Nexus between railways officials and fraudsters in Bangalore!!

Hi all,
A fellow ITBHU alumnus sent this today. I was extremely moved by what happened to him, and deeply respect him for the courage shown. Please read on and help him in his effort, by letting your friends know about this, if nothing more.

And yes.. this is NOT a hoax letter. I know this person.
-A

---

Hi!

I would like to bring to notice a certain injustice that I have subjected to at the Bangalore Railway Station (Majestic). On September 30 (Friday), 2005, I had been to the station to see off my fiance and her mother. They took the Karnataka Express (Train #2627) to Jhansi at 6:30 pm.

On my way out I was asked to present my platform ticket by a railway official. On producing the same, the TT turned around and told me "What if I say that you haven't given me the ticket?" Before I could react, he along with his colleague pushed me into the adjacent enquiry cabin and physically manhandled me. I was slapped several times, my spectacles were grabbed and deliberately crushed by foot, and my phone was flung away from me. The RPF comprising of one RPF and four constables, appeared on the scene. The surrounding public was whisked away. None of the railway police officials cared to listen to me and they started hitting me indiscriminately with lathis. They dragged me out, and all the 4 constables continued hitting me with lathis from Platform 1 to Platform 3/5, till we reached the station master's cabin. Racist abuses and threats were made on the way. At the station master's cabin, I was told that I have been charged with a non-ba! ilable offence and would be behind bars for 15 days.

Not for a single moment was I allowed to speak. All of a sudden a stranger came to the scene and he claimed that he was there to help me. Having lost all my physical strength and mental senses, I was happy to see some sort of help. He, claiming to be V Srinivas from Infosys, talked to the officials and the railway police in Kannada. He told me that the only way I was to get out was if I was willing to pay my way through. Being in no state to make a rational choice, I gave him my ATM card and pin. He took one of the RPF chaps along with him and said he would clear the matter. He returned some time later saying that everything was okay now.

I was asked to sign a statement which said that I hit the police and TT in a drunken state. I refused. Finally, they pressurized me to write that I did not produce a platform ticket when asked. I wrote the same and then V Srinivas took me out of the station. He joined me in an auto and took me to the ICICI ATM at Anand Rao circle. He withdrew Rs. 15000 from my ATM and got back. he took the cash under the pretext that while helping me he had left his wallet in the train he had left behind and that he would return the same through his ICICI Internet account. Having broken down mentally I did not realise that I was being cheated. He then took me to a Samsung showroom and tried purchasing a cellphone worth Rs. 18500 with my card. It was only then that I realised what was happening. I grabbed my card back, caught him by the collar, snatched my cash that lay in his pocket, and got into a running auto.

I have now realized that all of this was a plan. There is a strong nexus between the railway officials, the railway police and the fraudster. The railway officials identify a victim who they think is well-to-do, the RPF beat that individual till he has no physical or mental well-being. Then this fraud chap comes on to the scene, takes advantage of the situation, and takes all your cash away. Also, this series of events generally occurs on the last day of the month as they know that the salary gets credited on this day. (This strikes me now because the self-proclaimed Infy employee, V Srinivas, clearly asked me whether I had received my salary. He said that he just wanted to find out if there was cash enough to tackle the case.)

Now three days hence, I have tried to run from pillar to post. I have been forced to miss office hours in my effort to get justice. But I don't want to give up the fight midway. If any of you are in the media, or have friends/relatives who are in the industry, I'd like to speak with them about this in greater detail. I can be reached on 09886179319 or 08030933067. I believe it would catalyze my efforts.

Also, please pass this email to all the people who reside in Bangalore, so that they don't fall into the same trap.

Regards,
Nimish V Adani
IIML Batch of 2003
ITBHU Batch of 2001

Nifty things to pep up your windows

Hey all,
I know a lot of you still use windows [how else do I get voice chat on Yahoo!IM]... but there is hope....

Slashdot today had a post about pepping up your windows machine with open source software.. a must read I must say. [repetition intended :-) ]

Here are the top rated slashdot comments on the post, for more gyan!

And I got my first 5 moderator points on slashdot 2 days ago.. :-).

That's it for now... bye

Luv and Luck,
-A

Coming soon: An Indian's tale of "differences" seen in America... guess whose ;-)

Two movies to watch out for

Came across the following two movie trailers today:

North Country

The Greatest Game Ever Played

Nice movie ideas... I would love to watch them and get to know more about these wonderful people.

It is nice to know that the Indian guys are also making movies about national heros... after Mangal Pandey, I hear that a movie is being made on Rani Lakshmibai by Sushmita Sen.

Luv and Luck,
Animesh
P.S. the AIS Garba is coming up this weekend... way to go!

Someone Loves Me :-)

I got my TA feedback for Spring 2005 back today. Nice to know that the students liked my teaching - the biggest negative point: I speak too fast :P.

The best part was the image below.... well.. I love you too [just as I love all my students]! :-)



Cute... what do you think?

In other news, I saw this page about vintage bollywood posters on boingboing today. Really cool!

Cheers
-A

Sea Lions causing havoc in harbor

I read an article in my free paper-copy of the LA Times today [simply love the "paper" feel... after reading so much stuff online] about how Sea Lions have sunk boats in Newport Harbor. Here it is.

Apparently, they are also causing Noise pollution.

From the article:
"A barking dog doesn't hold a candle to this. It's like 40 barking dogs — in SurroundSound"

Interesting... lets see how this works out.
-A

Marry me : I love your sibling!

Got this story from various sources about how a 19 year old girl entered into a contract marriage with her lover's elder brother since the guy was not of age [he is 19 while in India, guys need to be 21 to get married].

Good one. A smart move - or is it? The girl's mom has expressed concern as to what if the current husband does not divorce the girl and/or the guy does not want to marry the girl. Given that a lot of "love" that happens at this age is not really long-lasting, I can only pray for this couple [I mean the one that wants to get married, not the one which is married on paper].

This brings me to the next point, about how a good friend of mine, a grad student at USC, has been thinking of entering into a similar "contract marriage" with some grad student girl so that he can get the cheaper and better USC family housing. If someone in Gujarat can do this, why cannot someone in LA ??

-A
P.S. Found this cool CD of "Rishi Kapoor" songs... amazing... also found a CD of "Shammi Kapoor" songs today.. life is good.

More on the new JEE pattern

It is official now, the pattern of the IIT-JEE has changed effective Monday Sep. 12, 2005. [more reports on the same]

We talked about it before on this blog, and here are the final changes: [link to full text of official press release]

1. You must have at least 60% in class XII.
2. You can appear only twice - once in the year when you are taking your class XII exam and once in the next year.
3. The JEE would include short write-ups on various topics followed by objective questions based on the write-up.
4. No screening.. only one exam.
5. Those choosing to take a seat for the first time cannot reapprear the next year.


I really like point 3 - makes it kinda like reading comprehension of GRE and other tests. I am waiting to see some questions like that.

These rules look kinda nice... I mean 60% is not too unachievable a score.

The only controversial thing I see here is the "take-JEE-only-twice" limit. You can see that this is basically meant to discourage coaching institutions, but is it fair?

And what about point 5 - is it fair or a bit too much?

As always, I [and other readers] shall wait for your comments. Please don't forget to leave your name and other details while commenting.

Animesh
JEE-1999
Ph.D Student, Univ. of Southern California

New Orleans vs Mumbai - a new look

I got the following the other day in email... from a variety of sources, and felt strongly about it. My comments follow the contents of the email

[click here to skip this and jump to my comments]

[begin email content]

New Orleans vs. Mumbai

I couldnt' stop forwarding you this comparison...

Inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18”
Inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1”

population of new orleans... 484,674
population of mumbai.... 12,622,500

deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina...100
deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.

number of people to be evacuated in new orleans... entire city..wohh
number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000

Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless
Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE

Time taken for US army to reach new orleans... 48hours
Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours

status 48hours later...new Orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricity
status 48hours later. Mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual

USA...world's most developed nation
India...third world country..

[end email content]

This is what I feel on this
I think the author of this email [and people who are forwarding this gleefully] are forgetting one very interesting and important statistic:

Number of Levees broken in Mumbai : 0
Number of Levees broken in New Orleans : 1

Please do not forget that the crisis in New Orleans is not due to rainfall, but due to the breaking of the levees that protected this low lying city from the waters of the adjoining lake. That is what caused the submerging of the city and the need for evacuating all its inhabitants.

