Do you see the Media Companies?

I've been doing a bit of teaching for a while now and also a few sessions in office and I have an interesting observation about how people see certain organisations. I have for long maintained a point of view on Google and Facebook. Its starts with a fairly simple test - what kind of an organisation is Google? The most often repeated answer is "search engine", so then I push it a further - I said "Organisation" the brand Google maybe a "search engine" the organisation surely isn't, after various answers like "technology", "Software", "communication" I give them my answer. Google to me is a media organisation, their revenues stream in from "advertising" it is what funds their "technology". The develop faster search engines, more customization, maps,  a new OS for phones, a new phone, the glass and everything - so that they KNOW YOU better, that way the advertising and the content dished out to you is the MOST relevant content at that point. They develop media and newer media to know where you are, who is your friend and everything else for one sole purpose - advertising. Which is what enables google to keep, its blog, youtube, mail and everything else free. The same logic applies to facebook as well. They too are a media company infact quite apt - social media. Whatever these companies do, it is to generate more avenues of knowing an individual better to advertise better.Period.

do you have a garage?

Aloha! (thank you flickr for teaching me that numerous times)
What's with garages and businesses? I mean why does every "started small, made it big" organisation always have its roots in a garage? is there some kinda research to prove some symbiotic relationship between garages and business plans? Am still waiting for that story where someone started their business in their living room or kitchen or bedroom. Hasn't there been some awesomatic chef dude who started in the kitchen and that became his kitchen? no, i read a story again of a guy who started selling food from his garage and is now successful. Maybe we should stop saying "rags to riches" and start saying "garage to office".
I've read atleast 2 stories in the last 2 days of garage successes and that I called upon myself - just was curious to know the origins of afaqs.com and voila! there's another garage to office story.
This after knowing the stories of steve jobs and his garage, page/ brin and their garage, gates and his garage, dell (not sure) and other dudes who founded amazon, hp.... you get the drift. Agreed, america has huge ass garages - the size of my apartment probably, but India? even apartments that are just 10+ years old do not have parking, let alone a garage. Yet somehow the enterprising lot "found" their garage.
So you ask what's my gripe? well i didn't have a garage nor could afford to rent a house with a spare one. Lucky bastards with those empty garages. I now know where i went wrong with that entrepreneurial saga of mine - i should have started in the ever so "humble" garage.

blistering barnacles

I've lived the longest part of my life in Madras. More than a decade; and that too through my adrenaline pumped teens, college and my first job. I never really complained about the freaking heat here and was so accustomed to it, like it was normal.

Like most schools; we had what was called the "morning assembly", the stupid thing that it was, you had kids dropping like bowling pins thanks to the heat. Cricket in the summer heat during my school holidays was always the same - a bunch of skinny boys in over sized tees (or) banians (vest) screaming, sweating, panting and drenched completely with sweat. Burnt skin, not even a tan - was the sign of great endurance among the boys. Every guy back to school from the hols was probably 120 shades darker, and boy were we proud of it, it made us feel manly, like you've passed through the training sessions of SEAL team 6.

I look back today and wonder, WTF, was I insane? were the rest of us insane? cycling and playing this this heat of 42 degrees?! I blame the Brits, I think they had summer holidays during this time of the year - when you could probably go out in England - it was warm and pleasant and not freakin chilly.

I just stayed for barely 2 years in Bangalore and now i am back in Madras., after Bangalore, my tolerance for this weather has just vanished. So while Mumbai is being lashed with heavy rains, I stare into the blistering sky with a heavy heart, hoping it bloody rains.

what's with the world?

is it just me or is it the media? i suddenly seem to be finding unrest everywhere. I laughed it out when I saw 2012 in the theatres. Now every country seems to be going through some major turnmoil - egypt went theu one, then libya, suddenly bahrain, a natural calamity leading to disaster after disaster in Japan, scams each bigger that the previous ones in India. Oh yeah, stupid TN politics with vijaykanth and vadivel reprising comic roles. We win the world cup, only to be given away by sharad pawar?! the cup is touted to be a replica :D . Afridi and his morose comments that barely deserve the attention they get. Times Now going gaga over anything and everything, I specifically hated that freaking annoying title during the world cup - "burning question" written with flames, couldn't get more literal. Ditto for this annoying crap where everything is "breaking news" thank god they didn't show something break!

