Congrats A.R. Rahman

One of the best musicians in the last decade just won 2 oscars!! very nice, heartiest congrats Mr. Rahman.

What is my Reward for being Fiscally responsible?

Over the last 2 years, D and I have been very conservative, put our money in savings accounts, CDs, employee stock plans etc. We rented a place and cut back on frivolous spending, eating out etc. I have to admit, after all the hard work, it feels good to have a strong portfolio that did not get cut into when the market tanked. In return for this, what do i get in 2009?
The savings rate on my accounts is down to 0.75% and there's a a cloud over my entire team in chicago.
The so-called economists are going to spend billions of dollars on people who bought unreasonable homes, 4-5 bedrooms, swimming pools in Illinois!!! thier fancy big screen tvs and steel appliances for thier unreasonable homes because these people cannot afford to pay for this stuff anymore. Thier loan principal will be reduced and thier intrest rates will be reduced.
WHY?? they made mistakes, they decided to spend thier money unwisely, why should i pay to fix thier issues? the government has some stock answer about this problem but why aren't there any rewards to people like me who were resposible??
Banks need capital infusion?? offer me a 4%, 5% CD for a year, i'll move my money there, im sure there are more like me who could all do that. Forget capital gain taxes, they need to work on lowering taxes on my interest earned. If you are paying to lower prinicpal in my locality, they need to pay my landlord to reduce rents too.
People like me will be paying the high taxes in 2 years to pay for this spending. Why should we, when we got nothing out of it and didnt do anything to cause it?

Where's Satya??

Its been a year and half since i last wrote.. so many things have changed...

-- I am a dad now, its the coolest, awesomest feeling in the world. Little S is my reason to wake up every morning.. he is now running around, mumbling a few words and throws a tantrum like its nobodys business!!

-- My adoptive country has a new prez and altough i want him to show some "hope" and "change" before i can be excited as much as some of the others, i am praying that he succeds because of my next point.

-- The US economy and consequently the world's has gone to hell in a handbasket. As ignorant as I am about financial matters, even i saw this comming a year ago. D and I were preparing for the arrival of lil S and were out looking to buy a house. I went to the banker to get loan information for aroun $350K, which itself was a HUGE amount that i did not have the stomach to spend. The banker offered to loan me $550K and told me to go look for a bigger house!! at this time i barely had money to put 5% down, was not a green card holder yet and D had a temp job!! when i heard this, i started beliving all the "Bubble" rumors in the market then and signed a lease for a bigger apartment. Lo and behold, we are now at a place where Citibank is priced at $1.95 and BAC at $3.50. almost 10 million jobs have been lost in the US and there does not seem to be an end to that yet..

-- I don't think Obama's plan will work, atleast 1 big bank needs to go under, as much problems that will cause the markets, they need to know the worst that could happen.

-- I am getting tired of spending everyday with a sword over my job. Right now, im putting an over/under at 6 months to when my work will come to an end. Its gonna be time to start thinking if i should go back home and move on to the next part of my life or look for something else here and strech it out.

-- I hope i wont be too pessimistic all the time and will write more regularly going forward, I think i want lil S to have an idea of what his dad thought and when..

Piece of Beauty.. the New Ipod Touch

Yes i did buy the new Ipod the day it came out... This piece is the most wondrous device i have ever seen. it is thinner than the IPhone, the wide screen takes your breath away.. I put in some trailers and bought a couple of Itunes videos onto the Ipod, Great resolution, very clear, very sharp. Connected it to my home wi-fi network, got Youtube videos, the browser opened up all my regular sites. I could copy my laptop favorites onto the ipod. It is extremely easy to enlarge the web pages to read easily. I could also set up a second connection at work and access the web there.

Here's the best part, if you download Realplayer 10 beta, it installs an IE plugin. Whenever you watch a video online, a link shows up to download the clip onto your local machine. You can download any clip from Youtube. It is saved onto your local machine in .flv format. you can run it through a shareware software to convert it to .Mp4 and drop it onto your IPOD. This is very cool i don't have to spend $2 for every video on Itunes.

There are some shortcomings with the Touch, 16GB!!! are you kidding me? i have to make a choice of dropping my Himmesh Reshammiya songs to put Rhianna video on this device??? That's just not right. My Songs themselves amount to 35 GB already. Seeing as to how the old Ipod or "Classic" now is available in 160GB i find it crazy that the new devices are only 16GB. I know that that the Touch is based on Flash Memory and not the old whirring Hard Drive. This is great because my old Ipod would whirr itself into a frenzy and heat up my "pocket". The new one is very quick to respond, and faster to Sync. If you have the patience, my bets are on the new Touch being available in 60GB in 2 years.

The Battery SUCCCCKSSSSS!!!! i have to recharge everyday. and i don't even use it a lot. I really cant use it on my long trips to India as this will definitely drain in 3 hours max. Why cant Apple get this right??

There are no cases available for the Touch, since its thinner than the Iphone, u can use any of those. Its been a month since the Touch was released. I am morbidly afraid of scratching my screen. I have it wrapped up in a sandwich wrapper. Yeah that's a good look for this beauty!!! Please wait till the cases come out before buying it.

The touch will not allow me to sync wirelessly, i still have to connect it to my USB port.

Apple has stopped providing ear plugs with the remote control that it once did, this device could use a remote, the screen gets smudged by greasy fingers.

The worst part is that it has no Games!!! dude alteast gimme Solitaire or Tetris!!!!

It is still an awesome new toy. I am very happy i bought it and enjoy playing with it. If you are on the fence about spending the money, go out and get it... leave me a comment if u agree with me or what you don't like about it.

(please look at the picture closely, like the Da Vinci Code, there is a hidden message in it, a first public appearance of the chip off the old block, please leave me messages about it too :-)

Where is Satya?

Sick in bed with flu like symptoms for a week.. yeeech

A newly endangered species.. The Chicago Bear

Last year's most feared monster of the midway was the Chicago Bear Defense. It was supported by an entourage of the gunslinger Sexy Rexy, the lakeshore airline Devin Hester, the flashy wide receiver Benard B, old man Moose, Thomas Jones the orange Ferrari and a stout and veteran offensive line. Together they rolled into Miami for Superbowl XLI. Chicago was proud of its great franchise.

History has registered the Bears flop in rain-soaked Miami but the masses were willing to cut their heroes some slack. They were returning all starters from a year ago and the QB could only get better. A repeat trip to the SB was all but ensured. Hester was to take over on offense and the new tall kid TE from Miami could not be missed even by the diminutive Rexy. Week 5 rolls around and the vaunted Bears are 1-3 and at the bottom of the pile in the NFC North. The offense has scored 3 TDs and the defense allowed 34 points in the fourth quarter against the terrible Lions!!! 34 effing points!!! In the meanwhile Rexy has been benched in favor of old man Griese, the defense has 7 starters injured, Bernard B drops balls like they are hot cakes, the O line cannot stop a fly let alone 300 pound D-linemen, Thomas Jones is gone to the JETS and old man Moose is well an older man Moose.

I was a staunch supporter of Rexy till the Superbowl and chanted along with Lovie "Rex is our Quarterback". After the Superbowl i was not so sure, i wished they opened up the competition to all the QBs but i suspected they knew Griese sucked. Finally after the terrible show against KC, Rexy was benched, effectively ending his career in Chicago. The problems of this team go beyond Rexy though. The receivers are playing scared, u can see them flinch when they are going for the ball, afraid of the hit. Cedric Benson is so soft i could use him as a pillow at night. The O-line is a sieve and worst of all the Offensive coordinator is insane. I wish people would stop protecting that guy Ron Turner and blame him entirely for the lost season.

What do we remember from Rexy's great games last season? him gunning the football down the field into the arms of a flying Berrian who had 10 yds separation from the defensive backs. There was no way he was going to be hit. Where is that play? the OC tried to make Rexy a dink and dunk passer and that is never gonna work. He played for the ol' Ball Coach Spurrier in his fun-n-gun offense. Just take 3 steps back and fling the ball down field. No Plays to the blond TE Gregg Olsen, No plays to ol reliable TE Desmond Clark, No plays for Hester, No two back formation with Benson and Wolfe.. Those two are physically opposite running backs. line them up to run in opposite directions and make the choice on the fly.. let the defensive line figure out who to chase.

Do Something... Next week the Bears take on old man Favre. hes been playing for 15 straight years, the Bears have changed 22 QBs in that time. His team is 4-0 and top of the Division, the Bears are 1-3.. go figure.

Men In Blue.. I love you!!!! Chak Diya

AWESOME!!!! so thats what it feels like to be world champions.. Add to that beating Pakistan for the second time in a tournament to retain the no-loss record in World Cups, it is simply the chocolate syrup on my tub of ice-cream.. When i first started watching T-20 form of cricket, i thought the game would pass India by. The players we had were not really suited for the short version of the game. Australia, South Africa, even England looked to be superpowers in the making. Along comes the first T-20 World Cup and the oldies excuse themselves from the team, Dravid resigns from captaincy of the Indian Team and Mahendra Singh Dhoni is appointed captain for the T-20 and One Day teams. MAHENDRA SINGH DHONI!!! the man is anything but a cricketer, he flails his bat around and its all a hit or miss with him. But i forgot what he has, looks like my man Dhoni here has "IT", the moxie required to get a team to play for him. Man did this group of youngsters respond to him or what!!! beating Australia in the Semis, Beating Pak in the final in the last over.. it feels great to finally beat the greats and be world champions!!!! I would still like the team to set some big goals like a Series win in Australia, an ICC Championship win and finally a Regular World cup win. Out of this, the next ICC Championship and World Cup is to be hosted in India. Can you say "Home Field Advantage"? it is time to let go of Dravid, Ganguly, Agarkar etc.. We still need Tendulkar for the 50 overs game to provide some guidance for the youngsters and if Viru can get back some of his original spark and loose some weight, the two can be a 1-2 punch of role models for the young uns..

Its Great to be an Indian... this week it feels just a little more special and im walking on air

I WANT the new IPOD

Hubba hubba hubba those things look beautiful... Since the IPhone came out a few weeks ago, i was very very tempted to spend $600 and try it out. I currently have the 3rd Generation IPod and i bought that from an impromptu bonus from my manager 4 years ago.. this thing is a dinosour. But the savvy tech guy that i am, i kept up with the rumour blogs that the IPhone without the phone is comming soon. I hate AT&T and will never ever go to them for my cell service. So the declaration yesterday that the new IPod touch is out was music to my ears. I can't wait to get my hands on the 16Gb version late in Sept. My only complain is that its only 16Gb.. i already have 20Gb of songs.. add to that pics and videos.. i just wont have space!! But i still want this beauty.
I read this morning that a lot of the IPhone early adopters were angry about the $200 price cuts. But that makes no sense to me.. that is the reality of technology since man first invented the wheel, I am sure once they realized how popular the invention was, they slashed prices to get more people to use it... But im sure the early adopters were already showing off thier relaxed feet :-) That is the price you pay for wanting to play with toys, new versions will come out, new technologies will replace the ones u own, LCD TVs, Cars, Computers.. we have all seen it happen. U buy something when u want something then enjoy it without looking at price cuts and new versions. Do as i do and wait for the big release to upgrade.. the Wise Satya speaks.

The Dark Knight is stalking my city

Those who know me are familiar with my preference for the blue-eyed alien in blue tights with a red cape, but for the past few weeks my city has been taken over by the other superhero, the dark and mysterious furry mammal. His nemesis Joker has been spotted in his purple convertible just outside "Wayne Industries" - the Board of Trade building in Chi-town. Now there is a burnt up helicopter under the rails of the "EL" at the intersection of Madison and Wells. I take it, there's a crash in the movie :-) Its very fascinating, there are rumors of sightings of the batmobile and the batcycle. I am going to try and hunt them down one of these nights. Maybe i can catch a glimpse of the Batman himself. (I know where he lives), the batcave is Lower Wacker drive..

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom - I swear i liked it better as an English Movie

I enjoyed JBJ, there were some dull moments but all in all i thought watchable movie. I loved Abhi's turn as a Punjabi wannabe (Ricky Thakral), Preity was solid as always, Lara was HOT HOT HOT. The story was the same boy meets girl, boy and girl lie to each other, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl need to cover up those lies. Good music. Just one point though, the Big B needs to stop making these appearances in his sons movies. He looks silly and out of place, let it go daddy ur boy is decent enough to pull in his own audiences.

