Jodhpur-to-Bangalore in 6 hours

It would take only 6 hours by train to go from Jodhpur to Bangalore if
we had trains like China :-) Ashok Gehlot ji, give us those trains.

Acharya Tartuffe

Watched this fantastic play today at town hall,Jodhpur.
Genre : Comedy
Parent advisory : uses some adult words("chastity belt","periods")
Language : Hindi.
Image source.


Actors :
Acharya Tartuffe : Sadanand Paatil
Seth Omnaath : Anoop Trivedi
Deepanshu : Abdul Kaadir Shah
Mother of Seth Omnaath : Ambrish Saxena
Kamlesh : Navneet Singh Thakur
Kaamini : Sapna Khatana
Mamta : Kamini Dubey

Here is a description from Delhi Events.

About the Play : Acharya Tartuffe is a play based on Moliere’s French Play 'Tartuffe'.
Omnath, a businessman, met a saint, named Tartuffe in Pondichery and he got influenced by him. He brings him in his home. A turmoil occurs in the house. Omnath and his mother totally devote themselves in his godliness, whereas the rest of the family members go against him. They try to convince Omnath that Tartuffe is an imposter but their effort goes in vain. Tartuffe manipulates Omnath's weakness as his weapon and extends his wicked intention towards kamani, Omnath's wife.

Omnath puts pressure on his daughter, Mamta, to marry Tartuffe, whereas Mamta is already engaged to Rehan. The whole family is under severe pressure. In his blind faith on Tartuffe, Omnath not only throws his on, Dipanshu, out of his house but also disowns him from his property. His eccentricities lead Tartuffe being his legal heir of his property.
Finally Kamani takes charge of the situation. She weaves a plot where Tartuffe gets trapped and is caught red-handed by Omnath. Omnath orders Tartuffe to go out from the house but Tartuffe reminds him that legally it is his property. Tartuffe sends a summon to Omnath and at the same time incites few Hindu religious groups that Omnath has dishonoured a Hindu saint. Police arrives at the situation and in a dramatic way, Chunni, a disciple of Tartuffe reveals Tartuffe's evil background. Police arrest Tartuffe. The whole experience comes as an eye-opener for Omnath and he learns a lesson for life.
Watch the play to know More!

Written and Directed by : Prasanna
Prasanna is an eminent theatre director as well as a well known writer in Kannada. His is recipient of many awards including Sangeet Natak Akademi Awar.

Movies based on not well known disabilities

Aamir khan seems to have started yet another trend
by making Taare Zameen Par, a movie which focused
on dyslexia - not a very well known disability.
Paa carried on the baton by touching the subject
of Progeria and now it's the turn of My Name is Khan
which shows a character with Autism.

Long live Aamir khan and the trends he starts !

Online fraud : Bank of India phishing mail

Header of the mail attached in the previous post :

Delivered-To: me@gmail.com
Received: by 10.114.150.5 with SMTP id x5cs79931wad;
Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:53:12 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.204.7.197 with SMTP id e5mr1162805bke.184.1260579190770;
Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:53:10 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path: 
Received: from lurk.terasoft.lt (85-10-200-56.clients.your-server.de [85.10.200.56])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id 20si3919949bwz.14.2009.12.11.16.53.08;
Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:53:10 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 85.10.200.56 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of customer-care@bankofindia.co.in) client-ip=85.10.200.56;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 85.10.200.56 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of customer-care@bankofindia.co.in) smtp.mail=customer-care@bankofindia.co.in
Message-Id: <4b22e976.141abc0a.2e2e.7253smtpin_added@mx.google.com>
Received: from [188.92.187.246] (helo=User)
by lurk.terasoft.lt with esmtpa (Exim 4.67)
(envelope-from )
id 1NJGCj-000400-Gy; Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:51:27 +0000
From: "Bank Of India"
Subject: Bank Of India Online Account Protection.
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:53:03 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="Windows-1251"
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X-Priority: 3
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X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000

Online fraud : Bank Of India phishing mail

Dear customer,

Your access to online services has been suspended. Due to your online account was been try with a wrong password in our network so on our weekly online network maintainace we detected it.

You are now been asked to re-activate your online account to help us update our server informations to match with our latest upgrade, Please follow the re-activation reference below:

Click Here To Re-activate Your Online Account

Important Notice:- You are strictly advised to match your information correctly and carefully to avoid service suspension of your account.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Thank you for using BANK OF INDIA!
(c) BANK OF INDIA. All rights reserved.

Information on protecting yourself from fraud, please review the Security Tips in our Security Center.

Online fraud : Punjab National Bank Phising mail

Here are the headers of that mail :

Delivered-To: me@gmail.com
Received: by 10.114.150.5 with SMTP id x5cs51357wad;
Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:35:32 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.142.60.18 with SMTP id i18mr2345967wfa.111.1260714932418;
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Return-Path: 
Received: from mail.k-pro.com.cn ([210.22.90.142])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id 40si8773892pzk.109.2009.12.13.06.35.29;
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Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 210.22.90.142 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of netbanking.alert@pnb.co.in) client-ip=210.22.90.142;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 210.22.90.142 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of netbanking.alert@pnb.co.in) smtp.mail=netbanking.alert@pnb.co.in
Received: from User [41.217.2.8] by mail.k-pro.com.cn with ESMTP
(SMTPD32-8.10) id A49935A0228; Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:05:13 +0800
From: "Punjab National Bank"
Subject: Alert: Update Your Punjab National Bank NetBanking Account
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:12:11 +0100
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/html;
charset="Windows-1251"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000
Message-Id: <200912132207519.sm01548@user>

Online fraud : Punjab national bank phishing mail

I received this mail today :

Alert: Update Your Punjab National Bank NetBanking Account

Dear Customer,

True to our promise to keep your internet banking account safe and secure from fraudsters,our online security team has discovered some Foreign IP Login to your account from the following IPs : 812.164.72.212, 195.93.21.10

Due to this,your internet banking has been blocked for your safety until you confirm your IP address

Click Here To Re-Confirm Your IP(s) Location.

