Alea Jacta Est !!!!

On Namma Bengaluru

2011-11-07T10:28:00.000+05:30

It has been close to nine months since I've moved to Bangalore, from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso (my previous pit stop). So how have the three-quarters of a year past been - professionally it has been nothing short of mind blowing - doing as I am at Vanguard Business School stuff that my dreams are made of makes it so much fun, BUT there is a small caveat. That caveat is my cyclic love-hate relationship with Namma Bengaluru.

The fact is that about a day into my arrival in Bengaluru I fell in love with the seraphic weather of the garden city.A week into my stay I had made peace with the City's traffic and the sad fact that it slept at 10 p.m. and was dead by 11:30 p.m.( Not that I was at all thrilled with this development). A month into Bangalore, I began to literally hate the city's guts from the deeps of my soul. Now, that abhorrence has given way to a dull numb sensation somewhere left of my right shin. I am now ready for the next emotion on this roller coaster ride to take hold of me - only - even I don't know what that emotion is going to be.

Enumerating my Bangy Blues a bit further, I seem to find I can safely classify my positives in one category and my negatives into two, viz. :

Positives - Weather
Negatives - Traffic, Sleepy Town

Bengaluru Weather

'Agar Firdaus bar ru-e zamin hast. Hami asto. Hami asto. Hami ast' - Jehangir on Kashmir

If there is a Metropolitan City anywhere in the World with perfect weather then this is it, this is it, this is it. Nitpicking pundits of the Anti-Bengaluru camp will rush in here to point out the severe pollen infested nature of Bengaluru's climes and how it debilitates any asthmatic the moment he enters Bangalore's airspace, but, at this juncture I clarify, I am not asthmatic, and I couldn't care about the handicaps imposed by this aspect of Bengaluru on people bronchially, alveolically or asthmatically challenged, because to me the Weather here is supremely refreshing and rejuvenating.

In fact the weather here is so so good that it partly nullifies the two huge negatives I am about to enumerate below. People who know me will know the tremendous currency I place on having decent options for entertainment post working hours, which for me is THE definition of a good city to live in. The fact that I am not detesting every ticking second in Bangalore means that yes, in short, the weather is that good !!

Bengaluru Traffic

Back when there was nothing but primordial goo , even back then, two things existed - Angry birds and Headless chicken.

Now, living Bengaluru traffic is a special combination of Cars,Truckers, Bikers, Pedestrians, Traffic Cops, and- wait for it....Bengaluru's specials - The tractor hitched pull cart that could carry anything from Iron Rails to Grass to Water , the perambulating Bullock/cow, and of course the Jaywalker. Each of the above mentioned elements to Bangy traffic (except the serenely supreme Cow who is a respected and loved entity for precisely this reason) is part Angry bird and part Headless chicken, the exact proportions may vary but then a more detailed description of each category will only increase my stress levels so I'll let it go...

The non-living components of Bangalore Traffic involves weird one-ways, dangerously ill-lit roads, poorly placed and illegible signposts, road dividers that cause more accidents than prevent them, and there's also that ethereal sense of bewilderment that faces most Bangalore newbies when they ask bystanders for directions ( this one's my favourite Bangalore peeve by the way - that 3G navigation tools are selling like hot cakes in India is largely due to this in Bangalore at least!)

But while still on traffic woes I recently read THIS pretty funny blog by George Thomas on his recent experience of Pune traffic, and i want to underline that Bangalore Traffic is by far worse, much more most worstest !!

Sleepy Town Bengaluru

Namma Bengaluru is fast asleep at 10 p.m. This fact of Bangalore (which is reputed to be a pretty fly place for partying , and was in fact the first city to boast of a massively touted pub culture) depresses me so much that you'll excuse me if I don't write too much on this and brings things to a quick close on this front.

What's Ahead, Bengaluru ?

If Bangalore can get it's traffic act together (the recent Metro inauguration augurs new hope although that hope is at least another 5 years coming because the current opened metro stretch doesn't really mean much to Bangalore's traffic woes) and find a way to stay awake beyond it's rather tame curfew limit of 10 p.m. i could learn to love this city a lot. Coming from Mumbai (which I have always considered my home and barring miracles/ cataclysm will always in the future continue to hold as my home) it's unlikely Bengaluru will catch up with Mumbai's frenetic and unbelievably varied nightlife very soon BUT I'm afraid a couple of all-night biryani joints doesn't count for much and Bangalore needs to get its act together in this department before I can unreservedly call Bangalore my home away from home

On the Festival Of Lights

2011-10-26T01:18:00.001+05:30

Today marks Diwali, possibly THE most important festival in the Hindu calendar. Diwali marks mythologically the slaying of Narakasura, a powerful villain who reigned unrivaled for long eons until Krishna decided to declare war on his impregnable fortress and eleven akshauhini of troops single-handedly ( or with Satyabhama as some versions note) atop Garuda that formidable steed of Vishnu. Narakasura's death at the hands of Krishna ( or Satyabhama as some versions note) came along with the boon to have his death day celebrated for all posterity as the festival of lights and hence Naraka Chaturdsahi or the festival of lights a.k.a Diwali became a real big do in Indian tradition. Interestingly, Narakasura's defeat also resulted in Krishna's wife count swelling by 16,100 wives as a result of the fact that Narakasura had 16,100 princesses imprisoned in his castle/ fortress.

Here's a pic proving that Diwali was celebrated, if not with class and style, at least with infectious joy and enthusiasm at Mantri Tranquil ( This place is currently home for Me & Manali)

Diwali trivia apart, was having dinner at TGIF's earlier tonight and saw India decimating the English batting line-up with some pretty impressive spin bowling and a really sharp fielding performance. Dhoni and his boys just clean whipped the pants of the English tourists and have just reignited my dormant cricket interest bug ( which had gone into extra deep hibernation mode post the very first Test in England). Also in the house was none other than Shreesanth our mallu pace wonder / dancing reality star. Walked up to him with Saili, and shook hands with him and mentioned how awesome it was to see him there. Decent chap that he is, he agreed, and patiently (almost) smiled as Saili took a photograph with him. I'm sure he would rather have murdered me on the spot, as he vacantly looked past my shoulder at jubilant scenes of Indian victory as I clicked the pic (below) :

Finally, tomorrow marks a long expected holiday outing to that queen of all tourist spots on offer in and around Bangalore - Wonderla! ( Whatay name :D ) also Dad is expected to land in Bangalore late afternoon/ early evening tomorrow, and both Manali and Me look forward to that as well...

On Vanguard Business School

2011-09-30T08:28:00.001+05:30

Most of you know that this is where I work, for the rest here is our website:

www.vanguardbschool.com

Hope you find it interesting enough to support , visit, encourage and recommend.

On certain things that are best written and not said

2011-09-20T07:40:00.001+05:30

You've always been my most ardent fan - not the googly eyed variety, but the serious kind -the kind that can and most inevitably will give sharp feedback when warranted.

You've been there for me when the going was tough and you've kept me grounded when the going was brilliant.

You've led me by your example while you've pretended to the world that you follow me around.

You've been my sartorial editor, nay my sartorial Hitler (can't recall the last time I was allowed to buy clothes of my choice), and while I'm not convinced this is a good thing, I do quite often get compliments for sharp dressing- so thanks for this as well!

I am afraid I love you a lot more than I think I do. And the real fear, is that I think even that might not be enough to compensate for who You are.

To know you, is to love you - and I do.
I do.

On the lack of Suitability of Certain Unmarried Folk

2011-09-12T09:20:00.000+05:30

I recently read " The (In)eligible Bachelors" by Ruchita Misra. This book falls into several automatic categories - Indian English Literature, Popular Culture, MBA Authors, Chick Lit, etc. This is my review of the book...

Ever since Chetan Bhagat and his "Five Point Someone" there's been an endless stream of MBA alumni from premier B-schools in this Country rushing to Publishing houses with their half thought through but fully completed manuscripts, and publishing like there is no tomorrow. Personally, I thought "Five Point Someone" was a strictly okay sort of a book, gave an insight into the life of somewhat below average blokes at above average engineering colleges - I've done more risque, brilliant, story worthy and interesting things during my engineering college days than the protagonists in 5.someone did- not to mention my stint in B-school.
Therefore, when I hear of the latest IIM/IIT grad whose book is out I tend to skip it ( Except the Meluha trilogy which is on my read wish list, simply because the plot seems engaging to me). However, i simply could not do that with this book because (a) I know Ruchita personally , plus (b) she was one of the stars of my junior batch at IIFT and, as it mentions in the blurb a triple gold medalist (no mean feat that,trust me!) as also (c) with the exception of Vikram Chandra's "Sacred Games" & the Meluha trilogy mentioned above, which are next on my reading list there really wasn't much floating around in the market.

