What I see is what U get

Oprah sponsors political party in India, buys Kolaveri rights.

2012-01-25T16:54:00.002+05:30

Oprah Winfrey announced today that she will be sponsoring a new political party in India, After visiting the "charmingly chaotic" country, meeting the Bachchan family, and attending a plethora of parties, the celebrity announced that she will be sponsoring a new political party.

As for the agenda of the party, she said, that it will be no different from the agenda of any other party. But, in addition the party will host its own talk show where celebrities could interact with the party members.She said, "I will not be able to relocate to India due to personal reasons, however I will sponsor the party for a period of 1 year, and will continue to be the chief mentor".

As the party anthem, Oprah mentioned that she has already purchased the rights for the popular "Why this Kolaveri" song and intends to use that as the anthem. She said that the song is very inspirational and will motivate people, though she refused to comment on what she found inspirational in it.

MEA expels Chinese diplomats. Says they are "Made in China"

2012-01-03T14:45:00.001+05:30

The Ministry of External affairs today expelled all Chinese diplomats and has asked for the embassy to be vacated. This move comes under growing concern and pressure of fake products made in China, but carrying well known Indian brands and labels being sold in India.

Taking note of the fake products issue, the Government of India decided to ban everything made in China. Following up on this development, the Ministry of External Affairs today ordered the Chinese embassy to be vacated and all diplomats to leave the country, because they were also "made in China".

The Chinese government said that this move was not good for improving bilateral relations between the two countries and has requested that the Ambassador and two other diplomatic staff be allowed to stay, because they were not conceived in China. The MEA is reportedly considering the request and expected to take a decision by tomorrow.

Gujjars, Meenas strike in Rajasthan. Demand equal share of Bhanwari Devi case

2011-12-29T09:10:00.002+05:30

Two major clans in Rajasthan, the Gujjars and the Meenas went on strike in the state today, crippling most activities except essential services. Both the clans claim that the members of the state legislature are unfairly hogging the spotlight in the Bhanwari Devi kidnapping and murder case.

In a jointly organized press conference at Jaipur today, spokespersons from both tribes stated that the current MLAs and MLCs are conspiring to ensure neither clan gets any exposure in the disappearance and subsequent killing of Bhanwari Devi. Former minister Mahipal Maderna and Parasram Bishnoi were remanded to judical custody till the 24th of December, and her husband, Amar Chand was recently arrested by the CBI.

The tribes say that they haven't been given their due in this case of sleaze, lies, and political aspirations, and that the men of the caste were feeling outcast in their own state. They have demanded and apology from Maderna for not having a Gujjar/Meena involved and have asked for written assurance that going forward, an equal number of members from each tribe will be.part of any such act. They will withdraw their strike only after getting the assurance from the chief minister.

This is a rare show of unity by both clans which were at loggerheads in 2004 after Gujjars started an agitation to get included in list of Scheduled Tribes.

Bhajji enters Big Boss

2011-12-13T23:05:00.001+05:30

Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh gate-crashed into the Big Boss house today, less than a week after Andrew Symonds was brought in. Both Symonds and Bhajji are not part of their respective teams for India's tour of Australia.

In addition to gate-crashing the house, Bhajji also carried along with him a mysterious bag, which he said was a present for Symonds, which must be handed to him when he exits the house, either through eviction or winning.

There is much speculation about the present, and strong indicators suggest that it might be a stuffed monkey.

Meanwhile, S. Sreesanth, who was allegedly slapped by Bhajji during an IPL match, sent him the best wishes to stay on in the house and possibly win the season. In a press release, Sreesanth told Harbhajan to 'make it large in Big Boss, because his cricketing career is all but over'. Harbhajan or his agent were unavailable for comment.

Story idea thanks to Neets

Tokens sold at token fast.

2011-12-11T14:40:00.001+05:30

The token fast undertaken by Anna Hazare took on an all-new meaning today with tokens being sold at the venue. The numbered tokens were actually tickets to enter the venue where Hazare is on a day long fast in order to press the government to enact a strong anti-corruption law.

Supporters could redeem the token for one cup of hot beverage (tea/coffee/milk) and some biscuits available at the venue. It was understood that the move was proposed by Ms Kiran Bedi, who was recently accused of inflating her travel bills and obtaining an excess reimbursement. Ms Bedi's had already spent the excess money she had received and decided to use selling tickets as a means of raising funds. The move, however, was approved by the core committee which decided to sell tickets and all profits would go to the funds for 'India Against Corruption'.

In addition to entry tokens, special tokens were also available for people who intended to shake hands with any of the core committee members. However, none of these were reportedly sold.

Ashwin to endorse brain power boosting products

2011-11-28T13:42:00.001+05:30

R. Ashwin got himself a lucrative product endorsement deal after accepting to endorse "brain power boosting" products marketed by a leading herbal products firm in India. Details on the amount being paid or the name of the company have not been announced by Ashwin's agent. The endorsement offer came in the wake of the complete brain freeze that Ashwin suffered in the last over of the final test match against the West Indies.

With two runs required off the last ball, Ashwin chose to do a 'Ranatunga walk' for the first run and reluctantly ran the second, only to be run out, denying India a 3-0 win against the visitors.

Ashwin will be endorsing a Brahmi based product line in particular. Brahmi is believed to improve brain functions, like alertness and memory, both of which seemed to take leave of the Man of the Series. The advertisement is expected to feature footage of the last ball and a tag line : "You don't want this to happen to you. Use Brahmi'.

Mayawati gifts statue to Sebastian Vettel

2011-11-01T16:12:00.002+05:30

Sebastian Vettel with the Mayawati Statue

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP), Ms Mayawati, gifted a statue of herself to Sebastian Vettel who won the inagural Indian F1 Grand Prix on Sunday, in an event held at the FIA headquarters in Paris. The F1 Grand Prix was held at the Budh Circuit in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Vettel took both pole position and winner honours in the race.

The chief minister has already put up statues of herself all over the state and wanted to gift the winner immediately after the race. However, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and FIA president Jean Todt persuaded her that the gift must be presented at the FIA heaquarters.

In the press conference that followed, Vettel said that he would carry the statue in his car in all future races and will lose weight to compensate for the statue's weight. It is also learnt that Ms Mayawati has already spoken to Ecclestone, Todt, and the Jaypee group to handout Mayawati plush toys at next year's Indian GP.

Stray dogs to teach pedestrians

2011-10-19T20:10:00.001+05:30

The Bangalore municipal corporation (BBMP) has embarked on a project to improve road sense amongst pedestrians in Bangalore. Started in collaboration with the Road Transport Office and various NGOs, the project intends to use stray dogs to teach better road sense to pedestrians. It has been observed by drivers that pedestrians do not pay any attention to the surroundings and tend to step into the path of fast moving vehicles with no concern for their lives. Strays on the other hand, pay more attention to the traffic and cross the streets with a safe distance between them and the oncoming vehicle.

Over the years, strays have attacked innocent joggers, and even mauled children to death. But the NGOs have cried themselves hoarse against the killing or even neutering of these dogs. However, with this initiative, these dogs will now become government servants, like canine squads used by the police. The move has been generally welcomed by all parties.

Indian beggar pays income tax

2011-09-30T08:12:00.000+05:30

The Indian income tax authorities today issued notice to the beggar woman who was handed a $100 note by socialite Paris Hilton. It was reported earlier in the media, that Ms Hilton stopped her vehicle near the Andheri locality in Mumbai and handed the money to the woman, who did not have any clue of who the person was or how much the single currency note amounted to in Indian Rupees.

