Sunday, November 26, 2006

Dhoom 2 aka Doom 2

Its a movie that has so many flaws, that you start to believe that it is an amateurish movie, of course until you have a closer look at the cast. (And yes, read this list after you've watched the movie - if you're sure of watching the movie, that is).

1. The thief never gets shot while he is being dragged by the train, and the security officer is taking shots at him.

2. The thief is being dragged by this train, and suddenly he jumps back on top of the train, hitting the security officer.

3. If the thief was trying to write an "A" across the world by the locations of his heists, why on earth was he going back to Junagarh after Mumbai?

4. What sewer lid was that got corroded within seconds? (Cast Iron lids don't corrode) And why did none of the police officers try to follow him? And how did he fly out of a sewer lid on he road a few seconds later? Did he get sufficient time to change his dress? Is he doing a Krrish again here?

5. Was the security blind that they could not see a 4"x6" Remote Controlled car moving right under their feet? Or were they all looking at the ceiling? And even when the RC dished out a 2' long arm to pick up the diamond (who keeps a diamond without enclosures anyway?). And how come the blind securitywallas didn't notice someone looking alternately at the controller and the car repeatedly?

6. How come the sharpshooter policewoman who had been tracking this thief for 2 years suddenly disappear from the movie when push came to shove?

7. How did the Snowhite's dwarfs reduce their height by a full 2 feet?

8. How did the thief fall hundreds of feet into water when "shot" repeatedly by his accomplice and survive?

To be fair, Hrithik Roshan brings good acting and some good stunts to the table. Abhishek Bachchan looks grumpy throughout the movie. Bipasha makes a quick entry and then fades away just as fast. Aditya Chopra is in the movie to provide an occassional laugh, and he does his job fairly.

If you don't mind the glaring technical flaws, well, you may just try your luck in the Cinema. You may just like it.

Else just stay way from it.

Why AajTak sucks

1. It shows more ads than news. On top of it, the quality of its ads (Pataka 502 tea, Lux Cozi undershirts, Kamdhenu TMT bars etc is downright pathetic, to say the least).

2. It repeats its content so often, that it hurts.

3. Today it covered Amitabh/Amar Singh/Abhishek/Aishwarya visit to Varanasi for a full 3 hours. It was mighty painful - India had lost just hours ago to SA, and I wanted to get a detailed coverage on that. Instead, all AajTak was showing interviews with Pandits, and its own speculations on who looked happy, who looked coy, and whatever that implied. Damned. Why don't you call yourself Aaj Tak Tabloid TV. And you kept covering that for 3 hours. Hell, had all of India been watching the TV at that time, you'd have wasted 3 billion hours of people's time.

4. Prabhu Chawla sucks big time in "Seedhi Baat". Instead of sounding an authoritative journalist and asking penetrating questions, he appears to be appeasing the guests, and begging them for some answers. Duh. Take some inspiration from Karan Thapar and Shekhar Gupta.

If someday you feel that you've been healthy and cheerful for too long, just watch Aaj Tak.

And for those, who're thinking of subscribing to Aajtak (International programming), consider yourself warned.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Why comparisons between India and China are absurd?

I am sick of all these articles that have been emanating from Indians worldwide for so many years: How Indian Tiger will tame the Chinese Dragon. In my opinion, these opinions are based far less on reality than wishful thinking on the part of Indians.

Chinese are building 108 new airports between 2004 and 2008, including the world's largest, Beijing international Airport, designed by Foster and Partners. On the other extreme, Indian airports are filthy, ill-equipped and swarming with touts. Indians are resisting tooth-and-nail any improvement to their airports, that are worse than many developed countries' train stations.

Chinese population is stabilizing, with the population growth rate as low as 0.59% (estimated, CIA WorldFactbook). Agreed, that a lot of coercion has gone behind the fulfillment of the Chinese objective of a stable population. But all this is now beginning to yield fruit. While with a stabilizing population promises that the fruits of Chinese prosperity would be more tangible to its people, India is consistently losing the fruits of its boom to ever-burgeoning population, which, even now grows at 1.38% (estimated, CIA WorldFactbook).

