Demented Deliberations of a Dilettante ...

Recovering Data From A Disk That Will Not Boot

2010-04-17T08:51:00.011-04:00

My dad owns a K50IN 15.6" laptop that was purchased in October, 2009. In March of this year the laptop stopped booting up. We would get far enough to see the Windows splashscreen, but it would not go any further. We were able to get into the BIOS without problem.

Since the laptop comes with a 12M manufacturer warranty, we called ASUS. After having us try a few different troubleshooting efforts, they agreed that there seems to be a hardware problem and asked us to ship it in. My dad had some lectures and presentations on the machine that were not backed up (yeah, yeah - always backup).

Anyway, ASUS said that they would not backup the data for us, and we were free to try to salvage it before sending the machine in for repair. Hence, this little home project.

First, we purchased a USB Adapter for IDE/SATA.

Newegg is absolutely awesome, I ordered the product on a Saturday with regular (free) shipping and received it in hand on Wednesday!

Next I needed to open the laptop and pull out the hard drive. It wasn't too obvious as there were a number of screws on the bottom. I found many online videos on how to do this for Dell. A friend tells me that HP makes little images next to the screws to indicate what would open up with those screws. I found similar indicators on my Lenovo. However, ASUS wasn't that easy. Now, I did see some images next to four screws. Hard to say what it is, here is a (pretty bad) picture:

Anyway, first I took out the battery. Then I unscrewed these four. Finally, there was a fifth screw right next to the battery compartment that was holding this panel in. On taking this out, I was able to slide this panel out. And, here is what the inside looks like:

Another four screws allowed me to pull out the SATA HDD. Closer view of the HDD Compartment:

Next step, connecting the adapter. This was fairly straightforward. Connect the SATA power cable to the drive. Keep it powered down until the data cable is connected to the Rosewill USB cable. Turn the power on, connect the USB to another laptop (a Lenovo T60). Since the HDD has multiple partitions, each one is mounted as a separate drive letter in my Windows laptop. Here is the external HDD connected via the adapter:

Final step, get the files. First I tried using simple Windows Explorer, it would fail without copying even a single file. I was able to copy some individual files, but it would fail on others. So much for the GUI, time to use the commandline. I tried the regular windows 'copy' command, it was a step better than Windows Explorer. It would copy files until it hit one that it could not read. But then it would exit. Not too good. played around with xcopy and it didn't seem to be smart enough. I wanted a tool that I could re-run in case of a failure, and expect it to pick up from the point of failure. Enter Robocopy, this is part of the Windows Resource Kit.

This is smart, the timestamp and size of a file in the source/destination match, it will not try to copy it again. It is apparently an enhanced version of xcopy. Here is the command I used:

robocopy c:\users\mk\desktop "C:\papa laptop backup" /s /zb /r:0 /LOG+:"v:\backupLaptop.log"

I set the retries to 0 (/r:0) as the default is 1 million! I setup a log file as well.

I found that certain files were causing it to really struggle, these were bitmaps and some videos. We didn't really need those, so I setup a filter to remove them:

robocopy c:\users\mk\desktop "C:\papa laptop backup" /s /zb /r:0 /LOG+:"v:\backupLaptop.log" /V /XF *.VOB *.bmp

I also downloaded baretail to watch the logfile in real time. This is the equivalent of UNIX 'tail' for Windows. It was pretty popular amongst my ex-colleagues at Vamosa. Not sure, though, that the GUI adds much value. I should go back to my Cygwin emulator.

Either way, tail/Baretail is a bit of an overkill in this case, as robocopy has an option to TEE output to the screen:

robocopy c:\users\mk\desktop "C:\papa laptop backup" /s /zb /r:0 /LOG+:"v:\backupLaptop.log" /V /TEE /XF *.VOB *.bmp

Here is a screenshot of robocopy and baretail in action:

As you can see, every so often, a file will fail copy due to an I/O error. At least we have the log file to know what we lost.

And there we go, data saved :-)

Knowledge Management: Doing Away with Human Splashscreens

2010-02-04T09:41:00.005-05:00

My second corporate blog entry was posted a while ago:

Doing Away with Human Splashscreens

Hopefully, this is less dry and more interesting than the first entry!

As usual, comments invited either on the blog itself or via email.

Learnings from Mel Gibson's Apocalypto

2010-02-03T18:31:00.005-05:00

I recently saw Apocalypto. This article will make a lot more sense to those that have had a chance to see the movie. It is a list of what I have learnt from watching this epic movie!

The number of tattoos and amount of body art in the Mayan Civilization was directly proportional to the vileness of the person.
Evil men do not have wives and children. Maybe a few concubines that are equally vicious.
How to remove a person's heart: Take a sharp knife. Look the subject in the eye. While subject screams, make faces with your best attempt to scare him. Then strike at the chest. As long as the cameras do not follow the knife into the subject, the target's heart will readily jump out for you to grab and display publicly. It happens so fluidly indeed, that the subject has a chance to stare at his own extricated heart before passing away.
Be very afraid if someone brings blue paint to the party. Everyone painted blue will be offered to Gods by expert knife-men as laid out in the previous bullet.
All villains are stupid. They like to play Gladiator before killing the innocent, nice guys. Needless to say, one of these innocent, nice guys (the hero of the movie) will turn out to be damn lucky. He will run in a zig zag fashion, thereby evading all archers, shot-putters and javeline throwers of the villian's army. I am sure, secretly he will attribute his dumb luck to his valor and think of himself as a Maximus Decimus Meridius of sorts.
A man injured by an arrow can run faster than a jaguar. Hence, when in the jungle and being checked out by a jaguar for a chase, quickly pull out an arrow and stab yourself.
Corollary to previous bullet: If you have a debilitating injury that is causing you to sweat profusely and you can barely walk, find a jaguar to chase you. A chasing jaguar will make you run faster than Usain Bolt.
The chief villain's henchmen are like guided missiles. Once launched, even if the chief villain is killed, they will continue to hunt the warrior against all odds. They continue to get more and more scared, but not one of them thinks of turning around as a feasible plan.
In the jungle, it rains 5-6 feet of water within 20 minutes. Take that, Cherrapunji! Hero's wife finds herself in a big hole in the ground. And while the hero is knocking off the bad guys one by one, it starts to rain.
Mayan women can do labor while in labor. Within 20 minutes, she finds herself standing on a rock, with her 4-year old son on her shoulders to evade drowning. Oh, did I mention that she is pregnant and gives birth in that stance?
If you are a Mayan woman or child, even though you live right next to an ocean, no one teaches you how to float, let alone swim! Of course, once you grow up and have to jump off a waterfall, you magically learn there and then!

Content Management: Conundrum of Consolidation

2009-08-03T10:35:00.003-04:00

I had my first corporate blog entry published:

Conundrum of Consolidation

Comments invited. I think it is a bit dry, planning on the next one being more interesting. It has been authored, is awaiting review/publish some time this month.

Tendulkar's Nervous 90s in ODIs?

2009-02-03T14:11:00.005-05:00

As we all know, Sachin Tendulkar has been extremely consistent throughout his career in converting the big scores to centuries. Consequently, as of February 3, 2009, he has 42 ODI centuries in 422 ODI matches. That is an amazing statistic - a century every 10 matches. Add the fact that his first ODI century did not happen till his 80th (or so) ODI match, the statistic becomes quite tremendous.

It is a common belief that on many of those occasions he had slowed down his strike rate in the 90s to reach the landmark, even if it was to the detriment of the team's interest.

1998 was, of course, one of the most prolific years of his career. 9 ODI centuries in 34 matches, an average of 65.31. There was only one score in the 90s for this year.

Lately, however, he still does slow down, but has failed to reach the milestone. In his last two years (Feb 3, 2007 to Feb 3, 2009; 44 ODIs), he has one 100+ scores and 7 scores in the nineties (3 of them 99!). On each occasion, it wasn't as if he ran out of time to get there. He was out. Nervous 90s?

Hum par jafaa se ...

2008-12-15T22:25:00.005-05:00

Hum par jafaa se tarq-e-wafa ka ghumaan nahin,
Ek chain hai, wa'garna bura imtihaan nahin;

[jafaa = injustice, injury; tarq-e-wafa = end of fidelity; ghumaan = doubt]

I have no misconception that pain might ever break its bond with me,
Yet my mind is calm, otherwise it might have been a good test;

Humko sitam azeez, sitam'gar ko hum azeez,
Na-meherbaan nahi hai, agar meherbaan nahin;

I have an affection for torture, and the tyrant has an affection for me,
She may not be kind-hearted, yet she is not unkind either;

Airline Fees

2008-07-17T03:40:00.000-04:00

More from a friend:
With airlines now charging fees for what used to be free, this new fees page from Kayak outlines many of the charges for the most popular airlines.

Live Traffic Monitoring!!

2008-06-28T17:47:00.004-04:00

Anand, one of my most resourceful friends sent this interesting tidbit to me:

http://www.btis.in/live.htm

* Real-time monitoring of road traffic in 20 important junctions of Bangalore & updated every 15 seconds....
* Does any site have it for US cities with info updated every 15 seconds??

It is pretty amazing how quickly India is adopting new technology. Despite some legacy obstacles (population, under-developed infrastructure), it is commendable to see innovative steps such as these!

The same site/group provides live traffic, bus/train combos to go from 1 place to other.

It also has a fully functional version for Hyderabad & has "beta" versions to traffic in Delhi, Chennai & Pune:

* Hyderabad: http://www.htis.in/
* Delhi : http://www.dtis.in/
* Chennai: http://www.chennaitraffic.in/
* Pune : http://www.ptis.in/

Another cool service for India is Just Dial - it has been there from 1998 & one just needs to call their number (in various cities) and get info. about which movie is running where, tel. numbers of establishments, etc, etc. Now they have a cool javascript enabled & google suggest like webpage...Try out how it works for Delhi

* http://www.justdial.com/

Thought for the Day

2008-06-17T07:13:00.003-04:00

Aur kya ahed-e-wafa hote hain,
Log milte hain, juda hote hain;

Kab bichar jaaye, humsafar hi to hai,
Kab badal jaaye, ek nazar hi to hai,
Jaan-o-dil jis pe fida hote hain,
Aur kya ahed-e-wafa hote hain;

Baat nikli thi ek zamaane ki,
Jisko aadat hai bhool jaane ki,
Aap kyon hum se khafa hote hain?
Aur kya ahed-e-wafa hote hain;

Jab rula lete hain ji bhar ke humein,
Jab sata lete hain ji bhar ke humein,
Tab kahin khush wo zara hote hain,
Aur kya ahed-e-wafa hote hain;

- From Movie 'Sunny', Singer 'Asha Bhosle'

Whtie Water Kayaking

2008-06-07T13:27:00.007-04:00

Here are pictures from my May 24/25/26 long weekend trip to Penobscot (Maine). We took a beginner course on White Water Kayaking. It was more exhilerating than I imagined!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ukmaurya/CampingKayaking_at_Katadin

Photos on the water: http://www.flickr.com/photos/51086907@N00/sets/72157605448179251/

Dancers that make you want to dance

2008-01-05T18:53:00.000-05:00

I guess everyone has their favorites, here are some of mine:

Kum Kum from the movie 'Ujala' ('Sunrise/Brightness'). Every part of her body dances.

