What does a blog title look like? What do you write in a blog? What do you eat for lunch? What do you do with life?
So much for questions. Just trying to make sense of what is around..
Five years ago I wrote about how Pratibha Patil's elevation to the presidency was a step towards weakening the nation. Five years later how I stand corrected!
Wikipedia entry on Mrs. Patil has a section on controversies. Here is the entire oeuvre. Some of the gems include spending more than 200 crores on her foreign visits, murder cases against family members, misuse of her position and finally grabbing Army land for her palatial accommodation.
As I write this, another farce is revealing itself and this looks far more worse than freaking Indian Idol!
I am presenting a list of 10 Pakistanis who are most well known in India. They are admired, loved, idolized (and sometimes pilloried) by millions across the country.
Is your list any different?
1. Imran Khan
Surely the most inspirational cricketer to have come out of Pakistan, Imran had stunning good looks to boot. His leadership skills were pivotal in Pakistan lifting the World Cup in 1992.
He wasn't as successful in his political career where he was dubbed a 'Spoiler politician'. He still remains an inspirational figure well respected in India.
2. Wasim Akram
Akram was one of the best fast bowlers in the world and one of the finest exponents of reverse swing bowling. His two sublime deliveries to dismiss Allan Lamb and Chris Lewis in the 1992 WC final are etched forever in the minds of crickets lovers.
Although his career was later tainted with match fixing scandal he remains popular in India appearing in dance shows and commercials or even denying a marriage with Sushmita.
3. Ghulam Ali
Who can forget his heart rending song Chupke Chupke Raat Din in the 1982 movie Nikaah or for that matter his ghazal Hungama Hai Kyon Barpaa.
Armed with a baritone voice and subtle vibrations he used to convey a whole range of emotions in his ghazals. Along with Mehdi Hassan he contributed immensly to the revival of Ghazal in the 70's.
4. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Nustat Fateh Ali Khan is probably the most well known Pakistani musician outside of Pakistan. He was primarily a Qawwali singer who has performed in over 40 countries.
He collaborated extensively with western musicians producing exquisite music. His album Intoxicated Spirit was nominated for a Grammy in 1997 for best traditional folk album.
5. Shahid Afridi
Boom Boom Afridi is certainly a maverick. He started out as a leg spinner but made his mark for his explosive batting and now considers himself a better bowler! In his first international innings, he smacked 11 sixes to score a century in 37 deliveries.
He is the only player to score 6000 ODI runs with an average of under 25. When captaining, he likes to helps his team by chewing the ball or scuffing the pitch.
6. Atif Aslam
Atif Aslam is to the youth what Ghulam Ali was to the oldies. A soulful melancholy runs through his songs be it Pehli Nazar Mein, Kuch Is Tarah, Aadat, Woh Lamhe, Tera Hone Laga Hoon or Tu Jaane Na.
He is expected to make his acting debut this year. Lets hope he dazzles us again, this time with his histrionics.
7. Shoaib Malik
Shoaib Malik is perhaps known (in India) because of his marriage to Sania Mirza than for any other cricketing reason. He has currently been dropped from the team and perhaps will never get in again given Pakistan's seemingly unending talent pool.
His marriage/divorce with Ayesha Siddiqui left a bad taste in mouth. His subsequent marriage with Sania was given a cold shoulder by most celebs (other than Raja Murad of course). Shoaib's current pastime include cheering his wife along the ATP tour, feeding her with drinks during practice and getting banned from playing in Indian grounds.
8. Veena Malik
Veena Malik was not so much successful as an actress but much better recognized as a comedienne on a popular TV show Hum Sub Umeed Say Hain. In fact I saw her first time on this show parodying Shoaib and Sania. She was later charging enstranged cricketer boyfriend Mohammad Asif with match fixing charges.
However Veena Malik came into her own while appearing on reality show Bigg Boss 4. She was berated in Pakistan for her immoral un-Islamic behavior on the show. But she fought admirably well, took on a Maulvi and silenced him (You Tube clip). Hats off to this gutsy lady!
