Myths about Afghanistan

Came across an interesting article about Afghanistan in the world wide web. It is so amazing on  how we are so dependent on the media to provide us with all the information and how we frame opinions and ideas based on that. It is a good read --> 10 myths about Afghanistan | World news | The Guardian:

iOS Vs Android? -- Tablet wars

From the reports far and wide, looks like iOS through iPad is winning hands down in the tablet wars. It is now more than 2 years since the first iPad and there is still not a single worthy tablet to give iOS a stiff competition in the tablet landscape. Though Android seems to be the staple OS in all these tablets, none of these match the user experience focussed iPad, not a single company could dent Apple's march into the living room, not Samsung, not RIM nor HP. There have been tablets from startups like Fusion Grid but can they survive in this intense competition? I think the fight is so intense that they have to really provide a totally out of the world-magic feature to capture the public's imagination. Well, with so many existing 'also-runs' in this race, it is being speculated Amazon is coming up with a low end Kindle tablet and this is touted to give iPad a run for its money.

An interesting observation, there are only two major OSs in the market and one continues to dominate the user's imagination while the other OS (Android), so easily customizable and open, is still not gaining market traction. Is this a marketing gimmick that Apple is able to promote their products better and able to convince the users that it is a far better choice than any other tablet? Even the tech pundits laud the iPad when reviewing any other tablet and Apple's tablet seem to be the benchmark for any new tablet that is into the market. Should we say a company which does its own hardware and software fare better in understanding the user preferences than disparate segments in the industry assembling components to present the user with a gadget?

Charlie sheen is Roasting others!!!!!

I missed the 'The Roast of Charlie Sheen' on monday and today, I got to watch it on the comedy central's website. WOW! WOW! WOW! this should be one of the best stand-up performance I have seen in the recent times and I am really happy Comedy central had the entire uncut version. I couldn't embed the video here so had no other choice other than paste the link.

http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/roasts-/roast-of-charlie-sheen/roast-of-charlie-sheen---uncut/

I should say William Shatner and Charlie Sheen were the best amongst everyone else. Sheen's comments on Seth should be the best (can't still stop laughing at the comment "Who is that artificial Tanned dick head?"). As Koi had mentioned in his tweets everyone took it as a sport and Sheen was awesome or should i say it was Shenius? (well according to Seth it is because of his Shenis! ;-))

Roadmap to Delhi?

Narendra Modi, the BJP poster boy, completed his 3 day fast occupying the national attention the entire weekend. Congress couldn't do much other than sit and watch this event unravel, but if you ask me, they shouldn't be unduly worried. Most of their attacks on Modi has backfired and has only increased his popularity more than anything, so they made the customary noise about Modi being communal, started a fast at a venue near Modi's fast, aligning with the opposition political dharma, but otherwise they kept quiet. So whats this stunt all about? Modi harbouring PM ambitions should be the worst kept secret in BJP, but still is this the starting point to Modi being projected as a national politician? I think so, this entire event was scripted to perfection which was very evident in the way the fast ended, a lemon juice sip from the hands of each of the community representatives. So Modi has officially thrown his hat into the PM ring.

Modi's persona as a representative of Gujarat has never been a question. His administrative skills are quite evident from the progress his state has made, it is indeed a vibrant Gujarat, how else can a state with no history in the automotive industry can now pose a challenge to Pune and Chennai. Gujarat is the most progressive state setting examples to the other states in terms of GDP and revenue and it of course ranks #1 amongst all other states in India. His vision and ability has helped Gujarat in number of ways, but the question as to how he will perform at the national level still remains. It is to be noted, so far, Modi has not voiced his opinion in any of the issues of national importance, he is still not out of the 'yet another politician' mould when it comes to issues outside Gujarat. So the nation has not seen him or assessed him at the national level, in fact, he is still considered to be a RSS side kick or a Hindutva politician. So if my guess is correct, the transformation from a local hindutva to the national secular leader will be an interesting transition and how BJP handles this entire exercise should be even more interesting. With so much infighting and no clear winner to lead them, this should be an tedious task under the assumption Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj are not going to be happy when they hear they will have to play second fiddle to Modi. Even if Modi were to emerge successful in convincing his fellow leaders, it is to be seen how well he handles the national role, it is always easy to dictate terms at your own backyard, once you are in the street, it is any one's game. One more critical point to consider is the acceptance of Modi as a leader amongst the NDA coalition partners and how BJP can convince them, there are already rumours that Nitish Kumar is the preferred PM candidate amongst the NDA partners. To early to speculate but an interesting battle whatsoever.

