Center launches train to commemorate IPL finals

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

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

Job opening

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:

1. 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.
   
2. Ability to amass large amounts of real estate both in India and abroad.
3. 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).
   
4. Ability to exploit science to appeal to faith.
   
5. Sleight of hand. Further training in sleight of hand will be provided based on the selected candidates current abilities.
6. Ability to create mass hysteria for no apparent reason. This ties into requirement 1, of being charismatic.
7. 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

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

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

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 ;)

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

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

Pesto-potato in gravy

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...

1. Boil nugget potatoes until cooked.
2. Remove the skin, and chop the potatoes into 2-3 pieces if you feel like it. I would, coz that increases the surface area.
3. 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.
   
4. Grind blanched tomatoes, onion, ginger and garlic into a paste.
5. 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.
6. 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.
   
7. 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.
   
8. Your choice : adding angrezi spices - thyme, oregano etc to the dish towards the end.
   
9. I had it with rice.
   

Mamta launches dharna against ICC

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

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

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

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.

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?

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?

An antacid tablet reacts with water in space

Inferences...

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

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

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