Have a wonderful and prosperous new year!!(Photo: Tiger Preservation float from Tournament of Roses 2008)
Complete album updated here
1/01/2008
Happy 2008
Have a wonderful and prosperous new year!!(Photo: Tiger Preservation float from Tournament of Roses 2008)
Complete album updated here
4/10/2007
Speculating of Men and Women on Pluto
Not very long back Anshul went on to write a blog on what love is. I think I commented there something that I might have thought and perhaps that should not my area of expertise. What I should talk based on the current scenario is, an external view of the love world and its idiosyncrasy.
It is not a "find if you're in love" guide that I am presenting, rather its about what the people in love never seem to notice. They get into a different world and loose the idea that the rest of the world is still going as normal and perhaps spinning at the same speed. Its a small sweet world which envelops them that is really a treat, awe and a lot of other feelings for the distant viewers like me.
I don't know how many examples I can write down here for the reason of maintaining anonymity of the people who are inspiration for this post but there are plenty in my mind which make me think ke "ki aasmaan phat jaye aur mujhe nigal le". All private talks spill over to the people around are basically the talks, directly from a Hindi movies. The oft repeated, "I noticed ki tumko ye xyz pasand hai", "mere liye kar do na" and "itna bhi nahin kar sakte" in an infinite loop make me feel ke "bhaiya kar de nahin to ye drama nahin dekha jayega". Mostly the girls adapt the movie lines etc quite quickly and guy shall be spotted saying "woh bahut seedhi aur innocent hai" within a week or next time he drinks, whichever comes first. Someone said of love that its a feeling in which you appreciate someone more than yourself you bet you can make it from the ode's that you hear from them about each other.
Other less amusing things are the habits that change. I cannot think of better examples but talking for 5 hours in a toilet is definitely not a hygienic habit if not for the length and the timing of the talk (till morning 6 am). Taking out the mobile in middle of a discussion and type like a typewriter on the keypad and come back to the discussion with "Kya bol rahe the tum?". Recently I heard that a girl prepared 5 songs to sing for the boyfriends birthday.(I have no comments to this gesture of love)
Khair all is good but I personally feel that the couples generally get into an unexplainable aura which totally ignores the way they themselves were living earlier. Yes I can hear "jab tumhari baari aayegi... " and all that. Hope I would understand the plight of those singles around too.
Men may be from Mars and Women from Venus but when they meet they must be roaming on pluto, of which we hardly know of.
It is not a "find if you're in love" guide that I am presenting, rather its about what the people in love never seem to notice. They get into a different world and loose the idea that the rest of the world is still going as normal and perhaps spinning at the same speed. Its a small sweet world which envelops them that is really a treat, awe and a lot of other feelings for the distant viewers like me.
I don't know how many examples I can write down here for the reason of maintaining anonymity of the people who are inspiration for this post but there are plenty in my mind which make me think ke "ki aasmaan phat jaye aur mujhe nigal le". All private talks spill over to the people around are basically the talks, directly from a Hindi movies. The oft repeated, "I noticed ki tumko ye xyz pasand hai", "mere liye kar do na" and "itna bhi nahin kar sakte" in an infinite loop make me feel ke "bhaiya kar de nahin to ye drama nahin dekha jayega". Mostly the girls adapt the movie lines etc quite quickly and guy shall be spotted saying "woh bahut seedhi aur innocent hai" within a week or next time he drinks, whichever comes first. Someone said of love that its a feeling in which you appreciate someone more than yourself you bet you can make it from the ode's that you hear from them about each other.
Other less amusing things are the habits that change. I cannot think of better examples but talking for 5 hours in a toilet is definitely not a hygienic habit if not for the length and the timing of the talk (till morning 6 am). Taking out the mobile in middle of a discussion and type like a typewriter on the keypad and come back to the discussion with "Kya bol rahe the tum?". Recently I heard that a girl prepared 5 songs to sing for the boyfriends birthday.(I have no comments to this gesture of love)
Khair all is good but I personally feel that the couples generally get into an unexplainable aura which totally ignores the way they themselves were living earlier. Yes I can hear "jab tumhari baari aayegi... " and all that. Hope I would understand the plight of those singles around too.
Men may be from Mars and Women from Venus but when they meet they must be roaming on pluto, of which we hardly know of.
3/27/2007
Why the heck so much
She hurries down the stairs without noticing anyone around her while everyone around is not taking their eyes off. After a while I see the stairs and I again catch her coming down the stairs. Lucky chance haan? Well!! I come to know is that she's been doing this for past 15 mins at least.
Another one is doing chin ups and the instructor is pushing her for more and she happily obliges. While I am just recovering from the nausea of my previous exercise in which I lied about doing half of the repetitions.
I am not talking of one single girl whom I am admiring but its like every girl in the whole gym is absolutely fit to be wasting time in so much.
What annoys me the most is that when I am ready to pass away after running for some time the girl beside me on the treadmill goes on to increase her running speed and she has been running there 10 mins before me.
Why the heck do these perfectly all right girls come to the gym and exercise so much? Most of the girls have instructors even though it costs you an arm and a leg to get a full time instructor. At their body shape, I bet she knows every exercise there is in this world to keep her in that shape. I could have bought the argument that since they come to gym they are so healthy but just a look around the gym shows you that 70% of the guys are overweight. They also come to the gym right? Either most of us realize it too late and come to gym or most of them are just for the eye candies. For girls then, god knows what drives them nuts to doing this.
Technorati Tags: Fitness, Humour, Life
Another one is doing chin ups and the instructor is pushing her for more and she happily obliges. While I am just recovering from the nausea of my previous exercise in which I lied about doing half of the repetitions.
I am not talking of one single girl whom I am admiring but its like every girl in the whole gym is absolutely fit to be wasting time in so much.
What annoys me the most is that when I am ready to pass away after running for some time the girl beside me on the treadmill goes on to increase her running speed and she has been running there 10 mins before me.
Why the heck do these perfectly all right girls come to the gym and exercise so much? Most of the girls have instructors even though it costs you an arm and a leg to get a full time instructor. At their body shape, I bet she knows every exercise there is in this world to keep her in that shape. I could have bought the argument that since they come to gym they are so healthy but just a look around the gym shows you that 70% of the guys are overweight. They also come to the gym right? Either most of us realize it too late and come to gym or most of them are just for the eye candies. For girls then, god knows what drives them nuts to doing this.
Technorati Tags: Fitness, Humour, Life
3/23/2007
Will cricket become hockey?
