Famous quotes

"Happiness can be defined, in part at least, as the fruit of the desire and ability to sacrifice what we want now for what we want eventually" - Stephen Covey

Friday, December 31, 2010

சுட்டும் விழி சுடர் தான் கண்ணம்மா

Blake Griffin - Monster poster dunk on Lakers

Blake Griffin without doubt has to be the "Rookie of the year" .
He is the best athlete after Lebron James in the NBA.Look at this monster dunk vs Lakers

Look at KOBE laughing at the end.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Expect fatter pay packet in new year

Article in TOI on hiring in 2011
NEW DELHI: Bountiful days are in store on job street in the New Year, as in-bloom-again industry is expected to accelerate hiring by as much as 20 per cent and reward employees with an identical hike in salaries.

Notwithstanding a cautious start, hiring activities gathered momentum in the second half of 2010 and companies are estimated to have created over a million jobs in the organised sector alone.

Led by fast-growing sectors such as telecom, consumer durables and real estate, HR experts feel that hiring is most likely to jump 20 per cent in 2011. With escalation of the talent war between companies, pay packets too are expected to climb at a rate of about 20 per cent, they opined.

"There would at least be 20 per cent more hiring at the starting level and may be 10 per cent more at mid-management level as compared to second half of 2010. Almost all sectors of Indian economy would hire (in 2011)," staffing services firm Futurestep's Country Manager Asim Handa said.

Futurestep is part of global HR firm Korn/Ferry International.

Improving economic conditions, coupled with many companies' aggressive expansion plans, are expected to further fuel hiring activities, especially in the first half of 2010.

Recruitment firm TeamLease Services' Vice President, Rituparna Chakraborty, said the average hiring increase would be "anywhere between 10 to 18 per cent across sectors next year".

Global consultancy firm Deloitte India's Leader (Human Capital Advisory Services) P Thiruvengadam said recruitment levels have significantly improved in all sectors this year.

The sectors definitely creating jobs (next year) would be healthcare, life sciences, retail, infrastructure and manufacturing, among others, he added.

Online job portal Monster.com's Managing Director (India/ Middle East/South East Asia), Sanjay Modi, said India is going to emerge as a huge sourcing ground for global jobs across segments, positions and profiles.

Meanwhile, compensation is also likely to sail northward in 2011, as entities would mainly look to retain talent.

"I do not anticipate huge increases in salaries (in 2011), but performance would be rewarded and the levels of increase could be of the order of 11 to 18 per cent," Deloitte India's Thiruvengadam said.

TeamLease Services' Chakraborty said the hiring sentiment would be positive, especially for sectors such as consumer durables, FMCG, real estate and telecom.

"Salary growth will range anywhere from 10 to 20 per cent across these sectors next year," she noted.

According to Monster.com's Modi, organisations would have to look at new ways of structuring compensation — by considering a bonus, incentives and stock options, among other steps — to motivate and retain talent.

The country's organised sector is estimated to have generated more than 1.1 million jobs this year, a recent survey by staffing services firm Ma Foi Randstad showed.

Mirroring the improved labour market situation, TeamLease Services' net employment outlook — a measure of hiring prospects — surged to 68 per cent in the December quarter from 47 per cent in March quarter.

Read more: Expect fatter pay packet, 20% jump in hiring in New Year - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Expect-fatter-pay-packet-20-jump-in-hiring-in-New-Year/articleshow/7116005.cms#ixzz19BwX1n5s

Friday, December 24, 2010

Twilight - BGM

This has to be the best BGM ever - Carter Burwell

Twilight - River flows into you

One of the best piano pieces ever

Saturday, December 04, 2010

Nice Lecture Below

The Lecture on Probability theory is really refreshing especially the part about the Probability theory used in mail servers for filtering Spams.Bill gates using Bayesian theorem to filter spams amazing but the fact that a group of words cannot be filtered (practically impossible)but individual word can be filtered easily is new to me. Mathematics are always useful in every field and the final case study given by the professor on Statistician's lie is good. The example given Probability theory used in Game shows is also good.

Lecture on Probability theory and the internet

October 21, 2010 - In recent years, probability theory has come to play an increasingly important role in computing. Professor Sahami gives examples of how probability underlies a variety of applications on the Internet including web search and email spam filtering. This lecture is offered as part of the Classes Without Quizzes series at Stanford's 2010 Reunion Homecoming.

