find a place where you can find all the great things in the world at a single place. But here is one site which offers you that. Imagine a place where everything you need is found in a single room. That would be great and personally I would feel that it is the heights of comfort. I would recommend you all to visit this site. The other unique thing is it helps you in finding dates. Now you all would definitely not wait.

ALUMINUM SAND CASTINGS OUTLOOK!

2009-02-26T10:46:00.000+05:30

Most cast automotive components because of their mass production nature were produced through the die casting route. In fact in North America 51 per cent of die cast components were consumed by the auto sector. Pollution is a major area of concern in this segment. Aluminum castings were the major contributors in automobiles and each kilogram of aluminum replaced two kilogram of steel. For a mid size car every 10 per cent reduction in weight by using aluminum components could result in savings of 6 to 8 per cent in fuel. Each kg of aluminum could save 20 kg of CO2 equivalent over the typical lifetime of a vehicle. The casting requirement in the automobile sector alone would increase by 50,000 tones annually and assuming an average production of 50 tones a month, there was need for establishing 80 to 100 foundries in India. Aluminum growth will decrease by 5-6% in 2009-10.

IT IS THE BEST!

2009-02-24T23:04:00.004+05:30

Recently I had an opportunity to visit a website which I would say was simply mind blowing. The web design for idiots main page website tutorials is one of those websites where you can find absolutely mind blowing stuff. Its very simple from the outside and the author of this website makes all his facts very clear. This is one of the most amazing feature of this website. I would recommend every one of you reading my blog to visit this website and I am sure you will all have great fun. One unique feature is the author has made his site more interactive. The concepts can be easily grasped as there are a lot of pictures and graphs included. The whole world has become a global village and Internet is making the world still feel smaller. The world is shrinking in size and all the great facilities are available at a single place. You can find a wide of topics and the amount of information one finds is also very nice and large. So I would ask everyone of you not to hesitate in visiting this site as this site carries a lot of information. One thing is for sure and that would be the fact that you will visit this site very frequently and one will even love the content available. I would just say that the author makes every concept a simple one and an easy to grasp one. So please do not hesitate in having a look. You will definitely find a change when you visit the site. Please do not hesitate in clicking on this link teach yourself oscommerce for newbies oscommerce file structure .One can even get your web design questions answered by web design for idiots feature.About Web Design for Idiots is one of those places where you find a lot of interesting information about web design.

NOT WELL PLANNED!

2009-02-22T15:43:00.003+05:30

Subhiksha one of the biggest India's biggest retail chain has entered severe crisis. I believe there were 500 outlets initially set through out India by Mr. R Subramanian. Slowly they ventured into mobile phone, medicines also. Wipro's Azim Premji also has a considerable stake in it. At a time when the whole world is facing the biggest ever recession of modern times, Subhiksha is also shutting outlets and not getting enough customers in its prevailng outlets. Their stores are looted and I would say that one of their biggest mistakes was they never had a huge inventory. Even if they did have they could have well survived for at least another few months. Having an inventory always has its pros and cons but now there is nothing to look back now. Remember Big Bazaar was bailed out by ICICI. The problem here is even the big corporate houses like Reliance and Aditya Birla group are in which means it is more tough for these guys to hold on. When you have a lot of revenue its better to stabilize and consolidate your prevailing market rather than expanding it. Will Azim Premji come up with an idea or two which he normally never does? Its again like this-Presenting everything in a single store was the plan but again consumer's mind keep changing which is a fact. Well, I also heard some one say that Wal Mart is entering India. Where will Subhiksha be then? Remember inventories always play a role somewhere down the line.

REALITY HITS HARD!

2009-02-18T23:26:00.003+05:30

Recently I had a chance to see one of Discovery channel's amazing footage on Jesus Christ. I had seen it a year ago and it would have been so wonderfully presented that it is worth seeing again. It would emphasize the fact that Mary Magdalene who was known as the wife of Jesus Christ though still many oppose it, carried a child(As usual technology is a step ahead of human brain).There are some amazing footage's and one can see all this by doing a simple torrent search. Brown who wrote the Da Vinci Code also goes in a similar way and strongly criticizes the Vatican. A church in Ethiopia still has one of the glasses from which Jesus drank wine and if it can be obtained, one can even find the complete DNA structure claims various scientists. Dan Brown calls Jesus one of the most enigmatic and mysterious leaders of all time in his book. There are even evidence stating that Christianity is a by product of Buddhism and that even Jesus Christ learned various things from various monks in Kashmir. But still the Vatican makes a business out of it. The problem here is many of his followers started writing a book which is actually known as a gospel and as usual too many cooks spoil the broth. Better follow your heart and live with your mind!

