Thoughts Unprovoked Unlimited

Tax Cuts: A Simple Lesson in Economics

2008-10-24T23:39:00.001+05:30

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all
Ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it
would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day
and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw
them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers, he said, 'I'm
going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.
Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the
first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what
about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the
$20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized
that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted
that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would
each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it
would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he
proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before And the first four continued to
drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare
their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20', declared the sixth man.
He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right', exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a
dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10
back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We
didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth
man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without
him. But when it came time to pay the bill they discovered something
important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half
of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax
system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from
a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they
just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas
where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Contrary to Internet folklore, Dr. David R. Kamerschen is NOT the author of "Tax Cuts: A Simple Lesson in Economics." Additionally, he does NOT know who wrote it.

MonsterIndia looking to recruit for the post of President of India

2008-09-14T20:17:00.001+05:30

I was looking for a high paying job but this is too much.

Guilt of a poem

2008-01-09T09:57:00.000+05:30

Never try to hide your guilt behind a poem

This lesson I have learnt

I have committed this blunder before

And so have I burnt

But for all my past

I have not learnt the right lessons

I still commit the folly

That my devilish side beckons

Sitting here today I realize again

The uselessness of my venture

Writing a poem on this cold morning

I hope that this is a right gesture

I won’t go into the details

I have already bored you

Most people are great people

And writing is not what they do

Even Frost had his bad days

I shouldn’t have made fun

I have already said enough,

I’ll just go to burn under the sun.

Quotes from OSO ...

2007-12-21T09:30:00.000+05:30

Kitni shiddat se tumhe paane ki koshish ki hai.. Ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki saazish ki hai..Kehte hain agar kisi cheez ko agar dil se chaho to saari kayanath tumhe usse milane ki koshish me lag jaati hai...
hamari zindagi bhi hamare hindi filmon ke jaisa hi hai.. jaha pe end mein sab kuch theek ho jaata hai.. "Happies Endings".. Lekin agar End mein sab kuch theek na ho to woh the end nahi hain dosto.. Picture abhi baaki hai...

Friends

2007-11-14T18:19:00.000+05:30

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd." I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friend tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes. My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye.

As I handed him his glasses, I said, "Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives." He looked at me and said, "Hey thanks!" There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude. I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play football on Saturday with me and my friends. He said yes. We hung all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him. And my friends thought the same of him.

Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again. I stopped him and said, "Damn boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!" He just laughed and handed me half the books. Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. When we were seniors, we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem. He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business on a football scholarship. Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak.

Graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates than me and all the girls loved him! Boy, sometimes I was jealous. Today was one of those days. I could see that he was nervous about his speech. So, I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be great!" He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled. "Thanks," he said. As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began.

"Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach... but mostly your friends. I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story." I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile. "Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable."

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment. I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize it's depth. Never underestimate the power of your actions.

With one small gesture you can change a person's life.

"Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly."

Unknown Author

Home goes wireless

2007-09-30T21:10:00.000+05:30

Our home finally went wireless today. We purchased a new wireless router and connected it to our broadband. It works like a charm.

Finally set up a new development box with an XFCE DE. Just wanted to see it. Well it looks ugly
(compared to GNOME and KDE) but its pretty fast on half the RAM.

How to make the Indian Cricket League work?

2007-08-19T22:16:00.000+05:30

Making a professional sports league work is very simple in India. Make it professional, keep the sport and make it a league. Yet, there aren't any successful professional leagues in India. Why?
The answer is simple: The failure to identify the target audience.

Millions of Indians pay their hard earned money to view EPL, Serie A, F1, Tour De France, NBA. Some even pay big money on MLB and Golf Tournaments. So why couldn't an Indian sports league get the same kind of money. It's because till now Indian Leagues' have not offered a package deal. By package I mean a wholesome entertainment experience for their target audience.

Indian Cricket League is the Essel Group's foray into this space and I think they will have to be genuinely foolish to lose money on this. But till now they have made a mess of it.
First, of all they must accept that they are in it for the money. Second, they have to tell the people that they are here to give the viewer's a better experience. Third, they must stick to 20-20 and hit it hard on the BCCI's face.
20-20 is a very powerful medium. Packer changed the cricketing world with his limited over's format. Twenty20 too is here to stay and may become the world's new cricketing format if correctly marketed.

So what should ICL do? Well, they should change the Cricket Package that I see on TV. I have been bored enough by cricketer's who were great in their time but are terrible commentators. We need the Harsha Bhogles to comment and not the Sunny Gavaskar's. We need constantly running chirpiness from someone or the other.
We need to see the commentators on the sidelines of the ground, than in faraway commentary boxes. We need to talk more often to the players (not just one player in the middle as happens in Twenty20). We need to talk to coaches, physio's in real time....do it continously.

We need professional coaches/background staff etc...and professionally fit players. we need players who can run 4 runs when in normal cricket players run just 2.

And if need be, most importantly ICL needs to change the game. Use smaller pitches and grounds. We need to see harder shots to the boundary. Use more tech intervention in umpiring. Use livelier wickets, use different stuff, change the sidescreens, let one bowler bowl continous overs, let captains' change balls as they wish.

But whatever you do stick t one set of rules for the whole season, and don't change them too much in the second season.

Give viewer's an experience that traditional cricket does not give them....and see money running into your coffers.

I just hope ICL does all this, then I will certainly switch, cause even though we are fans of traditional cricket, we are bored of it.

State Sponsored Censorship

2007-03-30T08:25:00.000+05:30

The government banned FTV today. I draw a few connections with China, Soccer and AIDS control.