This besides Arnab Goswami's face and other stuff that dominate the headlines. I think he needs new glasses or some surgery. Am seriously tired of Goswamis face and it goes without saying Barkha's too, but then its been ages since I watched NDTV regularly.

The US as usual poking and its annoying nose in the name of "upholding liberty" everything possible covered by BBC, while the channel seems to care a damn about the ICC world cup. And then they say up north in India tremors to the order of 5.5 were felt today. Maybe I should take check off the bucket list quickly, which includes punching a few assholes in various places I cannot mention and that long pending road trip.

See you at the other side.

Made in Japan

This post is dedicated to the Japanese, among the other million that are on a daily basis.

I started to hear about Japan from a very young age. Examples about the Japanese and their products were seemingly endless. While I lived in the gulf, and when we bought any product with the label "Made in Japan" it always drew the oohs, aahs and compliments from guests.

As a child, my mum's most often cited and repeated example about working hard were the Japanese. Her story usually goes like this - "in Japan when workers want to go on a strike, they produce excessive stock, whereas everywhere else in the world they stop working" - this was her effort to make me finish homework, study and do my daily chores, while I always argued on how I could do extra chores and homework. This was besides the stories of the World War, where also I got to know about the kamikaze's, the US nuking em and finally their resilience in building their nation back after a nuclear catastrophe and selling their products globally and conquering markets in the very same country that nuked ‘em. They basically got the Toyota’s, Honda’s and Sony's sitting in every American home.

I don’t think I’ve met any Jap in my adult life and don't recollect meeting one also, but have been in awe of them. They managed to miniaturize every goddamn thing, make it more efficient and create engineering marvels. Today, the nation stands on the brink of nuclear catastrophe 65 years later, am sure they’ll bounce back before anyone knew what happened with that little tag floating on everything "made in japan".

dear mr. prime minister,

I watched the news today, over lunch with disgust. I hoped to hear you take some stance.

Am not the guy who followed your illustrious political career, or was in awe of your economic policies or anything of that sort, but before you took oath as the PM, I always respected you - as many influencers (including my grandfather) during my impressionable age told me that you were brilliant finance person.

Your proclamation that you are not a "lame duck PM" did anything but cement that your name. Everything you said did prove just that. Your defense on the 2G scam and accusations against Raja - that he got the telecom berth was due to lobbying by Karunanidhi? coalition dharma? coalition compromises? Is that all you had? Had you spent some time kicking out these guys rather than coin new political jargons I would have been pleased.

"In coalition politics you have to make COMPROMISES" I understand that you are person who holds no grudges or isn't one bit prejudiced to not allot the telecom ministry to Raja, but i do presume you hold the single most powerful title of the largest democracy in the world "PRIME minister" so give him the ministry, but isn't it your job to ensure he does his job righteously ? I hope thats a part of your JD. So, the finance minister and telecom decided the price and lead the govt. to losses in crores, and your retort is that you could not control who took what ministry? With due fairness, maybe that is the compromise you need to make in coalition politics - who gets what ministry - and thats the end of it. After that, you are Mr.PM responsible to uphold the ethics of your cabinet - whoever bought out what ministry is irrespective. You had to say you did not have the "AUTHORITY" to object to raja in the cabinet? but you did have the "AUTHORITY" to object to his functioning? Your stance that you are clean DOES NOT absolve you of your responsibilities as the PM. There is NO COMPROMISE on that.

