Tirunelvlei Boy Studying in IIM-IndoreTirunelvlei Boy Studying in IIM-IndoreA Blog To Express and not to Impress by a Tirunelvelian Articles
Speedlinking - Rajinikanth's B'day & Modi
2007-12-12 04:30:00 As December 12 passes by, another year is added to already old 'Superstar' of Tamilnadu - Rajinikanth. To commemorate the birthday Balaji is listing out his '10 favorite song sequences of Rajinikanth'. His Blog - http://bbthots.blogspot.com - is a Must Visit if you are a Rajini fan enthralled by the birthday of 'thalaivar'.It is not only the Indian media that could not get enough of Narenda Modi , the incumbent Chief Minister of Gujarat[rightly called by 'someone'[:)]as a merchant of death]. Even US media could not stop reporting about him amidst the intense political campaign going for the election for Presidential nominations. Read the NewYork Times reporting that 'Bloodshed in '02 Shadows Indian Politician in Race that Tests Nationalist Party'.
Rahul Gandhi! Start a Blog!
2007-12-11 21:56:00 Today I came across an article in New York Times - 'From Iran's Fiery Leader, a Slightly Tamer Blog ' that informed the readers about the blog maintained by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran. Was really surprised on hearing that.If the fiery leader of Iran could maintain a blog, what prevents any of our Indian political leaders to do the same thing? It would provide each of them an opportunity/platform to interact with the public and discuss the rational for their various policies. Also the person's popularity among the youth and IT crowd would go up one or two notches.It is even acceptable that we can not expect these things from the oldies like Advani(Presidential Candidate, BJP) or Mr. M Karunadhi(CM, Tamilnadu). But what prevents the younger generation leaders like Maran, Rahul Gandhi , etc to use the web/blogging as a medium to interact with the general public. Hope it happens soon.P.S: Link to Mahoumd Ahmadinejad' Blog - http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/ More About: Politics , Start , Rahul Gandhi
News - Nice Steps in the Right Direction
2007-12-11 01:25:00 Found two interesting news from the blogs i follow in Google reader. MapmyIndia GPS Navigator - If any of us has traveled in a developed nation, one thing that entered our "must buy" list would have been a GPS navigator. Today, read from Vicky's Blog - Navigation Made Simple that a GPS navigator has been introduced by MapmyIndia recently. Though the services is available only in major cities and the design looks pretty rudimentary, it is surely a nice step in the right direction. [Will buy a GPS navigator only if my home shows up on it.. :)] Ergo - A Free all-colour tabloid from the publication house of "The Hindu" targeting the young salaried professionals(IT industry) of Chennai. Another nice step in the right direction. (Though i have to wait till January 1, for the website - Ergo to be completely up). Thanks Metroblogging-Chennai for the news. More About: News , Nice , Tamilnadu , Dire
Indians are Hypocrites
2007-12-10 23:39:00 If Leader Page article in 'The Hindu'(Tuesday, December 11) - "India in the World - How we see ourself" has to be believed, we, the Indians are hypocrites and that too the worst. According to the survey, on which the article was based, 93 percent of Indians agree that our culture was superior to others (we topped the list). But still... we believe we need special protection against foreign influence. [Since it is the rule of the game that inferior product or service wins the battle against superior product or service... :D]. Until here, the author - Meera Nanda was doing o.k., then she started jumping to show figures to substantiate her own hypothesis rather than talking about the trends from the survey.For example, according to the author, Materialism = Free markets . (Meera, Can you show me a economy book that explains this?] Also according to the author, the separation between religion and state means the political leaders should never bow before sadhus or saints or there s... More About: Opinion , Hypocrites
New Heroes - Social Entrepreneurs
2007-12-07 04:05:00 Whom do you think is best positioned to solve the ills of the society?1. Government2. NGOs3. Business.Most of us think it is the government or the NGOs who could effectively solve the problems of the society like poverty, illiteracy, etc. But a new wave of people are changing that belief by showing that business could solve these social problems in a much more effective manner. They are united by their belief that there is a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid.When a Social Entrepreneur recognizes a social problem, he uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas business entrepreneurs typically measure performance in profit and return, social entrepreneurs assess their success in terms of the impact they have on society.I came to know about 'Social Entrepreneurs hip' through my course in Northeastern University and it was interesting to learn about various Social Entrepreneurs like Dr V. (Aravind Hospitals), Muhammad Yu... More About: Heroes , Rene
Indian Postal Service - Shame on You!