Another movie note, during the entire movie, Abhi's ringtone was "Hey Handsome", the starting words to Kajrare mouthed by Ash, For the last year or so since Bunty aur Bubli came out, i had recorded those words onto my cell and made it my ringtone.. Dude stole my gal now he stole my ringtone :-)

Aap ka Suroor - HR ki Tanhaaiyaaaaaaa

I have a confession to make.. this may shock some people who read this blog, but here goes.. I am a Himmesh Reshammiya Fan. I love his music, i love his stupid lyrics and belive it or not i can stand his nasally voice. His tunes are the catchiest in the last few years. Plus i can sing along and not feel too bad about my hoarse(horse?) voice :-)
Either way i had made up my mind to watch his movie since i heard they were working on it on my last trip to India. I figured, what the heck, we know he can put together an extended music video. Here's what i thought of the movie, HR cannot act to save his life, Hanssikka or however she spelled her name is a Juhi Chawla wannabe but she doesn't have that cuteness that made Juhi and that eventually made her irritating. Malls (Mallika) is around just for her usual, strip, get into a shower, try and seduce the hero and disappear role. The writing was shoddy and the script very predictable. But i enjoyed very much the couple of jokes the supporting cast cracks on HR in his presence, theres one about his nasally singing, theres one about his cap wearing and there's a scene where he explains his dour expressions. Those jokes got me my $2 worth.
All in all, good songs bad movie, can do better...

Where's Satya?

My thoughts for the month....

>> I missed out on millions of $$ last month because i didn't put my Harry Potter predictions (listed in a much earlier post) into a book and sell it. I was sooooooooooo right!!!
>> I hate spoilers... simply despise people who put them up.. This is supposedly a book for kids, many of us "Kids" have lived these books for 7 years or more.. And then some Idiot posts spoilers on the web, every page possible, MSN, Google u name it they had it. Yes u know what happened to Harrry, whoop de dooo now shut up and let others finish reading the book so they can enjoy the suspense.
>> Deep breaths Satya let go of the anger.....
>> Chef Ramsey of Hell's Kitchen is my kind of guy.. i have been known to blow up like him a couple of times. He's funny and He's consistent...
>> Wait did India just escape a bad loss and then come back to win a test in England... im gonna walk around next week with all my fingers crossed... Maybe just maybe it will rain for 3 days and my Men in Blue will finally win a Test Series outside the sub-continent for the first time since 1984.. Sachin, Saurav, Laxman, Kumble if u guys want a crowning moment before u retire this is it.. I think this time u have some divine help on ur side or someone sold thier souls to u-know-who.

Book club closed...

I am now reading a book a week... Thank you Metra!!! my commute to and fro from work runs into a couple of hours giving me a chance to read up.. unfortunately that means i can't recap all of them as fast.. i've been catching up on all the James Patterson stories of Det. Alex Cross.. very very intriguing....

The President's new clothes???

What a crying shame!! the Italian lady is ruining my country and no one gives a hoot. Trying to replace a world renowned scientist who actually generated interest in the Presidents office after 55 years of independence. Dr. APJ Kalam is consientious and has rejected a couple of initiatives by the Congress party. He stopped the Italian from taking office after the last election, he was asked for his interpretation of our constitution. He pointed out that our constitution restricts rights of a Naturalized Indian as the same as those in thier home country, ie. the Italian would not be able to become the PM of India because an Indian cannot become a PM/President of Italy. Thats when the Italian's "Conscience" came alive and she refused to accept the PM's post.
Again when they tried to pass a "Office for Profit" bill to save the Italian's parlimentary post, the good scientist sent it back without signing it.. TWICE!!! How dare someone use common sense in this country!!!!
Unfortunately for the Congress party they were stuck with the Scientist till this year and he was beloved by everyone in the country. They couldn't wait to reject his second term soon enough. The Italian then decided to nominate Mr. Shivraj Patil, one of the most docile politicians in the last 3 decades. When she could not muster up enough support for that foolish idea, she came up with something more foolish. She picked someone who no one had ever heard of... a Pratibha Patil.. a woman!! the first woman President of India. Man i wanted so much to support this cause. Women in India deserve this post. Then came details of this woman.. and all i can say is Coo-kooo. She talks to ghosts, she ran a company to the ground, her personal life is a mystery, no one has any idea who or what she did all her life!!!! She is going to be nothing but a rubber stamp in the Italians pockets. I can see the next election now.. Article 356 will be imposed on UP, Gujrat, Rajasthan and MP and after a farce of an election, she will force her son or god forbid herself on the Indians. Why can't Indians see this??

Make it stop, Make it stop.. The Italian will destroy this coutry.....

Wheres Satya??

LOST.. so much on my mind so little time....

>>> the Whitesox STINK. End of sentence. What a shock!! from a championship in 2005 to bottom dwellers in 2008, fighting Kansas City for last place...
>>> I hope they sign Mark Buerle to a contract before tommorrow. He is a studd pitcher.
>>> Happy B'day America, this year for your B'day you get Satya and D as new permanent residents, yes my green card came in last week.
>>> Should i buy a house or should I not??? thats a whole post on its own.
>>> I get to play Project Manager this year, although that doesn't mean a lot with management who are unwilling to delegate authority and unwilling to project you as a person with any authority.
>>> My Cuz and sis-in-law are moving to chicago --- yipee i get a long lost friend back.
>>> Mom and Dad plan to stick around another 2 months..... yipee i get more yummy food.

What do you do?

When someone you dislike (not family) experiences the exact same life events that you do? They go through the same - not similar, the exact same, ups/downs a month before/after you do? It just drives me crazy.. i would like to have my own life events and not share it with this person!!! I used to find this interesting at first just to see how it keeps happening again and again, now its just annoying.

What do you do?

When you have a secret you can't share with anyone?

That didnt take long..

Well here's a novel thing to try out.. "Go with the flow"!! who knew it got easier if you just allow people to lead you along on certain tasks? like my boss, he asks me to do something, i ask him for an email, i do it, i send him an email no questions asked. This is when you get a lion to go 'meow'. Its new for me. I get to concentrate on my health, god knows i could loose some weight one of these days. With Mom and Dad comming here next week, will also get some time to spend with the family.

Having a bad couple of months

Has anyone hit a bad personal patch that you just do not see a way out of? I have suddenly hit a bad stretch in the last couple of months. I had things happen to me that has made me out to have qualities that i have worked all my life to avoid. I had a falling out with a couple of friends due to some long held misunderstandings. When it came out, i didn't even know we had these issues extending more than 2 years. Makes me out to be uninvolved, uninterested friend. Then i got dinged at work for not caring enough to work on J2EE projects which i had never signed up for in the first place. Makes me an ignorant Tech Lead who works only in his safe zone.
Today i got a speeding ticket, my second in 8 years. I was enjoying the thrill of driving at a break-neck speed of 42 mph (sarcasm) in a 30 mph speed zone. I had just turned from a street with a 40 mph speed zone onto this side street when a cop jumped me. I didn't even come across a first speed sign so i could slow down. I tried explaining this to a cop and i have always been a safe driver, but to no avail, he wrote me a ticket anyways. I wouldn't mind writing the check for $75 but i have to plead guilty and probation for 3 months. Thus driving under the additional pressure of not getting a ticket in these 3 months. I have half a mind of challenging the ticket and taking my chances in court. But i do not see having any luck with that, i doubt i will get a fair shake in a court with my argument and me being an Indian. I guess i am just going to have to suck it up.
The worst part of this deal is that we were not in a hurry to go anywhere, we were only out for an evening drive. It was 80 degrees for the first time in 7 months in Chicago. This guy ruined our evening and it was my anniversary!! Now i get to be labeled a bad driver!
I feel miserable about being characterized as a person i am not. I wish i knew a way to make it stop. It is eating into my self confidence and into my sleep. Sometimes people need a small 'win' once in a while, i think i could use one right about now.

The Crown Prince of India (RG), you ignorant idiot!!!

The Crown Prince of India is a self-righteous pompous idiot! This is a man who is the latest beneficiary of the Congress Parties cowardice. If there ever was a person who should be forced to prove himself to be a true Indian before pretending to be the Crown Prince of India, it is this guy. I acknowledge that he is very well educated (on paper), has cultivated his dad's style of talking and will be the prime minister of India within a few more elections. Someone in this situation should really be circumspect in making foolish statements to the media in the midst of highly charged elections in racially sensitive Uttar Pradesh. He claimed that his family the "Get the job done". They are the ones who got freedom for India and they are the ones who divvied up Pakistan to create Bangladesh. He also claimed if his family was in power, Babri Masjid would have never happened. Irrespective of my political leanings, these statements are the most ignorant made by a person unaware of Indian history.
This is a slap on the face of Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekar Azad, Lokmanya Tilak, Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi et all who gave their lives for the freedom struggle for India. This is a struggle that lasted more than 100 years and hundreds of martyr's were lost in securing our freedom. A person who reads about Indian history would know better than to take credit for such a great achievement. His great grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru was only involved during the final years of the British empire and not to being an expert on his life, i can only say he was one of people who enjoyed the one true perk of freedom, being the first PM of India.
Regarding Pakistan, maybe Mr. G would care to explain to me how we Seceded land to the Pakistanis (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) despite reports that India had clearly the upper hand during the 1963 battle. By all accounts the Indian Army was hours from the Pakistani capital when his grandma called for a cease fire. Till date no one has satisfactorily explained to me how the Shimla agreement gave up half of what was Jammu and Kashmir and resulted in the extended conflict till date.
Maybe Mr. G can explain the 1984 Sikh Riots before he claims his family could have prevented Babri Masjid. Maybe he has inside information why Emergency was declared in India during peace time. Maybe he can lecture us on how his family was instrumental in supporting the LTTE in its formative years, the same organisation that planned the tragic attack on his father.
Sure you can go into rural-uneducated India and throw stupid statements around and impress the locals but what kind of reputation are you building when you decide to go to the rest of India to be their leader.
This is where I think the PM of India should be forced to get a mandate from the entire country. The individual political parties can fight their own elections but they need to declare the PM candidates before the election and have them on the ballots. We cannot afford to have a puppet PM who has not won an election and is an appointed member of the Rajya Sabha. We cannot have a kid who has claimed the Indian Prime Ministers post as a birth right and has not ventured before the populace anywhere outside of his little village in Amethi. The place is a fiefdom where the opposition does not even care to appoint competition.
We need some of these so called leaders to stop thinking like little kids and do something for the country. Change the law of the land, make ignorant fools read some history books, maybe see a Manoj Kumar movie, anything to stop such embarrassing statements being uttered

Book Club - The Weatherman by Steve Thayer

Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb. This book troubled me a lot. It has an intriguing story line, mysterious characters, corrupt - adulterous politicians, beautiful heroines, great set ups and a terrible ending. Nothing happens, there is no mystery, there is no twist, there is no reasoning for 7 murders. Just plain old chalk.
Even I could come up with atleast 3 different exciting endings for this book that would've knocked the socks off the reader. The author, who himself is from Minnesota, fondly describes the region/state/lifestyle in great detail as a set up to the story. In the end it comes across as a boring tale included in a brochure for Minnesota tourism. I for one think Minnesota is extremely boring. I have some great friends who hail from that state, but i do not think the Mid-west is "exciting".

Random April Thoughts...