With BJP starting their road map to Delhi, I think Congress has a trump card in the form of Rahul Gandhi. This 2014 elections should be an interesting battle, not between BJP and Congress, but between the second rung young leaders in both the party coalitions. 

Defeat

The tour of England couldn't have ended any better, another defeat in yet another match. We have been totally deflated and battered in every form of cricket, not to mention the #1 tag we had to justify all along the tour. In a way, I think this is a good jolt back to reality after the WC 2011 victory, we were carrying ourselves like we were totally invincible but actually I don't think we really deserved the #1 tag and we were all along vulnerable to a good cricket team. For Indian cricket, this is a good sign of things to come, this will actually make the selectors and players think about the future and where do they see the Indian cricket team and themselves, respectively, in the coming years. I think the approach should be more towards grooming youngsters like Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Pujara to take the core responsibility which all along has been carried by likes of Sachin, Lax and Dravid.

I think it is time to make some tough decisions regarding the seniors in the team, we cannot indefinitely make talent wait in the sidelines without proper match practice or experience at the international level and then, when the seniors decide to leave at their own time, thrust them into the test arena. I am not trying to stir the already murky pot here, but I think our performance in England desires a lot to be improved at least at our bench strength tier.

We shouldn't stop here, as it will be sending the lambs for slaughter, I think we should start the discontinued practice of making our youngsters play county cricket like the old times. Playing Ranji and IPL is getting all the desired revenue a player wants, but I think a serious decision at the Board level to send in all the prospective players or promising players to get trained in the English conditions will prepare them for all situations. We don't want another instance where PK and Ishanth had to take one full innings to get acclimatized to the conditions before hitting their stride. This will help the bowlers and batsmen get a glimpse of conditions beyond the sub continent not to mention the improved confidence when they come across a bowler friendly surface next time.

What has been a strength this long for the Indian team has been left to rot in the recent times, I am talking about the quality of spinners we are seeing. We don't have the next big prospect beyond Harbhajan Singh and it is really hurting us when we play in foreign conditions. They are not big wicket takers when we play outside the Sub Continent, but we don't need great spinners, all we need is a quality spinner who can stem the flow of runs from one end. Any non-sub continent batsmen will definitely not feel comfortable playing spin even if it was me or you bowling lollypops from a short run up under the spinner tag.

As the postmortem of this series starts to flow in the coming weeks, I am eager to see the lessons learnt and the prospective direction of the Indian cricket. Nothing can change overnight, but still I think this is the right time to make critical decisions if we want to rule the cricket world on the field. The sad portion on this entire series was making my analogy remain true till the end.

Dravid's last ODI

If there is one cricketer who could play cricketing strokes according to the book even when the situation warrants an ugly heave over the cow corner, it could be none other than Rahul Dravid. To play straight bat even in the slog overs is something not everyone can do, not just playing strokes as prescribed in the books, he also scored runs playing it the right way. Though he has not been a regular in the blue pajamas in the recent times, he has always been an amazing player in the one day arena as well. His calm and composed presence in the middle has saved many ODIs for India. He will be thoroughly missed for his slow and steady accumulation of runs and also for the calming influence he brings to the game through his presence. Hopefully the ODI tomorrow is a perfect farwell for him. One Day cricket will definitely miss Rahul Dravid!

Are our thoughts on Steroids?

Arbitrary discussions over lunch with friends, the recent Djokovic Vs Fedex semi final match found its spot amongst the millions of other topics. The match was an amazing 5 setter evoking memories from the Wimbledon Bjorn Borg Vs John McEnroe match, though not as riveting as that one, this was equally interesting and the showman himself saved two match points to take the game away from Federer. The arguments slowly closed in on the style of play as to why 'Serve-Volley' players are now an extinct species and all the top players are now baseline players with more time spent on tweaking the angles on their return. As always, there was a discussion speculating what Sampras or Boris Becker would do when they play against Nadal or Federer or  Djokovic? But after a friendly exchange of fire, what stunned the entire table was a quick, short remark from one of my friends, he nonchalantly said "Every player on the court, be it any sports, are on steroids. What else can explain the power and length of the games today". For a moment I was shocked and I couldn't even contemplate the magnitude of the accusation, this was a very general statement I really felt offended as a sports fan in general. Tennis for instance has evolved over time and current state can be attributed to the light weighted bats, better shoes, power on the racquet, amazing physical training these folks undergo and just dismissing them  in a single statement is ridiculous. I am of the opinion, sports in general may have some blips in the form of steroids and performance enhancing drugs, but to generalize the entire player community for playing better to steroids is not acceptable. It is the adaptability to situation and coming up with innovative measures to counter the other person's strength, which has always been the way to the top and we have seen that happen with Federer and Nadal where they countered serve-volley routine with a strong baseline play with longer rallies. This can also be observed in Murray and Roddick's game (serve-volley again), where they have actually changed their style to increase their probability of winning.