What I am going to write here might just be a consequence of a feeling of utter wastage of time, money and mockery of the attachment shown towards the Indian cricket team. Its a feeling which wont go away without venting. There will be a zillion bloggers/news channels and natthus who would analyze the match, split its guts apart and take different sides but I just have one piece of advise.
Greg Chappel, with immediate effect, keep security guards.
Dhoni and others from UP and Bihar should apply for home loans already.
Most blatant, Sachin should consider retirement as an option
Well I know PJ would have happily surrendered to beating of Suppi and Anshul had India won but I am sure he is much worse with this.
For the optimists who are thinking there is a chance that Bermuda beats Bangladesh, its near impossible unless our Indian players apply immigration to Bermuda and play from there side against Bangladesh. Still not an easy task as history has told us.
** Update
What would have happened if Bermuda was not there in our group and we had some other moderate team?
While checking the stats, some interesting things for the world cup 2007 stats till now:
Top 5 scorers till now.
Sehwaag and Ganguly figure out at number 4 and 5.
Most Ducks
Dhoni comes a dashing 2nd with many Indian names and obviously Sachin in it.
Top scores
India tops the list of all times in world cup here and that's what makes me think, what if Bermuda was not there to play with us.
Greg Chappel, with immediate effect, keep security guards.
Dhoni and others from UP and Bihar should apply for home loans already.
Most blatant, Sachin should consider retirement as an option
Well I know PJ would have happily surrendered to beating of Suppi and Anshul had India won but I am sure he is much worse with this.
For the optimists who are thinking there is a chance that Bermuda beats Bangladesh, its near impossible unless our Indian players apply immigration to Bermuda and play from there side against Bangladesh. Still not an easy task as history has told us.
** Update
What would have happened if Bermuda was not there in our group and we had some other moderate team?
While checking the stats, some interesting things for the world cup 2007 stats till now:
Top 5 scorers till now.
Sehwaag and Ganguly figure out at number 4 and 5.
Most Ducks
Dhoni comes a dashing 2nd with many Indian names and obviously Sachin in it.
Top scores
India tops the list of all times in world cup here and that's what makes me think, what if Bermuda was not there to play with us.
12/16/2006
A few bad apples spoil the bunch
I had an irritating incident with one of our own call centers who started giving call to my cell phone some 2 months ago. The telemarketing offer was for Indian channel subscription which I had refused bluntly, in the first call I got as it required 12 month contract and a down payment. I clearly told I won’t be here for long so it’s not possible for me. It was not the usual blunt “no, I don’t want to hear anything more” which you get used to because of many stupid things being sold by telemarketing. I was sort of looking for getting a subscription and so at least I listened, asked a few questions and had to say a no. Also since this was from a renowned US
customer complaints and you’ve to call up the channel provider directly”. This call center was given a target to sell hook or by crook. My experience with the direct call center of the channel was pretty smooth. They confirmed that there was no way someone could waive off the contract and hence the amount was deducted and they said if you’re not ok we would refund you the money and apologized for whatever happened. I was so mad that I left a complaint too and
they apologetically accepted that it was a third party seller.
customer complaints and you’ve to call up the channel provider directly”. This call center was given a target to sell hook or by crook. My experience with the direct call center of the channel was pretty smooth. They confirmed that there was no way someone could waive off the contract and hence the amount was deducted and they said if you’re not ok we would refund you the money and apologized for whatever happened. I was so mad that I left a complaint too and
they apologetically accepted that it was a third party seller.
one of the largest market lies. A call center executive, who doesn’t even know the facts of the thing they are selling, is sure harm to their company more than the harm done to the customer. If it was in US the company CEO would be seeing shutdown in the few years of its inception. Anger directed at call centers which are mismanaged is already raging and these kinds of incidents leave people even more skeptical if their call is being handled by
Look at this article which lists down what kinds of frauds have tarnished the image of the Indian BPO. I think the problem lies with the new small players taking the plunge lured by the pie they could cut out of this boom. These don't even have proper means to hire good talent and that is if at all any sane head thinks of applying there. Employee retention is becoming a problem for the biggest back office players and so these small companies must be grappling with shorter training times and then losing those trained to these biggies. All this must be ending up in a fresher out of a college in Delhi time passing in a nukkad ka call centre for 2 months to make quick bucks to spend it all in Ruby Tuesday when he shifts to the big brother.
Now all this can be a one off incident and does not invite any analysis and Who knows the second call I made would have been from a very well accent trained Indian who handled my call well. Well that's what I am saying, a few small companies might spoil the whole impression. I think there is a need for consolidation in this sector to the extent that a few big companies handle it in a much better way. Maturing at this youth/middle age might go a long way in keeping the growth this sector is witnessing.
11/18/2006
The customary car photo
One thing everyone from India will have on his/her orkut profile is the famous car photographs. Rented cars, bought cars or any damn car. Whatever it might be but its a similar feeling (if not the same) that you used to get when you bought your first car in India. Such an occasion would happen in a middle class Indian family when the kids are almost out of the college or the daughter is married or time when the money does not have any specific aim. Here in US you get well earlier than you would have thought. Mostly because the first time you come to US where you have to have a car (Except for a few cities that I have not seen). When god gave legs to the rest of the world, he gave cars to the US citizens. I could have posted the links to a few samples but due to sheer volume and anonymity, I'd leave it at that.
Well since I am talking of cars, another thing that annoys me is that here bike is a far better difficult to obtain and ride as compared to car. Some times I even feel like asking my bike from India and ride it to office. One: It is very time effective as you can sneak in between lanes. Two: Its stylish, perhaps like what the car is in India. Three: I guess my unicorn would be far more fuel efficient than any of the bikes these people run here. Well the only question left is how would it do at 120 kmph everyday.
Well since I am talking of cars, another thing that annoys me is that here bike is a far better difficult to obtain and ride as compared to car. Some times I even feel like asking my bike from India and ride it to office. One: It is very time effective as you can sneak in between lanes. Two: Its stylish, perhaps like what the car is in India. Three: I guess my unicorn would be far more fuel efficient than any of the bikes these people run here. Well the only question left is how would it do at 120 kmph everyday.
8/06/2006
Most guilty period
The most guilty period of the week is Sunday evening. You get up from sleeping 3 hours in the afternoon and then count what all you had planned for the weekend and what all you've ended up doing. Its a gone chance, the next hectic week is staring at you. What all you'd have to do extra to cover up for things that related to office, what all things on personal front shall have to wait one more weekend. Then you get up, wash your face and call a friend who'd be doing the same thing. Things do improve a bit after that, collective guilt is consoling.
