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.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Monday, December 26, 2005
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
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
Monday, December 19, 2005
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.
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.
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.
Friday, December 16, 2005
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!.
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!.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
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.
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.
Friday, December 02, 2005
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.
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.
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