Friday Night - A special song in memory of my Aunt...

In my recent post, I had briefly mentioned a few lines of a song that was very popular in mid-90s. One of you asked me if I could e-mail the song - No, I don't have the song now. But, thanks again to Youtube!

This is my favorite song. Even my late Aunt who listened only to classicals liked this song! This song is for her...I know she is watching me now ...!

Chinese Style!!

It's friday! So, here is something fun to watch. An easy way to fold your shirts...smiles.

Nation that spends like a drunken Sailor…

Little more than a year ago, the US Senate voted to raise nation’s debt limit to $ 9 Trillion. The bill passed by a vote of 52-48. Remember, Senate was still in control of Republicans – the party that claims to be fiscally conservative!

One year later, the current National debt stands at $ 8.8 trillion. Not too far from the ceiling set by the senate.

When Bush took office in 2001, the national debt was $5.6 Trillion. Look at the graph and you will see how things have progressed over the years.

Sure – you didn’t hear this from any other bloggers engaged in partisan-garbage-eating frenzy! You can’t expect to hear this from those moral degenerates on TV that are sold out to different parties either! (Yea, including Bill O’Reilly and his silly body language consultant with big boobs!!)

Numbers don’t lie. But our leaders do. Blame goes to leaders from both parties.

Two countries -Two stories

This is hard - but I have to write this.
This is the story of two countries and why they are very different!

Country: USA
Event: 2007 World Aquatics Championships
USA is currently at the top of the medal list with 8 gold medals. In Men’s 200 m freestyle, Michael Phelps creates an amazing new world record. It makes a headline for a few hours before it got buried by other stories. High performance continues with a very little coverage from media. Most of the population hardly knows Michael Phelps! Yes - the same guy who won six gold medals in Athens Olympics!

Country: India
Event: Cricket World Cup
Cricket is India. India is cricket. India’s performance in other sports is quite honestly very disappointing. Due to its popularity, Cricket gets ridiculously big coverage in media. And, Cricket players are next only to God! They are worshipped by all those billion people.
Last week, India lost to Bangladesh, one of the weakest teams around and took an early exit from the World Cup. Even after such a poor performance, if the cricket coverage in all those websites and blogs are any indication, its popularity has hardly gone down !! If my forecast is correct, within next 2-3 months, Indian fans will be back to the same point where they look at Indian team as the next world cup champions!
------

Ok - go ahead and call me names! Like I care?

Sad, sad, sad....

This man turned on his webcam first and told people in a chat room that he was going to commit suicide. Then, he hanged himself as people watched him on his webcam!!!

When I read this on chxta’s world , I just couldn’t believe it. When I googled the story, I found more information on this. This is sick, sad and shocking. Read more here.

Probably my Indian readers remember this popular song from 90s...

Krishna Nee Beagane Baro...
Come back as Rama, come back and save the world...
Come back as Jesus, come back and save the world...
We need a teacher; you are the only one...

Iran

Sometimes the truth is so precious that she must be attended by a bodyguard of lies

– Churchill.

My suspicious mind doesn’t believe anything easily - especially in today’s world where everything seems to be twisted, manipulated or fabricated.

The new drama of British sailors seized by Iran is one such thing. Both parties are claiming that they didn’t do anything wrong. Who do we believe here?

Well, on any given day, I would believe a democratic country like UK over a country like Iran ruled by some crazy leaders. But in this case, I believe there is little more to what we are hearing from British.

Look at the context: UN has explored every possible diplomatic option. Iran is hardly listening to anyone. The new sanctions from Security Council are getting a low response around the world. The Iranian Nuclear standoff is clearly reaching a critical point. At this juncture, I don’t see why Iran would cross its borders to seize British sailors unless there was some type of provocation. Things just don’t add up. I don't see how this would help Iranians!

Well, let’s wait and see. The last thing we need is another war!

Spring time!!

Finally spring has arrived. The weekend was awesome. And, yes – I am not wearing winter jacket anymore! Woohoo!! It's happy time!!

I love temperatures in lower 60s – perfect for walk, run and outdoor activities.

American Media – Where are the real issues?

I should admit - it is getting more and more difficult to watch American TV channels with their increasing partisan coverage everyday. Is it so hard to provide the news without mixing it with your personal opinion? Radio or TV – Wherever you turn, you can’t help but notice the stench of partisan garbage. I never thought that finding a decent, unbiased source of news would be such a challenge in a country that takes so much pride in its democratic setup and transparency.