ARASAN THE DON!

2009-02-15T22:10:00.006+05:30

Well is it Rajnikanth's next movie? It was a hot afternoon and I was out from office with my colleague for lunch. We had our food and drank some juice to keep us pumped till evening. On our way back to the work station I found an interesting banner. The banner is the picture above and I found it really interesting. I am a big fan of Rajnikanth and this banner increased by adrenaline further. I could not confirm immediately whether it is his next movie or not but I had a gut feeling something is about to happen. The title is good and so are the tag lines. I wonder what has Obama got to do with it. This Obama mania is really driving this world crazy and I hope he delivers all his promises. It is not easy and I can assure you when China enters recession there is nothing actually to look back. Russia is in and China is just a few steps away. They have already been hit by Beijing 2008. Let us also not get driven by media claims and let us be hopeful that Obama definitely brings in change. Even in my wildest dreams I would have not thought the character Obama entering Kollywood. But hope there is something coming out from this ad.

NAN KADAVUL-MIND BLOWING!

2009-02-08T22:38:00.004+05:30

Well finally the most awaited movie from the hands of Bala is out. I believe it has taken more than two years to complete this movie. It all begins with a wonderful background score, thanks to Ilayaraja, in the spiritual Kasi. Very realistic with the beginning. Arya's father and his sister come in search of him and find him at Kasi in a terrifying form. Arya comes back to his village in South Tamilnadu and that is where the real story begins. As usual there is a local don who is running the beggar mafia inclusive of Pooja. Pooja has did a good job as a blind girl and kudos to all the handicapped guys. Bala has again shown that he has a good sense of humour which is evident through out the movie. Arya has shown that he can do any role and he really comes out very well as Rudran. Great camera work and the background score is awesome. It is a must watch movie but there is not much in the story. Go and watch it for the back ground score, camera work and Arya. Bala has shown that it is screen play that can carry a movie and he continues to stand apart from the entire set of present directors. There is not much in the story but still you watch the movie with wonder.

FYI and ACTION-ICC

2009-02-06T22:56:00.005+05:30

Sachin Tendulkar who has been in the international arena for more than 20 years has seen this again and again in his life. This is nothing new. This has happened to him in Australia, England, India, South Africa and Sri Lanka. Stephen R Covey says in his "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" that it is our actions that should control our feelings and not vice versa. This is highly followed by this little master. Three times he was adjudged LBW and none of them were good decisions. The same thing happened to Brian Lara in Australia in his last series. What is ICC doing? Everyone knows BCCI is busy with IPL and so the second richest cricketing body the ICC should take some action rather than getting to know whether Flintoff plays for Chennai or Bangalore?More than 50% of ICC's revenue comes from India which makes BCCI the richest sporting body. The spirit of game should live on and with money ruling every possible activity I really doubt whether the longer and shorter versions of the game will be alive! Bring in money to get better technology. Let the machine not replace man but help him which I think should be the best things adopted. Hope guys like Sachin carry on their bat and not get carried away by all this. It was really interesting when Sachin said that he would like to know the number of decisions that went against him in the past six months.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN?

