Veiled Indian Power

Yesterday as I was reading a news article on NAT GEO human brain series, I was both happy as well as sad to read that 4 Indians would be featured as a part of the series. This is a special programme of National Geographic Channel, an in-depth series "my brilliant brain" exploring the human mind and what makes a genius.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20071118024945&Page=H&Headline=Four+Indians+to+feature+in+NAT+GEO'S+%22human+brain%22+series&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0&

I was happy to see Indians listed as a part of a series that would be served for the global audience. But looking at what we can do and what we are doing I feel sad about it. As many articles suggest Indians are a bunch with lot of potential, which is not used to the fullest.
Two things that have caught my attention in the last month or so are TATA’s Eka and the whole issue surrounding Nuke deal.

In 1988 when India faced the denial of Supercomputer from USA, it led us to build our own. Now we have one which features in the top 5 list in the world. Indian supercomputer Eka (meaning one in Sanskrit) built by the Pune’s Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) of the Tata Group is the fourth fastest supercomputer in the world! Great going!
Though it has taken nearly 20 years for us to build a world class one which is amongst the top in the world, we made it happen. There is too much of talk going around whether India must go in for a nuke deal with US of A. There was too much of fight which even challenged the stability of the ruling Government, this has led the whole issue to be put in the back burner. There are many who say that its something that the Government shouldn’t have done and that it might prove to be an obstacle to progress.

But looking at it in a different angle I think it’s a blessing in disguise. This might prove to be the bullet that triggers the progress. Now India can look at developing its own technology for generating nuclear power. We should take inspiration from the story of Eka and try to develop our own technology. This will lessen our dependence on US. Had the deal got through it would have also created a scenario where in India would have been forced to open up more sectors for foreign investment. With no immediate need for energy through nuclear plants, we can look at developing our own technology that will aid us achieving the result, instead of depending heavily on US.

I am not someone who is pro left and trying to justify their act of opposing the deal, this is just a thought that struck me when I was reading through the article on NAT GEO.

RJ

dramatic victories and dream final :)

Having watched India play in the last 3 matches, it’s been really a brilliant show by them. The inaugural T20 world cup as a whole has been really exciting with nail biting finish in almost all matches.

Things could not have been better for the tournament with India and Pakistan setting up a clash for the final. With the Indian team at its best in recent years and going by the world cup track record against Pak, India is sure gonna win this one.

It’s been great atmosphere in the TV room in the hostel here. Nearly 150 people watch the match in a room that can accommodate may be 50. The chants and the shouts when India play makes one feels as though you are watching the match in the stadium. With the semester exams having started today I didn’t expect much crowd in the room for the match against the Aussies, but to my surprise the hall had more number of turn out today. So has been the excitement and fun in the room that I guess no one wanted to miss it. People don’t mind sacrificing few hours of sleep to watch the match. The picture below can be easily mistaken for some riot, but that’s a sample of what our TV room looks like, with everyone trying to find some place to catch a piece of the action.

With the new found attitude in the team, “don’t take the S*** give it back to them” one hopes it’s good for the game of cricket in India. The way Yuvi responded after the exchange of words with Flintoff was simply great. Even today Indians were not afraid to exchange words with the Aussies, a classic example of the doctor being treated with his own medicine. Indians have shown great ATTITUDE and fighting spirit in this tournament and the match today against the mighty Aus was simply brilliant.

Hope Pak doesn’t break the jinx against India in the world cup and the silverware travels to India. c

RJ

Are our EPICS mere stories or history?

Over the last one week the fate of Lord Rama has been hanging in the balance. People were arguing in the court that Rama is just another character in a story and Ramayana is one of the greatest stories ever told in the history of man kind. It’s been nearly a decade now since Rama took center stage in politics. Now he is back with a bang, this time people questioning his very own existence in the earth.

There was too much of confusion in the court room as well as in the streets whether the story of Ramayana is true. Government had initially stated that Ramayana was just another story presented in a nice manner so as to conquer the hearts of billions of people in the years to come. Thanks to some protest to this statement by groups like VHP, Government within couple of days started playing the blame game and the great Sonia was quoted on paper saying that Rama existed. What an irony, it took someone who doesn’t trace her roots to India to clarify the existence of Rama.

“Ram is a myth - it was an Aryan God imposed upon the Dravidians. They (UPA Government) have said Ram was an imaginary person and now they've backtracked on that claim” this was how Tamil Nadu C.M Mr.M.Karunanidhi had to react to the statement given by the government. Its common knowledge that Mr.M.Karunanidhi was one of the pillars of the Dravidian movement in the state, what’s also known is that he doesn’t ever miss a chance to hurt the sentiments of millions of Hindus time and again. One must say that he is good at that and probably there is no one to match him in that. But it’s the true mind of a politician that shines in this statement. Trying to capitalize on every moment to establish him with the masses. This statement would have gone pretty well with most of the population in Tamil Nadu and that would have guaranteed him plenty of votes in the elections to come. The saddest part of the whole thing is, he is one of the most respected politicians of the state and in recent times he has also enjoyed tremendous power at the center.

