Interesting.

A cut& paste job from "http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/apr/26rajeev.htm" follows.

In terms of long-term strategy, there is the laughable fiction of the 'peaceful rise of China.' This is just marketing hype, we all know that China is not going to the peaceful, because they have throughout their history been an imperialist nation. Furthermore, they have the need to kill off 30 million young men who will never find wives because there are that many 'missing women' from the one-child policy, and they are therefore are likely to be delinquents. The best way to manage their excess energy would be to go to war to ensure a large number of them get killed and cause no further trouble.

China is expanding its military, building up a blue-water navy, and enhancing its proliferation activities in missiles and nuclear technology. All this adds up to a formidable challenge. It is likely that the Chinese will attack Russian Siberia for its oil and gas, attack Taiwan to capture it, and attack Japan either directly or through its proxy North Korea, to cripple its economy. The American nuclear and other security umbrella that Japan currently enjoys may become more toothless over time. The clear implication is that Japan will cease sooner of later to be pacifist, and build up its armed forces.

There is definitely a need for Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, India and others threatened by China's ravenous appetite for lebensraum, resources and hegemonism to get together and 'contain' China. This is a context in which Japan and India could cooperate. For instance, if necessary, India should proliferate its nuclear and missile technology to Japan. After all, China has been kind enough to do that for all of India's enemies.

Frustration

I am frustrated. I am not going to reveal reasons why I am frustrated.
Frustration arises when something happens againest expectations. And when do expectations go wrong? When we are not enough aware. When we are not capable enough of being completely aware.
So what's the way out? Lessen the expectations or still better, have no expectations.

Nano Shakespeare.

I always wanted to be a writer. I wanted a theme. I wanted to be a micro ,well, nano Shakespeare. Jealousy, love, brothers, kingdom, adultery, lost kids ,..some recipe with any combination of such ingredients.

My feeble attempts failed so miserably, I wouldn't dare to show them to best of my friends, lest they change their judgment about me instantly.

With age and experiences, appetite for drama decreased. Though immaturity and drama were substantial in my life, I no longer believe in drama. That cripples already non existing writing ability to a large extent.

And more exposure to world, i.e.. to more books and things like blogs show us our place in world.:(

Does all this mean I should start constructing a grave for my writing ambitions? Probably not.

When I can't imagine, I can plagiarize. I am making lot of friends, so that they will serve as characters in my magnum opus. One more reason for otherwise "weak concept" of friendship.:)

A chinese restaurant, almost a million dollars, Kungfu Hustle, Eurotrip.

It had been a while since I updated the blog.So let me try to catch up.
Yesterday night, I had discovered a good chinese restaurant in Bangalore. Good by definition is something that is customised to Indian taste buds. Believe me, if you have any halluciations about authentic chinese food, please let them go. Nobody except chinese can consume "authentic" stuff.
What's the highest money (or equivalent) you carried? I set a new record yesterday by carrying almost a million dollars. To underworld who's reading this. That's not my money.:)
I watched 2 DVDs in the past 3 days. (actually 3 if you include an adult movie, kidding) KungFu Hustle and Eurotrip. Both were hilarious to say the least. The direction was exemplary in KungFu Hustle. With all the investments I made in DVDs till now, it's high time that I make a movie of my own and recover all that. Ok, now tell me, who's going to fund my movie?
Chalo, time for another "business" meeting. Later. Business meetings are meetings where rarely things get done straight and fast. It's mostly a pointless discussion game and resembles a soap opera. Discussions will continue tomorrow.

Let Go

I had given up many habits which weren't necessarily bad, because I didn't want to be weak. I had even parted with some people.(Probably who didn't matter)
I wish I could increase the magnitude. Like losing interest over food altogether, parting with somebody whom I considered close to me, donatng all the wealth to poor people. Like Rajnikanth does in movies.;) When I am ready for such a "point of no return" I will do all these things.

I love this country.

This time I am talking about India. I love this country for N number of reasons, foremost among them, I cannot escape from this country.;)
I was watching "Swades" movie aboard plane. I didn't have a great opinion about the movie before viewing that, but I feel it's a decent movie. I always felt I have responsibility towards my country because it's poor and I can do my bit about that. But then there's always this dilemma about personal comforts and working or a greater cause. I need "Social Service for Dummies".
Coming to shopping, in whatever little time I had, I did a decent job. My son liked the laptop I bought him. He will be 5 tomorrow. I am not Sultan of Brunei, but my son deserves a laptop. :)
He was so excited about laptop, cds, dvds, books, dresses ..it was all worth it. Only thing I missed is going for a service plan which covers "accidental damage".;)
Coming to blog, 3 or 4 times a day, I feel "I must write about this in blog". But I tend to forget all that when I actually start typing.:(

Fuck Dell's Service

I had some work with Dell service. They had put me on hold for 30 mts and played some uninspiring music. And after that a guy pops up at the other end, asks me for more info ,asks me to wait more. 30 mts of silence follows. Then a automated voice tells me that the service is closed for the day.
So much for world's largest seller of computers. Now I can't imagine the service levels of others.
The other day, when I as reading about "innovation" at Dell, I thought it was a joke. Now I know, there are bigger jokes with "Dell" as min character.
I hope 1.5 persons who visit my blog get influenced by my experience with Dell.

