Diwali Party

Where the $700 billion has gone?

Friday was the deadline for banks to apply.

On Oct. 14, the Treasury Department set aside $250 billion of the program to buy senior preferred shares and warrants in banks, thrifts and other financial institutions. According to the Treasury, half that money was allocated to nine big banks, and, according to statements from individual banks, another $38 billion has been earmarked for regional or small banks.


On Monday, the government announced that $40 billion, its single largest TARP investment, was going to American International Group.

TARP has committed or approved the following funding:

AIG: $40 billion

JPMorgan: $25 billion

Citigroup: $25 billion

Wells Fargo: $25 billion

Bank of America: $15 billion

Merrill Lynch: $10 billion (note 1)

Goldman Sachs: $10 billion

Morgan Stanley: $10 billion

PNC Financial Services: $7.7 billion

US Bancorp: $6.6 billion

Bank of New York Mellon: $3 billion

State Street Corp: $2 billion

Capital One Financial: $3.55 billion

Fifth Third Bancorp: $3.45 billion

Regions Financial: $3.5 billion

SunTrust Banks: $3.5 billion

BB&T Corp: $3.1 billion

KeyCorp: $2.5 billion

Comerica: $2.25 billion

Marshall & Ilsley Corp: $1.7 billion

Northern Trust Corp: $1.5 billion

Huntington Bancshares: $1.4 billion

Zions Bancorp: $1.4 billion

Synovus: $973 million

First Horizon National: $866 million

City National Corp: $395 million

South Financial Group: $347 million

Valley National Bancorp: $300 million

Citizens Rep Bancorp: $300 million

UCBH Holdings Inc: $298 million

FirstMerit Corp: $248 million

Umpqua Holdings Corp: $214 million

Washington Federal: $200 million

First Niagara Financial: $186 million

Peoples Bancorp: $39 million

Encore Bancshares: $34 million

HF Financial Corp: $25 million

Bank of Commerce: $17 million

Broadway Financial Corp: $9 million

TOTAL: $213.39 billion

OTHER COMPANIES HOPING TO TAP INTO TARP:

American Express Co is seeking about $3.5 billion

National Penn Bancshares has applied for $150 million

INSURANCE COMPANIES

In addition to TARP's $40 billion for AIG, the Federal Reserve is separately giving AIG up to $112.5 billion for asset purchases.

Other insurers are interested in cash infusions, but they must own a thrift or bank to qualify. On Friday, Hartford Financial Services Group Inc agreed to become a small savings and loan, making it eligible for up to $3.4 billion from TARP.

SMALLER BANKS, AUTOMAKERS

Nov. 14 is the deadline for smaller banks to apply for TARP funds. The deadline will be extended for non-publicly traded banks.

General Motors Corp , Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC have asked for billions of dollars in TARP funds. However, the Bush administration has said the program was designed to help the financial services sector.

NO THANKS

These companies have said they would not take part in the TARP program:

- Charles Schwab Corp

- Hudson City Bancorp

- Capital City Bank Group

- Commerce Bancshares

- Northfield Bancorp

- Essa Bancorp Inc

- Rockville Financial Inc

- First Commonwealth Financial Corp

- Chicopee Bancorp Inc

- Bryn Mawr Bank Corp

- Kearny Financial Corp

- Fist Financial Bankshares Inc

- Cheviot Financial Corp

- Southside Bancshares

- Investors Bancorp

- First Advantage Bancorp

Note 1: Capital injection to Merrill Lynch deferred pending its merger with Bank of America, according to Treasury Department.

My Disney

the old 500 mile email story

The author of the below email story was once a Morgan-Stanley employee. Perhaps someone responded to his last line :)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following is the 500-mile email story in the form it originally appeared, in a post to sage-members on Sun, 24 Nov 2002.:

From trey@sage.org Fri Nov 29 18:00:49 2002
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2002 21:03:02 -0500 (EST)
From: Trey Harris
To: sage-members@sage.org
Subject: The case of the 500-mile email (was RE: [SAGE] Favorite impossible
task?)

Here's a problem that *sounded* impossible... I almost regret posting the
story to a wide audience, because it makes a great tale over drinks at a
conference. :-) The story is slightly altered in order to protect the
guilty, elide over irrelevant and boring details, and generally make the
whole thing more entertaining.

I was working in a job running the campus email system some years ago when
I got a call from the chairman of the statistics department.

"We're having a problem sending email out of the department."

"What's the problem?" I asked.

"We can't send mail more than 500 miles," the chairman explained.

I choked on my latte. "Come again?"

"We can't send mail farther than 500 miles from here," he repeated. "A
little bit more, actually. Call it 520 miles. But no farther."

"Um... Email really doesn't work that way, generally," I said, trying to
keep panic out of my voice. One doesn't display panic when speaking to a
department chairman, even of a relatively impoverished department like
statistics. "What makes you think you can't send mail more than 500
miles?"

"It's not what I *think*," the chairman replied testily. "You see, when
we first noticed this happening, a few days ago--"

"You waited a few DAYS?" I interrupted, a tremor tinging my voice. "And
you couldn't send email this whole time?"

"We could send email. Just not more than--"

"--500 miles, yes," I finished for him, "I got that. But why didn't you
call earlier?"

"Well, we hadn't collected enough data to be sure of what was going on
until just now." Right. This is the chairman of *statistics*. "Anyway, I
asked one of the geostatisticians to look into it--"

"Geostatisticians..."

"--yes, and she's produced a map showing the radius within which we can
send email to be slightly more than 500 miles. There are a number of
destinations within that radius that we can't reach, either, or reach
sporadically, but we can never email farther than this radius."

"I see," I said, and put my head in my hands. "When did this start? A
few days ago, you said, but did anything change in your systems at that
time?"

"Well, the consultant came in and patched our server and rebooted it.
But I called him, and he said he didn't touch the mail system."

"Okay, let me take a look, and I'll call you back," I said, scarcely
believing that I was playing along. It wasn't April Fool's Day. I tried
to remember if someone owed me a practical joke.

I logged into their department's server, and sent a few test mails. This
was in the Research Triangle of North Carolina, and a test mail to my own
account was delivered without a hitch. Ditto for one sent to Richmond,
and Atlanta, and Washington. Another to Princeton (400 miles) worked.

But then I tried to send an email to Memphis (600 miles). It failed.
Boston, failed. Detroit, failed. I got out my address book and started
trying to narrow this down. New York (420 miles) worked, but Providence
(580 miles) failed.

I was beginning to wonder if I had lost my sanity. I tried emailing a
friend who lived in North Carolina, but whose ISP was in Seattle.
Thankfully, it failed. If the problem had had to do with the geography of
the human recipient and not his mail server, I think I would have broken
down in tears.

Having established that--unbelievably--the problem as reported was true,
and repeatable, I took a look at the sendmail.cf file. It looked fairly
normal. In fact, it looked familiar.

I diffed it against the sendmail.cf in my home directory. It hadn't been
altered--it was a sendmail.cf I had written. And I was fairly certain I
hadn't enabled the "FAIL_MAIL_OVER_500_MILES" option. At a loss, I
telnetted into the SMTP port. The server happily responded with a SunOS
sendmail banner.