While you can say that you are "not the culprit" you've been made out to be, you've failed to stop the culprits or even acknowledge it or do anything about it. This is like the random guy who stands across and watches another guy on a suicidal mission and says "hey am not party to this, I didn't lead him to suicide! someone else did, why blame me?". This is the moral police who were busy on valentines chasing couples and not catching culprits. We aren't asking if you are clean Mr. Minister or your questioning your Morals or if you are an honest and good man. We all believed till now that you are a nice man, but we don't need just a nice man, we need a tough one. All we want to know is what were you doing when things were falling apart? I am disappointed, so is the nation. Your financial acumen and economic reform, where have they gone? inflation is eating into our stomachs and your ministers eat into our coffers and sap the nation of any shred of honour - the CWG has demonstrated that quite very well.

You just indirectly blame the DMK and you merely "trusted your cabinet". Is that all you could manage to come up with? And you should applaud the DMK family on controlling everything from the media to movies and presenting only what they feel politically serves their purpose or to create a distraction.

What was that on the devas scam? I hope you understand what it means when you license out a spectrum that was not intended for licensing. I have often heard the term "threat to national security" - all that you can say was that the PMO was not involved?

The Radia tapes? and the CWG?

Seriously rather than having a press conf. proclaiming you are no "lame duck PM", earn it.
Pull up your socks, clean the basket - too many rotten eggs.

regards,

one more concerned citizen

facebook, advertising and brand custodians

Today morning the first page that I opened was facebook. Its always been gmail and before that, it was google.

In many ways facebook has changed my life. Not that it was the first social network that i've been or that I've found most of my friends and added them compared to any other network (vice versa) and never give a damn, probably don't even drop a hi.

But being in advertising here's how;

Over a period of time Facebook has evolved from a social network to a brand network - it is more of a business tool (social MEDIA) than a social network that it was. Facebook pages now function as websites for brands and draw way more hits and responses online than the websites of any brand ever did.

Like most websites and networks FB uses data - about you, me, our friends to understand us and send us targeted advertising. So its just another website that uses analytics, data mining and a whole of other jargon to send you relevant ads, for which they charge respective clients on a CPC or CPI/CPM models or find any new fancy pants way to charge them.

And while they do this, they get amazing FREE advertising worth billions of dollars across almost every damn media vehicle. Their self-promotion is completely through other brands who use their services.

Every brand has a tagline "join us on facebook.com/xxxxxxxx" this being blared in radio, in TV shows, print ads, hoardings, posters, websites, on t-shirts and generally anywhere anyone finds place be it even your or my ass. And most of brands now want to flash their "facebook badge" and page id, bigger than ever, maybe even bigger than their own logo.

Mark Zuckerberg, you are a fucking genius. You get free advertising from brand managers. You get the same brand managers to pay to use your service. You also get them to plaster your logo across everywhere.

TATA vs TATA

I've always loved the TATA's. Apparently they stand for trust (which I was taught) and for IT, Cabs, Cars, Cheaper Cars, Expensive Cars, Luxury Cars, CDMA Telecom, GSM Telecom, Broadband Internet, Mobile Internet, Steel, Manufacturing, Engineering, Energy, Tea, Foods, Chemicals, Retail, Watches, Jewellery, Hospitality...ok, now this may go on, and maybe they have holdings some other billion companies, lets get to the point.

I recently made an interesting observation, where they stood for Confusion. Sometimes when a brand name is plastered across various segments/verticals/business domains or whatever it jus leads to confusion. With the every brand manager wanting his share of the Tata logo, the brand is probably most recognized. So yea, I was at a Tata Indicom store recently to settle my bill; there walks in a guy, about 45, who wanted to recharge his Tata Docomo connection. To his dismay the guy found out that he had to locate a Tata Docomo store and go there, boy was he pissed, here is a transcript of the conversation (translated from tamil):

Guy: Sir, I want to recharge my prepaid

Service rep: No sir, We're Tata Indicom, we deal with CDMA and not GSM, for that you need to goto the Docomo Store.

Guy: But you guys are the same Tata Company right? and its a mobile service? why do you have separate stores? Why can't you have it here?

