ab     artnavy     Balaji     Basab     Chandoo     eM     Niall Kennedy     noreply@blogger.com (Gaurav)     Raj     sanjukta     Sriram     sriramv     straight point     V.V.     venkat.venkatesan@gmail.com (V.Venkatesan)     Vibhash Prakash Awasthi     

A lot of people have been recommending the (21st century not the 70s) Battlestar Galactica to me for a while. A lot of the same people who recommended LOST for a while. I bit into LOST in the 5th season and am hooked as you all know. So, over the last few days, when I had some free time after submitting 2 papers, I gave it a shot. Went till the middle of the 2nd season before getting really bored

In the last 18 months the markets took a deep dive and then recovered. Valuations in the Offshore Services industry yo-yoed, business prospects sank and then recovered. Yet amidst all this, the pace of acquisitions didn’t go up much. Apart from the Satyam acquisition by Tech Mahindra, deals have been small and infrequent. The question is why? From the industry structure it would seem like the Of
label : Offshore Services


I don’t know if its a coincidence or not but I happen to write whenever it pours unexpectedly and beautifully in the National Capital. And these writings always come in mind while I am coming home from work. In 2005, I used to work in Nehru Place, I thought of this post while sitting in the auto. In 2006 I was stuck in a bus stop, unable to find any bus or auto to my home in Dwarka, the rain was
label : 1. Personal / Life


The emerging HTML5 specification lifts video playback out of the generic <object> element and into specialized <video> handlers. Explicit markup for audio and video places elevates moving pictures to a similar native rendering capacity as <img> markup we are used to but with more fine-grained details about underlying formats and compression available before loading. In this post
label : JavaScript


Prateeksha, Mumbai                      February  8,  2010                    Mon  11 : 48 PM I am weak to day. Weak in thought. Weak in what I do. Weak in circumstance. Weak in memory. Weak with myself. My weakness could be my exhaustion. An exhaustion not of time or deed. An exhaustion from excessive consumption. My Father’s work consumes me. The Times of India ‘Ama
label : Others


On a blue-ish Monday morning, when you reach office with sleepy eyes, last thing you expect is to hear India reeling on a dead pitch. But the case was very much the same this morning. Every time something like this happens, especially in India where losing was out of question when I was growing, two kinds of fans start fighting inside me. Real fan who believes we can win from any position and eve
label : Cricket


By Nina Nariman, III Year, LL.B., Campus Law Centre, Delhi University. [Synopsis of the 2nd lecture in the series ‘60 years of the Indian Constitution’ delivered by Mr. T.R. Andhyarujina, Former Solicitor General of India, on February 6 at Campus Law Centre, Delhi University.] Mr. T.R. Andhyarujina began with a quote by Justice Frankfurter of the United States Supreme Court: “No one can be
label : Legal Profession


The following is a comment I wrote in what looks like a left liberal blog. The author had provoked me on twitter. I'm disappointed that the loony liberal fringe has hijacked an issue of life and death to the farmers, and is using it further the failed ideals of socialism.I see your interest in the subject is political rather than health or environment. your rant against the likes of walmart while
label : Current Affairs


Prem Panicker describes the bowling effort of Harbhajan Singh against South Africa yesterday: The wicket had bounce and sharp turn— the kind of conditions spinners revel in and batsmen, especially from teams like SA that are not known for their skill at playing the turning ball, dread.As for Bajji, any time you find an off spinner bowling the bulk of his deliveries from around the wicket to righ
label : Cricket


Given that one updates this blog rather sporadically these days, it is perhaps ill-advised to write a post that may well be moot by 9:45 a.m. IST tomorrow. But well, here goes.Almost a decade back, in Calcutta, two men were given an opportunity to grab glory by its balls. Two men who had been seen as "promising" for several years, but whose careers had meandered of late. VVS Laxman had been in and

This past fall, I moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to begin teaching at the University of Michigan. One of the first people I met here was the opera singer Sean Panikkar, a University of Michigan alum who’s singing at the Metropolitan Opera in Ariadne auf Naxos this week. I’m a bit of an operahead. (For those of you who have never been to the opera, if you want to try it affordably, I recommend
label : Arts and Entertainment


catching up... first with the ball and now with the bat in hand... on bored: open thread - what india could have done differently...ps:in a way i am glad that out 12 wickets... 11 fell to seamers today and not to (indian) spinners... otherwise icc would have come knocking bcci door...
label : india vs south africa


