A company called Riya

So I am as usual surfing the net and I come across this interesting headlines from the times of India.

Wages killing Bangalore BPOs?

Now for most part I don't really give much credibility to what TOI writes but this one had this reference so I thought I should read.

In a blog posting, company's chief executive Munjal Shah, complained, â??Bangalore wages have just been growing like crazy. To give you an example, there is an employee of ours who took the first five years of his career to get from 1 per cent to 10 per cent of his equivalent US counterpart.

"He then jumped from 10 per cent to 20 per cent of his US counterpart in the next 1 year. During his time with us (less than two years) he jumped to 55 per cent of the US wage. In the next few months we would have had to move him to 75 per cent just to 'keep him at market."

I got interested in this because nobody ever offered me this kind of money. So I though let's search for this guy's blog which I found here.
Now the latest post in this blog talks about the fact that he closed his company's India operations and he let one guy come over to US after firing everybody in India and that guy is really grateful to him.

Dhiraj impressed the heck out of both of us. His dedication and attention to detail is amazing. He once drove to our IT guyâ??s house in Bangalore (who was not being super responsive), brought his laptop and made him fix something on the spot. Dhiraj is willing to call anyone in the middle of the night (including me and Azhar) to fix a bug if it is live on the site and critical.

As Azhar and I were making the list of people who should come to the US, we knew we needed Dhiraj. We knew he was someone we wanted by our side. He had earned it as much as anyone and we felt good to be able to give him the opportunity.

I remember the look on his face when we told him about the opportunity to come to the US. He looked like he was going to cry tears of happiness. He later told us that if he comes, he will be the first one from his village to every go to the US.

Now that sounded like non-sense. I was the first guy from my village to go to US I did not cry tears of happiness, my village is in UP which comes very close to Bihar in whatever way Mr. Munjal has mentioned it. Anyway this was no proof of the original TOI story, so I further in his blog and found this older post.

So the TOI story was right, not really BPO but we can't expect TOI to differentiate between a search engine and a BPO just like WSJ can't figure out that iPhone is not the first phone with a touch screen.

So I thought about the salaries quoted by him. I work for an MNC, have worked for last 13 years in India, in US and hired lots of people, interacted with hiring managers from other companies and for most part here is what I think salaries are in India.

• Freshers get paid anywhere between Rs. 250,000 to Rs. 600,000. Only really few are picked up by companies like google at salaries beyond this range. That is more like between USD 6250 to USD 15,000.


• Most of the people with 5-6 years of experience would earn between Rs. 500,000 to Rs. 900,000. i.e. more like USD 12,500 to USD 22,500.


• People with 10 years of experience (if they are lucky) actually get paid above Rs. 20,00,000 i.e. USD 50,000.

Now I am not sure where this company was hiring its people from. Based on my knowledge of the industry, this looks like either they were running really inefficient operations or just got scammed by a bunch of high profile engineers. What really ticked me off what this comment by Mr. Munjal on his own post.

At the end of the day is it about productivity vs. costs. The wages of the engineers in Bangalore can rise all the way to the US level so long as the productivity is equal. Even if we assume that an top guy here in Bangalore has the skill and intelligence as the US, he still maybe less effective for several reasons:

His infrastructure is less reliable. I was just hearing from one the guys on our team (who is moving to the US) that he sometimes gets up early to work on stuff while he is fresh. Frequently, however, his power goes out and then he has to come into the office (where more people are likely to bother him).

He will lose more time in transportation - horrible traffic and no parking which eat up more hours of the day than they do in the US. Even his home broadband connection is slower and unreliable - impacting his productivity there.

These external factors even include things like food. Each month at least 1-3 people call in sick for food sickness or for a Bandh (rioting in the streets). This rarely happens in the US.

Over time these things start to add up.

Munjal

In last 12 years in Bangalore i have seen probably 10 cases of rioting or bandh. That is more like 10 days of lost work in last 12 years and most of the software companies anyway make you work on a weekend to compensate for that. And the comment about food, he pays his employees salaries that are 75% of US salaries and they can't even afford decent food. He must be out of his mind.

For me personally this might be the end of an era. I spent six month a year in 2002 and 2003 in Bangalore. I loved being here and almost bought a house. I have some very fond memories of brunch at the Leela Palace on Sundays and partying all night at Spinn. I dont' know how much I'll continue to be in Banglore now, but it was a great part of my life for the last 4-5 years.

I was one of the biggest, India advocates you've ever met (I still am) but it is clear the primary business drivers of Bangalore are changing and with it the city must change.

Now probably his employees were calling in sick because they were having party at leela palace all night or something else but the fact is with people like Mr. Munjal Shah as advocates of India, I don't think we need enemys.

I can not attach any motivation to why Mr. Munjal Shah is doing what he is doing or writing what he is writing but I know for a fact that he is just exaggerating the facts or just does not know the facts.

Enough of a rant. I should have kept quite.

Banks and killing machines

Here is a recent story.

Y Yadaiah, 42, an electrician in the state medical and health department, had defaulted on a Rs 15,000 personal loan he had taken from ICICI Bank a few months ago.

Police inspector G Narasaiah said one Raju from Elite Financial Services â?? the loan-recovery agency which has a contract with ICICI Bank â?? along with some others, picked up Yadaiah from his office on Friday. Sunanda, the wife, said

Yadaiah had called her up sometime later, saying the recovery agents had detained him at their office. â??He was told he would not be allowed to leave until he returned the money,â? she said. Around 2 pm, Sunanda received a message from a hospital saying her husband had died.

Then ICICI Bank comes back and says this.

The ICICI bank said on Sunday that the 42-year-old Andhra Pradesh government employee, who had taken a loan from it, died after he felt â??unwellâ? at the office of its debt recovery agency in Hyderabad.

One would be inclined to give benefit of doubt to the bank but then if you also see this then you start thinking what kind of bank is this, people go there and start dying like flies.

This is the second incident in the last month in Nashik, where a person lost his life due to al leged harassment by recovery agents.

Suresh Chaudhari, a 54-year-old mechanic, died on the premises of ICICI Bank on January 13. His family alleged that the death was caused due to harassment by agents. The police filed cases against three ICICI Bank employees.

Recovery tactics employed by banks are increasingly coming under the scanner. The SC, on January 7, had strongly deplored the practice of financial institutions using musclemen to recover loans from defaulters and asserted that recovery of loans should be through legal means.

Some more.

Close to a fortnight after the Supreme Court deplored the use of musclemen to recover loans from alleged defaulters, 42-year-old computer engineer Manish Rajguru passed away due to the alleged use of strong-arm tactics and mental harassment by recovery agents of Nashik Merchant Co-operative Bank.

"We were facing increased harassment from the banks employees as well as the recovery agents deployed by the bank during the last one month. Manish had been tense and nervous due to the behavior of the recovery agents who would barge into our house and abuse us. The tension proved too much for him and yesterday he suddenly collapsed and passed away. I hold the bank responsible for his death," Manish's wife Dr Devang Rajguru a MD in Pathology told HT.

Manish's death was caused by cerebral haemorrhage. Manish is survived by two children and a cancer afflicted mother.

Not that it is an isolated incident. Here are some more barrage of cribs.

I cant help but credit ICICI bank for coming up with the punch line "hum hain na" apko loot ne ke liye...

Here is one more.

The very next day he had deposited the cheque in his account in the ICICI Bank, Mayur Vihar. When, after a few days, he checked with the bank, he found the cheque had not been credited to his account. He immediately contacted Vijaya Bank, Noida, which had issued the cheque.

Imagine Manojâ??s shock when he learnt that the cheque had been encashed. It was found that his name had been struck off and that of `Suresh Kumarâ?? had been written instead. The overwriting on the cheque had been clearly endorsed by fresh signature of the issuing person at two places.

Manoj has lodged a complaint with the Noida as well as the Delhi police while bank officials are maintaining a silence on the issue.

Here is another laundry list of problems.

But one things has to be said about them, they are not racist. They are trying to cheat every country equally. See here.

There are several reasons. The main one is that, despite having a presence in the UK for three years, ICICI Bank still do not comply with the UK Banking Code, which sets minimum standards for customer service. The second reason - related to the first - is that there is a load of anecdotal evidence that customers are still struggling to receive passwords, to have money transfers happen on time and of people generally tearing their hair out trying to get their savings sorted.

So, in the end what do I have to say about it. You become a customer of ICICI bank, they will abduct and get you into their office and then you will die and it will be a natural death. Why senior management of the bank are not taken to task for doing such goofy things. Why are they above law. At times I feel that reason that they have grown so much is because they are above law.

Here is another bright idea that I have, if you take loan with ICICI bank then take a really large pure term insurance policy also with them so that if they claim in the end that your death was natural, they would atleast have to pay for it.

