Hammock and Breeze

Tequila Series - Vol 1

2011-06-18T00:25:00.006-04:00

Starting the Tequila series..

RULES :

There are 3 simple pre-requisites to songs listed in the "Tequila series".

Prerequisite # 1: I should have had at least one sip of Tequila margarita (till I understand more about tequilas, I am going with Jose Cuervo)

Prerequisite # 2: After pre-requisite 1, I should have searched the song listed in this series on YouTube

Prerequisite # 3: After pre-requisite 2, I should be able to recollect the songs and the ordering of songs once I come down from the peak.

CAUTION: Compiling songs under the influence of Tequila margarita can cause me to forget the songs I watched on YouTube. Incompletion regretted.

(1000 sqft) Seene mein dil

(3000 sqft) Tum aaye toh hawaon mein

(5000 sqft) Meri duniya hai

(7000 sqft) Mere humsafar

(8000 sqft) Aisa lagta hai

(9000 sqft) Faasle Aise bhi hongay

(9000 sqft) Ranjish hi sahi

(9000 sqft) Man mohana

(6000 sqft) Tum Yaad Aaye

(5000 sqft) Zara zara si baatein

(4000 sqft) Yeh Pehli Mulaqat Ki

(3000 sqft) Jaane dil mein

(3000 sqft) Kahan tak yeh man ko

I figure I need to dedicate this post to someone, so here's to someone I knew as a 10-year old prodigy, who is now the proud father of a little girl named Indira. Here's to his 1st Father's Day and to many more to come..

Happy Father's Day!

IPL # 4: Teams I support

2011-04-08T06:50:00.002-04:00

Welcome to IPL Season # 4! Here were my predictions for Season 1, Season 2 and Season 3.

I'll stay true to my claim after Season 3, that I will base my Season 4 predictions on the quality of bowlers in each team. I had wanted to also count in captains, but I figure I'll let the purity remain. So here I go...

Chivas Series - Vol 4

2010-12-31T22:41:00.003-05:00

Continuing on Chivas Series..

RULES RECAP:

There are 2 simple pre-requisites to songs listed in the "Chivas series".

Prerequisite # 1: I should have had at least one sip of Chivas Regal

Prerequisite # 2: I should have hummed or sung at least a line of the song myself, in exactly the order listed below, after Prerequisite # 1

CAUTION: Compiling songs under the influence of Chivas can cause me to forget that there is an audience I am supposed to court via my posts. Inconvenience regretted.

# 1. Yeh Dil Tum Bin

Gud ka zaika line: .. humein tum bin koi jachta nahi, hum kyar kare..

# 2. Aap aaye toh khayal-e-dil-e-naashaad aaya

# 3. Jab deep jale aana

# 4 (This is Telugu actually, I wonder how I thought of it in the middle of Hindi songs. In any case it's one of only a handful of Telugu songs I even know) Maate Mantramu

# 5 (This one is Tamil, and rather deliberately thought right after a Telugu song) Netru Illatha Matrum

================== BREAK ================

Right after song # 5 above, I couldn't help write to a Tamil friend of mine who just left my company a few weeks ago. I decided to call quits to the Chivas Series - Vol 4 and instead sent a note to my friend.

Hi (name withheld),
To celebrate the New year, I was listening to some songs and ran into some Tamil ones that I loved. I immediately thought I should just share these songs with you, perhaps to let you know you are thought of on this day AND to also let you know I do love some Tamil songs :-). I know you'll say humbly that my choice is good, I can just say it is a very old choice of songs (except one) going back to my REC Trichy days. I actually don't know the meaning of the songs, but just love them. Hope you can enjoy them in any case.

Wishing You A Happy New Year!

Will look forward to meeting you one of the days early next year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uemx6xAaWmY&hd=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0IBkAKxNyc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdZ94BXV6nA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0LDZjuCqqU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nd8XxVEpHM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DArijwO2xIM

All the best in the New Year!

===========================================================

Sumanth

Recommending Dil Kabaddi

2010-12-31T03:40:00.000-05:00

I thought the movie was hilarious and almost believable. You can watch the entire movie here, OR better still rent a DVD or watch it online on Netflix.
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/family/watch/v17281917yk96GDTF

The key aspects about the movie:

It is parallel cinema, which means it is closer to reality. No rona dhona and related nautanki that has made me sick of Hindi movies (except for well-made songs).
The script is actually very honest, some might even say bold, but I like it when it is that plain.
The 4 main actors have done a remarkable job. I never have to worry about Konkona Sen Sharma OR Irrfan Khan, but was quite impressed with Rahul Bose and Soha Ali Khan as well. The other actors also did a pretty good job.
Of all things, I thought I loved the last 10 minutes of the movie starting the point where Konkona and Rahul Khanna are seated opposite the dinner table and Konkona gets Rahul to get her what she wants without moving from her place. This is not to take anything away from the other high points earlier in the movie.