2007-12-06 06:46:00 While we are always happy to proclaim about our India n Postal office as the most widely distributed post office system in the world, it makes us feel ashamed when things like this happen. "Amit Agarwal's (India's first professional blogger and IIT-ian)Google Adsense Christmas gift was opened in transit and USB Memory card was removed. " More About: Indian , Opinion , Service
People with Disability - A Neglected Group
2007-11-28 22:57:00 Disabled people are the most neglected and the most excluded group in India . Here are a few facts from the recent World Bank Report - People with Disabilities in India :-Children with disabilities are 5 times more likely to be out of school than averageEmployment of People with Disability (PWD) among large private firms was only 0.3% of the workforce in the late 1990s. Among the multinational companies, it is far worse with only 0.05% being PWD. Remember... this is the situation when at least one in twelve households has a member with disability.50% of Households still believe the disability to be a "curse of God" resulting in social stigma against PWDLow Educational Attainment, Poor Employment Prospects (Employment rate among PWD fell from 43% in 1991 to 38% in 2002 n the midst of high economic growth) and stigma mean that PWD and their households are notably worse off than averageSad thing is that even economic growth cannot alter the situation of PWD since economic growth can ne... More About: Opinion , Group
Beware of Mumbai Airport Cab Guys
2007-11-22 07:17:00 Like your first love, the first time you were conned by some one is always an unforgettable incident. This post is how i was conned at Mumbai . (I thought about writing it on reading Mumbai airport fraud in Vimal's blog.)"Since I came out of the domestic airport to spend a few minutes with a few friends of mine, I was not allowed by the police officer to board the linking bus from domestic airport to the international airport. (Though at that time, it looked like the police officer was just showing his authority... after the con, i believe he is also a part of the scam gang). Since, it was peak time, the queue for the prepaid cabs was so long, I was forced to bargain with other cabs. One of the cab wallahs came for the lowest price among the lot - Rs. 200/- (which was still unfair). But having lived in Chennai for 4 years, overpaying is always a part of the deal if u want to go to a place fast. So I accepted it. Surprisingly, the car stopped in a dark place after a few minutes of d... More About: Airport , Guys , Beware
LTTE's increasing support in Tamilnadu
2007-11-08 03:47:00 It has been sixteen long years since the youngest person to become the Prime Minister of India was assassinated by a foreign force. In a world that changes every second, that is surely a long time. I was only six during that unfortunate incident. And I don't remember any of the things that happened. What i remember? Regret and Sadness with which my father explained - how one of the most beloved organizations in Tamilnadu became a villain in a single day.LTTE! You betrayed our trust then! And showed that terrorists can never be trusted! (A lesson Pakistan is learning now!)Sixteen years is a long enough time to forget our love/lovers... How could anybody wrong a person who has forgotten the incident that happened on May 21, 1991 - a monumental historical tragedy which LTTE deeply regret. Most of us(Indian Tamils) have forgotten and some have forgiven. As seen from the increasing support that LTTE is receiving these days - "JNU Tamil Students term slain Tamil Tigers a martyr". Today... More About: Current Events , Support
"Don't follow Us" - By An American to Indians
2007-11-04 21:35:00 When the famous author of "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century" - Thomas L. Friedman asks us(Indians ) not to follow the American s, my interest in his regular weekly column article on New York Times notched up one or two times higher. Read the full article at No, No, No, Don't follow Us. To my surprise, he was using the quote to look at the infrastructure problems that $2500 car by TATA Motors would bring to the limelight. He wants an India that makes itself the leader in both cheap cars and clean mass mobility resulting in an India that will be healthier and wealthier. The article echoes Ms. Sunita Narain who wants the Indian government to tax this cheap car heavily so that a better public transit system could be put in place(Taxing will remove the competitiveness of the whole project in one stroke!!!). He uses the example of Indian mobile industry that innovated to bring one of the world's cheapest telephone system of the world.But I beg to differ becau... More About: Society , Current Events
Chennai - The Happening City of India
