Nandi Hills

Been to Nandi Hills. It was fun. One advice, food at restaurants there is pathetic. So, make food from home or arrange something else but don't ever plan to eat food there :-)  .

Forecasts

I don't think much about daily forecasts. Today morning I saw on TV about my sign that I should have patience in my work. Its by coincidence or what, today although I worked too hard but the output was almost zero..

Entrepreneurs

UTVi channel shows a program named 'Happy Hour' in the evening. They interview entrepreneurs in this program. It is quite inspirational to listen to thought process of many young Indian businessmen. They seem to have a certain proud towards what they do. They also seem to be very clear about what they wanted to do and what will they do next.

Present

Yesterday heard a very good thing in a movie 'Kunfu Panda'. It goes like this 

Past is history, future is illusion, present is gift. That is why it is called Present (=Gift). 

Changes

The changes are so fast and sometimes so slow that we dont realize them. When I was small (in late 1970s and early 1980s) , we used to have people from Afghanistan coming to my native town. They used to sell things like dry fruits, clothes. They used to wear typical Afghan clothes, speak Afghan language and always walk. They never had any vehicle like bicycle, which was quite common those days. Their complexion used to be quite white. They were very soft spoken, gentle and reserved people. 

They would come only after summers. During winters and peak summers I think they used to be in their own country. 

After 1985's we stopped seeing them.  Maybe (or most likely) it was the effect of the political happenings in that country.

We were growing up that time and never missed them. People who used to buy stuff from them might be missing them. Ah..good old childhood days ...  :-) 

Open source

Love these open source software. Small and medium scale enterprises can use these free of cost. Saves them lots of money and helps their businesses become more effective by using IT. When they grow big they can buy commercial versions of these products for support.
Its good for developers too ;-)

Test of friends

How will you know people who claim to be your friends are your true friends ? In addition to 'A friend in need is a friend indeed', there is another way. When you say or make a statement which unintentionally can cause misunderstanding, your friends will come to you and clear the things but selfish people will be reactive and would fight with you.

Also, most dangerous people are those who lack integrity. So beware of them. At work both of such types of people needed to be interacted with. So, behave with them as professionally as you can. Leave personal talks aside with them.

Anti Terror laws

Just saw a debate on 'Times Now' channel about anti-terror law govt tabled in parliament today. I felt sad and angry that we have many creatures in India even after Mumbai attack who do not support this law...

Dark circles

Read that dark circles around eyes can be removed by washing eyes in the morning with water while having mouth full of water. I should try it and see if it works for me .

Experience

In software profession, experience is of not much use. You have to be creative , hard working to add any value. At least the new technologies change so fast that old learnings don't help much. If you are ready to learn and hard working then in software you many progress quicker than more experienced people than you. Your machine and tools are just your brain. 

7 habits

I am reading this book , 7 habits of effective people. I liked the thing when the author says that you can choose the responses to stimuli (=circumstances). Either you can let conditions dictate you or can choose to use your imagination and creativity and control it and not get controlled by it.

Assertive Communication

Today I attended Assertive communication training. One thing I like what the presenter said. He said most of the time people argue because of the ego and not the fact/ issue. People change fact during argument to satisfy their egos. It should be avoided.

I think this is one of the keys to communication. Ultimately we go to office for work and not to satisfy our egos.

Weather

The weather is unusually cold here. I heard about global warming but looks like we have global colding (or Bangalore colding at least) here.

IndiJoe

Had been to IndiJoe restaurant at Old airport road. Its near TGIG. TGIF and IndiJoe share the same entrance. It is not a good restaurant. They dont serve chapatti, nan or roti. Their dishes are not so tasty and charges are very high. 

Also ambiance is not good. So many people in small space. Long queues for food. In my view people who have lots of money to spare and are show offs..they should go there and tell their friends, neighbours about it that they spent lots of money on 'continental food'. Simple person like me should avoid going there.

Apartment

In spite of already given my flat in Whitefield on rent, I still get 2-3 calls everyday from prospective tenants. Many of them are desperately looking for the apartment in Whitefield. For example, One couple comes from Bannarghatta road to ITPL. The people who know the traffic in Bangalore can imagine how horrifying this experience is. I sincerely wish there could be a way for me to help them.

3 Ms

I have lived in US and Germany for quite significant time. I can say one thing for sure about us Indians. We can not live without 3Ms. These are Mandir (=temple) , Masala(spices) and Movies (Indian movies). Wherever we go we manage to find these things, no matter how hard we have to try.

Hope

There is sense of despair in India over terrorist attacks. Pakistan was involved. But we too are weak. We have horrible bureaucracy and ill equipped police.

But I have hope. As we liberalized our economy when we reached at the brink of bankruptcy in 1992 and as now at least we have started to build larger airports after facing so much problem, same way we would rise above this too. We don't do anything until we are forced to. Now we are forced to improve our security and I know that we will do it . Same way when we reach tipping point for our traffic, power problems etc we will fix those issues too.

