Power Of Now

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus

2008-09-09T17:59:00.000-07:00

I had earlier seen 'Cirque du Soleil' when it came to Seattle Area. It was impressive and I would say it had good music and excellent presentation and superb execution. But coming out I somehow felt it was very monotonous and repetitive. All the acts were very similar. All required great skill and I was impressed but I was not as entertained as I expected to be. At that time I formed a image that perhaps in USA all circus are like this. The notion was not correct.

Last Saturday we went to see Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The circus shows were in Everett. This was the circus which I would say matched my mental image of "Circus" closely. It had all the elements that you would expect

1) Clowns (Joker)
2) Dancers
3) Animals (Elephants, Horses, Sheep, Goats, Tigers, Lamas and dogs)
4) Trapeze artists.

And above all Stunt show "Maut ka Kuan" (Globe of Death). This was really amazing 8 motorcycle in a enclosed globe going at full speed.

All the animal acts and Trapeze acts were also very good and impressive

I would rate Ringling Circus a 8.0 out of 10. I would say I was impressed and entertained. I think the obvious question is why 8.0? The reason is the clowns were not funny enough and lacked creativity.

Anyway I would recommend it over 'Cirque du Soleil' because it has more variety. Last but not the least it was at almost 1/3 price of 'Cirque du Soleil'

The only sore point was that as we were getting out, some one handed me pamphlet on animal cruelty and how Ringling was linked to it which left some bad taste.....

Prediction : Republican Candidates for 2008 election

2008-02-05T20:33:00.000-08:00

The time has come to make a prediction. Today on 9th day of Feb I Aditya Kapoor predict that John McCain would be Republican Candidate for President of USA. But this is not a important prediction. The more important prediction is that Mike Huckabee would be Republican candidate for Vice President.

Although I wish it was Mitt Romney was candidate for Presidential candidate. He is smart and I believe he would have been a better President.

Update on 09/09/2008
I was wrong... :)

Happy New Year : Kal aur "Kal"

2008-01-01T12:17:00.000-08:00

Thanks a lot to Praveen for writing and sending such a beautiful poem. Thanks to him for permitting me to post it on my blog.

***************************************************
For reading convenience:
Kal means Yesterday
“kal“ means Tomorrow
*****************************************************

Kal ki baatein beet gayi Kal
Kal ke aage bhi hai ek “kal“
“kal“ naa Kal pe zaaya karna
“kal“ le liye bas aage badhna

Kal hai yaadon ki parchayi
“kal“ hai suraj ki angdai
Kal ke liye aansoon kyun bahaane
“kal“ mein chhupe kitne hi khazaane

Kal jo hua, us par kya bas hai
“kal“ mein jeevan ka sukh ras hai
Kal ko na sambhav phir laana
“kal“ hai tere haath sajaana

Kal hai kahaani balidaanon ki
“kal“ hai gaatha nirmaanon ki
Kal hai ek thaka musaafir
“kal“ chhoo lena chahe himgir

Par Kal hai guruon ki vaani
Aur “kal“ hai chanchal agyaani
Kal hai jaise shaant sarovar
Pade jo patthar, leher banaye
“kal“ hai kal-kal behta jharna
Ho unmath bas badhta jaaye

Samay par swayam ko setu banao
Kal aur “kal“ ko aaj milaao
Baith ke “kal“ mein, Kal ko vichaaro
Kal se seekh ke, “kal“ ko sawaaro

Happy new year!!!!!

Songs for Children: Thanks You Tube

2007-12-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

Jungle Book Title Song : Abhimanyu is mad about this video.

Ek Chidiya Anek Chidiya

Lakadi Ki Kathi

Masterjee Ki Agayee Chithi: A very nice song, but not very famous

I am impressed! Dragon NaturallySpeaking

2007-12-03T21:47:00.000-08:00

Today I am going to start the new series called I am impressed. This series would contain some information about the things or the software's that impressed me.

So what am I impressed by today? I have impressed by this amazing piece of software called Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a voice recognition software by a company called Nuance software. I have previously tried to use voice recognition software by Microsoft but was not impressed, in fact I must say I was disappointed by its performance.

I am using version 9.5 of Dragon NaturallySpeaking and it seems pretty accurate . This blog has been written with Dragon NaturallySpeaking and I haven't typed even a single word. What is more amazing about the software is that it allows for various accents. A user can choose the following type of accents: American, UK, Southeast Asian, Australian and Indian. It is only because I was able to choose the Indian accent that it is working so well.

The amount of time that it takes to dictate to the software is significantly less than the amount of time it would have taken me to type it. The people who know me, know that I am not very good at typing. Moreover recently I have been suffering with accute pain in my right arm. A voice recognition software like the one I am using helps a person like me to get some rest to the arm without decreasing the productivity.

I part with Dragon NaturallySpeaking at best buy for $99 only. It also needed a good headset and I'm using Plantronics gaming headset which was bought for dollars 50.

It looks like the future of voice recognition is here!

Gujrat Exposed: Is this why we call ourselves Human

2007-10-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

Are these people human? Are they followers of Ram or Ravana. Perhaps even Ravana would be ashamed of these people.

See the videos below.

To read more about it Click Here

This is the worst face of humanity. I hope people who did this are punished with a death sentence.

Aditya

2007-10-18T20:00:00.001-07:00

Who is behind bomb blast in Benazir's convoy?

Today was another sad day with over 100 people killed in bomb blasts that rocked Benazir's convoy. This seems to be decade of terrorism. Being a Indian I know how painful these acts of terrorism are. It seems however that terrorism is now affecting the nations who used to export it. This reminds me of old saying "Jo dusre ke liye kabr kohdtaa hain, who khud he us mein girtaa hian". I should here make it very clear that I condemn any act of terrorism no matter where it occurs.

Today's incident got me thinking who would be behind these bomb blasts? My suspects are

Mushraff
Taliban and Al Queda
Nawaz Sharif
Benazir herself

Mushraff : He would like to create circumstances where he can declare emergency and gain more powers. A bomb blast like this could be used as excuse.

Taliban and Al Queda: They declare their power and let politician know what they can do.

Nawaz Sharif: She is her main opponent

Benazir: She seems to gain most by way of sympathy and show that she is returning to Pakistan inspite of all the dangers.

I don't know who it is but all appear to gain from it. The only looser is common man.

Race for President: CheckMate

2007-06-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

Race for the President is on. All the parties want to find a president who will best suit their needs. Just like in game of chess they want a king (President) without any power who would not even try to voice his or her opinion. Just like game of chess each and every move is well thought of and to give a check to opponents. The only difference between this game and game of chess is that there are more than two players and that makes the game even more interesting.

Let's examine the moves till now.

All parties including NDA, UPA and left want their candidate to be President. None of them really are happy with the current President. The reason for not liking him is simple, he has brain of his own. He would not agree to be a Puppet.

NDA's first move is to tell current president that they cannot support him.
UPA, Left and BSP are fighting to arrive at a agreement.
Mr Vice President who is from BJP declares himself as a independent candidate. By declaring himself to be independent he is trying to gain support from other parties who would not otherwise support BJP candidate so that they don't loose their vote banks.
NDA officially declares supports Mr Vice President.
UPA and allies are still fighting to reach agreement. Several names were rejected one after the other.
NDA asked Congress to support Mr Vice President as expected, which is rejected as expected.
UPA finally agrees on surprise name Mrs. Pratibha Patil Shekawat. The move is politically brilliant and NDA has got a check. UPA is playing woman card. They are also trying to divide NDA and Mrs. Patil is from the same state as Mr Vice President. More over she even shares the last name with him. On another front as she is originally(before marriage) from Maharashtra which divides Shiv sena.
Third front which was nonexistent till now pulls out a stunning move. They decide Mr. President would be their candidate. This was another check in game of chess but for whom. In Hindi we call it Ek teer do shikaar. How? Very simple. First it would take out any air left in Mr Vice Presidents campaign. Second, If now NDA realizes that it was fruitless to support Mr Vice President they would support Mr President making life for UPA and Allies difficult. But, they forgot one thing, Mr. President has to agree.
Mr. Vice President quickly pointed another mistake out by saying he would not contest if everyone agrees on Mr President. He know there would be no agreement and thus Mr President would not even contest if there is slightest chance of loosing

Let the game of chess continue.