Thank you for banking with us.

Copyright © 2009.
Punjab National Bank. All rights reserved

What makes Mafia wars tick?

In the earlier post, I had pointed out some reasons.
Here is another one.

Mafia wars - what makes it tick

There is a popular game on FaceBook/MySpace etc.
by the name of Mafia Wars. And I also happen to play
and enjoy it. I would just like to jot down, as to what
makes it kick/tick/whatever :

1. It's simple; or it is a 2-D text-based game
as people in gaming industry would categorize it.
So it doesn't require a high amount of user interaction.
You just have to visit its page as and when you wish,
scroll a bit, make few clicks and you are through.
Its simplicity ensures that it has a large audience.

2. What happens next or a high number of levels
I don't know what is the highest level in Mafia wars but
I have seen a player with level close to 500. With passage
of levels a wider variety of jobs/activities become available
and it keeps the surprise element intact. Talking of surprise
elements, same jobs yield random loot items. Also randomly
fighting people also springs up quite a lot of shocks/gifts.

3. Wonderful graphics.

English medium education

My 11 year old cousin studies in 5th standard of a reputed
English medium school of Jodhpur - St. Paul's. Right now
he is mugging up the definition of Lunar Eclipse for his
half yearly exams, blissfully oblivious to the fact that
I have made him the protagonist of this blog post. He
has learned the definition by heart, without an iota
of knowledge about what it actually is. Hell, he doesn't
even know that it is same as Chandra Grahan.

We Indians must be unique in our naivety towards
education. A kid is mugging up definitions in a
language that he doesn't understand. He would have
been much better placed, if it was Hindi at least.

Trivia about Jaws

Source

Spielberg himself was not present for the shooting of the final scene where the shark explodes. Spielberg believed that the crew were planning to throw him in the water when this scene was complete. It has since become a tradition for Spielberg to be absent when the final scene of a film he directs is being filmed.

Impact of Jaws on the Film Distribution in Hollywood

Source

Jaws was the first film to open nationwide, on hundreds of screens simultaneously, coupled with a national marketing campaign—-a then-unheard of practice. Scheinberg's rationale was that nationwide marketing costs would be amortized at a more favorable rate per print than if a slow, scaled release were carried out. Scheinberg's gamble paid off, with Jaws becoming a box office smash hit and the father of the summer blockbuster.Following the success of Jaws, major studio films have almost universally been distributed and marketed on a national scale.

Sharks

Just watched Jaws, a cult film released in 1975, by Stevn spielberg. This movie
is about a Shark that terrorizes a fictional island by eating up people at its
shores and how it's killed by some brave men. A wonderful piece of cinema.

But reading about it I came across some interesting stuff. Number one, that
Sharks are not as aggressive towards humans as depicted in the movie or
the novel on which it's based. In fact the author of the novel was himself
quoted as saying, in year 2000 :

"considering the knowledge accumulated about sharks in the last 25 years, I couldn't possibly write Jaws today ... not in good conscience anyway. Back then, it was generally accepted that great whites were anthrophagous (they ate people) by choice. Now we know that almost every attack on a human is an accident: The shark mistakes the human for its normal prey."

Also, from wikipedia :

In 2006 the International Shark Attack File (ISAF) undertook an investigation into 96 alleged shark attacks, confirming 62 of them as unprovoked attacks and 16 as provoked attacks. The average number of fatalities worldwide per year between 2001 and 2006 from unprovoked shark attacks is 4.3.

Contrary to popular belief, only a few sharks are dangerous to humans. Out of more than 360 species, only four have been involved in a significant number of fatal, unprovoked attacks on humans: the great white, oceanic whitetip, tiger, and bull sharks. These sharks, are large, powerful predators, and may sometimes attack and kill people. Interestingly, they have all been filmed without using a protective cage.

Sita sings the blues

A fantastic animation movie, created simply on a computer using 2-D graphics by
Nina Paley. You can read more about it here. Or download the legal 700 MB version.

A useful tool for cricket related queries.

Cricinfo's query engine

Here you can give a wide variety of queries.
For example :
Only one player has scored more than 1000 runs in
Tests without making a single 50-plus score. Name him.

Answer : Waqar Younis.

Here is a sample oracle query for the same.

Swine flu vaccination in India

All over world the people are receiving Swine Flu Vaccinations.
But in spite of a very high number of cases here in Jodhpur,Rajasthan(India)
I am yet to see any such thing. I am not sure about the rest of India though.

USA declares Tibet as a part of China

The latest Nobel peace laureate Mr. Barack Hussein Obama, who
also happens to be the current US president, has declared Tibet
as a part of China.

This must come as a shock to everyone, especially the Tibetans
who have just completed 50 years under Chinese oppression.
It was 1959 when then fled en masse from Tibat to take shelter
in India. Those who could not flee, either lost their lives or
succumbed to Chinese pressure to renounce their religious
beliefs.

Not only Mr. Obama is a Nobel peace laureate, but also
a man whom the world hailed as its savior in the run up
to the US presidential elections. But as it is turning out,
he is no better than his predecessor George W. Bush.

A careful look at Tibet's history reveals that Tibet
had indeed been a part of china in ancient history for
a certain duration. But its converse is true as well.
Sections of China were also a part of once formidable
Tibetan Empire.

Clearly, China is taking revenge of atrocities committed
to its people by Japan and Britain. And, in the process
creating new victims, who will undoubtedly take their
revenge one day.

As far as Obama is concerned, Ram gopal verma had disected
his so called aura and charisma rather easily :

"In the run up to the election the media presented Obama
in low angles with a highly dramatic background score and
pitched him as a hero against the villain George Bush."

"But once Obama took over as President the low angle
shots became eye level shots and the background score
was taken off".