Bluetooth in malls

Here is an interesting idea, forum mall in Bangalore claims that if you turn on your phone bluetooth while in their mall, they will push interesting deals on your phone as png files. I did turn on my bluetooth and set it to discovery mode for around 5 minutes, I did not get anything, but that may be just timing.

Using GPS in India

I always wondered why there are no navigation services in India. Probably there are not enough customers. Finally I have found one decent road navigation solution that can be used in many places in India. It uses underlying google maps. If one is interested, here is how you go about doing it.

Buy a phone that can do GPS, I have used a Nokia N95 for this.
Subscribe to a GPRS plan from operator. You only need to access the web from phone so a airtel-live type of plan would be sufficient. You do not need the capability to use the phone as a modem, those plans are more expensive.
Go to http://www.gmap-track.com and create an account for your self.
Using the phone download the MGMaps application and set it up based on the instructions provided.

Now run the app on the phone and make sure that you are able to connect. Before running the app you should make sure that you have GPS lock on the phone. On N95 you can use GPS data application and make sure it shows you lat and lon.

Once the app is running, it will show your position on the phone and as you move it would track you on the map. The google maps are pretty accurate and current for many cities and highways in India. For bangalore it even shows you oneway information. Your family can also track you on the web if you share your web username and password with them.

The icing on the cake is that if you have a car TV in your car, N95 has a video out that you can connect to the TV and see the navigation on a larger screen.

Comment if you need more information or your experiences with solution.

Is organized retail about choice

After the organized retail started spreading in India in big way, one of the point in the favor of these guys was that it is all about choice. I liked them to start with but slowly I am finding that it is not really about giving choice to consumer but taking away from them.
I regularly shop with Food Bazaar, Food World, Spencers but the experience has been deteriorating over last few years. Now a days I shop with Food Bazaar and I find them concerned least about the end customer. I understand their need to negotiate the price with the manufacturers in order to give a good price to end customer but every now and then I find that some brands are unavailable with them and one of the reasons that I find from media is that they could not negotiate the price and hence they don't stock those goods.

• Last year they had stopped stocking Head and Shoulder shampoo


• Early this year, dawat basmati rice is missing from their shelves


• For last some weeks Lays potato chips are missing from their shelves

I would say that they need to fix themselves. They could tag goods where they are able to get a better price with something like "Best Buy" but they need to keep everything in their shop. I may not really be interested in the cheap priced, cheap quality stuff that they have in stock.
I think it is time to go back to neighborhood store.

Old Konark Sun Temple Picture

Here is a photo of famous sun temple in konark that we took in 1986-87. I just found the negative of this photo in a pile some days back.

Gujrati Namkeen in Sagar

Sagar is a funny place, its main market is called gujrati bazaar. Its main namkeen is called gujrati namkeen. Here is the old authentic shop.

Sagar's famous sweet shop

The dilapidated building in the picture is the chaudhary sweets (��धर� मिष्ठान्न भ�डार). His sweet made out of Melon Seeds (�िर���� �� बर्��). It seems the sweets were so famous that Indira Gandhi would refuse to believe that somebody is from sagar if they did not bring this sweets.

My old school

Here is my old school where I did my HSSC in Sagar, MP. Nothing has changed in the school.

Who would have thought this is Bhopal

Next to big lake (ब�ा तलाब), the street almost looks like some happening place in Kerala.

New Cafe Coffee day opening

There is a new new cafe coffee day coming up opposite the boating area in Bhopal big lake. Good view of the lake from the restaurant.

Graffiti in Bhopal

Here is an interesting thing that I saw in a small time restaurant in Bhopal. They have put a board where people can leave graffiti by sticking postit notes.

McGrath and Tendulkar

Here is an interesting comment from McGrath about Tendulkar and Lara. Looking at current scenario, it does sound true though.

"I enjoyed bowling to Sachin and getting him out or changing his gameplan or just tying him up. You tend to lift your game a bit when you are bowling to guys like that and I felt I did," McGrath said.

Pathetic Indian Media

After the end of world cup I was trying to watch something useful on TV that is non-cricket, I came across a program on "Headlines Today" channel, where they were showing Kapil Dev and Sir Richard Hadlee playing a game of golf. On the same day Gaurav Ghei had won Bejing open golf tournament and they was no mention of him.

I can understand media's fixation with cricket but if they have to show a game of golf, they could have shown a proper golf player player golf, but then that is really asking for too much from them.

MP Katara suspended by BJP

Here is an interesting news, I am not sure why somebody at that level would resort to something like this.

Katara, who represents Dahod in the Lok Sabha, was detained by immigration officials when they found out that the woman who was traveling along with him on his wife's passport was one Paramjeet Kaur and not his spouse Sarada Ben.

read more | digg story

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ब� स� स� �� �� न��र� �रना �र ब�दर न�ाना ए� ह� बात ह�।

Lost some posts

I accidentally messed up the wordpress database and could only restore something that is 25 days old. Hence I have lost some of the posts that I did not last few weeks. I will try to repost these but let's see how successful I am.

Update: I have since, recreated all these posts, thanks to caching by google reader.

IIT Students' political party

Around a year back we heard of some ex-IITans forming a political party with a difference, but this party like the other party with a difference has also turned out to be a joke. Read this. They are already undergoing splits etc.

�र�ब सवा साल पहल� यह �बर �� थ� �ि ������ �� �ु्� �ात्र�� न� ए� रा�न�ति� दल बना लिया था। �स समय म��न� �स�� बार� म�� �स ब्ला� म�� लि�ा था। �न ल���� स� �ु� त� �म्म�द थ�। पर �न ल���� न� ��� �ाम �रन� �� ब�ाय� रा�न�ति� दल�� �� बुर� बात�� पहल� स�� ल��। �स समा�ार �� द��िय�। �न�ा दल �भ� �ह�� �ुनाव म�� ल� त� नह�� पाय, �न�ा ��� �ार्य�्रम भ� �भ� त� म��न� नह� द��ा �र �न�� दल �� �ु��� ह� �य�। �ब बहुत �ल्द� ��� �बर �ए�� �ि �न्ह�न� �िस� ब�� दल स� समझ�ता �र लिया ह�।

Total Lunar Eclipse in March 2007

Here is an interesting photo with multiple exposures of total lunar eclipse that I took. I thought it came out well.

The cricket world cup and Indian people

So finally the cricket world cup is over, for Indian atleast it is. I feel so happy that I did not get sucked into joining the bandwagon of people who wanted to fly to Caribbeans or buy a 52� plasma TV to watch the world cup or get a satellite connection.

Now what I fail the understand is the reaction of Indian fans. Ok, so we lost the world cup. It is not that we are a country of people who excel in everything. We are mediocre at best. Look at our great software Industry, it fixes bugs for rest of the world and survives by wage arbitrage and we call ourselves IT superpower.

I have also not seen anybody burning the effigies of hockey players, I think they are loosing matches of all variety since last couple of decades. Now people are saying that we should bring the young team out. Where is this young team?

Anyway, enough about cricket. I think I can watch F1 peacefully. There is no India so no need to feel bad. May the best driver win.

Remedies for Indian Cricket Team

You can't help talking about cricket. So I again went to our trusty stats guru. How bad is really tendulkar. How bad is he compared to himself and how bad is he compared to his peers. The first chart is the life record of all the Indian players and here you can see that there is really no comparison. He has won around 50% of all the matches he has played. Only player who is higher then that number is Yuvraj Singh. The other criticism of Tendulkar has always been that he does not play for team. His average is higher when India wins. He has scored more percentage of centuries in the matches that he won compared to matches that he lost. The other argument that I have heard is that he was ok but last one year he has not been performing well. To a large extent this criticism is true, but it seems none of the top batsmen in last one year have been doing well. If you see record of all the top batsmen, (other than Ganguly) they have been performing much worse in last one year. Now only common factor in last one year was the coach so I would go ahead and blame that on coach. Something went awry in last one year that all our top guns stopped performing. The last chart just compares all these players� records for life vs. last one year and you can see apart from Ganguly all of then have deteriorated in last one year. So my verdict for Indian team, fire chappel and everything will alright.

A really stupid robber

Here is one interesting story of a really stupid robber. He goes into an ATM and steams the CCTV camera while the camera records him.

The video recording showed the accused had entered the ATM twice, first for a recce and later to commit the crime. ââ?¬Å?We became suspicious when we saw the accused more interested in the camera at the corner of the room than performing any banking related task during his first visit. He entered the ATM counter again, 15 minutes later, wearing a cap to hide his face and removed the camera, the SP said. However, police had no problems identifying the culprit as he has used his credit card to enter the ATM.

Motorola Launches ROKR E6 in India

Here is an interesting Ad from Motorola that was launched today coinciding with the crucial world cup cricket game. I would say among the mobile phone ads, this one ranks pretty high.
Tell me how do you like it.