Mr.M.Karunanidhi has been hell- bent on getting this project underway for quite sometime now and it was even one of his election pledge. Looking at it one would guess that there is MORE at STAKE than a mere election promise that needs to be kept.

Anyways let’s pray that Ramayana doesn’t turn out to be greatest story ever told and that the heritage is maintained and preserved.

RJ.

also enjoy reading:

http://hitxp.wordpress.com/2007/07/01/a-blunder-called-sethusamudram/

http://www.newindpress.com/column/News.asp?Topic=-97&Title=S%2EGurumurthy&ID=IE620070914124012&nDate=&Sub=&Cat=&

Twenty20 here to stay?

Having watched the twenty 20 format for the first time on the India Pakistan match I should say it was real fun and excitement. It provided all the uncertainties that cricket holds with the match swinging in favor of both the teams and that too in half as much time as we would watch an ODI.

There were people alongside me telling this was more exciting than an ODI and that this might be the next thing in cricket with ODIs eventually fading out. But I guess that wouldn’t be the case as there will be too much of a difference between this format and the test matches if ODIs are scrapped. This would only harm the game.

I think this is an effort to bring all those who have stopped watching cricket due to the time factor back to the ground or in front of the TV. Since it’s just over 3 hours this is more like football with all the excitement right through the match. But the hardest of the games followers will not like this format as this is pure power hitting and less of the traditional technique as Boycott may put it. The match being decided by shoot outs, that’s really funny as it sounds more like a football match.

But the broadcasters will really love this as its about lesser time..more excitement..more promos and MORE MONEY.

RJ

Great Lunch, Good Dinner and a bad dessert

Like most of the Indians following cricket I was of the hope that the Team India would pull of another victory to return home with the trophy today. In that hope I had thought of naming a great English summer, but it didn’t turn out that way, never the less it was a good one.

After the disastrous world cup campaign no one would have placed their bet on India to win the test series. Even in the one day after being down 3-1 no one would have thought the series would run down to the last match. But anyways this series was a good team effort and atleast India has the silverware from the tests.

Two things that stand out from the both the series are one the victory whenever it came by was due to the team effort and the other is the contribution of the youngsters & new comers in the team. Karthick, Zaheer and R.P.Singh did very well in the tests and Piyush, Gambhir, Robin (match saving knock) were good in one dayers. Probably India can still have a decent enough team once the big guns decide to hang their boots.

The big four of India also had a great outing in the series. Kumble was among wickets, Dravid, Ganguly and Sachin all contributed to the cause. But one should say Sachin was rather unlucky not to get even a single ton in probably what will be his last outing in the English soil. Being out in the 90s five times in the series is rather unlucky. Couple of times (once while on 99) he got a bad decision and that denied him the much deserved ton. Ganguly was also unlucky to get couple of rough decisions in the tests when he was going great. It’s probably both the best and the worst time for the LITTLE MATSER of late, good for the amount of scoring that he has done in the series after much of debate whether its time for him to retire and bad for not been able to convert his scores to a century. Anyways both Dada and Sachin played beautifully in both versions and their partnerships were real beauty to watch. It was delight to watch Sachin play at his best, his innings in the one dayers reminded everyone of the terror he used to be in the late nineties. Probably “old warriors never die”.

This would have been a perfect English summer if India had pulled it of today, but the way they surrendered to England today spoiled the mood a bit. After having a great lunch (tests) good dinner (previous 6 ODI) the party was spoiled by a rather bad dessert. Anyways let’s cheer India and hope they do better against Australia and Pakistan in months to come.

RJ

Has Google stopped inventing

Few days back I set up my browser for iGoogle. I had been thinking of doing this for a long time but kept away from this for a simple reason that I will write about later. For people who don’t know what iGoogle is, it’s a customizable web page that helps you to add a whole range of updates like weather, news, stock quotes, jokes etc..

I have used a similar kind of utility provided by Yahoo long time back. Though I didn’t use the yahoo service for that long when I started using iGoogle it reminded me of the yahoo page. It seems like iGoogle was programmed with the Yahoo page in mind.

As I was telling this to my friend he said Google nowadays launches a lot of services that are lifted from other sites. Being a loyal Google user for a longtime now I denied that and did a small search on this (using Google). To my surprise the search threw up a lot articles that supported his argument.

I know many would be surprised as I was reading this, but go ahead and search on this and you will know what I said is right.