Mehran Sahami, PhD, is an associate professor of computer science and the department's associate chair for education. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, he was a Senior Research Scientist at Google.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Friday, October 29, 2010

Television is so outdated

I get a feeling that TV is going to be outdated very soon.With the advent of broadband connectivity i can watch any show or movie in my media enhanced Laptop.I can download any movie or TV Show free of cost(peer to peer sites).I dont have a STB in my home i get all the free channels in my cable for just 90 Rs per month.I'm comfortable with that.Moreover most of the channels are streaming live TV on internet for free.(NDTV Hindu,Times Now,CNN IBN etc).In the future investing in PC cum TV hardware will be profitable than a DTH Platform cause you can get 2 at the cost of one.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Hilarious blogpost on CWG

Found an absolutely hilarious post on CWG in the blog "The secret journal of Rakesh Jhunjhunwala" Been following this blog for about 9 months love every post
The link here

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Friday, July 09, 2010

Saturday, July 03, 2010

100 greatest movie insults of all time

Nice Lecture about Kidneys

This is how a lecture should be.Even a non medical student like me can understand.Hope Indian medical colleges have lectures like this

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Shutter island

If a movie is made by an Oscar award winning Director like Martin Scorcese and Leonardo di Caprio plays the leading role you expect a master piece.Shutter island is a psychological movie about a facility for the criminally insane.The tension and the thrill is maintained throughout the movie and the climax is a good one but something is amiss in this movie.I liked the dream sequences of Edward Daniels(the leading character) especially the one with his wife played by Michelle williams.
Got a script of the movie as well i have uploaded it to esnips.

Friday, May 28, 2010

FoxconnSuicides Chinese TV report

Just came across this amazing report on Chinese national tv (CCTV) on the suicides of Foxconn workers.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Anand the world champion

It is amazing to see that Anand had helpers like the current World No 1 Magnus Carlsen ,World no 4 Kramnik and probably the greatest chess player ever in Kasparov it is almost inevitable that he will win.This is a testimony to the nice guy that it is and everyone want to see him win unless they are playing against him !!!
He explains about all this in the video

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Vishy Anand - World Championship


It was really remarkable to watch my first Chess match live.The World Championships were underway with our own defending World Champion Vishy Anand is playing against Bulgarian Topalov in his hometown Sofia,Bulgaria.We can watch the match live here in the official website

Anand leveled the score 1-1 yesterday with the white pieces after the loss in the opening game.He probably lost the first game due to the fatigue from a 40 Hour road journey from Germany to Bulgaria.Clearly who takes the road for such an important event ,the volcanic ash forced him to do that.There were no flights from Germany and he had to get to Bulgaria as fast as possible.This remarkable 40 hour road journey is documented here by one of his "seconds" (team member).It is usual for a Chess player especially in a world championship to have a team of players(usually high ranked GMs) to help them with the analysis of the opponent. Hopefully he defends his world championship this time as well as he did with the remarkable victory against Kramnik in 2008.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

China earthquake: Does anyone care


There was a huge earthquake in China killing almost 2183 people(official figure).There may be even more casualties but does anyone care.

The earthquake has occurred in Qinghai province of China where the population is 93% of Tibetan ethnicity.The casualties were high in this under-developed region of China.China declared a Day of mourning and even conducted a gala TV event with celebrities and politicians on CCTV and raised around 322 million US $.
But the surprising fact in all this was the fact that no outside Government provided any help except for verbal condolences.China said that they would accept monetary help but is not likely to allow external aid agencies to enter the province due to the ruggedness of the terrain with no facilities for frequent air traffic.
This is the net help received by China so far
American Red Cross donated 50,000$ (r u kiddin me)
No Country has given aid till now even after China has said that monetary help is welcome.
In India more aid has come for a far less severe crisis in Tsunami with millions in donations and relief workers
We had one most comprehensive relief programs during Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat where almost every country sent Monetary and Physical help.Still remember the pictures of Tents representing various countries in Bhuj.The Russians,Belgians,Americans all played their part in the rescue work.

Why this apathy towards the victims of China.Some say it is due to the paranoid frenzy of foreign influence disturbing the social stability of china but atleast monetary help could have been given to show the world's solidarity with China.
My heart goes to the lives lost in China.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Capitalist mantra - Adam smith

Capitalism utilizes the willpower of individuals, especially entrepreneurs, to foment economic activity. Capitalism is based on the assumption that individuals operate based on self interest; however, by doing so they not only help themselves, but also propel others towards economic success.
As Adam Smith put it, "by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for society that it was no part of his intention. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it."