The time: 5 a.m. The reasoning: I can't wait anymore The subject: Asleep and dreaming Woken up, my eyes still closed. The sky outside our bedroom is just about beginning to lighten.  "Hmmmm?" I say, still trying to catch on to the last edges of my dream. "Will you marry me?" he asks, and this is when I do open one eye and look at him and say, "Okay", feeling my heart speed up a little
label : Major Events


Dear Readers & Friends, I am very happy to announce that Excel School online training program is now available for your consideration. Please read this short post to understand what you will get when you sign-up for this program and how you can join. What will you get when you join? Access to Private Member-only Classroom: Where you can learn, ask questions, share ideas and discuss home work
label : Learn Excel


I have always felt that we shouldn’t be getting into events such as the Olympics or even the Asian Games and needlessly pitting ourselves against the Americans, Russians and the Chinese. Why compete with the global best and then come back without a single medal and add to our inferiority complex? What we should be doing instead is to participate in events where competition is from the likes of B

I have recently been reading Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar’s Nataka Medai Ninaivugal and despite the fact that the Tamil is rather old worldly and the author repeats himself at many places, the faithful way in which he had documented the theatre history of Madras with respect to his Suguna Vilasa Sabha is amazing. I found several references to the Victoria Public Hall in the book. Rather serendipitou
label : Chennai (Madras) History


Anushka and her father went for the Extra Terrestrials show on Sunday and this is what Anush said when she came back" Ammmmazzzzzing amma!!" and went on to describe each act in great detail....Here are Anushka's paper crafts for this month's Artsy Craftsy Paper craft Challenge at Shruti's place. We had a lot of fun doing it. . .A human chain done by folding accordion style and cutting... all paint
label : anushka


(; MB)
label : Abstract & Conceptual Photos



label : Love


Dear Blog, The hand that wipes the arse is the hand that feeds the face today!  Is it foolishness? A mistake? An accident? Bloody karma? Whatever. It’s my bad now. Even this typing with the index finger of the left hand is painful and laboured. Last week, last month. Home alone. Dinner time for son.  Heated the ghee in a tiny steel jar; attended a phone call; hee hee; ghee jar caught fire o
label : talk


During the many years we were told we couldn’t have children due to my auto-immune condition, at times I gave up on dua because resignation was easier than continually dashed hope. But my loved ones never stopped praying for me, even when I couldn’t do so for myself. Sometimes it was almost hurtful that they continued [...](; MB)
label : Life


Harsh Narayan live at Baaja Gaaja 2010, in the Aangan venue of Ishanya Mall, Pune.He is one of the most promising and upcoming talents and got some award on these lines in 2009. originally uploaded by spacejunkIn the first pic, with audio monitor in between, with his posing towards the lens... difficult to decide to listen or watch :P
label : photo


I have moved to WordPress as of Feb. 7, 2010. Please visit me at http://globalneighbourhoods.net. If you somehow bounce back to this site, just hit refresh and try again.I will slowly migrate old posts over as well. But you if you are searching for old content, you may want to search here, first.Sorry for any inconvenience. See you on the new site.

Three weeks ago, 25-year old Philadelphian and lifelong foodie Abdullah Saeed did something thousands of people around the world were doing that very minute - he wrote a blog post. The post, titled “What a strange new feeling” was the first for his blog, ‘Adventures in Pork: A Muslim eats various pork dishes for the first time in his life and divulges his thoughts.’ Over the next four we
label : Food


The Meridien, Cochin, Kerala                     February  7, 2010                 Sun  10 : 27 PM Valorie … a belated birthday wish to you .. may you remain healthy and wise and poetic as ever ! As I watch the ‘mohiniattam’ being performed on stage by a large group of dancers performing in honour of the evening to felicitate Resul Pookutty, Oscar Award winner for his sou
label : Others