China has averaged growth of 10% over last 2 decade. Not only has China outpaced India in the rate of growth for each of these 20 years, it had a far bigger GDP compared to India to begin with. You do the math.

The proponents of the Tiger overtaking Dragon often point out that India is a democracy, and that would eventually turn out to be better for India, and investments would pour into India because the investors would see India as a better investment option. This has not happened in the last 15 years, and I still don't see it coming. China attracted an FDI of 40 billion in 2000, while India managed 3.1 billion. (Some Indians point out to differences in computation of FDI, that adjusted China's FDI to 20 billion, and increase Indian FDI to 8 billion. That still leaves China's FDI 2.5 times that of India). Chinese administration has its own flaws, freedom being the topmost casualty, but the world's largest democracy is also fairly feeble. Regional and ethnic strife, and religious issues are extremely disruptive to the business climate (an ample example, why Bihar, one of the most natural resources rich state attracts hardly any industry). Every new administration reverses the decisions made by the previous one, or orders enquiries - not very conducive to creating a good investment friendly environment - as Enron would readily testify. In comparison, with the exception of Tiananmen Square, China has experienced a good deal of peace and tranquility.

While China's share in the World Trade is roughly 6%, India's is less than 1%. Chinese GDP is more than twice that of India's. China's literacy rate is 91%, compared to 60% of India. And everyone knows what literacy means in India.

While China is going around, signing contracts with nations around the world, assuring itself of energy supplies for the years to come, regardless of the regimes, India, is taking the high road (of not dealing with questionable regimes), and missing the bus.

The recent growth rate of 8.1% in the second quarter of 2006 for India (S&P estimates a growth rate of 7.6% for the year) might not really be a sign of things to come, or a source of optimism, but maybe just be cyclical. This is buttressed by the fact that in 2006, the developing world (including Sub-Saharan Africa) has averaged a growth rate of 4.8% and China has averaged 11.1% for this quarter (and the World Bank estimates a growth of 10.4% in 2006). Even Pakistan has managed a growth rate higher than India.

Finally, while China has developed its economy in a planned way, creating linkages between its manufacturing, service and agriculture sectors, Indian economic development is more haphazard. Hardly a million Indians work in the IT and ITES (IT Enabled Services) sector. This constitutes less than a quarter of a percent of Indian workforce, and its contribution to economy is less than 10%. In addition, a lot of ITES is back office and call center work, that produces no intellectual capital, and is prone to moving elsewhere for precisely the same reason it moved here. Indeed, Chinese are learning English in a big way, and believe it or not, competition is going to threaten this one biggest bastion of Indian industry.

The difference between Chinese and Indian growth is that while Chinese growth has been FDI-dependent, Indian has been more organic, and intrinsic. That has led to many more entrepreneurial ventures in India, compared to China. Many more Indian companies are listed in the Fortune 500 list, compared to those from mainland China.

The huge monetary inflows have caused the banks to give out non recoverable loans, and the NPAs of banks in China may be as large as 50%. At some time these would have to be written off. At that time the investment in more productive area would take a hit. While India also has large NPAs, at 15%, they are significantly lower than China's.

Chinese growth has been because of the government, and Indian has been inspite of it. Till the Indian government changes for the better, or the Chinese government changes for the worse, don't expect miracles to happen. And till that happens, all the pipe dreams of India overtaking China are well...just pipe dreams.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

What's happened to the famed Indian Cricket team?

The short answer - they've been shown their correct position.

While I never had any doubts that the perceptions of the Indian Cricket team were spindoctored to suit the needs of the Chappell-More-Pawar (CMP) cartel, now it has become more than clear that Indian tigers were tigers in India. Outside the subcontinent, they became meek cats, and got their ass whipped repeatedly.

The experimentation with position rotation has failed repeatedly - but a stubborn Chappell is persisting with it because he can't be seen in public acknowledging his mistakes.