Socialism Vs Capitalism

Saturday, April 10, 2010

The rise of China


The reason why India can never replicate the China model is simple.Lets assume that Indian government has undertaken an ambitious project like the construction of a new port like Tianjin,immediately there will be protests from People who have to move out,trade unions,opposition polical parties will stage dharnas to oppose this constuction and ultimately stop the project.Our ports look like 16th century ports and our ships resemble ships from "Pirates of the Carribean".We have to encourage the privatization of ports just like airports(Finally our airports are looking the way it should be).Hopefully there will be political consensus on this issue of economic development.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

One year as a wife's hostage

Women has finally arrived in India
Click here to find an amazing story of a handicapped man being held captive and tortured constantly for money.

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Funny Spoof Indian Magazine

MOB Magazine

A very lengthy interaction with Arun Jaitley

Why isn't he the Prime Minister of India.Almost all his views are true and correct to the point

Monday, March 29, 2010

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Detective Conan : Thriller anime

Became a fan of another anime series along with FMA,Getbackers and Inuyasha.
Detective conan is of a different genre.Just finished watching 8 of the released 14 Conan movies .All were good.Looking forward for the 600 episodes of Conan(Finished 20 of them).They certainly have the best opening and Closing songs.


Especially "Hello Mr My yesterday" sounds cool

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Indias economic history

How would you feel if you realise that your Country has been the richest country for the most of the years humans inhabited this planet.Yes India has been the most prosperous country for most of human existence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_past_GDP_%28PPP%29

Monday, March 01, 2010

Amazing video game play

Have anyone played a game where the mission is to not get raped Here it is

"Heavy Rain" Rocks

Friday, February 26, 2010

Heavy rain Walkthrough

Heard that this is a different type of a game where the Games evolves through the choices we make through the game and the game finishes when all the four playable characters die.Nice isnt it


Should India stop playing international Cricket?

There is a case for it
India for long has been single handedly funding International Cricket.About 80% of the Cricket economy comes from India and all other Cricket Boards get huge revenues whenever India tours them through the sale of TV rights aimed at Indian viewers.It is time for India to make a bold decision and stop this leakage
This will be a good decision based on the American leagues.NBA,NFL,MLB all are domestic leagues with exclusive American players barring a few exceptions.But they still trump up their league as the "World" championship and have you ever wondered why the Baseball final series is called the World Series when USA does not even qualify for the finals in the recently concluded World Baseball championship.Japan won that year.America is very protective of its sport economy and have managed to keep it within its boundary.
They have managed to do it by creating a glitzy league and played down the International matches.The viewership for the US campaign for Basketball Gold in Olympics 2008 was abysmally low when compared with the ratings for the NBA Finals for that season.This provided the fact that USA came third in the recently concluded World Basket ball championship would have expected to increase the viewership for Olympics.
The reason is quite simple Americans simply dont care whether USA wins or loses in international matches but they are looking for the great visual experience in their domestic leagues which they can relate to their respective home cities.
I give full kudos to Lalit Modi for the creation of IPL which has already been valued at 4 Billion dollars for a 4 week tournament.There is scope for a couple of more leagues in cricket and it should be played year round and should try to have only Indian players as it will help to ensure that the entire sport economy of India stays within India.Indian viewers will also mature just like the Americans do and support the leagues.
Will any of this happen I dont think so.This is purely a business decision and our decision makers rarely use their heads when they make decisions.

Wonderful Bharati songs

http://tamil.techsatish.net/file/vijay-tv-pongal-special-kannamabharathi-songs/

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

URL Shortening Service

URL shortening is a technique on the World Wide Web where a provider makes a web page available under a very short URL in addition to the original address. For example, the page http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=TinyURL&diff=283621022&oldid=283308287 can be shortened to http://tinyurl.com/mmw6lb.
Thats the service the tinyurl website provides
Thats the reason why you will find a lot of links starting with tinyurl

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Racial Slurs

Just came across this file which explains all the racial slurs in the English language along with their meaning.The list is quite exhaustive
Uploaded it to esnips
http://www.esnips.com/doc/d4c20095-33bb-4aff-8c42-c04fbe8e1470/Racial-slur-database

Thursday, February 18, 2010

List of National Highways in India

I have uploaded the List of National Highways in India in the following
http://www.esnips.com/web/balaji6161-Webarticles