"..in the times we are right now living in, the Media
makes even reality look like a showbiz effect."

Mcloedgunj again

Had visited this beautiful place in Oct-2006 and again
in Oct-2009 now. A short summary :

1. Stayed at Hotel Tibet(Rs. 770/- per day including Service tax)

In general Mcloedgunj and nearby areas have a vast array of
options for accommodation. You can get much cheaper/pricier rates
for hotels. Apart from this you can get rooms on yearly/monthly
basis as well, as a lot of people seem to stay here for long durations.

2. Hill Book Shop :

Very close to Hotel Tibet on the Bhagshu Road.
Here you can buy/sell second hand books. At times
you get the books very cheap.

3. For rock climbing/river crossing etc.

Regional Mountaineering Center on Tushita Road(+91-9418025191)

4. If you are trekking to the Triund, and want to stay at
the guest house there, you need to take permission from
the forest department(which is either in Dharmshala or Mcloedgunj, just enquire).

5. For people with religious interests,
Jwala Devi Temple : roughly 65 km from Mcloedgunj
Brajeshwari Devi Temple in Kangra : 27km from Mcloedgunj
(both lie on the same route).

6. Cheap(inexpensive) woolen clothes :
Delhi Departmental Store in Dharmshala main market.

7. There is a Himachal Tourism Club House(perhaps on Jogiwara road, or
you can enquire in main marked Mcloedgunj), where you can play Table
Tennis/Snooker etc.

8. A very small trek :
go to BhagshuNag waterfall.

Experts Exchange vs. Stack Overflow

Well well well. It's well known that stackoverflow.com is this and that
and everything else. But there is one thing that it is not. It's not a good
platform to "discuss" a question.

You ask a question and people "answer" it. The best answer is voted up. There
is not an easy way, that you could ask something again in the same thread.
If you feel the need to discuss it, you have to ask a separate question and hope
that people answer that one too.

Experts Exchange does it well. In fact, that's what it does.

Uganda blues

One of our neighbors married their daughter in Uganda. The guy is from Jodhpur,
as are we and our neighbors. It happened around an year back. The couple is in
Jodhpur right now for a wedding in the family. I had a chance to meet her today
and find out about the life after marriage and in Uganda.

Her in-laws are here in Jodhpur, so in a way she is free from some unnecessary
chores. But the time she is spending with them right now is pretty much same
as that of an average Indian daughter-in-law : rather bad. I wouldn't dwell
on that though.

Before marriage, she was told that her husband would settle back in India
in an years' time. And that's why she and her parents said yes. But now
he seems to have changed his mind, or may be it was that way already, who knows?

In Uganda, they live on the second floor of a building. In the basement there is a pub.
Couple of months ago, 6 people were shot dead by a soldier in that pub. In another
incident, a thief was lynched by the mob in the main market.

Talking of food, it's the same old story for Indians. Vegetarians continue to suffer
outside India.

Among the Indians living there, which are predominantly Gujjus and South Indians,
unity is conspicuous by its absence. Factionalism rules the day for Indians. Anyone
not belonging to these communities is bound to fend for himself. And a Marwari couple
like them is neither in this group nor in that group. Hence "hum to beech mein latak
gaye yaar".
(There is a lone Sindhi shopkeeper too, who runs a grocery shop. A Gujju, just besides
him runs a grocery shop too. The Gujju's shop is always busy, as opposed to his
neighbor.)

Medical and educational facilities are pathetic there. Weather isn't very kind either.
You could sometimes see three seasons in a single day. It rains a lot there. And the
rain follows its own rules. For 3 months it rains in the morning, for next 3 in the
afternoon, and in the night for another 3 months. Malaria is the name of the game.

Elections are due in Uganda in 2011. And the Asians(Indians and Chinese) have started
to get the threats already. In the time of Edi Amin, the Indians were chased away.
This time "you will be killed", say the political goons.

All in all, she just wanted to come back to India anyhow. Given her husband's inclination,
it doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon. As he would like to "save some more",
before "settling" in India.

Tehelka's BJP Rescue Mission

Govindacharya Interview

I am quoting from Kulkarni’s article that a lot of the BJP’s allies went away because of Gujarat. Do you agree?
I don’t agree with it. Because the allies have come closer to the BJP for two reasons. One, when they don’t have to protect a Muslim base because there is no Muslim vote base in their state, be it Orissa, Punjab, Haryana or even Tamil Nadu. Two, when they think that the BJP’s vote share is more than the Muslim vote in their state, they just measure it in terms of loss and profit and then they ally, like in Bihar.

Tehelka's BJP Rescue Mission

Source

"The Hindutva project was constructed on tapping into and fostering fear and a siege mentality within Hindus: a sense of being a minority in a country in which they are clearly a numerical majority. In itself, this was not a bad thing. You need a political party to ‘summit’ these emotions so you can manage them."

Tehelka's BJP Rescue Mission

Another Article

"Most people forget, the Congress Party, the original party of the freedom movement, allowed many of its members to simultaneously belong to both the Congress and the Hindu Maha Sabha or other Hindu nationalist formations. This was very prevalent in Bengal because a huge proportion of Bengali freedom fighters came from a background of Hindu nationalism."

"Veer Savarkar, the Hindutva fountainhead, insisted that Hindus must not read the Vedas and Upanishads but read science and technology and western political theory, this is what he had in mind."

"Few people remember that Savarkar was very secular in his personal life – in the western sense. He refused to have his funeral rights according to Hindu custom; he wanted his body taken for cremation in a mechanised vehicle rather than the shoulders of relatives. He also refused to give his wife a Hindu funeral though women members of the Hindu Mahasabha sat in front of his house on a dharna."

"Savarkar’s main criticism of Gandhi, in fact, was that he was unscientific, irrational and illiterate in modern political theory. He was wrong about that. Gandhi did understand political theory, but it had deeper roots, taken not only from Indian society but from the dissenting West.