Barely a few months after taking AXN off air, the government today issued a 2 month ban on the FTV for telecasting programs where ‘skimpily dressed and semi naked models were shown that are against good taste and decency, denigrates women and are likely to adversely affect public morality’.

Neither of the two television bans makes any sense. AXN's show the "World's Sexiest Television Commercials" had no nudity or profanity and it was a late-night show. Its not like the whole family would tune in to watch AXN and be shocked on seeing that show.
If you start banning adult content (and that too content with only veiled references to sex) on the late night segment, what will you be left with? (A late night segment on Felix the cat? )

State sponsored censorship is and should not be a part of a democratic society. It is an impedes the political process and discredits formal discourse. These bans are being based on the whims of the bureaucracy in the I&B ministry, with no form of pre-discussion within the intelligensia (a part of democracy that ancient Greeks got right). The last time I had heard of something like this, it was in a country with a communist goverment where killing of its citizens in police firing was routine(Hell, even that's happening in India now).

Mr. Priya Ranjan Das Munshi and his stenchmen had single handedly ruined football in India. He has now set his sights on the media. Had such bans been issued under the previous regime, all hell would have broken loose with comments about the forced "Saffronization" of the media (hell, I don't support that party). I used to think that both parties have the same position on economic issues but different views on social issues. Now except for the Mandir/Masjid (which apparently Rajiv Gandhi would have saved had he been alive, but the rest of his family did nothing to save) that line seems to have disappeared too.
Why the hell is Munshi still the most important man in Indian media (and soccer??)? Why wasn't he sacked after the AXN affair? And much more importantly, who the hell gave him the right to preach me 'morality'?
We are now going through a difficult time, the world is now more tolerant of "socker-moms" who think its right to interfere in everything in the public domain, until they can create a world for their precious ones. (Hey, I can fit another soccer connection.)

You, can't rid the world of sex. Its a part of life just as brushing your teeth. The branding of sex as "immoral" was artificially done in the Middle Europe as way to subjugate the female population (along with burning of women on stakes for witchcraft). Modern law does not support witchcraft burning anymore, why do we still have archaic laws that deem sex as something immoral. Why don't we have open discussion about it? Atleast that has a much better chance of educating people about HIV control; much better than the "morality" the government preaches.

Now, I am no FTV fan (hell, I have never seen more than 5 mins at a stretch) but banning a TV channel is certainly not the way to go esp. for adultish content at a late night hour. Hell, FTV isn't a channel that people sit down with their families while dinner. Only those who want that content tune in.

It's the people who should decide for themselves and for that to happen sponsored censorship has to come to an end.
Its high time the people get back their choice.

One Year

2007-03-21T09:03:00.001+05:30

A Robert Frost Tribute

--------------------------------------
A year is a long period;
much happens in it
but all I have is a story to tell
on lacking resolve and grit.

I have spent this past year,
thinking of future plans.
I spent this year uncertain,
piece of mind sans.

Now, in hindsight,
I can easily see:
How I could have spent
this year full of glee.

But uncertainty had a reason:
My future was at stake,
What to do with my life?
This decision I had to make.

Its not just the last year
that is killing me with pain.
The truth makes it all more vulgar
that the last year went down the drain.

Because long before this year began,
deep inside I knew.
I knew all along: With my life,
what I really had to do.

But alas, it now seems
my subconscious can rest.
It seems now impossible,
for my dreams to be blessed.

I hear the sounds of inevitability.
I have convinced myself too.
It is convincing others about that,
that I still have to do.

I've heard: "Life become simpler,
when choices are few"
but I don't like this simpler life,
listless as the mariner's crew.

The time for decision has arrived.
A decision I have made.
I'll follow this path till great lengths
without getting swayed.

Years hence, I will look back,
at this time of my life -
when I have finally taken the decision
that ended my mind's strife.

I'd look at this time and wonder,
what if I had taken the other path.
No, future would have satisfied me,
no matter what future me hath.

So, why did I waste my year?
you ask yourself the same.
A minor detail eludes you:
I did not get my dream.

So, you probably think how would I conclude:
Would I be succinct or shall my rant protrude?
Wait, while I try to figure what my objective was,
I still remember that this poem really had a cause.
Cos' a year has passed without me, I know;
A part of my life, for which I have nothing real to show.

-------------------- Aniket Ray

Robert Frost's superb poem on a similar issue
Road Not Taken

Betty has some bitter butter... : A Roald Dahl tribute

2007-03-04T19:55:00.000+05:30

There was a girl named Betty
who thought that she was pretty.
One day she went to the grocery shop
and bought some butter for her toast top.

While returning home,
all alone;
she dropped the butter
into the gutter.

Now we know that Betty
was a little bit nutty.
So she took home the butter
that had fallen into the gutter.
The butter had sogged much wetter
and had now turned bitter.
But Betty could not figure out how,
she assumed it must have been a bitter cow.

She had some thoughts of her own,
the whole wide world had never known.

She decided to go to the grocers' shop
this time she went a bus atop.
No fear of dropping it into gutter,
Betty bought some more butter.

She added it to the mass from the gutter
and so they claim she made the bitter butter better.

She never studied cookery;
nor did she get a PhD.
Of course she proposed a new solution
to the bitter butter problem based on density and dilution.
Thus does the legend of Betty go
the foolish girl who still ate the gutter butter though.

-----Aniket Ray

For some poems from the master himself ,
Read his take on Cinderella, Three little pigs and Red riding hood.

Gautham Prasad, comedian

2007-01-18T11:52:00.000+05:30

Yup, a lot has been said about this issue. Why shouldn't I give my two pence.