The extraordinay trust reposed in Sehwag, Pathan and Kaif has backfired. India has repeatedly lost matches, and they've not returned to form. If lack of form was the reason for dropping Ganguly, then keeping these three can never be justified.

The team has not learnt to be professional like the Australians. When the wickets are falling around you, you should not be chicken and throw your wicket away - as the team still does. They never know when to pace the innings and when to chase with singles.

What was the use of the parachute training and the millitary training in Bangalore? Was it another attempt to hoodwink people into believing that Chappell has tricks up his sleeve that would change the face of Indian Cricket? (Yes they have - for the worse).

Why're people like Ganguly and Zaheer being kept out? Why the vendetta being allowed to influence the team selections?

Indians never ask tough questions - because if they did, and demanded results, Chappell, who has an extremely dismal record before coming to coach India would have already been on the flight back to Australia.

The new comedian on the block : Arun Lal

Watching cricket these days is more for comedy's sake than for the game itself. The reason - Arun Lal - the commentator.

In the last game against West Indies, he was referring to some "ridge" on the pitch which was causing the Indian batsmen to get out cheaply (?). And he kept mentioning it over and over again till Tony Craig snapped "Wait a minute. A ridge is convex, this is concave. This is simply a depression". To this, pat came the reply from Arun Lal "You're absolutely right. This is a depression".

In the last game against Australia, he used these words repeatedly : "purchase", "as far as India is concerned", and "relish". I doubt the correctness of sentenses like "he is getting purchase from the wicket". Arun Lal used them with impunity. Of course you can use the other 2 words/phrases (concerned and relish), but abuse is more like what happened with Arun Lal.

With an overall average of < 10 runs per innings in ODIs, he was never one of the greats of the game. For this reason, Arun Lal doesnt add value - he just speaks what he sees - as mechanically as a news reader.

Why do I think he's still getting the contracts to comment in the matches? Probably because the foreigners like to be paid in dollars(gets multiplied by 45), while Arun Lal relishes payments in Indian Rupees. And also because a certain Mr Sidhu is busy with The Great Indian Laughter Challange.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

GMAT !!

After getting 750 in GMAT and 118 in ToEFL (not bad, eh?) I thought I just as well might do my bit to help those who're walking in the same shoes I walked in some time ago.

Check out http://www.mbacountry.com and let me know what you think. Leave answers for those who seek them, ask questions if you need to know, and yeah, leave feedback for me. Spread the word if you like what you see. And well, if you don't like what you see, still spread the word - you never know who might !!

Friday, July 21, 2006

Right Brain Left Brain

Today I had an interesting discussion with Prakash (I think he almost always has interesting stuff to talk about - when he is really in the mood to talk).

The left brain is the analytical center of our brain. It processes the logical and numerical parts of our perceptions and thoughts. On the other hand, the right brain is the overall perception center of our brain - it does not break things down into smaller components, but tries to understand the overall, bigger picture.

At first it is a little difficult to figure out why would someone not be interested into breaking down a picture into smaller components, and would want to see a bigger picture (that might not even make a lot of sense). I might be able to provide an example, thought it might be quite wrong - Two Hydrogen atoms, combine with one of Oxygen to create a molecule of water. The properties are drastically different. This shows that aggregates can not always represent the properties of the constituents.

Prakash mentioned that if someone shows us a picture and asks us to draw it, if we use our left brain, we would see the picture and draw the picture as we see it and not how it really is. This is profound, because this implies that if I see a garden and I recognise flower A and flower B, when I draw it back, I draw flower A and flower B as I have always known them to look like, and not as I saw them.

Interesting.

One way of force-using our right brain would be to put the picture upside-down so that our left-brain can't recognise the broken down parts. If we redraw that upside-down picture, we would need to repeatedly look at the original picture, because the left brain has failed to break it up into recognisable forms.

In other words, your right brain is working.

Back to square one

Well, I am back.

It has happened so many times. I come back, only to vanish again. Possibly because I am lazy. I think I just need to kickstart my life. I waste time, and so whatever I can do possibly, I don't (notice it is don't and not can't).