What has happened to the oil in Iraq

I was browsing and analysing the economic effect of the Post Saddam Iraq through reading many articles on the subject in Iraq.First of all,lets look at what happened in the Post war Iraq regarding oil.Paul Bremer, the chief executive of Iraq representing the US ordered the full privatization of the oil resources of the country leading to the International companies readily ending owning most of the oil resources of the country.The important factor is that he has also allowed full repatriation of profits to their parent country and also with a tax rate of 15%.Morover there is no indication of any subsidies for the domestic sales.This policy is worse than Colonial times cause the only thing that Iraq has got is the oil.Ofcourse Iraq's economy will grow with the increase of oil production but Iraq will lose its hold of its resources at the hands of International oil companies who has the right to repatriate their windfall profits they will make at Iraq's expense to their parent companies.Moreover i don't think any company will agree to provide them at the subsidized rates for the Domestic use in Iraq whereas almost all oil exporting countries are providing the same at subsidized rates.Whats best is for the Iraq to have a centralized planned economy of the oil like Saudi Arabia and full control over its resources and certainly increase the tax rate along with the controls on the repatriation of profit.Iraq with its huge oil resources and the market prices for oil should have had a GDP per capita greater than the United states itself just through the export of oil.But due to the sanctions and the subsequent war they have fallen back.The Iraqi economy will still grow but certainly not at the direction in which the Iraqis will want.
A full report on the Iraqs cost of conflict based on opporunity cost is analysed and given an India based political think tank

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Bruce Lee interview

Just saw this interview of the great actor bruce lee
Just liked the part where he talks about being like water


Saturday, February 13, 2010

Indian Hackers haunt Victorian businesses

Sydney, Feb 12 (AFP) Australian police today said they were investigating a string of hacking attacks against Melbourne-based companies, reportedly linked to recent violence against Indian nationals.

The cyber raids, which have occurred in the past week, are being probed by a specialist taskforce, a spokeswoman said, refusing to confirm media reports that they were linked to the Indian assaults.

"The Victoria Police e-crimes squad is investigating reports of alleged hacking of a number of different business servers hosted in Melbourne," the spokeswoman told AFP.

"The ongoing investigation is in its infancy and it would be inappropriate to comment any further."

The Australian newspaper reported that several Melbourne construction and engineering firms had been attacked in recent days by a hacker called "Ghost Buster".

"Your server data have been compromised ... and have been encrypted," Ghost Buster wrote on one.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Watching poker again

This is a nice clip of Caesars Cup Team Europe V Team America
Europe won : 4 : 1

Monday, February 08, 2010

Porkalam - movie review

I watched this movie last month directed by Bandi Saroj kumar. This movie's story is very original.You have Kishore - the bad guy in Polladavan playing the lead here and he does it with sincerity.This movie intigued me from the start cause i was wondering what is that computer graphics coming up on screen whenever the Hero is walking or going to start a fight.Then the Director comes up with the surprise halfway through the movie that he is "blind".The photography of this movie is excellent.This is an "original" movie (not often do you see movies like that in Tamil.)

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Duleep Trophy much more exciting than International test cricket

Who would have thought that there will come a day when Cricket watchers in India will find the Duleep trophy final much more exciting than International cricket.The series between the No 1 and No 2 of the world in cricket(IndVSA) has failed to live up to its expectations.Kallis and Amla literally killed my interest in watching the match with the least attractive strokeplay ever and on the other hand Yusuf pathan was going all guns blazing chasing an improbable 500+ runs in the secong innings.The fact that he scored more than 200 runs at the strike rate of 110 reinforced my interest in that match.Kallis and Amala could take a leaf out of his innings and try to be more entertaining than to bore the hell out of us.This year has been wonderful for Indian domestic cricket - both the Ranji and Duleep Trophy finals have been peaches and even the Indian media has started to take notice.

Australian police Bizarre remedy for attacks on Indian students

http://www.timesnow.tv/Indian-students-urged-to-dress-poorer/articleshow/4338002.cms

The article above shows the bizarre statement by the Australian police advising the Indian students to look poor.I think that the Indian students can agree to look "poor" in Australia if the Australian government agrees to change the Australian police to "Drag" Costume as they are the most girlish police i have ever seen.

Sherlock Holmes Movie Script

Just read the script of the movie"Sherlock Holmes" i loved it
Uploaded to http://www.esnips.com/webfolder/8c80f3df-b8b8-4696-87b4-778c85e34433

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Another "Slum" hindi movie nominated for Oscars

There is this trend of American directors trying to depict "Poor India" inorder to get recognition on the world stage . Every year there has been a movie or docu depicting "poor India" being nominated for Oscars.Certainly the Academy seems to like these type of movies.
This year.Kavi - A story of child slavery in India has been nominated for Oscar awards 2010 for Short film (Action)
The year before - Slumdog millionaire swept the Oscars ,the year before that A short docu depicting the life of children of prostitutes in India was also nominated .Guess who is the director of that(An american for sure).Clearly the Academy has felt that if you want a story of India - it has to be about Poor india and also directed by a Westerner.All others are not worthy for selection.I'm happy that A R Rahman got an Oscar for "Slumdog Millionaire" All of us Indians know that his work in "Roja" "Taal" "Delhi 6" are far better than that crappy "Jai Ho" song.Any ways ARR is truly a legend of our times and lets celebrate his genius.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Federer comments before the Aus open final

