Sunday, September 26, 2010

Serious External Affairs Problem In A Neighboring Country Due To The Commonwealth Games

My cousin was telling me about a mail written by terrorists (from a neighboring country trying to ruin Commonwealth Games) written to the their boss, the head of ISI.

"
Boss,

1. Some of our bombs got wet and deactivated, because of leaks in the plumbing system

2. Rats ate many detonators so some bombs are out of action

3. While Kalmadi was inspecting a toilet, he pulled the flush in the toilet and the flush broke and the bomb inside the flush also fell down and got wet.

4. The rains have wreaked havoc. Two people in our team have caught a cold, a third slipped and fell down because the roads have been dug everywhere.

5. One of our team members was bitten by mosquito, got dengue and died..


The Indians are hampering our attempts at every step. Our presence here is not adding any value. Can you please tell us what we should do now?
"

I understand the country is complaining that India is quite unsporting, that India is not allowing them to make an honest living since Indians are doing by themselves what the crack team had sworn to do. I will wait for more update on this from my cousin.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

More On India's Capabilities

In a previous blog I had written about the possible problems that could happen in the Commonwealth Games (CWG) due to start in 10 days (http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2010/09/what-can-go-wrong-in-commonwealth-games.html).

Yesterday there was the incident of a footbridge that collapsed in the Jawahal Nehru Stadium. Today the false ceiling of the weight lifting venue seems to have collapsed. Now I am not sure whether these are incidents of sabotage or just examples of poor engineering capabilities.  There was a story in the paper today that an Australian agency bypassed the security and carried inside a bomb that could have been made to go off inside the stadium had there been a detonator. The Delhi police are claiming that this is "bogus". It may be true or it could be an incident to embarrass the security agencies. Either way it's quite a sad reflection of India's security and/or engineering prowess.

Earlier today I read that India is ranked the 3rd most powerful nation http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/From-Third-World-country-to-third-most-powerful-nation/articleshow/6603835.cms. The ability and power that India has a nation is only equaled by its ineptitude in other fields. There seem to be multiple parallel organizations in India some extraordinarily talented and some extremely debilitating.

Other developing countries in Asia and outside have made quite a progress. China hosted the Olympics. Korea co-hosted the World Cup Football. Both events happened without any hiccups. 

Can India scrape through with the CWG games? Or will it be an embarrassing disaster? 

This is a news report on 24th Sep 2010 on how India bribed its way to being awarded the games
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/events-tournaments/commonwealth-games/top-stories/India-bribed-72-nations-to-get-Delhi-CWG-Report/articleshow/6616467.cms) and another on how it might be better to award the games to the private sector to organize (http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2010/09/24/privatise-the-commonwealth-games/.)  There is another interesting blog about Emaar Properties (http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/richardspencer/100055018/dubais-unique-contribution-to-the-commonwealth-games/). This is another one about what India can learn from its mistakes (http://blogs.reuters.com/global/2010/09/23/at-indias-commonwealth-games-shame-might-be-a-blessing/).
How many more incidents and embarrassments will we see in the next one month? How and when do we make progress in our security and engineering? 

We need to have the conviction and ability to solve our own problems. We need to progress from providing just manpower in IT and BPO industries for serving Europeans and US customers to creating IP (Intellectual Property) providing solutions. I think it starts with education and research. 

I think the next wave in India will need be Education and research. If we started now, we could become a leader by 2030.

Monday, September 20, 2010

World's Most Beautiful Garages !!!

I used to be mad about cars some 20 years back. I used to take lots of  pictures of cars. Though I am no more as fascinated about cars as I was then, when I saw the pictures of cars and garages that my cousin sent me, I was exhilarated. I thought I would put those pictures up here. Unfortunately some garages don't have cars. Maybe there ought to be an ordinance against having empty garages.

Have fun.





































Sunday, September 19, 2010

Old Photographs Of Kolkata

Couple of friends of mine sent me these photos. I loved them. So here they are. Have fun.