India population

In 2011 there will be official population counting in India. I think we should see a decrease in population this time. Everyone seems to not to have more than 2 children. The only time we had decrease in population was in 1921 0r 1931 ..because of draught.

Delhi people

In my experience people from Delhi are cunning, selfish and not worth being friends with.

When in need, they will approach with a big smile on their face and will show as if they are 

your closest friends. Once they get whatever they need from you, they will forget to even say

Hello on seeing you. 

They are like snakes. If you give milk to a snake it would bite you only if it gets chance.

So be careful from Delhi wallas..

Indian Media

The after Mumbai attack reporting of Indian media has been pathetic. They are cursing, abusing politicians which to some extent is right. But the hype they have created is so much that one feels media is suggesting to do away with politicians. Well, they are not suggesting any alternative either. Are they advocating dictatorship ? I don't know. They should pin point the weak points of the systems. They should not play the role of agitator, rather put up facts and ask questions to bureaucracy too. Inviting page 3 celebrities (as Arun Jaitely puts it) and asking them to comment on terrorism is laughable. It exposes the lack of ideas in Indian media.

One day our media will also get matured...

Traitor

I had an idea about tackling Mumbai attacks. Give one AK47 to Amar Singh (who has raised questions about the reality of Batala encounter where a Delhi Inspector lost his life to terrorists bullets) and throw him inside Taj hotel. Let him see for himself the that it is indeed for real..

International reaction to Mumbai attacks

Saw one of the headlines in nytimes.com about Mumbai terrorist attacks. It reads something like this 'Attacks on Mumbai creates a challenge for Obama about bringing India and Pak together'. See the irony ? If you cant..then consider after 9/11 we Indians never suggested or thought about bringing Taliban and US together. Another irony, in these moments of crisis that country (and many other countries) is thinking about their self-interests.Nothing wrong with that, just that I wish Congress govt. thinks about 1/10th of like this.

Mumbai Terror Attack

Yesterday (26-Nov-2008) night terrorists struck at Financial capital of India, Mumbai. They attacked 3 five star hotels and very busy and crowded railway station. So far more than 100 people have been killed. Intelligence agencies  traced calls made from their satellite phones to Karachi, Pakistan. These bloody islamic terrorists don't want peace at all in this world. Their pakistani sponsors are the devils who spread the venom of terrorism not only in India  but around the world.

 

We, Indians, have to remember that we are all alone in this fight against terrorism. No country is our friend in this struggle of ours. Whatever needs to be done have to be done by us. Whether its changing the govt. by democratic means or carry on with our lives. We only have to defeat this disease. Already Australia and UK cricket teams have cancelled their visits to India for Champions trophy, and that's exactly what terrorists wanted and they achieved it. 

 

 I have been reading blogs by foreigners when we successfully launched Chandrayaan to moon, signed a nuclear deal with US and NSG etc. Most of the foreigners see only casteism, women exploitation, dowry problem as and when anyone mentions India. Their thought and perspective is very limited and narrow. They are not able to yet comprehend the new India. I am sure right now also many of the westerners would be writing about same things on net in response to the 

 terrorist attacks. While we cant and in fact don't want to bother about them, but it makes us realize that we are absolutely alone. Let there be not a single iota of doubt about that. Power is worshipped and weakness and vulnerability is looked down upon in this world. So we have to be powerful ..economically..militarally in addition to culturally which we already are.

 

A country is strong because its people are strong and hence the govt they choose is strong. A non-governing, weak. short sighted, vote-bank concerning government who is indifferent towards the safety of its citizens is a disaster for our country. Unfortunately,we have such govt in power in India right now.

 

We have to be very strong towards terrorism. A strong law like POTA will encourage Police and intelligence.Terror will strike us again (As has been happening since beginning of the year in Jaipur, Bangalore, Delhi,Gowhati etc etc) if we remain weak and lazy in our response towards terrorism this time too.

 

Wrong Hero

Nehru has harmed India much more than we know. Most of the problems we face today are the outcome of his or his daughters policies. 

During chinese war our soldiers died on borders because this mentally bankrupt PM of India would not spend money on buying ammunition for our soldiers who were then protecting our borders. Because of him we lost that war. It left a permanent scar on Indian psyche. 

This short sighted man was responsible for taking the Kashmir issue to UN. He was responsible for not petitioning for permanent UN seat in 1947. Experts believe that UN would have easily granted permanent seat to India then.

His daughter caused more blunders in India. She adopted economic policies which made India one of the poorest countries in the world.

Alas, we think them as good leaders..less we say about Nehru and his daughter's characters better it is. Ever heard about Mountbatten's wife and Nehru caught in a Shimla hotel? and about Chandraswamy?

This family is a curse on India.

Classifieds

Last week, my tenant informed me that he wishes to vacate my 2BHK Plus study apartment at Whitefield near ITPL. I needed to find a new tenant. So, I put Ad. of my apartment on many net sites. I find these below sites most visited by people and more effective

- Sulekha classifieds

- Craiglist

- India Propertry...

