Some people would argue that this should have been a review, but since I did not have much to write about a product here, but just an unforgettable experience, I chose to post it as a diary. Wifey dear had her last exam of her management course this Sunday. We were waiting for months for this course to get over so that our weekends could be ours once again. She managed to get a couple of free movie tickets, so that we may start enjoying our weekends (and sort of freedom) once again. I was thrilled to see that, and who doesn't like free tickets? We reached DT mega Mall Gurgaon after 15 minutes of drive from our home just in time for the movie to begin. We took our seats in the front row( yet again!) and started watching the movie. Never before had the screen looked so big with vibrant colours changing all the while as yesterday. The movie had a overdose of special effects, more than real characters, that made us wonder if a graphic designer had directed it and placed actual people where he could not manage with computer graphics. Never before had the sound system appeared so loud that our seats vibrated most of the time (as if someone was drilling under them). Oh, yes, how much did we wait for the intermission to get a breather and our favorite over priced and undersized popcorns and coke. One we had them in our hands, both of us decided to sit outside the theatre for a while so that life may appear normal again. The movie inside had no sense,no story, no plot, no logic, no acting etc. But since it was a free ticket movie for us, we decided to walk in once again, still enjoying the popcorn, the coke and our company. The thunderous background scores continued and so did the vibrations in out seats. The actors were as lost about their roles as we were about the entire movie. The torture ended in about 2.5 hours and we were free birds once again. But yes, I am not fond of the "Free" word that much now. I think I should use it with responsibility and caution. Oh yes, Did I tell you which movie did we suffer for free? And, that's one of the reasons for not posting this a a review, since the popcorn , the coke and the intermission were far far better than the movie. I would never want to watch such a movie for free or even if I am paid to watch it. By the way, the movie was Drona.

It was Sunday the 6th of December 1992. I was a II year engineering student at HBTI Kanpur, waiting to appear for my 1st semester exams to begin from the next day and continue through the week to end on 11th of December. I had worked very had throughout the semester, perhaps for the first time in my life. Working that hard was not my habit, just like running a 400 m relay every morning for a couch potato. You can imagine, how much was I longing for the exams to come to an end, and me breathing free and fresh air for a couple of weeks before my next semester began.

I was a day-scholar, staying in the cosy comfort of my home, and did practically nothing other than study (no TV, no movies and few friends, all like myself).

It was about 7 in the evening of that fateful day, that something happened, that changed my thought process for ever and dumped millions of questions in my mind, answers to the same are still hazy.

I heard the news that the Babri Masjid had been demolished by the supporters of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya. It was insane to every sane person. I am sure that most of the readers here remember that.

We had no Cable TV at our home, and our responsible DD did not air that news till it was stale. In a way it was to prevent communal voilence from breaking out thoughtout the nation. BBC however did the damage and telecasted the images of the shameful event. The next news items cobered nothing else but the chronicle of rios across the nation and curfew being imposed in all sensitive areas. My hometown was no exception. Curfew was declared for indefinate period.

My dreams of getting through with my exams within the week were shattered. I had been shaky in the 1st year of engineering by my standards, and was determined to mend my ways this this around. I did not have words to express my disgust on those who are so shortsighted that they fight on such petty issues. It was a personal anguish for other reasons, but it made me think really hard as to how such events are triggered and how can they be eliminated.

The space here is too little to pen dowm all that went through my teenaged mind, but it disgusted me no ends to belong to a country that is led by such irresponsible leaders like LK Advani , Ashok Singhal, Uma Bharti etc.They targetted the illiterate polulace of the country , them being majority everywhere, and used them in numbers for their personal gains. People did not even understand that no religion talks of intolerance towards others. Well, people do not understand religion in general.

The situation took 20 days to be controllable again, and we had our exams starting from 28th December, including 1st January as well. We ended up having just 1 Sunday betweem semesters and were back to our classes..... Quite frustrated with us being victims of something not of our making.

As time went by, I realised that the ones who have been losing their lives, their loved ones etc have obviously been more unfortunate. Not all, as many participated in the riots and lost something or someone in bargain. Why are people so blind? Why can they not see what is good for them?