The character he played was such a fool that he(the character) does not respect Mahatma Gandhi and he (the character, not him) does a pole dance dressed as Gandhi. Well that's what he(Gautham not the character) claims. To be fair to him, the character does have a clown's nose (unlike Gandhi....totally....ya i am sure.....no i am not joking) .

Ok I saw the video. It could have been funnier if it had been part of a larger act (like Sacha Baron and his acts). Maybe it was, but on video we could only the pole dancing. Anyways, I kinda liked it. Most Indians are too closed minded that they can't appreciate a little fun poking.
For all those claiming that this hurt the Indian sentimentalities are bloody idiots. If that lame video can hurt someone's feelings he needs a therapy BADLY.

Why can't we make a little fun of others. People should take it in the right spirit. If someone says "Gandhi being killed was a good thing for India", he gets praise, intellectual following and if he wants he can publish an instant bestseller. But can you crack a joke about him, no you can certainly not.

I also searched up youtube for some more of his acts. They are actually funnier, but I don't see anyone talking about those.

Its the same mentality that we can't wear our flag, we can't wear our gods and goddesses. Even if we repsect our flag and gods a lot, we can't show that love.
Atleast now, we can hoist a flag (Naveen Jindal, thank you) . Do we need another court case and another sensible judicial bench to free India. Maybe we do.

Enuf said.

I am sorry

2007-01-18T11:49:00.000+05:30

Ok this has been an unacceptably long break. I am sorry. But I was sick. My throat still hurts as if someone is trying to cut his way through using a hand operated hand saw. Hand operated because its slowly going cut-wait-cut-wait...

A lot has happened in the middle and i'll try to comment on them one by one.

Searching for a job - My experience

2007-01-11T16:37:00.000+05:30

All views expressed in this post are my own.

There was an interesting disucssion on slashot today (here) , the topic was whether an interviewer should tell the candidate about his shortcomings etc.
Some strategies about approaching job interviews (both as a interviewer and candidate) were discussed. Several people had written about their experiences.
This post would summarize that discussion and give my views too.

Summary of slashdot discussion:
Sure you should give feedback to candidates but be especially careful because any feedback you give would make you liable for potential lawsuits. If you are in tech, it is standard practice to let the hr people handle the feedback part. But from the candidates pov, they would always like some feedback.
No matter what you do, always be courteous because someone who did badly today would either a) become great tomorrow, b)have friends who are great or c)worse still, he/she may end up in management.
You never want bad word to spread that your company is not a good place to work.

My personal interview experience:

We had campus placement interviews in December. I got an offer from Adobe Systems Inc, which luckily was one of the best interview experiences I went through.

But I'll go chronologically,

Day 1: Lehmann Brothers
Now that I look back I think for me this interview went really well (although at that time I thought I had done a blunder). As soon as I entered I was asked what my interests were (and why I applied to the company), when I told them my interests they told me that my interests were quiet contrary to the job profile for which they were hiring. (I was stumped for a sec in the interview). But then the 2 interviewers helped me out. They told me that I was underqualified for the kind of job I was seeking at their firm.
We discussed other jobs (in their firm) where I could apply to and the qualifications for them.

Day 2:
Google:
This was one of the worst experiences ever. The person who was conducting the interviews had am 'I am god' attitude. I had had 2 rounds of interviews after which the interviewers had their lunch break.
During their lunch break, I asked whether they would excuse me (so that I could attend Credit Suisse interview), they agreed and told me it won't be a problem for them.
When I returned they told me that their selection process was over (even though they still were interviewing more people.).
I don't give a rat's ass about this company anymore.

Credit Suisse:
This went really strange. They took a test and the word went out they hired based purely on the test. It was more of an SysAd test (rather than a CS test), so I was kinda shocked that I was shortlisted. The interview went worse. They asked one tech question that made no sense and many hr questions. But the thing I liked is that they wanted to know the reasons, why expected what I expected, why I wanted somethings in life etc. These guys were polite and really professional. They seemed to show that even if you are under qualified now, we don't want to shut the doors on you.

Microsoft IDC:
I have no qualms about this one. They wanted me do some DP design. I just failed miserable. Then they asked me to design an automated code verification and testing algorithm (using pattern recognition methods), I may not have given the best of answers. It was my 6th interview+test of the day and I did not feel like thinking too hard anymore. They understood it and let me go peacefully.

Day 3:
Fair Isaac:
I played my cards here. (I already knew that they were looking for CS people, and CS people were not looking for them). I went for the hr interview first and talked frankly with the hr lady.
She wanted to know the reasons why CS people were not enthusiastic about FI. I told her that the FI package is too low for CS people. I told her that CS biggies like Yahoo!, Amazon and Adobe were yet to come to the campus and nobody would want to commit to FI (esp with the low pay). I had two tech interviews and quickly realized that the interviewers knew very little themselves.
They gave indications that they were ready to increase the pay, and I indicated that I would join them if I actually did.

Day 4:
Yahoo! (I had an exam just before this interview and I missed the Amazon test because of it)
I went in informal clothing. (They said that they were an informal company). The questions they asked were SysAd in nature, running Apache servers etc. (like that's what CS people do). I hardly answered any questions but in the middle the interviewer threw the big one - Whether I was ready to be part of a single project for the next 6 years.
My unenthusiastic answer put the nail in the coffin. I knew I would not get the job but...
He continued with the interview as if nothing wrong had happened. After the interview, the interviewer ventured in Hindi, and then we talked in Hindi for a while about life in general (some 7-8 sentences). So i thought, just maybe I could get an offer.
No problems cause the best was yet to come.

