I always thought that IDEA's television ad was irritating at some level. An IDEA can change your life. What relevance does it have with the product? What is so innovative about this service provider? Its public image is no more than a second fiddle to Airtel. The whole "what an IDEA sirji!" is even more irritating. And the fact that they use political revolution as the backdrop for selling a sim card can only be described as self delusion. As if their marketing concept was not irritating enough, their new ad harps on how socialist and poverty driven our economy is. There's a contactor who proposes to the Mantri (minister) to build a shopping mall in khet (agricultural land literally – but I guess they are referring to village as a whole). Here the IDEA man Abhishek Bachchan suggests that janta needs to be asked about their opinion. So he sends sms to all the janta (using IDEA!! Voila!!!) for their opinion. And as if to pacify the communists in India, all the poor fa
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Lawyers are defending the right to represent terror suspects. For Kasab. First things first; Kasab is not a "suspect". He was caught red handed, for God's sake! But then they say that everyone has a right to self defense. Agreed; like the lawyer puts it, we can't possibly conduct a national sms poll to decide the fate of Kasab. He has to be tried. But what amuses me is what Kasab's defense lawyer is going to defend him on? "your honor, yeh ek garib aadmi hai. LeT ke behkawe mein aake 60 logon ko mar diya. He is not guilty your honor!" or if I apply my movie law education – "your honor, isne apna dimaagi santulan kho diya tha. VT station par inhone jo kuch kiya wo sab apne hosho awaaz mein nahi kiya. Your honor, mein appeal karta hoon ki inhe asylum mein treatment diya jaye. Your honor, he is not guilty, he is bimar". I don't have legal education. But I doubt if there's anything that the defense lawyer can do. And if he can, I am kinda
This year there have been many bomb blasts across the country. So many that we had lost our sensitivity for these blasts. Even the media lost its interest. People just took blasts as something which is part of their lives. Terrorists were not getting enough footage. So they have reinvented themselves. After more than 21 hours of terror, I can say this is something we have never seen before. Media have set up their second homes in all critical locations. Mumbai, the city which can never be stopped has indeed stopped. I just hope it does not stop at the media circus and we, as a country, don't get used to this kind of terrorism too. I hope it's a wake up call for the authorities to realize the state of our security system. Because this brazen open attack by terrorists out in the open is an evidence of their confidence to breach our country's security in any way they want as opposed to placing bombs and remotely detonating them.
Dieting has never been my thing. I love food too much to avoid it. But getting into shape is something I want to do without any sacrifices. And that's when I see my best friend's wedding as an excuse to get back in shape. I have to get a saari-wearable figure in 2 weeks time. So I decided to carry out a gymming marathon for 2 weeks. Yesterday I told my trainer that I mean business. I have to have flat…. umm tummy… in 2 weeks straight. I think he has taken his job too seriously. He made me do weird crunches for every muscle in my body. I just limped back to my apartment. Fingers are the only thing I can move now which is why I am typing - the only thing I can do without going ooh aah ouch! I hope in I am alive after 2 weeks and have a tummy to put my food into.
I have a meeting at Belapur today. As I climb down the bridge to Matunga Central station, busy listening to my ipod, I couldn't help but notice the stark difference between western stations and central ones. The crowd is different. The occupations are different. Even the digital displays are older and about to fall off the roof, which itself has not been repaired in last 50 years. All in all it was a different world just a bridge away from the western line station. Anyone who has visited Mumbai once will know that the city is divided into haves and haves not by west and east along this long coastal cosmopolitan city. While I'm waiting for my train,I read my newspaper which tells me about the elitist problems in the finances of the richest street in the world. I just look up to see if the train is arriving and right in front of me beyond the railing I see this woman taking bath. Out of the nala water (open waste/sewage line) which was flowing beside the railway track!!! I don
These days, newspapers are all about the US financial markets. Housing bubble just doesn't seem to bust completely. Last one year was marked by events which experts would term as the ultimate bust of the bubble. But the bubble just doesn't stop busting. It wiped out the whole investment banking in US and converted them into traditional banking business models. I like to believe that they are following Indian footprints. As I walk towards my office gate, I realize that tremor of this earthquake have reached all the way to Indian banks too. There's a strike in my bank and all nationalized banks. Ha.. got you.. if you thought we have some sophisticated complicated convoluted complex problem related to financial quants!! No sir, we Indians have more humane problems. Like the union issues!! Really sad.
Really… These days I get a feeling I don't own my own time anymore (ridiculous as it may sound!). There was a time when I could decide what I wanted to do when I wanted to do. But off late I notice if I decide to delay any activity for any reason, I will eventually never get time to do it. Its like procrastination is no more an option. Even if I plan efficiently to do something later on, something completely unexpected would come up and I would miss the deadline. And worse, I am not the only one who's affected by it anymore, but a lot of people around me are too. And I am not just talking about work but even personal errands. The truth suddenly dawns on me. I never had to manage time before. And now that's not the case. And I don't think time is going to turn back again. It's like end of an era. I am going to miss the old time when I owned my time.