One Year of Parenthood

2007-05-14T00:10:00.000-07:00

It is 14 May 2007 and it is 12:11 A.M and it is One full year of Parenthood. Today Abhimanyu has turned One. The first year of Parenthood has been a amazing experience. In this one year Abhimanyu has morphed from a small infant who depended so much on us to a cute little child who now walks on his own and who speaks a few words.

Today as the clock was slowing moving towards 12:00 there was strange feeling in my heart, I was feeling weak. This appeared strange to me, My brain was saying why am I feeling weak now when I did not feel weak when he was born, when I did not feel weak when he fell from the bed first time or when he was ill and suffering from ear infection. But heart does not listen to logic. I am very happy but along with happiness there is this strange feeling of weakness.

How has this one year changed me. Has it changed my thinking, my principles or my attitude towards life? I will think about these in next few days and compare myself from now with myself from 1 year back. I hope once I have completed that analysis I will post my results. I hope I would be honest with myself.

Looking back at the 1st year now. I think this was very enjoyable one year. There are so many funny events that I can remember so clearly. I think both me and Jaya enjoyed it a lot. I think we enjoyed it right from the day Abhimanyu was born. Every thing was fun, from potty cleaning and diaper changing to trying to make him go to sleep. It was difficult some time but it was enjoyable. There was sense of achievement when he would finally sleep after crying for 45 minutes. There was sense of achievement, a sense of inner happiness, a sense of satisfaction in each of his activities like learning to sit, crawl, walk and finally stand.

We had heard a lot of horror stories like child does not allow to sleep, he does not allow to do laundry etc.. etc in pre natal classes. In our case we did not feel that a bit. May be what those classes did was to lower the expectations. Or May be it is just a attitude difference in way children are raised in different cultures.

Now after almost a hour the feeling of weakness is slowly subsiding, I don't know why the feeling was there in first place. Now I am feeling the journey has just begun, may God give us courage and strength for all the next phases of the journey.

Man gets what he wants

2007-05-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

It is said "Man gets what he deserves". I would like to change it to "Man gets what he wants". The reason is simple if a man wants some thing he works hard to get that. He may get it by hook or crook but he will get it.

When people say they want something but are not getting it they are lying. Had they really wanted it they would have worked for it and thus become deserving enough to get it.

From today onwards, I try not to say that I want some thing but I am not getting it because I have not worked to get it and hence I don't deserve it. May be after I die people would remember me for my quote

MAN GETS WHAT HE WANTS

Worst World Cup Ever

2007-04-30T16:52:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This article is about Cricket. If you have accidentally reached here, I am sorry for the inconvenience caused. You can continue to read the remaining posts on this blog, may be you will find some thing interesting.

Cricket World Cup 2007 would be remembered in the history as the Worst World cup Ever. This world cup is perfect example of Murphy's Law "If something can go wrong, it will go wrong". There are several reasons for it being called the worst world cup.

Bob Woolmer was murdered. Shame on game when it starts taking lifes. It is amazing that police has not been able to find the murderer although the world cup has ended.
A very long format. I think ICC was trying to maximize profits by providing less matches to minnow and more matches to main 8 teams. This was cause of only having three matches for qualification and round robin for 8 teams. A better format would have been to have 12 teams and 4 pools of 3 teams each playing with each other twice which would make 6 matches per pool. The top team from each pool qualifies for a round robin semi finals giving 6 matches. The top two teams then meet in the finals.
A large number of one sided matches. Even when two teams were supposedly of equal strength the match was decided very early. There were hardly any fight backs.
Australia was too dominant. Of course it is not their fault, I should have rather said none of the other sides even came close.
Cricket which used to called game of glorious uncertainties was no longer the same. At least one finalist was decided even before the world cup started.
Last but not the least poor performance by administration is dealing with lights and all the confusion in the finals

I did not say India and Pakistan exited early because perhaps they got what they deserved. In all a long boring world cup.

Innovation: A blog dedicated to Innovation

2007-04-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

While surfing net I found a blog decicated to Innovation. I know you are curious to know about it, so without wasting any of your time CLICK HERE. I hope you will enjoy it.

Is this NEWS? Detoriation of Reporting Quality

2007-04-19T23:32:00.000-07:00

NEWS to me means New Event With Significance. I don't know about others but I am kind of frustrated about the kind of reporting I see. It looks like NEWS reporters have forgotten the meaning of NEWS. The NEWS now seems to have modified into MEWS or Masala Entertainment Worthless Shock.

Just look at any Indian news paper site, now a days the only MEWS they have is about a marriage of Abhishek and Ash. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against Abhi or Ash. In fact I am huge fan of Amit jee and like both Ash and Abhishek. I am actually frustrated to see the kind of details that is being reported. Who is being invited, What does invitation card look like, What was there in Mithai, Who did what, What did Jaya Bachaan say to Ash etc etc. I think the actual news would have been, Abhishek and Ash are getting married on such and such date at such and such place. Every thing beyond that is Masala. To some extent even that is tolerable but I think now a days media goes over board with every thing.

The media has been commercialized to such a extent that they forget where to draw the line. I think to some extent we are also a cause as we would not tolerate that a page has not been updated for some hours. Another important reason is too much media, there are news channel which telecast MEWS for 24 hrs. Now they cannot keep on repeating the same news/mews so they have to keep changing it, so they have to find new stuff as a result they telecast things which are not significant. Then if we see further they have to provide SHOCK value. The more shock a channel/Site provide the more popular it becomes.

In the end it becomes MEWS

Who should win the world cup!!!

2007-04-10T16:35:00.000-07:00

Ofcourse, it cannot be India - Why? Because we are already out of the World Cup. Let's set the expectations right, we should try to win India Bangladesh Series.

Any way back to the original question, Who should win the world cup?

Lets look at the following Stats and I think the answer would be clear.

Batting Stats: The batting stats show that top 10 run scorers of this tournament are basically from 3 teams: Australia(3), South Africa(3), Srilanka(2). There is one each from England and NewZealand.

Bowling Stats: The bowling stats just like batting squads are also skewed in favour of 3 teams: Australia(4), Srilanka(2), NewZealand (2). There is one from one each from South Africa and West Indies.

Just by looking at those stats you can tell there is no one to represent England in Bowling department and No one to represent West Indies in Batting in top 10 positions which explains why these two teams are where they should be. Similarly there is no representation from Bangladesh and Ireland. So this is basically between four teams Aus, SA, SL, NZ.

Again just by looking at above stats only one can easily see how each team is balanced.

New Zealand is better in bowling department not just because they have two bowlers and one batsmen but also because of the BOND factor. Although he is not the highest wicket taker but just look at his economy rate of 2.44.

South Aftrica is more dominated by batsmen. You can see there are 3 batsmen and 1 bowler in the list. More over they don't have the vital spinner in the team.

Srilanka looks like is ideally balanced between the two departments 2 in each list. Malinga who has the best strike rate and the great Murali.

Australia also seemed to be perfectly balanced with 3 batsmen and 4 bowler in the list. I don't think I need to repeat any thing else about them

So lets move to the next department Fielding, I think all the four teams are good fielding sides so it would be difficult to differentiate on this. At this point my head says Australia is going to win but my heart says Srilanka.

