Internet Crash ?

Check out this video on Youtube. It's hilarious :)

IBM branded macine guns?

Wikipedia at it again. It's strange how you come across such interesting trivia ,

This article on Wikipedia

In particular, this piece looks the most interesting to me.

After America entered World War II, IBM played an active role in the U.S. war effort. According to the IBM archive website:

When World War II began, all IBM facilities were placed at the disposal of the U.S. government. IBM's product line expanded to include bombsights, rifles and engine parts – in all, more than three dozen major ordnance items. Thomas Watson, Sr., set a nominal one percent profit on those products and used the money to establish a fund for widows and orphans of IBM war casualties.[5]

In particular, IBM manufactured the Browning Automatic Rifle and the M1 Carbine. Allied military forces widely utilized IBM's tabulating equipment for military accounting, logistics, and other war-related purposes.

In fact,some time back there was an interesting discussion as to how most of the things related to the development of the internet were funded and supported by defence bodies, as the sole aim of them was to use them to improve their strength on the military side. I wonder sometimes what would have happened if they had used the same money for similar purposes minus the war. I guess it could have been both ways, maybe we would have had more peaceful results out of these things, maybe we would have never had these things :)

Among other news, saw the Indian Ocean concert at Hayward yesterday...It was too good.

Call center for the blind

There is this interesting article on BBC news about a call center in Mumbai(Bombay) which is meant for visually challenged people only.

I find this as a good sign, because people are thinking out of the traditional app roach that blind/handicapped people are only limited to a set of jobs.( If you've seen Black , there's a very nice dialogue that Amitabh has to reflect the same). Also, I am sure that this will give them a sense of achievement, and also , an all important, making them financially self sufficient.

Most importantly though, I feel that the fact that the person at the other end does not know that they are blind, will instill a great feeling of confidence since it gets rid of the (sometimes undesired) sympathy. Kudos to the people who got this great idea to work.

Reflections of India - 2

So here's the big deal. India is rich. Teenagers have more money than ever before. If not , they have a credit card. Is it just because of the economy booming?

I don't agree. It's because of a new way of life, which is more influenced by the western philosophy. More and more credit cards, more and more malls, and more are the people influenced to shop. And oh, the big 'chain' restaurants. I don't think I can generalise, but when I was in college, I would not dare to ask my dad for 100 Rs . to spend on one coffee in a 'coffee' house . And again, not that we did not spend money. But, somewhere show business has come into picture quite a lot. It's just so 'cool' to sit in cafe coffee day, and it's so 'uncool' to go to a local restaurant and have coffee. Surprising.

The positive side is, though, that it is fun. There's a lot of life which somehow was non existent. I mean, now there are umpteen places to hang out, as opposed to a very few.

And of course, cultural values have changed. It's no longer a taboo to divorce someone and move on, and as pre martial relations and teenager independence are going over the roof, the new Indian generation is breaking the shackles of that 'Humaare yahaan aisa sab nahin hota' thing. While some of it is wrong, I do believe that it's good in a way, since I would rather follow something in which I believe in rationally, than just be forced into it since I was brought up here. Maybe it needs a little bit more care.

One interesting thing I observed, which follows from one of my earlier blog posts, is that somewhere we have developed the tendency of going the 'under the table ' way, instead of going straight. Somehow every employed person who tries to do his duty, is considered 'khadoos' and the corrupt guy is considered - 'flexible aadmi hai'. I found , particularly in this visit, that most working class people will do their duties properly, if you speak politely to them( One guy was just too shocked, when I said 'Aap please zaraa yeh kar denge' ) Something, which we might have never tried, might just work . It's about giving it a shot.

This post has been badly structured, sorry for that. I just had too many thoughts, and could not organize them properly. Your comments are welcome.

