Back to writing

Just thought of going through my old blogs! I am so tempted to get back to blogging.
Hopefully will find some time this weekend.

Sky was the limit

Last weekend was a get together for few of our batchmates at a Sky Diving training school.

Pushpak, Maroo, Subbu & Hema and Pallavi & Samcho took the deep dive in an open sky.

It was scary and exciting. Scary for most part and exciting for the 5 minutes when we were floating free in the open sky at 14000 feet.

The experience is tough to explain in words. I wonder about the person who would have taken the first dive. and what would have motivated him/her to do it.

Links to Pallavi and my youtube videos.

search "pallavi skydive"it has part-1 and part-2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8monmxLJY0 and

http://www.youtube.com/v/I_vOAJuOHYY


youtube - search for "samir skydive"
http://www.youtube.com/v/ES4_QHcF1j8

Death of a President

George Bush is shot in Chicago. Dick Cheney is the new President. Bashar-al-Assad, the Syrian president says he has no hand in the killing.

The charecters are real. "Death of a President" kept me baffled for entire 1 hour 39 Minutes on how they shot this fictional documentary.

A shrewd use of news footage and technology makes this documentary look so real that I had to pinch myself twice to belive it.

No major publicity for the movie as theatres in US refused to carry it and TV channels said no to airing trailers and posting reviews.

GRPs are OK with airing a President being hanged. But showing an incumbent president dead. Not fair. Doesn't matter even it were a work of art and fiction.

The Vegas Trip

What Happens In Vegas

Stays in Vegas ;)

Twenty 20

Like Dhoni many other Indians will cherish the world cup win for the rest of their lives. Many like us who were devoid of the direct telecast would remember it how we managed to keep a track of the game. All those live streaming sites, cricinfo site running slow and rediff trailing by an over!!
'Where were you during the final overs of the match?' would be most commonly used ice breakers in the meetings at least till the Autralian tour.

I will also remember the series for few other incidents . Flintoff's sledging and Shoaib Mallick's post match comments.

Its killing me to know what did Flintoff say to ruin Broad's career? Was it something in line with Zidane's headbutting incident or Sidhu's car parking row? I blame it on Flintoff generalizing Singh's attitude based on our prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh's soft talking gentleman demeanour. Wrong sample my boy!! Navjot Singh Sidhu would have been a better sample.

Secondly Shoaib Mallick's statement "First of all I want to say something over here. I want to thank you back home Pakistan and where the Muslim lives all over the world.” Did he get too excited with his limited English or he lives in a fool paradise where all muslims are expected to be Paksitan's messanger. Just after the ruthless bashing from Pathan brothers and seeing Sharukh Khan waving the Indian flag as if there is no tomorrow, it really requires a brainless head to make such a statement. He has not only proved himself to be the best English speaking idiot in the pakistani cricket team but also managed to earn the ire of millions of muslims all over the world.

And last but not the least Bhaji's bhangra steps!!!! Love them.

Road Warriors

Chandru christened our group Road Warriors. Certainly we were not warriors in any sense. Pallavi has some traits of a warrior but too little to be declared a warrior. I think the naming was more of a fascination from the road network of US.

During the 3 days holiday on ocassion of Labour Day, we spent most of our time on the road driving around. New Jersey - Delaware-West Virginia-Washington-West Virginia-Baltimore-Delaware- New Jersey. One cannot help but admire the vast road network laid across US. Road development has been an art . At least for the Americans.

I wonder where all the money for development came from? Or a better question would be, where did the foresight come from? As I know all the network plans were prepared long before US became the US of today. Hats off to the leadership and vision.

Last but not the least, credit also goes to the cheap influx of labour from Mexico and other South American countries. Saying goes that the only reason US has a great road network is because its next to Mexico.

I wonder what would happen to India the day we have a similar road network in the country? Amen!!!

Bihar Bashing

Dear Sir,
I read your blog with great expectations.

http://www.deeshaa.org/2007/06/01/bihar-part-2/

I am from Bihar and am always on lookout for ideas through which we can impact the growth of Bihar in a positive manner.

Its nice to write "everything" is wrong with Bihar but sir most humbly "do you have a way out?"

To my dismay you also chose to continue Bihar bashing and highlighting the poor governance from the local leaders.
However, what one expects from analysts today is to make an impact on the ground and not on text books.

Bihar still being an agrarian society needs a strong infrastructure of roads to move from food crops to cash crops. We are forced to grow food crops as transporting cash crops to mandis is not feasible. The sugar mills are not working.

Talking of the abundance of water in North Bihar, I would suggest you take a trip to Bihar in the monsoon season and would realise why abundance is not necessarily advantageous. There are no dams to harness the water and we lose huge crops in flood every year.
Now coming to the columnists favorite Laloo bashing. Although, not a Laloo fan myself, I would like to draw your attention towards the per capita investment of center in Bihar. It has historically been the lowest. So isn't the central leadership equally responsible for the plight. And not to mention the political compulsion of the central government, they have always chosen to take Laloo's help. If the central leaders have their compulsion cannot Laloo have one.

I also choose to differ from your analysis of the education system in Bihar. Having seen so many states and their rural education system, I can confidently say Bihar is no worse. On papers one can calculate the ratios of population/teacher and population/school, but let not forget the quality of education. Bihar still produces the finest of Human Resources and here I would like to mention the often quoted presence of a Bihari administrative officers in the various districts of India. Similar are figures for engineers and doctors.And the best factor in the favor of Bihar education system is the willingness of people to educate their children and the importance they give to education. There are numerous examples of people selling their lands, doubling their shifts of work, just to afford sending children to schools and colleges.
If you have visited Bihar in last few months you could not have missed the road construction taken up on war scale. The very districts you have visited are on the forefront of a revolution.
Crime rate has come down drastically. The leadership is trying to project a positive image of Bihar to woo investors.
Its the time when I request economists like you to highlight the positive aspects of Bihar, help us grow and help get what we deserve.
Biharis had enough of Bihar bashing. Hasn't helped us ever.