Its my life

For a long time i thought Bon Jovi had AIDS! It actually started with one of my friends, when we were watching 'Its My Life' video on TV he said 'Jovi has AIDS' and 'this is his last song'. First i wasn't ready to believe it but he pointed me to the following lines and said why would a singer have this in his song

It's my life
It's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just wanna live while I'm alive

I was still not convinced but then he said that he heard this news from one of the VJs in Channel [V]. Well, it did look like fine proof to me then and this was a time when i didn't know the existence of Wikipedia and in the entire computer Science department only two people knew about the presence of a website called Wikipedia, one was Yaggy and the other 'a criminal in Nerd's clothing' Koy. Now I relayed this back to these real nerd, fake nerd and few other friends in my college and they were not ready to believe this either, but i became a strong proponent in professing this new 'Jovi had AIDS' faith. Finally after a few years, an introduction to Wikipedia and an understanding there is nothing Google cant tell you, I realized how stupid I had been, I think I should go a step further and confess that I was really a Moron to believe that. It did not end here, i was so obsessed with this song that i actually jumped from the terrace trying to imitate one of those stunts in the song's visuals. Lucky me, i escaped with a sprain in the ankle but no one around me, especially my parents, could understand why I did that. I think they would have been happy if the doctor had done a diagnosis for 'Brain Damage' instead of a lame ankle sprain! I had one hell of a ride with this song.



Why am I harping about this now, I had been to a convenience store yesterday (Yeah you heard me right, i didnt say a super market like i am supposed to) and they were playing this song when i had a flashback.

Move on

India's loss at Lord's is really an unfortunate event and in my opinion we shouldn't be reading too much into that defeat. Any team whether No 1 or No 9, if they lose their strike bowler, they will definitely struggle. Test matches are won by bowlers unlike one day matches and batsmen are just a supporting cast here. With only three bowlers at disposal, i think we did perform well and may be could have done better in the second innings after reducing the English to 60/5. But the pace bowlers we had were newbies, who haven't played in English conditions before and no senior bowler on their side to guide them. In spite of all this we had excellent sparks from Ishanth(second innings) and Praveen Kumar (first innings). Even Australia struggled against England during the 2005 Ashes in Edgabaston without McGrath, but still they had the liberty to replace an injured McGrath with Michael Kasprowicz. So if you are short on resources to get 20 wickets you are bound to find it hard to win a test from there and when Zaheer is seen limping on the first hour of the first test, ofcourse it is a confidence boost to the English batting team. I think the Indian team will bounce back hard in the second test, i also think the new Indian side has got talent and confidence to win this series. Suresh Raina's brilliant 78 in the second innings is a proof of great things to come and we know we can always depend on our Fab 3 for support.

This entire week, the so called experts are questioning India's test status at No 1 which kind of irks me. These so called cricketing greats, at both Home and England alike have always been waiting for a chance to ridicule or bring India down at the slightest chance, I dont understand on how someone could do that with three more test to go. Anyways it is time to move on, leave the defeat behind at Lord's and look forward to Trent Bridge

Speak Up, Mr.PM!

First the CWG mess, now the ongoing 2G fiasco, so where exactly is India heading? We have become so insensitive to scandals and scams that we no longer care much about what the Indian judicial system might have to say on this drama. I sense an indifference in the public mindset that whatever change they cry for or yearn for, it will make no difference to the existing system. This lack of confidence in the system can be addressed only by the man who heads this system, but our PM never finds time to address the public. Instead he uses intelligent geniuses like DigVijay Singh to let out statements which the public consume with a hint of sigh, scoff and humor. I think there is an urgent need for the PM to come out of self imposed work routine and bare it all to the public. As the PM stays out of touch with the public, his integrity is being questioned by media and opposition alike.

Why is a man with such dignity and integrity staying quiet? I read in one of the articles that the PM works more than 13hrs a day starting at 6AM and retiring only at 10PM with a 2hr break for lunch in the afternoon. I think he needs to bear it all to the public, he needs to either say that he will get his government back on track or say he is not in charge and there is nothing that he can control. In case of latter, he should may be step down from his current post and do what he does best, control the nation's finances, at-least his soul is intact! In case of the former, I think we as public will NOT be satisfied with the regular general and vague statements which aren't worth a penny. A man of his stature and education should first identify and accept all the prevailing issues with plan over a time frame on when the cleansing will be completed.

