The best of times, the worst of times

Moments - 0

2008-06-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

"Your girl is lovely Hubbell".

"I don't get it".

"And you never did".

I heart James McAvoy

2008-06-26T15:35:00.000-07:00

Isn't it a pleasant surprise when someone cute is funny to boot? Ahhhh ... and that adorable Scottish accent ...

I heard it on The Wire - 0

2008-05-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh ... The Wire ... I watch it every chance I get and am making some serious additions to my vocabulary because of it. So far, my favorites (and I'm only on Season 2) are -

Most def
Yo McNutty!
Y'all need to get up in here in all this Chinese food yo!
What up homes!
5-0, 5-0, 5-0

Looking for a cofounder

2008-05-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

Since we can't all meet The Woz at our summer jobs, some sites to help you locate a potential co founder -

Cofoundr - Allows you to see brief details about members before you sign up. Must have work or school address to sign up.
Partnerup - The best developed of all 3 sites, will dig more into this one later.
FounderLink - Still in development, no preview available, I had to sign up (private email allowed) just to see that there were 0 posts and 0 everything else.

And now I'm going to drive my parents up to Napa today (for their very first wine tasting!)

Grammar and The Wire

2008-05-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

Ummmm... The Wire ???.... not so good for your grammar ...
Thank goodness I didn't get hooked on to it till I was completely done with GMAT sentence correction ;-)

Update: Miss Kima rocks!! (I just started watching so I'm beginning season 2 right now).

Startup ideas - 1

2008-05-05T17:22:00.000-07:00

Universal texting - as in you can text landline phones.

How would you display the message? (Convert text to voice mail on the answering machine?)
Would this be easier with VoIP landlines?
Is this even useful? (Should this be the first question I should have asked?)
Well, its useful to text other appliances in your home (like turn on the heat or the oven or whatever). I even read about this appliance which is a refrigerator till you text it and then it turns on as an oven. From defrosting to dinner all by means of a text message...

Hey a geek can dream can't she?

Serenity prayer for agnostics

2008-05-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

The Serenity Prayer for believers -

"God grant us the serenity
to accept the things we cannot change,
the courage to change the things we can,
and the wisdom to know the difference."

The Serenity Prayer for atheists and agnostics -

"We have (or will always strive to develop)
the serenity to accept the things we cannot change,
the courage to change the things we can,
and the wisdom to know the difference."

Tech startups - advanced degrees, founder ages, etc

2008-05-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

The EETimes reports on a new study by the Kauffman foundation about the founders of technology and engineering startups.

3 interesting takeaways -

• The average and median age of U.S.-born tech founders was 39 when they started their companies.

• U.S.-born tech founders with MBAs established companies more quickly (in 13 years) than others. Tech founders with PhDs typically waited 21 years(!)

• U.S.-born tech founders holding CS and IT degrees founded companies sooner after graduating than engineering degree holders (14.3 years vs. 17.6 years).

Note that the study only included US born tech founders. I wonder how the numbers would vary for non-US born tech founders founding tech companies in the US.

Even more reason to get an MBA!

The world's first working memrister

2008-05-01T12:25:00.000-07:00

Resistors, capacitors, inductors and now finally (more than 30 years after it was first deduced) -
HP produces the first working memrister.

Nanotech may soon be a thing of the past, picotechnology here we come!

Update: ArsTechnica has more.

Wireless HDTV

2008-05-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

Sharp ships the first wireless HDTV (in Japan) using an Amimon chipset. US markets will see the technology later this year.

To read later(Amimom chipsets use the 5Gz band and are FCC certified): Amimon's whitepaper

New series - startup ideas

2008-04-30T11:04:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer - This series is an attempt to capture some of the quote-unquote startup ideas buzzing around in my head. For all I know, there are already startups that do this very thing, do something similar but better, or have tried and failed to do the exact same thing. No due diligence has been done on any of these ideas.

User generated content is everywhere. How about a startup that integrates all kinds of user generated content and offers a seamless way to search for it and to buy it for reproduction/reuse?

The reproduction is not restricted to main stream media but to other user generated content like blogs, etc. The website would allow simple uploads, allow users to tag or categorize the content and offer a targeted search or feeds for certain tags for the end consumer of the content. Royalties would be seamlessly paid to the generator. (Side idea - is there a way to figure out that content has been reused elsewhere?)