S.P: Sir, we are different and they're, they're are tie up with docomo

Guy: So what? still u are TATA na? why can't all your Tata stores which offer mobile services be together?

S.P: Sir, I don't know sir, That only the company can decide, I just work here. You have to goto Tata Docomo sir.

Guy: what companies you guys run, people like me have to go there, here and everywhere. What kind of customer service is this?

Guy (mumbling): wat a useless company! they offer mobile services in separate shops...blah blah

Meanwhile, I had to leave, couldn't gather the rest of his mumbling.

On a lighter note, the best I can say is, confuse your customers, diversify, they'll never know where to complain :D

5 years to nirvana

ok yeah. Maybe it sounds lame, given that am the not so very philosophical types. but here goes.

Its been 5 years. Working for someone. Working for an organisation. I started working on April 1st, 2005 (ok yea, what an day to start a career?! go figure) and finally walked out on March 31st, 2010.

I worked in an industry that pays peanuts, promises a lot. You see, its not only the ads that promise a lot to the ever so smart consumer who most often doesn't give a shit about it, the best part is when we kick research to figure out what he thinks - while he is most probably thinking "why are u guys eating my brains out". The industry too promises a lot.

Promise. The industry thrives on that - some call this promise "getting orgasmic when you see your work on TV/ papers/mags". Its a place where everyone believes and are often made to believe they're creatively "gifted" and are so different in a world among the homogeneous morons in other industries - namely clients, bankers, IT, manufacturing and what not.. quite simple which they believe are in the same league as cleaning gutters, changing bulbs on street lamps, collecting garbage.

Some my best moments have been in conversations with people wanting to join the industry, or even in the industry - so why did you end up in advtg?? - you see am the creative type, am a very creative person. So then i ask "how are you creative?" - most often blank looks are thrown around like I asked something nasty about their parentage or asked them to derive e=mc2, or they say stuff like "i write poems" "i paint" and I go "wow".

And in this sense some of us believe we're gifts to humanity, jesus christ 2.0, kalki 20xx and buddha reincarnated.

We are used to believing that all other jobs are boring to death and we the creme of the creme, now it doesn't matter that you're annually paid 1/3rd of what an entry level exec takes home per month at the clients side.

this is the philosophy we operate:

1. We have glamour

2. We have fun @ work coz we don't work most often - the best part is when we choose to "think" for the creative idea.

3. We think every product sucks (especially our own clients, the competitors product is always better than our clients)

4. We are creative, we're cool, we love awards - which we give ourselves and then over which we fight crying foul

5. We like firang stuff, like to sell firang stuff, love firang awards & firang porn.

all right. my raves and ranting apart, I still dunno why I love it. Am the rambling on this stops here.

So yeah, where was I? five years to nirvana. so 5 years in a mayhem of an industry has taught me lots from where I started. One of the most important things I've learned is this. When I stepped into a job, I always thought and believed that I'll be "the ambitious" - work hard, move up the ladder fast.

Turns out, everyone else is the same. As naive as that sounds, it did really open my eyes.

In these 5 years of working in multiple organisations and handling many clients, I am yet to meet a person who isn't ambitious. Well it adds up like this, that we're a part of the same society, values, similar educational systems and heck yea everyone believes he/she can be CEO and wants to be one. And I realised I am in this rat race.

Somewhere while ambition grew, I also had dreams. In a career path most of us are ambitious, and I guess that's the way it is to be. We slog it out to beat the rest of us, which is what I was. In these five years I was quite simply chasing my ambition, like everyone else does. And then one fine day I decided to see what happens if I chase my dreams. I QUIT.

As difficult as ambitions may appear, chasing them with a plan and right spirit does get you somewhere up there, or atleast close to it. Chasing a dream is very different, I've started to already "feel" that. And in my case chasing many is stupid and probably weird, but heck yea, I can atleast say "I tried" the day I turn 50 something and retire with 4 dogs.

