OPINIONS BOULEVARD

Partition: Good or Bad

2007-11-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

Growing up I always felt that the partition of India and Pakistan was a huge mistake, the and the ill-effects of it are visible to this day. And especially the constant wars with pakistan made me feel that if we were one But looking at the mess in Iraq, I was forced to reconsider my thoughts. I now think, was it really a mistake? would things have been worse otherwise?
The situation in Iraq is such that the two major Islamic sects, (which are almost equal in number) at this time cannot exist together. Under the Sunni Saddam Regime, there was order in the country bcoz the shia's were always oppressed, and had no say in the government. But now it is a power struggle, and neither sect would want to give away even a part of the power. And it makes me think that since they cannot exist together it is better they live seperately in their own different countries.
Could the partition situation in our country been handled better? What if the country was not split? Would it have been a better place to live in or would we have had an Iraq like situation?

World's Richest from India

2007-10-29T08:51:00.000-07:00

Mukesh Ambani becomes the richest person in the world.
Rising Indian Stocks took the net worth of Mukesh Ambani past Bill Gates and Carlos Slim
His net worth now stands at $63.2 billion, while Gates and slim are at $62.29 billion each.

Ambani's wealth comes from his three group companies viz; Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd.

Its great to see an Indian reach the pinnacle that too from an Indian company

Source: sify.com

I-Phone Communications

2007-07-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

The recent launch of the I-phone has seen a lot of mad rush for the phone. AT&T, is the exclusive wireless company in the US, which is offereing the I-phone. But Apple gets the entire $500 average selling price of the phone plus a cut of AT&T's monthly subscription fees over the life of each two year contract.For UK, Vodafone was offered a similar deal, which it turned down, and now the exclusive partner in the UK would be O2, while Orange and T-Mobile are the partners for France and Germany respectively.
Earlier, in the US, Verizon would not succumb to such an agreement. So now its left to see who wins in the long run, whether Verizon and Vodafone for sticking to their guns, or AT&T and O2 for carrying the Iphone, inspite of such agreements. But with first week sales of i-phone hitting half a million it does'nt look all too rosy for vodafone.

Cheque Scams

2007-05-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been hooked onto Radio Talk Shows, and I heard some very interesting piece of news today.

There was this guy somewhere in Florida, who put up his couch for sale on craigslist for $200. Enquires started flowing in, and he got this email from some lady who said wanted the couch and would pay for the couch and the shipping charges for sending it to her. He did get a cheque from her by UPS overnight, a week later for $4500. On enquiry he was told that it was a mistake by the secretary, and he could cash the cheque and send the remaining money with the shipment. To cut a long story short, it is a scam, wherin the person sends stolen cheques to you and wants you to send them the money after you deposit the cheque and after a few days when the bank tries to clear it, you get caught for identity theft and they get the cashed amount.

More such instances were people dating online, and having the other person (after they become comfortable) send them cheques to cash, and after that it works the same way.

A dealer on ebay, had a customer send him a cheque for $7000 for buying some PS/2’s and requested the remaining money (around $2000) to be sent back along with the PS/2’s. He suspected something fishy, and went to his bank, and they called the toll – free number at the back of the cheque (it was a Chase Bank cheque) to verify the authenticity which was confirmed. A gut feeling with the dealer made him wait for a few more days before he sent the money and he later got a call from his bank saying the cheque was fraud and that the number at the back of the cheque was made up too and it went to the scammer who verified the authenticity of the cheque.

A bank confirmed that on an average they get cheques like this once in 10 days.
Be careful while dealing and doing any such business online, most of the cases you will find the other person communicating only by email.