Don't Know Where In Calcutta


Entrance To Ballygunge


BANDEL CHURCH - 1851


ESPLANADE - THE MASJID BEHIND THE PAVEMENT SHOP - 1851


STRAND ROAD - 1885 


GOVERNMENT HOUSE - RAJ BHAVAN - 1860

DALHOUSIE - 1865


ESPLANADE - 1885

Saturday, August 28, 2010

An Interesting Response To A Woman's Query

I recently got this mail (http://imronil.blogspot.com/2011/04/ceos-of-jp-morgan-fantastic-reply-to.html) from a friend.. Another instance of someone who cashed in on my idea.. Its appalling to see that even CEO's (in this case apparently of JP Morgan) stoop down to stealing ideas. On a more serious note, while the question below asked by the woman is a little exaggerated, the answer seemed to make a lot of sense, something that I would say myself. Have fun.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Interesting Pictures

Some friends of mine gave me the following links. I am providing the links to the pictures here.

http://img.izismile.com/img/img2/20091102/landscapes_20.jpg. (If I remember correctly, in the 1st picture of camels is from National Geographic and the larger images of camels are the shadows while the smaller images are the real camels. A lovely illusion.   

Here is another link: Autumn In Latvia. http://www.funtoosh.com/gallery/autumn_latvia

Here is a link of flowers (click anywhere in the black portion of the page) http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf


Prenatal Surgery: Very Moving 
http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/samuel.jpg 

A river over another river. So lovely 
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_water_bridge.htm

Hugging the Lions 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oEYH7m1cmo

Here is a picture of Gandhi before his assassination (I don't own the copyright for this picture. I could not find the link to this picture).



Saturday, June 26, 2010

FIFA World Cup 2010 Results From The Last 16 Stage: Predicton vs Actual

 Shown below is the schedule for the last 16 games.

(Taken from FIFA Site)

The predictions are listed below. (W = Winner, L = Loser)
                                                        Predicted W       Actual W         Points
Match 49: Jun 26. Uruguay-Korea.          Uruguay           Uruguay (2-1)       1
Match 50: Jun 26. USA-Ghana.               Ghana              Ghana   (2-1)        1
Match 51: Jun 27. Germany-England.       Germany          Germany (4-1)       1
Match 52: Jun 27. Argentina-Mexico.       Argentina         Argentina (3-1)      1
Match 53: Jun 28. Netherlands-Slovakia.  Doesn't Matter  Netherlands (2-1) NA
Match 54: Jun 28. Brazil-Chile.               Brazil               Brazil (3-0)            1
Match 55: Jun 29. Paraguay-Japan.         Paraguay          Paraguay (5-3)      1
Match 56: Jun 29. Spain-Portugal.          Doesn't Matter   Spain (1-0)          NA
1 point for each right prediction at this stage. Total 8 points..

Quarterfinals
Match 57: Jul 2.   Brazil - Netherlands     Brazil               Netherlands (2-1)  0
Match 58: Jul 2.   Ghana - Uruguay         Uruguay            Uruguay (5-3)      3
Match 59: Jul 3.   Argentina - Germany    Argentina          Germany (4-0)      0 
(It's painful to have to contend with an octopus but such is FIFA fever http://bleacherreport.com/articles/412055-england-world-cup-2010-psychic-octopus-predicts-germany-victory. The octopus won!!! For a sneak preview of the octopus in action see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFvrAdyFUJ8&feature=player_embedded) 
Match 60: Jul 3.   Paraguay - Spain         Doesn't Matter Spain (1-0)          NA                         
3 points for each right prediction at this stage. Total 12 points..

Semifinals
Match 61: Jul 6.   Uruguay - Netherlands. Uruguay  Netherlands (2-3)          0                             
Match 62: Jul 7.   Germany - Spain. Argentina        Spain 1-0                     0                                       
7 points for each right prediction at this stage. Total 14 points..