This is something we would love the PM to do, but what has stopped him from doing it so long? What are his PR guys doing? Don't they tell him what is happening around him in this country? Isn't this their main work statement, to advise the PM on when to address a media gathering and what are the topics he needs to talk about? May be the PM Office is the nerve center behind the day to day governance and smooth functioning of the government, but a PM working in the background will never help a democratic country like ours. With so many raging issues and day to day problems, the PM is the representative of the government, he needs to be pro-active, he needs to build trust with his citizens and ensure they don't lose hope. Also, with a 'rising economy' tag, the government needs to be more active in promoting India as a key destination for investments, which can be done only through media which they have to engage in a better way.

Well, somehow i feel there is so much work to be done both inside and outside our country that someone should actually step up and take this forward. When a person like Manmohan Singh is at the helm with no visible progress towards making India a better nation, it really pains!

Saturday Popcorn - Rajneeti

An uneventful Saturday afternoon was spent watching 'Rajneeti'. My friend had been insisting me to watch this for a long time and i finally made time to spend an afternoon, and his reviews bordered upon 'why wasn't this considered for Oscars?' :-) The movie turned out to be another story taken out of our old epic with a star cast. During the movie's first one hour I was really happy that there was NO demarcation between 'The Good' and 'The Evil', everyone was interested in their own welfare and went to any means to get that accomplished. But towards the second hour of the movie, the director again gave us the 'Which is more evil?' kinda crap and the story was hijacked by the necessity to have a Hero/villain routine. Many loose ends and logical flaws, but the worst crime of all was to waste great actors in small roles or roles without screen space.

I am not going to go over the story and dissect each and every sequence but i was clearly disappointed at the handling of Manoj Bajpai, Naseeruddin Shah and Nana Patekar. Naseeruddin Shah for a single scene? Huge thumbs down for his portrayal, I was expecting Shah to make an entry late in the movie to provide twist so that it doesn't become a clear rip off from the epic. But bad guess i suppose! Manoj Bajpai was cast like a stereotype villain and his character was not developed properly to convince us as the 'Bad Guy'. I was rooting for Bajpai to create a surprise element in the movie climax, but No sir, he died the 'villain' way. Nana Patekar, the good guy? Oh comon, we know Patekar is great when he portrays characters with dark shades, i was clearly disappointed when he wasn't one of the scheming minds, but a silent spectator who acknowledges a good strike on the enemy. Why provide so much importance to Katrina and Ranbir when you have actors of Bajpai and Patekar at your disposal?

Taking cue from an epic for your story is never a bad idea, but this movie had so much potential with such an amazing star cast and still the director went down the beaten track. I liked the portion when the hero/villain routine was cast aside during the start and had he gone ahead with the same intensity and provided a enthralling story line without justifying each others actions, it would have been an amazing story and screen play. Yet another story where i expected more but ended up disappointed.

Definitely the Pitch Fork ...

Ever noticed the 'You are connected to LAN' icon in the windows 7 OS? It has got a computer monitor with the pitchfork on its right! Yes, a pitchfork,  I was amazed that it resembled the Devil and his pitchfork.

Icon in the System Task bar

Having gone this far, MS could have actually made more authentic and conveyed the real intention behind that icon. I tried my hand in coming up with a more authentic design, may be i should send this across to the MS icon designing team to change their icon for the upcoming Windows 8 release. They cant look shocked, i seriously want to understand what their idea was when they come up with this pitchfork near the computer on the first place.

My suggestion, of course it is not obnoxious

Now the design is done, I think i can apply my mind towards what their hidden message could have been in the first place

1. Dont connect to the any network through LAN, it is evil? Use WiFi, thats the trend!
2. Dont connect to the company network, it is evil? Always telecommute?
3. Dont connect to the Internet through LAN, it is evil? Stay stupid and learn nothing about the world progress.
4. We ran out of icons, so we thought this should do.