Anyway, what I think I need is a bit of creativity, intersting stuff to do, and a kick to get kickstarted.

Here's wishing me a long long journey indeed.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Reservations in India

India just took a step backwards. The Americans, the Chinese and other competitors can take a sigh of relief. The government announced that it would implement another 27% reservations in educational institutes from the academic session commencing June 2007. This country cannot remain competitive anymore.

The reservations, or quotas, as they're popularly referred to in India, have always been a hotly debated topic. The Indian version of Affirmative Action, they were initiated in the 1950s to help the "oppressed castes" to come up to speed. Originally meant to be implemented for a period of 10 years, they've gone from strength to strength, not only managing to be in existance for about 50 years, but also increasing from 22.5% to now almost 50%.

This affirmative action comes at a tremendous cost though. The cost of denying admission to thousands of extremely deserving students from the "upper castes" who fail to make it to the Institutes they want to go to, because their seats are handed over to someone from the "lower caste". And the cost of decrease in the Nation's productivity.

Naturally, reservations have left a bitter taste in the mouth of the upper castes, who have endured them for 2 generations now. Worse, the beneficiaries of the reservations are mostly the rich in the lower castes. To add insult to the injury, many of them are second or third generation beneficiaries of the reservations.

Many students from the lower castes, are not capable of making full use of the reservations, and take the convoluted (and consequently longer) path to graduate, sometimes failing multiple times. The build-up of resentment also causes them to be looked down upon by the students from the upper castes. All this causes many to drop out of the very Institutes for which another meritorious student was denied entry.

In an opportunity-strapped nation like India, where extreme competition exists for getting admission into choicest Institutes, the reservations are resented by the upper castes who view them as a wrong to correct another wrong.

Solutions to problems cannot be found at the same level at which the problems arose. The government, oblivious of its responsibilities plays vote-bank politics and closes its eyes on the reality.

Till the government does not see the upper castes as a vote bank, I am afraid, the upper castes are going to be treated as lower castes in this country.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Quota in Cricket

I didn't write it. Its racist. It clubs everyone together in one group. I think its unfair. But I think its funny, and it does drive home the point that bothers me and many others. So lets roll.

I think we should have job reservations in all the fields. I completely support the PM and all the politicians for promoting this. Let's start the reservation with our cricket team. We should have 10 percent reservation for muslims. 30 percent for OBC, SC/ST like that. Cricket rules should be modified accordingly. The boundary circle should be reduced for an SC/ST player. The four hit by an OBC player should be considered as a six and a six hit by a OBC player should be counted as 8 runs. An OBC player scoring 60 runs should be declared as a century.

We should influence ICC and make rules so that the pace bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar should not bowl fast balls to our OBC player. Bowlers should bowl maximum speed of 80 kilometer per hour to an OBC player. Any delivery above this speed should be made illegal.

Also we should have reservation in Olympics. In the 100 meters race, an OBC player should be given a gold medal if he runs 80 meters.

There can be reservation in Government jobs also. Let's recruit SC/ST and OBC pilots for aircrafts which are carrying the ministers and politicians (that can really help
the country).

Ensure that only SC/ST and OBC doctors do the operations for the ministers and other politicians. (Another way of saving the country)

Friday, April 21, 2006

An Oil Obsessed Nation

Americans are an oil obsessed nation. Why, this nation consumes 3 times more oil than China (when its population is less than a fourth of China's) it consumes about 12 times more oil per capita than China.

Its time for Americans to realize that their lifestyles can be supported no more. And they better learn to live like others in the world. Use smaller cars. Give up on SUVs. Carpool. Vacations are NOT for driving long distances. Learn to use public transport. And instead of exhorting their government to do something about high oil prices, exhost them to invest in public transport infrastructure. (Well, their government is doing all it can already - they're drawing oil from Iraq, they've good ties with Saudi Arabia, to guarantee steady supply of oil. More than that, they'd have to go into Iran, Venezuela and Nigeria!!).