Artist unknown to me, from Satyajit Ray's classic 'Jalsaghar' ('The Music Room'). Pure energy with impeccable control of each action.

Donald O'Connor from the classic 'Singing in the Rain'. Effortless while adding the dimension of comedy.

Fred Astaire, miscellaneous clips with Mazzy Star in the background. The man does not walk or dance, he floats.

Meet the World

2008-01-04T23:29:00.000-05:00

Just some very thought-proving ads:

http://www.epica-awards.com/pages/pastresults2005_epicador_press.html

Katahdin hike

2007-09-17T07:54:00.000-04:00

Update: Here are pictures from the hike ->
http://picasaweb.google.com/sreeni.yalamarthi/KatahdinSep282007

Planning to hike up Katahdin this weekend (Sep 21/22/23). Anyone interested in joining us, drop me an email and I will send you details.

Joost Chain ...

2007-05-16T23:59:00.000-04:00

Guess the latest buzz is around Joost, supposedly the next Youtube. Only, it is currently by invite only. The way it is set up, we need an invite to try it out. Once we have an invite, we can invite as many people as we want.

So, a smart guy out there has an idea to leverage the power of community and get an invite to as many people as possible. Check this out:

http://www.p2p-blog.com/item-292.html

The basic idea is pretty cool, create a chain. X invites three people. Those three people invite three others and so on. The problem is that people are like Microsoft Windows - unreliable. (Ok, ok - just kidding, Windows ain't that bad. Any longer.) So, a small addition to the idea is to track people that got missed/skipped. And for the community to do the tracking. So, I set up a little collaborative wiki-page:

http://joostchain.pbwiki.com/joost

Would be interesting to see how this little experiment goes. Probably just goes bust, it may be that no one has enough time/energy to jump through so many hoops to get an invite to Joost!

Its not what you know, its who you know!

2007-02-03T13:02:00.000-05:00

Recently my company rolled out the beta of a new chat product. But the link to install it was pulled within a day (apparently, from the chat below, they had reached their 'numbers' for the beta). I happened to get in on time, but a friend of mine missed the boat. So, on the promise of two sambhar/dosa/idli dinners, I offered to try and get him the new product.

And it led to the funniest chat conversation I have ever had with desktop support:

Status: Analyst {Agent} is here and your issue status is: working
Problem: Please upgrade my {Chat Product} version {old version} to {new version}

{Agent}>Hello, you've reached TechLine, please give me a moment to review your information.

{Customer}>ok

{Agent}>Dear beloved {Customer}, you have good intentions and great desires, and I admire that, hoiwever unless you are on the BETA test for {Chat Product} you won't be able to receive the same until the same becomes part of production.

{Customer}>Dear beloved {Agent} - what does it take to get on the Beta test?

{Agent}>Unfortunately the members of that team were choosen by the group in charge or deploying the application, and the already have the numbers needed..I myself wanted to become part however was not able to.

{Customer}>Dear beloved {Agent} - I am sorry for you. Who leads the team? I would like to contact them.

{Agent}>Let me get a name for you...

At this point in time, one of our friends walked into the cube. And, wonder of wonders, he knows the Tech guy we are chatting with. So, here is what happens next:

{Customer}>By the way, do you know {Joe}?

{Agent}>{Joe} {Schmoe}

{Customer}>yes

{Agent}>absolutely.. his is my friend.

{Agent}>a good man...

{Customer}>Nice friends you have!

{Customer}>He is standing here

{Customer}>and telling us you can get {Chat Product} {new version} for us

{Agent}>he he.. oh that he does well to..stand around doing nothing.. :-)

{Customer}>:D

{Customer}>looks like everyone knows him very well :-)

{Agent}>only kidding.. give him my greatings.. I love him as a person, his humble heart and care for people make of him a great example.

{Customer}>he is beaming from ear to ear - just like the cheshire cat

{Customer}>hey, so you think its possible to get {new version}?

{Agent}>{Customer}, the fact that you are friend with {Joe} have made you part of my exception list, therefore I will send you the package inmediately.

{Agent}>what is your machine or IP address?

{Agent}>Please do me a favor, goto start, run, type cmd, press enter, and when black window comes up, type IPCONFIG and press enter, them read me the IP address.

Two sumptuous, home made dinners in the kitty!!!!

What have I been up to?

2006-10-22T22:33:00.000-04:00

Apologies to all my friends that I haven't been in touch with in the last few months. Lately I have been asked so often, what have you been up to?

And here is the weekend by weekend breakdown:

July 23, 2006 - White Water Rafting (Penobscot River, Millinocket, Maine)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/positivex/sets/72157594214497998/

July 30, 2006 - NY Visit with Sumeet, Lavanya and Ritesh
http://www.flickr.com/photos/positivex/sets/72157594225254679/

August 12, 2006 - Cape Cod and Newport Beach with Autif/Gohar/Anupam/Parul/Sameer/Aunty

August 19, 2006 - Skydiving (Danielson, CT)
http://agsharad.blogspot.com/2006/08/desi-to-do-list-in-america.html

August 26, 2006 - Mt Greylock hike (Western MA)
http://picasaweb.google.com/Narendra.Harnwal/MountGreylock

September 02, 2006 - Mt Washington Hike (White Mountains, NH)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51086907@N00/sets/72157594268765873/detail/
http://picasaweb.google.com/ashutosh.kendurkar/MtWashingtonHike

September 09, 2006 - US Open (Flushing, NY)

September 16, 2006 - Katahdin Hike (Knife's Edge - Millinocket, ME)
http://picasaweb.google.com/agsharad/Katahdin

September 30, 2006 - Mt Giant Hike (Adirondacks, NY)
http://picasaweb.google.com/Narendra.Harnwal/MtGaintAdirondack30Sept2006

October, 08, 2006 - Acadia Visit
http://picasaweb.google.com/ashwaghoshk/AcadiaFall2006

October 21, 2006 - Diwali Party in NYC (Varsha didi, Cheenu Bhaiyya)

November 05, 2006 - Outdoor Rock Climbing (Crow Hill Ledges, Leominster State Forest)
http://picasaweb.google.com/agsharad/CrowHillLedges

Desi* To Do List in America

2006-08-20T12:11:00.000-04:00

It had been a while since there was any activity on this blog. Lately I have been doing a bit of outdoor activity, trying to soak in the sun while it lasts. The activities also got me thinking that when desis* come to USA, they have an unstated list of things to do here. This is an attempt to collate this nebulous checklist:

White Water Rafting:
Penobscot River

Sky Diving:

Visit Niagara

Visit Las Vegas

Dabble in Hiking:

Mt Washington Hike

Misc Hikes

This is just a first swag, and it is far from complete. Please send in your items.

* From Wikipedia - Desi is a term used by South Asians to refer to themselves (in a manner that avoids any allusion to the specific state of origin and pointing to a common broader identity).

High efficiency routing algorithm

2006-04-29T10:51:00.000-04:00

This is a demonstration of some of the most efficient routing processes.
Unlike data packets on the internet, note that these packets are
intelligent and self-directed. They have a sense of self-preservation,
yet they do not sacrifice the speed at which they arrive to their
destination.

The algorithm is based on the old jungle maxim - "might is right". The
bigger packets take priority in an inherently natural manner.

Tennis: Pacific Life Open

2006-03-14T07:51:00.000-05:00

This new website is streaming video for the Pacific Life Open. It is free till March 19. The website has a lot of classic matches in its archives. Enjoy it while you can!

Here are the players to watch based on their performance so far in the tournament:

- Federer, by his lofty standards, is struggling. He is not getting his normal flow. The unforced errors are alarming. At the same time, he continues to display his magic touch, just not regularly. Lets hope, like in the past, he finds it in himself to lift his game at the crucial junctures.

- Nadal looks fully fit. He is racing down balls, hitting them with his trademark topspin and maintaining the usual on-court fiery personality.

- Blake is playing very consistent and his ground strokes, especially the forehand has been impressive. Would be interesting to see how he holds up mentally against a top 10 player.

- Safin is hitting the ball very sweetly. He is not running for balls, probably the knee is bothering him or he is saving it for the tougher matches ahead. Either way, if he can beat the #5 without running too much, he is dangerous.

- Roddick has rediscovered his forehand. His problem was, and is, that he is not a thinking player. His desire to blast the opponent out may not work as well against many of the players on tour. But, all in all, he is looking better than he has in a long time. The hunger to hunt down balls and stay on top is very visible.

- Nalbandian is looking good. He seems to have developed a deceptive drop shot. Not sure if that will make him popular amongst other players. He makes as if he is going to hit a regular rally shot and at the last moment angles and slows the racket for a drop.

- Haas has been doing very well lately. And he continued the good run by ousting Agassi with reasonable ease. Agassi, even at this age, is not to be underestimated.

- Gasquet is a promising youngster who is closest to Federer in terms of his elegance on court. With Federer a little bit out of sorts, Gasquet has the most pleasing backhand on display right now.

All in all, there is some exciting tennis coming up in this tournament!!

A quick note on the womens tennis. Our very own Sania Mirza gave a good account for herself, even though she went down in three sets to Dementieva. Mirza played some good rallies, but eventually, Dementieva prevaled by coming up with the passing shots on key points.

And Hingis is worth watching, she is blazing an unprecedented comeback trail. She ousted favorite Davenport in a keenly contested match. She is another thinking Swiss player, a pleasure to watch.

Some Simple Economics of the new World

2006-01-08T11:57:00.000-05:00

A friend sent me a few articles by Charles Wheelan on the economics of the new world. Nothing earth-shaking, but simple and well-reasoned.

His article Why What's Good for India is Good for Us has some excellent observations. He ends with:

I know that there are lots of things to hope for in 2006. Add one to your list: Continued growth for the 1-billion-plus people in the world's most vibrant democracy. You won't regret it.

In his article Man Versus Machine he makes the following points:

Dropping out of high school is financial suicide.

The overriding lesson is simple: If your job can be done by a machine, then it soon will be. So try to be the guy who sells the machine.