9. Asma Jahangir
I would be taking a bit of liberty saying she is Pakistan's Arundhati Roy. The fact is she gives them hell and we loves it. She is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
I think she is a very brave woman; a beacon in the dark age of Pakistan. Hope this beacon shines forever.
10. Pervez Hoodbhoy
It would be fair to call him one of Pakistan's greatest intellectual. Armed with a PhD in Nuclear Physics from MIT, he is also a prominent social activist.
He has written on a plethora of issues like feminism, education, environment, philosophy and nuclear disarmament. In 2001, he refused to accept the Sitara-e-Imtiaz award from President Musharraf. Also read his article on a month long lecture tour in India here.
I am writing this post just to express my pleasure absolute delight at the news that my favorite player at the recently concluded World Cup - Diego Forlan is in India :D
He is in Kolkata to participate in a Football reality show. He said that he "had no idea about Indian Football" but "knew that cricket is very popular here". He also said that he "was loving India" and is "overwhelmed to see the enthusiasm here".
He believed his best goal at the WC was the one against Germany in the 3rd place playoff. He also defended his teammate Suarez's action of saving a certain goal with his hand.
Forlan is the Golden Ball Winner at the WC 2010 and is being approached by the top European Clubs to play for them. While in Kolkata he will join two Brasilians - Romario and Branco for the last episode of "The Match" - a football reality show. He might participate in an exhibition match against Mohun Bagan on Sunday. He is also scheduled to visit Mother Teresa's home.
Need to learn how to say Helloin Hindi? Or for that matter FISH? Or better still if you are an advanced Hindi learner or even a native speaker and need to find how to say exchange in Hindi. Well don't scratch your head, go no further than Shabdkosh.com.
Created by an IIT grad Mr. Maneesh Soni in 2003 this website serves as an online English-Hindi as well as Hindi-English dictionary. It started out with a database of 15,000 words it has now expanded the base with the help of contributing users. Starting from Hindi it now contributes words from many other Indian languages like Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.
It now features a User -Forum and sections like "Quote of the Day" and "Word of the Day". You can type in Romanised Hindi and even listen to the correct pronunciation of Hindi words. If you don't have an internet connection and intend to use it offline you can download the dictionary here. If you feel like it, you cancontributeto the site.
It is a wonderful site, certainly one of the best available today for English-Hindi translations. I have been using it for more than three years and I joined as a member today. I hope to make some serious contributions to the website in near future. Right now, I just want to spread the word.
If you happen to register with the website, just drop by and say hello to me!
With the soccer season upon us I recently wrote about the 2010 World Cup on my Hindi blog. After having finished the piece, I experienced a moment of sadness and frustration on our country's soccer prowess (or the lack of it). With the second largest pool of people in the world can't we produce a decent team that does well at least at Asian level (considering most of the top ranking countries are from Europe, Latin America and Africa). All we hear about is India drubbing hapless Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, if not getting a whack from them.
India was fourth placed at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. It was the runners-up at Asian Nations cup in 1964.So what went wrong? Is it that others progressed while we just sat on our bums?
For the 2010 qualifications, India lost in the first round to Lebanon. India's current FIFA ranking is 133 (as of May 1010); its lowest ever ranking was 165 (March 2007) and highest was 94 (Feb 96). Nobody can say for sure what's wrong with the Indian football but the apex body that runs football in this country has to take majority of the blame.
Glory of Indian Football I am not the one to cry over split milk and don't want to bore you with stories of babudom and bureaucracy crippling Indian Football. Instead, lets look at some of the finer moments of Indian Football.
Mohun Bagan Athletic Club or simply Mohun BaganAC is one the oldest Football clubs in Asia. It has been chosen among the top 11 clubs, alongside Bayern Munich, River Plate and Manchester United, by FIFA to form an Elite Task Force for club football. Some interesting facts on MB (source Wikipedia):
MB was the first Indian team to defeat a European team (East Yorkshire Regiment at 1911 IFA Shield).
When Maradona visited Kolkata in 1998, the only club he visited was Mohun Bagan.
Pele, one of the legends of the game played against MB for his club New York Cosmos in 1977. The match was drawn 2-2 with Pele scoring in a penalty kick.
Bayern Munich played a friendly against MB in May 2008 during their Asia tour.
