Transport Phenomena

This is why I have not posted anything ...

2009-10-12T21:03:00.001-05:00

A typical day in the life of an overworked MBA student ...

Elections in India ... need for reform

2009-05-26T09:27:00.004-05:00

Its been a very long time since my last post, and a lot has happened since ... the latest development has been the reelection of Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister in India. I have been motivated to write this post after reading Niket's post on the election. I started writing a comment on his blog, and at some point it became too big for a comment, and decided to post it on my own blog instead. Here it comes ...
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A concern I have had with the Indian parliamentary process: the lack of a 'run-off' to see who really has the mandate. Nearly every constituency has tens of candidates contesting the election. And in a large number of them, the majority of the votes are split between 3-4 major candidates. So we often have the winning candidate getting say 29% of the votes cast. Is that really a mandate?

I wonder what % of the votes cast went to the UPA coalition - I am sure it's well below the 50% of the seats that they actually hold in Parliament. Definitely not the people's vote, is it?

In many Presidential systems around the world, there is a runoff if no one gets an outright majority - heck, we even have runoffs for elections to positions in business school. But in a parliamentary system, how does one achieve a runoff? The system was inherited from Britain where its primarily a 2-party game, and worked in India for so many years where there was just one dominant party. But would it work in today's fragmented political environment, the present setup just doesn't seem right. An example of that is the elections in Maharashtra. The Shiv Sena has always been dominant, especially more so in Mumbai. But this time, the Congress swept it all - did they have a clear win? No, I think not (again I would have loved to make this argument with numbers to back me up, any help would be appreciated). Raj Thackrey's MNS was clearly able to get a significant chunk of the Shiv Sena's votes, allowing the Congress to take advantage of the situation. This was clearly a situation where a runoff would have helped the Shiv Sena not lose this battle, and yet allow the people to determine a clear victor - also eliminate some of the 'king making' opportunism that we see from the regional parties these days.

Its hard enough holding direct elections and counts for 400 million voters, but to do a runoff? Almost surely out of the question. Perhaps an electoral college type of setup? They use that for Presidential elections in India anyway. Not sure what a practical solution would look like! Any suggestions?

Reclaiming lost numbers ...

2008-05-13T22:01:00.003-05:00

That the green-card system in the US is quite messed up is pretty well known. Every year, about 140,000 green cards can be issued in the "employment-based" (EB) categories. The inefficiencies in the processing has meant that over the years, lots of these go unused (currently estimated at ~ 218,000). Obviously, this unused figure is not because of a lack of applicants.

Congress did not foresee this situation arising, and never provided for the unused visa numbers to roll over to the next year. As a result, the only way to "reclaim" those lost green card numbers is by new legislation. Even in the best case scenario, the USCIS seems to be able to use about 95% of the visa numbers. As a a result, this new legislation is almost imperative.

So finally, Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) introduced a bill (H.R. 5882) two weeks ago to “recapture” employment-based (EB) green cards that Congress authorized in the past but that went unused before the end of the fiscal year because of government processing delays. Being an election year, its unlikely that the visa numbers will get increased - this bill getting through seems to represent a best-case scenario for those waiting for years to get their GCs. Zoe Lofgren has been at the forefront of the greencard debate - no surprises, she represents most of San Jose and Santa Clara (where Indian, Chinese and Hispanics dominate the populace), just smart politics I suppose. No wonder she is serving her seventh term in the House.

Hopefully, the bill prevails and prevails soon ...

Waste of resources ...

2008-05-13T09:40:00.003-05:00

Every year, I get 3 big fat telephone books and yellow pages. This is despite the fact that I do not own a land line (although I did own one till about 2 years ago). Yesterday, I took all my phonebooks, some old magazines and some old newspapers and dropped them off at the local recycling center. Now, I ended up driving about 12 miles extra to drop off the stuff (which weighed about 45 lb, most of it was the phone books). It got me wondering ... was it worth going out of the way to drop it for recycling (as against just dumping it in the regular trash)?

I am trying to figure out answers to the following questions:
* The cost of the gas not withstanding, was the pollution from driving 12 miles justified by recycling 45 lb of paper?
* Why do I get those big fat phone books at all? I never even use them - whatever information I need I can get online! What a colossal waste ...
* Is there a better way for companies like AT&T or YellowBook to get money from companies who advertise in these publications and not dump so much garbage on society. Even if one believes that a good chunk of it gets recycled, its like trying to clean up a spill that never should have happened in the first place ...

Fear and Greed

2008-05-02T22:33:00.002-05:00

Quotable quote of the month:

I always say you should get greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy. But that's too much to expect. Of course, you shouldn't get greedy when others get greedy and fearful when others get fearful. At a minimum, try to stay away from that.

-Warren Buffet (Fortune magazine)

Of course, easier said than done Mr. Buffet ...

50 + 5 years today ...

2008-04-25T09:07:00.004-05:00

Its DNA Day today (April 25) - it is 55 years since the day that James Watson and Francis Crick published their paper in Nature on the helical structure of DNA. It commemorates the day in 1953 when James Watson and Francis Crick's paper on the structure of DNA was published in the journal Nature. There is another reason why this day is such a landmark day - its exactly five years since the completion of the Human Genome Project. The HGP was a complex multidisciplinary scientific enterprise directed at mapping and sequencing all of the human DNA, and determining aspects of its function. A working draft of the human genome sequence was announced in June of 2000, an initial analysis was published in February of 2001, and a high-quality, reference sequence was completed in April 2003. This was a monumental event in science and the fact that it coincided with the 50th anniversary of one of the greatest breakthroughs in biology is just remarkable.

I therefore consider myself incredibly fortunate that I got an opportunity to listen to Francis Collins on this day. Francis Collins, MD, PhD, is the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He led the successful effort to complete Human Genome Project and has been at the forefront of pushing genomic research to improve human health.

As the understanding of the human genome grows and is applied towards developing diagnostic tests for genetic predisposition to diseases and therapeutics to treat them, it has also raised issues about legislation to protect patient rights. To make the story even perfect, the Senate unanimously passed legislation yesterday that prevents discrimination by insurance companies and employers based on genetic profiling. The news had not even hit the wires, when Dr. Collins made this announcement during his talk yesterday afternoon. The legislation has been stuck in Congress for about 10 years now, and will finally get signed into law within the next few days. Both the House and the Bush administration are expected to back it fully.

A remarkable day today ... DNA day ... celebrate some of the greatest scientific achievements of man, and pay tribute to the outstanding scientists whose hard work has brought us thus far.

Check out the superb chronological map of the progress in genetics from the early studies of Gregor Mendel to the completion of the HGP. It appeared in the April 24 issue of Nature (2003) and lays out the NHGRI's vision for the future of genomics research (Collins et al., Nature, Vol. 422, No. 6934, April 24, 2003, p. 835-847).

Return ...

2008-04-22T15:16:00.003-05:00

Its been nearly a year since my last post, and what an action packed year it has been - on both the personal and professional front. Several improvements at work, and then came the green card fiasco from the USCIS last summer. Then late summer and the entire Fall went in preparing applications to business schools. The process was exciting and incredibly exhausting, but its finally over. I will be headed to India for a vacation, and then relocating to join business school in July.

Hopefully, this blog will see more entries going forward.

Mr. Remi - I am Steven ...

2007-05-17T17:08:00.001-05:00

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson will be directing'Tintin' movies!! It seemed they signed a deal to make 3 Tintin animated movies - with Spielberg and Jackson each directing one, and the details of the third one yet to be decided. In case you are wondering who Mr. Remi is - he is Georges Remi (more commonly known as Hergé )

I have been a Tintin fan since my childhood, and am definitely looking forward to seeing the finished product. Jackson's special effects company Weta Digital will be providing the animation for the movies.

If the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is any indication, this should be a classic - same goes without saying when you look at Spielberg's resume. I can't wait to see Captain Haddock scream "Billions of blue bilious blistering barnacles in a thundering typhoon".

Fielding was not important till this happened

2007-04-05T19:33:00.001-05:00

Cricket was out of sight, out of mind - till the World Cup came along. It became useless again after India lost - now the drama shifts to the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai as the BCCI figures out what next.

In the meantime though, I started scouring YouTube for videos of the cricket matches gone by - and some great gems turned up.

No one knew Jonty till he blew out the stumps ...

This one made him a fielding legend.

Tendulkar vs Chappell

2007-04-03T20:27:00.001-05:00

Indian cricket is in turmoil - the debacle at the World Cup, a shameful premature exit, and now reports of a deep divide between the captain/coach (Dravid/Chappell) duo and the rest of the team that seems to have reached a point of no return. I personally believe that senior players like Tendulkar need to be let go - trust me, I enjoy watching Tendulkar just as much as anyone else, but this is getting to be too much. Now, when Chappell criticizes Tendulkar for not pulling his weight, Tendulkar reponds saying the coach is going to far. Some player went so far as to say,

"Does he understand the pressure Tendulkar is playing under before he
questions his fitness or attitude? .... Remember one thing, coaches come and go, but the boys are what is important. We have to play with each other through our careers."

Now I take exception to that - I agree that I cannot imagine how much pressure Tendulkar plays under - but then thats his job. He is not getting paid millions to just be a poster-boy for Airtel or whatever other brands he endorses. He is getting paid because he can get to the crease and score, and millions of Indians still believe he can. Thats no shield for not questioning his lack of performance. Either he is too old - in which case he should retire. If its not old age, and he is still not performing, its either his attitude or his fitness. And the idea that coaches come and go is ridiculous - it is the one of the biggest problems with Indian cricket - senior players permanently occupying spots in the team, despite a lack of performance. Lesser names would have long disappeared. The idea that boys are more important is ridiculous - you are professionals, be mature, grow up and perform!!

Compare that to professional athletes in sports like football in the US or even baseball - such statements will be looked upon as ridiculous. Non-performing athletes are cut as are non-performing coaches - as long as its clear who's non-performing. And in case of the Indian team, I don't think its the coach - its the players. So they are the ones who I hope will go, and give Mr. Chappell one more shot.

Gavaskar v/s Ponting

2007-03-17T17:41:00.001-05:00

India lost to Bangladesh today ... that certainly was rock bottom as far as World Cup aspirations go for India. On another note, a storm has been quietly brewing in the days leading up to the World Cup. Gavaskar's outburst against the Aussies and their on-field behavior provoked Ponting's predictable response about the famous Gavaskar walk-off from the field (1981 at the MCG) - certainly the low point of Gavaskar's illustrious career.

But things have gone one step too far - with Gavaskar bringing in the fact that David Hookes died of injuries suffered in a bar, an apparent example of the fact that the Aussies' off-field activities could land them in hot water. I was all with Gavaskar about the sledging and the taunting by the Aussies on-field - but that was just too tangential, off-track and downright personal and dirty. Certainly not a smart thing to say, and no surprise that it has come in from condemnation from Aussie cricketers.

Greg Baum uses these episodes to highlight the East-West divide in his article in the Australian newspaper The Age. Baum correctly argues - "Gavaskar invoked the late Hookes' name needlessly, carelessly and tactlessly. It did not belong in this dialogue." He also points out that such rhetoric can also bring forth extreme reactions from the public like someone calling in a radio program in Australia asking that Gavaskar's name be removed from the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The East-West divide is exemplified by his concluding remark:

Former Australian prime minister and cricket enthusiast Robert Menzies wrote once that Englishmen and Australians were of such like minds that "thankfully, we don't have to be too tactful". Between Indians and Australians, it is not so simple.

The World Cup is well and truly underway - and if the Aussies win again, with India perhaps not even making it to the Super 8 stage, it will be a needless point used in the above argument.

Beer launcher

2007-03-07T21:39:00.000-06:00

The ultimate weapon in a couch potato's armory - an robotic arm that extracts a drink from a fridge and propels it to your seat on the couch! A Duke University graduate has created just that - an automated way of extracting a beer can from his fridge and tossing it to him. This includes an elevator to bring the can out of the refrigerator before loading it into the catapult. The beer launcher is pretty darn cool and is sure getting some good publicity for its inventor John Cornwell.

Check out this video of the Beer Launcher

One thing I admire - the hands on skill of this guy! I have been to engineering school in India, but being hands-on is not a skill that is cultivated - at least not through the school curriculum (or perhaps the way it is enforced). The school system here in the US is quite good at encouraging this ...

Leonardo da Vinci would certainly have been proud of Mr. Cornwell.

Self-referencing

2007-03-07T18:59:00.001-06:00

The onion has a pretty neat article about Apple's latest new and revolutionary offering:

At a highly anticipated media event Tuesday at San Francisco's Moscone Center, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced a new Apple product he said would "revolutionize" the process of unveiling new products throughout the world.

About the new product (called iLaunch), Jobs said that it "will be able to make announcements from this, or any other stage, making human participation in generating consumer awareness almost entirely unnecessary." But what he concluded with really took the audience by storm

As his presentation wound down, Jobs said there was "one more thing" he wanted to mention: the iLaunch automatically saves a significant, salient product feature for the end of a presentation, to surprise and delight audiences.

"Do you want to know what the surprise of this unveiling is?" said Jobs to the eagerly nodding crowd. "The iLaunch itself generated this entire presentation, as well as this very surprise."

If you found the whole thing weird and hilarious, its because it is. Self-referencing can make things complicated as well as interesting. And when I showed the article to my brother (who is a fan of The Onion), he was immediately reminded of Godel, Escher and Bach, and had this to say

The Onion is entering "Godel, Escher, Bach" self-referential territory... i guess they could also have added that iLaunch also automatically generates news reports in satirical journals that closely mimic actual news reports, and in fact, that particular report was itself generated by iLaunch...

For the first time the "i" really means "I", as in "I launch myself" as opposed to "iLaunch launches iLaunch".

If all this sounds confusing, it is indeed that way (ask Bernard Wooley).