So, when flipkart delivered the book to me (at a hefty discount for pre-ordering the book prior to its release) I though I'd give it a try. It turned out to be a surprisingly good read.

Surprising because at the end of the day it is, and will always remain Chick Lit - A genre I abhor, and ( not that I am a chauvinist) as far as Chick Lit goes only three books ever in this genre have ever made an impact on me, ( "Daddy Long Legs" by Jean Webster ; "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott and "The Touch-me-not Girl " by Rajlukshme Debee) and let's face it, as things stand (today at least), Ruchita is just not in the same class as these three writers. But interestingly, this book has strange parrallels to all three books I've mentiones not sure if she's drawn some inspiration from any/all of these especially "Daddy Long Legs" which of the three books I've mentioned is my clear favourite.

At the end of the day, here's a book from a hated genre of literature and a hated class of authors (for me) which at the end of the day I still enjoyed.

A lot.

So clearly, this is one of the best Chick Lits around and one of the best works I've read from IIT/IIM alum class of chump writers.

In fact, it's the first book I've read in one straight uninterrupted sitting in a long long time ( the last time that happened was way back in IIFT before I got busy on the student council there, almost 4 odd years ago, but you know how you have loads of free in College that work life never confers on you!)

This post is a work in progress will update a few thinking points that I really liked about the book and a few suggestions to Ruchita to ensure her next few offerings are in the quality league that she clearly has the potential to deliver ( on the rather presumptuous assumption that my blog rants are read by a famous published author)

Keep watching this space !

On What India needs..

2011-09-05T10:16:00.002+05:30

Somewhere close to our 64th Independence day, I'd floated a tweet with the message that what India really needs going forward is good education and good healthcare and that with these two taken care of most everything else would naturally follow.

There were a few sharp reactions to this tweet-o-mine, as might be naturally expected when you solve a centuries old problem in the space of 140 characters. The one reaction that I remember came from a dear old friend of mine Prabhu Narasimhan.His take on this was that education & healthcare are fine but what India really needs is a mature and clean Polity first and foremost.Now this chap, has and remains, in my short life, the most difficult person to win an argument against , and therefore I was pretty happy at his reaction because on this I feel I have a winnable argument.

To state my case:

Is an honest and mature Polity likely to solve all of India's problems ? That's too loaded a statement to merit a serious answer, because while clearly there can only be an affirmative answer to this question, it automatically begs the question -how do we put in place a mature and honest Polity?

My bet is that an honest and mature polity can never really come about as a result of a lone crusade led by a JP or an Anna Hazare. It comes about gradually :-

When Government after successive Government does serious work on cleaning up our rather corrupt system.
When Generation after succeeding Generation feels that corruption is less prevalent around them than it was in the past, and as an extended corollary feels it is less acceptable than it was in the past.
When IAS official after succeeding IAS official realizes that lining his pockets doesn't help him as much as getting caught would damage his career, reputation and standing in society.
When Minister after succeeding minister is forced to understand that corruption ,indolence and lack of initiative will result in two things , (a) him not getting elected ever again and (b) the wrath of the same constituency that had idolized him (or her, for that matter) and voted him into power.

All of this takes time, and more importantly, it takes an educated electorate to react consistently over a period of time to bunglers, cheats and lazy bureaucrats/politicians. It's only after these bunglers/cheats/indolents realize that the electorate won't reward them any further for shabby and slipshod work willl they be prodded to change themselves, And this is why I feel that without a redoubled effort to educate our masses on their civil responsibilities and duties; on the rights conferred to them by our constitution; we can never (not in the distant future , not decades from now, not in a rosy scenario a few years down the line, but NEVER!) arrive at a day when we have an honest and Mature Polity in place.

That's my education angle.

The healthcare angle is something I feel even more strongly about. India can never catapult itself into its glory days without addressing its severe lack of effort in the healthcare space. Having stayed for more than three years in Sub-Saharan Africa , I feel entitled to my opinion that Indians deserve better healthcare than they have access to today. I feel this way because we have access to better doctors than sub-Saharan Africans have access to, and yet, our average healthcare facilities are at best at par with facilities there and in most cases - shame on us - worse than theirs. Oh yes, the best healthcare facilities we Indians have access to is definitely slightly better than the best facilities sub-Saharan Africans have access to , but that isn't much to be proud of !
Also, in a couple of years from now, given our tendency to gloat when we shouldn't, I wouldn't even bet on this last scenario being true anymore.

That's my healhtcare angle.

Let's just get these two things right, because frankly no one has even bothered to do anything on these issues till date.

On possibly Google's best Doodle ever ...

2011-09-05T08:33:00.000+05:30

OK, so Google is one of my starting tabs on chrome and occasionally I stop there to check stuff out, and, once in a while I'm rewarded by interesting doodles, those version fonts motifs, weird guitar simulations and other crazy ways to write Google that they do on certain occasions...

Today's commemorating Freddie mercury is possibly one of their best ever...

check it out HERE now, before they archive it!

On Promises to Keep

2011-08-11T08:03:00.003+05:30

Four days before we celebrate our 64th Independence Day, Times of India chose to go with an Editorial by Dr. Kiran Bedi titled "Promises to Keep"

[Aside] Time was when I used to recommend reading ToI Editorials as a good starting point to improve one's English, those days are gone as there were no less than 15 uncapitalized "i"s in this particular editorial. IMHO this smacks of a casual attitude of the ToI editorial staff rather than on Dr. Bedi . I think Times of India needs to wake up, smell the coffee and hire at least one proof reader [/Aside]

Just a few months ago I think the silent Singh had transformed his public image from a toothless follower of Madam Sonia's diktats and had slowly but surely clawed his way to being counted amongst India's most successful PMs on most parameters. That today he is back to square one must rest largely on his disappointingly silent demeanour on the unfolding CWG and 2G scams.

I had crossed swords with Indian Mainstream Media (as had most of Indian twitterati worldwide) when the 2G spectrum story was almost with disdainful ease killed by the Indian Media. That the 2G case might well ring a death knell for UPA-2 is comforting if only from the perspective that voices outside of Government and Mainstream Media still can and do make themselves heard in India. This was obvious a few months ago when Anna Hazare inspired thousands (if not millions) to question the current government's record on anti-corruption.

However, I think Dr. Bedi makes some strikingly telling points when she insists that Dr. Singh must not remain silent any longer. You, Dr. Manmohan Singh, must apologize to the nation , take stock of their displeasure, outline a time-bound game plan for the balance 600 days or so that remain of your tenure, AND for God's sake be the face of your government for the rest of your term because, much as I admire Pranab Mukherjee, P.Chidamabaram , Kapil Sibal, Manish Tiwari and gang for their erudition , they do not have your stature and therefore they cannot substitute the effectiveness of a message that comes directly from your mouth.

Also Dr. Singh, I think that you must do this quickly before your stature drops below their's, and quite frankly, If you don't have anything to say to us of note this 15th August , you would, as they say, have missed the bus.

Jai Hind!!

On the day I made it through to Olam

2010-12-02T07:03:00.002+05:30

[Aside]Have been wearingly busy these last few days trying to cap a crucial month close, and what with a planned fly-by-wire trip to India to perform my Mom's (peace be upon her) Shraadh ceremony[/Aside]

Today,at lunchtime, I got a call from a junior at IIFT, Archit Tiwari - absolutely ecstatic at having made it through to Olam in the lateral placements and , boy, did that take me right back to the same moment almost three years back !!

I remember that:

I'd joined IIFT with Olam as one of the companies in sight as far as placements were concerned
The idea was to focus on academics, rank among the toppers of the batch. Do a lot of club activities on the side( I enrolled for every club bar Koshish and that coz there was a cap on number of clubs we could join in our times), and spend two years gearing up for Olam !!
That idea went for a toss so early into my IIFT stint that it wasn't even funny.I remember that in the run up for the IMF elections,when I finally decided to file my nomination for post of President, my wife (then Fiancee) specifically asking me why I wanted to stand for elections when that wasn't what how I'd planned my two years [ though heart of hearts I could sense she wasn't too upset with my change of plans :D ].
I ended trimester one ranked 93 out 93 students on Delhi ( oh the reasons for that are hilarious, and embarassing!). NO topper by any stretch of imagination that!!
After I got elected President, a fantastic story in its own right - one that I can and have only shared in its entirety with my wife and of course my fellow IMFers, I'd most given up any hope of coralling any good placement, but then the philosopher in me took over and I warrior-ed on..
During finals, I made it through Olam, and a weird feeling subsumed me. One that really wondered how two paths entire worlds apart culminated in the same thing (a path I imagined that lead me to Olam, and an entirely real life track that again ended up with me making it to Olam )

Three years post that day, I think , again that life hasn't exactly panned out as I'd planned these three years but it's been so much more learning, so much more fun , and so much more rewarding than I'd imagined.