If Federer showed at Melbourne Park just how classy he could be when he pulverised France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last four, and he also demonstrated that he had a sense of humour when he wondered during the on-court interview whether Murray would be attempting to win Britain’s first grand slam singles title “for 150,000 years”.
He later moved on to the psychology of Sunday’s final. “The pressure is big on him. He’s in his second grand slam final now,” Federer said of Murray, the player he defeated in straight sets in the 2008 US Open final.
Unusual for the usually nice player Cant wait for the Final

Cricket Ad space in India in 2009

Came across an article in Television point which shed some light on the Cricket Ad space in the Indian television in India.
The total ad revenue in Sports sector is a whopping Rs 11 Billion in 2009.
Most of the revenue is attributed to the IPL.(around 50%) which is high for a 4 week extravaganza.No wonder that the channels and the franchises are ready to pay a heavy price in getting the share of the pie.Sony has predicted that they are expecting around Rs 7 Billion in Ad revenues for 2010 IPL (which is a 40% Jump).IPL has really arrived and here to stay,this is India's answer to EPL,NBA etc.An expected 85 Million watched IPL in 2009(around 26% watched it outside their homes).IPL will certainly have an effect on the GEC Space in India as well which have a downturn in their TRPs during the IPL season.Even Bollywood is getting scared about IPL and they are refraining from releasing any mivies during the IPL season. SRK was the first person who said even before the start of the IPL that no movies to be released during IPL(a true prophet indeed).Infact a lot of screens in India has decided to showcase LIVE IPL matches inorder to prevent the loss of revenue.The BCCI seeing an opportunity here has already sold the theatrical rights to a Dubai based Dar Capital for an undisclosed amount.Now it seems that they are looking for mobile partners as well for the IPL. I would really appreciate the fact the IPL is going to be telecast in Youtube,Being a frequent Youtuber like me that is an easy and userfriendly way to consume the excitement and theills of IPL.With a growing economy IPL will be expected to generate around a billion dollars of revenue each year.

NDTV signs consultancy agreement with Astro Awani

It seems that NDTV has a consulting arm NDTV worldwide that specializes in providing the following types of services
Market Trends and Business Planning
Manpower Planning
Creation of newsroom
They have also got a number of worldwide clients like FBNC(Vietnam) & MRTV3 (Myanmar) in addition to the agreement with Astro
NDTV was clearly in the forefront in the electronic news media burst in India.Theu certainly have the adequate experience and expertise to provide such services.
I'm not sure about the revenues that they are able to achieve or the future growth prospects of such an industry but I think that it only augurs well for our country if India starts providing services for other developing countries rather than the usual low cost service provider for developed countries.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Dexters Laboratory

Brings back old memories of this amazing tv series
Used to watch everyday after school

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Nice article in Trak.in about Indian corruption

We have been reporting from time to time on this blog about how corruption is widespread (as if I had to tell you that :) in India and who are the people who take maximum bribes.
However, I was not able to actually provide any numbers on the extent of corruption in India. Finally after some research, we have some numbers for you that can quantitatively measure the extent of corruption.
India Corruption & Bribery Report
________________________________________

What is the amount of bribes requested by people in India?


The above numbers clearly suggest that Bribery in India is at a grass root level with close 86% demands were done for $5000 or less (2,50,000 rupees or less, out which more than half were for $26 (Rs. 1300) or less.
Because, corruption takes place at such a grass root level, it is extremely difficult to contain it.
Having said that, 14 people out of 100 taking bribes are for amount more than $5000 (Rs. 2,50,000). Actually, if you look at the top officials are even more corrupt. I will tell you why I say that –
The number of big bosses is merely 1%-2% of all officials, yet according to the report 14% of bribes are of huge amounts, showing that big bosses are involved even more compared to low level officials who are taking bribes.
On a sidenote, China’s number is much higher with 24% of reported demands were for amounts between $5,001 and $50,000, 6% of reported demands were for amounts between $50,001 and $500,000, and 6% were
for amounts greater than $500,000. interesting…
________________________________________
• What is the nature of Bribe Demands in India?