ShutterPoint already does something similar but is restricted to stock photography. This is also similar to CNNs iReport but in this case the citizen journalist could actually get paid.

Startup-Z could integrate all sorts of content - images, video, audio (also a way to monetize blog posts for reprinting in mass media??)

Web 2.0 anyone?

2008-04-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

For as long as I can remember (given my bad memory, this isn't more than a couple of years at a time), I have looked down on this new fangled notion of Web 2.0. Like all naysayers, I agreed that the 2.0 tag was nothing but a sneaky way for new web developers to distance themselves from the dot com bust. "We're doing things differently... this ain't a bubble... it's the real deal... it's not just the web, it's Web 2.0". Yeah, right! If anything, the Web 2.0 craze was nothing but a brilliant branding exercise by Tim O'Reilly! Ummm...right?

Well, it depends. Nobody can argue with success. As it stands, there's a new breed of people called Web 2.0 millionaires. People who understood the business value of allowing the internet to evolve with the power of social participation. It's actually a perfect scenario - provide a platform, let people provide the content for free, and reap benefits through an ad funded business model. Gain enough of an audience and then sell out to a big player like Microsoft or Google. Why didn't I see it before? Cause I was too caught up in the engineering mindset which assumes that people who work on anything above the network layer are chumps.

In this enlightened state of mind, I signed up for a cool new course at Haas - Marketing in Web 2.0. If nothing else, it opened my eyes to the abundance of smart ideas out there... it's all about the concept and not about the technology. Here are a few cool sites we looked at -

www.dash.com - Dynamic GPS powered by user generated traffic updates called the Dash Driver Network. The more the users, the more accurate the data. Classic example of network effects. Business model - Subscription + sales of GPS devices.
www.zazzle.com - Lets you design your own products like T shirts, mugs, etc and then adds them to the selection. Monetization strategy - profits on products sold.
www.like.com - Allows you to visually search for items by pattern, detail, shape, or pattern. Business model - probably pay per click/sale.
www.notchup.com - Get paid to interview for jobs! Monetization strategy - Charge recruiters/companies for successful hires.
www.wordclay.com - DIY Self publishing for upcoming authors. Monetization strategy - Profits on books sold.

This is, of course, in addition to the old well known names like -

www.ebay.com - Business model keywords - cut out the middleman, online auction.
del.icio.us - No viable business model. Acquired by Yahoo.
www.facebook.com - Ad funded.Provides a platform for user generated content and services.
www.twitter.com - No monetization strategy until recently. Possible strategies include in feed advertising, SMS adversiting or subscriptions. Pownce is similar to twitter and uses in stream advertising as well.

Is that all? Not a chance... there are hundreds more I can list here. But since I don't want to keep writing this blog for the rest of my life, I'll stop here.

Some of my key takeaways were:
Web 2.0 concepts change several aspects of product development and marketing -
- Faster experimentation, implementation, and testing cycles.
- Dynamic pricing
- Real time content enhanced by network effects
- New products like virtual gifts
- Better data collection and hence decisions
- Easy placement and distribution channels
- New monetization strategies like pay per click, ad funded, etc.
- Cost of service is paid by the advertisers rather than end users

इतिहास आणि भूगोल 2

2008-04-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

खरं म्हणजे Grand Canyon इतिहास आणि भुगोलाचे एक सुंदर संमिश्रण आहे। इथे पृथ्विचा इतिहास दिसतो या दरीच्या अनेक थरांमध्ये। सगळ्यात खालचा थर कोट्यावधि वर्षांपुर्विचा, त्या नंतरचा थर लक्षावधि वर्षे नंतरचा, त्याच्या वरचा तसाच नंतरचा। प्रत्येक थराचा रंग वेगळा। इथे भूगोल दिसतो कोलोराडो नदीच्या रूपाने; ही नदी पूर्वी पृथ्वीच्या पृष्ठभागावरुन वहायची पण आता हीच नदी जवळ जवळ मैलभर खोल वहाते. इथे दोन्ही, इतिहास व भूगोल यांचे Time हेच fixed dimension दिसते। इथे यूरोपियन येण्यापुर्वी हजारो वर्षे इंडियन रहात होते पण ते निसर्गाशी समरूप होउन, इथे dynamic dimension नव्हते। फक्त इतिहास, भूगोल व Time.

