Sudoku

For all those ignorant, Su Doku is a number puzzle game that's becoming a phenomenon these days. Atleast in UK & India. Many prominent news papers publish this puzzle every day. I discovered this a week ago.

"Sudoku (Japanese: 数独, sūdoku), sometimes spelled Su Doku, is a placement puzzle, also known as Number Place in the United States. The aim of the puzzle is to enter a numeral from 1 through 9 in each cell of a grid, most frequently a 9×9 grid made up of 3×3 subgrids (called "regions"), starting with various numerals given in some cells (the "givens"). Each row, column and region must contain only one instance of each numeral. Completing the puzzle requires patience and modest logical ability (although some puzzles can be very difficult)."
From "Wikipedi.org".

And now my newspaper-reading time got converted to Su|do|ku-solving time. I am having fun. Probably I will have more fun if I were competing with somebody else in the same event.
For further information, following links may help you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku
http://www.doyousudoku.com/
http://www.sudokufun.com/
http://www.sudoku.com/SudokuSetup.exe

Negotiations.

I hate negotiations. We have a list of things the other party may come up with.And then we have our responses for all those things. The challenge-response matrix can be a mind numbing experience.
And then there is drama. We don't want to show the other party that unless this thing happens, we are going to die. Same on both sides.And when you can't beat them with logic, confuse them. If you are serious about solving issue, avoid traps, be creative.
And above all be sincere and hope for the same response.
All said and done, I no longer want to be part of any more negotiations. Who has a choice here?

Anon

I want to re-live.
I want to remember.
I want to forget.
I want to experience.
I want to sleep.
I want to watch sky.
I want to jump.
I want to not-care.
....................

Nuclear World.

India and US recently agreed to cooperate in the field of nuclear energy. India isn't a signatory to NPT. India it seems has agreed to separate civilian and military nuclear facilities and allow civilian facilities for IAEA inspection.
Nuclear energy , as on today caters to 3% of Indian energy requirement. Even with the present agreement, I don't see that increasing radically in near future. Probably I am missing something here.
The other day a chinese general was informing the world that in the event of US attack, they will be ready to destroy few hundred cities/towns in US. Scary situation.
Will there be any wars between major nations in future? I doubt. Look at Iraq. It was relatively a weak nation. America with all it's might is unable to "win".
In any war between nuclear nations , mutual destruction is guaranteed. Why do we need to maintain a large force with all advances in he technology? With satellites, missiles, missile defence, nuclear weapons do we need people to fight people on other side?
I guess , we need more engineers ,scientists to develop more sophisticated weapons.
Why are we going to fight? Who knows? We may run out of oil. To control domestic unrest, we may attack our neighbour.
World is relatively stable now. Atleast it appears so from the place I view it from. But is this stable? I doubt. Will the transition of poor asian countries to prosperous, just societies be smooth? How will white nations cope up with negative population growth, immigration, loss of jobs...?
What am I scared about? About state of world, my children have to live in. One friend was reassuring me that, they will adapt. I hope so. :)

Sunday.

I don't want to wake up before 10 AM. Not that I have a option when I sleep at 2:00 am. But then, I have work to do. What's that? Talk, talk, talk.. I hate this. But then I will have to do this.
Apart from my "food-earning-work" I have many other things to do. Like

1) Exercising.
2) Overhauling my gadgets.
3) Reading some stuff.
4) Learn some stuff.
5) ................

Either I am overwhelmed with work or my inability prevents me from doing all the things I want. Second reason sounds more true.

Sunday.

I don't want to wake up before 10 AM. Not that I have a option when I sleep at 2:00 am. But then, I have work to do. What's that? Talk, talk, talk.. I hate this. But then I will have to do this.
Apart from my "food-earning-work" I have many other things to do. Like

1) Exercising.
2) Overhauling my gadgets.
3) Reading some stuff.
4) Learn some stuff.
5) ................

Either I am overwhelmed with work or my inability prevents me from doing all the things I want. Second reason sounds more true.

Why I will be successful?

I am educated. So I am better than 40% of India's population.
I am a male. So I am better than 50% err..48% of population. (Social
fact, not male chauvinism)
I am born a Upper Caste So I am better than 60% of population.
I am an engineer. So I must be better than 90% of educated people.
I was born in a economically
comfortable family. So I must be better than 50% of people.
I spent my childhood in urban
ares So I must be better than 70% of population.(rural)


I can list out many more reasons. Above reasons should convince you why I will be in top 5 percentile in social strata. So my success was guaranteed. :( And still people like me feel good, great about their abilities, luck. :( :(

Who's Dawood?