Mehngaa Mumbai

2007-05-23T14:20:00.000-07:00

According to a study conducted by International Human Resource organisation ECA International, Mumbai has been listed as the 7th most expensive city to live in.
The rising property prices in India in general and Mumbai in particular, are cited to be the primary reason for this.
Hong King leads the list, followed by Tokyo, New York, Moscow, Seoul and London.
High Rentals in these cities cause the living costs to go up. Mumbai and Shanghai suffer from the lack of well equipped and modern facilities, hence inflating the price for facilities which do.
Shanghai, Caracas (Venezuela) and Paris fill up the remaining 3 slots in the list

Google Humor

2007-05-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

I was planning a few trips for this summer, and while taking directions, a typo gave me driving directions from Europe to the United States. I could'nt believe what I saw, but it did give me a hearty laugh

Sued Seoul’ites

2007-05-03T07:04:00.000-07:00

One of the more bizarre piece of news I have heard.
Jin Nam Chung and Ki Chung, (like most other South Koreans in US), have a dry cleaning business, but one irate customer has made their ‘American Dream’ into a Nightmare.
They are being sued by one of their customers, who is a District of Columbia administrative judge over a missing pant for $65 Million.
Wow, that must be a really expensive pant for a judge to wear.
Chung’s would be pretty disappointed and kicking themselves for not paying the $1000 earlier asked for.
You can read the full story here.
I really think it unfair for the Chung’s. Comment your take on this...

India getting richer

2007-02-20T09:22:00.000-08:00

SOURCE: TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Stock images of an India full of half-naked beggars and hungry children may soon get a quiet burial. That's because more Indians are getting richer than anybody else in the Asia-Pacific region. At the end of 2005, the number of high networth individuals (HNWI) had risen to 83,000 -- a 19.3% increase over the previous year.These findings were the outcome of a survey by Merrill Lynch, a global financial advisory outfit and Capgemini, an IT services and business consulting company. The survey defines HNWIs as individuals with net financial assets of at least $1 million, excluding their primary residence and consumables.Interestingly, almost 7% of these people are 30 years or younger. And between all of them put together, they hold $290 billion in assets, representing 3.8% of total HNWI wealth in the region.These findings come close on the heels of a recent report released by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) which said that India has now emerged as the fastest growing wealth creator in the world. Over the last five years, the number of millionaires being churned out of India is growing in excess of 15% each year."Robust growth in the Indian economy and a booming stock market were the key wealth drivers,'' said Pradeep Dokania of DSP Merrill Lynch. "Interestingly," he added, over the last three years, "we have seen a steady rise in the number of professionals being added to the HNWI population as against entrepreneurs."In all the markets surveyed, most of the HNWIs were male. However, the ratio of men to women differed dramatically, depending on the maturity of the economy. Women accounted for a greater share of the HNWI population in Hong Kong (31%), Singapore (24%) and Japan (30%) than in South Korea (13%), India (17%) and China (25%).

Which is important, Football or Child?

2007-01-25T09:53:00.000-08:00

While listening to a morning talk show, I heard a bit of news which really threw me off. A couple in IL, who claim to be die-hard fans of the Bears, got an opportunity to prove their claim. Colleen Pavelka, who was 9 months pregnant, and due to deliver on monday the 22nd of Jan, didnt want to risk going into labor when the Bears played New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship on Sunday. She took the option of induced labor on friday, so that her husband could watch the game on sunday, after nearly 6 hours of labor the child was born.
Was wondering, are people really that crazy about a game, that they are ready to jeopardize the birth of their child. Would they have forgiven themselves if something went wrong in the early delivery?
And to top it all, the show had a survey asking listeners to call and answer "If they would have done the same thing"and 9 out of 17 callers said "YES". One lady said that they had planned the pregnancy so that there was no chance of a delivery anytime during Football season.
I think some people just need to get their priorities right

relationships have an expiry date??

2007-01-21T08:29:00.000-08:00

I read this somewhere today, “All relationships have an expiry date”

This really made me think, is this really true? Don’t relationships last forever? Reflecting back on all close people I have met in life, was trying to count with how many people I still feel the same, how many of us are still in touch. And I can think of just a handful of people. With most of them the relationship is just not the same, the closeness, the bond that we shared feels so different now, and in fact many of them are not in touch, and I don’t know if I will ever meet them or speak to them again. Of course, life is a journey where you meet people and then you move on, and meet more people.

Maybe it’s true, ‘Relationships do have an expiry date’.

Dangerous

2006-11-15T19:59:00.000-08:00

St. Louis has not just topped the major Baseball league, but also topped the list for being the most dangerous city to live in the United States.

