More annoying pop-ups

Can someone tell me how to get rid of pop-ups from the Times of India website? This is a recent development. Earlier I never had this problem in Firefox. Now I see the message saying "Firefox prevented the site from opening a pop-up...." but I still get the stupid pop-up. Btw, I don't have this problem on any other website (barring http://www.chennaionline.com)

John Roberts: Chief Justice nominee

John Roberts goes from virtual unknown to Chief Justice. Man, this is quite a power trip for this guy! I thought some of the current judges on the supreme court might be aspiring for this top job? Don't they have some kind of seniority consideration for this post? Maybe not. This is a clear case of a total outsider walking in and taking the top job. The guy is in his fifties and is likely to hold the top job for a few decades! Wonder why no one is talking about trying to change the rules of the game especially when the country is so sharply divided.

A cake walk confirmation just got interesting....

NZ-India final

As expected by most Indian cricket fans, India lost the final to NZ in the Videocon Tri-series. When the batting clicks, the bowling fails, otherwise the fielding fails, else everything fails. The biggest positive from this tour is that JP Yadav definitely deserves to be in the team as the all-rounder/fifth bowler. Next, Dhoni can certainly help speed up things in the last 10-15 overs. He has proved that more than once and can be counted to deliver in the future.

Venu lost a good chance to prove himself and might find himself dumped for good. Kaif and Yuvraj have extended their survival lease by the odd good performance. Agarkar fans now have more ammunition to fight his cause. Dumpimg Dravid from the captaincy seems to have taken its toll. He probably thinks he has had enough scoring runs under Dada and can keep his place without super performances. Lastly, India is certainly missing Sachin and his all round skills.

All in all, the Indian team is going through a lousy phase. Despite so much talent, a cricket playing nation with so many resources continues to fail. Don't know what exactly it is, but something has to change. If it doesn't, the same story will continue through to the World Cup in 2007.

Jelly Belly Factory

Check out the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, CA if get a chance. If you are headed to Napa this can be a nice stop over for the kids. Unlike the regular robot infested factory floors, this one is so vibrant with all the colors of the jelly beans. Beware, they give you plenty of sample jelly beans that are bound to drive the kids completely hyper if you don't ration them out!

India's win over NZ: Nothing to get excited about!

NZ rested Shane Bond for the match and that made all the difference. Struggling Indian batsman batted like champions. It was a smart move to rest the star bowler in my opinion. He'll be fresh and hungry to have another go at the Indian batting.

NZ's bowling without Bond and Vettori is pretty mediocre. On the other hand, when Bond does the job of putting serious pressure on the batsman from one end, the other bowlers start grabbing wickets from the other despite bein mediocre by themselves. In any case, this victory will give India some much needed confidence going into the finals. It is great that Dhoni played a useful innings to finish up the match for India. The final acceleration is something that India has been badly lacking. The fielding in particular was impressive especially the run outs.

If India win the finals, then all the complaints about Ganguly and co. will be promptly forgotten and Dada will be firmly in control once again.

Pizza Hut sucks, at least the local one does!

I am not a pizza lover. Unfortunately, I sometimes end up eating pizza at work simply because it is convenient, fast and delivered. The closest Pizza Hut to work is at:

1241 W El Camino Real
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
Phone: (650)968-8100

For the third time in a row over a course of about 6 months, I have ended up with an upset stomach after ordering pizza from this store! :-(

On the other hand, I have had much better luck with Little Caesar's pizza. Very aggressive pricing, yet decent quality. They don't deliver in most places.

Nice movie for kids

If you are looking for a good movie to take your kid(s) (5 years and older) to, I recommend Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Very nicely made movie. The sets are great and Johnny Depp and the other actors have done a fine job. One can't help notice Johnny Depp's Michael Jackson-like potrayal of Willie Wonka. I haven't seen the original movie from the early seventies(?) so I can't give you a relative view.

Thunderbird: Searching for attachments

I have been using Thunderbird email program for a while now. Its great! The other day, I was trying to search for emails with attachments and couldn't figure out how to do it. I tried searching the Thurderbird site and didn't find anything there on this. Any Thunderbird experts out there?

Cricket: The Day of Reckoning?

Tomorrow could be the end of an era in world cricket. After over a decade of dominating world cricket the Aussie slide is now on the verge of being completed. A defeat at the hands of the English! After a long wait the English press I bet can't wait for its day(s) in the sun!

Nothing has gone right for the Aussie on this tour of England. They have struggled right through and never looked like a champion side. Tomorrow is their last chance to turn the tables. Given the recent performances this seems highly unlikely. A VVS-Dravid show does not happen every day. :-)

Dentist: To remove or not to remove?

According to most (possibly all) Dentists in the US it is recommended to remove the wisdom tooth on both ends and their counter parts on the top row. That is a total of 4 teeth! The claim is that they are not used in the chewing process. I have never heard this from Dentists in India.

In general, the attitude of Dentists in India is to try and save every tooth as far as possible. Dentists in the US on the other hand love to do an extraction at the slightest excuse. Someone told me the supposed rational for this approach. If you remove a tooth then they are free of law suits. If you try some fancy exercise on the tooth and something goes wrong, Dentists are likely to get sued! Also, given the crazy health insurance racket in the US, I believe an extraction is easy money. I am curious to know the experiences of anyone around here on this.

Chinese Restaurants in Mountain View

Two good Chinese restaurants in Mountain View on Castro Street: Hangen Szechuan Restaurant and Hunan Chili. They are very close to each other and are virtual clones of each other. As for downsides: Hangen -- The owners wife could use a visit to "charm school"; Hunan Chili: They try to get you to pay in cash, though nowhere does it say that they have a min charge to use the credit card. If you want to get around it, just say "I have no cash". They'll then accept your credit card!

If you visit either of these try the Mapo Tofu. If you like spicy food you'll love this dish.

Ashes: Aussies in shambles, still worthy of playing the World XI?

England continues to strengthen its hold over the Aussies with this test. As always Flintoff makes all the difference. Just when it looked like the Aussies had England down at 229 for 4, Freddie turns out a fine century. Man, this guy is real good!

The way the Aussies are playing, I don't think this team deserves to play against the rest of the world! The World XI deserves to play a stronger side, perhaps Steven Waugh's Australian side.

India vs. NZ: Bonded by Bond

Shane Bond simply destroyed India's batting. Its not surprising. The team has been performing horribly. Our celebrity stars show up late. Ganguly is still sleep walking more than batting. Viru looks like he has had a little too many "aloo parattas" during the off-season. Dravid is probably pissed with his short stint as captain and too distracted as a result. Yuvraj thinks his century on the SL-WI series is enough for a while. Kaif is mostly a fielder etc. etc.

The saving grace of this match: India finally gave JP Yadav a shot and he certainly looks set for the all-rounder slot. Irfan is evolving into a potential all-rounder. Our opening bowlers have survived longer than one series without injuries and actually performed quite consistently. Last but not the least, India gave one of its youngsters (Venugopal Rao) a good chance to prove himself. Unfortunately, he ended up facing an unplayable delivery. In the competitive environment of world cricket, playing the unplayable is what sets apart the true stars. Nevertheless, Venu needs a few more chances, especially considering how long we persist with our celebrity stars.

Google Talk

Ok, now Google is in the IM/internet voice chat business as well. Its starting to get a little boring. After all the cool search stuff, they seem to be just looking around, seeing what's there and come up with cool variations. Its about time they came up with something drastically new and game changing. I love Gmail, Google Maps, Add Content, Google Video, Google Custom Home page and other old wine in new bottles from Google.

Frankly, I am starting to get a little bored with Google's new stuff. No wonder people are starting to refer to Google as the new evil empire. Does the world need one more IM? One more free email? One more MyYahoo? One more Blogger? One more social networking site? One more Yahoo finance? Oh well...

Chappell's honeymoon is over

Greg Chappell was pissed with the Indian players for showing up late at the start of the tour. He was even more pissed with the press for jumping all over him and taking pictures. Sounds like Chappell's honeymoon period is over. If India flunks this meaningless tournament in Zimbabwe, the pressure on him is bound to get worse. Perhaps he'll have to learn a few lessons about defending himself from Dada.

Graeme Smith: World XI Captain

Its quite an achivement for Graeme Smith to lead the cricket World XI against Australia. Until a few years back, he was brought into lead SF, despite being a virtual unknown. Though he has had mixed results as the South African captain, his recent performance in the county championship Twenty20 tournament and the match against Australia for Somerset speaks volumes of his abilities. Captaining the World XI should be quite a crowning moment for him.

Masala Cricket: Asia XI vs Africa XI

The “masala” cricket that is underway between Asia XI and Africa XI just witnessed another display of classic spineless performance from our Indian tail-enders. Just when tail-enders in the Ashes series are performing unbelievable wonders, the Indian tail-enders succumb with the least resistance as always. Btw, Viru’s bad form seems to continue into this worthless series. India should have sent in the lesser stars/discards like VVS instead. Dravid did a smart thing by withdrawing.  Btw, this entire series is available for $20.00 on broadband.