The Income Tax authorities stated that an income of 5000 per day amounts to 150,000 per month, which is above the no-tax income bracket. Using recorded proof of the income, the I-T authorities identified the woman and have issued a 'non payment of tax' notice. The woman has been asked to pay the income tax by the 15th of October, failing which she will also have to pay fines.

Image courtesy: IBN Live
Special news item tag: 'one day in mumbai'

Government issues pre-emptive condemnation

2011-09-15T19:23:00.002+05:30

The Central Government today issued pre-emptive condemnation of all attacks that could disrupt public life. The condemnation comes in the wake of intelligence reports that warned of possible terror attacks on luxury buses plying between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Repeated failures of intelligence has seen India fall victim to audacious attacks of terror including the attacks on parliament, blasts in trains in Mumbai, the attack on the Taj hotel in 2008, and very recently, the blasts in Delhi.

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, speaking in a press conference, said "We have received the reports and would like to issue an immediate, strong condemnation.
We hope that the pre-emptive condemnation will deter the assailants from executing their plan". The minister also mentioned that the all round condemnation issued after the Delhi blasts has already killed at least one terrorist. Therefore the pre-emptive condemnation is a warning of possible consequences.

Amitabh Bachchan peeved at Janardhana Reddy

2011-09-13T18:00:00.000+05:30

Illegal mining baron and former MLA, Janardhana Reddy who is currently cooling his heels in Hyderabad's Chanchalguda Central Jail raised a new request today. Unhappy with his inmate number (697), he has handed a request to be given inmate number 786. Such a request is the first of its kind in the entire country.

In his written request to the warden, Reddy says that he is a fan of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, and would like to get 786 as his inmate number.

Amitabh Bachchan, who is already trying to maintain his distance from Amar Singh, was not very happy with yet another tainted politician attempting to get friendly. Further, the unwritten rule is that Mr. Bachchan is the unofficial owner of that number because all his movies where he sported it became superhits.

New products and reality - Apple's challenges

2011-08-27T10:26:00.004+05:30

Close on the heels of Steve Jobs announcing his resignation, Apple today announced additions to its gadget and app store portfolio with three new Jobs-inspired products - iResign, iRetire, and u-r-Fired.

The apps, designed for iPhone and iPad, cost $99.99, while the tri-functional limited edition gadget is now available for online-order at $79.99. Apple spokesperson, Tom Neumayr, said that "Apple is giving a choice for users to either pay $20 extra for an application that will run on their existing device or buy a new limited edition device."

When asked about the name 'u-r-Fired', he said "The 'i' prefixed naming very effective at playing at consumer's ego. But iAmFired seemed gramatically odd, and iHaveBeenFired was too long a name. So we opted for u-r-Fired. We don't believe the name is going to affect sales, because we have a very specific target market for it. On the contrary, this limited edition app will actually be a keepsake item."

With Jobs' exit, Apple execs are now said to be facing their biggest challenge ever : reality. Job's Reality Distortion Field was able to bring the company out of its worst days in the late 90s to the profitable entity it is today. With that gone, the execs see that all they are left with are a bunch of fanbois, most of whom are uptight, self indulgent snobs with a fetish for with cuboids with rounded edges and painted white.

Reservation demanded for watching Aarakshan movie

2011-08-15T08:54:00.002+05:30

The movie Aarakshan has now been drawn into a fresh and rather unusual controversy. The movie deals with the issue of reservation has seen its fair share of controversies prior to release. The various socio-political groups claiming to represent the 'backward castes' of India initially claimed that the movie was inaccurate/insensitive/misrepresenting truth etc without watching the movie.

Today however, things took an interesting turn as the same groups also demanded for reservation of seats in theaters for watching the movie. In a written letter to the Central Government and the Central Board of Film Certification, the groups stated that "Because this movie is about reservation, it is but natural to ensure that reservation is applied by theaters when selling tickets. The theaters must follow the reservation quotas set by the respective state government".

This demand means that each person intending to watch the movie must carry caste identification when purchasing the ticket - advance bookings have therefore been cancelled. If the seats earmarked for the backward castes does not get filled, then it will be provided to the upper castes.

It is believed that leaders like Mayawati, who have espoused the cause of upliftment, have also offered their moral support to the demand.

India IT wins ACM Turing Award

2011-07-28T01:16:00.004+05:30

The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) today announced that the Alan Turing Award for 2011 has been awarded to outsourcing companies in India for successfully passing the Turing Test.

The ACM in a press release said that for the past few years, India companies who have been providing customer support services have been successfully using computers to handle the first level of support, and not a single customer complained that they felt they were talking to a computer.

Using 'text to speech' and 'speech to text' software, advanced machine learning and AI techniques, computers were used to provide first level of support for all calls. A team led by Marvin Minsky, a famous and respected name in Artificial Intelligence, was invited to monitor the entire experiment for the past year, and recommended the Indian outsourcing industry for the award. They said that as little as 1% of the support calls were handled by humans; all issue escalations however were handled by humans. However the entire operation was processor and memory intensive, so to ensure smooth operation, calls were put on hold and music was played at appropriate times to allow memory to be freed at regular intervals.

India revisits visionary Sanjay Gandhi's compulsory sterilization scheme

2011-06-22T08:54:00.005+05:30

People from all walks of life in India today paid tribute to visionary Sanjay Gandhi, who was almost 40 years ahead of his time with his thinking. For the uninformed, Sanjay Gandhi was credited with the (in)famous, compulsory sterilization programme for men during the mid 70s.

Though severly criticised then, the programme, with a slight modification to suit current conditions, is being seriously considered by the Central and State governments, with the support of the opposition parties. The reason is the spate of rapes that have been reported in recent times, all across the country.

The change from the original programme, envisioned in is that instead of undergoing compulsory sterilization, men will have the choice to undergo either forced castration or forced penectomy. The motivation is to ensure either complete stoppage of testosterone production, or remove the organ necessary for committing the act.

The proposal was put forth by a committee comprising of members from the National Commission for Population, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the National Commission for Women and will be tabled in parliament during the monsoon session. Hospitals have already launched special early bird offers ever since the news about the proposed law was made public.

Google image search

2011-06-20T05:35:00.002+05:30

Google has a TinEye-esque search feature. Not sure if it will become a TinEye killer. I don't get how pictures of people are similar to pictures of Spongebob mushroom. :D

Riots? What riots?

2011-06-17T01:02:00.004+05:30

Vancouver city witnessed riots post the Stanley Cup final match, in which the Vancouver Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins. But riots don't matter for some people.

Click on the image to see full version on CBC.

India launches "internet commenting" course

2011-06-08T20:44:00.005+05:30

The Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt of India today announced the launch of a new course - Internet Commenting - designed to teach people to post comments and opinions on various Internet fora and websites.

"The course is a pre-requisite for completion of secondary school and must be refreshed once every 2 years. The first module in this course is 'understanding satire and sarcasm', literary constructs that appear to be lost to the general Indian public. The Center and all state Governments believe that in order to make a useful contribution to discussions and consequently to society, Indians need to know how to read tongue-in-cheek articles that poke at the issues plaguing us." stated Ms Vibha Puri Das, secretary of the Department of Education under the Ministry of Human Resources Development in a press conference yesterday.

She also observed that "Typically such a journalistic/contributory article/editorial is followed by hajjar, mostly abusive, moronic comments by those who fail to understand the article; making the commenter look like a nitwit. Comments posted by Indians are can be broadly classified as either being irrelevant, anti-author/website, or if all else fails, anti-Pakistan and are almost always, unintentionally hilarious. Comments that do not fit into any of these categories, which is extremely rare, are the ones that have some sense in them."