It’s not a big surprise considering that it has ranked among the top 10 for years now, and with the crime rate surging by nearly 20% since 2004, it has finally reached the top.

The other regulars, Detroit MI, Camden NJ, Birmingham AL also feature in the list.

For a full list of cities ranked from the safest to the most dangerous, check out the rankings on USA Today.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-30-city-crime-list_x.htm

Shahrukh Says...

2006-11-04T13:14:00.000-08:00

Here is a collection of quotes from one of my favourite actors today. Enjoy...

"I'd die if people didnt recognise me. I would not be able to walk on the road if people didnt mob me. That's what I work for."

"I look upon life as a book. And the people I love are like the rose petals kept in between the pages. Each time I turn a page of my life, I find a rose petal reminding me of beautiful memories. "

"Doing good is the only religion."

"I am very shy. If I am flying British Airways and the airhostess asks me two questions, and I don't understand her accent - I will go hungry for the entire flight."

"Often I don't say hello to people for fear that they may not remember me"

"I think if you take sexuality very seriously it becomes very oily."

"I don't sit around complaining about the lack of good roles. I will play Raj 85 times and still make him different."

"You never win the silver. You only lose the gold."

"I am like a Rolls Royce which can run without an engine, just on reputation."

"There are only two Khans. Ghenghis Khan and Shahrukh Khan"

"I don't kiss on screen. Period. "

"I am not confident unless I am playing someone else."

"If I talk to a girl, it's assumed that I'm having a scene with her. If I don't, then it's assumed that I'm gay. "

"I work like a retailer. I sell my services, take my money and keep it in the bank. "

"Maybe the country doesn't pray for me like they do for Sachin Tendulkar, but I know I'm on a good wicket as well. "

"Whenever I fail as a father or husband... a toy and a diamond always works. "

"I'd rather sink trying to be different, than stay afloat like everyone else"

"Awards that ignore me are losers"

" I'm try-sexual. I try anything that's sexual."

"I'd like to believe there's a little of Hitler and Napoleon in me. Even if I try, I can't be as selfless as Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa."

"I thank God for happiness AND sadness... if you're never sad you'll never know how good happiness is"

Desi Pay Cheques

2006-08-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

Now, here are some Famous Indian Pay Packets

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh 2005 pay: Rs.3,60,000
Pay per minute: 57 paise

President Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam 2005 pay: Rs.6,00,000
Pay per minute: Rs 1.14

Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan Bank Balance: Rs 13 crores
Pay per minute: Rs.247

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan:
Pay per minute: Rs. 361

Reliance Group Chairman Mukesh Ambani 2005 pay: Rs 21.72 crores
Pay per minute: Rs 413

Cricket Star Sachin Tendulkar 2005 pay: Rs 61.15 crores
Pay per minute: Rs 1,163

Famous Pay Checks

2006-08-12T18:46:00.000-07:00

Steven Spielberg2005 pay: $332 million

Pay per minute: $632

Howard Stern2005 pay: $302 million
Pay per minute: $575

George Lucas2005 pay: $235 million
Pay per minute: $447

Oprah Winfrey2005 pay: $225 million
Pay per minute: $428

Jerry Seinfeld2005 pay: $100 million
Pay per minute: $190

Tiger Woods2005 pay: $90 million
Pay per minute: $171

Dan Brown2005 pay: $88 million
Pay per minute: $167

Jerry Bruckheimer2005 pay: $84 million
Pay per minute: $160

J.K. Rowling2005 pay: $75 million
Pay per minute: $143

Dick Wolf2005 pay: $70 million
Pay per minute: $133

And the Biggest of them All...

Lakshmi Mittal: Worth $23.5 billion
Pay per minute: $3,130

Bill Gates: Worth $50 billion
Pay per minute: $6,659 .
His foundation, which is frequently lauded for its investments in education and antipoverty programs, handed out $2,663 per minute last year

Dabbawalla

2006-07-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

If you have ever been to Mumbai, you would know what I am talking about. The Dabbawalla's are a familiar sight in streets, trains, offices, in Mumbai city. Before you ignore this and start to think what is the big deal about a tiffin carrier, consider this.