Google's innovative hiring

Here is an interesting thing that I saw. Google had put-up a road show at the popular Bangalore mall (Forum) with a huge banner which said "We are hiring". This is something new in India. Let's see how people like it. Click on the photo to see a slightly better one.

Unknown Indian is billionaire No 4, shocking news!!

Rs 35,000 crores of wealth, 10 Swiss Bank accounts plus what's still not known! Have the I-T and Enforcement Directorate sleuths bumped into who could possibly be one of the top five richest Indians or the fourth richest man in India?

He is probably just one of the many.

read more | digg story

Yahoo apologizes to Indian housewife | InfoWorld | News | 2007-03-08 | By J

Here is interesting stuff, yahoo just copies stuff from somebody's blog and then claims that it was done by their outsourcing organization.

read more | digg story

Govt to make TV firms share sports feeds

Here is a stupid government, rather than worrying about making sure people get their share of food, water, housing etc, they think providing them with sports feeds is in public interest. Here is a country where hundreds of millions of people are finding it difficult to find enough money for two square meals but they think their priority is sports broadcast.
read more | digg story

I am Vishnu and my wife Laxmi, claims man

So here is an interesting news item that I saw.

A man in Mumbai claiming to be â??godâ?? and wanting recognition of his â??divine statusâ?? failed to get the judicial endorsement he had sought.

The reason that court gave to reject the application was very interesting.

The Bombay High Court rejected 30-year-old Dharmendra Mishra's application, saying it was not in its jurisdiction to respond to his prayers.

The person pleaded with the court

I am Vishnu, Buddha, Christ. I know everything that goes around.
I should be given the reins of the country and the UN as he was god.

Now what I don't understand that if this person really knows everything that goes around, how did he not know that court are going to throw out his plea.

Strange world this is.

read more | digg story

US asks India to help Oracle up i-flex stake

This is an interesting story, If oracle wants to fully acquire a company's share, they could just increase price and buy out rest of the shareholders. Rather than doing that they approach American government to pressure Indian government to force minority shareholders to sell their stake to Oracle.

read more | digg story

Microsoft at it again

This is a company that as soon as you feel like sympathizing with, they do something so moronic that all of a sudden you get rid of that feeling. See this.

Microsoft acknowledged it had approached the writer and offered to pay him for the time it would take to correct what the company was sure were inaccuracies in Wikipedia articles on an open-source document standard and a rival format put forward by Microsoft.

Now who is to say what is inaccurate. The whole point of wikipedia is that people decide, here is a company that is taking away that right of people to decide. Microsoft can put up corrections on their own website, send out whitepapers to people or better still ask Bill G to write in his blog. But the fact is that they are paying to somebody to modify the wikipedia is not really the right thing to do.

Chavez sworn in, vows to radicalise Venezuela

Here is a story that really does not concern me. But I can not help but think that this country has screwed itself. I don't know why can't people learn after so many years.

Chavez, who won 63% of the vote in December, has amplified comparisons with Cuban leader Fidel Castro by forming a single party to steer his revolution, but insists he will always tolerate opposition.

I think in democracy, people will have to take responsibility for voting the leaders in power. For example in Kerala, if the state does not see development, I think people are responsible for that.

HC judge 'beats up' HC judge

I don't really want to say anything. Please see here.

Here is a nut case

One would think that we have moved beyond the dark ages but every now and then you see something that really proves it otherwise.

See this. Here is a Indian Forest Service officer who is demanding a dowry of Rs. 1 cr. to get married to somebody otherwise he would breakup his engagement. Now I am thinking that this guy is supposed to take care of forests and animals but if for the sake of money he is ready to trade his life, wife and future happiness and can anybody expect him to not give in to illegal forest mafia and poachers.

For him the value of his life is Rs. 1 cr. which approximately comes to Rs. 900,000^* per years for 60 years, that is probably more than his salary. In some sense what he is demanding is utterly unfair, for screwing the whole country he is probably getting Rs. 400,000 per year and for his wife (from wife's father) he is looking for Rs. 900,000 per year.

* Assuming interest rate of 9%

Mumbai immigration deports children!

Here is an strange news item that I saw. Basically what happened that a couple (both having India passports and green card) and their two children (both having American Passport) landed in India on an Air France flight. Air France made sure for the parents that they have valid travel documents while did not verify for children.

Now after they landed in India, Indian immigration officials refused entry to two children on the premise that they do not have valid travel documents. I am sure they could have behaved properly and been more considerate with the couple but I want to discus some other issues in this post.

Why does a couple with Indian passports have American passports for their children and then he claims that he is ashamed to be and India. I think he demonstrated that he is ashamed to be and Indian when he opted for American passport for his children in the first place.

The other point that I have that would American (or French ) immigration officials have behaved in any different manner i.e. if a family from India with valid passports and visa landed in a US airport but without visa for their children.

There is nothing wrong in one decided to change his/her nationalities if he feels (and the other country willing to do) so. But I have a problem in people expecting better treatment just because they have green cards or their children have American passports and then blaming it in skin. I know almost the whole world is racist and one should learn to live with it but these people do not crib when they are stopped on a US freeway just because of the color of their skin.

What is wrong with mainstream media

Here is an article in The Indian Experess. The article is titled "It's Rs 250,000 cr loss in 3 days". Why don't these guys understand that this would happen in stock markets. In last one year sensex has gone up from 8000 to 14000 so if it falls by some 1000 points what is the big deal. This 250000 cr. is just notional money which people made by staying in same stock markets. Why can't these people just grow up.

Prime Minister and his speech

Over the weekend there was lot of noise about what prime minister said in the meeting of National Development Council. Here is what Indian Express Reported. The starting line of the Indian Express news says

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said plans for minorities, particularly Muslims, must have the â??first claimâ?? on resources so that benefits of development reach them equitably.

Here is what The Tabloid (oops Times) of India wrote.

In his address to the National Development Council, the PM chose to take up the issue of devising "innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development". The PMâ??s remarks addressed all minority groups as he said, "These must have first claim on resources." BJP used references to Muslims to attack PMâ??s speech.

After all the noise, the PMO came back with following press release.

The statement said the Prime Minister's reference to the first claim on resources referred to all the priority areas, including programmes for the upliftment of SCs, STs, OBCs, women and children and minorities.

So I thought, let me find for myself what PM really said. It is available on PM's official web-site.

I believe our collective priorities are clear. Agriculture, irrigation and water resources, health, education, critical investment in rural infrastructure, and the essential public investment needs of general infrastructure, along with programmes for the upliftment of SC/STs, other backward classes, minorities and women and children. The component plans for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes will need to be revitalized. We will have to devise innovative plans to ensure that minorities, particularly the Muslim minority, are empowered to share equitably in the fruits of development. They must have the first claim on resources. The Centre has a myriad other responsibilities whose demands will have to be fitted within the over-all resource availability. The Planning Commission will of course undertake a thorough review of ongoing programmes to eliminate those which have outlived their original rationale, but we cannot escape from the fact that the Centreâ??s resources will be stretched in the immediate future and an increasing share of the responsibility will have to be shouldered by the states.

The quoted text above is a complete paragraph from PM's speech and from the above paragraph it is very clear that PM is talking of all the SC/ST, OBC, and Minorities. From within minorities, he does say that "particularly muslims ".

I would agree to the PMO press release and it looks to me that most of the media has now has attention span of a one year old kid and can't really read through a 3 page speech so they pick and choose words and sentence segments and report on that.

Gaia is reborn, version 0.1.1 of open source 3D Earth viewer released

Interesting, I should download and play with this one.

After receiving a letter from Google on November 25, Gaia downloads had to be removed from the webpage. The project doesn't use Google Earth images and data anymore. They now use images from NASA World Wind project. Version 0.1.1 is now available for download and also has some bugs fixed and build system improved.

read more | digg story

Comparing Tendulkar and Dravid

This post just tried to compare the performance of Tendulkar and Dravid against different teams in matches with large score. This does not talk about only matches when we were chasing. The averages here are slightly off because I have not taken into account the not-out innings.

Again Tendulkar performs better than Rahul Dravid in matches with large scores.

Tendulkar saga

So the Tendulkar saga continues. After I posted the last post people came back and said no but his performance while chasing a score of bigger than 250 is not so good. So I thought that let me see if that is true. See the chart below


Actually his performance is much better when he is chasing larger scores compared to when he is playing first.

Tendulkar's performance

So there were some more discussion on Tendulkar's performance. So went around digging around some data. The biggest complain that I have heard that Tendulkar does not play when it matters. I do not understand the meaning of this statement. But I tried to analyze it in my own way.

See the chart. This is Tendulkar's average against all the teams in first inning matches.