Day Light Saving Time: Update

2007-04-08T10:54:00.000-07:00

It gives me great satisfaction that I have been proven right again. This time it is Day Light Saving time.

I had in my previous blog "Don't you have any thing better to do" expressed anger at change of day light saving time. I had argued that day light saving has no effect on energy consumption and that has infact proven to be true. Please see the article on Reuters.

There are few very important statements in the article

The move to turn the clocks forward by an hour on March 11 rather than the usual early April date was mandated by the U.S. government as an energy-saving effort.
But other than forcing millions of drowsy American workers and school children into the dark, wintry weather three weeks early, the move appears to have had little impact on power usage.
We haven't seen any measurable impact," said Jason Cuevas, spokesman for Southern Co., one of the nation's largest power companies, echoing comments from several large utilities.
That may come as no surprise to the Energy Department, which last year predicted only modest energy savings because the benefits of the later daylight hour would be offset.
For example, households may draw less electricity for lights at night, but will use more power in the early in the day as they wake to darker and chillier mornings.
"There might have been a small increase in morning lighting, and a slightly larger decline in evening lighting usage," said a spokeswoman at New Jersey utility Public Service Enterprise Group Inc, but that modest decline will have no impact on its overall sales or earnings.
The U.S. Congress will evaluate the effects of the earlier switch to Daylight Saving Time.(Don't you have any thing better to do)

It looks like while there was no saving on electricity front the move to move the clock has actually backfired on gasoline usage. Please the following article on USA TODAY. Some important points mentioned in this article are.

WASHINGTON — In a bid to save energy, Congress moved up daylight-saving time by three weeks this year. But so far, the change appears to have backfired after Americans last month used record amounts of gasoline as they got out to enjoy the extra hour of sunshine.
Average daily gasoline demand for the three weeks after the time change rose 2.8% from the same period a year ago and was the highest ever for the period, according to the Energy Department.
Some observers say the surge is linked to the earlier start for daylight-saving time, which began March 11 instead of the customary first Sunday in April.
"Daylight-saving simply pushes us out of our houses," says Michael Downing, author of Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time. Downing, a critic of daylight-saving time, argues that the extra hour of light at day's end leads people to drive to places, such as golf courses, parks and shopping malls, that they otherwise wouldn't.
"We simply know that when Americans go to the mall, they don't walk," he says.

I hope when US congress reviews the effect of DST. They will say NO DST from year 2008.

Greg Chappell: Coach or Politician using Divide and Rule

2007-04-03T22:29:00.000-07:00

Indian World Cup dreams are over but the crisis Indian Cricket is facing is far from being over. The man at center of all attention is Greg Chappell, The coach of Indian Cricket Team.

Is he really the coach? Or Is he a mere politician who has used policy of Divide and Rule to systematically destroy a team and to maintain his authority by playing his cards.

The era of Greg Chappell as coach of Indian team has been marked with one controversy after another. The list of controversies is huge. Chappell and Ganguly, Chappell and Yuvraj, Chappell and Tendulkar, Chappell and Harbhajan, Chappell and Sehwag, Chappell and Chappell's finger.

Now more recently Chappell and Dravid, Chappell and Tendulkar, Chappell and Seniors, Chappell and SMS.

Lets looks back in history and see what happened.

Step 1) India Australia series, Greg helps Ganguly to sort out his batting and gain his confidence. Ganguly hits a century in the very First Test.

Step 2) Ganguly returns the favor by recommending Mr. Chappell for a Coach. Mr Chappell is appointed as coach and soon realizes Ganguly is way too powerful and devises method to have Ganguly removed by playing Dravid against Ganguly and Laxman against Ganguly.

Step 3) With Ganguly gone Mr Chappell starts to throw out some of the Ganguly men who were not as powerful as some others. Some examples are Nehra, Zaheer, Balaji and Kaif.

Step 4) More powerful members like Yuvraj, Sehwag and Harbhajan are more difficult to remove but are made insecure.

Step 5) Dravid starts realising what Chappell wants and starts backing Players like Sehwag and Yuvraj and has his way to take them to world cup.

Step 6) Chappell now sees Dravid becoming too powerful and sends a SMS to a journalist that he did not get the squad he wanted. This SMS would only be shown to public after the world cup dreams are shattered. To me it looks like Chappell had a plan that if all goes well he will take all the credit and if nothing goes well he will use the SMS.

Step 7) He starts using Senior vs Junior card and starts questioning attitude of senior players.

Step 8) He also questions that Indian Team has not won a tournament out side sub continent since 1985.

And some of us started agreeing, without even questioning why was he hired for last four years. What has he done? Agreed Indian team might not have won, but if my memory is correct there was time in Ganguly's captainship when it was said Indian team enters the finals of every tournament just to loose it and people had started counting how many finals we went to and lost. I think I lost the count after we went to 9 consecutive finals and lost all. At least we were not out of tournaments in first round.

Yes, by now most people would have categorized me as Chappell hater. May be that is right. Buts lets ask a few questions. What is job of a Coach? To Improve or to Point Fingers.

Did Indian Batting Improve in last four years? No
Did India Bowling Impove in last four years? No
Did Indian Fielding Improve in last four years? No

So what was Mr Chappell contribution to the team when we did not improve in any way? We learnt how to point fingers from Mr. Chappell. We learnt how to invite controversy.

So what did Mr. Chappell do? Divide and Rule......

Don't you have anything better to do!!!!

2007-03-12T18:49:00.000-07:00

Don't you have anything better to do!!!!!

This was not a question for you dear reader, I think you are spending your time well by reading my blog. This question is directed to the great congressmen and senators of US.

To me it appears as if senators and congressmen are a bunch of fools who have nothing better to do then keep adjusting their clocks by one hour twice each year and deciding when should all of us also adjust our clocks. Yes, you got it right, I am talking about Day Light Saving Time.

Somewhere in year 2005 US Senate/Congress decided that day light saving should be extended in year 2007 i.e. Day light Saving time would now be turned on in March and turned off in Nov. Did they have nothing better to do? It looks like none of them have degree in science and none of them knows that in today's worlds changing clock time is not all that simple. In today's world every thing is governed by computers which are in turn govern by software which needs to adjusted for changes they make to the way DST is turned On or Off. This is like inviting a problem or in hindi "AA BAIL MUJHE MAAR". A bug on part of programmer could lead to huge financial implication.

Yes, you can say programmers should be capable but lets be real DST itself was complex enough. Changing DST adds more complexity to the mix. Microsoft had to release patches for this three times before finally getting it right and who knows if it is really right.

Why am I so unhappy, first of all I had resend all my meeting invites as outlook calendar got messed up. Applying the patch worked fine for some meeting but not for others. Secondly I had to get up earlier.

Finally, I have big idea for some one who wants to do a research but is not able to find a good topic. "Sleep Disorders: Effect of DST on Biological Clock". I bet if a real research is done on this issue, this could be biggest single cause.

Oh, by the way if you thought DST was to make days longer in winter, Please read a blog by my friend Sandeep.

Google vs Microsoft (Score 1:1)

2007-01-18T14:08:00.000-08:00

This is trial of google docs and spreadsheet. History repeats itself or lets say life is a circle. When computers were first invented there used to be one big computer for which people used share time slots. Then computers started to become smaller and faster which could run multiple jobs at the same time and user used to have dumb terminal connected which would serve as IO device for the user to interact. Finally came PCs these machines were small and not as pricey as its ancestors. So every body started to own a computer. Microsoft led the way in this direction by providing versions of OS which were easy to use. Microsoft almost single handed started PC revolution

While computers were becoming smaller,faster and cheaper another parallel development was taking place. This development would bring reverse the trend in near future. People had started discovering that it is no fun to own a computer and not being able to interact with other people and share ideas. The development that was fueling this new revolution was Internet. More and more people started to get online to meet other people. Chat, Newsgroups, email, blogs, social networking were all enabling people to interact more. As our doors closed on our neighbours our windows on our computers were opening up. The company that was at forefront of this revolution is GOOGLE.