I shudder to think what would have happened to Mumbai if 80% or more of the city would have gotten under 8 feet or more of water. Add to that the fact that New Orleans is situated under sea level and the water will not just flow out.

People, credit should be given when it is due [like this post on the Indian voting machines doing a better job compared to the American ones] , but not every opportunity should be used to promote the cause of how India is so much better.

I wish that this article reaches the guys happily forwarding this email - and they see the point, or the lack theirof, in this action.

Also, I request all of you to come forward and help out with the relief efforts going on for the people affected by the hurricane. And yes, please stop forwarding that email.

-A

A moving article from the LA times about the situation in New Orleans

I read the following article in my copy of the LA times today.

A Rescue Team Reaches Only Despair

This, along with other articles about the situation in New Orleans, where 80% of the city is inundated currently and rescuers are being fired at by angry people.

One wonders why someone would shoot rescuers, but then what do you expect from a man who sees his mother dying while he can see ambulances taking people away. A really sad situation.

Another thing that this whole issue has made me feel about is the Mumbai Rains recently... are situations worse in New Orleans? Can one even speak of better or worse in such calamities?

I _so_ wish I did not have obligations here in LA, so that I could go and help out there [both New Orleans and Mumbai]. My friends from Mumbai tell me that what is needed in Mumbai now is people, since the money is coming, but the number of volunteers is less. I am sure similar situations are going to arise in New Orleans also soon.

Vidhya and I decided to include the people affected by this hurricane in our 9pm meditation prayer.

I gave a small amount today to the Red Cross box kept in the department office. I intend to fast for a day and pray for the people there. Also to give the money I save by fasting that day [$20 ?] to the Red Cross... can you also do something like that ... please?

-A
P.S. Just read this article about how the superdome may be emptied by tonight. My prayers go to all those affected by this great tragedy.

Major changes in the JEE proposed - but will they be any good?

The Times of India is reporting about the proposed changes in the JEE in this article.

The 4 main changes proposed by the committee headed by Dr. C.N.R. Rao are:

1. The syllabus should be of the level of class XII
2. Have only one exam instead of two [this process lasted until 1999, when I took the exam, after which the two-stage process was introduced.]
3. Make it a purely objective test.
4. You must have 60% in the XII exam to qualify.

Some questions come to my mind... and I do not have answers to them.. maybe you - my learned readers can comment and shed some light.

1. With the exam being completely objective, how will students get to show that they "almost" know.. something that was possible with partial grading in the long form ?

2. How are they going to check the 60% in the XII rule... if students have just appeared for their XII boards and the results are not out? Or do they want only people who are one year beyond their class XII to take the JEE. What happens if someone is the victim of bad grading in the board exams... as is rampant all over.

3. The syllabus will be of class XII level, but which board? The article says that this will help the "poor students", but then what about the poor students in the villages who have access only to the state boards, which may not cover the same topics?

Welll.. this is my list... I am all in for the objectives [get rid of the coachings, make it non-finance dependent while maintaining the standards], but somehow the recommendations do not make sense to me.

what say you.. my learned audience?

Please post comments, and leave behind your association with the JEE, if any, and your present status.

regards
Animesh
JEE 1999
PhD Student, Univ. of Southern California.

Rakhi!

Yesterday was Rakhi!

So, Neha sent me a Rakhi, which reached me on time, I mean at least the envelop and the letter, since USPS decided to rip off the Rakhi in transit.

I got a rakhi from the Indian store near USC and Vidhya tied it to me. We had Karachi Halwa as the sweet :-).

Happy Rakhi to all my sisters! Miss you all!!!

-A

E = mc^2

The famous mass to energy conversion equation is now 100 years old!

Nova has a bunch of audios and videos on the topic.

The Slashdot comments are here. Read the chicken crossing the road one.. hilarious!

cheers
-A
P.S. Happy Rakhi to all of you... all you guys.. beware... do not go to meet your crush on this day :-)... and all the bhais... take care of your sisters!

Kenyan Porcupines, Problem or food ?

M sent an article about Porcupines causing problems in Kenya which is a nice read.

Read the comment about Shikari Shambhu :-).

cheers
-A
P.S. Go to the AIS Blog for the snaps of our I-day flag hoisting at USC!
P.P.S. My review of Mangal Pandey is taking shape, but I recommend you to watch it while you wait for my review :D

Adi Godrej: Middle class billionaire

M sent me the link to this nice article about how Adi Godrej, the CMD of the Godrej Group, is a middle class billionaire.

From the article:

[He] says he uses products made by his companies only, as they give value for money.

Cute.. isn't it?
-A

Trailer of Munnabhai meets Mahatma Gandhi!

IndiaFM.com has a nice trailer of MunnaBhai M.M.G. M.M.G bole toh - meets Mahatma Gandhi!

Apparently, this movie has Munna, Circuit and the Father of the Nation as the protagonist!

Lets see if Vidhu Vinod Chopra is able to create the magic again!

-A

Nothing is as big as your first love :-)

Saw the trailer of Little Manhattan today.

Cute... very cute.

Go check it out!
-A
P.S. also see the trailer of Fun with Dick and Jane, hilarious. [What else can you expect from Jim Carrey]

Catch a stray cow... get INR2000

This is a fictional scene... in view of this news about stray cow rewards, sent to me by M.

[on the street.. A finds a cow..]
A - hrrrrr... tak tak taka..... hrrrrrr hrrrr.....
Cow - MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Cow kicks A....]


[in the municipal office]
A - Sir, I could not get the cow.. but if u make a fake case for me, I
shall split the money 50/50
Clerk [with paan] - Baat ta aap theekey kar rahe hain.. waise bhi
sasur subah se koi gai nahi aayi hai.... [fills form] .. yahaan
angootha laga do!


:-)
-A

Rent : Seasons of Love

I came across this wonderful trailer of the movie rent today. Go and listen to it.

Read the lyrics too.

Simply wonderful... cute :-).

-A

Washup

Varun has written a nice piece about the Mumbai rains. Go on and read the Washup..

Sad to know about so much devastation. We prayed tonight for all the affected people after our meditation.

-A

National Awards for Indian Movies

Very late reporting [news of July], but I just came across an article about the national awards this year. I wonder how many of you were knowing about the results.

Bunch of nice movies... I wonder why "Black" did not get anything.

So what do you think.. which movies will win next year?
-A

Detailed account of Mumbai rains

I got this in email. Amazing details. Credits are due to the author [I don't know who, please let me know if you know].
cheers
Animesh


Here is the almost hour-to-hour account of Mumbai rains:

Monday 10.00 pm: Heavy rain lash city. Mumbai sleeps. BMC sleeps.

Tuesday 6.00 am: Heavy rain lash city. Mumbai wakes up. BMC continues sleeping.

Tuesday 11.00 am: Rain continues. Office goer continues. BMC continues (sleeping).

Tuesday 12.00 noon: Rain carries on. People carry on with their routine, enjoying the clogged water up to knee level, remembering the last time they had gone to the sea at Juhu and Chowpatty and had such enjoyment. Unfortunaltely, they don't know it is the same sea water (mixed with rainwater) that they are getting in the streets, as BMC carries on with sleep and allows sea water to come in at high tide instead of flushing rainwater out at low tide.

Tuesday 3.00 pm: BMC wakes up, but yawns. Municipal commissioner Joseph says thngs are not bad. And since they have done a good job of "Naale ki saphaai" before monsoon, there is no cause to worry. But the average Mumbaikar is blessed with a brilliant sense of intuition thanks to Siddhivinayak, and he openly tells tv channels who interview that this rain seems "unusual", and the BMC or Joseph cannot be trusted.

Tuesday 4.00 pm: The average office-going Mumbaikar realizes his hunch was right after all and drops whatever he was doing at the office to get on the way to home. But it's too late. An areal view from a helicopter of star TV confirms the historic fact that Mumbai indeed was made up of 7 islands!