The dabbawallas are a part of India's most Efficient Networking System. Around 4500 dabbawallas transport approximately 200,000 dabbas everyday across 25 km of mumbai in 3 hours. The union known as Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association was started around 120 years ago, and today is an integral part of the mumbai way of life, supplying the office-goers with home-made food. Mumbai is truly a cosmo city, with people from various parts of the country making their living here, and though there is no dearth of places to eat in mumbai, nothing can replace a home-cooked meal and they supply just that for a monthly fee.

The dabbawallas have been given a six sigma rating (This rating indicates a 99.999999 accuracy percentage of correctness) by forbes for their business practice, and their business model is being studied by various management institutes. In 1970's BBC had covered a documentary of these people and more recently Prince Charles expressed his desire to meet them, and did so in 2003 . Apart from being shot in Canadian and American documentries they have also been guest lectures at premier management institutes like the IIM's, NITIE,
symbiosis, among others. Corporate heads recognize them and Management Gurus consider them to be a prime example of management guru Michael Porter's Five Forces Theory at work.

More recently the dabbawallas have gone hi-tech, by launching a website for themselves, and being available by mobile phone sms.

Ek Chaah hain dil mein

2006-05-10T17:30:00.001-07:00

Ek Chaah hain dil mein ke kuch kar dikhaaun
Badalo ko cheer du aasmano ko chu jaaun
Saari duniya pe ho nazar hamaareen
Zindagi ke ek aise shikhar pe pahunch jaaun

Dil ki hasratoon ko sajaaun
Apne khwaabon ko hakikat dikhaaun
Intezaar hain ke who din jaldi aaye jab
Zindagi ke lakshya ko haasil kar jaaun

Aaashaao ke deep jalaaon
Armaano ko paar karaaoon
Aisi kashish ho mere andar ke
Har ek dil mein bas jagaaon

Sab hi zubaan pe ho naam hamara
Chamku duniya pe ban ke sitaara
Ho itni izzat hamaari ki
Marne pe jahaan kare maatam hamara

Karz adaa ho jaaye zindagi ka
Maut aaye to mahol ho khushi ka
Sab kuch paalu zindagi se
Na ho armaan koi aur khushi ka

Lok Paritran

2006-05-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

I always fancied having a young educated political party in India. So, when I first heard about this new party called Lok Paritran I was very excited and have been lapping up any piece of news I get about them, but after the initial excitement they raised, I only feel disappointed at their progress.

They have 7 party candidates contesting in Chennai alone, and from discussions I gathered at least in mylapore forums, the candidate is hardly visible to the public eye. Their policy is to not have astronomical expenditure during their election campaigns in a bid to fight corruption which goes on in getting that kind of money. I can totally agree with that, but without widespread campaigning how will the public know more about them. So far their target and their backing has been the youth of India. But is that enough to win the elections? Also, all the publicity I have seen for them is through links on yahoo messenger or online communities, but how many people from the general public in India have access or use these resources. Baring a few open discussion meets and some press releases I have not come across any other campaigning by them.

A friend of mine attended one of their discussion meets, who said that their representatives were not even able to communicate their vision effectively, and that they were least impressive in their discussions. Also not many people knew that they were even having something like this.

The idea is right, but I feel the implementation is not. Their profiles are impressive and their high education should have told them more about the importance of proper advertising. I think they are jumping in too early, and should take some more time in establishing their identity, get involved more with the people, and demonstrate to them what they intend to do. Campaigning does not need to be done by spending huge sums of money alone, but spending more time with the public and being more visible to it I think would go a long way too.

The elections are on May 8, 2006 and I wish them good luck, and hoping they win, if not for anything else at least for a change.

