Continue reading »]]> Disclaimer: This letter is not written by me. I got this in email from a retired Army veteran. Since I agree to everything written in this letter, I thought of sharing it with all of you.

The whole nation is proud that the cricket team has won the world cup after a gap of 28 years since 1983. There were jubilations/celebrations all around hailing Dhoni and his men in blue. Even the Chairperson of UPA Mrs Sonia Gandhi did not lag behind and was seen mixing with the crowd to be part of the frenzy. Starting from the ICC, States, corporate’s, railways everyone has come forward to shower praise and money/wealth on to the players to endorsing brands making them richer by a couple of crores. No hard feelings. The team has done a good job and deserves a pat.

Now that the euphoria of the cup is waning it is time to do some introspection as to how the country views its war heroes and what the Govt / State offers them to sacrifice their lives at the alter of duty.

Each player would get Rupees One crore from the BCCI in addition to its share from the ICC, 2cr for Dhoni and one cr each for the four Delhi boys; land/house to Dhoni & Sachin by the Uttarakhand Govt; one cr to Sachin and Zaheer by Maharashtra Govt; one cr to Yuvraj and Harbhajan by Punjab Govt; land to Dhoni for cricket academy in Jharkhand; Housing plots to team members by karanatka Govt; Audi to Yuvraj and lifetime railway pass to travel by first AC to all .

The team partied at the same Taj Hotel which was the battle ground on 26/11 & witness to many a soldier giving up his life. Major Unnikrishnan who died while fighting the terrorists is yet to receive his complete NOK entitlements. He gave his today for the tomorrow of others so that they can party all night without any threat.

The world Cup finals at Mumbai was held under safe environments with the army, navy, coast guard, NSG and what not to ensure the conduct of the match without a hitch. Remove the men in uniform and see if the events pass smoothly, be it CWG games or cricket match.

The Kargil War has still its shadows on the number of officers/jawans who laid their lives to protect the nation and its territorial integrity. What the recipients of Param Vir Chakras/Mahavir & Vir Chakras got in comparison to the cricket boys is known to all (peanuts). What the families of the dead go through can only be experienced by them. Having a decent living is hard to come by. It’s passé as far as the nation is concerned. There is no crib here, but for the value of blood, shed for others to have a peaceful life. The railways is not prepared to honour the percentage concession given to the war heroes in stark comparison to a lifetime FIRST AC FREE PASS throughout the country along with a aide to the cricket stars. Let us not forget the Kabul blast in which a Brig was also blown up with a bureaucrat.  The Babu got all the cake and the icing, the Brig was treated as a casualty. The PM went and paid homage to the babu and his family, the Brig got the traditional ‘Shok Shashtra’. The naked truth is known to all but yet our tolerance levels are very high and we continue to be downgraded/kicked around and accept with a smile.

Many have written to the PM on lot of issues without success. The PM himself is a seasoned bureaucrat. Perhaps it would be wise to remind him that one day he too would go away. When the PM passes away, the Generals will stand guard on his coffin and carry it to the pyre and sound the last post; it is for the PM to think whether he has done his bit towards those who guard the nation and would be part of his last entourage till he melts away.

Where do we go from here? Should we be a silent spectator to the happening around us or should we form part of the Anna Hazare team and mobilize people on the lines of Egypt or pass away into oblivion. I leave this thought with you.

Continue reading »]]> I wanted to tell you about some of the windows apps, we have developed recently. All of them are free. They are available on Intel’s AppStore called AppUp. Also available in India via Croma.

Some of our Apps are:

1. Holidays & Festivals
2. BMI Calculator
3. US Holidays
4. US State Finder
5. Unit Converter – Winner of $15000 Award in Intel AppUp Contest.
6. Diwali

You need to do following things to download our free apps. Please download them and share your feedback with us. You can post your review directly on AppUp as well.

1. You need either Windows XP SP3 or Windows 7 OS installed on your computer.

2. You need to first download latest version of AppStore from www.appup.com or you can directly use this link – http://downloadmirror.intel.com/19332/eng/IntelAppUpcenter-windows-installer.exe

3. Once you install AppUp on your computer, you will need to register for a free account. Its a simple process.

4. Now you are ready to search and install many free apps from the app store. To search our apps – type ‘palewar’ in the search.

Please let us know if you need any more info.