Tuesday 7.00 pm: Reports start coming in that all roads are clogged with water from knee-deep to 12 feet, traffic jams on all the arterial roads of the city from Eastern Express Highway to LBS Marg to Western Express Highway to SV Road, with traffic cops either drowned or deserted. Air strip is flooded with water 6 feet high, and domestic and international airports are closed until further notice. CNN announces for its viewers that both domestic and international runways are closed for traffic. Apparently they do not know we have only one landing strip. Indians can fool ALL the people ALL the time!

Tuesday 8.00 pm: On one hand, Police commissioner AN Roy, municipal commissioner Johnny Joseph (son of a very foresighted parents if they could name him "Johnny" 55 years ago), and chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh try to reassure the city that efforts are being made to extend all help to commuters. On the other hand all radio jockeys and TV channels urged commuters to either go back to office or stay where they are but NOT to try to advance. Luckily, the people in trouble KNEW whom to trust, and most of them went back to office.

Tuesday, 9 pm: All telephone networks got jammed, landline as well as mobile. Reliance Infocomm yet again confirmed that it is the worst telephone service ( I have a reliance, so this is first hand info). Among mobiles, Orange and BPL at least honestly died on the spot—No network. But Reliance wasted a zillion man-hours of people who kept on dialing in the hope that if the network bar is showing FULL signal strength, how come the calls are not going through? (That at least settled the question as to who is the smarter Ambani. It's clearly Mukesh who started the Infocomm and slyly palmed it off to his brother Anil when they split.)

Tuesday, 10 pm: Vilasrao Deshmukh announced Wednesday as holiday, asking people to stay wherever they were until the situation improved.

Tuesday, 11.30 pm: Nearly 2 and half lakh vehicles (with nearly 1 million people stranded in them) started resigning to their fate. First they blew horns, then cursed the traffic cops and the rain, then came out and tried looking into the distance, then some of them abandoned their cars while others switched of the lights and went to doze off in the vehicle.

Tuesday, 12.00 midnight: Entire suburbs power went off, another Reliance company adding to the woes of the public. Interestingly, another company given to Anil Ambani by Mukesh.

Wednesday, 5.30 am: All TV channels once again proved that keep on chasing stories and story angles of all the other channels all the time. "Breaking news" was SAME all through the night, visuals were better on Star TV and NDTV 24/7, the Sabse Tez channel Aaj Tak was Sabse Lousy! Their ad breaks were really getting on nerves! Who will tell Aaj Tak that their Bhaiyya reporters (like Poonya Prasoon Vajpayee, Prabal Pratap Singh et al) are a real pain for the Mumbaikars to watch? This once-upon-a-time leading news channel is SURELY going to the dogs! At least for the Mumbai viewers, ads and the Bhaiyyas are big put offs.

Wednesday, 7.00 am: Shockingly, NOT A SINGLE TV CHANNEL reported more than two deaths in Mumbai until the 7.00 am news. And today they are putting the figure at 200+ for humans and 1,500 for buffaloes. By the way, 300 buffaloes faced tragic death in Kama Estate in Goregaon East, when water level in their stable suddenly rose. The tragic part was that buffaloes, if left to themselves, can easily swim/float in water, but these helpless creatures died because they were TIED BY A CHAIN IN THEIR STABLES AND THERE WAS NO ONE TO LET THEM FREE. (I instantly made a decision to add an extra peg to my regular quota in the evening to mourn the death of my old neighbours in such large number.)

Wednesday, 8.30 am: The channels reported that the Indian Navy was asked for help to send in boats from Mahim causeway to rescue people stranded in Kurla where the water level was rising alarmingly. The entire nation took in the news normally with their breakfast, but the Mumbaikars skipped a heartbeat. Mahim to Kurla in a boat? Never heard of that! But areal pics from planes confirmed that it was no joke. Mahim to Kurla by water route was the only reality.

Wednesday, 10 am: Johnny, AN Roy and Vilas (looked like he spent the night with "Gilaas") were interviewed by every news channel. They squarely blamed it onto rain gods by saying that this was the greatest rainfall in 24 hours in the recorded history, so all systems failed. They looked secretly happy that the name of Cherapunji in Assam will now be erased from the geography books and replaced with Mumbai. They almost boasted Mumbai registered 944 mm of rain in one day as compared to Cherapunji whose record was only 840 mm. But by that time, no one was really watching these dumbasses. All eyes were on the bottom strip on every TV channel which carried messages from people missing and people looking for them. This was perhaps the greatest service by the channels. (Curiously, star TV made a fool of themselves when they found parents of a young girl lodging a missing complaint at the police station, and offered to find their daughter for them. The whole search operation, tracing the girl and making numerous calls, was filmed live until finally they were able to locate the girl. Ironically, the girl from Kandivali was found enjoying life with her boyfriend in a flat at Washi. It then transpired that she had left with him on Monday itself (when there was no rain) on the pretext of "looking for a job in Bandra Kurla complex with her friend Manoj". The parents were then hurriedly asked to "thank Star TV" for their help in operation "bichhade hue phir mile", and the official comment from the channel said "the girl had gone to her "would-be" in laws' place in Washi with her "would-be" husband." They forgot to add that she might have returned to her parents with a "would-be" child.)

Wednesday, evening: News of gloom, gloom and only gloom. The death toll all over the state started mounting up to 700 as reports from Raigad and other parts of Konkan came in. Landslides, drowning deaths, stampede due to rumours, electrocution, people being blown away by water were some of the causes. The worst news came when it was discovered that a bus with 16 passengers was wading its way through knee deep water in Kalina when suddenly the adjacent nullah overflowed breaking the wall, and all 16 passengers were drowned in a minute, leaving them no chance to even look for the exit door.

Wednesday, night 9.00 pm: The state government announced the next day, Thursday, also as holiday. The meteorological department had issued a warning that heavy rains would continue for the next 36 hours and people should refrain from leaving home for office, and ironically, leaving office for home too. When I heard it, my joy knew no bounds. I kissed my wife who was setting the table for dinner, told my daughter to set alarm for her college at 6 in the morning and called my sports editor at Mid Day NOT to cancel the meeting scheduled for the next day. "Are you mad," he shouted over the wire, "you must be drunk!" "No," I replied, "the weather bureau says the rain will continue, and looking at their record, this could be our only hope that things will return to normal," I said.

P.S. No need to mention I was dead right. The rain vanished, the sun returned, and life was restored to normal on Thursday.

Amazing adult[?] video!

The guys at badmash have posted this trailer of their latest video. With a title like "Girls Gone Badmash", I am sure a this will find a lot of takers..

so go on ... see it ... and let me know how you liked it :-).

-A

A revolution in India education

M sent me this article about a revolution in Indian education, from rediff.com.

It is really nice to know about these things. I hope things get better with this new addition.

Back to work now!
-A

Highest-ever rain in India's history

M sent me this article about the highest-ever rain in India's history, which happened in Mumbai recently.

Pictures here.

My heart goes to all Mumbaikars and all others affected by these rains. I shall pray for them.

-A

Nice Game

Anupam sent this very interesting puzzle.

Zack and I solved it in 10 minutes. Lets see what you do! Remember to post your solutions in the comments section.



"Mr. A chooses a digit and Mr. B puts it anywhere in place of one of these 8 dashes -

_ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _

(So these are actually two 4 digit numbers, one being subtracted from the other )

Now Mr. A repeatedly keeps on the choosing a digit and giving it to Mr. B and Mr. B keeps on putting it in somewhere in place of the dashes, till all the dashes fill up.

Now the game is that Mr.A is trying to maximize the final difference (which will be obtained after finally subtracting these two numbers), and Mr. B is trying to minimize it.

What difference will be obtained if both players play their best in the game :-)"


Answers to FAQs:
- Numbers from 0 to 9, repetition allowed. The "difference" we are talking about here is algebraic, so negative numbers are smaller than positive numbers.


cheers
-A

Google maps go hybrid

This had to happen.
Today I was looking at google maps to plan a hike, and I see a new button next to the "satellite" and "maps" button. I click on "hybrid" and viola! I can now see street names superimposed on satellite maps!

see for yourself

Too cool... The hike planning went well... lets see what happens tomorrow!

cheers
-A

The day of the teacher

Guru Gobind dou khade
Kake lage pamv
Balihari Guru apno
jin Gobind diyo batai.
-- [Bhojpuri couplet/doha written by Kabir]

If Guru and Govinda [the Supreme Consciousness] appear simultaneously, you
have to pay your obeisance to Guru only, because the Guru made you realize
Govinda.

