Definition Of Democracy.

India is the largest Democracy in the world. What does Democracy really mean?

Democracy means :

1. Anyone can shit/spit on the road.
2. There are no need whatsoever to follow traffic rules.
   
3. Anyone can protest on the roads and damage personal and public property.
4. Anyone can launch verbal/physical attacks on certain communities while the govt. sits and watches mutely.
5. Where arrests of "influential" individuals are more of a shenangian and their bailouts are faster than Shoaib Akthar's bowling.
6. Money can buy almost everything including votes and ministers.
7. Polticians use the British divide and rule policy to get vote banks.
   
8. Internal Enemies are more than external ones.
   
9. Cricrket/Bollywood/Politics gets more coverage than the "real" Heros who sacrifice their life for the Nation.
10. Where "potential" terrorists are arrested, then released on ground of "not enough evidence" who then certainly go on and cause terror
    
11. Anyone can enter  from land or sea and terrorize the entire nation.
12. The Police have to use Normal Revolvers against AK47s, grenades and top cops die needlessly.
    
13. Media can broadcast vital information about Marcos, NSG during their counterattack on terrorists, and the terrorists can watch TV and get live updates.
14. Media continuously broadcast the count of dead people and time since when the standoff is going  similar to live updates of cricket matches.
15. Media are allowed to cause panic because of anything from LHC Collider to bomb blasts.
16. Peoples' memory of bomb blasts is that of a goldfish and we shamelessly say Citizens spirit cannot be broken .
    
17. Government promise the sun and the moon, but not a zero tolerance to terrorism.

Definitions of democracy on the Web:

• the political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives
• a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them
• majority rule: the doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group 

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Quantum Of Solace: Movie Review

Quantum of Solace is the latest flick from the James Bond Franchise.

Daniel Craig does certainly stand out from other actors who have portrayed the classic super spy over the years. His panache, cold blue eyes and personality stand out. Coupled with hand to hand combat, chasing criminals over rooptops sans the usual gadgets is what made Casino Royale (prequel) stand out. They could have really give the Bourne franchise a run for their movie. To some extent in the last part they achieved this.

But in Quantum of Solace they went overboard . To make matter worse, the movie lacks any story but has the usual hero sets out the avenge the death of loved ones, two timing villians etc .(very common in 90s' Bollywood movies) . This is where the movie falls flat and fails to impress.

The usual Bond fan expects 4 things ... Gadgets, Cars, Larger than Life villians and most importantly hot babes!

Unfortunately coupled with a bad bollywold style story lime and total lack of the above, means that almost everyone is disappointed.

Daniel Craig does anything but act. He runs, chases villains, drives bikes, cars, flies  planes, run agains, chases villains again and so on.
Also  You need to have seen the Casino Royale to get any link of what is going on.
The action sequences are good but not good enough to carry the film through.

Overall. i would say this movie is watchable only if you have nothing else to do, otherwise do yourself a favor and go see the Bourne Series or even the Transporter ones.

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Stress: Are you really stressed out?

I spoke about the above topic at my 2nd speech at Toastmasters'
I have expanded over my previous post

Good Afternoon to all,I am Chirag Jog.
My topic for today is "Are you really stressed out?"

Do we feel you all are really stressed? Too much work pressure, travelling in so much traffic, rash drivers, drivers
talking on their cells, etc

Do you feel life was easier, simpler in the past? And do you feel your life will be more stressful in the future?
Lets see if this common feeling is really justified.

My was talking to my father the other day. He was visibly irritated because a rash driver
speaking on his cell, carelessly overtook him. He said "Life has become so stressful."
So much traffic! complemented by bad drivers.

Once the Nano comes out, traffic condition will  worsen and we will be more stressed.

Life in general seems stressful. People say that competition has increased manifold.
Competiton for jobs, for education, for getting the right life-partner.
Along with that the inflation rate is high. Petrol has become costly.
The list is infinite. Things were so better in the past. Life was so simple.

Or were they really?