MB played against and defeated Manchester City 1-0.
MB are the third club (after Barcelona and Manchester United) in world to have launched a co-branded credit card in their name (ICICI Bank Mohun Bagan Credit Card).
MB have a postage stamp issued after them to celebrate their 1911 victory (only club to have this honour).
You can read about Mohun Bagan's exploits in detail here.
I am a big fan of Eric Lippert and his blog. If you don't know about him already, you could go to his About mepage. Although he usually writes about stuff that I barely know about (VBScript, JScript, C# among others), I have a deep interest in his writings. Even his non-technical write-ups make up for interesting reading.
He recently wrote about attracting talent into an organisation. I am going to discuss about it a bit here in next few paragraphs. Essentially he wrote about things that make a job posting unattractive/attractive to a prospective job-seeker.
Things that make a job posting un-attractive:
1. Technology vomit/alphabet soup EIGRP, SOA, HSRP, OMG, BBQ, WTF....Vinay Khosla from Fashion would cringe "Spare me the horror!". I can't recall the number of times where I have been annoyed at the spit of these alphabets!
2. Over-emphasis on specific existing knowledge Vs. ability to learn new "Imagination is more important than intelligence", said Einstein and with good reason. Ability to grasp things quickly and effectively is more important than cramming it up. Intellect minus experience catches up with experience minus intellect pretty fast.
3. Full of jargon / too few specifics "A worldwide leader, A premier IT service provider, Fortune 500 company seeks ...." oh gimme a break. I would like to see, clearly, what are we talking about here and not in cryptographs please.
4. Asking for things that ought to be assumed I recently came across an advertisement by a 'leading provider of IT services' for a Developer/ Lead. It stated that "the candidate must be able to do coding". How's that!
5. No indication of work environment Do they have fresh beans or stale powder? As a rule most of the job postings don't give any insight about the work culture of a company.
Things that make a job posting attractive
1. Challenging work Work is challenging, requires innovation. A ex-colleague mentioned that the most challenging work he did during the whole day was to "sort out which bus he had to take back home". Needless to say how much he abhorred office. Also, being involved in design process is a huge encouragement.
2. Work life balance Many of us, including me, wouldn't like to spend their weekends at office - not for any dole of $s. I have already turned down job offers that required me to work in shifts. The job should allow opportunities to pursue their own interests. If you are real good, stretching after office hours won't be necessary (unless you're cleaning up someone else's mess)
3. Chance to work with industry leaders When you work with the best in business, some of it rubs off onto you. Working with leaders is a big incentive. I, for one, would forgo couple percentage of hike for a prospect of working with a leader in the technology.
Having said that, the above factors are not really important in Indian job market. Indian IT industry is relatively raw and inexperienced. There is a huge amount of young engineers being churned out every year. There is no dearth of software developers around. However, I believe that over a period of time, as the current crop matures into 10-15+ years things are bound to change. Till then, IT companies can get away with their shitty ads :)
I wanted to some serious blog reading today. So I opened Google Blog Search and punched in Hyderabad (that’s where I live right now!). Instead of blogs what I came up with..?
Ads – about free air tickets from Hyderabad to else where on this planet, about a 160 sq. yard Independent house in Gautam nagar Upparpalli, about free medical transcription training, about Wipro and GM walk-in, about openings at Prof. G.M. Reddy Research and SAP consultants at Wipro..
Jee… doesn’t Hyderabad host any bloggers.. there sure must be lots of them but doesn’t the city of Hyderabad interest them? Finally the face saver was Hyderabad Photo Blog .
It declares itself a blog about the “Life in Hyderabad – not the stuff you’d see in Tourism Corporation’s brochures and websites. “. Its a tongue n cheek description of how life stutters in Hyderabad – in its filthy-dying streets, in its crammed markets, overloaded roads and unbuilt flyovers, in the banner spammed skyline and the dust n pollution. It captures the street life and many more things that might miss the inattentive eye. Nice blog man.. m linking to you :)
Hyderabad is overly proud of the swanky HITEC city – (Hyderabad Information Technology Engineering Consultancy) aka Cyberabad. This place houses offices to some of the software powerhouses like MS, ORACLE, GOOGLE – Indian Giants like TCS, Wipro,Infosys and Satyam besides numerous other BPOs, KPOs ,LPOs and God knows what
Every other person here worth his/her own salt (except perhaps the auto-cab drivers , street vendors and the naked child beggars who cajole you for money once you stop at a red signal) has a ID card here. Having an ID card gives you special rights – it will get your work done at a bank, you don’t have to wait at queues for long(unless you are really dumb!), you have access to places. People look down on you if you don’t possess one.