Statistics of the India trip so far

Days spent: 16
Places visited: 3
Shopping done: Rs.25,000
Number of people who have told me that I have grown Fat : 31 ( and increasing)

Reflections of India

I have come to India a good 2 years since I last came here. Also, having learnt the experiences of life in Uncle Sam's land, I have been kind of away from the way of living in India and Bombay in particular. This time, as I come back, I feel there are so many things I wanna tell everyone

Firstly, India has grown rich....For some reason, I still think of India as the one I left in 2003, which is a far cry from anything you see right now. Somehow people have all the money to spend on expensive restuarants, funky mobile phones (I want to write more about this in a separate blog), and in general, India has changed

Let me start with some things that I did not like though. The first habit being branding us guys as 'US returned' and worse terms. A simple example

We went to a resort, and food wasn't allowed inside. For some reason 3 people close to me tried to smuggle food inside the resort. On top of that, they gave the same reason(in the same words).The reason was 'Yeh ladka America se aaya hai, aur bahut Bimaar hai'. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I did not like this on several counts. First, I believe my approach has generally changes towards breaking rules. Especially if it serves little or no purpose to do so. If they don't allow food inside, it's prob to keep the park clean, and I feel that is 100% justified. And please, just because I am US returned, does not mean tht I am the most sick person and hence should get all the favours. I don't like because people do this, and then people will say, yeah America se aaya hai, khaane peene ke bahut naatak honge. All this when you really don't want it.Disheartening :).

I always stick to the philosophy that a person who goes to America is no where different from a person who does not go. It's just a matter of making a career choice, that drives a person there.

Have I changed? Maybe not. I am just 4 years behind all these people. It's they who have changed.

Yaar Main India Chala!

How To Get from New York to Paris

Priyendra sent me this link. This is how to get from New Yor to Paris courtesy Google Maps. Check out the steps :).

The End of our Era of Cricket?

As the 2007 world cup went underway, I came across this story on Cricinfo , which said that there were only 5 players surviving from the 1992 world cup to the 2007 world cup. It included Inzamam, Sachin, Lara, Jayasuria and A C Cummins who played earlier for the WI and now for Canada. Inzy has already announced his retirement and I am pretty certain that we'll not get to see the rest for the next world cup.

There's enough of nostalgia , especially , since when I started watching and following cricket seriously, all these players esp Lara, Sachin and Inzy were just starting to fire at the international scene. As a kid, I remember maintaining stats of every match of Sachin, and of course who could not be a fan of Inzy after that 60 off 37 balls that he made against New Zealand in the World Cup Semi's in 1992.

All these years, all these players have gone through ups on downs, but then, they have defined cricket for our generation. They have given their countrymen reason to cheer, reason to dance, reason to cry, and just have been an inseparable part of our lives. The time has come to bid farewell to some of the finest cricketers we have seen.

Indian Superman- a must see

Alok sent me these 2 links, one of a north Indian ( or Bollywood) superman, and one of a south Indian one. It's hilarious





North Indian Superman



South Indian Superman

Munnabhai 3 is here!

We saw this trailer or munnabhai 3 at naz8 yesterday.... Probably will me one more masterpiece.....The topic this time: Munnabhai Chale America....

Check out the trailer for more. Check out this article as well.



Lage Raho Munnabhai!

Revenge on Telemarketers

I am sure you would have all heard these calls, saying that you have been chosen to win a grand prize, to how your name came up in their electronic lottery, or just how they can make your life so much better.....A set of steps to take your revenge on them.. ..typical tit for tat style, since they annoy us, annoy them as much as you can....


This guy probably did the best thing. Check this out. It's really hilarious..!

Other great ways to handle them :)

1. If MCI calls trying to get you to sign up for the Family and Friends Plan, reply, in as SINISTER of a voice as you can, "But I don't have any friends...Would you be my friend?"



2. After the telemarketer finishes speaking, ask him/her to marry you.



3. Tell the telemarketer you are busy at the moment, and ask him/her if he/she will give you his/her home hone number so you can call him/her back.


4. Ask them to repeat everything they say, several times.



5. Tell them it is dinner time, BUT ask if they would please hold. Put them on your speaker phone while you continue to eat at your leisure. Smack your food loudly and continue with your dinner conversation.



