7 habits of HEPs

Desi Fun(da)

Due to some reasons that are still not clear we started talking about the book by Steven R. Covey titled "The 7 habits of highly effective people". Well it seems that the people who have read this book are highly impressed by it and especially the 7 habits that are listed in it.

Well to be frank I had seen this book at Heathrow airport while travelling back home and was about to buy the paperback because it seemed impressive and hey the chicks on the plane weren't going to start a conversation with me anytime soon and the 7 hour flight to Mumbai was a bit too much time for self-introspection. So well as I moved towards the counter what do I see in the just released section, but "The 8th habit of hight effective people".

What!! This dude may be a good writer and all but did he forget to read his own book? He sure as hell wasn't effective in putting down the list all 8 those single line sentences into one book. Now why would I want to read some advice from a jerk that himself proved, by releasing the second book, that he isn't effective at all. He has the gaul to release the second book and whats even worse"er" is that the damn publishers publised it and even worse"er" that people are buying and reading both ... come on people.

Ofcourse I haven't bought or read the book.

Rang de ...

Desi Fun(da)

Last week we finally got tickets for Rand De Basanti. As always the Aamir Khan starrer was well publicised and much awaited for the past few months. And well I admire that dude and his attitude, no doubts about that.

The movie started off well and the first half was awesome. It met and surpassed the expectations. The movie along with a superb cast and thoughtful dialogues managed to spark a sense of awe and admiration of the byegone generation of freedom fighters, some of whom I had left behind in my school history books and never bothered to think about again.

The "Go Back Simon" protests, the killing of Lala Lajpat Rai and most of all the massacre at Jalianwala Baugh sent a chill down my spine. What transpired at those horrendous events in Indian history were so aptly revived in this movie, enough to rekindle one's thought of how gory the path to our independence was. The bravery of the few who garnered the masses to start a revolution and iginite the passion of freedom within the people. The brave souls who had to give up their own freedom and get jailed to spread their word. The movie brought that out wonderfully.

But,... yes there is a but, then came the last quarter of the movie. And well did it disappoint. The concept of beating up an elderly mother of an Air Force pilot followed by her falling into her comma. The heroes turn mercenaries and what follows is a blood bath, starting with the death of a politician, a son killing his father and finally the reverred Black Cats coming into the AIR studios to kill the heroes.

What pisses me off is not the fact that this is a bad ending. Compared to today's hindi movies this ending was really good. But the movie maker had a wonderful opportunity to really ignite the masses with this movie. With the idea that our generation holds the key towards the rebirth of our nation into a place of integrity, love and pride. This movie could have been the Mein Kempf for a generation of Indians. For losing the opportunity to truely make a difference in today's India of indifference the people associated with this movie cannot be forgiven.

Have your knees ever ...

Desi Fun(da)

Have your knees ever given up under you
At a sight of that girl you waited all this while
Had you felt your heart beat faster
To try to say a hi to her
Has beauty found a new meaning
After you saw that face
Has love become understandable
After that day
Can a person by just passing by you
Have such a lasting impression
Can that person with a slight smile
Cast a shadow on everything else around
Could her voice sweeten your day
And her eyes chill every nerve in you
Can her presence be so soothing
That your knees forget to hold

I wish I wasnt a coward
And tell her how I felt
Oh then I'd tell perfection
That its match I've met
For even a rose would loose its pride
In her presence I am sure
For it's never seen true beauty like I haven't before
The rose may fade away
In shame of its false grandeur
It felt until that day

Its not about love
Or anything as such
Its just about a feeling
And that girl I like so much
Its about her every move
That I long to see each day
Its about those execuses I make
To bump into her sometime
Its about just bringing out her smile

I wish I could tell more
But such a coward am I
I wish I could do something
Instead of writing this cry

Mission Udaan

Desi Fun(da)

Just saw this awe-inspiring Mission Udaan series on the NatGeo Channel and am totally floored and jealous of the 5 achievers who were given an opportunity of a lifetime to be within the IAF. And the best part of it all was the grand finale wherein one of the achievers won the grande prize of riding in the SU30-MKI. The best goddarn combat aircraft in the world. Man it would have been awesome to be in that aircraft ripping around at Mach2 and enjoying the sortiees by your pilot. I was so envious of the winner that I nearly wanted to punch the television set. How lucky was he.. I mean what are the chances of a civilian getting a ride in a military aircraft let alone the SU30. Great going dude. Hope that you really deserved it coz that was one dream that I've had for a long long time now. Ok and if any of you come to know where the trials for the next series are being held let me know asap, if ever that happens.