Day 5:
Trilogy:
I hadn't been shortlisted. They called me up in class and said they wanted to interview me. So I rushed to the interview room.
There were 2 rounds of tech interviews. The first round went well, I answered some. Showed some questions as blatantly wrong and failed to answer a few more.
The second round was the one due to which I have a bad opinion of this company.
One of the interviewers had an 'I am God' attitude. The other was lost in his own sweet world.
This 'I am God' interviewer gave me a problem to code. The only algo I could think of was brute force. I think for a while and tell him that I give up and tell him the brute force algo. He looks into his laptop and tells me that the brute force is the best possible algo. (Why the hell do you give it?). Then he asked me to code it. I was having some trouble representing the problems as continous integers (which would have had speeded up the process). This guy tells me to think then looks at his laptop after 10 mins tells me that my representation is correct. Then I started with the C code, I wrote a recursive one. Several such looking into the laptop and finding mistakes followed. Man, if you are really that great why do you look into your laptop?
I was glad I did not get the job.

Day 6 night/ Day 7:
Adobe:
They had 4 kinds of tests. And I got inside information beforehand that I topped it and was the only person who cleared all the cut offs.
I first talked to the hr person again. She explained the nitty gritty details of the company to me. I asked her things I wanted to know. Overall, she got me interested.
Then I had 3 okay rounds of tech. Not great but okay. The people were polite. But four rounds of tech interviews is too much. They ran out of questions pretty soon.
Right before making the offer, one interviewer asked me the question which I was scared of - Symantec Vs Adobe. Which and Why? I mumbled something about creativity at Adobe etc. I really did not have a good answer back then.
They made me an informal offer. I gladly accepted. Formal offer will come soon.
It seems like a good place + its in Noida + they have special programs so that people remain interested + the pay + brand value.

Symantec:
I was shortlisted for the interview. I had an Adobe offer , so I decided to give Symantec the polite pass.

Overall I liked my interviewing experience. I like the offer I have got (My mom and aunt are really enthusiastic about it).

Google and Trilogy may never get my services now. (I would love to see Y! beat the crap out of Google. :) , just hope Yahoo! improve theire service so that as a consumer I can make the switch sooner) I have already started referring my friends and family to try out Credit Suisse. I never was a huge MS fanboy but now the antipathy is a bit less. I hope FI has learned something and will make a better offer to graduating students next year.

While reading blogs...

2007-01-09T19:12:00.000+05:30

I was out on a wild goose search (chase is so cliche...) looking for interesting blogs to read (btw do you still call it search if you use a random next blog algorithm?) .
I found some interesting things about blogs and their ability to attract me i.e. Which kinds of blogs kept my attention longer and which couldn't and why?
My initial intention was never to find such features (in blogs) and I did find some very interesting blogs (which was my intial intention) but it was a very good find nonetheless. I am not saying that you may like the same things in someone's blog as I did.

Language: This was the most important issue. If the language was not english I moved away from the blog very quickly.
Font Size & Background/Font Colour (ya I spell it 'ur'): Blogs with black background colour definitely reduced the time I wanted to check them out. Also a very small font size was a big disincentive(even though an interesting title could still hold my attention). If the bgcolor/font colour were similar I tended to leave the blogs quickly.
Too many pictures: I am not a huge fan of picture blogs esp pictures of nothing (some people had pictures of sweaters and drops of water etc I can't stand them). Too much text is still better than too many pictures.
Too many :), ;) , lol and such emoticon symbols (or even 1337) : Now such stuff is just lame.

The best blogs had a few pics interspersed with good readable text. (btw some such blogs had a terrible arrangment of the pics. Don't try to right align or left align. Just keep the text above and below the damn pic)

Note to self: Add more pics to the blogs.

Reading blogs for pleasure

2007-01-09T19:08:00.000+05:30

I was writing my last post when I realized something. There are hundreds of thousands of blogs out there, how many actually do get readers. (Certainly not mine).
So how soon would these bloggers just decide that without readers, blogging is just not worth it and soon they may stop posting.
But are these small time bloggers any less interesting than the few professional blogs that seem to get thousands of readers. No they aren't, on the contrary these small blogs are so much interesting that I can go on hours reading about the small things happening in other parts of the world. Even though the world is so different you can relate to experiences of other people from across the world. Its this that that we should celebrate. I took it upon myself to visit other blogs - the small blogs which don't recieve comments and just post a word of encouragement.

If you come across a small and interesting blog please leave an encouraging comment. I am sure it will go a long way.

I return

2007-01-07T12:21:00.000+05:30

I am back. Hopefully, I will have longer run this time. A lot has happened in the middle. But some things are better left unsaid. The important thing is that I am here now.

Day before, we 3 friends had a long drawn out discussion about life, philosphy, sociology, politics etc. I don't have the transcripts but it was really interesting.

Ya btw I have got PI/GD calls from IIM Bang, Luck and Ind (freakin Kozh did not call me)

Mr. N. Sidhu, MP

2006-06-07T17:16:00.000+05:30

Yes, Navjot Sidhu does it again.
While protesting against the oil price, his claim on national television that the government should collect taxes in such a way as not to hurt the comsumers. This clearly show how little he and other protesters in the BJP really understand economics or the price issue in particular. (and they blam Amir Khan)
The world oil prices are rising and the increase of the goverment controlled prices in India was inevitable. The only way forward is to remove all price controls from oil. Let it trade in the free market as any other commodity.