Lets move back in time a bit. Say 1980s. Was life less stressful then?
One would say, there was no rat race, no competition ! Yes thats true!
There were no jobs either! People today with just a degree can atleast hope to
work in a call centre if not anything else.
I remember when i was a kid i met a rickshaw driver who was a double graduate but couldn't find a job.

This surely would add stress to our life!

Lets talk about communication.
Life was so simple no cell phones, simple landlines

A parent wouldn't know when would she talk to her son who is working in another part of the coutry.
She also wouldn't know whether the letter she wrote will reach in time or would reach at all.

This surely also would add to stress. right?

Also the traffic then was so less. Not a lot of  vehicles on the road.
Well, yes thats true!
When you actually wanted to a buy Bajaj scooter, the waiting period was more than year.

Now the maximum you have to wait is 3 weeks.

Now this unnecessary waiting period would surely
to stress. No?

Lets move back in time even more.The prehistoric era.
Where humans lived in caves. Was there less stress then?
Man didn't know when his next meal would come from?
would it even come at all. Man didn't know which wild animal will he have face and when?

I am sure all these things surely did add stress to one's life!

I am surely all these examples are self explanatory.Stress is a negative human emotion just like anger,frustration,sadness etc.
The surroundings have nothing to do with it. It is something that is generated in our minds.And hence
it is can be controlled just like any other emotion! So just relax, and enjoy the pollution, traffic and
the fellow rash driver as much as you can!

Back to the toastmaster!

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KDE 4.1 or Gnome ?

I have been using KDE 4.1 for sometime now on Fedora 9. Prior to that, i have used both Kde and Gnome on Ubuntu.

So which is better? Which one wins the game? Well i am sure there would be a lot of blogs, articles etc abt kde vs gnome.

The applications/tools i use most often are:

1. mutt + getmail + postfix : For Sending/Receiving IMAP mails

2. Firefox : To Surf the Net

3. Amarok: Listen to Music

4. xchat-gnome : For IRC

5. Pidgin : Chat client for ST/gtalk/yahoo

6. IBM proprietary stuff like Notes, WECM etc

7. VLC Media Player: For watching movies.

8. For almost everything else, the Konsole, i.e the command line.


Over the past couple of (busy) months, i have realized it doesn't really matter which Desktop environment i use, as long as
these applications work fine for me; and these applications do work fine for me in either settings.

Yes, KDE 4.1 has the new jazzy plasma desktop and GNOME has its own Compiz-Beryl features. I have never used them
and surely do not need them. They are cool "candy-floss" features though, but surely not useful.

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This is what i felt after i got my Salary Hike !

This is how i felt after i got my salary hike ....if you can call it a hike!!!

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An Update for Oct 2008!

So no blogs in sometime. Thought i'd write about something. But i can't think of anything in particular.
Here are some updates in general :

• Planned a trek in December to Dalhousie
• Started using Twitter actively
• Enjoyed a trip to Goa in Diwali
• Improved my car driving skills
• Product Release Done...so jobless
• Improved Pool playing skills (have a pool table at work)
• F1 season over ! Nothing else worth seeing on TV except Friends and Seinfeld re-runs
• Haven't watched a movie for more than a month except re-runs of No Entry, Malamaal Weekly, Bhagan Bhag, Guru on TV
• Saw a bunch flats...planning to buy one
• Listened to every Tom,Dick and Harry's opinion about Economic Crisis, recession, stock market crash, real estate bubble bursting etc

Yeah thats all i can think of for now!

Children Of Heaven

Children Of Heaven is an Iranian Movie directed by Majid Majidi . It is about a brother who has lost his little sister's school shoes. The movie makes us realize who innocent kids really are.
All the actors have acted very naturally giving the movie the "real life" effect. Story is kept short and simple. The direction is very good.

The only focus of the movie is children and their innocence. Truly worth a watch.

As Mr Hemanth would say, "Do Yourself a Favor and see this movie!!"

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Internet Has Standards !

Yes this is true.
Next time you write a blog, article or anything that can be published over the Internet.

Remember this: Internet Has Standards

Else

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Successful Experiment

Whenever you come back from an outing say a trek or just a picnic, your mood will instantly turned of after seeing those dirty shoes. Sometimes it could be your sparkling white sports shoes that had to go under.
We suffered this emotion during our recent outing. Fear not,my dear friends i have a good solution to all such problems.