Gandhi did not believe in the modern nation state or in conventional ideas of nationality, nation and nationalism. He went on record to say that armed nationalism is no different from imperialism. At that point in our history, he seemed a romantic fuddy duddy. The fact is, he was way ahead of his time.

He understood that India was particularly well-equipped to craft its own version of a modern nation state. It was under no obligation to follow European textbook definitions of the nation state. The irony is that today many western nations are moving away from the old model and becoming more flexible: 14 countries in Europe do not maintain any armies and have opened their borders to become the European Union. On the other hand, because of our colonial past, India and China are two of the purest forms of 19th century nation states you can find in the world today"

"The current upheaval could be a creative moment both for the BJP and the RSS. Unlike the RSS heads that have gone before him, Mohanrao Bhagwat is not a very conspicuous ideologue. Nobody expects anything out of him. Because of this, he has the opportunity to be truly creative. But westernised Brahmins and modernity can be a lethal combination. It cuts you off from your native Indian genius. So will they be able to spot the moment?"

Tehelka analyzes the past,present and future for BJP

Excerpts from the latest edition of Tehelka :|

Interview of RSS Spokesman Ram Madhav
The RSS ideologues say they’re against violence, but they create an environment that fosters violent reactions. For instance, you always invoke Aurangzeb as a black mark against Muslims. How does he pertain to 21st century Muslims?
If we say Raja Jai Singh — who joined hands with Akbar to defeat Maharana Pratap — is a traitor, does it mean Hindus get offended? Just because Muslims get offended, should we project Aurangzeb as a great secular leader?


MS Golwalkar, who was the head of the RSS, wrote that Nazism was something Hindustan needed to learn from. That Nazi Germany was proof that a nation cannot accommodate races of different cultural roots.
You have frozen your mind in a 1938 book. Have you read what Guruji Golwalkar said in his 1972 book, India and the Minority Question? In 1938, people were glamorising Hitler. Golwalkar never said a word admiring Hitler. He only said that Nazism shows that through one nationalist sentiment you can mobilise people as one nation. But after the holocaust, Guruji didn’t subscribe to it. Nazism has nothing akin to RSS ideology. We praise how the Jews rose as a nation after Hitler’s crimes against them. We teach our people about Israel as the experience of how a nation can reemerge.

Tehelka

Recently I recommended this magazine named Tehelka to some of my friends.
I told them the articles/essays in this magazine are very well written, informative
and thought provoking.
But a lot of them have an image of Tehelka as a sensational magazine, which
has been established since Tehelka broke the defense scandal.
Even I had the same conception earlier, but reality is different.
I just wish more and more people read this magazine, even online.

Another Suicide by an IIT Student (Kharagpur)

Source

"According to institute sources, Kumar was an average student who had failed to clear one of the semester papers. “It is possible that he had stayed back because he had a backlog to clear but his department has not been able to confirm it,” said U.P. Singh, the security officer of the institute."

"Kumar’s suicide is the second in the institute in two months. On April 24, fourth-year student Ramananda Rao K. from Andhra Pradesh was found hanging in his room in the Nehru hostel."

Rebirth

One theory regarding reincarnation is that souls come back to the earth
in a physical body to complete their unfulfilled wishes. So, for example,
if I wished to and couldn't top my college, in my next life, my soul would try to take
birth in a family, where the chances of becoming a college topper are higher.

Or, if I missed out on the luxuries of an all-American lifestyle in this life,
my soul could choose to be born to a wealthy American couple in the next
birth, and so on..

This theory sounds very soothing and comorting :-), but the problem is there
would be many more souls like my own competing out there in the higher space
for choosing the right place and person to be born as. So, competition would
remain an inseparable fact of the afterlife as well. And who, but the fittest
will survive even there :-) So, no comforts even in the afterlife :-(

ExpertsExchange Vs. StackOverflow

Snapshot taken today at Alexa
Here is a traffic comparison between Experts-Exchange and Stackoverflow over past few months. As one of stackoverflow's founders said, stackoverflow was sort of anti-experts-exchange, it's interesting to note that their traffic seems to be reaching at the same level in
a very short span of time. Strangely enough, the peek that is visible in SO's traffic, is coincident
with the sharp decline in EE's traffic.

Game

Life is a game. So we're all competing against each other,
though in a healthy manner. During any game, people
keep competing, and shake hands and pat each other
only after the game is over.

So, all of us should keep competing against each other
till the life is over, and only then should we shake
hands, be friendly to each other.

Till then, .......

Racial attacks on Indians in Australia

No Education : Indian student Sravan Theerthala, who hails from a poor farmer family in Andhra Prades. He was attacked with a screw-driver by a group of Australian bastards.
Photo: REUTERS

Tank Man

Tank Man — This famous photo, taken on 5 June 1989 by photographer Jeff Widener, depicts an unknown man halting the PLA's advancing tanks near Tiananmen Square.

Movies Trivia

Some movie related trivia :

O Brother where art thou
....in which the title character sets out to make a grim, socially conscious film to be called O Brother, Where Art Thou? After the privileged director experiences hardships of his own, he decides that comedic films are of more value than self-important dramas. Similarly, the Coen brothers' movie also has the tone and imagery of Depression-era realism interlaced with a comedic element.

Gulaal
How did the script of Gulaal come about?

Chaudhary was born in Darjeeling, India. After pursuing a career in modeling and earning his degree in software engineering, he opened his own company in Bangalore. When Chaudhary was defrauded by his business partners he took an opportunity to move to Mumbai in order pursue a new career in acting. Chaudhary was inspired to write his own script after seeing the film Satya with its script written by Anurag Kashyap.