I always refer to the rural development programmes as corruption programmes. Now have a look at this . It's about implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. Main observations by Transparency International are that 61% of rural population were selected beneficiaries, 23% got job cards, 11% got paid and only 5% could demand unemployment allowance. And 1 out of 10 households had to pay bribes to get jobs, which amounts to Rs.7.15 cr paid by 9.65 lac rural households. I really believe that there are no free lunches and if there are, there's got to be something fishy there. What is required here is roll out of much needed agricultural reforms and create opportunities for these rural households rather than creating opportunities for the bureaucrats and politicians.
Indian politics is giving serious competition to bollywood masala flicks these days. I would really want to see this allegation by BJP to be investigated to the bottom. I personally feel there is equal probability for it to be true or be a complete hoax. But either way, it is serious bollywood masala stuff. And our news channels make it all so entertaining. NDTV played "Singh is King" for Manmohan Singh when he won!! Talk about dramatic! I love India. This is one of the crazy (not so fabulous!) times I am going to remember. On a serious note, I would want to see the nuclear deal through now and a dramatic topple of government once the bribery charges are proven. Ok… the second part was just to make it more dramatic. I too am an Indian afterall!
So…… I have been living in Mumbai for last two years and have been travelling by Mumbai locals for my daily commute using the three month 1 st class pass. And I buy it for Andheri to Churchgate even though I live in Matunga because I hate to stand in queues during one of those rare occasions when I might have to travel to Andheri on some weekend. And because of this I always have to renew my pass from Churchgate rather than Matunga, because (weirdly enough) pass between two stations could either be purchased from one of the two stations only and nowhere else. Initially, I would always forget to renew my pass on time and travel for 2-3 days without pass without even realizing that I don't have the pass. I would invariably remember after I reach office or back at home and could do nothing except swear that I'll buy it the next time I am in Churchgate. So if I am at office I would have to buy it while I return from Churchgate and if I am at home I would have to buy a one day tic
Watched Sarkar Raj today. It was not half as good as original Sarkar and I was not impressed by Abhishek Bachchan's acting too. Aiswarya Rai was as usual so plastic. Plus it was a badly made movie. There are cameras from all weird angles and it was not because it would give an impact to the scene but just for the heck of it. Then there was intolerable "Govinda" chime in all different notes and pitches for different scenes. Most interesting trivia, which I observed, was that all the scenes were shot in dimly lit rooms. There's only one remote dim source of light from a dingy window, in every damn scene and all the ultra strategic political decisions by heroes and villains were made without seeing each other's face. May be that's the reason the whole movie was about building a power plant for Maharashtra. It was high time there was some light!!
You think they don't gel? Well, that's the exact reason why they don't gel. This attitude, the gender bias, is directly related to math skills in girls. Found one interesting study by Kellogg School of Management. They claim that math skill in girls is direct indication of the gender equality. So countries that have lesser gender bias have girls having better math skills than those countries with higher bias. Mathematically high correlation was found between women "emancipation" and absence of gender gap in math skills. In fact the effect is observed from a very young age. So that means from a very young age it is ingrained into them that boys are smarter and intelligent. Another Indian study also says that, gap in math skills "are not because boys are inherently better in mathematics than girls, but due to social messages encouraging boys to do better in this subject and probably discouraging girls". Isn't it quite obvious when you come to think of
…. to the achievements of the UPA government. Came across this wonderful post , to which I cannot agree more. It so happened that I wrote my first post on the eve of this year's budget and it so happened (again!) that I mentioned that we are back to the times of rural _______ programmes (fill it up with anything you want; they all mean the same – corruption!). And it so happened (and again!)that right the next day the baap of all rural programmes was announced. The farm loan waiver. The scheme is flawed on so many levels I can't even begin to spell out. It's not just corruption this time. They are ruining the credit discipline of the entire agricultural sector. They are punishing the good borrowers. And they are not even covering the farmers who need it the most! We all agree agriculture is the priority sector for economy and yet such irrational and ruinous policy that backfires from all directions?!? I can't fathom how an economist prime minister could make any econom
Yesterday I watched the Kolkata Knight Riders Vs Delhi Daredevils. I have always been a Ganguly fan. And main reasons are that, he's a great leader, a great player and undiplomatically expressive on the field. But yesterday, he was overtly expressive and behaving like a school kid. I commented to my roomie, "why is he behaving like a school kid today?" Guess what, during the presentation, he was asked the same question. And he cheekily replies that he hopes selectors see him behaving like that! I love dada.
Watch this video preferably without any distraction at full volume. That's what I call passion. I love this video. No, I'm not intending to make this another youtube. But when I watched this video for the first time I got the hardest goose bumps EVER and I am very sure some strong chemical reaction took place in my body because I felt it. I saw this video almost four years ago and found it again today, jai ho YouTube!