"Our society prides in the importance it gives to education and such comments go to the contrary. We can't blame commenter it if she didn't understand sarcasm so we decided to add this additional course to the curriculum." - Kapil Sibal, Minister of HRD added.

Ramdev fast gains sponsors

2011-06-04T21:29:00.003+05:30

After talks with the Government apparently failed, Baba Ramdev announced his fast against corruption and graft. A lot has been written and said about this fast, coming fast on the heels of Anna Hazare's recent "blackmail the government" attempt; allegations have been laid that the fast is politically motivated.

But, advertising gurus are most impressed with what they consider a complete sponsorship coup that Baba Ramdev pulled off. The fast has been sponsored by VLCC and Talwalkars, two companies providing personalised weight loss programmes, in addition to other fitness and beauty care services.

Dieticians from both companies said that a good fast helps clean the body. Spokespersons for both companies said that the fast was a great event for them to market their weight loss solutions. They also mentioned that the packaging of food items sold at the fast will be contain equal sized logos of both companies.

The two companies are commercial competitors and the fact that Baba Ramdev was able to get both to sponsor the fast, amicably, has left marketing gurus stumped. C.K. Prahlad stated at a media meet at the IIM-B yesterday that he is going to update his book with a new chapter discussing the same.

Vancouver

2011-06-03T23:12:00.003+05:30

AARRGGHH!!

Got posted on BoingBoing yesterday and seems to have gone viral, for the wrong reasons. Could well give competition to Rebecca Black.

Center launches train to commemorate IPL finals

2011-05-29T03:47:00.004+05:30

The Center today announced a new train between Bangalore and Chennai, the cities, who's IPL franchise teams reached the finals of IPL4. This train is the seventeenth train route to connect the two cities. This train route is expected to be available for ticket booking starting today. The government also added that this train route will be available only for 1 year. The train will then connect the cities whose franchises reach the final of next IPL instalment.

The notable features of the yet unchristened IPL train route will be the staff, who will be dressed in finalists' jersey colours, the food items available in the train, which be the cuisine local to the two cities. For a start, the Railways has setup an expert committee to identify the differences between the recipies of idli, vada, sambar, dosa (all varieties), chutney, coffee, and tea used in Chennai and Bangalore.

Feminists in India boycott themselves

2011-05-26T01:51:00.004+05:30

Accussed in the 2G scam, Kanimozhi requested bail on the grounds that she is a woman, playing on and conveniently reinforcing the "abala nari" (helpless woman/damsel in distress) stereotype. Feminist organisations, who typically work to break the very stereotype are now in a quandary over the statement.

Further, no such organisation opposed this defense tactic used by the accused, resulting in the general perception that these organisations are being hypocritical. he organisations have now called for a boycott of and will be holding protest marches against feminist organisations that did not take any action against the 'stereotype reinforcement' . To put it simply, they have decided to boycott themselves.

Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalitha however, stated that Kanimozhi must not be given any concessions and told Kanimozhi to "be a man!" and do the right thing.

Implications of Warne's retirement

2011-05-07T00:06:00.000+05:30

Job opening

2011-04-27T23:11:00.002+05:30

Applications are now invited, in India, for the post of next spiritual 'guru'. This position is very challenging because it is equivalent to that of a CEO of a large, financially successful corporate organization. There is exactly one opening and competition is high.

The key roles and requirements of the job are listed below:

The role requires you to be the public face of a large establishment. You need to be charismatic, a good public speaker, and be able to carry yourself well in the presence of VIPs.
Ability to amass large amounts of real estate both in India and abroad.
A decent understanding of science, Chemistry in particular, to be able to synthesize chemicals in liquid/powder form. These chemicals must resemble substances that have a religious symbolism, for example, holy ash (vibuthi).
Ability to exploit science to appeal to faith.
Sleight of hand. Further training in sleight of hand will be provided based on the selected candidates current abilities.
Ability to create mass hysteria for no apparent reason. This ties into requirement 1, of being charismatic.
Ability to keep secrets - very important.

Perks: All your expenses - including medical expenses - will be taken care of using other people's money. The disadvantage is that you will have to be celibate (or atleast appear so to the public).

Indians to stay off social networking in attempt to support Anna Hazare

2011-04-08T10:12:00.006+05:30

Anna Hazare recently gave the war cry to Indians to battle corruption and the masses rallied around him; masses including corporate honchos, actors, sportspersons, celebrities, pseudo-celebrities, and celebrity wannabes.

The knee-jerk reaction to this war cry was creating pages on Facebook/Orkut and other social networking sites to spread the cause and using these pages to put pressure on the government to pass the anti corruption bill. Ideas floated initially to post the colour of ones piece of clothing associated with corruption - analogous to the case when women posted the colour of their bra on facebook to spread awareness on breast cancer. Because no piece of clothing could be associated with corruption, it was decided to post the colour of one's purse or wallet instead.

Later, the net-savvy Indians decided that in order to further their cause, they would now stop using social networking sites after realising that the chances of Indian politicians having Facebook and Orkut pages and being interested in the colour of their wallets and purses, is quite close to zero. They have now declared a blanket ban on social networking usage catching (primarily) their supervisors, system admins, and ISPs unawares.

While the sudden drop in traffic was surprising to ISPs, who suffer loss of revenue and system admins, who see a sudden change in traffic patterns, the worst hit has been company management - across the board -which has not been able to deal either with the sudden spurt in productivity, or with the money suddenly made available due to reduced electricity and bandwidth usage. Sources from different companies have stated that hasty meetings and adhoc committes that includes HRs, managers, and system admins, are being setup to handle this unforseen situation.

It happens only in India

2011-03-26T02:45:00.002+05:30

Rather puzzled seeing IIIT-Bangalore playing host to the 20th Intl. WWW Conference while the conference is actually being held in Hyderabad. Usually, an educational institute in the host city, hosts the conference; so would have expected IIIT-H or some other university in Hyderabad to play hosts. Well, all I can say is "it happens only in India" ;-)

Airport wifi

2011-03-04T21:49:00.001+05:30

Boston's Logan International Airport has free wifi, but for that one needs to either take a survey or watch an sponsor advertisement. Well, 30 seconds, so I watched the ad. Chicago, O'Hare, there were hajjar SSIDs. In Beijing, one needs to get a user id and passcode from the airport lobby office.

Whatever it is, no comparison to Vancouver International Airport! No ads, no username, no password. Just connect, and browse. :)

Pita pizza ;)

2011-02-27T07:08:00.002+05:30

Unleavened bread - Pita/Roti
Sauce spread on it. I used pasta sauce.
Finely chopped onions.
Grated carrots
Grated chesse - I used Cheddar and Gouda.
Salt, pepper
In the oven for 10 mins, allowing the cheese to melt.

Quick to prepare and fingerlicking good. *drool* :)

Pesto-potato in gravy

2011-02-23T22:27:00.003+05:30

An attempt at improvising with cooking, proved rather successful - made basil pesto-potato in onion-tomato gravy. Quite easy to make, though it did take a bit of time. Should warn anyone intending to read this recipe further (and have the balls to try it later :P) - I don't measure. I use my cooking experience to infer how much of salt and spice is required.

So, brave hearts, here goes...