This one company is pushing for all content online. The latest is Google Docs and Spreadsheet. Google realized that WORD and EXCEL are probably one of the most use apps and it would punch is face of Microsoft if they provide similar functionality online. Along with regular feature came a feature collaborate and publish.

Lets see how successful Google will be......

Aditya Kapoor

Gandhigiri: Do we understand what it means?

2006-10-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

Lage Raho Munna Bhai is one of the best movies of recent times. It can be judged from the immediate effect this movie had. Gandhi jee who had been forgotten was remembered as a hero. Sales of book relating to bapu and other freedom fighters suddenly increased. And suddenly there was news of people practicing Gandhigiri.

But did we really understand what gandhigiri is and Do we really understand what bapu stood for?

I think there are various reasons why Gandhigiri had such a wide appeal

It "looks" simple and easy to follow. And Young Generation thinks Wow! this is really simple.
Secondly Karbujaa effect ( Karbuje ko dekh ke Karbuja rang badalta hain). Let's say simply Gandhigiri is Hip.

I think most people think Gandhigiri is very simple and easy. If a goon can do it why can we. I would say it appears simple. It is actually very difficult. When was the last time you were able to control your anger. When was the last time you were able to control your reaction. Personally, I find it one of the most difficult things to do.

It was amazing to read that people started giving flowers to ADM of city just like in Lage raho. And soon ADM office was full of 1oo kg of flowers. Then ADM made a statement "Gandhi jee mar gaye, apne potte chod gaye". And soon this crowd of so called followers of Gandhigiri became angry. Did they follow Gandhigiri by showing anger? Did they think giving flowers was gandhigiri? Were they able to control them self and think that ADM was calling them grandson of Gandhi? Is being Grandson of Gandhi a insult?

Another incident All India youth congress threatened to not allow the movie to run. Why? Because calling Gandhiwaad as Gandhigiri in their mind a insult to Gandhi? Do they even know who Gandhi jee was? The movie that has single handedly raised image of bapu is a insult to bapu in their opinnion

May we really understand what Gandhigiri is.

Aditya

Abhimanyu and other changes

2006-08-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

It has been almost 7 months, 7 small months, 7 months that passed like 7 Days, 7 months that have changed my life and the world in atleast 7 different ways. Why did I not update the blog? Did I have nothing to write about? Did I not have time? or Did I find some thing more intersting?

I think the last statement is true. Infact I had at least couple of more intersting things to do.

On the historic day of May 14 2006, my life changed for ever, my son Abhimanyu was finally in my arms. It was one life changing event. Abhimanyu has kept me busy for last three months and would probably keep me busy for my remaining life :).

Now my life revolves around a person who still cannot speak, who poofs and pees in bed. It is amazing how his single smile makes us happy and my wife cryies when he cries. It is amazing to see the change in him every day. It amazing to see how quicky kids develop and how quickly they change.

The other activity that was not only intersting but also time consuming was Stocks. Yes, after lots of hesitation I finally invested in stocks. Yes, It is risky. Yes, I am currently in some losses. But it is at the same time very intersting.

It is very intersting to see markets and stocks go up and down. It is very intersting to see how various factors involved would affect the market. It is very interesting to see that although market appears as irrational and very unpredicatable overall change over a period of time is rational.

It is not a easy place to make money. Infact after 6 months I think it is one of the most difficult ways to make money esp for small investors. Yes, It is difficult but it is intersting. Last 6 months in stock market have given me more knowledge in various fields than I would have otherwise. Why? Because in this place knowledge of what is happening, or what is the trend, which way things are moving is the only way to survive esp if you are not as lucky as Thomas Ko.

More on this topic later.

Rang De Bansanti: Will we take Responsiblity?

2006-01-28T11:23:00.000-08:00

Rang De Basanti, hats off to director Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra, story writer Kamlesh Pandey. They have managed to give meaning to rather meaningless cinema we normally get to see. The script of the movie is good and direction, editing, dialogs are crisp. The movie has freshness and has spirit. Every one of the Actors in the cast has done justice to his role. Amir Khan as always is amazing. Siddharth is another actor who has displayed great variety of emotions. Kunal Kapoor, Sharman Joshi, Soha ali khan, Atul Kulkarni have acted admirably.

The movie asks a basic question is youth (we) ready to take responsibility of cleaning up our country and politics.

Please Atleast go and watch movie. It might just wake us up.

Google-A threat to Microsoft?

2006-01-07T13:21:00.000-08:00

Year 2005 was a year of Google. Google has been churning out software at an amazing speed. But more importantly it has been churning out news at phenomenal pace even faster than software. The result, Google’s stock is continuously touching new heights. The meteoritic rise of Google has caused many people to say that it is fast becoming a threat to Microsoft. Is this a reality?

Let’s evaluate the threat and see if it is real or just hype

Google’s speed: Yes, this is true. Each day we see a new product from Google going into Beta. Amazingly, a lot of Google software is in Beta. Google is even better at delivering news. The result, Google seems to be the most efficient and competitive company. What most people don’t realize that most Google applications are web based, hence it is easier for them to keep updating their servers with new versions if they find some bugs. Even when applications are desktop applications they are not enterprise level or critical application hence even if they have bugs it is not critical. Microsoft cannot do this with their applications especially with OS and other enterprise level application servers. I am not saying Google is not efficient, what I am trying to say is that Google can afford to have application in beta and with bugs, so lifecycle of these applications should not be compared with lifecycle critical applications. I would say today Google is doing the same thing what Microsoft did a few years back when they could afford to have buggy OS and applications as most its users were not enterprises.

Google’s stock: Another reason why people think Google is threat is rise of Google’s stock. Let’s go back a few years. In year 1990 Microsoft traded at split adjusted $0.62. Today its stock is at 27$, a rise by 43 times. In fact I am not even taking into account the golden days of year 2000 when it was much higher. Let’s see another stock EMC. In year 1990 EMC traded at $0.12 and today it is almost 14, a rise by 116 times, again I am not taking in to consideration days when EMC was 100$. Hence rise like Google is expected of good companies. What has made Google’s rise spectacular? It is rising in more or less stagnant market and full marks to Google for that.

Sustained Growth: Google is really growing at a phenomenal pace, no doubt. But is growth as such rate sustainable? I don’t think growing at such a pace is possible for long period of time. This happens with all the companies, probably almost with everything. Companies grow quickly when they are young just like humans, then they reach maturity become stable and don’t grow like they were growing earlier. Finally become old and die off. Probably, Google is still in its childhood.

So, Is Google really a threat to Microsoft? Not really. It is very good company which is growing very quickly but over the time it would stabilize and there would be new kid on the block which would be growing like Google is growing today and I will write a similar story about it. Only names of threat and threatened may be different

Brahui - Is this the connecting link!!!

2006-01-03T16:08:00.000-08:00

Can you name some Dravidian Languages? I know I know you can. You would have by now listed Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam. Did you also mention Brahui? Where is this language spoken? How many people speak this language? What is so special about Brahui, that it deserved a mention in this blog?

Brahui is a language of Dravidian family just like Tamil, Telugu etc. Amazingly, it is not spoken in India or Srilanka. Rather, it spoken mainly in Pakistan. It is also spoken in parts of Iran and Afghanistan. There are a little more than 2 million people who know Brahui. They live mainly in Baluchistan.