From this chart it is very clear that Tendulkar's average score is better against almost all the teams when Indian team wins, from this I would conclude that he plays better when Indian team wins or Indian team wins when he plays.

See the next chart from second inning data



Again the second inning score averages prove the same point. At this stage people question that no he does not play better when India chases a big score. See the next chart.



That impression does seem to be true to some extent. When India wins while chasing a score, Tendulkar's average is lower than when India wins while batting first. But even average of Tendulkar is not really bad even when India in chasing.

Cricket and Indian Team

We were having a coffee table discussion on how much does Sachin Tendulkar suck in cricket. I thought that I should really figure out the truth in that. So here is some analysis of past performance of our batting stalwarts.

Â	Tendulkar	Dhoni	Dravid	Shehwag	Pathan	Yuvraj
	141	2	9	Â	1	24
	12	Â	26	9	8	12
	65	18	6	8	Â	93
	4	23	0	1	64	52
	35	7	7	10	0	26
	29	51	4	9	19	Â
	10	28	49	17	0	0
	35	14	52	65	10	0
	2	55	18	0	1	27
	1	26	63	18	47	27
 Total	334	224	234	137	150	261
10 Inns Avg	33.40	24.89	23.40	15.22	16.67	29.00
5 Inns Avg	15.40	34.80	37.20	21.80	15.40	10.80
5 Inns Avg next match 0	19.30	24.67	22.50	15.22	16.56	26.33
10 Inns Avg next match 0	9.60	24.60	36.40	20.00	11.60	10.80

If you look at the table, there is very little to choose from. Of course in last five matches Tendulkar has really been bad but the fact is that whole team is trying to out-underperform each other.

Let's compare the results as a chart. We will first compare the results of all these players in last 10 matches adn 5 matches.



As we can see, the point that Tendulkar's performance has been pathetic is true but so is everybody else's. When I brought this point in the discussion, I was told that it is all because of one century of tendulkar, so I thought that assume all these players would make zero in next match and then see their performance. Because that would eliminate one score of 141 from Tendulkar. Even with that the results are as follows.



Apart from Dravid standing out, it is still a really same pathetic story. So the point is dropping one or two players from the team is really not a solution. Something else needs to be done. We also do not have a great second line of players so that you drop all of them and have a good team at the end of it.

I would say that TV viewers need to vote with their wallets. Stop becoming a source of huge amounts of money for cricket board then only you would see a change.

Â

India's cricketing nightmare

So we lost again. I kind of thought that would happen so I never bothered to even watch the match. No w I believe that this is not one of those debacles that keep on happening to our cricket team, it just shows the inferiority of our cricket team compared to the team that we are playing.

It would be very easy to join the chores and say that we should drop Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dravid or some other bloke from the team but the point is that other cricketers who could be potentially picked up are not any better anyway.

Out communist friends want Ganguly to come back into the team but he can't even play properly in Ranji so expecting him to play the SA attack would be a foolishness. I think the only option is that spectators should let the game slide into oblivion like Hockey and go on with their lives, may be that would reduce some of the waste time in front of TV and that would bring something good out of it.

Construction activity

As I was driving through, I saw this construction activity early morning at one site in Bangalore. If you see on the corner of the building, some workers are putting up scaffoldings. It made an interesting view because these workers were climbing up the scaffolds as they were building it up. Looked really complicated but they were doing it with extreme ease.

Project Black Box

Since this seems to be holiday season in the west and the mail traffic is pretty low. So one is looking for anything to read and I get this interesting link from one of my friends. In his own words

Even if it is from Sun, good stuff!

Really interesting thought though. One can not help but wonder if Sun Microsystems would now become an acquisition target from DHL or FedEx. There are so many interesting business models that one could come up with. I would try to remember this and may be rant about it on a later date. Now I think I should get back to work.

Interesting conference

I went to an outbound management team building type of session this year and I saw this notice board in the resort. If you see the last conference listed, its title is very interesting. "Sex and Sexuality".

There were lots of other residents of the resort interested in that conference.

Forum Food Court Notice

Forum Food Court Notice,
originally uploaded by vavasthi.

Now here is an interesting notice in the most upmarket (till today) mall's food court. Rather than prosecuting the people who bring outside food, the mall management wants to prosecute the food itself.

I am sure food would not dare to enter after reading this notice.

A joke by Natwar Singh

It is interesting to find news that almost makes you laugh. One needs a healthy dose of comedy everyday. If it is a real life comedy, so much the better. Now look at this news item. Natwar Singh goes on his usual rant and then he says

Pointing to the history of the Congress, he said Chaudhary Charan Singh, V P Singh and Chandrashekhar were all unnecessarily suspended from the party and went on to become prime ministers.

So now he wants to be expelled from the party so that he can become prime minister. Now who will explain to him that these leaders did have some base and they became prime minister not because of congress expelling them but inspite of it. Anyway it is cheap publicity for him and free entertainment for us.

Haj subsidy unIslamic, use that money on our education, health

Here is a sane voice that I heard after a long time.

At a time when even the Prime Minister is emphasizing that Muslims need to be given greater access to modern education to remove their social backwardness, several Muslim intellectuals, religious scholars and leaders are suggesting that the Government scrap the Haj subsidy and spend the money instead on schools, health care and other basic infrastructure for the welfare of the community. Some even describe the subsidy as â??vote-bank politicsâ? and say itâ??s un-Islamic to undertake any obligation during Haj.

More here

Demanding an end to the subsidy, Maulana Mehmood Madani, Rajya Sabha member and general secretary of the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind, says â??It is against the Shariat to be under any kind of obligation while undertaking Haj. According to the Quran, only those Muslims who can afford the expenses should perform Haj. Itâ??s recommended only for adult, financially able and sane Muslims.â?

Somehow these people do not get enough media.

Uttam Pradesh

So Uttam Pradesh is proving a point again. Couple of bikers kidnapped the son of country head of Adobe. Sad story. I was reading the post from rediff. The most interesting paragraph is as follows.

Hideouts of known kidnappers are being raided in order to nab the culprits and rescue the child. "We have some leads," police have said but refuse to share details.

Now what I don't understand is the fact that if these are known kidnappers then why are they not arrested beforehand itself. Kind of misses the commonsense for me. Anyway, I just hope that this ends well.

मु�ब� �� बम धमा��� �� बाद पा�िस्तान �� सर्व�सर्वा परव�� मुशर्र� न� �हा ह� �ि शा�ति वार्ता स्थ�ित �रना, �त��वादिय�� �� हाथ�� म�� ��लन� �� बराबर ह��ा। मुझ� �न�� बात म�� दम त� ल�ता ह� पर समस्या यह ह� �ि व� �पन� �� �स बात �� लिय� बिल�ुल �िम्म�दार नह�� मानत� ह��। शा�ति वार्ता �ार� �रन� �ा सबस� साधारण तर��ा त� मुशर्र� �� पास ह� ह�। व� �पन� पालत� �ुत्त�� �� बस �रा स�भाल �� रह��।

���ल म�डिया (समा�ार पत्र, ��व�, र�डिय�) �ुर्म स� स�ब�धित समा�ार�� �� दि�ान� म�� बहुत व्यस्त ह�। �स विषय म�� मुझ� ए� ब�� समस्या ह�। ��� भ� �ुर्म ह�न� पर म�डिया �स बार� म�� विस्तार स� वि�ार �रन� ल�ता ह� �ि मु�रिम न� यह �ुर्म �्य�� �िया। �ब श्र� प्रम�द महा�न पर �िय� �य� हमल� �� ह� द��िय�, म�डिया �स बात म�� व्यस्त ह� �ि प्रव�ण महा�न न� हमला �्य�� �िय ��स� �ि हमला �रन� �� �ारण �� �ानन� �� बाद �िस� तरह स� हमल� �� �ाय� �रार दिया �ा स�ता ह�। म�र� हिसाब स� त� ��� भ� �ारण ह� पर �िस� �� भ� यह ह� नह�� बनता �ि व� �िस� द�सर� पर ��ल� �लाय�।

�ब �प �स समा�ार �� ह� द��िय�।

ऐश्वर्या राय �पन� न� ���्र��� फिल्म "मिस्�्र�स �� स्पा�स�स" म�� दिए �ए स��्स� द�श्य नि�लवाना �ाहत� ह��, ल��िन निर्माता द्वारा �स� म���र न �रन� स� ऐश्वर्या न� फिल्म �� पब्लिसि�� म�� हिस्सा ल�न� स� मना �र दिया। स�त्र�� �ा �हना ह� �ि ऐश्वर्या नह�� �ाहत� �ि �न�� स��्स� द�श्य �भिष�� द����।