And here is a gem on traffic congestion: Want to End Traffic Jams? Raise the Prices

Of Giants and Dwarfs

2005-12-03T16:44:00.000-05:00

This, from Harsha Bhogle:

But like most chiefs, he preferred supreme power and consequently in his regime, the inability to have an opinion or being amenable to pressure, became a qualification for high office. Most giants like the company of dwarfs.

An astute observation that, from my limited world experience, is extremely telling irrespective of the field of endeavor.

Music and nostalgia

2005-11-14T22:07:00.000-05:00

If you are a late 20's or early 30's Indian, I have news for you. You are old enough to experience nostalgia! A close and wonderful friend sent the forthcoming links to me. Perhaps I am just senile but these did stop time for a bit.

Here are a couple of links to fairly popular TV documentaries of the 80's that were an interesting fusion of myriad Indian music:

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara
Baje Sargam...Desh Raag

Music, culture and a way of life that is fast evaporating in the intense scrutiny of business viability. Gone are the days when art could thrive without needing to be propelled by the media or embraced by the masses. There were the wealthy who promoted art for art's sake - first the monarchs in the Mughal era and then the zamindars. The maladies of the zamindari system that was prevalent in India till we achieved independence are well-known and we are fortunate to live in an age where such evils have been extinguished. Yet, all real world paintings have hues. And there are some relics to be found even amongst ruins.

When you think about it, it was the system that was evil far beyond the hand that was holding the whip. We must acknowledge the effect of one's environment through the formative years. Tremendous success warps peoples' minds in a few short years, with that reality in the balance, we might be a little more benign when judging the affluent of that bygone age.

A wonderful portrait of one such individual is presented by the peerless Satyajit Ray in Jalsaghar. Like most of his movies, it plays at various levels. It speaks of a changing time, of people and of art and culture. It investigates the nature of man - pride, passion and denial. And it refuses to judge either way. It is obvious that the protagonist's state is self-inflicted. There is a clear message that to be stuck in the past and unwilling to change with times can lead to total ruin. Yet one cannot help but wonder if many humans in the same situation might have reacted quite similarly? Or perhaps most would not have the passion?

For it is clear that the nawaab was enraptured by music and not simply driven by a desire for pompous display. In one of the nawaab's soirees there is a Kathak piece that is alone worth the effort of procuring the movie.

Jai Huntington Di!!!

2005-10-08T10:34:00.001-04:00

This was my third hike on Mount Washington (via Huntington Ravine) in two years and change. It's beginning to become an annual religious trip of sorts :) I was not too keen to go back to Huntington, was looking to do something new this time around. But then, each trip is unique and so was this latest edition.

This time around all the members were pretty strong hikers, so we did not have any lost hikers (like the last year) or a hiker in need of major help (like two years ago). The team comprised of five people. Sreeni and Chengi, who had went with me a couple of years ago, had come back to try to complete the hike this time around. The other two guys were Naren and Vijay, both of whom are from Nainital. Having been born and brought up in a hilltown, 'fear of heights' is a phenomena that has always been an enigma to them.

Two years ago we took the bus down. I had gone back last year and done the complete thing. But, Chengi and Sreeni were pretty keen to go back and do the complete hike. Naren and Vijay also had the lure of north east's highest peak.

Like last year, we chose to drive up to NH a day in advance, so that we don't have to start from MA at 04:00 in the morning. We stayed in a hostel that was quite reminiscent of hostels at school. Unfortunately, we did not take an pictures. Another thing that was different from the previous trips was that we were going in mid-September. The previous trips were July 4 trips, the weather at the top this time around was much more nasty. Including windchill, the weather at the top was expected to be sub-zero. So we packed some extra layers. The pahari's, however, passed on gloves and warm headgear (!).

Breakfast at Dunkin Donuts and a couple of U-turns later, we finally started the hike at 08:55. The weather was clear and we got some awesome views. Anyone who plans to hike the Huntington Trail must know about a section of this trail which is 150 feet (or so) in length. At this point we are looking at a big flat slab of stone at a fairly steep angle. There were trailmarkers that went right along a little ridge in the slab, where you could get some footholds. Naren, the incorrigible pahari, contrived to make it even more challenging. He went far left of the recommended path, and made his own trail. He chose a route that, aside from not having any decent handhold, was wet from a tiny rivulet that ran through it. With the adrenaline pumping hard, the rest of us followed suit. We spent a fair deal of time as most were pretty uncomfortable. But, eventually everyone made it.

We made it to the top by 01:30, a total of 4 hrs 30 mins. A topic that kept popping back into the conversation was the first Huntington trip two years ago. We don't have many pictures from that trip.

Here are pictures taken on the trail this time. Here is a flickr slide show:

&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;

It was a great trip. We spent two hours on the top. The pahari's proved yet again, how they are a different breed. Without any gloves or protection for their ears, they were sitting in 40 degree F temperature with the wind blowing at a fair clip. The rest of us had the mentioned items, and still preferred to walk closer to the building :)

We headed back at 03:30. One of the hikers this time around had cramps on the way down. He was quite slowed down and needed to use a stick for support. Still, we made it back in 3 hrs and 10 mins.

On the way down, I also get an answer to one of the questions from a previous post. I was wondering if it was universal or just Indian to tend to refuse proferred help, until insisted? We met a couple of american's on the way down and got talking. One of them was having trouble with cramps and her friend asked, on her own, if anyone of us had Advil. It seems like women on mountains are going to empty my bottle of Ibuprofen! It is always a warm feeling, and we joked about ticking off the 'good deed for the day'. It triggered, amongst us, a series of incidents where someone had helped someone out of sheer goodwill. Its great to know that, even in this kalyug, philanthropy is alive and kicking.

National Film Development Corporation (India)

2005-10-01T21:49:00.000-04:00

Finally NFDC has its own website. This organization has been an incubator for various talents that have come out of india in the field of cinema. The website is still very irksome (it has a disturbing flash logo at the top) and lacks a lot of detail. It would be great if they offered the following:

Details on the various artists that have been involved with the organization, what they are currently working on. Even links to the information would be great. For example, it would be very interesting to know what Pankaj Kapoor has been doing (aside from the inane 'Office Office' for TV). Right now it does not even list many of the artists.
An option to purchase DVD/VCD of the NFDC productions.

Hopefully the website will grow and improve.

Odd odd cricket thoughts on rediff

2005-09-29T16:02:00.000-04:00

This is a note in response to the rediff article by Abhishek.

Abhishek - no offence, but what rock have you been hiding under?

We can thus safely assume that before Bulawayo, Chappell and Ganguly shared a friendly, mutually beneficial relationship.

My friend, it has been a long time since Ganguly's 144 against Australia. I don't agree with your assumption.

Telling a highly insecure Ganguly to make way for young Kaif was no way to 'motivate' Ganguly.

Do you honestly believe that Chappell was merely motivating Ganguly and not stating exactly what he thought was good for Indian cricket?

And a molehill, in the age-old tradition of Indian cricket, got transformed into a mountain.

The coach of an international team states in quite unequivocal terms that he considers the captain of the team incapable physically or mentally to lead it. Another notable comment is that the captain is a lazy cricketer who will feign injury to escape having to face the new ball. You think that is a molehill??

In such a scenario, if Dalmiya and co. see Ganguly as more the malady than the cure, there's little doubt they will ring in the changes.

This is outright funny. If it were that simple, you have a lot to explain in terms of BCCI actions in the past.

Keep running, or get left behind

So let me get this straight. You are suggesting that the fact that there is another highly competent team out there, in and of itself, is going to make Ganguly play like he did till a few years ago? It will transform him into the ODI run machine that he used to be? It will make Chappell suddenly flip a switch in his brain and accept that Ganguly is to Indian cricket what sambhar is to rice?

In the one-day tri-series against New Zealand & Zimbabwe, when wickets were tumbling every over (yes, even against Zimbabwe), one man held fort. And no, it wasn't a seasoned veteran. It was a 24-year old showing maturity way beyond his years-- Mohammed Kaif. ...(when he deserved to be in the side on basis of pure form, yet, was dropped),...

This is the one thing in the article that is in lockstep with my thought processes. Kaif is an amazingly talented and hard-working player that is, for reasons that the powers be alone may know, overlooked time and time again during selection (explain that, Abhishek, on your 'BCCI will do what will maximize Indian cricket teams winning chances' theory). As stated in Nov'04, I strongly believe he will be captain one day.

And with one Mr. Tendulkar incubating India's most famous elbow for the challenges that lie ahead, not everything is lost.

Tendulkar has given many sterling performances for India. Having said that, he had far more potential than he realized. I blame the blind fans and fawning media, to a great extent, for that outcome. And, sad as it may be, it is equally true that he is very near his retirement. When he chooses to pack away his pads and batting gloves, lets give the man a standing ovation. But, for heavens sake, lets stop pressurizing him with our expectations. This comment almost seems as if to seek for reader approval simply by appealing to the Tendulkar glorification centers that house themselves in the minds of most Indian fans.

My opinion? I believe that Ganguly has contributed to Indian cricket more than Tendulkar has. Having said that, it is the job of the BCCI to field the best team possible. And, on current form, Ganguly does not cut the bill. If Team India desires to take on the mighty with any decent hope of victory, we need to drop our cult tendencies. We make gods out of men and let them rule far beyond the point when they attained a mastery of their art. Professionalism is a term that we embrace only in measure, and just to the extent that it allows us to remain in the race.

The thing that comes out of the fracas is that the spotlight is firmly on Ganguly now. He has to perform or be subject to being dropped. Once dropped, it is going to very difficult for him to claw his way back into the team. Which is all quite sad. I would rather have dropped him an year ago, let him work on his batting without the pressures of a captain, and return to the team as the prolific batsmen we have known him to be. What the whole situation is paving the way for is this - Ganguly fails a couple of times, there is a huge media furore. Every time he comes up with a 40+ score, he cements his place (amidst countless commentaries and articles debating the issue) for another series. He makes it through half or more of 2006 and by the time someone in the selection committee is strong enough to suggest that he be removed, we are within a stone's throw of the WC'07. Dravid is handed the mantle of captaincy thereby exposing him to a kind of media scrutiny and fan expectations that he has only had fleeting acquiantance with (despite his stature as one of the best Test batsmen India has ever produced, ahead of all his peers). How he handles it will be something to see. But my guess is that initially it will affect his batting form. Its just too close to the WC to be making such changes. I could be wrong in a hundred different ways here, lets hope I am!

Google Mail Killer?

2005-09-20T07:31:00.000-04:00

Yahoo has a beta of its new mail application doing the rounds. Review with screenshots.