16 years have passed since then, but my questions have found no answers. People still fight over communal issues and kill or injure each other. What do they gain? Crafty leaders still take hordes of countrymen for a ride, use their numbers and baffle progress. It was Advani & co then, its Mamta Banerjee now. And, what's the outcome? Some people lose thier lives, some their loved oned, some gain an injury or two, but none gain something they really fought for. How many of the communal rioteers are destined to go to heaven ? None I would say. How many farmers would get their land back and earn something better out of it in Singur? We are yet to see, but the figure would be dismal.

We talk about our country progressing in leaps and bounds. It has recently been recognised as a global power in nuclear energy. We have won a Gold meadl at the Olympics and the T20 world cup last year. On the economic front, we are more liberalised than what we were 16 years ago. The living standards of select few metriotes have shot up. But that's the end of it.

We are still ill-prepared to fight any clalmity, or a terrorist campaign (attack would not be correct now) or to understand what our politicians wnat to use us for. This covers every part of the country. Hence, the larger chunk of our country is still where we were when the Babri Masjid was defaced. That's as far as my memory goes.

Why don't we spend money in constructing schools and hospitals instead of temples or mosques? Will the Almighty love us less?

This was one of the questions that came in my mind then, on the 6th December 1992. Today is 18th September 2008, and I am no wiser.

BTW, I completed my Engineering as the university gold medalist later, but could never forget that time!!!

I have seen people applaud the brilliant people they see around themselves, but not always notice the hard work of those who may not be as brilliant but are simply self disciplined. In my opinion, one needs to be disciplined to be successful in life, not necessarily brilliant or very intelligent.

All those who are intelligent or brilliant in some aspect of life are nor necessarily successful in their lives overall. Similarly, many who have been successful in their lives, were not the best in terms of IQ.

Although, factors like where one is born, brought up educated etc do play a vital part in making one what he / she is, but one is never limited by such factors. I disagree with the fact that luck or destiny have a more important role to play than one's own dilligence in making himself what he wants to be.

Well, that was my opinion, expressed in a way that most of the abstract reading comprehension passages for CAT / GMAT are written (they made no sense to me however!!!).

What do you think are the most important qualities that one needs to posses to be successful in life?

What does "success" mean to you?

Well, you expect people to behave in a rational manner with the most mundane of activities, and sometimes you find the ultra intelligent ones(?) who hit all your assumptions for a six!

What do you do when you come across some people , everyday , who seem to have a normal IQ, but demonstrate no commonsense? If you fight them you lose your sense, if you join them, you lose your sense again! You can not avoid them because they find you everywhere. How does one maintain his sanity in this world.....?

.....see, I have lost my mind too!!!

For those who are wondering as to what went wrong with me all of a sudden -

It's not all of a sudden in fact. I have been working with a group of intelligently clad morons for about a year now. They defy logic and challenge commonsense, and end up irritating, baffling, frustrating, exasperating, nauseating, .....(and a few other .....ings) all those who work with them, without realising a bit of it. They accept no feedback except false praises. Poor me.....

My father was recently heard to have said that idiots and genius' can display the same behaviour at times as both are exceptions. Is it possible that some genius lacks commonsense? Comments invited.....

Please help!!!!!

I missed participating in any of the categories of the Rain Mela and would have never come to know of my misfortune had Debs (Kweldebs) not asked me to take on the role of the judge of the "Click- click" category. Well, on second thoughts, did it remain a misfortune anymore? Well, it was an honor which I wished to honor.

So here I am, going to announce the winners and why their entries won them the prizes (must have reached by now).

Before declaring the results, I would certainly like to explain my criteria of selecting the pictures for the prizes. It is always tough to single out 3-4 from amongst many.

1. The subject captured should be complete. Be it a person, an animal or an inanimate object. No corners should be out of the frame, else the meaning goes away.
2. The scene or portrait should be visually appealing. This covers colors, angle of light, contrast etc. Since eyes are the agents of appreciation, they should be treated well first!
3. The clarity of the shot does make it stand above equals on the above points.
4. There is certailny a bonus if the picture captures something not so commonly seen with that clarity.
5. There is additional bonus if the picture communicates a message - without the need of title or tags.