I just got a digital wattmeter. Had no idea about these until Google PowerMeter, but now, they’re all the rage. Mine’s a pretty simple model and all  I plan to do with it is play around with a few household gadgets. My first target, obviously, was my Dell Latitude E5400. The statistics are interesting: Power … when… 0.3W Laptop is switched off. The adapter must be consuming the pow
label : How I do things


On Opportunities within India. I thought earlier that it would be too much of a topic for someone like me to handle. It seemed kinda out of my league. But then they asked me to give a personal take on how I utilized the opportunities presented to me. Hopefully it should be worth the while of the students there.  I hope I do a good job. It shall be the first time I shall be speaking in front of a

I know I am late, but as is the self explanatory heading, I have dubbed for Sameera Reddy in Asal. I happened to meet her at the Vinnai Thaandi audio launch. She was kind enough to mention then that she liked my dubbing for her in Vaaranam Aayiram. She is such a down to earth person and has no airs about her and she is more of a stunner in real life. This, of course, is the second time I am workin

[The following resolution was adopted at the Convention held in New Delhi today]The present system of appointments by the Collegium of Judges suffers from nepotism, arbitrariness and lack of transparency. We need a full time Judicial Appointments Commission for selecting judges of the higher judiciary as well as members of Commissions, Tribunals, etc. This should not comprise merely of retired jud
label : judicial reform


Dances of Bali - Photo Album
label : Dances of Bali


if you cannot get wickets... get a body language at least...(hint: look at bhajji...)
label : india vs south africa


Morning cycle ride to Pearl Valley, Muthyala Maduvu ended in disappointment as there was no water to see the beauty as this place is described to be. Around 5:45am I started from my place in Koramangala towards BTM Layout to pick up friend of mine who was joining for the ride. Together we went to Jayanagar to another friends house to pick up the helmet. After which it was a long ride. Via Jayadeva
label : Uncategorized


Why is the Govt hell-bent on introducing Bt Brinjal? Surely, this is not the most pressing need of the country?As we know from the “Yes Minister’ episodes, there is more to Govt decisions than what meets the eye. More often than not, major decisions are taken based on completely mistaken premises. In one of his articles, R.K.Narayan described a dream he had had. The Controller of Stores, a Dep

   
label : How I do things


What Web Designers need to know about EPUB | Nimbupani Designs My notes on why EPUB is a format to look out for

A staff reporter of The Hindu has filed this story today:The public consultation on commercialization of Bt brinjal here on Saturday witnessed uproar after a scientist of the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore said those who opposed the GM Technology were interested in mobile technology and other things. Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Mr Jairam Ramesh intervened
label : Nonsense Watch


From Rabbi Shergill’s album Avengi Ja Nahi, available here.
label : Public Policy


(; MB)
label : Art & Design Photos


Why is there so much of it? “One of the salient features of our culture,” writes Harry Frankfurt “is that there is so much bullshit.” And since “we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us” wrote a little monograph On Bullshit. Given the profound geo-political, geo-strategic, geo-climactic and geo-olfactory importance of this issue, we have decided to publis
label : Aside


The Exhibition and Events will continue in Colombo till February 9th 2010,in Ampara from February 17th to February 19th 2010, in Batticaloa from February 22nd to February 24th 2010 and in Jaffna from March 7th to 9th 2010. It's sponsored by the American Center in Colombo and the Foundation for Co-Existence. [click to read, see & hear more]

For the original, please visit: Claps and BoosHow often have you come across these?Hero gets down from a car. Camera low angle pans from the heroes shoe lace to head. And then the camera keeps a low angle shot and the hero walks as if he in constipation (aka slow motion).Some horrible ‘punch’ dialog, where the line has no relevance to the movie or the scene – but has loads of meaning of the
label : Tamil Movies


It is a nightmare to lose a lover but to deal with it alone is hitting the wall and believing it is the only solution. Such is George Falconer (Colin Firth) as the titular man. He comes as one being steady as a still water and muddled all inside. Colin Firth whom I never really taken seriously wants me to. Written for the screen by director Tom Ford and David Scearce based on a novel of the same n
label : Reviews


Whenever I see an article that says RF is Greatest of All Time (GOAT), there is always a qualifier "arguably". I don't know what else the guy can do. Anyway I myself don't believe in GOAT, but he is the best I have seen since I started watching tennis 25 years ago. There is also this constant comparison of him and Sampras, but I think that is a wrong comparison. The person he should be compared wi