No guesses here – if you want to get your work done, bribe em’ ! thats what is quite clear and in line with the notion we have.
More than half of all the bribes were paid to get the work in time !
77% of all reported bribe demands in India are related to the avoidance of
harm, including securing the timely delivery of a service – which is actually a right of a person (such as clearing customs or having a telephone line installed) and receiving payment for services already rendered
Only 12% of the bribe demands were for gaining a personal or business advantage (including exercising influence with or over another government official, receiving inappropriate favorable treatment or winning new business).
One thing for sure, we are now used to this corrupt system and take it in our stride as part & parcel. We do not want to go extra lengths and take the easy way out. But this easy way out is actually the roots of corruption in India.
________________________________________

Who demand bribe in India?


No guesses here !
Whooping 91% of reported bribe demands originate from government officials in India.
The greatest sources of bribe demands, were from national level Government officials (33%), the police (30%), state/provincial officials and employees (16%), and city officials (10%) respectively .
Do you know which of the two Indian ministries ask for bribe more than other? – They are Customs office (13%) and Taxation and Water (9%).
China fares slightly well when it comes to Government officials taking bribe (85%) – Another major difference is that India Police (30%) are far more corrupt than their Chinese counterparts (only 11%).
________________________________________

What is the frequency of Bribe Demands in India?

Nearly 90% indicated being solicited for a bribe between two and 20 times.
Overall 60% people reported bribe demands of 5 times or lower from the same individual. However, 9% asked for bribes more than 100 times.
Compared to China, it differs significantly with 73% people indicating that they had received multiple bribe requests. Almost 20% of those individuals reported receiving more than 100 bribe demands in China.
________________________________________

In what form was the bribe requested?
Do you want any tips on how to give bribes? here is what our corrupt officials prefer..
If in doubt, give cash, as 92% of all bribes are preferred to be “cash or cash equivalent,” The next best thing is a “gift,” (5%) including requests for company products, jewelry and similar items. Less common still, at approx. 1% each, were requests for hospitality or entertainment items; travel for other than business purposes; and other assistance, such as
help with a visa, medical care, or scholarships.
Surprisingly, there were no reports in India of demands for “additional business” or “sexual favors.” In China, those demands accounted for a combined total of 7% of reported bribe solicitations.
________________________________________
So, there you have it – How, what, who and why of Indian Corruption.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Prospects for Boston Celtics in 2009-10 NBA Season

Just been following my favourite team Boston Celtics in NBA.
They have a decent start to the NBA Season and are sure to make the playoffs.
Analysis
The ageing super "3" are still going strong
Paul Pierce is averaging around 19 Points per game
Kevin Garnett is not injured and had played in 30 games so far and averaging 8 rebounds per game
The induction of Rasheed Wallace has had impact on their offense as they are averaging around 100 points per game.
But the star of the season so far is "Kendrick Perkins" who is shooting 64% FG and also averaging 8 rebounds per game.
But im slightly disappointed that the team is not dominating the league as i had expected at the start of the season.They are behind Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern conference standings.
But what matters is how they perform in the Playoffs.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Nice article on Indophobia in Western Foreign Policy

All prejudices are unpleasantly alike on some level, but the prejudice that India and Indians face on a global scale has proven to be exceptionally resistant to change.


By Vamsee Juluri


In a week that saw innocent Indians being murdered and imaginary Indians being maligned on opposite ends of the Western world, Foreign Policy published an article that labels India a "global villain." It is time for a serious reality-check, and an even more serious attitude-check.

Let me start with the Foreign Policy article in question. Barbara Crossette, who authored the piece, formally worked at the New York Times, a publication, which has devoted entire editorials to its briskly exasperating civilizing mission vis-a-vid India. Now, Crossette writes about how annoying it is to deal with India on important global issues, such as trade and nuclear non-proliferation.

She begins with a pithy demolition of India's supposed good press in recent times (to which, one must note, a witty commentator has responded by asking the obvious: What good press?) only to go on to denounce India as a sanctimonious rogue among nations. The words that are used to describe India include "pious," "craving," "petulant," "intransigent," and "believes that the world's rules don't apply to it," all of which a student of postcolonial cultural studies would recognize as obnoxious cliches that have come to characterize Western discourse about the colonies for decades now. What else could be flashing in a writer's mind when the word "petulant" or "intransigent" is used but the belief that a a whole nation is infantile? What colonial image of a gaping-mouthed ragged supplicant must have inspired the use of a word like "craving" to describe India's goals?