And yea, before I finish, just incase you also get inspired (heh he) a forewarning: Sometimes dreams aren't dreams, they just happen to be nightmares or turn into one. All da best!

cheers!

treasure hunt

I was recently shopping at crossword and found posters saying "wear the old coat/hat and buy the new book"

It led me to wonder, the days I used to shop for books from second hand book shops.

the treasure hunt

One of the lovable things about being able to shop in an old book shop is simply what i call the treasure hunt. Unlike LF bookstores like landmark, crossword, odyssey etc where books are arranged by categories, labels and ISBN no.s that help me quickly identify what i want or would inevitably take me to my most favourite category by default, old book shops are haphazard and random. With no order, no categories to lead me to anything that i normally would, i tend to browse more and explore more types of books from recipes (which i never have) to what not. And more often than not I end up seeing something so interesting in a genre i otherwise wouldn't have ventured into. And so the treasure hunt begins....

price: of all the advantages, the price is the most tangilble one, considering I spend a lot of time browsing (which I do enjoy, and don't pay for)

the character: I think books have a character that they develop over ages when more people read them, mark them, rip them. They tell a story beyond their pages. I love the dog ears and brownish-yellow pages to crumbling pages. all of it.

the surprise: besides the story they carry and the character, most often some end up with little leaves, wrappers, notes, cash, dead bugs...et al. you name it. i have been surprised to see what all you can find inside an old book.

dates: most have the original owners name/ gifters name & date. it leaves me a lot to wonder about the person who read this book, how they looked, what they did for a living (some even leave their qualifications embedded), where they lived and virtually a mini bio data. In this case "the older the date, the better"

the aroma: i love the smell of books, old or new. as the gum, binding and paper ages with increasing acidity and a host of other masalas which may have spilt over the book. a book develops an aroma that is omnipresent in all libraries and old book shops alike. i love it.

Though i do buy at crosswords & landmarks of the world., old book shops have a special place, coz they tell a story beyond their pages, so i may not always buy the new book or print.

image credit: www.flickr.com/photos/untums/533118282/

i'll be back!

Lets RULE, they say!

Am back after a hiatus.

Ok, elections are soon on. I guess the great democratic nation is yet on another bid to elect its "ruling party" by April - May this year and that is enough reason to cause mayhem in our country.


What the heck, I say! I've been voting ever since I was eligible. It feels great to choose. yes it does. So whats my problem? well I hate the very term all these moronic media giants use. Am just curious, we elect our representatives so that they "serve us" they "represent us". So where and when the hell did they decide to "RULE" us? and why does the media refer to them as "ruling party"? shouldn't it be "serving party" or whatever???

I mean whats the funda in electing another king or queen or proxy/dummy/ puppet king (u know who!!) when we're supposedly a democracy??? and more over a republic??

So here comes the brigade to rule over you and me while we bend over and the media continues to report all about how they rule us. In a democratic country where the media is very powerful and all, isn't it their responsibility that when they report anything or conduct their exit polls to sensitise people to wake up and not be ruled? isn't it their responsibility? Don't they know it or do they just pretend?

Maybe its because of the very term that people have become desensitised to their rights and powers and feel like a helpless and hapless bunch ruled over by a elected government or plainly just any politician.

To start with, maybe we could write out letters to all media houses before the election commences to refrain from using such terms. Maybe that will instill some confidence in our people.


credit for pic: R.K laxman. Thanks!

Phoenix to mars

which would make us happy if we find life or if we don't?

Frankly, to me i would like it if we do find life on mars.... but then life as in? often we picture life as something that is close to humanity or something that is similar to animals as such...but then most often what we are looking for is a life form na? anything like a bacteria too is a life form rite? or something like virus which exists between both (though i was taught this is school, its kinda interesting and disturbing to think of something in between life and non-life)...could the discovery of a virus be counted as life??????????