New Word Plug-in for Blogger!

This is a test using the new MS-Word plug-in for blogger. This is really cool!

Wine Tasting in Fremont, CA

There was Blockbuster video store next to the Wells Fargo Bank on Mowry Avenue (in the Dana Bazaar complex: 5113 Mowry Avenue, Fremont, CA). Now this store has been replaced by a pretty fancy wine shop. Amazing collection of wine from all over the world. They even have some limited wine tasting. I can't remember the name of the store, unfortunately.

Ashes: Third Test

Wow! What an exciting test match. I can't remember the last time test series was so exciting.

Hats off to both teams for spirited performances. Flintoff seems to have come into his own this series and that makes all the difference to the England side. For Australia, Brett Lee deserves a lot of credit for saving the Test unlike the last test where he ended up on the loosing side despite a fighting performance. Most importantly, Ponting played an outstanding innings when most needed.

Here are some thoughts that come to mind after this test:

• Hayden badly needs a break. Katich failed too but I think he deserves a longer rope. Brad Hodge in place of Hayden might be a useful change. However, I think Brad Hodge will come in place of the injured Clarke and both Hayden and Katich will survive another test.

• Steve Bucknor must be forced to retire. His umpiring has been consistently poor for the last few years (especially in matches involving India). His Martyn decision almost cost Australia the match. Btw, I am curious if he (or whoever the match referree is) will show the guts to haul Ponting to the discplinary stand for resenting when Martyn was given out?

• Gillespie is another guy who badly needs a break. His batting is more useful to Australia than his bowling :-) Kasporovich or Shaun Tait should definitely play in the fourth test! I will be terribly surprised if Gillespie plays in the next test.
  

Ashes: England bounces back

What a game! Hats off to the Aussies for fighting back so hard and almost pulling off a victory. England should be relieved to have leveled the series. Flintoff's super abilities and McGrath's absence made the difference to both teams respectively.

With both Lee and McGrath doubtful for the third Test, the Aussies have their hands full with problems. Lee was taken apart in this test, and both Kasparowicz and Gillespie are no where are as menacing (even from a wicket taking point of view). I think its a good idea to try out Shaun Tait as a good surprise package for England. This Ashes is shaping up very well with England putting up a credible fight. Its is also a sign of Australia's waning superiority over other International teams.

Thunderbird is cool

I switched to using Thunderbird (I have been using MS Outlook Express for many years now) a few months back. Its look and feel is very much "Outlook Express like" with lots of cool features as a bonus. So if you are an Outlook Express user, the switch is painless.

The Junk handling capability is especially welcome and powerful in this day and age of relentless junk mail. Search capability is excellent. Since the move to Thunderbird I have been exploring new features more than I ever did in Outlook Express. So this is not necessarily a Thunderbird vs Outlook Express report. Instead its just a re-assurance for anyone contemplating a switch.

Indian Oil Cup: India scrape through to Final

It was a close match after India had WI on the mat. It just proves that India's bowling is weak with a full fledged fifth bowler. Given the wickets in SL are conducive to spin it makes sense for India to play five bowlers including two spinners. This match also strengthens the case for saving Dhoni for the last 15 overs. The opening spot should be a choice between VVS and Ganguly. I don't think there is room for both of them in the team. Hopefully, Viru will fire in the final. Its a pity the JP was a mere passenger on this tour. And sure enough the poor guy will be dropped for the next tour. So much for India's search for the elusive all rounder.

The team for the final in my opinion must be:

Sehwag
Ganguly (if he is fit, else open with Yuvraj and play Venu in the middle order)
Dravid
Yuvraj
Kaif
Dhoni
Pathan
Kumble
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Nehra

WI win against SL. Huh?

Was this match fixed? Or the Sri Lanka team took it easy? Or they decided to lose the match in order to inject some excitement into this boring triangular series? It had to be one of these. Its hard to imagine this WI team pull off a victory against any team. ...barring maybe India on a really bad day:-(

Supreme Court Justices: Term limits?

Why don't Supreme Court justices have term limits? I don't understand the logic behind these life time appointments. The US produces so many lawyers with great credentials, so why should this privilege of being on the Supreme Court be restricted to just a few individuals.

Its sad to see Chief Justice William Rehnquist drag himself to court despite his poor health. Sure, its a personal decision and he wants to continue serving. But when the country has so many qualified individuals can't we give the poor guy some rest? (Btw, I truly admire his resilience and commitment, and this is nothing personal towards him or other cancer patients).

I just think its crazy to have lifetime appointments for any post. Getting rid of it will certainly help reduce the partisan nature of the battle that goes in the appointment and confirmation process. Some kind of system where every President gets to appoint a couple of Supreme Court justices or something on those lines.

Speedy travel to India

Check this out -- 16 hours to Bombay from SF! Can't wait for these flights to become operational. Its looonnggg overdue!

India-Zimbabwe series coming up

Another meaningless cricket series is round the corner. Two tests against a second string Zimbabwe side. I sincerely hopes the Indian selectors give our so-called celebrity cricket stars a rest and send in an entire team of newcomers. It would be painful to see the Ganguly, Sachin, Sehwag and Dravid pile up centuries against the second string Zimbabwe side. Another golden opportunity for India to try and expose some up and coming players to international cricket.

The elusive Indian all-rounder

The Indian cricket team has been struggling to find an all rounder ever since Kapil Dev's departure. Forget about a star bowler like Kapil. India badly needs someone who can score 3-50 runs and be counted to bowl 10 consistent overs in every match.

The Indian team management strategy of unearthing this elusive player is completely baffling. India has played three matches and not once has anyone who fits that profile been given his quota of overs to bowl. Venugopal Rao never got to bowl in the two matches he played. Then he was dumped from the team. Raina seems to have developed into a run out specialist. He gets to bowl the last over to give away the winning runs. Kinda like giving the young boy a candy. JP Yadav is busy warming the benches while Ganguly and Sehwag get to cover for the 5th bowler! Firstly, how can you unearth an all rounder unless you experiment with those who fit the profile?

India went into this series knowing fully well that the fifth bowler-all rounder slot was crucial. Then, we select a few newbies and never try them out! Why were these guys selected if the captain does not have the confidence to try them out? What kind of message does it send to these newcomers? In my opinion the captain must select a couple of bowlers who he thinks are the going to be his 5th, 6th and 7th bowling options and then make sure they bowl in every single match. That's the only way they can identify this key player.

To experiment or not to experiment?

Arjuna Ranatunga has criticised India's strategy of experimenting with the batting order as having "pressed the panic button". I completely disagree. In fact, I feel India is not experimenting enough, especially on the bowling front. To start with, India should have selected a new look team. An insignificant tournament with a third rate team like WI participating -- can there be a better place to experiment?

India is a cricket crazy country with over a billion people. Unlike other fields of endeavor, cricket is an area where India has no shortage of funds. The BCCI has boat loads of money and sponsors from all over the world throw money at events and at the cricketers. Yet, India is third from the bottom in its ODI rankings. Clearly, there is something wrong.

The age old strategy of sticking to heroes of the yester years while young talent ages and withers away without ever landing on the international arena has gone on for too long. The only way that this can be can prevented from happening and ensuring that India becomes the best team in the world is by experimenting and unearthing talent. The only way we are going to be successful is by giving new-comers a shot at the international level.

I wish India had experimented more on Bangladesh tour. What is the point of sending an injured Tendulkar to Bangladesh to score a double hundred while the Srirams, Badanis, and Joginder Sharmas of the country languish on the bench? It doesn't prove anything and doesn't help prolong the career of the world #1 batsman? What is Kumble doing in a worthless tournament like this when he is barely assured of a place in the playing eleven! Why bother with VVS Laxman when we know his fielding sucks, he can't bowl and his batting form has been pathetic.
Personally, I think the days when one can play at the international level of over 10 years are gone. Most players must consider themselves lucky to survive at the top for more than 5 years. For example, barring Michael Clarke most Aussie batsman and all rounders get a break at the international level only in their late 20s or early thirties.

Cricket has become too commercial a sport and the stakes are way too high for India to compromise on unearthing new talent. The only way to do that is by experimenting.

India vs Sri Lanka

India won thanks to Dravid (so what's new about it!). No sign of trying Venugopal Rao as an all rounder. Can't see the point of having a batsman coming so low down the order if you don't plan to use him as a bowler. Sounds like Raina is a favorite of Chappell and Dravid. Hopefully, he'll deliver consistently. If he does, he can certainly seal his slot for the next World Cup.

In any case at least Dravid is consistent about using Sehwag as a bowler unlike Ganguly who had the habit using Sachin, Sehwag, Yuvraj and himself very infrequently. For instance, you'll find Sachin bowling 10 overs in one match and not bowl at all for the next 3-4 games. Likewise for the others. Unless they are used regularly as bowlers we can't count on them to play the role of the backup bowlers. Sounds like Dravid has firmed up on Sehwag as one of his backup bowlers.