Dawood Ibrahim to be precise. In India, he is considered a don. According to a Pakistani news website, he is a wealthy indian businessman. Why is he in news? His daughter is getting married to Pakistani criket legend Miandad's son.
According to India, he is in Pakistan. Pakistan "naturally" denies that.He is a designated global terrorist. Whatever that means? According to Musharaff "Indian muslims have a different perception about the man". That is, different from Indian authorities. Right, we have a different perception about Benazir Bhutto, do you hear Musharaff? Ok, topic isn't about Musharaff.
Salman claims that he is point man for Dawood & Co in mumbai. I read on a website (Intelligenceonline.net) that atleast 70 prominent Indians sent their gifts through Hawala route. Is it necessary?
What are we afraid of? If we are afraid of extortion, being killed.. do onething, become un-famous, un-rich first.
We are afraid of tax authorities, political parties, Naxalites , poor people because our riches are not legitimate.
Anyway, I hate this lack of clarity.

Another cut and paste (Again from slashdot.org)

The way corporations operate may be bad, but it's no worse than the nobles in the monarchies of europe. Corporations made it possible for the common man to get involved in ownership of a large company, which was previously limited to only the super-rich. At least now, if I see Microsoft getting rich and I am jealous, I can just go buy a piece of Microsoft and share in the wealth.

You posit a socialist world, which Soviet Russia proved was good on paper, but a spectacular failure in practice. The Chinese are learning from the mistakes of the USSR by EMBRACING corporate capitalism while keeping the government involved.

Greed runs the world. Bitch about it all you like, but this is the way it always has been and always will be. The only way to be safe from greed is to be greedy yourself. Even if the US were to pass laws forbidding profitable corporations, nothing would change. They would simply move to China or Russia or Canada. If you are not greedy, someone else will be and you'll just be poor. If everyone is not greedy, it just takes one greedy person to amass resources and abuse power. On the other hand, if everyone is greedy, things will eventually work out.

20th century economics has taught us that governments cannot control the economy, they can only guide it. The economy is controlled by market forces; the mass will of the people. It is folly to try and "dream of a better system" because the system dictates itself. Even if you could think of something better, the goal could only be to make more money, or else nobody will bother.

Stop trolling on slashdot and go out and learn stuff about the world. We all wish for the world to be a better place but there are some facts about the world and the nature of people that we have to operate within.

Women's Reservation Bill, Honesty,..

The long proposed/delayed Women's reservation Bill is going to be introduced in the next session of parliament. Though I am not aware of details, I am happy about the whole thing. I want women representation to be 50% in everything, though i don't see that happening anytime soon.

Ok, next topic. Honesty.

How much honesty is possible? Is honesty single entity, I mean whould we difference between honesty to oneself and honesty for general consumption? Does practicality allow complete honesty in all respects? Is honesty defined/influenced by culture,milieu? ..
Yesterday, I asked aforementioned union legend a personal question. I asked him,"do you regret taking path in which you are in?"
His answer was "I was told that I could have done better in other fields, like politics.. But one can't do everything. And ifs and buts will always be there. I spent major part of life in union activities and I don't think it's going to change". I didn't get my answer. Probably he wasn't sure if he must regret/ no regret his past. But then , who is?

No, Not again

Past couple of days, I had been in Bangalore involved in union discussions. I know , this is getting boring. But it's almost over. I was involved in a 7hr marathon meeting.
My counterpart was a senior trade union activist. He is president for 41 unions across 4 states. For one union (strength : 17000) he is president for the past 45 yrs. I realised that he is legend lated in the day. :)
But he was a perfect gentleman who didn't display his reputation. Discussions were long drawn, illogical in parts.. With no solution in sight , suddenly an idea struck. A one to one between me and union president was proposed. And within next 15 mts, we had reached an understandin leaving details to others.
Mission accomplished.
But does it make me a millionaire I dream to be? Hmm, no :( ;)

Why am I happy all the time?