Gulaal : Rana ji lyrics

राणा जी म्हारे गुस्से में आये
एसो बल खाए
अगिया बरसाए
भबराए म्हारो चैन

जैसे दूर देस के टावर में घुस जाए रे एरोप्लेन

राणा जी म्हारे ऐसे गुर्राए, एसो थर्राए
भर आये म्हारे नैन

जैसे हरेक बात पे डेमोक्रेसी में लगने लग गयो बैन
जैसे दूर देस के टावर में घुस जाए रे एरोप्लेन
जैसे सरेआम इराक में जाके जम गए अंकल सैम
जैसे बिना बात अफगानिस्तां का बज गया भैया बैंड
जैसे दूर देस के टावर में घुस जाए रे एरोप्लेन

राणा जी म्हारे

Elections in Rajasthan : The Gulaal Effect?

Gulaal, a fantastic movie, based on a hypothetical story, in which
some Rajputs disgruntled with the Indian democratic setup, plan
to have their own rule back, as was the case in pre independence India,
was released on 13th March, 2009.

In the election results which came out on 16th May, 2009, all the
four contestants belonging to the royal families, who fought the
elections from Rajasthan, won.

Coincidence?

Hope you didn't miss it !!

Kolkata knight riders have won !
And boy, have they done it in style !
A last ball win over Chennai Super Kings, the team at position 2 in IPL.
Fake IPL Player, we are all waiting to hear from you ..

Dynasty and India

A lot of people have pointed out the absence of young leaders
for BJP's defeat. Congress seems to have plenty of them right
now. Rahul, Priyanka, Sachin Pilot and his wife, Jyotiraditya Sindhia,
Son of Sheela Dikshit, Milind Deora(S/o Murali Deora), Naveen Jindal,
Jyoti Mirdha(D/o Nathuram Mirdha)

BJP has very few.
Manvendra Singh(Son of Jaswant Singh), Dushyant(Vasundhara Raje's son),
Yediyurappa's son etc..

Numbers may be different for both the parties but one common thing among
them is, they are all sons/daughters of existing politicians. For all the brickbats
thrown at Dynastic politics, it seems to be the only channel for producing(reproducing?)
the youthful faces in Indian politics. Is India too young,immature to comprehend
meritocracy? Is that why there are so few young faces in the so called meritocratic
organization named BJP?

BJP, what next :-)

What can BJP really do now?
It is not in power, so it cannot give loan waiver to farmers.
Nor can it give away more reservation - the two things
which have clearly worked for congress. And it's surprising.
Agriculture minister of Congress was planning IPL when
the farmers were killing themselves in his own region. As the
polls neared, they announced a loan waiver package.

Despite the mass protests, Congress went ahead with
more reservations in higher education. As a result of
which, a general category student is less and less likely
to get a seat in the engineering and medical colleges
now.

On the other hand, BJP just can't give away the Ram Mandir or Article 370,
nor can it seek apology for Gujarat Riots. It can't oppose reservations
openly. What can it really do?

Lok sabha elections : Jodhpur : Caste wins again

In these Lok sabha elections, Congress fielded a brand new candidate
in Chandresh Kumari. She used to contest from Himachal Pradesh
earlier, but this time she was flown in Jodhpur as she is a Rajput.
And, after delimitation, Jodhpur had become a Rajput dominant
constituency. And, guess what, she won ! Caste system rocks !
Jai Ho !

Election commission web site : poor job in 2009 elections

It is really disappointing. Election commission's website has put up
a really bad show in this election. I don't know how did they fare
in the previous elections though. Here is the link for candidates'
affidavits and it doesn't have affidavits of Rajasthan candidates
still(Results are out now, if you don't know). Also, the results
stopped to refresh after around 6:30 in the evening. Really sad.

The unbearable lightness of being

I had watched this movie once. Something or the other keeps happening in my life, which makes me repeatedly utter these words : "The Unbearable Lightness of being" There is something mysterious about this phrase. My mind keeps resonating with these words every time I think of the phrase : "The Unbearable Lightness of being" Below is a review of the book, I found here. The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera

Kundera’s most famous novel is a complex book. Set against the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, the story evolves around different fictional topics but could just as well be the story of real people. A man torn between thought and emotion, between love and lust. A woman who lives for rebellion. Another whose body is simply an amplifier for her emotions. Tomas, the male protagonist, falls in love with Teresa and marries her, while still having many one-night stands in an attempt to give weight (meaning) to his life. Moreover, he maintains a love-affair with Sabina. Teresa is aware of Tomas' adulteries and cannot bear the situation, which manifests itself in numerous detailed nightmares illustrating the realities of life. For Teresa, love and sex go together, whereas Tomas believes that having sex without love is possible. The female protagonist therefore suffers from the heaviness of life, while her male counterpart feels the unbearable lightness of being. Teresa later tries to gain this lightness for herself. Most of us carry the heavy and the light, the expression of either part depending on our character and circumstances. For that reason, one can identify with Teresa as well as Tomas and Sabina too. Kundera led me to understand that the "specialness" of relationships is not really held in the place that we tend to think it is nor manifests itself in the way that we wish. That love is not what we think it is and unfortunately can sometimes only be gained through situations that we would otherwise find abhorrent if not consumed with these feelings. Sex and love are so intimately joined that it is very difficult to distinguish between the two. Tereza stayed with Tomas knowing he spent most days and nights in another woman’s arms because she loved him, and therefore would suffer anything for him. For her, sex and love were the same thing and that is what tormented her but at the same time made her stay. Is Tereza’s acceptance weakness or a pessimistically hopeful attempt to gain love through persistence and loyalty? The very fact that they stay together and seem to find some degree of happiness illustrates that an acceptance of a relationship that falls well short of satisfying and fulfilling hopes, is possible. Is Tomas and Tereza's tolerance of their imperfect love, their acceptance of where they have arrived at simply a reflection of the fact that you can't change the strong’s oppression of the weak? You may hate it, as Tereza hates Thomas' infidelity, but you have to accept it and move on. However, this suggestion that change can only be incremental (at best) and that basically everyone must cope with life, however awful, must be rejected. Life without dreams is no life at all, but perhaps this is the very point that Kundera was trying to portray. Kundera plays with opposites: life and death, heaviness and lightness throughout his story. The reader can try to decide which life is happier: the light or the dark? What is "The Unbearable Lightness of Being?" It is the realization that, with no hope of knowing the right path from the wrong, there can be no wrong path. One is necessarily absolved of mistakes. The search for meaning in life leans towards the necessity of significance, which comes from a sense of weight. Are events forgiven in advance because they happen only once? But, is it also not unbearable that events only occur once as we can never go back and rectify our mistakes? Everyone wishes they could replay a past error; a lost opportunity, a lost love, a relationship that should not be. Is this not unbearable?! Is this not a weight we feel pressing down on us every day? The novel is an attempt to identify what makes us need companionship in life so badly, trying to understand the relationships between the conflicting desires that humans possess and act upon. What makes a man leave the woman that he loves and is perfectly happy with and seek something intangible in the arms of a mistress? Why does the same man sacrifice everything he has - freedom, social status, and his life's work - only to go back to the same woman he absolutely had to leave before? Is the absence of any responsibilities and ties in life really a "lightness"? Could this absolute lightness turn into absolute emptiness and thus become unbearable at some point - a burden pulling us to the ground? It shows how vulnerable we are, and how miserable we can be made by our contradictory desires, aspirations and impulses. If you read deep enough into this novel you’ll repeatedly think, ‘he’s talking about me’. "How can life ever be a good teacher if there is only one of them to be lived? How can one perform life when the dress rehearsal for life is life?"