What is a Dravidian language doing in Pakistan? The origin of Brahui people is a mystery.

It is popular believe that as Aryan expanded into Indian sub-continent they pushed people of Indus Valley Civilization to the southern part. Are Brahui a small group of people living in Indus Valley Civilization who despite all odds refused to move south? Or Are they people who migrated to Baluchistan at some other point in history? Or is the entire concept that Aryan pushed original inhabitants of Indus Valley Civilization itself flawed.

You can read more about Brahui at following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahui_language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahui_people
http://34.1911encyclopedia.org/B/BR/BRAHUI.htm
http://www.brahui.tk/
http://salrc.uchicago.edu/workshops/afghanistan/Brahui.pdf( This is the best)

Taj - My Taj

2005-12-31T11:34:00.000-08:00

Taj, Is this not lovely!!!

Lovely Carving

Taj, a dream in white marble

A door of Taj

Taj, An evening delight

Beautiful view of "NatKashi"

Lovely Jali Work

More Natkashi

Natkashi with Jali Work

Some Improvements

2005-12-28T21:42:00.000-08:00

New year is approaching. I thought of making some improvements to my blog

1) Added a visitor counter.
2) Added google safe search.

Aditya

Should Ganguly be selected for Pakistan tour

2005-12-23T11:51:00.000-08:00

DISCLAIMER: All the views expressed in this article are only my views. They are not meant to affect the views of selection committee. If final selection of Ganguly matches the views expressed in article it would merely be co-incidental.

Ganguly was dropped after second test match. The decision to drop him was controversial and controversy was well justified. It looked as if there was more politics involved than performance. Ganguly might not have set the field on fire by his batting but he did have two good knocks of almost 40 in as many innings. More over he was involved in two long partnerships at two crucial points. I thought that Ganguly had done enough to be selected again for third test. Both Yuvraj, Laxman were picked up ahead of Ganguly. Considering the performance in the test Laxman scored 69 and 11 making 80 runs overall and Yuvi made 0 and 77 making 77 run overall, while Ganguly made 40 and 39 making 79 overall. In-fact figures show that Ganguly was more consistent. Many people like me were shocked and infact to some extent angry by the decision and there were demonstrations through out the country.

In the third test both Laxman and Yuvi proved selectors right by making 104 and 75 at crucial points. Now that both Laxman and Yuvi have shown that selectors were right. Is there still a place for Ganguly in the test squad?

Although I am fan of Ganguly, I don't think that Ganguly should be selected for Pakistan tour. There are many reasons for this.

Laxman and Yuvi performed well in 3rd test: Yuvi has shown by scoring 77 and 75 in both test that he can be very useful. Both innings of 77 and 75 were made at crucial points. In both cases team had lost quick wickets. Both innings were played in 2 innings. Both innings were of different type while the first one was full of patience, second was quick fire 75 made in 83 balls showing he can adapt himself to situation well. Laxman on the other hand made 104 when Team India was under pressure. Although I don't think he is going to make significant contribution till the last match in Pakistan series it would be difficult to keep him out.

Ganguly's record: Ganguly's record against Pakistan also does not support his inclusion. He has played 7 matches against Pakistan scoring 297 runs at average of 27.

Weakness against short balls: Aloo has asked his curators to prepare fast bouncy tracks. Ganguly is not the best player against rising deliveries on the other hand Yuvi is better against pace attack. I obviously don't have to many expectations from Laxman who is good against both spin and pace but chances are that he will make score only in the Last match of the series.

Nothing has changed: Nothing has changed for Ganguly nor has he played any domestic cricket to justify his selection in team. In fact other factors like Yuvi have actually gone against him.

Based on the above I would say Ganguly should not be selected. If Ganguly gets selected it would be due to politics and public pressure.

Why is Bono standing between Bill and Melinda Gates

2005-12-18T20:18:00.000-08:00

Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Bono are Time persons of the year 2005 but why is Bill Gates not standing with Melinda Gates !!!!!!!

How to buy a Camcorder

2005-12-09T16:36:00.000-08:00

I recently bought a Sony DCR DVD 403 camcorder. I had to do a lot of research before buying the camcorder. There are just so many models and so many features that I was very confused. This post is just to make the task easy for others who are interested in buying one.

We can classify camcorders by type of media they store on

Tape Camcorders: These use tape as media to store images. There are many types of tape available like Mini-DV, Hi-8, Digital-8, Micro-DV, VHS. The only tape camcorders I would recommend are Mini-DV. The reason is size VHS, Hi-8 and Digital-8 camcorders are large. Micro-DV is failed technology although the camcorders are very small. More over finding Micro-DV tapes is difficult
Tapeless Camcorders: They use media other then tape to store images. DVD, Flash memory, Hard disk are some of the media used. Flash memory is not very large and Harddisk one's though promising are very new. So I prefer only DVD.

So for rest of the discussion we will only consider Mini-Dv and DVD camcorders.

Camcorder advertise various features like: Size, Number of pixels of CCD, Optical zoom, digital zoom, Number of CCD, Low light picture quality, Image stabilization, Infrared recording, size of CCD, number and type of port, connectivity, battery life, touch screen....... and the list goes on.

I will try to explain these features. But before explaining what do various features mean I would like to explain what is CCD.

CCD means Charged Coupled Device. It is like a eye of camcorder or you can think of CCD like film of Camera. Better the CCD is better are the result of camcorder. The CCD quality depends on many factors but the two important ones are Size and Number of Pixels on it.

Following are the few features which can or should be considered before buying a camcorder.

Number of Pixels: This is one of the features that is often highlighted by companies. They would list 1 megapixel or 2 megapixel or 3 megapixel. Generally speaking more the number of pixels the better is the image quality.

Size of the CCD: On one hand most companies highlight megapixels of CCD but they don't generally highlight the size of CCD. Generally speaking the bigger the CCD the better is image quality as this reduces noise in the image. If two camcorders have same megapixel the one with bigger CCD would produce better images. This factor is mostly over looked by most users.

Number of CCD: Professional camcorders have 3 CCD one for each primary color. In general 3 CCD camcorders perform better then single CCD ones. Camcorders with 3 CCD will advertise this as one of their main features.

Image stabilization: Image stabilization means that camcorder would try to eliminate camcorder shake( hand shake) by employing digital or optical method. Generally speaking optical stabilization is better then digital one. Although I have seen that some camcorders performing badly even after optical image stabilization and some camcorders with digital stabilization doing much better. Even if you have very good quality CCD with high resolution if image stabilization is bad it will ruin the entire show. Normally camcorders highlight this feature with emphasis if they have optical. I would suggest you to try camcorders first and not go by definition to see if the optical stabilization advertized really works.

Low Light photography and Infrared mode: I am covering these two under one heading as both are meant to do video recording in lowlight and no light situation. Only Sony camcorders have infrared mode where they can do recording in no light or Zero lux. Low Light recording is done by slowing down the shutter speed. The picture would appear hazy when this is done. Camcorder would mentions their lux rating where lower lux means better it is. I would suggest not to go by that number but try it yourself. Another thing to note here the CCD size comes in handy here as bigger CCD means better low light performance.

Zoom: Zoom can be optical and digital. Digital Zoom is useless. I would even suggest to ignore that number. More the Optical zoom the better it is.

Ports and connectivity: This means what all ways can camcorder be connected to other devices for downloading images. It can be firewire, USB, Bluetooth. I normally don't pay a lot of attention to this but it should have at least USB. I don't even consider Bluetooth as factor.

Battery life: This is one of the features that are not advertised but as user it is very important for us. How long will the battery that ships with camcorder last. Most camcorders don't advertise this. The battery that comes along is usually not very good in some cases would not last 45 minutes. So If you are buying such a camcorder add cost of additional battery to cost of camcorder.