मी जेंव्हा Grand Canyon पाहिले तेंव्हा मला का कुणास ठाउक पण इतिहास व भुगोलाचा हा संगम पाहून आइंस्टाइन ची Theory of Relativity आठवली होती किंवा किंबहुना त्याची Time Space Continuum ही संज्ञा आठवली होती। इतिहास व भुगोलाप्रमाणे आपण Time व Space ला देखील स्वतंत्र समजतो। पण तसं पहायला गेलं तर इतिहास म्हणजे Time व Space म्हणजे भूगोल नाही का?......

इतिहास आणि भूगोल

2008-04-15T23:47:00.000-07:00

माझ्या परदेश प्रवासाची सुरुवात २००१ मध्ये अमेरीकेपासून झाली। तेंव्हाच मला जाणवलं की कुठलाही देश बघण्यापुर्वी त्याचा इतिहास आणि भूगोल यांची ओळख करून घ्यावयास हवी कारण तो देश मग आपल्याला जास्त कळतो। पण मला वाटतं या दोन विषयांचा विचार आपण नेहमीच स्वतंत्रपणे करतो; पण या दोघांत काही परस्पर सम्बन्ध असू शकेल?

इतिहास म्हणजे बदल --अगदी क्रांति नसेल पण बदल --हा बदल माणसं -- विशिष्ठ माणसं घडवून आणतात। या उलट भूगोल म्हणजे मुख्यतः निसर्ग। इतिहासात लढ़ाया येतात, आक्रमणं येतात। माणसं इतर माणसांव्ररच नव्हे तर निसर्गावरही आक्रमण करतात. इतिहासाची दोन dimensions: पहिलं व fixed dimension म्हणजे Time व दुसरं आणि dynamic dimension म्हणजे माणसाची आक्रमकता व त्याचा greed. भुगोलाला एकच dimension: काळ किंवा Time। बरेचसे भौगोलिक बदल कालपरत्वेच होतात. भूकम्प, त्सुनामी हे जरी याला अपवाद असले तरी या घडामोडी निसर्गाचाच एक आविष्कार असतो। फक्त काळाबरोबर वाहत गेलं तर इतिहास घडत नाही, भुगोलात क्वचित बदल होऊ शकतील --यूरोपियन अमेरिकेत येण्यापुर्वी तिथे हीच परिस्थिति होती कारण तिथल्या स्थानिक (red)indians लोकानी निसर्गावर/पर्यावरणावर कधीच आक्रमण केलं नाही। दोन वर्षापुर्वी मी Yosemite Park ला भेट दिली तेंव्हा तिथल्या माहितीपत्रात चक्क लिहिलं होतं की यूरोपियन settlers जेंव्हा तिथे पहिल्यांदा आले तेंव्हा त्याना तिथल्या indians ची जंगलातल्या मोठ्या झाडांखाली आग पेटवून द्यायची प्रथा रानटी वाटली पण नंतर त्यांच्या लक्ष्यात आलं की हीच पद्धत जास्त पर्यावरण-अनुकूल आहे. यूरोपियन लोकानी या स्थानिक इंडियन लोकावर आक्रमण करून इतिहास घडवला पण त्यानी देखील पोटापाण्याच्या प्रश्नापलिकडे निसर्गावर आक्रमण केलं नाही। किंवा याचं उत्तर थोडसं वेगळंही असू शकेल।