To Peter Sayal, Gaurav Patil & Archit Tiwari :

Welcome to Olam, guys.

You've just taken the red pill, now watch how deep the rabbit hole goes !!!

Yennjoy !!

On "We, the Tweeple", Barkha Dutt.. On what she did, what she didn't and #barkhagate

2010-11-23T23:11:00.128+05:30

Ok, here goes in a bit more detail than I did in this POST , and forgive the venom (if you find any, I've tried hard not to show the bile & vitriol within). I've snipped out the unnecessary witticism and the overtly self-aggrandizing tone that I'd in mind when I started writing this post, because since then several things have happened :

Twitter, the most crash prone site in the world has altered its trending algorithm to no further track a trend beyond 7 days
The entire Indian Twitterati & I'm sure the world at large is outraged at this , because this comes at a particularly unfortunate time for an evolving national Issue here in India and Twitter chooses to do this rather than invest money in improving their site without inconveniencing current users and the way they use twitter
#Barkhagate which was, the top trend in India, the longest continuous running trend worldwide(?) and linked to an evolving national issue coinciding with a really shameful mainstream media blackout and covered only on Twitter, sudeenly vanished off the charts and the entire movement lost some steam.
Quickly though, the twitterati regrouped to ensure that a new hashtag #mediamafia was used, started trending and is currently quickly and in no time back to being the top trend in India

Twitter especially @ev & @biz - Evan Williams & Biz Stone owe us Indian Twitterati an explanation for this outrageously unacceptable turn of events

I'm no conspiracy theorist , but I'm like this wonly.. if a smell a rat I'm sure as hell not satisfied by the perfume sprayed by my friend who didn't find the rat and clean the room !!! [ In this case the algorithm argument, which doesn't satisfy me much mind you & I'm a reasonable guy!!]

Twend.it the trend spotting site was also under my scanner this morning when I woke up to find #barkhagate off the trend lists , here in Ouagadougou (GMT India - 5:30 ) but I've received direct clarifications from their founders @nickdfillipo & @tim_kelleher, and am satisfied that they are only reflecting Twitters reality.

First :

If you've been living under a rock( that's most people in India who're following the mainstream media or MSM) take a look first up at #barkhagate on Twitter. For good measure be sure to look up also #mediamafia ; #MSMSux ; #haramipatrakar & #Barkharadia, any or all of these will be the next top trending hashttag on Twitter if anything goes wrong, also I'm sure the twitterati is in no mood to relent until our Mainstream Media picks up this story in good faith and carries stories that have substance. So far, the count is poor on this. Have a look at the endless links, articles, twisecracks, twarcasms, twebates and twitterness generally thats unfolding on Twitter.

Second:

Take a moment and forget everything you just read

Now visualize for yourself what you expect of a responsible journalist.
Think of the names of journalists who fit that mould
Also think of newspapers, online journals, TV channels that you respect and feature these names
Park the result of that thought process somewhere, we'll come back here in a bit...
Whatever your parameters ,the stage is set for me to put my views forth, feel free as I mention in my header to comment.. You have as much access to a keyboard / touch-pad / whatever u use to post on the net as I do , and equal rights to use it.

Now, here goes:

Barkha Dutt, Vir Sanghvi, Rajdeep Sardesai, Prabhu Chawla were involved in conversations with one Radio Nadir (Or Niira Radia ) who happens to be corporate PR lobbyists number one!! (or pick a large negative number to indicate that she talks at least with everybody who is anybody and their relatives )

No hassles so far, She's a PR person (Ms Radio Nadir), they're journos, if they didn't talk it wud be silly to expect either of 'em to get on with their jobs, what's the fuss all about anyway??

To follow the drama, lets introduce the cast (and acronyms):

We, the allegers (ppl who are raising brouhaha and calling for resignations en masse, or the WTA for short)
We the Tweeple (ppl who are generally tweeting non stop about #barkhagate and making it the top tweet trend in India for 5 days non-stop, or the WTT for short)
We the Feeble (ppl who are aware and unconcerned, ppl who are unaware and unconcerned, or the WTF for short) - Silent members of the Cast
We the Top Honcho Journos ( journos whose journalisitc abilities have shrunk just as much as their fame & bank balances & hubris have grown -- again I allege nothing here , mind it! The WTTHJ for short)
We the Napunsak ( this is how we can refer to the mainstream media (MSM) in general , or the WTN for short) - Silent Members of the Cast ( And this what gets my goat!!)

WTA are alleging she used her influence/ PR skills/ maybe the bank accounts of her Corporate Honcho backers/ and even apparently on occasion intervention of god-like real people to influence:

Large decisions at Govt. level
Stories abt topics important to her clients

If this group (WTA) are right and there has been quid pro quo, it's illegality (?) , unethicality and a whole host of similar things that WTTHJ are responsible for and an example has to be made..oh yeah!!!
If not, then they (WTTHJ ) can have free reign and continue to go back to life as usual doing what they've always done, and they WTA, especially WTT, stand to be ridiculed shamed and pounced upon for having raised inane and trivial doubts without first:
a) verifying facts
b) waiting for a proper judicial enquiry and court verdict
c) generally being mean, unresponsive to logic and boorish
d) not considering the larger ramifications of spouting venom/enthusiasm/cleverness-and-a-half without restraint
e) engaging in a trial by media/twitter as you prefer
Right??!!

I think it doesn't quite work that way , my points first off are:

That WTT (go back a bit, and see sub-points a, b, c,d & e ) have at worst acted like WTTHJ
At best we've been very very much better than you
In fact, I'd go so far as to congratulate WTT for work akin to what WTTHJ used to do before they became , well WTTHJs

If you're convinced otherwise, and nothing I say can add value, please feel free to stop reading this blog right now and Goodbye & Goodnight to you!!
[Incidentally , this is Barkha Didi's favourite way of debating, not mine, so show/reserve your vitriol for her. Or did you already do so on Twitter ?? LOL ]

An example personified, like it or leave it, to prove the above is naturally one of the aforementioned WTTHJ , viz. Barkha Dutt. - by her own admission on her twitter account she hates being made the face of this( Poor Lady!).Personally, I would have rather made Prabhu Chawla the face of this (despite not having heard his conversations / completely read his transcripts ) because if there is even a merest molecule of impropriety in his handling of this sordid affair then shakes my confidence in one of Indian Journalisms finer gems (my confidence in MSM was next to zero since the year 2000 anyways, and those who follow this blog will know I refer to our media's shoddy and incompetent turn out during the IC 814 hijacking) but then let's be honest, he's not as well known as BD is.

And in either case, when the story broke , late as it did, and on twitter , why was he silent if he was so above board???

Since, I proceed with what could be construed as a personal attack against someone, let me clarify (I am not afraid of anyone suing me , may they feel free to send me legal notices till doomsday, and am confident of my chances in any court, even Indian ones, never mind how slow or arbitrary their processes may be !!) that I shall proceed with extreme caution henceforth to ensure I don't in this post violated any of points (a),(c) &(d)above, EVEN if I have in recent past on Twitter (which I have not!). As of now, point (b) doesn't concern me , not for the point I'm trying to make and as for (e), well there is such a thing as karma in this world and what goes around comes around especially for our friend Barkha Dutt (BD) , so again not unduly bothered about violating point (e).

1) Prima facie the tapes , especially those involving BD don't seem to indicate much too much wrong doing by either Vir Sanghvi or BD. But they are definitely not sounding like neutral Journalists , With Barkha Dutt sounding exactly like the pro-congress stooge that many of us (And I don't mean Hindutva Agenda pushers when I say us, because I'm not one) think she is, NOR despite disclaimers , has Vir Sanghvi's actions/ writings in real life off the tapes matched up to his stated explanation.

2) The larger point that I believe most sane voices on Twitter are repeatedly stressing is that this not about the tapes at all , and certainly nothing personal against that incompetent, irresponsible and highly biased journalist whom we all commonly know by name of Barkha Dutt (my opinion , which I am willing to defend in court backed with facts !!)

She remains till date the face of Indian Journalism. And while it was awe inspring when she was sitting next the LATE Vikram Batra and he said " Yeh Dil Maange More !"