2009-02-02T22:37:00.001+05:30

The crisis that has happened in the United States of America has not only affected them but the entire world and many industries have been hit very badly. The overall economy is not facing a liquidity crisis in the current situation and many commercial organizations have been hit very badly. This crisis has risen well above Wall Street and many economies have a recession now. One of the major reasons is Federal Bank’s money policy in recent times. It all started with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which were caught in an accounting scandal way back in 2003 -04. The housing prices in many parts of U.S.A continued to rise but all of a sudden there were very less buyers. Also here the Federal Reserve started tightening the money flow. All these led to the collapse of the mortgage backed securities. Capital requirements of many banks were thrown off and all this lead to further damage.
Lots of banks and financial institutions had MBS assets on their books. The loans became outstanding and all this led to further more problems for various organizations. The Federal Reserve and the Treasury department decided to provide the capital and here is where the real crisis began. It all began with the takeover of Bear Sterns. The Federal Reserve put up $30-40 billion to back JP Morgan's takeover of the investment bank. Firms like Lehmann Brothers and AIG were also found in a crisis situation. The collapse of the mortgage backed securities now started to pollute other financial products also. The government then put 85 billion dollars for bailing out AIG and this is when the real situation was known. Dow Jones also faced a big sell of sequentially. Moreover the oil prices jumped by $25 a barrel which made the situation more worst and the markets were hit badly. Merrill Lynch was taken over by Bank of America as a result. The two independent Wall Street investment banks left standing (Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley). The dollar was lower against other major currencies.

ASH for a PADMASHREE-Nahhhhhhhhhh!

2009-01-25T21:54:00.003+05:30

I wanted a bit of a rest today and went to bed to take some rest by 11 in the morning. I woke up again by 4 and put on the television to catch a glimpse of the action in the Australian open. Federer came back from two sets which was nothing new and I just glanced through the television channels with my remote. All of a sudden came a shock. Aishwarya Rai is awarded the Padmashree. Well folks all I can say is the recession has affected the Indian minds too. Too much problem here and there-recession, Satyam, Heart surgery etc etc and here is a lady winning the Padmashree. The government says Padmashree is given to those guys who have contributed to the Indian society in various spheres of life. I wonder what has this woman did. Well I won't be surprised if Parvathy Omanakutan also wins this one after this. Please let all these not lose its value. You can give it to her but when she gets us an Oscar or something bigger and more valuable. Not for being the Indian ambassador to Cannes. The editor in chief of the Indian express Mr.Shekar Gupta deserved much more for his contribution to the print media. Tell me one good movie where Aishwarya Rai has did a great job? If you say it is 'Guru', may be you are right but you should go ahead with the national awards for cinema or film fare but not Padmashree. Mr.Shekar Gupta, I really pity you as you deserve much more than this.

KAKA AND .......

2009-01-17T23:53:00.006+05:30

This is one of those transfer seasons where every fan has his eye on. Manchester City as I had wrote earlier are showing their strength. They have already got Wayne Bridge who I believe is a wonderful left back and it is his chance to showcase his strength. Now let us come to the next signing. Kaka-I said to my self,"Oh my god". The world is in a recession and here is some one paying money which can bring in 4-5 wonderful players for one guy. Is he really worth? Well I would say,"Yes,he is". But I would have not spent money on Kaka now. What I would have did is buy those 4-5 players some one like Tevez, Cruz, and two defenders who have their future still in a doubt. Then I would have put Kaka in. Manchester City is fighting to avoid relegation and there AC Milan is fighting to win the Scudetto. Contrasting sides but choose which side you want to be Kaka. If I was you I would stay with Milan. It was around Kaka whom the entire team was built. So let Ancelotti not forget that. I would love to see him play at the Eastlands but as a Milan player rather than as a City player. Kaka can win you any game from now where. No player has been as skillful as Kaka in the Serie A the closest being Totti who has also been plagued down by a lot of injuries. The team can be built with money also but buy the right set of players,put them in the correct formation,something which Mourinho is known for. So Hughes must also have his plan but Kaka whereever you play I will love to see you. Guys like you Totti, Gerrard,Ballack, Drogba,Zambrotta,Messi are invincible. Who knows next summer it will be Messi for City?

EUROPE AND RECESSION!

2009-01-16T23:24:00.000+05:30

The entire economy of the European Union has declined by 0.1%. All the major economies like United Kingdom, Spain and Germany are slowly entering into the recession phase. The Balkan countries like Denmark were badly hit with inflation on the rise. Estonia also saw a downfall in its economic growth. Actually Estonia became the second country after Denmark to see recession. Countries like Ukraine are likely to end up losing their currency value and it is said that it will depreciate further. Iceland has experienced an inflation rise (14%). The economy of the United Kingdom has been hit by the rising oil prices and credit crisis. House sales fell down to a great extent in Northern Ireland. The unemployment claims have also increased by a lot (by 32,500).