Salute to the IAF.

Back in Bangalore

Desi Fun(da)
Well the fun and frolic of Christmas, New Year and the flurry of weddings etc are all over and its a realisation that 2006 has begun. A year has gone by and well there is not much to show for it other than a few putbacks at work. Looking forward to a more active 2006.

Cherioe!

Best Goddam Blonde Joke

Desi Fun(da)


the best goddamn blonde joke ever

have fun and let me know what ya think.

Changing Landscape in Mumbai

Desi Fun(da)

As I mentioned previously I am currently back home in Mumbai/Bombay for Christmas with my family. It is always great to be back here. The sense of belonging is never so strong for me as when I am back home in Bombay. Everything here is just as it ought to be and for people like myself who have lived the better part of their lives in this megapolis of metros there is no better place than Bombay.

But for better or for worse things are changing around here. The common 2 to 3 storey buildings are being replaced with 5 to 7 storey high rises all over the suburbs. Even the much famed and posh Juhu localities which were once the domain of the whos-who in India are slowly fading away and those lovely posh bungalows are being replaced by post multi-storeyed buildings. There is a boom of construction once again and this time it is catering the nouveau riche in Bombay. Unlike any other place in India these apartments are all above 1500 sqft costing at anything above 7k-10k/sqft and well it just keeps going higher. People out here are looking out for the penthouses and the larger apartments rather than how the middle class scurried towards the 2BHK standard apartments which seemed sufficient once upon a time.

The landscape in Mumbai and especially the places where I live and have grown up are changing drastically and well though it means that the economy is booming and things are on the up as a whole in the financial capital of India, I dont know how it works out in the long run. With previously designated playing grounds turning into morning and evening walking parks for the busy upper middle class and the building compounds catering to the growing demand for parking space there seems to be less and less space for the kids and for the flat owners to just sit down and have a talk within their own building premises.

Things are changing really rapidly out here. Or maybe I have just become too inept to follow up with change as it happens...swiftly.

Merry Christmas

Desi Fun(da)

Hey you all ... whoever is reading my blogs and those who aren't. Here's wishing you a very Merry Christmas (I choose to be religiously correct rather than politically with that greeting). I hope you all have a wonderful time with you family and friends and may the joy, peacefulness and love of Christmas be over each one of you all and your loved ones.

And yeah for those who know... what I have been crazy over for the past year now hasn't worked out as planned... She knows I hope and hopefully one day may read this and have a change of heart!!! So this Christmas is just a lot more blue than white. So am looking forward to be a better 2006...basically to just get over it I guess. If she atleast smiles this way it would be helpful to get some more courage in me. All I could do this year is send her a dumb gmail which said Season's Greetings in the subject. Man do I suck or what. God please gimme a life and some nuts to go along with it.

Loads of love and best wishes for Christmas to you all. Am chilling in Mumbai for the time being at home sweet home and putting on some unwanted weight again:)

-Allen

Rape and Killing of a BPO worker in Bangalore

Desi Fun(da)

This has been a very much talked about story. I have written about my opinions about the act of rape and you can guess what my reactions to this incident has been. For such a case I would suggest the Supreme Court go out of its way and provide the maximum penalty of dead by hanging and that too in public, just as it is done in the middle east. Let this set a precedent in the nation that such crimes shall not go unpunished. We cannot let the women of India feel insecure under any circumstances.

My deepest sympathies with the husband and family of Mrs. Prathibha who was gruelly raped and murdered in Bangalore by a cab driver. May her soul rest in peace.

Regional politics at its worst

Desi Fun(da)

Of all the things and of all the people our screwed up politicians decided to take up the cause of a cricket in the hallowed chambers of the Indian Democractic Institution. Worse still it has been reported that it was none other than the speaker of the house that brought this issue up. Regional politics is seen in various stages of our countries democracy ruining many aspects of development and in this case intellectual discussions.