HWL

2007-02-27T22:59:00.000-06:00

The heights by great men reached and kept

Were not attained by sudden flight,

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night.

- H. W. Longfellow (The Ladder of St. Augustine)

200 years ago ....

2007-02-27T22:49:00.000-06:00

200 years ago on this day (Feb 27, 1807) was born one of the greatest American poets - certainly one of my all time favorites - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

In his memory, here is one of my favorites ...

A Psalm of Life
H.W. Longfellow

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,— act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

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There are other favorites too ofcourse - but this one is by far at the top of the list ...

New blog - apnafinance

2007-02-26T22:05:00.000-06:00

Just started a new blog a couple of days ago called apnafinance. While its still a solo effort so far, I hope that it will be a collaborative effort with a few more friends actively participating.

I envision the blog to be a common way to share thoughts and experiences about personal finance, stock research, investing, economy, India, outsourcing, and other related issues. I often get into discussions with a few friends over one or more of these topics. So I figured it would be a good idea to consolidate some of these at one location. The name apnafinance may not universally fit everything that is added there, additional blogs may get created as needed.

hours v/s business hours

2007-02-23T08:45:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I was on the phone with a call center representative of my bank. I asked for a change to be made on my account, and she replied that she would be glad to take care of it for me. And once she put in the request, it would show up on my account in less than 72 business hours. So I politely inquired if she meant 9 business days? She 'corrected' me by saying that it turns out to be 3 business days. I decided not to push the topic further and let that be. Then I asked for another change - she made that change, and again added that it would get done in 72 business hours.

At that point, I couldn't help but smile at the situation and thanked her for the help and hung up. All I can hope for is that she realizes the difference soon, and that she is not based in India (she didn't sound like she was - I can tell when the call center is in India, because no non-desi can pronounce my name exactly the way it is supposed to be!).

Cigarette smoking? no problem ... drink chai

2007-02-16T11:22:00.000-06:00

A bunch of Bengalis hypothesized that the oxidative stress caused by cigarette smoke could be countered by the antioxidants from black tea. So in order to test this hypothesis, they exposed guinea pigs to cigarette smoke from five cigarettes (two puffs/cigarette) per guinea pig /day for seven days [Yes, in exactly that amount!] and then gave them water or black tea to drink. As a control, they had another bunch of guinea pigs exposed to air instead of cigarette smoke. They measured the lung damage caused by the exposure.

They observed that cigarette smoke exposure indeed caused lung damage (surprise surprise ...!!), and not only that - the damage was prevented when the guinea pigs exposed to cigarette smoke were given black tea to drink instead of water.

Conclusion - lung damage from cigarette smoke can be prevented by drinking chai ...

The results have been accepted for publication in the Journal of Inflammation.

Black tea prevents cigarette smoke-induced apoptosis and lung damage
Shuvojit Banerjee , Palas Maity , Subhendu Mukherjee , Alok K. Sil , Koustubh Panda , Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay and Indu B. Chatterjee
J. Inflammation 4(3) , 2007, doi:10.1186/1476-9255-4-3

Newsflash: Major tobacco companies just announced strategic partnerships with Tata Tea and Hindustan Lever to market cigarettes with genuine Darjeeling and Assam tea that will prevent lung damage.

Novartis v/s the Government of India

2007-02-15T15:32:00.000-06:00

In my freshman year in college, i had a course on "Perspectives in Society, Science and Technology". It was essentially an introduction to the social and ethical ramifications related to the technology as I started on getting a Chemical Engineering education. It dealt with situations such as pollution, plastics, DDT, cleaner pesticides, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, severe mercury poisoning of Minamata Bay in Japan, the Bhopal disaster, and last, but not the least, the far reaching implications of the Indian Patent Act of 1970. The law had far reaching consequences for the Indian pharmaceutical industry. According to the law:

In the case of inventions-

(a) claiming substances intended for use, or capable of being used, as food or as medicine or drug, or
(b) relating to substances prepared or produced by chemical processes (including alloys, optical glass, semi-conductors and inter-metallic compounds),

no patent shall be granted in respect of claims for the substances themselves, but claims for the methods or processes of manufacture shall be patentable

In other words, this act prevented issuance of product patents in India for pharmaceuticals and drugs, while only processes to make drugs could be patented. This led to the development of India's formidable generics industry, which could reverse engineer manufacturing processes with remarkable efficiency, without having to spend billions to discover the drugs - today, this industry is led by Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Ranbaxy and Cipla.

While the act ensured that pharma industry in India was sheltered from the fierce competition from big pharma worldwide, India's entry to the WTO has changed all that. The WTO entry has resulted in the adoption of a new Indian Patent Act in 2005 - one which was supposed to spur the generics driven pharma sector from reverse engineering to innovation. While the rise in prices of new drugs was anticipated, it turns out that the new patent act seems to be very carefully designed to take into account the socio-economic situation in india and tries to enforce a lot of protections for the common individual to prevent big bad pharma from coming in and exploiting him. Kudos to the Indian government for ensuring this. I was not aware of this ...

In the aftermath of the new patent act has risen another controversy. Currently in the eye of this storm is the situation with Novartis' drug Glivec, which was denied a patent by the Indian Patent Office. The reason given was that the law does not allow patents for marginally modified drugs, which do not constitute a novel molecule or original invention. In response, Novartis has challenged the ruling and filed litigation against the Govt of India saying that some of the provisions of the new patent act be scrapped, because they violate WTO rules. Indian generic manufacturers are already selling generic versions of the drug at 10% of the price that Novartis was charging for Glivec.

Novartis has certainly stirred up a major situation, given how much the indian generics have managed to impact the availability of low cost drugs in third world economies. In fact - Indian generics companies supply 84% of the AIDS drugs that Doctors without Borders uses to treat 60,000 patients in more than 30 countries. Given this situation, its going to be very interesting (and important) to see how the judgement comes out in this case. The New England Journal of MEdicine has a very good 'Perspective' article on this - its a very good 'plain English' discussion on the situation. This issue has drawn a lot of attention in the pharmaceutical industry and among lawmakers around the world. US Congressman Henry Waxman wrote to the Novartis CEO Dr. Daniel Vasella saying “I do not dispute your right to apply for a patent or appeal a denial. I am concerned, however, that your attempt to influence domestic Indian law could have a severe impact on worldwide access to medicines.” He concluded his letter by urging Vasella, “to reconsider your position in this case.” He highlights the critical role played by the Indian generics industry in providing low cost drugs to the entire developing world, and making health care more affordable to a large number of people.

The case brings to the forefront an important issue - the role of governments in trying to protect the interests of their people seemingly in conflict with their role in driving innovation and development through the protection of intellectual property. Another fact highlighted is the strategy tried by large corporations to ensure that they reach their profit goals even at any cost, irrespective of the consequences. While I have clearly come across as a socialist in this matter, I don't quite disagree with Novartis' right to get appeal their patent denial or even the claim from pharma cos. that IPR protection is needed to spur innovation and improvements in treatments. I am actually quite supportive of the position that Waxman has taken about Novartis' challenge to the Indian law itself. I would however be quite keen to know how folks feel about this issue in general - esp Indians working in the pharma industry in the US.

The progress of the Novartis vs the Govt of India case will be closely watched all over the world, and the outcome will certainly have far reaching consequences on the future availability of low cost pharmaceuticals. I bet this will certainly be discussed in the "Perspectives in Society, Science and Technology" course for several years to come.

Resurrection

2007-02-13T16:16:00.000-06:00

About 6 months have passed since the last post on this blog. A lot of things have happened since, and I really mean a lot. These include

Its a new year ...
Federer has won another Grand Slam ... this time without dropping a set (he also won last year's Tennis Masters' Cup in Shanghai - giving James Blake a quickie tennis lesson)
I had a two month long trip to India ...
The BSE Sensex went up and down past 14000 a few times, the Dow has also had a few record breaking finishes
Saddam Hussain executed
Died - Milton Friedman, Rosa Parks,
Google bought YouTube for $1.65B
Rumsfeld is out of the Iraq situation
Shane Warne retired
Payton Manning actually won the Super Bowl
A new Windows OS was released - Vista; not only that, Microsoft finally came out the with IE 7
An iPhone was showcased by Jobs
Blogger has improved, and the blogs at blogger can be assigned tags now!! hear hear ...

If there have been more interesting events, I don't deny it ... these are the ones that seemed interesting at first glance (source Wikipedia of course!). But suffices to say that I plan to post a bit more regularly now ... let's see how things actually pan out ... after all, there is many a slip between the cup and the lip!

How artful can Roger get?

2006-09-11T06:47:00.000-05:00

I am starting to feel sorry for Roddick and all those hapless tennis players Federer beat on the way to winning the Australian, Wimbledon and the US Open ... at some point, folks have got to get exasperated and frustrated - we need more competition. In Formula 1, when Schumacher won so many in a row, they changed rules again and again till they ensured that competition got up to speed (literally) with him. But there is no such hope for the other players in tennis. They will have to figure out their own way to beat Federer. The blueprint is really quite straightforward really - hope for a miracle :) ... unfortunately, that happens only once a year (at the French Open, and only if you are named Nadal). Anyone else can take their place on the loser's list, there is no shame in that ... he is just that good. After a great third set, that was pretty close through the first 11 games, Federer figured he had had enough - pushed into overdrive and just like that , Federer had another slam to his belt. Federer is cocky, almost to the point of being arrogant:

[On the twelfth game of the third set] ...“He had a terrible game; I took advantage,” Federer said. “From then on, I didn’t look back. I started to feel better, play more freely, and in the end, I played unbelievable.”

... “It’s a feeling that you start to know where he’s going to serve,” Federer said. “You start to know you’re not going to miss the forehand winner, to know that he can’t attack you. It’s more those things that go on inside your head, and you know exactly what shot to hit when you serve. Those are very rare moments in sport, and I’m lucky to have them once in a while.” ....

It sounds incredibly pompous, but if you saw those last 8 games, you cannot help but nod your head ... its the facts, nothing else. It was a pleasure to see tennis like that ... enjoy it while it lasts. A generation from now, folks might will find it hard to believe that someone actually played like that on a tennis court. Its been a pleasure Roger ... but somehow my sympathy for Roddick has been climbing for a while now, and perhaps I may actually pull for him next time these two meet in a Grand Slam (mmm ... probably not!!).

Eras end very quickly - even Martina Navratilova finally retired for good (talk about going out on top). Agassi had a tearful farewell. Leander Paes won the Mens' Doubles with Martin Damm .. but he will fade soon ... and unfortunately, there is no Indian player in the wings who will come even close. But this is the era of the artful Roger - enjoy it while it lasts ...

Sell at your own peril ...

2006-08-31T07:31:00.000-05:00

Interesting point from a Motley Fool column earlier today:

Consider this approach instead: Sell your stocks when you want to buy a house, furniture, or other major purchase. Sell when you have too much in stocks and you want to buy some bonds, gold, or collectibles. Sell when you have too much in any one stock. But sell a stock, or a dicey market like this one, on valuation alone, at your own peril.

Basically, what he says is buy and HOLD HOLD HOLD ... and if you do sell, make sure you really have a very very very very darn good reason to sell apart from just getting off the table ... easier said than done i'd say ... but then guys like Buffet have had so much success, there must be something to it !!

More stuff from Yahoo

2006-08-28T13:58:00.000-05:00

After Yahoo Mail Beta, its the turn of Yahoo Finance to show something really cool. Check out the Yahoo Charts Beta - it seems to be built on the same engine as Yahoo Mail Beta, looks just as sleek, and seems very useful. seems designed for guys who do a lot of TA ...

but very polished ... more after checking it out further ....

AAPL v/s MSFT

2006-08-07T07:30:00.000-05:00

Steve Jobs will showcase the new Mac OS X 5 (Leopard) at the Apple developers' conference later today. Maybe even give a sneak peak at the new products pipeline - perhaps Apple's long talked about Ipod phone.

Hopefully, his product demo will be better than the one by Microsoft - a live one featuring voice recognition software in Vista. Its a dream come true situation for all the Microsoft bashers, check it out (hopefully, Jobs's presentation will be glitch-free - if not, then Apple will be truly ready to run Windows on its Macs!)

Yahoo Mail Beta ...

2006-07-14T15:18:00.000-05:00

Yahoo has introduced a the new version of Yahoo! Mail - it looks and feels just like a regular email client like Thunderbird, except that it is still web-based. I thought the implementation of this one is pretty darn cool ... I love the way you can manage your email.

Check it out here.

Mumbai bomb blasts

2006-07-11T11:33:00.000-05:00

In regard to the bomb blasts in Mumbai earlier today, anyone looking for help can check on Mumbai Help

Its an excellent resource especially if you are in the US and need help trying to check on your friends and family in Mumbai ...

Boneheaded ...

2006-07-10T11:12:00.000-05:00

This was supposed to be Zidane's moment of glory - a World Cup triumph to cap off a great career. Then came the boneheaded play of the game in the 110th minutes - the headbutt that got him thrown out of the game, bringing a shameful ending instead of a fairytale one. What exactly transpired is not quite clear - but it seems that he may have been taunted, racial slurs perhaps. But whatever the Italian player might have said to provoke him - the headbutt was simply the stupidest thing to do, and the red card was certainly well deserved. This will go down in the annals of soccer as one of the most bizarre events in World Cup finals history - one that might have cost France their World Cup.

Here is a compilation of Zidane at his best - some unbelievable moves - the ones that made him a star! no boneheaded plays here .... all class!

Only one thought comes to mind - if only he had resisted the rush of blood, perhaps the World Cup final might have had a different outcome

On a totally different note, it was interesting to note the difference between the Wimbledon presentation ceremony earlier in the day, and the World Cup ceremony. Literally seemed as far apart as a quiet black tie dinner and a rowdy party at a dance club. Wimbledon (and tennis presentations in general) are a lot like those in cricket - the losing finalist is well taken care of - quite a civilized affair overall ... a far cry from the ceremonies in the US (NBA/NFL etc.) where the loser is literally banished from the site to brood over his loss while the celebrations begin.
"The winner takes it all, the loser standing small " - not quite true IMHO ... the loser certainly desrves better.