The bold labeling of a sovereign, democratic nation as a "global evil" marks, I believe, a new low in what must be recognized as nothing less than Indophobia. If we have not heard that frequently enough before, it is not because it doesn't exist. Just like how the most effective propaganda is never called propaganda, but rather it is accepted as truth, the most insidious of prejudices seldom even get named as such (perhaps it is no coincidence that the phrase "elephant in the room," which means exactly that, is centered around the animal most closely identified with India). There are perhaps as many anecdotes about Indophobia at a personal level as there are Indians in foreign countries, but it is at a deeper cultural level that we need to face it first. The first sign of Indophobia many of us encounter is really its own ideological defenses; phrases which are used to preempt any discussion about it, like "Indian chauvinism," "Indian supremacism," "Indian exceptionalism," "Indian victimism," or just allegations of childish over-sensitiveness coupled with some sort of vague Eastern cultural fetishism pertaining to notions of honor (I have heard all of these sentiments informally or otherwise in my academic career from grad school until now). If we can get past these, perhaps we can see things more clearly.

India's role in the Western imagination has been a long and important one. Despite some reverential accounts of Indian civilization in the earliest days of the encounter between Europe and India, the image that has prevailed has not been a nice one, or even a truthful one. The present Indophobia has its origins in colonial Hinduphobia. Fuelled by the crazy stories of missionaries determined to rid the world of heathen Hindus and steeped in the ideologies of the colonizers' civilizing mission, Indophobia infiltrated popular, journalistic, political and academic thought. In the cold war period, some things improved, but in the great conversation of powers that Washington thought it was having, Pakistan would appear to it as a reliable favorite; tough, dependable, monotheistic, and anti-communist. India, on the other hand, was seen as too weak, too Hindu, too vegetarian, precariously past its Must Break Up By Date. At best, or worst, India was seen as "pious," with its Gandhian austerities and Nehruvian Non-Alignment dreams.

But it is the present, the post cold war, post 9/11, post outsourcing nature of Indophobia that we must return to, history in tow. The examples are many. Why is it that some Australians reacted to the beating and killing of Indian students with the odd retort that "this happens in Mumbai"? Why did NPR cheerily lend its audience to one man's claim that he saw an Indian get the Nigerian airline bomber on board? Why does Foreign Policy get to call India "evil" without a drop of concern for how it feels to Indian readers or how dangerous words like this were in the past for the colonized nations? Why does New York Times choose to show agonizing restraint when Pakistani terrorists massacre civilians in Mumbai and run screaming headlines naming the arrest of an "Indian" after Madrid? Why does Slumdog Millionaire, one of the most exhilarating movies of our time, depict the majority of Indian characters in it as irredeemably cruel and barbaric (not the nice Indian hero with the British accent though, of course not)? Why did the fictional slur "slumdog" and the image of poverty reportedly figure so often in the Australian attacks? Finally, why does Glenn Beck find the name of a life-giving sacred river similar to the name of a disease? I must admit though that the last case is less depressing because it is Glenn Beck after all and the problem must naturally lie not in the word 'Ganges' but really in his ears or what's (not) between them.

After a brief decade or so of somewhat unexpected "India Rising" stories, India-bashing is once again becoming fashionable. As a media studies teacher, I always wonder what it means when a particular way of looking at things suddenly becomes prevalent in history. What does it tell us about our times and who we are? In the past Indophobia was part of a colonial and then cold war mindset. Thinking of India as the very embodiment of wretchedness and poverty fit in with the western self-perception of the time. In recent times, things have improved at some levels. Racism is no longer legal and in many places no longer cool. With globalization and the economic success of India and Indians abroad, it is no longer possible to deny to India its talent, labor, and its contribution to the world. All should have been well, at least now. But Indophobia has found new reasons to resurface--and some of these reasons have less to do with India and more to do with where the United States sees itself in the world right now. The world's most powerful nation has been only minimally successful in its wars against its most formidable adversary. It is beset by doubts about the mortality of empires and such. It has swung from gung-ho bombs-away leadership to a low-bow bombs-away leadership. It has perhaps even painfully sensed the barb in the saying "with friends like these who needs enemies?" when it comes to the whole question of its cold war-era role in the creation of Frankenjihadis in South Asia. All of these have a bearing, directly or indirectly, on its present story on India.

The present wave of Indophobia, starting with the hate-call campaigns against Indian call centers a few years ago and culminating in the execrably immoral devaluing of Indian lives in recent times, may be at least in some parts the result of an overcompensation for a sense of imperial loss. The pinnacle of western power and prestige is no longer the only high rise in town (and I don't mean the Burj Dubai). Globalization has done to the world what it has done in India too--the days of single nation world dominance, like single party dominance in Indian politics, are over. Accepting this won't be easy for some because the culture has not found the will to change; at least not as far as India goes. The culture can grudgingly accept China as a rival. It can deem the whole of Islam as a civilizational rival. India's rise, though, is harder to accept. America is used to dealing with things on the grounds of toughness, force, power. Doing so on the grounds of smartness is new to it.