Boil nugget potatoes until cooked.
Remove the skin, and chop the potatoes into 2-3 pieces if you feel like it. I would, coz that increases the surface area.
Add basil pesto and coat the cooked potatoes. You could use some other pesto too, but basil pesto has a wonderful aroma to it. :) Besides, if you stop at this step and add salt and pepper to the potatoes, you have yourself a nice side dish to munch along when drinking beer.
Grind blanched tomatoes, onion, ginger and garlic into a paste.
Heat olive oil an add the paste and a bit of water (if you want a slightly diuted gravy). Pesto is made with olive oil; and contains generous amount of it too for preservative purposes. So, watch the amount of oil you use to cook the gravy. I didn't account for the oil in the pesto, so the dish had more oil than I would have liked.
When the gravy is about half done, add in salt to taste. And add the pesto coated potatoes. If you roll the potatoes around the gravy, the pesto will spread out. The other option is to not do so, so that the pesto sticks to the potatoes.
Cook on low heat, allowing for the flavour of the gravy to infuse into the potatoes. The oil will soon separate from the gravy, and the dish is done.
Your choice : adding angrezi spices - thyme, oregano etc to the dish towards the end.
I had it with rice.

Mamta launches dharna against ICC

2011-01-28T02:28:00.004+05:30

The ICC has decided to move the India-England match scheduled to be held at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata to the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. The ICC said that the delay in the stadium renovation work forced them to take the decision. Following this announcement, Mamta Banerji, called for a press conference and announced that the Trinamool Congress will hold a dharna to protest the decision as it affects the employment opportunities of the people of Kolkata.

She said "This decision of the ICC has taken because Vijay Mallya gave the Sharad Pawar and ICC peoples free beer. It is not the right! If match is not here, many people have no work. Parking boys, policeman, groundnut shop, popcorn shop, pickpockets, beggars - all peoples have no work. Central government, state government should answer."[sic]

She also added that the scheduled dharna would be peaceful and no CPI party members or offices would be harmed.

PM acts to reduce food prices in India

2011-01-14T10:07:00.002+05:30

Despite food prices in India rapidly leading to a crisis situation, there appeared to be no attempt by the Government to tackle the situation. Not even a press release was forthcoming from either the Agriculture or the Finance ministries; nor did the PM's office speak.

However, it has come to light that the PM's silence on the issue was intentional and the PM was not sitting inactive. Inspired by the likes of Irom Sharmila, Dr Manmohan Singh had undertaken the "Vow of Silence" or maunvrat till the prices of food items reduces. The silence which was mistaken for inaction appears to be the action itself.

However, the maunvrat was not without its share of issues. The SGPC Sikh religious governing body excluded meetings from the vow allowing the PM to speak. However the PM insisted on no-exclusions vow leading to a standoff. This conflict of interest between duty and austerity was resolved when leaders explained that duty is also a part of religion and the PM relented to speak for 5 minutes in every meeting to put forth his views and vote on resolutions.

BCCI puts Lalit Modi on IPL auction

2011-01-08T09:43:00.004+05:30

The player auctions for IPL 4 are scheduled today and as few as 12 players are being retained by their current franchisees. Add to that is the introduction of 2 new franchisees - Pune and Kochi. As the auction action heats up, the BCCI today entered the fray by placing its best "player", Lalit Modi, in the auction pool.

At a base price of 22 crores, Modi is the most expensive player. However, BCCI Treasurer N Srinivasan said that the price would not deter buyers. He said "1 Modi is equivalent to 100 other players (think Rajnikanth in Basha). Sachin and Dhoni are at a price of 1.8 cr each. We calculated 2 cr * 11 players would be a reasonable price for Modi. With his match fixing and betting contacts, you can win the IPL 4 without taking the field even. 22 cr is a small price to pay for the glory of winning IPL 4".

All 8 franchisees are reportedly considering the offer seriously.

Sreesanth gets Australia bowling coach offer

2011-01-04T19:21:00.003+05:30

After witnessing the performance of India's maverick bowler in the test series against South Africa, Australia has approached S. Sreesanth for the role of bowling coach for the short time between the end of India's tour of the Proteas and the start of the 2011 World cup. The Cricket Australia (CA) spokesperson Peter Young, addressing a conference yesterday said "We realise that this is a short time frame, but after his impressive performance in the series we decided that his services would help the Australian ODI squad." Australia has been going through a bad run in the recent times with England retaining the Ashes after winning the Boxing day test. Another important factor that influenced CA's decision was James Anderson statement that the tricks he learnt from Zaheer Khan helped his bowling in the ongoing test series.

S. Sreesanth initially declined to comment, but later confirmed the offer after Andre Nel wished him over the phone and requested that he break the news to the press. It is also learnt that seeing the Aussie batsmen struggle against Graeme Swann, CA approached Murali Kartik to bowl to the team at the nets and expect to hear from him in the next couple of days.

Zeno... my philosophy guru.

2010-06-08T10:28:00.003+05:30

According to Philosophy Guru, my reccommended philosophy guru is Zeno of Citium (not Zeno of Elea).

Your recommended philosophy-guru is ZENO OF CITIUM.

Key fact: He taught in a stoa, the Athenian supermarket, and hence founded the school of philosophy called Stoicism.

Must have: An interest in everyday life, for it is there that you learn life's big lessons.

Key promise: An ability to face anything, no matter how disastrous.

Key peril: To be "stoical" is to turn your back on passion.

Most likely to say: "If you have integrity, no-one can harm you."

Least likely to say: "Forget prudence! It won't help you anyway."

Connected?

2010-03-15T01:26:00.003+05:30

Was reminded of this dialogue by Jhanvi in लगे रहो मुन्ना भाई:
इन्टरनेट की दुनिया के तो "touch" में है, लेकिन पड़ोस में कौन रहता है, जानते तक नहीं
मोबाइल, लंद्लैन की भरमार है, लेकिंग जिगरी दोस्त तक पहुंचे, ऐसे तार कहाँ है?

We live in a connected world. But are we really connected?

2010-01-24T23:33:00.001+05:30

An antacid tablet reacts with water in space

2010-01-05T09:52:00.000+05:30

Inferences...

2010-01-03T22:26:00.003+05:30

Social networks have become prevalent - there is one for every purpose, career, travel, books etc. People are spending a lot of time on it, sharing minute details of their lives on it. So I had a question : Can the information that is shared by a person on social networking sites be used to infer that person's personality. Specifically, can the photographs that a person shares on such sites be used. The profile pic is probably the first one anyone intending to do such an analysis could look at. Follow that up with the photos one posts, looking for specifics like : how many have people in it, how many are of family, how many have that person itself, what is the mood of that person in the photograph, what activity does it show the person doing?

Can one draw an inference like : X's photos always have X. So, X is a very gregarious person. But X's photos do not have family. So X guards his/her privacy when it comes to friends and relatives.

Maybe something else like: Y's photographs do not show him/her, therefore "place some inference about Y".

Or something rather obvious: Z's photos show Z in lots of outdoor activity. Z likes adventure.

I bet such a study has already been done or is in progress in some psychology/sociology department in some university. The question is how could such information about us be used for/against us. The most obvious being targeted ads. But as a revenue model, that is so passe. Something's gotta give and something is definitely in store for us. Sooner rather than later.

3 idiots

2010-01-02T23:51:00.004+05:30

Managed to watch the movie in its entireity. I guess that statement sums up my 'review' of the movie that has been the subject of many positive reviews, topical discussions and resounding financial success. The movie is an adaptation of 5 Point Someone. I've seen the theatrical performance by Evam, which was wonderfully done.