Artful Roger ...

2006-07-10T10:50:00.000-05:00

It certainly lived up to the hype ... Federer overcame his nerves, his own demons and a resilient Rafael Nadal to win his fourth consecutive Wimbledon title ...

Indeed the FedExpress has delivered again on grass, but Nadal certainly didn't get blown away by Federer's reputation, streaks and the skidding grass courts. The US Open folks are probably glad that Federer won - the last Grand Slam of the year just became the center of increased attention as the tennis season moves to the hard courts. And much as I would like Federer to win, I am inclined to pick Nadal on the hard courts of Flushing Meadows. Fed's backhand will get pounded again and again and the topspin balls will rise to shoulder height - increasing the chances of mishits from Federer.

But till he is dethroned - Federer continues to be the king of tennis!!
p.s. Amelie Mauresmo and Justine Henin-Hardenne produced a great women's final - some superb strokes, angles and great points - way better than the 'dhobi ghat' stuff from Serena/Venus/Sharapova etc. it was great to see Mauresmo overcome her demons to win the title - no one will ever call her a choker again ...

Federal Expresses ...

2006-06-26T08:45:00.000-05:00

Its the week of the Feds - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Roger Federer (or the Fed as Brad Gilbert likes to call him) will be in the spotlight this week ... the markets anxiously await the outcome of the big Fed meeting this week - and over in England, Roger Federer steps on center court seeking a fourth consecutive Wimbledon (facing a tough drawm, and coming off that disappointing loss to Nadal in the French - this one should be exciting!).

Ofcourse, everyone's hoping the Fed can give a lift to Wall Street just like FedEx did last week with their earnings report. And seeing the Fed win at Wimbledon will mean getting to watch two more weeks of Roger on grass ... lets hope both Feds can deliver as well as FedEx!!

It was the hand of God, wasnt it?

2006-06-22T09:13:00.000-05:00

The summer solstice has come and gone - the days start to get shorter and shorter from here on. But the World Cup is certainly heating up ... and two hotly contested groups will get decided soon ...

[USA, Ghana, Italy and the Czech Republic] -> Italy and Ghana (cinderella story of the worldcup so far!)
[France South Korea Switzerland Togo] -> France is still winless - must win!!

While the 2006 World Cup is picking up steam, today is 20 years to the day that Maradona showed his brilliance, became infamous, and dropped a quote that is still just as prominently remembered as the day he said it. I had a post on it exactly a year ago ... its interesting to look at again methinks! Here is the actual quote from Maradona (oft misquoted or mistranslated) - "un poco con la cabeza de Maradona y otro poco con la mano de Dios" - translated as "a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God)"!! (source: Reuters)

From "The Hand of God - June 22, 1986"

Amul had a superb topical when Diego Maradona was taking the world by storm.

Image from Amul

Maradona spearheaded Argentina to victory in the 1986 Soccer World Cup in Mexico. A key step in that journey to that title was The Hand of God - Maradona's goal against England in the quarter finals, exactly 19 years ago on this day. Clearly, Maradona had stuck out his forearm and pushed the ball into the goal. The pictures say all the story:

Image taken from Yahoo's 2002 FIFA World Cup website

Much to the dismay of the English fans and players, the goal was allowed and a second brilliant goal (and i mean spectacular, no wonder it was voted Goal of the Century!) sealed England's fate. Maradona at that time did not admit it - he said that the goal was scored "a little bit by the Hand of God, another bit by the head of Maradona". He did admit using his hand in his autobiography published in 2002. When England beat Argentina in the 2002 World Cup, there came out tshirts reading Look no hands!

No denying Maradona's greatness as a soccer player, but the Hand of God certainly tarnished his image forever - for having 'cheated' on the greatest stage in the world. After all, everything is fair in love, war and the greatest prize in soccer, the Jules Rimet trophy.

US-GS

2006-06-19T11:19:00.001-05:00

The US Government seems to have an exchange program going on with Goldman Sachs - after GS Chairman Henry Paulson left to become Treasury Secretary, the Deputy Secy of State, Robert Zoellick quit the State Dept to join Goldman ... !!

Apparently, Zoellick wanted to become Treasury Secretary! Since that one did not work, perhaps going to Goldman will give him a better shot at eventually becoming Treasury Secretary :)

goat of the day ....

2006-06-19T08:24:00.000-05:00

Phil Mickelson seemed to have just permanently shrugged off the "America's favorite underachiever" tag after winning his second Masters earlier this year at Augusta. But just when you thought he was ready to be a 'great', he screwed up on the final hole at the US Open last weekend ...

He went into the final hole leading the field by 1 stroke, and needed par on the 4-par final hole. It seemed like a perfect story for his career - achieving his ultimate goal of winning the US Open! But all the hard work and preparation leading up to that got flushed down the toilet in a New York minute as Mickelson ended up with a double bogey and handing Geoff Ogilvy his first major win ... Ogilvy wont be remembered much - it will be Mickelson's Open - the one where he choked - and choked BIG! I think he will be America's ultimate underachiever for some time to come.

and for the record - Indians Jeev Milkha Singh and Jyoti Randhawa did not make the cut and finished 59th and 82nd respectively.

Soccer Stars v/s US Pro Athletes

2006-06-18T17:41:00.000-05:00

A key aspect highlighted during the ongoing FIFA World Cup - players from Brazil, France, Germany, Italy etc. are all superstar players in the club leagues, with multimillion dollar salaries. They play different leagues, in different countries - but when it comes to the World Cup, everyone seems to take that extra effort to come play for their national side - I don't think they get paid much for doing so ... not to mention the fact that getting injured in the World Cup could jeopardize their multimillion dollar salaries. Yet, that does not dissuade them from wanting to play in the World Cup - its the biggest stage, and its national pride after all. I presume that for these superstar athletes, wearing your country's colors and getting a win matters more than any club game they play.

On the other hand - look at US athletes (specifically from the NBA and MLB) - their participation in big time international championships is pathetic at best. All the big superstars find their own excuses for not playing on their national squads - no surprise therefore that inspite of boasting the most incredible talent pool of all countries, the US basketball team barely won a medal in the last Olympics, and didnt even make the fnals in the World Baseball Classic (the national pastime!!).

Hopefully, this trend will change in the future ...

In the light of all this - one player who impresses me a lot is Andy Roddick - make no mistake, i aint no Roddick fan - but his commitment to playing Davis Cup and carrying the country's colors is really admirable.

Intelligent life ....

2006-06-15T19:04:00.000-05:00

Calvin at his philosophical best ... one of my favorite C&H strips!

Photo published

2006-06-14T15:32:00.000-05:00

Photo published
Originally uploaded by Thermodynamix.

A photo that I had clicked of the Barnes and Noble store (Power Plant) in Inner Harbor, Baltimore was published this month in the Schmap Baltimore city guide. The photo appears as part of the review of the Power Plant district.

Here is a link to the original photo.

More than 100% chance?

2006-06-14T10:05:00.000-05:00

After the consumer price index (CPI) data came out higher than expected today, there was a jump in the probability of the Fed increasing interest rates later this month. But what does "more than 100% probability" mean? Sounds incredibly dumb ... here is the actual quote from the Reuters story:

"Interest rate futures were pricing in a more than 100 percent chance the Federal Reserve would lift rates later this month. On Tuesday, the chances were pegged at 86 percent."

Can someone explain what the heck does "more than 100 percent chance" mean?

[UPDATE - the reuters link has been replaced with a new story - too bad i dont have a permalink to the original story - but trust me the words were there - quoting verbatim from the original Reuters page!!]

back ....

2006-06-14T09:48:00.000-05:00

after another extended hiatus, I'm back and hopefully motivated to continue posting here ... !!

in the meantime, the FIFA world cup is underway ... Ben Rothlisburger is in hospital after a motorcycle accident (hopefully he will recover soon - but really a dumb thing to drive a bike without a helmet!!) ... and India are desperately trying to grab a test win against the West Indies (will they pull it off or shall it be another brilliant save by Lara?) ... and oh I almost forgot to add - Nadal simply overpowered Federer in the French Open final!! hopefully that will not put a dent in his title defense at Wimbledon ...

expect more business and investing related posts. sports related posts will obviously continue ...

The Corps of Discovery ....

2006-03-26T17:44:00.000-06:00

Back on the blogging trail after what seems like years. Been busy with other interests, this one took a back seat. But have been plannign a comeback for a few days now ... hopefully this momentum will stay.

Last weekend, I watched the PBS documentary Lewis and Clark: Journey of the Corps of Discovery - thanks to the superb DVD collection at the local public library. Its the fascinating story of the land exploration of the continent aimed at exploring the United States (1804-1806) to the Pacific coast and back, - the expedition led by Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark, of the US Army. In 1803, then President Thomas Jefferson completed the Louisiana Purchase from the French, more than doubling the size of the USA. Approximately 529,911,681 acres (827,987 mi² or 2,144,476 km²) of land traded hands at a cost of about $15M - barely 3 cents per acre - approximately equivalent of $390 billion in 2003!

A few weeks after the purchase, United States President Thomas Jefferson, an advocate of western expansion, had the U.S. Congress appropriate $2500, "to send intelligent officers with ten or twelve men, to explore even to the western ocean". They were to study the Indian tribes, botany, geology, Western Terrain and wildlife in the region, as well as evaluate the potential interference of British and French-Canadian hunters and trappers who were already well established in the area. [Source: Wikipedia]

The documentary details the route taken by the expedition, the Indian tribes they encountered, the route they took - and brings it to life with some stunning visual imagery of the great plains, the Rockies and the Pacific Northwest. The move through the plains and their interaction with the Indian tribes - the Sioux, the Shoshones, the Hidatsas, the Blackfeet and a host of others (some extremely helpful and accepting of the white man's arrival at their lands) brings to mind Dances with Wolves - Kevin Costner's superb epic about a US Cavalry officer's interaction with the Lakota Indians. American economic expansion into the west was positively the begining of the end for the Indians, and was heralded in by the Lewis and Clark expedition. And yet the mapping of the continent while rowing up the Missouri and trekking over the continental divide was certainly one of the greatest human endeavors of all time. The Shoshone woman Sacagawea who joined Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery has her face on the new US 1$ coin - to replace the old Susan B. Anthony dollar. Her reunion with her brother during negotiations with the Shoshone tribe seems to be right out of a Hollywood or Bollywood movie, but it seems like the Lewis and Clark expedition was certainly blessed with some great luck.

The way the Corps of Discovery explored the continent and named the terrain (rivers, creeks, waterfalls, their camp locations etc.) reminds me of the Swiss Family Robinson. I also think the expedition's journey bores a close resemblance to the Fellowship of the Ring from Tolkien's book. The journey that starts out through known terrain and meeting friendly people, soon goes awry and off-track as they head through the pass of Carathras (i.e. the Rocky Mountains in case of Lewis and Clark). The long arduous journey to their destination, but relatively swift and easy journey on the way back certainly has its parallels. I would not be surprised if Tolkien was not inspired by the story of Lewis and Clark when he wrote his magnficient book. The PBS documentary is an excellent way of seeing history unfold. One thought that kept coming back to my mind was a regret to have not seen Indian history in the same way. The Indian freedom struggle would be great to see as a documentary series like the PBS collections. Unfortunately, the only most vivid images of the story of Indian independence were frmo Attenborough's award winingin movie Gandhi. Sure there have been movies made about various episodes (including the recent lousy one on Mangal Pandey). But they have been generally tainted by the need to make a commercially successful film. Public television in India is generally absent, and apart from Doordarshan's Bharat Ek Khoj - i do not recall anything that came even remotely close. Perhaps one day, if I have enough time and money - I will try such an endeavor myself.

Investing - India vs China

2006-02-13T07:29:00.000-06:00

In an article titled India vs. China: Where to Invest?, Jeremy Seigel points out the pros and cons of investing in India v/s China. A key point that caught my eye apart from all the Tiger and Dragon references and the usual democracy issues is the value of the stocks. He says

The price-to-earnings ratio on this index has reached 21, while Chinese stocks on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange are selling for only 15 times earnings. Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific Strategy recently indicated that it thinks valuation has turned the tide toward China.

The rate of growth on the BSE Sensex has made a lot of people quite rich, but also has doomsday predictions looming - referring to an impending to an imminent market crash, one that will hurt investors for a long time to come. Yet, I think that its atleast a year away, considering that the influx of foreign capital is not so much on promise (like the dot-com era in the 1990s), but backed up by solid performances by a lot of the companies. So while I am no economist, it seems like this growth will stay for a little bit - for atleast a year, if not more, as more and more FIIs continue to invest in the Indian markets. But Siegelman's points on risk, and diversification across the globe are certainly well taken.

One statement that particularly caught my attention was about corruption in India:

For India, these social networks and corruption are less of a problem. To be sure, dishonesty still exists in government service, but high level corruption is being vigorously rooted out by a free press that is absent in China.

I am not sure how accurate this statement is - while its not completely inaccurate either, there is a big leap of faith involved in making such a generalization. One Tehelka or Operation Duryodhan the basis of such a statement?

But by and large, an interesting quick read for someone thinking of investing in Indian/Chinese markets. And fairly accurate too, for the most part. Check it out

go steelers ...