>> Where is spring?? its the first week of April and this week's temps in chicago are forecasted as 65, 66, 44, 42, 43, 40. Gimme some global warming!!!!
>> Its opening day for baseball, hope springs eternal.. The White Sox could win 95 games and still miss the playoffs, the Cubs could win 81 games and make it through. I'm still picking the Whitesox to get the wild card after a midseason turn-around engineered by a surprise trade.
>> Has Sachin Tendulkar retired yet? who asked Ian Chapell and Mike Atherton for thier opinions? we can pull down our own idols thank you gentlemen.
>> Is there any way to pull an April Fools joke without comming across as rude/insensitive/idiotic? I couldn't think of one so this year no Fools.
>> Murphy's law #199293: If you purchase a new grill on friday because the mercury hit 78 degrees the weekend before, it will rain for 3 days and 3 nights through the following Monday.
>> The new video with Beyonce and Shakira.... um what was I saying? i got distracted.
>> Dad turns 60 this month, D and Me turn 4!! she is still with me who would've thunk? (she hates me using that word)
>> Sensex crashes 600 points, US economy heads to recession, i hear "Time to buy and Invest"

US NRI's get your PAN number

This is just an informational post, i did not find any information for this process on the net and thought i would write down my experience for anyone who could use it.
Me and my colleagues/friends who came to the US are finally at a point where we could invest in long term investments for out futures. What better place to invest in India where the SENSEX has risen 42% over the last year and will keep climbing steadily with a GDP growth projected close to double digits. Add to this, the two Ambani brothers duking it out for market supremacy, the Birlas looking to make a strong comeback, Maruti possibly going public soon, TATA about to start a new project to build the cheapest car in India, any one would want to jump on that gravy train before it leaves the station.
The Indian government has decreed that anyone wanting to deal in shares and/or mutual funds in India are required to have a PAN number assigned to them. Indian shares are no longer issued in the old paper format and are held in online accounts called DeMat accounts. All the big banks in India and stock brokerages offer DeMat accounts. The problem for NRI's in the US like me is that PAN numbers were introduced in India in 1999. They were made mandatory after the year 2000. Anyone who paid Income taxes in India after those years were automatically assigned PAN numbers. Then came PAN cards. These are like the state-Ids issued in the US with a persons picture and signature on them. SEBI rules in India have now made it mandatory for Banks to request for this PAN card from their clients to open a DeMat account. This is all very annoying for an NRI who gets to go to India for around 2-3 weeks. The Govt. of India has outsourced the process of issuing new PAN numbers to UTI and NSDL (tin.nsdl.com). They take about 2-3 weeks to issue you a new PAN in India, if you are lucky and if you grease enough palms.
I was plenty frustrated by the incompetent clerks in the UTI offices when i visited India in December. Upon return to the US, i kept investigating how i could file for a PAN online. There has to be at least one government related company in India that exists in the 21st Century. I found it. Here is the process to file for a new PAN.
1. Contact someone in India, a relative or a friend who you can assign as a Representative and who can do a couple of tasks for you.
2. This person will have to get a DD for Rs. 67 drawn on a bank in India payable in Mumbai. The DD number has to be conveyed to you, this number has to be filled in on the form.
3. The website mentions that you can pay via Credit card but in an extremely convoluted logic, NRIs cannot pay via credit card, only resident Indians can.
4. Go to the NSDL website and get to the Online PAN Application.
5. They have a long list of instructions for this form but mostly the information required is straightforward.
6. Fill in the name and address of your Representative in this form. This will provide NSDL with an Indian contact to send your PAN card to, and contact if they have any questions about your application.
7. Fill in your DD information on this application. They do not have a 'Save and return' function so you should be equipped with all information before hand.
8. Submit the form, it prints you an acknowledgement form with your application number. This form also has room to affix a photo and sign.
9. you will require photocopies of your passport for proof of identity and copies of Bank Statements for proof of Residence.
10. They have plenty of Instructions about where to list your application number on your various documents including the DD.
11. Send all your documents to your representative in India, (be careful not to send this via regular mail, there is a strong possibility of someone stealing your identity).
12. Your representative can send the packet in the format required by NSDL to their offices in Mumbai.

NSDL has promised to email my PAN number to me within 10 days of receiving my packet and send my PAN Card to my Representative within 15-20 days.

This is quite the hassle for something that the govt could have used SSNs for US NRI's. but who is gonna argue with PC and PM.

Great Women of India - Captain Saudamini Deshmukh

Heres the thing about India, we as a nation have the worst reputation when it comes to women, we have one of the worst female foeticide, female child killing rates ever. Throughout rural India, women are not allowed to lift thier veils or get basic education. Traditions like Sati were prevalent even in the recent past. Dowry is expected even today and brides are still sacrificed for Dowries. Even in cities eve-teasing and assaults against women are very prevalent. This is the ugly side of the Indian attitude towards women
On the other hand, we have had the strongest Prime-Minister of India who was a woman in Indira Gandhi. She remains the only woman to have imposed an emergency in India and arrested the entire opposition overnight. Her assasination has shaped the political landscape of India, the direct consequence being Sonia Gandhi's strength in India today. In India we have powerful women chief ministers and legislators. We have women incharge of the highest ranked educational institues in India. Anuradha Desai, CEO of Venkateshwara Hatcheries is one of the top industralists in India. This is the empowerment side of the Indian attitude towards women
Imagine my surprise then when i researched Captain. Saudamini Deshmukh. She is currently the Deputy General Manager of Indian, what was once Indian Airlines.

Capt. Deshmukh has many firsts to her credit.

She was the first woman in 1985 to become a check-pilot on a Fokker-27.

Then, she went on to captain an all-woman crew on a Boeing 737 from Calcutta to Silchar in 1989.

Then, in 1994, she became Captain on Airbus-A-320, and in 1995, in another first, she captained the airbus with an all-woman crew.
And she's the first woman to occupy the chair of Deputy General Manager (Operations) at Indian.

wow What a trailblazer!!!

Other firsts for women in India.

1. Kiran Bedi - The lady of steel.. first woman to join the Indian Police Service - 1972

2. Kalpana Chawla - first Indian woman in space. - 1997.

3. Priya Jhingan - first woman officer in the Indian Army - 1992

Image and Text courtesy of The Hindu.

Great Women of India - Barkha Dutt

Barkha Dutt is one of India's best Journalist. She is extremely articulate, smart, very good looking and a daredevil. My first memories of Barkha are during 1999, the Kargil war. At that time, 'embedded journalist', a term made famous in the on-going Iraq war, was a non-existent term. Images of a war consisted of grainy, black and white footage of the previous two wars in India, 1963 and 1972. The government had labeled the Kargil incursion and occupation of the strategic "Tiger Hill" by the Pakistani soldiers as a mere conflict. The "hip" source of news in 1999 was NDTV, beaming their news on the Star News channel. During the inital days of the conflict, Barkha would show up during prime time news with pictures and scenes of the ongoing skirmish. There were bombs exploding around her and one could hear bullets in the background, Barkha would be reporting with her trusty star news mike in hand, wearing a helmet. The image was very movie-like for me and Barkha was an action-hero!!

Soon the skirmish extended to a month... May turned to June to July.... Soon Indians, Pakistanis and the world knew that this indeed was a war, though no one wanted to call it that. Barkha continued to be a star of the war.

She has since said that she broke laws of Journalism and projected the Indian side in far better light. She said it was a result of years of partiality built up in her since school and the social structure in India. She saw the Indian soldiers involved in some barbaric acts towards killed Pakistani soldiers and treating the dead with disrespect and not reporting it. All this while, the world saw atrocities committed by the Pakistani soldiers against captured Indians.

She now has a desk job at the NDTV news channel and has a prime time talk show 'We the People'.

Personal greats in the Area of Indian Journalism are:

1. Pranoy Roy. The man who made the news fun for me. I would stay up on Friday nights to watch "The world this week". This program was produced by NDTV and hosted by Pranoy during the late 80's, early 90's.

2. Vishnu Shom: Another classy NDTV news reporter.

3. Rajdeep Sardesai: This guy is a really good news reporter but ticked off the Hindutva brigade during the elections following the Gujarat Riots. Narendra Modi won in a huge landslide and that evening Rajdeep got a public dressing down from the chief-minister elect. He was unfortunate to be caught like that but he took it like a man.

Book Club - No way home - Andrew Coburn

This book is a little slow... Its a wonder i stuck with it. I did get some payoff towards the end in this elaborate whodunnit but there was a lot of fluff to wade through. Its a story of a small town. This town can put desperate housewives to shame. All the lonely housewives have a thing for the police chief, our hero Morgan. He has been sleeping with all these women since the death of his wife. A twin death in the town shakes things up and the chief tries to pick up the trail of the killer in competition with the state trooper lieutenant. He really does a bad job of the investigation and still comes out clean a the end.

Book Club - Guilt By Silence - Taylor Smith

A fantastic CIA conspiracy theory book. I couldn't put this one down! Following our heroine Mariah through an accident which left her husband in a vegetative state and her little girl crippled, the story of how Mariah life turns on its head when she realizes she was and is infact the real target. The men in her life, her husband, her boss and the svauve news reporter who is smitten by her each have secrets of their own and each of thier secrets provide twists and turns in the book. We have rougue CIA agents and cold blooded killers and nuclear scientists from Russia and a seductive German secret agent... this book is a real old school potboiler..

Taylor Smith has written a sequel to the book called "Innocents Club" i might have to go hunt it down, im not done with Mariah just yet...

Farewell to my Heroes...

With the end of India's chances in the World Cup, we may have witnessed the last time we have seen Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly and Anil Kumble together on the cricket field. Maybe they will all play another year or so of International One-Day cricket but if the Indian Cricket Board have any decency and plans to construct a team for the next World Cup, the four greats of Cricket will be dropped in the near future and Indian cricket will begin to move on. As my brother 'A' mentioned yesterday this will be the last time we see real cricketers who play with any cricketing technique, the game is so glamorized in India now that at the end of the day, we only have wannabe actors and models pretending to be cricketers. Mahendra singh Dhoni is not a cricketer.

I feel privileged to have seen and been a fan of these cricketers all my life, I will cherish the memories of them all my life and recall them with great passion. I will remember Sachin's Desert storm performance in Dubai, I will remember his follow-up inning in the finals. I will remember Sachin carrying the entire Indian team on his shoulders in the 2003 world cup to the finals after he came out and apologized to the fans after a bad start. I will remember Sachin's first century against Sri Lanka, I will remember Sachin destroying Shane Warne, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Shoiab Akhtar, Mike Kasprowicz... Sachin's final over against South Africa in the Hero cup. Sachin's performance in the Titan cup where he lifted the trophy on diwali day as a captain. Sachin's 187. In India Sachin was God during the entire 90's. The entire country would hold their breath every time he lofted a ball in the air. "As long as Tendlya is there we will win" is a sentence i have uttered hundreds of time in the last decade. As soon as Tendlya was out, i have been pushed into bad moods and thrown things at my television.
Saurav-Dada has always played with a chip on his shoulder. I will remember his blinder of 184 against Sri-Lanka in England 1999 World Cup. I will remember his shirt twirling at the Oval, a show of defiance to the England captain. I will remember his innings in Bangladesh against Pakistan when we chased down 312, He sat down on the pitch refusing to leave due to bad light.
Rahul Dravid always antagonised me. I have to admit i haven't been a fan. hes too laid back. He doesn't show any emotion. He doesn't bat with any authority or aggression. He doesn't seem to be in a rush to win anything. I will remember his over-the-head six against Alan Donald which drove him nuts. I will remember his 146 when Sachin scored his 187, he was also with Saurav when he scored 184. Always the Bridesmaid never the Bride. Unfortunately, most of my memories about Dravid are about him scoring big and India loosing.
Anil Kumble, the guy who took all 10 wickets against Pakistan at Delhi, he partnered with Srinath in bangalore to win against Australia where we got to know both their mom's. The guy who always got a wicket with his flipper when India needed one. India's last spinner.
Bye guys, you will be missed, some more than others but missed nonetheless.