I just updated my office. And guess what I found?!? One of the main menu items is "publish blog"!! Do so many people blog? Well, I guess if I can, anyone can! Oh by the way, I liked the new look. It will take some time to get used to various options but once you do get it, old versions are gonna look prehistoric. But it has slowed down my Mozilla Firefox really bad. I love it too much but I thought of giving Explorer 7 a try. IE 7 is quite good too; I especially like that it softens the font to the comfort of eyes. It has incorporated all Mozilla features and improvised them; although it's a lot more heavier than mozilla. Typical microsoft deal. Mozilla will remain my first love but I'll sacrifice it for blogging from Word. Update : "internet Explorer cannot open Internet site http://mail.google.com/mail/..... Operation aborted" This is the message I get when try to open gmail with IE7! And I can open the same in my mozilla at the same moment. Is it a cheap
I always had a feeling that no man was worthy of me. Guess what, I have a theory to support my feeling now. LOL! Here's where I found it and here's the original article. Here's how it goes. The whole marriage proposal is analyzed and compared to an auction and then game theory is applied to come to the conclusion. Lets chuck the technicality and talk in basics. In a classic version of the marriage proposal: A woman makes it known that she is open to a proposal, the man proposes, and the woman chooses to say yes or no. The structure of the proposal is not, "I choose you." It is, "Will you choose me?" A woman chooses to receive the question and chooses again once the question is asked. This may not be true in India but it probably true for our generation to some extent. Now you would think that since the power of choice lies in the hands of women, strong and confident women (strong bidders in the auction) would get to pick the best men and weak women (
Just saw the first IPL match. Few months ago, when the players were auctioned, I had a feeling 'crazy' times were about to begin. Players were going to be traded like stocks. It all sounded so fascinating. And India is the center stage for all of it. It will revolutionize cricket . Each player would be playing to be in the game, to earn more, to survive. Best player increases his value subsequently and losers get out, something like free markets. Cricket will no longer be just a sport, rather a gentleman’s game; it will be pure entertainment. Like a movie. It will revolutionize the economics underlying all of it. Look at the kind of people who own these teams and are sponsoring the event; ranging from film stars to real estate dealers. All of them agree that this is not an investment which will give them any return for at least 5 years. And yet they all seem to be hungry for their share of IPL. Clearly we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg called the IPL. There is obscene
There are two kinds of people; the idiot ignorant people and the idiot ‘aware’ people. I belong to the unfortunate second group. Whenever I goof up, I realize it the next second and then live under the shame of my profane idiocy for the rest of the day or may be even two. And it is times like these when I see the other fortunate group of people who reach the heights of idiocy and yet remain unaware of the total situation. In fact, these are the overconfident ones who think they are the smartest on the planet. Yeah, yeah these are the ones we all make fun of…. But think of the stress free life they lead. Its not like they understand they are being laughed at. I envy green after these ignorant people. Of the two groups of people, the ignorant group is at a definite advantage…. sigh…
I could not resist sharing my thoughts on Brad Pitt after last post. I have never liked him before. I thought he was pathetic actor who just sells looks which aren’t even that great. But that is past. Then something happened. I saw Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen. I don’t remember which of the sequel it was, but in one of them he’s eating a mayonnaise filled burger or roll every time he was in the scene. And, I fell for him. Why? Well no one can eat as seductively as he does in that movie. And sound technicians included all yummy noises he makes, and then he licks his fingers….. well, you get the picture. In fact, I didn’t even know eating could be so seductive!!! Therefore ladies and gentlemen, I take back what I used to say about him. He is THE sex god and I love him. Girls go and watch him, and after you watch it you will want to indulge in most sinful pleasure of all………….. Hey you all dirty minds, I was talking about eating a mayo filled burger. That’s what I did after the movi
The other day I got a pamphlet from Tata Sky cable (usko laga dala to life jhingalala!!). Anyway, they have these ACTIVE channels where they offer movie on demand, games, cooking and other customized channels. And one of them is ACTIVE Darshan. I got to know that on ACTIVE Darshan you can see temples across India . It’s like “Darshan” sitting in living room. “What a concept!!?? Height of absurdity!!!”, I exclaimed. So a conversation started between me and my colleague. Here it goes: Colleague : I know. Why can’t they understand that they don’t need a TV to have Darshan at home? Me : I know. Now what next? Advertisements for Gods and temples? Which God is more popular and listens to more prayers? Colleague : There will be an option list on TV: which God's Darshan do you want? And a list of Gods. Me : Are you kidding me? There are thousands of Gods in India . The list would never end. And God forbid (what a pun!) if you leave out one God there will be a community with hurt f
I was born in 1983 and I have always been weirdly proud of the times I am born into. As a little girl, during the 90s, I was proud that I belong to the special generation which is going to see the turn of a millennium. I distinctly remember feeling bad for my folks and other elder people because they would retire when the great times would start and they will miss out some great moment in human history . I hardly knew what 2000 would bring but I knew it was huge. It was not just a century! May be I expected some great technological breakthrough at the turn of the millennium (Fiction novels gave me ideas!). I don't know know why but I was immensely crazy about the year 2000, for at least half a decade before it came. For India specially, 80s and 90s were great times. Visible changes in economy and vibrant political scenario again led me to believe that these were special times. As a kid, I noticed DD channel giving way to DD1 and DD2, and then to Zee and Star, and then to Star movi