memorable quotes from : Between the assassinations, by Arvind Adiga

When it comes to three things"- he counted them off- "black marketing, counterfeiting, and corruption, we are the world champions. If they were included in the olympic games, india would win gold, silver and bronze in those three."

Corruption Abbasi said. "Corruption. it's like a demon sitting on my brain and eating it with fork and a knife."

"We need one man to stand up to them."

He looked out of the window at the Bunder: this violent, rotten, garbage-strewn port, crawling with pickpockets and knife-carrying thugs-it seemed the only place where a man was safe from the corruption of Kittur.

A ship was slowly leaving the Bunder, edging to where the blue waters of the sea changed color and turned a deeper hue. It was about to hit a large patch of brilliant sunshine, an oasis of pure light.

It is her own fault if she feels wretched in their presence.

They viewed him as the product of a buccaneering adventure on the part of his father; they associated him(he was sure) with an entire range of corruptions. Mix one part premarital sex and one part caste violation in a block pot and what do you get? This cute little Satan: Shankara.

Fellows like his father belonged to no cast or religion or race; they lived for themselves. They were the only real men in this world.

is it just a fable for old men like him? If you just said to yourself,"Caste is a fiction," would it vanish like smoke; if you said,"I am free," would you realize you had always been free?

He was an overweight man entering the final phase of middle age, he breathed through his mouse, and a thicket of hair poked out of his nose. The centerpiece of his body was a massive potbelly, a hard knot of flesh pregnant with a dozen cardiac arrests.

Once India had been ruled by three foreigners: England, France and Portugal. Now their place was taken by three native-born thugs: Betrayal, Bungling and Backstabbing.


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Memorable Quotes from the Hungry Tide - 3

"For if you compared it to the ways in which the dolphin's echoes mirrored the world, speech was only a bag of tricks that fooled you into believing that you could see through the eyes of another being."

This quote from the Hungry Tide, increased my curiosity about what was so special about a dolphin's echo. After googling it I found that there is a phenomenon called Dolphin's Echolocation ( the location of an object by its echoes). A Dolphin can locate it prey using her echoes. Pretty neat, hence her echoes are nothing but a bag of tricks.

You can find more information here http://www.inkokomo.com/dolphin/echolocation.html

And from this video below from YouTube, it was evident that Piya in the book for searching for Orcella dolphins in the Sundarbans - where the ganges breakdown into tributaries and join the bay of bengal. And in this video the researchers too are referring to the special breed of dolphins found in the ganges.

Gol Gappas or Pani Puri

Its a famous Indian snack, and eaten almost throughout India. Eventually, it followed its way to wherever the Indian diaspora went. The pic above is the American way of serving 'Pani-puri', yes the American way of "Do it Yourself" :) .

And of course it doesnt even come close in taste or looks to what we get back home. And dont even ask me to compare the price :). For the amount of 8 pani-puris I could easily get at least 50-60 in India. :)

Anyways, would like to share this quote from "The Death of Vishnu" by Manil Suri, in which he describes the feeling of a character after she eats this for the first time :)
"And that one moonlit starry night - when she crushed that first golgappa in her mouth, felt the crisp papdi shards and the soft yielding chickpeas between her teeth, tasted the sweet and fiery chutneys on her tongue, closed her eyes as the gush of tamarind water exploded down her throat."

Memorable Quotes from The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri -3

Mangoes. So full, so sweet, so scented, the oranges and yellows of sunlight.

For I am the one who decides where our campaign will take us. A rider can only journey where his horse conveys him.

You do not kill, I remind him. You just send them to a less ignoble birth. sweep down your sword, and let them be born away.

As he watched the grime from his body swirl across the tile and vanish into the drain, he tried to think of a day when water would flow just as freely for the residents of Dharavi.

Wasn't medicine, ultimately a matter of faith? Faith that the doctor knew what they were diagnosing, faith that their prescriptions would make you whole, faith that the tablet dissolving in your mouth would cure you, not kill you.

IPL Teams theme songs :)

Here is the collection IPL3's theme song collection:

1. Rajasthan Royals


2. Mumbai Indians


3. Deccan Chargers


4. Kolkata Knight Riders


5. Delhi Daredevils


6. Chennai Superkings


7. Bangalore Royal Challengers


8. Punjab's King XI

saap ko palogey to tumhey hi kaatega

Came across this article on nytimes.com:


Frustrated Strivers in Pakistan Turn to Jihad

The article describes a very well established scenario, describing why and how, certain youth from Pakistan's lower-middle class adopt such a violent way of life.

Coming back to the subject, from the article:

"Like Mr. Kundi, many came of age in the 1990s, when jihad was state policy — aimed at challenging Indian control in Kashmir — and jihadi groups recruited openly in universities. Under the influence of Al Qaeda, their energies have been redirected and turned inward, against Pakistan’s own government and people.

That shift has fractured long-established militant networks, which were once supported by the state, producing a patchwork of new associations that are fluid and defy easy categorization."

It is crystal-clear from above, that it was their State's policy, to an extent that it was made a part of teaching in schools, all in order to instigate violence against India on the pretext of the Kashmir issue. And now the policy has backfired and its working against the same State, and they are clueless. Once long-established militant network has fractured and given rise to fluid individuals: who are easily swayed by a certain oppression - in this case, the failure to succeed in this world, even after putting in tireless efforts.

I couldn't come up with an idiom in English that would mean the same. But its close to this one: "as you sow, you shall reap." This is referring to the topic.

India vs China

Here is an interesting article on time.com. It tells economically which among the two : India and China is stable and why?