Leonardo and Me

2006-06-06T20:26:00.000+05:30

The provincial Congress governments in India, have again proved the theory that for votes they will not think twice before selling the country itself.
The banning of the Da Vinci code is a prime example of the extreme avarice these politicians suffer from when it comes to votes.
According to them the movie is against the basic beliefs of Catholicism, so what?
Catholics believe something. Don't others have the right to believe something contrary. Is whatever Catholics say right? Galileo, I am sure would beg to differ.Had Aryabhatta (or whoever invented 0) been alive today he would have been persecuted by these anti-freedom Congress governments, after all the church had initially condemned 0,(and the whole hindu numeric system) for having relations with the devil. So let's go back to roman numerals.
Our forefathers (constituent assembly) had envisioned a free India, but our worthless politicians took back the freedom of speech as the first job ever done by the parliament of free India. It made a bit (and only a bit) of sense back then because of the communal tension and riots, and people who incited such feelings ad to be stopped. But now it is a needless power in the hands of the government.And no government has used it wisely till now. Satanic Verses was banned, now Da Vinci Code. I am pretty sure that none of the protesters who protested for them had read either. Come on to protest against a book like Da Vinci Code (haven't completed Satanic Verses so can't comment on that) is pure blasphemy.

So that leaves India with no choice; the Indian first ammendment (the one which gave the government the power to take away our freedom of expression) needs to be repealed now.
----------------------------------------------------------
The reason church associated hindu numeral system with devils is that the system reached wurope through the arabs who were trying to promote their own religion which the church had no intention to allow. So many arabian things were branded devilish.
----------------------------------------------------
Finally the film community has come in support of Amir Khan, the BJP has lost his mind when it attacks a persons right to protest it forgets that it is a fundamental right endowed by the constitution.
While other soft-hindutva parties are trying hard not to be anti-Gujarati, I fully support Amir's stand that the villagers should be rehabilitated. Although I do agree with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, I will believe that they have a right to protest for what they feel is correct. Even if Amir had supported NBA (which he didn't) such a response by people who don't understand the situation is condemnable.

------------------------------
Amir understands the situation as much as he need to understand. Saying that he has jumped into the situation without getting all the facts is just beating around the bush. You don't need to learn such clumsy as BJP is trying to want him to learn.
Amir can protest on any issue he wants. Saying that he is protesting for one issue but not for another is like refusing to accept Sachin Tendulkar as a great cricketer just because he sucks at wicketkeeping.
Personally I feel too much for free speech than other issues. I have a full right to write about any issue I want.
-------------------------------

UPDATE: Fanaa released in Jamnagar. Hats off to the theatre owner.

Medical Students, I bow to thee

2006-05-14T23:53:00.000+05:30

Thank you.

If it was not for the medical students, If it was left on to the IITians/IIMians, this nation would have gone to the doldrums. And unfortunately the last statement is completely true.
Despite the fact that all IITian todays gets a gut wrenching feeling whenever reservation is mentioned, no IIT could take up the issue or have their protest registered in a manner that people be ready to hear them.

The problems in IIT are many, but the biggest in my IIT, unfortunately is intra insti politics. Its terrible that such a thing can hamper the protest when we should all unite. What we need is to learn from the medicos' , how they have forgotten their rivalries and those who haven't have turned their rivalries to better each other in having themself heard.

----------------------------------------
This reservation is just one step before the reservation in the private sector.

A step which if taken would destroy the basis of Indian soceity. If there is a partition of India in such a situation, what'll happen can only be surmised.
This reservation would create 2 Indias' the pro-reservation India that will destroy itself with its Leninist inefficiency.
The other India would be the society which people like me would go to . All men in this India
would have equal oppurtunities. Based on the american norm, although this society will not be utopian. Things like casteism, superstition, corruption would be thrown out of this
society.

Of course this second society may never happen. If the IIT's have their way, all of us would be part of the first society.

----------------------------------------------------
I refuse to accept a government which would act against me just because I was born in a particular family.

CNN-IBN in IITM

2006-04-06T20:23:00.000+05:30

Just don't know what their story is. But CNN-IBN was trying to shoot something outside the newly created Himalaya Mess.

Mohammed Cartoons, Indians and the Quiet Blogs

2006-02-18T23:02:00.000+05:30

Well an Indian minister has placed a bounty now. But if you think that Indian bloggers would start blogging strongly about the Mohammed Cartoon issue now then you are pretty wrong. You will see none of it.
Some Indian bloggers will post some usual crap that everybody should remain calm, that all sides should act maturely and blah...

But no, they won't dare to take sides ever. Not on this issue. So how is it that a certain political movement that hate has been the only one to raise this issue actively.

I have read many sensible blogs from people from Kuala Lumpur to Seattle. But have I seen anything from an Indian apart from apologist stuff. Hell No...
And on the IIPM issue i read posts like free speech, the power of the blogosphere. Where has that gone now?
When the world has united against the few who stood by their right to free speech, I for one have decided to take my stand. Any one against free speech is wrong. There is no such thing applying discretion, if there is nothing we can freely speak about then what discretion will we apply.
Fools stopped MF Hussain, Fools stopped Deepa Mehta, and now fools are trying to stop people like me.
At times like this we have places like the Wikipedia to turn to, I have to admit that Wiki is the last bastion of free speech left.

What if we are dreaming???

2006-02-02T20:58:00.000+05:30

My friend Murali has a very interesting read aptly title "Please answer...".
It certainly lead me to start wondering on a bit different lines The line on which I thought had more to do with a movie I had seen a year back "Breaking Dawn".
Now I won't go into the details of the post or the movie. Read and Watch to learn more. But here goes....