Ok,that wasn't the question I was asked. I was asked "How are you happy all the time?". When did I allow anybody to watch me all the time to come to such conclusions?
Yeah, I was asked that question enough times by now to make me believe that I belong to "ever optimistic appearing" gang. Is it good? Most probably it is, going by the manner in which I was asked that question.
Truth is , I am scared to be worried. I don't like to see sad faces. I don't like to see opaque faces, which compell me to play mind games to find out what's going on in mind of other persons. I like to be happy, relaxed whatever be the situation. And I want others around me too to be in similar state.
Yes, there are situations when I am tense/worried/depressed. But I don't want to transmit all such diseases to others.
Once when I was listing out all my troubles to a friend, my friend replied. "Look at poor , homeless, physically challenged, sick, discriminated...Do you still feel you have problems to cry about?"
That's it. No, that sermon didn't stop me from imagining that I have issues. I just stopped complaining about them :)
Say you are there with your friends in a forest on a dark night. You are afraid of ghosts? Will you start telling others all ghost stories you know?
//y with life, appear positive to add to collective strength.:)
I know, I am not making much sense today. But who said, I will have to make sense all the time.:)

Cut and Paste Job (From Slashdot.org)

Socialism scares me. The direction of America scares me. Patton said ``America loves a winner. America will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise a coward. Americans play to win. That's why America has never lost a war, for the very thought of losing is hateful to an American.'' I wonder if now this is no longer true; Americans love losers and cannot tolerate a winner. And it's sad, really, because Americans have the opportunity to become winners. We're just choosing to bring everyone down to the loser level, making sure nobody gets ahead, so that nobody will be left behind.

I agree, in the pre-1990 era, America did love a winner. So did I. When a freind of the family succeeded and got a great job, or got accepeted to medical school, or did something really good, everyone was happy. People would celebrate, there would be large meals, everyone felt good.

What has changed?

* Enron
* Motorola lays off 11,000
* GM lays off 25,000
* Martha Stewart gets insider information
* CEO fo Motorola gets million dollar bonus, lays off more people
* Arthur Anderson looks the other way
* Families need both parents working, nobody is left at home with the kids, fast food replaces home cooking, eating in front of the TV replaces family dinners and discussions
* Jerry Sinfield racks up 100+ parking tickets in NYC for parking in handicapped or fire zones. He publicly says "I have enough money to pay those tickets, it is the price of parking where I want. And if I am toed, I have someone else who can bring me another porche"
* Tuition at schools rises faster than inflation
* For many, school is not an option, and the US Army is recruiting in highschools (since when is being a mercenary a requirement for an education)
* Gas prices double, nearly triple the past decade
* Places require credit checks and personality tests for hiring
* And workers are looked at as a commodity, like an ox pulling a wagon, not as people

Those are a few reasons why America no longer loves a winner. The avarage American is not greedy. We want a nice house, a yard for the kids to play in, a car, food in the fridge, money for a vacation, and a retirement fund. The problem is, that lifestyle is not middle class anymore, it is becomming upper class.

Is it any suprise that parents are threatening teachers, that if their kids don't get "A"'s in all their classes, get accepted to the best schools, that parents will sue teachers, or get a gun and kill a teacher. I think in Texas some mom killed another cheerleader so her daughter could get on the team and have less competition. In the papers, at a youth baseball game a father beat up an umpire for calling a third strike on his son, when the father thought it was a ball.

Think about this very carefully. People are scared there will be no future. They are fighting like 10 wild hyinas over a found carcus. We are loosing our humanity when we degrade ourseleves to fight for a basic survival.

For Once

My country's Prmie Minister is visiting US along with lot many other people. The delegation includes 10 top industrialists, foreign minister(naturally), finance minister,press representatives,...
I am happy about the fact that businessmen are included in the delgation. Foreign Policy is no longer alone. It has to be inevitably mixed with economics. Our nation is lucky in that we have 2 honest people in prime minister and president. And we have communists who ensure that capitalists don't ruin the nation. :) I hate communists, but I hate greedy private individuals more. :)
Not that, we are in ideal situation. Manmohan Singh and likes do not have enough power to execute their plans. And what about future? After Manmohan and likes. It's easy to be depressed. But hen look at momentum. To ensure their own safety rich & powerful will talk about "rule of Law" more and more.
Say some politican made lot of money, 100s of crores. What will he do? Earlier, they used to haord that money in swiss banks. But these days, they invest in India under fictious names/ entities.
Jury is still out. let us hope for the best.

Chinese movies

I like chinese martial art movies. Especially those with lot of good quotes. Right now, I am watching one.
One quote from the movie.

"We should share all the happiness, but I should solve my problems on my own."

So don't bother me with your problems. :) Kidding. It's usually I who does that.

Details of collage

Myself, children in my household, my cars. More tomorrow.

Another Collage

A friend from the past.

