Amir and Deepika Playing Badminton

I know this is stale. But, given your busy lives I think you might not have checked this out.



Aamir does take things seriously. See the way he is moving in the court and that too against likes of Prakash Padukone and Aparna Popat. Got this news from Aaamir's blog which I was visiting after a long long time (given my busy life as well).

Got really bad news about Aamir and Kiran loosing their child. Despite of all the money and medical advice they were unable to prevent the miscarriage. Incidents like these do make you believe in the presence of some supreme power who has a script ready for all of us. On that note, well, it's the beginning of Ganesh Chaturthi as well as the holy month of Ramzaan today. For the next one month Hyderabad will be abuzz with festivities.

God bless Aamir and his family and hope they come out of their grief soon. And god bless you all. Hope no grief could ever touch you.

The GAS War Intensifies..

The GAS war has intensified as Government has set up a panel to discuss the issue. With each new advertisement, ADAG is digging deeper into their allegations and some of these are serious allegations like Corruption, Hoarding, Profiteering, Creating Artificial Scarcity etc. The point is that had ADAG not believed into the evidence that they have, they might not have spitted the venom out in the press. Clearly, they want a public debate more than a judicial debate.



This advertisement blitzkrieg by ADAG has raised eyebrows across the political and corporate circle. But now the debate has turned towards petty issues like whether the supreme court will take cognizance of this or whether the judiciary will completely ignore this and hear the case based on the pure facts and evidences brought in the court? I don't think anybody is discussing the more potent issue of corruption.

The media is debating the morality of this campaign. I think that the main purpose of this ad is to elicit a response from the two parties. Government and RIL. Ministry has to come out clear and RIL too have to take a stand.

We have so many reference points to decide about the price of the gas. Petroleum ministry has approved a price of 4.20$ for reasons unknown. DGH has earlier said that the cost of production is only 1.28$ per unit. That gives RIL a neat 300% margin. (--What's the problem with that? Indian gas is no more cheap boy! And also we are in habit of selling the national assets cheap. Did you forget the 2G auction? More on that here)

ADAG claims that the capex was inflated which would obviously inflate the cost of production. This inflated capex will result in loss of revenue for the govt. (--Are you talking about inflation? well who is worried about that? )

DGH or Director General of Hydrocarbons claims that their figure were validated by a third party Source Here . ADAG claims that this third property has conflict of interest with RIL Source here. Back to square one.

NTPC first decided to take RIL into court for the gas supply agreement that they signed some time back. Later they backtracked and it seems that a group of senior employees are content with the new prices decided by petroleum ministry. What's the reason? "Upar se order hai bhai".

Well, the debate has started and will continue till 1st of September when the apex court will decide on the fate of the shareholders of the two group. But till then, I think enough water will go down under the bridge. Just brace for RIL not to start offensive against ADAG group companies like ADLABS, RNRL and Reliance Communication.

Want some mirch masala on this issue? It's here.

IT IS ALL ABOUT GAS..

The 'Gas war' has started. The younger brother has sounded the war cry and has drawn the first blood with a blitzkrieg ad campaign which left the corporate circles abuzz with gas all around.

Corporate India woke up after a long weekend with this news piece on the front page of leading national dailies. Media was buzzing with discussions centered around this ad campaign. Rumors are that the spend is in millions of dollars which means, that there are more questions on this.

So it's sure that this 'War for Gas' will continue for sometime. We will see some counter ads because everybody knows that the Anil Ambani Group is also not the 'Sadhu' one. RIL also might be having some tricks up their sleeves. Anyways, it's hardly a coincidence that the person who was behind the 10 questions a day campaign against Rajiv Gandhi (Bofors Deal) might be the brain behind this Ad campaign as well. And that is Ram Jethmalani. I tried to do a search on his famous 10 questions but was not able to get anything as Indian Express Archives are available from 1997 only and the incident happened in 1989.

The stakes are high, the daggers are out, brethren is vouching for blood and gas and well, media will do all the 'gassing around' for the next few days. This will be an interesting 'war of gas'.

Top 60 Engineering Colleges in India..

There are so many university and college rankings available these days that nobody bothers about them anymore. What’s in the ranking dear? You will always have one to justify your decision. What’s more? You can have a customized ranking tailored made for your institute if you buy the right ad package.