I really dunno about that, but I've always pictured a parallel world to us where a guy exactly like me exists, doing exactly the same thing ....right now...like writing this same blog.....

whatever.... i hope we find life..

Calvin n Hobbes

I picked this up from another site........... this is dedicated to Calvin's dad.....with his really awesome answers to Calvin...

Astronomy

Q. Why does the sun set?
A. It’s because hot air rises. The sun’s hot in the middle of the day, so it rises high in the sky. In the evening then, it cools down and sets.
Q. Why does it go from east to west?
A. Solar wind.

Q. Why does the sky turn red as the sun sets?
A. That’s all the oxygen in the atmosphere catching fire.
Q. Where does the sun go when it sets?
A. The sun sets in the west. In Arizona actually, near Flagstaff. That’s why the rocks there are so red.
Q. Don’t the people get burned up?
A. No, the sun goes out as it sets. That’s why it’s dark at night.
Q. Doesn’t the sun crush the whole state as it lands?
A. Ha ha, of course not. Hold a quarter up. See, the sun’s just about the same size.
Q. I thought I read that the sun was really big.
A. You can’t believe everything you read, I’m afraid.

Evolution of Technology

Q. How come old photographs are always black and white? Didn’t they have color film back then?
A. Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs are in color. It’s just that the world was black and white then. The world didn’t turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.
Q. But then why are old paintings in color?! If the world was black and white, wouldn’t artists have painted it that way?
A. Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.
Q. But… But how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn’t their paints have been shades of gray back then?
A. Of course, but they turned colors like everything else did in the ’30s.
Q. So why didn’t old black and white photos turn color too?
A. Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember?

Theory of Relativity!!

Q. Dad, will you explain the theory of relativity to me? I don’t understand why time goes slower at great speed.
A. It’s because you keep changing time zones. See, if you fly to California, you gain three hours on a five-hour flight, right? So if you go at the speed of light, you gain more time, because it doesn’t take as long to get there. Of course, the theory of relativity only works if you’re going west.

How things work?

Q. Why do my eyes shut when I sneeze?
A. If your lids weren’t closed, the force of the explosion would blow your eyeballs out and stretch the optic nerve, so your eyes would flop around and you’d have to point them with your hands to see anything.

Q. How do bank machines work?
A. Well, let’s say you want 25 dollars. You punch in the amount and behind the machine there’s a guy with a printing press who makes the money and sticks it out this slot.
Q. Sort of like the guy who lives up in our garage and opens the door?
A. Exactly.

Simple Physics

Q. What causes the wind?
A. Trees sneezing.

Q. Why does ice float?
A. Because it’s cold. Ice wants to get warm, so it goes to the top of liquids to be nearer to the sun.
Q. Is that true?
A. Look it up and find out.
Q. I should just look up stuff in the first place.

Secret of omniscience

Q. How come you know so much?
A. It’s all in the book you get when you become a father.

tamglish

as·sault

–noun

1.	a sudden, violent attack; onslaught: an assault on tradition.

2.	Law. an unlawful physical attack upon another; an attempt or offer to do violence to another, with or without battery, as by holding a stone or club in a threatening manner.

3.	Military. the stage of close combat in an attack.

4.

rape1.

–verb (used with object)

5.	to make an assault upon; attack; assail.

dictionary. com states the above as the meaning of assault...... u must be wondering why this is up here....well, go on read!

assault-a mudichudivean............................................assault-a iruku ma!


how often have u heard this? if u stay in Tamilnadu, more specifically Chennai....and u speak the local lingo, you def must have come across this statement, esp with d urchins and college going crowd. I've often wondered how this English word became so very Tamil! and more than that, what bugs me is how did its meaning change? from its original meaning?? the Tamil version of assault is quite simply put, as follows;

assault = easy


so when someone says "assault-a mudichudivaen" they mean that they'd finish watever it is, quite easily.....in other words it is like a "cakewalk"


so from where did this term stem? and how did its meaning change? i have seen the English adapt Tamil words into their language...catamaran etc etc and we are often proud tat they did so! the buggers couldn't just pronounce and couldn't find another word so they just added it to their vocab! though i fail to understand whats there to be proud about it, i appreciate English as a language, coz it adapts, borrows and evolves with time. Most purists of any language would disapprove of such "borrowing" or adapting.... they'd say it spoils the language and dilutes its form.