6. Tell them that all business goes through your agent, and hand the phone to your five year old child.



7. Tell them you are hard of hearing and that they need to speak up...louder...louder...louder!



8. Tell them to speak very slowly because you want to write every word down.



9. If they start out with, "How are you today?", say "I'm so glad you asked, because no one these days seems to care, and I have all these problems..."



10. Catch them off guard by saying in a husky voice, "What are you wearing?"



11. Cry out in surprise, "Helen, is that you? I've been hoping you'd call! How is the family?" When they insist they are not Helen, tell them to stop joking. This works especially well if the telemarketer is really male.

The Easternization of America...

Sounds funny? Could be the next thing on the block.

For years, we have heard about how American culture , American brands, American movies, blah blah blah have come into the Indian culture and 'westernized' India, as it is popularly called. No no, I am not saying its false...It's pretty true and we all are aware of it

More recently though, we have been exposed to a new phenomenon, which I would like calling 'Easternization'. In 3 years in the US, when you find things changing, you sometimes predict what;s going to be next. For example, in addition to all the great Hindi theaters like Naz8 ( great!!!! ?????? ), yesterday, me and nirav discovered that the Coming Soon list at AMC theaters had Babul as one of the movies listed :)

To add to that, I believe there are more Indian restaurants in Mountain View than American restaurants , and if you go to any public place, the probability of finding at least some Indians there is almost 100 %. And, in general, I find more Indians and Chinese than Americans for sure , anywhere here in San Francisco...Interesting..

With yoga, art of living, vegetarianism, etc , already popular with Americans, should we be looking at more easternization soon? I believe so. 20 years ddown the line, American kids will ask their parents tht they want to wear the fashionable Indian outfits....they' r so cooooooooooool !

How many earths do you need?

Vinay Kini sent me this nice link

Basically, it asks you a series of questions, and in the end tells you that if the whole world lived like you, it would need 'x' number of earths ( which means 'x' times the exhaustible materials on the surface of the earth). Staying in a developed country, I expected myself to clock 4.3 earths, which is above normal, but then I found that many people whom I knew accounted for 10 or more ....which is sad :)

In general , if you read the questions, they tell you about potential mistakes you might be making, and how you never realised that they could be detrimental to the system .

Test yourself, and let me know how many earths did you need?

And yes, if you liked the article, try to go vegan....if not fully, upto some extent...it's good for everyone!

The Trojan...

When I first came to USC in 2003, I thought, what's all this hype about Trojans and stuff. I mean, think about it, you are in a University, and in the orientation, the President says...Welcome Trojans...And ..'Fight On!' Coming from the city of Mumbai, and more importantly Vivekanand Education Socy's Inst of Technology, where discipline was the name of the game, and every such speech seemed to be simply advising you about things you really felt bored to hear...this was a pleasant , but surprising change. I mean, I always felt that the craze for cricket in India was the most overwhelming things I had ever seen, till I saw this. 80,000 people at the Coliseum, the icing on the cake....

It's intereting, that within some time of being at USC, I felt so close to this whole concept of being a Trojan, and the spirit of USC. The music of the USC marching band, is something so special to me. And USC will always live on....in the hearts of all Trojans, it was the best place ever....

I feel proud of studying in the University like USC. A university whose students have won a medal in every single Olympic games, and an Oscar in every single Award Ceremony. No other university has come close to that. In fact , in the 2004 Olympics, if USC had participated as a country, it would have come 16th :) Howzzatt!

Fight On!

This is not what a newspaper is all about

The Times of India is carrying this article, in which it says that the rope used to hang Mohd Afzal is worth Rs. 675. ....

According to me, this news sucks, and it is not good that a reputed newspaper is printing such news.. Why? Simply, because, this is just riding on a popular news story, which is fine, but the story involves the hanging of a person. I am not really clear about whether the death penalty is good or bad to society, but at least, such news stories surrounding the hanging is not a good sign.....

Even when Dhananjay Chatterjee was executed, television serials showed interviews of the officers, the person who hung the culprit, their children...I mean...what the hell? .......Instead concentrate on bigger issues, farmers dying of starvation, people in Kashmir still struggling with their lives, corruption in big cities, and government policies. True, Mohd Afzal was big news, but then print news thats relevant and respectful....May God forgive him...