�ब म�र� त� यह समझ म�� नह�� �ता ह� �ि ऐश्वर्या �� यह पता �रन� �� लिय� �ि �ु� द�श्य ठ�� नह�� ह��, फिल्म �� द��ना प�ा, �न द�श्य�� �� �रत� समय �्या �न�� ��्ल �ास �रन� �य� थ�।

��िर�ार सलमान �ान �� पाँ� साल �� बामुश�्�त ��द �� स�ा सुना� �य�। �भ� भ� सर्व��्� न्यायालय त� �ा स�र बा�� ह� पर ए� तरह स� यह बात त� साबित हु� �ि �प ��र �म�र ह�� त� �प �ु� भ� �लत �ाम �र �� प�स� �� बल पर ब� नह�� स�त�। �भ� �� ह� म�र� ए� मित्र स� �स बात पर �र्�ा ह� रह� थ� त� म�र� मित्र �ा �हना था �ि सलमान �ान �� साथ सह� व्यवहार नह�� हु�। म�र� मित्र �ा तर्� था �ि �ब �सस� भ� ब�� �ुर्म �र �� ��र ल�� ब� स�त� ह�� त� सलमान �ान न� त� सिर्फ ए� �ानवर �� मार था �र �स�� नह�� मालुम था �ि यह �ानवर लुप्तप्राय �ानवर था।
म�र� त� यह समझ म�� नह�� �ता �ि ��न सामान्य �दम� �� �� दिन�� म� �ु� �ान� �� लिय� ब�द�� ल� �र शि�ार �रन� �� नि�ल प�ता ह�। �र ��र �प शि�ार �रन� �� �ा रह� ह�� त� �प �� �स बात �ा �्�ान ह�ना �ाहिय� �ि ��न सा �ानवर �प�� नह�� मारना �ाहिय�।

व�स� त� �स द�श म�� भ्रष्�ा�ार �� बार� म�� ��� सुधार ह�ता दि�ता नह�� �िर भ� �स समा�ार �� पढन� �� बाद ऐसा ल�ता ह� �ि �ु� सुधार ह� स�ता ह�।
�स समा�ार म�� यह लि�ा ह� �ि ए� ल��ा पर��्ष� (Auditor) �ा तबादला �स�� ए� ��ह पर �न� �� ए� साल �� भ�तर �र दिया �या था। �स�� बाद ए� स��ठन न� स��ना �� �धि�ार �� �ान�न �� तहत �स बार� म�� �ान�ार� मा���। यह �ान�ार� �स तरह स� द� �य�।
�स तबादल� स� स�ब�धित मामल� म�� �� �नुर�ध प्राप्त हुए थ� �� �ि म��ि� र�प स� �र लि�ित र�प द�न�� तर���� स� �िय� �य� थ�। यह �ार्यालय �स तरह �� निव�दन�� �� मानन� �� दबाव म�� ह�।
�स तरह �� निवदन�� �� भ��न� वाल�� म� ए� व्य�्ति वह भ� था �िस�� �ाँ� �स ल��ा पर��्ष� द्वारा �� �ा रह� थ�।

A new hope

Although I am very pessimistic about thing improving on corruption front, here is an interesting news item that kind of makes one think that may be things can improve.

The story mentions that one auditor was transferred within an year of his posting and an organization asked why he was transferred using newly inacted right to infromation act.

Days after More was transferred, on February 17, Pandurang Bhau Karanjakar of the Brashtachar Nirmulan Samiti filed a request under the RTI Act, asking the cooperatives department why More had been transferred barely a year after he was appointed in the district.

The department responded saying that they had to transfer him because people pressurised the department.

In this transfer case, there were many requests made, both in writing and orally, by local representatives. Based on this the transfer was considered,� states the reply, adding that the department is inundated by such requests everyday and is under pressure to oblige them.

The funny part is that one of the persons who requested (pressurized) was the person who was being investigated by the auditor.

म�रा हम�शा स� यह मानना था �ि स�िन त�न्डुल�र ए� महान �िला�� ह��। �स बात स� ��� �न�ार नह�� �र स�ता ह�। पर �ल �� बाद म�रा यह मानना ह� �ि स�िन �� �्रि��� �� �र्मावस्था �तम ह� �ु�� ह�। ऐसा ह� स�ता ह� �ि स�िन �ब भ� ��्�ा ��ल�� पर �न�ा �ब �� बाद �ा ��ल ए� साधारण �िला�� �� ��ल ��सा ह� ह��ा। �नस� �ब ��� ब�� �म्म�द नह�� �� �ा स�त� ह�।

�� सुबह ए� पर�शान �रन� वाला समा�ार पढा। �स समा�ार �� पढन� �� बाद �भ� �भ� भारत�य समा� पर दया �त� ह� त� �भ� �ुस्सा। �स समा�ार �� द� पहल� ह�� �� �ि मुझ� �त्यन्त ह� पर�शान �रत� ह��।

• यह व्यà¤?्ति (सà¥?रभ à¤?à¥?यल) भारत मà¥?à¤? शायद एà¤? प्रतिशत सबसà¥? à¤?्यादा पà¥?सा à¤?मानà¥? वालà¥?à¤? मà¥?à¤? सà¥? हà¥? तà¥? भà¥? पà¥?सà¥? à¤?ा à¤?तना लालà¤? हà¥? à¤?ि वह à¤?स हद तà¤? à¤?ानà¥? à¤?à¥? लियà¥? तà¥?यार हà¥?। à¤?स à¤?ाम मà¥?à¤? à¤?सà¤?à¥? परिवार वालà¥? à¤?सà¤?à¥? मदद à¤?र रहà¥?à¤? हà¥?à¤? वà¥? तà¥? à¤?र भà¥? परà¥?शान à¤?रनà¥? वालà¥? बात हà¥?।
• लà¥?à¤?à¥? à¤?à¥? पिता यह à¤?ाननà¥? à¤?à¥? बाद भà¥? à¤?ि लà¥?à¤?à¥? à¤?à¥? ससुराल वालà¥? पà¥?सà¥? à¤?ि à¤?तर्à¤?सà¤?à¤?त माà¤?à¤? à¤?र रहà¥? हà¥?à¤? वà¥? à¤?नसà¥? à¤?र समय à¤?à¥? माà¤?à¤? à¤?रतà¥? हà¥?à¤?। à¤?स तरह à¤?à¥? बात à¤?à¥? तà¥? à¤?भà¥? बर्दाश्त नहà¥?à¤? à¤?रना à¤?ाहियà¥?। à¤?à¤?र ससुराल वालà¥? पà¥?सà¥? à¤?à¥? माà¤?à¤? à¤?रतà¥? हà¥?à¤? तà¥? तुरà¤?त à¤?सà¤?à¥? à¤?तरà¥? à¤?à¥? à¤?à¤?à¤?à¥? मानना à¤?ाहियà¥?।

��र, �ब त� यह� �म्म�द ह� �ि ब���ल�रु पुलिस �ल्द स� �ल्द �ारवा� �र��� �िसस� ऐसा �मानव�य व्यवहार �रन� वाल�� �� �ल्द स� �ल्द �र ��� स� ��� स�ा मिल�।

Rot in the Indian Society

Here is an extremely disturbing news. Now this guy is probably part of top 1% of Indian population in terms of his earning but still he and his family is so greedy that for an amount that is probably less than his annual salary, he is ready to do these things.

I am not passing judgement whether he is really killed his wife or not, but the fact that even after marriage, he is demanding money itself is sickening. The worst part is that this keeps on happening but still people don't learn. What were parents of the girl thinking? Actually the quote from girl's father sums up the state of society.

As I was busy with the wedding of my third daughter, I expressed inability to raise the amount at such a short notice. I pleaded with them to bear with me and sought more time to meet their unreasonable demand.

The most bizzare part is that he himself mentions in his quote that the demand was unreasonable. I would say apart from both the parties sharing genuine marriage expenses and mutual and equal exchange of gifts every damn thing is unreasonable. If only he had filed this complaint when his daughter was still alive we would not see this day.

I can only hope, Bangalore police would do better than what Delhi police did in Jesica Lal case and the guy and family would be punished swiftly.