The perspective Bob gave me

Bob Woolmer died in hotel room last week. He was found unconscious and rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. This was after the Pakistan team lost against Ireland and were eliminated from the first round of the World Cup. My first thought was poor coach couldn't handle the humiliating loss and died of a heart attack. I have known Bob to be the coach who brought back South Africa after their 20 year ban and took them to the absolute heights of success in partnership with Hanse Cronje. Then Hansie was suspended from Cricket for match fixing and Bob moved on to coach the Pakistanis. He was one of the very best coaches in cricket for the last 10-15 years. It would be understandable if he couldn't handle this loss. God knows i was depressed when India lost on that day and i wasn't even a part of that team.
The investigation began into why he died and the rumors began to trickle out. Bob died of a drug overdose. They found alcohol in his room. Then it came out that Bob was in fact murdered. Someone manually strangled Bob. This was just shocking news. A coach of one of the 16 teams playing in the Premier Tournament of one of the oldest games in the world was murdered in his own hotel room. It might have been a bookies mafia that Bob may have been involved with. The Pakistani team has been the center of a lot of Match fixing controversies, players falling randomly sick, 2 stars caught using steroids, flare ups with bowlers, apparent fist fights, a lot of drama. Bob surely knew about all the inside details. His contract was up at the end of the world cup and Bob was a writer, he wrote Blogs, he wrote books, he was about to write a book about match fixing. Maybe someone didn't want the information to come out.
Here's the frightening thought, if Bob was killed by a Bookies mafia, it is bad enough, what if Bob was killed by a crazed fan. The loss to Ireland pushed some fan/promoter of Pakistan cricket over the edge and he killed a slightly inebriated Bob for revenge!!!
That is the worst reason in life to loose a life. Hansie Cronje died in a plane crash, a broken and shunned man. Bob died alone in a hotel room in West Indies away from his family and friends. To die over a simple game of cricket that has survived hundreds of years and will endure this controversy and be stronger for hundreds of years more. This world cup will be remembered for the early exits of India and Pakistan the two powerhouses of International Cricket and the loss of a fine Coach, but if there are 5-6 more exciting cricket matches, and Australia win their third in a row, this world cup will be remembered for that and Bob will only be an afterthought.
Again the worst reason in the world to loose a life.... Puts all of us bleeding blue fans to shame

Its just Cricket... if only i believed

I've been gone a while because i have been trying to get work done before the world cup began. I thought i would have to spend a month and a half cheering India. I spent $200 getting the live cricket package to watch on tv. It began with what seeemed the easiest game on the schedule, against Bangladesh. Boy was i wrong.. India was bundled out for 192 and the bowlers looked like they couldnt bowl out my friends in the gullies of pune. Needless to say India lost big, i spent the evening in mourning. Then Pakistan lost to Ireland and my day brightened up. They had made the earliest exit from the World Cup and it was beautiful...
Then came Bermuda, the trashing. Everyone in India found thier lost touch and scored 413. The bowlers still sucked big time. They won by a large margin and improved thier net run rate to where they only had to win against Sri Lanka to qualify for the super eights.
"Only" win against Sri Lanka. What a joke. It was a clinical destruction of the vaunted Indian Batting line up and India was on thier way out of the world cup in the first round, before April even arrived. I felt sick all evening but the events of last week gave me some perspective of handling this game. I think i've learned to handle bad sports performances better.

Great Ladies of India.. a series

Right now my desk calendar is a collection of the great ladies of India. 12 ladies who are pioneers in thier fields. I thought it would be a good idea to write about them, talk about the impressions they left on me and get a chance to learn more about some of them i haven't come across.

Apna Sapna Money Money - Har Sapna Hamesha

What a funny funny funny movie. I give this an abosolute thumbs up. This is Ritesh Deshmukh's comming out party. He excels at every character he plays in the movie. Admittedly the comedy is raunchy. The actresses, Celina, Koena and Riya are only there to dress skimpily and dance to some surprisingly good music. Jaggu dada is extremely funny. Anna puts in another solid performance as Inspector Na Mane. He carries off some really raunchy dialogue.
Shut your head off and watch this movie for some laughs..
3.5 Satkis

Book Club - Angels and Demons By Dan Brown

AWESOME. This man is a great author. He can spin a yarn like a few i have read before. This is the prequel to Da Vinci Code. Our hero Robert Landgon runs through the Vatican trying to save it from eminent destruction. There is science, discovery of anti-matter, there is religion, popes, cardinals, conclaves and vatcian city, there is a deadline ala 24... , there is deception, there is a beautiful scientist all in all an awesome book. Put down any book u are reading and pick this up.

Book Club - A Case of Need by Michael Crichton

A very good book. This is the first book written by Crichton. It is written in the old detective books style. Sometimes in the first person, sometimes in the third. The story is about an abortion gone bad. There are several questions raised regarding the two sides of abortions. The author doesnt make preferences one way or the other. That is entirely the readers perrogative. The story is very rivetting and i could not put the book down.
A must-read to get over some boredom

Book Club - Next by Michael Crichton

What an extremely boring book. An absolute thumbs down. This book talks about Genetics like most of Crichton's book. But this is no Lost World. It is more like a documentary about Genetics. Random collection of stories that dont neccesarily interact. Too many characters with not enough back stories that makes it confusing to follow them and get interested in any of them. Theres some far out storylines tough, talking parrots (actually a math expert), an Orangutan who speaks Dutch, a Chimpanzee who is half human. Then they have animals that are engineered so that thier skins carry names of corporations that glow in the dark. 'Shivers'.. i hope i dont live to see that day.
All in all, i couldnt wait to put the book down and move on.

Re-visiting the Shilpa Shetty controversy

In the last few weeks, there was a lot of talk/protests/demonstrations regarding an occurance in a UK Reality show. I had a lot of thoughts regarding it during and after the entire incident but wanted to refrain from rushing to judgement. I think i now have a better understanding of what happened.
First, the controversy, a few of Shilpa's fellow contestants did not like her, they made some comments about not being able pronounce her name, understanding her customs or her habits. These comments were construed as Racist by the viewers. This launched the protests, demonstrations, hate mail, threats. The Prime-Minister had to make statements about this issue in his parliament for 10-15 days. The Prime-Minister-designate, Gordon Brown was in India on business at the time and was continously asked about this and forced to reply and defend his country as non-racist. Needless to say he didn't get a lot of work done. Shilpa eventually got a huge following, the sympathy vote and won the contest and the money.
During the entire episode, the producers were eerily silent, so was Shilpa. Here's what people may have missed. Shilpa is an actress, not a very good actress admittedly but shes an actress. She knows the popular refrain, "No publicity is bad publicity". Her mom, sister, publicist seized on these events to keep her in everyones minds.
This does not give the people who made those comments a free pass, I dont belive they were racially insensitive though, they were simply idiots. There is a huge difference between hatered and ignorance. In my personal experience, i have come across a lot of these ignorant people. They dont really hate people who are different from them, they just dont know how to adapt. In India we are taught since we were kids about different cultures, different people and how to respect the differences in people. Also, in India, people are different across different regions, just among one's neigbors one may have people of different skin colors, different languages, different eating habits and different religions. They are your best friends, people you grow up with, people you look up to, people you share evenings together and dinners with. In America, for generations, there were white people and white people. Thier religions differed only slightly, their foods are uniform. they all talk one language, they have not been brought up with a possibilty that people may be radically different from them. Yes they go to diversity trainings and seminars and have been attempting to adjust but they are still adjusting. What comes very naturally to Indians, is an effort for Americans. Unless they decide that they will not adjust and start despising the different people around them, it is Racial, else it is Ignorance. In the last 2 decades, Indians have thronged to the US, they tend to live close to each other, take over pockets of what used to be predominantly white suburbia. It must be tough for the older folks living around them already. But from my experience, a majority of them try and are understanding.
Americans are also brought up on a steady diet of supremacy. There is not a lot of humility in this populace. Thier media, politics and social structure keeps hammering that they are far superior to any other country. They try to tread that gentle line between being the school jock and the school bully. The last 2 elections though have shown that this country is split half way between these two paradigms. I am guessing, this is similar to feelings in the UK, in addition to that, they ruled over India just 60 years ago. They must have trouble accepting Indians more successful than them when their dads/grandads still tell them stories how they pushed them around.
I just think the enitre incident was only ignorance of 2-3 dumb bimbos and shilpa milked it for all it was worth. She now has several movie offers from US and the UK. Shes gonna make tons of dough from this.

Checking into Hearbreak Hotel

Yeah yeah we lost.. it was tough, took me a week to get over it. To sum up the big game, Devin Hester can FLY, Rex kinda Sucks, Manning is GOD, Dungy is a Saint. Enough said.

SUPERBOWL baby!!!!

HOLY Wow!!! man that felt gooooooooooooooood, DAAAAAAAA BEAARRS are in the Superbowl after 21 years! what a game! what defense, what offense what special teams!! The Bears win, the Bears win!! and now they are going south for the winter... look out Miami.
The game started late, 2:00 pm kickoff, everyone and thier moms had picked the "Fairy tale" Saints to win the game. We hosted a lunch/game/beer for 6 of our friends. The Bears started a little nervously, 3 field goals, 1 turnover, score 9-0. The nervousness stemmed from Rexy looking a little Shaky (a lot shaky). Then Thomas Jones took over and ran 69 yards in 6 carries to score the Bears first TD. The same play was called 6 times and they still couldn't catch him. This was a result of Ced Benson, the longhorn pounding the Saints for the first 12 minutes or so. We saw a defender bounce back 2 yds upon hitting Ced Ben and Ced kept going.. this man is a BEAST...
16-0 and we could see the palm trees. But Drew Brees has passed for 4000 yds this season and he showed why he was a runner up to the MVP award. they had a sweet play for the first TD before half time and then came the turning point of the game in the third quarter. The Bears were struggling and the Saints started at thier 5 yd line, Brees hit Bush for a short throw who just turned on his afterburners and ran to the end zone 88 yd touchdown. What he did upon scoring that, was unforgivable. Brian Urlacher and 4 more defenders chased him 88 yds, which just shows thier atheletic abilities and they had given up the TD but were completing the play by running down. Bush turned around, pointed to BU and somersaulted into the end zone and proceeded to dance. ROOKIE, BIG MISTAKE! U DO NOT POINT TO OUR LEADER ON DEFENSE AND THE HEART OF THIS CITY AND GET AWAY WITH IT!!! The Bears were upset, the coaches were upset, the CITY was furious. The defense just shut the game down after that.
Brad Maynard who was stellar all game, punted the ball at the Saints 2, the Bears defense chased down Brees on 1st down, he escaped, 2nd down, they chased him down and he threw the ball away, Intentional grounding in the end zone. the prettiest sight on the field for a defense. the refs and the defense doing the "I dream of Jeannie sign" hands clapped over thier heads, Safety, 2 points 18-14.
Rexy suddenly decided to show up. 4 completions for Bernard Berrian, 4 same plays. 1 atheletic catch for a TD, 25-14. The rout was on. Drew Brees fumble, Ogunleye recovery, Ced Ben TD, 32-14. Next series, turnover, Thomas Jones TD, 39-14. GAME OVAAAA....
Lovie Smith got a cold water bath, the snow came down gently, Mama McCaskey smiled and Da Bears got thier paws on the George Halas trophy, Papa Bears trophy is back home.
The celebrations had begun, I called my pal R, he was as overjoyed as I was.
Onto Miami.... Last stop bring your speedos.

Its the GAME

Listening and Reading can really be misleading. The Saints are supposedly the feel good story of the year for what they mean to New Orleans. HAH! how many people have returned to New Orleans because the Saints played so well this year? how many businesses returned? how many homes got built? maybe a small percentage a very very small percentage. Every expert/commentrator has made them out to be the solution to the devastation of Katrina. They are barely a distraction.
The Bears defense has been called Soft, pororus, over-rated etc. I hope Lovie or one of his assistants have cut each one of these statements out and pasted it on the lockers of Brian, Adewale, Alex Brown, Lance Briggs, Hunter Hillenmeyer, Ian Scott, Tank Johnson and Mark Anderson. These are the Bears front that has the un-enviable task of shutting down/slowing Duece and Bush. If they can force that, the rookie recievers Colston and whats-his-name will be matched up against Nathan Vasher, Peanut and Ricky Manning Jr. This group has the stickiest hands of any in the NFL. I would not be surprised to see them run back one this weekend for a pick 6.
The Bears have to pound the ball early, take a few shots downfield and lead from the start. They cannot fall behind by 10 points and mount a comeback late. I think Rexy is up for this challenge, looking for an early 3-wideout formation with Berrian and Davis running long.
This game should be really close and will turn on a critical mistake late. the win will be 3 points or less. I'm sure i will suffer a couple of missed beats and lessen my life further by a few years.
But at the end of it, Its just a game, its a big game but JUST a game.

Bearing down on the Saints - 7 great plays

Truth be told, i have no idea what to feel in this situation. During the White Sox run 2 years ago, i had gone to see tonnes of games during the regular season and felt the world series win was inevitable. Add to it the fact that i was in India for most of the playoffs, this is a new experience for me.
The team that defines Chicago as the hard-nosed blue-collared city that it is, is now 120 minutes away from a SuperBowl win (about 360-400 with commercials, time-outs and maybe overtime). When you simplify it further, they are about 17-20 great plays (not good plays, great plays) from being on top of the sporting world. Brian U had 21 tackles during the famous "Crown thier a$$" win on Monday night, out of which there were about 10 great plays in the fourth quarter alone.
Last week the Bears had about 5 great plays, The Bernard Berrian Bomb, the Thomas Jones save where he batted down a sure interception, the 2 stops on 3rd down and 4th down in regulation and OT and the Robbie Gould kick. The Bears barely squeaked out that win. Just imagine if there were 2 more great plays (Rex complete to Moose instead of the interception and the Hester touchdown not nullified by the penalty), the win would have been a blowout by 2 TDs.
If the Bears would need 7 great plays to win convincingly against the Seabags, they would need atleast 2 more against thier next 2 opponents.
That is what will take to squeak out the next 2 wins, 9 great plays in each game. yes Rex will have to be good, the running game has to be good, the defense has to be good but that should be the norm for a 14-3 team.