Anyways, it’s more like 18 years since the first wave of privatization hit the country but still you will find IIT’s and IIM’s, Xaviers, LSR, Loyola, Presidency topping the chart. Partly, because they are senior citizens of the education industry respected by one and all. And partly because having these big names on the list adds to its authenticity. So, it’s better to have them there for the first few slots and then cleverly capture the “first best available slot”. I think soon we will have packages marketed like this -

A - If you spend this much then we might think of giving you fifth position?

B – But how? We have six institutes already who should figure in the list to make it look authentic?

A – Oh like that! Then we will give you the seventh position. We also have a package for ranking your competitors. If you are willing to spend this much then we can lower their ranks as well.

Anyways, the economics of ranking is something which does not come under right to information or you would have case studies on that.

Anyways, I stumbled on this piece of article in my favorite online news paper which aroused my curiosity. The authors have tried to rank all the institutes based on a common parameter. What makes this ranking different is that the data is available in public domain and is purely objective. Though it’s the only parameter chosen but still is in a better position to tell the tale about the state of engineering institutes in India.

And if you are wondering why suddenly out of blue I am posting this article on my blog. Then well, I went to the engineering school listed at 23rd position. Good to see that they have got the name and the place right.

More on the ranking here

The report can be read/downloaded from here.

A good start to the Extravaganza called IPL.

What a day of cricket it has been? IPL really has changed the cricket otherwise who would have expected to see two great cricketing brains (Shilpa Shetty and Mandira Bedi (Pun intended!)) analyzing the performance of the likes of Dravid and Warne? After India's and Pakistan's first round exit at the last world cup anything is believable but then certainly nobody would have believed that Rajasthan Royals would be routed for the lowest total ever in the IPL and that too by Royal Challengers who finished just before the last team in the previous edition.

I am sure that the organizers would gloat about the presence of Hollywood stars as well but then, this was the day of extra-ordinary cricket by the two teams, who were at the fifth and seventh position last year. And man! What else could be better for a fan of classic test cricket than to watch Rahul Dravid hitting one of the biggest sixes of the match? Nothing could delight me more than watching a retired cricketer like Anil Kumble taking five wickets in four overs. Nothing could be more beautiful than watching a vintage Shane Warne still moving the ball at his will. Still capable of drawing the batsmen forward into the drive and then turning the ball to clip the top of the leg stump. It’s really an eye candy to watch Shane chit chatting with the likes of Praveen Kumar and then our ‘desi’ boy clubbing him over the top for a six. The format might have changed but then the spirit has not and that’s really good for the cricket.

It was a really incredible day for Indian cricket and well this is something for which IPL can take credit. I mean! this is a format, where you can see a certainly young Dhoni, taking on a vintage Tendulkar and then you wonder why Tendulkar refused captaincy or have decided to opt out of the national team in this shorter version of the game? Well, half into the second match of the season and you watch Rahul Dravid clubbing a slower ball from Munaf Patel and sending it deep down the deep midwicket boundary. You wonder that is this the same guy who was sent packing out of the one day squad last year? Or is this the same old fox ‘Kumble’ who hanged his boots last year? But then at the same time some body might be thinking that have they made a bad choice in the form of South Africa as the venue?

The ball does move here a bit.

This is a country where the ball does its own thing and it seems that a score of 170 – 180 could easily be the winning score. The boundaries are big and the crowd is and will be more interested in the ‘beer’ than watching the action in the middle. The conditions will be windy and younger players will be more likely to fail than their experienced counterparts. The bowlers will be no more at the mercy of the power hitters and well the way Praveen Kumar was moving the ball around both sides of the wicket must have delighted the likes of Irfan Pathan Zaheer Khan and Nathan Bracken. At the same time this also must have sowed the seeds of doubt in the minds of some big hitters of the game. Well, as the tournament will progress the pitches will suffer wear and tear and hopefully will become more flat but by that time it seems only the best will survive.

Moving the venue to South Africa seems to be good for the bowlers but then ‘twenty twenty’ is called slam bang cricket and my doubt is that it stands to loose a part of the audience it has attracted in the last season. So, we might see moves like removing the cap of 4 foreign players in the playing 11. It might be relaxed to five or even can go up-to six because you don’t expect some of the inexperienced domestic players to make an impact like they made last year.