२००१ मध्येच आम्ही माझ्या एका मित्राकडे East Coast ला Connecticut या राज्यात गेलो होतो। मला New England पहायचं होतं। तो आम्हाला जवळच्या एका गावात घेउन गेला। या गावाची स्वतःची Historical Society होती। तिथलं एक घर ३००/३५० वर्षे जूनं होतं। पण त्यातील प्रत्येक पुरातन गोष्ट --शेतकी अवजारे, घरगुती वस्तु --जपून ठेवली होती। त्या घराची वंशज प्रत्येक रविवारी दुपारी त्यांचा ३०० वर्षापुर्विचा वेष परिधान करून पाहुणे-पर्यटकांचे स्वागत करायची व त्यानां आपले घर दाखवायची। आमचंही स्वागत झालं व घराचा काही भाग दाखवुनही झाला व अनपेक्षितपणे आमच्या यजमानिण बाई थाम्बल्या म्हणाल्या, " तुमच्या ३५०० वर्षाच्या इतिहासाच्या समोर आम्ही आमच्या ३५० वर्षाच्या इतिहासाचा काय बडेजावपणा मारायचा?" तिच्या त्या विधानाने मला तेंव्हा बरं निश्चित वाटलं पण नंतर भारतात परतल्यावर वाटलं की आपणही निदान स्वगत म्हणायला हवं होतं बाई गं तुमचा इतिहास छोटा म्हणुन तुमचा भूगोल शाबूत व आमच्या दीर्घ इतिहासानेच आमच्या भुगोलाची वाट लावलीय. मला वाटतं तेंव्हा माझ्या डोळ्यासमोर नाहीशी झालेली जंगले व रोडावलेल्या नद्या नव्हेत तर ठाणे-बेलापुर परिसरातील दगडांसाठी फोडून अंतर्गोल केलेले लहान मोठे डोंगर व वीटमातीसाठी देखण्या जमिनीत पाडलेले कुरूप खड्डे आले असावेत.

East Coast पाहिल्यानंतर आम्ही Grand Canyon पहायला गेलो होतो। Grand Canyon म्हणजे कोलोराडो नदीने निर्माण केलेली एक प्रचंड दरी। मात्र मला माझी इतिहासाची व्याख्या ज़रा बदलावयाला लागली। मानव-विरहित इतिहास देखील असू शकतो। Grand Canyon म्हणजे मानव-पूर्व पृथ्विचा इतिहास .....

द्वैभाषिक!

2008-04-13T22:02:00.000-07:00

MSDuniya आता द्वैभाषिक झाले ! कुर्लेकार आता मराठीत लिहिणार!

Indian Budget 2008 and Farmers' (continued) suicides

2008-03-21T19:01:00.000-07:00

Never mind that it was a populist budget—a budget that looked beyond at the ensuing elections and therefore without but not within. No other government would have done it differently but the ruling coalition did it, to say the least, with humility and grace. Finance Minister did sound sincere when he said that the nation was merely acknowledging its debt to the Indian farmers when he announced the farm-loan waiver scheme. I did feel happy for a while but realized that the Government was taking care of the farmers’ today but what about their tomorrow and the day after. Farming for many of our brother-farmers has ceased to be an economically viable enterprise. Loan waiver therefore, at its best, would treat the symptoms of this grave economic ill but leave its root cause untouched. The question that rises in one's mind is --do these suicides indicate a much graver ailment? – a socio-economic tragedy–in-being rather than merely a current economic setback ? Post-budget suicides have continued in Maharashtra, probably since the farmers realize that the Government can render only a one-time help and this short-term measure can hardly be a long term solution for their woes. The problem, up to this limit of reasoning becomes socio-economic although it may have appeared to be merely economic to many of us, judging by the public reaction to the remedial measures announced for addressing it.

It was probably more than a month ago, as a pre-budget debate about farming- loan waiver was raging in the local press when, a very sane voice of Dr Abhay Bang, while commenting on increasing incidence of suicides by the farmers, warned us that waiving the loan given to the farmers was only a part of the solution and something also needed to be done for their increasing alcoholism. How true! But are we so blind that we need a social activist to tell us that the problem is more sociological than economic?

What disturbs me is a thought that goes beyond this cause and effect-based socio-economic reasoning, and which whispers that it may even be a beginning of a sociological problem. Why suicide? This would certainly be the biggest price to pay for any set back in life. Yes, businessmen in heavy debt have been known to resort to committing suicide but not the farmers. Are people no more afraid of dying? Does the thought about their wives and children being left behind to fend for themselves in this world, not deter them any more from taking such an extreme step? Has death since become such an easy option? Suicide seems to be losing out on its elite status among all deaths, and looks more commonplace --almost epidemic now! Aren’t these the indicators of a sociological change?