Bottomline: If you watched Bheja Fry before on my recommendation, you either love my choice or absolutely hate it. If only you loved that movie, should you consider even watching Dil Kabaddi. The rest of you can go watch Aditya Chopra and/or Karan Johar movies.

Happy 35th Birthday!

2010-11-08T23:59:00.003-05:00

Alright, Wishing this good friend of mine a Very Happy 35th Birthday! Thought I'd share the songs on my mind all day, thanks to my 2 year old who I had to keep entertained on youtube.com

Tumhi Dekho Na

Pee Loon

p.s: I must give credit to the serial kisser for resembling the serial killer; have always thought of them as from the same biraadri. Who knows?

Driving Miss Tashvi - Vol 1 (Fortnight away)

2010-10-25T11:57:00.003-04:00

[ORIGINALLY POSTED ON OCT 19 2008; Revision added on OCT 25 2010, showing Tashvi's steps towards Thought # 1 when she's a little under 2 years old]

It's a sunny Sunday 11 am in late October. I am seeing sun rays piercing the blinds and meeting the bedroom furniture. I am listening to what are "girlie" Hindi songs from the album "Tum Yaad Aaye", while ironing my clothes. One of those songs is on auto-play at this moment - you can stop it by scrolling down this post.

Turns out I have finished my clothes, and so I walk into the closet and get some of my wife's clothes out to iron (CLARIFICATION: Girls/ladies, no need to think highly of me, I rarely iron my own clothes, let alone my wife's. It is just that recently I bought a new $65 steam iron, so am just excited to iron anything that doesn't move).

Now, thanks to her commendable taste in clothing, there are some very pretty tops I am ironing right now. The music and my wife's pretty dresses pretty much drift my mind towards a new future a fortnight from now, when my wife and I will be first time parents of a baby girl. No, I am not as excited as girls/ladies ask me if I am. Neither am I worried that my life will change forever as many men tell me it will. I am quietly confident and unassuming (about being a Dad). I guess I am as happy as the days leading up to my wedding. I didn't however feel the spike in excitement when my wife told me 7 months (or so) ago, that we were expecting. I guess once my wife and I decided we were going to have a baby, I pretty much saw things coming and had spread my excitement evenly over the months.

A few (somewhat outrageous) thoughts I'd like to note for the record. I know that 9/10 people will challenge me on these thoughts; so let me state it and review as the years roll:

Thought # 1: I won't object to her desire to climb a tree once she has convinced me she's all set; I won't help her convince her Mom though - I don't want to get into that marsh

[Update added on Oct 25 2010, a full two years after my original post; while it's not a real tree, I hope this shows her progress towards the same]

http://java.smugmug.com/Children/Tashvi-School-PlayArea-July/13153526_DThvs#954138754_966AE-A-LB

Thought # 2: I won't object to her desire to marry *anyone* once she tells me she is confident it's the right thing; In that *anyone*, I include Americans, Hispanics, Arabs, Chinese, Indians.. even girls! It really is anyone. I would object to her wanting to live alone.

Thought # 3: By the time she turns 4, I will give her a monthly budget to manage all her food, toy and clothing expenses. (Yes, I did say 4 years) [Disclaimer: Yet to attempt getting my wife on board on this]

Thought # 4: After she turns 3, I will object to her not cleaning up after herself after her meal or after play. [Disclaimer: Yet to attempt getting my wife on board on this]

Thought # 5: I wouldn't care if all my friends' children are doing better than Tashvi at school. [Disclaimer: I am counting on the fact that I can also teach her to smile and turn a deaf ear to all the "desi aunts" who are going to make that comparison]

That's it for today.. I expect this series of posts to continue alongside the other posts. I am told I won't have time for this blog, nor for any of my interests once Tashvi arrives 2-3 weeks from now. I disagree - I think I'll make some time. Let's see..