It has'nt remained all that awe inspiring as the years unfolded. The wrinkles have appeared , the scowl is revealed , and now the sham it's based on stands exposed as well !

Oh Yes Barkha Didi ...

We The Tweeple (WTT) remember Kargill

(Though there are those amongst us who would find cause to fault you on your conduct there as well , I let that ball drop for the moment)

WTT also remember IC 814

And the Mumbai Bombings of 2006

And the Mumbai attacks of 26/11

And We've seen and been disgusted by the way you conduct "We, The People"

And We've seen you defending yourself these past few days on twitter

And We're not impressed

And We're not happy

And We've seen you attacking and coercing blogs off air in the past

And We're not scared of you, or NDTV, or your lawyers

And We're Disappointed, with the media in general

And YOU in particular

And We're disgusted at all these scams

And We'll get to tweeting on them as well

And We're going to speak out

And We'll do it on twitter

And We'll do it on our blogs

And We'll trend #barkhagate

And when it fails We'll trend #mediamafia

If that fails We'll trend #MSMsux or #haramipatrakr or #BarkhaRadia but We'll not let it go this time

And We hate A Raja too , and like you (say publicly) We'd like to see him in court.

But We'd like to see you in court as well if you've done something wrong.

And We'll certainly respect you no more even if you haven't done anything illegal in this Radio Nadir (Niira Radia) tapes scandal, because your actions haven't been all that conscionable

And you dont reserve Our respect and never have for , well, it's been years now

We're sick and ashamed of the Indian mainstream media

And We shall concern ourselves no more with egotistical, insufferable EGOs like yours, unless it is to bring them down a peg or two.

This post is finished.

Feel free to let the comments pour, and i will respond to each if required, at my own leisure

(Because frankly, I'm nauseous and I must leave now and throw up all I've eaten since morning )

On Mainstream Media (MSM) Credibility, Big Shot Journos, #barkhagate and #vircrasher

2010-11-19T17:47:00.004+05:30

The evolving 2G Scam and #barkhagate (for those following on Twitter) raises serious questions on the credibilty of our Mainstream Media (MSM) and our revered journos.

Even if there is no illegality involved, at the very least it underlines two things:

1) There is an unacceptable nexus between media , corporate lobbyists and Politicos

2) The credbility and independence of opinion that one expects from famous journos doesn't exist

To me, point # 2 is even more important, as journos like Barkha Dutt are revered in our country. Not by everyone mind, as someone who has been pissed off no small number of times at the inane fashion in which BD conducts her " We, the people" debate - shouting down, attacking views by experts that don't match her views and giving inordinately high air time to that spectrum of views which she clearly comes with an agenda to promote. The absolutely cursory level of preparation with which she comes armed for such programs , etc

#barkhagate if nothing should harm her credibility, and thats good , in an India where she is one of many false gods.

#vircrasher too, knowing twitter, will soon catch steam , but Vir Sanghvi largely got off lightly here i feel on account of the fact the Barkha Dutt is so blatantly the face of irresponsible journalism in India, that mauling her on twitter was a long awaited event :D

Our revered journos used to be hard hitting, independent opinion giving , genuinely making a difference breed when they started out.

Today, all they do is respout lobbyists' and government spiel, create a ruckus where unnecessary, "break" stories that they really shoudn't report without considerable restraint (26/11 being point in case) and like to plug their showcased programs at all possible opportunities in pursuit of more visibility and mucho big bucks (LOL at Rajdeeps Sardesai's mauling on twitter by @jhunjhunwala )

The worst part is media's (except Twitter) silence on this story, insider solidarity ??

On the Passing away of another Stalwart...R.I.P Professor P.Lal

2010-11-14T12:44:00.004+05:30

Professor P Lal passes away

4 November 2010

statesman news service
KOLKATA, 4 NOV: Teacher, poet, translator and publisher ~ P Lal (in picture) died at a city nursing home late yesterday. He was 81.
Born in 1929, he joined St Xavier’s College as Lecturer in the Department of English, immediately after passing M. A. in English Literature from Calcutta University in 1953. He is the recipient of the Padma Shri in 1970.
Lal was an honorary Professor of English in St Xavier's College after he retired. A short prayer service was held at St Xavier's College today to pay last respects to the departed teacher.
He was also special Professor of Indian Studies at Hofstra University, New York (1962-63), and lectured widely on Indian Literature in English, American and Australian Universities. He was a delegate from India to the P.E.N. International Writers' Conference in New York in June 1966 and visiting Professor in the University of Illinois for the spring semester of 1968.
He transcreated the Brhadarankaya and Mahanarayana Upanishads on a Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship Award in 1969-70. He was a distinguished visiting Professor and Consultant, Albion College, (April to May 1972); Prentiss M. Brown Distinguished Visiting Professor, Albion College (January to May 1973); Robert Norton Visiting Professor, Ohio University (September 1973 to June 1974); visiting Professor of Indian Culture, Hartwick College, (September-October 1975), Eli Lilly Visiting Professor, Berea College (February -May 1977); Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Western Maryland College, 1977.
Lal wrote many books of poetry, over a dozen volumes of literary criticism, a memoir, books of stories for children and possesses several works of transcreation from other languages, mainly from Sanskrit into English. He also edited a number of literary anthologies. He is best known as the transcreator of the English version of the epic Mahabharata which he did in the 1970s.
He founded a publishing house ~ Writers Workshop in 1958. The conceptual genesis of Writers Workshop was in 1955. Among his students in the 1st year BA at St Xavier's were Kewlian Sio and Deb Kumar Das, both writing poems and stories. Lal decided to form a writers’ group. The plan materialised in 1958 when Pradip Sen, Jai Ratan, Amita Desai and William Hull joined, and a formal ‘constitution’ was drafted by Deb Kumar Das. A next-door Lake Gardens neighbour, PK Aditya, installed a hand-operated treadle printing machine.
Author Ms Nita Vidyarthi, who was also Lal's colleague in St Xavier's College, said that his death was a great loss. He has always been a very dignified person and open to all forms of discussion. “We used to reach college early and often I would ask him to read my article once before I send it for publication. He used to do that most willingly. He would encourage people to write for Writers Workshop,” she said. His body was brought to St Xavier's College at 9.30 a.m. today where a large number of his students gathered to pay him last respects.

On The Awesome Land Of Tor'BleDnaM..

2010-10-21T21:40:00.010+05:30

Benoit Mandelbrot

A Tribute:

Benoit Mandelbrot

Developer of fractal geometry dies at 85 in Mass.

The Associated Press

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Benoit Mandelbrot (ben-WAH' MAN'-dul-braht), a well-known mathematician who was largely responsible for developing the field of fractal geometry, has died. He was 85.

His wife, Aliette, says he died Thursday of pancreatic cancer. He had lived in Cambridge, Mass.

The Polish-born French mathematician founded the field of fractal geometry, the first broad attempt to quantitatively investigate the notion of roughness. He was interested in both the development and application of fractals, which he also showed could be used elsewhere in nature.

For years, he worked for IBM in New York. Later he became Sterling Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Sciences at Yale University.

Mandelbrot also received honorary doctorates and served on boards of scientific journals.

He is survived by his wife, two sons and three grandchildren.

>>> Courtesy Associated Press

Benoit Mandelbrot..he of fractal curves and chaos theory, roughness and fat tailed distribution passed recently away of pancreatic cancer in Cambridge, Massachussets. One of my personal heroes, what suives is my personal fewliners on this giant brain and his impact on our lives.

A Brief History of the Man:

Benoît B. Mandelbrot (he added the middle initial himself, though it does not stand for a middle name) was born on Nov. 20, 1924, to a Lithuanian Jewish family in Warsaw. In 1936 his family fled the Nazis, first to Paris and then to the south of France, where he tended horses and fixed tools.

After the war he enrolled in the École Polytechnique in Paris, where his sharp eye compensated for a lack of conventional education. His career soon spanned the Atlantic. He earned a master’s degree in aeronautics at the California Institute of Technology, returned to Paris for his doctorate in mathematics in 1952, then went on to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., for a postdoctoral degree under the mathematician John von Neumann.

After several years spent largely at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, Dr. Mandelbrot was hired by I.B.M. in 1958 to work at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. Although he worked frequently with academic researchers and served as a visiting professor at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it was not until 1987 that he began to teach at Yale, where he earned tenure in 1999.

Dr. Mandelbrot received more than 15 honorary doctorates and served on the board of many scientific journals, as well as the Mandelbrot Foundation for Fractals. Instead of rigorously proving his insights in each field, he said he preferred to “stimulate the field by making bold and crazy conjectures” — and then move on before his claims had been verified. This habit earned him some skepticism in mathematical circles.