Today [July 20, 2005] is Guru Purnima, the day hindus thanks their gurus for the knowledge they have imparted them.

Thank you all! All the way from kindergarten to grad school... teachers have taught me a lot. Thanks also to all those from whom I have learnt the ways of life, most importantly my parents!

-A
P.S. For some more dohas of Kabir, go here

Oil meant for Indian Army replaced with water!

Many sources are reporting on how Oil is being siphoned off from tankers to Ladakh meant for the Indian Army!

This is sad. I believe that such crimes [that harm the defense system] should be more severely punished.

In other news... go and see Google Moon

cheers
-A

Hiking at Temescal Canyon

This is my snap during the hike at Temescal Canyon on Saturday.

You can see my latest gear, the backpack, the sunglasses, the hat and the hiking sticks! Boy those sticks make hiking so much easier!

Anyways... back to work now.
-A

Please don't go near the Gorilla!

I recently read New this article on NewScientist about how humans are passing infetions like influenza to Gorillas in wildlife preserves.

So if you love animals, go and visit them... in the wild.. where they are free.. but please do not go so near that your germs can harm them.

cheers
-A

Music of Mangal Pandey: The Rising

Maggie asked me to check out the music of Mangal Pandey: The Rising today and boy, is it GOOD!

Rehman has done a nice job. I especially like the "Main Vari Vari" song.

So go on and listen to it. I am sure it will be on Desi Radio soon.

-A

P.S. Saw the trailor of The Warrior, felt proud that an Indian movie got so many awards and is on Apple.com. I wonder why such movies do not get publicity on the Indian Media [like TOI for example]

Baby Pandas... very cute :-)

I came across this site about baby Pandas while searching for some panda pics. Very nice.

Remember to scroll down all the way for more pics. Please leave your comments.

Also, from the links below the page, this article is very cute... also has a video.

so, are _you_ also in love with Pandas?
-A

Slashdotted!

Hi all,
Slashdot finally accepted my article.
Read it here!

Me happy :-).

The visit count already shows 88 views... Welcome slashdotters!
-A

Study on time wasted at work

[just submitted this to slashdot.. lets see.. Thanks to Maggie for sending this]

C|Net News has this article about a survey of people's goofing off habits.

The article says

"It's interesting to note that the Internet was cited as the leading time-wasting activity. It goes to show how integrated it has become to the daily functions of our personal and professional lives," Samara Jaffe, a director at America Online, said in a statement. "Today, there are so many useful tools and Web sites on the Internet that have enabled people to become more efficient with accomplishing multiple tasks in a shorter amount of time."

They forgot to talk about the useless ones :-).

So, what fraction of time do you spend loitering around on the world wide web?

Long time no post..

Hi all,
Have not been able to post for some days now... keeping very busy with the coursework and research work!

Anyways, saw this new blog today. It is of Cecilia, the geek girl from the PhD Comics. I read the comincs regularly... pretty cute :-).

Enjoy the comics.. while I get back to work!
cheers
-A

Mahabharat Movie.. A trilogy

Samip sent me a link to an article about a Mahabharat Movie Trilogy being made with SRK, Aamir and Rani.

"The trilogy will capture the battles, intrigues, spiritual complexity and cultural aesthetics of India, 4,000 years ago. This will be my big project for the next three years," says Bedi, adding that he discovered the power of the Mahabharata's storyline after reading Girish Karnad's script for Agnivarsha.

Read the article for character insights. Mani Ratnam is said to direct this one.

Good... I always believed that the Indian Epics have great potential as mega movies... lets hope it gets made properly.

What do you people think?

-A

Real Life Hero...

Rahul sent me this story about a real life hero from India, who saved his wife and kid and 70 other people during the recent flood-stranded-train incident.

Pretty cool. Goes on to show what can be done with determination.

The best part was [from the article]

"If a single man could successfully enter the waters and rescue people, why could the administration not do it with all the facilities at its disposal,"

-A
Do you also want to post an article online but do not have the time/enthu/madness to maintain a regular blog? Send the link to me and maybe I will post it on my blog [with your homepage url in the credits, of course]. Please note that this method will not be 100% reliable, so don't flame me if your suggestion does not get posted.

What on earth is this???

Google goes guns again!
Rishi send me a link to Google Earth, the next big thing from them. Check it out!

Slashdot also has an article on this, with some intersting links and comments, as usual.

And yes, I have not forgotten about the extended review of Parineeta, just getting over the tiring visit to Vegas... will post soon.

take care, all you wonderful people!
-A

Google Sat maps go global

Google has added sat map facility to the whole world now.
Just go to http://maps.google.com/ and zoom out.. then scroll and change to sat view.

My fav view is the following:
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=25.258598,82.995529&spn=0.095100,0.125313&t=k&hl=en
Anyone know what this is?

:-)

-A

Paheli - Short review!

Hi all,
Just back from watching Paheli at Naz8 near LA.

Since I am busy preparing for the paper-presentation I have to make in a conference in Vegas, I shall keep it short.. the longer one will follow!

So here's my review:

Do your eyes a favor: WATCH THE MOVIE!!

The visuals are simply amazing ... I am sure many Americans will get tickets to go visit Rajasthan upon watching this one [hell, "I" am going to visit Rajasthan now :-) ].

I know a lot of people will NOT like the movie... but please don't try to look for a lot of logic and story etc. in the movie. It is based on a folk tale.. and Amol Palekar has done a great job bringing this Amar Chitra Katha tale back to life :-).

Longer version coming up in some time.. once I am back from the "Sin City" :-)

-A

Another room to escape from

Hi all,
In my [and my friends'] quest for more room based games, I found this...

Escape: The Room[newgrounds.com]

A nice game... not very tough but cool timepass..

only one hint... to "use" something... click and drag it on to the place where you want to use it.

Tell me how you liked it...

cheers
-A

Robo babies with curiosity

New Scientist is running a story about how researchers at Sony have made Aibo pups that have in-built curiosity. They seem to want to explore their surroundings and know more about it.

From the article

After several hours, however, the bots started kicking their toys and even trying to interact with conventional Aibo dogs. A short video (Windows Media Video 7.8MB), available from the researchers' web site, shows an Aibo pup that has learnt to play with its toys and bark at another robot nearby.

Fascinating.... does this mean we are moving closer to the worlds depicted in sci-fi novels and movies?

How long before Skynet becomes self aware and Judgement Day occurs?

-A

No begging please, we are Indians

Rediff has an article about how the UP government is working to rehabilitate beggars.

A nice effort. However, I remember how when we have tried to get beggars to work at our homes [actually offered that very seriously], they have refused, maybe because a lot of them do not mind their state of being.

What do "you" think, my learned readers?
-A

Get out of this room!!!

I found a couple of intersting games today... really nice.

1. Crimson Room [play from this link and use 1994 as code... the main site file does not work]
2. Viridan Room
3. Blue Chamber

The above games increase in hardness... if/when you get tired... google for some hints and solutions.

Best of luck!!

Animesh

Blogging, Plane Crashes and Credit Card thefts!

Hi dear readers,
Arpit sent me these links which he thought were worth sharing with you all on this blog.

1. Steve Job's speech at Stanford. A very good one. A tru rags to riches story... I esp like the bit about death.

2. Bloggers in India to be treated as Journos!. Cool... so when do I get my press badge?

3. 50 tools to help writers!. Very nice for bloggers and non-bloggers alike! I am going to use them in me research papers :-).

Thanks Arpit... these were nice.
And you all... feel free to send me links that you want me to post and although I may or may not post them [you can be assured that I will certainly "read" them :-) ].

However, the most important news for me was the following:

Plane crashes in southern califoria freeway [cnn.com]

and

40 million credit card details stolen! [cnn.com]

I guess they are important since they are much closer home... anyways.

In other news, I saw Star Wars episode III last night... nice movie... [Natalie Portman is sooooo pretty in it.. and Master Yoda is so knowledgable]. They have done a nice job of filling in all the gaps so that episode IV is now properly placed.


Happy father's day to all you father-figures out there! [Sunday June 18].

-A

Marry me, I am [HIV] positive.

Gulf Daily News has an article about how HIV positive men are finding wives.