Manaswini informs me that fees charged by some prestigious business schools in the States vary, and depend upon whether one wishes to pursue a career in a non-profit or a profit-making organization. Fair enough, but we need to do much more in India where agriculture remains and will remain a major occupation for its inhabitants, never mind its share in the national GDP. I think the poor returns in the agriculture sector in India should pose a worthy challenge for hundreds of management graduates that pass out from India’s business schools. I do not expect bright students from the IIMs to take a plunge in to this sector like Dr Abhay and Dr Rani Bang have done in the field of rural health and child care. Here perhaps Indian corporate sector can provide the lead and take up this challenge of making agriculture economically viable. This program can be a kind of private-public-partnership enterprise, with Governments, both Central and State, providing the bulk of the funds while the Corporate sector providing necessary management skills. The Corporate sector can draw its management cadre for this enterprise from amongst the bright students passing out from various business schools, by paying them at par with any other industrial/commercial project. Isn’t this Corporate Social Responsibility in its true form?

Taare Zameen Par

2008-03-07T11:32:00.000-08:00

It is a beautiful movie but it leaves us with a feeling that it would have been certainly a great movie if ………….

The movie is about a very talented boy who suffers from dyslexia and consequently has learning disabilities that are neither understood by his teachers nor by his own father, although his mother, probably like all intuitive women, knows that there is a problem but cannot identify it until Mr Aamir Khan – the new art teacher in the school -- comes along and makes a correct diagnosis and the story moves forward.

The movie, to say the least, does come as a whiff of fresh air after having watched or (having refused to watch) most of the stale and stereotype movies that Bollywood has been offering all these years. It is technically very sound; its musical score is different but faithful to the spirit of the central idea. Now more about the ‘ifs’. These ‘ifs’, to me, mainly comprise of some exaggeration in portrayal of some characters and some inconsistencies in the behavioral pattern of the central character—Master Ishan Avasthi.

The credit titles, at the beginning, hints at a little exaggeration, when they inform you that the teaching staff at the School was not as bad as may have been projected. Fine, but the movie exaggerates a little beyond that. Almost all members of the faculty of the boarding school are ill-disposed, rather unconvincingly, towards the students’ community in general, and particularly hostile to Ishan. A behavioral change, to be convincing, has to be gradual and cannot travel from one extreme to another in a jiffy, without any apparent justification.

We all sit up when Ishan tries to interpret a poem as – “one sees things, sometimes, even when they are not there and sometimes sees them not even when they are actually there”. Very profound and very surrealistic indeed! . We all know that it would be very difficult to show a continuation of this central idea and realize that this quote was used merely to improve the form of the movie and had nothing to do with its substance. As the movie nears its end, we see that on the day of the Art Competition, Ishan leaves his hostel dormitory early morning and goes to his favorite landscape so that he can recapture it in his painting for the competition and which he does so effectively. He paints what he sees. But then what happens to the great surrealistic promise that he had made to us while explaining that poem?

I now recall something what an army friend had said many years ago, about Hindi movies– Hindi cinema is NOT self-conscious. Notwithstanding what I have written above, this movie is certainly self-conscious. Besides that, one should see it for some great acting. Aamir Khan is, as usual very competent. The boy, playing Ishan is incredibly superb but kudos also to the Casting Director who selected him after screen-testing hundreds or rather thousands of them. But I was struck by the pair that plays boys’parents. I have not seen more believable parents on the screen. They are not filmy whatsoever, they look absolutely real. The woman’s face did look familiar and I may have seen it on the small screen earlier, but in this movie she was faceless or rather she had the face of every Indian mother. I was particularly impressed by the actor who played Mr Awasthi senior. He shouts, bullies and uses the usual parental template while dealing with his younger son; grudgingly concedes later that he may not have been able to understand root cause of his son’s problem and cries profusely in the end after realizing that he had almost failed his son till Ishan was rescued by the art teacher. But probably these are also the tears of joy – a great tragedy had been averted and his son had, at last, been restored to him and to the world of material success, to which he – Mr Awasthi senior --had always belonged.

Commitment to the game

2008-03-02T11:51:00.000-08:00

I spent most of the day today, watching cricket --the first match of the Best of Three finals between Australia and India. I did feel happy that India had won but frankly speaking, a little happier that Sachin had scored his forty second and his first ever limited-overs century on Australian soil.

Convergence of individual goal with that of an organization is absolutely an ideal situation as it happened today when for both, India and Sachin, it was a win -win situation. But when these two goals are clashing with each other, then it would be difficult, almost impossible, to convince anyone as to how consideration for an individual can ever outweigh contrasting claim of the organization to which he or she belongs.