The next match should be interesting with Ganguly back in the side probably at the expense of Raina, Venu Yuvraj or Kaif. Both Kaif and Yuvraj blew a good opportunity to cement their spot in the team. The WI match is hardly a test. The true test is against SL and particularly Muralitharan.

Cricket: Indian Oil Cup Opener

India start off the season with a "lousy" performance. I don't understand the logic of playing Venugopal Rao in the all rounder slot and not being tried as a bowler. I guess the target was too small for the new captain to experiment. Thankfully he scored some runs to hold his spot at least for next match. With Laxman likely to come in the next match and Ganguly to follow in the one after, two slots from this team are sure to open up.

Jayasurya with a broken shoulder is good enough to stand up to the Indian bowling and take SL to victory. That speaks volumes about how pathetic our bowling is. As for the batting, Muralitharan is still a mystery for most Indian batsman (barring Sachin, Ganguly and Dravid).

At least for now I don't see much change in India's performance. The team is performing exactly as it did after the tour to Pakistan last year (2004).

Google's Add Content

Check out Google's Add Content feature on the Google customizable home page. Pretty neat stuff. Slowly but surely Google's customizable home page is heading towards becoming an improved more hip My Yahoo clone. Its funny how Google started of with search and is slowly incorporating all the generic portal features but with their own clever spin: free email, customizable home page, maps etc. etc.

Zopa: Borrow money from others via the web

Check out this site. Very interesting concept. I saw it mentioned in Business 2.0 magazine. Currently based in Europe.

The India ODI team: First Signs of Greg Chappel's influence?

VVS opening in one day games. Suresh Raina, Venugopal Rao two definite World Cup 2007 prospects in the Indian team. JP Yadav for the all-rounder spot. The end of Agarkar? -- Sounds like Chappel had something to do with these changes? I suspect that with VVS opening, Dhoni might be retained for the slog in the last 15 overs. Something India has always struggled with.

Badani and Sriram (in particular) must be wondering what more they need to do to return.

Top 10 signs you live in the Silicon Valley

10. At parties you no longer discuss startup ideas.
09. You are happy you have a job.
08. You can't imagine life without a wireless LAN at home.
07. You already use Skype or have been planning to give it a try.
06. You are constantly debating about public vs private school for your kids.
05. You are forced to wonder what its like to live in Bangalore.
04. You are complaining about the hot weather even when you know that you enjoy the best possible weather on the planet.
03. Traffic is no longer one of your top complaints.
02. You got burnt (at least partly) in the dotcomm days.
01. Your worst nightmare --- A real estate bubble!

BJP headed for a split?

The differences between the hardliners in the BJP and those in the Advani camp who aspire to embrace a more moderate veneer are increasing by the day. I think its only matter of time before the split in the party occurs. At the present time there is little sign of unity and no sign whatsoever of the next line of leadership emerging and gaining control of the party and crafting its future. As the Congress govt is cruising along in its second year in power, the BJP in its current form appears to be headed towards self-destruction.

Ashes First Test: England disappoints

Its pity that England barely put up a fight chasing 420 in the last innings. England needed a Rahul Dravid to play the anchor role!

Vaughan is hopelessly out of form and I suspect might end up in "Ganguly" mode as the Ashes progresses. Flintoff's batting form is in bad shape too. Pieterson has sealed his position with two fine knocks. The Aussies have proved once again that they are an incredibly strong test side. I'll be surprised if they loose even one test this series.

John Roberts: President Bush's master stroke

The Democrats were all geared up for tet another battle as President Bush was ready to announce his Supreme Court nominee. With the selection of John Roberts, President Bush has foxed his opponents once again. A virtual unknown, the Democrats are going to have a hard time digging up dirt on this candidate. The conservative groups appear to be pretty happy with this choice too. In short, President Bush has kept his base happy and made life hard for his oppenents.

At present it looks unlikely that fighting John Roberts candidacy will win them any political mileage. It might be prudent for the Democrats to pass on this battle and instead go after the Karl Rove controversy.

Ashes: First Test

Man, what a start to the Ashes! Wonderful days play. I hope the series remains as engaging! I never expected England to bowl so well. The comeback by the Aussiesis is quite typical. McGrath is a genius. 500+ wickets and the guy is still so brilliant.

It will be really cool start to the Ashes if Engaland manages a victory here, perhaps with some heroics from Pieterson! Dream on :-)

Fastrak toll on Dumbarton

Sometimes when I drive through the fastrak lane on Dumbarton bridge, I don't see the sensor go off and the display read "VALID". Instead the display remains blank and there is no beep. I wonder why? Am I getting a free ride? :-)

Saif best actor?

I am sure there has to be a better performance than Saif Ali Khan in Hum Tum. I think he acted well in the movie, but I don't think it was so great that it deserved the national award. Surely, there has to have been a better performance. SRK in Veer Zaara was certainly impressive, if the idea was to pick a commercial cinema. Mommy's present perhaps? :-)

Natwest Final: Eng Vs. Aus

Aussie thulped England. When Gilchrist gets going, then all bets are off for the opposition. Gillespie returned to form too. Hayden badly needs a break. In general, I think the Aussies are a better test team than a one-day side. So having won the one-day series don't be surprised if they make a clean sweep the test series. I don't think England has the bowling depth to get Australia out twice. I think all this talk about Aussie vulnerability will be a thing of the past, once the Ashes get going. In any case, should be a good series.

NatWest Challenge: Aussies win in style

This match was almost a mirror image of the first match of the Natwest Challenge. The performances where identical:

Collingwood => Brett Lee
Trescothic => Ponting
Vaughan => Martin
Hussey => Flintoff

Fine "leading from the front" knock from Ponting. The now familiar England batting collapse followed by a middle order fight back. Flintoff finally made a big score.

At least we now have a final match to look forward to. I hope its more evenly matched unlike the first two matches where the scores and performances where identical except the roles where reversed.

Lovely Sweets in Fremont

A low key, hole in wall place that serves Indian food (punjabi cuisine) and plenty of "lovely" sweets, this restaurant/sweet shop is worth trying out. The food is good and always freshly cooked. The sweets are exceptional especially the "rasmalai".

We returned to this restuarant (mostly because its a little out of the way) after a few years and definitely found it worth our while.

NatWest Challenge: Aussies struggling!

Aussie lost their first ODI to England. What a comprehensive defeat! England has done a wonderful job and now have a huge psycological edge after winning the first ODI. The pressure is on the Aussies.

I think Aussies are making a mistake by persisting with the same team match after match. Gillespie needs to be replaced. While Hayden needs a break. Shaun Tait and Katich deserve to be brought in.

Its a pity the new rules had little impact on the match.

Natwest Final: Eng Vs. Aus

Man, what a final! Hats off to England for their fighting performance. Its commendable to see tail-enders fight it out till the very end. (I can't remember the last time India's tail-enders accomplished anything even remotely close).

The Aussie's are still struggling. They no longer look like a champion, unbeatable side. All out under 50 overs for a score of less than 200! Hussey is a great find. I think Katich should be brought in place of Hayden (who hasn't made a big score in a long time). Gillespie could use a break. He has become the weak link in their bowling attack. Shaun Tait or whoeverelse is on the bench should be given a shot. After the wonderful opening spells from McGrath and Lee, Symonds kept one end tight, but Gillespie was exposed. Ponting's gamble of going for wickets caused him dearly because his best three (McGrath, Lee and Symonds) had very few overs left and Collingwood and Jones setlled in well by the time Hogg came on. It might have proved better if he had introduced Hogg earlier in the attack promptly after England were reduced to 33 for 5. In a desperate attempt to hit their way out of trouble the England batsmen might have tried to attack Hogg and lost their wickets. I guess Ponting had more faith in his bowling attack to get the needed breakthoughs.

England's top order is in bad shape. But their bowling looks very strong. Most importantly, they appear to be an inspired, fighting unit just when the Aussie's seem vulnerable.

It will be very interesting to see the new ICC rules for ODI in action in the three-match Natwest Challenge.

Shalimar in Fremont on weekends

If you plan to eat at Shalimar on Fri, Sat or Sun nights, I suggest you go early or plan for a long wait. Its extremely crowded and I understand that even if you order a take out the wait is pretty long.

In true desi style, the Shalimar folks have no proper process for sign up and table access. Its a free for all. Very often customers get into arguments about who showed up first. At least on one occasion I heard there was serious brawl!

You might find junta standing next to you at the table waiting for you to finish and leave! To avoid/minimize this, see if you can get a table that's deep inside rather than close to the door.

The food is still very good. The chai is free and so are the onions, chillis, pepper and chutneys.