A school friend called me after 14 yrs. That's so distant, I am 29 now. And within 3 mts, he was talking about a real estate deal. :( He was competing with me for the first postion in the class. Then he strayed. He got into wrong kind of friendships. He preferred girls, while I was still innocent in that respect.
After school, I lost touch with him. I was informed by other friends that, his academic prformace deterioted continuously. Finally he took up a small job in public sector.
It's sad to see an equal going down. Perhaps, he didn't have enough intelligent circumstances/ people to guide him.

Bernie Ebbers.

Former Worldcom CEO is sentenced to 25 yrs in prison. He is already 63 yrs old. So assuming he will live long enough, he will be 88 yrs by the time he comes out. Depressing scenario for him and his family. In another judgement, he is made to forego all his wealth. So what should we make out of that judgement? Is law meant to dissuade future offenders or to reform the present offenders? Probably both.
What's the point in feeding that old man for next 25 yrs with taxpayers money? He must have been a real idiot to think he can get away with all he did. It seems he pleaded that what happened , happened because of his ignorace and not malafide intentions. Probably he got duped. But then our suffering is proportional to our ignoance, right?
I will give another legal example. In my region a political leader was falsely implicated in a case by his opponents. His opponents ensured that, he got sentenced. Everybody knows, he wasn't involved in the case. I felt pity for him and said so before somebody else. The response I recieved was "He wasn't deserving all the power, fame, money he had.Similarly he doesn't deserve this punishment now".
As Gabbar singh says to a guy in Sholay "Ab goli kha". (Consume bullet as you consumed salt)
A judge's life must be tough. I am so happy I am not a judge.

Badder day.

Ok, past 3 days have been bad to me. I have not come here to cry. So let me shift to some other topic.
Just now I had come across Salman Khan's threats to Aishwarya Rai. I hate that idiot. Why in this country people are afraid to be on right side? I am no fan of Ash. She may be equally bad. Ok, let me give URL before confusing my readers.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1407052,0008.htm?headline=Full~transcript~of~Ash-Salman~conversation

The guy deserves to be hanged. He must be a coward to use all those names. What's his life worth? He might have had sex with lot of women, he might have made lot of money, he might have even killed people (Remember his drunken driving) , but his life isn't worth it. I wonder if he gets a good night sleep.
I attimes wonder if this nation is a nation of losers. We are not aggressive enough in pursuing the guilty. Yesterday there had been a judgement in Supreme Court about illegal immigrants in Assam. It seems some areas are so full of immigrants that majority has become minority and vice versa.
And when it's time for discussion, it will be made an emotional one,not a logical one. Religion comes into picture. I am no jingoist. But I believe that we need a holistic, honest approach to deal with socail issues. Procrastination, sensationalism, escapism will not help. Our next generations are bound to suffer with out inaction.
He who did nothing wrong never did anything.
War is bad, some arguments are stressful, some conclusions are not politically right, we cannot be good to everybody,..
Let us act, let us voice our opinion, let us live.

A bad day.

It was one of those days where everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Money that had to come didn't. That had to go ,did. Talks with union failure. Colleagues not rising to occasion. Not able to unlock car in video game to impress son. ..
No problem. There is always tomorrow.
Visits to my blog are increasing through google. So I should be more intelligent with my posts. :)

Crap

I see that some people landed on my blog by searching for "telebrands" on google.:) Curious, I did more research on telebrands. It's 2nd largest such company in the world. And I don't want to know the first one.
And Telebrands is owned by...Indians.:( :( :( I should have guessed. And those owners own a mansion in NJ,US with 9 rooms and 17 bathrooms. Whatever. World rewards such geniuses.

More Experiments with Microwave

Microwave is one of very few common interests I share with my wife. (My wife's comment) It's actually a family affair. BTW, I am not comfortable with words wife, family.
My elder son tries to supply ingredients. Smaller one keeps chanting the name of item being prepared. Today it was Pizza. Or pisa as per my second son.
Ingredients: Flour, yeast, capsicum, sugar, salt, Tomatoes, Ketch Up, capsicum, peppercorn,olive oil, onions,..
Method: Ok, I am not linked to Tarla Dalal. So please go and look elsewhere.
Result: Not so fluffy pizza crust. But good topping. 80% consumed. So no regrets.