�� �ल �म्युनिष्� दल ��र्� बुश �� भारत यात्रा �� विर�ध म�� दिल्ल� �� सड��� पर द�वाल�� पर नार� प�त रह�� ह��। �ब मुझ� ��र्� बुश स� त� ��� विश�ष प्र�म नह�� ह� पर म�र� यह समझ नह�� �ता ह� �ि �ब यह� दल �� त� �िस� �� विर�ध म�� नह�� ब�ल� त� बुश न� �न�� ��न स� भ��स ��ल ल� �� �न�ा यह हाल ह�। ��र �तिहास �� द��ा �ाए त� �न दल�� न� �भ� भ�

• सद्दाम हुसà¥?न à¤?ा विरà¥?ध नहà¥?à¤? à¤?िया
• à¤?à¥?न à¤?à¥? à¤?मुनिष्à¤? पार्à¤?à¥? द्वारा à¤?पनà¥? हà¥? नाà¤?रिà¤?à¥?à¤? à¤?à¥? प्रति à¤?ियà¥? à¤?यà¥? बर्बर व्यवहार (Tinanmen Square) à¤?ा à¤?à¥?à¤? विरà¥?ध नहà¥?à¤? à¤?िया
• मुझà¥? à¤?à¥?à¤? याद तà¥? नहà¥?à¤?, पर मà¥?रà¥? à¤?्याल सà¥? à¤?भà¥? स्à¤?ालिन à¤?ा भà¥? विरà¥?ध नहà¥?à¤? à¤?िया
• हà¤?ारà¥?à¤? भारतà¥?यà¥?à¤? à¤?à¥? हत्या à¤?à¥? लियà¥? प्रत्यà¤?्ष या à¤?प्रत्यà¤?्ष तà¥?र सà¥? à¤?िम्मà¥?दार मुशर्रà¥? à¤?ा भà¥? à¤?à¥?à¤? विरà¥?ध नहà¥?à¤? à¤?िया

त� फिर बुश �� प्रति �न�ा प्यार �्य�� �म�ा प� रहा ह�।

Communists and their opposition to bush

Bush is coming to India and communists are busy opposing his coming to India. Now I am not a great fan of Bush but my point is that if we welcome Chinese leaders (who were responsible in part for tiananmen massacre) and communists do not have any problem with that and we welcome all kind of leader who have even been responsible for killings of Indians (e.g. Musharraf) and even though I do not remember, I am sure they were really excited by just the name of Stalin and they did not have problem with that then why this special treatment for Bush. It is not that he is any more evil than all these guys.

Anyway it is illogical to expect communists to be logical.

Google's doublespeak

Google has posted its testimony in US House committee on international relations on their official blog. I am kind of disappointed with their response to the committee. They sound so much like microsoft in their response.

This is the same google which will post maps of Indian defense installations in Google earth even though it is illegal to take those pictures. The maps of defense installations do not have anything to do with the freedom of speach crap. While in china because chinese government can arm twist them more, they would even agree to censor words like democracy.


Anyway it is their company, they are like another big US corporation who will do anything to increase their profits. "Don't be evil" was fine till the time it was making them money, now censoring is making them money.

This acceptance of google is just an eye opener for all the governments in the world that they can just ban google from their country and then google would accept all their demands.

May be this is the time to get a new search engine, Yahoo was no. 1 for 5-6 years, I think time is up for google. May be the next search engine should be hosted out of denmark.

��सा �ि �प सब �ानत� ह�� �ि पि�ल� दिन�� सलमान �ान �� �ु� �ि��ार�� �� मारन� �� �पराध म�� द�ष� पाया �या। म�र� हिसाब स� यह ��्�� बात ह� �ि �ा�� दिन�� बाद �िस� �म�र �दम� �� स�ा मिल�। �स�� बाद म�र� न�र �स �र्�ि�ल पर �य�। श्र�मान �म�द ��. मार�� �ा �हना ह� �ि �ब त� सर्व��्� न्यायलय सलमान �ान �� द�ष� नह�� पाता �िस� �� �सपर ��� व�्तव्य नह�� द�ना �ाहिय�। �स�� पढ �र मुझ� ल�ता ह� �ि श्र� मार�� �� शायद �स बात �� �ान�ार� नह�� ह� �ि सलमान �ान �� द�ष� पाया �ा �ु�ा ह�।

श्र� मार�� सलमान �� समर्थन म�� �स हद त� �ा �ु�� ह�� �ि व� ऐस� बहुत सार� �दाहरण द�त� ह�� �िसम�� स�ा नह� हु� �र यह बताना �ाहत� ह�� �ि सलमान �� भ� स�ा नह�� ह�न� �ाहिय�। पता नह� �्य�� व� �स मामल� म�� भारत�य �नता पर्�� �� �्य�� ल� �य� ह�।
��र हम �्या �र स�त� ह� बस सलमान �� व� ए� �ाना बहुत महँ�ा पडा।

What has Google become

Here is some more news in google saga. Google used to claim that it is democratic and does not censor. It even had an entry in its help desk which looked like as follows.


In last few days, it has been changed to as follows.



Now when google claims that its services will remain free always, who can trust them. Tomorrow for some more dollars they can make their services paid, like gmail.

भारत�य म�डिया �� पास �ब वा�� �ु� भ� नह�� ब�ा ह�। �ल रात म� रा�द�प सरद�सा� �पन� नय� ��नल म�� �स बात �� �र्�ा �र रह� थ� �ि र�� द� बस�त� ��स� �स द�श म�� ���लाब लाय��� �र �� सार� ��बार �र ��व� ��नल �स बाल� म�� बहुत मशर�� ह�� �ि �भिष�� �र एश्वर्या शायद शाद� �र स�त� ह�। �स बात �� पुष्�ि �िस� भ� न� �ह� ह�। फिर भ� ��व� ��नल �स बात �� बारबार द�हरा रह�� ह�।

��र मान भ� ल�� �ि यह बात शायद स� ह� त� भ� म�र� �्याल स� यह �स स्तर �ा समा�ार नह�� ह� �ि �स�� दिन भर बार बार द�हराया �ाए।

�� दिन भर ��व� ��नल�� पर यह बात �� �ा रह� थ� �ि मुलायम सि�ह यादव ए� त�सरा म�र्�ा बनान� �ा रह�� ह� �� �ि य�प�ए �� सर�ार �� �िला� स�सद म�� �विस्वास प्रस्ताव ल� �र �ए�ा �र ��द्रबाब� नायड� न� �स प्रस्ताव �� समर्थन द�न� �ा ��सला �िया ह�। यह ��द्रबाब� वह� ह�� �� �ि एनड�ए �� सर�ार �� पाँ� साल त� बाहर स� समर्थन द�त� रह� थ� �र �िन�� मुलायम सि�ह "�म्मुनल ��र्स�स" �हत� रहत� थ�।

��र म�र� सम्स्या ��द्रबाब� �ा वह व�्तव्य ह� �� �ि �न्ह�न� मुलायम सि�ह स� वार्ता �� बाद म�� दिया �ुसम�� �न्ह�न� �हा �ि भारत �� �रान �� �िलाफ व�� �सलिय� नह�� द�ना �ाहिय� था �्य���ि भारत म�� �ाफ� सँ�्या म�� मुसलमान ह��। �ब म�र� समझ म�� यह नह�� �ता �ि �न द�न�� बात�� म�� �्या स�ब�ध ह�।

��सा �ि म��न� पहल� भ� �हा ह� �ि �रान पा�िस्तान �� साथ �णवि� हथियार�� �� बार� म� मदद �रता रहा ह� �र पा�िस्तान �ा �णवि� �ार्य�्रम सिर्फ भारत �� प्रति दुश्मन� स� प्र�रित ह�। म�रा त� यह मानना ह� �ि भारत सर�ार �र मानन�य मनम�हन सिह� �स मामल� पर द�श �� हित म�� ह� फ�सला ल���� �र �स� सर�ार �� �णवि� मामल� म�� समर्थन नह�� द���� �� �ि भारत �� सबस� बड� दुश्मन �� साथ मिल�र �णवि� हथियार बना रह� थ�।

Iran saga continues

It seems today Chandrababu Naidu met Mulayam Singh Yadav and I caught a snippet of Chandrababu's statement after he came out of discussions with Mulayam Singh Yadav. I don't remember verbatim what he said but it seemed like he was claiming that India should have supported Iran on nuclear issue because India has a large Muslim population.

Also during the day, communists were going all around talking about putting the government in the dock in parliament over the Iran issue.

As I have posted earlier in my blog that I think India's vote on Iran issue was right and in national interest because of two reasons apart from the issue of nuclear energy cooperation with US.

• If we vote in favor of Iran it makes our position untenable regarding our own nuclear status
• Iran and Pakistan were cooperating in there nuclear program and I don't need to say that the sole reason for pakistan's nuclear program's existence is to use it some day against India.

I was doing some googling on this issue and I saw this article. I am quoting a paragraph from this article.

In an interview with CNN while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Musharraf said that it appeared Pakistani scientists might have sold nuclear secrets abroad for personal gains, but reiterated Islamabad's position that there was no official involvement. In PakistanÃ?Â?s covert nuclear programme which was given great autonomy and freedom some Pakistanis might have done it. Pakistan has begun questioning its nuclear scientists, including the father of its atomic bomb, Abdul Kadir Khan, after the U.N. nuclear agency began investigating possible links between the Pakistani and Iranian nuclear programmes. The investigation, launched in November, would be finished in "a few weeks", Musharraf told CNN.