A friend remarked once, “The HITEC city has been sold ( to IT companies) in the name of the Cyber Tower.”
Chandrababu Naidu the IT-savvy former CM of AP salted the HITEC mines to the firangs. The Cyber Tower stands tall in the bosom of HITEC city – its a crowded place at the intersection of busy roads. The traffic is slow as usual – at peak hours lines upto 2-3 kms are not uncommon! This problem is compounded by the utter lack of traffic sense among people. Cutting lanes , jumping signals and tripping is very common (more about HYD traffic later in other post).
I had promised to write about the notorious Hyderabad traffic so folks here I am, right on my money :)
The worst thing about Hyderabad traffic is that there are no rules. People assume, as they are entitled to in a democra(z)cy, the highest authority on themselves. In this process they forget the hapless traffic constable ,who has been shouting his guts off in the crazy heat or the hapless commuters (the god fearing type) who just happen to be in the wrong place (they always do, don’t they?). The end result is a mob frenzy with a free for all kind of traffic.
They jump signals at the smallest excuse, break queues,cut lanes, and indulge in all kind of nuisance you possibly can imagine. You would consider it to be your lucky day if you can cross the road without getting hurt – those sadists :(
Someone posted the following video on YouTube showing a glimpse of the Hyderabad traffic:
You can really see for yourselves how crazy the people are! Sometimes I feel people get what they deserve and Hyderabadis have nobody but themselves to blame for the chaos they allow themselves to be in. A sad commentary indeed for a place that prouds itself on being the Cyber capital :(
I had great hopes on Hyderabad and its cuisines most notably the Biryani. Wherever in India you may happen to reside, you can never be too far away from the Biryani. Be it an upmarket mall in NCR, or the Khomcha dishing out street food in Rampur – Biryani always sells like Hotdogs.
I had tasted Biryani numerous times at many non-descript restaurants/food stalls. So while moving to Hyderabad one of the foremost thoughts in my mind had been to feast myself to the quintessential “Hyderabadi” Biryani. The one that symbolizes Hyderabad in many ways as in this song from the movie “The Angrez”.
And with such great hopes in my heart and hunger in my belly that I set out for Hyderabad House – a place that prides itself on being the harbinger of Hyderabadi food. After a while arrived my Veg-Biryani dressed on a tray with hot steam piping out. This really got my juices flowing – quite literally! Without wasting any more seconds I broke into it.
First few morsels were taken quite liberally but then it started sinking in – it wasn’t too great. In fact it came down to swallowing the stuff and a couple of minutes later even that looked distant. Thanks to the buttermilk I could gulp some more. Too bad – there were no vegetables to save the day.
Not to blame the restaurant, the rice was of good quality and there were lots of spices in it. With every morsel I took I said to myself,”Oh, they put caradamom in it and there’s elaichi too and tejpatta and God forbid what not!”. But in the end it was plain colored rice – that’s what it was.
As I glanced away I saw a man biting into something that looked like a non-veg Biryani. And man was he really enjoying it ! You can tell when someone is really enjoying his meal, you know what I mean. He might have been very hungry or something but he looked lost into it – just like me but for entirely different reasons altogether. Two men looked out of the window one looked at the sky and other at the mud – is something how it`goes like.
May be my being a vegetarian took the kick out of it but whatever if can’t enjoy it there must be something wrong. The feeling was as if you had come to watch a movie by virtue of it having received great reviews but you felt it was entirely crap.
As I walked out, the restaurant owner looked up to me smiling like a Cheshire cat. Unfortunately I had no kind words for the Biryani but I smiled back in recognition anyway in case his faith in humanity might be hurt.