Many of us have dreams. By which I mean that there are goals that we set out to achieve, many of them we do achieve but some goals unfortunately we all fail to do so.
I'll take an example. Let's say getting into IIT was my dream (and obviously the dream of countless others).
And this goal I did achieve (well atleast I believe so)...or did I???
What if I actually never made it here. What if, I was so shocked on hearing about my failure that I created a whole imaginary IIT around myself. What if the place I beleive I am living in is all just a dream. A dream from which I am just not able to wake up. What if my failure had created some sort of protective psychological world around myself. What if I had never achieved this dream of mine and I am just dreaming.

It may sound a bit like the Matrix. But I assure you the movie Breaking Dawn is more relevant here.

The bigger Question is....
What will happen if I wake up???
Will it be better for me or is it better to live in this world that my mind has decided to create.
Now getting Murali's fundaes in, My brain is a neural net, it has created this world because that's the best way it could balance the charges. That's the only was my brain could cope with it. In other words there is a reason that there is this world around me...and my brain knows the reason.

So should I destroy it? Should I wake up? If so how....
Of course there is the other possibility that this post is a piece of crap and was just written to waste your time.

Green Saarang 2006

2006-02-02T19:48:00.000+05:30

(This article is speculatory in nature and may be incorrect at certain points, but in all probability and to the best of my knowledge it is the truth and this statement has been added as a feeble effort to write a disclaimer)

Well its almost a week now since the end of Saarang 2006, the annual culfest of IIT Madras.
It has been a better Saarang than previous years mainly because our team won a 6k cash prize in The Rush (a treasure hunt).

But leaving the prizes we won and the rejections from hot gals apart. The biggest talking (and thinking too) point of this Saarang (for me atleast) were the complaints and counter complaints filed by an environmentalist group We Feel Responsible(henceforth known as WFR) and IIT Madras.

Well ofcourse only the people involved seem to know what exactly happened. But as rumours spread and as it seems the gist of the problem was that during Saarang 2005, WFR conducted a waste audit. Certainly a commendable job but the final report (plus documentary titled 'Hangover') that they came out with turned out to be more of a 'corporate bashing' rather than trying to motivate students. They seemed to be going all out to scare away sponsors (esp. Pepsi Co.). Now that did not go down too well with the student organisers (obviously).

To an extent both positions were right, Saarang could do without so much waste production, but also (the organisers position) the amount of waste although high in absolute terms is pretty low when counting the extremely high participation at Saarang.

But the point that WFR raised and it seemed to show their hidden agendas is the fact that they were more vocal in trying to stop the sponsorship, rather than the waste. Now being a believer in Free Market I am not sure that sponsors are 'evil' as they seemed to inherently assume. Their points : "We don't need such a high sponsorship", "Sponsors should not get so much attention during Saarang", "Loyola conducts a great cultural festival w/o spons why can't IIT Madras"

Well, if you haven't already guessed Loyola College, Chennai alumni/students were/are involved in WFR. And many of us didn't even know the college existed, let alone their having a culfest.

Well as I've tried to point out. Even before this Saarang (2006), the organisers were pretty pissed off with WFR. They denied WFR permission to carry out a waste audit this year, and decided to do an in-house audit. Actually it turned out much better than last year, because the in-house commitee was not trying to attack the sponsors but instead they had done a lot to increase student awareness and participation for a greener saarang (which WFR did not do). I hope they keep up the good job next year as well.
Now where was I. Oh yes.
WFR despite being sent a message that they will have to get prior permission before carrying out any auditing adventures, tried to conduct a waste audit. They were caught by the security, asked by the organisers to return the cassette which they where filming on, and taken to Dean's office upon their refusal to do so.
How that ended, I am not sure. But as it stands WFR activist (who shall not be named) has registered a complaint that she was held against her will at the Dean's office and IITM has filed a counter with trespassing charges.
So what's my point....
I wish I knew

Indians, Payment and Good Service

2006-01-04T17:25:00.000+05:30

By afternoon, 360 Air Deccan passengers, supposed to take flights to Chennai and Bangalore, said they have had enough. After a nightlong wait, they had hoped their flight would finally take off or they will be accommodated in another flight.

Passengers of other airlines had similar complaints. SpiceJet’s flight to Mumbai, scheduled to take off at 5 p.m., was delayed for several hours even after the passengers had been issued boarding passes.

Is it just me? Has the rest of the India turned a blind eye towards the irony which i can see quite clearly( if irony is the word I want to use).

Its weird,
a)People want air fares to come down
b)They won't pay for service
c)They still want that service
d)When not provided they act like they are victims of some terrible tragedy that should get national attention
Why the hell don't people just use the normal costly airlines instead if they want that service. Among the domestic carriers Indian Airlines and Jet took care of their passengers, then why not stick to them.
Let me make myself clear I am not trying to advertise for these airlines. Infact my point has nothing to do with them.

Its not just with airlines. Its with a lot of things especially the non-essential goods and services. People (esp Indians) just don't wanna pay for good service.

Its not the same for agricultural items or most manufactured goods.

People don't go out and buy the cheapest TV set of and expect it to have a life as long (if not more) than the costlier branded items.
They don't go to grocers to get the cheapest food and then expect it to be as good as a packaged item.
But they do hire cheaper cook or get stuff stitched from the cheaper tailor expecting it to be just as good.

Economics tells me that people pay the cost only if they value the item more than the cost. But tell me if it is right to value 'good service' that low.

I prefer cheaper things too. But when I do so I expect terrible service . I don't go out and buy the cheap laptop, expecting the after sales guy to take care of my maintenance.

Its a simple thing that most Indians fail to realise. But the sooner they do the better, because very soon they'll have to start to pay.

A nation disgusted.