A film I settled for since I missed the show for “Crazy Heart”, “It’s Complicated” scared the hell out of me when the bitching (pardon my French) session with Jane (Meryl Streep) and her lovely friends happened. They do not pour out their hearts rather live the dark side in the most disturbing and elaborate manner their deep inner feelings. But in comes Alec Baldwin with the spectacular
label : Reviews


Taj Coromandel, Chennai                      February  6/7,  2010                   Sat/Sun  1 : 30 AM 8 hours in the presence of the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu here in Chennai to felicitate him and his generosity to the workers of the Tamil Film Industry. He has allocated 100 acres of land for building houses for the workers and several other benefits announced. The variet
label : Others


Sometimes life is only as good as the last conversation. :)

If you havent watched the movie, no issues, go ahead and watch the video. It doesn’t give out anything and it can raise brows/curiosity. This song is interrupts the movie at a correct time. It couldn’t be placed any better. The lead to this song is impeccable and song actually goes out of the way to capture the direstraits of the film’s characters without compromising of the video. Right fr
label : Blog


The Third National Convention of the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) was flagged off today on the Issues of Judicial Appointments, Complaints against judges, Contempt of Court and the application of the RTI to the Judiciary. The Convention titled Making the Judiciary Accountable and Responsive to the People, provided a platform to not only lawyers , former judges, but also
label : Event


Steve Jobs ate his hat when he announced the iBook application for the tablet, but the iBook portends a bright future for web designers too. Wait, what? Books and web designers, how are they even related? One word: EPUB. EPUB is a publishing standard designed for reflowable content which means the book can be viewed on devices of multiple dimensions. It does this by using XHTML/CSS for rendering
label : web design


Steve Jobs ate his hat when he announced the iBook application for the tablet, but the iBook portends a bright future for web designers too. Wait, what? Books and web designers, how are they even related? One word: EPUB. EPUB is a publishing standard designed for reflowable content which means the book can be viewed on devices of multiple dimensions. It does this by using XHTML/CSS for rendering
label : web design


It is important that you integrate Google AdSense with your Google Analytics account as you will then be able track the ad performance (CTR, CPM, revenue, etc.) of individual pages of your site without having to create AdSense channels. Linking AdSense with Analytics is fairly easy (see video) but consider a slightly different scenario: You are maintaining two separate Google Accounts – your fir
label : Internet


...a perfect 'synchronised' partnership by all account...well played!!
label : india vs south africa


The CJAR's 3rd Convention will continue its deliberations on Feb.7 at the Seminar Hall of NMML tomorrow. The following is the agenda:SESSION 1 : THE JUDICIARY AND CIVIL LIBERTIESModerator – Mr. Gautam NavlakhaHuman Rights ActivistPeople’s Union for Democratic Rights10:00a.m. – 11:15a.m. Speakers:• Mr. Colin GonsalvesAdvocate Supreme Court of India & Director, Human Rights Law Network�
label : Event


In his column in The Dawn (which was reproduced in the Times of India), Nadeem F Paracha writes:The roots of the modern-day Hindu-Muslim antipathy lie not in the distant past, but a mere hundred and fifty years back in history, when the British began introducing a greater number of modern ideas and technology, some of which, like democracy, suddenly awakened the Muslims to a stark reality which th
label : Boring stuff


Back from Sanya, ChinaI am back in Singapore after a three day trip to Sanya, China. Sanya was beautiful and truly deserves the epithet - " Oriental Hawaii". Though I was on a business trip, managed to get some time for sightseeing. Photos & Travel diary to follow soon. P.S : No access to Blogger & Twitter for the past three days since both are banned in China.
label : Sanya


Shrinidhi is not happy with the sudden changes in the paypal India policy. Neither am I. The worst thing according to me, is that Paypal has enforced this policy change without any prior notice, any warning and is autonomously back dating the policy and enforcing it on already completed transactions, reversing them and causing huge inconvenience/loss to the stake holders. Ideally they should have
label : Blogging