Asa Dotzler (of Firefox fame) is thinking of switching back to Yhoo mail from GMail.

Based on the reviews and screen shots, it seems that it was a smart decision to stay with Yhoo Mail. I haven't had a chance to try the beta - have requested access. Will post more once I actually get to use it!

But it does create a very, very interesting situation. This is the first time (as far as I know) that any company has come out with a product that is quite superior to Google's offering in quality. I am really looking forward to see how Google responds to a real challenge of this kind. From what we perceive of Google thus far, they are not the kind to simply ape anyone else. They always aim to beat the other guy with a better product. This one is going to be quite a fight!

Take the team to victory?

2005-09-19T18:22:00.000-04:00

Here is a question that came up with a friend. How many times has Dravid stayed till the end to take India to a victory? I limited my search to matches in which India played second. And here are the results for some of our prominent batsmen:

Player    T. Matches Mat    I  NO  Runs HS1  HS2  HS3     Ave(*) 100  50   0
Tendulkar 348        22     22 22  1567 127* 127* 124*    71       7   8   0
Ganguly   279        12     12 12   978 135* 117* 107*    82       5   5   0
Dravid    262        13     13 13   672 109*  76*  73*    52       1   7   0
Kaif      97         6      6   6   373 102*  87*  71*    62       1   3   0
(Average is not a true average as the bastmen were never dismissed, it is the average per innings)

Tendulkar has by far the most impressive record. He does it every 16th match and scores an average of 71 runs to achieve it. Kaif is a close second - once every 16 matches at an average of 62. We have to keep in mind that Kaif bats further down the order and that means two things. First, he has a better shot at holding on to his wicket till the end. Second, the scoring opportunity is lesser. Of course, we have to give higher credit to opening batsmen, as it is that much more difficult to carry the bat through.

It would, however, be interesting to see how this works out if we limit the results to last two years. Say from September 01, 2003 till present, shall we?

Player    T. Matches Mat  I  NO  Runs HS1  HS2  HS3     Ave(*) 100  50   0
Tendulkar 34         1    1   1    82  82*   -    -     82       0   1   0
Ganguly   46         1    1   1    32  32*   -    -     32       0   0   0
Dravid    55         2    2   2   128  76*  52*   -     64       0   2   0
Kaif      44         2    2   2   173 102*  71*   -     87       1   1   0
(Average is not a true average as the bastmen were never dismissed, it is the average per innings)

I'd say Kaif pips everyone here. Dravid is a close second and Tendulkar holds his own.

Federer express

2005-09-16T18:52:00.000-04:00

As I said in a previous thread, the tennis bug has bit. I had the good fortune to watch Federer play live last weekend. We went to watch both mens semi-finals of the US Open at Arthur Ashe. Its a trip that I will remember and cherish for a long time.

Rarely do we see a single man dominate a sport as much as Roger Federer does these days. Watching the games, it is clear that the other guy has no realistic chance of winning. Roger simply seems to toy with him until he choses to step on the gas and finish it off. Hewitt, even though he got a set from Roger, seemed woefully inadequate to the challenge.

Add to the mix the fact that he was not playing close to his best this tournament! He serve was broke by many, many players on the way to the final. And yet, he consistently and convincingly beat every player that stepped onto the court with him.

To add to his enigma, there is no player out there that does not hold him in awe. Until now Roddick was his most vocal proponent amongst the current players, after the US Open final Agassi was extremely unequivocal in his praise. Agassi went far enough to say that Federer is the best player he has played against in his 20 year career! Here is the relevant link and an excerpt:

Andre Agassi, who has crossed swords with some of the greatest names of modern tennis, said he considers Roger Federer the best he has ever played.

Agassi offered his appraisal after the world number one Swiss surged to his second successive US Open title by beating him 6-3 2-6 7-6 6-1 in the men's final on Monday.

"He's the best I've ever played against," said 35-year-old Agassi, who has battled against the likes of Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl and Pete Sampras, who won an all-time best 14 grand slam singles titles.

"I've played a lot of them over the years, but there's a safety zone, there's a place to get to, there's something to focus on, there's a way," he said about attacking those other esteemed rivals.

Federer, said the sagely Agassi, has no weaknesses and a seemingly endless variety of options to swing a match in his favor.

"Anything you try to do, he potentially has an answer for, and it's just a function of when he starts pulling the triggers necessary to get you to change to that decision.

"He plays the game in a very special way. I haven't seen it before."

There is much conjecture about Federer breaking Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles. Here is a link to the list of all-time Grand Slam champions. Indubitably he has the talent and the time to do it. He also seems to be coping pretty well with the pressures of a game that is played year round. But will he be able to keep it up year after year is anyone's guess. And then, it takes only one bad game to rob you of yet another grand slam title opportunity. A freak injury could set you out of a tournament. Personal contingencies could play a role, you could simply lose the zeal and drive for a while.

Having said that, personally I would strongly back him to be able to do it. As things stand today, he isn't just better. He is miles ahead of the competition. He does not even seem to break a sweat against the best of today.

What are the major challenges? In my eyes, the major challenges are in terms of some of the other players. Hewitt, Agassi, Ginepri, Nalbandian, Coria, Roddick are unlikely to throw any serious challenges his way. The players to watch are - the mercurial Safin, clay court king Nadal and Richard Gasquet. This may not seem like much of a list for these are the only three men to have defeated Federer in 2005.

I want to sneak Blake into the picture, for he has the forehand, court-coverage and angled shots to push Federer. He needs to work on his mental strength, from a match perspective mind you, though. Often he is going great guns and suddenly loses steam. And those lapses in concentration often last a set or more. That is how he lost to Agassi.

Nadal will always be a tough proposition on clay. He is young, fast and has a very powerful top-spin. But, he does not have the flowing elegance of Federer. It is, in my mind, only a matter of time before Federer figures out the Nadal on clay equation. Safin is one of the talents of our generation that might win a major today, retire tomorrow and come back an year later to beat Federer.

But the pick of the lot is Gasquet. The young Frenchman has some distance to go before he can start winning regularly. Nowadays he struggles to get past most top 50 players. But he has something that they don't. He has the elegance that Federer has mastered. He can, when on song, hit some unbelievable shots. And, even the audience can tell that it was no fluke. He needs to work on his endurance, consistency and mental toughness. He is a raw diamond in need of the right coach and physical training.

What is Federer's major weakness? That is a billion dollar question. We are talking of a man who is widely believed to have the best serve, the best forehand, the best backhand and commanding dropshot in the business. To top it, he is ever-composed on court and is rarely flinched by a brilliant play from his opponent. And here is an observation that might be mine alone - very often a player hits what would be a winner against most other players. Federer not only returns it, but in fact, returns it with an even more audacious winner. He literally terrifies one from attempting a winner. He forces you to play rallies, thereby allowing himself to attain his rhythm.

So what is the weakness? It is perhaps his strength alone that can become a weakness. He is a rhythm player, his game depends on impeccable timing, balance and grace. You break that and you might see a vulnerable Federer. Still dangerous, but vulnerable. Other players need to try different things, make Federer think. You need to make him guess, play some silly strokes. Lob it even if he is at the baseline. He has a keen sense of intuition, one must rift it to break his supreme command on the game. Tennis is one of the few games that can be won and lost in the mind alone. What say, folks?

Hiker camaraderie

2005-09-15T14:23:00.000-04:00

Found some more interesting hiking links.

Went hiking/camping with friends to Greenfields, NH over the long weekend. The hike was Mt Monadnock via the White Dot trail (up) and White Cross trail (down). It was a decent hike. On the way back I was running down and passed a lady who was using a stick and going pretty slow. Kept whizzing by marveling at how people keep up their physical activity into pretty old age.

In the next break I was chatting with an Indian lady, and it turned out that the other woman I passed had injured herself and that was why ... Anyhow, learnt a lesson. We waited for her friend to catch up. I had extra water that I offered. Maybe they were just unsure if I would have enough water for myself. But I could not help but wonder if it is typical human nature or more Indian to refuse help in a statement to the effect that it was not needed? They said they were fine and they did not need water. On insistence that the water was extra and would travel down the mountain without the bottle being opened, they accepted and gulped down half a bottle! So, I showed them a bottle of ibuprofen and handed them a few tablets and asked them to keep them just in case they needed them. Sure enough, they refused again, "Ohh, we can make it." And equally surely, once they accepted, she did have a tablet. While thanking me, they showed me a bottle with an inch-depth of water and mentioned that if I did not show up, the two of them were going to have to share that for the remaining trip. Once the ice was broken, it got progressively easier. They did not have backpacks (the gents with them were far ahead) and were carrying their bottles in hand. It wasn't too difficult to suggest that I could carry and dispose their empty bottles for them.

I have a tendency to be like that myself. Maybe not the best idea, maybe we should be as open to receive a helping hand as we are to offer one.

And its amazing how good it feels to be able to help someone. Immediately reminded me of the guy that helped me in NH when my motorcycle had a flat a few years ago. But then biker camaraderie is definitely a different beast :)

Ek titli...

2005-08-19T18:13:00.001-04:00

I suppose this fits into my series of Indian public organizations on the internet. Film Divisions is now online! As the friend who showed this to me said - 'bachpan yaad aa jaayega'.

Tennis Mania

2005-08-19T18:09:00.001-04:00

The Tennis bug has bit a bit. Some amazing rallies/points to be seen at this link. Make sure to download and watch the Hewitt/Federer one. Astounding!!

The promised thread

2005-08-08T17:37:00.000-04:00

And this is the thread regarding Torvalds' code using GOTO that I referred to in a previous post. It has a link to the Google archive, which is long, winding and highly opinionated. It is, perhaps, best avoided. The brief summary is worth a quick glance.

MSFT Virtual Earth goes live

2005-07-26T14:27:00.000-04:00

Its available - maybe I missed it at Slashdot, a friend showed it to me.

Notes:
1. Its perceptibly slower than Google. Perhaps will get better as it matures.
2. It seems more feature rich (scratch pad, marking locations, etc)
3. The aerial imagery is black and white (unlike google)
4. I love the scale in the bottom right, wonder when Google will realize that it is a standard, simple, highly useful map feature. Update 07/30: Just noticed that Google has grown up and added the scale!!!!
5. Double-click centers and zooms, I don't like that overloading.
6. Google roads are dark yellow, yellow and white (depending on how 'major' a road it is). MSFT seems to use more colors.
7. Driving directions are missing (or hard to find)
8. Seems to have a cool 'Locate me' ActiveX which will use a laptop's WiFi (have not tried it yet)
9. Its a 'beta'!! MSFT finally seems to understand the concept of beta software :)

Lafeyette loop

2005-07-21T23:39:00.000-04:00

Hiked the Lafeyette loop in NH this last Saturday. Great hike with amazing views. The loop touches three peaks - little haystack, Lincoln and Lafeyette.