Recommending the Khan Academy

2010-10-17T07:40:00.000-04:00

I read about the Khan Academy on Darshan TV, and later a good friend of mine recommended it. Needless to say, the first video I chose to see is the one below. I didn't even have to listen through the entire video to recommend it..
http://www.khanacademy.org/video/renting-vs--buying-a-home?playlist=Finance

Hearts and Lenses

2010-09-23T23:57:00.001-04:00

This is a post I put on an SLR Camera forum where new registrants like me are required to introduce ourselves.

Perhaps you could picture me waving gently with my wrist slightly above my waistline, a shy smile and a raised brow! Hi - this is a middle-aged father of a 2-year old girl, and the husband to a lovely wife not sold to the idea of DSLR cameras in the first place. Through trickery, deceit, and evil timing (holiday season/birthday/family get-together etc.), I managed to get a foot in the door by convincing my wife to let me buy a K200D with a kit-lens (18-55, f3.5-5.6). Just like Obama wasn't able to keep his promise of under 8% unemployment, I couldn't keep my promise of good indoor photographs of my daughter under low light conditions without a flash. Do you know anyone who has managed that with the kit lens? If you do, take this number and call my wife!

Anyway, Obama is lucky, he gets billions to spend. Here I languish unable to convince my lovely boss that I was dealt a weak hand with the kit-lens. Through another round of trickery, deceit, and evil bending of house-rules (I need the Senate approval at home to pass any budget bill exceeding a nominal amount of say $10), I have the ability to sneak my second foot in the door. I feel I can have only one shot in the dark - by going for an f/1.4. Experts.. agree?

Till lens do us part. Amen!

[Oct 15 2010 update] Well, I got more than what I wished for - a $800 lens! Not that my photographs have gotten that much better - 'still learning' is my excuse.

Chivas Series - Vol 3

2010-09-12T00:27:00.002-04:00

Continuing on Chivas Series.. it's another day, perhaps same glass..

RULES RECAP:
There are 2 simple pre-requisites to songs listed in the "Chivas series".

Prerequisite # 1: I should have had at least one sip of Chivas Regal

Prerequisite # 2: I should have hummed or sung at least a line of the song myself, in exactly the order listed below, after Prerequisite # 1

CAUTION: Compiling songs under the influence of Chivas can cause me to forget that there is an audience I am supposed to court via my posts. Inconvenience regretted.

Tu Nahi To Zindagi Mein..
http://www.radioreloaded.com/tracks/?5158

Seene Mein Jalan.. (and why not.. if I have Chivas down my throat; anyway, dedicated to an old friend from Pearl Hostel - Pappu! I suddenly remember talking about the song to him, perhaps the only song I ever talked to him about, 15 years ago)

Dil Kya Kare, Jab Kisi Se Kisi Ko Pyaar Ho Jaaye.. (ok, this one is dedicated to a certain Samit Saxena)

The line to pause and take a note of: .. aise kisi chehre pe nigaah .. rukti hai.

Zindagi Jab Bhi Teri Bazm Mein Laati Hai Humen..

The line which.. bhulaye nahi bhulta: .. har mulaaqaat ka anjaam..

There's perhaps a laundry list of people associated with this song: Thanks to the trio of Sandeep-Surelia-Thyaga who first introduced me to it, and the trio of Rashmi-Suparna-Vibhor who encouraged and applauded me when I first sang it on a lawn 12 years ago.

The next one is something I've heard perhaps twice and maybe hummed once in all my life.. but true to how I've designed this post (if I hum it, it shows up on the post), I have no choice but to post it here..

Dil Ki Girah Khol Do Chup Na Baitho..

The first thing that strikes me when I see the song: Why wasn't it in Color?

Mujhe Tum Nazar Se Gira To Rahe Ho.. (dedicated to Sandeep Deo)

Alright.. I chose to twist my mind and focus a bit on new songs.. (some would say .. 'the less boring songs').

Well, I could recollect nothing but Dil To Pagal hai...

Yaad Kuch Aaata Nahin..

The line worth remembering in your prayers: .. tum kaho to maang loon main, aaj kuch rab se..

Suno Piya Suno Zara..

(Some would wonder, how I can have the song above in the same post as some of the earlier songs. Well.. blame it on Chivas. Perhaps on that note, I should just call and end to the post).

Chivas Series - Vol 2

2010-09-03T23:36:00.000-04:00

Continuing on Chivas Series.. it's the same day, but a new glass...

Chandan Sa badan

Ehsaan Tera Hoga Mujhpar

Alright, I've chosen to intentionally take my mind off old songs and focus on some newer ones..