I think this more to do with people's perception after the Armstrong and Agassi episode. I seriously believe it is  pure determination, skill and will power more than anything else that can make a winner out of any form of competition. The recent Nadal Vs Djokovic is a sample to that line of thought.

Contagion - A Confusion

Watched the movie "Contagion" on IMAX over the weekend after positive reviews in the print and online media. Well, to be frank, I did not understand the movie beyond the basic premise of world's reaction (the world here is The USA, as always with Hollywood movies) to a deadly virus outbreak and a visual lecture on how the CDC(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), WHO and the pharma companies react to such a situation. This could have well been an awesome 2 hour documentary had the director removed all the star cast and put in more scientific explanations as to why few things are done the way they are visualized, but the director wanted to make it a mainstream cinema and what do we have? A confusing potpourri with no definite genre and a screenplay devoid of proper story. The film has 3 parallel story lines, all linked through a common thread, the deadly virus, with no convincing plot. There are no protagonists in the movie which is a saving grace, we don't want a mad scientist shunned by the intellectual community being the world savior by the end, so credit to the director for not employing a proven blockbuster theory into his movie. The key knots that untangle the mystery in overcoming this deadly virus was not explained, literally, there was no serious explanation on how the scientist comes up with a vaccine. The scientist tested the vaccine on herself, met an infected patient to check the vaccine and "TADA" next scene every top official was talking about distributing the vaccine to the common public. Another confusion was in the form of Matt Damon, this guy is said to be immune to this deadly virus and will/can never get infected. Great. Reason? There is no explanation to that and you cannot just say his immune system is better than the rest of the population and end that premise. Throughout the movie no other person is shown immune to this virus and Matt Damon is not even described as a one in a million case! So much for being immune to a killer disease. Another confusing characterization in the movie is in the form of Jude Law, I think I will have to wait for another week before Wikipedia can update the entire plot line along with character sketch for this particular player in the story.

Being confused after a movie like Inception or The Matrix is acceptable as there is more to the basic plot that needs to be understood to appreciate the movie better. This movie is a different case altogether, I had to basically struggle hard to even understand the basic plot and its ending, forget appreciating the nuances or subtle hidden messages.

I am lucky

Due to some convoluted process in my company's pay system, I was paid 6k (Rupees, ofcourse!) extra during the month of July. The company didnt realize this until Aug end and by the time they woke up to appreciate their mistake, the Aug salary was also paid out. Now I get an email from my Finance department asking me to hot wire them the excess amount paid immediately and the mail had no other information supporting the claim. At first, I thought I will have to know the reason behind this and mailed them back asking why am I being asked to pay the company back(Surprised I would say)! They responded within hours, mind you, within hours saying there was some mistake in my leave processing and a leave which ran into LOP was earlier thought to be an EL(earned leave) along with a huge screen snapshot explaining the issue to me. They also mentioned that waiting till Sep end was not an option and this needs to be done immediately. Ideally I could have played along with the system and hot wired that amount, but I decided to play coy with them, I ignored that email for more than 2 days and yesterday my manager calls me up saying the Finance team is behind him asking him to make me pay that amount(WOW! What a strategy?), now here I realized  they are really desperate to retrieve the money back and someone's ass is on fire. So for the first time in my life, I have made an entire system nervous about what is going to happen  and believe me I am pretty excited about this. Don't get me wrong here, how often do we get a chance to make an entire system look forward to a reply or response from us when the same system otherwise takes 5 days and infinite remainders to get a query answered from us. Anyways, the battle is not over yet and I am prepared!

I think this should be one of those fantasies we all have but never happens, making the system wait for you to respond, for a mistake they have committed. Though this doesn't rank high in the list but it is still on the list. What would qualify to be a perfect Software engineer's wet dream?

• Getting the code deployed directly from your IDE into production env (too geeky)
• Making the manager work late hours while you leave early (happens some times, so not really a topper), how about engineers status checking the managers? (not convincing)

I am not able to come up with the ultimate scenario, somehow my imagination is dry(wet dream - dry imagination he he he). As always pour in your thoughts and lets see if some one can come up with the perfect S/W engineer's dream come true use case.

Sauron : Ring :: India : Win

A win that was so easy for India in the recent times suddenly seems evasive! A potential win in a cricket match can now be raised from category:'Necessity' to category:'Desperation'. What was touted to be the best contest in the recent times ended being a damp squib, with India failing to register a single win against English side in any form of cricket. But wait, I hear a passionate Indian fan within myself screaming "there are three more ODIs to account for" but who am I kidding, even if we were to win those remaining ODIs, the pride we lost on the field can never be compensated by this token victory. It took me a 'tour de LOTR' to appreciate the similarities between the army of Mordor and the Indian team. 