Still Picture Resolution and Still Media: Most camcorders can also take still pictures but for a still picture of decent quality it should be atleast 3 megapixel. If you want to take only one device checkout on this feature as well. Additionally if you already have digital camera you can reduce your cost by selecting a camcorder which records still pictures on same kind of memory. Some Mini DV camcorders can take pictures on tape as well. Mini DVD camcorders might also take pictures and store them to DVD. Having such features reduces cost. If the camcorder you like is not of such type add cost of media also.

What did I look for?

I already had very good digital camera so I wanted to buy good camcorder. Features I looked for were

CCD Resolution
CCD Size
Image stabilization
Low light performance and ability to shoot in 0 lux
Size and Weight
Battery life of shipped battery

Optical zoom was not a problem as most camcorders have minimum 10x

I found all this in Sony DVD DCR -403. In addition to above I also got

Records still picture at 3 Megapixel on DVD
Dolby Digital 5.1 channel Audio Recording (This is great feature)

As the Media is DVD I am also able to directly put in DVD player or laptop to play it.

One final thing, add all costs to cost of camcorder to know actual cost and don't forget to buy a very good camcorder bag to protect it.

"The Leader"

2005-12-01T15:18:00.000-08:00

Read the following poem. It describes the qualities of a(THE) leader. In fact the name of the leader is hidden in the poem itself. Interestingly this poem is being taught to students of class XI in Pakistan. If you get the book ;) , it is on page 216.

Can you find out the leaders name?

Patient and steady with all he must bear,
Ready to meet every challenge with care,
Easy in manner, yet solid as steel,
Strong in his faith, refreshingly real,
Isn’t afraid to propose what is bold,
Doesn’t conform to the usual mold,
Eyes that have foresight, for hindsight won’t do,
Never backs down when he sees what is true,
Tells it all straight, and means it all too.

Going forward and knowing he’s right,
Even when doubted for why he would fight,
Over and over he makes his case clear
Reaching to touch the ones who won’t hear.
Growing in strength, he won’t be unnerved,
Ever assuring he’ll stand by his word.

Wanting the world to join his firm stand,

Bracing for war, but praying for peace,
Using his power so evil will cease:
So much a leader and worthy of trust,
Here stands a man who will do what he must.

Were you able to find the "The LEADER"?

If you don't believe me here is link to news.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/hindi/news/story/2005/12/051201_bush_poem.shtml

Initiative - A new game of cards

2005-11-26T10:50:00.000-08:00

An old saying goes "Necessity is the mother of all inventions". So I am in search of other family members of invention. Till now I know four of them and they are: invention the child, necessity the mother, Inventor the father, and Laziness the nani. Yes, Necessity is child Laziness. As only laziness could have given birth to necessity of remote, vehicles, flush, toilets... etc

recently I discovered another nani of invention. Biwi is also a nani of invention. Let me tell you how.

Playing cards has become one of the favorite time pass in my friend circle. The games we play are like Court Piece, judgment, chakree, Laad, 3-2-5, Uno etc.. depending on how many people are there. Judgment and Laad are the only games which can be played in any number of people. Court Piece can be played in four people, chakree in six , 3-2-5 in three. But there was no game which could be played in five people. So when five people gather the only choice was laad or judgment. Judgment was played so often that we were bored of playing it and Jaya does not like laad as she always gets defeated in laad. The situation gave rise to need of having a game of five people and "initiative" was born.

"Initiative" is new game of cards designed and developed by engineer from EMC and tested by engineers from Microsoft and Expedia.

Let me now describe "initiative".

Initiative is game of taking initiative and taking control in your hands. It is one of the few games for five people. And the best part the game is dynamic. Initiative belongs to category of games like court piece, 3-2-5 etc where you make hands. So if you know how to play any of these games you can easily learn initiative.

Rules of initiative

Initiative is played with 50 cards. The cards that are removed from the deck are 2 of clubs and 2 of diamonds.
Each player gets 10 cards. Distributed in sets of 4, 3, 3.
After the first set of 4 cards is distributed the person sitting next to deal decides the trump color. The remaining cards are then distributed.
The player sitting next to the person who decided trump start the game by throwing a card. Each player then throws a card .
The person who make a hand then decides his team by choosing two partners. So now there are two teams of three and two people each.
The team with three people has to make 7 hand in order to win.
Team with 2 people has to make 4 hands in order to win.
The rules of making hands are similar to court piece.

The most interesting part of the game is first hand when person tries taking initiative or avoids taking initiative because taking initiative would mean that he or she has to choose the partners and then make 7 hand to win.

I hope you will try this new game and enjoy it.

Credits:
Motivator: Jaya Kapoor
Test engineers : Komal Kashiramka, Nitin Bhandari, Sandeep Karanth, Jaya kapoor
Concept designer and Architect: Aditya Kapoor

Thanks
Aditya

Stratalite

2005-11-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

Stratalite:Is this is spelling mistake? Did I mean satellite? No, This time it is not a spelling mistake and I did not mean satellite. It is stratalite only. Are you now thinking what is Stratalite?

By definition A stratalite is an airship designed to cruise at an altitude of 20 km or 65000 feet. Hmmmm by now you would be guessing that a stratalite is new mode of transportation and yes you are correct but not for humans. It would transport data. So basically a Stratalite is communication hub and would perform same functions as satellite. The difference being that it is placed in stratosphere instead of outer space and that is where it gets it name from. So just like satellite it will stay stationary at one point.

You would be thinking how it would stay in one position in stratosphere as there is air there. Yes that is right but stratosphere is so thin that pressure there is much less than in troposphere. Hence the energy required is just fraction of what it would have been in lower altitudes. The energy for this is generated from solar panels located in top surface of stratalite. In fact the entire upper surface to air ship would be solar panel. To maintain its position Stratalite will use 6 on board GPS unit.

How big is Stratalite and what is it made up of? Stratalite can carry a payload of 1400 Kg and would be almost 75m in length; 44m is width and 26.5 m in height. It’s envelops are made of Kelvar.

The next obvious question is how stratalite will reach an altitude of 20 KM. Is there a special rocket that will carry place it in position? The answer is surprisingly simple in proprietary lifting gas technology. Initially stratalite will be filled with 2000 cubic meter of helium which will expand by 17 times once it reaches cruising altitude of 20 Km. So it uses light weight of helium along with the it expansion on higher altitude to lift itself up.

Why Stratalite? The company that is building stratalite claims following advantages

Stratalites would be way cheaper then satellite.
It would be easier to launch stratalite.
Easier to maintain. Each stratalite will remain in its position for 18 month after which another stratalite would replace it and original one can be brought down for maintenance and up gradation. So each stratalite is recoverable.
One single stratalite can cover a area as large as ¼ of India.
Communication to and from stratelite would be much faster then from satellite. While satellite has typical lag of 220 millisecond, stratalite would reduce it to 70 micoseconds

Who is building Stratelite? Sanswire a wholly owned subsidiary of GlobalTel Communication Corp. is building stratalites. There have been report that many countries including India are looking into the technology.

Enjoy

Aditya

How are hurricanes named?

2005-10-25T20:02:00.000-07:00

I recently noted that hurricanes names seemed to have some pattern in hurricane names: Katrina, Rita, Wilma. They looks alphabetic but there are missing letters. All look like names of females. So I wanted to know how they are actually named and it turned out to be more interesting than I thought. Here some interesting facts

Tropical storms in North Atlantic are named in such a manner that masculine and feminine names alternate one after the other.
And yes they are in alphabetic order, so my guess was right.
The logical conclusion here is that there can be max 26 names. No, There are can only be 21. As they don't name storms by Q, U, X, Y, Z.
So the next logical question is what happens if you have more storms then 21. Then they start naming them by name Greek alphabets starting with alpha beta.
2005 would be the first year to use these letters. So 2005 is the with record number of storms.
Oh, did I tell you the names for all storms till 2010 have been named.
And most storms after that have also been named as they will use the names used in 2005 in 2011 and 2006's name in 2012.. and so on.
Are you bored that you will not see a new name. Don't be disappointed. You will see new names as names of most devastating are removed from the list and a new name would be chosen to replace it. They have already dropped Katrina from the list.
Oh one last things before 1979 all hurricanes were females.