The movie definitely makes its point against the Indian undergrad education system. But as a cinematic experience, it was a letdown, especially after what Rajkumar Hirani has given us in the past - the well made Munnabhai movies. One can understand some amount of drama added to the script to cater to popular taste, but a cast that has two 40+ year old men playing the part of 20 year olds is difficult to digest. The ridiculous wig and accent that Boman Irani's character had were probably not necessary. Not to mention many recycled jokes - which we shall forgive. The last straw was the newborn baby coming 'back to life' (?) when it hears 'All is Well'.

Chetan Bhagat is alleging that he wasn't given due credit. If I were him, I would actually not bother about credits and actually try to distance myself from the movie.

Simply put: "Movie देखके मज़ा नहीं आया".

If I have to see '3 Idiots', I'll look at myself in the mirror; thrice over. That's sufficient.

Hitler reacts to auto strike in Bangalore

2009-12-31T21:48:00.003+05:30

Obviously, this video is filled with kannada expletives and swear words, and is not recommended for young viewers (less than 18 yrs).

Social Networking

2009-12-25T01:35:00.004+05:30

Indian companies say social networking sites (like Facebook) are affecting productivity. Not surprising. But,
the 'revelation' has come ~3 years after the PhD-Comics strip below.

Skhizein (Jérémy Clapin,2008)

2009-12-23T02:04:00.000+05:30

Wow!

For all his flaws, Modi seems to do good too

2009-12-19T21:31:00.002+05:30

The Gujarat assembly has passed a law that makes it mandatory for people to vote in local body polls. This MUST be extended to larger levels - state and general assemblies. This bill does add a fair share of work for government agencies - ensuring that all the eligible people in the constituency are listed in the voter's lists and maintaining up-to-date. And for the citizens, ensuring that their names are in the list corresponding to the constituency they reside in. Its generally accepted that India has been repeatedly plagued by low voter turnout, especially in the urban areas (though I need to show figures to prove this). 62% (in 2009 General Elections, as reported by The Hindu Business Line) is still too close to 50% for my comfort. I couldn't cast my (postal) vote 'coz my name was missing from the voter's list, though apparently it mysteriously re-appeared on the day of voting. Let's see how effective this move is.

Life in the Freezer

2009-12-01T11:16:00.007+05:30

GUBA has the 6 episode BBC series Life in the Freezer (1993) dealing with the life of the flora and fauna on and around the Antarctic continent. Yes, Sir David Attenborough does the narration. :) The videos are embedded below, chronologically from parts 1 through 6.

http://www.guba.com/watch/2000878117

http://www.guba.com/watch/2000878176

http://www.guba.com/watch/2000878527

http://www.guba.com/watch/2000878524

http://www.guba.com/watch/2000878175

http://www.guba.com/watch/2000878186

The Knack

2009-11-11T07:11:00.003+05:30

TheKnack
Uploaded by jamsoun. - See more comedy videos.

value education

2009-10-20T08:55:00.000+05:30

I dont know if it is supposed to be called comedy or tragedy but imagine being stuck between four walls and learning “values”. Values themselves are conditions that tell us what is supposed to be good or bad and it tries to tame the natural human instinct. This human who is claiming to have an interactive session about values has left his senses at home and is trying to teach values to people who have gone beyond rules, beyond values or even beyond civilization. What this person is doing here is meta-value education, teaching conditions within closed conditional doors. He is asking us “Who are you?” and we are supposed to try and find out an answer and the answer is something unique in the individual. My question is “Who is he?” To teach about values you have to move away from it, just like we understand the presence of something by its absence. The person seems so obsessed that he probably breathes values. Being and orator and giving juvenile activities to adults who can think for themselves is not enough knowledge to talk about the much hyped values. This person says “In order to be a good human being you should have these values...you can copy down” I felt like i was undergoing torture where something was being forced down my throat even though I did not like it. Who is he to define a good human being? This itself shows that values are criteria that one has to satisfy in order to be called good. Does just values make up a human being? I guess this person probably needs a lecture on how to let people grow and have them develop a personality of their own. More derogatory (as i consider it) was “Are you from science, because science girls do not talk”. Really? Please somebody teach him some essential skills to understand that if somebody does not interact, it could indicate “Will you please shut up because we are not listening”. His eyes are clouded and the person cannot see for himself and is trying to cloud our eyes, make us all a “bakra” (like my friend termed it) so we look at life in a better way. Paradox or what?

“greatest inspiration comes from biographies of great men” this person said. I think the greatest inspiration can be from oneself. The reason why we do not have enough biographies or people reading it is because we keep looking outside for inspiration and not within oneself. The inspiration for this tyrannical rant (as my brother would call it) is when I disagreed with everything he spoke and looked within myself as to why I did not agree...if I had not done what I did then I would have probably been writing notes.

“you should join satsang, have a guru and not leave the path of karma”. Interpreting this in kannada, “sat” means the dead, “sang” is association and “karma” means pain in the ass. This man here has been in the association of wrong people, has become brain dead and he cant think for himself and he is a big karma for his listeners.

All that values do is curtail individuality and the one who propagates it wants everybody else to be “good human beings” like themselves.

God bless the needy and not the greedy!

Re-envisioning HCI

2009-10-15T22:29:00.000+05:30

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

LOTR! Alternate Story

2009-09-28T23:06:00.001+05:30

Reposted from Funny Junk.

Oliver Sacks: Tales of Music and the Brain

2009-09-26T09:13:00.001+05:30

Watch Oliver Sacks: Tales of Music and the Brain in Educational & How-To | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

A 5-minute preview of the documentary Tales of Music and the Brain. For full 50-minute documentary, click the video or the link below it to Veoh.

Manning Park Trip

2009-09-08T23:54:00.003+05:30

E.C. Manning Park is a large natural reserve ~200 KM from Vancouver. We folks from my research lab went on a weekend camping trip to the place over the long weekend ending on Labour Day in Canada (7th Sep).

View Larger Map

Most of us landed, Friday evening at the Lightning Lake camp site. No idea why it is called Lightning Lake, might be a native name translated to English.

View Larger Map

There wasn't any activity on Friday barring dinner. Saturday, we went on a 13 km hike around the lake, followed by a late lunch, some football/volleyball & dinner. It was quite cold Saturday evening, and I woke up with body ache the next day. The cold had 'penetrated' my sleeping pad and bag. It was a 'civilised' camping, and the campsite had well maintained bathrooms and hot water. A hot shower was all it took to relieve the pain. :)

Sunday was mostly lazy. Some folks had to leave; and they did. The rest played a bit of volleyball and then went boating on Lightning Lake.

I was rudely woken up Monday morning by the sound of my alarm going off. Till then I was sleeping peacefully in the warmth of my sleeping bag. I woke up, but unable to open my eyes (my skull cap had slipped over my eyes) or move (I was in a stage similar to anesthetic awareness for a moment), the first thing that crossed my mind "Has the tent collapsed!?". Looking back, that moment was really fun. Luckily, I was back in my senses quickly and was able to extricate myself from the confines of my sleeping bag and tent.

Breakfast was followed by departure - and we were back at our respective homes by late afternoon.

Sita Sings the Blues

2009-08-30T21:39:00.004+05:30

Part 1

Full Playlist on YouTube.