Please help us in spreading word about our apps.

Continue reading »]]> I read the book Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat long time back and I liked it a lot. I have also watched the movie 3 Idiots and have to accept the movie was way better than my expectations. Even with some very filmy scenes, I think Raju Hirani has come up with a wonderful script and a movie in the same league as MunnaBhai series.

Movie is indeed different from the book although theme remains the same and is really a must watch, controversy or no controversy.

I was expecting to see Chetan Bhagat’s name in the opening credit, but it wasn’t there. I couldn’t spot his name even in the closing/rolling credits. I will be lying if I say I didn’t find it strange. I was surprised why Bhagat doesn’t have anything to say about it. Finally he spoke after a few days and controversy erupted.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Hirani and Aamir slammed Bhagat in various press conferances terming him as publicity hungry etc. etc. Bhagat himself on his part did various TV interviews and wrote blog posts, 4 to be precise. Vinod Chopra decided to make the contract with Bhagat public at his site and also listed 30 reasons why movie is not same as the book. Media went ga-ga with the controversy, everybody wrote about it. Vir Sanghvi’s take on the whole issue is available on his website and I really like what he has written and agree with all of it.

Latest is a video from Raju Hirani himself which many say proves all the allegations by Bhagat wrong. Well I don’t agree and really don’t understand why they don’t see, what I see.

Here are my 2 cents on all the 3 allegations which Hirani seems to have successfully proved wrong:

1. Video shows what Chetan wrote on the blog about story being copied and then Raju interprets it in the video as the allegation of story being stolen. Chetan wrote what he wrote because he was not given credit for the story. People should understand that this is a different issue than the ‘Based on Novel’ credit issue and two should not be confused with each other.

This issue occurred because Hirani and VVC simply gave no credit to Chetan for the story. Instead they went on to prove that movie is different from the book and thus implying that Bhagat deserves no credit for the story.

I fully agree that movie is different from the book and 3i teams has done a fab job with the plot modification and screenplay, however it still has FPS connection and hence Bhagat’s name should be there as Story Writer. Bhagat is not asking for exclusive story writing credit. He clearly mentions on the blog that he is happy to share the credit with other 2 story writers viz Hirani and Abhijat Joshi.

Chetan accepts selling rights to VVC and co so I think Hirani’s comment are totally out of context.

2. Video then shows Chetan writing that he was denied due credit and Hirani shows the contract where it’s clearly written that he will be given credit in the rolling credits. I can’t agree or disagree with that statement but when Hirani goes on to say that they honored the contract to the T, I have strong objection to that statement.

I will first request you to check out the page 4 of 9 page long agreement between Bhagat and VVC films and then compare it with the actual ‘Based on Novel’ credit in the movie.

I have them both side by side here for you:

3. Finally Hirani says that Chetan alleges that he was not shown the script and he says that he narrated the script to himself personally and got an NDA signed. Now Chetan himself has already clarified on the blog that he was not shown the script, he never denied hearing narration. He himself says that hearing a narration is different from having a script in your hand and reading it fully so again I think Hirani is just confusing it.

So here is my final take on this whole issue:

I think VVC and Hirani just thought that Bhagat is a small writer and they can just ignore him and also probably they believed that since they have modified the story, no credit should be given to original author. I am not saying that such things don’t happen ever and VVC and Hirani committed a big crime or something, but ya they probably in the excitement and enthusiasm of creating a great movie, which 3I really is, forgot to be ethical and as Vir Sanghvi says graceful.

Having said that this does not change my admiration and liking of anybody involved in the controversy. I love movies from Hirani and Aamir, they sure have a strong message and I will look forward to more such movies from them in future and I love Chetan Bhagat’s writing so will keep looking forward to more books from him as well

Continue reading »]]> I really struggled to think of a suitable title for this post. There are so many things about this innovative tent concept that you just can’t describe it with a few words.

1. Do you notice that the tent is glowing in night as shown in the image to left? Now isn’t that cool. Here is how exactly it works. You send a SMS to your tent and it starts glowing to tell you its location, so that you don’t loose it

Now I don’t know how many people will actually like to use wi-fi or charge their mobiles while camping but I think automatic heating, night glow will definitely be handy and charging can be used to charge cameras as well. So let me know what do you think about this tent concept? Thanks for reading