Many countries belonging to the European Union had a decrease in their industrial production. Apart from Germany many countries were badly hit and the retail sales also reached an all time low. Car sales have come down in many countries like Spain and Germany. The unemployment is also on the increase. Greece was also hit by the recession and its industrial output decreased. In Portugal and Italy industrial output had decreased by more than 6%. In Italy, Fiat has announced its closure plans. In France the economy was hit by 0.3% and the GDP is also projected to decline in the coming quarters. Many banks in France were also declining. Banks in Switzerland were also showing losses like the UBS. In Germany, various state-owned financial institutions have been seriously affected by the crisis. The retail markets of Spain tumbled to an all time low.

THALAIVAN IRUKIRAN!

2009-01-15T23:26:00.003+05:30

The man who made the biggest blockbuster of last year is back and this time its different right from the way the titile goes. Yeah, with his ‘Marmayogi’ getting shelved and no news about ‘Thalaivan Irukiran’, Kamal Haasan is soon to deliver a good news for all his fans. He is involved in talks with UTV Motion Pictures of remaking the previous year’s blockbuster ‘A Wednesday’.
Kamal Haasan plays the role of a stranger who plants bombs across various parts of the city and threatens police commissioner (Mohan Lal) he would blast the entire city if he doesn’t release the most wanted criminals in town. Finally, things aren’t happening as you expected.

HAYDEN TIMES IT RIGHT!

2009-01-13T07:57:00.004+05:30

One of the greatest openers of the decade and the one who has been the best to open for Australia has stepped down-Mathew Hayden. This will be a very big loss to modern cricket where walking down the pitch and whacking the bowler over the head was done in a very simple and casual form. It all started for Hayden from India and there was no stepping back. This guy is full of power,attitude and strength. He walked down against the likes of Harmison, Flintoff, Zaheer, Pollock, Steyn, Murali, Bhajji, Bond etc. It was just like eating pie for him. He has indeed entertained us for the last 8 years and is truly amazing. It was him who always built the innings along with Langer in tests and Gilly in ODI's. I don't know why a couple of our Indian counterparts are still wondering to hang their boots. Laxman and Dravid-please think about it. I hope he continues playing for Chennai Super Kings and indeed one of the best openers in the world. Of course Australia should not have a problem with guys like Phil Jacques, Shaun Marsh and of course the ever adaptable Watson in their benches. At last let us all come together to say good bye to this majestic opener!

MY ENCOUNTER WITH JOSHNA CHINNAPA!

2009-01-07T09:58:00.003+05:30

I am 22 and just entering a new world full of work and deadlines. I have met a lot of people in my life and yesterday I met someone special. This individual is one of the best squash players in the world and along with Deepika Pallikal has made the nation proud many times. She is none other than Joshna Chinnapa. I had met her in my under 19 days once but I never knew she would raise to such a great extent. In fact she is the first Indian to win the British open. I met her near my office and when I first had a look, I had a doubt whether it was her but I followed her to her house which in just a few yards away from our office. I asked her whether she was Joshna Chinnapa and she had a gentle smile and said, "Yes,I am". I got her autograph and I felt very happy that a girl whom I saw some 5-6 years ago is the best in India. I have seen her play a lot of matches in television and she is really awesome. Some of her achivements are as follows:

British Open Junior, 2005 – winner
Asian Junior, 2005 – winner
World Junior, Belgium, 2005 – runner-up
British Open Junior, 2004 – runner-up
SAF Games, Pakistan, 2004 – gold
Hongkong event, 2004 – runner-up
Asian Championship, 2004 – bronze
Malaysian Junior, 2004 – winner
Junior National, 2004 – winner
Senior National, 2004 – winner

Joshna created history by being the first Indian girl to win the British Squash Championship title 2003, at Sheffield, U.K. and also winning the The Asian Junior Women Squash Championship at Islamabad, Pakistan on 6th Feb 2003. Making history has been a way of life with Joshna. She earlier in the year 2000 created history in the Indian sports, by winning the senior national squash title, at the age of 14 years. In this significant achievement, she eclipsed the other greats of Indian sport namely Vijay Amritraj – Vishwananthan Anand – Ramesh Krishnan and Prakash Pudukone, by holding the Senior & Junior national titles at the age 14 years while the above mentioned greats simultaneously held the Senior & Junior titles above the age of 15 years.