One thing I have a good feeling about during this weekend is watching Omkara. Its a movie worth watching. People who would be able to relate to western UP (I belong to East UP but have done college in West) will enjoy the language more. I haven't read Othello, but to those who are going to see the movie, let me warn you its a tragic story, someone told me the most tragic play of Shakespeare.
After watching the songs I've become like one of the truck drivers of UP who listen to songs like 'beedi jalaile' and 'Namak isk ka'. These songs are good.
One thing I have a good feeling about during this weekend is watching Omkara. Its a movie worth watching. People who would be able to relate to western UP (I belong to East UP but have done college in West) will enjoy the language more. I haven't read Othello, but to those who are going to see the movie, let me warn you its a tragic story, someone told me the most tragic play of Shakespeare.
After watching the songs I've become like one of the truck drivers of UP who listen to songs like 'beedi jalaile' and 'Namak isk ka'. These songs are good.
Identity crisis
Well I don't know whether I've been made out of a all so common Indian mould or that I change shapes to look similar to people. Nothing that I've been able to give scientific explanation to (Engineers are supposed to give scientific explanation only)
The recurrence of it makes me laugh and pained at time (you'll come to know later when) but its consoling to know that I am not the only party to be faced with this situation. There are always two party involved in the confusion right.
Also it does not start from the near past, this is since the days of my childhood. My younger bro who's just about 2 years younger to me started looking very similar to me by the time I was 10 and since then hardly things changed. We used to wear the same set of clothes (tons of savings for parents). Built, face cut, voice is distinctly different for me but must be same for others as its not one who got confused. One of the incident was when I went to my brother's parent teacher meetings with mom and met his English teacher. Here is how it went:
Mom: What's the report on Manaswi, does he study, does he (all mom concerns)
Teacher (Staring with 'bastard I kill you' looks towards me): When do you study English.
And I was : Abe!! I study English, don't study English or study Hebrew, who are you to ask me. I am not at my school and you have no damn right to ask this question. Obviously this was in my brain only and somehow me and my English teachers (English language too) don't go very well. Having been through it many times I said perhaps you're getting confused with my brother, me and mom both got the sentiment she was conveying.
One time a friend of mine who I met in one of the crowded coachings I used to go turned up at my home when I was not there. He met my brother and without introduction started over on pehchaana!!! And I can imagine how fun it would have been. He said yaar coaching main mile the, arre Gaurav!!!!!! and still he would have been turned down. Finally my bro had to suggest if he was looking for me :).
There are numerous such incidents, surprisingly I haven't found any twins nor any similar looking people for me to be confused thus. Ok now the next mishtake used to happen with Anshul and me. Anshul and I joined Jaipuria in 1993. Don't know how we looked similar (Main kahan itna smart aur woh kahan :)) but still people used to get confused. Once I had asked an English teacher for my workbook she had lost and so she said she'd give me a new one. So I was waiting for her to give it and had asked me to remind it. One fine day when I reminded her she turned back and said. Now you want a workbook? I don't have anymore. It was kind of rude, and remember me and English teachers never went well and so I did not bother to argue. Cursed these English blabbering teachers who never keep their word and left it. One fine day Anshul tells me about a workbook that was gifted to him by that teacher. Then it clicked, that she gave it to him thinking it was me. I know Anshul should not have taken it but he could not help resisting free stuff :).
At college things went worse, rather tragic. I gave an exam and was coming out of the examination hall. One of the last person to leave and when I was at the door almost a girl shouted "Apurva" and I stopped, looked back at the girl. Incidentally the girl was looking in slightly different angle and rushing that way(For a second I thought dhirri hai). What turned out as she shouted again that she was going for Anshul and shouting my name. Well even though angered by the wrong usage, I did not intervene in the private time of the two people to clarify who was who, guess Anshul would have done that. The scores were leveled recently when, the thing that prompts me to write this post, a girl wrote on my scrap book asking how are you "Anshul"? Interestingly you have photos there, loads of profile crap and still people can get confused. Using Aps instead of Apurva should not confuse I felt.
I just hope that these lessons are made very clear to my future wife if any. I guess keeping a password between us should not hurt.
The recurrence of it makes me laugh and pained at time (you'll come to know later when) but its consoling to know that I am not the only party to be faced with this situation. There are always two party involved in the confusion right.
Also it does not start from the near past, this is since the days of my childhood. My younger bro who's just about 2 years younger to me started looking very similar to me by the time I was 10 and since then hardly things changed. We used to wear the same set of clothes (tons of savings for parents). Built, face cut, voice is distinctly different for me but must be same for others as its not one who got confused. One of the incident was when I went to my brother's parent teacher meetings with mom and met his English teacher. Here is how it went:
Mom: What's the report on Manaswi, does he study, does he (all mom concerns)
Teacher (Staring with 'bastard I kill you' looks towards me): When do you study English.
And I was : Abe!! I study English, don't study English or study Hebrew, who are you to ask me. I am not at my school and you have no damn right to ask this question. Obviously this was in my brain only and somehow me and my English teachers (English language too) don't go very well. Having been through it many times I said perhaps you're getting confused with my brother, me and mom both got the sentiment she was conveying.
One time a friend of mine who I met in one of the crowded coachings I used to go turned up at my home when I was not there. He met my brother and without introduction started over on pehchaana!!! And I can imagine how fun it would have been. He said yaar coaching main mile the, arre Gaurav!!!!!! and still he would have been turned down. Finally my bro had to suggest if he was looking for me :).
There are numerous such incidents, surprisingly I haven't found any twins nor any similar looking people for me to be confused thus. Ok now the next mishtake used to happen with Anshul and me. Anshul and I joined Jaipuria in 1993. Don't know how we looked similar (Main kahan itna smart aur woh kahan :)) but still people used to get confused. Once I had asked an English teacher for my workbook she had lost and so she said she'd give me a new one. So I was waiting for her to give it and had asked me to remind it. One fine day when I reminded her she turned back and said. Now you want a workbook? I don't have anymore. It was kind of rude, and remember me and English teachers never went well and so I did not bother to argue. Cursed these English blabbering teachers who never keep their word and left it. One fine day Anshul tells me about a workbook that was gifted to him by that teacher. Then it clicked, that she gave it to him thinking it was me. I know Anshul should not have taken it but he could not help resisting free stuff :).