>>> Courtesy : www.nytimes.com

A brief history of his work & legacy :

Dr. Mandelbrot coined the term “fractal” to refer to a new class of mathematical shapes whose uneven contours could mimic the irregularities found in nature.

“Applied mathematics had been concentrating for a century on phenomena which were smooth, but many things were not like that: the more you blew them up with a microscope the more complexity you found,” said David Mumford, a professor of mathematics at Brown University. “He was one of the primary people who realized these were legitimate objects of study.”

In a seminal book, “The Fractal Geometry of Nature,”published in 1982, Dr. Mandelbrot defended mathematical objects that he said others had dismissed as “monstrous” and “pathological.” Using fractal geometry, he argued, the complex outlines of clouds and coastlines, once considered unmeasurable, could now “be approached in rigorous and vigorous quantitative fashion.”

For most of his career, Dr. Mandelbrot had a reputation as an outsider to the mathematical establishment. From his perch as a researcher for I.B.M. in New York, where he worked for decades before accepting a position at Yale University, he noticed patterns that other researchers may have overlooked in their own data, then often swooped in to collaborate.

“He knew everybody, with interests going off in every possible direction,” Professor Mumford said. “Every time he gave a talk, it was about something different.”

Dr. Mandelbrot traced his work on fractals to a question he first encountered as a young researcher: how long is the coast of Britain? The answer, he was surprised to discover, depends on how closely one looks. On a map an island may appear smooth, but zooming in will reveal jagged edges that add up to a longer coast. Zooming in further will reveal even more coastline.

“Here is a question, a staple of grade-school geometry that, if you think about it, is impossible,” Dr. Mandelbrot told The New York Times earlier this year in an interview. “The length of the coastline, in a sense, is infinite.”

In the 1950s, Dr. Mandelbrot proposed a simple but radical way to quantify the crookedness of such an object by assigning it a “fractal dimension,” an insight that has proved useful well beyond the field of cartography.

Over nearly seven decades, working with dozens of scientists, Dr. Mandelbrot contributed to the fields of geology, medicine, cosmology and engineering. He used the geometry of fractals to explain how galaxies cluster, how wheat prices change over time and how mammalian brains fold as they grow, among other phenomena.

His influence has also been felt within the field of geometry, where he was one of the first to use computer graphics to study mathematical objects like the Mandelbrot set, which was named in his honor.

“I decided to go into fields where mathematicians would never go because the problems were badly stated,” Dr. Mandelbrot said. “I have played a strange role that none of my students dare to take.”

>>> Courtesy : www.nytimes.com

My respects to the man and his genius..RIP Benoit Madelbrot !!

The Awesome Land Of Tor'BleDnaM :

Plots and zooms essentially of the graph known as the Mandelbrot plot (And referred to often as the land of ..you guessed it..)

The Genesis of Chakravyuh

2010-10-14T16:03:00.002+05:30

Reproduced with (I hope :D ) the blessings of my quizzing seniors at the BCQC is the story of how one of India's finest open general quizzes started off.
I was lucky to be studying in COEP the years 1999-2003 and being part of the Boat Club Quiz Club, one of the finest quizzing legacies / club anywhere in the world...I still very much remain a part of this fraternity , though I be domiciled in distant lands nowadays...

Here then (links to BCQCs own website on the title to this blog post) reproduced is the blog (LINK TO POST HERE) by my immediate quizzing senior (Gaurav Sabnis who passed out of COEP in 2002 ) :

The Genesis of Chakravyuh

This is a mail i had sent on the Inquizitive list a couple of years back, describing the birth of COEP's own quiz, Chakravyuh. The mail was written at a time when it looked as if Pune quizzing was dead, and the rejuvenation from VIT and Fergusson had not taken place.

I must be one of the luckiest quizzers in Pune, timewise. Boat Club (BC) quizzing was in a state of rapid evolution from the time I was in first year until the time I was in the final year. Those must definitely be the best 4 years (if not among the best) of quality quizzing in COEP and in Pune. There were great quizzes and quizzers in colleges like AIT, Fergusson, AFMC (grudgingly, I admit, they make the cut), COEP and of course PICT and a really good Verve quiz (very ephimeral, driven by just one exceptional individual - Hirak Parikh). Of late, the zenith has been reached with a Mastermind from our midst. But all other indicators suggest of a stagnation, if not a decline. I must wait to see the questions from BCJ and Chakravyuh 2003 before I can pass a final judgement on what is happening to Pune quizzing.

This is the story behind the birth of Chakravyuh. It was an age where men were men, women were women, children were children, and so on, but basically quizzers were quizzers. Every batch in COEP had at least 2 or 3 "dedicated" quizzers. Most of them were top class quizzers too, but most importantly, they were dedicated. Wherever we went, we always had the biggest contingent of quizzers (In fact, I suggest that BCJ registration be at a subsidised rate for us, since we have always come with at least 6 or 7 teams, even in the leanest year =-)). I still remember quizzing in my first and second year( 1999 and 2000). The teams of George and Kunal, Jitendra and Salil (whatever happened to those two??) and Sujay and Ramanand used to be there in almost every final of a quiz in Pune. We would either win or come second, since the only competition came in form of "Bhatta plus 1" from AFMC or the "big four" of AIT (Kapil, Samrat, Navneet and Shrikanth, for the uninitiated) in different permutations (I did my bit winning the Mood-I Conundrums in my Second Year). With such domination of the quizzing (which was to keep growing), we often wondered why COEP did not have its own quiz. Domkundwar was the Principal and George told a harrowing story of what happened when he had made an attempt to start one. When he had gone to Dommy with the idea for such a quiz, he was met with a barrage of hostile questions like "What is your attendance?" , "Show me your class notes", and "I shall speak to your project guide about how you work". Needless to say that the idea had been vetoed as emphatically as possible.

There was a general sense of resignation amongst us COEP-ians with everyone believing in the "It's a government college, nothing can change" adage. This was of course in my first and second year. What made us shake off this inertia when I reached Third Year (2000-2001) was a noticeable change in the quizzing culture of the BC that no one has quite spoken about at length. During this phase, there was a slow but steady paradigm shift in our quizzing, with the culture moving from a more "quiz oriented" to a "question oriented" direction. This means that while earlier, emphasis was laid on the fact that there was a quiz, with the minimal level of competency, now we laid more emphasis on the quality of questions. Making great questions was considered as much of an achievement as winning a quiz. While earlier getting questions from quiznet or the KCircle sites was acceptable, it now became a sacrilege. So the days of "two people getting 60 questions every saturday" to the Boat Club were gone, simply because the level had improved, and emphasis was placed on originality.

Since quizmastering became as reverred as quizzing, there was a renewed thrust towards efforts for a COEP quiz. Domkundwar was slated to retire and that helped too. So in my third year, when he finally made way for an interim Princi, Mrs. Jog, we tried again. This of course was the "Year of the Grandslam". It started with me and Neeraj winning the Fergusson Inquizzitions, and later, Sujay and Ramanand sweeping each and every major quiz in sight (Verve, BCJ, Mensa, Shyam Bhatt, and some more). The list of COEP quizzing achievements was nothing to be scoffed at. With this impressive list, I drafted a proposal in February for a quiz to be held in March, during the college gathering and went to meet Jog.

As is usual in COEP, students are given the last priority for meeting the Princi. I waited alone outside the office for hours together on many afternoons before I finally got to meet the grand dame. She took one look at the letter and shot it down saying "I am just a temporary principal, and there is already Fervour going on. I can not spare staff". I tried the arguments "It hardly needs any money, we don't need any staff, we need only the audi and nothing else", but to no avail. She was firm. She could not sanction an event at this stage. My frustration reached its peak and it showed on my face. This probably led to her saying "There is a Gathering Committee meeting next week, give me this proposal then, and we will think about it. But don't get your hopes too high".

As I reported this to the then quizzers, i.e, Sujay, Ramanand, Harish and Neeraj, there was again this general sense of resignation, like "Is college ka kuch nahi ho sakta". No one had any hopes from the Gathering Meeting since the committee was not really very sympathetic to our demands, interested more in spending 20,000 on a crummy music show than 3,000 (yes, that was our measly demand) on a quiz.