From the article:

HIV-positive men who placed matrimonial advertisements in newspapers in western India say they have received proposals from uninfected women who want to marry them for financial security or companionship.

It is a very nice development. What do you think? Would you marry [your GF/BF] if it was discovered that [he/she] had HIV. What would you do if you were diagnosed and your beloved did not have it?

-A


In other news:
Interesting comments in Solaris Code
Earthquake in Southern California [yes.. that includes LA!] [use bugmenot if LA Times asks for account.]

Happy Re-Birthday

June 9, 2002 , France

Jab Axay Sharma, Ashish Chandra, Rahul Kapoor aur Animesh Pathak - hum 4 bande saath mein South-of-France road trip kar rahe thhey.

Socha tha duniya ki laga denge.

Apni lag gayi!

Indeed... the conversation went like this.

Animesh [in navigator seat of a Renault Twingo] : Abey Rahul... it has rained badly last night.. reduce speed
Rahul [in the drivers seat] : Don't worry man... I have driven this track [Marseilles to Nice] before.

[they see a sharp right turn ahead, a minivan is coming from the other side, the Twingo's turn would not be able to be sharp enough]

Animesh: Shit [cannot hear others]

[collision of car with side of van... then to inner wall of the tunnel]

[some time passes.... dunno how much]

Animesh [wakes up with his head in a deflating airbag]: huh...

[thinks he is dead.. then realises he is not.. thinks others are dead.. realises they are not]

The car only has two doors.. one of which is not jammed. All 4 slowly come out of the car through the single door.

..... continuing in first person.. this narrative style is tiring.

So, thankfully.. the other car people [Husband, Wife and 2 kids] were all safe and not very angry. They flagged down a cyclist and used his cellphone to call emergency.

Soon the police and the paramedics were there... they offered us medical help but we were all fine [and wanting to get away from it all ASAP] so we politely refused, following which they made us sign a declaration that we declined medical help! Something weird to us Indians who are used to people (mostly) not-helping out when accidents happen.

My french came to the rescue while explaining to the policeman what happened.. and why he should let us go :-).

Then we caught a train back to Grenoble.. then to Paris, since the car was smashed completely.

Akshay is running his own company in Delhi now [after graduating from IITD]. Ashish is working in U.K. I don't know where Rahul is ... and I am here.

All I know is that if it was not for the seat belts and the airbags [and a lot of good wishes from our well wishers], I would not have been typing this today.

Happy re-birthday folks!!

If any of u three are reading this.. definitely leave your comments!

-A

Die! Die for stealing my cyber-sabre!

Reuters is reporting on a rather strange story about a man stabbing another for a cyber-sabre.

The stabbing was done in the real world, but the sabre belongs to the virtual one.

From the article

Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan in the chest after he was told Zhu had sold his "dragon saber," used in the popular online game, "Legend of Mir 3," the China Daily said.

Does this mean we are getting closer and closer to something like the thirteenth floor?

-A

Bunty aur Babli review

[Edit on June 6, 2005, 6:30pm PDT - approx. 130 views of this post till now, a new record for my blog... I am touched :-) ]

Finally I saw it, went to Naz yesternight and caught the 9-12 show. Yes, I am talking about the movie Bunty aur Babli, about which I had blogged previously. The plan was to watch it last week with Gaurav, but had to meet Sanjay, Anshuman and Jagadish for some ITBHU.org stuff... so postponed the plan.

The movie is a nice timepass movie... light-hearted and full of fun. I strongly recommend watching it [and then coming back to my blog to read the review :-)].

Another interesting part was the subtitles. They converted "chaat pakora" to "pizza" and things like that.. and the song lyric conversion was hilarious [adding to the overall fun score of the movie]

Okay then... on to the review.

Spoiler Alert: This review will go in a lot of details, so if you have not watched the movie, you better watch it before you read on.

Content Warning: This content is rated PG-13 by me, some topics may be unsuitable for kids. Please be careful

[skip summary]
The movie is about Bunty a.k.a Rakesh Trivedi and Babli a.k.a Vimmi Saluja [Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee], who are from small towns and have big dreams. They bump into each other at the lucknow railway station after having fled from their respective homes in search of a more eventful life.

However, they realise that hard work and honesty is not going to pay and turn to conning people. Once they start liking their job, there is no stopping them. They also give away a lot of money they make to the poor.

They do a lot of very brainy [and amusing] heists, you have to see it to believe it.

However, there is a police officer [Amitabh Bachchan] who is on their tail.. and finally he does catch them, when they have promised to reform themselves! The last part of the story is also interesting when he finally frees them and then recruits them as anti-conning experts [a la catch me if you can].

And now, on to my comments...
The movie started at my weak point, with scenes of Banaras, [you all know why that place is so dear to me]. Seeing the ghats, ramnagar fort, the sand on the other side of Ganga etc. made me nostalgic... I am so waiting to visit Banaras again.

The first half of the movie has a nice bunch of capers by the duo, each bigger and better than the previous one. The songs were mostly well placed [except for the nach baliye one] and the scenes of Ladakh in "Chhup Chhup ke" simply blew me away. I am putting that place in my to-visit list :-).

Rani and Abhishek share a very nice screen chemistry, which is evident in the first half in their conversations. The scenes between them showing the development of the romantic relationship fills one up with mush... as is expected from something from the Yash Raj banner. *sigh*

The second half largely belongs to the senior 'B', who amuses with his load of "UP ishtyle" dialogue delivery [not to forget that junior 'B' also refers to himself as "hum" instead of "main", a truly UP/Bihar trait]. It was nice to see them both on screen together. There were some obvious dialogues ["kahaan se ho? allahabad se.. shakal se hi lagte ho"] and the "Kajraare Kajraare" song and the scene before that bring out the father-son duo's talents.

The capers were also very witty... I liked them all... esp the Taj one... hilarious!

A lot has been said about the song, about hot hot aish looks in it, but I beg to differ. I found her more attractive in "Ishq Kamina" than in this number, indeed I found her looking cheap and sleazy in this number. If this is how a bar dancer in UP is supposed to look like, then she did a good job :-).

The ending was also very nice ["agar maine ek bhi baar aam ka achaar aur banaya to main mar jaaoongi!!" :-) ]. I am sure they will have a sequal coming [like Dhoom], but more than that, I think this can be exploited more and be made into a TV serial, with Bunty and Babli fighting crime in their special way in each episode... what do you say??

The songs were nicely picturized. Did you notice Shiamak Davar in the "Nach Baliye" song? Also, I think Big B's rap song in the end was cute :-).

Acting wise I think the main characters did very well. I wonder why I still have this feeling that Amitabh could have done better. [loved the "makkha makkhi" joke :-) ]. Junior B was nice. Rani was also good. I am slowly moving towards making her my fav. actress in the current batch, having seen Hum Tum, Black, Veer Zaara and now BnB.

A nice point of the film was the presence of some good character actors in small roles [Raj Babbar, Kiran Juneja, Puneet Issar, Rameshwari, Prem Chopra, Ranjeet, Ravi Vaswani, the lady from WBHH, the guy from lagaan, Apple Singh, ...]. This made sure that even small scenes came out well. That said, the acting in some portions did leave a lot to be desired. The girl who talked to Vimmi [babli] at the Miss India content was simply horrible. But mostly it was nice.

Now, on to some controversies:
Firstly, I read somewhere that some sikhs had complained about the fact that vimmi, a sikh, is shown taking drugs! I think they were talking about the first con scene with apple singh, in which Rani is shown smoking. If these people cannot differentiate between drugs and a fancy brand cigarette, they need to do a little more homework before making allegations. Also, Rani is shown opposing junior B's cigarette habits later, which the protestors cleverly chose to ignore.

That said, I think this movie could have done with a little less alcohol and tobacco. In this time, movie stars should try not to glorify their use to the people.. because the youth "does" get influenced.

Secondly, some people have objected to the "hot" scenes between B and B just before the interval, with all the kissing and cuddling going on. My take on this is that although I agree that you may feel a little uncomfortable seeing that with parents etc, it was shown in a very artistic way. After all, they try to highlight the "love" angle of sex. This is a hundred times better than the ads of the continuous stream of sleazy movies coming out of bollywood presently. I whole heartedly welcome the sensitive show of love between husband and wife in movies.