Koi fariyaad tere dil mein..

The line to take a moment from the glass for: .. jaagte jaagte ek umr kati ho jaise..

.. and a sudden turn of events as I see myself humming an altogether different song.

Mera mann mera mann tujhko bulaaye pyaar se.. (I guess I'll just dedicate this randomly to someone who I believe is perhaps just like the girl in the song - here's her blog).

Chivas Series - Vol 1

2010-09-03T22:55:00.003-04:00

There are 2 simple pre-requisites to songs listed in the "Chivas series".

Prerequisite # 1: I should have had at least one sip of Chivas Regal
Prerequisite # 2: I should have hummed or sung at least a line of the song myself, in exactly the order listed below, after Prerequisite # 1

CAUTION: Compiling songs under the influence of Chivas can cause me to forget that there is an audience I am supposed to court via my posts. Inconvenience regretted.

---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ----------
Tumhe yaad hoga kabhi hum mile thay

Dil tadap tadap ke keh raha hai

Chupa lo yoon dil mein pyaar mera

The line to hold the sip for: Magar hain man mein chavi tumhari..

Woh shaam kuch ajeeb thi

Yeh nayan dare dare

The line to hold the sip for: Pyar mein hai jeevan ki khushi..

The Elephant Boys - 2 years on!

2010-08-05T17:58:00.002-04:00

I'm doing a great disservice to the lovable pachyderms by referring to Republicans by their symbol - the elephant! Like the elephant, the Republicans are remarkable electoral heavyweights. For me, the comparison ends there as the elephant triumphs in terms of virtues.

So why do I dislike Republicans so much? (in 30 words or less)
- I don't see the smartest ideas coming from the party. All I see is a party that very tactfully protects the interests of the rich.

In more elaborate terms - limited to 3 bullets:

I still think the Iraq war was intended for economic reasons, where corporations (oil companies, defense contractors, and general other multinationals) would eventually benefit. I feel so upset that so many American and Iraqi lives had to be lost for the cause.
All the Republican talk of "budget deficit" becoming large under Obama seems to ring so hollow; I believe that the US is such an indebted nation these days largely because of war-spending by Bush and because of his tax cuts to sundry. 15% taxes on long-term investments! Those of us that are below the $1 million net-worth category would think it is justified if we make an investment and hold it for longer than 1 year. But really, it's about the very rich people paying only 15% tax as the bulk of their income comes from investments, not from salaries.
On key issues confronting the US at this point - unemployment, healthcare, immigration, renewable energy, K12 education, global warming, I've not heard one idea from Republicans that I am sold on. They seem to just pander to their support base (voters in case of immigration; and lobbyists on most others), or plain dismiss some ideas as if it's a non-existent issue (global warming).

So.. do I love the Democrats much? (in 30 words or less)
- Probably not. But at the very least, I still trust Obama and team to have better ideas than the Republicans. They've delivered for me to the extent they can, and that's better than no good ideas at all.

When I was a Teen - Vol 1

2010-06-05T02:00:00.002-04:00

These are songs from the days when I was a teenager. As of today, I don't think I'd like more than 20% of the songs I used to love in those days. Here's a sampling of that 20%, starting with Volume 1. These are in no particular order other than my recollection of them:

Warning: Please excuse the dressing sense and the general grooming.. in some songs at least, it used to be quite bad in the early 90s.

# 1 Tere Dar Par Sanam Chale Aaye

# 2. Chehra Kya Dekhte Ho

# 3. Waada Raha Sanam

# 4. Bin Tere Sanam
Warning: Video not that great.. with village cows filling the background.
Another notable song from the movie: Tum hee hamaari ho manzil

# 5. Dil Deewana
Warning: Dressing sense again

# 6. Ae Mere Humsafar (QSQT)

# 7. Ae Mere Humsafar (Baazigar)

# 8. Dheere Dheere Se Meri Zindagi

Haari main tujhse moonh pher ke

2010-06-05T01:21:00.002-04:00

.. aankhen khuli par zara der se..

Slow motion song # 1 - Saathiya

2010-06-05T01:05:00.000-04:00

*Republishing an old post*

Thought I'll make a list of all the slow motion songs that I've liked.

I'll start with the first one - the title track of Saathiya (originally Pachai Nirame from the Tamil movie Alai Payuthey). Every Tamilian will swear by the Tamil version being way better ("chance-ay illay"). I saw both, but perhaps since I saw the Hindi version first, I just happen to like that more. Here are both links:

Tamil first: The shot to watch out for -> 0:53 seconds into the song, watch the chunni coast through Madhavan.