Come Fast Krishna

2009-08-29T19:50:00.000+05:30

I was traveling in Bangalore recently, when, from somewhere, the song “Krishna nee begane baaro...” crossed my mind. I began contemplating and saw how “begane” our lives were moving. Going at this pace, we might be extinct by the time Krishna arrives. Twenty two years it has been my journey, and God knows how many more to come. I do not remember the day I was born, but my childhood feels like it was only yesterday that i used to play with my baby sitting friends and then school, college and now even post-grad studies! Looking back at my own life, I want to attempt to answer the question "What am I?" a little different from what is generally asked by most teenagers. Yes, I know I am human, but I do not intend to settle with answers like that. Have i done anything significant in these years? And what can be considered significant? If I go on like this, then there will be way too many things that require explanations. Apart from being stuck in the race to be the best, learning that tomato is a fruit and Freud is a maniac, have these 22 years been helpful to understand or answer the question I have been waiting to answer? I heard Bob Marley's words, “The plant takes you to yourself”. No, I am not advertising illegal substances, but can just something as simple as grass (the plant) show you what you are? I am waiting... to try, to investigate, to discover.

2009-08-24T01:54:00.001+05:30

As I type. it is a year since I left home to catch my flight to Vancouver. Been a journey since then.

Starter

2009-08-11T23:24:00.001+05:30

I am just another software company employee who is so busy that i hardly get time for anything. This has been talked about too many times. Even my girlfriend keeps hanging up cos i do not spend time with her, “I am sorry my dear compaq with core 2 duo..I still love you” ya thats the way I get my laptop working. Anyway I recently suffered from lots of problems like backache and common cold that never saw its culmination. Thanks to all of that my doctor prohibited me from touching my second girlfriend “Bajaj Wind 125”. I had also heard about so many efforts to save energy and use public transport etc so I thought it might be a good move not only to increase my environment credentials and also try and set right my health. I waited at a shelter-less bus stop near my house and boarded a bus that was quite empty so I even got a seat. I was getting used to the bumpy ride when this guy in khakhi clothes stood next to me. I looked at him and said “boss full tank”. He was just staring at me and it was only after that I realized I was not in a petrol bunk. It was my first bus ride and I am sure to remember it.

Nostalgia... 1996

2009-08-01T00:31:00.004+05:30

Over the last couple of weeks, there have been news articles about the arrest of an African-American scholar by some white police officer in the USA. This led to a row over racial profiling forcing US President Obama to intervene.

The entire event however reminded me of a Sam Jackson-Nicholas Cage movie titled Amos and Andrew. I had to force myself to watch this movie on the evening of 21st Oct, 1996. How do I remember the exact date? Was the movie so bad that it left an indelible mark on me? No.

21st Oct 1996 was also the day that India faced Australia in Bangalore in the 3rd match of the Titan Cup. After restricting Aus to 215, India lost wickets early and were on the verge of losing. But Tendulkar and batting heroics by Srinath and Kumble ensured India won - last ball of last over, 2 wickets to spare.

I had to watch the match, but also couldn't - India was losing, can't bear that! So was switching channels between Star Movies and Star Sports. Nice match, nice memories, I like. :)

HDD Weight

2009-07-29T20:55:00.002+05:30

Does the weight of your hard disk increase as you install more programs? Some people seem to be worried and have posted questions. Read the entire thread on the Microsoft forum for a hearty laugh.

Ho(r)ney bees

2009-07-27T05:59:00.002+05:30

How does Pranab Mukherjee describe the average Indian taxpayer?

Watch the video below, from 2:35 and specially from 2:50.

Cyborg Name

2009-07-22T02:20:00.001+05:30

ROTFL!!

Get Your Cyborg Name

Going by 'Nocturnal Troubleshooting', I guess Customer Support won't be a bad option for me as a profession.

Foreign Accent Syndrome

2009-07-17T03:31:00.002+05:30

I StumbledUpon a page that listed a bunch of 'bizarre mental disorders'. In the list was Foreign Accent Syndrome. It is a rare medical condition (mostly brought about due to injury), which causes the afflicted to speak their native language with an (apparently) foreign accent. There have been 50 recorded cases of this.

I guess the key word here is 'recorded'. If we were to record cases, then there would be a few hundred thousand (if not million) cases in India alone. And the condition wasn't brought upon them by trauma. A short visit to any natively English speaking country (US, UK etc) seems to be 'injury' enough. ;-)

Videos..

2009-07-13T23:48:00.001+05:30

Rangashankara Viral Ad Campaign

Yesteryears' superhit: Tum Tu There Pardesi

Stupidity... taken to all new levels... down

2009-07-10T09:13:00.002+05:30

Google has recently announced plans for the Chrome OS. And many articles have popped up on the www including one on CNET by Peter Glaskowsky.

A quote from the article:

"Turning the Chrome browser into the Chrome OS is technically straightforward, though of course it'll take a lot of work. A browser already has most of the key elements of any OS: application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow application software to display content and accept user input, store and retrieve data from mass storage, communicate over the Internet, and so on."

I am unable to control my laughter over this guy's ignorance of computers. And he is a tech analyst!!! Poor guy doesn't seem to know that the browser needs the OS achieve each of the 'element' that he lists. He doesn't seem to know that anyone with a bit of programming experience can write a simple app to read a file system and send it over a network. Well...

FF 3.5 - ACID Test

2009-07-02T03:17:00.002+05:30

FF 3.5 (released yesterday) scores 93 on the ACID3 Test. Not bad. But one point less than the previous version. :)

2009-06-19T03:32:00.003+05:30

Intel has come up with a new set of marketing names for its Core brand of processors. My first reaction to this news was to shake my head in disapproval.

Intelligence... human/machine

2009-06-08T06:53:00.010+05:30

Machine learning algorithms have their limitations. They can find interesting, funny relationships. Take the 2 screenshots. The first one shows an image of a TATA Nano and relates it to a news item concering a student of TISS (TATA Inst. of Social Sciences) . The key thing here is the common word TATA.

The second one is in similar lines. The Indian Govt had something to say to the Pakistan Govt on the same day that India won their T20 WC warmup match against Pakistan. :D
Or finding some interesting correlation between why Adobe flash doesn't work on IE8 and SFU business. ;-)

Other funny output can be due programming blunders. Like the Y! weather page telling that "tonight" will be "sunny". Nights can be 'clear', of course, but never heard of them sunny. Or just plain... having a playlist of size -1 (minus 1)! :)

Click on the images to see the bigger versions.

LHC

2009-06-01T06:04:00.004+05:30

A short video on the LHC at CERN.

Austin Powers Credit Card

2009-05-31T02:38:00.003+05:30

Did you know: There was a limited edition Visa Credit Card called the Austin Powers Titanium Visa Card. Named after Austin Powers, the International Man of Mystery.

Don't believe? Check slide 11 in the Credit Card Flashback slide show on BigMoney.

99

2009-05-23T01:11:00.002+05:30

From the hindi movie 99

"दिल्ली में लड़की का नाम या तो पूजा है या नेहा"

So far, this statement has been a tautology. I have come across a bunch of instances conforming perfectly to the 'rule' above.

megaphone hack

2009-05-09T01:34:00.001+05:30

Spy Megaphone Hack - Click here for more blooper videos

What!er

2009-05-08T03:13:00.002+05:30

Basha vs. Anthony - Paper Presentation

2009-05-02T04:18:00.002+05:30

Ahem! Ahem!

2009-05-01T06:47:00.003+05:30

Photo in the Deccan Herald newspaper (1st May, 2009) after the 3rd phase of polling in the general elections.

Passport

2009-05-01T00:43:00.003+05:30

Searching on Google Image Search for 'India passport' threw up a page from Frogview among others. It was captioned 'The Most Beautiful Passport in India'. That page had the image below. Would this not account as an invasion of one's privacy?