2006-02-13T07:27:00.000-06:00

its more than a week since the superbowl, but after all the posts i had leading up to it, i had to have atleast one celebrating their win in SuperBowl XL (a waste of a game, but the outcome was good!!) ...

does not matter if this post was a week late ... 'One for the thumb' was more 25 years overdue :)

Outstanding contributions

2006-02-01T22:50:00.000-06:00

Sunil talks about outstanding research contributions that did not get rewarded with a Nobel Prize. He lists some memorable scientific achievements that were unlucky to miss out on a Nobel - including Einstein's work on relativity, and Pauling's contributions on elucidating the nature of alpha helices in proteins. Considering that only one Nobel prize is awarded per discipline every year, its no surprise that a ton of outstanding contributions got left out of the awards list.

This post reminded me of an article in The Scientist that talked about seven outstanding technological advances that have revolutionized life sciences research. The same issue also gives a popular science description of these technologies, alongwith an excellent chronological listing of major breakthroughs leading to the development and maturation of the technology. These seven big achievements are:

1. The automated DNA sequencer - starting with the first one from Applied Biosystems in 1986 that enabled the success of the Human Genome Project
2. The BLAST algorithm - stands for Basic Local Alignment Search Tool - and remains the workhorse bioinformatics tool for navigating through the immense amount of sequencing data that poured out
3. The DNA microarray - that lead to the formation of Affymetrix, today a $2.5B corporation
4. The yeast two-hybrid assay - for identifying protein-protein interactions.
5. The MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer - to quantify the relative abundance of thousands of proteins in a cell lysate - the foundation for proteomics.
6. The lab-on-a-chip - certainly an area of interest for me these past 3-4 years - microfluidics has allowed the incorporation of analytical methods on microfabricated chips, the resulting miniaturization ushering in a new age of rapid, high throughput analysis of tiny samples.
7. The optical trap – sophisticated optical tweezers to manipulate cells.

These advances in technology have evolved over many years, with key contributions by a number of eminent scientists and engineers, several of whom could have been recipient of Nobel prizes. Yet, in the long run, the legacy of a scientist is not measured by the number of Nobels, but by the impact of his scientific contributions, so I dont think Einstein would have been so upset about not getting the Nobel for his work in relativity .... he would have been satisfied seeing the E=mc2 actually works to generates nuclear energy for this planet

Hail to the Republic ...

2006-01-26T10:03:00.000-06:00

We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign socialist secular democratic Republic and to secure to all its citizens:

JUSTICE, social, economic and political; .....

The Republic of India celebrated the 57th anniversary of its formation today. The celebrations were at its ceremonial best in the annual Republic Day parade along Raj Path in New Delhi, with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia as the guest of honor a day. Yet, the news headlines were full of the heavy security arrangements, the looming threat of terrorist violence, and Maoist attacks in the north-east of the country. An unfortunate fact of life in modern India. And yet, a day of great pride for all Indians, to remember the fallen heroes, to take heart in the future, reflect on the year gone by, and to plan for a glorious one ahead. Hail to the Republic of India ...

Mumbai Police lowering the swords as the National Anthem is played at the parade at the Shivaji Park in Mumbai, Maharashtra (26 January, 2004)

I was in India last year on Republic Day, and thoroughly enjoyed watching the Rajpath parade from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate and on the the Red Fort, during the telecast on TV - I have always been fascinated by it, ever since I was a kid ... the tank columns rumbling down past the President as they lower their guns in salute, the marching columns of the services in their ceremonial pomp and glory, the Presidential bodyguards (राष्ट्रपती अंगरक्षक) offering the 21 gun salute as the band plays the National Anthem ... the decorated landmarks in Delhi at night, the Beating the Retreat ceremony in the evening. From the point of view of a nation like India, it sometimes might seem like a waste of money, a splurge, but I think considering the pride you feel when you see the military might, the cultural sights and the ceremonial bright (well a cheap attempt at ryhyming gone awry there) .... it seems to be al worth it.

Shotspot

2006-01-25T23:13:00.000-06:00

Shotspot schematic

ESPN uses Shotspot to determine a particular ball landed in or out. For one, i have my reservations about how well they can even predict the trajectory of the ball - accurate enough to make a judgement on the line call? I dont think so.

But all that aside, when a ball lands like this (right of the line being "OUT", they claim that it has actually landed on the line, simply becuase in the top view, it overlaps with the line. Yet, considering that the ball contacts the court only at a tiny area, id say they are wrong and grossly misleading the public about close line calls. I am not a professional, but i have played enough USTA sanctioned tennis games to say that in a game, this ball would most likely be called out simply because you can clearly see daylight between the line and the contact area of the ball with the court (which is really tiny) ... Espn should offer an explanation about their shotspot technology - its really misleading I think!

Shotspot is actually a version of Hawkeye - the one used in cricket, where really the accuracy needed is a lot lesser. maybe some of the cricket gurus can throw light on this one ...

One for the thumb

2006-01-24T16:04:00.000-06:00

One for the thumb

This scene will be seen all over the country if the Steelers win their fifth Superbowl in Detroit in two weeks ...

Steel Curtain drops ...

2006-01-23T13:23:00.000-06:00

The Steel Curtain dropped on Jake Plummer - and turned him into Jake the Snake of old ... two interceptions, and two lost fumbles coupled with some clever playcalling (Ken Wisenhunt's stock is on the rise!), and some accurate passing by Big Ben - means that the Pittsburgh Steelers are Super Bowl bound ... and shall meet the Seattle Seahawks who had a stellar game as they beat the Carolina Panthers at home.

I almost got the score prediction right ... i had picked 31-18, while it ended up being 34-17, with Ben passing for two and running for another score. Now, you can go to Pittsburgh, stop by Primanti's on Forbes Ave., and ask for a double quarter pounder Roethlisburger (with a veggie soy patty please, we are desis!) without any shame whatsoever. They will serve it up for you with a biggie sized fries and deliver it in a Bus ... which will probably get decommisioned after Super Bowl Sunday in a couple of weeks ... yeah at least all indications point to Jerome Bettis retiring after the Super Bowl this year, and would be certainly a rather cool way to finish a career (esp. after almost turning the goat on the fumble against Indianapolis!)

Some interesting tidbits about Championship Sunday (though not all about the Championship games necessarily):
* Seattle was ranked #1, and Pittsburgh ranked #6
* Pittsburgh - first #6 team to reach the Super Bowl
* Pittsburgh beat #1 Indy, #2 Denver, and #3 Cincinnati - all on the road to reach the SuperBowl
* Both Seattle and Pittsburgh scored 34 points
* Microsoft's Paul Allen owns the Seahawks ... (and the Portland Trailblazers, why is this relevant - to be revealed in a few moments)
* Lost in the din of the Seahawks win - Seattle Supersonics beat the Phoenix Suns 152-149. If they had infact beaten the Trailblazers, then Paul Allen's Seattle team would have won and his basketball team would have lost to Seattle - both on the same day!
* The collision between Nick Goings and Lofa Tutupu - that left Goings rather woosy and shaken up ... certainly the type that can do some serious brain damage!!
* Another point lost - Kobe scored 81!! RIDICULOUS!
* All 3 unbeatens in college basketball (Pitt, Duke and Florida) lost on the same day (against St. Johns., Georgetown and Tennessee respectively)
* Rahul Dravid hits back to back centuries - if only the butthead Saurav had agreed to open, he might have been the one takking the laurels instead
* Last but not the least, the Orissa Steelers (yeah thats right, there are steel plants in Orissa too, you know!) won the Premier Hockey League (Div I), finishing ahead of the second place Chennai Veerans! Rediff says - "New entrants Orissa showed nerves of steel to come back from 2-1 arrears and brush aside the challenge of Imphal Rangers 3-2 in the last league match on Sunday." - how very true - nerves of steel indeed :)

And last, but not the least are the results of the ESPN SportsNation poll about the Super Bowl:

1) Which team will win Super Bowl XL?
40.4% Steelers will win a close game
28.5% Seahawks will win a close game
23.5% Steelers will win easily
7.5% Seahawks will win easily
Total Votes: 74,008

So, almost 69% think the Steelers will win - sorry Ben, cant play the "nobody thinks we can win" card again - most people think you are talking crap anyway. Yet, its been fun watching them take down the big guns ... I think its time I put some trust in them and take them as my pick ... anyways -Go Steelers-
p.s there have been too many sports dominated posts - maybe i should call it SportsCenter :)

Placid Pitches

2006-01-23T09:18:00.000-06:00

how bad are the pitches they have for the india-pakistan test series? the scores should tell:

First Test at Lahore:
Pakistan 679-7 (dec) - with centuries by Younis Khan (199), Md Yousuf (Youhana - 173), Afridi (103), and Akmal (102*).
India responds with 410-1 (Sehwag 254, and Dravid not out at 128)
Ofcourse - match ends in a draw

Second Test at Faisalabad:
Pakistan 588 all out - centuries by Inzamam (119) and Afridi (156)
India 441-5 (at the end of day 3) - Rahul Dravid (103), Laxman (90) and Dhoni (119*)

after all run rampage - with almost no chance of a result, who has interest left in this test except those going for betting records or infamous bowling records :) - yet i'm impressed that the Indians, batting second have managed to play out the placid pitch charade, against a good Pakistani attack ... its not unprecedented for them to collapse on perfectly good batting wickets simply because they didnt focus enough and play it out. after conceding more than 500 in both tests in the first innings, Rahul Dravid's team was virtually out of the reckoning for winning the test ... the only hope was to salvage the draws, and I must say the batting performance has quite adequate ... too bad the arrogant bengali babu was too uptight and a pain in the ass taking orders from the captain - if he had agreed to open in the first test, he could really have resurrected his test career - maybe even been called a 'true team player' or some such thing .... but that was not to be, and dravid now has back to back test centuries instead ......

How about them Steelers ... again ....

2006-01-20T13:29:00.000-06:00

I hate to say this, but I told y'all so ... the Pittsburgh Steelers came into Indianapolis, and harassed Manning with a superb pass rush. If it were not for some pathetic officiating from the referee, and a key fumble by Bettis on the Indy goal line, the game would have been another routine upset. But then the refs did play cheats (yeah Joey Porter, you are dead right!), and The Bus did fumble, leading to a bizarre finish ... that included"The Tackle" (or should we called "The Immaculate Tackle"?) by Big Ben that saved the day for the Steelers.

Cocky Payton Manning came up with some boneheaded desperation trying to win the game, and then the 'idiot kicker' missed the field goal so badly, that it seemed like his uprights were actually in some other stadium!! So here the go the Steelers again to the AFC conference championship at Mile High in Denver. An Indian connection (after the Steelers Juggernaut!) has come up again ... in a preview to the championship column about the success of the Steelers and the Panthers, Greg Garber in his ESPN.com column writes:

"We came in from the back door," Steelers linebacker Joey Porter said. "They wrote us off. We weren't supposed to be here, but we like our chances in Denver.
"It's not even the fact that we struggled at home. It's just the way we come in here right now. I think it makes us focus more as a team because they're counting us out. The whole world is counting us out."

Memo to Porter: There are one billion folks in India who have no idea who (or what) the Steelers are.

Not sure where the Indian connection came in from ... but there is certainly no denying that fact - the billion people in India certainly are absolutely clueless (not that they cared a damn about it anyways!) about football - and to whom football actually refers to a game that involves kicking the ball (i.e. soccer!!). but its certainly amusing how sports writers seem to draw up weird connections to random facts.

but coming back to the game, Denver is picked to be a marginal favorite (being the home team and all), and wearing my pragmatic hat on - i am inclined to agree that Denver will win - and comfortably at that, due to the Steelers traditional malaise (turnovers by the QB!) - yeah, Big Ben who saved the day last weekend against the COlts will finally self-destruct (i mean how can there be an AFC Ch'ship game with Bill Cowher coaching where the QB does not bring the team down with interceptions!!). but again I will also put forth my pick for the game, wearing my Steelers hard hat, and waiving the terrible towel:
The Steelers defense shuts down the running game and forces Jake the Snake to scramble around and throw on the run - he does so a few times, but finally shows his true colors by throwing the interception!! Troy Polamalu runs one back and James Farrior picks up a fumble as the Steelers win 31-18 (same score that I predicted the last time around against the Colts), didnt get it right then, but this time I will.

How about them Steelers ...

2006-01-11T14:59:00.000-06:00

Let me talk about them before the inevitable happens this weekend ... much as I would like to believe that they are so good on defense and that the run game can pound anyone into submission, I have no illusions that the Colts will win easily. But then there is still that slight possibility of an upset ... hey, thats why they actually play the game!!

Here is what a certain Dr. Z from CNN Sportsillustrated had to say about the way Pittsburgh runs the football ... a very interesting Indian connection showed up there:

One thing puzzles me. When they load up with two tight ends on one side, and bring fullback Dan Krieder in behind them, and then pull guard Alan Faneca, who is very good at coming around the corner and blocking back to pin his man inside, and put this whole mob in front of, say, a Jerome Bettis, that's about 40,000 pounds coming at whatever is in the way.

And so many times I just see the defense outnumbered. So why doesn't it just move an equal number of guys over, into the path of this juggernaut (which is a word originating in India, by the way), matching Pittsburgh's monsters with the same amount, which would result in something like a huge mass of glue trying to fit through a small opening?

I looked up the word juggernaut in the dictionary, and sure enough it has Indian origins. Here is the explanation:

juggernaut (noun)
1. Something, such as a belief or institution, that elicits blind and destructive devotion or to which people are ruthlessly sacrificed.
2. An overwhelming, advancing force that crushes or seems to crush everything in its path: "It doesn't assume that people need necessarily remain passive when confronted by what appears to be the juggernaut of history" Christopher Lehmann-Haupt.
3. Juggernaut Used as a title for the Hindu deity Krishna.

Ofcourse - the last one is easy to see - the anglicized version of Jagannath ... but the first two come from the fact that worshipers have thrown themselves under the wheels of a huge car or wagon on which the idol of Krishna was drawn in an annual procession at Puri in east-central India !!

and to imagine that all this started from the description of Jerome Bettis pounding the ball behind the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line ... !! which leaves me with the vain hope that Peyton Manning will get intercepted twice in the first half after getting harassed by the Steelers pass rush, and the Colts will not be able to get ahead too much in the first half ... the Steelers running game will pound them in the second half .. and Pittsburgh Steelers will upset the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 (same score as the Bengals game).