Wait a minute... a SunOS sendmail banner? At the time, Sun was still
shipping Sendmail 5 with its operating system, even though Sendmail 8 was
fairly mature. Being a good system administrator, I had standardized on
Sendmail 8. And also being a good system administrator, I had written a
sendmail.cf that used the nice long self-documenting option and variable
names available in Sendmail 8 rather than the cryptic punctuation-mark
codes that had been used in Sendmail 5.

The pieces fell into place, all at once, and I again choked on the dregs
of my now-cold latte. When the consultant had "patched the server," he
had apparently upgraded the version of SunOS, and in so doing
*downgraded* Sendmail. The upgrade helpfully left the sendmail.cf
alone, even though it was now the wrong version.

It so happens that Sendmail 5--at least, the version that Sun shipped,
which had some tweaks--could deal with the Sendmail 8 sendmail.cf, as most
of the rules had at that point remained unaltered. But the new long
configuration options--those it saw as junk, and skipped. And the
sendmail binary had no defaults compiled in for most of these, so, finding
no suitable settings in the sendmail.cf file, they were set to zero.

One of the settings that was set to zero was the timeout to connect to the
remote SMTP server. Some experimentation established that on this
particular machine with its typical load, a zero timeout would abort a
connect call in slightly over three milliseconds.

An odd feature of our campus network at the time was that it was 100%
switched. An outgoing packet wouldn't incur a router delay until hitting
the POP and reaching a router on the far side. So time to connect to a
lightly-loaded remote host on a nearby network would actually largely be
governed by the speed of light distance to the destination rather than by
incidental router delays.

Feeling slightly giddy, I typed into my shell:

$ units
1311 units, 63 prefixes

You have: 3 millilightseconds
You want: miles
* 558.84719
/ 0.0017893979

"500 miles, or a little bit more."

Trey Harris
--
I'm looking for work. If you need a SAGE Level IV with 10 years Perl,
tool development, training, and architecture experience, please email me
at trey@sage.org. I'm willing to relocate for the right opportunity.

Mumbai Attacks - just some quotes

Just putting some quotes together...making a picture, is your job:

1. R.R. Patil. Deputy C.M. Maharashtra : "इतने बड़े शहर में एक दो घटनाएं हो जाती हैं । "

2.

"When I went out today photographing, a lot of local people were coming up and being apologetic and saying, `Sorry, this isn't what India is normally about.' All the people in the hotel are very kind to me. They're very humbled by this...They're apologetic about what's going on in their city." - Daniel Gautreau, a Canadian who's been in Mumbai since Monday.

3. "बिहारी, मराठी भूल जाओ। हम सब हिन्दुस्तानी हैं। " - An NSG commando

4. "It's not burning there, it's burning here (pointing to his heart)" A man near the funeral pyre of ATS Chief Hemant Karkare.

5. "We will send ISI chief to India to help in the investigation. We are not in this, then why should we be ashamed? We have nothing to hide." Pakistan Prime Minister on 28th Nov.

"Umm....scrap the above. We will not send the ISI chief to India." Pakistan Prime Minister on 29th Nov.

6. "Whoever these terrorists are, they are not true Muslims. They are maligning my religion. As per Quran, anyone who kills even one innocent person will go to Hell and anyone saving even one innocent soul will go to heaven." - A Muslim Mumbaikar.

7. "भारत माता की जय !! भारत माता की जय! " - Common People across the street.

When the night is dark enough...

The path may be dreary
Your goal not near by
But the target should be clear
And don’t let your dreams die.

Strive for what you want to achieve
Don’t fear from the slope
You can conquer the mountains
Just start with a hope.

Win over your misfortunes
No-matter-what comes your way
Keep making the picture,
Your eyes will see it real some day.

Relish even the gloomy moments
Smiles can conceal the tear
And when the night is dark enough,
Remember –
“THE DAWN IS NEAR !!”

Ankush Agarwal

Copyright ©2006 Ankush Agarwal

Vote for it: http://www.poetry.com/voteforme/poemvote1.asp?PID=9407420

इजाज़त

हम जिस ज़मीं पर ठोकर लगा आये थे,
सुना है उन पत्थरों पर, अब फूल खिलते हैं |
दोस्ती तो है इक आदत बुरी मेरी, मगर
ये अजनबी क्यों इस अपनेपन से गले मिलते हैं ?

चंद पलों में, कई सदियां गुज़रने के बाद,
दिल ने कुछ कहना चाहा ही था;
आंखें भरी भी नहीं, ज़ुबां हिली भी नहीं,
बस कानों ने सुना - "चलते हैं"

चेहरे पर चिपकी मुस्कराहट, देखी तो मगर
सोचा न कभी, क्या किसी कोने में आंसू भी पलते हैं ?
जुदा होने कि इजाज़त, वो मांगते हैं हमसे,
हम खुदा तो नहीं, हम भी कुछ बातों से डरते हैं |

बीती हुई कुछ यादों की गर्मी बची है बस,
जिनके सहारे हमारी ज़िन्दगी के पल पिघलते हैं ;
सपनों को पुकारे जो, इक ऐसी रात का इंतज़ार है मुझे ,
ये बात और है कि कुदरत में,रोज़ सूरज ढलते हैं ||

'तू ' - मेरी एकमात्र कविता

दिल ये चाहता है,

सुना तुझे अपना हाल दूँ,
सदा के लिये मेरी बन जा
आ; तुझे कविता में ढाल दूँ |

ज़ुल्फ की काली घटाओं में छुपा,
प्यारा चांद सा गाल दूँ,
जिसकी न कोई हो मिसाल,
एैसी तेरी मिसाल दूँ |

रेशमी हों , या नागिन कि तरह ?
कैसे तेरे बाल दूँ ?
या दिल जिसमें उलझा मेरा
उसे कह एैसा जाल दूँ ?

बस चले गर मेरा, तो दुनिया भर का
शबाब तुझमें डाल दूँ ;
नज़रों पर जो थोड़ी इनायत हो जाये,
मौत को भी मैं टाल दूँ ||

मेरे सिवा न कोई समझ सके,
बना तुझे एैसा सवाल दूँ,
सारा जहाँ भी न कर सके बराबरी,
अँकुश का इतना तुझे प्यार दूँ ||

Hindu Rate of Wrath

An article published in Outlook. Though a bit tilted, it does makes some interesting points:

Is there such a thing as 'Hindu terrorism', as the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur for the recent Malegaon blasts may tend to prove? Well, I guess I was asked to write this column because I am one of that rare breed of foreign correspondents—a lover of Hindus! A born Frenchman, Catholic-educated and non-Hindu, I do hope I'll be given some credit for my opinions, which are not the product of my parents' ideas, my education or my atavism, but garnered from 25 years of reporting in South Asia (for Le Journal de Geneve and Le Figaro).

In the early 1980s, when I started freelancing in south India, doing photo features on kalaripayattu, the Ayyappa festival, or the Ayyanars, I slowly realised that the genius of this country lies in its Hindu ethos, in the true spirituality behind Hinduism. The average Hindu you meet in a million villages possesses this simple, innate spirituality and accepts your diversity, whether you are Christian or Muslim, Jain or Arab, French or Chinese. It is this Hinduness that makes the Indian Christian different from, say, a French Christian, or the Indian Muslim unlike a Saudi Muslim. I also learnt that Hindus not only believed that the divine could manifest itself at different times, under different names, using different scriptures (not to mention the wonderful avatar concept, the perfect answer to 21st century religious strife) but that they had also given refuge to persecuted minorities from across the world—Syrian Christians, Parsis, Jews, Armenians, and today, Tibetans. In 3,500 years of existence, Hindus have never militarily invaded another country, never tried to impose their religion on others by force or induced conversions.