I think i can propose the following icon as well, you never know they could be considered for the windows 8 OS

I was actually thinking about Eddie of Iron Maiden
fame to be a better fit than a regular skull.
 But does it really matter?

Well monitor or skull doesn't make any difference. All that matters is what we convey. I think MS has made their intentions clear and i don't think this icon with a skull or monitor will make any difference. I think pitchfork is the key here

Yeah obviously you could see that as a regular LAN cable with the pin, but it is to hard to imagine that way and it would NOT strike you as a LAN cable if you take it out of the computer system tray and show it stand alone.
BTW why the hell should i think hard to check whether I am connected or not? Wasn't the old icon better?

Floyd Time

Can anything be more soothing than a Floyd music to start the day? I have observed, music defines the mood for the day, at-least in my case, with Floyd music i am calm, relaxed and serene. 'Comfortably Numb' is one of their best compositions and it is running in loop since 9AM!



Cant forget 'hey you'!



I think I will take a visit to the Floyd Laser show this weekend.

My Favorite Books

I had lost touch with my 'reading a book' gene for almost an year now and i decided to pick the first book i find and complete it. I did catch John Grisham's 'The Broker' and I am in the final 50 pages. While reading this book, something got me to think, if i have to rate the books i have read so far what would that list looks like?

The list below are all my top picks amongst the books i have read so far in no specific order

1. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
If someone could write a fantasy novel with such depth and character, it can only be the master JRR Tolkien himself. An entire planet filled with Wizards, Elves, Men, Hobbits, Dwarves, Ringwraiths and ofcourse Gollum. The basic premise is very simple, but the story around is so intriguing and well spun, the reader is almost transported to the middle earth to witness the great epic. I picked this book after watching the first movie and till date, if there is one movie which has done justice to the source, it should be Peter Jackson's LOTR. One of the best books i have read so far.
Trivia: There have been rock bands who have paid tribute to this and notable amongst them are Led Zeppelin's 'Battle of Evermore' and Sabbath's 'The wizard'.

2. Valley of Fear (Sherlock Holmes)
I am a big fan of Doyle's stories and some how Valley of fear has always been a stand out. I think it is the nature of the story's second half and a totally unexpected climax that I actually liked the most. For a change, it was not a regular Sherlock solving everything with a logical conclusion but a story with a different protagonist. Also, this is the portion in the story sequence where the great Prof.Moriarty gets introduced. I will always be thankful to the friend who first introduced me to Sherlock Holmes series. Since then, no detective novel i have read captures the logical aspects of a crime like Doyle's novels does. I am still searching for one that can be half good as the Sherlock series.

3. Day of the Jackal
Frederick Forsyth has come up with lot of thrillers, but to me this one is the best. The attention to detail with each and every aspect in the plot makes it a reader's delight. I think i completed this novel within 3-4 days and it is one of those rare novels which will always occupy your mind full time till you complete it. I was so impressed with 'The Jackal', i sympathized with him at the end when he couldnt complete his task. The author never once made the 'The Jackal' look vulnerable in the entire story. It was an amazing experience to read it the first time without knowing what would happen at the end. I think there were only 2 movie adaptations and in my opinion, none of them did justice to the novel.

4. State of Fear
No one can write science fiction better than the late Crichton. The use of science as a basis to come up with a plot line is simply amazing and this novel in particular places a convincing counter argument to the 'Global warming' phenomenon we are all so overdosed with. The story is just a template to show the other side of the coin and ofcourse there were reference materials in the appendix to substantiate his claims. I am not 'for' or 'against' this global warming, but i was amazed with what I read, a totally different take on this and that to through a story plot. The portions about yellow stone national park are excellent and really interesting to read.

5. Fountainhead
How can the list of best books end without a Ayn Rand novel? As a fiction this is the best i have read and I really love the characterization of each and every character in this book. Be it Peter Keating or Gail Wynand or Dominique Francon, each and every character has been given equal share of 'page space'. There is not one particular character the novel forces itself on, to move the story forward, but its like seeing the world in each's view. Toohey and Roark are the best characters ever but i have always loved Waynand for the way he is.