Redemption

2006-01-02T23:55:00.000-06:00

Redemption for the Big East following West Virginia's win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl - a fantastic game with a great finish ... topped by the fake punt by the Mountaineers.

Being from Pitt, I quite dislike the Mountaineers, but for once I was supporting them against the 'so-called' (yeah my opinion has turned a bit after Auburn and Georgia lost) superb defensive teams especially against the run. And after all the flak the Big East has taken about their guarenteed BCS berth, it was certainly redemption for the conference, and it would be a surprise if WVU does not finish the year in the top 5!

Happy New Year

2006-01-01T00:02:00.000-06:00

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

-Alfred, Lord Tennyson [In Memoriam A.H.H. (CVI)]

10th Anniversary .... of the end of an era

2005-12-31T13:09:00.000-06:00

Today is the tenth anniversary of the last Calvin and Hobbes strip published (Dec 31, 1995) - bringing to a close one of the greatest cartoon strips of the modern era. Its creator, Bill Watterson fought a long and hard battle against marketing gimmicks that he felt would 'cheapen' the strip. He successfully won a battle to prevent Calvin and Hobbes images from getting pasted on commercially-sold coffee mugs, stickers and t-shirts, that he thought devalued the characters and their personalities. He has also refused to allow the strip to become an animated series. Its popularity continues to grow however, and the strip collections published since have been tremendous successes, and calvin and hobbes continues to be as popular as it was exactly ten years ago ... Watterson certainly did know a thing or two about going out on top ...

Since the Calvin and Hobbes strip concluded, Bill Watterson has been living in relative seclusion in Chagrin Falls, OH with his wife Melissa, Watterson refuses to sign autographs or give interviews, emerging only occasionally into the public eye. On December 21, 1999, a short piece called "Drawn Into a Dark But Gentle World," written by Watterson to mark the forthcoming end of the comic strip Peanuts, was published in the Los Angeles Times. They have been seen sometimes roller skating at the rink in Chagrin Falls. [info from wikipedia].

Hell Freezes Over

2005-11-09T09:01:00.000-06:00

"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14 year vacation"

That's what Glen Frey says during the Eagles masterpiece 'Hell Freezes Over' (1994), recorded live during their reunion (following a breakup of the band in 1980). Ofcourse, the album is so named because of Don Henley's comment that they would only get together when 'Hell Freezes Over'. I have heard the album so many times, and I still can't get enough of it. So when I saw the DVD of the album at the local public library, I had to pick it up and check it out. It was just awesome, and I have just not had enough of it! I now like the album a lot more than before.

The sound quality is awesome, and watching the orchestration and music arrangements, I now have an even better appreciation of some of the intricacies of the sounds on the CD. The first 15 minutes or so includes interviews with the band. The arrangement of songs is different from that on the CD - but thats no problem ... it is a masterpiece this album. And Don Henley, Glen Frey, Don Felder, Joe Walsh and Timothy Schmit are simply great in their musical parts. Don Felder and Joe Walsh are superb on the guitars and mandolin. All 4 vocalists (Henley, Frey, Walsh and Schmit) have very distinctive voices, and my favorite of those is Frey. Its probably because of the tracks he sings - esp 'Tequila Sunrise', and 'Take it Easy'. Watching a bunch of middle aged musicians perform in a laidback casual atmosphere is a lot more suited to my music tastes than a bunch of hyperactive rockers jumping all over the place ... and ofcourse, it fits with the persona of the music that The Eagles bring forth.

The album is a timeless classic, and the 100 minute run time alongwith the awesome sound quality makes it even better. The song list is as follows:
"Hotel California"
"Tequila Sunrise"
"Help Me Through the Night"
"The Heart of the Matter"
"Love Will Keep Us Alive"
"Learn to be Still"
"Pretty Maids All on a Row"
"The Girl from Yesterday"
"Wasted Time"
"I Can't Tell You Why"
"New York Minute"
"The Last Resort"
"Take it Easy"
"Life in the Fast Lane"
"In the City"
"Get Over It"
"Desperado"

A must watch in my opinion ....

Back in action ....

2005-11-09T08:59:00.000-06:00

Its been a long long time since I blogged about anything .... I will start soon....

Heroes ...

2005-09-12T14:23:00.000-05:00

Despite the magnificent Warne,
Whose travails were immense but forlorn,
The brave men of Ponting,
Were sadly found wanting,
And now their prized Ashes are gawn ...
- BBC Sport Fan Reaction page

Image from Cricinfo

The Aussie juggernaut came to a screeching halt, as they lost the Ashes - and England have finally regained the Ashes have 18 long years! The same feelings are being evoked the world over, that spurted forth in 2000 when the Aussie win machine with 16 back to back test wins faltered in that unbelievable test match in Calcutta. It wasn't as dramatic, but exciting I'm sure it was. Shane Warne did his best to give the Aussies a chance, but Kevin Pieterson wouldn't have any of it ... and McGrath's arrogant 5-0 prediction remained exactly what it was - a slice of arrogant Aussie humble pie ... congratulations England ... and hats off the Aussies who came back time and again ... and went down fighting ... like true champions

Permission denied ....

2005-09-05T15:49:00.000-05:00

The 20th anniversary of Independence Rock (Mumbai's annual monsoon rock music concert series) turned out be a dud this past weekend following the refusal of permission by Mumbai Police Commissioner AN Roy to allow rock music at the Gateway of India.

Indy Rock took me back to the good ol' college days in Mumbai - it used to be an open air event at the Rang Bhavan near Metro cinema in Mumbai. I still remember standing in the rain enjoying Parikrama thorougly entertain the crowd while playing timeless classics from The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and ofcourse Pink Floyd. I still remember their version of 'Another Brick in the Wall' accompanied by a great pyrotechniques display. While I don't know for sure whether Roy was justified in allowing a loud concert at a protected monument (the Gateway of India), my heart certainly goes out to those who were there to listen to the music, and to the budding artists belonging to 17 bands from all over India who were going to perform there.

More news coverage Indian Express Mumbai and Pune editions.

a hit or miss girl ...

2005-09-04T15:08:00.000-05:00

Sania Mirza just finished her first exposure to the big center stage - playing #1 Maria Sharapova in front of a packed holiday crowd at Arthur Ashe stadium. Everyone kind of expected the outcome, but it turned out to be a blowout 6/2, 6/1 ... a rather disappointing finish .. turned out to be a dud!

a hit or miss girl ...
a trigger happy type of player ...
terrific racket speed ...
she definitely has to work on her second serve ...
hard hitting ...
streaky ...
only 76mph on her second serve ...
an 82mph first serve ...
has tremendous ball-striking ability, but a lot needed in just about every other department.
sania has all the building blocks in place, but lots of work to be done.
both are still 18, maria hits hard too - but has got great fitness, footwork, and sets up the point great

these were just some of the comments about sania during the match from mary carillo, john mcenroe and dick enberg on CBS. this was my first opportunity to watch a full match of sania mirza and i must say i was sort of disappointed (the hype had raised my expectations too much i think!) ... she moved sluggishly, was seriously trigger-happy and relies far too much on trying to blast the ball through. but she is quite young, and inexperienced and hopefully her coaches will help reign in some of the zealousness for some focused aggression. ofcourse i am merely an amateur USTA league tennis player ... and its just my opinion. looking forward to more success for sania on the WTA circuit.

[Added later] I was just watching the Serena v/s Venus Williams game, and started to wonder if Sania Mirza was really ready for the top yet .... the difference in consistency and shot selection is just dramatic - its a long road for Sania, hopefully she will make rapid strides ... she has won the juniors event at wimbledon, and her overall result at the US Open is heartening. a top 50 ranking will allow her an automatic entry to a lot more tournaments, allowing her to build her skills and match up against the top players in women's tennis ...

i think its time i used my USTA membership to get discounts on US Open tickets ... maybe next year!

Its finally here ....

2005-09-03T15:00:00.000-05:00

Its the first Saturday of September, and that means that the college football season is finally underway ..... ending the painful and seemingly unending drudgery of regular season baseball on sports TV. And even on the first weekend, there are some interesting games to look forward to:

Pitt v/s Notre Dame: ex-NFL coaches Wannastedt and Weis try to restore their alma maters to football glory. this would be the best time to kick the irish out of championship contention. the games to win for pitt are this one, and against louisville (which has moved thisyear to the big east) ... go pitt!!!

Miami v/s Florida State: easily promises to be the best game this weekend. much as i dislike that team, i think this is the year Miami makes a comeback after two relatively disappointing years for the 'canes. And ofcourse, they always manage to bring the highly overrated (atleast in recent years) Florida State teams to their knees. Since the addition of VaTech and Miami last year, FSU's domination of the ACC has pretty much come to an end.

TCU v/s Oklahoma: actually this would have been a totally useless one, but for the fact that this game concluded with TCU upsetting the Sooners earlier today!!

VaTech v/s NC State: Marcus Vick makes his first start for VaTech - highly overrated IMO. Gets the attention simply because of the awesome skills of older bro Michael. I think this will be the year Marcus Vick goes bust ... or blossoms into a great option QB under Beamer.

Boise State at Georgia: The high octane Boise State offense comes to Athens to get real recognition for their program. But a lack of any credible defense will mean that they might come short.

either way ... looking forward to an exciting season of football. the NFL season opens Thursday with the Patriots taking on the Oakland Raiders featuring the first silver and black start for Randy Moss

failure googled ...

2005-09-01T09:17:00.000-05:00

A Google search for 'failure' - check out the first link that shows up! the second link is interesting too ...

The fury of nature unleashed ...

2005-08-31T11:49:00.000-05:00

Last month was Mumbai flooding, and now its New Orleans reeling under the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina. Similarities can be drawn of course between the two situations - the main one being those of big coastal cities hit hard by heavy rain.

The big difference though is that in Mumbai, the water will recede once the rain stops. In New Orleans, its the opposite. The natural tendency is to flood the city since its below sea level, and once the levees breached and the water started to unload into the city, the crisis seems to be spiralling out of control. Governor Kathleen Blanco has officially ordered the city to be completely emptied out. It seems like the only way out of this (I am using my own logic here, may be completely off) seems to be to completely pump out the water from the city OR reclaim all the land flooded by the city. The other alternative (I'm getting big time into doomsday theories) might be to just lose the city. I'm sure that alternative is not an alternative, no one believes it will come to that. But here is certainly one case where even after the storm has passed, the nightmare has only begun.

Image taken from Yahoo News

But things are looking pretty bad from what media reports are saying. The problems associated with disease due to contaminated drinking water, debris, and other hazards are starting to become really grave. For those left behind in the SuperDome, life is getting really miserable. And it maybe a while before things return to normal ... same goes for places like Gulfport and Biloxi in Mississippi. There are several ways to help out - your local TV and radio stations must be broadcasting places to give contributions - monetary or in the form of food, blankets, clothes etc. If not, there is always the American Red Cross - every little bit helps. Hopefully, things will get better really soon ...

Operation Red Flag

2005-08-20T20:48:00.000-05:00

Watched the Imax movie 'Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag' today - its about a massive air warfare training exercise - the final tune-up training for pilots and their crews before being sent into actual combat. Presented by Boeing (one of the main sponsors of the movie), Fighter Pilot showcases all aspects of modern air warfare - including fighter aircraft, ammunition, airborne command and control (AWACS), dog fighting, search and rescue, as well as aircraft maintenance - giving a thorough overview of the people behind the scenes who allow the pilot to do his job well.

Like all Imax movies, this one comes loaded with some specatcular imagery (check out the 'making of' video clip on the movie website) and makes Top Gun look rather ordinary. In fact, the air sequences were shot by the same guy who worked on Top Gun. Unbelievable shots, and seeing it on an imax dome makes you feel as if you are in the air with the pilot. i wish the indian air force would come up with something like this - doesn't have to be in imax, just a small regular documentary ... to let the people know 'they are in good hands'. Fighter Pilot - Operation Red Flag certainly manages that. Definitely worth a watch ....

Hell has its standards

2005-08-19T10:26:00.000-05:00

Hell has its standards

Billboard in downtown Auckland (courtesy Atanu).

Anecdote of the day:
Just this past weekend, David Lange, the former prime minister of NZ, passed away at the age of 63. His wit was legendary. He is supposed to have told the US Ambassador H. Monroe Browne, who owned a racehorse called Lacka Reason: “You are the only ambassador in the world to race a horse named after your country’s foreign policy.”
(Original post: Even Hell has its Standards)

Wide world of sports

2005-08-12T08:22:00.000-05:00

Photo from Yahoo News

Carlos Beltran and Mike Cameron of the NY Mets were involved in a horrific head to head collision in the outfield against the San Diego Padres. Both of them, running in at full speed to catch a fly ball off David Ross of the Padres were completely oblivious to the other's presence and dived full length for the ball. The resulting head-on collision stunned the crowd, and considering the impact, both players were lucky to get off lightly. Cameron had to be taken off the field on a stretcher with a broken nose, multiple fractures of both cheekbones and a slight concussion while Beltran suffered a sore left shoulder and a cut near his left temple.

Helmet to helmet hits in football are illegal for a reason, and Cameron and Beltran's head to head (without a helmet) impact certainly showed why!