History repeats : Rang De Basanti vs Lage Raho Munnabhai

The Times of India reported yesterday that Vidhu Vinod Chopra has decided to try and send Lage Raho Munnabhai as an independent entry to the Oscars, after Rang De Basanti was sent as India's official entry to the Oscars.

Interesting, isn't it? The 2 movies have lot of similarities. Both are based on historical events ( and/or characters ) , and their direct implementation in today's world, subjects which have been always untouched, and thats what made both the films unique and superhits. Having gone for both movies first day, I can positively say that people who came out of the movie halls, were overwhelmingly impressed by both....

On another note, about 75 years ago, somewhere in 1929-30, Bhagat Singh and Mahatma Gandhi were both fighting for freedom, but using different principles and paths, and that time too, it must have been difficult to decide which was the right principle, Gandhi's way of Satyagraha or the approach of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Bismil, Ashfaqullah Khan and others.......

While reading history about both these freedom fighters, I always felt that would this be possible in today's world. Both the films are the best answer and example for this. Genuinely great movies. Indian cinema has really been producing some great movies over the past few years.....I hope one of them makes it to the Oscars....

The famous USC finger fountain...

Well, I am not sure whether the content in this entry is correct or appropriate for anyone to read, so do read it at your own risk and will :)

If you are at USC , or have been there, you may have heard of the USC finger fountain. To be more precise, let me post the picture



The interesting thing is, that while this might look like an ordinary fountain, it's peculiar shape does rise considerable doubt, and add to the fact that it is pointed in the direction of UCLA, USC's biggest rival . A rivalry which has been around for decades and generations. In fact if you just go to the USC, you'll find so many different things that point to this traditional rivalry,

This article depicts the rivalry from the UCLA side of it, and the following lines really tell you, who the better team is ;)

In front of 50,000 people at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Bruins suffered an embarrassing 76-0 loss at the hands of the Trojans. The lopsided outcome clearly showed why USC and coach Howard Jones were among the nation's elite and that UCLA was young and struggling with a program that still needed to reach puberty.

The ensuing year, the Bruins improved but still lost 52-0 to the Trojans and it seemed as though the series would end.

"In 1929 and 1930 the USC-UCLA game was like a practice game for USC," said Robert Beaver, a member of the Bruin squad from 1929-32.

For the next five years, UCLA did not play its future rivals and tried to mature as a team. The Bruins wound up 30-17-2 during that span and won a Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) title in 1935 as the men of Troy turned in a subpar 5-7 record that same year.

Anyways, no offence meant to anyone , but just something that I found really interesting...

Have fun, BTW, Thanks to everyone for their wishes

President Bush 'assassinated' in new TV docudrama

Check this out guys.

There's a documentary in which in the end, President Bush is assassinated..Fundoo hai :)

Forwarding the 10 cents mail - a classic dilemma

Well, most of us might have received a mail from Divya Singh working for Siemens who is in need of some advice from someone who had a particular disease her husband is suffering. Or some mail which says tht AOL will donate 1 cent for every email forwarded. Or simply enough, a mail which says that O positive blood is required, and forward to all....

What do you do on this one ? As a techie and maybe someone who explores things more than they appear, I can maybe search over the internet, and find out if that's a fraud. But what about the common man? Someone who just uses email as a medium of transmitting messages . I think it's fair to say that ...it would be okay for someone to forward such an email. Why? Simply coz even if there is 1 % chance that it is true, then it is definitely in good faith....For example, I would strongly encourage people to read the otucome of this forwarded email ..It could have been a hoax too, but it was not...Same as maybe several asking for help wrt contacts, or anything at all....

And then there are emails which says that AOL will donate 10 cents for every forward (AOL would have gone bankrupt by now :)) . But still, for someone not connected with the tech world..it might seem to be just a very good idea....and wud forward it maybe just out of doubt..

Maybe it's a good idea to search it on the internet, but if u r unsure...what should you do?