Of late Yahoo is coming up with some great services that are better than Google. For example take the case of Yahoo Alpha – the customizable search engine page. This yahoo offering is far better than the google custom search. Unlike google’s custom search which is closely linked to its web search this gives you a better result. Know what this Yahoo offering was launched much before the Google custom search.

Coming back to iGoogle, Google is always known for its faster homepage. The very reason it clicked when it was for its simplicity. It was refreshing to see a search page with almost nothing in its homepage, when Yahoo which was the number one then had close to 200 links filled in its home page. Now with the iGoogle in your browser it slows down the page and it takes ages for it to open. So I don’t think it makes a good business sense for Google to come up with iGoogle.

What ever said and done I don’t think many will move away from Google in near future, but with Yahoo coming up with many new services I think it will over take it in sometime to come.

RJ

home sweet home....great dharshan and delicious laddus

Last week was some free time from the hectic schedule of the B School assignments and presentations. I had gone home for 5 days. After couple of weeks of mid term evaluations, assignments and presentations it was a well deserved break.

I was fast asleep on the train when the great smell of Koovam River got me back to my senses and welcomed me to Chennai. When I reached home there were steaming idly floating in sambar waiting for me. Those 5 days at home eating mom’s food was the best part of the whole stay. Here in hostel after having rotis that are nothing but a miniature version of MRF tire, some yellow semi solid thing that they term as dal and mixture of some mashed vegetable called sabji moms food was heaven. Though the dishes made my mom are always great, this time it was even more special.

I also happened to go to Thirupathi. I have been planning to go to Thirupathy for the last 5 years but some how or the other I wasn’t able to make it. Generally they say that you can get a glimpse of the Venki only when he calls you, I guess that’s true coz I have been planning a great deal over the last 5 years but wasn’t able to make it. Having waited for 5years I enjoyed great Dharshan, was standing near the God for nearly one and a half minutes. People who have gone to the temple will be really jealous of this coz they allow you to stand there for hardly 10 secs. But know what if you use the right technique and push the right thing at the right place you can also make it. There are 2 things famous about Thirupathi one is of course Lord Venki and the laddu. Believe it they have a patent for those laddus. I happened to get a better deal on laddus also, got 2 extra laddus.

Having come back to college the assignments have again started, have 4 of them waiting to be completed in the next 3 days. Probably last week was the most memorable week of this semester, will have to wait for a while now before I can go back to Chennai meet my sister, parents and friends.

RJ

NDTV poll and BIG B

Today I was going through the results of a poll conducted by NDTV. As India celebrates its 60th year of Independence, NDTV conducted a poll to identify the icons, events and landmarks that have preoccupied Indians.

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070022301

The results of the poll on India’s Greatest Icon caught my attention more than any other category that they had.

I wasn’t surprised but shocked to see the name of Amitabh Bachchan in that list of icons. I wasn’t surprised because he is a household name and that he is known to everyone in the country. I was surprised to see his name there along side the others in the category simply because I feel you cannot compare him with the likes of Mother Teresa, JRD Tata, Narayan Murthy or Indira Gandhi.

I know him as someone who ruled the bollywood in his days and off late one who has been endorsing products ranging from banks to paints, chocolates to washing powder. More recently as one who is trying to project himself as an actor farmer or a framer actor or whatever.

All this while if I had been sounding as someone who hates Big B please correct yourself. I love him on screen for all the role he does and for the way he came back strong after the debacle of his ABC Corp but I think he simply is not that big to get his name listed alongside others in that list.

Big B in that list means he has taken away a position that could have been filled by Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (he needs no introduction for all the things that he has done for India) or P.V. Narasimha Rao one who led one of the most important administrations in India's modern history overseeing a major economic transformation and several incidents affecting national security. Or one that could have been taken by Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji who when he was a PM gave a new definition and Attitude for India. May be even our current PM not for his stint as a PM but for his great work as a Finance Minister. I would have also liked to see the name of Dhirubhai Ambani and many more who have contributed a lot to India rather than just act and endorse products.

Anyways these were just my thoughts and hope all the people who voted for him think about this.

RJ.

Bitten by the AD BUG

Over the last week or so we (me and 4 more guys in my group) have been working on a presentation for the marketing communications class. The assignment was to conceptualize a new product for a market launch and build the whole communication strategy for it.

Having worked on it and after a good presentation yesterday I think I enjoyed every part of the brain storming sessions we had. It was good feeling working on the advertisement part, designing them and planning the media campaign. Having been through this small exercise I liked them and this has developed a liking within me for the ad industry. I would want to associate myself with an ad agency sometime in future if there is an opportunity.

May be it’s the product that we decided upon that actually made myself get involved with the whole exercise. Guess what the product is “chocolate filled with cocktail”.