Incidentally, just after that song, they showed a trailer of "Bachke Rehna re Baaba", the Mallika Sherawat/ Rekha version of "heartbreakers", and Mallika alone managed to show more skin in that 3 minute trailer than Rani could manage in a 5 minute song!

Finally, as an ending comment, Yash Chopra sure knows how to make his leading ladies look good :-) . Rani looked very sexy in the movie, except the disco song in which she looks like a prostitute. The dress designer has done wonders with her clothes, especially the kurtas worn in the first song - they give her the young-and-innocent-yet-sexy-in-a-nice-way look. I think they will be next "in" thing in fashion in India [and I will miss it all since I am here in the US :-( ]

Goes on to show that you do not need to take off your clothes to look sexy [a la Mallika and others currently].

Thanks for reading uptil now. I hope you enjoyed reading this review.
Please post a comment and let me know your views about the movie or my reading of it. I am sure a lot of you have different points of view than mine.

enjoy!
-A

Abandoned daughter sues parents

The Times of India has a nice article about a girl who sued her parents for abandoning her as a baby.

Apparently, the parents left her in a garbage bin because they had twin daughters. Also, now when she is 28, they want her to get married the way they want!

This is outrageous. These people should be jailed.

What do you say? My wise readers?
-A
P.S. Had an absolute ball at Eddie's birthday party last night, including a game of kings [with me sipping cranberry juice :-) ]

Hacker Hunters

Business Week is reporting on a crackdown by the feds on a group of hackers called the ShadowCrew.

A very interesting read.

Makes me want to do some security sermonizing [more so since two of my roommates have dysfunctional computers presently, thanks to running unprotected Windows machines].

I strongly recommend that all of you read this article till the end and realize that installing a firewall and antivirus is not an optional thing anymore.

Also, please update your software timely. Please do not ignore the flashing windows update icon on your desktop.

Interestingly, most of these things are free.

Windows Update - Please update your windows machines regularly. Turn on that auto update.

or better

Install Linux


Also,
Install Firefox to surf the web instead of Internet Explorer.

Install Thunderbird to check your mail instead of outlook.

Remember to use Ad-Aware and Spybot periodically to check your system for spyware.

Install Sygate Firewall. The Free version [linked here] is also very easy to use

Install AVG anti-virus. The linked version is also free.

So you see, you can secure your system for free.. it is easy and simple.. just like you can secure your home with a few simple practices [like locking your main door]

Please post a comment if you think this blurb from me was helpful.. or if you think something was missing.

cheers
-A

Bollywood's best comedy movies showcase

The Times of India has this article about the best bollywood comedy movies of all times. A nice read I must say.

So, how many have you watched? And which ones did you like/dislike.
Anything missing?

cheers
-A
P.S. The bay area trip was amazing... I drove 1000+ miles in 36 hours on my dear Jean-Luc-Accord! I simply love my car!

X-rays that see through clothes!

CNET news is reporting that airport screeners would soon be seeing though clothes!!

Interesting... the deptt of homeland security did this after their passengers complained on being patted down.

So, what do you think? Given that terrorists are using means of concealing weapons that cannot be discovered from a distance.. would you like to be "touched" or "seen" ??

The Slashdot comments are here

So, are we going to see a rise in the applications for airport scanning personnel??

Double shock for Films

It is a sad day. Two stalwarts of the silver screen, Ismail Merchant and Sunil Dutt passed away today.

more on Ismail Merchant

more on Sunil Dutt, and his philanthropic activities

Sad. Very sad.

-A

More Sequoia Snaps

Wow.. there are 300+ snaps in all... I have no idea where I am going to host them all.

Here are some of them. Hope you all will like them. Please leave your comments.

The Gang!


Around the car!


In the car [notice how I am the only one who is not looking in the camera, since I am driving!!!]


Pure Nature Pics: Wallpaper Worthy!


Do you see the face in the rocks?? Spooky.. isn't it?


Conifers!


This is NOT a painting... one of my favorites.

Other Interesting Snaps:

Camp Food :-). You can take a desi out of India, but you cannot take India out of desis :-).


Making sure the bears don't get our stuff!


The strawberries were soooooooooooooooo delicious... and the kids were also cute :-).


Some People Snaps:


Gaurav, Ashutosh, and the Jedi Knight! :-)


Another one that I like.


And Another. I pulled out this plastic bottle from the waterfall. Doing my bit for conservation. :-)


Look at the waterfall!! [Me, Chinmaya and Vaishnav]


Working at the farm... these american instruments are HUGE!


More snaps on their way... keep watching!!! [and please post some comments!]

-A

My red-eyed tree frogs

I love them... I simply love them.
This is my latest wallpaper [copyright reserved by the people whose website is on the side of the image - you can use it for a wallpaper]



Sooooooooooooo cute.... so very cute...

What do YOU think?

-A

Back from Sequoia National Park

I am back from sequoia National Park and back to work now.
The snaps will be up soon. But here are two that I like from my collection [still need to combine the ones from all the cameras]



That is me on the trail back from the crystal caves. More snaps of the inside of the caves soon. Notice the dense moss and the cute spring flowers :-).



This is Vaishnav, Chinmaya and Me at the waterfalls near[4 miles] our campground. Long trek, but surely worth it.

More coming soon... keep watching.
-A

Graduation at USC

This is a picture of Sumit, Zack and me at the USC graduation day [May 13, 2005].

We will all miss sumit!!!

:-(

-A

Amitabh's New Movie: Ek Ajnabee

I was pleasently surprized today to see a poster of Ek Ajnabee, the next movie with Amitabh in it.

A quick google search resulted in the facts that the movie is shot in Thailand and is a desi adaptation of Man on Fire, with AB Baby playing Denzel Washington's role!

The poster looks ultra cool.. but reminds me of the musafir poster of Sanjay Dutt.

Must add this one also to my must-watch list. What do you guys think?
-A

2 Girls Found Stabbed to Death in Illinois Park - New York Times

The New York Times is reporting on the heinous news that 2 Girls were found stabbed to death in Illinois Park, a small, quiet town in Illinois.

The girls were 8 and 9 years old, it is sad to see how someone can perpetrate such acts of brutality!

I pray for their souls, and hope the culprits are caught soon.

Animesh
P.S. If nytimes asks for a passwd, use BugMeNot or look at other versions of the story from google news.

H2G2 review.. at last!!

Hi all,
Sorry for not blogging for some time now, but I guess the presence of a final project counts as a valid excuse :-).

So, Karthik, me and a bunch of others went to first-day night show of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[also known as H2G2], the movie adaptation of the vastly popular trilogy in five parts written by Douglas N. Adams (a.k.a. DNA) which is a must-read for all geeks and sci-fi-humor fans!

And now, on with the review:
I must say that I spent the week before watching the movie in reading the book (1st part) and catching up on the story, so my views may be a little different than your standard non-geek friend's.

[summary]
The movie starts with a regular (British) earthbeing, Arthur Dent, waking up to find that his house is going to be demolished to make way for a highway! That shock is surpassed only by the discovery of the fact that his good friend Ford Prefect is actually an alien from the neighborhood of the star Betelguese and that the earth too is going to be demolished to make way for a galactic expressway!! Ford saves Arthur by hitching a ride in a spaceship and their journey begins, in which they meet Zaphod Beeblebrox, who is the president of the galaxy and a cousin of Ford (they share three mothers) and Trillian, who is an earthperson whom Zaphod took with him on his last trip to the earth (just as Arthur was getting to know her... )

What follows is a bunch of laughs and amazing circumstances, which I do not want to divulge for fearing of spoiling your fun - but I can say one thing - GO WATCH THIS MOVIE!!

[my comments]
I first read the books in 2002, during my summer internship at INRIA, and instantly my piscean mind fell in love with Adams' imagination - the books are a must read, even if you have seen the movie.

So, I was very afraid that the director may not have done justice to the book. In fact, I was expecting a 50% justice. However, I was most pleasantly surprized to see that they actually managed to get a 75% !! The biggest thing that caught me by surprize was the excellent inclusion of the Hitchhiker's Guide book's excerpts, just as in the stories. The whale scene was also nice :-) .