FREE HUGS!

2009-01-04T11:08:00.003+05:30

Hey Ude re ude re ude re ude re ude re ude
Ude re umang
Bina dor ke patang
Ek Doosre ke sang
Jud Gaya
Jiya Se Jiya-4

Koi gaaye dhun
Koi Nachhe Chhun Chhun
Koi Kahe Sun Sun
Jud Gaya
Jiya Se Jiya-2

(Ambar se sur taal barse
Gul Barse Gulhaar Barse) -2

Jud Gaya re Jud GayaJiya Se Jiya-2

Yahan pe Kan Kan Mein
Dil ke darpan mein
Yahan Dagar Dagar mein
Gaaon mein shahar mein
Prem har ek palak mein
har ek palak mein
Prem har ek jhalak mein
har ek jhalak mein

Jud Gaya re Jud Gaya
Jud Jud Gaya re Jud Gaya
Jud Jud Gaya re Jud Gaya
Jiya Se Jiya-2

Ude re umang
Bina dor ke patang
Ek Doosre ke sang
Jud Gaya
Jiya Se Jiya-4

Koi gaaye dhun
Koi Nachhe Chhun Chhun
Koi Kahe Sun Sun
Jud Gaya
Jiya Se Jiya-5

Its Time!

2009-01-02T23:37:00.004+05:30

The transfer season has begun and it is very clear that one team is going exert its force this time with crude oil playing a major role here. There is a lot of money and City looks like, well I wonder who are the big guns they are planning to rope in this time. First they should find an able right and left backs which would add tremendous value to them. They also need to fight a majestic centre forward someone like Torres or Drogba who are more physical at the goal line. Arsenal should find a good centre midfield player with Fabregas and Walcott injured. I wonder what Chelsea are going to do now? United and Liverpool I feel would keep their mouth shut. In Spain for sure Real Madrid will buy at least four good players so that they add more depth to their squad in time for the champions league against Liverpool. Barca would love to offer Eto a new contract and Valencia would protect and hide Villa for sure from buyers. In Italy, Roma should buy a better defender who can play even as a winger someone like Chivu. Inter and Juventus will bring in more youngsters and Inter for sure is expected to bring in strikers. Milan will not exert its force except in trying to rope in Gallas. Ribery moving out of Germany is also a likely possibility. Well after all watch out for the Champions league which is going to be amazing.

AMAZING AND AWESOME!

2008-12-30T22:13:00.005+05:30

Recently a friend of mine bought a new camera and showed me all the features in it. I started comparing it with my camera and finally I took a snap of him. When I uploaded it into my computer I found the picture to be of amazing clarity. So I thought this should be framed. Digital Photo Frame is what I came to know about. Photos are a means of celebration and I found amazing quality with the photo frame. CEIVA Digital Photo frame is simply amazing and the photo even looked better once I used this frame. This is definitely unique frame and I felt like buying more and more frames. I did it and started putting a lot of photos in these frames. Just click on the link which I have provided and you will know the true value of it. It is made of high quality material and this definitely is wonderful. These are one of those rarest moments in life which we come across and we try to capture every moment of those periods. Try using this frame for all those pictures and it will be even more delightful. This is sure to make life more beautiful.

MY SUN SIGN!

2008-12-23T23:35:00.002+05:30

Aquarians basically possess strong and attractive personalities. They fall into two principle types: one shy, sensitive, gentle and patient; the other exuberant, lively and exhibitionist, sometimes hiding the considerable depths of their character under a cloak of frivolity. Both types are strong willed and forceful in their different ways and have strong convictions, though as they seek truth above all things, they are usually honest enough to change their opinions, however firmly held, if evidence comes to light which persuades them that they have been mistaken. They have a breadth of vision that brings diverse factors into a whole, and can see both sides of an argument without shilly-shallying as to which side to take. Consequently they are unprejudiced and tolerant of other points of view. This is because they can see the validity of the argument, even if they do not accept it themselves. They obey the Quaker exhortation to "Be open to truth, from whatever source it comes," and are prepared to learn from everyone.