Random Things - Tagged

2006-04-28T18:41:00.000-07:00

Tagged by Raz (The things you come up with J)

Answer these questions instantaneously

1.Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4.
the book is "Tuesday with Morrie" and line 4 has just one word Massachusetts

2.Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.& catch air?
grabbed my phone

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
I dont remember the last time I watched TV

4.Without looking, guess what time it is?
10.20

5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
10:23

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
exhaust fan

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
was at work

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
checking scraps at orkut

9. What are you wearing?
T-shirt and pyjamas

10. Did you dream last night?
dont remember

11. When did you last laugh?
a couple of hours ago, while talking to _ _ _

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
wall clock

13. Seen anything weird lately?
a wierd movie

14. What do you think of this quiz?
crazy

15. What is the last film you saw?
Shaade se pehle

16. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?
lots to list

17. Tell me something about you that I dunno.
I am jealous about you

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Inequality

19. Do you like to dance?
not quite

20. George Bush.
President

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
I cant think so far ahead

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
same thing

23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
I am living abroad

24.What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
Welcome

25. 5 people who must also do this meme in their journal.
I dont think any of them would do it, but here goes

1. Priya

2. Vivek

3. Fatima

4. Malik

5. Shiji

Smart Cars

2006-04-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

Wonder what future cars would offer?

Renault recently presented a concept car Altica, which has a speedometer integrated into a large transparent dice on the steering. The programming is done such that the dice lights up in red when you are going too fast.
Siemens is working on a Bi-Vision Cockpit, capable of displaying data on the windscreen, mostly navigational
Audi is working on a concept where both driver and passenger can observe one screen, split up in two, to watch two different pieces of information, so while the driver is busy trying to figure out the route, you can watch your favorite DVD. Also this would be capable of connecting to the internet.
Future cars would have self-healing software to diagnose and treat system failures before they occur to minimize manitenance.
Cars would be built in wih intersection assistants to tell them what they can expect at a coming intersection.
Speedometers having the ablility to communicate to speed limit signs to warn the driver if he/she is going too fast.
External airbags which would be inflated by a pre-crash sensor to cushion a pedestrian.

Good Ad

2006-04-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

Guys be careful what you tell your wife!!!!

Dont Drink and Drive

2006-04-16T09:44:00.000-07:00

How is that to remove your intoxication?

Love

2006-04-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

Spring is here and Love is in the air, and I guess that is what inspired me to write on this topic
I had always believed that love is a psychological effect. I always felt love can be generated. If one starts thinking that he/she is in love then they would be. I also felt that it was a transferable one, and only depends upon whom you think about, and if you can control your thoughts you can fall in love with that person. I felt that falling in love was not necessary at all and that there is nothing called true love.
But over the years my perception about it has changed significantly. I now feel that maybe love is necessary. I have seen a few friends whose life has changed so much after finding their beloved. I think liking can be generated but love cannot. Love comes from within one's heart, and can fill the heart with emotional bliss.
But I still cannot and dont think I ever will believe in love at first sight, I think one need's to know a person well enough, have a great compatability with that person to actually share the emotion of love.

WHAT IS ...

2006-03-26T17:20:00.000-08:00

Life!!! What is life? Is it a journey or is it the means? Or Is it the purpose or is there a purpose to it? Is it the evolution of an embroyo to its final form, or is it a disintegration towards death

Destiny!!! What is destiny??? Is it what we make or what makes us? Is it something that takes us through life? Or is it we who make it, during the course of life?

Happiness!!! What is happiness??? Is it the thing that we feel when something that we had wanted to happen happens? Or is it something that we want, which makes us to do things that make it happen? Is happiness in what we do? Or is happiness in what we get?

Love!!! What is love??? Is it a feeling? or Is it an emotion? Does falling in love makes us feel bliss? Or is it the bliss that someone gives us that makes us fall in love with them?

Hate!!! What is hate??? Is it a feeling that makes us bitter? Or is it the bitterness that fills us with hate?

JAIL or BAIL

2006-02-18T09:33:00.000-08:00

Salman Khan has finally been sentenced to a year in jail, for killing a black buck in Rajasthan way back in 1998. While it is heartening to see a court decision involving a well known public figure, I am not sure whether the ruling would actually be withheld.

Would Salman khan actually go to jail and serve his sentence after the jodhpur court found him guilty after 8 long years, or would he appeal in high court and extend the court case for another long period or time. If still found guilty he could appeal in supreme court and extend the verdict till the case is completely forgotten. What is interesting is the only eye witness in this case, has been missing for the last two years, and all others accused along with Khan have been acquitted, so was khan the only guilty person among them, or has be been framed?