I had sorted out about 20 pictures from the albums of all the participants of the Rain Mela - Click Click category for further analysis, (from amongst those that were connected to rains). I did not select any picture that seemed copied from some other source (I do not encourage copyright infringement).

Lets talk business now.....

1. The 1st prize goes to pramod_2685 for his picture "Rain Drops 2". This one captures a worm's eye view of clear rain drops on leaves. The clarity is great and the sight is visually appealing. The picture spoke for itself.

2. The 2nd prize goes to anakhronous for her picture "Dripping Hearts". This was a close second. This picture spoke for itself as well and so was its visual appeal. The focus on the subject is great.The picture has a romantic value as well, and Barnali being one, has captured it well.

3. The 3rd prize goes to bhupeshrai for his picture "Beautiful Landscapes of Andhra Pradesh". Bhupesh had half a dozen in his gallery that could have taken this prize, but I had to settle for my personal favorite here. It appears that this picture has been taken from a train - either the train halted for a while in this lush landscape or the camera shutter speed was too quick, as ther is no "drag" that we see in pictures taken from a moving object. I had to guess so after seeing a picture of a railway track nearby in the same album. The visual appeal of the cloud cover over the greenery is just great.

4. Well, I would give a 4th prize too. This goes to swan for her picture titled "Cloudy Day". The wet sea beach and clouds hovering overhead gave me some psychological relief, hence I could not avoid adding a prize for this picture as well. The shot is too good.

There is a consolation prize too. It goes to derebail2008 for his picture "Waves". It did not necessarily cover rains, hence I could not take it into the top 4, but the picture is of Mary's island which has lots of rains throughout the year. As Umesh himself says "Ja kar mehsoos karo".

And finally, I thank Debs for giving me an opportunity to participate in this competetion, albeit in a different role. I apologize to everyone for the delay in the results as I was caught up in some corporate email rains recently :-). I have stolen some Sunshine to write this post and thus declare the results.

The prizes will reach the winners by the end of my day today ( i.e. about 4 hours after the Sun sets for today!!!).

PS: I wish that there are rains in the Gulf too so that Paul can add a few pictures to his gallery too!

This is a post for the asrtonomically inclined. The admirers of saas-bahu serials may choose to ignore.

We Earthlings have always been satisfied with our one and only Moon circling around us. The only variation has been its appearance - from a no Moon night to a full Moon night. Poets have seen it from a different angle and compared it to beauty while astronomers have studied it for the history of our planet, its cosmic surroundings, the possibility of water and also the probability of a meteor penetrating the Earth's atmosphere, by studying the impacts on the atmosphere less Moon.

Just imagine - What will happen if we suddenly see 2 Moons in our night sky? At least for a few nights?

All the concepts of poetry would perhaps take a different meaning, but since that has never been my area of interest, let me talk about the astronomical event that is about to culminate on the night of this 27th August.

Well, let me tell you the truth now. The planet Mars would be closest to Earth on the Night of 27th August at 12:30 AM India time. Make no mistake - 12:30 AM on 27th August is the late night of 26th August - just so that you don't miss it (Weather permitting). Never mind even if you do, because this is a repeating event and you can watch it the next time around in 2287 AD.

None of could have seen it in the past and none would see it again. The actual distance of the 2 planets of our solar system woul be about 34.65 million KM - about a quarter of the distance to the Sun. It would appear as if the Earth has 2 moons. I would certainly want to click it if the weather Gods are kind.

I wonder how the king of crap INDIA TV would interpret it as and show a unique report on that. Any guesses? They may say that the aliens who have been stealing our cows have actually brought their plannet closer to Earth and the same would collide soon.

Anyway, enjoy the spectacle if you can. You can find more facts and information on the following URL : http://www.worldamazingrecords
.com/2007/07/two-moons-on-27-au
gust-greatest-event.html

The title of this post is what struck me when, on one of my recent Google trips down the "Project Management" path, I stumbled upon the following website : http://education.vsnl.com/mba_
projects/

Look at the name of the site again. Education.vsnl.com would appear as a genuine name, but the second part is what that site is there for. Please click the link to see for yourself, if you haven't done so already.