Losing Semifinalist
Match 63: Jul 10.  Uruguay   - Germany.  Brazil       Germany (3-2)              0                                   
16 points for each right prediction at this stage. Total 16 points..

Finals
Match 64: Jul 11. Holland - Spain. Argentina          Spain (1-0)        0

(After reading http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/294056, I am now having second thoughts).
50 points for each right prediction at this stage. Total 50 points..
Max points for all right predictions = 8+12+14+16+50=100 points.. I will keep updating the actual results (and, if possible, the points obtained as the matches proceed..). A big hip hip hooray for the person who either gets more than 33 points or less than 7 points. 
Unfortunately i have accumulated 9 points at the end of the quarterfinals stage and will end with the same 9 points. So I neither get less than 7 points nor more than 33 points.. :(

Incidentally, I was looking at the number of teams participating in the World Cup this year from different regions and the number of teams that have made it to the last 16.
                                               Total        -- Made It To Last --- 
                                          Participants     16     8     4    2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Americas (North and South)               8          7      4    1    0
Europe                                          13          6     3     3    2
Africa                                             6          1     1     0    0
Asia and Oceania                              5          2     0     0   0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                             32        16     8     4    2

Guess that explains why the quota of teams from Asia is lower than for Europe and Americas.. Africa's performance has been very poor in this world cup with only Ghana making it to the last 16. Should FIFA consider increasing the "quota" (of number of teams qualifying in the World Cup) for South America at the expense of Africa?   
Let's see what surprises are in store in the last 16 games.. The 48 games resulted in about 100 goals average a little more than 2 goals per game in the qualifying around.

This world cup has left a bad taste in my mouth.. This is the first time i realized (I am sure its been happening in all other world cups as well) the number of mistakes made by referrees and linesmen. I feel bad for the goal scored by Gerrard in England's match against Germany which was disallowed.. A lesser game like cricket has made use of technology by having a 3rd umpire which has largely eliminated wrong decisions. Football, which is so much more popular, still lives in the stone age when it comes to preventing wrong decisions.  A friend of mine quoted her father as saying that a "3rd umpire" was difficult to implement in football since it takes a lot of time to get the right decision and it would affect the flow of the game.. I dont agree. How much time does it take for us to see the replay.. 4 seconds? 5 seconds? Is it too much if it can avoid the 2 or 3 wrong decisions (with goals, offsides, fouls) that we see in every game? When will FIFA wake up?

Sunday, June 13, 2010

About Football, Goals And Saves: Videos


For an explanation of why women don't like football: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cng3P2uthWU

The goal at 1:18s is wowowow. Many of the goals are lobs over the goalkeeper's head. Look at the goal at 7:18. In many of the goals, I couldn't have imagined a goal being possible until after it happened. How many such "goals" are been possible in life when one has given up...
Almost epic goals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GXjRG2g1qQ See at 3:25, how the dark guy saves a goal. It's fantastic.

A lovely video showing celebrations of goals (incidentally a Coca Cola ad) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M3Q54rPjQw
Top 10 Solo Goals of Fifa World Cup http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WaO-62fNCs
Thanks to my friends who gave me some of the links above.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

I Can Understand Sindhi

Few days back I was talking to a (boyish looking) woman whose age (about 3 years old) is less than her height in feet (90cm=3 feet). She and I have gotten into this habit of talking once a week and she will tell me about incidents at home. She is the niece of my friend about whom I have mentioned earlier (http://calmisc.blogspot.com/2009/08/cooking-disasters-in-middle-east.html).

Sometime back apparently there was a rather harsh exchange of words between this woman and her mother about water having been spilled by one of them. Each of them thought that the other was the guilty party.

And I used to ask this woman about it each time we spoke. And she would shake her head and say "meine nahi giraya" (I didn't spill it). And later she got into the habit of covering her ears whenever she spoke to me expecting me to ask that dreaded question.. I have a suspicion that this woman didn't like to dwell on that spill perhaps because I made it seem like the Exxon oil spill near Valdez.