Bonfante Gardens

Looking for a nice place to visit with your kids on a weekend? You live in the SF Bay area and don't necessarily want to drive a whole lot? Bonfante Gardens near Gilroy might be your answer. It is just south of San Jose after Morgan Hill. The park has plenty of rides, games, gardens, boat rides, train rides, etc. You can easily spend an entire day there and have lots of fun with the kids. The rides are not high pressure rides and hence perfect for smaller kids.

And finally the best part. The park is not well known. Very few people in the bay area are aware of its existence! The positive of course is that its not very crowded, which makes it an even better place to visit!

Its cheaper to get your tickets online.

Global merger mania has just begun

First IBM-Lenova, then Maytag-Haier and now Unocal-CNOOC (wonder why India's' ONGC didn't bid on this?). Suddenly, you have a hue and cry from all corners of the US, fears of security and what not. I think these large global mergers are just beginning.

With globalization and the current US Govt's obsession with the spread of freedom and democracy and its pre-occupation with Iraq, the US economy has been sinking steadily. As companies continue to under perform (like Unocal) and their values drop, such mergers and acquisitions are bound to happen. Rather than get into protectionist mode and prevent such mergers, I think these mergers should be encouraged. Its just the inevitable result of globalization and the growth of Asian economies. So "let's bring'm on"

IE6 doesn't like Google Maps

I use IE6 on Windows 2000. I mostly use Firefox except in a few cases where I use IE. I went to http://maps.google.com in IE and viola! the browser crashed with the familar "send" , "dont send" links. This is repeatable. Wonder what IE7 has in store! Crash Google video, maybe! :-)

If you are wondering what this image is about, I was just trying the new add image feature in blogger, way cool stuff!

Google video viewing: A Quick take

Google released a video viewing capability. The results of any search are a bunch of screen shots of the video starting at several points during the actual complete video -- i.e., start of 1 minute, 10 minutes etc. You also have the ability to search within that video produced by the original search. Double clicking on the screenshots gives you the video in full screen mode. You can also sign up to upload your own videos for potential inclusion in future versions of Google videos. I am sure there are a lot many more wonderful features that go with this service.

As always, pretty cool, but from the first look of it, appears quite preliminary. The search was very slow and very often results were returned with screen shots but no video! Try searching for "Bachchan on Charlie Rose". You have to go through a couple of screen before you find the text "Video is currently not available". (this text can be more "in your face").

Further increase in toll!

Read over the weekend that come 2007 the toll on bay area bridges are going to be increased by a dollar. The toll will be $5 for the Golden Gate bridge! This toll increase is simply insane. Combined with the ever increasing gas prices, simply getting to work is slowly becoming such an expensive affair. No wonder jobs are going overseas!

Foreign coach for Maharashtra state team!

Check this out. Maharashtra Cricket Association has hired an Australian coach! This is quite a trend. Its only a matter of time before other states go down the same path. Btw, check out this rumor about Bahutle and Jadeja defecting to play for marketers. The biding war for cricketers at the Ranji level is just round the corner. Matching fixing at the local level is next?

Aussies are back to their winning ways

With two successive victories, the Aussies have put to rest any doubts about their continued domination of world cricket. These two victories highlight just how critical Symonds is to the team. A suspension for drinking followed by two outstanding performances. Man, this guy is awesome!

I think they are going to win all the remaining one-day games of this series. (I predicted their victory over England :-)

Movie Review: Parineeta

Starring: Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan
Hindi, romantic story based on Saratchandra Chatterjee's book.

Indian movie film makers have now resorted to the easy way out. Simply remake old movies! Inspired by the success of Devadas, follow other remakes such as Parineeta (apparently already made twice), Paheli (original appeared in the early 70s), and in the works is the remake of Don! Since I have not seen the earlier versions or read the book, I was pretty open minded about Parineeta.

Like most Vidhu Vinod Chopra's movies (1947, Kareeb, Munnabhai, Mission Kashmir etc.), this one is a made with a lot of attention to detail. The music is excellent and blends perfectly with the film. The sets are very impressive and the overall quality of the movie making is excellent. Newcomer Vidya Balan has put in a very creditable performance and is an excellent choice for the role. Saif Ali Khan, gradually emerging as a commercially viable romantic hero (Hum Tum, Kal ho Na Ho and now Parineeta), has put in a good performance as well. Sanjay Dutt (a fixture in Vidhu Vinod Chopra films) appears to have gained weight and aged significantly. The rest of the cast does their part.

The storyline as such is nothing new or for that matter earth shattering (as made out by some reviews and other movie promos). Typical stuff -- childhood friendship, grows into romance, some misunderstanding, love triangle develops, hero agrees to marry another girl (small role by Diya Mirza), realizes his mistake, melodrama ensues, and the couple come together. Someone has to be a villain. In this case its the hero's Dad. Saif plays the hero, Sanjay Dutt completes the love triangle, while Raima Sen helps fix the traingle. Rekha appears in a dance number to enhance the star power. The strength of the movie lies in the treatment of the none too new plot, the excellent music and the overall production quality.

If you are the type who generally enjoys commercial romantic films, this movie is a very safe bet.

Book Review: Q and A

Title: Q and A
Author: Vikas Swarup
Fiction, story based in India.

An exciting novel! The story revolves around a quiz show (and hence the name Q&A) and the lead character, who works as a waiter in a restaurant, and who wins the quiz show prize of Rs. 1 billion. The quiz organizers suspect foul-play and have the winner arrested. The rest of the book is about how he knew the answers to each of the questions, not by foul play but by a strange series of events in his life. The answer to each question has a story behind it. The author has ingeniously weaved a whole series of stories into one. Very creative and imaginative indeed! The book is fast paced and very engaging.

The book is quite "filmy". In other words, it has a strong bollywood feel to it. Perhaps the author was considering a movie even while writing it (or maybe it began as an attempt at writing a movie script). Its a masala of sorts -- gays, match-fixing, espionage, murder, robbery, romance, suicide, filmstars, child abuse, sex, prostitution, contract killing, incest, you name it-- a comprehensive list of issues du jour are cleverly captured in the book as a part of the story.

Overall a very impressive and commendable effort for a debut novel. Most debut novels have an autobiographical side to it. But this book is the product of a hugely imaginitive mind and has little, and probably no autobiographical side to it.

The author is from the ministry of external affairs in India. Check out his interview.

Firefox: Tabbed browsing problems

Everyone is raving about the tabbed browsing feature in Firefox. While I do agree that its a powerful and cool feature, I have noticed a couple of shortcomings. Firefox turns into a memory hog and slows down the machine when you have a number of tabs. Secondly, when you click the dreaded x mark to kill a tab it doesn't prompt you. Instead it just kills the tab without prompting! On more than one occasion I have lost useful work because of this. I wish they would prompt the user before killing the tab! Firefox is nevertheless a cool browser! (at least until MS IE 7.0 is out!)

Aussies in trouble?

After almost a decade Australia has lost 4 crickets matches in a row! No matter what, this must put them under a lot of pressure. To come out of this will take a lot of character and strong leadership. Its a good test for Ponting.

Tomorrow's match against England is crucial. If Australia loses again, they are going to be under a lot of psychological pressure. If you think about the last match against England, barring Pieterson's super performance, Australia were well on top. So one could argue that it wasn't as much of a failure on Australia's part. It was more to do with one "out of the world" batting display that sealed their fate.

With Symonds and Lee back in the side, Australia might just return to their winning ways. Symonds has a lot at stake given that his captain blatantly lied to coverup for him. All in all and interesting tussle lies ahead and for once the Aussies are on the defensive! If they lose again, they could be in real trouble!

Here is my prediction for tomorrow's match: Australia will thrash England

Democrats must pick their battles

Ever since the elections last year the Democrats have been struggling to develop a coherent strategy. Without a majority in either the senate or the house, the President has a strong chance of pushing ahead with his agenda. Faced with this predicament, the Democrats are inclined to oppose anything and everything simply because of the ideological differences. At present it sounds like they raise a hue and cry each time (judicial nominees and other appointments) and then finally go away empty handed. Unfortunately, this will not help their cause, especially in the long run. It might be prudent to develop a comprehensive strategy, which involves picking a few battles and somehow trying to win them. Else they will just come across as being obstructionist and this might worsen their tally in the years to come. The Bolton nomination is yet another test of their strategy.

I get the feeling that politics in the US is fast becoming like West Bengal politics (!!) -- the same party is always in power, the opposition is just their to fill some seats and make some speeches with little influence on policy.

Hats off to Bangladesh

What an awesome victory over the Aussies! Hats of to the Bangladesh team for a fantastic victory. Ashraful (a very talented player) finally regained his form and delivered when most needed. Besides, Aftab is a great find for Bangladesh. Credit should go to Dav Whatmore too for guiding the team through a difficult tour.

Bangladesh is clearly a better one-day side than a test side. Hope they can continue their winning streak!

Intel plant in India: fact or fiction?