MSNBC should get the credit for turning even Scarborough into a liberal news anchor!! Fox News is filled with the well-dressed true ‘patriots’ who want to fight the war on terrorism from their air-conditioned studios. Go figure! If throwing red meat at rightwing audience is what makes you patriotic, they definitely have a good lineup of 'patriotic' people!

Greta Van Susteren is obsessed with missing-white-woman stories. She basically covers the same story until another young, good looking white lady goes missing or killed!!

Glen Beck on CNN claims that he is a recovering alcoholic. After watching his shows for sometime now, I am not sure about the ‘recovery’ part!

Lou Dobbs seems to be the only voice of sanity in the middle of all these political garbage. God bless him!

After a long time, it was refreshing to see a good program on Iraq by Richard Engel on MSNBC last night. Good job. It showed all sides of the Iraq war unlike the ‘fair and balanced’ network!

Radio is pretty much dominated by right-wing talk shows that are furious about Islam, democrats and minorities. National Public Radio is a whole different story. I don’t know which world they live in! Are they obsessed with multiculturalism or what?

Trillion dollar national debt, out of control Illegal Immigration, falling grades of our students, increased outsourcing, increasing births out of wed locks, failing marriages, healthcare mafia, Corporate arrogance – Nobody seems to be worried about these issues.

It’s all about Iraq, Islam bashing (aka 'war on terror') and presidential election-08!! Don't expect to hear anything else!

Help!

We are what we repeatedly do – Aristotle.

So, what about a person who prepares a list of ‘things to do’ everyday and fails to accomplish consistently day after day?

Do you know any remedy for procrastination? If yes, please leave a comment. :)

It's China!

Click here to read more on how China is taking the right steps to become the next true global powerhouse.

So what?

Obama did his third grade and fourth grade in a madrasah where he had to study Islam for 2 hours a week.

I really don’t know if this is true or not. May be, this is true. If true, this was approximately 40 years ago! It doesn’t surprise me that in a country with Muslim majority, there are madrasahs and they teach Islam 2 hrs per week.

Bigger question is – Why is it such a big thing here in US? Why both parties are hysterical about this? Well, this is what happens when people turn to Media matters and Fox News for their daily news coverage. Add a good amount of ignorance and political hatred – you get the full recipe!

Note: Madrasah is the Arabic word for school. Some of my friends did attend Madrasah, where they learned religious teachings and Arabic language. True, there are religious extreme elements operating from Madrasahs in countries like Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

You decide...

Another guy from 'peaceful' religion in UK speaking his mind...

No.1

It’s official. After winning Morelia-Linares Super Grandmasters Chess Tournament, he is officially No.1 in the world now.

Every Indian who loves chess was waiting for this moment. He is the inspiration for chess players in India!

Congratulations, Anand! We are all proud of you!

A scumbag from Baluchistan and his big fat lies!

So…
He planned 9/11 from A to Z.
He personally beheaded Daniel Pearl.
He was behind Richard Reid’s (shoe bomber) attempts to blow up an air liner.
He was behind nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia.

He planned bombing of Kenya beach resort.

He planned the missle attack on Israeli passenger jet.
He was behind 1993 World trade center bombing.
He was also behind assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II.
.....

.....

Really? WOW - I didn't know that Al-Qaeda was an one-man army!!

Is he trying to play the system one last time?? Is he trying to take credit for everything so he can be another legendary ‘martyr’ in the eyes of those fanatics who adore every single attack on western society?

I don’t care if he is gone tomorrow. I have no doubts that he knew Bin Laden personally and planned several attacks against west. But, was he behind all those high profile attacks? Hard to believe!

Well, there you go – another liar from Baluchistan!

New Europe

Check this out. Some groups always stay away from getting assimilated into local culture. When those groups are very small and non-violent, like in the case of Amish people, you hardly notice them. If they are sizable part of population and very vocal, it’s a perfect recipe for social catastrophe. Just can’t stop thinking of those riots in France last year!

We all saw it coming. Still, we hoped that they would work it out!. Well, not so easily! Viacom is suing Youtube (Google) for one billion dollars! Google is down 9 points today. If you thought Google was bargain...just wait!

Living in a polarized world...

What if Al-Jazeera ran a special program on all the sex scandals by Catholic priests and tries to paint the whole Christian community as sexual deviants? What if they show a few more things like increasing number in single moms, number of babies out of wedlock, sexual activities among teens, exploding porn industry and gay marriages to ‘prove’ that the Christian world is truly a bunch of sexual perverts?