So the whole old repertoire of Indophobia returns; images of poverty and disease, allegations of corruption and piousness, insinuations about culture and religion. This time around though, there is less of the sort of restraint that existed in the past. Just as how some people think it is okay to be racist now because we have a black president, the new Indophobia deems it okay to spew nastiness because India has arrived too. But of course, post Mumbai and Slumdog the arrival story is also questioned. This is an old tired story too; of the romantic westerner eagerly turning to India despite their friends' counsel only to be tremendously disappointed that they didn't find nirvana, or even a nice airport terminal. That sort of backlash tends to get extra nasty, leaping into large scale generalizations. That is the pattern that seems to be playing out in the present India story. "You think you know India? You think India has got better/richer/nirvana?" The pitch inevitably starts (In Crossette's article this part runs with "internet entrepreneurs, hospitality industry pioneers and gurus"). "Nope," the anointed Western (and sometimes South Asian) expert gravely retorts. "Here's the real India and here are the real Indians. They are evil." At least Foreign Policy had the honesty to put that word up in lights.

As someone with an emotional stake in both India and the United States, I wonder whose loss will be greater in the end. The nastiness of Indophobia is of course bad for India in the first instance. It is young Indians who have been bearing the brunt, whether of American hate-callers or worse, of Australian murderers. But India is a survivor country; it has survived conquest, colonialism, and it survives its own chaotic self every day. America though is inexperienced on this count. It has just about started realizing, after much needless suffering of its own from blowback and backbite, that surviving the whirlwind of globalization takes smarts rather than brute force. I fear that the return of Indophobia may once again distract America from the right direction. When experts like Barbara Crossette heap sarcasm on "India's colorful, stubborn loquaciousness" they fail to see that the more we ignore this supposed "loquaciousness" the more we are signaling that the only language we recognize is that of brute force. There is no dearth of precedent on that. There is no dearth of possibilities that the future may be exactly that too, if old prejudices run unchecked.

But I cannot make myself leave on a pessimistic note. Indophobia can be fought, and I believe there is enough goodness in all communities to do so. First, I think the Indian community, in India and abroad, must get its own stories right. There has been a tendency to shy away from naming Indophobia as such because we think it affects our image of India Rising, which has been hard fought, no doubt. But there is a need to name bad stuff for what it is. To be fair, as always, we must continue our introspection into our own prejudices and shortcomings; after all, as Ramachandra Guha once wrote, 95% of blame for India's problems today lies with us and not the British. India needs a better India story too (Guha and Khilnani are the best place to start) and it won't be easy because of how diverse, divided, and indeed complicated we are. But that is our task, and indeed for those of us who have the privilege of living and writing in the Western world, indeed an important one. For our Western friends, especially those in positions of authority in the media, the task is more daunting. Your responsibility may not be towards Indian feelings, not at all. But you do have a responsibility in your profession towards Truth. As long as your Indophobia is acting up, you will remain clueless about it.

Friday, January 08, 2010

Bayonetta

Just across this new game.Cant wait to watch the full walkthrough

What attracted me is that this game is from the creators of Devil May Cry.
If this was as exciting as DMC then this is a game to watch

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Vietcong

This is an interesting and informative documentary on Vietcong





Amazing spy attack by Al Qaeda

Came about this article
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/world/asia/05cia.html?em
about the suicide bombing by an Al qaeda double agent posing as an informant for CIA and killing 7 Senior CIA officials.This kind of stuff only happens in movies.This clearly shows that the Al Qaeda is alive and well in Afghanistan and Pakistan.No matter how many drone attacks the CIA is conducting in afghanistan it is only getting the backlash.This proves that the terrorists are clearly looking at new ways of attacking their targets.I dont know how prepared is the Indian intelligence network to preempt and safeguard against such sophisticated attacks.

Sunday, January 03, 2010

Pakistan Vs Australia

It is nice to see Pakistan doing well in Test matches.Hopefully they will win this match in Sydney.Cause it will ensure that India's reign at the top will last longer.England did us a great help by beating South Africa.These two series has proved that India deserves the place at the top as both South africa and Australia are struggling at home against the fifth and seventh placed teams whereas India won comfortably against the then second placed Srilanka