Alaipayuthey -Pachai Nirame
by Thushie_14

Hindi now: The shot to watch out for -> With the timer showing 01:35 into the song, watch the use of sunlight for the lines "madham madham hans dey phir se".

Saathiya
by vdensdon

Surat se main na pehchanungi

2010-06-05T00:47:00.004-04:00

.. naam se bhi usko janungi..
.. dil jo kahega wahi maanungi!

SRGMP-Mentor's Choice (Vol 2)

2010-05-30T00:38:00.008-04:00

Continuing on the concept of SaReGaMaPa Mentor's Choice, here's the next edition after Volume 1.

Theme: Semi-classical
Notes: I'd urge Nihira to take on Lata Mangeshkar songs. Yes, Jai Maharashtra! I'd recommend this one from the movie Anand. Although it seems dated for today's music audience, let's give it all to the purity of yore!
Song Title: Jiya Laage Na
Music Director: No, it's not RD or SD as I had suspected, it was Salil Chaudhury (yoohoo, another Scorpio)
Lyricist: Surprisingly for me.. it's Gulzar

========== X ========== X ========== X ========== X ========== X ==========

Theme: Rain song (Round 1 of 2)
Notes: Since the previous song went deep into the 70s territory, I'd request Nihira to woo back the younger crowds with a more contemporary song for Rain songs (Round 1)
Song Title: Saanson Ko Saanson Mein
Music Director: Jatin-Lalit
Lyricist: Prasoon Joshi - ah, I hadn't thought all that highly of him, and the lyrics for this one are not the very best; but still, good enough to make a good song.

Saanson Ko Saanson Mein

========== X ========== X ========== X ========== X ========== X ==========

Theme: Rain song (Round 2 of 2)
Notes: Since you can now breathe easy having given something to the younger crowds, let's go back to chasing Lata Mangeshkar with this one for Round 2.
Song Title: Rim Jhim Gire Saawan
Music Director: R.D. Burman
Lyricist: Yogesh - never even heard the name before.

Rimjhim Gire Sawan - Female

========== X ========== X ========== X ========== X ========== X ==========

18 Months later..

2010-05-22T00:21:00.005-04:00

Shameless nation

2010-05-02T22:49:00.002-04:00

http://tehelka.com/story_main44.asp?filename=Ne080510CoverStory.asp

SRGMP-Mentor's Choice (Vol 1)

2010-05-02T09:13:00.001-04:00

Let's assume for the purpose of this post, that I am a Bollywood music director, and that I happen to be invited to Sa Re Ga Ma Pa to be the mentor. Now there are songs aplenty for male playback singing, so let me switch to female playback singing. Let me imagine I had to mentor a girl candidate with a sweet voice. Let's call her Nihira, to actually draw comparisons to an actual candidate in the 2005 season of SaReGaMaPa. Whenever I had to advise Nihira on her songs, I'd go with the following, assuming of course that Nihira sung these very well. The themes are varied considering candidates are asked to sometimes sing based on the theme of the day (e.g. folk songs, classical songs, discos, and so on).

Song Title: Dekha Teri Mast
Music Director: Jatin-Lalit
Original Singer: Asha Bhosle

Note # 1:
The theme is ...well, you know it. I'd expect Nihira to have challenges with this one, considering she belongs to the "Shreya Ghoshal" school. Nothing against the school, just that the theme doesn't come naturally to such a school.

Note # 2:
Expect Nihira to sing only Asha's portion of the song (starting around 4.5 minutes into the song), not Kumar Sanu's.
Also, the first 1.5 minutes are slow, so wait through (or fast forward) the first 1.5 minutes.

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Song Title: Madhosh Dil Ki Dhadkan
Music Director: Jatin Lalit
Original Singer: Lata Mangeshkar

Note # 1:
This is a mellow song that I'd expect to be well within the comfort zone for Nihira. I'd recommend her to sing the last verse that starts with "Kehna tha jo" and has portions of both, Lata and Kumar Sanu.