It is so ironic that the same person who was charged with running a car over human beings sleeping on the platform, has not been brought to law yet (for that charge), while for killing animals he finds himself in jail.

Lets wait and watch whether the ruling by the court prevails, or whether fame, name and money would win the case yet again.

Immigration explosion

2005-12-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

Read in the news yesterday that, more than one in ten people from the current USA population are Foreign Born, in numbers this is a figure of 35.2 million or 12.1% as of March 2005. This is the highest number of immigrants ever recorded in the USA, and this is not including the million's of Illegal immigrants. Of this figure 1.8 million's are South Asians, with Indians being 1.411 million. Mexico provides the higherst number of immigrants at 11 million followed by east asia, south asia, and vietnam.

Statistics show that as far as India is concerned, the period 2000 to 2005 showed a sharp upswing in the number of immigrants at nearly 4,60,000 for the five year period. If this is the figure inspite of stringent immigration requirements post 9/11, decrease in skilled workers visa, the scores of student visa rejects that we saw in India, and a lot of outsourcing; wonder how much this figure would be inflated otherwise.

Would also be interesting to know how many of the US born population are second generation immigrants.

Deadly love

2005-11-25T20:49:00.000-08:00

I have heard a lot about abusive relationships, in-laws killing the daughter in law, husband murdering the wife brutally, but I recently read a shocking piece of news that has me still shaken.

In Anjar (in the state of Gujarat, India) a cameraman named Prakash Parekh took his fiancee on a long drive discreetly, and in the course f the journey he asked her to prove her love to him. The girl Neha Kubadia, in a very filmy way replied that she could die for him. And that is exactly what she had to do. On hearing this he asked her to get down from the car and lie down in front of it. She promptly got down to prove her love and sat on the road in front of his car. He got down from the car and made her lie down, and went back to his car. And believe it or not, he ran the car over her and fled the scene. She was brought to a hospital by a tractor driver, and is now battling for life. She has suffered multiple fractures which may lead to permanent diability, and is right now in a critical condition.

And to think their marriage was to be held on December 5, and their marriage cards printed and distributed. The police are in pursuit of the absconded criminal. Lets pray for Neha's life and also her family.

Gas Gag

2005-11-17T20:08:00.000-08:00

Finally!!!! I could see the gas prices fall below the $2 mark. I saw it y-day at $1.99 and today at $1.95.

The last time I saw it below that mark was I guess in june or even earlier. The already rising gas prices had the hurricane's as catalyst's to cross the $3 mark. I hear that when gas prices rise, the whole US economy maybe on the downslide, but the economy for the state of Texas strengthens, and vice versa. This is owing to the fact that Texas or more specifically the gulf coast is the oil hub for the US and higher gas prices means more money for them.

Though Texas is now the oil hub, the first commercial well drilled in the US was in Titusville, Pennsylvania known as the Drake Well, after "Colonel" Edwin Drake, the man responsible for the well. PA became the most oil productive state in the US but that changed in 1901, when in southeast Texas, oil erupted from a hill (formed by a giant underground dome of salt) and brought the oil price per barrel from $2 to $0.03. Other oil strikes followed in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Colorado, and Kansas. Oil production in the United States by 1909 more than equaled that of the rest of the world combined.

But increased dependence on oil forced US to become an oil - dependent country and today it continues to consume about two-thirds of the world's population.

A tax specialist once told me that the consumption of oil is stablilized over the years and US has not built a refinery for almost 20 years now. What drives the instability in the oil industry is the increased consumption of developing countries like India and China.

your comments...

Captaining team India

2005-11-12T19:41:00.000-08:00

Captaining the Indian cricket team has often been referred to as the second most difficult position to handle behind the post of Prime minister in India. I guess even the prime minister’s actions are not monitored to a degree as the Indian captain’s are on the field.

Ganguly’s place in the side was always in question after the world cup, but it took the new coach Greg Chappell to spill the beans; for which he paid the price. Poor guy, he never knew that popularity and not performance gives a player a berth in the team. There has been a lot of debate on the captaincy issue and here are my views on it.