You cannot find anybody less fundamentalist than a Hindu in the world and it saddens me when I see the Indian and western press equating terrorist groups like SIMI, which blow up innocent civilians, with ordinary, angry Hindus who burn churches without killing anybody. We know also that most of these communal incidents often involve persons from the same groups—often Dalits and tribals—some of who have converted to Christianity and others not.

However reprehensible the destruction of Babri Masjid, no Muslim was killed in the process; compare this to the 'vengeance' bombings of 1993 in Bombay, which wiped out hundreds of innocents, mostly Hindus. Yet the Babri Masjid destruction is often described by journalists as the more horrible act of the two. We also remember how Sharad Pawar, when he was chief minister of Maharashtra in 1993, lied about a bomb that was supposed to have gone off in a Muslim locality of Bombay.

I have never been politically correct, but have always written what I have discovered while reporting. Let me then be straightforward about this so-called Hindu terror. Hindus, since the first Arab invasions, have been at the receiving end of terrorism, whether it was by Timur, who killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a single day in 1399, or by the Portuguese Inquisition which crucified Brahmins in Goa. Today, Hindus are still being targeted: there were one million Hindus in the Kashmir valley in 1900; only a few hundred remain, the rest having fled in terror. Blasts after blasts have killed hundreds of innocent Hindus all over India in the last four years. Hindus, the overwhelming majority community of this country, are being made fun of, are despised, are deprived of the most basic facilities for one of their most sacred pilgrimages in Amarnath while their government heavily sponsors the Haj. They see their brothers and sisters converted to Christianity through inducements and financial traps, see a harmless 84-year-old swami and a sadhvi brutally murdered. Their gods are blasphemed.

So sometimes, enough is enough.At some point, after years or even centuries of submitting like sheep to slaughter, Hindus—whom the Mahatma once gently called cowards—erupt in uncontrolled fury. And it hurts badly. It happened in Gujarat. It happened in Jammu, then in Kandhamal, Mangalore, and Malegaon. It may happen again elsewhere. What should be understood is that this is a spontaneous revolution on the ground, by ordinary Hindus, without any planning from the political leadership. Therefore, the BJP, instead of acting embarrassed, should not disown those who choose other means to let their anguished voices be heard.

There are about a billion Hindus, one in every six persons on this planet. They form one of the most successful, law-abiding and integrated communities in the world today. Can you call them terrorists?

---

By Francois Gautier

(The writer is the editor-in-chief of the Paris-based La Revue de l'Inde.)

awww

click on the pic, to see it properly.
Thx to "Desi in Toronto" for this.

Obama's photo album

Here is it

second karwachauth

Tanu's 2nd karwachauth. And again in Canada. But this time, the proudy "Chandra Dev" showed mercy and didn't came very late.

Niagara - from US side

In Alex's words, "You guys really like Niagara!". Ofcourse Alex! How could we not? This is an addition to our nth trip to Niagara Falls, but a first from the US side. Getting soaked in the waters of Niagara, feeling the force of Niagara on your face, and even realizing its potential, when losing breath standing under it at the Cave of the Winds, is something, we ought to remember for ever. And ever.

Something to ponder upon...

FALL in love

A "FALL in love" trip to the biggest park in the second biggest country of the world. The bright Falls color reminded of the colorful world we live in and admire the work of GOD, as the greatest artist and painter.

Once it was Lehman Brothers...

I vividly remember being in awe of the Lehman Brothers building, when I first saw it. Right in front of it, was my own office...the 750 building of Morgan Stanley, but I took more pictures of the Lehman Building, than of my own office. The Lehman Brothers ticker was visible to most of us from our own desk and constantly reminded us of the worthy competitor we have.

However, its glory was suddenly lost in the market jitters. And, we are not happy about it. Not just because, I have friends in LB, but also we needed such a competitor and LB never deserved this fate. The luck played a more prominent role in its end, than anything else.

We have new ticker to concentrate on now - The Barclays Capital Group....more commonly known to us as BGI. I have spent a lot of efforts, supporting the huge order flow of BGI, in my earlier project...I am sure, it would have been even more interesting now.

Once a Morgan-Stanley building, and very recently a Lehman Bros. building, here is what it looks like now:

 

(Tx to Jay, for remembering how desperate I was for this picture and mailing it to me right on time.)

Trip to Buffalo City

A very nice and easy-on-pocket shopping trip to Buffalo City. The round trip costed us just 3.5 USD per head, and to top that, unlimited coke and coffee free. Beat that !! We also enjoyed the experience to view Niagara from the Rainbow bridge, be on the No Man's Land, standing with one foot in USA and the other in Canada...literally. And shopping at the fashion outlets in buffalo, is obviously great.

Cricket @ Toronto

With the end of summer season, ends another wonderful cricketing season also. Here are some snaps to celebrate the memories of some of the great times we spent together.

bomb blasts - an act of foolishness

why don't the terrorists understand that blasting around cities is never going to achieve anything for them. Attacking unarmed and innocent people by remaining hidden themselves, not only proves their cowardice but also utter foolishness. The message they send is that they themselves are a loser and can't achieve anything with their will power. Such blasts will bring the Indians together and understand that the demands of the terrorist is unjust and definitely wrong. India, is not a country, which can be stopped with such stupid acts. Instead, they make us stronger and also help in garnering world support.

However, what deserves condemnation is not such foolish acts, but the behavior of our politicians. Even after so many acts, they fail to come together and pass stronger bills. They are still too busy in vomiting useless speeches, talking about elections, and making fake CDs.

I pray to GOD, Allah, Ishwar to bless some sense to terrorists and also to these politicians, so that they can clear the bills pending by 5 states to counter such stupid attacks and also bring a bill like USA-PATRIOTIC act in the center.

Chinese Lantern Festival

Went to CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) and Ontario Place to witness the grand Chinese Lantern Festival and the screening of a dinosaur movie at the IMax, the screen of which was a huuuuuuuuuuge one (3 storey high and ten times the size of a normal movie screen). It was an experience in itself to feel the big dinos from so close. The Lantern festival was so well built with many of the world's renowned architectures and kingdoms.

TCS Picnic 2008

This time we went o Magic hill for picnic. The place was not as good as expected, but still we enjoyed being in a large group. And I hit the hole in golf :D

Canada Day celebrations

Canada Day celebrations at Mississauga. I was amazed to see Shiamak Davar's group dancing on desi numbers on Canada Day. Overall, it was good fun. There were special rhythmic fireworks at night, shooting on the beats of a song. To witness this, there was a large crowd gathered at the Civic Center.

Pride Parade - Censor Cleared ones

Pride Week is an event held in Toronto, Ontario during the last week of June each year. It is a celebration of the diversity of the LGBT community in the Greater Toronto Area. It is the one of the largest organized Gay Pride festivals in the world, featuring several stages with live performers and DJs, several licensed venues, a large Dyke March, and the Pride Parade.

In 2004 the Toronto Star reported that 1,200,000 people lined the parade route. The festival is often touted as being one of the largest cultural festivals in North America and the 12 city blocks that make up the festival site is closed to vehicular traffic.