Just put those dirty shoes into the washing machine!
Yes you heard me right! Washing Machine !!

We had heard/read about washing the shoes in this machine. After being hesistant initially, we decided to take this chance.

The machine soaked, washed, rinsed and spinned the shoes. In the end, my shoes came out sparkling white!! OK not sparkling but pretty decent to repeat this experiment.

The washing machine also remained cleaned.

So go ahead and give your shoes the special treatment it deserves

This is the right time to change your job!

For all those in two minds about changing their jobs, this is the right time ! Don't think twice go for it .

Why is now a good time ? The U.S markets are not recovering. With recent bad news coming from both Lehmann Brothers and Merrill lynch, things are probably set to get worse. Although, not all sectors are affected yet. The fall in the US markets could very well trigger a chain reaction across all sectors and markets. In the coming 4-6 months things might just go from bad to worse. Companies will limit their spending . Hiring will freeze. Bargaining for a good pay packet will be tough.
Even if people are get a chance to switch jobs, the salary rise will not be as high as the usual (30-50 %) .

So, make up your mind now!

Have a great Day!

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Out sick again?

I have been out with malaria supposedly couple of weeks back and now had a relapse (with higher temperature).
I was strictly adviced against working by a lot of people.
There were only 2 things i could do i.e reading and watching some movies.

Reading:
I read some really good books like

1. The Economic Naturalist: Follow this link

2. India in Slow Motion by Mark Tully : The author travels across the length and breadth of India and tells inspiring stories of people who are fighting corruption and bureacracy while adding bit of humor and history to it.

3.The Motorcycle Diaries by 'Che' Guevera: It is a memoir of the great revolutionary leader Ernesto Che Guevera, long before his became Che. He takes a journey across South America along with this friend, which opens his mind and moulds him into the charismatic leader

4. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch : A truly inspirational "last lecture" give by CMU Professor Randy Pausch who has 10 tumors in his liver and only 3 months to live

5. Fooled By Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (Still reading) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb :
Just started reading this one. It talks about ( as the topic states) how sometimes we just get "lucky" and how there is a lot of randomness in nature especially in the stock markets.

I also saw these movies:

1. The Godfather: Adapted from the classic novel by Mario Puzo (titled with the same name) . A must watch classic movie.

2. Schindler's List : A classic movie from Speilberg's stable. It tells the true story of Oskar Schindler who helps rescues thousands of Jews from the
holocaust.

3. The Machinist: A psychological thriller starring Christian Bale

4. WALL E : Another awesome animation movie from PIXAR

5. Street Kings: Keenu Reaves starrer about a corrupt cop who tries to correct things when his parter get killed. A regular cop movie one guy fighting against corruption. Watch L.A Confidential Instead.

I am ready to get back to work after a really long break.

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Stress...!

My dad was talking to me about the amount of stress we and the future generations were going to face. More Traffic (due to the Nano!), more pollution, more idiots talking on mobile phones while driving etc etc.

I thought for a few seconds and responded, "Stress is an emotion of the human psyche just like happiness, sad, frustration etc"
Humans have always experienced stress. Just that the reasons of stress vary.
Today the reasons are different from the ones yesterday. But you can't say that its more or less. People (especially from the older generation) tend to think that older times were better times, less stressful times. This retrospective utopian thinking is surely misplaced.

In the 60s and 70s, communication was really poor. One wasn't sure of the next time he would get to listen to his son or daughter's voice who were probably in the U.S . People graduating from college weren't sure getting jobs.

If we go even further back in time, prehistoric era where humans lived in caves and hunted for food; there was no certainity of when the next meal would come?
whether it would come at all? There were other things to worry about like wild animals, shelter, clothing etc

So circumstances change over time, and so do things that can add stress to your life and also things that reduce stress.

Let me reiterate the fact that stress is a human emotion just like sadness, anger and frustration. This is a good thing, as it can be brought under control.

So Learn to reduce stress in life by controlling rather than complain about it!

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61 reasons why India is special !