According to the recent case in the Supreme Court where the BCCI went ahead and declared that the Indian cricket team was not governed or in any way under the realm of the government and citizens of the country it supposedly holds to represent. It was decided that the BCCI has its own code of conduct and constitution as a commercial body and the players are to be held under the same rules as that of any establishment they choose to be a part of. This was inturn followed by another ruling wherein the team was stripped of the national emblem, logically so following the preceding case.

Now since the Supreme Court and the BCCI itself and moreover the cricketers themselves choose commercial interests over that of the prestige of representing their nation I don't see what right has any politician got to waste democratic time in the Parliament over the affairs of such an organization and its members. There can be no excuse for the behaviour of the Speaker of the house and he should be reprimanded and booked with contempt fo this sacred institution.

Dispeakable behaviour once again.

Search Tech - Microsoft current Leader

Desi Fun(da)

Alright I usually do this crazy searchs on myself on various search engines and well while I was at PennState Google religiously picked up my homepage and displayed it as the very first hit. But since I have moved on from my latest alma mater it was not the case. Now I have been blogging on blogspot for a bit and as far as I know it is a Google property so would expect google to find my blogs but lo and behold its the search.msn.com that puts me on the first hit. So well for now the Microsoft is definitely leading the search wards as far as I am concerned. Great going Billy!.

India in the Flat World

Desi Fun(da)

There was an amazing article in the New York times under the title "The World is Flat" byt their journalist Thomas L. Freidman. He subsequently has released a book by the same name highlighting the unique opportunities in the flat world where there is not information divide and a person in Vietnam, SriLanka, India, Burma, China or any other developing (have begun to dislike the term third-world) nation has the same level of access towards information as his peers in a developed nation. The era of telecommunications and the internet has bought upon a new era in the world where opportunity lies within the grasp of those that seek it out. There has been a lot of change due to this especially with the outsourcing a.k.a. bangaloring of backend jobs from the developed nations to the developing ones.

We have seen the boom this has bought about in India and how it has touched every aspect of our lives. There has been a lot of change and I am willing to bet that there will be a lot more to come. See most of the people attribute the gains made by the US in various fields due to the immense pool of talent in that country. However I think that such talent lies untapped in places such as India. Exposure to technology and provisions for easy access to knowledge and the work of others has not really been available in countries like ours.

There has been this group of elite people who have been exposed to technology or science right from their childhood due to their high tech schools, vast librarys and immense resources at their disposal which is taken for granted by many people in such countries. However here it is not the same. Most of our schools dont have the kind of resources they need to face the 21st century. The libraries aren't as big as they should be and internet access is still limited to schools within the cities. As these things change, especially with things such as the low-budget pc, there should be a revolution in terms of access to these students. Most engineering colleges face the same problems. Though we have an excellent curriculum in most of the Indian universities, we usually cannot back out technical knowledge with a practical approach towards a given problem. As some tech guru said at the recent FOSS.in "Indians are great engineers however you need to tell them what to do". This lack of creativity hinders our progress. There is a need to get this right a need to make sure that every kid is allowed to have a flame of imagination within. This is what is going to get out those creative ideas and bring in the next big thing.

Recently an engineer pointed out that "there is nothing to be worried about wrt Indian engineers" while giving his take on the competition faced by the West(read USA) from the East(read India/China). Well I differ completely here. Give an Indian the same resources as an American and then let the games begin. We are lagging but hey never underestimate the dreams of a billion people, as the Air Deccan advertisment proclaimed this morning.

India on 8% growth - You gotta be shittin me

Desi Fun(da)

Just read this article on Rediff and just look at that chart. Manufacturing at 9.2%, Construction at 7.4%. Damn is the place rocking or what? Actually in a followup today Dr. Manmohan Singh said that we should be targetting a growth of 10% in the next 2-3 years. Wow!! Has any prime minister in India ever even thought about scaling the double digit GDP growth targets. I dont think so. Way to go Sir. Keep it rolling.

Now the question that's begged to be asked now is what the hell am I doing at my dead-end job while the rest of town is going "cha chang" (sound of registers popping) with all the money flowing around. God give me some nuts to quit and start something.