Also found a website with decent information on local hikes:

http://www.slackpacker.com/map_ma.html

07/23 Update: Ran a 5K race (Paula Rourke Memorial 5K) in Shrewsbury today morning. It's always a great experience to be running with so many other people. The last race I ran was a while ago, it was a 10k race.

07/24 Update: Had to close this post for comments as I was being inundated with a boatload of spam. Seems like Google has some work to do on their blog spam filters!!

Physician Lookup

2005-07-21T22:56:00.000-04:00

Found this cool link that helps you look up information about your (prospective) physician in MA. Covers categories such as education & training, honors & awards, publications and malpractice information.

You can buy more detailed reports from HealthGrades

Award winning ads

2005-07-08T17:52:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I just had my evening snack. Needed to unwind a little before hitting Friday evening head on and started clicking through the videos in one of those spammy forwards.

This one had Gandhi in it. While the ad itself is not really impressive, it is a pretty authentic recreation of the legend.

But this other one is absolutely hilarious!! If you have seen The Exorcist, chances are you will have one of those PG Wodehouse moments. You are passively reading something (well, watching, in this case), life is getting along, and all of a sudden you burst out in uncontrolled laughter!

If you have the time and enthu, you can peruse the 2004 winners and post comments on what you liked best. Just click on a category from the left nav and play the clip.

The 2003 winners are online as well.

Microsoft's Virtual Earth

2005-07-01T19:02:00.000-04:00

The first response after seeing the power of Google Maps was 'wow'! While, one could argue quite correctly, that Microsoft is just taking Google and Yahoo's technologies and features and building a cool product from them, the reaction on seeing the video was the same: 'wow'!

Click over to the blog and download the 30+ minute video. A little long, but quite well worth it.

I just installed Google Earth. Will post more on the product!

Update (07/03/05): Guys, I installed Google Earth and played around with it a bit. Santa Cleopatra!!!! Most of what we see in the 'Virtual Earth' video is already available in 'Google Earth'. If you haven't, you got to take it out for a test flight.

Dijkstra on 'Go To'

2005-06-29T11:08:00.000-04:00

I am sure all the Computer Science oriented readers are aware of this paper, even if they have not read it. There is also a counter-point to it, perhaps the most forceful one being from Linus Torvalds. I'll have to dig that up and post the link one of these days. The background is that someone found a piece of code that Torvalds authored using 'go to'. In one of the newsgroups, a suggestion was made to change it to a more acceptable control flow. Linus backed his code and that led to an interesting usenet thread.

On a side note, is it just me or have others also noted that Dijkstra has a tendancy to use conjunctions of two negatives? For example, 'not uninfluenced'. Needless to say, in the space of natural languages there is a non-reduntant semantic to two negatives. But, when authoring a computer theoretic article, is not fraught with risk of misinterpretation to use such constructs? To be fair, in this instance, the use is in a non-theoretic part of the article. Hmmm, its become a bit of a random rambling at this point. But I am sure I have seen him do that in other papers as well. More research needed ...

Just to keep it interesting, I have to add a small vignette.

Guy to Good Looking Girl: May I kiss you?
Girl: No, no!
Guy: It is the elementary rule of mathematics that two negatives make a positive.
And he goes ahead and kisses her :-)

Your Man in India

2005-06-24T23:00:00.000-04:00

So you are amongst the many Indians who have a split geographical existence? You have moved to a foreign country, and yet there is a part of you that still resides back home in India? There are some natural challenges to this state of affairs and a company has found a niche business opportunity. Check out YourManInIndia.

How do we know what we know about Google?

2005-06-18T11:34:00.000-04:00

Google is definitely the trailblazing technology company of the new millenium. It perhaps receives more press than any other single NASDAQ listed company. And what is the one thing, which the competitors would love to know about it? Its technology. While Google is now a lot more than its search offering, the search feature remains the core kernel of the behemoth. How does the search engine indeed function? How much do we know? We know that Google uses a concept called page ranking to value all the pages that it indexes. And we know that it uses referring links and their own page rank to determine the rank for the current page. Put a little more eloquently, Google tells us what the internet thinks of itself.

While, granted, this is not even barely scratching the surface, it is a big forward step. If a competitor were to redesign their search engine to try and match Google, this is a nice, big forward step. So, the title question of this piece: how do we know what we know about Google's search engine? All the magic happens server side, and if Google so wanted, we would not know anything about PageRank. For all we know, Google was using pigeons to rank pages :)

But, jokes apart, why would Google let us in on this information? We all know that Google is extremely secretive about its activities. Google Mail must have been in the works for at least 2 or 3 years before it became public. Yet, when Google did announce GMail, there was industry wide conjecture that it is just another one of its, by now famous, April Fools jokes. As a matter of fact, I had a huge debate about it with a friend of mine. Needless to say, I only mention it because I was right about it being genuine and he was wrong about it being a joke :D

Coming back to the issue of debate. We agree (don't we?) that Google knows very well how to cloak their magic, yet we know about page rank and the use of referring links (and perhaps a dozen other things, will need to do some googling to find out). Personally, I believe very strongly that this knowledge is also by design. Google wants us to believe that their engine is based on referring links and, hence, we do. Or, after this article, do we?

In brief, I am making the thesis that there is a lot more to their engine, in terms of AI, in terms of semantics of the page and in terms that I can't even imagine. And, if we know how this company ticks, we know that they are constantly working and improving on it. It is not a finished work, but a continuously evolving piece of art. Of course, in typical Google fashion, the next step is to work on you to make you a better web-surfer :) !!

Update (07/15/05: Noticed that Slashdot is featuring a story with pretty similar content here.)

Cheap Gas Google Style

2005-06-08T18:40:00.000-04:00

Followup to a previous post titled Cheap Gas Rates!!
A smart guy out there has took gasbuddy and coupled it with Google Maps for a compelling interface. Save the cents!!

Hiking in New England

2005-05-12T13:35:00.000-04:00

It is the information age and the primary source, at least for web professionals like me, has become the Google-backed internet. It is a good thing, and yet, the user needs to strike a balance. Every so often you get a gentle reminder that the internet is one source of information. There are others, and depending on what you are looking for, another source may be a lot more appropriate.

Living in the bay area, our standard site for hiking information was BA Hiker. Now, being in the New England area, I searched and searched and could not find anything a percentage point as useful as the BA Hiker website. A good hiking book is still the best source for this area. Once again we turn to the internet to find the right book and order it from Amazon. While we wait for the book, this website is a decent start for the season.

June 08,2005 Update: While I still miss BA Hiker, I have found a decent online resource for the White Mountains area. Enjoy!

Into the future: Skycars

2005-04-18T14:19:00.000-04:00

60 Minutes has covered the invention of Woody Norris, which is going to be marketed as a personal flying vehicle. The inventor expects it to be initially used by the police and defence organizations.

The idea is not new, but its practical feasibility is, perhaps, the highest ever. Read the article for more details. It also has a video clip of the machine.

Science Fiction and Reality

2005-01-31T13:53:00.000-05:00

One does wonder, is science catching up with what was fiction a few decades ago? While this is not, perhaps, 'rocket science', bringing this to a commercially viable solution is definitely big. The idea is for your finger to be your credit card. Hey, that is a nice slogan, maybe I should sell it to them :-)

Briefly: This company is building machines that will recognize you from your fingerprint.

Marketing: "Imagine this. At checkout, you place your finger on a small scanner. Instantly, you see a list of your payment accounts on a screen: checking account, credit or debit card. You select one of them using a familiar keypad, approve the amount of the purchase, and you're done. No cards, checks, cash — or hassle."

The fall of Bollywood

2005-01-23T13:45:00.000-05:00

Perhaps the title for this piece is a bit too dramatic. Yet, it cannot be denied that the quality of works that are being churned out by the hub of Indian cinema has seena sharp decline.

In the mainstream, we have moved from the trite to the absurd. Yes, the Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh starrers followed a predictable script. Yet, occasionally, there was some kind of relation to reality and even if there was none, there was no pretence to that end either. Even those masala movies were able to generate some sense of identification. The dialogues were melo-dramatic - yet, every so often, they had enough substance to remain with you much after the end credits. Who can forget the magic evoked by "Kabhi kabhi mere dil mein khayaal aata hai... Tum hoti to aisa hota ..." Or, the un-ending stream of poetic and thought-provoking dialogue in Mughal-e-Azam.

Watching Jism or Hum-Tum, I get the strong feeling that either I am totally out of touch with reality or the film makers have lost their mind. The films were neither funny nor intense, they failed to evoke any emotion that was much removed from revulsion. The songs, the stronghold of Bollywood for decades, were not lilting enough to hold back the impulse to FFW through them.

It can be argued that there still is a stream of meaningful cinema in movies like Chandni Bar. For one, these movies are few and far between. For another, I don't think these movies can compare with the art of 2-3 decades ago.

Where are the directors of Guru Dutt's stature? Do we have anyone either bold enough or educated enough to make anything of the quality of Satyajit Ray? Anyone who has seen 'Agantuk' can speak of Utpal Dutt's capability as an actor. And what did he end up doing for most of his career - eccentric old man with a heart of gold. Which was definitely entertaining, but when you keep doing the same thing for more than a decade, it loses its edge.

And then there was the Amol Palekar, Farukh Sheikh series of realistic, yet entertaining cinema. Followed by Nasiruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Om Puri brand of hard hitting commenteries on the state of affairs. Where are any of these streams today?

Here are some comments from current Bollywood greats that have been with the industry for more than 3 decades:

Mahesh Bhatt Interview

"I spent a lot of time in my life pursuing ideas that I was interested in. Now I just want my films to succeed. This industry is too cruel for anyone to do anything else." - Mahesh Bhatt

------
Javed Akhtar Interview

"It can be best expressed by what Lataji sang in Silsila — my first film as a lyricist — Yeh kahan aa gaye hum. Jo halaat hain ussmein kya karen? I think the songs are a part of the narrative. If the narrative is of an inferior quality, the situations are bound to be inferior. These in turn demand inferior songs. Songs for Kaagaz Ke Phool, Pyaasa or Baiju Bawra could only have been possible in those films. Those songs couldn't be a part of a film called Zinda Jalaa Doonga . Also, there is a kind of fear in film-makers that audiences' attention span has shortened. Hence there is a frenzied tempo in the narrative at the cost of depth. When songs run at a frantic speed words are no longer important. The quality of music also is very unsympathetic towards poetic lyrics. The people who are extracting work out of lyricists aren't trained to understand poetry. Earlier, composers understood music and poetry. Sachin Dev Burman wasn't fluent in Hindi. But his sense of poetry was still impeccable. In our educational system, Hindustani and Urdu languages are being marginalised. We are living in an era of a cultural void."