2005-12-21T21:15:00.000+05:30

It is a plight every Indian has had to endure. It is something that I guess people in other countries face too, but there is something that I fail to understand in this problem.
The problem of corruption. But I understand the reasons of corruption fully. Still I have failed to understand the way in which the corrupt continue to claim that they are innocent. This I think is a problem solely in India even after being caught on record, our so called elected leaders continue to harp that they are NOT GUILTY
NOT GUILTY they will plead in court cases, not gulity they say in front of commissions. Probably they are right. They may have been framed, who knows. They may have been the unlucky ones that couldn't strike a deal with the whistle blowers. We don't know. We are the public. But we know not.
Not that we are totally quiet either but the noise that we the public make is insufficient. Our voices are feeble , too feeble for the corrupt politicians,for those politicians abound who shout loud. Together they are able to drown the feeble voices of us people.
People too now must realise that they have power much more powerful than the noises they make. They have the power that decides, after all they are the COURT OF LAW .They are the judge.
Judges may decide that the politicians are not always be right. But sometimes they are .Maybe they were not guilty. Of course some one else must have been then.
Then GUILTY we are.

One Night at Hyd Stations'

2005-08-22T00:22:00.000+05:30

Are all people created equal?
All people are not the same. People are not equal.

29JUN2005:
My train (Hyderabad to Delhi) was 6 in the morning. I knew I couldn't have woken up early. So I decided to spend the night at the station.
It was there that I learnt the hard way how different people are. How much I take this life of mine for granted.. How much I believe in the false dreams of a beautiful future without hunger, poverty and misery.
I realised that Nationalism is a concept solely for the middle class.

I met 3 people that I distinctly remember.(although I remember more I won't see to any reason to do so)

Person A: He was from some village in Rajasthan. Was working in a local plastic mat factory. Earned Rs. 3000pm ($2 a day). After working a year, he was going back to his village. He had had a fight the same day with a colleague, having seriously injuring his colleague in the machinery PersonA was now returning home. He told me that it's better to commit a crime than live in fear.

Person B: He was from Howrah, W.Bengal. Waiting for a bi-weekly train he had already spent 2 days on the platform. He had started showing an all-consuming hate towards all the railway staff and police. The man was happy that his skin-colour was lighter than policemen guarding the platform. He called me saab continuously.

Person C: He was a jawan in the army. His vacations had been anulled. He was now going to Pune to resume his duty under officers. He explained the whole system of his holidays to me with certain adjectives forArmy officers that I would rather not use. He hated his job. He hated the army.

They did not treat me like them. I was on outsider. In my own country I was an outsider. I realised that I am not like them. I realised that the country did not matter. I realised that their hate, their nightmares.... somewhere in all of them lies a person like me. I realise now that somewhere in my dreams I had forgotten people like them.

It's my fault

2005-08-22T00:12:00.000+05:30

I have not been able to gather enough courage(if courage is the word I am looking for) to write a post for a month and a half. Obviously it's my fault.

I have had plenty to write about, but cleaning the dust that had settlled on this blog seemed to big as task for a mortal like me.
I started this blog on a trip to Hyderabad. It started without reason, I had taken a break without reason, Now that I restart I can think of no good reason.
Since the last post I had been to my home town in Roorkee, and now am back here in Chennai.

Now am I going to recount all that has happened so far in a series of posts.
There is much to write, there is much to tell. A lot has changed in me in this month and a half. I just hope I can remember all I want to say at the right time.

Men and Women in a mess

2005-06-13T00:21:00.000+05:30

Ok this is one of those mysteries where I give a situation and you have to guess who is the culprit.

In a mess there are a group of people. Guess who is male and who is female???

Well its pretty easy actually.
While taking food from the serving trays. Men will take only what they want.
On the other hand a woman will take what she and her friend wants and put it on her plate.
Well ok, i am not good at describing this phenomenon ,in words ,but still that does not undermine this great discovery,that i have made.
Every single species of the fairer sex will take a bit of food put it on her plate and then take a bit more and put it on her friends' plate. Every single woman.

Not so for a man. For food for a man is something he can not share.

Probably this comes from the cave ages when a man could not share his family's food with a man of another family but a woman who stayed at home had to naturally share the food with the people she
met.
So in our hearts we are still cave people..heh..heh

there goes my discovery....my theory ruined it.. :-(

Of teleconnectivity and dinners

2005-06-09T22:12:00.000+05:30

Today i had dinner.

Isn't that great.

Well if you don't find it great then what can i do. But I had dinner today.
Yup dinner.

The truth is that I did not expect to get dinner today. The mess here in IIIT operates till 9:30pm (offically) but actually the food starts running out at 9. And me like the fool I am sitting in the lab alone with nothing better to do, start watching Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle . It was real entertaining and real tasty too..the dinner I mean. Oh you wanted to know about the movie? Well I have not seen such a good movie for a long time.

How was the movie entertaining?
Hey this post is turning out to be a good Q&A post. .heh.heh.
Well at the dinner there was the guard(as i was late i expected no one to be there). His talks with his fellow colleagues kept me entertained...not that I understood much because I have no idea how to translate Telegu.
But for a brief part of the speech which was in hindi the only thing that entertained me are not reproducible.
Oh..the question was about movies...hehheh..still

In that part of the guard's speech is the matter of my post. Well our man, the guard switched from GSM to WLL CDMA technolgy. He has ditched the GSM company for a Reliance Infocomm mobile phone.
And he and the guy (just a kid actually barely, 18) who serves water were discussing the tariff p[lans on reliance vis-a-vis other operators.
Soon other fellow guards (well actually just one other guard) chipped in with their (his) talk of service in his home town (somewhere in UP).