And I got a new tenant already within 5 days ;-)

Chandrayaan-1 rocket before launch

India moon mission - Chandrayaan 1

Below is what I posted at BBC Discussion forum about India moon mission. BTW, Star News (in Hindi) and Times Now (in English) coverage was best. NDTV which was highlighting the cost of the mission again and again seem to be upset about it.
--
I got up very early to see the live telecast of launch. Almost all TV channels were showing it live. Indian scientists were educating the viewers about this mission. I am expecting to see comments from some 'suffering' westerners who would blast India spending so much money on this mission while many people are poor in India. Just a info to them..India does not lack money..we lack the proper management or system where is money is not properly distributed..so back off and take a chill pill..

US Presidential Debate

Yesterday saw debate of Obama and McCain on CNN. Politics outside India is almost of no interest to me. But I appreciated and liked the debate of these 2 candidates. They were asked questions from people sitting there and via net. The answers were quite nice n to the point. Obama obviously won the show by suggesting the practical solutions and ways to implement them. I could see that he has a vision of USA in his mind. Where as McCain was relying more on reminding viewers that US is great nation. He had nothing concrete to offer other than playing the 'US Superpower' card and pointing fingers at Obama. He was suggesting the policies which have failed US miserably. Same policies resulted in the financial mess US is in today.

If Obama became US president,which he most likely will then it will be best for that country. US might achieve same admiration and superpower status under his leadership, which she was known for in 20th century.

Hindu's Awakening

The recent protests by Hindus, against Govt. giving in to unjustified demand of Muslims of not giving any land for temporary stay of Hindus pilgrimage at Amarnath shrine, shows awakening of Hindus souls. More than hundreds of years of rules by Muslims and then by Britishers have made our soul and intellect inert. But now we are realizing about what, who we are.

Bangalore New Airport

Today new Bangalore international airport was opened. I went there to pick up my family. It is great..comfortable.looks good..and airport staff is more than eager to help. Signboards were easily visible..and finding car parking and parking car was a cakewalk.
It gives good feeling that in India too we can have such good projects..well..only if we could get rid of kinkos..

While coming out I was interviewed by Deccan Herald reporters..they took lots of our photos..lets see if any of it gets published in their newspaper.

US H1B Visa and Americans Hypocrisy

This is what I wrote in response to a businessweek article where some US folks had written bad things about Indians.

Some myopic, less informed, suffering people from US think that only IT is driving Indian economy. Well, what else you can expect from the community which preaches free trade and when the churning process starts and it challenges them to come out of their comfort zone, they start complaining. And come to the level of cheap talking, finger pointing and mud throwing.

Almost 1% of Indian population is dependent on IT in India. Even IT is concentrating itself to domestic market in India. Maybe if US starts protective measures than India also should start thinking of restrictions on US goods and services in India.
Indian economy is driven by
- Telecom (of which a US company has for billion USD project)
- Aviation(Boeing gets lots of orders from Indian companies)
- Insurance(has AIG,Prudential and many more)
- Banking(has citibank, ING, standard chartered etc)
- Manufacturing (GE and hundreds of many more US companies which are creating and selling from India and to India)
Like any other thing, a country's economy has its ups and downs and India is no different.

Perverted Mind

What a perverted, timid mind can think of? See for yourself

http://www.hindujagruti.org/activities/campaigns/national/mfhussain-campaign/intro.php

Awkward situations

Sometimes you are faced with strange situations where you don't know how to react.

- In Germany I was having lunch at cafeteria. 2 German gals came and sat on the same table. Germans always speak in German language amongst themselves. But these 2 gals started talking in English, amongst themselves, and were discussing Hindi movies and Shahrukh Khan. I kept thinking what to say, but ultimately did not say anything and got up and left quietly after 10 minutes.
- Once while in US, while travelling from bus I was not having change for 50 dollars bill for tickets. Neither did the driver had any change. I asked everyone in the bus for change but no one would have. A poor looking person came and took tickets for us himself and gave us. He would not take 50 USD bill. We kept asking the persons who would board bus on intermediate stops for it. Ultimately we got it. I walked at the front of the bus where that gentleman was sitting and gave him 4 USD for which he had bought out tickets. Fellow passengers misunderstood it and started giving him money. As I said he was poor looking. I felt bad as I made him look a beggar but he himself was laughing and taking all the money.
- After i came back to India from US, one of my ex-colleague in US started emailing me about how a woman..with whom I was also working is trying to flirt with him..and wants to do much more. What could I reply..so I stopped replying to his emails.

Nano

Tata showed Nano, won millions of fans. Bike drivers, who put themselves and their families to risk can feel safe now while driving this car. It is less polluting than bikes so less pollution. More compact means less space for parking, more manoeuvrability in crowded roads. The bike owners (like me :-) ) who would somehow find ways between vehicles to move ahead would be forced to follow rules when they would drive this car.

Autos can be replaced by this car. Autos create maximum pollution on Indian roads. This car in fact would reduce the pollution on Indian roads. Regarding roads, govt should build more roads and such synergies would create economic booms in India.

To foreigners raising all sorts of issues regarding pollution etc, JUST SHUT UP.