------
Asha Bhosle

Well-known singer Asha Bhosle says film songs today are "seen and not heard".
...
Asha said "Once upon a time film songs were on everyone's lips. Barring a song or two, all the songs in films those days proved popular and were sung with fervour. But today you hardly remember any".

Update: Lots of people seem to be landing on this article looking for Farooq Sheikh's movies. Here is the imdb listing.

Motorists Organization

2005-01-17T20:46:00.000-05:00

This is a link to an organization that specializes in helping people fight tickets, oops, I mean it is "a membership organization devoted to representing and protecting the rights and interests of North American motorists."

So, you think that you weren't terribly in the wrong and the cop was unreasonable to give you a ticket? Maybe these folks can help you decide what you can defend and what you cannot.

While they do have some useful information, it also seems that they are as radical as some of the law enforcers. So, judge for yourself and take what you find helpful.

They have state specific pages too, for example MA State Page.

Free Credit Report (Fair Credit Reporting Act)

2005-01-17T08:51:00.000-05:00

From DCU StreetWise: "The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act amended the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to require that consumers receive one free credit report from each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies every 12 months. To comply with this law, the credit bureaus have setup a web address—www.annualcreditreport.com, toll-free telephone number—877-322-8228 and postal address for consumers to use to request their reports."

How do we read? How do we recognize words?

2005-01-04T11:26:00.000-05:00

By now you must have encountered the chain letter claiming that we read words by looking at the first and last letter combined with the length of the words:

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Well, a little research reveals that this may be an urban legend. UL or not, it is a very interesting debate - how indeed do we read? It turns out that this is a huge field of research. Here is an article discussing this particular chain letter with references to real research.

Do Not Call List HOAX

2004-12-17T16:42:00.000-05:00

I have been given to believe that after the first of the year, telemarketers will be able to access cell phone numbers and call you there.

You can have your number added to the do not call list on the link above. For skeptics (like me), here is the FAQ. Since the FTC run website did not refer to the change from the new year, I got suspicious. A quick search on news.google.com brings up this article. A search on Snopes gives the same verdict - telemarketers are NOT allowed to make unsolicited calls to cell phones.

The good news is that www.donotcall.gov remains an FTC run site and registering in it can not hurt you. Or perhaps it can. Think about it. This way telemarketers can get your cellphone number from the website. And, it seems that a federal judge has ruled that the list violates free speech protections. Further, even after putting your name in the registry, you have no real rights. You can complain to FTC, but they don't handle individual complaints. So, in effect, you are publishing your cellphone number for all the telemarketing companies to find and use. And you cannot challenge them. FTC can try, but the company has the federal ruling to fight back with. Scary, huh?

UPDATE: More links have popped up debunking the hoax: PennLive, TechRepublic, Macon Telegraph, Sign On San Diego, etc.

Mahatma Gandhi: BBC

2004-12-17T15:18:00.000-05:00

This is a 6 minute clip from BBC in which Mahatma Gandhi talks about his belief in God.

It is interesting to me that BBC's website admits that the British 'introduced partition'. From the article:

"In 1947, after World War II, India was granted independence as Britain no longer had the will or resources to oppose Gandhi. However Britain introduced partition, dividing India into the main Hindu region and creating Pakistan, a Moslem country. This was a great disappointment to Gandhi as his lifelong aim had also been to bring together these divided religions of India."

Here are many other audio clips from GandhiServe Foundation.

Text Communication: Email and SMS, the international puzzle

2004-11-22T20:11:00.000-05:00

Communication and transportation have long been two big business problems. If you can find a way to make any of these two more efficient, chances are you can build a successful business around the solution.

Talking purely at a text communication level, email has been the killer app for much of the 1980s and 1990s. The colossus app of the 1990s was web-based email. The problem is solved, but trust Google to give it a new twist with Gmail.

It seems that SMS is the contender for the 2000s. Almost every cellphone provider these days will offer the ability to send an SMS, for a fee, to mobile phones within the country. What if you want to communicate with friends overseas?

Lets make a quick matrix of intercommunication between two kinds of communication access - Mobile and Web. Slant of the discussion is when the sender and receiver are in different countries.

Mobile -> Mobile (SMS -> SMS)
Everyone wants to be able to send SMS (from their mobile phone) to their friends overseas. Unfortunately, this is yet a developing field and not many service providers will allow expansive international SMS. SMS within your country is relatively more accessible. T-Mobile (at least within the US) seems to have the best international SMS plans. But lately they have jacked up the prices for international SMS to popular destinations. Other providers offer international SMS too, albeit to fewer countries. All of them charge a fee.

Web -> Web (Email -> Email)
This one is a no brainer. Free email is ubiquitous on the internet. Two of the best providers are Yahoo and Google.

SMS -> Web (SMS -> Email)
Most providers offer a way to send email from your mobile phones as well. Again, there is a hefty charge.

Web/Email -> SMS
There are a zillion for fee Email/Web -> SMS services on the internet. To the best of my knowledge, there is no brand leader yet. Here is a list of providers. AFAIK, each one of the listed provider has its own limitations.

In the United States, almost every cellphone provider gives you an email address. So, if you want to send an SMS to a friend and you have internet/email access you can do that. If the receiver is within the US, there is a free service that aggregates most of the major providers - Teleflip. Using this service, you do not need to know the service provider for your US friend. Simply send an email to [CELL_NUMBER]@teleflip.com. Teleflip will figure out the service provider and send the SMS for you.

But what if your friend are not within US? One of the best ways to send an SMS from the web is via Yahoo Messenger. In this tool you can setup the phone number for your contacts. For very many countries and cellphone services, Yahoo will successfully send SMS. UK, it seems, blocks Yahoo from being able to send SMS though.

Another way is direct email. A decent list of email addresses by provider is available here.

In India and UK, it seems that this is being looked upon as a major stream of revenue by the various cellphone service providers. Consequently, many of them do not offer easy means of sending an email to a cellphone subscriber. There is speculation that it is made difficult to prevent SMS spam as well.

This is really an article I wrote up based on a single session of research. Please feel free to comment and inform me better.

Citroen C4 Ad

2004-11-22T13:35:00.000-05:00

Pretty cool ad. Short, sweet and well engineered.

Click here and select 'See the TV Ad' from the left menu.

Cheap Gas Rates!!!

2004-11-10T20:51:00.000-05:00

One of the enigmas of modern day pricing is gas rates. Every station has a different price. While the prices for a given station seem to stay the same for contiguous days, it can change any time. The same company offers different prices in different stations.

So, how do you find that cheapest station in your neighbourhood? Enter the internet. Check out gasbuddy.

Foundation to be filmed

2004-11-05T10:46:00.000-05:00

This is still in the realm of speculation, but Wikipedia and some other websites claim that two of the Foundation series are soon to be filmed. They will be directed by Shekhar Kapur. This should be a successful venture and will spurn huge book sales for one of the most prolific writers of all time.

Another link with the same report.

If you don't know anything about Isaac Asimov, you should pick up 'The Complete Robot' and read 'Victory Unintentional'. I might have recommended 'I, Robot' but it misses this hilarious short story. If you like it, move on to 'The Caves of Steel' and 'The Sun Shines Bright'. If you like these, congratulations. You are en route to an enchanting experience which spans years and years of reading fun through the writings of Asimov. He has wrote a lot of pure science books as well, meant for the lay reader. He has a set of novels on the Bible as well. Here is a resource to pick and choose your journey through time and space.

A previous post on Asimov.

Dentist !!

2004-11-04T21:19:00.000-05:00

I had never really been to a dentist and did not know what all the ruckus was about. Recently, my wisdom tooth was causing some pain and I visited the danger man. Finding out that I had never had my teeth cleaned, he setup an appointment for scaling.

Now in my mind that meant that a nice nurse would brush my teeth for me, albeit with some mild chemicals. After all, they are healthy teeth, they just need to be scrubbed a bit. Boy was I in for a surprise.

First up, the doctor is summoned to give me anesthesia. I am thinking, ok, this is even better. I won't even feel what is going on. As it turned out, the anesthesia was the first round of torture in this German camp. He took this needle, had me open my mouth wide and stuck it into my gums! No sir, no topical ointment. A big, fat needle. It sounded like a bad idea, but it really was not that bad. After all, I am a grown up man, I can take a little bit of pain. I can just imagine my friends going - "Oh, so the doctor gave you a tiny injection. Killed you, eh?" Baloney, I am fine. An eternal optimist, I choose took look at the bright side of things. From here on, it is going to be smooth sailing. The dirty part is almost over. I am going to sit back, relax and enjoy a sexy nurse brush my teeth for me.

Our kind dentist, though, is far from done. He pulls the needle out, I breathe a sigh of relief. He moves it a centimeter across and plunges it back in! Can you believe that? I am taken by surprise and I clutch one hand firmly with the other. Surely you see that the German (his name is Dr Abu Bakr Masaani*, I guess he masquerades as a member of the more gentle Bin Laden gang) enjoys his job. He says to me, "I know this is uncomfortable Sharad." Duh? Uncomfortable? What are you running for - the Looney Lacerator Award?

This son of a gun has a big, fat needle in my mouth and he has gone berserk even by concentration camp standards. It also reminded me of Full Metal Jacket. Private Pyle has lost it and he has become a weapon of mass destruction. So I am looking at the ding-a-ling, the first formation of a tear glistening at each edge of my eye. I am hoping fervently that he realizes that I am not Sergeant Hartman. He was ever so methodical

Then came along the aforementioned sexy nures. They called her the hygienist. She has a voluptuous figure and a sensual smile. [more to come here]

Hygienist, my foot. The butcher would be more like it.

I finally got a whiff of what Mr Higgins was talking about:

You want to talk of Keats or Milton, she only wants to talk of love,
You go to see a play or ballet, and spend it searching for her glove,
Let a woman in your life and you invite eternal strife,
Let them buy their wedding bands for those anxious little hands...
I'd be equally as willing for a dentist to be drilling than to ever let
a woman in my life.

As I submit my copay on the way out, the friendly receptionist mentions, "See you next week." Yes, sir. They have only cleaned the left side, there is a sequel to this madness.

PS:* I have changed the Doctor's name; I found that the first five results for his real name in google do indeed lead to him. For those missing their humor pill today - this piece, while true in content, is meant mostly to be facetious.