But the morning before the meeting as I was about to leave for college, I had a brainwave. I decided to redraft the covering letter for the proposal and rely on emotion to get us through. Earlier it was waxing eloquent on our achievements, like the long list of wins that year (about 10 or so, including smalltime quizzes). Now I decided to go for the lady's jugular. I filled it with a lot of emotion. I don't have the letter right now, it must be on my computer at home, but this is basically the gist of it -

"We have been dedicatedly practising our quizzing every Saturday. We work hard to maintain our standards. And this hard work has been rewarded with great results. We have won each and every quiz in sight, even done well in quizzes in Mumbai despite no financial assistance from the college. There is NO OTHER sport or field, be it debate, rowing, football, drama, in which the domination of COEP is so complete. Because of us, COEP's name is synonymous with success in the quizzing scene. Our list of victories speaks for itself. We do this despite having no annual budget allotted to us. Whatever is sanctioned is usurped by the Debate Club for their travels. Inspite of zero assistance from the college, we are doing so well.

And now we just wish to have our own quiz. We don't ask for any vast amount, just 3000 rupees. Is that too much to ask? When 20,000 are spent on an internal music show, 3000 is less than peanuts. We don't ask for any staff to help us. We will manage on our own with the small number of volunteers. All we want is the auditorium for some hours. And we are utterly dejected that such meagre demands are summarily rejected.

It is as if the college does not care whether we do well or not. There is no appreciation of our wins, and we get a step motherly treatment. We are very disappointed and the whole zest for quizzing may die out......."

blah blah blah, I whined on and on, hoping it would have an effect on the lady.

What happened in the meeting (I was not there) was that after all matters were discussed, Sujay, who was present there being the Football Secretary, said "Ma'am there is the matter of the quiz..." and she interrupted him. Then she spoke, under the effect of the letter, apparently, telling the committee about the "poor quizzers" who do se well despite the lack of any support and how they deserved to have the quiz since they were asking for just 3000 rupees and all. The committee of course agreed. In fact Jog talked of drawing up a resolution so that funds from the money that the college makes for transcripts be allotted to the quiz so that it will not be dependent on the Gathering. Wonder what happened to that.

So anyway, a friend of mine, who was the HAM Club secretary called me up from the college and conveyed the good news that the quiz had been sanctioned. After this we started working on war footing. Questions were never a problem, but we had little experience of how to publicise it properly. We decided that all five of us senior quizzers would make questions, i.e, Ramu, Sujay, Harish, Neeraj and moi so that we could not participate, and COEP winning would be unlikely (like AIT and unlike AFMC, we were wary about even the smallest hint of the R-word). It was decided to have an intra-COEP Mastermind like contest ( indicator of the future glory?) during the time when elims were checked so that COEP-ians did not feel excluded from the participants scene. We did all the running around, like getting an LCD projector allotted (no easy job, though the college had 3), getting the auditorium set up, the sound system working, and all.

It was decided to make it a seamless quiz, with nothing like a separate "audio" or "visual" round. That would be our USP, everything mixed. Each of us five made 30 questions and finally integrated it one midnight in the august company of mosquitoes on the Boat Club, where the Punt Formation practice was taking place. Getting a computer assigned from the college would have been a full day job and we were so sick and tired of all the bureaucractic hassles we had endured till then that we decided to use my comp. Neeraj got his car all the way from Vimannagar early morning and we lugged the PC to the college. The publicity could have been better, but really did not get much help from the FE and SE kids(indicators of the future non-glory?) except for the ever sincere Bimal and Nupur . Credit must however be given to Manish mahajan for coming up with the name - Chakravyuh. Just the five of us handling the questions, red tape and the publicity was too much. Still, about 40 teams turned up. This is where the difference made by the freshers helping out at BCJ shows. Anyway, March 16 dawned, and the quiz happened on time.

The quiz went pretty fine and a detailed report of the finals can be found on the inquizitive archives. The compering was shared by Sujay, Ramanand and Harish, and Neeraj and I handled the computer and other off-stage things. I don't exactly remember the entire line-up for the finals, but here's a shot at it. There was the Infy team of Shrirang and Amalesh, there was an ex-AIT team of Samrat and Navneet, we had Niranjan and Swapnil teaming up, and there was a COEP team of Amrish and..someone. The Infy team won it with a vast margin, and the ex-AITians came second, with Niranjan and Swapnil (named "Suvarnagram", a combo of the names of us 5 organisers, a great gesture) came third. Rahul Srinivas won "Abhimanyu",the intra-college Mastermind contest with the topic "Harry Potter Books".

By this time, though the interim Princi Jog had left, and the new Principal, Ghatol had just taken charge a day ago. We sent someone to invite him, and he actually turned up, stayed for the whole quiz, and was apparently loving it. When we invited him on stage to give away the prizes, he gushed a lot about what a great event the quiz was and how he was thinking hard for every question. He complimented us on having the best event of the gathering (he said this some days later at the closing ceremony of the gathering too).

Chakravyuh 2001 ended with the new Princi in the saddle being an admirer of the quiz (a fact that helped things the following year). Everyone appreciated the questions, the punctuality, and the organisation. Finally, COEP's own quiz had happened, and it was a smashing success.

It was great coming back to Chakravyuh in 2004 as a participant, and win it teamed up with Neeraj. Looking forward to Chakravyuh 2005

My usual quizzing pardner Maniche & Self had a couple of cracks at Chakravyuh & Abhimanyu with some not so major achievements . We did qualify on stage for the 2002 edition if my memory serves me correctly. I also qualified for the finals of Abhimanyu( COEP's intra- Mastermind style solo quiz) in the very first edition 2001, but that year the solo crown belonged to my other occasional Quizzing-pardner-in-crime Rahul Srinivas, my quizzing exploits with whom formed part of another blog post (LINK HERE)

Chakravyuh is very , very special to me and I hope that I can team up (ideally with Maniche) with someone to take the Chakravyuh (open quiz) crown. Till that day arrives, I shall always remain a quizzer with a point to prove...

Comments Invited ...

The Top 3 things on my mind this 9th October

2010-10-10T00:56:00.000+05:30

Numero Un:

1st October was Nigeria's 50th Independance anniversary

Deux:

2nd October was Gandhiji's 142nd Birth Anniversary

Trois:

3-4th October: I was bitten by a mosquito, I think in Burkina (but I cannot be sure of this), subsequently travelled to Niamey in Niger and felt not so good , saw a doctor on the 6th of October and was diagnosed with the Paludisme ( Pa- Lew-Ee) as it is known here and flew back home immediately for 3 days R&R.

I stand much improved healthwise as i type this post another doctors visit is in the offing tomorrow.
Headed off with Manali now to the Garba Fest organised by the local Indian Association.

Adieu. A demain !

On My Niger Trip...Al Qaeda..Military Coups..and Charming Diplomats

2010-09-26T14:46:00.001+05:30

I was in Niger these last couple of days. Stayed at the Hotel Gaweye in Niamey.
Staying with us at the Gaweye, was a largish contingent of French Military Troops and a sizable number of foreign correspondents tracing the unfolding hostage scenario there.

Suspected to be behind the abduction of Seven hostages including five French nationals is the Al-Qaeda Islamic Maghrim (AQIM) headed by Abu Zaid. France of course has a rathe large contingent of Expats staying and working with Niger which has large uranium reserves currenty being exploited by Areva Inc. some of the hostages are indeed working for this French Nuclear Energy Firm.

Not too far back in the past there was a bloodless (IIRC) military coup that unseated the former President and placed him under house arrest, leaving the governemnt to be run by top bureaucrats and Military Junta, from my reading of the ground there, it seems a quite peaceful and seamless transition to democracy will happen by sometime next June (2011).

Met one such top bureaucrat along with a business partner over Dinner at the rather fancy "Le Pilier" (even though the restaurant was choc full and we had to make do with sitting outside in the open air section on a rather sultry evening). The man was a real charmer and explained over a rather excellent Italian dinner, how despite the Miltary coup, Niger was amongst the most democratised and peaceful societies in Africa with a track record of policy continuity despite government shifts.

Here's hoping he's right, coz IMHO Niger seems to be a really excitng place to do business.

On Countries visited so far...and in the future

2010-09-18T21:00:00.002+05:30

Ok so with a count++ on the list of countries I've been to accomplished as a result of shifting base from Cotonou to Ouagadougou, let me enumerate the countries I've visited so far. For sake of clarity let us exclude airports transitted and stick to thos countries where I've atleast:
1) Stayed a night at a hotel/ friends place
2) Spoken to atleast 10 locals and interacted meaningfully with at least 3 locals to get their views on what works and does not in their country
3) Had a meal at a restaurant
4) Done business/ had professional interaction
5) Done something fun

So Kenya is out of my discussion on counts #1&4 .