The recent India - Australia test series was very well contested. Except for the first match at MCG which was a one-sided affair and the last couple of days at Adelaide it was a fantastic series - certainly one of the most hotly contested series in the recent past, after the Ashes 2005 may be.
Sadly however, the series will be remembered more for the off field controversies than the contest on the field. Bad umpiring decisions, protests, racial comments, sledging, unsportsmanlike behavior on the field was all on display. The result - an umpire sent packing back to his home, a match referee being castigated in public, a captain accusing the other team of unfair play and finally two teams filing cases against each other's players.
A pack of wild dogs? Is this cricket? Or is this War? Certainly the latter as is promoted by the broadcaster itself. Its a "cricketing war" between two nations. One a reigning champion that prides itself on playing "aggressive" cricket and other - a challenger that managed to get under the skins of the victors - or at least matching them in their cricketing skills.
Everything that goes up must come down and so it was for the Aussies. They have played fantastic cricket over the years and deserve to be World Champions. But when paid back in their own coin they break - the invincibles mind you - just like any other team! A tree laden with fruits always comes down but the Aussies have turned egoistic bumblers today - lashing out at every body who comes in their way and all this in the name of "aggressive cricket".
That it all started with Harbhajan's congratulatory recognition to a fine delivery by Brett Lee in the form of a pat on the backside is hardly surprising. The mental makeup of the Australian team is revealed by the statement made by Mr. Andrew Symonds during the hearing. In reply to being asked what was his objection to the "pat on the back", he said, "Did I have an objection to it – my objection was that a test match is no place to be friendly with an opposition player, is my objection.”
And as Hon. Justice John Hansen noted, "If that is his view I hope it is not one shared by all international cricketers. It would be a sad day for cricket if it is."
The Big Bullies? The Australians have been hypocrites, for them everything is so - selective honesty, selective goodwill,selective judgment, selective sledging and then - out they come like whingers. Ok let me start, first Recall the gentlemanly "agreement" between the two sides regarding the catching - and what was Ponting doing claiming off an obviously grounded catch?
Secondly over the years Australians have claimed that their "sporty" attitude ensures that what ever happens on the field stays on the field. (Really?) And who went to the referee complaining like school kids. Couldn't it have been settled between two captains? And as Tony Greig said on , "If you want to nail Harbhajan....sit him down (with the captains) and nail him". Who brought the lawyers into it?
Thirdly, let's see the transcript of the stump microphone during the Sydney Test:
Hayden approaches Harbhajan. Hayden: "That's the last time." Harbhajan (apologetically): "No listen he started it." Hayden (putting his hands up): "Doesn't matter mate, it's racial vilification mate. It's a shit word and you know it."
So you go on abusing someone, expletives after expletives and when the person snaps - you report him! Very well done - that's what "mental disintegration" is! So far so good - but once in a while you find somebody who refuses to be cowed like a Ranatunga or a Harbhajan who don't hold back anything - you go back whinging to the referee. That's very un-sporty mate!
Indian side Indians are no holy cows themselves. Indian crowds behaved badly when Australians last toured. Symonds did well in the 4-2 series win for kangaroos and was subjected to racial taunts throughout the series culminating in Mumbai - where there were massive rallies in the crowd waving offensive banners and shouting "Symonds is a monkey" and "Aussies suck" with middle finger in full display et al.
These incidents were the root cause for what has happened now. Its time we put our house in order. Sections of crowd displaying such behaviour should be identified and banned from watching any future matches. Be it Mumbai or Sydney crowd trouble has to be handled in a proper manner.
Cricket is the biggest There is no place for personal banters or racial taunts in cricket or any sport. A little bit of friendly banter is good and keeps the spectators hooked but once in a while it gets ugly and things go out of hand.
One of the reasons behind this fiasco was the ineffective conduct of the two umpires in the middle. Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson did not earn too much respect from the two sides by virtue of their decisions in order to command over them. They are the ones out in the middle and can judge much better than anybody else sitting in the commentary box or the drawing room. In effect, under such cases umpires need to step up and see that the matters do not go out of hand.
The game of cricket is the biggest of all individual egos and so it must stay.