The 25% where they went away from the book consists mainly of the scenes where they have accentuates the love-angle between Arthur and Trillian. Not to forget that the actress is simply gorgeous and people won't mind seeing her more, but this was one part that is very different from the books. There are also some sideplots that are either not in the books at all or are placed out-of-order as compared to the books.

Finally, Marvin, the "electronic sulking machine", as Arthur describes him, is absolutely great! The robot conveys all its emotions (and they fairly complex ones) with an excellent combination of body language and voice modulation.

All in all, a movie worth watching, methinks.

Have you seen the movie also? Please leave behind your comments and let all know what you think.

Some interesting links .. all from BBC:
1. Guide could become trilogy (I am so waiting for that to happen - A)
2. A Guide to the Guide (an interesting read - A)

cheers
-Animesh

Scientists solve unpopped popcorn

From slashdot today..

CNN is reporting on how researchers have solved the mystery as to whysome popcorn remains unpopped...

Now I can sleep in peace :-) ...

Hibernation possible in mammals!

BBC is reporting on how scientists have succeded in getting "near suspended animation" in mice. Amazing thing indeed.... reminds me of the various science fiction movies I have seen.

The wonderful slashdot comments are here.

Movie Preview : Bunty aur Babli

The guys at IndiaFm have this nice preview of Bunty aur Babli up today!

I am soooooooooo looking forward to seeing this one...

Still mesmerized by Dhadak Dhadak and Karjaraarey kajraarey ...

-A

Are you ill, try a Maggot !!

Boing Boing was reporting about a LiveScience article about using maggots and leeches in medicine. The story is incredible... remember to not watch the pictures if you are eating something. The yuck facter is high.

So, what do you think? ready to go and buy a leach or two??

-A

P.S. They also have the results of the ugly animal contest. Personally I think they all are kinda cute :-).

Bunty Aur Babli music released!

Just saw that Mahiram has released the music of Bunty Aur Babli. Amazing songs!

Have been listening to them on desi radio also.

Cannot wait to see Big B chasing Rani and Small B as crooks!!

Link to wallpapers [indiafm.com] and my personal favorite.

Also, the IndiaFM.com music review for this album is here.

:-)
-A

Pandemic-causing 'Asian flu' accidentally released

Just submitted to slashdot.. lets see.

New Scientist is reporting that a pandemic causing asian flu virus has been accidently released to labs worldwide when it was not intended to be. Alarmingly, the lab in which it was found says that the virus was initially found in a sample unrelated to the test kit.

From the article:

There are fears the virus could escape the labs, as the mistake was discovered after the virus escaped from a kit at a high-containment lab in Canada. Such an escape could spread worldwide, as demonstrated in Russia in the 1970s.

Is that why my officemate has been sneezing incessantly of late?

Call Cutta !!

Thanks to grover, I came to know of this interesting article on a cellphone based theatre form [Indian Express Article] currently being performed in Kolkata. Here is the Goethe Institute official page on this. Pretty informative.. and talks about call centers too, something that is changing the life of Indian youth presently. And here is the Indian Official page.

At the end of the first act, the player finds himself at a hole-in-the-wall shop, where he reveals a password provided by the caller. A deadpan shopkeeper replies, ‘‘Download act two,’’ and hands over a packet of potato chips and a bottle of water.

Sounds interesting.. doesn't it?

So, wanna play a role.. how about starting one in LA?? You know my phone number.. don't you?

-A

Kargil's First Hero

I got a forward today asking me to sign my name at the bottom and forward to all those I know.

Now I generally do NOT forward such emails. However, I do execute a google search for the topic and reply to the sender with the information that the mail is a hoax (as happens mostly.. remember the non-small cell lung cancer mail?).

However, my google search today on Lt. Saurabh Kalia brought forth some heartrending articles. This one on rediff about his supreme sacrifice and the government's apathy towards the issue really moved me.

Here is a link to the online petition, I wonder if this will ever be read by the government.

My salute goes to the family of him and such soldiers who are constantly risking their lives for the country. I pray that the government soon gets something done in this regard.

-A

On Google Maps, Slashdot and Yours Truly

April 4, 2005, 8:30pm Pacific Daylight Time: I notice that google maps has gone satellite and is showing sat images also apart from sketches of the areas in their maps.

April 4, 2005, 8:31pm PDT: I post a story on slashdot to let all know of my discovery and share it with fellow geeks.

I wait for my post to appear ... I wait.... have dinner at gypsy cafe [uhhh... the turkish coffee... so black...] .. wait... watch cricket match.. wait.. sleep..

April 5, 2005, 9:00am PDT: I found this post on slashdot submitted by someone else. Posted today at 9:13am, and citing a newspaper post that was posted at midnight!

I wonder why the editors decided to choose that post instead of mine, especially since that obviously came after mine [read the timings]?

They actually have an FAQ entry about this, but I would say that my post was definately interesting, albeit a bit lacking in links, but who needs links when you can go to maps.google.com [to which I linked] and experience it for yourself!

I am perplexed, but I guess I will categorize this mystery with the mystery of my lost socks and not worry about it :-).

In other news, India won the second ODI [neha's blog post link] yesterday! Way to go team!

-A

Google Maps goes sattellite!!!!

This is simply amazing!!!!

I logged onto maps.google.com today to look for some driving direction and lo! there was a "satellite" link waiting for me next to the "link to this page" link.

Google maps now has clickable, draggable sattellite maps!!!! This is simply mind boggling.... I have no words to describe how I feel now!!

Google is GOD!!!!

go to this link and click on satellite to see USC, my university.

This time, I have reported this before slashdot... just FYI :-).

Dabbawalas for Charles' wedding

The times of India is reporting about how a pair of dabbawallas or tiffin carriers from mumbai are going to attend the royal wedding in Britain.

Nice to see them being honored.

From the article
"Over 200,000 tiffin boxes are delivered by a team of nearly 5,000 carriers across the city each day."

Amazing!

-A

Idea #3: Sex determination of visitors (to your website)

So, the third idea is online on my crazy ideas blog. I am quite surprized that I actually wrote (typed) it. Or did I ???

Waiting for all of you all-knowing-owls to post comments there.

read on!

Animesh

Please don't boil our players [and fans too]

cricinfo.com has a nice article about the infernal conditions at the last cricket match between India and Pakistan. Really sad to know that the match was played at 40 degrees C [104 degrees F] with 90% humidity!!!

I pray that the BCCI comes to its senses and stops subjecting our players to such inhuman conditions.

-A

Brand New Theatre at USC

Joyita and I went to see the brand new theatre show at the Massman theatre today. The experience was simply amazing - there were these short (and long) acts performed by USC students, completely created by them: script, lighting, sounds, everything! The acts were from 5 minutes to 20 minutes long and revolved around life in the dorms/fraternities/sororities at USC but covered topics from alcohol abuse to football at USC.

For the impatient, the snaps and a video are at this page. Please note that a) the pictures were taking without a flash and so are hazy and b) there are no captions, so I recommend reading on before opening the pics or opening the above link in a new tab [what! you do not use a browser with tabbing facility... shame on you].

The theme tonight was My Big Fat Greek Production, and all was very relevent, from the stage decoration to the pamphlet.

First, a gentleman dressed in greek attire greeted us with music, playing some sort of modified hawaiian guitar and then a banjo. The first act, titled Stubats, was basically a fraternity hazing thing in which Winthrop Ellsworth showed us how much he loved his "house", depicted by a cardboard box. The idea of him talking to the audience the whole time was nice, and the other character sitting in the front row was also playing his part nicely.

Second was Scripted, which showed a young man who is deeply in love with a girl but cannot stop planning about how things should be. Hi dad comes and talks some sense into him finally and asks him to stop planning and go for the real thing. The rewind-play again nature of certain scenes was amusing.

The third performance of the night was commons, an extremely wonderful piece written and directed by Kirill Baru, who takes the cake of reminding me of the others and lost highway simultaneously. The piece starts with two girls, one of whom decides to tail her professor in search of a good script for her play, but ends up planning to murder the professor's comatose lover. The strangeness begins when the comatose girl wakes up and tells our protagonist that she is actually dreaming this whole thing! More interesting and unbelievable things happen and you simply must see it to experience it fully. Excellent work by all.