The countries that qualify as visited :
India, Singapore, Indonesia, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria and latest addition to the list : Burkina Faso

The counties I hope to add soon to the list:
Am hoping to add Niger (probability- 1) &amp [ Update : Already visited Niger!!] ; Cote d'ivoire( probability - 0.9)and to lower probabilities Chad & Cameroon to this list pretty soon. On my wish list but with undefined probabilities in order of wishfulness are - China, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Japan,USA / Canada, UK, Malaysia , Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Algeria,France, Italy, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Ethiopia, Algeria, Denmark, Netherlands and Korea rounding this list to a nice round figure of 40.

Now would be thrilled if this list was attained by the age of 35 but will settle for 40 as well .

More on what I've seen and why these countries in particular on demand ( just leave a comment) , time permitting...

On the Common Wealth Games Delhi 2010.. and it's Anthem

2010-09-14T13:05:00.002+05:30

Everything to do with the CWG games is now controversial.

Preparations for the games have been mired by corruption, tardiness, inane media hoopla and what not. Sittng here in Africa, I am luckily not overly subjected to our amoebic intelligence level mainstream media(MSM). However, we do get a couple of news channels that I tune into once in a while, and what depresses me more than the stories is the journalism - it ain't yellow any more buddy, but some sickly colour inconsistent with proper digestion and the smell is beyond nauseating!

But when copious amounts of Bio waste were being hurled at one of my heroes A R Rahman for his contribution to the games, I did take notice. Twitterers/ Tweeters /Twitters/ Twits were actively tweeting on same too and I cottoned on to the fact that "apparently" ARR's latest effort for the CWG anthem was (1) a real dud, (2) cost the exchequer in the vicinity of 5 Crores which is outrageous and that (3) he handed in his submission late, well past the deadline too boot!

My thoughts on this:

(1) It's not a dud , Rahman's melodies grow on you. The world danced to " Jai Ho! " didn't it?..Was it his best effort?- Not by a long long shot and that from me a self confessed absolute lover of anything that ARR dishes out. If albums like " Gentleman " (which first catapulted Rahman to glory IIRC?) and "Roja" (OMFG what an album!!) hit you immediately with their awesomeness, then equally with Rahman you have efforts like "Rangeela", "Minsaara Kanavu / Sapnay", "Daud", "The Legend of Bhagat Singh","Lagaan" - OK, so the list is going to get reaalllly long here so let me sum it up by saying- and a gazillion others that on a first suno sound like as if ARR's lost his touch but after a couple of days (or after a couple of more hears) suddenly- WHAAMM!!! the songs take over your brain and nothing goes on in your head other than his melodies. The CWG anthem falls into the first category for me, but, if you dont like it yet.. you will.. just wait and watch !!!

(2) 5 Crores for this particular anthem. About a million dollars? Maaan that's probably the only money that the CWG committee can slap their chests with pride and say they've spent well. This anthem is worth its weight in Rhodium ( I AM a metallurgist by education, and have to show off once in a while no?) and you're crazy if you think Rahman overcharged the GoI for his effort

(3) OK with the state of readiness for the games what they are ..are you (MSM..that's you in particular) seriously expecting a bloke sitting here in Africa like me to buy into this again nauseous colored and smelling bio substance ????

Enough said on that. To finish off:

A R Rahman is GOD level
The CWG Anthem Rocks Big Time
Hope the CWG itself lives up to the standard of excellence set for it by ARR with his composition
It's all I'm humming all day nowadays (Click on the title of this blog post to hear it yourself , AND the official video is really good as well ! )

On Mir Publishing house

2010-09-05T15:31:00.004+05:30

Back when i was schooling in Chennai, books from MIR publishers were the rage..they'd dominate book fairs at our schools and at such dos I'd usually return home with bagful of goodiees from the house of MIR.

Of course my introduction to MIR happened much earlier with the magazine Misha(Are they not from MIR?..can't be sure but I think so!)and of course, an awesome book I'd read as a kid call "When Daddy was a little boy"

But this post to share my gratitude to two books in particular:

The first called " Barankin's Fantasy World", a rather large sized hard bound tome gifted to me by my Mama (who is a big shot Gyn-obs doc at Chidambaram)when we used to stay in Adyar.The exact timeframe eludes me, but this was definitely before I was in my 4th standard. Written by Valeri Medvedev the book is actually two novels individually named "Be a man Barankin" and a part two by the name "The super-adventures of a Cosmonaut".This book shaped my attitude towards learning. A review here is meaningless , go find the book and read it to understand its awesomeness!!

The second one is another hard bound(though signifacntly smaller in size)tome called "Tales about Metals" by S Venetsky.Again given to me around the same time by Mama. Now, this particular book, is no book for a fourth standard (or lower) kid,but, even as a youngster, this book was an awesome read with amazing trivia and snapshots of how various metals were discovered,profiles of their discovers,how metals are mined, refined, their interesting properties and uses. Did it shape my ultimate desire to become a metallurgist?..I think so.

The next time I re-read this book was when I was in junior college, in Eleventh standard , the book was given to me by my Chemistry teacher Padmini Iyer maam (I'd lost my copy by this time and was thrilled to see it again) along with a lot of other reading material,when she handpicked a team of three of us to represent Hindu Junior College at the prestigious national level Prof. Brahm Prakash memorial Metallurgy and Materials Quiz. This quiz has local quizzes organised at the IITs/ other prestigious engineering colleges [The Pune venue has been COEP for a few years (and maybe still remains?) and I remember helping my Quizzing and College super senior Niranjan Pedanekar organise the very first Pune leg of this Quiz at the TRDDC when I was later studying Metallurgy at COEP] by the local chapters of the Indian Institute of Metals with the top two winners at each of the local quizzes going to the national finals usually held at a prestigious Research Institution. In my year, we'd won the Chennai chapter quiz which was organised at IIT Madras ( and this was also the first time I seriously considered that it would be fun to study at an IIT) and had gone to the National finals at the awesome IGCAR Kalpakkam Nuclear Plant (where we did reasonably well but didn't win the national title..though we did rub shoulders with the absolute who's who of the Indian Materials science establishment and made it to local televison to boot,and from here on in I wanted to be nothing but a materials scientist -DO NOT ask me why i'm selling food products in Africa today)

These books are a must read.

Again when I was prepping for IIT (not really as hard as I should have but still!), MIR books by Irodov & a host of other Russian authors were irreplaceable in my preparation.

When in Engineering my introduction to Superconducting Materials and their physics, Quantum Mechanics & quantum chemistry, Applied Mechanics, Plasma physics etc. were all largely again due to MIR books. While at COEP we had a huge number of book fairs at the IE convention hall across from our hostel gate with again a fair representation of scientific titles from the MIR stable. I had amassed a huge trunk full of the most excellent and treasured books over four years ( a trunk that unfortunately was stolen before I quit college by one of our hostel peons , the b!@%#$d must have sold them as scrap to make a few bucks and entertain his friends with booze on a weekend - one of the greatest losses i've suffered in my life)

Anyways, on teacher's day, my thanks to MIR publishing house for providing me with a huge number of my most influential teachers

On Democracy in Africa and the future of its Economy

2010-09-01T14:12:00.011+05:30

For the longest time I've been meaning to pen my thoughts on the phenomenon of country after country in Africa celebrating their 50th Anniversary of Independence. It has been close to two years now that I've been residing in Cotonou, a port city in a country called Benin in West Africa. Benin celebrated it's 50th Anniversary of Independence from France on the 1st of August 2010. No less than fourteen countries ceased to be French colonies in 1960.The very same year,Belgian Congo became the independent republic of Zaire , and Somalia and Nigeria ceased to be part of the British Raj. With a billion plus inhabitants, massively well endowed with mineral resources and agricultural potential, and increasingly better governance, Africa is clearly the next big thing. May I humbly be the first to submit that Africa and its Billion be compared favourably in terms of its potential growth story with the other two billions that every commentator/wise ass with an opinion tirelessly fails to talk about viz. India and China. With abundant land, adequate water resources and more than adequate mineral resources (I'm reasonably confident that on a per capita basis Africa scores comfortably over India and China on each of these parameters) all Africa needs to be the next engine of world economic growth is access to good education and effective governance. On both these counts, I'm optimistic and believe that things are only improving.

Already in terms of GDP growth rate , African countries rank right up there. Have a look at the World GDP growth Rate comparison Map.Of the 54 recognized states that comprise Africa no less than 39 States figure in the top 100 fastest growing economies of the World ( Real GDP growth). Ethiopia one of the fastest growing GDPs in Africa clocks in at a nifty 5th , just ahead of India's 6th place and just behind China's 4th place. While South Africa remains the largest GDP in both real and PPP terms; countries like Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria aren't too far behind. All of these are vibrant and dynamic economies (South Africa included). Nigeria for example, with it's large population is an economy that drives or at the very least indirectly boosts the economy of several neighbouring countries like Benin, Niger, Cameroon,etc.