India's success in the IT-Software and outsourcing world has been well documented. Be it the fancy BPO,KPO or LPO India had always had the better of it when it came to the 'O'. All this while Indians have always maintained that they were destined to be the next Superpower.
However in a recognition of India's growing entertainment market in particular and the nation in general, Global media and entertainment firm NBC Universal acquired a 26% stake in New Delhi Television (NDTV) Networks for $150 million. What it means is that NBC has bought stake in the entertainment arm (NDTV Imagine),Lifestyle Channel (NDTV Good Times), Convergence, NGen and NDTV Labs. What's more significant is that they have not bought any part of the 3 news channels. What it also means is that NBC has now got a firm foothold in India as it may now join NDTV to launch its channels in the country.
NDTV Networks had last year raised $120 million through private equity placement that reportedly included Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Velocity Interactive Group (earlier called ComVentures) for a nearly 24% stake.
This is the third deal of a major US media conglomerate taking a stake in a TV network in India recently.Viacom has a 50 - 50 JV with Network18 in Viacom 18 and Disney has picked up a 14.85% stake in UTV. CNBC, which is controlled by NBC, has an equity joint venture with Television Eighteen, which runs the CNBC-TV18 business news channel in India.
Biju Patnaik, Karpoori Thakur, Jagjivan Ram, Jyotiba Phule, Mohammed Rafi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kanshi Ram, M Karunanidhi, Chaudhari Charan Singh, Jyoti Basu and finally the man who started it all - Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The race for this year's Bharat Ratna started when L.K. Advani proposed the name of Vajpayee for the nation's highest civilian honour. Since then its been a barrage of sorts with every political party worth its salt, proposing its own candidate for the award to be announced on Jan 26 - The Republic day.
This kind of drama can only be expected in a messy "democrazy" like ours! When will these power mongers get rid of their oneupmanship and understand that the highest civilian honour of this country cannot be bestowed on the basis of political affiliations. We've got enough of this! Let us hope good sense prevails soon.
A man known as Selvakumar has married a bitch in a ceremony which took place in Sivaganga district, 50 km east of Madurai in South India. The bride has been renamed Selvi (Mrs. Selvakumar) after the marriage. "Chosen" by the family, she was bathed and dressed in a sari before the "couple" exchanged marriage vows.
The man believes he had been cursed by the killing of 2 stray dogs 15 years ago - suffering paralysis and loss of hearing. An astrologer since advised him to marry off a female dog to ward off the curse. The groom and his family had a marital feast where the dog was given a bun!
In the recent past a donkey wedding was also arranged to bring monsoon rains in the IT capital of India - Bangalore.
In yet another high for an Indian, business tycoon Mukesh Ambani today became the world's richest man. He overtook Gates, Slim and Buffett to reach the milestone. This all came courtesy the current bull run in the Indian stock exchange which has ballooned his market cap in Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd.
Its 20-20 time! The Mumbai based BSE index touched an all time high of 20,000. In doing so it became the 20th nation in the world to have touched the 20K mark. The countries whose stock market indices have crossed 20k level include Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Venezeula, Peru, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Italy, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Ukraine, Turkey, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria and Hong Kong. Another Indian born Lakshmi Mittal is already in the top 5.
The five richest people in the world with their net worth
1. Mukesh Ambani ($63.2 billion)
2. Carlos Slim Helu ($62.2993 billion)
3. William (Bill) Gates ($62.29 billion)
4. Warren Buffett ($55.9 billion)
5. Lakshmi Mittal ($50.9 billion)
Ambani's wealth of about Rs 2,49,000 crore includes about Rs 2,10,000 crore from RIL (50.98% stake), Rs 37,500 crore from RPL (37.5%) and Rs 2,100 crore from RIIL (46.23%). Earlier on September 26, Ambani had overtaken steel czar Lakshmi Mittal to become the richest Indian in the world.
Chiru's daughter runs away.. Meanwhile in a truly filmy way, Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi's younger daughter Shirija "eloped" with her lover Shireesh Bharadwaj, a final year engineering student. They married at the Arya Samaj , Hyderabad in the morning. The marriage was also telecast live by a Telugu television channel.