We have all seen our country becoming the hot spot for oursourcing IT and IT enabled services over the last decade or so. But this is a different kind of outsourcing - outsourcing something that should ideally, technically, ethically and logically should not be outsourced. This appears to be a more sophisticated way of cheating. That's what I think.

The internet has become a parrallel world now, and is much better connected that the real world. Such sites must be finding good customers, who would like to get their educational assignments done by shelling out some money and making no effort at all.

Most of this electronic underworld would have touts who claim to be MBAs / engineers etc and would make a worse of assignments than what the actual student would have done. You can't take them to court for it, just pay for your mistakes this way.

Unfortunately, the ones who can substitute their acumen for some non deserving graduate, are a bane to the society. No wonder we have so much crap in the market.

Do the educational institutes know about it? I don't think.

Does the industry know about it? Maybe, but no one seems to care.

I am sure that what I saw was just a scintilla of what could be available on the net. I shudder to think its possible enormity.

Bahrain's World trade Center is not just one of the million tall buildings on Earth that scrape the sky. It does much more than that. It uses the energy of the wind blowing across it to generate electricity to meet a fraction of its power needs. Commonsense as it sounds, this is the first practical implementation of this concept.

The building is a twin tower structure with 3 stainless steel bridges erected in between to hold a huge wind turbine each. A turbine is the reverse of the fan that we all know so well. It's aerodynamic shape makes it rotate when wind blows across it, moving a set of gears and a dynamo thus generating electricity.

With this structure in place it is expected that about 15% of the building's power needs would be met by this structure, thus saving few thousand USDs of power cost per annum. That's not really all. Read on.....

-This is clean energy using a renewable power source (wind) and not contributing to the depletion of fossil fuel reserves.
-It also does not add to air pollution.

It may have a huge initial construction cost associated, but with such structures getting more patronage, costs will drop in future.Better designs would not only help cover a larger fraction of the host building's power needs, but may also go on to supply electricity to neighboring buildings that can not leverage wind energy. There is a better one planned for Dubai already.

The concept of a mega structure with ability to harness a free energy source to meet its power needs is a great one. I wonder why it took us so long to get it nto action. Was it lack of vision, lack of funds,lack of technology or was it a mere lack of concern for the environment?

This is a great step in reducing pressure on our planet's natural resources.We need such ideas to be supported and implemented in India too. Unfortunalety, mega builders like DLF find it more appealing to support IPL, than to think on these lines.

Note: I borrowed some details from "Mega Structures" series on Nat Geo and the following website: http://www.treehugger.com/file
s/2007/03/bahrain_install.phpr>
You might find this youtube video interesting as well.

As India trounced neighbours Bangladesh today, Gautam Gambhir scored, what coincidently is the 150th ODI century by an Indian. India has had mixed performance in their ODI history, which began in 1974 against England, but nevertheless this is an achievement to be proud of for a moment. India is the first team to have reached the 150 century milestone, thanks primarily to Sachin(41),Dada (22) and Dravid(12), who account for half the share among themselves.

This does not wipe away the memories of that shameful defeat in the 2007 WC against the same opponents however.

This brings a question in my mind, yet again. We have been good in setting new records, but the same does not reflect commensurately in the teams long term performance. More records do not necessarily mean more victories.

The team looks better under Dhoni and with the new faces. I feel the Sun is already setting for the big 3 - Sachin,Saurav & Rahul. Let's see how the team fares in the final!!

Amitabh Bachchan has been my childhood hero. Although I have no illusions that I am the only one who thought like that.

I respect him, or should I say adore him for not just his acting in the 100s of movies (and millions of ADs), not just for his barritone voice as a part time singer but above all for being the very humble person that he is. In my opinion he is at a place in Bollywood that the best of best can only wish for. Despite being fully aware of his altitude, he remains firmly grounded to his roots as one could find out from the various postings written by him in his own blog. Yes, Amitabh Bachchan writes a blog too!!!

Here is the link to his blog: http://blogs.bigadda.com/ab/r>
Big Adda does not pay me for this but I happened to stumble upon this recently. I have started appreciating the writer in Amitabh Bachchan as well. He is so upright and fearless, still so humble and thoughtful.

Those who have been there may share their opinion as well. Those who haven't must visit one to get a preview of what lies within this great personality.