I understand that

• Chandrababu Naidu wants UPA government to fall so that he can become outside support to NDA
• Mulayam Singh wants UPA government to fall so that he can save his chair in UP
• Communists want UPA government to be in trouble because that way their chair in WB is secure, anyway they never cared about country otherwise they would not be blocking development of 30-50 crore indians for the sake of 2-3 crore government employees and blocking every economic policy initiative that aims at growth in employment levels.

What I fail to understand though, why is congress being so stupid. Why can't they just say enough is enough, go to hell and go for elections or let communists form the government with outside support from BJP. If they think they are doing decent job then people would elect them back otherwise they do not deserve to be in power anyway.

I have never seen in my life, opposition and parties supporting government worrying so much about foreign policy.

Accident

Today I kind of had an accident on Airport Road. I was coming back from BEL colony with my wife, daughter and another friend driving on left corner of the road and one enfield bullet can from my left side with very high speed. He was trying to overtake me but did not have space between my car and kerb. Completely hosed the left side of my car. I think fender would have to be redone.

Fortunately not very series injury. He also agreed that he did not want any hassles and would let me know the bill for fixing his bike which I would have to pay. It was 12:30 at night so I said fine. Let's see how it goes.

म�र� �म्युनिस्��� स� ��� नि�� दुश्मन� नह�� ह� पर �स सप्ताह �न�� सिवाय �र ��� ऐसा �ाम ह� नह�� �र रहा हय �िस पर म�� ��� व�्तव्य �र��। �ब �स �बर �� ह� ल��िय�, पता नह�� �न�� �रान स� �तना प्र�म �्य�� ह� �या ह�। �हाँ त� मुझ� समझ �ता ह�, भारत �� पास �रान �� �िला� व�� द�न� �� लिय� �ा�� �ारण ह�� �� �ि भारत �� राष्�्र हित म�� ह��।

• à¤?रान à¤?ाà¥?à¥? दिनà¥?à¤? सà¥? पाà¤?िस्तान à¤?à¥? साथ à¤?णविà¤? रिसर्à¤? à¤?र रहा हà¥? à¤?र à¤?िसà¥? à¤?à¥? à¤?स बात मà¥?à¤? सà¤?दà¥?ह नहà¥?à¤? हà¥?ना à¤?ाहियà¥? à¤?ि पाà¤?िस्तान à¤?à¥? à¤?णविà¤? रिसर्à¤? à¤?à¥?वल भारत à¤?à¥? à¤?िलाà¥? हà¥?। डा. à¤?ादिर à¤?ा à¤?णविà¤? तà¤?त्र à¤?रान à¤?à¥? साथ à¤?ाà¥?à¥? à¤?ाम à¤?र रहा था।
• à¤?रान à¤?à¥? à¤?ाà¥?à¥? à¤?रà¥?बà¥? दà¥?श (रà¥?स, à¤?à¥?न) नà¥? भà¥? à¤?रान à¤?à¥? à¤?िलाà¥? वà¥?à¤? दिया हà¥?।

पि�्ल� सप्ताह �� मामल�� �� द��न� �� बाद त� मुझ� ल�ता ह� �ि �म्युनिस्� दल �स बात स� �ा�� भयभ�त ह�� �ि भारत स��्�्व�यर �� �्ष�त्र म�� ��न स� �ा�� ��� न नि�ल �ाय� �र �स लिय� �िस� भ� तरह स� यह �ाहत�� ह�� �ि भारत �� �िस� तरह स� ��न स� प��� र�ा �ाय�। �ब ��न म�� रहन� वाल� �न�� मस�हा ह� स्वत�त्र विद�श न�ति नह�� �पना पा रह�� ह�� त� भारत ��र �पन� भल� �� न�ति �पनाता ह� त� �न�� �्या समस्या ह�। ��र हम �्या �र स�त� ह��, सिर्� ��रल �र ब��ाल म� रहन� वाल� भारत�य ब�धु ह� हमार� र�्षा �र स�त� ह��।

Airport authority responds

Here is a comments that I received on my post regarding airport privatization from Airport Authority employees. It was posted in wrong thread.

Due to lack of a fair dialogue amongst the stakeholder, we face such grim situations. Many employee were badly brusied in the lathi charge.

Do visit
http://www.aaiforum.org
http://aaiforum.blogspot.com/

If Privatization is the mantra for all evil , then do investigate how many airports in the world are truly privatized & who is their management team.

Singapore , South Africa airports are managed by a professional dedicated Airport professionals . Why not in India ?

Ok, I give it to them that privatization is not an answer to everything. But I would have supported them if they had done same strike 5 years ago claiming that based on projections air traffic is going to increase manifold and government of India needs to modernize the airport. They never did that. Even the work that should be done by them (like cleaning the toilets etc) they do not do properly. In delhi airport you don't even get a chair to sit. In such conditions how can we expect them to modernize the airport. The fact is that airports need to be modernized because neither the government establishment (and that includes AAI) not capable of doing it nor they are interested in doing it.

Google and china

Further to my post about google's capitulation to chinese government. Here is the version of their images search engine results from chinese government approved google for string "tinanmen square".

Here is the version that is returned by the world wide portal.

God bless India

Hot news today is that central government has decided to award airport modernization contract to coupld of private parties. As soon as the news is out, the employees of airport authority of india are on agitation path led by sitaram yechyri and co. He is saying that AAI should be asked to modernize the airports. Now I don't understand who was stopping AAI to modernize the airport all these years. Forget modernization, they were not even cleaning up the toilets, customer service is a distant dream.

I can only hope and pray that our able citizens in the West Bengal would defeat these morons in election and teach them a lesson. But then that could just be a dream also.

�� �� ता�� �बर ह� �ि दिल्ल� �र मु�ब� हवा��ड्ड�� �� �धुनि���रण �� लिय� ���द्र सर�ार न� द� नि�� ��पनिय�� �� �ुना ह�| �स�� सुनत� ह� स�ताराम य���र�, ड� रा�ा �र �न�� �म्युनिस्� बन्धु सड़��� पर � �य� �र �ब य� ल�� �ाहत� ह�� �ि हवा� �ड्डा प्राधि�रण ह� �न हवा� �ड्ड�� �ा �धुनि���रण �र�| �न ��ल �� दुश्मन�� �� यह ��न समझाय� �ि �तन� साल�� त� �न सर�ार� �र्म�ारिय�� �� ��न र�� रहा था �पना �ाम �रन� स�| यहा� त� �ि हवा� �ड्ड�� �� सफ़ा� त� नह�� �रत� ह�� य�ह ल��| वामप�थ� दल �भ� भ� यह स��त� ह�� �ि य� सर�ार� स�स्थान �र्म�ारिय�� �� सुविधा �� लिय� बनाय� �य�� ह��| भ�वान भला �र� �स द�श �ा, म�र� त� दिल� �ु�ारिश ह� म�र� ब��ाल� ब�धु�� स�, �स द�श पर दया �र�� �र �न ��ल �� दुशमन�� �� ��ल� �ुनाव म�� हरा द��|

द �ा�म्स �फ़ �न्डिया द�श �ा सबस� बड़ा समा�ार पत्र ह� पर �स�� स�पाद��� �� भ� �� �ल म�र्�ता ह� स�झत� ह�| ��� मुझ� बताय� �स समा�ार �ा �्या मतलब ह�| �स�� पढन� �� बाद त� यह ल�ता ह� �ि �ब सभ� �� �पन� समा�ार पत्र �ुद ह� �ापन� पड़����|

Stupudity of main stream media

See this news article from The Times of India. Can anybody tell me what does the editor of this piece want to convey. This is not news, this is neither fiction. God bless these stupid people sitting in these news paper offices who have basically turned completely idiotic.

�स समा�ार �� पढ �र ए� बात साफ़ ह� �ात� ह� �ि वाम प�थ� दल �ब यह �हत� ह� �ि नवरत्ना �र्ध सर�ार� स�स्थान�� म� विनिव�श �� व� �्य�� �िलाफ़ ह��| वाम प�थ� दल यह �ाहत� ह�� �ि त�न �ार साल म�� त� नवरत्ना �र्ध सर�ार� स�स्थान �ा�� म�� �ा �र �स य��्य ह� नह�� रह��� �ि �न�ा विनिव�श �िया �ा स�� त� सर�ार �्य�� �पना व�्त बरबाद �र रह� ह�| �िस� न� �हा ह� �ि बरबाद �ुलिस्ता� �रन� �� बस ए� ह� �ल्ल� �ाफ़� ह�| ���ाम ए �ुलिस्ता� �्या ह��ा, हर शा� पर �ल्ल� ब�ठ� ह��|

�स समा�ार �� पढन� �� बाद यह बात साफ़ ह� �ात� ह� �ि भारत म�� �तन� दिन�� �� बाद भ� सुर�्षाबल �िस� भ� �त��वाद स� �्रस्त ��ह सफ़लता �्य�� नह�� पा स�� ह��| �ब हम�� ��� यह बताय� �ि ए� म�दिर म�� ब� एस एफ़ �� �िस� स� प��ा ल�न� �� �्या �र�रत थ�|

Nod eludes CBI to nail babus

Saw this interesting news item on times of india. I think there should be some automatic time out in this process. This pocket veto stuff is not good for democracy. The government should either give the permission or reject the permission with valid reasons within stipulated time. This way atleast people would know which side they stand on.