Image from the BBC

Shane Warne in the meantime has crossed 600 test wickets - an unbelievable feat. Call him what you like, he can lay claim to be the greatest test bowler of our times. From an eminently forgettable debut (1/150) against India in the 1991-92 series at Sydney, Shane Warne has come a long way through suspensions, drug bans, phone sex scandals and more to keep coming back. Unlike some other premier wicket takers today, he has a clean action, and a great cricketing brain. Not to mention some stellar captains to lead the teams he has played on. Indians will always be quick to point out that his record against India, particularly in India (on spinning wickets) has been mediocre. But that cannot in any way undermine his achievement. There was a time when Kapil Dev's 432 really seemed incredible, but 600 is flat out awesome!! In just 14 years (one year of which was a 1 year ban!) !! And it was awesome enough that Sportscenter actually included his 600th wicket among top 10 plays of the day (at #8)!! In a country where a majority of viewers have no clue about the sport, making it to the top 10 plays certainly was an achievement .... !!

Mumbai's plight

2005-08-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

It seems this SMS is doing the rounds currently in Mumbai:

"Thank you BMC, Thank U CM,
So what if you did not convert Mumbai into Shanghai.
U did one step better by converting Mumbai into Venice"

Image from Mid-Day (thanks to SBR for the info)

One for the anti-microsoft lobby

2005-08-01T16:25:00.000-05:00

Microsoft Corporation's new product verification system, lauched last week, guess not everyone bought into it ....
(via Kabira speaking)

And as for Vista, Microsoft's newest OS on the block, the joke floating around the internet is that Vista stands for Viruses, Infections, Spyware, Trojans, and Adware (via Computer Knowledge). Other options are:
Alternatives include:
* Viruses, Insecurity, Spyware, Trojans and Adware
* Viruses Installed Spyware Trusted Again
* Virtually Inscrutable System To Administrate
* Virtually Impossible System To Administrate
* Very Insecure Systems To Access
* Various Insiders Say: Throw Away

Logogle

2005-07-31T09:01:00.000-05:00

Check out Logogle: a Google-style Logo Maker. It even recreates a Google-type start page with your logo (i.e. containing whatever text you want!!). Here is the screenshot. You can access the TP logoglized page here.

And to compare it with the actual google page ... ain't it cool!

Horrors ... the day after

2005-07-29T10:48:00.000-05:00

The rains seem to have moved on from Mumbai ... but left behind a terrible tale of destruction. In addition to the loss of human life, the rains have also resulted in a tremendous loss of lifestock... mostly buffaloes in tabelas (cowsheds), who could have gotten away and survived if it had not been for the fact that they were tied up, and died a horrific death. The carcasses now left behind pose serious health risks and hopefully damage from those can be mitigated.

Here are some of the horror stories, documented and shown to the world by intrepid Mumbaikars:

Image from Rediff

More images - check Ashish Panchal's website

And all the senseless SlimesOfIndia could think about was how some folks were perturbed at not having their morning sleaze with their lemon tea. And what an achievement it was that Sachin Tendulkar got his paper on time, and didn't have to face the inconvenience!!

Brain Damage ....

2005-07-29T09:18:00.000-05:00

I think 'The Dark Side of the Moon' is overrated compared to other Pink Floyd albums, and 'Brain Damage' is certainly one greatly underrated track .... the laughter in the track is certainly creepy ... seems to definitely suggest brain damage. And speaking of Floyd, they were back earlier this month for a reunion performance at the Live 8 concert series, and a big thanks to AOL for providing free broadband video coverage, via Balaji). No Syd Barett ofcourse, but Roger Waters was back with Gilmore again, and they played Comfortably Numb, Money, Breathe and Wish you were here - certainly among among my favorite Floyd tracks. I saw the broadcast, and it was certainly great ... Pink Floyd can certainly recreate the magic again!

Brain Damage (Roger Waters)
The lunatic is on the grass.
The lunatic is on the grass.
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs.
Got to keep the loonies on the path.

The lunatic is in the hall.
The lunatics are in my hall.
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more.

And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

The lunatic is in my head.
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me 'til I'm sane.
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There's someone in my head but it's not me.

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear.
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon.

"I can't think of anything to say except...
I think it's marvelous! HaHaHa!"

the day it poured ...

2005-07-27T13:00:00.000-05:00

Grant Road Station
Originally uploaded by GreyArea.

37 inches of rainfall in a day ... bombay's infrastructure just could not hold up against that kind of onslaught!

this day ... the only things moving on the railway tracks were the flood waters, and people trying to walk home after trains came to a complete standstill

Rain rain go away ....

2005-07-27T07:39:00.000-05:00

Dadar Station is unrecognizable as the flood waters continued to rise
(Image taken from Mid-Day)

Incessant rains have lashed Mumbai for two days now, and created record rainfall levels for the whole country - more than 37 inches in some parts!! Move over Cherapunji, Mumbai has arrived to rewrite the record books, although in this case - Mumbaikars would be glad not to be the record holders. Almost 100 people are feared dead and millions of city residents badly affected. Thousands were left stranded all over the city as train services were shut down, buses came to a halt, airport closed, and power lines down. Mobile phone networks were overloaded and the army was called in for rescue and relief efforts. Yet, as always they could not hold down the spirits of the Mumbaikars, who have a way of getting over the adversity (sometimes merely shrugging it aside and getting on with it) ... and ofcourse there are always heroes, and a good deed needs to be told about to inspire more ...

Space week

2005-07-21T12:05:00.000-05:00

Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., (November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998) was the first US astronaut in space, and mission commander of the Apollo 14 moon landing team. He even played golf on the moon using a converted soil sampler as his club! Alan Shephard holds a small but significant place in the days of my life ... I drive every morning to work on Admiral Alan B. Shephard highway, and watch the Apollo moon rocket stand majestically across from our company offices, along with the Space Shuttle Pathfinder.

I should call these past 7 days or so as space week - the Space Shuttle return to flight was put off due to technical snags, the world celebrated 26 years of Neil Armstrong's moon landing, I had a visit to NASA's John Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and now its the anniversary of Alan Shephard's death. Not to mention, like every day of the week, I had my usual ride along the Alan Shephard highway ....

Strange coincidences all over I suppose .... !
p.s. the Space Shuttle Discovery is finally underway (Jul 26) .... hopefully it will be back safely too!

Nature red in tooth and claw ...

2005-07-20T17:57:00.000-05:00

"Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life; . . .

So careful of the type?" but no.
From scarped cliff and quarried stone
She cries, "A thousand types are gone:
I care for nothing, all shall go.

"Thou makest thine appeal to me:
I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more." And he, shall he,

Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair,
Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies,
Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,

Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law --
Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek'd against his creed --

Who loved, who suffer'd countless ills,
Who battled for the True, the Just,
Be blown about the desert dust,
Or seal'd within the iron hills?

No more? A monster then, a dream,
A discord. Dragons of the prime,
That tare each other in their slime,
Were mellow music match'd with him.

O life as futile, then, as frail!
O for thy voice to soothe and bless!
What hope of answer, or redress?
Behind the veil, behind the veil."

-from parts LV and LVI, "In Memorium: A. H. H.", Alfred Tennyson, 1850.

Nature is not kind, but rather cruel in its workings ..... Watterson could not have said it better:

Here is another C&H masterpiece:

some more on transport phenomena ...

2005-07-17T21:16:00.000-05:00

i have been at work working all day on saturday and sunday (not to mention 3 all nighters the previous week). Surely there has to be more to life than staring at Monsieurs Navier and Stokes all day. So I decide to take a break and reply to Mustang's comment about Transport Phenomena (ofcourse!! i am reaching new heights in geekiness). It started to get longer and longer and longer, so I decided to write a post about it:

Mustang: My situation is not much better than yours - I bought BSL simply because I got too much grief from colleagues about not having my own copy! Navier-Stokes equations continue to be an enigma, and as I realize that I have been making a livelihood of those doods for so long now, I am reminded of a song from The Sound of Music ...

Perhaps I had a wicked childhood
Perhaps I had a miserable youth
But somwhere in my wicked, miserable past
There must have been a moment of truth

.....

Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good

That seems to be the story of my association with N-S - there is no other explanation for me having survived thus far with transport phenomena ... and enjoyed it too!!

Why Transport Phenomena

2005-07-16T23:26:00.000-05:00

In response to Manjusha's comment:

Why Transport Phenomena: Its the geekiest reason of them all ... transport phenomena comprises the various mechanisms by which particles or quantities move from one place to another. [Source: Wikipedia]. in my geeky world, it happens to be a very significant part of my engineering curriculum - both as an undergraduate and graduate student, and forms the basis of earning my livelihood :)

the Navier-Stokes equations is a set of PDEs that describe momentum transport (i.e. flow behavior) of fluids such as liquids and gases. The numerical solution of these equations is known as Computational Fluid Dynamics. The existence and smoothness of the N-S equations is one of the seven open problems in the Millenium challenge by the Clay Mathematics Institute (each prize worth $1M!). Here is the official problem statement.

i happened to have a copy of Bird, Stewart and Lightfoot's Transport Phenomena, the great text on the subject lying on my desk when i started this blog ... for lack of any more imagination on my part, this is the name the blog ended up with!! [Ref: R. Byron Bird, Warren E. Stewart, Edwin N. Lightfoot, Transport Phenomena (1960) John Wiley & Sons, New York]

such geekiness ...... !!!

Harbinger of the seasons?

2005-07-13T02:47:00.000-05:00

Storm Crow : Clicked by Pandiyan.

Lately, I have gotten into the habit of checking out photos on flickr. there is an unbelievable treasure of spectacular photographs taken by amateur photographers from all over the world. and the format and design of the flickr website allows for some smooth browsing and navigation. i have quickly become a big fan of this site.

there is also a great number of indian photgraphers showcasing their accomplishments. this includes a sizeable number based in india - allowing us to see some great sights from india, its cities and villages and forests.

the present photo taken by pandiyan is one of those masterpieces. its a superb shot ... i cannot help but quote the late harivansh rai bachchan:

मैं ऊँचे अग्यात गगन की सुनता हूँ अनिवार पुकार
अंदर से कोई कहता है, उड जा उडता जा पर मार

the poem is about a young bird (from its eyes) as it grows up in a nest before getting out to fly on its own. the translation of those lines is somehting like this:
i hear the cry of the high unknown sky ... and a voice inside me says,'flap your wings, and fly away

The monsoon ....

2005-07-12T10:45:00.000-05:00

Lone tree on Torana fort (Picture taken by mvramesh)

Its been a long time since i posted anything, things are extremely busy at my end. the book meme is still on my list to blog about ...

and in the meantime, the monsoon seems to be in full swing in india - and the western ghats are the ultimate place to be! the clouds descend upon the mountains, and the heavy rainfall leads to some incredible greenery and superb waterfalls - perfect for some monsoon trekking!

here is a picture by my friend ramesh ... who seems to have had a great time as he trekked alone at torna fort last weekend near pune. i would have loved to be there ... drinking a steaming hot cup of chai! reminds me of these lines of a song from milind ingle's गारवा
झाडावरून पक्षी सारे उडून गेले
जेव्हा भिजून गेले, पंखात नाद त्यांच्या हळूवार पावलांचा

MIT Weblog Survey

2005-06-27T22:40:00.000-05:00

Take the MIT Weblog Survey:

A dark day ...

2005-06-26T16:18:00.000-05:00

Its the 30th anniversary of the declaration of a State of Emergency in India by the Indira Gandhi government. The nineteen month long emergency was one of the darkest periods in the history of independent India, with flagrant violation of human rights. Indira had opposition leaders arrested, and curfews imposed on the press. State legislatures were dissolved in states where the rival parties were in power, and a series of harsh bills and constitutional amendments through parliament, all which were approved with little discussion or debate. When Indira Gandhi called elections in 1977, she faced the wrath of the people who voted her out with overwhelming numbers. We can only hope that the political leadership will be more responsible in the future and not let us see these blatant misuses of power in the future.

Mr. Forward short leg passes on ...

2005-06-26T09:25:00.000-05:00

Eknath Solkar (1948-2005)
Image from Rediff

Eknath Solkar, one of India's greatest close-in fielders died yesterday in Mumbai. Solkar played 27 test matches for India from 1969-77 and was one of the key reasons for the success of India's spin quartet in the 70s.

Image from Rediff

His key catch to dismiss Alan Knott off Venkatraghavan was an important turning point in India's first major win over England in 1971 at The Oval.

Some funny blog posts

2005-06-22T14:26:00.000-05:00

Some funny posts from the Indian blogosphere:

Saket Vaidya's plan to make a collection of pictures of indian women (from mumbai to be precise) in their daily lives for good wholesome family entertainment! (that last one cracked me up ...)

Chanakya's letter to the Pakistani people - its too funny, this part in particular: "You guys should see the number of foreigners patiently standing in line (even when there is none!) applying for drivers licenses in Bangalore and Pune. Some foreigners are even standing in line to become our next Prime Minister. "

The Indian blogosphere seems to be getting more and more interesting and enjoyable every day. Every day leads to the discovery of more and more good quality content!

Book Tag

2005-06-22T13:05:00.000-05:00

As part of the book tag doing the rounds of the Indian blogosphere, I have been tagged by Ashwini. And she certainly has a swell book collection! She doesn't seem to have or like Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooey, not yet anyway - but I bet by the time she is six, Parag will have to read to her 4 nights a week!!

I couldn't find any of the Hamster Huey strips, but here is another one - every parent's worst nightmare!

Image from Progressive Boink

In the meantime, I will put out my book list soon ...

The Hand of God - June 22, 1986

2005-06-22T12:13:00.000-05:00

Amul had a superb topical when Diego Maradona was taking the world by storm.