Here are the photos, which have been cleared by the censor ;-) for the rest, mail me.

Volleyball match

Went to Centennial Park's Beach Volleyball courts for some action packed games of Volleyball. It was a thrilling way to end our tech-fest week "Prevoyance 08" unwinding all techy-talks with ungeeky acts including random b'day bumps to Muthu :)

Check my album on Picasa for better resolution pix.

Niagara @ night

Talent Day at TDC

A lovely day celebrated for a noble cause. We celebrated talent day, with people pledging for others to perform any item. I was asked to play the balcony scene from "Romeo & Juliet". Luckily, my moustache gave me an edge over Alex, who had to play Juliet :D. Sailendra's dance was one of the highlights as well. Some of the photos are uploaded here and the most in demand video of us playing the romantic scene, which finally became comedy, because of our pathetic act :p.

However, the cause was fulfilled, as we collected some good money for donation towards disabled children.

Talent Day at TDC

the world's worst poet

It gives me a sense of satisfaction, that I am not branded as the world's best poet, though I tried hard for it. However, read on about the person, who has managed to keep this recognition:
(As published in National Post)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: June 11, 2008, 2:54 PM by Marni Soupcoff
Ian Hunter
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On May 16, a collection of 35 poems by William Topaz McGonagall (1825-1902) was sold at auction in Edinburgh for more than $10,000. That's not a high price for, say, a single poem by Robert Burns. But for McGonagall, known as "the world's worst poet," it is remarkable.
In his day, McGonagall was often pelted with eggs and rotten fruits at public recitals (often given in pubs to protest against excessive drinking). McGonagall would be sad to learn that perhaps his most famous poem, Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silver Tay, is used in schools as an object lesson in how not to write poetry. When he died penniless in 1902, McGonagall was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh in an unmarked pauper's grave.
Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silver Tay!
I hope that God will protect all passengers
By night and by day,
And that no accident befall them while crossing
The Bridge of the Silvery Tay, For that would be most awful to be seen
Near by Dundee and the Magdalen Green.
McGonagall must have had a touch of the prophet about him because a decade or so after he wrote that poem (in fact on Dec. 20, 1879), the Tay railway bridge collapsed in a gale; there was a train passing over and 75 passengers plunged to their death. An inquiry concluded that the bridge (rather like McGonagall's poems) was "badly designed, badly built and badly maintained." On hearing of the disaster, McGonagall felt compelled to compose again:
O ill-fated bridge of the silvery Tay, I must now conclude my lay, By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say, Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses build.
The less chance we have of being killed.
Born in Edinburgh of Irish parents, McGonagall followed the weaver's trade, although without much success. In June 1878, he was sued by a Dundee grocer for theprincely sum of six pounds; the best McGonagall could offer was to repay the debt at the rate of three shillings a week. When the grocer protested that it would take 120 weeks to repay, McGonagall solemnly insisted that he could not do more because his primary responsibility was to the muse of poetry.
Since the time of Robert Burns (1759-1796), all Scots poets have attempted to write about Nature's glories and the lessons she imparts; McGonagall was no exception (however lamentable the results):
As I chanced to see trouts leaping in the River o' Glenshee,
It helped to fill my heart with glee, And to anglers I would say without any doubt
There's plenty of trouts there for pulling out.
McGonagall also fancied himself an actor although (perhaps understandably) his services were seldom in demand. On one occasion, he paid the Director of a theatre to be allowed to play the title role in Macbeth. McGonagall persuaded sufficient friends and acquaintances to attend the play as to avoid a financial disaster. But it was not an artistic triumph; at the end, when Macduff should kill Macbeth, McGonagall became convinced that the actor playing Macduff was deliberately trying to upstage him, and he refused to die.
One of the most poignant incidents in McGonagall's career occurred in 1892 when, following the death of poet laureate Alfred Tennyson, McGonagall walked the 60 miles from Dundee to Balmoral Castle through pelting rain in an attempt to persuade Queen Victoria to name him as poet laureate. The castle gatekeeper informed McGonagall that the Queen was not in residence (which was untrue) and McGonagall gathered his greatcoat around him, turned and trudged back home. This humiliation did not deter from lauding his Sovereign in verse:
Beautiful Empress of India and England's Gracious Queen, I send you a Shakespearian Address written by me.
And I think if your Majesty reads it, right pleased you will be. And my heart it will leap with joy, if it is patronized by Thee.
As will by now be obvious, McGonagall was deaf to poetic diction, meter and rhyme, and had nothing to say. As one critic put it, he was "so giftedly bad he backed unwittingly into genius."
In 1894 McGonagall became Sir William, having been knighted in absentia by King Thibaw Min of Burma and given the title White Elephant of Burma. McGonagall henceforth used this title shamelessly to promote his verses.
But it is McGonagall who has laughed last. For over a century, his poems have never been out of print. There is a McGonagall Square in Dundee, and a McGonagall Society which assembles once a year to eat a banquet in reverse order, starting with desserts, moving through entrees, and concluding with appetizers. The world's worst poet lives on.

Dear omnivore

A great article published in National Post. Worth reading, whether you are a vegetarian, egg-etarian or Non-Veg:
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Taylor Clark, Slate.com Published: Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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Admit it, my flesh-eating friends: You know nothing about us vegetarians. So read on. I believe it's high time we cleared a few things up:-

Every vegetarian remembers his first time. Not the unremarkable event of his first meal without meat, mind you. No, I mean the first time he casually lets slip that he's turned herbivore, prompting everyone in earshot to stare at him as if he just revealed plans to sail his carrot-powered plasma yacht to Neptune.
For me, this first time came at an Elks scholarship luncheon in rural Oregon when I was 18. All day, I'd succeeded at seeming a promising and responsible young man, until that fateful moment when someone asked why I hadn't taken any meat from the buffet. After I offered my reluctant explanation -- and the guy announced it to the entire room -- 30 people went eerily quiet, undoubtedly expecting me to launch into a speech on the virtues of hemp. In the corner, an elderly, suited man glared at me as he slowly raised a slice of bologna and executed the most menacing bite of cold cut in recorded history. I didn't get the scholarship.
I tell this story not to win your pity but to illustrate a point: I've been vegetarian for a decade, and when it comes up, I still get a look of confused horror that says, "But you seemed so ... normal." The United States boasts more than 10 million herbivores today, yet most Americans assume that every last one is a loopy, self-satisfied health fanatic, hell-bent on draining all the joy out of life. Those of us who want to avoid the social nightmare have to hide our vegetarianism like an Oxycontin addiction, because admit it, omnivores: You know nothing about us. Do we eat fish? Will we panic if confronted with a hamburger? Are we dying of malnutrition? You have no clue. So read on, my flesh-eating friends -- I believe it's high time we cleared a few things up.
To demonstrate what a vegetarian really is, let's begin with a simple thought experiment. Imagine a completely normal person with completely normal food cravings, someone who has a broad range of friends, enjoys a good time, is carbon-based and so on. Now remove from this person's diet anything that once had eyes, and -- wham! -- you have yourself a vegetarian. Normal person, no previously ocular food, end of story.
Some people call themselves vegetarians and still eat chicken or fish, but unless we're talking about the kind of salmon that comes freshly plucked from the vine, this makes you an omnivore. A select few herbivores go one step further and avoid all animal products -- milk, eggs, honey, leather -- and they call themselves vegan, which rhymes with "tree men." These people are intense.
Vegetarians give up meat for a variety of ethical, environmental and health reasons that are secondary to this essay's goal of increasing brotherly understanding, so I'll mostly set them aside. Suffice it to say that one day, I suddenly realized that I could never look a cow in the eyes, press a knocking gun to her temple, and pull the trigger without feeling I'd done something cruel and unnecessary.
I am well-aware that even telling you this makes me seem like the kind of person who wants to break into your house and liberate your pet hamster -- that is, like a PETA activist. Most vegetarians, though, would tell you that they appreciate the intentions of groups like PETA but not the obnoxious tactics. It's like this: We're all rooting for the same team, but they're the ones in face paint, bellowing obscenities at the umpire and flipping over every car with a Yankees bumper sticker. I have no designs on your Camry or your hamster.