I beg to differ! a language is to communicate! to bring people together and make them understand each other, not to fight over its purity! and in tat case no matter what purists stand for, English is by far one of the languages that has managed to adapt and penetrate world over...

Kudos to English...

as for how "assault" came into Tamil and that too with a different meaning........ go figure it yourself! and if you do find any other such words do let me know!

Indians? Achievers?

Stumbling has hooked me............. whoever came up with this idea deserves an applause.
its been quite a few months since i've started stumbling and its pretty addictive. The very idea of discovering new sites in your area of interest in amazing, and you get a chance to visit, ponder, revisit some really amazing sites which you otherwise would probably never stumble into during your lifetime....

since one of my interest areas is in Space & exploration.... i came across sites....and one link after another i reach a page with an article about Ms Kalpana Chawla & Sunita williams and the others alike....with an article hailing them as "Indian Achievers", now that sets tempers soaring!

Frankly, i don't understand the hype create over these characters, the only thing Indian about them is probably their lineage, in any other aspect, i fail to recognize their contribution to India, in any way except than their parents. There are many such characters...business men, scientists (esp this lot) who we hail as "INDIANS".

And soon enough some school textbooks have these characters on the books (i guess kalpana Chawla is already there as a martyr) ...........aaaarghh!!! With due respect to them, how have they contributed in the research and growth of India? I remember Sunita Williams trip to India was so publicized with media interviews and what not...........gimme a break!!

They have not contributed in anyway to India or its growth in science, they work for NASA! Did they DO ANYTHING for ISRO or Indian space research? nah!! we fail to recognize icons in our own country, take the case of M.S. Swaminathan - he contrubuted so much to feed our nation thru the green revolution, any sign of them?? nah?

we like to suck up to U.S and guess will continue to do so with brainless cheap politics in something like research and science. I Hope we realise who "true Indians" are, and show them some respect and gratitude.

Cos we don't want our children working in NASA? or do we? is ISRO so bad?? why should we show these characters as achievers? is it that working in NASA with an Indian lineage is more important than actually working in ISRO for INDIA as an INDIAN??

MAC vs PC

The Mac Vs PC wars are never ending, even after mac brought in a platform that supports windows and other PC based software....

Mac users swear by it and often take a dig at pc users being the lowlife... and to pull d carpet right under all PC manufacturers mac launched Macbook Air. I've come across many such comments/ cartoons.... but here's one which takes the other side.... and it comes as quite a surprise since only yest my BIG BOSS was going gaga over the same anti-virus capabilities and high speed net connectivity of a mac... lol (i hope he reads this blog)

Have a good laugh....

Remember everything

In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University.

On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Mbembe approached it very carefully.

He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it.

As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.

The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments.

Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.

Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Mbembe was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son.

As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Mbembe and his son Tapu were standing.

The large bull elephant stared at Mbembe, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Mbembe couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant.

Mbembe summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Mbembe' s legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly .

Probably wasn't the same elephant.

fried idlis.....yumm

I have got used to eating out so often, probably situations forced me to, but nevertheless no regrets!!

best places to eat............. not in any specific order though

• Sangeeta's - fried idlis, sambhar vada's, rasa vada's
• Ashok pan shop - Anna Nagar - Spl Sandwich, Masala thumbs Up, Cheese Puff
• Gangotree - Chaat - all types, esp the curd varieties
• Shiridi - Behind stella maris - good food, good view (;P) ....unlimited
• Outside Alsa Mall - Sandwiches
• Vishranti - besant nagar - just about anythin

Am no great foodie, and i don't experiment much... but then who wouldn't love good food?