Now finally let me give you names of all the hurricanes till 2010

2005: Arlene Bret Cindy Dennis Emily Franklin Gert Harvey Irene Jose Katrina Lee Maria Nate Ophelia Philippe Rita Stan Tammy Vince Wilma

2006: Alberto Beryl Chris Debby Ernesto Florence Gordon Helene Isaac Joyce Kirk Leslie Michael Nadine Oscar Patty Rafael Sandy Tony Valerie William

2007: Andrea Barry Chantal Dean Erin Felix Gabrielle Humberto Ingrid Jerry Karen Lorenzo Melissa Noel Olga Pablo Rebekah Sebastien Tanya Van Wendy

2008: Arthur Bertha Cristobal Dolly Edouard Fay Gustav Hanna Ike Josephine Kyle Laura Marco Nana Omar Paloma Rene Sally Teddy Vicky Wilfred

2009: Ana Bill Claudette Danny Erika Fred Grace HenriIda Joaquin Kate Larry Mindy Nicholas Odette Peter Rose Sam Teresa Victor Wanda

2010: Alex Bonnie Colin Danielle Earl Fiona Gaston Hermine Igor Julia Karl Lisa Matthew Nicole Otto Paula Richard Shary Tomas Virginie Walter

Enjoy

Aditya

Sania Mirza and her clothes

2005-09-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

What matters more Sania Mirza Tennis or Her clothes. The answer is simple...... her clothes. For people who don't know Sania Mirza will think that she is MODEL or Fashion designer thats why clothes matter more. For those of you who know who Sania is will think that tennis should matter more as she is tennis player.

This is not the first time a Tennis player is more in news due to her clothes. Anna was also more famous for her beauty and her dresses. The reasons though are completely different. In case of Sania some extermist group is offened by her dresses.

Why this extermist group offended now? Why was it not offended when Sania started playing tennis? Why is this group only targeting Sania why not Jahan Afreen? I am sure you want to know who is Jahan Afreen. She is just another tennis player.

The answer is simple "Fame". Had they target Jahan Afreen who would have listened. Or had they targeted Sania when she just started and was a no entity who would have cared.

Is there a solution? No there is not. I could have said, Yes there is and could have written we should ignore such comments. But then if that was solution I should not have written this blog at all. Oh!!! Irony you are every where.

Thanks
Aditya

What’s wrong with team India?

2005-08-31T17:57:00.000-07:00

This is certainly not the first time that this question is being asked and certainly I am not the first one to ask it. But the question still remains what is wrong with team India? Why is the team which in 2003 – 2004 showed potential of becoming a Cricketing powerhouse is not performing? Why is the team that challenged kangaroos in their own backyard today struggling against teams like New Zealand or Srilanka? Are the players not good enough? Is there some thing else?

Let’s first see who the players are. Sehwag, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid, Yuvraj, Kaif, Laxman, Pathan, Bhajji, Nehra, Zaheer, Balaji, Kumble and more recently joined by Dhoni. I have only listed the player who I think are regulars in the sense that they may be dropped for series or so but would be in team in near future.

Recently team India has failed in batting department mainly. We depend mainly on our batsmen to win games for us. So here is profile of our main batsmen.

Sehwag, a natural striker of ball. He is arguably the most devastating player on his day and has full range of shots with some which are not even in cricketing text books.

Tendulkar, encyclopedia of cricket. Not only a gifted batsmen but also a shrewd bowler who can on his day turn ball more than Warne. He can and has single handedly win matches for India on his day.

Ganguly, Leader of the team. Gifted batsmen (a lot of people will not agree but people who know would remember that he and Tendulkar formed the most successful opening pair) and a useful bowler. He can win matches both by batting and bowling. Who can forget Sahara cup in Toronto.

Dravid, The wall. He is like backbone to the team. Technically even better then Tendulkar himself.

Yuvraj, a devastating batsman, outstanding fielder and useful slow bowler. He has demonstrated that on his day he can be very dangerous.

Kaif, a talented batsmen and best fielder in the team. He probably saves as many runs as he makes. He can snatch a match out of opposition’s mouth on his day.

Laxman, A naturally gifted batsmen who has never utilized his talents to full potential.

Dhoni, Another attacking player who can destroy any attack on his day.

So if we have such batsmen why are we losing? Yes Tendulkar is not playing; Yes Laxman is out of the team but he any would have played only against Australia. But still why we are losing. Were you able to get something from the description of the batsmen? What is common among all of them beside that they are exceptionally gifted batsmen?

Yes the other thing that is common among all of them is that they all perform on their day. On their day they all are brilliant and on that day they shine and shine so much that we are not able to see there failures for sometime.

The only exception to this rule might be Dravid, who keeps on playing with same consistency. To explains this see the table below. I am considering a score above 50 as good contribution.

Name/ No of Matches	0-10	11-20	21-30	31-40	41-50	Above 51
Sehwag/122	42	16	16	16	8	24
Tendulkar/348	105	45	36	36	20	106
Ganguly/276	88	36	32	26	14	80
Dravid/259	75	46	35	18	16	69
Yuvraj/123	55	19	13	8	9	19
Kaif/94	45	14	8	8	6	13
Laxman/85	32	17	12	5	3	16
Dhoni/16	6	4	3	0	1	2

Let’s now see what the fail % of each of these players is. I am considering a score of below 30 as failed

Name	Fail %
Sehwag	60
Tendulkar	53
Ganguly	56
Dravid	60
Yuvraj	70
Kaif	71
Laxman	71.7
Dhoni	81

Oh! God I thought Dravid was the most consistent of the lot but stats reveal otherwise who has same consistency as Sehwag. Is that surprising? To me it is. Infact Tendulkar turn out to be the most consistent of all :o.

Another thing to consider here that Yuvraj and Kaif both come down the order so don’t have as many scoring opportunities as others. It is interesting to know even though Laxman comes up the order his failure rate is same as Kaif. At least now Laxman should know why he is not is the team. Dhoni is very new so we can for now leave him.

If you consider that if a team has to succeed at least three of its batsmen have to play innings above 50. If we apply simple probability to this we will know why we fail.

Can some thing be done to change? Yes, we need to pick players who are more consistent and build up innings. At present we are picking up player who are all aggressive stroke players and entertainers.

P.S: If you know how can I add table please tell me so that I can format this better

Thanks
Aditya Kapoor

I live, I learn, I enumrate

2005-08-29T23:22:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I read Karanth's Blog which had a very interesting quote: -
"You live, you learn, you love, you learn, you cry, you learn, you lose, you learn, you bleed, you learn, you scream, you learn. You grieve, you learn, you choke, you learn, you laugh, you learn, you lose, you learn, you pray, you learn, you ask, you learn."-Alanis Morisette

Interesting quote but a very very true one. Yes each experience teaches us some thing, yes we keep learning from life each and every moment. But do we try to remember all we have learnt? I think if I make it a point to enumerate at least some important things that I learn would I be less prone to making same mistake or would I become more indecisive? Let's try if at end of some period of time I think my decision making is slowing down I would avoid enumerating these and perhaps would know that all important lessons we learn are in sub conscious brain. At present I am trying to make it part of conscious brain.