Physics video lectures by Walter Lewin

One of the best teachers around, Walter Lewin.
A lot of his lecture notes are available online in video form.
After watching his videos, you wish every course had
video lectures. Here are the links for 3 of his courses :

Classical Mechanics
Vibrations and Waves
Electricity and Magnetism

Indian money in Swiss banks

Left parties had raised the issue before anyone else
but no one lent them an ear. But when L.K. Advani
speaks, the world listens, at least the Congress party
did. And P. Chidambaram is out there with a promise
for swift action. It pays to be a popular party,
as the left parties might have found out with this
episode. This incident also establishes L.K. Advani's
credentials as a man who can raise reasonable issues,
though many leaders in his own party must be wiring
their money out of Switzerland after Chidambaram's
assurance :-)

PS: Advani quoted Wikipedia in his statement. Either Indian
politics has come of age in becoming tech savvy or there were
no reliable sources for Advani's claims.

New initiative by Govt. Of India

Government of India has an online Grievance forum at http://www.pgportal.gov.in

The govt. wants people to use this tool to highlight the problems they faced while dealing with Government officials or departments like
1) Railways
2) Posts
3) Telecom (incl. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) & Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)
4) Urban Development(Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Land & Development Office (L&DO), Central Public Works Department (CPWD), etc)
5) Petroleum & Natural Gas
6) Civil Aviation(Air India, Airports Authority of India, etc)
7) Shipping, Road Transport & Highways
8) Tourism
9) Public Sector Banks
Allahabad BankAndhra BankBank of BarodaBank of IndiaBank of MaharashtraCanara BankCentral Bank of IndiaCorporation BankDena BankIndian BankIndian Overseas BankIndustrial Development Bank of India LtdNational Bank for Agriculture and Rural DevelopmentOriental Bank of CommercePunjab & Sind BankPunjab National BankSmall Industries Development Bank of IndiaState Bank of Bikaner & JaipurState Bank of HyderabadState Bank of IndiaState Bank of IndoreState Bank of MysoreState Bank of PatialaState Bank of TravancoreSyndicate BankUCO BankUnion Bank of IndiaUnited Bank of IndiaVijaya Bank
10) Public Sector Insurance Companies
GIC of IndiaLife Insurance Corporation of IndiaNational Insurance Company Ltd.The New India Assurance Company Ltd..The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd.United India Insurance Company Ltd.
11) National Saving Scheme of Ministry of Finance
12) Employees' Provident Fund Organization
13) Regional Passport Authorities
Regional Passport Office, AhemadabadRegional Passport Office, AmritsarRegional Passport Office, BangaloreRegional Passport Office, BareillyRegional Passport Office, BhopalRegional Passport Office, BhubaneswarRegional Passport Office, ChandigarhRegional Passport Office, ChennaiRegional Passport Office, CochinRegional Passport Office, CoimbatoreRegional Passport Office, DehradunRegional Passport Office, DelhiRegional Passport Office, GhaziabadRegional Passport Office, GoaRegional Passport Office, GuwahatiRegional Passport Office, HyderabadRegional Passport Office, JaipurRegional Passport Office, JalandharRegional Passport Office, JammuRegional Passport Office, KolkataRegional Passport Office, KozhikodeRegional Passport Office, LucknowRegional Passport Office, MaduraiRegional Passport Office, MalappuramRegional Passport Office, MumbaiRegional Passport Office, NagpurRegional Passport Office, PatnaRegional Passport Office, PuneRegional Passport Office,
RaipurRegional Passport Office, RanchiRegional Passport Office, ShimlaRegional Passport Office, SrinagarRegional Passport Office, SuratRegional Passport Office, ThaneRegional Passport Office, TrichyRegional Passport Office, TrivandrumRegional Passport Office, Visakhapatnam
14) Central Government Health Scheme
15) Central Board of Secondary Education
16) Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan
17) National Institute of Open Schooling
18) Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti
19) Central Universities
20) ESI Hospitals and Dispensaries directly controlled by ESI Corporationunder Ministry of Labour
Many of us say that these things don't work in India .
Couple of months back, the Faridabad Municipal Corporation laid new roads in his area and the residents were very happy about it. But 2 weeks later, BSNL dug up the newly laid roads to install new cables which annoyed all the residents. A resident used the above listed grievance forum to highlight his concern. To his surprise, BSNL and Municipal Corporation of Faridabad were served a show cause notice and the guy received a copy of the notice in one week. Government has asked the MC and BSNL about the goof up as it's clear that both the government departments were not in sync at all.