The conundrum of captaincy

2004-11-02T11:07:00.000-05:00

It seems that Dravid is unquestionably the next Indian captain. Ganguly's deputy for quite some time, there is little doubt that no one else is a serious contender. But, as I mentioned in a previous post, Dravid's batting form when he is captain is quite suspect. If India's best batsman will average 11 and change as captain, we are in trouble. Granted that four tests (as captain) is a poor sample set and that his batting form in the entire Australia series 2004 has been pathetic.

But, we have enough to make us wary. We can see quite clearly how Ganguly is a pale shadow of his former self ever since he donned the mantle of captainship. Dravid is too valuable a player to lose.

So who could take the role once Ganguly retires/is-subtly-asked-to-retire? I think we can say with reasonable confidence that Tendulkar will never be captain again, he is not even the vice captain today. The only other players that are sure for selection (if fit): Sehwag, Kumble/Harbhajan, Pathan. Laxman is fairly a certainty in Tests (I wonder why) and Yuvraj in ODIs. Kaif is a fair certainty in ODIs and he is slowly making his presence felt in the Test team. That puts us in a very odd position. While Kumble is not exactly knocking on the door of retirement, he is really not in contention. Harbhajan is really too reactive, while that works great for his bowling I am not sure if that is a successful recipe for a skipper. Pathan and Sehwag are too young, or are they? Food for thought?

Well, here comes the bombshell. Most people feel that Kaif does not have the finesse to be a regular test player. Well, he proved to be more consistent than the big name arsenal that is Team India. He does not have the solidity of Dravid, the elegance of Laxman, the explosive power of Sehwag or the class of Tendulkar. But he has the guts and steel of Steve Waugh. Steve, if you turn back time, was not considered much of a batsman. He proved, over the years, to be the most successful Australian captain ever. We can argue that he led a more professional team and that Ponting will end up with a better record. But, given India's options I am willing to bet that Kaif will make it to the top. Keep in mind that he has captained India A quite sucessfully (albeit in the ODI version). And he has one thing that Steve did not, he has a certain on-field vivacity. Have you seen him celebrate the awesome catch he just took? Flashback to July 14, India completes the second highest run chase in ODIs. India is 146/5, Tendulkar out cheaply. Helped by Yuvraj Singh, Md Kaif leads India to a satisfying victory with an innings of 87*. Did you notice the jubiliation, pride and hunger when he punched the air?

Another thought is the horses for courses bit. India has never really had separate captains for the ODI and the Test teams. Will post more on this as it comes to me.

Tendulkar v/s India

2004-11-02T10:15:00.000-05:00

This would make an interesting .sig: "India was hurt more by Tendulkar's presence than Australia was by Ponting's absence."

While it tickles the rib, it is quite sad that there is truth to the statement. There was a lot of hope, fanfare and flag waving when Tendulkar returned to the team for the Third Test. Even as some critics were brave enough to voice their doubts about the wisdom in letting Tendulkar don the India colors after little or no match practice in three months, there was euphoria in a icon crazy nation.

Reason is given short shrift when it comes to Tendulkar. That is because of the God status he commands amongst millions of Indians, to the extent that educated observers of the game have dismissed concerns of match practice as hogwash when talking about the man.

10 runs in 50 balls and lost his wicket twice. McGrath adds Tendulkar's wicket to his kitty yet again to notch up 450 Test wickets. That, after he made public statements that Tendulkar is afraid to play his shots against him. Four years ago, if a bowler had dared make a statement like that, he was sure to be torn apart. Has Tendulkar lost his touch? With everyone betting on an Indian win, Tendulkar's return did not prevent India from plummeting to one of it's biggest losses in history.

Tendulkar is one of the best batsmen that the country has produced and will always command a high respect in my eyes. Alas, he has failed to become the legend that he could have been. For the sake of popular cricket and for his sake, I hope he can muster up a big innings in the final Test. The series is lost, there is pride to play for.

All About Tires

2004-10-28T19:55:00.000-04:00

The tires on my Honda are running low on tread. Time to research. Here is a wheel and tire primer, this gives you an idea of why it is important to research your tires.

This is the specification of my car's tires: P205/65R 15 92V. Now you know all about them, don't you? For the uninitiated, read this.

Latest technology on tires.

Everything you wanted to know about radar detectors!

2004-10-26T20:44:00.000-04:00

Recently a couple of my friends got tickets for various reasons. This is an information page useful to anyone planning to get a radar detector.

Another site useful to get a quick overview of traffic laws by state: http://www.statedrivinglaw.com/

Motorcycle Videos!!

2004-10-14T18:17:00.000-04:00

Crazy stuff. Don't try this on your m/c!! (Or any m/c for that matter) ...

Kalam rejects Dhananjoy's mercy petition

2004-08-05T18:04:00.000-04:00

Much has been debated about the capital punishment. It is in the limelight with the case of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, whose plea to the President was turned down.

A number of interesting movies have been made on the subject. A lesser know Hindi movie called 'Kanoon' had Judge Badri Prasad (Ashok Kumar) as the lead. In the beginning of the movie he is in debate with a lawyer friend about the nature of truth and whether one can ever know anything for certain. Can the law ever be sure enough of culpability to award the death penalty? This debate leads Ashok Kumar to enter into a bet with his friend that he could commit a murder and get away with it. A must watch 1960 thriller.

A more recent movie is 'Life of David Gale'. Similar issues are raised and both sides of the fence are represented - the activists for abolishing capital punishment and those who think some crimes deserve the electric chair. Judge for yourself.

And then, there is the much acclaimed 'Dead Man Walking'. I saw it too long ago to comment intelligibly on the movie. Directed by Tim Robbins with Sean Penn in the lead, this might be the best of all three movies mentioned here.

Very Interesting Style Cricket News

2004-08-05T17:33:00.000-04:00

Short, sweet, visually driven, interesting, telling. Six images and a couple dozen sentences say it all.

Gutka and Pan Masala Ban in Maharashtra & AP

2004-08-02T23:58:00.000-04:00

Are the governments crazy? Whatever will the lower middle class chew on in their spare time? How will they bond? These doomed governments needed a court to tell them that this is unconstitutional?

Long ago, in my college days I was instrumental (as a Student Affairs Council representative) in banning sale of cigarette on campus. I learned very soon how 'unethical' (if not unconstitutional) it was :-/. From students and faculty alike.

Bazeecha-e-atfal ...

2004-08-01T19:50:00.000-04:00

This has a number of shers that are not in the version sung by Jagjit Singh.

New Delhi Municipal Corporation

2004-07-30T09:57:00.000-04:00

In a previous post I had mentioned that more and more Indian public organizations are making their presence on the Internet. Here is yet another.

Indiatimes, the tabloid

2004-07-29T09:42:00.000-04:00

What is happening to journalism in India? If I pick up papers like TOI or websites like indiatimes, the inescapable conclusion is that the tilt is always towards a tabloid. A sad state of affairs.

A friend sent me this link: Indiatimes Article
As it turns out, it is an old, old urban legend: Snope Link to debunk

Indiatimes did not even care to point out that this is just a gag and has no basis in truth. I wonder if they even researched the veracity of this ridiculous article.

We are talking of a newspaper that has, as a fixed slot, on its front page a link to pictures with titles: 'August Babes', 'Women In Red'. Other articles from today's front page: 'Box office toppers: Salman, sex', 'When erotica is not sex-sational', 'Pak spy joins Shilpa Shetty's war on terror' (TimesOfIndia). Believe it or not, there are at least 6-7 other titles with not so subtle sexuel innuendo.

Another friend commented that The Hindu is one of the best newspapers out there. I plan to read it for a few weeks and post my thoughts on it...

Cricket: India Second Best?

2004-07-27T06:52:00.000-04:00

Much has been said about India being the 'second best' team in the world. I fail to understand why that statement (and, honestly, it is not even true yet) satisfies millions? I do not mean for it to disappoint, but there must be a burning desire to climb that final peak.

The only thing irrational about this article is it's proclivity to wax lyrical about Tendulkar (the old media malady). He is a very, very good player. He had (has?) the potential to carve a bigger niche in history than what he currently claims. I am just afraid that we are seeing in Team India the same symptoms. A team with the potential, but over-rated by media. A team that is achieving more than it's predecessors, but bogged down by a fan following that is wont to cheer an edged boundary every over more than six risk-free and well placed singles.

Putting that matter aside, the article vocalizes the issues around this self-proclaimed second best status pretty well.

Toilet Seat has less germs than most other office equipment!!

2004-07-26T13:42:00.000-04:00

I read this long ago; a discussion with a colleague reminded me of this article.

India through the Lens: Photography 1840-1911

2004-07-22T16:27:00.000-04:00

An amazing collection of photographs and history.

Another very interesting link: http://www.harappa.com/hawkshaw/

Mera Bhaarat Mahaan !!

2004-07-22T08:32:00.000-04:00

Since there are a lot of email chains extolling the virtues of India, I figured someone needs to strike a balance. I think we need to stop beating our chest (especially of an era long gone) and start accepting today's truth.

These articles are not meant to be my views per se, but intended to steady the opinion wagon...

Starlet Accuses Director of Rape

Reviews of "The Guru"

2004-07-20T18:44:00.000-04:00

Watched this movie with some friends. As if the movie wasn't pointless enough, I stumbled on some reviews and actually wasted time reading them. Can't let you go scot-free :)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280720/
http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/g/guru.html
http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,4267,779036,00.html http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_review/0,4267,780374,00.html
Assorted comments:
"The Guru represents one of the most dreaded motion picture experiences any movie-goer can endure: a romantic comedy that is neither romantic nor comedic."
"I felt somewhat embarrassed for Marisa Tomei, who is better than the material. "
"There's no bite or edge to this movie, though; it's goofy, soft-centred romcom slush, with some very half-hearted Bollywood pastiche."
"It's a leering, childish and, for all its supposed affection for Indians and acceptance of homosexuals, retrogressive film."

AD Satires on India

2004-07-20T17:43:00.000-04:00

If you have some time to kill, interesting videos. I have only seen some of the snippets at this point.

Great Indian Railways

2004-07-19T12:36:00.000-04:00

How many people knew that the Indian Railways is the largest employer in the world? The Railways are perhaps one of the best legacies from the British empire. I am looking forward to watch this video by National Geographic.

Delhi Traffic Police

2004-07-16T17:32:00.000-04:00

As India catches up with the rest of the world, we are seeing more and more information from public organizations available on the internet. Pretty interesting website. Make sure you visit the maps. Sure, lots of scope for improvement. One of the most irksome features is that Flash is used too heavily. But, all in all, a healthy start.