6. Empress at Blandings
No list is complete without a PG Wodehouse series in it. All the novels and movies about mistaken identities, calling themselves 'Original Comedy' are a sham. Wodehouse novels are the source for all the plot lines and story lines. If there is a school for the use of adjectives in english language, the reference materials should be Wodehouse novels. To have a pig as a protagonist and play with sequences built around it may be easy to say, but to have really built a plot using that premise is really a work of a genius. Though i didn read the entire Jeeves series which is more famous than the Blanding Castle series, i somehow like the Blandings castle for its variety in character and plot. The evergreen Lord Emsworth will always remain my favorite character and would love to see a similar character on the movie screen.

A common pattern in all the novels i have loved (barring Empress at Blandings) is the importance of Antagonist in those novels. In my opinion, a great story is where the Villain is intelligent and impressive in his scheme and plans. If you ask me, a story is as good as its villain!

Delhi Belly --> WOW!

There is no movie in recent times that can match the quality of Delhi Belly. Be it the dialogues or the screenplay or the characters, i am still not able to come to terms with the fact that this is a Bollywood movie! Simply outstanding and amazing, the best portion is the raw nature of the delivery which really blew my mind. For starters, the opening sequence of the movie couldnt have been better picturized, the haunting music of Saigal Blues adds to splendor.

I went into this movie with very minimal expectations, i did read the reviews and thought it would be yet another youth comedy but what really stood out is the unconventional nature of the script and the boldness in the dialogues. The liberal use of profanities actually helped the movie all the way to the end and it is this "on the ground" treatment, as i would call it, which makes it a very different movie. I think the movie shocks and awes you at the same time. There is no empathizing or patronizing with the characters in this movie, it is all along "something that happened" kind of movie which was also short to 1.5hrs. This movie is definitely not for the conservative audience or family audience and it laid out to the urban youths.

There were three scenes, to me was excellent
1. Vladimir is totally screwed that his package was not delivered, but when he finally gets hold of Sonia over the mobile he vents out his frustration. But this entire venting thing backfires and she hangs up mid way. Now the camera pans between the villain and Vladimir and the helplessness in his eyes and also realization as to he being the victim has been expressed beautifully. There is no music here, but just a natural facial reaction of helplessness captured naturally.
2. Our hero Nitin gets dumped by his Girl Friend and the sequence immediately turns into a Disco hero song with dialogues. The song and the dialogues in this particular turn of events was well thought out.
3. Another sequence involving Nitin in the jewellery shop in a purdah and trying to take a drink. Though very simple and expected, it somehow was interesting and very funny to have been slotted at that point in the movie.

On the whole it was one hell of a movie i got to see after a long time. Very light and humorous, didn't feel the drag even for a single minute.

An Interesting Challange

India are in England to play a four test series, and it should be the best competition in Tests in the recent times. There is always the factor of Sachin's 100th century looming in the background, but for once, this time, the press are not really obsessed with it. We did have a bench strength test at the Caribbean and i would say the whole bunch are something we should look forward to! The first test at Lord's will be a nervous encounter based on the fact that none of our 'Fab 3' have scored a century at the Mecca of Cricket and that will always be a force to reckon with when India bat the first innings. Also, we will definitely miss the Sehwag factor at the top of our batting and we have won lot of tests on Sehwag's blitz as an opener.

Despite all those, we have some interesting challenges to look forward to, Gambhir Vs Tremlett, Zaheer Vs Strauss and Harbhajan Vs Ian Bell. This should be the first time Gautam will have to take full responsibility as an opener, he always been happy to play his strokes in the shadow of Sehwag, but this time, he is the senior guy to guide the young Mukund. Dhoni will also have the predicament of choosing between Raina and Yuvi. Raina has used all his opportunity and proven everyone how capable he is while Yuvi has the entire world Cup performance in his Resume. I think Dhoni will go for Yuvi considering the fact that this might be the last chance in this test arena while Raina has all the time in this world as he is just 22. Ishanth is making all the right noises and is showing he ready to battle his demons out in the middle. His singular performance in the Caribbean pitches was a stand out and will be interesting to see how he takes on the swinging pitches in England.