Image from Amul

The flag

2005-06-21T18:46:00.000-05:00

i often check the wikipedia (on most weekdays anways) about significant events, births and deaths of the day. its a source of some really cool information. here is something about today (june 21):

among other things, today is the longest day of the year for those of us in the northern hemisphere (summer solstice) and the longest night for those in the southern hemisphere.

but an interesting event that took place on this day in 1989 was the decsion of the US Supreme Court in a case known as Texas v/s Johnson. Greg Johnson had burnt the US flag at the Republican National Convention in Dallas (1984), and had subsequently been convicted for desecrating a venerated object in violation of a Texas statute. The US Supreme Court however, overturned it citing "... Johnson's burning of the flag constituted expressive conduct, permitting him to invoke the First Amendment", the First Amendment ofcourse referring to the freedom of speech (and expression??) according to the US constitution. the decision did cause a lot of outrage amongst the public, but it has stood the test of time (so far!). there are some laws against misuse though - According to the US flag code,
# No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform"
# The flag "should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper.

what does all this really mean to all of us here? on the face of it, nothing really. but the question that intrigued me was that i am actually quite ignorant about any laws related to all this in india. i tried briefly to look on the web for laws in the indian constitution that prohibit the desecration of the indian national flag or even burning of the same. suffices to say that i didnt find any (i didnt look too hard though, im sure thereis something on the web!). but would we consider that someone burning the indian flag was actually 'expressing himself'? personally i dont think so ... the national flag is a symbol of the nation, and if you dont like the way it is - find some other nation or get parliament to change the law and get one you want ... but till then , the tricolor it is and no one's got the right to mess around with it.

as i write this, i recall that they sometimes show flag burning in movies (in roja, for example). but i also recall someone telling me that they do not actually use a 'real flag' - its a fake flag (i.e. something is inaccurate about it, such as the ashok chakra is missing, or the colors are inaccurate or something) so that they are not really showing the flag burning. which probably means that there are laws in india prohibiting the smae. any info on the same would be quite welcome.

UPDATE - someone (YB) did point me out to the Indian Flag Code which is quite restrictive about what one can get away with as regards the indian flag. certainly no chance of being able to burn it and gettign away by calling it freedom of speech and expression.

Guilty before trial ...

2005-06-11T18:19:00.000-05:00

The Slimes of India has already passed judgement on Greg Chappell - pronounced that he will be a failure as coach even before the team has had a single match with him at the helm. Here is my answer to the SoI:

He is being paid more than any previous coach in the history of cricket - and its for a reason. The Indian team is a bunch of super-talented stars, there is politics at the BCCI, the media scrutiny etc - all these are just some of the difficulties any coach hired to lead the Indian cricket team is going to face. By saying that Greg will fail simply because of his aggressive mindset and lead from the front mentality is ridiculous. C'mon Slimeys, atleast give the guy an oportunity to prove himself before you bring him down. And if a coach is going to fail simply because the moutain of difficulties faced is unsurmountable, then should we conclude that the Indian team is so badly star crossed that its never going to make it to the top? John Wright was in the same boat, he faced the same hurdles - ok, he had a very different style from Greggo, prefering to be the invisible hand guiding the team. But the fact remains that he did have some stellar successes to his name, braving the same odds that the SoI rants about.

Again, all that we're sayin .. is give Greg a chance!

At the very least, give the name of the person(s) who put this piece together, so that I can address these comments at him (or her or them).

Jedi Master

2005-06-10T08:47:00.000-05:00

The latest craze in San Antonio:

Obi-Wan Ginobili - May the force be with Manu!

And the way Manu Ginobili is playing, he is certainly looking like a Jedi Master. Last night's fourth quarter was just too much of the force. If this keeps up, Detroit better start planning for next season pretty quickly.

The picture above is pretty cool - obviously merged from these two pictures - Manu and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Nice work hobbes !

Flashback ....

2005-06-10T00:00:00.000-05:00

I was reading Flashback on Mustang's blog when I was suddenly reminded of the fact that i appeared for the GATE several years ago - well why would Mustang remind me of the GATE? Because there is an anecdote to go with it, with him being a part of it:

I wanted to appear for the GATE, but was late (as usual) and it was the last day for getting the forms. The forms were available from SBI branches, but all branches stopped issuing them a day before the last date. The only place where it was now available was the SBI branch at Andheri. So one of Mustang's classmates (Rohan) went all the way to Andheri to get me the form since I had labs that day and could not leave. And the next day, Mustang went all the way to IITB campus the next day (it was the last day to submit the form) and submitted my form for me!!

I remember going and appearing for the exam simply because both of them had taken all the trouble to get me registered for the exam - although I landed at the exam center without any preparation whatsoever!! and i also recollect that whenthe GATE results came out, that if i managed what i did without any effort, perhaps a little bit of preparation would have landed me with a great score, and possibly a completely different course of action after graduation!!! Ofcourse that was not to be .... and the GATE became just another anecdote! Yet, thanks to Mustang and Rohan for running across Bombay to help me out at that time ...

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter
-John Keats

Ridiculous .... India's five-year-old policeman

2005-06-09T11:10:00.000-05:00

It happens only in India
The Indian system allows a family member to take the post of a government employee who dies while in service - irrespective of age, and families needing the money will have to do it too. 5 year old Saurabh Nagvanshi goes to a police station and school on alternate days - the former to take his place instead of his father, and earn Rs. 2500/month to feed a family of 5 and his mother.

While its easy to condemn the system for exploiting children thus, its not quite straightforward to find another way to find a livelihood for the family when the only earning member dies. Part of the responsibility rests with the government - they have to provide adequate pension support to the widow so that she has the means to take care of the situation. But offering the same job to the kid, and making him do it irrespective of the age is nonsense. Bureaucracy at its finest ....

Friedman on Bangalore

2005-06-09T07:25:00.000-05:00

Thomas Friedman had another column yesterday in the NY Times dedicated to Bangalore, titled Bangalore: Hot and Hotter. Salient points Friedman makes include a comparison between India and China, where he describes China as a smooth 6 line highway witha major speed breaker representing the communist leadership. On the other hand, India is a rickety bumpy pothole filled small street, but with tremendous promise to break out into the biggest and best highway of them all. Promise - thats what India certainly represents.

But he goes on to say that inspite of all the issues associated with India, Bangalore is moving on from being cyber coolies to providing a R&D hub for multinational companies. It is starting to provide complete backend support for anyone with a great idea. Ofcourse, with the talent flowing back into INdia, perhaps the day is not far when 'ideation' (as Friedman calls it) also firmly entrenches there. Also contributing is the fact that many smart folks from all over the world want to work for Bangalore giants like Infosys ...

Americans are warned - you better notice what Bangalore is becoming, and act ... China certainly is. Why else would the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visit Bangalore first and New Delhi later? There seems to be no doubt at all that next time a US President visits India, Bangalore will be a destination. Bangalore - on the other hand, start getting your airport ready for Air Force One to land!

Friedman's liberal columns (often heavily focusing on outsourcing mecca India) are very popular with Indian readers of the NY Times. But I wonder how Americans react to them - for the liberal NY Times reader, they are well accepted as a way of life in the new world, but for those with a little stronger views against outsourcing, they might be serious eye-openers and might certainly up the ante of public opinion against India in the US ...

here's to you, Mrs. Robinson ...

2005-06-08T11:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday (June 7):
Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award winner Anne Bancroft died yesterday of cancer. She is ofcourse most famous for playing Mrs. Robinsion, who seduces Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate.

As NPR puts it, "her seduction of Dustin Hoffman was sexy funny and sad all at once -- and the scene has left an indelible mark on popular culture".

And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson,
Jesus loves you more than you will know
Wo wo wo
God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson,
Heaven holds a place for those who pray ...

The song seems to have a whole different meaning right now ...!

Blog connections ...

2005-06-07T10:39:00.000-05:00

Its funny how connections are made, and blogs help out ... here is a small anecdote:

A few days ago, I surfed my way through various photoblogs - not sure of the trail, but i am pretty sure started with a blog i regularly visit. As I surfed, I landed on Patina's Boondocks Photo Blog. In particular, I liked a picture of a boat abandoned on the shore off the Sea of Cortez. I was wondering where I had heard of the Sea of Cortez before, when I remembered that John Steinbeck (of the Grapes of Wrath fame) sailed there in 1940 on an expedition that led to several discoveries in marine biology. I had infact blogged about the Steinbeck expedition when NPR featured it as part of their Radio Expeditions series. I pointed Patina to that link, and sure enough - she had not heard about it, and was quite delighted to learn about the recreation of the original voyage. To quote her,

"I read the article via your link. wow, that was amazing. i had not heard about the Steinbeck expedition reinactment. great information. i will pass it along to the marine biologists that i traveled with to Baja. we spent a couple of weeks on the Sea of Cortez, ate delicacies provided by the sea, and saw lots of marine curiosities."

Its a cool feeling when something like this happens. Makes blogging worth it ... glad to be of help Patina.

I will leave with a picture of the Gus-D, the 1972 wooden hulled shrimp trawler used by the expedition to recreate the feel of Steinbeck and Ricketts' original adventure.

Image courtesy National Public Radio

Flickr

2005-06-04T22:39:00.000-05:00

Flickr is an online photo management system - allows you to store photos, share them, as well as publish directly to blogs from their website. When i first started my photoblog, i looked at flickr as an option to Hello. Did not really like it then ... wasn't too impressed. Then along came Google's Picassa photo management system, and it was smooth, together with picassa and hello working so nicely with blogger!

however i have been 're-evaluating' flickr these past 2-3 months, especially news was out that Yahoo bought Flickr. That meant two things - one was that Flickr probably had something I had missed, they wouldnt spend so much cash buying them out, or that Flickr had gotten much better since I last used it. And guess what, both of them probably, certainly the latter!! flickr certainly rocks. The interface is elegant and clean. Having a photo management system online is no mean task, and the standards set by desktop clients are very high, especially since the advent of Picassa. But Flickr has really set the bar very high for web based photo management - it is after all sooooooo much better than current websites such as yahoo! photos or sony's imagestation. Flickr's blog says:

Are you going to become Yahoo Photos?
No. Yahoo Photos will get a lot of Flickr features, and there are alot of other areas around Yahoo that will also be Flickrized where Flickrization would be good. Yahoo Photos and Flickr have different kinds of users with different needs, and will remain separate for the foreseeable future. Flickr would also suffer from a sudden deluge of LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! omg! so we're going to grow it carefully.

And the public seems to have caught on to it big time. and imean big time .... Flickr just received its 17 millionth photograph [via Amit Karmakar]!! Its fun to even browse through photo collections of Flickr, the photosets are spectacular, the interface is easy, and for bloggers - its extremely easy to post to your own blog from flickr, whether its powered by blogger or typepad or wordpress or livejournal or movable type! Amit also gives a nice list of things he would like to see on Flickr - this includes faster download times, more useful messages for blogs when flickr is down and the ability for taking backups. things i love about flickr include easy editing and uploading, easy management, easy blogging, tags, ease of searching, and even creative commons licensing and RSS support.

i would certainly encourage everyone to try out flickr. one thing is for certain, yahoo buying flickr has certainly upped the stakes, and i would expect google to follow suit with something as good. and just as with gmail, we the consumers might be the ones who are able to reap the benefits of the yahoo-google tussle! personally, im even considering purchasing their 'pro' account (paid subscription to their services)!

in the meantime, i will leave you with a picture from my flickr page. Its a collage of pictures I took during a visit to Pune earlier this year.

you can access my flickr page here.

Smoking Shahrukh ... no more!

2005-06-02T20:03:00.000-05:00

I watched Bunty aur Babli last night ... Abhishek Bachchan smokes several times, even shares a beedi with Amitabh in the movie. Heck even Rani Mukherjee had a few puffs in the movie. Today I found out about the Indian government's ban on depiction of smoking in films. The move has certainly angered the Mumbai film industry, which is screaming for withdrawal of the ban. Here are some of the main voices and arguments for and against the ban, from both the govt., bollywood and the blogosphere:

For

800,000 Indians a year die from smoking-related diseases mainly among men aged between 25 and 69 (source: WHO)
"More and more youngsters and women are taking up tobacco use." - Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss - ostensibly by watching their heroes and heroines take a drag.
"Film actors have a lasting impact on the minds of children and young adults," said Anbumani Ramadoss, India's health minister.
A recent WHO study "held Bollywood responsible for glamorising smoking"
''It is a good move to ban smoking because a lot of young children tend to imitate actors,'' so said Kareena Kapoor, actress.
It sure would help to deglamourize smoking among illiterates of India. - Parag

Against

The directors and producers are VERY worried - putting health warning on smoking scenes in the hundreds of films under production will essentially kill these films
Anti-smoking signs will have to be inserted in large archives of old films and television programmes in all regional languages - almost impossible to finish.
''When the tobacco industry was on the rise, in the thirties and the forties, everyone used to smoke in the films. The hero used to smoke, the villain also used to smoke. But with the awareness that tobacco causes cancer, all that has changed,'' - Shyam Benegal, Director. [This one sounds as if he is supporting the ban, but i dont think he is - more likely that he is trying to say now folks dont glamorize it in movies any more, certainly not enough to influence anyone to smoke]
infringes on creative expression,
good intentions completely misdirected - its ridiculous to blame films!
"One would understand a ban on surrogate advertising, but to completely ban [smoking] is ridiculous, a joke taken too far." - Mahesh Bhatt
"The government should go after the source - the guys who produce tobacco and make tons of money."
A worrying trend??? "Tomorrow, the government can turn around and say don't show guns in movies as it will encourage violence." - Anupam Kher
"We all smoked because of the peer group, not because people in the cinema were smoking." - Shyam Benegal
Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray - Kiruba Shankar
"I don’t think banning smoking in films is the way to go about it. Because it won’t make a difference in the real sense of the word. People who want to smoke will continue to. Such a decision will only curb the creativity of actors and film-makers." - Amir Khan, actor, via Gaurav Sabnis.
So if James Bond is making love to a naked woman who is smoking, just the image of the cigarette will be blurred and that is the way it should be. -Varnam

I personally think the ban is indeed ridiculous [i don't really dispute the WHO's finding, or do i? I did express otherwise on Parag's blog]. Not that I favor smoking, but come on - is there anyone who doesn't know what they are up against? The government certainly has a weird way of trying to look after the people.