What I am going to do give one pointer for lesson learnt and short story on what led to lesson? I think nothing that I would be enumerating would be new or ground breaking but it would be just something that I learnt. Lets now come straight to the point.

Today was interesting day I learnt two things today

1) Fresh approach is needed to solve a long standing problem: My wife Jaya had bought a necklace which had multiple chains. The way she kept it all the chains got entangled with each other. She asked me to help her untangle it. I started it doing the usual way started from one side and did that for quite some time but failed infect my eyes started to pain. So I asked her to hold it and I closed my eyes to give them rest. Mean while she tried to do the same thing but failed and it even looked that she would cry anytime. I then opened my eyes and set one end loose so that that end was now not held by any one and again started at the other end. As one end was free it rotated and finally all the chains got free.

2) From the same story I also learned a small break is helpful. Had I not left in middle, I would not have thought of alternate method as all my energy, thoughts would have concentrated on the approach I was taking. Break helped me think in alternate direction.

Let’s see if I can keep these in mind

Popup Blocker

2005-08-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

You know why I was not able to post a blog for such a long time. The answer is Popup blocker!!!! Are you amazed?

I wrote a long long blog and then clicked on Spell checker. As you know Internet explorer now has automatic popup blocker. So it blocked that spell checker and I clicked on Allow popups from this site and the whole page was refreshed. With all my writings gone?

Who in the world asked to refresh the whole page!!!!! and is this bad feature or what?

I was so frustrated that I unchecked the popup blocker and installed Google Toolbar which works beautifully :)

Let me point out one more thing.

MSN also has toolbar similar to Google toolbar. Try installing it on Windows 2003 and SP1, It looks and keep the popup blocker feature on both on Internet explorer and MSN toolbar on. See what happens.

The main window window from which popup was generated freezes and IE hangs. It looks like as if MSN toolbar is fighting with IE that why is IE blocking popup when it wants to block it. :)

Power of Defeat

2005-06-09T16:45:00.000-07:00

You might be thinking about choice of Topic “Power of Defeat”. Yes, Defeat is really powerful and it becomes more powerful when you don’t expect it. Yes, I am talking about Defeat of NDA in last general elections. I would admit that I did not expect it and that I was blinded by media hype and media intensive campaign that I could not see ground reality. Amazingly it looks like no one in NDA expected the defeat either and they themselves were blinded by there own “India shinning” campaign. There is no doubt that India did make good progress in NDA rule and but the campaign itself was shinning more than India was and it was shinning so brightly that NDA leader could see nothing else.

What can you do when you get defeated? You actually have many options. You can choose to accept is gracefully and look for real reasons for defeat and work to iron out short comings or you can accept defeat and do nothing and wait or you can refuse to accept defeat and blame every one and any one for it. Amazingly we have seen all three options being used. When Congress got defeat under leadership of Rajeev Gandhi they chose Route1. When congress again got defeated after Narsimah Rao they opted for Route 2. And BJP has chosen route 3. Even 1 year after defeat they are not able to digest it. The BJP which looked like party full of promises suddenly looks like a party full of fools.

They are fighting and blaming each other like kids. To Start with Atal jee was blamed for defeat and put aside. Although, I personally don’t like Atal jee, I feel he deserved better treatment. Any way the grand old man of BJP is now sulking and chooses to speak out in his own way to show his anger. Then comes Advani jee, who all of sudden find Jinnah to be secular and becomes the first Indian leader to visit Jinnah’s mazar. Ironically, the person responsible for Babri masjid demolition now considers that day as saddest day in his life. Should I trust those images of Advani and Uma bharti hugging each other seeing babri masjid demolition or should I trust the new Advani for whom even Jinnah is secular. After these two stalwarts, is line of second rung leaders none capable of leading a National party and each one is trying to break into the big league. They blame each other for party’s performance at last election. All of them looking in past.

Let’s just look into future. What happens if Manmohan Singhs govt falls today? Would BJP + allies be even able to provide a fight? I don’t think so. With current state of affairs I doubt they would even be able to get ¾ of the seats they got last time. In current scenario why would a voter even think about giving vote to a party which has no clear direction for last one year? In fact with Advani jee’s statement on Jinnah and partition I personally think they would loose votes even from there Hindu vote bank.

“A bird in hand is worth two in bush” or “Adhee chor puree ko dhave, Na adhee pave naa puree pave” and “Vinash kale vipreet buddhi”

Power of Rupee

2005-04-29T23:05:00.000-07:00

In my last posting which luckily or unluckily happen to my first one also, I mentioned about Rs 2.00 and how much that is worth. Talking about worth I had often heard my grandparents and parents say how much you could get in 1 Re in their era. My mom used to tell me before her marriage she used to drink coke for 4 Anna or 25 piase.

Once I asked my mom how is 25 paise equal to 4 anna and how much was 1 Anna as 25 was not divisible by 4. Thru her I came to know that earlier 1 Re did not have 100 paise, rather it had 64 paise which was equal to 16 anna. So 1 Anna was equal to 4 paise. So I wanted to know when did the change from 1 Re = 64 paise to 1 Re = 100 paise happen. Here are some interesting facts about our own currency Rupee that I gathered.

India introduced new coinage post independence on 15 Aug 1950 while Pakistan was much quicker as they introduced new coins in 1948 and currency bills in 1949.

Have you heard the dialog "Mein khoon pasinaa baha ke tumhari pie pie chuka donga"? So is pie equal to one paise? I thought so but that is not true. Actually pre-independence and till 1950, 1 Rupee had 192 pies. So Pie was actually one third of 1 paisa.

Till - 1950 the value was as below. The period from 1947 to 1950 was frozen period when we maintained old currency.

1 Re = 16 Anna
1 Ana = 4 Pice
1 Pice = 3 Pies

On Aug 15 1950 Govt of India introduced a new coinage. Kings potrait on coins was replaced by Lion Capital and Indian motifs where introduced in coins but value essentially remained the same, 1 rupee still had 16 Annas.

So when did we introduce the metric system in our currency.
In sept 1955 The Indian coinage act was passed to adopt metric system of coinage. The act came into force on Apr 1 1957 and 1 Rupee was now divided into 100 Paisa. To make shift to new term "naya" was added to Paisa and it was called "Naya Paisa". On June 1 1964, "Naya" was dropped.

At that time most coins were copper, nickel or bronze. To keep down the cost of coins Govt started aluminum coins in 1964 and the first aluminum coin was 3 paisa coin.

In 1968 20 Paisa coin was introduced for the first time but it did not become popular.

1970's saw discontinuation of 1, 2 and 3 paisa coins

In 1988 10, 25 and 50 paisa coins, cast in Stainless steel were introduced. In 1992 1 Rupee coin was also cast in Stainless steel.

Managing 1, 2 and 5 Rupee notes was very expensive and hence were discontinued and coins were introduced for these value in 90s

Can you tell which note does not have signatures of Governor of Reserve Bank of India?

Bye Bye
Aditya

Power of Rs 2

2005-04-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

What is value of Two(2) Rupees?

2 Rs = 1/20 of US dollar = 5 cents
2 Rs = 2 Eclairs
2 Rs = 1/5 of Pepsi or Coke
2 Rs = 120 ml of Milk
2 Rs = 200 grams of Wheat floor
2 Rs = Cost of Pencil
2 Rs = 500 grams of Aloo (Potato) when it is cheap
2 Rs = Tsunami Relief cheque for damage of coconut crops
2 Rs = Shame on Govt of India
2 Rs = Promise for millions of dollars of Tsunami Relief

You would be wondering why this Question for Value of Rs 2.00.

Rs 2.00 Tsunami Relief

तीन सौ पेड़ों का मुआवज़ा दो रुपये

Is India really shining?