On the occasion of the 61st Independence Day, i ponder on what makes India so special, so different from rest of the world . I have accumulated 61 different reasons. Check it out.


Disclaimer: I know, every country is unique in its own way.

The Dark Knight ... latest Batman Offering

Couple of weeks released, the sequel to the movie Batman Begins. The producers created a lot of hype around the movie, drawing more than the usual crowd for the movie.
Within the first weekend, it broke the record for highest earning over a weekend beating Spiderman 3. On IMDB it has shot up to Number 1 beating greats like The Godfather, The Shawshank Redemption, Schiedlers' List.

What makes the movie so special ?

1. Hats off to Christopher Nolan (Director) creating one of the most twisted villain of all times. The Joker, enacted by Heath Ledger is literally twisted and a true pyscho who challenging Our Dark Knight to raise his bar each time.

2. The movie finds a balance between, character development with power dialogues and the power-packed action sequences. This surely helps cater to a very wide audience.

3. One of the most important, things i felt that makes the movie great is the minimal use graphics/animations. Yes, most of the action sequences are done in the old-style with real stuntmen.

4. Most importantly, strong screenplay.

5. Also the all-star ensemble, esp Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman (both great veterans actors) that add a touch of humor and very valuable advice to our Caped Crusader.

Bottom Line: I am ready to see it again! ;)

The Economic Naturalist !

Currently I am reading The Economic Naturalist by Robert H Frank . This book teaches some of the most basic economic principles in a very unique narrative way. The author claims that any learning from a narrative ( type of story telling with real life examples) is very effective. This is very truly the case.
He shows how economics works in everyday life with examples in the form of questions and answers.

Here are some of the questions:

• Why do female models earn so much more than male models?
• Why might retailers deliberately hammer dents into their own appliances?
• Why do the keypad buttons of drive-up cash machines have Braille dots?
• Why are child safety seats required in cars but not in airplanes?
• Why is there a light in your refrigerator but not in your freezer?

Each of this has an economic angle to it.

I am sure after reading this, you'll surely head to pick up the book.

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Just today, i saw this amazing speech by Randy Pausch, a former Professor At Carnegie Mellon University.
It was his "Last Lecture".

His shares three things

1. Achieving your Childhood dreams
2. Helping others achieve their childhood dreams
3. Lessons Learnt

Here is the entire video. I find it truly inspirational.
Its an hour long video though but please do take out time and watch it, you surely won't regret it.

After that, you can play it in vlc or kaffeine.
or watch here on youtube directly.

Randy Pausch, an Inspirator for millions

Icebreaker Speech

In IBM Pune, I am part of the local Toastmasters' Club known as the IBM Thinkmasters.

The first speech that you give here is known as the Ice Breaker. Typically you would take about yourself.
I did just that and i am going to share is here.

Good Afternoon Everyone!
This is my ice breaker speech.
I will talk about myself.
But I won't be talking about Academics and things like that.
I will talk about a bit of my hobbies, experiences and the lessons
that i have learnt.

My Hobbies
----------
I love travelling a lot.
My favourate state is Himachal Pradesh.
In the last 5 years, i have visited Himachal 4 times.
I like going unknown not-very-popular destinations rather than the regular tourist places.
I love travelling by train. As i kid, i was always fascinated by the train and i still enjoy travelling
by train. Along with travelling another thing i enjoy is trekking. Recently I completed 10-day trek again in Himachal.
Besides that, the biggest two passions i have reading books and watching movies.
I typically read a lot of non-fiction books, and the categories range from History, Economics, Philosopy
to Travellogues.
In movies, no specific genre...any good movie is fine.

My Experiences and Lessons learnt
-----------------------------------
1. During my school years, i had fallen into bad company. I was distracted from studies, good friends
and a lot of positive things.The end result was that i got really bad marks in SSC i.e 10th.
I found it tough to get into a good college. Luckily I did get into a good college.
My parents did support me a lot. I realized my mistakes then and worked to correct them.
I studied hard and got good marks in my 12th. That helped me get into a good engg college.
The lesson i learnt from this is that
"we will make mistakes in our life; we will fall down but life
always gives us chance to get up and rectify these mistakes
and we should take those chances and make full use of them"
In the movie "The Shawshank Redemption", there is very dialogue
"Salvation lies within". This is very apt.