I know how you feel now. No need to explain.

That’s how I feel when I watch one of those Fox News programs on ‘Islamic Terrorism’ or right-wing talk show hosts who cherry-pick stories from Islamic world and paint a very scary, different world to us. For the record, I am not a Muslim, not a Christian either.

Sometimes it's scary to see what a polarized world we are living in today. We are so blinded by ideology and our own beliefs; we simply don’t see the other side. If you don’t look, dress, speak like me and if you have a different god – you are bad. If you don’t agree with me, you are bad for the society!

Is it something natural to human beings? ‘We’ are always right, ‘others’ are wrong? Where are the roots of this mindset? Ohhh – no easy answers here either!

Most ridiculous item of the day!

No - I am not trying to copy Bill O’Reilly!! This one is truly ridiculous. Some Mayan Indian leaders in Guatemala have decided to “spiritually cleanse” an ancient site after President Bush visits the site this week.

Please tell me - Is it ignorance, hatred or just a political stunt? Or, all of the above? This is insane!

One thing for sure – they are not being honest here. I don’t know how many of them would actually show up to “cleanse” the site, if we offer them US visas!

You see millions from Latin America crossing the border illegally to work and live in US. On the other hand, you see people from the same region protesting hysterically against President Bush and calling US an ‘evil’ empire!

What's wrong with this world? Is it so hard to be honest in our life?

Read the full stroy here.

Sunday - New trick

I videotaped this two weeks ago – a new card trick in my series!! :) Hope you enjoy – hope you all had a great weekend!

Two stories: It's bitching time...

Question: How long will it take to cover a distance of 16 km (10 miles) on a national highway?

How about 1.5 hrs on an average? Yes - It’s the pathetic state of Indian highways! Click here to see the pictures.

I used to drive from my small town to the nearest city on weekends. On an average, it took us 45 mins to 1 hour to cover the distance of 44 kms ( 28 miles approx). When I visited home last year, the roads were so bad; it took us 2 hours to cover the same distance! Yea – so much for the 9% GDP growth!

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

Back in my student days, I was so happy when my dad bought me a new Luna so I could save time and focus more on my studies. But there was another reason why I was so happy to get my Luna.

Those days, I had to walk to the bus stop at 6 in the morning so I could catch a bus ride to college, eat a quick breakfast and attend classes on time! The bus stop was about 10 mins of walk from our house. And, everyday morning, I was harassed by the stray dogs! It was like a bunch of wild animals. They moved around in herds. Often they fought each other over a piece of food. Those dogs were so violent and wild; I used to be extra careful with my only weapon – a short umbrella!! What else you would expect when you had so much trash all over the city? And, I always hoped that the City Corporation or City Mayor or Member of Parliament or some elected leader would do something about it.

Well, more than a decade later, we all woke up to the news that two kids were killed by stray dogs in the city of Bangalore, so-called ‘Silicon Valley’ of India!! Isn’t it wonderful to get chased by stray dogs in the morning as you leave your house to work at Yahoo or Google?

Now, the city is rounding up all the stray dogs and putting most of them to sleep. Story doesn’t end here – the carcasses of these dogs are being dumped on the city’s outskirts along with solid waste posing health hazard to villages near the dumping yards! Ohh – I am giving up! Can they get anything right?

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

I have never seen degenerates like Indian politicians. All are outright criminals who can be locked up for their disservice. But the question is much deeper – what makes them so corrupt? They are all part our society and what elements in our society are creating so much corruption? No easy answers here unless you are brutally honest!

India, China, Globalization, Billionaires - Rambling continues…

There was never a shortage of filthy rich people in India. Striking poverty always had a companionship of lavish, flamboyant maharajas who built Taj Mahals and palaces for their personal pleasure.

Things aren’t same anymore. Thanks to the open market, Indian talent and greedy Western Corporations – It has never been so good for Indian economy! Fifteen years ago, you had to have ‘connections’ to get a decent job! A timely bribe to the ‘right’ person also helped a great deal. It’s all history now – if you have a degree in Engineering or decent communication skills in English, you can easily land in a job with salaries that our parents could never imagine! Capitalism and globalization have never been so sweet.

Gone are the days when you had to wait for years to get a telephone line! Gone are the days when IBM and Coke were kicked out of the country. IBM in India would be soon 100,000 strong. And, there is no sign of any slowdown! Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, SAP – Every big player has set up their R&D centers in India.