At college things went worse, rather tragic. I gave an exam and was coming out of the examination hall. One of the last person to leave and when I was at the door almost a girl shouted "Apurva" and I stopped, looked back at the girl. Incidentally the girl was looking in slightly different angle and rushing that way(For a second I thought dhirri hai). What turned out as she shouted again that she was going for Anshul and shouting my name. Well even though angered by the wrong usage, I did not intervene in the private time of the two people to clarify who was who, guess Anshul would have done that. The scores were leveled recently when, the thing that prompts me to write this post, a girl wrote on my scrap book asking how are you "Anshul"? Interestingly you have photos there, loads of profile crap and still people can get confused. Using Aps instead of Apurva should not confuse I felt.
I just hope that these lessons are made very clear to my future wife if any. I guess keeping a password between us should not hurt.
7/23/2006
Song on top of my list
There are always some songs which get on top of my head first and those that I have to get somehow and listen. So the latest song which I accidentally heard and then had to find out and download was Euphoria's "Bhoola Tumhe".
The spies around me will somehow find lots of reasons to point out that I was contemplating on something to be appreciating this song but seriously this song deserves a hearing and that too repeated a few times over. Lyrics are simple and perhaps the whole songs is just 6 lines but the music is awesome. One of the usual experiments of what Euphoria calls as Hind Rock.
Will just leave you with the lyrics as pointers to where to download from would be illegal :). Morover I know, those that want it, can get it anyhow.
"Bhoola Sab"
Na na na...(4)
Bhula sab, Bhula tumhe..
Sach tha ya koi sapna, bhool gaya,
Neend main keh ke apna, bhool gaya,
Yaad hai sab haan, jo bhi hua na
Hua hai jo, sab kuch main woh, bhool gaya,
Ab nahin tere geet, ab nahin tu mera meet,
Bhula sab, bhula jahan, bhula tumhe
Ab nahin ??? raat, ab na hogi taaro se baat,
Bhula sab, bhula jahan, bhula tumhe
Sham ka karke waada, bhool gaya,
Yaad hai kuch kuch zyada, bhool gaya,
Aaine main jo, dekha tha tujhko
Maine kaha, ye bhi main haan, bhool gaya,
Ab nahin tera zeher, ab nahin mujhe koi darr
Bhula sab, bhoola jahan, bhoola tumhe
Ab nahin ??? raat,Ab na hogi woh pyari baat,
Bhula sab, bhoola jahan, bhoola tumhe
Jo tere saath guzaare the, woh lamhe sach much pyare the,
Lekin woh itne saare the, yaad rakhna bolo aakhir unme kis kis ko
Bhulana tha aasan, bhula unhe
Bhula sab, bhoola jahan, bhoola tumhe
Bhula dhun, Bhule geet
Ab nahin tere geet, ab nahin tu mera meet,
Bhula sab, bhoola jahan, bhoola tumhe
Ab nahin tera zeher, ab nahin mujhe koi dar
Bhula sab, bhoola jahan, bhoola tumhe
Lyrics seem incomplete (Some question marks left) but this is what I could get off the net. I think hardly anyone has noticed this song. We'll have to wait till they are released on the official website of Euphoria. As some site I was looking also pointed out, they even have their songs mp3 for download on their own site which lets you download without bugging registrations. I like the free spirit.
Technorati Tags: Euphoria, Music
The spies around me will somehow find lots of reasons to point out that I was contemplating on something to be appreciating this song but seriously this song deserves a hearing and that too repeated a few times over. Lyrics are simple and perhaps the whole songs is just 6 lines but the music is awesome. One of the usual experiments of what Euphoria calls as Hind Rock.
Will just leave you with the lyrics as pointers to where to download from would be illegal :). Morover I know, those that want it, can get it anyhow.
"Bhoola Sab"
Na na na...(4)
Bhula sab, Bhula tumhe..
Sach tha ya koi sapna, bhool gaya,
Neend main keh ke apna, bhool gaya,
Yaad hai sab haan, jo bhi hua na
Hua hai jo, sab kuch main woh, bhool gaya,
Ab nahin tere geet, ab nahin tu mera meet,
Bhula sab, bhula jahan, bhula tumhe
Ab nahin ??? raat, ab na hogi taaro se baat,
Bhula sab, bhula jahan, bhula tumhe
Sham ka karke waada, bhool gaya,
Yaad hai kuch kuch zyada, bhool gaya,
Aaine main jo, dekha tha tujhko
Maine kaha, ye bhi main haan, bhool gaya,
Ab nahin tera zeher, ab nahin mujhe koi darr
Bhula sab, bhoola jahan, bhoola tumhe
Ab nahin ??? raat,Ab na hogi woh pyari baat,
Bhula sab, bhoola jahan, bhoola tumhe
Jo tere saath guzaare the, woh lamhe sach much pyare the,
Lekin woh itne saare the, yaad rakhna bolo aakhir unme kis kis ko
Bhulana tha aasan, bhula unhe
Bhula sab, bhoola jahan, bhoola tumhe
Bhula dhun, Bhule geet
Ab nahin tere geet, ab nahin tu mera meet,
Bhula sab, bhoola jahan, bhoola tumhe
Ab nahin tera zeher, ab nahin mujhe koi dar
Bhula sab, bhoola jahan, bhoola tumhe
Lyrics seem incomplete (Some question marks left) but this is what I could get off the net. I think hardly anyone has noticed this song. We'll have to wait till they are released on the official website of Euphoria. As some site I was looking also pointed out, they even have their songs mp3 for download on their own site which lets you download without bugging registrations. I like the free spirit.
Technorati Tags: Euphoria, Music
7/18/2006
Go Metro?