On the whole this will be a very good competition and test of nerves for both the sides. I think India will lose their No 1 ranking only if they lose this series 2-0 and i dont think we are that bad to lose this series. It would have been great if it had been a 5 match series instead of the existing 4 match, but i have no complaints. I would really love to see India emerge victorious from this series but as i write this their practice game hangs at 91/6 chasing 425 from Somerset with all the accomplished batsmen in the hut barring Raina. Our Indian team has always been this way and i would not attach too much significance to failure in one innings.

Anyways we have an amazing competition and I am really eager to see this start.

Oh Really?

It was really sad to read the news on yet another Mumbai blast. Hats off to the resilience of the Mumbaikars and it is really sad to see innocent people being killed for no fault of theirs. I am all ears to a person who can explain the rationale behind killing common public to prove a point.

Well the real entertainment is when these politicos start blaming one another and I think we Indians are so used to it, we have started to ignore those comments. But the morons are seeing this as an advantage and are trying to raise the standard of stupidity with each passing day. Check out the comment from Dig Vijay Singh

"No one can say ... everything is foolproof. We are comparatively better than Pakistan, where blasts take place every day, every week"

Oh really, this is your bench mark? Comparing our country to Pakistan and saying we are safer than them? I am impressed! What a responsible statement and what a great relief at this hour of grief. Damn you Dig Vijay Singh! Why dont you guys for once act responsibly, atleast stop making stupid comments. Why not spend some time in action instead of attending those press meetings and making statements? I think the PM should issue a Gag order on the politicians when the nation is already suffering, they make it worse.

F**K you politicos! You make us look bad day in and day out and thats the only thing you do!

The Zombie Law

Every task we perform in a day needs to be done with conviction and passion, it is this passion which will drive us. In my opinion lack of motivation stems from absence of passion to perform a task or carry out an activity. This is best suited in team work when everyone works towards a common goal and having a team where everyone is passionate about reaching that common goal should be Utopia.

All being said, why am I ranting about some obscure philosophy that everyone knows? In my work world, passion is a critical ingredient to the success of a project execution. But off late, being a zombie at workplace is an accepted norm or in literal terms being mediocre is fine and i will not be surprised if that will be praised and rewarded in the coming years.

Being a zombie in my work world is really simple
1. Check emails in the morning. Don't apply any thought to any of those information
2. Call up the onsite folks and get all the information they have provided in the email over the call.
3. Don't apply your mind to any of this conversation, just redirect all those information to the developers who will eventually consume that information
4. Get the status from the Developers in the evening. Again DONT CONSUME what they tell you, just write it down in a mail and shoot that as the end of day status to your onsite peers!

Not applying your mind on anything that happens around you is the key to remain a zombie. The only aim is to spend your 8-9hrs at your desk and do all the activities assigned to you just because they are assigned to you. NO value add, no inputs to improvement are major ingredients of a zombie life.

On the flip side, imagine the peers and team members of the zombies who work with passion. For a moment consider the amount of effort and time they spend on their work with a singular notion success. In the eyes of a zombie they are the "Losers" group, the group which doesnt know the shortcut to success. When they interact with zombies, they have that vague feeling of hitting a brick wall, nothing goes through neither does anything come out. It is a futile attempt but no effort loss from the zombie side though. There should be a new law called Zombie law which should be defined to capture this scenario -
"100% of project work gets done by 20% people"

The sad part of this is, no one recognizes this 20% people, they are always on the losing end of the battle, but the victory when achieved is shared equally amongst everyone. Truly passion is a misplaced term in this world. Some day there will be an "Atlas Shrugged" phenomenon and then all those zombies will come to appreciate the word "Passion". I have always been a dreamer and will continue to be one!