• Both the captains are desperate to achieve the single coveted title
• Sauron lost Nazgul and King of Angmar early in the battle; Zaheer limped out after 3 overs and Sachin is already out of the ODI series.
• Saruman who was supposed to be helping Sauron win the battle proved useless with his army, I think he did more damage than help. Sehwag who was supposed to reinforce our ailing batting ended up scoring 41 runs in 4 innings with no particular effect.
• The Orcs who captured the Ring and Frodo were stupid enough to let it slip from their hands. We had Dravid guide us throughout the series while Ishanth, Praveen bowled well in patches, but still not enough to win a test for us.

I think I have let my obsession with LOTR get better of me, but still Sauron never had to come back and explain to his army on why he lost the ring but I think, a lot will be expected from Dhoni now. Of all these. a single question remains, 

"Is Duncan Fletcher the Gollum with his own agenda or a Gandalf guiding the fellowship to victory?"

In both the cases, I dont see victory for India!

P:S: All non LOTR fans please excuse


P:P:S: On a side note, I would have been more pleased with the novel ending had Sauron really got his ring after all the resources and power he had employed! Too bad. My ode to Sauron will be a seperate post on its own.

Rise of the planet of the Apes - A short review

I stayed loyal to my previous post about being an epitome of laziness during weekends. There was a minor aberration though, in the form of watching a movie on Monday and this happened as i was bored of being lazy and it was a long weekend. Anyways, dragged my friend along to watch the only decent movie on the screens 'Rise of the Planet of Apes' and after 2 hrs I was NOT disappointed. It was one of those bizarre science fiction idea that gets made into a movie with major portions done in CGI. I was initially under the impression that this movie was a prequel to the existing 'Planet of Apes' series, but on the contrary, this movie was intended to be a foundation for an entirely new film series.

The movie is very fresh in its idea and was not preachy like most other movies with tragic science undertones, it simply delved on the point that 'power + cognitive' abilities are the real keys to remain at the top of the food chain. The relationship between James Franco and Caesar the chimp has been portrayed well, but I still felt only a master-pet relationship exhibited there even though the director has tried hard to paint a father-son relation. The chimp's experiences at the primate sanctuary have also been well thought out and its rise from an ordinary house pet to a leader of group is too filmy, if you ask me. It did remind me of all those regional movies where the hero becomes a millionaire from zero in a 4-5min song, the only thing lacking in this movie was the background song sequence! There were lot of logical holes as with any other science fiction movies, for instance only 50 chimps were exposed to this new virus, but towards the end of the movie, there were more than 100 chimps that show thinking capacity and they follow the leader's command through . There was also a sequence where the scientists do not know that the chimp they are experimenting on is actually carrying a baby, I was like, WHAAAAAT ....? You guys didn know this all along????? and believe me, this was the pivotal point from which the story takes off. But on the whole this movie has a good screenplay and didn't make the 2 hrs long and boring.

The entire movie got me into thinking, we humans have become so complacent over our position in this earth that we have become dormant and lost all our animal instincts of survival over the generations of procreation and adaptation. We take it for granted that we will continue to rule the world, but if by some nature's freak accident if we are toppled as the rulers, I think we wont even survive a week in this world. Jurassic Park was a perfect example, it doesnt even need to be a cognitive mammal, a giant carnivore would do. Fantasy eh?

Lazy weekend

So after two days of mad scrambling and navigation across landmines called work, I am heading into a long awaited weekend of  ... weekend of ... I don't know what to expect out of this weekend, for that matter any weekend. I have become so lazy that weekends have formed a routine on their own, not doing anything over the weekend is the plan. Every Wednesday or Thursday when I am totally pissed off with my week, I plan big things to accomplish over the weekend, by Wednesday evening if you read my remainders it would look like

• Saturday ALL DAY EVENT: Change the earth's rotation east to west. Reverse the ocean currents
• Sunday Evening ALL DAY EVENT: Spend quality time with family

Invariably I end up sleeping all over the weekend with food being the only item conquered. I don't know why this happens, but if I try to build a pattern over the weekends spent so far, "doing nothing" is the only common denominator. BTW, this is not a self realization post where at the end i am going to say I am feeling sorry about being lazy, no way, this post is just to establish that I find it easy to have a remainder for "Not doing Anything", that comes naturally to me, rather than trying to do something. Also, this post is dedicated to all the lazy asses who find the food, couch and bed more inviting on a weekend than the anything else in this world.