The hot sun, staring at me, wakes me up as if its trying to lift my eyelids up and poke a finger in my eyes. There is hot dust around me and I am not on my bed, I am at the changeover bus stop called peck road, waiting for my next connecting bus to office. Worst of all I am as sleepy as one is when he just puts the tooth brush in his mouth in the morning. The bus stop!! Is just one pole which reads the bus number (interestingly not even the stop name). Its difficult to feel this harsh on the morning Sun unless one sees it for himself, how hot or pinching is morning 7:30 Sun in dry California. The 35 mins in the first bus used to be so sleepy that it was almost as if being thrown out of the bus while you were sleeping.I used to see this advertisement daily in the bus which said, "Free yourself, go metro". Well! Irony has never been fun at such times but some times I used to analyze what freedom one would get if he chose metro. Here's what I could get:
First of all metro wasn't a choice, I had to choose it because that was the only means to my office. I think in my most previous sojourns also I never made a choice for public transport. Public transport generally is not a choice by conventional wisdom, choosing a luxurious transport is rather. Well for here, its a little opposite. I researched the LA area metro pamphlets, website, maps and understood the value of the shortest path algorithm finally. Not that it could have solved any problem if I had studied it properly, only thing is that considering all the options in this world from my home to office there was only one way by changing a bus in between, both run by different companies, both honoring different monthly passes and most helpfully, different offical times and late timings. So very often my ~1 hour travel time used to translate into ~1 hour 40 mins: courtesy late/missing buses. Also the frequency of the office hours buses is 30 mins (and very intelligently these buses keep to their 30 mins frequency even when there would be no one using them whole day).
So to the traveler, who has become wise and become free I would suggest to get a backpack and keep the following stuff at all times of travel: Food (muffins/fruits), an umbrella for these 40 mins wait in the sun, something to read if you can do that in the sun and headphones to avoid distraction from other free spooky travelers.
So wisdom says, gas prices have gone up, freeways are choked etc and one should use metro only. I would say please go ahead and tell me when you see one wise or free man traveling with you. As for me it was none less than a freedom struggle to free myself from this metro!! For me the campaign always used to read "Go metro? Free yourself (rather)"
7/13/2006
Zidane vs Materazzi
| It must have been a difficult decision to ruin one's career ending moment. Tolerate or get a red card. He has now even gone and apologized to the children of France who might feel ashamed of him. Its better to be right than to be courteous and safe. This video might have been made by zidane lovers and in football it might also not be that tough to show any player a villian considering the physical game it becomes at times. But even without that one could judge that materazzi must have asked for it and got what he deserved. My only message to Zidane: Arre khopche main le ke kharcha paani dena tha, faaltu main itna publicity liya. | |
7/12/2006
Are Indians not unanimous?
As Americans are waking up to the fact that India too has terrorism problems I had a discussion with an inquisitive American on the recent Mumbai blasts. Well every meeting I went to today had people questioning me on how are Indians taking it. I guess if it was America, atleast a dozen Pakistani cities would have been bombed by the time they saw the morning. Well, I had to explain them, its India and we've been facing this kind of things since two decades if not more.
The discussion went on long with my Indian colleagues pouring in their own ideas. We kind of flooded them with loads of data each one had but what he had to say was that in his talks with many Indians what he figures out is that Indians have lots of conflicting ideas or thoughts about any thing. Leave that what data he gets to hear from all of us is mostly different.
On that I think he was not all that wrong. At the same time each channel in India gives different number of blasts, different death toll and we are kind of used to that as we know anyhow the figures are more grim and plus or minus one anyhow does not make any difference. Truth about this, what I understand, is that truly we Indians are first of all not at all politics people. We generally don't care about politics of the country, 50% don't even vote and as the latest example we see here is that most Mumbaikars would be leading a normal life without even forcing their government to apologize for the security lapse.
And while all these things happen, at one of the million chai shops in UP we would be discussing gossips about India/Pakistan/Kashmir/Bollywood and what not without even caring of its accuracy.
That's India
The discussion went on long with my Indian colleagues pouring in their own ideas. We kind of flooded them with loads of data each one had but what he had to say was that in his talks with many Indians what he figures out is that Indians have lots of conflicting ideas or thoughts about any thing. Leave that what data he gets to hear from all of us is mostly different.
On that I think he was not all that wrong. At the same time each channel in India gives different number of blasts, different death toll and we are kind of used to that as we know anyhow the figures are more grim and plus or minus one anyhow does not make any difference. Truth about this, what I understand, is that truly we Indians are first of all not at all politics people. We generally don't care about politics of the country, 50% don't even vote and as the latest example we see here is that most Mumbaikars would be leading a normal life without even forcing their government to apologize for the security lapse.
And while all these things happen, at one of the million chai shops in UP we would be discussing gossips about India/Pakistan/Kashmir/Bollywood and what not without even caring of its accuracy.
That's India
Tinatile??
Being an Indian with not many options for lunch, most of the lunches happen at burger joints like McDonald's or burger king. Don't get me wrong, I am not a vegetarian but somehow my office is in a peculiarly Chinese neighborhood where experimenting can be fatal. I have tried a couple of times things that I had never tried before. Last time I had lunch at such a Chinese/Vietnamese/Japanese joint, the soup bowl was similar to a living pond from which you could fish out living thing possible. It had clams, shrimps, fish, crabs and some of the things I hardly remember name of.
Coming back to Burger joints or similar fast food joints, they have a peculiar process defined even for asking question. That's gone so standard that some day some chimpanzees could be trained to take orders. Well its something not new to me but today's incident opened my eyes a little more. I was off to Burger King and ordered a menu number x with coke and medium fries (I tend to tell whatever they want to avoid time wastage). But the conversation doesn't stop here, she asks me
"tinatile" (she was a Chinese I guess),
I said "What!!"
"tinatile"
I again "What!!!!!!" (With all my ears focusing only on this one word in English)
"tinatile" (what the heck, C'mon if someone is not understanding a sentence their process should have a clause to re-phrase it with some different words but no!!)
I said "I just want this and nothing else."
Well that was the golden answer and then I understood what she was asking was "Anything Else?"
And the last part of the process I kind of guessed rather than making out the Chinese accent.
"For here or to go?".
By this process memorized for all the major joints I think people should be able to answer them in any part of the world. Ask the same questions in Mandarin and I'll shoot the answers now.
My problem would be solved but I just wonder how these people's reflexes in real life be. Guess if the boy friend asked her for a kiss, I bet the answer would be Medium or large? :)
Coming back to Burger joints or similar fast food joints, they have a peculiar process defined even for asking question. That's gone so standard that some day some chimpanzees could be trained to take orders. Well its something not new to me but today's incident opened my eyes a little more. I was off to Burger King and ordered a menu number x with coke and medium fries (I tend to tell whatever they want to avoid time wastage). But the conversation doesn't stop here, she asks me
"tinatile" (she was a Chinese I guess),
I said "What!!"
"tinatile"
I again "What!!!!!!" (With all my ears focusing only on this one word in English)
"tinatile" (what the heck, C'mon if someone is not understanding a sentence their process should have a clause to re-phrase it with some different words but no!!)