Now, when I say that vegetarians are normal people with normal food cravings, many omnivores will hoist a lamb shank in triumph and point out that you can hardly call yourself normal if the aroma of, say, sizzling bacon doesn't fill you with deepest yearning. To which I reply: We're not insane. We know meat tastes good; it's why there's a freezer case at your supermarket full of woefully inadequate meat substitutes. Believe me, if obtaining bacon didn't require slaughtering a pig, I'd have a BLT in each hand right now with a bacon layer cake waiting in the fridge for dessert.
But, that said, I can also tell you that with some time away from the butcher's section, many meat products start to seem gross. Ground beef in particular now strikes me as absolutely revolting; I have a vague memory that hamburgers taste good, but the idea of taking a cow's leg, mulching it into a fatty pulp, and forming it into a pancake makes me gag. And hot dogs ... I mean, hot dogs? You do know what that is, right?
As a consolation prize we get tofu, a treasure most omnivores are more than happy to do without. Well, this may stun you, but I'm not any more excited about a steaming heap of unseasoned tofu blobs than you are. Tofu is like fugu blowfish sushi: Prepared correctly, it's delicious; prepared incorrectly, it's lethal.
Very early in my vegetarian career, I found myself famished and stuck in a mall, so I wandered over to the food court's Asian counter. When I asked the teenage chief culinary artisan what was in the tofu stir-fry, he snorted and replied, "S--t." Desperation made me order it anyway, and I can tell you that promises have rarely been more loyally kept than this guy's pledge about what the tofu would taste like. So here's a tip: Unless you know you're in expert hands (Thai restaurants are a good bet), don't even try tofu. Otherwise, it's your funeral.
As long as we're discussing restaurants, allow me a quick word with the hardworking
chefs at America's dining establishments. We really appreciate that you included a vegetarian option on your menu (and if you didn't, is our money not valuable?), but it may interest you to know that most of us are not salad freaks on a grim slog for nourishment. We actually enjoy food, especially the kind that tastes good. So enough with the bland vegetable dishes and, for God's sake, please make the Gardenburgers stop; it's stunning how many restaurants lavish unending care on their meat dishes yet are content to throw a flavorless hockey puck from Costco into the microwave and call it cuisine.
Every vegetarian is used to slim pickings when dining out, so we're not asking for much -- just for something you'd like to eat. I'll even offer a handy trick. Pretend you're trapped in a kitchen stocked with every ingredient imaginable, from asiago to zucchini, but with zero meat. With no flesh available, picture what you'd make for yourself; this is what we want, too.
For those kind-hearted omnivores who willingly invite feral vegetarians into their homes for dinner parties and barbecues (really! we do that, too!), the same rule applies -- but also know that unless you're dealing with an herbivore who is a prick for unrelated reasons, we don't expect you to bend over backward for us. In fact, if we get the sense that you cooked for three extra hours to accommodate our dietary preferences, we will marvel at your considerate nature, but we will also feel insanely guilty.
Similarly, it's very thoughtful of you to ask whether it'll bother me if I see you eat meat, but don't worry: I'm not going to compose an epic poem about your club sandwich.
Which leads me to a vital point for friendly omnivore-herbivore relations. As you're enjoying that pork loin next to me, I am not silently judging you. I realize that anyone who has encountered the breed of smug vegetarian who says things like, "I can hear your lunch screaming," will find this tough to believe, but I'm honestly not out to convert you. My girlfriend and my closest pals all eat meat, and they'll affirm that I've never even raised an eyebrow about it.
Now, do I think it strange that the same people who dress their dogs in berets and send them to day spas are often unfazed that an equally smart pig suffered and died to become their McMuffin? Yes, I do. Would I prefer it if we at least raised these animals humanely? Yes, I would.
Let's be honest, though: I'm not exactly Saint Francis of Assisi over here, tenderly ministering to every chipmunk that crosses my path. I try to represent for the animal kingdom, but take a look at my shoes -- they're made of leather, which, I am told by those with expert knowledge of the tanning process, comes from dead cows.
This is the sort of revelation that prompts meat boosters to pick up the triumphant lamb shank once again and accuse us of hypocrisy. Well, sort of. (Hey, you try to find a pair of non-leather dress shoes.) My dedication to the cause might be incomplete, but I'd still say that doing something beats doing nothing. It's kind of like driving a hybrid: not a solution to the global-warming dilemma but a decent start. Let's just say that at the dinner table, I roll in a Prius.
Finally, grant me one more cordial request: Please don't try to convince us that being vegetarian is somehow wrong. If you insist on being the aggressive blowhard who takes meatlessness as a personal insult and rails about what fools we all are, you're only going to persuade me that you're a dickhead. When someone says he's Catholic, you probably don't start the stump speech about how God is a lie created to enslave the ignorant masses, and it's equally offensive to berate an herbivore.
Because, really, peace and understanding are what it's all about: your porterhouse and my portobello coexisting in perfect harmony -- though preferably not touching. We're actually not so different, after all, my omnivorous chums. In fact, I like to think that when an omnivore looks in the mirror, he just sees a vegetarian who happens to eat meat. Or, no, wait, maybe the mirror sees the omnivore through the prism of flesh and realizes we all have a crystalline animal soul, you know?
This is excellent weed, by the way, if you want a hit. Hey, while you're here: Have I ever told you about hemp?

Carassauga

The festival of culture celebrated in Canada. All over mississauga, various countries setup their pavilion and display their culture thru songs/dance/food/jewelery/fashion shows, etc. We were lucky to see so many cultures in 3 days. Ranging from the Calypso, Reggae of Carribean to the Belly Dances of Egypt and Cyprus, from Magic shows of Italy to Kung-Fu of China, Wild dances of Hawaii to Sweet dances of Poland, Indian Bharatnatyam to Pakistani Fashion show...watching all this was an unforgettable experience.

TDC Goes Traditional

An excellent writeup by Surma on the Ethnic Day celebrated at TDC:

TDC goes Traditional !!

Toronto Development Center (aka TDC) has always been a fun place to work in, a cordial happy atmosphere that inspires professionalism and innovation. So when an e-mail titled “Ethnic Wear Day at TDC” floated into our mailboxes, it resulted in the normal buzz of excitement and speculation.

With a multicultural population ranging from Indians to Japanese to Russians and of course Canadians, this was destined to be a colorful event! For days discussions centered around clothes – a rare occurrence in the male-dominated TDC atmosphere! The air was charged with plans and guesses and finally…… who would win the Mr./ Ms Picture Perfect(to be awarded to the best dressed associate)!