The Indian Minister for Communication & Information Technology, Dayanidhi Maran might have just jumped the gun and prematurely rushed to the press on Intel's $400M plans for a plant in India. Notice in today's Mercury News how Intel has backtracked saying no decision has been made. The other competitors for the plant (Vietnam, China) are bound to intensify their campaign given this recent announcement by the minister.

Aussie cricket defeat

The Aussies lost to Somerset! What an exciting match! Chasing 342 against the Aussie attack and reaching it with overs to spare is quite an achievement. Hats off to Smith and Jayasuriya for such a fantastic start. Wonder if the video recording of this match is available?

Is this the beginning of the Aussie downfall? Maybe, lets see. (Personally, I think the Aussie domination of world cricket has started to end. Just a gut feel!)

Lebanese cab driver

I had an interesting chat on a recent cab ride. I asked the driver, who happened to be Lebanese, what he thought of the happenings in the middle east, particularly the war in Iraq. And boy! This guy was like volcano, he could talk non-stop. It was an interesting perspective nevertheless from a middle east native. So here is the dump as verbatim as I can remember......

"Its great that there is change happening in Lebanon. Happy that Syria is forced to withdraw. Its all thanks to the war in Iraq. I fully support the war in Iraq. You think American' s want to kill people? You have lived here for so many years. You know this is not true. Saddam was killing innocent Iraqis. Iran and Syria are behind the insurgency. I support an attack on Iran and Syria!!! But for the war, you think Syria would withdraw? You think India Pak would talk peace? ....How many universities did Saddam build? I wanted to study computers but there weren't good universities in Lebanon. The Arabs think they can drive the Israelis into the sea or wherever and then live peacefully. Its not realistic. Everytime they fought the Israelis they failed. Lebanon has so many Palestinian refugees who never left after the last war with Israel. You are lucky you are from India. You have good schools there because its a democracy....."

Phew! I had barely managed a few words on the 25 min cab ride. But I was exhausted. I got of the cab and headed for my flight.

Gmail having trouble?

I find Gmail down quite often these days. A couple of weekends back, I was just about to leave my place for lunch to a friend's place and the directions were on my gmail and it was down! An extra phone call was sufficient to ride over this crisis, but it sure sounds like Gmail is running into some maintenance crisis issues of its own!

Cheap Airfare sites

If you are shopping for airfares do check out:

http://www.kayak.com
http://www.farechase.com

We used these recently and found deeper discounts than we found on Expedia and others.

India: Rising power in the East?

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns apparently said this last month....as mentioned in an article in the Washington Post (sent to me by a friend). This is great for India. It also explains all the recent diplomatic traffic to India.

The site needs registration so here is a clip.

Speaking to a U.S.-European group in Brussels on May 26, Burns observed:

"The greatest change you will see in the next three or four years is a new American focus on South Asia, particularly in establishing a closer strategic partnership with India . . . If you look at all the trends -- population, economic growth, foreign policy trends -- there's no question that India is the rising power in the East. . . . I think you'll see this as a major focus of our president and our secretary of state, and it will be the area of greatest dynamic positive change in American foreign policy."

Book Review: Ignited Minds

Title: Ignited Minds, Unleashing the Power within India
Author: APJ Abdul Kalam (President of India)

I had always heard about Abdul Kalam as a nuclear scientist for a long time prior to his role as President of India. It is unusual for India to not have a conventional politician as the President. Historically, the President's job is "assigned" either to a politician nearing retirement as a reward for loyalty/service, or to a potential PM aspirant (as a way of getting rid of him/her!).

Given the uniqueness of Mr. Kalam's background in comparison to his predecessors, I was curious to get an insight to the person and his thinking. On reading his book, firstly, I was happy for India on a number of counts. Mr. Kalam is certainly inspirational and comes across as someone who really cares about the country, someone who is constantly thinking about how to make a difference, someone who is down to earth and sincere, and someone who has no political leanings whatsoever. I can't think of any other country in the world where the Prime Minister and the President have such good credentials. I think it was a master stroke by Vajpayee to back a scientist for the Presidency. Lastly, a Muslim President from a BJP government is a noteworthy milestone.

This book is primarily meant to be a call to Indians (the younger generation in particular) to come together, "dream" and work towards transforming the country into a developed nation by the year 2020. The book certainly does justice to this goal. He clearly outlines five focus areas for the country to achieve this objective: agriculture and food processing, education and healthcare, IT, strategic sectors (nuclear, space, defence). He then delves into details on their inter-relationships and implications.

Its an easy read and filled with anecdotes about his visits to various part of India. A lot of it is about questions posed by the younger generation to him from various parts of the country. The book also captures his exchange with Swamijis, Sufis, CEOs, politicians, etc. Given his background as a scientist he covers historical information about the various research centers in India (VSSC, TIFR, DRDO, etc. ) .

While responding to specific questions posed to him in the book, the text does tend to wander sometimes without a formal closure to the answer. K. B Chandrasekhar of Exodus fame is mentioned in the book. "One fine morning he sold his 10-billion dollar company to start another enterprise" (As someone who lost $ from an Exodus investment I wonder where the President got his facts checked for this one!) Barring this, the book is a simple, enjoyable, inspirational read. I hope more of India's political leaders took the time to capture their thoughts and vision for the country. Its a must read for India's younger generation.

Pak-WI Second Test

The second test is interestingly poised. My prediction (which historically has seldom turned out to be correct!) is that Pak will win this test. Here are some of my reasons:

• The Pak team has a rare killer instinct.
• A target of around 300 in the last innings is always hard.
• West Indies has played very consistently this test series. This is a pretty inconsistent phenomenon in itself! In other words, a complete failure from the WI is long over due.
• Lara, whose batting forms the backbone, has scored consistently and its about time he fails.

Bangladesh Cricket: Please help them!

Its about time the ICC stepped in to give Bangladesh a break from its test cricket status. Its awful and sad. These guys are simply not test level! I suspect Dav Whatmore might quit after this series. He is fighting a lost battle. He was right and smart in taking a pre-emptive strike before the start of the second test.

India-Pak Relations Improving

The India Pak friendship measures seem to be growing. Advani's visit to Pak is a great step forward as are the visit of the Kashmiri leaders to Pak. I hope this continues and something crazy does not happen to ruin these positive moves. President Musharraf (based on his visit to India in April) seems to have come to the conclusion that peace with India has its benefits. Time will tell if this wily military leader is serious or if it is just one of the many crafty plans up his sleeve.

Deep Throat: Top 10 reasons why now?

10. He was sick of seeing Bob Woodward raking in the moolah for three decades.

9. At 91, it was about time he collected his real retirement package.

8. He was encouraging the FBI to come out with the truth on Iraq.

7. He was sick of hearing his grandson call him a "girlie-man".

6. It was a pre-emptive strike before Al-Zawahri claims to be Deep Throat.

5. He saw Paris Hilton's Carl's Jr. ad and had a change of heart (oops it was a heart attack!)

4. He heard that the Bush administration was planning to attack Iran because they had evidence that Deep Throat was living in Iran.

3. He had a Reagan moment.

2. Someone introduced him to President Bush as Deep Throat, the President said, "mmhh...that's a nice name, never heard that before!"

1. Mark "Felt" it was time he finally took his own advice to follow the money!

Prof. C.K Prahalad's talk at Stanford

Attended a talk by CK Prahalad yesterday at Stanford University. "Changing Lifestyles in Asian Countries: Opportunities for Entrepreneurs" presentation and discussion by:

• C.K. Prahalad, Professor, Business School, University of Michigan
• Jonathan Barker, Managing Principal, Center Street Advisors
• Moderated by Richard Dasher, Director, US-ASIA Technology Management Center

The talk was about growth in India and China and opportunities for entrepreneurs that arise from it. While Jonathan Barker focused on China, Prof. Prahalad spoke about India.

Prof. Prahalad is an interesting and extremely articulate speaker. He spewed plenty of facts, figures, quotes and statistics like most B-school Profs. Some catchy ones:

• 20M people travel by train everyday in India.
• The cell phone is more reliable than the watch to keep track of time. A whole generation of people in India and China might growing not ever owning a watch but using the cell phone instead to serve the same purpose in addition to acting as a cell phone, of course.
• Its easier to teach someone something totally new when they don't have to unlearn what they have learned.
• NGOs do very good work in India but they are never good at "scalability".
• A small town in Tamil Nadu is developing into a mostly cash less town (all transactions are done via credit card!).
  

He plugged the benefits of focusing on the "bottom of the pyramid" (which is the basis of his recent book "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid"). According to him there is great opportunity for entrepreneurs in focusing on the bottom of the pyramid since it is a huge market. The challenge is to provide innovative products at a low cost (meaning: affordable to people in developing countries). He identified a bunch of potential sectors but given the shortage of time discussed only a couple of case studies - one from Hospitality sector and the another from Adult Education.