I said "I just want this and nothing else."
Well that was the golden answer and then I understood what she was asking was "Anything Else?"
And the last part of the process I kind of guessed rather than making out the Chinese accent.
"For here or to go?".
By this process memorized for all the major joints I think people should be able to answer them in any part of the world. Ask the same questions in Mandarin and I'll shoot the answers now.
My problem would be solved but I just wonder how these people's reflexes in real life be. Guess if the boy friend asked her for a kiss, I bet the answer would be Medium or large? :)
7/11/2006
Bombay's Boom
A recent issue of Time which I happened to see on the stalls and picked up had this cover story on India Inc. and Bombay's Boom. Little did I know that Bombay's Boom would give a sad connotation. Anyone who has to prove anything tries to raise a havoc on the city which takes it in its stride over and over again. Its the people who keep rising back to normal over and over again but I hardly see a difference created by the people who should be responsible for safety, comfort and development of the Mumbaikars.
I agree we in India don't have the most complying or disciplined citizens of the world, but still people can do things to a limit. They can unite in times of calamity or they can stay calm without making much panic but what do the authorities do? Just do repair work when something rips off Mumbai? I think they need to get their act together.
The Time issue was both amusing and surprising. Amusing because most of it was "What is India?" kind of
article. These people are still trying to discover India and the
shockingly surprising things were the facts mentioned. There was a lot
of focus on Mumbai. Some of the facts like the number of people who die
annually in local trains runs into several hundreds. Its shocking even
to an Indian to know these figures. Here's what the article says:
Imagine this happening in any developed country. They would get on a war alert and in India it is something many would not even know.
Well considering we know so much that goes wrong in Mumbai, why do the authorities sleep is something I can't digest. If you know the railway system can't support so many people think of some alternatives. At the least advertise things like what hours should be avoided so that the local trains don't get over crowded, perhaps enforce rules for safety, arrange more trains, have more technology help etc. etc.. I don't know what not but I doubt there is any serious thinking process going on this.
Well!! Finally I hope those in Bombay are able to come over all this yet another time while the government would sleep a few years over it's post analysis.
I agree we in India don't have the most complying or disciplined citizens of the world, but still people can do things to a limit. They can unite in times of calamity or they can stay calm without making much panic but what do the authorities do? Just do repair work when something rips off Mumbai? I think they need to get their act together.
The Time issue was both amusing and surprising. Amusing because most of it was "What is India?" kind of
article. These people are still trying to discover India and the
shockingly surprising things were the facts mentioned. There was a lot
of focus on Mumbai. Some of the facts like the number of people who die
annually in local trains runs into several hundreds. Its shocking even
to an Indian to know these figures. Here's what the article says:
As a result, passenger groups say, an astonishing 3,500 travelers die every year on the tracks, hundreds simply falling from the trains.
Imagine this happening in any developed country. They would get on a war alert and in India it is something many would not even know.
Well considering we know so much that goes wrong in Mumbai, why do the authorities sleep is something I can't digest. If you know the railway system can't support so many people think of some alternatives. At the least advertise things like what hours should be avoided so that the local trains don't get over crowded, perhaps enforce rules for safety, arrange more trains, have more technology help etc. etc.. I don't know what not but I doubt there is any serious thinking process going on this.
Well!! Finally I hope those in Bombay are able to come over all this yet another time while the government would sleep a few years over it's post analysis.
6/29/2006
Google can turn into punjab kesri
Sometime back I had registered for customized news and from then onwards google kept throwing punjab kesri type news of Rakhi Sawant being kissed by Mika. Ok I agree its my fault that I read that news the first time but once in a while a person will tumble over masala news and read it. And as you do that, google will track that news for you. So every time you open news that rakhi sawant update would be staring at your face tempting you to see if there has been any movement in that. Who knows some channel released the photo/video in an attempt to condemn it :). Along with that Google will start getting more crap now from Bollywood to fill your personal section too.
Leaving what google does aside, I am totally abreast with the rakhi sawant case now. If you ask me which side I am. Frankly I don't have very high opinion for both of them so the least I appreciate them, the better. They both could have been wrong, Rakhi could have been playing a publicity stunt or even mika would have been at fault of being indecent as he looks in most of his videos. Remember his first video "sawan main lag gayi aag"? I think Gulshan Grover was hired just to leave no confusion who was the villain and who should the heroine avoid. Strange thing about this episode to my senses: National Commission for Women got involved in it.
Leaving what google does aside, I am totally abreast with the rakhi sawant case now. If you ask me which side I am. Frankly I don't have very high opinion for both of them so the least I appreciate them, the better. They both could have been wrong, Rakhi could have been playing a publicity stunt or even mika would have been at fault of being indecent as he looks in most of his videos. Remember his first video "sawan main lag gayi aag"? I think Gulshan Grover was hired just to leave no confusion who was the villain and who should the heroine avoid. Strange thing about this episode to my senses: National Commission for Women got involved in it.
6/18/2006
Corruption debate
In a recent discussion with my boss over corruption in India, we came up with some interesting points that I thought of jotting down here. I don't think these are something which has never been thought about but I don't see much talk about them either.
Its common to see the way things work here abroad and laugh about the inefficiencies that are there in India due to corruption. I think its right also, unless you see the difference, appreciate the positives and condemn the wrong, you are never starting on the way to make changes. There's no doubt that things in Indian government institutions that deal directly with the common public are the ones that are the hotbed of the corruption machinery. So broadly speaking what are the causes of it:
Less salaries in Indian public sector. It makes me wonder sometimes how Subir Raha must be getting than his counterpart CEOs. Might be one tenth or lesser. I don't mean he will go corrupt because of not being able to manage in a 20-30 Lakhs p.a. but consider when the same ratio translates to the babu types jobs. I don't know what they get but from what I constantly hear, their salaries are sub 5000 for many. I wont comment its less or more because anyhow there's no limit on more anywhere. But in comparison to what he is offered in bribes, the things that he deals in generally translate into more than 10x times his salary. Which is a great motivator to take the plunge. There would be a great mass who wont take the effort of killing his conscience if his basic needs are satisfied and he gets the respect in the society but at 5K types salary that's not what one can expect. So these rock bottom salaries are one big motivator for the corrupt. Consider Indians pay 21,068 crores as bribes per year anyhow that amount of money is flowing as black money. I think there are many people who feel that instead of charging me 50Rs for a driving license better charge me 500Rs and save me the pain of paying 6 babus 50 rs each and having lesser respect for my own country.