30^th April 2008 – officially Ethnic Wear Day at TDC – dawned bright and shining. The cheerful sky was a sure sign of fun things to come! As the minutes ticked by, the cubicles gradually filled up with color and innovation. Every person was at his ethnic best – each individual mirroring his culture and tradition! Yours truly decided to step into the sidelines and play a true reporter! So here goes the report on Who walked the Red Carpet! And How!

Sailendra Kagolanu : In his starched white Vesti and dazzling Angavastram he was the perfect picture of South Indian superstar RajaniKanth! All that was missing was the superhero’s trademark dark glasses. Even that was taken care of by his style and presence!

Keren Bandner : Our favorite HR Keren was at her stylish best! In her inimitable fashion she was garbed in the Montreal Canadian jersey. That’s what we call a true Canadian to the core!!

Premjith PuthenVeetil : Trust this ever smiling person to pull that magic rabbit out of thin air! In his cream silk shirt and white Mundu he was Picture Perfect. And that is what the votes said as our TDC unanimously handed him the Best Dressed award! And true to his fun loving nature he graced the occasion with a fine catwalk!

Alex Korobchevsky/ Timothy Sung-To Li/ Allen Ko : Gave us wonderful glimpses of Russian and Chinese traditional wear.

Ankush Agarwal/ Grover Ankur / Sachin Gupte : This enthusiastic trio in starched white Kurtas sure stole the show! Ankur especially was seen strutting about in true Politician style.

Tejas Badani : In a blue kurta Tejas could be seen (and heard) campaigning really hard for the Picture Perfect award! With his every ready smile and fun loving nature he sure added a spark to the day!

James Cruz/ Muthukumar Muthukaruppan/ Sateesh Nandula/ Siva Pondugula : They are what we call in TDC as Brand South India! This group of young men came perfectly clad in stached white Dhotis and kurtas. They were fun and excitement personified!

Tyash Ghosh/ Amit Jagdish/ Khalil Khokhar : If you thought they were more Canadian than Indian… rethink! Tyash was the perfect Bengali Babu and Amit grabbed the limelight with his elegant white attire! Khalil was awesome in traditional Black!

Vernon Pereira /Surya Vivek Prakash : With their Canadianzed Indian attires these boys just managed to tread the Thin Red Line, but the precious gifts of smile and fun they brought to the party was much appreciated! Vernon is of course our eternal Cool Dude and Vivek manages to dazzle all with his Harsha Bhogle style commentaries!

And, not to forget the ladies, that is yours truly and Revathy Venugopal : We played safe with the evergreen traditional sari and salwar suit !

The day brought moments of good fun and entertainment! The photo sessions were great and the cake cutting that followed was awesome! All associates in ethnic wear were give chocolates! And a round of applause is certainly due to our photographers Nipun and Muthu!

In a world of fast food and faster lives, the Ethnic wear day was like a breath of Fresh air. It gave us a rare opportunity to take a step back and delve into our roots. That is how I shall always remember Ethnic wear Day at TDC – a day where I found a piece of Motherland in a wonderful land thousands of miles away from Home! A true Homecoming in every sense!

न्यू यॉर्क की यात्रा

न जाने कितने दिन/महीनों से इंतज़ार था उस जगह को देखने का, जहाँ जाने के लिए दुनिया बेताब रहती है। लेकिन शुरुआत से ही, नक्षत्र ख़राब चल रहे थे। सोचा था कि ६ april को ही पहुँच कर एक दिन घूम कर और थोड़ा आराम-वाराम करके फिर अगले दिन से ऑफिस पहुंचेंगे, लेकिन कुछ confusion के कारण टिकेट ही ७ april का मिला।

उसके बाद चक्कर शुरू हुआ, immigration/custom/border-security का। एहसास हुआ, कि जितने किस्से सुने थे, इनके खडूस होने का, और रंगभेद का, वो काफ़ी सच थे। पहली बार किसी देश के officers को इतना rude और mannerless पाया। शायद चेहरे पर मुस्कान आने पर उनके ज्यादा tax कटते होंगे। एक officer के साथ हुई मेरी बातचीत का एक अंश प्रस्तुत है:
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officer: you are going on B1/B2 visa. Do you know, what this is meant for?
बेचारा: yes..this is for pleasure/business trip.
officer: No..this just entitles you to talk to me. You are not allowed to go there for consultation. You are taking the job away from an american citizen.
बेचारा (सोच में): ओह! तो वो web-site में सारी info हमें April-fool बनाने के लिए लिखी थी बुश भइया ने। ये १० साल का "multiple-entry" business visa, तो सिर्फ़ इससे बात करने का लगता है।
बेचारा (कुछ मुखर हुआ): so?
officer: so..you tell me!
बेचारा (फिर से विचारों की दुनिया में): वाह! अगर मैंने इसको बोला कि चलो रहने दो छोड़ो जाने दो यार, तो ये यूं ही मान जाएगा।
officer: where are you going to?
बेचारा (अब तो ये सिर्फ़ सोच ही सकता है..बोलने का हक तो सिर्फ़ सामने वाले के पास है): लगता है, इस US-visa से होनोलूलू और timbuctoo भी जा सकते हैं।
बेचारा (आखिरकार कुछ बोला): New York
officer: who do you work for?
बेचारा: i am an employee of Tata Consultancy Services, currently working for Morgan-Stanley.
officer: give me straight answers. who do you work for?
बेचारा (अब फिर खामोश रहकर विचार-मंथन की घड़ी है): hmmm. who do i work for? i provide consultancy to Morgan-Stanley (MS),..hence I work for them...but wait...i get paid by TCS, so why do i work for MS? that doesn't sounds correct..means, I DO work for TCS...
बेचारा: TCS
officer: then why are you going to MS?
बेचारा(सोच कुछ): good question. ये तो मैंने सोचा ही नहीं। अबकी बार..कुछ भी नहीं बोलूँगा..कुछ नहीं बोलने पर ये अपने आप timeout होकर next question पर खिसक जाता है।
officer: where is the actual work done?
बेचारा (खुश हो जा बच्चे ..वो वाकई timeout हो गया): Our team is at India, Canada and US.
officer (थोड़ा गुस्से में): Where .Is. the ACTUAL. Work. Done?
बेचारा(खुशी वापस। जुबान खोलने को किसने कहा था? ३-३ countries में टीम। उसकी क्या गलती confuse हो गया तो?): Canada and US।
officer: look don't mess with me. if you mess with me, i will throw you out. Now I am asking you the last time. WHERE.IS.THE.ACTUAL.WORK.DONE?
बेचारा(अबे तुझे क्या पड़ी है उसे IT industry समझाने की? तू ये सोच): अब समझ में आया कि IT कि सारी jobs US/UK से india क्यों भेजी जाती हैं।
बेचारा (वो बोल जो उसकी समझ में आए..एक जगह ): New York
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और इस प्रकार मिली उस बेचारे को border cross करने की अनुमति.