I really love experimenting with food. I am more interested in effort than result. Ok, that statement doesn't indicate final quality of my/our efforts. :)

History,Terrorism,Militancy

So if 50 people die in London it's terrorism. If thousands die in developing nations it's militancy or struggle for independence. If millions die in Africa, it's ethnic struggle or is it ethnic cleansing?
What difference does a sympanthy or argument make at this stage? Some nations need to sell arms to individuals and splinter groups to keep their citizens employed? What if the same weapons are used againest them? What's injustice? Looting oil? What's fair price for natural resources? Where's compensation fo centuries of imperialism? Why do we assume that our religion is the right one for every human being? And do we need to kill the other person to drive the point?
Should we fence our border and stop all the immigration? Shall we outsource our work and ensure supply of cheap goods and services? Shall we cancel the debt of poor nations? Shall we extend loan with a guarantee that it will be used to buy goods/services only from our country?
Shall we raise the slogan with us/againest us? Any resistance againest ruling class is sedition. Tradition is good, because it ensures that the parasites remain parasites.
Oil can go upto 100$. No, with recent attacks, people will be afraid to travel. SO i will come back to 30$. But did you take into account latest hurricane? Yeah, but china is slowing down. But a pipeline in iraq was blown by insurgents. New gas is discovered in India. India-Iran-pakistan pipeline is not acceptable to America. Europe is on decline. People have shown that, they are reasy to face any attack on the values they represent and uphold. And hence oil has returned to 62$. Osama, do you still have oil stocks? I suspect so.
If we are in power, it's because we are destined to. Secularism, human face of reforms, unity of proletariat, uniform civil code, responsible federal structure, environment, no to dams, no to canals, no to nuclear weapons, no to war, no to first use of nuclear weapons, credible defense, correction of historical mistakes, visits to war shrines, genocide, ...how are all these terms connected?
I am fair and want only fair skinned girls to sleep with to ensure a good offspring which will rule the world. But my sympathy lies with all the victims of terrorism, freedom struggle, imperialism, economic hegemonism, information censor,..
I know , I am not making sense. But does world do>

100 things, most of then junk.

I have come across quite a few interesting "100 things about me" instances. So let me try. I am not sure if I have 100 things to talk about myself or if I will be daring enough to include interesting things.

1. I am 29.

2. I have 2 great sons.

3. My life changed after advent of kids.

4. I used to be very stupid and very arrogant.

5. I did reasonably well in academics.

6. I was hyperactive.

7. I had great friends.

8. I still have great friends, but number came down.

9. I am a converted vegetarian.

10.My wife is a great person.

11.Probably I don't deserve her as companion.

12.There is lot of money at my disposal.

13.But it doesn't matter much to me.

14.I feel guilty about my spending habits.

15.I am not a big spender by conventional standards, but still..

16.I love gadgets.They represent pinnacle of technological achievement for me.

17.I like books. Both in quanitity and quality.

18.I don't care much about dressing.

19.I love video games. My favourites Metal Gear Solid, Thief series, Deus Ex-1, Road Rash, .....

20.I decided not to buy latest mobile because of high depreciation and rapid advances in handset features.

21.I am careless about my belongings.

22.I have almost lost money, baggage, missed my flight on various occasions due to my lethargy.

23.I love United States.

24.I commited BLUNDERS in life.Probably my quota of blunders is full.

25.At this point I have no motivation in life, only responsibilities. Like making my children millionaires.:)

26.I am an agnostic. And I am not comfortable with that. I want to believe in something.

27.I believe I have loyal set of followers. Yuck, that sounds feudal.

28.I am confident about my ability to be successful in this world, that is, if I want to.

29.I used to be very, very interested in politics till about 5 yrs ago.

30.Now I am disillusioned.

31.I had liked atleast 4 girls in my life.

32.And few others to lesser extent.

33.But only one girl in turn liked me. Don't know about secret admirers though. ;)

34.I had been in jail. (Technically)

35.I had caused grief to lot of people who loved me. That includes my parents.

36.I had vowed to my parents and friends not to repeat such misadventures which can land me in jail.

37.I was booked under "attempt to murder" charges while it was only a simple assault and judge acquitted me.:)

38.Given a chance I will migrate to US of A. But then I want my parents, friends to accompany me.

39.I used to hate few religions. Now I just don't care.

40.I own porn. (My son, please don't read this in next 20 yrs)

41.I had fun in my college.

42.And hence I learnt too little.

43.That didn't prevent me from appearing intelligent.;)

44.I believe average intelligence of mankind is too low.

45.Probably I should have been born a few yrs later to be in synch with rest of world.

46.I love visiting countries. But then I am not into sight seeing. Does that sound like a contradiction? (Probably)

47.I never tried beer, cigarette or any such "defined" addictive stuff.

48.It wasn't fear. Probably I didn't feel so or I wanted to have more self control.BS

49.I have too many doubts,questions about ethics and morals.