To put this in an extreme perspective: democracy is good ... but better authoritarian than libertarian for the good of the people?

War movies ...

2005-06-02T09:23:00.000-05:00

Continuing with the previous post on Vietnam movies, let me try and extend the scope to war movies in general. The wars of the world have certainly provided Hollywood with unending inspiration to make films on the topic, and none more so than World War II. Not surprising, considering how dramatically the world changed through the course of that war. Maps were redrawn - even new countries created, and the balance of power was significantly altered. Most important of all were the number of lives lost, and its only fair that Hollywood do its bit to recreate the war on film.

I am trying to list the war movies that I liked (not exhaustive by any means, and in no particular order). Feel free to comment and add movies that you liked or disliked or those that perhaps I should have listed, but missed out on:

All quiet on the Western front - set in WWI, it showcases the tragedy of war through the eyes of young German recruits.

Lawrence of Arabia - an Academy award winning masterpiece set during WWI from David Lean, boasting of superb performances from a very formidable cast: Peter O'Toole, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, and Claude Rains (probably most well known as the French Prefect in Casablanca).

M*A*S*H - set in the Korean war (very few movies based on this war, but MASH was a delight), trying to give a lighter touch in an otherwise exasperating conflict. I love the TV series later produced ... one of my all time favorites. But more on the TV series later, this one's for movies :)

The Bridge on the River Kwai - another David Lean masterpiece, this time with Alec Guiness in the lead. A band of British POWs under the Japanese build a bridge over the Kwai, only to see a that the Allies have slightly different plans for the opening of the bridge.

Schindler's List - voted the best war movie of all time by IMDB voters. Spielberg finally made it to the Academy awards list with this one.

Where Eagle's Dare/Guns of Navarone/Force 10 from Navarone - all 3 are based on novels by Alistair Maclean. I would rank WED ahead of both Navarone novels, and FOrce 10 from Navarone as the worst (by far). While WED not only has a cool plot and a super star cast (Richard Burton and CLint Eastwood as Maj. Smith and Lt. Schaeffer resp) - the filming is also pretty cool, esp the cable car sequences to and from the Schloss Adler in the German Alps. Guns of Navarone also boasts of a superb cast - Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn as Mallory, Dusty Miller and Andreas Stavrous respectively. On the contrary, Force 10 is very mediocre - starring among others Harrison Ford (then quite unknown), Edward Fox (as Dusty Miller, remember him as General Dyer in Gandhi?), Carl Weathers (another newbie -just coming off his major role in Rocky)

The Sea Wolves - an unknown movie about a bunch of retired soldiers leading an attack on German ships in neutral Goa harbor. Stars Gregory Peck, David Niven and Roger Moore, shot almost completely in India.

D-Day movies:
The Longest Day - The elaborate D-Day drama - on an incredibly grand scale. Till Schindler's List came along, it was the highest grossing black and white movie. It resurrected the financial fortunes of Twentieth Century Fox after the disastrous Cleopatra

Saving Private Ryan - the critically acclaimed landing sequence is brutal, the reality of war in all its gory detail.

Casablanca - movies set in the war aren't only about fighting or tragedy. The war provides a splendid backdrop for some of the best movies of all time - Rick's Cafe in Casablanca was certainly the place to be 'as time went by'.

The Great Escape - Steve McQueen leads the escape from a POW camp.

U-571 - an American submarine made to look like a German U-boat in an attempt to recover an Enigma decoding machine. They say it pales in comparison to Das Boot (unfortunately i have not seen the latter to make a comment on that).

The thin red line - a contemporary of Saving Private Ryan - didnt get quite the same attention as the Tom Hanks starrer.

The Pianist - Adrian Brody in his Oscar winning role as Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman. Based on a true story of one of the most accomplished pianists in Poland at that time, this Roman Polanski movie showcases his efforts to survive after the ghetto is destroyed by the Nazis, and the story of his amazing survival through the war. Brody was probably so perfect for that role, that he will always be typecast - may not ever fit smoothly into any other role.

Pearl Harbor movies:
Tora Tora Tora - what's unique about this movie is that it looks at the attack on Pearl Harbor from both Japanese and American points of view, and speaks of events not just during, but also leading up to the battle.

Pearl Harbor - I didnt fancy this movie too much, but the Japanese invasion sequences were great. Certainly worth a watch for that.

From Here to Eternity - Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr as two star crossed lovers in Hawaii against the backdrop of the Japanese attack. Montgomery Clift plays the boxer who just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A grossly incomplete list in the end - but if I dont cut it short, i will never finish this post. I will continue to add more as I recall ... feel free to add more of what you prefer/like.

Vietnam movies ...

2005-05-31T14:56:00.000-05:00

Since this was the memorial day holiday, lots of chnanels were showing war movies, and vietnam was an obvious focus: saw both Platoon and Apocalypse Now (certainly not for the first time)- probably amongst the best movies made on the vietnam war, by two very talented directors (Oliver Stone and Francis Ford Coppola respectivelY). not quite focused on the raw savagery of war (like say Saving Private Ryan), but trying to look more closely at the war, thepeople who fought the war (atleast from the american side), how they perceived it, and how the war affected them.

Platoon has a lot of young actors who went on to have successful careers later on (William Defoe, Charlie sheen, Johnny Depp ... Tom Berenger doesnt count since he cant quite be called 'successful'). the conflict between Sgt Elias (defoe) and Barnes (berenger) is superbly depicted.

Apocalypse Now stars another Sheen - this time martin sheen as captain willard headed out to cambodia to assasinate renegade colonel kurtz (marlon brando), whois supposed to have gone nuts. also featured in smaller parts are robert duvall, harrison ford, laurence fishburne and dennis hopper. the war has certainly changed kurtz, why is he the way he is ... and the interesting point to note is that even though willard thinks its pretty obvious, he doesnt quite knpw what to do once he finds colonel kurtz.

Both movies are 'Vietnam classics' and boast of a superb score and soundtrack. Platoon's Adagio for strings and Respect by Aretha Franklin are certainly highlights. Apocalypse Now is even better: the movie gets a stunning start with 'The End' by The Doors, with The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and my favorite 'The Ride of the Valkyries' composed by Wagner providing the backdrop to the superbly photographed helicopter assault sequence. Speaking of which, the movie boasts some spectacular visuals ... the river is always there ... providing the backdrop to the chaos and conflict. Both movies are a definite 'MUST-SEE'!

Other Vietnam movies include Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Mel Gibson's We Were Soldiers, etc. The former focuses in the first half on boot camp for draftees ... while the latter is predominantly a masala movie ... not a bad one, but its outcome is predetermined. It focuses on the fighting ....

Vietnam has been a very defining moment in American history. And it has defined Hollywood too ... AMC's (American Movie Classics - the cable movie channel) Hollywood Vietnam is proof of that.

CNR Rao - India's science legend

2005-05-25T09:39:00.000-05:00

CNR Rao is certainly a legend ... for those even remotely familiar with material science and engineering. He has been actively involved in research for over 50 years, and is probably the single biggest contributor to science in India, since Sir C.V. Raman. Author of over 1200 papers, he currently holds the positions of Linus Pauling Research Professor and Honorary President of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, India. In addition, he is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor, Department of Materials, University of California, Santa Barbara. In addition to the innumerable academic achievements, he has also been Chairman of the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.

His contributions were recognized earlier this week when he was awarded with the $1M Dan David prize (awarded by the Tel Aviv University) for his oustanding contributions to materials science. What makes it even more sweet is the outstanding company he shares the prize with. MIT's Robert Langer and Harvard's George Whitesides, both of whom have had some incredible scientific achievements, simply too numerous to list. All 3 have contributed immensely to their respective fields and made advances that have changed the scientific landscape. Their academic contributions can be gauged by the number of PhDs graduated - and the successes achieved by their students as well. I have had the honor of listening to Bob Langer and CNR Rao speak to audiences and they are very impressive. I am sure the same can be said of Whitesides too.

According to Rao, "This is the highest prize an Indian scientist has received at least in the last 70 years, since C V Raman’s Nobel". Congratulations to Prof. Rao - certainly a proud moment for all Indians!

Growing up ...

2005-05-25T09:17:00.000-05:00

Ever seriously re-thought about growing up?

Bill Watterson rocks!

Ed Viesturs - the greatest of them all .....

2005-05-23T14:23:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago, i had mentioned about Ed Viesturs, America's greatest climber today, and his planned attempt at scaling the world's 10th highest (but nearly the most difficult) peak, Annapurna this year. After two previous failed attempts in 2000 and 2002, Ed Viesturs has finally achieved it - achieving it on May 12, along with Veikka Gustafsson of Finland. With that, Viesturs has successfully scaled all the world's peaks over 8000m tall, including 6 visits to the summit of Mount Everest. He has seen the world from heights few can even dream of reaching. After his achievement, he was named as the ABC News Person of the week.

Last week, after overcoming every challenge that a mountain can throw up at him, Ed announced his retirement from high altitude climbing. "I am done with 8,000-meter peaks, ... so now I will get know what spring looks like at my home in Seattle", he says. This picture will give some appreciation of his achievement and the heights he has reached:

1992: Ed Viesturs and Scott Fischer in the Bottleneck Couloir at 27,000ft on K2
[Photo: Charley Mace, taken from MountainZone.com]

Newsweek debacle

2005-05-20T15:49:00.000-05:00

Some fallout from the Newsweek journalism debacle earlier this week - guess some things cannot be undone :)

via Vinod

india's nuclear policy ....

2005-05-14T23:09:00.000-05:00

i had a post last week - about India completing 7 years as a declared nuclear power. Niket had a compelling point to make:

If the scientists feel we need more tests, we should have more tests. The world be damned.

It essentially comes down to a basic issue: do we need the nukes? we need the deterrent IMO ... and given the world we live in, we should have 'em. if we need to do tests to develop them,
then we must test as many as needed! the big issue about the '98 tests was that they were the 'coming out of the closet' tests!

and while we have a 'no first use' nuclear policy in place: one of the questions that comes to mind based on that is at what point in a conventional conflict does a country like india decide to resort to nukes (God forbid the situation never arises) but it is not a straightforward question to answer. based on the policy as i know it, it will probably mean we will deal with whatever onslaught is launched against us with conventional weapons, and no nukes unless someone strikes against us with a nuke. pakistan on the other hand makes no such claims - according to the pakis, they will not desist from using nukes in a conventional weapons conflict if they feel national interests are threatened. there is a story in 'Yes Prime Minister' called 'The Grand Design' - where PM Hacker tries to implement a unique plan to strengthen conventional forces, based on discussions with his CHief SCientific Advisor - who points out the 'salami tactics' that the Soviets (story dates back to the height of the cold war ofcourse) would use if they decided to invade western europe .... it is pointed out to Hacker (and very rationally to) that the Russians would almost come all the way to the western edge of europe, and there would be no use of nukes by the Brits (ie Hacker, as CEO of the govt!). i suspect a very similar situation is likely to occur in the case of India, they would be perceived as the nuclear power who probably does not have the guts to use em .... while a 'no first use' policy will earn brownie points in world diplomacy, is it the best policy to have in order to safeguard our national interests/?

i believe the indian diplomatic missions in the US have statements of the policy on their website - or atleast thw Indian embassy in washington DC has it on their website. would be worth cheking out in a little more detail this weekend. ofcourse, the policy is made by the so-called experts in public-policy. but how many times have we seen kinks in that armor?i have not seen anyone questioning india's no first use policy and i am not a trigger happy by any stretch of imagination either ..... but i am still not convinced that we should have such a policy. hopefully thee will be some ansers forthcoming

Anniversaries galore .... Pokhran

2005-05-11T09:46:00.000-05:00

In addition to this blog completing a year of existence, today marks the anniversary for a lot of key events in the history of India and the world.

Today is the 7th anniversary of India's coming out into the open about its nuclear weapons program. On this day in 1998, India tested three nuclear devices in underground tests at Pokhran in the Rajasthan desert. A jubilant Prime Minister Vajpayee made the announcement that took the world by complete surprise, and caught the Americans off-guard. Ofcourse, it forced Pakistan to come out into the open with its own nuclear capability. While the nuclear option is a credible deterrent especially for the likes of China, there is debate whether it was worth coming clean with the capability. An article by Sanjoy Majumder of the BBC appeared on this day a couple of years ago on the five year anniversary of the tests. While I am not sure how seriously we are taken after the tests, the article does raise an important point:

Many in India argued that by going nuclear it had lost its conventional military edge over Pakistan.

India has a committment to 'No First Use' of nuclear weapons. Pakistan on the other hand makes no such claims, and infact is not hesitant to play the nuclear card every time a conflict arises - all in the name of self-protection against big brother India with its superiority in conventional weapons. In 2001, when the Indians mobilized for war following the attack on the Parliament, Pakistan was at the forefront in raising the spectre of a nuclear war, since now it is a declared nuclear power. The world was forced to take notice and take frantic steps against the possibility of a nuclear holocaust on the subcontinent.

We all know what happened, but I guess Pakistan's belligerent posing on the basis of its nuclear capability is something India will have to deal with everytime a confrontational situation with Pakistan develops.

1 year ago ....

2005-05-11T09:15:00.000-05:00

Its been exactly one year since this blog was started. and 117 posts, and some 10,000 (and change) hits later, i am glad to say i'm still motivated to keep it going. a post every 3 days or so is the average, but the posting frequency fluctuates quite strongly - sometimes with 2-3 posts in a day, and then nothing for 2-3 weeks! need to work on that ....

thanks to prashant mullick and niket kaisare who introduced me to the blogosphere. i have come across hundreds of bloggers who provide for a lot better reading, commentary and op-eds and analysis on a lot of issues, better reading i'd say than most newspapers. the desi blogworld is great, and every new day introduces to more and more quality desi blogs.

glad to be part ofthe blogosphere.