Yes – things definitely look bright for India in spite of the rampant corruption, shoddy infrastructure, chaotic democracy and Islamic terrorism at its doorsteps.

It would be interesting to see how the growth stories of India and China would unfold in the future. There are no signs of any slowdown. China, in my opinion, seems to have managed the wealth distribution better than India. It’s quite obvious in the list of billionaires. China may not have as many billionaires as India does. But, it certainly has better per capita and far better infrastructure. This could be partly due to the fact that China’s one-party system is much more efficient in putting resources into nation building as compared to India’s extremely chaotic, corrupt democracy.

Well – there are so many questions …like how long this ride will last? What if ‘Open Market’ idea starts getting hit by subsidies and tariffs in the western world? What does China’s rise as a military and economic power mean to Western World, especially USA? Are Democracy, Capitalism and Open Market economy the way to a long lasting, peaceful, prosperous world OR…..?

Time has all the answers.

Old Maharajas to New Billionaires

Some good (?) news for India.

New list of Forbes Billionaires is out. Here are the highlights:

- Record 946 billionaires in world. (Obviously this doesn’t include Mafia and corrupt politicians who would never disclose their wealth)
- Japan is no longer Asia’s top spot for billionaires. India is the leader in Asia with 36 billionaires. Japan has only 24.
- India has three billionaires at the top 20, second only to US.
- Bill Gates has retained his No.1 position. Indian steel tycoon Mittal is No.5

No – Mittal is no way related me (Vittal). So, I would continue to buy power ball tickets!
Life sucks, man!

Cable ratings

Here are the latest numbers on cable channels from March 6th, 2007.
See, how Fox News Channel is slaughtering other cable channels in the prime time slots!

Per the same source, Fox News Channel was the #3 network on all of basic cable last week in primetime. FNC averaged 1,646,000 total viewers, behind only USA and TNT. CNN was #23 and MSNBC wasn't in the top 30.

I report, you decide!

(Data by Nielsen Media Research.)

Wednesday

What a day! There was a major network issue and we were all asked to go home. Yes - a paid day off!! Hopefully things would be back to normal tomorrow.

So, I had two options: Either take care of all the pending items OR watch TV. Well, I did more exciting thing - learned how to solve Rubik's cube! Thanks to Youtube once again!

If you are interested, here is the first part:

Money, money...

Probably you have read this - click here to read how an Indian meal can cost you a cool $3900!!

I can guarantee you that you can find better Indian food in New York area!! Why would they order it all the way from Wales?? Rediculous! Money doesn’t mean much to these folks, uh?

Come on, let’s all sing -
Money, money, money, maaaaneyyy……..(Apprentice title song)

Ann Coulter again!

I really don’t want to write about this third-class comedian who calls herself a conservative. But I have to because I am more concerned about those who applauded when she used the word ‘faggot’ while referring to John Edwards! It just beats my logic. Why would anyone applaud when she says something so retarded? Well…that’s the pathetic state of our politics today.

More disgusting are the conservative bloggers who are hysterically trying to defend her in this case!

Good News for Youtube fans…

I admit – I have turned into a huge fan of Youtube. Why? I have already mentioned a few days earlier – As a kid, I used to spend long hours in library. It hasn’t changed – these days I spend long time on internet. My curiosity in history, art, science, music, politics and so many other topics – Internet has it all in it’s astronomical belly. Youtube takes it one step further by giving you the visual contents that’s worth thousands of words. From the back alleys of Seoul to powwow grounds in North America – It’s all there.

More good news – Youtube is partnering with hundreds of smaller media companies. According New York Times, close to 100,000 Viacom videos have been stripped off Youtube a few weeks ago. There was a speculation that the removal of these high-traffic videos would force Youtube(Google) to make a deal with Viacom! On the contrary, the Youtube traffic increased by 14% in the past two weeks!!

Read more here!

Are all leaders corrupt?

I know it sounds little extreme. As I learn more and more about the leaders, I am getting more and more convinced that most of the leaders are corrupt and self-centered to various degrees. Remember – they still have the ‘leadership’ skills. I also argue that if you can’t be corrupt and self-centered, you probably stand no chance of becoming a leader! I really hope that I am wrong!

Ok – here is the latest in the series of corrupt leaders. Minuteman project founder, Jim Gilchrist is fired for mishandling $400K !! Here is a movement that was started to protect our border and culture. Millions of people support this group. But, the leader turns out to be just another corrupt individual who was more interested in money than the values he advocated. Read the full story here.