Next came Spirit of Troy, which was a nice behind-the-scenes look at how the USC Trojan football team works. They hilariously showed a scene from the home of coach Pete Carrol, whom the university president reprimands for not defeating the opponents by a zero! Hilarity ensues as he goes on to try to whip the coach's behind! Jaimey played the role of the coach's wife and did a good job of shouting at her husband towards the latter part of the act, after having tried in vain to seduce him and pull him away from the football videogame :-). [Jaimey was the one who helped me in attending this show in the first place... thanks Jaimey!! ]

INTERMISSION

The second part of the evening opened with The Way it Went Down, a funny take on how Jesus, and other biblical characters were frat boys and how the others picked on Judas so much that he had to call the police [romans in this case]. The only (minor) goof up was a beard on one of the characters that started to come off towards the end. John's streaking was hilarious! He got quite a few cheers from the girls :-). This skit reminded me of the various Modern Ramayans we used to have back in ITBHU.

That was followed by Room 308, which focussed on building of relationships between roommates when they first arrive at their dorms in freshman year - how different people get together and how some influences can be bad. The piece started with a girl enticing a new one to drink "just one drink" which leads to several more that evening and ultimately leads to her death. The first girl is then shows as a resident advisor two years later who is helping new dorm members settle down. The whole skit was sooooo nicely done... excellent performaces by all the actors here!

The final piece was titled Scenes for Young Actors, and Clay from second nature was the main protagonist, Ryder, with a "Y". The act had him trying to convince his girlfriend how he has found his true calling in life, bussing tables and secretly aspiring to act in westside story. The actors then one by one broke into a song and the whole thing transformed into a musical. The piece climaxed with the whole cast of the evening coming out of the wings to take a bow.

It was a nice scene to watch, especially when they all came together on stage. I have a small video also that pans the whole scene.

All this reminded me sooooooooo much of ITBHU theatre. I miss the good old days when we used to work day and night to get a play/skit/mime/expressions on stage and finally when the audience applauded, we felt sooo like a team and sometimes cried with joy (I still remember the last part of Kunal ). I had similar happiness today watching Jaimey, Nick, Clay, John and gang basking in the glory of their successful endeavor. I wish them all the luck and hope to see more students performances at USC.

So long guys.. thanks for reading all the way down to here... remember to make your voice heard by posting a comment!

cheers
-A

Gulp some Google!!

Today, apart from releasing new features in gmail [send me an email at firstname@gmail.com for invites], Google released Google Gulp, a fundoo energy drink that makes your brain work amazingly fast!

I especially likes their FAQ, esp the following bit

11. When will you take Google Gulp out of beta?

Man, if you pressure us, you just drive us away. We'll commit when we're ready, okay? Besides, what's so great about taking things out of beta? It ruins all the romance, the challenge, the possibilities, the right to explore. Carpe diem, ya know? Maybe we're jaded, but we've seen all these other companies leap headlong into 1.0, thinking their product is exactly what they've been dreaming of all their lives, that everything is perfect and hunky-dory – and the next thing you know some vanilla copycat release from Redmond is kicking their butt, the Board is holding emergency meetings and the CEO is on CNBC blathering sweatily about "a new direction" and "getting back to basics." No thanks, man. We like our freedom.

Notice the Redmond reference, just FYI, Redmond, WA is where the castle of evil is. :-).

Way to go people!!! I am off to drink my first bottle, since Gaurav already has a invite, thanks to his bro who works in the silicon valley.

cheers and yppah lirpa s`loof yad to you all!
-A

What [not] to do when your computer crashes

MSNBC has a nice article on people's reaction to computer crashes. A fun read.. especially the deep fryer part.

Here are the slashdot comments.

Today is Neha's birthday. She has a blog now. Sweet!

So... what did "you" .. my dear reader do when you lost precious data on your last computer crash... please post comments.
-A

Quake hits tsunami zone

Just saw this article about an earthquake in Sumatra [London Free Press]. Here is a link to more related articles[google news]

Very sad.

No Tsunamis have been reported.

Lets all pray for the victims of this catastrophe.

-A

Camouflaged octopuses 'walk' on two tentacles

New Scientist has this amazing article about octopuses that walk on two tentacles. This is simply too cool!!!!

Remember to watch the videos that we linked to from the article!

In other news, I finally managed to get semi-melodious notes (all 7) from my flute... now for more breathing practice and getting those notes straight!

-A

Bose – The Forgotten Hero :: Music Released

IndiaFM.com has a nice
music review of "Bose – The Forgotten Hero", a movie about Subhash Chandra Bose, the legendary Indian Freedom Fighter.

If you want to listen to the songs, you can get them from musicindiaonline, since they are not yet there on mahiram or raaga.

Me listening to them now... nice sounds....
Please comment on how you liked them.

-A

The Credit Card Prank II

Slashdot today posted about the zug.com article about The Credit Card Prank II ... amazing article!

The Slashdot comments on this, as always, were entertaining.. :-).

cheers
-A

US denies visa to Modi - excellent!

The Times of India is reporting on howUSA has denied a visa to Narendra Modi, who is considered by many (including yours truly) to be responsible for the mass killings of muslims in Gujarat in 2002. I feel so happy.

I am also sad that people like this give India a bad name - I was once asked by a bangladeshi man during a flight as to why the Vajpeyee govt. allowed the massacre to happen and I could do nothing but hang my head in shame.

Here's a toast to the day (in near future?) when all will live in harmony!

-A

13 things that do not make sense

New Scientist is reporting on 13 things that do not make sense. A nice read for anyone.

This added to the news of a mini black hole by BBC has made my day.... I feel so sciency .. oooooohhhhh....

cheers
-A

Sleeping sheep.. and my house..

The BBC has nice game to test reaction times. Thanks to Aditya Mandavilli for sending the link. I was sooo releived to read the notice at the end of the game :-) .

Further, here are some misc pics from my life.... my home primarily.. and Zack and Gokul (on a chair) and some pics of the multifaith function we had for Tsunami relief.

cheers
-A

Gaurav's Birthday

So, March 14 is Gaurav's birthday. Here are the snaps of the masti we did last night!!! The snaps of the corresponding party will be sent as soon as it happens.

And do not blame me for the cake smearing act... this is mearly a retribution of this. Gaurav takes nice snaps....

Cheers!
-A

When Veer Met Zaara

Outlook India is carrying this nice article on Indo - Pak Friendship. Was heartwarming to read. Goes on to prove that all this trouble/enimty is not quite a reflection of the general public's views, just that of a few politicians.

In other news, Nishant sent me a pointer to the news of a muslim woman getting a shiva temple made in Varanasi - I am surely going to visit that in my next visit.

Also, Animesh (not me, the other one) sent me a link to the news of Shakti Kapoor's involvement in a casting couch scandal ! The shocking part was not the accusation but the fact that he agreed to the act, but alleged that this was a plot - seems that this kind of conduct is so normal in bollywood that film personalities do not bat and eyelid when an aspiring actress offers "everything" to them - man, dhan.. and tan!

Dalai Lama gives up freedom dream

Just saw this on the Times of India
Dalai
gives up freedom dream- The Times of India. I still cannot believe
it folks!!

Also, he
has expressed his thanks for India. I wonder how the people of
Tibet are going to react to this!

-A

Idea #2 online!

Hi all,
Idea # 2 is online on my crazy ideas blog.

Don't forget to post your comments... I will be waiting!!

cheers
-A
P.S. Thanks to all who wishes me yesterday! It was fun.

Oh Shit!!

Wired news is reporting about a new design of toilets that flush better, much better. Have you ever flushed 24 golf balls down a toilet! Read on!
-A

Maj Gen gets RI in Tehelka case

The Hindustan Times is reporting about a major general getting jailterm for the tehelka case. Nice to know that. Here is a link to related news items. I wonder when the politicians involved will get to visit tihar!

Amen to this thought!
-A

Invisibility Shields , Google, Firefox and Kenyan Linux-based Palmtops

Nature is reporting on an invisibility shield that uses electron effects to prevent objects from scattering light. Although they admit that this is not a one-size-suits-all solution, it has interesting implications in stealth, microscopy and other fields. Read the article for more.

In other news, BBC is reporting on a Kenyan school where kids are using linux based handhelds. Those kind of things make sense in India also.

Yet another article (from ZDnet) reports about how google is helping firefox. I don't mind them getting together :-).

-A
P.S. All above references taken from slashdot ... really cool.