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Yeh Ladka

2010-04-28T21:23:00.001-04:00

IPL # 3: Teams I support

2010-04-25T18:06:00.006-04:00

April 25 2010 Update: A few hours after the Final

Alright, here I go wrong yet again for the 3rd year => My favored team doesn't win the competition. Mumbai came in second best to Chennai, a team that I ranked second from bottom! A few thoughts:

The more committed and calmer team on the day won
The turning point for me was Abhishek Nayar saying to Dilhara Fernando, "it is yours" (the catch). The beneficiary went on to be the man-of-the-match.
Mumbai had their chances at chasing but Tendulkar didn't receive enough support from his batsmen, after his fielders let him down in the first half.
The most obvious mistake Tendulkar made as a captain was to get Kieron Pollard in too late; I'm sure he had other plans that didn't work out, yet, when the asking rate piled up to 12 an over, it might have been prudent to cancel original plans and get Pollard in.
As for Chennai - they peaked at the right time in all departments. While the whole team did very well, Dhoni did very well as a captain, and notable contributions came in from Raina and all the bowlers. Very good job! Well deserved.

Final thoughts on my rankings:

Teams I supported won exactly 30 of the total 60 matches. That makes a perfect 50/50 split, so I am statistically as reliable as a Russian roulette. I am so glad I wasn't worse.
Only 1 out of 8 teams I ranked came in exactly at the position I had predicted -> Kolkata Nautanki Riders came in at 6th position! (FYI - I had Mumbai at # 1, but since they lost the final I've counted them at # 2 overall despite Mumbai leading after the round robin)
The only spin I can provide for Chennai winning is that this year, Chennai were the leaders in Kingfisher Fairplay rankings, the all-important basis on which I support teams. Perhaps it is only fair that they have also won the competition.

Final thoughts on each team:

Mumbai:
I thought they did very well to reach the final. They have a lot of younger players, and I'm sure they'll all mature over the years. Among the younger players, Saurabh Tiwary and Kieron Pollard are worth looking out for in the future.

Punjab:
Midway through the competition, they did make me feel why I even bothered to support them on the basis of a previous year's Fairplay award ranking. Yet, even though they lost a lot of initial matches, I thought they had their chances at making it to the semi-final. I thought their losses to Rajasthan and to Bangalore in the second half of the round robin was extremely upsetting for fans. In key matches, they stole defeat from the jaws of victory. Among the players who I thought should have performed much better - Brett Lee, Yuvraj, and Sangakarra himself.

Delhi:
Ho ho ho.. they really lost their way in the last 5 matches, didn't they, when it appeared that a semi-final berth was almost a given. Almost was the word, and looking at the body language of the team in those modest total chases in their last 2-3 matches, one could be forgiven for thinking they should have been ranked at the bottom. The mojo was just missing in the end. Better luck next year! Among the players who I thought should have performed better - Sehwag and Dilshan.

Hyderabad:
If at all match-fixing allegations in IPL are true, my money is on Hyderabad being in the thick of things. They did remarkably well to make it to the semi-finals with that 5 match winning streak leading to the semi-finals. But some lost matches seemed very inexplicable, except if they were fixed. Among the matches that are strong candidates for match-fixing: The loss to Rajasthan, and the losses in the semi-final and for the 3rd place.

(to be completed with thoughts on 4 other teams)

p.s: For season # 4, I've made up my mind that it'll be based primarily on which team has my favorite bowlers, followed by my favorite captains. Until next year - Cheers!!

==========================================================

April 24 2010 Update: A day before the Final

To Lalit Modi: I'm thankful to you for having seen the profit potential of IPL, and for having executed the idea quite efficiently, though it wouldn't please everyone's palate. I think though it is time for you to leave - 3 seasons of IPL should suffice for you, esp. after you got Shashi Tharoor have to leave his ministerial position (more on that below).

To Shashi Tharoor: Dude! How could you be so careless! It is one thing being a Laloo and getting away with eating millions worth of fodder. I would think you can (and should have) been on a different plane. Either play the game like a Laloo OR play it like a Manmohan. It's a regret to see you leave your ministerial position - what are you going to say to Fareed when you next come on his show? I'll look forward to it.

Now to the matches and my rankings:

I had a really bad year with my predictions. My rankings seem to have got scrambled as you see below. The Top 2 bad points first:

My # 2 team (Punjab) were the bottom team!
My second from bottom team (Chennai) made it to the finals!

The Top 2 good points:

My # 1 team (Mumbai) made it to the finals, and actually came at the top of the points table after the round-robin matches.
My bottom team (Rajasthan) came second from bottom! As I said "Warney, your assets do not make up for the liabilities of Shilpa Shetty".