Anyways, the first two matches were really a treat to watch. It was really delightful to watch the legends like Kumble, Sachin and Dravid rising up to the challenge and proving that ‘class’ is ‘the class’ and will always be the ‘class’. Though it’s too early in the tournament to predict the end but then be ready to see some spectacular performances from the oldies. Who were all written off by the critics not much ago.

Image courtesy this blogger.

The Making of the new 'Gandhi'

The latest in this whole drama is the plot to murder the 'new' Gandhi which according to police reports was hatched by the D- company. A person was suspiciously arrested and Karnataka Police immediately declared that the guy in-charge was here to plot the murder of Pramod Muthalik and Varun Gandhi. Well, these two gentlemen have become very famous in the past 2 months and all of this has been made possible by media. The national media is behaving more like communist party (wants all the power with no accountability). It's the combination of sheer shortage of good news items and the 24 hour broadcasting compulsion. that they are bound to generate newer sources of stories and to fill the 24 hour schedule by repeating them time and again by adding different flavours. 'Re-usability definitely matters'.

Anyways Karnataka is a BJP ruled state so hardly anybody will buy this argument that D-Company is hatching a plot to kill Varun but, then at the same time the news becomes credible in the light of the fact that for more than two decades this constituency and the neighbour districts have been the recruiting ground for the A, B, C and D companies. There are folklores about these companies and their master henchmen. Though no sane logic can justify Varun's hate speech but then many people feel that this incident is all a media blunder and the only proof is a video footage which can not even be defended in a court of law.

Well, this case will definitely become a good example of how media can change a boy who use to write prose and poems to a man who can single handedly hijack the election campaign of a national party. Within a matter of one month Varun' s image has been overhauled and suddenly he is in the league of extra-ordinary (controversial) people in politics. Well, he will win election or not only time can tell but it is sure that this person will live his life on the edge now and nothing of this has been possible without the help of media.

Varun has denied making the speech and he is sticking firm to his stand partly because his legal advisers would have told him that the CD can not be defended in the court of law and partly because his political advisers would have told him that "make a small concise statement and wait for the media to interpret it. The more the merrier". Well, it is really surprising that though statements came into light after a gap of around 2 weeks, none of the TV channels actually dug deep to verify the source of the news item. They just broadcasted it like they broadcast popular "You Tube" videos.

More surprising was the fact that even election commission did not do any sort of verification and simply pronounced their decision against him. Had the decision based on some credible evidence (a bit more than what was already available in public domain) then probably this episode would have died down but then it was all about luck by chance. BJP stayed defiant against EC as no credible evidence was provided against Varun and also because they are already protesting against one of the members Navin Chawla. Congress who blatantly disregarded the advise of Chief Election Commissioner regarding suspension of Chawla is not upping the ante against BJP to heed to the advise of the election commission and criticizing them for inaction againt Varun. "Sab ek hee thaali ke chatte batte hain".

Varun was finally jailed and it just made the right kind of news. Article 144 was enforced in the town of Pillibhit and the entire national media covered the whole event. The live telecast and repeat telecasts made Varun one of the most talked about subjects of the month. The politics immediately followed. NSA was slapped against Varun and is mainly because BSP does not want him to campaign in the state. It's almost sure that he is not likely to repeat the same sentiments during his election speech but he will definitely snatch some Hindu votes from BSP. BSP is worried because the alienation of Brahmins from Brahmin-Dalit vote bank will severely dent Maya memsaab's chances of becoming the prime minister.

Well, the UP government's quick action which was supposed to keep this person behind the bars will definitely not succeed because, the same media which was talking about stern action against this man, will turn against Mayawati. They will telecast and repeat telecast stories of the political motivated action against him. One way or another, Media will keep getting their stories, news channels based on their broad strategies, will keep adding masala to simple news items and then at the end of the day, everybody will realize that a new Gandhi is born. Political analysts will soon start comparing him to his late father Sanjay Gandhi .The same Gandhi who commanded really strong influence over his late mother and at one point of time was regarded even more powerful than Indira. Time will tell whether Congress takes him in his fold (seems unlikely because of his mother) or BJP brands him as their reply to the Gandhi family. Either way Varun is set to make many more headlines. Good that he has discovered this art early on in his political life (like another cunning politician Lalu) and we all will see whether he can master this art over time.