I too was surprised when I heard about someone doing it for the first time. Many years ago, we founded a Cell in our Army Headquarters, for advising the Government on merits of various statutory complaints (about denial of promotions, unjust confidential reports etc) submitted to the latter, by the aggrieved serving personnel.

Personnel for staffing this advisory Cell were hand picked, probably for their sense of fair play and integrity. But for most people in uniform all these character qualities come to a grinding halt when there appears to be a clash of interest between the Army as an organization on one hand and an aggrieving individual on the other. Here, natural tendency would be, although it ought not to be, to side with the Army- the Organization.

Fortunately, when this cell was formed, we had a visionary Army Chief who did not feel restricted by such a narrow sense of loyalty. He also could imagine that no member of this Cell would dare go against the organization unless he as the Army Chief, held his hand and therefore felt the need of giving, what we term as, command guidance to the Cell before they could start their work.

He directed that whenever the Cell found that the complaint by the aggrieved serviceman had an adequate merit and that it could be negated only by giving greater weightage to the interest of the Service (Army), the Cell MUST support the aggrieved serviceman and not the other way round. I am not sure how many Army Chiefs around the world would have the courage to take such an anti-organization stand. This is what I call a truly unshackled- free thinking.

We have seen above two digital situations when interest of an individual either clashes or converges with that of an organization. But, is that the only way to look at these two? Must we look at them only as a combination -- when these two either support or contradict each other? Why not view them as separate from each other and judge them independently? Agreed that sometimes, the interest of the organization, like in a World Cup Tournament, would certainly rule supreme and put even an exceptional individual performance into pale. On the other hand, winning or losing loses its sharp edge when myriad such games are played regularly as in Cricket one dayers. Against this background, one must view an exceptional character quality of an individual player – his commitment to the game. Commitment is Dharma. Unfortunately, this commitment can be acknowledged by others only when a player comes good with a sterling performance as Sachin had done today and not otherwise.

Does the argument “team interest outweighs an individual performance” always hold good ? Is commitment to the game less patriotic? Does it always matter whether your team loses or wins even if it may be only of statistical significance?

Kurlekaar's Kaleidoscope - Enter consensus, exit originality?

2008-02-20T17:38:00.000-08:00

I was a little disappointed with our Group Discussion session today. The students were asked to choose between two topics and the majority selected “Do beauty contests degrade womanhood?” We had a few girl students in the group and I thought they would really let fly. One girl started, rather defensively, with trying to define ‘womanhood’ first, which, for her, comprised of all roles that a woman was required to play in life; a mother, wife, daughter, sister etc. Somehow woman as an ‘individual’ was missing from her list. She did not think that these beauty contests degraded ‘womanhood’ since they also tested her intelligence, general knowledge and social awareness etc. I was a little taken back when another girl pointed out how answers given by some of the winners showed their deep commitment to these social causes, and which, actually helped them to win their respective contests, but how the same contestants had quickly forgotten about these causes after they had won these contests and apparently had made use of these contests merely as a platform to make their entry, either into the advertising world (if they were not there already), or into Bollywood. Yes, I agreed, but wished she had also pointed out the sole exception of Ms Sushmita Sen for strengthening her argument.

Now it was the turn of the boys. I saw a spark when a young man vehemently argued that that these contests tended to treat woman as mere ‘commodity’ and that, to him, was degrading enough. I felt even better. My happiness was, however, short lived as the peer group pressure started building up against. These two students, now afraid of taking a stand alone stand, succumbed to this peer group pressure, mellowed down, and ultimately joined the group. How consensus kills originality.

Kurlekaar's Kaleidoscope - Jodhaa-Akbar, united and divided

2008-02-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

I came back home and switched on the TV. Elections in Pakistan were no more in the focus and most channels were showing how many millions (in Rupees) were paid for roping in some indigenous and overseas cricketers for playing for various participating teams in ensuing IPL tournament. I settled down on one channel which was showing an interview with the Director and the male and the female lead of the movie “Jodhaa and Akbar”. The movie is already mired in many controversies and in all probability, the interview had been arranged to regain some lost ground. The female lead, as per news published a couple of days ago, had already dissociated herself from these controversies and had held the Director responsible for any historical inaccuracies portrayed in the movie. That, to me, seemed fair enough. But now as they appeared on the TV, I felt that they ought to have constituted a team and presented a united front. Frankly speaking, I did not watch the episode in full and may have been a little out of context. But what I saw was disturbing enough.