Hospitality: With 20M people traveling everyday in India by railways there has to be an opportunity for providing hotels at affordable prices. Most people can't afford the conventional hotels. He was a consultant for a study that resulted in the new Indione hotels. These hotels apparently provide excellent quality rooms with internet access etc at an affordable price of around Rs. 900 ($20) per day. They studied the existing hotels and optimized resources to ensure that they can achieve high quality at a low cost. For example, the average Hotel employee per room is about 2.4, but in the IndiOne it is 0.8.

Adult Education: Next he discussed the example of adult education in Tamil Nadu and Andhra. Apparently, most adult education programs require proficiency in the 3Rs (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic). This requires some 400 hours (I think this was the number he mentioned) to achieve an acceptable level of proficiency, and most adults can't and won't make the time for it. So they said, "Why bother with all three aspects, lets just focus on Reading". Then instead of following the conventional -- learn alphabets, learn words, then learn reading" approach they developed a different strategy of seeing, hearing, then learning words and finally the alphabets". All this learning involves computerized content so adults can learn at their own pace as well. TCS and NIIT have embarked on these programs and achieved great success in spreading literacy. However, the business impact of these programs were not discussed.

Audience Question: With all the opportunity being overseas and all jobs going overseas what does the future hold for the middle class here in the US? (there were other questions but this one stood out)

Jonathan Barker in response to this, said that a lot depended on leadership. The US needs to actively invest and explore new fields (like stem cell research) to continue its leadership position.

Prof. Prahalad, agreed with the challenge posed by "the 50 year old who needs to be re-trained" (Tom Friedman's book apparently refers to it too). However, he said he is not too worried about the future of industry here in the US. He compared the present to the times in 80s when manufacturing was headed overseas. The naysayers said the US was doomed, though that never happened.

Questions like this one raised by this member in the audience are very common these days. But I am yet to hear a convincing answer from any of the experts to questions such as these.

The Irony: Both case studies were very interesting and helped re-reinforce Prof. Prahalad's view that innovation and creativity can help take advantage of the large available market. Ironically both case studies were the result of efforts by large conglomerates like the Tatas. This is understandable, given that Prof. Prahalad's "core competency" lies in consulting for large corporations.

In what way does this growth in developing countries translate to opportunities for entrepreneurs?The average Joe on the street with a cool idea will still have to struggle, can't get very far and could eventually drown to the bottom of the pyramid! In theory yes there is opportunity whenever there is a large market, but in reality how can the small guy with the idea get ahead? The talk and discussion that followed didn't quite address this issue. There is no question that the Tatas and Birlas will milk the bottom of the pyramid as more cars, cell phones, TV, refridgerators etc are consumed. It would have been far more helpful had there been some specific examples from one of these developing countries, of up and coming new companies/products that have combined innovation, smart business and bottom up growth to achieve success of a significant scale despite stiff competition from the big guys.

Smoking ban in Indian films and TV!

The Government of India plans to ban smoking in films and TV!! While I certainly agree with the theory that celebreties smoking on screen do influence young kids, I think its absolutely ridiculous to impose a ban of this kind. Why not attack the source, the tobacco companies! Increase the taxes, limit availability, restrict the sales, educate people on the negative effects of smoking etc etc. Movies are a medium of mass communication and should be allowed reasonable creative freedom as long as it is within the norms of decency (for which the censor board is already in place).

p.s: The Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss is from the anti-Rajnikanth (Tamil superstar know for his cigarrette flicks!) camp and this might have something to do with it?

Mani Shankar Iyer's comments

It certainly helps to have well educated qualified individuals as ministers. Check out this article with interesting quotes (from Tom Friedman of NY Times book release function) from Mani Shankar Iyer, Union Minister for Petroleum in the Manmohan Singh ministry. The current government in India a strange mix of extremes, especially when it comes to the ministers and there pedigree.

Cricket: Unpredictable WI strikes back

West Indies, the ever unpredictable cricket team swung back to thrash the resurgent Pak. Its a great victory for a team in the dumps. WI have also ensured that they can't loose the test series. Lara once again proved that he is still very much a force to reckon with. His spate of recent centuries should maker the injury prone Sachin wary of his max 100s record. Hats off to Chanderpaul for leading from the front.

This test also proves that Inzy and Youhana are too critical to Pak. Shahid Afridi played a belligerent knock as always. Opening with him might have given the fight back a different flavor. But again, you can never predict.

Younis Khan had a lousy debut as captain. More than its bowling, it was Pak's batting that caused them the test. Bazid Khan blew a good chance to make an ompression while Yasir Hameed continues to prove his unreliability. Salman but is still very much an India specialist (batsmen who scores mostly against India!).

Bangladesh-England Test Cricket

What a pathetic show by the Bangaldeshis! The test match was almost over in 2 days! The ICC is doing a great disservice to Test cricket by granting test status to countries that are simply not ready for it. It destroys the confidence of the team and the much stronger opponents loose interest. Test cricket being the big loser in the process. As for England, this is hardly a preparation for the upcoming Ashes (which incidentally should be an exciting series. I don't think England has had a stronger team for a long time)

As a part of the qualifying process teams should be forced to play against local teams in other countries to prove a certain level of proficiency. For instance, Bangladesh should have played more cricket in the domestic circuit in India (Ranji, Duleep and other trophies) before being granted test status.

I certainly hope Bangladesh perform better in the rest of the England tour!

Bay Area Traffic

Ever since the toll on Dumbarton bridge was increased, I have noticed a significant decrease in traffic along this route! I wonder if there is any data available on this. 880 on the other hand continues to be a nightmare in rush hour. The mess at the 237 junction has been fixed for the most part (the exit for the car pool lane will ease things more when completed). The 880 bottleneck happens now between Warren Ave and Dixon Landing exits. There seems to be stop and go traffic between these points at virtually all times (especially peak hours). Wonder why? I don't think its 680 off Mission that is the cause. In general, Bay Area traffic is no where close to the way it was in the hey days of the valley (late 90s). The only reason not wish for the return of the hey days!! Oh well...

Experiences of Americans living in Bangalore(India)

Interesting article talking about experiences of many Americans living and working in India.

Audio Blogging!

this is an audio post - click to play

This post was lost when I moved to Wordpress from Blogger.

Quote of the day!

"There is only a veneer of democracy in the United States, and we have a real democracy," he said, brushing aside suggestions that Iran's election rules unfairly favor the hard-liners who control much of the government. "Election laws are so complicated in your country that people have no choice but to vote for one of the candidates who are with one of the two parties." Ali Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president of Iran. Check out the complete article in NY Times. (registration required)

While there might be some partial truths in this, its ironical that it has to come from a politician in Iran!

Diluting the IIT brand?

On the one hand you have events such as the recent pan IIT meet to improve and enhance the IIT brand at a global level. But on the other you have a rapid increase in number of IITs, unfortunately driven by partisan government proposals. Will the next government release a new list of universities to be blessed with the IIT brand? Will fake IIT degrees soon be available? Does India have the resources to upgrade so many universities in a short period of time? The existing IITs are already struggling without quality new faculty to replace retiring faculty. How are these new IITs going to cope with these challenges?

Is the Govt. diluting one of India's best brands? The ominous signs of it are certainly there.

India Cricket Team: Opportunity to experiment

Sachin is going to be unavailable. Ganguly will be serving a ban. This opens up two slots in the playing eleven in the Indian team for the WI-India-SL ODI series. Great opportunity to try out some newcomers. I hope the selectors don't fall back on the discards like Mongia, VVS and others but instead give some newcomers proven in the domestic tournaments, a chance to prove themselves at the international level. This will help expand the talent pool when it comes to selecting the team for the next World Cup.

Google Custom Home Page

Tried out the new Google custom home page feature. As always, simple, yet cool. The drag and move feature is way cool. Unlike my Yahoo (where there are simply too many options), I like the fact that the options are relatively few to start with (I'm sure they'll expand over time!). The ability to have Gmail on the home page saves a few extra clicks. It will be really cool if Google adds Blogger and a couple of other common applications (say a spreadsheet, and presentation software) to be run online.

The Google News page customization was a little annoying. I customized it a couple of times (I saved it too!), and yet when I re-started Firefox, the customization was gone! Oh well...the price (not quite, mostly frustration!) you pay for being an early adopter.

Error when publishing to this blog

001 java.io.IOException: EOF while reading from control connection

I got this error when trying to publish to my blog. So I am trying to publish another piece and see if it goes through...

Man, All these browsers!

Netscape, IE, Firefox, Safari etc etc. and each of their versions, extensions and what not! Testing websites and applications on each of these has become quite a task. Check out Rediff (a pretty popular site) on Firefox. The home page is pretty messed up. It has been so for quite a few months now. Or maybe its something unique to my PC.