"Bhai Ho" A fitting reply to Jai Ho.

I was watching this video on You Tube which looks amateurish but still drives the point home and is a fitting reply to the "Jai Ho" campaign by Congress. Well even A. R. Rahman agrees to this fact that "Jai Ho" is not among his best of creations but still it's a perfect example of "Bahti Ganga mein haath dhona" loosely translated, it's similar to swimming with the tide.

So Congress paid a good price to buy the rights of this song. (Well not sure but still I think that the ruling party might have passed a part of the cost to taxpayers like us). Anyone remember which was the most repeated ad during last IPL? Well, it was the "Bharat Nirman" ad. The giant 90 second ad sung by Kailash Kher (the second video in this post). I think that the ad money came from our taxes only as it was done much before elections and government could easily pass off the expenses in the name of awareness campaign for government programs. Well anyways, it seems that BJP has just elbowed the "Jai Ho" ad out of their way. But, I guess it needs a little fine-tuning. They should seriously start thinking of building around this concept which the party claims is sent by some well wisher. In that case, Jai Ho.

News ke peeche ka news..

Sorry for the title, It seems that slowly my blog is more and more becoming a Hindi blog. Anyways harz hee kya hai?

So was just going through some newspaper articles to kill time. I can't tell you but I really want to watch Sachin and Dravid bat together in a test match because it may be their last New Zealand tour together and for Dravid this country has always been special. It was here where he shed his tag of being a slow batsmen and later in the same year was the highest scorer in the world cup. As the timings are little odd, here I am. Up at 3 am in the morning waiting impatiently for the match to start.

Well, I was reading through ibnlive.com and immediately went on to read some masala news. It seems that they had a little quiz about who is the highest paid actress in Bollywood. They show pictures of Katrina, Aish and Kareina in that order and suddenly there is a fourth picture of a smiling girl who they say is charging 13-15 crore for a movie. And can you believe this that she is Freida Pinto? Well, may be, somebody tipped this exclusive news to this channel. Maybe tomorrow it will become breaking news on some other channel as well. But pata nahin who is paying this girl 15 crore for a movie? That too when her only claim to fame is 15 minutes of 'disguised documentary' Slumdog Millionaire. Phir pata nahin 15 crore kis baat ke? Naa hee to itni sundar hai aur naa hee itni popular.

Anyways, it seems that surely this counter has not been hit by slowdown yet. But well, isse pahle ki lene ke dene pad jaayein (I mean about a time when she has to pay some money to the producers to cast her in a lead or second lead role) hope she slows down a bit. If not, then Ye Mumbai hai meri jaan.

image courtesy - http://ibnlive.com

IPL is gone finally..

The cat and mouse game between IPL and Govt. of India is over and the final verdict just confirms the initial speculation but after lot of drama. BJP leaders immediately jumped onto the scene and accused government for letting IPL go. Congress will counter this attack by highlighting the relationship that Modi shared with erstwhile Rajasthan chief minister whom Lalit use to address with the nickname "Vasu" (and one of the reason why Jaipur got a franchisee last year and probably the reason why Jaipur was denied any matches in this edition). Also, the other leader who has just leveled the accusation has his last name common with the "karta dharta of IPL" (and because Ahmedabad was likely to get a franchisee soon).

No wonder if you hear the news about BJP wooing Sharad Pawar in the name of IPL as Pawar was the guy who ultimately had to bargain with the government. Anyways I think the government is right by denying IPL the permission for this year. Arre bhai itna bada political circus is already under the way? Who needs distraction?

Well there are some reasons why IPL should be held in India and first of all the name itself is Indian Premier league. It's really a shame if Indian premier league is to be hosted by England or Australia for that matter. Leaving aside the 'I' connection, I think the business needs are more compulsive. Just imagine -

If it is not for India or Indians then who will really bother playing 7 Indian players in the match?

Difference in Time zones will make the IPL TV coverage less lucrative for both franchisee and the sponsors. At the same time the costs will go up unless they play in Bangladesh.