2. In 2004-05, I had just finished my 2nd yr of engg and i had gone with a local pune group for a himalayan trek.
On the last day of the trek, (the day we have trekked the most). We were completely exhausted.
I, along with another friend on the trek got lost in the jungle.
We were lost and spent the entire night in the jungle.
I was just an amateur trekker back then, just learning and this friend was an expert.
We had to cross a lot of dangerous terrain which wouldn't have even in our wildest
dreams. Even though I was not a greater trekker or very fit trekker, i never thought of quitting
no matter how tough or dangerous the terrain was. We are lucky to have lived to tell the tale.
I learnt firstly "Don't get lost" and "secondly, When there is a will, there is a way"

3. Now, I will talk about the most important part of my life.
I am really lucky that I got to marry the love of my life.
There were a lot of issues which we knew of before hand, that
would surely prevent our being together. There were times
when our closest friends would say that it not going to happen
and that we should stop seeing each other etc.
But obviously, we couldn't live apart and things fell into place
and everything got resolved.Again My parents supported me here as always.
I learnt that "When want something from the bottom of your heart
the entire universe will conspire to make it happen and surely does!"

These are some of the most important lessons that i have learnt in my life.
I thought sharing these experiences and the lessons learnt would help others.

I hope i have broken the ice !

Kung Fu Panda

Po's dad has a very successful restaurant business. He has a "special ingredient" soup which is very popular.
He tells Po that ingredient has been passed down generation after generation.

"The secret ingredient to the secret ingredient soup, Po is nothing", He tells Po . Po says "Nothing ?!"
Po's dad says, " You have to believe that your soup is special, then it becomes special"

This is what makes this movie teaches.

Po is a big fat panda who dreams of kung-fu and dreams of being an awesome kung-fu master.
His dreams turn to reality when is chosen by mistake to guard a secret scroll against a ferocious snow leopard who is the greatest warrior.
Po's master albeit hesistant to teach Po kung-fu initially is forced to realize that "Believing is everything" and as Po's master's master puts it "There are no mistakes"

The animation and story telling is very good as expected from dreamworks. Jack Black does an amazing job as voice of Po.

When Po meets the snow leopard in the final showdown, the leopard say "I can beat you easily, you are just a big fat panda". Po responds "I am not a big fat panda, I am the big fat panda !!! "

Now thats confidence from someone who believes in himself !

Broadband Internet in India

The current state of affairs of Broadband Internet in India is as follows:

The Good

1. Airtel Broadband (Bangalore) : The best so far (as per my experience). The uptime/performance is good, so is the customer service is good. The problems are handled very well. Incase of an outage, you get an intimation well in advance. Down side is that its not available in all areas
2. YOU Telecom(Pune): They are not as great as Airtel but their services are decent. Problems are resolved within 24hours.One pain point is their billing system. Postpaid isn't truly postpayed and they keep nagging you to pay the bill. Another is they rate limit data downloaded via p2p networks.
   

The Bad

1. BSNL (Bangalore): When it works, nothing like it. The question is how often does it work and how long does it take to get it fixed. Customer service is pathetic. They don't care about customers. You have run around to get things working.

The Ugly

1. BSNL(Pune): People here just don't care. It took them more than 2 weeks to find out the reason why the Internet connection is not working after numerous phone calls. Not that its fixed. There is no concept of customer service! No one cares about you. Incase of a complaint you are redirected to another person and then to another. I already 5 numbers stored.
2. Hathway(Pune): The management is bad. Its been 2 years since i have disconnected their service; i still have the rented modem and still keep getting bills. Again when it worked, it worked like a charm but unfortunately it never worked for me. The concept of customer service didn't exist.
   

This leaves out Satyam and Tata Indicom. I have heard/read really bad reviews for both of them. Recently Reliance entered this space. I don't have any reviews about them yet.
The state of affairs of broadband in India is really pathetic. Only few players provide good service. But again they can't provide connectivity to all parts of the city.