Axiomatic love theory

2009-04-25T07:24:00.002+05:30

प्यार किया नहीं जाता. प्यार हो जाता है.
As you might have realized, this is a typical Hindi movie dialogue.
Happened to be watching a Hindi movie. And in the course of the usual melodrama, Som proposed: Axiomatic Love Theory(ALT).

The first axiom of ALT has already been shown.
Axiom 2: प्यार करने वाले से निभाने वाला बडा है.

Okuribito

2009-04-20T00:30:00.006+05:30

Okuribito (Departures) won the US Motion Picture Academy Award for Best Foreign Film - 2008. Recommended!

"ಒಕುರಿಬಿತೋ" (ನಿರ್ಗಮನಗಳು) ೨೦೦೮-ನಲ್ಲಿ ಉತ್ಕೃಷ್ಟ ವಿದೇಶಿ ಚಲನಚಿತ್ರ ಆಸ್ಕಾರ್ ಪ್ರಶಸ್ತಿ ಪಡೆಯಿತು. ತಪ್ಪದೆ ನೋಡಿ!

R

2009-04-01T10:44:00.001+05:30

A quick and dirty intro to R statistical package (by me).

ಪೇಟೆಂಟ್

2009-03-28T05:53:00.002+05:30

ನನ್ನ ಪೇಟೆಂಟ್ ಅರ್ಜಿ ಯುನೈಟೆಡ್ ಸ್ತೆತೆಸ್ ಪೇಟೆಂಟ್ ಕಛೇರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ದಾಖಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಭಾರತದ ಪೇಟೆಂಟ್ ಕಛೇರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕೂಡ ಅರ್ಜಿ ಸಲ್ಲಿಸಲಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಆದರೆ ಹುಡುಕಿದರೆ ಏನು ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಿಗುತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ.

ಯು.ಎಸ್.ಪಿ.ಟಿ.ಓ. ಅರ್ಜಿ ಸಂಖ್ಯೆ 20090080442

Smale's Paradox

2009-03-23T07:55:00.001+05:30

Happened to find this video on another Ananth's blog. Awesome video. Math, topology and stuff.

Vijay Dhobi

2009-03-12T05:22:00.002+05:30

Awesome! Vijay Dhobi is probably the standing round the corner with his pushcart pressing clothes at Rs 2 per piece of clothing. And Vijay probably does not know that his store had made it to Google Maps and he 'world famous'.

View Larger Map

Novell's Linux ads

2009-01-08T02:10:00.002+05:30

All 3 ads.

Lenovo X-300 vs Apple Macbook Air

2009-01-08T02:05:00.000+05:30

Macbook Wheel

2009-01-08T02:02:00.003+05:30

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Wait for the new version. It comes with no keyboard, no display, no hard drive. Wouldn't that be awesome? ;)

Everyone wants a piece of apple.

TV Classics - 1

2009-01-06T00:44:00.001+05:30

Ek Titli...

2008-11-25T07:44:00.001+05:30

Sameera Reddy's character got admitted into University of Berkeley, San Francisco. Should be a new one. ;-)

2008-11-05T00:44:00.001+05:30

Dada and Jumbo hang up their boots. Big shoes to fill. Literally too in Anil Kumble's case ;).

Natwest Series Victory

Anil's 10 wickets @ Kotla

Election in Canada

2008-10-16T05:59:00.003+05:30

Elections were completed in Canada and the result was that the Conservatives led by Steve Harper are back in power. Fine. Nothing I will be concerned about much as long as my funding stays. :)
The interesting part is that there is none of the election fanfare that one sees back in India. Elections (especially the campaigning) in India are loud, colourful, fun even bizarre at times. Here, the elections are so quiet, I didn't know when it happened.

Knetwalk

2008-10-07T23:46:00.003+05:30

Knetwalk is a new game I came across in KDE 4. Timepass game, where you need to connect all the client machines to the server using the connecting elements. This is one solution I hit where all clients are connected, but the game isn't over! Is that a bug? If I can connect all the clients to the server with fewer connecting elements, isn't that better?

A month in Canada

2008-09-25T06:45:00.004+05:30

It is just more than a month since I came to Canada. Still remember the Sunday when I saw the rising sun just above the horizon at Bangalore and landed here, with the setting sun, just above the horizon. Sights to behold, both of them.

The photos above were taken at Deer Lake.

The weather has been pretty good for most part of the last month. Bright and sunny most of the time. But things are changing. Incessant rain is the typical winter weather here I understand.

The colours of fall are beautiful. Trees turning from green to yellow to brown.

Maple leaves however seem to turn a beautiful red. Now I know why the Canadian flag has a red maple leaf on it. :-)

MiG 35

2008-09-20T04:52:00.000+05:30

Julley!

2008-08-18T17:03:00.007+05:30

I had been to Ladakh recently, to have a short holiday and for a little bit of trekking. The first step in that was to get to Leh, the current district headquarters of Ladakh. From there onto Manali in HP and then driving to Leh.
In Manali, I visited the Hadimba temple. This temple is dedicated to the demoness from the Mahabharata. She Bheema marries and later gives birth to his son Gatothkacha.

The ride to Leh
The ride from Manali to Leh goes through multiple valleys in the Himalayas and one gets to see 4 mountain passes (Rohtang, Baralachala and Taglangla are the three I remember), atleast 2 (Chenab & Beas) of the 5 rivers that goes through Punjab, 3 high altitude lakes (Surajtal, Chandratal, Deepaktal).

Taglangla	Surajtal
Deepaktal

It is an 18 hour journey. Picturesque. But the road is not good in some places and can get uncomfortable. One can't complain though. The Border Roads Organization gets about 3-4 months of conducive weather a year. And that are the exact 3 months when there is heavy traffic on the roads with large numbers of visitors driving in and out.

The ride in a shared taxi will cost each person about Rs. 1200. It goes through the beautiful Kullu & Lahaul valleys in HP before entering Jammu & Kashmir.
The change in the terrain & the vegetation is clearly visible. From largely green mountain faces in Kullu and Lahaul, things change to barren mountain face post Lahaul, in Spiti and Kashmir.
The are patches of terrace farming & shepherds leading their sheep along the mountains for grazing.

Erosion

By the time we reached Taglangla (~5000m above sea level), the winding mountains, the heat and dust had already given me a severe headache. We stopped to get medical help at an army camp setup specifically to help civilans.

Other ways of getting to Leh:
- Do a 15 day cycle ride from Manali.
- Drive your own bike.
- Fly to Leh from Delhi.
- Take a 45 day walk to Leh.

Leh
Leh, is not as rustic as I expected it to be. It is no different from any other Indian town. It even boasts of a tennis court and golf course.

The Trek
The first day of the trek starts at Spituk. It follows a jeep train from Spituk to Jianchen. The interesting thing is that the trek begins by crossing a the river Indus. Lots of trekking groups are around in Leh. Almost all are from European nations (French, Dutch, Spaniards, Italians).

The camp at Jianchan is along a tributary of the Indus. The camp sites are owned by locals. There are small patches of cultivated land where wheat or jowar is grown. The rent at the camp site is Rs 100 per day per tent.
We were accompanied by 3 folks, cook Passang Bhutia from Sikkim, guide Ghulam Qadir (from Nubra Valley, Ladakh) and pony man Sonawangdeo.