2007-11-02 04:23:00 Only the people who live in Chennai understood the magnificence of the city... But others always complain about auto wallahs, heat, etc. For example even Sajeev keeps on complaining how sad the place is... [If you don't believe in my statement, visit the comments page of Sreeram's recent post 'Of Renaming Places'] While i generally ignore them since i understand the envy of others regarding Chennai. But here is a chance to throw mud at this erstwhile famous "Chennai-bashers" gang. After 3.11 PM of November 11th, you guys wont get the chance to throw foolish remarks like that.What is happening on 3.11PM on 03/11/07? A few people are trying to encourage the chennaists to capture that one moment on 3.11PM and upload them to a common pool to freeze the entire city into a frame, in the span of a second. For more details visit ?03:11 PM?.Why 3:11 PM?No great significance! Just another wonderful day in the life of chenna-ists... More About: India , Current Events , City , The Happening
Google OpenSocial [Out "fox"ing Competition]
2007-11-01 03:10:00 As I wrote in my earlier post - "Google out'open'ing competition in social media" , Google is expected to come out tomorrow with its announcement on "Open Social". On reading the recent press release from Techcrunch - Open Social by Google, the first thing that strikes you is the simplicity of the idea. Realizing the huge advantages that Facebook has - because of being the first entrant and innovator of allowing third party developers to develop APIs in its social networking website, Google has taken the first step of transferring some power to these third party developers to gain their attention and loyalty. [Remember one of the reasons for the Windows' stronghold on OS market was because of the large number of third party developers who bonded them self with Windows] If Google has not taken this decision, most of the third party developers would have sided with Facebook by creating their application only on the Face book Mark Up language and thereby leaving zero probability f... More About: Competition , Current Events , OpenSocial
Blog Action Day - A review
2007-10-30 02:24:00 David Vs. Goliath fight of environmentalists against big corporates and bigger Governments has always attracted support from various fronts. Blog Action Day - October 15th was the day for bloggers to show their support to the environmental issues. Me being a laggard in these kind of issues, I decided to wait and watch for the results. To my surprise more than 20,000 bloggers with a cumulative RSS subscrisbership of around 15 million wrote about "How to protect the environment better". Most of them are not writers and even of a lesser number are environmentalists. So there would have been thousands of perspectives and ideas flowing aound.. Hmm.. If you want to crunch more numbers, get all the required data from Blog Action Day - Statistics.P.S: Came to know about Blog Action Day from Sreeram's Pre-Post on Blog Action Day. But he convenientely forgot to write about this issue on October 15. :D More About: Review , Current Events
PMK - Floating New Front for Next Assembly Polls - A Nice Joke
2007-10-24 04:14:00 PMK(a regional - Northern Tamilnadu and a 100% casteist party), known for its specific skills to partner with the right party(or winning party) in each election has proudly proclaimed that it will float a new front for the next Assembly Polls . For a second, I believed this news on Hindu - 'PMK will float new front for next Assembly Polls, says Ramadoss' and started smiling that finally Ramadoss would come to know his true support base among the public.But..Why would somebody comment this early about the Assembly elections that is four years away? If somebody is really intent on forming a third front, they would have started their work secretly rather on the public domain.Then all the topics that i learnt in my negotiation class came to my mind. Ramadoss is just trying to increase his leverage in the future negotiations for the number of contesting seats in the next Assembly and national elections. He is trying to show off to the future partnering parties that his best alternativ... More About: Joke , Floating , Front
Microsoft Vs Google
2007-10-23 01:16:00 David M Ewalt famously predicts in 'The Future', a new feature in Forbes Magaizine, that by 2017, Google will be regarded the same way as Microsoft is regarded today - bloated, monopolistic and oppressive. He also predicts that Google will be providing free internet and phone service across USA. (Read the article at David Ewalt on the Internet 2017) On reading this, was reminded of the headlines in 2005-2006, when everybody were excited that there is somebody who is rising up as a competitor to Microsoft(Only hard core APPLE evangelists will believe that Macintosh was a competitor to Mircorsoft!). But when the quesion was put forth to Bill Gates, he famously retorted - IBM as Microsoft's Top rival.(Yeah! Microsoft has started rivalling IBM in bureaucracy in a technology company!), But the plates have reversed in a single year. Now nobody even asks that question because Google has clearly won the battle. But interestingly, Google has done this not by some great technology...