Its about time someone (Microsoft, huh??) came out with a master browsers (Netscape seems to be trying this with its new release) and destroyed all other browsers once and for all. It will make everyone's life so much easier on the net. There was an article some years back in Time magazine (I think) where the writer suggested that we give all the software business on the planet to Microsoft, then the next time we have trouble we'll have only one company to blame! (Of course, it could be a hardware issue!).

p.s: Btw, can someone tell me how to prevent pop-ups from this site! I use Firefox for the most part and sometimes IE.

Senate Crisis: What a pity!

The US Senate crisis appears to have been averted.

After all the excitement created by the Presidential elections last year, there has been a relative lull on the US political scene. Barring the boring opposition (which systematically ended in failure) from Democrats to virtually every nominee proposed for every single post by the President, there has hardly been any new exciting developments since the Presidential polls (with Howard Dean in charge there is some hope of an literal outburst sooner or later). Unfortunately, just when it seemed like some new excitement will creep into the mainstream the Senators have arrived at a comprise. What a pity! (They just saved the world from a few thousand hours of TV analysis and speculation and several thousands of pages of online commentary!)

Chappell it is...Dada still wields clout

Greg Chappell landed the job of the coach for the Indian cricket. Given that Ganguly was in favor of him, its a sign that Dada is still a force to reckon with behind the scenes in Indian cricket. I just hope Chappell can influence the selection to a point where India is not simply re-cycling the same superstars from match to match (only to end up with the current pathetic world ODI ranking). He managed to convince the committee that he is the best choice for the job. Its time now for him to convince the Indian cricket crazy public that the committee made the right choice.

Personally, I am glad its not an Indian coach. In case you haven't been following Jimmy Amarnath took 2 hours to complete his allotted 45 min interview thanks to computer trouble. He brought along a relative to help with the computer. Just one more reason our former stars might not be good fits for job in this day and age of technology driven analysis and strategy.

A VC calls it quits

Check out this article by a VC who has decided to quit the VC business. Interesting analysis -- can no longer make insane amounts of money from investments, so its not worth it, the dynamics of the VC business has changed etc. Maybe its about time more VCs quit the business. The world will be then be left with less greedy VCs who are ok with the idea of making smaller returns over a longer period of time. Entrepreneurs will have true partners in building companies. There will be fewer VCs but hopefully genuine, quality ones, who won't have to claim that "their money is different". With the economic downturn every industry has seen changes, its about time the VC industry did. After all, the business of "making money without doing any work" (quote from a well known veteran VC, Bill Draper I think) can't last forever!

Impressive win for Netflix

Check out this story about Wal-Mart's deal with Netflix. Truly an impressive victory for Netflix. Its amazing how a small company with an innovative idea is able to hang on to its lead in the market. It will be interesting to see how this whole space shapes up. I suspect that either Netflix might be forced to expand beyond DVD rentals or might eventually get swallowed up by the Amazons of the world.

p.s: Netflix desi collection of late has improved significantly (especially Hindi).

Kerala Update

Pitched by the KTDC as "God's own country" the southern state of Kerala, tucked away in a corner of India, is a unique blend of breath taking scenic beauty, rare left leanings among its people, highest influx of foreign exchange in the country (mostly from "mallus" in the middle east), highest rate of suicide in India, very high consumption of liquor among its residents and potentially high rate of domestic violence, highest rate of literacy in India, etc.

Here is a quick dump of news from the state. None of these have been necessarily fact checked, some of it is hearsay, some of it is mere conjecture/inference, all from a very brief trip to God's own country.

Politics

1. A new Chief Minister (Ooman Chandy) replaced AK Antony, but is struggling to stay afloat. Plenty of opposition within the ruling UDF, as always. All those dropped from the new ministry are waiting by the sidelines to destroy the new govt. There is not a day when someone does not call for the CM's resignation.

2. The erstwhile Congress leader M. Karunakaran has launched a new party, National Cong (Indira) while still technically remaining in the Congress! He installed his son, Muralidharan as the party leader! Some Congressman said in jest that he should have named his party "Kundumba Congress (meaning "family Congress"). Ironically, he has spent a better part of his 86 years fighting the Communists, and yet finds himself fishing for political favors from them!

If there is one thing the veteran Congress leader can claim from his long political career ("I could have been PM"), it is about consistency. He has consistently opposed the Kerala Chief Minister (even if the CM were from his own party!) as long as he himself does not hold the post! Now this golden rule has been extended to the next generation, his kids. Now, as long as his son and daughter are not in plum political posts, his infamous "oppose everything" strategy will be in place. The Kerala electorate has been smart and tossed both the Karunakaran kids to the defeated list of political waanabees. Yet, Daddy steps in to the rescue and keeps them in the limelight. One more defeat at the polls and the damage can be irreversible.

3. The Communists meanwhile are just counting days before they return to power. Kerala electorate has a unique electoral strategy -- every election the opposition is voted to power! Going by this as well as the fact that the Congress and its UDF are falling apart, the popular opinion appears to be that the CPM will be back in power soon. With the passing away of CPM veteran E.K Nayanar and other political happenings, it appears as though Pinarayi Vijayan is the front-runner for the CM's post.

4. Hartal/Bandh ("strikes") when life comes to a standstill at the tax payers expense, are very common even to this day.

Films, Music:

1. The Movie business appears to have slumped. Its no longer a good business proposition, apparently. Several theatres have closed down. The number of film releases have dropped. Former big stars like Mohanlal and Mamooty come out with only a couple of movies each year. Dileep apparently is the box office favorite.

2. Udhayananu Tharam, a new film, is a movie worth watch (starring Mohanlal, Sreenivasan, Meena).

3. "Dapaan kuthu" was/is very popular in Tamil Nadu. Kerala has been hit by a Dapaan kuthu storm in the recent past thanks to a hit song by a certain Jessie Gift. Every movie has one now.

4. Unlike in the past, when mallu (slang for "malayalam" the language of Kerala) movies had a distinctive style of their own (realistic, easy paced, no pressure to have songs, unnecessary fights, minimal song and dance, focus on acting more than the actor), these days Mallu movies have started to ape the conventional Tamil, Hindi, Telugu movies. Song and dance sequences infested with extras, hereos and heroines gyrating to noisy music, these were alien to mallu films. Not any more. Unfortunately, they do such a poor job of it, its pretty pathetic to watch. The realistic aspect of Mallu movies appears to have been lost. Barring the occasional good film, the standard stuff is similar to other regional trash.

Living

1. As a part of an e-governance initiative the govt has setup a comptuerised center in TVM (and possibly other cities) with extended work hours where citizens can stop by and pay any bill - telephone, electricity etc. (I think the center is called "Friends").

2. The govt buses have done away with conventional tickets. The bus conductor carries a devices where he punches in the value of your ticket and out comes a print out, Viola!

3. The mall culture that has stormed the major Indian cities and the up and coming ones (like Gurgaon) has yet to hit Kerala.

4. Bookstores are so few in TVM, the capital city. One local said to me that the local public libraries are pretty good. Anyone who loves to read goes there. No one buys books!

Cricket

The popularity of cricket has grown significantly. Mostly at the expense of soccer. Fields where one could always watch soccer being played have now been replaced by cricket. Soccer meanwhile has become a part time affair. Tinu Yohanan the local cricketer who made it to the Indian team appears to have vanished from the national scene. He still appears for the state Ranji team.

Infrastructure

1. There is a proposal (championed by Dr. M.K Muneer, Minister of Works) to develop an extended freeway connecting the entire state of Kerala. Personally, I think this is a plan worth implementing and it will do wonders to the state and its economy and give it a huge advantage over its neighboring states. Unfortunately, there appears to be severe opposition ("the road will divide the state into two" and other compliants) to this plan. With the current govt floundering, this plan may fall by the wayside.

2. Power outages are very common unfortunately.

3. Broadband connections to homes has improved significantly. Wireless phone service to homes combined with wireless internet service has started to take off. Here is how it works. You get a wireless telephone device (very much like a regular phone rather than a cell phone) which you keep at home and use like you would regular phone. You can hook up your computer to it and connect wireless to the Internet. They claim speeds of up to 112 Kbps. Tata Indicomm and Reliance are the two competing services.

Give Our Cricket Heroes a break!

A floundering team like the West Indies have taken a bold step. They have dropped Lara, or rested him! (yeah, right). Its time India did the same. Sachin, Ganguly, Kaif, Pathan, Kumble, Nehra, among others need a break from the game. This is a perfect time for India to experiment with some new fresh talent. This will give India a great opportunity to broaden the scope of selection for the next world cup. How about a new look 14-member squad for the next one day series against SL and WI:

Virender Sehwag
MS Dhoni (wkeeper)
Rahul Dravid (Captain)
Yuvraj Singh
S. Sriram
Venugopal Rao
RS Sodhi
Joginder Sharma
Harbhajan Singh
Zaheer Khan
SS Paul
Romesh Powar
Hemang Badhani
JP Yadav

The intent of going in for a new look team is not to get rid of our (I dare say, jaded) superstars. Instead, its an opportunity to give the up and coming stars some international exposure and see how they perform. This will help broaden the pool from which the final 15 for the next world cup can be selected. Afraid that India will get thulped witha seemingly second string team? Not to bother, check out India's current standing in world one day cricket. This is what our superstars have achieved in the last couple of years. It can't get worse.