There is so much else to be written, but I think sticking to the Top 2 point keeps it clean. As I look to the next two matches, it is obvious I'll support:

Hyderabad over Bangalore (3rd place)
Mumbai over Chennai (Final)

P.S: Alright, had my fill of T20. I understand there's another helping coming with the World T20. But I can't wait for India's next Test series to begin. I need to see Sachin heading to 50 centuries, Dravid on Ricky's tail, and the next middle order batsman - M. Vijay?

==========================================================

ORIGINAL POST DATED: March 13 2010

I tend to have my own set of rankings based on which I support teams that play in IPL. My Season # 1 rankings were based on Fairplay and Season # 2 rankings based on business-efficiency. This year, my rankings are a heady mix of Fairplay and my personal likes/dislikes (call it chemistry):

# 1 Mumbai:

I believe 2010 is the Year of Tendulkar! Riding on the back of a ODI 200 not out, I expect his confidence to boost the team's prospects. Also, Mumbai stood 3rd in the IPL 2009 Fairplay Rankings at 127 points out of 140. I value fair play rankings very highly, even though many would argue that the methodology followed isn't the best. I personally think that asking the field umpires to drive the rankings is perhaps the best method.

# 2 King’s XI:

Despite all my reservations about the swagger of Yuvraj, they were the IPL 2009 Fair Play winners with 138 out of 140 points! For that reason, I'll support them this year after Mumbai. A distant second reason is that their captain happens to be Sangakarra, someone I highly respect.

# 3 Delhi:

When I first heard that Sehwag was not playing, I dropped the team to the bottom half. Later I found that he was just stepping down as captain, so I brought them back to the top half. They were my favorites last year with few changes this year, making it very difficult for me to drop them too many notches. Finally, they ended up being Runners Up in the Fairplay Rankings in 2009 with 131 out of 140 points. They get my support right after Mumbai and Punjab. I so wish McGrath plays this year.

# 4 Hyderabad:

I'll stay true to the same reasons that they were my # 1 choice from IPL Season # 1. Also, I double-checked to see that the lamb-gentleman is playing. He is.

# 5 Bangalore:

Three reasons:

First, Kumble stands tall as bowler in a shamelessly batsman’s T20

Second, Mallya's team stays true to his lifestyle charms, starting with good dressing sense.

Third, the team stood 3rd in the IPL 2009 Fairplay awards at 127 out of a maximum of 140 points.

# 6 Kolkata Nautanki Riders:

There is too much Nautanki with this team, forcing me to name them Nautanki-Riders. But theek hai, I've slammed them too much in the past two seasons, ranking them at the bottom in both seasons. Let me give Shahrukh's team a break and rank them a couple of notches up from the bottom. I'm sure that defeat teaches you far more than victory does, though one could argue how much a Nautanki party could learn. Best wishes anyway! At the very least I hope they don't end up at the bottom of the Fairplay rankings this year too.

# 7 Chennai:

Usually always in my top 4, but I thought of giving other teams a break; also, I was pretty disappointed that they chose to not spend much on new players for the 2010 season. It's a very strong and consistent team though.

# 8 Rajasthan:

At the risk of knocking on the doors of double-entendre, let me say that the assets of Shane Warne fail to beat the liabilities of Shilpa Shetty! (Plainspeak - I don't respect most Bollywood actors, much less actresses. I let Shahrukh and Preity get away, but not Shilpa).

Results Tracker

Did my favored team beat their opponent? (Updated: April 25 2010)

30 out of 60!!