Vacation after a long time

All my vacations have always been roaming around in hectic pace to cover all the places of interest. But this time, should be the first time i suppose, was really a vacation of sorts. There was never any pressure of covering things at its entirety and everything was done at its own pace. I can now understand the confused look on my client's face when i say i am really tired after a three day trip. They could never understand how some one could ever get tired on a vacation, may be its like saying 'I am hungry' after a buffet lunch! The best part was when i said i covered Yellow stone National park in 3 days while the previous month my client had taken 15 days to cover it. I am an Indian in a western continent and i am programmed to do things a specific way.

Anyways, Niagara and Toronto were on the agenda last weekend and vacation couldn't have been better. The climate was great with great sunshine, in fact bordering on hot but who cares, nice view of the falls and got a chance to take all the rides available there. The exciting bit of the falls visit was the fireworks show late in the evening and was excellent when it happened over the falls. Toronto was a stand out, we did not take the conventional route of just checking out the most popular places, instead we decided to explore the downtown by foot. Though Toronto cannot boast of the concrete grandeur of NYC, it still had mix of high rise buildings and towers.

They have a poor man's version of Times square called the Dundas square on Yonge St(Supposed to be the longest street) which is claimed to be the heart of Toronto. The harbor front on the Lake Ontario shore was an awesome place to spend the evening, we even rented a bike to pedal around the shore which was a unique experience. Heard the shoreline is exciting and lively only for three months in the entire year during summer, winter times in Toronto are dull and boring as it is in any other city with summer/winter extremities.

Well, in the end it was three days well spent and i can take a break from planning for the next 2 to 3 long weekends :-)

Visa Issues .. Oh, Not again!

Got myself to land into another Visa issue again. Nothing alarming, it was the same old binary question, should i stay or should i leave and the leaving portion was actually immediate in effect (The icing on the cake). I think i have gotten used to this situation so much now, i have in fact started enjoying this (Comon! Don't judge me). I also really liked the shock expressed by the people around me when they come to hear that i might be staying in a country illegally! I love it, the confusion borne from the fact and question, as to, whether they need to sympathize with me now, or rant at me for being so irresponsible made their reaction awesome to observe.

Anyways to the fact now, my work permit carries two different dates with respect to its expiry. The one with all decorations around it states it as July02 while the one hidden under the remarks section says Oct10 and which did i take as reference? You guessed it right, the totally obscure one on the remarks section (well you need to know me to understand why i did that). How did this all start? the responsible person in me applied for my extension since the expiry is in Oct, 3 months in advance, mind you and the entire immigration desk freaked out on seeing the work permit scanned copy. Imagine the situation for a minute two expiry dates, one already in the past, the other one in an rather obscure area in the work permit, I will not mind them freaking out. There were 3 different people calling me on this and each had their own theory as to which is the expiration date. Actually no one knew what they were talking about, no one could tell me if i am still valid to stay in the country. The comment from the Immigration lawyer my HR here managed to meet was excellent --> "Its an unique case". Deja vu?
Some one should teach the immigration lawyers to say "I dont know"

Well looks like, no one gets two different dates on their work permit for expiry (I am the chosen one!) and the immigration desk at the port of entry made an exception in my case to make it confusing. Eventually my company immigration desk spoke to the service provider here and got a confirmation stating the remarks column date trumps the other date, so i am legal to stay in this country. Couldnt have asked for a better entertainment to start the week with, it was a thrill and fun ride for two days. The best portion of this ride was when my manager heard i will have to come back immediately with no resource to replace me, his reaction PRICELESS *ref: Visa card ad!

Drive ... Drive and keep driving

I surprised myself over the weekend by driving 10hrs at a stretch. This should be a new record of sorts for me, but the trip was amazing. The entire point of this vacation was for me to enjoy driving and the people who accompanied me were just a small cog in this entire master scheme of mine. It was peak summer and the long road included all kinds of terrain, the best portion though was the music to accompany me in this trip the likes AC~DC and Black Sabbath. In the end, my itch(?) to drive long hours was finally fulfilled and also some how managed to get one long weekend out of the way. Long weekends have for long been a torture for me as it involved planning, coordination and execution of that plan along with all your friends. The trouble was not the planning part but the social part of coordination and execution with your friends. Anyways had an excellent trip with almost 20hrs worth driving! Couldn have asked for a better weekend.