However the couple looked confident although expressing fear for their safety. "Today morning, I eloped from home and got married to Sirish Bharadwaj. I am 19 years old and he is 22. Since we are majors, we have the right to get married. We got married in Arya Samaj temple today. We have been in love for the past four years and decided to get married this year. We want support from the media and the police because of threats from my family's side," said Srija.
Troubled times.. The actor and family seemed to shell shocked by this act of the runaway bride. Chiru's most anticipated movie Shankardada which was released recently didn't do well at the box office while his son Ram Charan made his debut a few days ago. Chiranjeevi's younger brother Pavan Kalyan has been in news for a bigamy case filed against him by his wife Nandini in a Visakhapatnam court. Chiru's elder daughter Sushmita's marriage with actor Uday Kiran was cancelled at the last minute when it was learnt that the groom was in love with another girl.
Caste matters? An India, that marches confidently towards the next century however seems to have its feet rooted in the medieval past when it comes to social events like marriage where things like religion, caste, creed ,region matter. It is interesting to note that Sirish is a Brahmin, while Srija is an OBC. This marriage has been opposed by both the families! Poor couple..
"There is no sincerer love than the love of food." - George Bernard Shaw
Very true indeed..! The love for food outweighs any other love in this universe. This love which has been epitomized for centuries, by the saying "Bhookhe Bhajan Na Hoin Gopala" (One can't worship on an empty stomach!) and more recently by the ad line "Hum kamate kyon hain? Khane ke liye!" (What do we earn for? to eat!)
Indian food habits
The battle for a decent and affordable square meal assumes gigantic proportions in cities. For any metro worth its salt having a sizable "IT workforce" and student population the population is much more accentuated. Anyone who has moved out of his/her home town to a bigger city misses the "maa ke haath ka khana"(home-cooked food).
Indian food habits are very much traditional even in this globalized age. Occasional bread-n-butter,pizza,burger or maggie is fine but cannot substitute a full fledged meal of Dal, roti, chawal and sabzi!
Now much has been written about the Mumbai ka Dabbawallas, known to deliver 200,000 dabbas (food tiffins) every day but a more recent phenomenon is the Mom's Kitchen which is managed by ex-IT professionals.
Mom's Kitchen
Mom's kitchen prides itself on being India's first fully professional tiffin service providing "end-to-end solutions" right from food preparation to food delivery (What a context!) Started by two IT professionals who got "frustrated" by the pathetic food quality of daily food in Pune, they claim to have the food prepared by the master cooks specially handpicked from Allahabad to retain the homely touch. Their USP is "fanatical devotion to unmatchable customer service."
The food is reasonably priced with the premium tiffin priced at Rs. 30 and the mini tiffin at Rs. 20. With the durable daals, sizzling sabzis and the rasila raitas it seems a runaway!
Interesting study
The "core team" consists of three former IT professionals- Vikram Pandiya, Ashwani Kumar Singh Rathore and Venkataramana Singanamala - all of whom kicked off their jobs. They make for an interesting study as Ashwin wants "all the Pizzas and Burger companies mushrooming around the country to ride back to their parent countries and establish Moms kitchen as a national brand."
The orders can be placed online at their website which also allows for tiffin customization. Their delivery areas cover a large part of Pune with plans to expand further with new centers. If this model succeeds one can foresee similar kitchens coming up other big cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi to name a few!
A recent research confirms that cannabis cause severe harm to the lungs - with one joint being as bad as five cigarettes. In the study, researchers from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, Wakefield Hospital and the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, studied 339 volunteers.
This research confirms that cannabis poses a serious health risk to the lungs says Reuters. However, tobacco continues to be more harmful overall because it is typically smoked in much higher quantities than cannabis.
Cannabis - the culture
Cannabis have had a past of their own giving rise to the 420 Cannabis culture with the Beatles star Paul McCartney famously saying ,
"I spent my time [in the Tokyo jail] making a mental list of all those drugs which are legal but dangerous. We're all on drugs --cigarettes, whiskey and wild, wild women. Society thinks alcohol is terrific, yet it kills. Cigarettes can kill. They are worse than marijuana. It's just not true that marijuana can kill. What about the little old ladies on Valium? Think of aspirin's danger to the stomach."
after being deported from Japan for bringing almost half a pound of marijuana into Tokyo for an 11-concert Wings tour. He later said,
"I support decriminalization. People are smoking pot anyway and to make them criminal is wrong."