WISHES COME TRUE

2008-12-23T23:23:00.009+05:30

I really love this part of the year. It's cold and also it is the time when one gets a lot of gifts from Santa. Yes, I am talking about Christmas. People of all ages have wishes and they all want it to get fulfilled. Recently I came through a website which gave me the chance of uploading on my photos taken when I was seven years old. It looked as if I had got a wish. This looked like as if I was sitting on Santa's lap. This looked like a dream come true. I could not believe it that this had happened in front of my eyes. The photo which I had uploaded was also very special. This was the first ever photo which I had taken from my camera which my parents bought for me. This photo was also really special and uploading it was great fun. So I request you to upload your photo with the link I have provided and I bet you will have great fun. You also have a chance to enter into the lucky draw where you can earn 500 American dollars. This indeed is huge sums of money and I have already registered. So do not wait. Let not the opportunity go by. Just jump into it and hold on to this opportunity.

Your room has more to it!

2008-12-23T23:21:00.001+05:30

LIFE.........

2008-12-23T23:20:00.002+05:30

CDMA

2008-12-23T23:10:00.002+05:30

CDMA is a "spread spectrum" technology, which means that it spreads the information contained in a particular signal of interest over a much greater bandwidth than the original signal. A CDMA call starts with a standard rate of 9600 bits per second (9.6 kilobits per second). This is then spread to a transmitted rate of about 1.23 Megabits per second. Spreading means that digital codes are applied to the data bits associated with users in a cell. These data bits are transmitted along with the signals of all the other users in that cell. When the signal is received, the codes are removed from the desired signal, separating the users and returning the call to a rate of 9600 bps.
The goal of spread spectrum is a substantial increase in bandwidth of an information-bearing signal, far beyond that needed for basic communication. The bandwidth increase, while not necessary for communication, can mitigate the harmful effects of interference, either deliberate, like a military jammer, or inadvertent, like co-channel users. The interference mitigation is a well-known property of all spread spectrum systems. However the cooperative use of these techniques in a commercial, non-military, environment, to optimize spectral efficiency was a major conceptual advance.
In a December 1995 release, Qualcomm, the San Diego Company that developed CDMA, advocated their product by saying, "CDMA provides significant benefits to customers including superior voice quality, enhanced privacy, fraud protection, messaging services and longer-lasting battery power in the phones."

ALUMINUM CASTINGS!

2008-12-23T23:05:00.000+05:30

ACETONITRILE!

2008-12-23T22:58:00.001+05:30

Acetonitrile, also called methyl cyanide, is the simplest organic nitrile; clear, flammable liquid; melting at -45 C; boiling at 81.6 C; miscible with water and with common organic solvents such as alcohols, ethers, ethanol, acetone, saturated hydrocarbons (alkenes), chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, ethylene chloride and chlorinated alkanes, but immiscible with many saturated hydrocarbons (alkanes). Gases such as HCl, SO2, and H2S are soluble in acetonitrile. It can be obtained by dehydration of an acetic acid and ammonia mixtureor or by the reaction of ethanol and ammonia in the presence of catalyst such as Ag, Cu, MoO3, and ZnS at moderate temperatures as well as a by-product of acrylonitrile synthesis. Acetonitrile is also produced by the reaction of cyanogen chloride with methane, ketones, ethanol, alkylene epoxides, and paraffins (or olefins). Its primary use is as an extraction solvent for unsaturated hydrocarbons (especially butadiene) and as a general purpose solvent for many compounds including fatty acids and oils based on its selective miscibility. It is used as a general purpose solvent for many compounds. It is used in the production of fibers, rubbers, and resins. It is replacing acrylonitrile, an important starting material in the manufacture of fabrics, plastics, and synthetic rubber. It is used as a chemical intermediate in pesticide, perfume and pharmaceutical manufacturing. It is used in high-performance liquid and gas chromatographic analysis. It is used in extraction and refining of copper.