फिर भी काफ़ी उम्मीदें लिए पहुँच गए उस देश में जहाँ मियां कोलंबस, गलती से पहुँच गए थे, ये सोच कर कि ये भारत देश है।
विश्व की सबसे बड़ी अर्थव्यवस्था और उस देश का सबसे बड़ा शहर - न्यू यॉर्क ! वहाँ पहुंचे सबसे बड़ी air-line - American से। लेकिन उसमें बैठ कर लगा कि लोग बेवजह ही air-india ko gaaliyan देते हैं । इस डब्बे जैसी एअरलाइन से तो अपनी आंटियों वाली एअरलाइन कहीं बेहतर है। तनु कि तबियत प्लेन से ही काफ़ी ख़राब हो गई थी..La Guardia से Jersey तक का सफर बहुत ही मुश्किल से कटा। और हाँ! टैक्सी वाले वहाँ के भी ठगते हैं।

Ramada Inn पहुँचने पर शुरू हुआ मुसीबतों का second round.

good news

I have won Orkut's competition for its new name. Though it sounds strange, but they liked my new name - Yogurt.

I have won 500 USD, which came at the right time, as I am going to NY this sunday. They will use this new name in stages spanning 3 months.

currently, you can see this name, only after logging in orkut:

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OK...now that the auspicious day is over, I would like to thank everyone who congratulated me and hence participated in being a APRIL FOOL. Thanks guys n gals.

बुरा न मानो होली है

हर साल सोचने के बाद भी आज तक ये नहीं समझ में आया, कि हमारे यहाँ होली पर "नाकाबन्दी" और "अपनी तो जैसे तैसे" इतना क्यों बजता है !!

इस साल भी इसी गूढ़ प्रश्न पर विचार करने हेतु, सुबह सुबह youtube पर नाकाबंदी लगा दिया , पर सवाल वहीं का वहीं है। खैर , फिर होली के ढेर सारे गाने सुने और india कि होली को miss किया । शाम को दोस्तों को invite किया था, इसलिए पकवान बनाने में तनु कि थोड़ी help kee.
रंग खेलने की बेकरारी को कुछ control करके Canada में गुझिया, समोसे, कचोरी और मालपुआ हजम किया, और मौका मिलते ही टूट पड़े अबीर-गुलाल पर। एक बार फिज़ा mein rang बिखरे नहीं कि बस, चढ़ गई फागुन की मस्ती, और भूल गए कि हम सात समुन्दर पार हैं। जी भर कर होली खेली। पहले आपस में, और फिर लोगों के घर जा जा कर उन्हें रंगा, नींद से जगा कर लोगों के साथ होली खेली, होली खेल कर नहा धो कर वापस आए लोगों के साथ फिर होली खेली :)

उसके बाद ताश और अन्ताक्षरी, प्रेमजीत के हाथों की बनी coffee और सतीश के हाथों की बनी दाल ने मज़ा दुगुना कर दिया।

लौट कर जब रात के एक बजे स्नान किया, to laga ki apnee to HO LI

Canada की सर्दी में, minus 13 temperature में गरमा गरम पानी से रंग छुडाने का भी ultimate मज़ा है। बस अपने दिल को समझाना पड़ता है कि, "भाई , बुरा न मानो -

होली है !! "

(check the pics at my album at www.freewebs.com/ankushag or at my orkut profile.)

India - A third world country?

Stats revealed in Rajya Sabha:

12% scientists and 38% doctors in the US are Indians, and in NASA, 36% or almost 4 out of 10 scientists are Indians.

If that's not proof enough of Indian scientific and corporate prowess, digest this: 34% employees at Microsoft, 28% at IBM, 17% at Intel and 13% at Xerox are Indians.

some startling facts about a country that's still stuck with a Third World tag — 20% of gold in the world is used by Indians and nine out of 10 diamonds used in the world are made in India .

But the sad news: Indian hockey team has failed to QUALIFY for Olympics…first time in eight decades.

Cows don't fly??

Whoever said that cows don't fly, must be having their toes in their mouth today.











An Air-India plane has hit a Nilgai (A cow). Yes yes, I am talking about an AEROplane, वोई जो आसमान में उड़ता है ।

Read the detailed story here

Valentine's Day at Toronto

मेरा और तनु का पहला Valentine's Day साथ-साथ। सुबह उठते ही, एक अच्छा सा गिफ्ट मिला, और उसके बाद Downtown जाने की तैयारी। Cab में downtown पहुंचे और लग गए USA की Visa-Line में। लेकिन यहाँ की line, thankfully इतनी लम्बी नहीं थी, और officers भी अच्छे ही मिले। Visa interview के बाद पूरा downtown घूमा। शाम होते ही, अपने veggie होने का दुःख सताने लगा। सारे अच्छे restaurants में सिर्फ़ Non-Veg ही special था। काफ़ी भटकने के बाद लेकिन किस्मत ने साथ दिया और हम पहुँच गए एक झक्कास टाइप restaurant में। वहाँ पर सारे items special थे । हमने स्पेशल garlic-bread, heart shaped pasta with rose sauce और एक मस्त champagne के साथ डिनर किया और फ़िर triple crepe + maple syrup + fruits + ice-cream का dessert.

गाँधी जी को क्यों याद करें?

दुनिया भी कितनी विचित्र है। यहाँ हम गाँधी जी के सिद्धांतों की बात कर रहे हैं, और वहाँ हमारे राजनेता इसी बात पर उलझे हैं, कि बापू के अन्तिम शब्द क्या थे? उनके पोते ने तो मात्र "हे रा" ही सुना था और गोडसे के अनुसार उन्होने सिर्फ "हाय" कहा था। लेकिन उनके अन्तिम शब्दों के विवाद में उलझे लोगों ने वो नहीं सुना, जो गाँधी जी ने जीवन पर्यंत कहा।

Interesting World

Three pieces of news, which caught my attention:

1. Some employee in NY, delete ALL her company's data from the system (worth more than 2 bn USD)
2. There seems to be two men hidden in the MARS-picture sent by NASA...not only this, there seems to be a huge lake also in MARS.
3. Do you often ponder upon the question of whether to wait for the bus or walk? Three crazy mathematicians have claimed to solved this dilemma and came up with this formula:



Anyone willing to load the equation in his/her lappy to solve it everytime he/she is faced with the question again?


And yet, people don't believe that it's a wierd world full of strange people :)

A nice poem

One song can spark a moment,
One flower can wake the dream.
One tree can start a forest,
One bird can herald spring.

One smile begins a friendship,
One handclasp lifts a soul.
One star can guide a ship at sea,
One word can frame the goal

One vote can change a nation,
One sunbeam lights a room
One candle wipes out darkness,
One laugh will conquer gloom.

One step must start each journey.
One word must start each prayer.
One hope will raise our spirits,
One touch can show you care.

One voice can speak with wisdom,
One heart can know what's true,
One life can make a difference,
You see, it's up to you!

So, start making a change in this universe. To start, just shut your monitor off, whenever you leave your computer alone.

Blonde to Bombed

This is a classic case of being a bombshell to being bombed and shelled:

What an irony for the daughter of tragedy.