Banker to the Poor
2007-10-14 03:25:00 When the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 2006, some one would have surely asked what has the awardees - Mumhammad Yunus & Grameen Bank , done for World Peace. But Nobel Peace Prize committee rightly reasoned out that this Banker to the Poor has showed that alleviating poverty creates a world without conflicts - the real Peace. He showed to the world that MicroFinance or just giving access of credit to the poor could do a lot of wonders in reducing poverty. I never tried to understand "Micro finance" then because Finance was and still is out of my boundaries:). But when my intelligent peers at IIM Indore would throw questions about micro finance to all the finance company executives who visited the campus, i thought it as a business enterprise rather a social enterprise. But "Social Entrepreneurship" course, i am taking in Northeastern University not only changed my views but also made me to appreciate the efforts of this Nobel Peace Prize Winner. He has now entered the elite...
New Hampshire - Nature at its Best
2007-10-11 18:59:00 The only term you could coin New Hampshire during its Fall Season is "Nature at its Best". Columbus Day, being a holiday on a week end, I joined my church friends to another trip - this time to New Hampshire. The reason stated was "Breakfast". Yeah! Food at that place was great.. Yummy.. :) But the drive through the roads was the most exciting part. When my friends in U.S. and India said that "Visit New Hampshire in Fall Season" that too not once but in all their mails. I thought it would be nice. But i never thought that it would be a place where people would be forced to shove me inside the car to ride back to Boston.Each tree with its different fall colors combining beautifully to produce the scintillating effect. (Sorry! I am not a poet or Sajeev. So bear my words trying to describe the effects). Once has to be there to understand how nature can convince you to stand there for eternity in a single second. Hmm. I was ready to give anything for not having that feeling of numbness...
Google Out'foxing' Competition
2007-10-10 17:56:00 In my earlier post in August 2007 - 'Orkut Celebrates India's Independence Day', I predicted that Orkut would be losing its leadership position in Indian social networking websites to Facebook in a few years. I was convinced of this by the increasing popularity of Facebook and of the fact that Google was not reacting enough to meet Facebook challenge. But Surprise! Google is not lying down.In the last few months(after my post), we have seen the revamping of the orkut website and now Google is getting ready to outfox(or should it be out 'open'??) Facebook. Yeah! Google is opening initially orkut and iGoogle to third party developers to take on the Facebook challenge. And from there they will slowly expand to Gmail, Google Talk and other Google services. Now, we have to wait for November 5, from when on we will start getting all the gadgets and applications we would loved to have in our orkut page but Google did not have the resources to provide it to us.Read more about how "Goo... More About: Competition , Current Events
On a Whale Trial
2007-09-30 02:49:00 After the last weekend at the apple orchard, this week Ramesh & I decided to go for one of the whale watch tours. Mostly because one of the close relatives of Ramesh has suggested it to him. Anyway rather than doing our assignments[:(], we preferred the option. Friday, being the only common day on which Ramesh & I don't have classes, we thought we book the tickets on that day and also we could avoid the week end rush. But a full boat(more or less) caught me by surprise. And the reason was pretty simple - the trip is pretty awesome.After spending some few minutes in the New England Aquarium(not worth a visit), we took our seats in Voyager III, the cruise boat that was taking us to the sea. Thanks for the helpful tip in the website that recommended us to bring a winterwear, I brought my jacket for the tour. It turned out to be a wise decision against my view that i am carrying an extra weight in this hot day. It became pretty cold, once we moved to the interiors of the ocea... More About: Trial , Whale , Hale
Apple Picking!?@#