Perspectives on foreign policy, defence, strategic affairs and governance Rohan Joshi joins us on INI with The Filter Coffee, a blog “dedicated to raising awareness of issues relating to foreign policy, defense, strategic affairs and governance so that India’s citizens can demand the accountability they deserve from their elected representatives on the pursuit of India’s national interests.�
label : Aside


It is not uncommon to find hundreds of reader comments on any TechCrunch story – some of these comments are genuine, some are trolls while some comments are made just for the purpose of getting eyeballs. If you are a frequent commenter on TechCrunch blog, here’s a slightly disheartening news for you – TechCrunch has stopped displaying user comments on all stories that are older than 10 days.
label : Internet


If you are on the verge of launching yourself as a local entrepreneur, there are a couple of nice businesses coming your way.Much, if not all has to do with civic services.A little birdie at the city father’s office has let me in on this information and in the true spirit of a community communication I felt I should make it public.We have now moved to the age of the RTI (Right to Information).I

Larry Lessig calls campaign fund-raising another form of corruption. It is interesting that in India if it were possible to get special interests to lawfully contribute to the campaign funds of politicians and not their own private accounts, we would probably declare victory against political corruption. But, if you leave aside the fact that one is pernicious but lawful (the US) and the other is i
label : Government


(; MB)
label : Landscape & Rural Photos


Larry Lessig has an important article in The Nation about how campaign fund-raising has corrupted Congress. This is corruption. Not the corruption of bribes, or of any other crime known to Title 18 of the US Code. Instead, it is a corruption of the faith Americans have in this core institution of our democracy. The vast majority of Americans believe money buys results in Congress (88 percent in a
label : Government


I want my blog to be active again, yes I know I have to start blogging for that. May be it is time to start everything afresh, time to get back to life. Wana rewind and playback what happened in past few weeks Place : Moved to San Francisco, so will be living in Northern California for a while and will move back before it makes me soft. (P.S : Wear Sunscreen) People : Got two new friends in the
label : Misc


At the beginning of her long affair with Harold Pinter, Antonia Fraser was warned by her brother, “You are a woman and a strong character yet you want your husband to be stronger. Women with strong characters who want to dominate are always fine because there are plenty of weak men around. Also plenty of [...](; MB)
label : the venus flytrap


Privacy online is a big hot button issue these days. Much before it went mainstream, Adam Greenfield has been talking about and wrote a  fascinating book called, “Everyware.” Currently he... Life, People and Ideas: Connecting Indian diaspora across the world. (; MB)
label : Books and Authors


Prateeksha, Mumbai                         February  5/6,  2010                         Fri/Sat  2 : 13 AM A birthday of the son Abhishek. A day of rejoicing and fun and light heartedness. A day full of love and affection for all those that send in feeling and wishes and warmth. Of family and friends calling in. But … the young man chooses to work. And so after the ear
label : Others


Bobby Jindal wants you to root for the Saints in the Super Bowl, but here’s a reason to root for the Colts: John Singh Gill, son of Ajit and Ann Gill, is a defensive lineman for the team (via Ultrabrown). He was recently elevated to the active roster, so he may see some playing time. Now I know what my friend meant when he said, “I’m looking for 69 during the big game.” If the Colts win,
label : Sports



label : Freedom


When I saw the headline “U.S. Congressman asks Clinton to demote Rajiv Shah,” I thought that the USAID director had done something seriously wrong. Perhaps Shah had bungled the U.S. relief efforts in Haiti, sending too much rice but not enough beans. Or perhaps he had handed a reconstruction job to an Indian-American Contractor who doesn’t do any contracting. But no, nothing of that so
label : Politics


The Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reform is organising the 3RD NATIONAL CONVENTION on February 6 and 7 at the Main Auditorium, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti House, New Delhi. The following is the programme on Feb.6: AGENDA 9:30am.Registration and Tea Facilitator for the day – Mr. Indu Prakash Singh, Technical Advisor, Urban Poverty and Gender, Indo Global Social Servic
label : Event


Cadbury has launched a new variant of Dairy Milk branded as Dairy Milk Silk. The brand is currently running two TVCs for this variantWatch the tvc here : Dairy Milk Silk Dance : Dairy Milk Silk ConferenceThe brand has been moving away from the celebrity endorsed approach it was following in the last few years. The new campaign is refreshing and brings back the memories of its earlier iconic campa
label : iconic brand