So the economic future of Africa, but for the rascally of its political classes, is well and truly something to watch out for.

The questions that go begging then, at this stage of the discussion, are quite clearly-What is the political scenario in these economies? How do they fare in terms of Governance? What is the score on poverty alleviance? How thus far, have governments here fared on social welfare metrics and indeed, on health care?

Answering these questions will surely deserve a more involved and better researched post than this one,but, for the moment , let me cap this article by coining an acronym rather akin to the famous BRICS but with fewer letters , it's one that's already familiar albeit in a different sphere but one that to my mind bears an important guiding light to the future of the world economy.

That acronym is CIA - or China, India and Africa. This is the new CIA of shifting world economic power. If this century is storied as the Asian Century, then barring human annihilation I can safely wager my all without an ounce of doubt that the next century will be the African Century.

Maybe CARIBINS to include Brazil, Russia, Indonesia & South Africa ? Dunno..but this is going to surely have more follow up posts that's a promise!!

On my Changing Blog persona...and two brilliantly funny posts

2009-11-12T05:34:00.004+05:30

Used to be that my earliest blog posts were so much more interlaced with humour..reading through a few of them reminds me gently that sometimes I wrote assuming I was the greatest funny writer available on the planet when I wasn't... at other times I'd say I've managed to frame a few lines of brilliant humour that even now strikes me as not too bad at all...

But of late my posts have been less funny. In fact they haven't been funny at all..if funny was dynamite, then the funny in my last fews posts would be hard pressed to blow the kneecap off a mosquito... In fact, the last funny post on my blog was I recall not when, BUT,( to rhyme with duh! as George put it so well in his review of Wanted) I do appreciate good humour when I come across it and in recent blogdom nothing has come quite so close as these examples of fine funny writing one a movie review as only George Thomas could write it..and the other a muse out loud on the names of scandinavian kings by one of the sharpest minds I've had the misfortune of not interacting too much with - Kunal Sawardekar

Read, and enjoy!!!

On the new Twitter-er on the block...

2009-11-04T12:46:00.007+05:30

As always in keeping with my slightly late but dedicated adoption of new technologies, am now hooked to twittering. Had played with twittering a couple of years back but then it wasn't the phenomenon it is today.

I tweet @arkab Link HERE

Now you know...

On Daaru Parties Bygone...

2009-09-28T11:37:00.005+05:30

Yes, I used to drink like a fish and smoke large quantities of Nicotine per diem.Not only that, if there was vegetarian food offered to me I knew how to steer clear of it while letting off invectives at the poor soul who tried to offer it to me. Now, having given up Booze, Faggin AND Non Vegetarian food to boot, people might scarce recognize me. I know for sure a lot of my friends would take double or triple takes on hearing the news. Anyways, stumbled upon a blog by a close friend describing one drunken night about four years back, and it brought back some fun memories, so i couldn't help but copy paste the same here. So here it is - apologies to Das who really comes off worse in this story than the facts suggest. In fact, I'd rate him as the most fun person I've ever had booze with. Anyways, here's the (hi)story :

The Great Indian Daaru Party - 1st July 2005

I catch the first day 7pm show of Sarkar and rush to Bandra to meet up with my dear Iconos (members of my engineering group ICONOCLASTS) Das and Arka who are waiting for me at Toto's. I enter at around 10.30 pm to see our dudes on Pitcher No. 1. Arka seems comfortably high and is repeatedly told by the bar owner NOT TO DANCE. I ask Arko to chill and he is like: "Arrey bahut dekhe hain isske jaise... Maa %@#@# dalenge! We order Picther No. 2 at this point.

At around 11 pm, my colleague Surbhi joins us. Arko, the babe magnet, doesnt waste time chatting her up and soon the two are on back-slapping terms. We find a place to sit finally. By now, I have given Das enough gyaan about how engineering was a waste of time and now he has these 2 years at NICMAR to make it in life. Soon enough two more colleagues Shweta and Aparna join us. By now Arko and Das are totally freaking out on Whisky and Tonic. Das is totally sloshed while the rest of us are really HAPPY!

Das keeps entering conversations with gems like:
What, you motherfaacker! OR
What Shit she talking? OR
Shaat Aaap! You are South Indian (to my colleague Aparna).

Its 1:30 am and the place has closed down almost. Das has been in the loo for half an hour now. I go and get him out. Boy is he drunk! And now we bright (and drunk) people decide its a good time to go to a disc and dance.

So we take rickshaws and reach Shooters in Bandra. the girls go in first and the bouncer stops us as he thinks he cant allow Das in as he is too drunk. The ever intrepid Arko, balancing a semi-conscious Das on his able shoulders decides to give the bouncer a piece of his mind and while he is doing so Das does the unthinkable...

He pukes full blast on the bouncer and arko! While Arko goes off to wash himself and his bag, I seat Das on the steps near the disc.

I break out into an uncontrollable fit of laughter (2 mugs of beer ka effect) at the sight that surrounds me: Das eyes closed muttering to himself "Main theek hu" , Arkos washing vomit off his bag, a highly perplexed and distressed bouncer, and two women inside the disc who dont have a clue about the mayhem outside.

By now, Arkos and me are back to our senses, so Arko calls KT and takes Das to his place, while I go into the disc, gather the women and drop them home. All in all, a night to remember for a long long time.

Phew......

Snap!!!

Feel Free to comment below... :D

On Lords of Poverty...

2009-09-25T00:29:00.004+05:30

Graham Hancock's books have always been excellent reads. See this earlier post of mine. Got my hands on another book of his today, will surely post a review once done but when you read this upfront:

" Lords of Poverty is dedicated to those senior staff at the World Bank who illegally acquired and read my original synopsis in the early days of this project. By attempting to limit my access to inside information they convinced me that the aid business does indeed have much to hide."

and when a dedication like that is followed by this poem:

The development set

Excuse me, friends, I must catch my jet
I'm off to join the Development Set;
My bags are packed, and I've had all my shots
I have traveller's checks and pills for the trots!

The Development Set is bright and noble
Our thoughts are deep and our vision global;
Although we move with the better classes
Our thoughts are always with the masses.

In Sheraton Hotels in scattered nations
We damn multi-national corporations;
injustice seems easy to protest
In such seething hotbeds of social rest.

We discuss malnutrition over steaks
And plan hunger talks during coffee breaks.
Whether Asian floods or African drought,
We face each issue with open mouth.

We bring in consultants whose circumlocution
Raises difficulties for every solution --
Thus guaranteeing continued good eating
By showing the need for another meeting.

The language of the Development Set
Stretches the English alphabet;
We use swell words like "epigenetic"
"Micro", "macro", and "logarithmetic"

It pleasures us to be esoteric --
It's so intellectually atmospheric!
And although establishments may be unmoved,
Our vocabularies are much improved.

When the talk gets deep and you're feeling numb,
You can keep your shame to a minimum:
To show that you, too, are intelligent
Smugly ask, "Is it really development?"

Or say, "That's fine in practice, but don't you see:
It doesn't work out in theory!"
A few may find this incomprehensible,
But most will admire you as deep and sensible.

Development set homes are extremely chic,
Full of carvings, curios, and draped with batik.
Eye-level photographs subtly assure
That your host is at home with the great and the poor.

Enough of these verses - on with the mission!
Our task is as broad as the human condition!
Just pray god the biblical promise is true:
The poor ye shall always have with you.

- Ross Coggins

Well , you know right then that come rain or hail, it's going to be a damn entertaining read.

P.S.: Sitting here in Francophone Africa I can easily identify with what he's probably going to say in his book.

P.P.S: Me extremely happy to see my reading habit reviving un peu in francophone Africa ( By Jove,it's not easy to find English books here!!!)

On Life not being too bad...

2009-09-03T16:20:00.006+05:30

Manali happens to be absolutely a gadget freak and one those people who keep changing mobile phones more frequently than you or I would change clothes. But it's been a while since she's last changed her phone, and so when she went all ga-ga about the new Iphone 3Gs White with its 32 Gb memory and this and that avec bells and whistles , I just gave in...

...And got hooked myself ( people who have seen me with my endless string of abused lower end reliance phones can vouch for me not being even remotely in the same universe as gadget freaks )...but oh yes !!!... the iphone is IT..indeed eet ees!!

And that's why I now have bought myself ( an even smarter looking, but perhaps less feature turbo charged) iphone 3G 16 gb Black :

Oui, C'est vrai, mon ami..la vie, ce n'est pas mal pour le moment !! :D