Ganguly is an aggressive player who goes by his instincts, while Dravid is a very intelligent cricketer, who is very calculative, planned, and plays by the rules. Ganguly’s aggressiveness brought him a lot of success, and people cite his victories as his strong point. What ganguly brought then was a whiff of fresh air after the Azhar era. Azhar was the most successful captain India had, but even then he had to be replaced (even before the match fix scandal), same goes for ganguly, he might have served the country but then it is time to move on. Dravid may not prove to be a better captain than ganguly statistically, but he is the best man at the moment to do the job. Also, statistics show that most of the test victories for ganguly had a major contribution from dravid. And given his mental soudness chances of captaincy burden affecting his performance are low.

Dravid has been the media guy right from the latter part of ganguly’s captaincy and his sound knowledge and belief of what he is doing is always reflected in his words. His luck is shining for him with a series victory to start with, but he always talks about building a team for the world cup rather than winning now. This might be just the team to win it considering that Tendulkar and Dravid might make their last world cup appearance and given their passion for the game would give everything to bring the cup back home. Here’s wishing them the best of luck to realize their dream and ours.

Women abuse

2005-11-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

Abuse to women is something which has been prevalent for ages across all cultures and continents. The extreme of which is rape. Rape’s in India is nothing new, but nowadays we find it in the news more than ever. I don’t know whether it is due to an increase of its occurrences or due to an increase of reported cases. Whatever the case maybe it is something we should hang our heads in shame about.

But what take’s the cake is the rising incidents involving policeman as the culprits. The most disgusting which I read was the one which occurred in Mumbai, where a constable harassed a guy and a girl and asked the girl to come with him to the police station; and then raped her in a police post with the public outside hearing her screams.

I read a headline in one of the online papers which went, “In Delhi, Cops rape and people gang rape” , which reminded me of all the ghastly stories which came out of the cupboard in the capital, and rightly termed the capital as one of the most unsafe places for women.

However, reading more about the latest case I cannot help but think that women are in someway responsible for inviting danger. For example, in this case the victim was waiting at a bus stop at 3am to go to someplace all alone; and then accepted a ride from four unknown guys traveling in a van at that time. I also know of a similar case which occurred at 2am in Mumbai.

And I read about such incidents occurring here in US; frequently in our campus newspaper too. We call ourselves a civilized society, but even in this age such un-humanly and uncivilized incidents occur. In this age where we consider women to be equal to men in all respects, is our progress justified? Your comments folks….

Hurricane and disasters

2005-10-30T11:33:00.000-08:00

There have been a lot of comparisons between the hurricane here and the incessant rains in Mumbai, India; I have made some comparisons too, and here I am penning down my thoughts for the same.

I was in Houston, TX when both Katrina and Rita hit the gulf coast, and I saw both; the victims being brought to safety from new Orleans, and the people fleeing to safety from the texas coast.

The first thing I observed was the Dependence: In India, nobody expected much help from the government and people knew that they had to help themselves, in US; the government’s each step was under the media scrutiny, and the government heavily criticized for failing to match up to the need of the hour. Expectation: The poor in India can expect temporary accommodation (which becomes permanent), blanket, and food till the calamity is fresh in people’s minds, in US they wanted a house, a guaranteed job, other benefits, and life as close to normal as possible, (each victim was given $2000 debit cards to appease them when they were starting to lash out at the government). In India, during such times, we immediately see hotlines to call to know if ur loved one is dead and how to claim their body, in US; I could only see rescue operations for survivors and almost no mention of the dead people.

In India I guess we are so used to hearing about natural and man-made calamities that they no longer hold a shock value. We have become used to such things and know that we have to help ourselves survive. In US, people don’t take things lying down, know their rights, and know that the government has to help them, and are in the least sense self-reliant.

One thing that was common was the enthusiasm and donations to help the victims in both the countries (of course I even saw people donating to save animal victims in US as opposed to humans). Let’s hope and pray that we don’t have to deal with such calamities in any part of the world in the future.

This was my first attempt at writing a blog, your comments would be deeply appreciated and would help me establish my writing style and content for my future posts.

Thanks and have a great time

Hussain