The last time i spoke to her I asked her whether she spoke Sindhi. She replied "Haan,  mein aapse sindhi mein baat kar rahi hoon" (Yes, I am speaking to you in sindhi)..

After the call I was euphoric. I could understand whatever she was saying and I thought I had learnt a new language without even realizing it..  After some time, better sense prevailed. I understood that I had been taken for a small ride by this woman. Probably its my innocence that makes people take advantage of me..

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

More On My Secret Passion - Fashion Designing

After I read the piece by the Singaporean (mentioned in an earlier blog entry) on money and savings, I was thrilled and ecstatic. It made so much sense.

Then I came across the following piece recently describing someone's fashion design..

" Feminine, free spirited and confident – her label encapsulates all that a woman is- sexy, sensual, and with a mind of her own. The line plays around strong silhouettes, international trends and a very distinct personality. Well heeled, articulate and comfortable in her skin, this woman steers towards graceful, romantic and avant garde creations."

Will somebody pls explain what the above means? (I tried to use google translate. Unfortunately i dont know what the source language is..).

Then I thought how it would be to describe a person (whose designs are somewhat at the opposite end of the spectrum from the one who was described above), just so that writers like me can cover fashion design as well. We writers have to get the feel for the subject and know the right jargon. I thought for a while and here is my attempt:

"Masculine, married and diffident – her label encapsulates all that a woman is- austere, amazon like and with a mind of someone else's. The line plays around weak silhouettes, ethnic trends and a quite indistinct personality. Low heeled, inarticulate and uncomfortable in her skin, this woman steers towards disgraceful, unromantic and avant garde (eeeek what is the opposite of THIS? Insular?) creations.

Well... not bad I should say.. Now I know the jargon to cover the entire gamut of fashion. I think I can start covering fashion shows now..

Friday, November 27, 2009

My Recent Experience With Modeling

My friend Femmo, the designer (who also models occasionally), has been hinting that I would be no good as a model. And she has this nasty streak in her and she taunts me often enough about my inadequacies.

So a few days ago, when an opportunity presented itself, I thought i would give it a shot. When most of the people in the house had left, I quickly got ready and started practicing the walk which (if you have noticed carefully) goes something like


                                X
                                X
                                X
                                X
                                X

If the reader is at a loss to make sense out of this, I can quite understand. I was trying to graphically show how a model should walk. The right foot should not be moved forward but should be moved at an angle of 45 degrees so that it is now directly in front of the left foot. Then the left foot is moved forward again at an angle of 45 degrees. The pattern of the walk should be like how you braid your hair, if you get what I mean. For those who are familiar with chess, you will know how the knight moves (distinctly different from how the rook moves in a straight line). As a model you are expected to walk somewhat like a knight. Part step forward and part lateral..

This walk has to be graceful and you have to especially careful when you are alone. You won't have anyone to help you out in case you end up in a tangle of legs.

(see this if you want to see a video explaining the walk.. Kangana learnt it from me. 

http://ishare.rediff.com/video/Entertainment/fashion-kangna-scorches-the-ramp-again/1975619).

I got properly attired and was practicing in front of a select audience when I found myself facing what is commonly known in the industry as "wardrobe malfunction". My audience wanted to play with me and vigorously tore something from me and there I was left standing in a 2 piece outfit (consisting of my shorts and one slipper; the other slipper being taken away by my audience much to my consternation). The astute reader might now have guessed that my audience consisted of one dog. And the dog wanted me to play with him.

And here I was, tense with my debut experience. And right then and there I took a picture of the stage and my audience. You can see the picture below..


The afternoon had started with the agenda being a catwalk. At the end as you can see in the picture, the dog had walked out on me..

While Femmo might giggle and come up with a "I told you so" sneer, I can tell her that I am probably the only person in the entire industry who can model and shoot a picture simultaneously while having part of my outfit come apart. So there.. Maybe I wont make it to Milan next Spring but...

Popular Posts

Annual Performance Review

  A Better Way to Evaluate Employees