2007-09-27 04:28:00 Yeah! I would have been surprised too if somebody has said that i would go for apple picking(it should be called apple plucking.. at least according to my dictionary..)trip to an orchard. A New England tradition I was not even aware of, until my church friends invited me. Why lose out a chance to see the countryside when you have an opportunity???.. So my apple picking trail started, after the early morning church service, amidst the beautiful orchard. Different Varieties of apple are grown in different parts of the orchard and we are allowed to fill up a bag(bought at a price before starting the trail) with apples - that you choose and pluck from the trees. The main fun is choosing the best(Largest & red) apples that your eyes lay on. These apples are generally found only on the top of the trees. So it was fun climbing up and down.. of different trees and plucking up apples. Got reminded of my young days, when i used to climb the grand old guava tree in the home. After getting... More About: Apple , Picking
Yoga and Christanity: Are they compatible
2007-09-20 16:35:00 When NDTV news reported about "Two Church halls in U.K. banning Yoga ", it might have been a shock for a few Indians. But for the Indian Christian community, it is something that has been under discussion for quite some time. (Though the Indian Catholic Church immediately expressed its displeasure of the decision of 2 church halls).Both the proponents and opponents of Yoga in Christian community have their own reasons to believe in their stand. While the proponents talk about the multiple benefits of Yoga - e.g. one of my devout christian friends and the college chess captain explains how the breathing exercises of Yoga has helped him in Chess games by increasing his concentration. The opponents talk about the mutually exclusive view points of Yoga and Christianity about God, Man, Man's fundamental problem and its solution. Read for yourself why Yoga and Christianity are incompatible @ "Probe.org - Yoga and Christianity: Are they compatible".But my first dash with Yoga was enough to... More About: Compatible , Tanit
My First Post from US Soil
2007-09-11 14:52:00 It has been a week since I first set foot in this 'land of opportunities'. Bored with the 'busy' terms in IIM Indore, thought that studying in another college would provide you ample time to chill out. But the way the classes are progressing, I don't think I would get that much needed time to chill out. :(But otherwise, it has been a great experience. Similar to 'priceless' ad campaigns of MasterCard, going through a lot of priceless moments that i would carry in my life.Living in your own apartment - $1300/month but learning cooking under Ramesh and then cooking on your own - PricelessStudying in a US B-School damn costlyBut studying in a class in which the fairer sex are in the majority - PricelessBut studying in a class with people from different nations - PricelessBut chatting with Pakistani[conversation was mostly in Hindi.. :(] - PricelessBut window shopping the enormous number of well chosen books in Harvard Co-op Book Store - PricelessBut reading "Oh! Jerusalem", the... More About: Personal , Post , First Post
New Term in a New Place
2007-09-03 07:44:00 Next 3 and 1/2 months in Boston, USA... Going there as a part of International Student Exchange Programme to one of the 'Chota' colleges in Boston... Would have loved to post a long 'globe' post about how busy the last term was in IIM Indore and my travel to Boston... But got no time for that.. So Bye! and Future blogging from USA. More About: Place , Term
Happy Birthday! Madras!
2007-08-21 15:00:00 We all have that one 'special' day when we get cakes, gifts & bumps... A day that was made special to a few of the people around us, just because of our birth... If we, the mortals deserve it, why not a city that is beloved by thousands? Don't know about other cities, but Madras (namma Chennai) surely deserves it. If you think so, don't forget to wish Madras & all Madras-ians tomorrow(August 22)It is believed that on August 22, 1639, a sliver of land, where Fort St. George stands today, was transacted by the East India Company, laying the foundation of this great city, which has seen enormous growth in the last 368 years.Madras! My hearty Birthday wishes!Can read about 'The Madras Day' and various events happening around the theme in 'The Madras Day - Website'. More About: Happy , Happy Birthday
Google - Aggressive on Indian Market???