Cannabis - the history
Cannabis has been used as a medicine for thousands of years all over the world including India, China and the Middle East. Painted pottery from the Neolithic Yang-shao culture (4200-3200 BC) indicated the presence of cultivated hemp. Hemp reached eastern Europe in the later part of the third millennium BC. Remains of hemp have been discovered in the eighteenth-dynasty tomb of Akhenaten (Amenophis IV) at el-Amarna and cannabis pollen was found on the mummy of Rameses II (nineteenth dynasty).
It was the first psychoactive substance (apart from alcohol) that became a common subject in modern popular music, with jazz classics from the 1930s such as Louis Armstrong's Muggles and Cab Calloway's That Funny Reefer Man topping the bill of marijuana-inspired fare.Finally, in 1937, through the considerable persuasive powers of Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the Marihuana (Marijuana) Tax Act became federal law and in 1956 the drug was incorporated into the more comprehensive Narcotics Act. The history is recorded by BBC in a news item here.
Bhang in India..
Back home in India, the cannabis served as a folk standard of potency. The three varieties are known as bhang, ganja, and charas. Bhang, the least potent of them all is consumed openly during the Indian festival of Holi as a drink and is widely depicted in Indian movies. It is interesting to note that the marijuana used in the United States is equivalent to bhang or, increasingly in recent years, to ganja.
In India while the government cracks down on rave parties where youngsters(allegedly) do drugs the lips are sealed when it comes down to open consumption of Bhang during Holi.
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, otherwise referred to as Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the 11th president of India served out his term to constitutionally highest post in India. Dr. Kalam has set several precedents during his tenure in the Rashtripati Bhawan which will be difficult to follow for the new incumbent Mrs. Pratibha Patil aka Pratibha Tai...
His dream vision for the future of India by leading the country to be a developed state by 2020, his special relationship and bonding with the kids (whom he hailed as the future of India), his past credentials as the missile man of India and his image as the "aam aami ka pratinidhi" led him to an iconic stature.
He really was the "People's President". Although the comparison is not correct, I would still term him as the best president since our first president Dr. Rajendra Prasad(who, incidentally is the only one to be elected in back-to-back presidential elections). He was also the only prominent national leader after Chacha Nehru to form such an emotional bond with the children...
He now plans to teach at Anna Malai University, in fact he has already joined at the varsity and wants to be referred to as Professor and not former President!
Pratibha Patil, the new President is just a bunny of Congress(I) leader Mrs. Sonia Gandhi (so is Prime Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh) and it still needs to be seen if she can emerge out of her tutelage (although she was chosen specifically for that purpose!). And all this farce in the name of "women empowerment"!
Muslim President and vice-president, first Sikh Prime minister, first Dalit CJI (Chief Justice of India) and now first Women President !
As Col. Jessop would have said, " All they did was weaken the nation".
Indian hockey isn't going through the best of phases these days.. clearly in contrast with the glories of the past. However realms of paper have been wasted on this and I am not the first or the last person to put my 50 cents worth into it. But what caught my attention was the recent news about the Indian midfielder Viren Rasquinha not being able to attend the national hockey training camp as he wanted to concentrate on his MBA exams ??
Now let me talk straight..I am not infringing on Viren's right to pursue education he can have all the degrees he wants to... But for a catch..he's not a wide eyed rookie or a regular bench warmer. He has been a formidable force in the Indian midfield for sometime now having played over 200 internationals,in fact he has been the Captain of the Indian Hockey team. Imagine Rahul Dravid (or for that matter any member of Indian cricket team) leaving behind cricket to pursue a mere MBA degree (where they are already rollin' in the Benjamins or the Lincolns or the Gandhis)
Viren has had a troubled relation with the hockey establishment in India as he had been dropped in the past leading him to raise questions about his exclusion. But whatever has happened now is a sad commentary on the state of Indian Hockey.