50.And I live in a society, where I can be killed if I express my opinions on such issues.

51.I was inquisitive about metaphysics when I was small. Spirituality, death,...

52.Now I just don't care.

53.I fantasize about anonymous friends with whom I will have no inhibitions exchanging various dimensions of thinking.

54.I am yet to find one such person.

55.I must say, I never tried.

56.I get bored with my work, more often then I should.

57.When I look at successful people, I start reasoning "under the same circumstances, I will be much better".

58.I dropped out of a premier institute.Now don't ask me the reason. I don't remember. And I don't regret.:) Good stuff for autobiography, right?

59.I have no siblings.

60.I used to be a crier. No longer.

61.I used to display emotions with few friends. It has reduced to minimum if not completely eliminated.

62.I tried writing crap in the name of poems and stories.

63.I plan to try again.

64.I believe I have enough story material.

65.I had great fun in my school.( Indian school = 1st - 10th grades)

66.But I hate to remember those days.For some strange reason.

67.I always felt sad about parting friends. I hated the fact that, they will have new friends.

68.I feel sad that some equals ended up lower and some equals took a different path.

69.Attimes, I am not sure if I am being sincere in my words and actions.

70. I sleepwalk through most of conversations I hve wih outsides. I mean those who don't matter anything to me.

71.I plan to contribute to improvement of my immediate society.

72.But then probably I am too lazy to translate that into reality.

73.I love dreams. I mean natural dreams, not day dreams.

74.I love sleep.

75.Given a chance, I want to kill lot of people, mostly corrupt people.

76.Who's stopping me now? I am no Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther , Hitler or any such revolutionary person.:(

77.I suck at all arts. Including simple writing.

78.I am ok in 2 sports and chess.

79.I am good at maths. I have enough proof for that.

80.I imagine my face to be something and it turns out to be something else in mirror.

81.And I don't like what I see in mirror.

82.I don't look straight into eyes of any person, not even my friends and parents. Now budding freuds, spew out your theories.

83.I like non fiction over fiction.

84.I plan to compile a book with all the things one need to know. I guess that is meant for aliens with zero awareness about our world.

85.My weight is near ideal, same thing cannot be told about my muscle mass.

86.I regret not being 6'. I miss the mark by 4 cms.

87.I have good hair.But I fear it's turning out to be "had".

88.I wanted to be a spy. Ok, I never said, I am not one now.

89.I believe in technology.

90 I believe in Individual freedom without limits.

91.I believe no matter how educated/intelligent/wise we are, we are primarily driven by physical impulses.

92.I speak a lot.with few people atleast.

93.I rebel just for the heck of it.

94.I hate all rich people. Somehow I feel it's my money that's lying with them.

95.And I hate all elitists. Please don't ask me examples. You will run out of memory.

96.My elder son is after me. I mean he is as lazy as I am.:)

97.I wish I had a purpose in life.

98.I wish I had control over few "particular things".

99.I am surprised, I have come this far.

100. I guess if forced, I can make it 200.:) Later.

Telebrands, Sahara and Mafia.

How do Telebrands work? Every sensible person ought to be offended by those 15-30 mts infomercials about some stupid products. Height increase, weight loss, religious insignia, cure for diabetes, Ab-cruncher, Ab-X,Ab-y .. you got the idea, right? new trend is some out of work heroines, character artistes endorsing these products. Why do they do that? Is it just money or something else? The ads are so crude in presentation.
I believe some strong dark force to be the villain in these sort of activities.
Sahara India. So called 50000 crore group with interests in para banking, airlines, real estate, media, entertainment. I wonder what their actual figures are. Nowhere one can find their actual figures. I don't think they make serious money in any of their ventures. Then how come they claim a networth of 50000 crores? (Or is it 20000 crores)
Do they consider all the deposits in their para banking arm to be their wealth? Why do so many influential people dance (literally) to the tune of Subrato Roy?
This country though democratic and relatively free is still weak in terms of information dissemination. More questions need to be asked and hopefully leading to better answers.

Some interesting quotes or whatever

1. Lie heavy on him, earth, for he
Laid many a heavy load on thee.
(About some architect)

2. A person has a fixed amount of mental capability. This capability is divided into three categories:
1) Memorization
2) Logical Thinking
3) Wasted watching 'Surivor'.

The more time you spend on #1, the less you have for #2 and #3. The more on #2, the less for #1 and #3. The more on #3, the less for #1 and #2.

From slashdot.org