Book Review: Maximum City

Author: Suketu Mehta
Non-fiction, based on the City of Bombay (Mumbai).

The author does a terrific job of identifying a whole bunch of characters based in Mumbai and explores each one of them in great detail, through a series of anecdotes and very deep personal interactions. The amount of time and research spent in this book is truly fascinating. Its a wonderful expression of the author's journalistic talents. To give you an idea, here is a gist of the kind of individuals and their psyche that he has tried to explore: Monolisa, the bar dancer;Babbanji, the teenager poet from Bihar; Bal Thackeray ("a cross between Saddam and Pat Buchanan"), the Shiv Sena supremo; Seventhibhai and family, who give up wordly life; Besides there are others from the underworld ranging from small time killers to top Dons (Chotta Shakeel), Ajay Lal, the ACP (cop), Bollywood folks like Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Mahesh Bhatt, Sanjay Dutt etc.

The author has a nice easy style of writing that makes the book easy to read. He certainly has a great sense of humor as is in display in the early part of the book in particular. The sections which talk about the use of the word "bhenchod" (its various flavors and connotations) is truly hilarious. For instance he describes the mood when India when it tested the nuclear bomb with a simple "We have shown the world, bhenchod".

The only real issue I had about the book was its length. I thought it was a little too long. Personally, I find a 500+ page book a little daunting. I completed most of it on a plane journey. At least for me, on a regular day, its hard to find such uninterrupted time to read such a lengthy piece of work.

If you lived or live in Bombay (Mumbai), have an interest in Indian politics, have wondered about the Bollywood connections with the underworld, or simply care to know more about Mumbai -- how it has transformed over the years, its people and its challenges, this book is a "must read".

There is an interview with the author on NPR which I found very interesting as well.

Spice Hut in Fremont

The popular Spice Hut restaurant in Sunnyvale has now opened one in Fremont, close to Coconut Hill, the Indian grocery. The food is extremely good, and the place is very crowded despite being very spacious. If you like Kerala-style cooking, its definitely worth checking out.

It's my blogging anniversary!

I have completed a full year since I published for the first time on this blog. In short, I now have one year of blogging experience! (for whatever that's worth!) Its been great and hope to do more in the months and years ahead. Its amazing how time flies!

Btw, I set up Google Adsense (to check it out, more than to serve as my retirement package!) a couple months back on this blog. I have earned exactly $0.49 to-date. Not exactly a great ROI story! Hey, but why do people climb mountains?

Michael Jackson

Check out this news report about the quotes from Jackson -- ready made fodder for the late night talk show hosts! I hope this case is over once and for all. The media is nuts to be covering this on the front page every single day for god knows how long!

Ash, Bachchan in US Media, Rajnikanth next?

This is kinda late news. Read this only now (since I was away) that both Ash and Bachchan were on US television. I read the transcript of Bachchan's interview. Pretty decent.

Certainly Bollywood types are going places. However, I don't think India would have truly arrived until Rajnikanth makes it to one of these shows!

Diplomatic traffic

In case you haven't noticed, the number of foreign dignitaries visiting India in the last few months has been truly phenomenal. In my lifetime I have not witnessed this level of diplomatic traffic. Top leaders from China, Iran, Pak, Japan, Afghanistan, Russia, USA, to name a few. Hopefully India can leverage some of these relationships to land a permanent seat on the UN security council.

Indian Idol Cassettes/CDs selling like hot cakes

Abhijeet Sawant, the Indian Idol (concept imported from the US show American Idol) seems to have become hugely popular. Cassettes/CDs with his songs appear to be permanently sold out. Even in a place like TVM where hindi is hardly spoken, these cassettes/CDs are flying off the shelf.

Movie Review: Chandramukhi --The Return of the Tamil Superstar

Chandramukhi (Tamil film) stars Rajnikanth, Prabhu, Nayanthara, Jyothika and others.

An all time hit, Padayappa, a relative flop, Baba, a few political false starts, and a two year hiatus from films. This was what Rajnikanth was up against. One more flop and the man would have been history for all practical purposes. Under these circumstances, selecting a come back vehicle must have been a tough call. Based on current press reports it sounds like Tamil cinema's superstar has once again delivered a super hit despite all these odds.

The film is very much an "un-Rajni" film. Its a family drama. The hero has no villain to fight against. There are no cigarette tricks, no political dialogues, no tailored punch lines. Yet, its a watchable, entertaining, and engaging film especially if you have not seen the original malayalam version, Manichitrathazhu. Despite the long break Rajnikanth does not seem to have lost his touch. As many of the usual ingredients of a typical Rajni film have been weaved into the story: An intro song with a fast moving background with scores of extras while the hero moves energetically with an MGR-esque sleight of the hand, a couple of fight sequences, a few songs (Konja Neram being my favorite), plenty of comedy etc.

Tamil films unlike Bollywood, still seems to prefer pretty faced women with well endowed back-sides. Nayanthara and Jyothika do justice to this requirement. Vadivelu's comedy is an asset to the film. Prabhu is a passenger (I guess he was more focused on the production activities). The rest of the supporting cast does a reasonable job.

As for Rajnikanth. Credit to him for having maintained himself so well. At 55 the guy is slim and trim. After his lip job, and perfect wig, and plenty of make up, Rajnikanth seems to have been geared up for a successful return to the silver screen. For once, great care has been taken in his dressing. He is well dressed throughout the film without being distracting. His racy dialogue delivery style remains intact. He did throw in his trademark sun glasses flip, barring which the conventional style was absent. Given the story and script there was little room for it. In any case, he handles his role with the utmost ease.

A lot has been written about the plot, so I am going to avoid mentioning it here again. If its a Rajni film it doesn't really matter. Does it? If you are a typical Tamil film viewer, either you are pro or against Rajnikanth. If you are pro you will like anything he dishes out. If you are anti-Rajni you will find something criticize no matter what. So the plot is inconsequential anyway!

Overall, the film is certainly worth watching, especially if you haven't seen the original Malayalam film. The background score is quite annoying (I find this to be as trend among a number of Indian films, especially the fast jerky screen movements accompanied by loud music). The music is adequate and the acting of the supporting cast decent.

Lastly, having been there and done it over and over again, I hope the superstar will use the success of this family drama, to transition to movies where he doesn't necessarily have to be portrayed as young, fighting villains, prancing around with 20 year olds etc. If he does manage to accomplish this transition, Tamil cinema would be much better served. There is no question, Rajnikanth is Tamil cinema's all time great box office draw and has remained so for over two decades. That's a tall order. The question is if he can make a transition and offer something new going forward and still maintain his top draw status instead of simply re-hashing the tried and tested formula.

India Cricket Team Coach

The contenders as reported in the press: Greg Chappell, Tom Moody, Mohinder Amarnath, Sandeep Patil, Dean Jones.

Firstly, I think Indian coaches should be eliminated from contention. Sorry, but I think an Indian coach will succumb to too many pressures -- zonal, political, personal etc. I don't think Indian cricket has reached a stage where it can accommodate an Indian coach.

As for the phirangs, IMHO that top cricketers seldom make good coaches. If you agree with this, Greg Chappell is automatically eliminated. That leaves a choice between Tom Moody and Dean Jones. I think both of them are pretty good, but if I have to pick between the two I would prefer Tom Moody because he is an all rounder. It helps to be intimately familiar at a personal level, with all aspects of the game. In this respect I think an all rounder is best equipped.

I have a strange suspicion that someone other than those mentioned in the press will eventually be chosen. Anyway, it should be interesting to see who eventually makes it. A strong communicator and a good thinker who is not afraid of any consequences is the best choice.

Flying Autos are here

The airline industry in India is poised to take off in a big way. The rapid economic growth, a growing middle class, plenty of multinational companies, all combined has driven a huge demand for airlines. Quite understandably a number new airlines have enterted the fray: Jet,Sahara, Deccan, Kingfisher, Magic, Spicejet to name a few. Jet Airways, the leading and most established among these, is eyeing the international market. It has just started flights to Singapore and Middle East. The market in India is clearly huge. Airlines can be hugely profitable provided they can find the right routes and maintain affordable price levels.

Deccan airlines uses RK Laxman's "common man" as its logo/symbol signifying that its aspiring to reach the masses. They have launched a price war by announcing a limited number of seats at Re. 1 per ticket (requires 90 days advanced purchase plus some other requirements). Other airlines are threatening to follow suit. I hope these airlines survive and don't compromise on quality, safety and other bare essentials associated with air travel.

A friend of mine, aptly described his flying experience in one of these low cost airlines, "It was like a flying auto!!".