77-year-old lady I know relates this incident that happened to her in Bombay recently. Any thoughts welcome. Has anything like this happened to other women out there?***A Tuesday morning like any other. As I walked along the road from Khar [Bombay suburb] to where it met 14th Rd – I had not been here before - I noticed how shady it was and rejoiced in the trees.A voice called behind me, a young

Anju Gandhi overhears the conversation of two girls who had recently seen Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Love Aaj Kal A , “ I don’t understand why did Ash get married to Ajay Devgan, when she was already in love with Salman? Why didn’t she run away from her house? B ,” how could she? She was forced by her parents and she must have thought about the honour and feelings of her parents. May be sh
label : Bollywood


Nila-Kantha-Chandra on Calcutta, its intelligentsia and much more: While the intelligentsia of Calcutta prides itself on being fiercely secular and tolerant, the truth is that most educated Hindus in the city would never have had any substantive intercourse with a Muslim in their lives. And yet they would not hesitate to express their opinion on Muslims, Islam etc. Almost every one in a typical in
label : Culture


Hyderabad, Tank Bund, 03 Feb 10: Dileep Konatham

THE HINDU: Srikrishna heads five-member committee on Telangana issueTIMES OF INDIA: 'Longest human chain' formed to demand Telangana stateREDIFF: 'Longest human chain' formed for TelanganaEXPRESS BUZZ: T-JAC's 500-km ‘human chain’ today on NH7INDIAINFO: 'Longest human chain' formed to demand Telangana stateSIMPLY TELANGANA: Telangana Human Chain a huge successGULF NEWS: Committee on Telangana

Why India’s offer of talks with Pakistan might not be that bad So India has offered Pakistan “open-ended talks on all outstanding issues affecting peace and security”, emphasising counter-terrorism, at the level of the foreign secretaries. The offer was made two weeks ago and Pakistan is yet to respond. Also, Siddharth Varadarajan reports that “this is the second time in three months that
label : Foreign Affairs


when the experience of over 20 years of international cricket... more than 30,000 runs... and 90 international hundreds... gives you tips... you better pay attention... on bored: open thread - first test first show...
label : india vs south africa


I was explaining Independence Day to AnushkaIn that context I had to explain freedomTold her that the horse we had seen tied was not free and when released it was free and happyThen tried to explain how foreign invaders had taken India without permission and then how we became freeShe asked me to release Aditi into her crib so that she could be free!!
label : siblings


I have very exciting news for you. Finally, the excel school program is ready for your consideration. We are opening registration on 8th of Feb. (if you don’t know what Excel school is… it is a 12 week online excel training program, conducted by me. You can find full details, get a free lesson here.) Some details & key dates about the program area, The price will be $97 if you pay one ti
label : Learn Excel


Let us take a minute and bask in some glory, for, our little community at PHD had the most fantastic month ever. That is right, January 2010 is so far the best month since I started blogging. We have broken all sorts of previous records on content, conversations, connections, traffic and revenue. In January, we had 20 posts and 425 comments (highest ever). There were 117 thousand visitors reading
label : Charts and Graphs



label : web 2.0


Dear candidate,You've been shortlisted for the role of guardian angel of one urupadatha guy. Please consider this as my humble request and release me from this trouble. Puniyama pogum.Ippadiku,Guardian angel of Gils.I wouldnt be surprised if mine really sends out an ad like this. Round the clock protecting me with all alphabet category security :D Fell again from bus today, this time sheerly my ca
label : WMW


Wanted to break this silence, since I will go mad if I won't.....First thing, went to Changi temple and had a nice time there. It was Thai(first month in tamil calendar) 4th friday, and there were special poojas done to Sri Muthumariamman. I watched the entire abhishegam and listened to the bhajans. Somehow I love to see the abhishegam done to the dieties;) Prayed to god to give me strength for th
label : just like that


(; MB)
label : Landscape & Rural Photos


There's a write up about me in the Mumbai Mirror! :) Click here. Mumbai Mirror today, New York Times Tomorrow! or so we hope. :)
label : Headliners