Tom Brady - Greatest Ever?

Is Tom Brady the greatest QB ever? im sure if asked, my wife D would say so, shes absolutely smitten by this guy and we call him her BF. the Golden Boy of the NFL is just the best in his business right now. The human football playbook that is Payton Manning starts freaking out the day the playoffs start and he is struggling badly in the last 2 games he played. When Brady had the ball with less than 2 mins left in the Chargers game i would challenge anyone to admit they thought he wasnt going to score and win the game. He has lost all his recievers, they have a shaky secondary, yet he is a mind-boggling 12-1 in playoffs. I am going to take him to beat the Colts and head to the Superbowl on Feb 4th. Payton will self-destruct. I am just upset the Bears haven't found someone like him with ice in thier veins in the last 20+ years. Rexy is so up and down, if he has the ball with less than 2 mins to go, all chicago fans yell for him to hand the ball off to the RB's and hope the defense wins them the game.
I hope this changes the next 3 weeks.

Ashi is getting married!!

So the news is true and Ash and Abhi got engaged on Sunday the 14 of Jan. I didnt think this would happen because of her past history and how the Bacchan clan operates. But reports are, Abhi proposed to her in NY and she accepted. Now the wedding might happen in Feb.
I wonder if she will give up acting after that. Jaya Bacchan did that when she got married. Ash has always talked about having kids and settling down. Good for her, now's her chance.
Congrats to the lucky couple.

24 - Jack is Back Hours 1 thorugh 4

The 6th Season of 24 premiered with 2 hrs on Sunday and 2 on Monday. Jack came back from China looking like a homeless guy. Wayne Palmer became president (why critisize the Gandhis in India). Karen Hayes is the new NSA. Chloe (ol potato face is still around), Bill Buchanon controls CTU.
They all brought back Jack to hand over to a terrorist called Fayed, he wants to kill Jack for killing his bother. In return Fayed would hand over Al-Asad to the Americans, who think Asad is causing explosions all over the US. Jack finds out Asad is a good guy and Fayed is the bad guy, so between destroying America Fayed negotiated to bring Jack back from China where he was likely being tortured like hell, to kill him. huh! dont terrorists ever read newspapers? dont they investigate CTU agents? Dont they know Jack is the only guy in the US(or not in the US) who can stop them? Needless to say Jack escapes, tries to convice the president and others that Asad is the good guy, they dont belive him. After 6 seasons, you belive Jack or u dont know Jack. Jack proceeds to rescue Asad from death by the americans and finds a new sidekick. All this while the scenes of brutal torture just keep getting more and more gruesome, made me and D cringe as we watched.
Jack saves 1 subway from getting blown up and convinces the administration of his theory. Meanwhile there are more explosions all over the US. The president has not imposed a curfew and the citizens have not chosen to stay at home and are dying by the 100's in Malls and Airports. I remember on 9/11 even the homeless people had sealed themselves inside thier boxes. Anyways, the president decides to give into Fayed's demand and release some 100 captives from a Guantanamo like place, but heres the catch, they dont investigate if any of the captives has an obvious tie to Fayed and is a nuclear expert! Dum dum dum dum... Needless to say Dr Nucleo escapes during the prison to airport journey and reaches Fayed.
A sububan family meanwhile try to help an Arabic neighbor (Kal Penn or Kumar) who is being targetted by the neighborhood bully because his father was arrested by the FBI during a profiling sting. Kumar, on his way to White Castle had picked up a package for Fayed. He is the real terrorist. He holds the son and wife captive and forces regular subarban dad to go out with the package to pick something up. That something is a nuclear detonator. Jack reaches the hostage home and rescues the kid from being shot. Jack shoots at Kumar, who dies enroute to the hospital. I think he needs to get a better agent. First he does not get 1 dialogue in Superman Returns, i mean he could have just said a word. then he gets shot in the 4th hour of 24, whasup with that?
Jack gets the presidential pardon for Asad, they have given out so many of these over the last 6 seasons, im surprised Saddam didnt have a copy. Curtis gets annoyed by this because during the first gulf war, Asad had personally beheaded some of Curtis' buddies in the army. He tries to kill Asad but Jack takes him out with a single shot to the neck. Poor Curtis he survived last season, just barely and didnt make it out of this seasons premiere.
Meanwhile Fayed had assembled the Nuke with the help of Dr. Nucleo and Subarban Dad. and they blow it up when attacked by the US forces. The nuclear could over LA was a chilling visual. Just the thought of it gives me the chills. Jack has front row seats to the mushroom cloud, but there are no EMPs from it, no radiation storms, nothing. Jack should have been fried/radiated by now. Soon we learn that there are 4 more of these in the hands of Fayed.
Despite all this, the scariest part of the 4 hours was the depiction of the Presidential head of staff, the FBI and the Army combining forces to suspend civil liberties in America. They set up temporary camps in parts of LA and start rounding up Arabs to put in these camps. No warrants no reason required. They act very cold and callous in doing so. Somehow, the writers manage to try and convince the viewers that this too is acceptable because there are 2 Arabs in one of the holding cells who know of the plan. 2 Arabs!!! profiling 100s of people on the basis of religion and comming across 2? wow.
Last season, they blew up a nuclear reactor in or near San Diego (Edgar's mom died), this season they blow up a nuclear bomb. The writers are either stuck with stale storylines or they really really want to keep the fear alive in the viewers of such a possibility in real life.
With so much already transpiring in the first 4 hrs, i hope they have planned a good season because usually around hour 16-17, the story drifts off and stops making sense.
Stay Tuned

I Dream of Gold (Gould) THE MVP of chicago..

Get ready to build a statue outside Soldier Field. There is one very popular statue outside United Center where the bulls play. It is of a flying MJ. The one at soldier field would be of a kicker (A KICKER!!!) in the middle of a 49 yd kick.
What a game! what a Defense! WHAT A couple of throws by REXY!!!! Did u see that kick?? I must admit i was groaning for a long period of time in the third and some of the fourth quarter. I also ran a mild fever during the Seabags last possession. Early on, the BEARS pounders Thomas Jones and Ced Ben had pretty much put a smile on me and my Bro A, high fives were in abundance in the house. REXY threw that bomb to Bernard and we thought the game would be over.. but the Seabags came back tied it at 24 and started marching down the field with 1:38 left. Tank sacked Hasselback and Briggs knocked back Alexander to force overtime. I could not watch Robbie's kick cause i had my hands before my eyes. but the MVP was MONEY... perfect trajectory, split the uprights and pandemonium ensued. The Bears live to fight another day. The Saints will be marching to Chicago next week but for now, everything is roses, Rex can sleep tonite, Brian can dream of catching Bush next week and pounding him into the ground. Ogunleye needs to rest up and practice tackling the big monster Duece and Peanut has gotta shut down Colston.

But that is for another day. Tuesday is the Bears off day so im taking off from worrying too. Resuming the break down tommorrow.

Bear - Coaster

i have stayed very silent this week, a nervous silence... The Bears return to action this sunday to take on the Seahawks. On instinct, they should be able to beat up the hawks like they did the first time. That was an awesome comming out party for Rexy - Sexy Rexy. With some horrendous games though he has turned into a Turnover-asauros Rex. Im gonna hold my breath every time he steps back to throw. Im just hoping ol reliable Brian U takes over this game like a man possessed. He is not growing any younger and needs to get that ring on his finger.

1 TD for Moose, 1 return by Hester and one interception returned for a TD by Ricky Manning or Peanut Tillman and the Bears can just hand the ball to Jones and Benson the rest of the way.

If we win im gonna call my pal R in Texas and ask him to make preparations to go to Miami.

A sportsfan can only dream.

Where's Satya?

Quick Hits for Jan,

>> After one turns 29, it is not advisable to go to work the day following a trip from India to the US. i survived the day but crashed so badly the following day, running a high fever and stuffed nose/chest. I used to be able to do this without noticing till last year.

>> I now have prescription glasses for the first time in my life, it is very disconcerting to hold a conversation with someone while wearing these things. My friends, who have never seen me with one are distracted too.. its gonna take a while to adjust.

>> There must be something to this global warming thing, Chicago is still quite balmy at 34 Degrees. by this time annually hell freezes over in chicago with temps in the low teens.

>> There were wierd bird deaths in Austin and strange gas in NY yesterday, have to ask my best pals R and Don what they were upto.

>> While i was gone, i became an expert on everything for my group's clients. It seems anytime someone would ask a question like "Who's an expert on Usabilty?" the answer would be "Satya" this was a quick solution for my team but now i have a few meeting invites i have no idea what to do with.

>> My boss is out in Hawaaii the next two weeks, with him he carries the secrets of my pay increase?? and bonus (Hah!) I hate these 2 weeks.

>> Never put KajuKathli in a microwave. The silver foil covering them causes quite a sparks show.

Happy New Year - The year of the Bond 007

Happy new year to all the visitiors of Chasing Satya. its the year of the Bond TWO 007, im back in the US from a loooooong trip to India. Trying to catch up with all my writing from my experiences back home and a few global events that occured in the meanwhile.

No Entry for Indians and Dogs

This was the sign put up by the empirical British Raj before the grand Taj Mahal hotel built before the Gateway of India. This treatment of Indians is what angered them eventually to revolt against 200 years of undisputed rule and topple the Raj. Today the Gateway of India is a great tourist attraction and a source of pride for the Indian in me. The Taj Hotel now has a modern cousin standing right beside it. Till last year the BMC provided parking near the Gateway for cars for a nominal sum of Rs. 5 per hour. I enjoyed this extremely as I undertook a late night cruise off the Gateway with my wife, then returned to eat at my idols restaurant right next door, ‘Tendulkars’.
This time I went to the Gateway, I noticed my regular parking spot was closed down due to security concerns. Visitors now had to park along the road before the Taj Mahal Hotel. This is not a thoroughfare and not a lot of traffic passes through this road. On this day, there were the usual cars parked along the road. When I noticed an opening fit for my car, I saw it was roped off. Upon asking the parking attendant I was told “This spot is reserved”. I believed him expecting some Mumbai politicians or industrialist would ask to hold the spot. When I moved ahead, to the next spot, I was driven away from there too. It was then that I realized that no politician or dignitary was forthcoming but the spot was reserved for foreign tourists that would be arriving at the spot. The parking attendants would then take off the ropes and relive them of Dollars. Me on the other hand, had to park almost 1.5 Kms away from the Gateway, where I did not ask an attendant to help me. He proceeded to berate me for parking in what I believed was still free Indian Soil. He asked me to return within an hour as he needed the spot. It took every once of my patience to not take a swing at him.
60 years after running the Raj out of the country and destroying every sign that kept out Indians and Dogs, my country men have put those same boards up out of sheer greed. There were plenty of cops around the place but knowing them, I was certain they would be collecting their share of the Dollars at days end and would tow my car away. I took the more cowardly way out of vowing never to return to the site. This will not affect anybody because I was never a source of Dollars for those parking attendants and Cops anyways.
Balasaheb Thackeray, tumchya Mumbai madhye “Mi Marathi” aslyacha dekhil kahi sukh nahi. Tumcha Mumbai kahi Dollars sathi vikla gela aahe.

Men in Blue why do u tease me so? What a stunning historical win at Burg’ Jo….