�� �� �� �� पा�� �ात्र�� न� ए� नया रा�न�ति� दल बनाया ह�| �स दल �ा नाम Paritrana (परित्रना/परित्रणा) ह�| �बर त� ��्�� ह� पर यह �म्म�द थ� �ि �� �� �� �� �ात्र �म स� �म ए� दल �ा प्र�ार प्रसार त� ब�हतर तर��� स� �र पाए���| �प� हुए समा�ार म�� �न ल���� स� सपर्� �रन� �ा ��� तर��ा नह� दिया �या ह� �र �स नाम �� web site (www.paritrana.com) �� भ� �िस� �र व्य�्ति न� �र�दा हु� ह� �र �स web site पर �ु� भ� �पलब्ध नह�� ह�| �म स� �म �न ल��� �� पास ए� e-mail address त� ह�ता �िसस� ��र ��� �न ल���� स� सपर्� �रना �ाहता ह� त� �र स��|

�ल सर्व��्� न्यायालय न� बिहार विधान सभा भ�� �रन� �� मामल� म�� ब��ा सिह �� �िलाफ़ बहुत ह� स�्त �िप्पण� �रत� हुए फ़�सला दिया �ि �न�ा �दम ए� विश�ष पार्�� (राष्�्र�य �नता दल) �� ध्यान म�� र�त� हुए लिया �या था �र �स� ��र �ान�न� �रार दिया| �स फ़�सल� �� बाद ��� भ� ��्�तदार न�ता पद स� ह� �ाता �र �पन� �लत� स्व��ार �र ल�ता पर ब��ा सि�ह न� सम्मान स� पद ��ड़न� �� ब�ाय �हा "�ब्ब�स तार�� �� सल�� ल���ा"| ब��ा सि�ह स� �्यादा सम्मानित व�्तव्य त� लाल� प्रसाद यादव �ा था. "�ब सर्व��्� न्यायलय न� फ़�सला द� दिया ह� त� हम �्या �ह��"|

��र �म्म�द �रत� ह�� �ि �ा�्र�स पार्�� �र प्रधान म�त्र� महामहिम ब��ा सि�ह �� बर्�ास्त �र �� �स म�र्�ता �� �त्म �र द����|

Google's hypocrisy

Today I read this news report about google. I am not really a great fan of US government but this one by google sounds bizzare. At one end they are resisting attempts of US government in getting some search related data while on the other hand there seems to be total capitulation in front of chinese government.

This seems like they are ready to fight the US government because they know that is a democracy while in china they are not even willing to fight for sake of markets.

र�डिफ़ म�� �प� �स �र्�ि�ल �� पढन� स� यह साफ़ साबित ह� �ाला ह� �ि पा�िस्तान� ��म �� �प्तान �ा दिमा� �िस� �या ह�| ���माम �ा �हना ह� �ि बि�ार� प�िस्तान� ��म ए� मह�न� �� विश्राम �� बाद म�� ��ल रह� थ� �स लिय� �स�� ���दबा� �धर �धर ���द फ़��� रह� थ�| �न�ा यह भ� �हना ह� �ि �न�� ��म �� पास सहवा� �� लिय� ए� य��ना थ� पर �न�� ��म �स�ा �पय�� नह�� �र पाय� �ब हम �्या बताय��, हमार� पास भ� ए� य��ना ह� �ल�पि� �ा स्वर्ण पद� ��तन� �� लिय� बस हम �स�ा प्रय�� नह� �र पा रह� ह��|

�� बार �र सानिया मिर्�ा �स्�्र�लियन �पन म�� द�सर� रा�ड� म�� हार �य�| �स बार �स� मिश�ला �्रा�िस�� (Michaella Krajicek ) न� स�ध� स���� म�� ६-३ �र ७-५ स� हराया| म�र� त� यह समझ म�� नह�� �ता ह� �ि सानिया �� बार� म�� पत्र�ार ल�� �तना श�र �्य�� म�ात� ह��| ��र �म्म�द �र�� �ि भविष्य म�� पत्र�ार �पन� �प �� सभाल �� र����� �र सानिया �ा प्रदर्शन �सस� थ�ड़ा ब�हतर ह��ा| हम �्या �र��, हम त� सिर्फ़ दु� ह� �र स�त� ह� ��निस ��लना �ता त� �स�� बार� म�� �ु� �रत�|

Sania Mirza out of Australian Open

She did it again. Beaten in second round 6-3, 7-5 by Michaella Krajicek. If my google search was correct Michaella is ranked 43, much lower than Sania. I am somehow getting a feeling that Sania is also more hype than substance. I sure hope that I am wrong.

Sun, Innovation and Business sense

Around one and half years back I saw this cool video where Jonathan Schwartz (I assume I spelt it right) showed off this new technology called looking glass. There were many things that were cool about it but what I found most useful was 3D windows. As a developer I always face the problem of having hundreds of windows open and could never find out what was happening.

I subscribed to the looking glass mailing list hoping that someday I would be able to replace gnome or KDE or windows with looking glass. I got two emails in last one and half years and I assumed that the project is dead or not viable.

Now I see this new item. It seems to be very similar to 3D window idea that looking glass had. Now I fail to understand if it was not viable how could microsoft do it.

At times it looks like sun's hatred of Richard Stallman & Co. is more profound then willingness to make money.

�भ� �भ� विश�ष�्��� �� वि�ार �ु� समय बाद पढन� �ाहिय� �ाव�द मियादाद �� �स �ालम �� पढन� �� बाद ल�ता ह� �ि �न्ह�न� बिना स��� समझ� �पन� वि�ार व्य�्त �रत� समय यह नह�� स��ा �ि यह �ालम ल�� बाद म�� भ� पढ��� �स �ालम म�� (�� �ि शायद भारत-पा�िस्तान �्रि��� श्र�ला �� पहल� म�� �� पहल� या द�सर� दिन लि�ा �या था) �न�ा �हना ह� �ि भारत �� ��्राम� ��ल नह�� ��लना �ाहिय� था म�र� यह समझ म�� नह�� �ता ह� �ि ��र भारत सुर�्षात्म� ��ल ��लता त� यह� विश�ष�्� यह �हत� �ि भारत �� ��्राम� ��ल ��लना �ाहिय� था मियादाद मह�दय न� पा�िस्तान �� बार� म�� त� �भ� �ु� नह�� �हा ह� पर द��त� ह�� ��� �ल �� शायद �ु� वि�ार व्य�्त �र�� फ़िलहाल म�र� हिसाब स� त� भारत�य ��म �ा प्रदर्शन ��थ� दिन त� बहुत बढिया रहा �र ऐसा ह� रहा त� �स ��म स� �स श्र��ला म�� �़ास� �म्म�द�� ह��

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यह �स blog �� �ाल� �रन� �� लिय� पहल� post ह�

Sourav Ganguly and Indian Team

Sourav Ganguly has finally achieved something that no Indian cricketer has been able to achieve till date. Somehow he has put himself in a situation where he gains sympathy from everybody and he does not even have to work for it.

• Before the start of the test match on 13th January, there were rumours that he may be asked to open and on television his fans were already making noise on how it is not fair to the ex-captain.
• Nobody seems to be worried about other players that have to be sacrificed for making sure that Ganguly has a place in team

I am not sure where were these fans of Ganguly when he really did not make any significant runs for close to two years and did not win any matches as captain for a long time.

Sorry state of media

As I was going through my regular set of news paper web sites on this first working day of a brand new year, I saw this link on the home page of economictimes. The title of the page is Rani's changing looks gonna rock '06.


I fail to understand how this is a news. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against film related news items, but how is it a news. This seems more like the wish of the writer and this is the highest selling news paper of the country. What beats me further is the fact that this is supposed to be a business news paper.

I think from now on everybody should just make up their own news paper. It probably would be as good as anything that is around.

Please let them know I exist

Here I stumbled upon a news item in "The Times of India" . The news item is titled CEOs in short supply as India booms. Can somebody please give them my contact numbers. I am really ready to be a CEO and I am pretty sure I would be able to do a decent enought job for them.

I can only wish for that. I don't think this is really going to happen anyway.