So use this grievance forum and tell others who don't know about this facility.

Funny : How was Pranab Mukherjee inducted into cabinet for the first time

"His initial inclusion was an accident, having gone to witness
the swearing in of ministers at Rashtrapathi Bhavan, when
the number to be sworn in was found inauspicious, the
spectator Pranab was added on to make it auspicious."

Source

The Black Trillion

I never knew about this report until I read it
today here.

According to a Swiss Banking Association report of 2006-07 India leads the
top five countries in deposits — the others are Russia, the UK, Ukraine and China.
Here are the top 5 countries in terms of foreign deposits in Swiss banks :

India : $1.45 Trillion
Russia : $470 Billion
UK : $390 Billion
Ukraine : $100 Billion
China : $96 Billion

For those of us who are unaware, Swiss banks provide a real easy way
to park one's money. They don't ask any questions. They don't hand
out your information to anyone, that is actually anyone.

So it has long been suspected that almost all the black money
amassed by Indian Politicians and Businessmen goes to these
banks.

And the issue was raised in parliament by Communist Party of India- Marxist (CPM).
Honestly, no other party could have raised this issue.
One may hate the Communist parties for so many things, but
there are times I truly feel thankful that they are doing a good job.
A much better job indeed.

O. Saya Lyrics

Source 
O...Saya

They can't touch me
We break off
Run so fast they can't even touch me
Been that gypsy
Touch me I'll show you tricks with my zig-zag quickly
Pick up that pack on my journey
Dogs run, they start to follow me
Have my luck, some days they suck
When you live for the buck
We get for the family

One day I wanna be a star
So I get to hang in a bar
I'll go to Vegas with the playas
Just to forget my scars

ek do teen chaar paanch chheh saat aaTH nau das gyaarah baarah terah (1-13 in Hindi)

Sweat shops have made me shifty
Like a ninja with speed I'm nifty
I hope I live 'til I'm fifty
See my city go from gritty to pretty

IIT Kanpur : Satellite and Suicides

I don't know what to make of these two news stories,
both of them less than 1 week old, related to IIT Kanpur.
While the satellite development is a very welcome news,
it seems only a blip on the radar. Suicide stories
from IIT Kanpur have been far more numerous in past
4 years. According to the following link, there have
been 7 suicides in that duration plus many attempts.

Satellite
Suicide Attempt

In my opinion, if and when, IIT-Kanpur decides
to launch its satellite, it should be dedicated to
those students, whose life it could not protect.
To the students, who were made to believe that
ruthless pursuit of academic excellence was the
only thing that mattered.
To the students, who have ruined and who are
ruining their lives believing in the same theory.

Oscars

What is that one thing common in most of the Oscar nominated movies?
They are slow, well, mostly. In that way, they are a good imitation of life.
Isn't life mostly slow? Like a Test cricket match. Nothing much happens.
It takes a movie like The Dark Knight to strike that right balance between
push button entertainment and meaningfulness. And though, these
Oscar nominated movies come across as boring when you watch them,
they seem to have a lasting impression on memory as compared to the
pop corn flicks. May be due to their slowness or may be due to
the quality of their content.

Blogosphere votes for BJP

Seems like it's a new season. Recently bloggers had supported
Obama quite openly. Now it's the turn of BJP. Offstumped,
Atanu Day and Abhinav Khandelwal have openly supported
BJP. I guess it's only going to catch on from here. So, it seems
quite natural that the "tech" junta is going to vote for BJP
out and out. Only problem might be most of this "tech" junta
and the significant others in their lives might be living at a place,
where their voter id card won't help them in casting a vote.
Also a big chunk of them may not even have a voter id !
Since you have to be physically present when the videography
for the voter id takes place.
So, good luck and let's hope their vote is where their heart is
and their feet are at the same place on the polling date to which
their voter id belongs. Amen !

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Its length could have been curtailed by at least
45 minutes which would make it almost 1 hr 45 mins.
Anyway, mostly boring, this movie is. Still I would
recommend a watch, just to figure out, how to get
a child down from a high rise building, who wishes
he could fly.
Chalo then, bye.

Happy go lucky

This is a movie nominated for this year's oscars, for best original screenplay.
God knows, what's so great about it? It has been good to me, as it has induced
hypersomnia in my hitherto insomniac body. So good night everyone and see ya.

Note: Anyway, the way the driving instructor of Poppy has been portrayed,
is very real. I have encountered two instructors. Both of them were a pain
in the a*se.

some trivia from the filmdom

Shekhar kapoor seems to be a _lazy_ director.
He has directed till now, like, 7 movies??
source.
what made me think that he had directed more, anyway?
I don't know, but it always seemed that he must
be doing something.

--------------------
Godfather might have moved out of IMDB top
100 but one of its most famous fans Ramgopal Verma's
Ram gopal verma ki Aag has ensured Bollywood
and India a place in IMDB Botton 100. What
is surprising that more than a thousand voters
have actually taken the effort to vote it down.
Seems that Karan Johar camp has got a lot of
time these days :-). So here goes for Ramu,
"Love him or hate him you just can't ignore him"
-------------
Sridevi has acted in more than 250 films!! From
1971 to 1991, she acted in almost 240 films,
that is like more than 10 movies per year !! for 20
years straight.
----------------
In contrast Madhuri has less than 70 movies to
her credit, though her career started a good 14 years
after Sridevi. She has around 10 award wins as
compared to Sri's 2.
--------------------------------

MIT moving away from large lecture halls

A really cool discussion going out there on Slashdot.
Check it out.