Today morning I was surprised to see a mail from Google saying that my account has been selected for deletion. Is this a spam mail or for real. Can google confirm this? The subject of the mail was “Account verification”. Below is the mail text. Dear Member We are shutting down some email accounts and your account was automatically chosen to be deleted. If you are still interested in using our
label : Uncategorized


As the Shiv Sena stokes the fires of communalism, parochialism and other uglisms, Shahrukh Khan remains unfazed. Siddharth Varadarajan writes When confronted by the mob power of the Shiv Sena, MNS or other right-wing groups, the police in India invariably give in to their demands, no matter how irrational or unreasonable, and force the targets of their illegal pressure to give up their rights. So
label : India


About a week ago, I noticed that many of my friends on Facebook had changed their profile pictures to images depicting various celebrities. “Maybe they were bored”, I thought. Perhaps there was a current event which was prompting this; when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated, I made an image of her my profile picture. So I barely paid attention and wasn’t super-curious as to what was going on.
label : Identity


This is my third try with this new book. That's not nearly as bad as it may sound.Scoble and I tried seven names before we came up with Naked Conversations. I don't even have a proposal yet, never mind a publisher or publishing date, so there is still lots of time.But having a working title, even one that may change a few times, makes it easier to talk about my book. And the process of nam
label : BlurryLines


I don’t how true this news item is considering the levels to which media is ready to stoop in order to create sensation but if even half of this is true then I don’t know what to say. Where are we heading? Are we going forward or are we going backward by leaps and bounds. DNA Reports: The Delhi high court on Monday held that sex without marriage amounted to rape The court rejected pre-arrest b
label : Law


At the gym I go to and perhaps in many a gym, there are many people who peer endlessly into the mirror.Did I say peer? I meant pose.Did I say pose? I meant obsess.It's a treat for me to watch them flex their ugly, hairy arms, or worse, lift arms overhead whilst on the cross-trainer, or turn head left and right to get both cheeks in view whilst on treadmill, and so on.I have become expert at recogn
label : gym tales


I have not written in some times. You may wonder why....I tried but couldn't say what I wanted to and so after the first two lines I would depart, unhappy and unable.It is not that I have nothing to say, but there is much and not enough time to put it down, unable to type as fast as the thoughts seem to assemble. Frustrated I go back, to give it time to come back to me in real time so that I c

Caravan is an old Indian magazine that shut down for many years. Its publishers have revived it in a new avatar, and in some ways it aims to be an Indian New Yorker: narrative and long-form journalism, the arts, that sort of thing.In the February 2010 issue, I have an essay about the Asirgarh fort in Madhya Pradesh and the Narbona Pass in New Mexico: Two Entries in a Ledger.Comments welcome.
label : travel


So, if you just happen to be at BITS Pilani (Rajasthan) tomorrow, February 5, please come to the discussion around my book, Roadrunner.Room 5104, Lecture Theatre Complex. 5pm. Be there or be elsewhere!
label : roadrunner



label : Love


Grey area? Depends on what and how much you drink?Taboo topic? Makes you uncomfortable?Consuming alcohol and then driving. People do it all the time. Yet the lorry and cab drivers -- poor souls (moneywise) are the ones who get into trouble the maximum. The others do get into trouble IF they are caught. Else, they think it's OK.It is shocking if you stop and think about it.Am completely non-judgeme
label : CROSS buns


Kaccha Mango Bite is a product line extension of Mango Bite . But over these years, this flavor has caught the fancy of the consumers so much so that almost all the candy makers have introduced the Kaccha Mango ( Raw Mango) flavor in their portfolio.Parle also may not have thought that this flavor would become a rage. Now the situation is that Kaccha Mango variant is more widely distributed than t
label : Parle


Prateeksha, Mumbai                             February  4,  2010                          Thu  7 : 40 PM On the eve of Abhishek’s birthday as we prepare to welcome the 5th I can only share the joy with my extended family by putting out what Shweta wrote for a magazine on her brother. This is an edit note to be published in the Box Office India Weekly film trade m
label : Others


Google keeps talking about the real-time web and that how quickly it can respond to “real-time” events. The moment Google algorithms discover breaking news (like the earthquake in Haiti or the Toyota brakes issue), it triggers real-time search and starts pulling tweets, news stories and even blog posts into the main search results. This works nicely but there’s one area where Google is still
label : Internet