Firstly, the Director asserted that it had taken him three years of research before he had started making the film and his decision to settle down upon ‘Jodhaa’ over some other names that had also appeared, was borne out of this research. He further said that what had appealed to him was that this marriage was the first ever attempt to fuse two disparate cultures and that too it had taken place 450 years ago. He did not look at the theme beyond this and therefore certainly did not mean to hurt the sentiments of any social or religious group. To me, he appeared to be quite focused and consequently unperturbed.

When the Anchor asked him whether he saw this movie as a historical love story, he replied that for him, it was a historical romance. It was at this stage that I noticed from the body language of the two leading stars that these two were clearly distancing themselves from the Director. The Anchor now asked him whether he was ever impressed with any Bollywood film dealing with romance and the latter promptly replied that it was “Bobby”. Quite true, although I felt, he could have also mentioned some, if not most, of Raj Kapoor and Nargis movies as belonging to the same genre. The Anchor now turned towards the leading duo and asked them the same question and both did not answer it. The leading lady squirmed and giggled while the male lead simply parried it. This question by the Anchor had nothing to do with their movie but the duo now seemed bent upon distancing themselves from Mr Ashutosh Govarikar as they had already finished with the Director of “Jodhaa and Akbar”……

Super Tense Tuesday - 2

2008-02-05T21:07:00.000-08:00

Yes we can.
Yes we can.
Yes we can.

Can Hillary win California?
Yes she can.

Super Tense Tuesday - 1

2008-02-05T20:27:00.000-08:00

Waiting to hear Obama speak....

Super Tense Tuesday - 0

2008-02-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

Here's the thing about Hillary - I'm watching her address her supporters on Super Tuesday, she is neck-to-neck with Obama and the race is still too close too call. People are yelling and cheering and the mood is jubilant. After all we're smack dab in the middle of making history here.

Hillary is radiant in yellow, smiling, waving and giving people thumbs up signs. But she seems detached from the crowd, does not let herself be swayed by the jubilation bubbling around her. Its easy to see why people say she's not warm or friendly or even likeable (that awful word).

Throughout, it seems like she is talking at the crowd and not to it. She barely pauses to acknowledge (let alone enjoy) the applause, the cheers, the boos and the woo-hoos. She just forges on ahead, says what she wants to say - crisp, clear and succinct.

But then she thanks her family, saying about her mother - "To my mother, who was born before women had the vote and who is watching her daughter today" ...

And I can feel History being made.

New Year resolution - Simple ways to be green

2008-01-17T13:29:00.000-08:00

Ah! The new year and all the resolutions it brings...

Absolutely stop getting plastic bags from stores. Keep tote bags in car, even a portable one in your backpack. Get paper bags in a cinch.

I've been doing this for a few months now ever since San Francisco outlawed plastic bags (though I don't live in the city, it just seemed like an excellent idea).
On a side note, what is it with Indian grocery stores not carrying paper bags and offering only plastic to customers?
Another side note, how can I stop using plastic bags when buying fruits and vegetables at the grocery store? You know, the clear plastic bags used to group things together to weigh them?

If you eat lunch at work, keep silverware handy. Stop using (and throwing out) plastic spoons, knives and forks.
Instead of using paper cups for coffee and water at work, keep a favorite cup and glass at work.

I'm surprised at the sheer amount of paper cups I see in the trash at work everyday. If you spend 8 hours someplace everyday, what's the big deal with keeping a cup and a glass there?

Stop buying bottled water.
Recycle, recycle, recycle. Don't be lazy about it.

Grocery stores have recycling bins for plastic bags.
If you live in or around Sunnyvale, check out the local SMART station. Its amazing all the stuff you can recycle just by dropping it off there.

A little green can go a long way! Now all I need is for someone to make a hybrid convertible ...

Madam President - 1

2008-01-12T23:50:00.000-08:00

We've all voted for and elected absolutely awful men into power. So who cares if you don't completely agree with Hillary's politics or think she's not the best quote-unquote person for the job?

Let's just have a terrible woman President, but a woman President all the same.