Some of the comments :

1. Not surprisingly, some of the TAs were far better educators than the professors they worked for.

2. Social Co-existance? Why in God's name would you need to learn that at college? Those are life skills, and can be learned in *drumroll* life. Sure, college is a great place to do that, but I would not say the social attributes gained in college translate 100% to working life, more like 50% or less. There is a lot of stuff kids do in college that would get you fired in a heartbeat at a real honest to goodness job.

3. Yes and no. If you're looking for a lot of individual time and supervision, no, a big school is not the place to go.

But if you're looking for great resources and opportunities, then a big school is far superiour. I jumped into a graduate research lab my junior year for credit, experience, and references that were a huge benefit to me, and that sort of opportunity was impossible for me at the smaller school where I'd spent my first two years.

4. Where will students go to take their afternoon naps now?

Jodhpur embroiled in a water crisis.

Article reproduced without permission from here

India's Sun City of Jodphur faces floodwater destruction

David Byers, Delhi

It is known as India’s Sun City for its brilliant year-long weather conditions - and its palaces, forts and temples leave British tourists stunned every year.

Yet scientists warn that Jodhpur, the walled city in Rajasthan, is on the verge of being destroyed by a tide of floodwater.

In a development which might be viewed as surprising in a city surrounded by desert, leaks at the bottom of reservoirs adjoining the city have caused water to seep underground - creating an escalating crisis.

As surplus water has gradually risen under the city and leaked into people’s basements, residents have been pumping water and many have been forced to evacuate their homes. Pumps to drain out the waters have now been installed in almost all the city’s homes and commercial centres.

scientists are warning that government inaction has turned what was once a nuisance into a full blown crisis. In the past few months – as the waters have gone up to just one metre beneath ground level in some areas – the city’s High Court and main market have been evacuated after their basements were flooded.

Structural experts have warned that the foundations of several buildings are being slowly weakened by the waters, and if Jodhpur, which is in an earthquake zone, suffers even a small tremor, it could be destroyed completely by a tide of floodwater.

“A tremor of limited intensity could destroy the very existence of the city,” RP Mathur, zonal director of the Central Ground Water Board, told India’s Mail Today newspaper.

A study by the area’s Regional Remote Sensing Centre appealed to the government to speed up its work in finding a solution to the crisis. “Water is flooding the basement in the busy market area, damaging buildings and forcing businessmen to abandon the premises at the basement and keep pumping water out of the buildings,” it said.

The government says that it is examining how to deal with the problem, but has given no timeframe for solving it.

State scientists say it has been caused by leaks in the bottom of the Kaylana-Takht Sagar reservoirs, where a far larger quantity of reserves has been stored since the Rajiv Gandhi Link Canal was diverted to the desert city in 1997 to solve a water shortage.

Ministers say they have referred the matter to India’s National Institute of Hydrology in order to urgently find a way to solve the problem.

Hiranandani

I find it amazing that almost every Hindi movie I watch has
at least one scene shot in Hiranandani locality, which neighbours
IIT Bombay located in Powai,Mumbai. Even Slumdog Millionaire
has scenes there. Seems like filmdom is hell bent on making sure
that IITians from IIT-B should always be kept in a state of nostalgia.

Slumdog Millionaire

Film's music is by A.R. Rahman except for Paper Planes which is by M.I.A. ,
an artist about whom I hadn't heard till today. She is of Sri Lankan Tamil
descent, and has had a life which could inspire another hollywood movie.

Music is superb to say the least, and you could visit wikipedia or run
some google searches to know more about it or to download it :-)

But this post is about the movie, which I just finished watching.
I confess, it's the best since I saw The Dark Knight on 18th July, 2008.
After listening to its music, it was impossible not to watch the movie
which possessed it. If there are movies worthy of repeat viewings,
it's one of them. Dev Patel fits like a glove in the role of Jamal Malik
and it's hard to tell other than his name that he is not a Muslim slum
dweller. Sanchita Choudhary looks beautiful in her Cameo as Jamal's
mother.

Irfan Khan's role in A mighty heart seems to have
fetched him this one as the police inspector too. Good
going Irfan, hollywood is ours now.

Mahesh Manjerakar as a ganster and Saurabh shukla
as a constable do well, as they have done it many other
times.

Child artists are the life of the movie for a big part,
I guess almost half. And, they justify the faith Danny
Boyle put in them.

In the end, Bravo Danny Boyle and Bravo Vikram
Swarup for writing the novel on which the film is based.

Slumdog Millionaire Lyrics

are available here.
Music is real cool too.

Isohunt in Copyfight

The popular torrent site Isohunt is engaged in legal battles
for obvious reasons. It is based in Canada, a country with
supposedly lax copyright laws. But the mounting pressure
from U.S. lobbies seems to have taken its toll.

Here is a defense of the stand Isohunt has taken, that
sharing movies online is morally/ethically correct.

It is hard, to read all these arguments in favor
of sharing movies online, and not remember Ayn
Rand's views on capitalism. But then it's hard to counter,
when you hear this(from the same source) :

I've said a number of times that I'm not against copyright, but copyright does need significant reform in the internet age. If all this rampant copying on BitTorrent and the internet has not made a dent in Hollywood's record earnings, why can't we all just get along without rabid lawsuits? Why can't they see that sharing and remixing is a human urge for culture, and when we share and remixes art, it's not a liability but an endorsement for the artist or author or producer?

??

IIT Kanpur student commits suicide

Source

Who was where : On the New year's eve

Who was where, between 11:00pm to 12:00PM on
31-12-2008.
1. Rajiv Garg on the roads of Delhi
2. Sulabh Khare in his home in Noida
3. Siddharth Sharma in IIT Bombay(received a call from Narang Uncle)
4. Anant Jain in Guwahati(obtained an All India License for Driving Heavy Vehicles)
5. Virender Kashyap in Shimla
6. Sandip More in Pune(has launched rightprocedure.com)

BTW, for all ya developers out there,
stackoverflow is a good site.