Then I came down to blog when I realised that teledensity in India has increased to 9.68 per thousand.
We still have a long way to go in this country. A war has to be won but I think we can pride ourselves with the victories in little battles.

Btw I enjoyed dinner and the movie too . ;-)

Started writing a story

2005-06-08T00:39:00.000+05:30

Well i have started thinking about writing a story...
well the main plot would be something abt a planet which has defunct democratic institutions but the people though in a state of misery like the fact that they are democratic.
They are attacked and the hero who is a principled man who always follows the rules, gives up his principles to save his planet.

Its going to be sort of inspired by of lord of the rings, star wars, and another story that I had left midway after writing 2 chapters and an appendix.

Why did I stop that story???
Writer's block they call it......west bengal suffers from it I recently found out.

Nice though

What a bad net connection

2005-06-08T00:32:00.000+05:30

Well this is really terrible?
How do they suppose that we would work!!!
With such a slow net connection, this is hell.

But if you think that the above statements are not sarcastic then you are wrong.
I have never seen any work done in this lab of mine when the net connection is working properly. But as soon as the proxy fails productivity improves tremendously. that just makes me wonder when net was not such a big hit in India what did people in computer labs do???
My money is on computer games....
that reminds me somewhere I got this idea(ok ..i admit...i read it somewhere....)
that prince of persia can be made into a pretty successful movie.

I certainly have no idea what the story would be. Jaffar kidnaps princess and a hero who runs in only one directions saves her in 1 hour. On second thoughts 1 hour of slash and dash fighting..hmmmm

Invitation and me

2005-06-06T01:11:00.000+05:30

I am not a great party dude....anybody who knows me well knows that.
If I am hanging out with friends at a food joint or going to a bash. I'll enjoy and others will enjoy and everyone will have a great time. I'll make sure everybody has a good time, I'll be like a tiger.

But if I am called on a formal invitation to a formal dinner/lunch . I am the wrong guy for you. This party tiger undegoes metamorphosis to become a rat. A rat who'll destroy the party.

It was even worse earlier I used to be the nervy guy with shifty eyes in all invitations. With time all that had changed I had started becoming normal in parties too till today...heh..heh

Well I am a bengali. I don't consider myself one as I had been raised in the hindi belt town of Roorkee all my life but it doesn't really matter what I consider cause everyone I know, considers me one because of my family lineage.

Luckily for me my friends....they don't consider me a pucca bong.Good for me.

And this bengali heritage makes me nervous, and bengali invitation parties just bring that heritage out of the pandora's box to strike my face with a thud.

I am in hyderabad now, and my LG (local guardian) is a bengali. He was my dad's old friend during my dad's college days.
I had never met him before.
Till today I never knew whether he was married or not.
Not my fault, he had never invited me for dinner.
In India, the surest way to know if your LG is married depends on whether he invites you to dinner.
A bachelor will never invite you and a guy who has experienced doom always will.

Yes I was invited today.
No problem my past was behind me. Even in formal invitation dinners I had become a party animal (sort of).
Well so I thought.
I went to their home 8pm sharp. I rang the bell.
A girl opened the door(about my age, obviously her daughter I thought).
Thought No.2 Am in the right house ??(till today he was a bachelor for me.)
Thought no.3 Do I have to introduce myself???? Or would she know that I has been invited.
Thought no.4 No time for thinking she goes inside leaving me at the doorstep. The cool party animal that I am I go inside and sit in the drawing room without being let in.
Well I did have to search for the drawing room though.
She comes back sits and introduces herself, I do the same.
Problem starts...you see I speak terrible bong....if this family where I sat was a typical bong family they would expect me to speak pure bong.
So i open my mouth only to realise my problem no.2: do i call her aapni or the more generic tumi.
For the uninitiated aapni is used for elder people and tumi for anyone except elders.
I pitched my money on aapni purely because she used tumi first.
Soon i realise to my relief that she is not good at bong either although she persists with the language.

Its the problem starts when her younger brother, mother, daddy(my LG), and to top it all grandmom enter (for their credit they entered one by one) and all speaking bong like pucca's.

then a cousin and then another turn up to see me losing my last hope (I hoped this wouldn't turn out to be a typical bong family).
alas, with all the mishti doi talk and talks of bong poems.
Talk as I gathered (you see 50% of the words I had never heard in my life) were abt buses(why the hell would anyone discuss that), malls, children, shit, constipation,vomitting..
huh where am I???

But it wasn't so bad after all one of the cousins turns out to be a guitarist with an Iron Maiden flair.
Man Iron Maiden is great....;-)
We had a nice after dinner chat of books and Maidens. Real entertaining stuff 4 me

All's well that ends well, it could have been much worse, luckily it wasn't.
They were nice people after all real hospitable, real caring, a little too much bongish talk but over all real nice. They really asked how I felt about Hyderabad?How's the food,hostel etc.
Real nice people on the whole.

Will I go to meet them again???
Well, certainly not tomorrow.
Give me some credit will you.

Why another blog

2005-06-06T00:02:00.000+05:30

Well I am a blogger for a year now.
If you call wrinting some 5 posts over the span of a year then yes I am a blogger now
Well I already have a blog
Why do I need another blog??

What you don't know about my other blog
well its aniketray.blogspot.com

why another blog you ask, well I don't know for sure but it may be because of the piousness associated with that blog.
Whenever I reach that blog thinking to make a post. I end up posting something important.

SO I needed a new place for mindless drivel. Here it is.
This will be my blog for stuff which I don't think important (read as geeky) enough to post there.