But if you think over the above argument, a person who reaches higher posts and starts earning something which other people in industry get then also he does not stop being corrupt. The reason being, its like once corrupt, always corrupt. Its like yaar ek baar aur sahi, phir nahin karoonga. So once you are into this cycle, there's no ending, how much ever you earn or store or stash.
Society is one more reason. We as Indians keep forming groups and generally recognize ourselves as part of a group only. There are no rights and wrong, we are quite comfortable in convincing ourselves about the aims of the group and follow them as gospel truth. consider a fresher joining a department of xyz revenue collection and distribution. That fresher first identifies himself with the seniors who eat truck loads of notes, then their lesser ones who service them and get some suitcases for their families and it would be in such good harmony that he would also fall in love of the concept and start doing the same stuff. We hardly have rebels, individuals who are ready to challenge the established. We just flow with the things. So my hypothesis is that India in the next generation is going to be a rage without any stopping. You'll see an honest, un-corrupt country. That's because I see a lot many un-corrupt, satisfied people than I used to see in the generation of my uncles, father's friends etc etc who I know are working in sarkari company and making black money and yet being good individuals in their personal lives. The day this percentage decreases and percentage of people who are honest goes high, we'll have followers who will do the same. So I guess its going to be an exponential growth in it.
So the matter is about conversion. I think India should reduce the number of converts by taking appropriate measures. A good salary to match other industry standards is one first step. In countries that I visit these public services either get more or equally paid than other similar professions. People do live in the same society and then feel part of it. They have incentive to be non-corrupt. Awareness can be improved first by stressing more about these issues in School, increase penalty of being corrupt and setting examples of honest people. I think these are little abstract but I think its happening slowly. I admire the way the new industries in India have taken these things very seriously and have their own excellence in executing these stuff.
India is currently placed at 88th rank among 159 nations according to a report by Transparency International. Consider India is the 4rth largest economy of the world (considering Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)) and the second fastest major economy of the world and if corruption does not fall then its difficult to imagine any further growth.
At the end of all my fundas I will leave with a very good report(Transparency International India) of Indian corruption.
Technorati Tags: Corruption, Economy
Its common to see the way things work here abroad and laugh about the inefficiencies that are there in India due to corruption. I think its right also, unless you see the difference, appreciate the positives and condemn the wrong, you are never starting on the way to make changes. There's no doubt that things in Indian government institutions that deal directly with the common public are the ones that are the hotbed of the corruption machinery. So broadly speaking what are the causes of it:
Less salaries in Indian public sector. It makes me wonder sometimes how Subir Raha must be getting than his counterpart CEOs. Might be one tenth or lesser. I don't mean he will go corrupt because of not being able to manage in a 20-30 Lakhs p.a. but consider when the same ratio translates to the babu types jobs. I don't know what they get but from what I constantly hear, their salaries are sub 5000 for many. I wont comment its less or more because anyhow there's no limit on more anywhere. But in comparison to what he is offered in bribes, the things that he deals in generally translate into more than 10x times his salary. Which is a great motivator to take the plunge. There would be a great mass who wont take the effort of killing his conscience if his basic needs are satisfied and he gets the respect in the society but at 5K types salary that's not what one can expect. So these rock bottom salaries are one big motivator for the corrupt. Consider Indians pay 21,068 crores as bribes per year anyhow that amount of money is flowing as black money. I think there are many people who feel that instead of charging me 50Rs for a driving license better charge me 500Rs and save me the pain of paying 6 babus 50 rs each and having lesser respect for my own country.
But if you think over the above argument, a person who reaches higher posts and starts earning something which other people in industry get then also he does not stop being corrupt. The reason being, its like once corrupt, always corrupt. Its like yaar ek baar aur sahi, phir nahin karoonga. So once you are into this cycle, there's no ending, how much ever you earn or store or stash.
Society is one more reason. We as Indians keep forming groups and generally recognize ourselves as part of a group only. There are no rights and wrong, we are quite comfortable in convincing ourselves about the aims of the group and follow them as gospel truth. consider a fresher joining a department of xyz revenue collection and distribution. That fresher first identifies himself with the seniors who eat truck loads of notes, then their lesser ones who service them and get some suitcases for their families and it would be in such good harmony that he would also fall in love of the concept and start doing the same stuff. We hardly have rebels, individuals who are ready to challenge the established. We just flow with the things. So my hypothesis is that India in the next generation is going to be a rage without any stopping. You'll see an honest, un-corrupt country. That's because I see a lot many un-corrupt, satisfied people than I used to see in the generation of my uncles, father's friends etc etc who I know are working in sarkari company and making black money and yet being good individuals in their personal lives. The day this percentage decreases and percentage of people who are honest goes high, we'll have followers who will do the same. So I guess its going to be an exponential growth in it.
So the matter is about conversion. I think India should reduce the number of converts by taking appropriate measures. A good salary to match other industry standards is one first step. In countries that I visit these public services either get more or equally paid than other similar professions. People do live in the same society and then feel part of it. They have incentive to be non-corrupt. Awareness can be improved first by stressing more about these issues in School, increase penalty of being corrupt and setting examples of honest people. I think these are little abstract but I think its happening slowly. I admire the way the new industries in India have taken these things very seriously and have their own excellence in executing these stuff.
India is currently placed at 88th rank among 159 nations according to a report by Transparency International. Consider India is the 4rth largest economy of the world (considering Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)) and the second fastest major economy of the world and if corruption does not fall then its difficult to imagine any further growth.
At the end of all my fundas I will leave with a very good report(Transparency International India) of Indian corruption.
Technorati Tags: Corruption, Economy
6/04/2006
Winner of this weekend: Gangster
Well pardon me for yet another movie review. But I'll try not to break any suspense and hence just say that Gangster is a good movie to watch.