I guess one of the major factor, could be our Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. With is vast experience in finance industry and brilliant qualifications, he was able to steer India through recession.


http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1957281,00.html?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0e78f2VFl

From the article you can see that:
"The government used the same tools as every other to support growth when the financial crisis hit – cutting interest rates, offering tax breaks and increasing fiscal spending – but the scale was smaller than in China." These are the exact steps that the financial gurus in the US are advising President Obama to take. Well, interest-rates have come down in US and fiscal spending has increased, but what really needs to be done are tax-breaks.

Another important point to note in fiscal spending ( stimulus money), our spending was less: just 3% of our GDP. That helped us provide the initial boost, and at the same time, didnt leave us with a hole. The hols could better be described as inflation. Well, there is inflation, agreed, but its under control.

Well whatever said and done, the reason why Indian economy is so strong, according to me, is because our people save, and we are so many :) ...so we are self sustained. From the above article:
"What we see [in India] is a fundamental domestic demand story that doesn't stall in the time of a global downturn,"

Also credit is hard to get (banks are heavily regulated) and hence we dont indulge ourselves in spending unwisely.

Lets hope this continues, and we at least achieve the the goal of bringing 30-40% of our population above the poverty-line.

Chandryaan finds Water on moon :)

Well it may seem like an old news. I quit following the progress of Chandrayaan-1 after its launch. I blogged about it way back in 2008. Here:
http://jargoneer.blogspot.com/2008/10/chandrayaan-2008.html

Just today I read that India plans to put a man in space by 2016. Here:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20100127/india-moves-put-man-space.htm
6 years might seem like a long-shot, but reminiscing you might recall that Chandrayaan-1 was announced in 2001 and launched in 2008. So this does seem like very possible.

Chandryaan-1 though was disbanded on September'2009 due to malfunctioning of a Sensor. Reminds me a lot about my field of work. May be the sensors were not diagnosed properly :). Just trying to be a smart-ass ;). I am sure more brilliant minded people work for ISRO. Sad story of its failure can be found here:
http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Chandrayan_I_Mission_Failure_Setback_For_India_999.html


Well it was not really sad :) Because it was able to find water on moon. And this discovery led to jump-start of Chandrayaan-2. Which hopefully will be much better than the 1.

Here is an image from Chandrayaan-1 confirming the discovery of water on moon.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Okay, so be well-informed that I am not writing any research paper on this particular law mentioned in the subject. This is a well established law of Economics. Well, I just started reading Superfreakonomics: from the authors of Freakonomics. Freakonomics was one of the first book I read besides, fiction and of course my course materials and comics.

Coming back to the topic, I was inspired by the new section on Freakonomics' blog called Applied Freakonomics. Here readers share their personal experiences of how different chapters in the book inspired them. They just started it today, and the first experience is a very good example of the Law of Unintended Consequences. You can read it here.

Also, if you need an another good example of this law, you can very well look at the Wikipedia entry. It exemplifies that World War II was an "Unintended Consequence" of harsh treatment on Germany as per the Treaty of Versailles.

From Superfreakonomics:
"People respond to incentives, although not necessarily in ways that are predictable or manifest. Therefore, the most powerful law in universe is the law of unintended consequences." And this is exactly what I realized after watching this bollywood movie "Dhoondte Reh Jaaogey."

The movie is about, two characters: a battered movie director and a honest ethical chartered accountant. They decide to siphon money from multiple financiers. Then they would create a low-budget super flop movie, and all the financiers will loose the money. But since they created a low-budget flop movie, they would not have to pay-back. Everything goes smoothly, and the movie is full of ingredients for disaster (at box-office). The climax too was decided such that India would loose against Pakistan, which definitely would not (never ever) fare well with the Indian masses.

Now, the law of unintended consequences strikes. The climax is changed, without the knowledge of the two main characters and hence the movie becomes a hit (super hit). Hence they end up paying profits to every financier and end up in jail. Though fictional and may be not exactly relevant to the law, I thought this movie was a good example.

Ice Skating Indian Ishtyle :)

Imagine doing this in a real saari :) ..or may be this could revolutionize the entire saari-industry :) .....but a good job ...well done :D

Perth Test - Chak De India :)

Yes, the justice was served, when Symonds was given out LBW to an inside edge to Kumble. I knew then and there that their was this divine intervention and we would win.

He is the same Symonds who didnt have the ethics to walk off when he had nicked the ball off Ishant Sharma at Sydney. A great Test nonetheless, but everyone is well aware of the grotesque sledging scene. The arguments that followed and the blame-game which furthur bloated the classic adage of Cricket being "A Gentlemen's Game".

India is back and with a spark; a blend of zestful youthfullness mixed with maturity of the oldies.
This test created history with Kumble taking his 600th wicket. A humble servant of Indian Cricket who is passionately serving his country. He has delivered on numerous occasion. An unsung hero whose hardwork and determination cannot be forgotten. I still remember his partnership with Srinath against Australia at Banglore and his 10-wickets hold at Delhi against Pakistan.

We cannot take the credit away from Laxman, who shephard the tail and was able to guide India to a respectable 413. This is not the first time Laxman has shown his heroics; you cant imagine an Indian Test team void of Laxman. He is inseparable.

Not to forget the resurgence of Irfan Pathan who played beyond his experience. His classic swing bowling reminded of that 1st over Hatrick against Pakistan. His batting which keeps improving also proved valuable and without doubt he deserved the man-of the match award.

Last but not the least, find above the youtube video of the duel between Ponting and Ishant. Bhajji gone now Ponting is the new bunny of our Ishant.