The “vaunted” Indian bowling clicked to give India a stunning victory at Johannesburg against a South African team that had nastily swept them aside in the One-Dayers 4-0. Yes ladies and Gentlemen that is no typo nor am I being sarcastic, please read that sentence again and feel the weirdness sweep over you.
On Day 1, I was visiting my relatives and took an extended stop at one of their homes to watch the start of the test match. The start was delayed by an hour due to a “Sweaty” pitch. This is as close to pitch doctoring that a host nation can get without actually being pulled up by the ICC. Within the first hour my gallant men in blue were 14/2 with Shewag and Jaffer comfortably back in the pavilion and the ever daunting but of late shaky Sachin Tendulkar making his way to the pitch. I predicted a total of about 60-65 all out in the first innings and left to my next relatives home. I was told late that night that the comeback kid, our own Dada was holding fort but India was struggling.
On Day 2, I went to meet an old friend where I saw a belter of an innings by VRV singh and Dada’s 50, after which the innings ended at some 240 odd, surely not enough against a quality side like South Africa. This was around 3:30 pm and I left to meet other friends for dinner. By the end of dinner, around 10:30 pm, my friend asked me if I knew how much we had scored. I proudly told him of the 240 score I had seen. The next few words out of him left me speechless. He informed me he was asking for our second innings score as he had seen the south African batsmen capitulate at 84 all out in their first innings. My jaw dropped to the floor. He then proceeded to tell me that we had begun our second innings and were 32/1 with Shewag gone.
On Day 3, I read the papers about this incredible feat. The chief architect of this was Sreesanth who took 5 wickets in a deadly spell. I flashed back to last year when I had witnessed a tall lanky kid clean bowl the god of cricket on the first ball he had bowled. It was the challenger trophy in India that is used to select the International team. This kid had now become the spearhead of the Indian Bowling attack. An attack that has witnessed a revolving door of Balaji, Nehra, Agarkar, Munaf, Zaheer, VRV singh and god knows which others. I saw his highlights, he comes steaming in on his run up, bowls with his arm upright and the seam pointing up. 90% of his deliveries were good to full length and he allowed the seam to hit the pitch and force the ball to swing. I have not seen such style in an Indian bowler since Dev Paaji. Srinath used to be magnificent for India but he had the worst follow-through in the history of Indian Cricket. Sreesanth runs upto the batsmen on his follow-through and glares at him. It is rumored Sachin Tendulkar once threatened him in the same challenger series “Don’t ever come this close to me again”. When the match started, Indians batted fast and gave their wickets up faster. Very very slow Laxman made a characteristic 50. When Sreesanth came in to bat, he was bounced on the very first delivery by Andre Nel, on his follow-through, Nel glared at him and pointed to his heart. It was later reveled he told Sree, “You don’t have heart mate, you are just a bunny I will get you with my next delivery”. Andre did bowl that next delivery which Sree proceeded to hoist over his head for a stupendous SIX. At this stage Sree kept running towards the bowlers end, twirling his bat like a baton over his head and proceeded to perform an impromptu gig with typical south Indian pelvic thrusts that would have made Michael Jackson proud. This was a war cry from the Indian camp that had been beaten black and blue before the series. I have never witnessed such aggression from our cricketers for as long as I have understood cricket. Indians posted a target of 402 for the South Africans.
Day 4 was only a formality; South African wickets fell at regular intervals and India won convincingly by lunch. This was the first test win on South African soil ever by an Indian Cricket Team and they celebrated like they had just won the World Cup and ICC champions Trophy together. Champagne flowed like there was no tomorrow and players bathed in Beer. This was a tad extreme considering there were 2 more matches to be played and they had really won nothing yet. But for this day all was forgotten, Dravid and Saurav praised each other, Shewag was hiding, Sree promised to dance for the TV cameras, Sachin declared this one of his greatest experience and Greg Chappell smiled and hugged Dada.
I had a bounce in my step and kept watching the highlights and celebrations repeatedly and could not get enough of Sree’s jig in the middle of the field. This is elixir, this is the life of an Indian Cricket Fan.

Haves and Have Nots.

In looking at what the 9% growth of the Indian economy has brought, I was impressed by the rapid development in the cities like Pune, Mumbai and Delhi. I was also troubled by the riots of the 30th of November. I started to realize and also read some small articles in the dailies about the impact of this dizzing growth. On a day that the Sensex hit 14000, I saw news channels break out the champagne, the brokers on Dalal street break out into Bhangras, I called my dad to congratulate him on the value of his own portfolio, and was asked by a kid from a slum near my house for Rs.10 to clean my car.
The middle class, upper middle class and high class families in India are enjoying the benefits of this 9% growth of the economy. Gone are the clichés of the educated-unemployed. Any person with basic education and knowledge of English can now work in the popular BPO’s and call centers. The base salaries in these places are Rs 10,000 – Rs. 12000. These type of salaries approve the people to gain home loans and auto loans and every other loan known to man. The banks that have become more independent due to government dis-investment and entry of foreign banks have become despondent to lure customers. This is the class of people now who live in the grand constructions of DSK and drive their latest model Chevy’s and Honda’s.
When you look on either side of these constructions or out on the road during one of those long rides in your Honda, one can see the Indian have-nots. These people have been left out of Mr. Manmohan Singh and Mr. Chidambaram’s globalization party. They are still un-educated, still un-employed, still the ones causing the well-publicized population problem in India and still the ones that have to resort to child labor to feed families. These people are growing more and angrier, militantly angry at the country and the government and their affluent neighbors. It is obvious they must also want to try the new restaurants in town, the new stores in town. This is where the daily incidents of home breaking, chain snatching come in. Every day there are reports of these incidents occurring in influential neighborhoods of Pune. Somewhere the economists of this country have to realize that the policies to improve the education rates and providing minimal employment to these class of people is not working. They are creating a social time bomb that will go off like it did on 30th November. This is a problem that will not be resolved by the age old policy of go-slow, generational change. The entire current generation of these uneducated classes has to be improved now. India will not survive this present generation becoming disinterested and militant against the citizenry.
The fast paced MNC’s have to be convinced that this is their job. The government has proven in 60 years that this job is too big for it to complete. The multitudes of SOP’s enjoyed by these companies have to come at a price, a price of involving themselves in the basic education of Indians. They have already opened up their own training institutes and also involved themselves with some of the premier educational institutes in India. They have stood upto the government on certain key issues. They need to have a civic responsibility towards the cities that they set up shops in. In the US, there are various employee groups that volunteer to tutor the needy, prepare tax returns for them, build houses and clean and paint support homes. All these activities are supported by the employers. They match monetary contribution by employees and hold such voluntary contributions by them in the highest regards. These are celebrated in various company functions and in print.
This is the termite infection at the heart of this magnificent wooden palace of India. This is the image foreigners take with them when they leave this country. This is the image imprinted on the minds of foreign CEO’s who visit this country looking to invest here. Forgotten are the beautiful expressways and flyovers and exotic cars running on those streets, forgotten is the aromatic food served to them on silver platters. The image of a 12 yr old girl wearing torn clothes carrying a dirty baby in her arms at a traffic light begging for a few rupees is what haunts me. Will someone please let me know how to get in touch with Mr Singh and Mr. Chidambaram because I visited their homes and their offices and the dirty little beggar girl was kept far away from both by their imposing security guards. I am also sure her home is blocked out of their view by the heavily tinted windows of their glistening BMWs. Please sirs she is out there, teach her, help her, her kid might not be so forgiving to your glass homes and may pick up a stone.

Wither Pune? Wither Punekar?

There once was a small city of Pune, Punyanagari as the residents fondly called it. The residents were knows are Punekars and their attitude itself had a name of Puneri. The city was known as a sleepy city. Mumbaikars teased them how no one in this city owned watches. But they did own watches, they would open their stores at 10:00 am. Would shut them down by 12:30 pm, sleep till 4:00 pm, re-open their stores till 8:00 pm and go back home. They would proudly shop at Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale and Grahak Peth. They would ride their trusty luna’s with the popular refrain of “chal meri luna”. Cars would be the domain of a few. Their high rise building would go to a dizzy 3 floors and the most popular place to live was in the peths that were crowded to the hilt.
WOW that is what I say when I see the new Pune. There are malls all along the streets. Pyramid at Moledina Road, Pune Central near Koregaon Park, Nucleus Mall at Police Commissioners office and at least 5-6 more being constructed along big streets in Pune. This in itself is a terrific development. I checked out all of these, they have deep parking spaces underground, and a lot of room to put up food courts. The one problem it causes is that it does nothing to elevate the traffic congestion and crowd trouble around the area. What they should do instead is move the surrounding small shops into these malls. Move Marz-o-Rin, Burger King, all these stores into the pyramid mall. This will force people to park their cars in the basements of these malls and also keep the crowds inside; this will ease the woes of East Street and M.G Road. The cantonment officials can then put together a terrific plan to replace the old dilapidated buildings into bigger ones that can be planned around wider roads.
These ideas sound obvious to a common person but again the bane of Indian officialdom is committees and master plans. Currently the infrastructure being put together, is the result of the 1980 committee results on transforming the streets of Pune. Even if all the suggestions of this report are implemented by the end of this decade in 2010, infrastructure needs will still be outweighed by 30 years. This is all mind-boggling. Implementation of plans is what takes long years in India. In Pune currently every known street and every unknown street has been dug up. This reduces the width of every road 5-15 ft. The plans are to lay down optical cables for communications, underground electrical cables etc. before they redo all the streets, presumably in concrete. But all the streets have been dug up at the same time. Now there are no workers present at any of these sites so there is no reason for the citizens to feel there is any hope for a quick remedy to their problems. In true Indian officialdom fashion the funds must’ve dried up till the next financial year. There are municipal elections planned for next year, the corporators want to tell their constituents that they are keeping their promises by re-constructing streets. But they should have known that the election code of conduct will come into force and prevent any more funds being allocated for populist projects.
The culture that comes along with these new developments of malls and lavish restaurants is that Punekars are now enjoying the nightlife. Big families head out every evening for dining out. What used to be an occasion, to head out on Saturday evening or Sunday evening with your kids is now a daily occurrence. This must be due to the multiple allowances provided by the different companies to their employees. The sprouting of BPO’s and offshore development centers has provided jobs to even the barely qualified applicants within the city. Students in Junior colleges work nights at different call-centers and earn in the thousands. At a time when my pocket money would be Rs.50 per week, the cost of petrol was Rs.20; this would leave me about Rs.25 to spend on food and hanging out with friends. Now even college students can afford coffees worth Rs.200. In addition to all this, students from other states have started making Pune their homes. Earlier these students would complete their studies and head to Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad or Delhi to secure jobs. Now with the Software development center opened up in Pune, they set up shop there. The significance of this occurrence is that there were always such kids who had the big amounts of money to spend even when we were students, this culture had already been omnipresent in the well-to-do homes of Delhi and Madhya Pradesh. It is still a foreign concept to what used to be the Marathi Manus.
Another factor that has influenced this new Pune is the scores of students who went to the US during the software boom of 1999-2003. Software companies would send out new entrants to the US within 6 months of their graduations. Every engineering student in Pune had given their GRE’s or was in the process of giving them in their final years. With a downturn in the US economy and the upturn of the Indian economy, India became a destination of choice for a lot of these people rather than face the uncertainties of the US. When they came back, they brought with them stories of Malls, Multiplexes, super shopping centers and influenced the Indian Retail Sector to push development of those. Once the initial centers saw a steady stream of customers, every one wanted a piece of the pie. Even today, as I look around me, I see a lot of NRI families visiting their relatives in India during the December vacations, they, like me shop till they drop, buy 22 ct gold, travel only first class and eat only at Subway (I don’t).
When and if I ever do return to this lovely city of mine, it really will never be the city I once knew or have even figured out today, it will be a new incarnation some 10-15 years from now. It will always be a new experience for me and I will have to remind myself that I am not in the Pune I knew but am in a whole new city.

Who destroyed the Queen?

The list of people responsible for this incident was as follows:
> The 24/7 news channels in India. For more than 2 days, the news channels ran pictures of the desecrated statue, the statue itself was not one of the majestic ones set up and protected by the government or local communities. The incident had a feel of a local dispute rather than a racial statement. Yet the news channels played it up worse than a death of a popular politician. They debated who did this and why? They argued it could be rival castes, etc and enflamed passions. When the Queen burnt, they kept showing images of the train ablaze as if to taunt groups of Dalits, “The people of Ulhasnagar have done this to prove their loyalty to Dr. Ambedkar what have u done?”. This was extremely irresponsible behavior. News channels should report news not create it. Healthy debate is one thing but to postulate that the incident is racially motivated is not acceptable. News channels show know their audience, not everyone in India is savvy to know the difference between reporting news and mindless conjecture. I am very sure that someone incited the mobs taking the news channels debates to be truths. Shame on you journos.
> The politicians of India, local municipal and state government. For the entire day that Maharashtra burnt, not one politician came forward and requested the people to maintain peace. The chief minister of Maharashtra was on his way to Singapore and had to reluctantly cancel his trip. Not once did he or his Home Minister Mr. R.R. Patil show his face on any of the news channels. The great Dalit leaders, Mr. Prakash Ambedkar and Mr. Ramdas Athavale who have never met a news camera they didn’t like, were missing for more than 3 days. None of the local corporators of Ulhasnagar or Mumbai came forward with a token apology and request for peace. All this because the BMC (municipality) elections are just around the corner, while some political parties wanted to embarrass the ruling parties, the ruling parties did not want to come across as anti – Dalits so they chose not to take a stand one way or the other.
> The law enforcement. In Mumbai they say the cops are never on time. This was the image most portrayed in Indian Movies. The Mumbai police chiefs were so angered by this image that they passed legislation banning movies from showing the cops in this bad light. On this day cops were prominently absent. When the miscreants stopped and started emptying the train, it must’ve taken some time. No cops were alerted, when the train did not arrive at the next station after leaving the previous, no railway police were deployed to investigate why? In the days following, there were images of police standing beside the passengers offloaded from the train and gawking as rioters set her ablaze.
> The Indians. Shame on the people who thought they could make a statement by burning the train. Shame on the passengers that got off the train and watched as their property was doused in fuel and set ablaze. Shame on the people who lived next to the spot where the Queen was burnt and watched. I am sure there were hundreds if not close to a thousand people on the train that morning. The rioters were not in those numbers. Someone should have rushed the rioters and beaten them on sheer numbers. But the passenger of the Queen is a middle class/upper middle class common Indian. They are god fearing people who have an attitude that I should not be hurt, my property should not be hurt, who cares if the Queen burns, it’s government property.