Broadband Envy

I live in a place where only way to connect to Net is DialUp. And everybody can guess all the pain that is associated with that.
And now I am in a place where I have seen speeds upto 1MB/sec. And here creeps in jealousy. I hate to remember the time I wasted on downloads.
Ofcourse laziness increases to compensate for better amenities. Overall productivity gains with more material comforts is a hazy subject and needs more scrutiny.:)

My Newyork Trip.

This is a business trip, this is a business trip, this is a... So I am taking neither photos nor using Cam. I like the present temperatures. 15> < 0.(Celsius)
It's surreal that people living in few streets wield so much power in financial circuits of world. The residents of this country (atleast places I have visited) have this great energy which keeps their country ticking.
I never made an attempt to like TV programmes of this country. But today, I had lot of time to kill and hence was watching TV and trying to understand.
Talk Shows, Silly-stupid-infomercials, Soap-shampoo-operas...
Some of them were good. Some of them were weird on purpose. Some of them cheesy. Some of them hypocritical. Talk about sex, don't use the word fuck. Some characters who will be hanged in other countries end up as talk show hosts in this country.
What else I wanted to mention in this long pending update?
I bought few books, few dvds and few other things. Though choice in India is growing, it still has some distance to go before I stop coming to this country with shopping as one of the "to do " things.
More updates tomorrow.

Loss of faith.

I don't belive anything. Almost. I guess I used to believe in few things. Is that known as loss of faith. Probably. Do I regret that? Hmm, don't know. I do not like emotional reasons for any decisions. But then, I don't find any compelling reasons for life itself.
Will it continue like this? How do I know? I don't like this state. I guess, I need to work on this.

Shopping

It's been 4 days in this country.(US) And everybody I know asked me one question. How's shopping? Huh, my image goes that way. No problem with that.
The problem is with lack of temptation. I am tempted with few things. And I have those "few" things. What next? I am not a obsessive, compulsive shopper. I don't buy all that I can afford. I have certain mental blocks based on "value for money" concept. Yeah, I do feel guilty about things I buy and I don't use.
All said and done, I still want to buy something. Nintendo gamecube.... Probably.

Mac Mini

I wasted more money. I am still waiting for my lottery prize. Is there anyway I can win a lottery without buying a ticket?
Anyway, one more reason for me to feel guilty. I have bought a mac mini yesterday. Hopefully it will prove useful. Now I will have to study a bit about upgrading that, finding right software (read kids)...
Believe me. It looks stunning.
If it were a windows machine, I may even dump my laptop. (Don't as me wy, I just felt so). Anyway, work requires me. Later.

In the Promised land

I landed in SFO today. I like this country. It feels sterile. The air, environment,people.. It's fine with me. Once in a year. To meet people, to do shopping. I have some great memories and some painful memories of this place.
But if I am given citizenship or something like that, I may so "NO". I don't want to live here 24*7. I like my country, it's people, it's poverty, it's milieu too much to chose some other country over mine.
Anyway, I have work to do, people to meet. Updates can wait till night.

A dark blog and a normal blog.

I consider myself to be a very dark person.Atleast in my thinking for some of the time. And like any other conformist, I never talk about those things. And like millions of cowards, I don't intend to cross the "normal" line of behaviour.
But, I would like to explore, what it will be like to express the dark thinking. Maybe I should have a drak blog.(don't expect me to guide you to that place).
Probably this too belongs to realm of dark thinking. For now, I am contended with sleeping and normal dreams.Later.

Today

Virendra Sehwag somehow doesn't appear Indian. Which Indian lacks self preservation instincts. Which India doesn' play slowly in his 90's? Which India doesn't "mature" over time? I hope he remains non Indian in approach.
But then, he may not be good news for country. he may revive interest in that stupid game again.

Playing Midtown Madness-3. Trying to unlock some vehicles and tracks for my son. By the time next edition comes up, he will not need any more help.

Ok, the day was boring. Didn't do any real work. Not that, generally, my days are well utilised.