2007-08-15 19:53:00 After enthralling the Indian users with the orkut polls and logo change, Googl e is now planning a lot of new gifts for the Indian Users. Today, they have posted in the Official Google Blog that they are going to come up with a lot of new products(gifts) for the Indian users. Coupling this with the recent Google roadshows they conducted for creating awareness among the SME sector(Read about it at Business Standard - Google Roadshows @ Ahmedabad), it means only one thing - Google has started taking Indian markets very seriously. So all Google Indian users, we have exciting times ahead of us!Related Post: Orkut Celebrates India's Independence DayGot to know about the Google's Planned gifts for Indian Users from Namaste India(A post in the official Google blog). Probably the recent India centric-focus may be driven by the projected market for revenue through Adwords. More About: Market
60 Years of Indian Independence by a 20+ Young Indian
2007-08-15 11:47:00 For a country which began its walk at midnight(thanks to its astrologers), India has done really well in all the fronts. Right from the day one, the country not only carried the hopes of all Indian s(who are presently a billion strong) but also the hopes of thousand others who were still under the chains of bondage at that time. Now they look up to India for carrying the light of democracy among the liberated nations.This 60th Independence day is very special since no wherever in the past days we were as optimistic as today about the future of India. Today, there were reports splashed all over the newspapers and talk shows in all the news channels about the sixty years of Independent India. 'The Hindu'(Paper of my choice) has brought a special supplement - 'Independent India at 60' with esteemed leaders of India, right from Dr. Manmohan Singh to Amartya Sen writing a column in it. Orkut for its part is conducting polls through its website. But these reports do not portray them f... More About: Current Events , Young , Years
Orkut Celebrates India's Independence Day
2007-08-10 10:10:00 With most of the A-list Blogger doting on Facebook, i thought it would soon replace orkut as India's most famous social networking website. Orkut may last as India's #1 social networking webstie for a few years, thanks to the first mover advantage. But surely not more than that since Google is not paying the required attention to this product which is not a major revenue earner in USA. Remember we have all seen just a few updates in the orkut right from the time we joined it.But it seems the things are changing a little bit now. 4 Posts in the last ten days in the orkut Blog after months of inactivity. And one of them talking about India's Independence Day. Was pleasantly surprised to see orkut running a few polls about India's past and future to coincide with the India's 60th year of independence. So they are finally realizing the future competition on their hands, trying now itself to establish the emotional bond with the Indian customers.Listing down the questions, the Or... More About: Independence Day , Brat , Rate
When Words Fail You....
2007-08-07 10:17:00 No words can describe the sorrow the IIM - Indore family has gone through in the last 3 days. Two of our beloved friends - Nitesh & Neha are not with us any more. Thomas Campbell, a Scottish Poet once said,"To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die."Though the choral river may have taken them from us , it would never take them from our hearts. Nitesh & Neha, You will always be living in our hearts.In Newshttp://creativenits.blogspot.com/2007 /08/when-hopes-died.htmlhttp://nishantzwo rld.blogspot.com/2007/08/memories.htmlDea th leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.~From a headstone in Ireland More About: Words
GoodBye Harry Potter! The Boy who Lived!
2007-07-30 13:43:00 It has been 10 years, since this ordinary looking boy with only a lightening scar to differentiate him, was introduced to us. A mere 7 years of his school life was enough to take us all through a roller coaster ride of happiness, sorrows & of course, endless debates.Not by his skills, but by his magic he brought a frenzy among the kids & adults of today that has never been seen before. A magic that made kids & adults alike to wait for hours before the shops to get their first copy. A magic that had no counter curse not only in the Western World but all through the world. As an ultimate mark of his magic, today he has spawned an industry in the muggle world. A phenomenon with a minuscule chances of repeating itself. A Phenomenon that i am happy that it happened during my days of growing up.A boy whom i am going to talk about, even during my grand old age(to my grand children!) - "Of how this boy took the world by storm". "Of how we waited for his books to be released". "Of the h... More About: Harry Potter , Potter , Goodbye , Harry , Lived
Harry Potter - Questions (Un)answered
More articles from this author:2007-07-26 21:57:00 Most of us were left with a huge number of unanswered questions, even after finishing the book - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. A few questions i had were:-Where are Harry Potter& Ginny living - Grimmauld Place or Godric's Hollow?What are Harry Potter, Ginny, Ron & Hermione doing for living?Anything important happened in the intermediate nineteen years? Was there any more dark lords?Who is the Present Headmaster at Hogwarts?Are Neville & Luna married?How did George Weasley coped with the loss of his twin-brother Fred Weasley? What happened to their shop?...................Some of us would have even started forming our own answers to this question. Personally, I was really worried that i would never get (official) answers to these questions. Thanks to Rowling, an encyclopaedia that goes beyond the short epilogue of the book is due in a short time. Even in the recent interview to NBC, she revealed answers to a few of the questions of hard core 'Harry Potter' fans. Read ... More About: Questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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