The incident reminded me of flight 93, the brave souls of the flight took on the dangerous hijackers and crashed their flight. They all perished but they may have saved a lot more people and even the symbol of American democracy, the White House. Will Indians ever have the passion to protect something other than their own lives? Will “I love my India” be anything more that a slogan or a kitschy song?

30th November – A day of shame, the Queen burnt, a community shamed.

We reached India past mid-night and got to Thane and slept around 4:00am, anticipating a birthday feast the next morning courtesy of my In-laws. When I awoke at 9:00 am, the city was silent, not a soul moved anywhere. This is a very strange occurrence in any part of India let alone a suburb like Thane. My dad informed me that riots had broken out in the city and hence everything was shut down. I thought it was a joke but if only that were true, the next 24 hours I felt nothing but anger and shame at my fellow Indians.
A couple of days before, a statue of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar had been desecrated by some ruffians in a far away city of Kanpur in the state of Uttar Pradesh. This is no doubt a dirty offense. The culprits should be apprehended and punished accordingly. Dr. Ambedkar was an intelligent man who authored our constitution and championed the cause of the downtrodden. The concept of statues and their representation of living beings is something I haven’t been able to understand in India. In retaliation of this act in a faraway state, the dalits in Mumbai and its suburbs rioted. Gone were the teachings of Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar himself. No peaceful protests, no apologies were asked for. Busses and cabs were set ablaze, people pelted shops with stones, the cops fought back with lathis and tear gas. In all this, the new 24 hr news channels in India kept showing images of the descecrated statue and the riots and how people were getting lathi charged by the police. Soon a new and gruesome image flashed on the screen. This was an image of train being burnt. The flames were shooting high in the air and upto 7 bogies were ablaze. When the train was identified as the Deccan Queen, my heart broke.
Deccan Queen has been the one train that has fascinated me since I was a kid. It runs from Pune to Mumbai C.S.T. Leaves at 7:05 in the morning from Pune and returns at 9:15 in the night. She was always the crown of the central railway. She was the first fast train from Pune to Mumbai. She was the first train to be colored blue and white. She would not stop at big stations like Kalyan and Thane and would roar through those like a beast possessed. I would wander to the platform that she would whiz past just to watch the blur of blue and white. People would say she swept the platforms with the dust she would kick-up. Along the years, more trains were introduced, the queen slowed down a bit, she shared colors with other trains originating out of Pune. But I would proudly recall the Queen as the best train I had ever known in my life.
This same Queen was emptied by miscreants near a suburb of Ulhasnagar and set ablaze. She burnt all day, the firemen we helpless to stop the blaze. In the end, the engine was badly destroyed and 7 bogies were burnt to dust. Total monetary loss ran to Rs. 7 crore. She was shut down. For the next 3 days, Puneites who regulary rode their Queen to work, went to the station in the morning, but she did not come. The railway authorities did not have replacement bogies to run her, the scramble was on to try and put her together. On the third day, she limped back to life on the limbs of some spare bogies collected from various trains.

In the days following, I tried to figure out what happened, who went wrong, where was the law enforcement machinery? What I found was very shameful and disturbing.

An Open Letter to the Chairman of Air-India and the Honorable Aviation Minister Mr. Prafulla Patel.

Dear Sirs,
I have held your airlines in the utmost respect. It is my country’s flagship airline and has been successful for a good part of the last few decades. I have always been angered when foreigners trash the airline for its service. In fact I was outraged when my company, one of the top banks in the US has officially banned any official travel via your airline. This was even more insulting when my company has identified India as the next prime target for market expansion.
This December I decided to travel by Air-India despite having other options just to get the experience that I could write about. What I got for this is the most shocking customer service experience of my life.
The ticket agent himself was courteous in checking in me and my wife and taking our luggage in. Upon boarding though, the nightmare began. The seats themselves were extremely dirty. The back of the seats before us that would face us were badly stained. Upon opening the food trays, we noticed they were stained by leftover food. I can understand that Air-India itself has only 9 air-craft that you have to re-use. But surely you can have disposable seat covers or replacement seat covers that can be replaced when the aircraft reaches India and then cleaned while the aircraft makes the trip across the seas. This on the face of it does not seem like a difficult option. There is no dearth of cheap manpower at India’s airport to replace the seat covers. This is the worst reputation that a flight company can have, that they have dirty air-craft that disgust even the local Indians.
The attending staff was very courteous on the Chicago – London leg of the flight. During the London – Mumbai leg however there was a terrible staff that ignored passengers, did not provide water and food when requested and in general was missing during most of the flight.
Upon landing, the customs documents were not provided by the flight staff on the aircraft. This led to a horrible dash of multiple passengers from multiple flights onto the immigration counters. These counters themselves were not well staffed or well managed to explain which documents belonged to returning Indians and which to passengers that had Indian Visas. After this, the checked-in luggage was missing for a good 2 hours. Bags from various Air-India flights were available in different baggage belts irrespective of what was displayed on the boards. Airport baggage handlers were harassing people for money all this while and also throwing bags off the belts.
All this is just unacceptable behavior of an international airline. I have traveled by the majority of American airlines as well as multiple Indian domestic airlines but never have I encountered this. Yes they all have flaws but none so damning.
I hope you look into this and rectify the flaws else no amount of new aircraft or cheaper seats will ever improve the standing of this once proud maharaja.

Thanks,
Chasing Satya

Dhoom Dhoom............ Wow

Full disclosure, i absolutely LOVE Aishwarya Rai and have man crushes on Abhishek and Hritik. But what an awesome, fun movie.
Cops and Robbers, always a fun concept, this time the mysterious Mr. A is a suave, savvy jewel thief who is a master of disguises. That is why no one knows what he looks like.. which is good because he is actually the Hunky Hritik (Aryan) who i guess would stand out in any robbery. He dances with nimble feet and steals stuff with panache right under the cops noses. Plus he forgets to button his shirts so we all are winners.
Jai Dixit (Abhi) is the same brooding cop we met in the previous movie, hes still dedicated to his wife and cooks for her as shes going hormone crazy on him (relax ladies shes actually pregnant). He seems to be forced into playing down his role, i have seen him dance and he is a good dancer, yet he just shakes his hands awkwardly in the songs. He has a plan to catch Mr. A, he is the only one who discovers a pattern in his work and can predict his next jobs. they really should promote the guy, hes being wasted as an ACP.
Ali (Uday Chopra) (huh!) what was he doing in this movie, as Ali the mechanic in the last movie he was Jai's sidekick, this time he was forcing jokes, butchering English and falling in love with every girl he came across. The concept was the same as the last movie but in this one he just stood around after doing the above, no storyline for him at all.
Shonali and Monali Bose (Bipasha and Bipasha), what in the world was she supposed to be? a top cop, a bikini babe, what? she looked all sultry and did her Bong Bomb act for about 10-15 mins in the movie which is about the optimum time one can bear that act.
Saving the best for last, what can i say about her that people haven't already... she is no doubt the most beautiful woman in the world but cannot act to save her life. Aishwarya as Sunehri is well cast but out of place. She lost a lot of weight and looks o-my-gawd beautiful in some scenes, but she is overly tanned with no explanation why, and all the weight loss has got her bones showing that make her features very sharp. Maybe i was just not used to seeing her like this. All her dialogues, she goes third person on us. I don't know why people do that, its not funny and its not what we usually see. Satya is not a big fan of the Third person. Satya prefers to talk like a regular person. Sunehri uses the word 'like' a lot, kinda like the air-head blonde stereotypes in the US. I think it was meant to be a play on her being a bambaiiya girl who dreams of America but they could have used some other typical American terms to the same effect. Hritik and Ash have absolutely zero chemistry. it was very difficult to believe their characters love each other enough to die for each other. Ash tried to act, tried to cry and failed in both her dialogues came tumbling out like she was reciting from a book. Sunehri steals from the Jewel thief and finds gold in his heart.
I liked the ending, i agree everyone in the world deserves a second chance.

To recap, Hritik is dreamy, Ash is newly sultry, Bipasha is bonging, Abhi is brooding and Uday is doing his thing.

Final rating: 4 Satkis

Welcome back Mr. Bond.. We have been expecting you

This is what the studios do to try and resuscicate a franchise that was strangled by bad writing and horrible screenplay. Pierce Brosnan will always be my favorite Bond and i have been his fan since the Remington Steele days, but good god Die Another Day was HORRIBLE.
So the studios go out and get Daniel Craig, the anit-bond, short, blond, blue eyes. He runs, he gets down and dirty, he bleeds, he strangles bad guys with his bare hands and Horror of Horrors Bond falls in LOVE. All this time, the date is still 2006, so we are supposed to forget the last 30 years of Bond. But guess what, i liked this movie, infact in my new ratings im gonna give it 3 1/2 satkis (satya patki, satki get it?). There is a lot of action, plenty of chases, expensive cars being destroyed. Craig pulls it off, wears skimpy swim trunks (pandering to the ladies in the audience) and also dresses up in a Hawaiian shirt in the movie. This is a relief for all Bond-o-philes who never understood why Bond wears a suit when he goes swimming.
The latest Bond girl is Wesper Lynd, she looks awesome in her evening gowns when she accompanies Bond to Casino Royale. She steals Bonds heart and (spoiler alert!!!) later she steals his Money.
The bad guy is Le Chiffre. Hes got a menancing scowl over his face all movie long and mumbles when he speaks. He supposedly bleeds out of his eyes, some genetic defect but this is not referenced later in the movie at all.
Speaking of later in the movie, Le Chiffre tortures Bond in a way no man should ever ever ever be tortured. All the men in the theater crossed thier legs and cringed with every stroke. That is just not done dude...
Bond drives a Ford (ugh!), wins a 1964 Aston Martin (ooh!!) and gets a brand new pimped out Aston Martin (aah!!) from M which he destroys later.
No sign of Q or Moneypenny this movie. There is a tongue-in-cheek appearance by Richard Branson.
The Bad guys all exchange text messages that James gets hold of and tracks each one down. If the entire operation is based on those devices, i would hope they would take better care of the phones or atleast encrypt them in someway. But hey this is Bond.. James Bond....
Overall, the producers did the only thing that could bring back the fans by re-inventing the genre and i have to admit this fan is hooked. I will definately see the next one.

Final Rating: 3 1/2 Satkis

Black Friday let down

So i was all excited about buying my new plasma TV today and started my usual compulsive obsessive research and finally came to a conclusion that the panasonic 42" is not a HDTV. talk about trick advertising. The only HDTV set capable of producing 720p signal is 50" plasma. This 42" plasma has only 1024 vertical lines and for so called HDTV (720P) you need 1280. So this set will never show 720 progressively scanned HD picture. I already have a 36" rear projection that downgrades digital channels and displays it very well. I dont need another TV to do the same. Now im gonna start dreaming up the Sony Bravia XBR LCD that actually is a true HDTV or the Panasonic 50" plasma that is too big for my current house but may fit right in with the new house Dipti and I are planning to buy next year.

I never got around to talking about the movies yesterday, new update comming later.