<-- It's Benazir Bhutto in her happier days.

and this is an apt depiction of not only Benazir, but of the whole Pakistan -->

TATA's new nano car

This is the editorial published in New York Times on 4th November 2007 by Thomas L Friedman:

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.
New Delhi -- India is in serious danger -- no, not from Pakistan or internal strife. India is in danger from an Indian-made vehicle: a $2,500 passenger car, the world's cheapest.
India's Tata Motors recently announced that it plans to begin turning out a four-door, four-seat, rear-engine car for $2,500 next year and hopes to sell one million of them annually, primarily to those living at the ''bottom of the pyramid'' in India and the developing world.
Welcome to one of the emerging problems of the flat world: Blessedly, many more people now have the incomes to live an American lifestyle, and the Indian and Chinese low-cost manufacturing platforms can deliver them that lifestyle at lower and lower costs. But the energy and environmental implications could be enormous, for India and the world.
We have no right to tell Indians what cars to make or drive. But we can urge them to think hard about following our model, without a real mass transit alternative in place. Cheap conventional four-wheel cars, which would encourage millions of Indians to give up their two-wheel motor scooters and three-wheel motorized rickshaws, could overwhelm India's already strained road system, increase its dependence on imported oil and gridlock the country's megacities.
Yes, Indian families whose only vehicle now is a two-seat scooter often make two trips back and forth to places to get their whole family around, so a car that could pack a family of four is actually a form of mini-mass transit. And yes, Tata, by striving to make a car that could sell for $2,500, is forcing the entire Indian auto supply chain to become much more efficient and therefore competitive.
But here's what's also true: Last week, I was driving through downtown Hyderabad and passed the dedication of a new overpass that had taken two years to build. A crowd was gathered around a Hindu priest in a multicolored robe, who was swinging a lantern fired by burning coconut shells and praying for safe travel on this new flyover, which would lift traffic off the streets below.
The next morning I was reading The Sunday Times of India when my eye caught a color photograph of total gridlock, showing motor scooters, buses, cars and bright yellow motorized rickshaws knotted together. The caption: ''Traffic ends in bottleneck on the Greenlands flyover, which was opened in Hyderabad on Saturday. On day one, the flyover was chockablock with traffic, raising questions over the efficacy of the flyover in reducing vehicular congestion.'' That's the strain on India's infrastructure without a $2,500 car.
So what should India do? It should leapfrog us, not copy us. Just as India went from no phones to 250 million cellphones -- skipping costly land lines and ending up with, in many ways, a better and cheaper phone system than we have -- it should try the same with mass transit.
India can't ban a $2,500 car, but it can tax it like crazy until it has a mass transit system that can give people another cheap mobility option, said Sunita Narain, the dynamo who directs New Delhi's Center for Science and Environment and got India's Supreme Court to order the New Delhi bus system to move from diesel to compressed natural gas. This greatly improved New Delhi's air and forced the Indian bus makers to innovate and create a cleaner compressed natural gas vehicle, which they now export.
''I am not fighting the small car,'' Ms. Narain said. ''I am simply asking for many more buses and bus lanes -- a complete change in mobility. Because if we get the $2,500 car we will not solve our mobility problem, we will just add to our congestion and pollution problems.''
Charge high prices for parking, charge a proper road tax for driving, deploy free air-conditioned buses that reach every corner of the city, expand the existing beautiful Delhi subway system, ''and then let the market work,'' she added.
Why should you care what they're driving in Delhi? Here's why: The cost of your cellphone is a lot cheaper today because India took that little Western invention and innovated around it so it is now affordable to Indians who make only $2 a day. India has become a giant platform for inventing cheap scale solutions to big problems. If it applied itself to green mass transit solutions for countries with exploding middle classes, it would be a gift for itself and the world.
To do that it must leapfrog. If India just innovates in cheap cars alone, its future will be gridlocked and polluted. But an India that makes itself the leader in both cheap cars and clean mass mobility is an India that will be healthier and wealthier. It will also be an India that gives us cheap answers to big problems -- rather than cheap copies of our worst habits.

This is my response to it:


I agree with the concern but totally disagree with the reasoning and solution provided in the article.

The author has tried to undermine the success on following points:

1. Traffic Chaos: Number one is that shutting down production of vehicles is no solution to traffic woes. Proper infrastructure is needed for it. Delhi has done; and is doing a great work in this regard. Other cities should follow it, and Delhi should improve it. Second point is that, it might actually solve some of the traffic problems. We just need to be more adaptive of a concept called car-pooling. Having one car, instead of 4-bikes, on the road, is anytime better.

2. Imported Oil: The car gives a mileage of 22-26, which is better than any other taxi/car/heavy vehicle. Having such cars is a much-much better solution for imported-oil than invading Iraq.
Also, the potential buyers of this car are small-medium sized families in the medium income group, which currently call a taxi or hire a car whenever they go on a family outing. Consider the additional distance that the taxi/hired-car has to cover to pick them up, and then again go looking for another passenger. Taking a generous assumption of just 100 meters this taxi has to cover and multiplying by a million owners of this car and again multiplying by the number of times, such an incident happens, and then again multiplying the saving on mileage gives us an enormous saving in fuel consumption.

3. Pollution: The small car not only passes all the regulatory norms, but as advertised, it exceeds them, hence the claim that it pollutes even lesser than a 2-wheeler looks to be true. Time will tell the truth.

Above all, the solution of heavily taxing this car, is simply autocratic, impractical, unjust and funny. If a car is taxed, all the cars get affected and this will again end up being the cheapest. If the government adds another clause in its already heavy IT law of taxing only the small cars, the opposition would simply kill them as this car is branded as the common man’s car and the tax burden will fall on the common man instead of the higher income segment.

Let the author realize that Indians are not following them, but instead paving a pathway that they might wish to take in a not-so-distant future.

Diwali Party - Survey Results

To refresh the memories of the Diwali Party, we conducted a quick survey to announce the awards in some of the popular category. Here are the winners:

Unforgettable Moment:

We started the party with a very funny event. All the big-shots (PLs, GLs, Managers, in common lingo) were blind-folded and asked to race to finish with hurdles in between. However, the catch was, there were NO HURDLES. Spectators were laughing to their hearts’ content watching them crawl/walk cautiously in the clean arena.

Best Movers and Shakers:

This award was closely fought, but in the last Abhijeet and Mrudul emerged as the combined winners, owing to their expert (some call it crazy) dance moves. Raga was a close second. Here is a glimpse:

The best dressed Lady/Gentleman:

Everyone was too smart to vote for themselves here :) , but the grapevine declares them as winners:

Quote/Unquote:

Believe it or not, TDC has its own Shakespeares (Sheikh-Peers), who keep entertaining with their ever ready wit and tongue-in-cheek dialogues. Hence, we asked for the winner of all dialogues and this was the clear winner with a veeeeeery big margin:

“You can go by a GO bus, but cannot come by a COME-bus”

You are wondering what it means!! Et Tu Brute…

Seasons

Seasons of Canada, as viewed from my apartment

TCS Picnic in Pictures and Poems

We packed a picnic with a peach,
A pear, a prune and a pickle,
There was a piece of pie for each
And a piece of pumpernickel

It's more fun livin' when you're having fun....
It's more fun golfing when you hole in one....
It's more fun dreamin' when your dreams come true...
It's more fun winning at whatever you do....

Candy and cookies and peanuts and cake,
Finding the frosting has run,
All of us knowing we've eaten too much---
Picnics are certainly fun.

Changing, fading, falling, flying,
From homes that gave them birth,
Autumn leaves, in beauty dying,
Seek the mother breast of earth.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Different moods

Sandalwood Suites..our first destination in Toronto

With Shreelaya...most loveable gal

at bachelor's room (or TDC-TQ, as we call it)

Look carefully...the sunlight, the moonlight and the streelight...all in same photo.