07/11/04: Huntington Redux

2004-07-15T17:08:00.000-04:00

Hiked with friends to Mt Washington through what is arguably the toughest trail in the Appalachians - Huntington Ravine. Out of seven, four actually made the complete loop. Two took the bus on the way down. Don't ask about the seventh.

On the way back (Tuckerman Ravine) we saw some absolute nutcases skiing in a small patch of snow. They put up their photos on the site www.timefortuckerman.com See if you can identify yours truly in the background on some of the pictures.

Motorcycle Safety Campaign

2004-07-15T16:54:00.000-04:00

Pretty cool campaign. Any m/c enthusiast should love this.

Mozilla Firefox Review

2004-06-15T10:29:00.000-04:00

This a review of the 0.9 release of this awesome browser. I often wonder why it isn't more popular?

Indian Cartoon Strip?

2004-06-10T12:13:00.000-04:00

Found this surfing.

Khuli Jo Aankh ...

2004-06-10T01:19:00.000-04:00

Being the dilettante that I am, amongst other things I have a bit of a taste for Urdu Poetry. Here is a translation for a Ghazal. For those who would like to listen to it sung by Mehdi Hassan, it is available at Music India Online.

Couplet from another one:

Ulti Ho Gayi Sab Tadbeerein, Kuchch Na Dawa Ne Kaam Kiya,
Dekha Is Bimaari-e-Dil Ne Aakhir Kaam Tamaam Kiya;

'Mir' ke Deen-o-Mazhab Ko Ab Pooch'te Kya Ho Unne To,
Kashka Khaincha Dair Mein Baitha Kab Ka Tark Islaam Kiya;

- Mir Taqi Mir

(Extremely) crude translation ...

All my efforts have backfired, medicine has proved to be of no use,
Behold that this sickness of the heart has finally ended it all;

Do not ask for the religion of 'Mir',
He has applied the tilak, sits in a temple, and has long broke ties with Islam

tilak = (Hindu) sacred mark on the forehead

The Reagan Doctrine

2004-06-08T15:13:00.000-04:00

Isaac Asimov has long been my favorite author (partly because I haven't read anything in a long time - lol). I agree that the timing is bad, but the thoughts remain valid. Here are some of his views on theology.

Here are a couple of links to his audio interviews:

NY Times Interview

Wired For Books Interview

Vogon Poetry

2004-06-06T11:27:00.000-04:00

Talking to some friends reminded me of a delightful sequence from "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy":

[QUOTE]
Vogon poetry is of course the third worst in the Universe.

The second worst is that of the Azagoths of Kria. During a recitation by their Poet Master Grunthos the Flatulent of his poem "Ode To A Small Lump of Green Putty I Found In My Armpit One Midsummer Morning" four of his audience died of internal haemorrhaging, and the President of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one of his own legs off. Grunthos is reported to have been "disappointed" by the poem's reception, and was about to embark on a reading of his twelve- book epic entitled My Favourite Bathtime Gurgles when his own major intestine, in a desperate attempt to save life and civilization, leapt straight up through his neck and throttled his brain.

The very worst poetry of all perished along with its creator Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Greenbridge, Essex, England in the destruction of the planet Earth.

Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz smiled very slowly. This was done not so much for effect as because he was trying to remember the sequence of muscle movements. He had had a terribly therapeutic yell at his prisoners and was now feeling quite relaxed and ready for a little callousness.

The prisoners sat in Poetry Appreciation Chairs --strapped in. Vogons suffered no illusions as to the regard their works were generally held in. Their early attempts at composition had been part of bludgeoning insistence that they be accepted as a properly evolved and cultured race, but now the only thing that kept them going was sheer bloodymindedness.

The sweat stood out cold on Ford Prefect's brow, and slid round the electrodes strapped to his temples. These were attached to a battery of electronic equipment - imagery intensifiers, rhythmic modulators, alliterative residulators and simile dumpers - all designed to heighten the experience of the poem and make sure that not a single nuance of the poet's thought was lost.
[/QUOTE]

The white woman and India

2004-05-27T18:39:00.000-04:00

Someone sent this article to me. Not sure why Sonia's dignity is in question though. She is not the one 'shaming the nation', as the author purports.

The roots of black v/s white go much deeper. Black has, for countless generations, been associated with all that is evil and white with all that is altruistic. It does not help that the night is dark and the day bright. I believe that India is changing and that the practice of white ass worshiping (to put it bluntly) is on a decline. Many educated people do not have this handicap. More and more of India's populace has begun to actively shun such proclivity. The beggar children in India do not run after foreigners because they think white is beautiful; they do that because they stand a better chance of getting a big tip.

Coming to Mother Teresa. Isn't it a thing of the 80s that India conjured images of poverty? The image today is more vivid - the image has highly educated and smart people, it has a vibrant economy on the upswing and it has spiritualism. Yes, poverty is an inescapable part of the image. But, is that far from the truth? What is the author's point - that we should not accord Mother Teresa respect or that we should tone it down? Is all the hoopla created by the Indian machinery alone? Has the international press no hand in the matter? I remember that in our school books there was an article on Baba Amte, I don't recall any article on Mother Teresa. So, how come Baba Amte is not internationally known?

Next in line - cinema and the media. Indian cinema is extremely immature and the fare they dish out can at best be termed as pulp, in reality it is 95% trash. There is the 5% that is palatable, but high quality work is a thing of the past. The Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Shyam Benegal's of the country seem to have given way to the pseudo-quality fare of the likes of Mani Ratnam, Kamal Hassan and Aamir Khan. I would love for someone to prove me wrong.

Now, coming to the Aryan invasion theory. I really find it hard to buy that such a theory is the cause for the issue under observation: white idolization. Who wants Sonia to be the prime minister because they think that the Aryan's invaded India (even at a sub-conscious level)???

Finally, spiritualism and India. I don't have the most wide human experience, but from what I have seen it is not all that it is made out to be. But I really don't have the experience or knowledge to talk about it.

One for the Weight Watchers

2004-05-21T09:21:00.001-04:00

A friend sent this URL to me, I can't stop laughing. And the best part is, that it isn't just a joke. There is a lot of sense to what our friendly little squirrel with the colorful language has to share.

Amusing Cricket Trivia: Third Test, IND-PAK 04/16/04

2004-04-16T01:53:00.000-04:00

Complete Article

Besides the constant chatter of the keepers, the stump microphone picks up some amusing banter between the players. Chopra, who was substituting for Dravid, was at forward short-leg when Kamran Akmal walked in to face Pathan. This reporter was in splits when Chopra went, “Arre, Akmal, kya re, tereko nightwatchman bhej diya? Javed tereko itna bura samajhta hai kya? (Hey, they sent you in as nightwatchman? Is that how highly Javed regards your batting skills?)”

...

Lastly, my nomination for find of the tour goes to: Laxmipathy Balaji. “Balaji, zara dheere chalo…"

Tandoori Grill goes internet savvy

2004-04-05T15:28:00.000-04:00

Tandoori Grill

The website offers some very interesting features. A lunch box feature - you can choose a pickup time and collect your lunch. Priced at $7.30 (including tax) for Veg and $8.35 for Non-Veg, it is costlier than your office Cafe. Someone will need to give it a try to see if it is worth it. If they pulled it in to be in the $5 ballpark, I am sure they will start competing with nearby Office Cafe's.

Dravid as Captain

2004-04-02T11:09:00.000-05:00

Maybe I am reading too much into it (two tests is not enough to make any conclusion), but Dravid's batting average as Test captain is 8 runs per inning, click here for the Cricinfo link.

Note that both of these are high scoring matches. No devils in the pitch really. Comments anyone?

Sahib, Biwi Aur Ghulam

2004-03-30T08:34:00.000-05:00

Rediff Review

In my humble opinion, this is one of the greatest movies ever to come out of Bollywood (as the prolific film industry in Bombay is nicknamed). A reasonably well written article which covers the movie and a serial based on the same Bimal Mitra novel.

While it is true that Waheeda Rehman's role was of little consequence to the main plot, I think it was borderline criminal for the author to not mention her at all.

It is interesting to note that the Guru Dutt version (1962) was itself a remake of a Bengali version made in 1956 ( IMDB Link ). Pretty sure most Indians that love and adore this movie did not know this fact.

Cricket Mania

2004-03-29T15:06:00.000-05:00

Individual Worship?
"Virender Sehwag soaked up the acclaim for his triple-century, the first by an Indian in 72 years of Test cricket, while Sachin Tendulkar lauded his efforts and expounded on his disappointment at missing out on a fourth double-hundred. Despite Sehwag having gone where no Indian batsman had ever ventured, the press conference at day's end was dominated by questions regarding the declaration that left Tendulkar stranded on 194. Despite the team's recent successes, it appears that certain sections of the media are unwilling to give up their worship of the cult of the individual. (Sharad: emphasis mine)"

George Bernard Shaw on religion ...

2004-03-29T14:52:00.000-05:00

A close partner sent these to me.

" The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality."

"All great truths begin as blasphemies."

Indian politicians are not the best at corruption!

2004-03-25T13:51:00.000-05:00

Corrupt Politicians
Transparency International (TI) reports. There was no Indian politician in the report's top ten. But then the report only focusses on the $ amount that these people embezzled. But how does one gauge the damage that Indian politicians inflict on the country in terms of non-tangibles? What metric can be used for the erosion of a country's social fabric? How do you measure the many years we are set back by the active efforts of various political 'thinkers' to keep religious extremism on top of everyone's mind? The effort by which all political agendas revolve around particular flavors of varying religions? When will it happen that India will grow beyond it's theistic diversity and embrace what threads them together? For, aren't all religions essentially collective wisdom on how a honorable life ought to be lived? When will it happen that I have the choice to vote for someone that is truly commited to eradicate poverty and corruption?

How stupid can the law get?

2004-03-25T13:07:00.000-05:00

Teen escapes fine by 'sitting quietly'

"Mark Jones, 19, faced fines totalling £417 after admitting a string of driving offences and possessing cannabis.

But instead of making him pay up, Port Talbot magistrates offered to waive the fines - if he sat at the back of the court for 30 minutes until lunchtime. "

BBC is available in Hindi !!

2004-03-25T12:15:00.000-05:00

BBC Hindi

iPod mini is being snatched from counters like hot cakes!!

2004-03-25T12:14:00.000-05:00

Global Release of iPod mini delayed

Ignore This Post: Spam Catcher

1990-12-31T13:32:00.000-05:00

Guys - somehow I am getting inundated with comment SPAM on my last post at the blog. So, I am creating this particular post to 'catch' all that SPAM.

I have sent Blogger Support an email and hope they fix the issue. Update: Google responded by stating that they will be rolling out new anti-spam features in the future. Until then, we have to live with the problem :(