Battling in Jo' burg

The men in Blue take on mighty South Africa in Johannesburg today, i thought about watching this game on TV and being disappointed again but decided against it, as of this writing it looks promising. The God is still wielding this willow in the middle and call me old fashion but i still belive as long as he is out there, Indians have a chance.
So we are at the start of the big Holiday season in the US, Thanksgiving comming up tommorrow. So the logic here is that the rebels from the motherland came here, duped the locals out of thier land, fed them turkey, banished them to restricted lands and now rub it in every year by celebrating the day and offering huge discounts on consumer items.
I love Black Friday shopping to watch people rush into stores at 5:00 am, trampling each other to buy a 27" TV for $60. I will be one of those people tommorrow, i am hoping to buy a plasma TV for $1000 on Friday.
Yash Raj Films did the smart thing and will release Dhoom 2 in the US on Thursday, nicely done keeping an eye on the long weekend. I will be dragging Dipti and Amol to the early morning 10:30 showing tommorrow. We will also be able to catch a showing for Casino Royale and the Will Ferrel movie Stranger than Fiction. I will have my reviews and spoilers for those films up on Friday unless i am spending all day playing with my new toy, the plasma TV.

India.. Shinning?

Yesterday i was again reminded of an annoying truth about India. We as Indians do an extremely crappy job of marketting our country. I was told yesterday by an aquantaince that they are scared to go to India because they are afraid of the crowds, the chaos and the lawlessness. My jaw dropped to the floor, this person was a native of Mexico, and considered Thailand as a more lucrative tourist locale than India. No offense to those countries but those are not the contries best known for stability. On the other hand, in India there is barely an occasional terrorist attack which has in recent times been dealt with firmly and swiftly.
In my six years in the US i have tried to be a model citizen in trying to portray my country in a good light, I have been asked about the education system in India, the Technological development, occasional questions about Indian politics and the ever popular discussion on that symbol of India "The Taj".
Yet invariably the discussion turns towards the popular monkey man in delhi, the elephant who went on a rampage in karnataka, the man who threatened to shoot himself in the head if Sonia Gandhi did not take over as PM. I understand the significance of sensationalism in our current culture but the Associated Press spiders never fail to collect these stories to place them on the popular websites like MSN and Google. I have rarely seen a mention in these international channels about the fact that India is one of the few countries that has a Nuclear Scientist as thier President, one of the most popular presidents in Indian history. Rarer still are mentions that the Indian stock market has been booming to dizzing heights. That entire university campuses in India have gone wireless (something very recent even in the US).
The perception of India as a backward country is largely media driven and to an extent driven by the representive populace in the US. Some of the very well known stereotypes of Indians in the US are, they are poor people who run 7-11 stores, they stink, they speak in heavy accents, that they steal jobs and every call center is in India. The perception of India is that there are no roads in India, the traffic is chaotic and people must be getting run over all the time, there is dirt and dust everywhere, elephants roam the cities and beggars and thieves stalk people to relieve them of thier possesions. These are all images portrayed in movies and CNN documentaries. There was write up on MSN over the last year where a correspondent visited India, wrote all the above points regarding the place and called India 'one of the most horrible places on earth'. Angelina Jolie recently travelled to my home town of Pune to shoot for her movie because the locale was similar to Afghanistan. The key here was that there are hills and caves around Pune. Pune itself is a very savvy, technologically advanced city with great architecture and history. Yet that description of Pune was never publicized whenever Angelina's trip was discussed, I belive someone missed a great opportunity to introduce the beautiful city of Pune to the western world who read every nugget of Ms Jolie's trip.
The people in India and the NRI population in the US should make an effort to correct some of these perceptions. Yes 7-11 stores are run by a majority of South Asians (Indian and Pakistani) but these stores make a lot of money for these people since they are always open in every block of every city in the US. Indians stink because they are aliens to the concept of Deodarants, I have known friends guilty of this, also the stink is also attributed to the strong smell of spices involved in Indian cooking. These scents stick to the fabric worn by the people in a house where Indian food is made, but i have known a lot of people trying to prevent this by cleaning thier clothes more often and opting for better exhausts. Indians have heavy accents but compare that to the fact that all of them can speak english enough to hold a minimal conversation with an American. How many Americans can claim to do the same on thier travels to France or even India. And yes recently there has been a move to outsource technical jobs and Call Centers to India because there is a Huge Talent pool there. The importance of being an engineer or a doctor in India is unsurpassed anywhere in the world. The courses are absolute, in becomming an engineer students do not take philosophy or phsychology courses to score easy grades. In becomming an engineer in India, i can successfully take apart a computer and put it together again. a feat that would challenge even the most experienced Geek at the local Best Buy.
The stereotypes against the country though are tougher to explain and tougher yet to overcome. To do this, the powers that be should control the caricaturization of the country. The most popular newpaper that is spidered by all the western Websites is The Times of India. They must refrain from sensationalizing the most trivial of news. International spiders pick up the top 5 - 10 news, they cannot have the elephant on a rampage in Karnataka as the top news in a country where so much happens on any given day. Yes the traffic is chaotic in India but the youtubbers should stop making fun of it by putting out of context videos of it everywhere. I am yet to find pictures/video of the excellent Mumbai-Pune expressway anywhere. This is not censoring of news but just prioritizing of it. Ms. Jolie may well shoot her movie in Pune or even adopt a kid from the streets but use her presence to show her the brilliance of Pune and get the press hanging onto her to pick up some pointers for thier writeups. I am sure the producers of her movie may have accomodated that.
The questions that always arise out of such a conversation is 'Who Cares?', 'Why bother?'. We live in an environment where boundaries are fast disappearing. The smallest of incidents have a tendency to snowball into International Disputes. There is a good population of the US that actually belives that each Indian in the US is taking money out of thier pocket. On the other hand there is a sizable population in India that belives the US is nothing but a Hedonistic dance club. There are strippers and promiscuos women running amok on the streets of New York and Los Angeles. There are pin striped gangsters driving thier black cars in Las Vegas. These are the images seen in Indian Movies regarding the US. The truth as always is far from reality. Such a write up will not be seen from an American because they enjoy thier status of being a World onto themselves. There are not a lot of them who are world travellers and those who are, always travel with a chip on thier shoulders not caring what the world thinks of them. Maybe this is an American sterotype. This is why there should be a discussion, communication and truthful representaion of countries to one another.

Book Club

Latest reads of mine include three books that have been controversial and extremely popular in the last few years. I haven't been able to do a lot of reading in the past few years but now that i moved to the suburbs, i get time on the train to read.
One of my first comments is that i wish certain books were never made into movies, Harry Potter - Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter - Half Blood Prince, what a classic premise, extremely detailed universe created by the author. Having seen the earlier movie releases for the first 3 books (dragged to them by Dipti), throughout the book i kept imagining the actors playing the parts and the locales as depicted in the movie, i thought this was very limiting, I should have gotten a chance to imagine the setting in my own creative way, I think this is what people refer to when they say "the book is much better" I have to agree in this case. as for the final book, my predictions are
1. Harry is a Horcrux.
2. Neville Longbottom is the chosen one.
3. Snape is not evil, he was forced by Dumbledore to kill him to protect Draco who will help Harry eventually because there is good in him.
4. Harry will have to die to finish off Voldemort once and for all.

The final book will be out in July and i will fight Dipti to read it before her.

Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown, Another book that had no business being a movie, Wow the details in this book are gripping. I am a conspiracy theory buff and could not put this book down despite having seen the movie.

The one book that i did start but never got beyond 100 pages was the Bourne Ultimatum, too heavy for early morning and late evening reading. Here is a book that will make a great movie, since the first two did. CIA conspiracies are made to be seen on tv not read in books.

I am still undecided on the next book to read, i might try the new Crichton book

Going Home

In seven days i go to my real home country and for the first time in 6 years i am not very excited to go back. I do not want to sound like a man holding on to a romantic notion of the past but i guess i am one. My home has changed, my home i guess has evolved and i am very happy that it is being talked of as one of the prime locations in India to work, live and study but at the sametime the Puneri Panaa (marathi) is dwindling. I see the same old infrastructure in place in terms of roads and transportation but the average punekar now owns a indica/accord/ford instead of the old luna. The lifestyle has changed to reflect the growing economy of the city. Software engineers who work at the new STP make gazillion rupees in salaries and those dollar allowances on thier trips to the US.
This is a big step for punekars, but as someone once said, "with great power comes great responsibiltiy". The political environment in Pune and to an extent all of India has not changed in the last 20-25 years. I have not in my lifetime met a collegue who confessed to wanting to be a politician or even hold government office. The old brigade is just that, old. Solutions to traffic problems are not building flyovers. We need something to change there but i am not sure how and what that would be. Also one thing i have noticed in the US for 6 years now, that is a little short in India is civic pride. The populace should want to have a better city, better state and better country. Spending Rs. 150 at a Cafe or Rs. 500 at a pizza parlor does not make a influential society person.
I came across a couple in thier late 20's who owned a honda accord walking with thier young son out of a theater in Pune. The little guy wanted to go to the loo, the dad in all his class, instead of walking the kid back to the restroom in the theater, pointed him to the nearest tree and had him go there. Sir, where is your civic pride?
I was once at a traffic light that was red in my dad's car. The traffic in the other direction was light, I was yelled at, honked and cursed at by the stylish kid in the car behind me because i didnt break the signal and let him do the same. It is a traffic light, a simple rule taught to students in the 1st grade. The only person who should break that rule is a doctor rushing to his patient to save his life or a patient rushing to the hospital. But this person had the choiciest curses for me. Sir, where is your civic pride?
My point here is that if the populace can break the laws they will. The whole world saw that during the devastating floods at New Orleans where the entire law and order broke apart. But in everyday Pune, Cops do not consider it a crime to break traffic signals. If someone is pulled over, they can get away with offering a bribe. I have at a time gotten away with bribing as little as Rs. 10. I felt bad for being an enabler but i felt more ashamed that i could buy a mans pride for Rs. 10. The Cops themselves will tell us that they are extremely underpaid and also have to answer to a lot of "fathers".
At this point the discussion rounds back to the politics and the general apathy of the common man. Our men in uniform have to be respected, they should make enough money to decline bribes and should be allowed to hang up on the phone call from the minister or even hike the fine for someone who has the gall to ask "Do you know who i am?".
I get extremely angry at such behaviour and feel the urge to ask the person to behave with some class but who am i to demand such a right. Every person should expect it out of themselves, thier spouses and thier kids.

10 Days to 29

20 Nov, 10 days before i turn 29 embarking upon my 30th year of existence, i am intrigued by the following.
1. My current home country is extremely close minded, their view of the world is extremely restricted to the 50 states - actually about 15 states that determine the political future every 4 years. My challenge every so often is expalining to a lot of educated people here that i am here to learn thier positives and use that for my betterment and not that i have escaped my home because it is a dark, uncivilised 3rd world country. (more on this thought later)
2. I think sports fans (real sports fans who bleed team colors) are a lucky bunch. they live and die with thier teams successes and victories. but the good part is that there is new win or loss every other day for thier favourite team. I am extremely fortunate to live in chicago where civic pride is measured with the Bulls for Basketball, the Bears for Football, the White Sox for baseball. These sports are year long and keep the fan in me excited every day. Being an Indian i also bleed blue, my stumbling, bumbling, rumbling cricket team that is the most schizophrenic sports team ever assembled.
3. Airline rules, transit visas, tranparent carry-ons, no fluids, no water enough said.
4. TV shows LOST - can we please have some clarity, CSI - Miami ; is David Caruso the best ham in the business or what, i live for his one liners, CSI - Vegas, Gil is the best detective nerd of all time. Law and order - SVU, detective stabler and benson are the best on screen pairing since Mulder and Scully. Does that Marishka Hargitay have a look or what!!
5. Movies, DON - why o why would someone try to imitate god? Great twist at the end, blew my mind but SRK u sir are no Bacchan just stop it. Umrao Jaan, what a superb 3 hr screensaver, i think i understood about 10 dialogues completely. the rest was a blur of Aishwarya Rai dances and costumes and Mr. Smoldering looks Abhishek Bacchan. What a transformation this guy is going through, from Refugee to Bluffmaster, this man now holds your attention. Dhoom 2, yes please i would like some of that, Abhi, Ash and Shirtless Hritik (yes i have man crushes too).

Scorpio Birth.. but of course

For a long time now i have thought of what i should write about. I am just a regular out-of-his-element "Alien" living his dream. I love to read, devour information on every topic from politics to movies and everything in between. A view of all my thoughts on all those topics and more is what this blog could shape up to be. Its a window to the mind of a geek, a brother, a husband, a son, a friend, an Indian, and a citizen of the world.