These kinds (new cast and not so advertised) movies get ignored. I also have an habit of not watching movies without any reviews. I can't say I had not heard a good review about gangster but still I avoid movies where I don't know any artist to atleast have some credibility to it somehow had been avoiding any Imran Hashmi movies. Just because he had become stereotyped for serial kisser and had been in a dozen such movies requiring cerebral usage of less than .01 %
Well
Technorati Tags: Gangster, Movies
These kinds (new cast and not so advertised) movies get ignored. I also have an habit of not watching movies without any reviews. I can't say I had not heard a good review about gangster but still I avoid movies where I don't know any artist to atleast have some credibility to it somehow had been avoiding any Imran Hashmi movies. Just because he had become stereotyped for serial kisser and had been in a dozen such movies requiring cerebral usage of less than .01 %
Well
Technorati Tags: Gangster, Movies
Is movie se dimag fanaa ho jaye
Well I was not at all thinking of writing any reviews about Fanaa. Many have already written pages on it and it does not make sense to write a movie which is generally dubbed by people as not making up to the marks. Atleast that's what the image I could get from the reviews that I have read. But now that I have seen the movie, I was provoked to write a review to save millions who read this blog.I had less expectations from the review but the movie disappointed after that also. The initial phase of shayari and the instant maggie 2 minutes falling in love is one of the most hilarious part of the movie. What could easily have been termed as roadside romeogiri is depicted as the best form of wooing. (Low level has gone to the level of hardware perhaps). A guide giving flying kisses to girls in the bus, girls appreciating it looked all like axe land story to me. I digest it all saying that my competency in love matters is nothing that I should be proud of and also that I am watching a movie
Well the movie progresses with such huge negligence of the public common sense that I lost track of what all was going wrong. Amir enters army after killing someone who is never traced by his wife also for 2 months and of course landing in army location where no one, yes no one knew you after the mission also must be easy. Farhaan beats the Indian army in Mithun da ishtyle after jumping from the helicopter and a whole battalion (mind you with a helicopter and motorized sledges) cannot get hold of a person on snowboard. Well I digest all that considering that mithun da did it some 20 years ago and so today's heros must be little advanced.
Well movie becomes a little sane after all this only with little irritating overuse of the dialogues like "Farhaan jitna aapse pyaar karta hai.." and "Har kaam akele nahin hota hai".
Overall then the movie tries not to disappoint more than it has already done till now. You start ignoring things like that what a girl would do when she sees her father's dead body. Run to get some help, panic or just wait casually for her husband to be back. Finding Farhaan's location from the radio is not possible but when Zuni does a radio her location is all known by itself. The intelligence people discuss as if they are sitting on some UP ki chai ki dukaan. Coz the confidence with which they discuss complex politics to extreme science puts any NASA Scientist to shame.
Coming to the point of Kajol and Aamir in the movie. Yes they look good and actually they never looked bad to me so not a selling point for me atleast. And as someone pointed out, they could have made a portfolio of both the artists and shown it as a slide show if that is the only point for which people should see Fanaa.
Songs are good and out of them "Dekho na" is awesome and it's video irresistible
5/30/2006
Mallu detection squad
How do you recognize a desi abroad? There are no answers, you just do. There are ones who look same as you and those that would have looked firang in India are also and easy pick. For us all chinki's look the same, all americans might be indistinguishable but even the most blending of the Indians stand out.
My first experience with this kind of ability was not with any international exposure. It was during my days in Mysore when I had just moved in there. All southies spoke the same cryptic language which I could not understand. But I landed up with mallus as my room mates. Mallus have a peculiar detection mechanism which works without hearing the other person speak a word. I mean just by looks, most of my roomies would be able to locate another mallu. So in our house there were mallu hounds who at every bakery would find out that the bakery waalah was mallu, every taxi driver they meet they would be able to chaff out the mallus out of them. Even from a name they could classify a mallu.
But it took me no time to get into their squad. There were following simple rules (without offending any mallu who might have started folding his tund) :
If someone is wearing a white dhoti with a shirt, he has to be a mallu
If the name is a combination of Hindu and Christian. For e.g. Amit George.
If your name is any combination of George, Koshy, Urvin, Justin, Bobby. Nothing out of this syllabus.
If the person has curly hairs
If the person is totally nuts about girls in gym, or girls in white sarees. Wonder how many people will love to see women in whites, but mallus sure would die for it.
If he searches for a mallu mess in 50 km vicinity of his house and says its convinient to have the putt and egg curry and biriyani on weekend than to cook at home
Its been great fun with all my mallu friends who might themselves be currently puzzled how they smell a mallu coz they never came up with a formal approach.
And there are incentives for getting a mallu. Each one has such dearness towards each other that he can even give you your account number. I don't know how their practical experience is but for an outsider it sure seems that. So I think its all the more important to know whether the other person is mallu and ready to chat in his own language.
Am I right? Enda para?
My first experience with this kind of ability was not with any international exposure. It was during my days in Mysore when I had just moved in there. All southies spoke the same cryptic language which I could not understand. But I landed up with mallus as my room mates. Mallus have a peculiar detection mechanism which works without hearing the other person speak a word. I mean just by looks, most of my roomies would be able to locate another mallu. So in our house there were mallu hounds who at every bakery would find out that the bakery waalah was mallu, every taxi driver they meet they would be able to chaff out the mallus out of them. Even from a name they could classify a mallu.
But it took me no time to get into their squad. There were following simple rules (without offending any mallu who might have started folding his tund) :
If someone is wearing a white dhoti with a shirt, he has to be a mallu
If the name is a combination of Hindu and Christian. For e.g. Amit George.
If your name is any combination of George, Koshy, Urvin, Justin, Bobby. Nothing out of this syllabus.
If the person has curly hairs
If the person is totally nuts about girls in gym, or girls in white sarees. Wonder how many people will love to see women in whites, but mallus sure would die for it.
If he searches for a mallu mess in 50 km vicinity of his house and says its convinient to have the putt and egg curry and biriyani on weekend than to cook at home
Its been great fun with all my mallu friends who might themselves be currently puzzled how they smell a mallu coz they never came up with a formal approach.
And there are incentives for getting a mallu. Each one has such dearness towards each other that he can even give you your account number. I don't know how their practical experience is but for an outsider it sure seems that. So I think its all the more important to know whether the other person is mallu and ready to chat in his own language.
Am I right? Enda para?
5/22/2006
Devil's Advocate
A lot has been said about reservation by all, but what even I as an un-informed common man was just hoping that the person behind that had some valid reasons. I mean I have no doubt that I am for the upliftment of the suppressed but I am seriously against any kind of reservation given on the basis of cast alone. In fact as many have cited out(1, 2) that reservation per se is a flawed policy, easily exploitable and hardly useful except to feed the vote banks of politicians. I wont elaborate on that but I want you people to read the following link on IBN Live about the Devil's Advocate-Arjun Singh ,which I wish I could have seen.
Does it convince you?
PS: Dabbu thanks for the mail.
Does it convince you?
PS: Dabbu thanks for the mail.
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