The second day of the trek would take us from Jianchen to Gandala base. Gandala base is ~4500 m above sea level. And the pass itself is another 400m higher and after a steep climb. It was a particularly nasty day for trekking. It was bright and sunny initially, but the moment a cloud covers the sun, the temperature drops. One can sense it the heat-to-chill change clearly. Not that such a thing is uncommon at high altitudes. I had experienced this during the Saurkundi pass trek. But added to that was the intermittent rain.
The climb didn't seem tough till Rhumbak village.

House at Rhumbak

But from Rhumbak (3700m) to Gandala base (4500 m)is one tough climb. On the way we pass a 1 house village Urutse.

House at Urutse

The interesting thing about this section is the colour of the mountains we walk on. from white, to grey, to blue, to purple, it is one mindblowing experience. Not for the chromatically challenged ;).

Gandala base has 2 camping sites. Our tents were setup on the higher one. I was already drained and I don't know what energy reserve my body tapped into, to climb the rest of the way to the tent.

Each camping site has a restaurant run by the locals. It is a large tent where one can buy soft drinks, tea, fruit juices, omelettes, noodles, biscuits etc. There are no tent stays like the ones on the way to Leh. Tentstays allow people to stay overnight and provide mattresses and blankets.

Gandala base

Solar panels find a lot of use along the way to Ladakh and in interior regions where electricity cables cannot be laid.

Another construction to note is Ladakhi toilets. These are composting pits. After use, one has to dump a shovel full of mud into the hole. Over time, the decomposition leads to manure which gets used as a fertilizer.

Reaching Gandala base gave me severe altitude sickness, so I had to return. The main cause being the lack of aclimatization in Ladakh.

Returning from Leh to Manali was eventless, till we reached around Gulaba, a small village 20Km from Manali. A mudslide had blocked the road and bull dozers would not come till the next day. So a large number of people in cabs, jeeps, trucks had to spend the night in their vehicles. So I was in the Qualis for 32 hours straight, spending 2 nights in it. That was some event!! :)

On the return from Manali I saw a most beautiful sight. A layer of mist over the Beas for quite some distance. Unfortunately, the camera was in the luggage hold, so couldn't take a snap.

Earthlings

2008-06-12T21:56:00.001+05:30

Earthlings.....

Warning: Viewer discretion advised.

2008-06-02T13:39:00.003+05:30

Happened to venture into a Reliance Fresh outlet. Must say, there was nothing fresh or refreshing about the store. Most of the fruits & vegetables had wilted and wrinkled. Fresh? Not even remotely.
I took the name of the store to signify fresh natural produce. No synthetic stuff. No packaged stuff even. But some things, fresh fruit extracts say, need to be packaged. But there was enough synthetic stuff and packaged stuff to bring me down to reality.

Reliance Fresh is Unreliably Stale!

All Too Human!

2008-05-27T19:33:00.002+05:30

The Beeb has a series titled "Human, All too Human" that discusses the life and works of philosophers Sartre, Nietzsche & Heidegger. Hope they feature more people, say, Wittgenstien, Godel and without doubt Immanuel Kant.

2008-05-17T13:57:00.004+05:30

I Want My Father Back (Part 2). A highly recommended documentary on farmer suicides, the events over the past 3-4 decades that led to it, globalization, MNCs & industrialization of farming.
A must watch for all the people who believe globalization & technology are good things. Specially the city bred no-nothing-of-the-world "Westernized" consumerist.

Shettihalli

2008-05-02T11:43:00.002+05:30

Church
Originally uploaded by Ananth Narayan S

Me and a friend biked to a small village called Shettihalli near Hassan recently. Shettihalli's claim to fame is an old, abandoned church. The structure gets submerged in the river water during the monsoon. But since it is summer now, the water has receded.
The place is ~20KM from Hassan, off the Bangalore-Hassan-Mangalore highway. On the bypass, one can see a board that reads "Gorur 22". The approach to Shettihalli is the next left turn. There are lots of people around to ask for directions. So one can't get lost. :)
From the main road, only the top and the water are visible. Makes for an amazing view. The ruins of the church are pretty impressive too. Unfortunately, as is the case with most of our old buildings, this one too is vandalized :(. But it is a place where one can spend a few mins in silence and solitude.
Apart from the place, the journey itself is quite nice. 400 KMs in a day is definitely tiring, but enjoyable nevertheless.
If anyone is driving past Hassan, I would strongly recommend them to take a short detour, visit the church and then resume their journey. Just make sure NOT to dirty the place.
Photos from along the journey and from the church itself @ my flickr stream.

2008-04-24T18:39:00.002+05:30

Happened to find this interesting photograph through Stumbleupon. Not sure if it is real or a hoax, but powerful nevertheless.

Poor quality news

2008-04-16T23:22:00.002+05:30

I like The Inq's style of writing. Adding a humourous & witty twist to every news item they post. Like the one on the BBC not being able to handle criticism. The BBC might have drawn lot of flak, for instance its iPlayer not being supported on Linux and Mac. It is however, respected for the quality of news. Our own "BBC Wannabe" NDTV however has to improve manifold.
First stop plagiarizing the layout and color scheme from the BBC.
Second get the closed captions at the right time.
Third get the names of people displayed at the right time. Almost always, the name of the person is never displayed when the person is on screen.
Finally, stop misinterpreting and misrepresenting. 2 simple instances recently seen:
A Tibetan national says that their struggle is going to get more aggressive. The news reader says "Tibetan struggle is going to get more violent". Violence and aggression are not the same. Like Denzel Washington says in Cry Freedom to the lawyer in court "I see confrontation here, I see no violence".
Second Kiran Bedi doesn't want to carry the torch since the extreme security "cages" the torch. News headline reads that "she feels like a caged human".

2008-04-01T12:07:00.002+05:30

The XKCD domain is throwing me a page from Questionable Content (another comic). But trying to load a previous comic. So trying to load comic 404 gives a HTTP 404. Now that would make a straight out of HTTP geek-dom.

Wierd "Also try"

2008-03-11T13:07:00.003+05:30

Searched for a self portrait of surrealist painter Salvador Dali. And Yahoo threw an interesting set of "Also try" links. Orson Welles, fried bacon, french television. No idea how these are related to Dali.

Meanwhile, Santhosh Guru has decided to start www.sangoo.org. A non profit portal. SANthosh's answer to Google and Yahoo! Sangoo- Sounding the death knell for both.

Google-kkum, Yahoo-kkum sangu daan! :)

2008-02-27T11:23:00.002+05:30

When cartoon life captures real life!
Read this: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/WaterCooler/story?id=4323900
And have a look at the Dilert comics from 20th-26th Feb.

2 Treks

2008-02-20T19:22:00.002+05:30

Happened to go on 2 treks in the last 3 weeks. Both in the Western Ghats, around the Charmadi Ghat region. The first one was to a mountain named Amedikallu near a town called Shishila. Shishila is ~20 KM from the holy place of Dharmasthala. The trek didn't involve covering much distance, like Kumaraparvata. But was real steep & extremely tiring. And things don't get better if one gets multiple bee stings, do they? It is one trek I would definitely think more than twice before attempting again.

The second one, more recent was from Durgadahalli (the village of the fort) to Ballalarayana Durga, to Bandaje falls and terminating at Mundaje (near Dharmsathala). Ballalarayana Durga was built by Ballala Raya (as the name suggests), but apprently was later captured by Tipu Sultan. The trek was via Bandaje Falls. About 600 feet high. The view looking down from the top of the falls was awesome.

The trek was planned so that it would be mostly climbing down. So it was not tiring. But as usual, the ankles and knees took a severe beating.

Photos of both treks on my Flickr page.