I don't think that the stadiums will get the same capacity crowd in some foreign country. What worked in India (the quantity of the matches) might not work in the Videshi land. I don't find lots of Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers or Kolkata Nightridders in let's say Tunbridge Wells.

So it's a blot on the homeland security (forgive me, I know there is no homeland security thing in India but the word looks lot cooler) and the home ministry and it's foolishness on the part of the organizing authority to ask for police protection. It also raises a basic doubt that why government should provide security to an event being organized by private parties? Had IPL paid anything to the home ministry for the public/state services availed by them? "Hmmmm a nice Right to Information idea". Well, even if it's there can't the organizing authorities be a little more sensitive to the larger issue at hand like holding free and fair elections?

Well, anyways this will be definitely good for the Kolkata Knight Riders's cheerleaders if Shahrukh really allows them to travel with the team. Good hai.

Sakshat Jhoot. $ 10 Laptop a "WHITE" Lie.

Around six months back this news piece speculated that India is developing a $10 laptop and also a low cost access device. And see the speed of research and development that within six month our HRD minister even unveiled it. And wow! just after first look at this device you want to shout. What a lie and man see the color. It's actually a BIG WHITE LIE and nowhere near a laptop. The name couldn't have better "Sakshat Jhoot" which means total lie.

Kaun hai Garibon ka dushman? Kaun hai jo baar baar garibi ka majaak uda jaata hai? Kaun hai jo bhagwan ke darbaar mein khade hokar bhi jhoot bolta hai, logon ko dhokha deta hai? Well, who is this publicity crazy guy who doesn't even know the difference between $10 and $100 and for that matter the difference between a storage device and a computer? It's none other than our honorable HRD minister whose hunger for publicity has made India and Indian technology a laughing stock in the western and Indian Technical press.

His claim to fame is the famed Indian project of 10$ laptop which was finally unveiled in Tirupati (Bhagwaan ka darbaar). This is an excerpt from what our press reported about the unveiling function.

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Arjun Singh had an interaction with the vice chancellors of the remote states like Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur to prove the point that the device will be able to bring about high quality networking among the various institutions of higher education and also increase the skills of e learning of the students in rural areas. (Source - Rediff.com)
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Out of the three things mentioned about this device - high quality networking among various institutions of higher education, increase the skills of e learning and most importantly the 10$ price tag is all a big bad joke played by minister and his office. The western media was surprised about this project whose details were made public without even a feasibility analysis. Well due to some publicity hungry people the target population is confused and the whole bunch of media is reporting it as a big joke played on student community. Wo to IIT and IISC involve they so maan bhi gaye nahin to pahle se pata tha ki kya hoga.

Anyways, this is election year so you can expect some nuisance but something of this magnitude can come from the stable of this old timer only. His humor is well known but what is sad that this episode will bring a bad name to the partner institute like IIT Chennai and IISC Bangalore. I don't understand the compulsion to go public with the prototype which looks like a cigarette case with cables attached to it. Huh made for each other. I want to laugh at the audacity of same people who go on to put it on record that some components were developed by students. I agree, it do look like a prototype that we use to present during annual model exhibitions. And most of the engineering students know from where the components come from. "Kanhi ka cement, kanhi ka roda, Bhanumati ne kunwa joda" kind.

And our elite press whose technical knowledge comes out very well with this episode. None of them had the modesty to dig deeper into the device, the technology and into the press release. It seems that they published verbatim whatever was handed over to them even before the minister(s) started their bhashan about how this machine will change the life of Indians.

Well everyone is laughing now and those who will see the device will definitely laugh too. Meanwhile one thing is sure that some very very senior people do not differentiate between $10 and $100 and also between a pen drive and a computer. Well, a 2 GB pen drive is available for Rs 200 now (5$). Download a portable free Operating System from web. Install it on a pen drive and it becomes your Government of India laptop at half the price and double the memory.

Next is what?
A 20 $ scooter? Arre bhai kya hua jo tumhe tyre, engine, piston alag se lagana pade, aakhir scooter ka frame bhi ko bhi to scooter hee kahte hain" Kyon Vice Chancellor Sahab? Theek kahe naa?

Chalo! Jaane de jaane de thodi hawa aane de.