Indian Grand Prix

After two years in waiting the Indian Grand prix finally happened over the weekend. It was an amazing spectacle to watch an event like this happen back at home. The race did not have any great surprises or twists and was almost bordering on boredom like the last 3-4 races, but the excitement that it was happening in India remained throughout the race. Getting F1 to India had been on the talks for more than 4-5 years now and finally to see the auto majors burn rubber on Indian asphalt was really awesome. India had already spoiled its name in its preparations for the CWG 2010 and this event was being watched closely by the international community, I think this time, we conducted the event without any major gripes.

Having said all this, F1 has always been one of the most costliest sport to conduct and take part.  The race was entirely organized by the Corporate India and is a major success, but there is flip side to this. There are few questions which remains to be answered, how does this help the nation apart from proving India's capability to conduct big events? How does this help India economically? I know this event will provide investment opportunities but is it really worth the amount spent (initial estimates ping the construction cost of the track alone to Rs1700 Crores)? Many skeptics believe this amount could have been better utilized and also the land on which this entire track was build is prime farm land. Ofcourse the farmers were compensated appropriately, but who is going to support them at a long run? I am not taking sides here, I feel elated to see F1 happen in India but at the same time, I am not sure if it will help our economy or our country in anyway apart from putting India in the F1 map. But there is one particular trend that is alarming, the parity between the rich and poor seems to grow and this doesn't seem to change course at any time in the near future.

Siri commercial - Conan

I think everyone watched the Siri commercial, but I think Conan's version is tad better than the original one.



I think i liked the closing comment "We know what you are gonna use it for"

Duh ...

It was a horrible weekend extending over to tuesday from last week.  Our project was scheduled for major UAT release over the weekend and as luck would have it, the application had a sudden inflow of critical and high defects. I don't know why this happens, may be Murphy's law phenomenon but this still continues to amaze me. You really don't see this coming and at one point you are really confident that your application is all fine and ready for the final mile push, but then out of the blue, a big northward trend in the defect numbers.  This trend prevails over a week and really saps the energy out of you. I am exhausted mentally, physically, psychologically, chemically etc etc hopefully this ends soon. 

I would say, Profound!

My friend's blogger site has got an interesting quote which though simple, is profound, in my opinion. I am not a big fan of quotes, most of the quotes i read on the net are either filled with decorative adjectives or hypocritical in their own way. But Sriram's quote is both straight and simple.

All problems can be solved by tea and masala vada - Sriram Kannan

Really impressive and practical if you ask me, if I were in a position trying to find a solution, the eternal question remains, who will provide me the tea and vada, Solai/Koi/Sriram/Vishwa ???

P:S: The question is dedicated to everyone I owe a simple tea @SKT.

"Ted Talks" - Lennart Green

An interesting demonstration from Lennart Green, more than the tricks, I think it is Green's presentation and his wit which was awesome.

Hyundai challenges Maruti with Eon

Hyundai unveiled its new entrant EON pitting it directly against the likes of Altos and Ritzs, with EON Hyundai enters the sub 3lakh segment market previously dominated entirely by Maruti. This segment has always been Maruti's fort and no new entrant could match Maruti's after sales. GM tried this with its Chevy Beat, but people still wanted a strong after sales - service, if anyone could match Maruti's service, it could only be Hyundai, they have been in India for long now and they have seen success through their Santro, i10 and i20 models.  The design on EON looks fluid and contemporary, it carries the 814cc engine with 6 variants. I think Maruti will be forced to rethink its existing Alto design which has been unchanged since its introduction, infact it borrowed heavily from the M800, with Hyundai snapping at its heels, I think it will be good competition to watch out.

Australia in South Africa

Cricket did take a back seat for me in the last few months on the areas of interest, I wasn't following cricinfo as I usually used to, I stopped reading news items on cricket. There was too much cricket, infact a cricket overdose if you ask me and in my opinion a T20 game can never substitute a single interesting session in test cricket. But as with any sport, the earning potential of a format will always dominate a genuine interesting format in the game. Anyways, as England come back to India for a game of ODIs, the southern hemisphere's titans are battling out again in South Africa. In terms of competition and interest I think the Australians competing against South Africa in Africa will be an interesting clash to watch out for, the Aussies are coming out of a series victory in Sri Lanka but the Proteas are playing cricket after a long break from the world cup. A new look Proteas under a new captain take on the Aussies for a 3 ODI and 2 Test series, it will be a really hard fought series and a tough encounter. What really disappoints me is the length of this series, when a marquee series like these happen, I think they should at least carry 5 Tests on the schedule. More than the India England ODI competition this is the series to watch out for.