I have liked the subject right from the first day. Now I have started looking deep into the message of any advertisement that I come across. May be everyone does that unknowingly but now I am more conscious about it. Guess this will make me a hard nut for the marketers to crack :)

RJ

Indian Inc Glowing

If you are reading any business news paper or business magazine regularly of late, one word that props up more than any other is PROFIT. Almost all the Indian companies have been reporting profits this quarter and in the last couple of years. This reiterates the belief that Indian Inc. is shining.

This is probably the best time to be in the country as there is a huge economic boom and burgeon of industries. This fairy tale is not restricted to the IT sector and other sunrise sectors. Even traditional sectors like manufacturing have been doing well over the last couple of years. There is enormous amount of opportunity for the people today. Gone are those days when one needs to be an engineer or doctor to earn a good living.

Another phenomenon of this growth is the frequency with which Indian companies are going on a merger and acquisition spree. Almost every day you see an Indian company bidding for companies in U.S and Europe. Almost all the top global brands have entered the Indian market and the others who haven’t so far are charting their plans to.

As I have already said this is the best time to be in India. This growth is good news especially for guys like me who are into their final year of MBA and counting the days before the campus placements start.

Hope this fairy tale continues for some time to come.

RJ

India Shining

India’s victory over England has come in at the right time for both the team and the crazy cricket loving nation as a whole. It’s said that cricket is a religion in India but I guess that’s an understatement, it’s the way of life for most of the population here; it’s the air they breathe. After the debacle in the world cup the fans needed a miracle to happen to get them back to their senses and that’s exactly what happened yesterday. Away victories are precious commodity for the Indian cricket (even though they have been wining matches more frequently of late).

Indians needed to play good all-round cricket and they needed some amount of luck to be on their side. They got both. Gods must have felt the same and they came to the respite of India in the previous test by showering rain on the fifth day to help India draw the match. In this test they helped us by being on our side during the toss.

But don’t take away the credit from the game they played. It was heartening to see every member of the TEAM contributing to this victory. Be it the solid stand from the openers in first innings or the glow of the glorious underperforming middle order it was all there. The bowlers contributed a major part in this victory led by Zaheer Khan. Zaheer bowled with immaculate precision in both the innings and he was well supported by both Kumble and Singh. The two wickets of Singh in the second innings were beauty. The most important thing we played like a TEAM. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I say “Gone are those days that the match was won by primarily the contribution of either Kumble, Sachin or Dravid “.

Indians have been winning test matches oversees more frequently now, only that the consistency is missing. Be it in South Africa, West Indies or Australia they had the upper hand in the series but couldn’t go on to win them. Hope they don’t repeat that again and come out and win this series. I like any other cricket crazy fan will be praying for it, but will have to wait for another 15 days to see if our prayers come thro’.

RJ

Jelly beans and the english media......

After India’s thumping victory yesterday, as an enthusiastic Indian fan I was browsing through some of the articles of the British media to read their comments on the match. Though every other site was praising India for their win there was one thing that caught the limelight in every one of them. It’s something totally irrelevant to cricket that’s the JELLY BEAN.

I have always thought that the English media was one of the most hyped ones. After reading those articles yesterday it just reiterated my view on them. It’s amazing to know how they can hype up a simple (rather silly in this case) issue out of proportion. The media conference after the match was filled with questions about the jelly bean rather than cricket.

Guess had Beckham been from any other part of the world he would not have been as popular as he is now. No I am not trying to pull down his capabilities but it’s just that the English media played a HUGE part creating a BRAND BECKHAM. Freddie was all over the place in the media after their ashes victory couple of years back. Images of him sneezing and coughing would make it to the 1^st page for almost 6 months after their ashes victory.

Anyways let me not be like one of them trying to take the limelight away from India, hail India for one of their rare victories in England. Come on India go and get the series.

my first scribble

The idea of scribbling my thoughts through a blog arose some 2 years back and I did write couple of blogs then but never continued from there on. It was primarily due to 2 reasons

1) I should confess that I am kind of lazy to sit down and write a blog now and then.

2) Every other blog article that I read was lengthy that would run in for atleast couple of pages and I aint good at writing for pages together.

But now I have decided to start blogging again ( if I can consider those 2 stupid blogs I wrote some time back ).

This interest to blog again was kindled primarily by 2 factors

1) Now in a B school I spend most of my time in front of my laptop and I wish to do something meaningful other than simply play games in it and try to search over google to do some ctrl C and ctrl V for my assignments.

2) After going through my friend Giri’s blog (http://grikboy.blogspot.com/) I realized that blogs need not be lengthy. They can be short and still be sweet. Each of his blogs are not more than 1000 words but they are still good and they drive a good number of hits every day.

Giri if at all I continue to scribble for some time it is because of you dude, you are my inspiration for this. Thanks to you and hope you don’t are not furious at me for mentioning your name and the blog address here.

Hope I continue blogging at least till the end of my stint here in college J