No > Hyderabad lost to Kolkata
Yes > Mumbai beat Rajasthan
No > Punjab lost to Delhi
No > Bangalore lost to Kolkata
Yes > Hyderabad beat Chennai
Yes> Delhi beat Rajasthan
No > Punjab lost to Bangalore
No > Kolkata lost to Chennai
Yes > Mumbai beat Delhi
Yes > Bangalore beat Rajasthan
No > Delhi lost to Chennai
No > Punjab lost to Hyderabad
No > Kolkata lost to Rajasthan
No > Mumbai lost to Bangalore
No > Delhi lost to Hyderabad
Yes > Punjab beat Chennai
Yes > Mumbai beat Kolkata
Yes > Bangalore beat Chennai
No > Punjab lost to Rajasthan
Yes > Delhi beat Bangalore
Yes > Mumbai beat Chennai
No > Hyderabad lost to Rajasthan
No > Punjab lost to Kolkata
No > Chennai lost to Rajasthan
Yes > Mumbai beat Hyderabad
Yes > Delhi beat Kolkata
Yes > Mumbai beat Punjab
No > Bangalore lost to Chennai
Yes > Delhi beat Rajasthan
No > Hyderabad lost to Kolkata
No > Punjab lost to Bangalore
Yes > Bangalore beat Rajasthan
Yes > Mumbai beat Hyderabad
Yes > Punjab beat Kolkata
Yes > Delhi beat Bangalore
No > Hyderabad lost to Rajasthan
No > Mumbai lost to Chennai
No > Punjab lost to Rajasthan
No > Delhi lost to Kolkata
Yes > Hyderabad beat Bangalore
No > Mumbai lost to Punjab
Yes > Hyderabad beat Chennai
Yes > Bangalore beat Kolkata
Yes > Punjab beat Delhi
Yes > Mumbai beat Rajasthan
Yes > Hyderabad beat Bangalore
Yes > Mumbai beat Delhi
No > Kolkata lost to Chennai
Yes > Bangalore beat Rajasthan
Yes > Delhi beat Chennai
No > Punjab lost to Hyderabad
Yes > Mumbai beat Bangalore
Yes > Kolkata beat Rajasthan
No > Punjab lost to Chennai
No > Delhi lost to Hyderabad
No > Mumbai lost to Kolkata
Yes > Mumbai beat Bangalore
No > Chennai beat Hyderabad
No > Bangalore beat Hyderabad
No > Chennai beat Mumbai

Safe trip Professor!

2010-04-17T09:32:00.006-04:00

Professor C. K. Prahalad passed away recently. I first came to know about him because of my first strategy case study at business school. Later I came to know more because of his zeal in asking businesses to target solutions for what he called the "fortune at the bottom of the pyramid".

If there's one thing I'd like him to have changed in his lifetime, it would have been the quality of his PowerPoint slides. If only he had spent 3 months working for a management consulting company before he was 35, things would have been different.

Here's one video of him for those interested in thinking deeply about business.

Also: For those interested in reading a little more, here's my favorite article on him written 4 years ago.
(Source: BusinessWeek)

=============================================

Business Prophet

How strategy guru C.K. Prahalad is changing the way CEOs think

PODCAST

Take a cab ride through Bombay, and these are the scenes that will likely strike you first: raggedly dressed homeless families sprawled on blankets amid shacks. Traffic hopelessly clogged with every manner of soot-belching vehicle and wooden cart. Gaunt hawkers and beggars tapping on your window at red lights. For foreign visitors, such jarring images of poverty and desperation are hard to shake.

View those same streets through the eyes of C.K. Prahalad, however, and they become a beehive of entrepreneurialism and creativity. "I see the positives inside the muck," says Prahalad as he settles his stocky frame into the back of a hired Tata Indica sedan to conduct a quick tour of Bombay. As the car crawls through congested Mohamed Ali Road, he notes that virtually every individual is engaged in a business of some kind -- whether it is selling single cloves of garlic, squeezing sugar cane juice for pennies a glass, or hauling TVs.

On every block he points out the intriguing enterprises tucked into the nooks and crannies. With the world's cheapest telecom rates, "all you need here is a phone and a $20 card to start a business," he explains in his measured baritone. He notices a busy closet-sized shop charging a few pennies per page to send faxes. "That guy probably started with a single phone and then added a fax and printer. Now he has a self-contained communications center offering extremely low prices." Such entrepreneurs, he contends, pioneered cheap pay-per-use services long before they became a fad in the West. The car stops at a small dry-goods shop. Prahalad bounds out and asks the owner to let him behind the counter. Tiny 5 cents single-serve containers of shampoo, soap, toothpaste, and other household goods dangle from the walls and ceiling. He notes the brands: Head & Shoulders, Lifebuoy, Pears, Colgate, Lux. "Low quality won't sell," he says.

By the end of an hour it's hard to look at Bombay and its impoverished citizens in the same way. That's exactly what Prahalad, 64, intended. The University of Michigan professor's knack for being able to change people's perceptions of the world around them has made Prahalad an incredibly influential corporate strategist. He has built a lucrative consulting career helping such multinationals as Citibank, Philips, and Philip Morris break out of ingrained mind-sets and craft new business models. Prahalad and colleague Gary Hamel helped spark a management revolution in the 1990s with their idea of "core competence," which says that companies must identify and focus on their competitive strengths. Their 1994 book, Competing for the Future, is regarded as a classic. A decade later he co-wrote The Future of Competition, which argued that the traditional "company-centric" approach to product innovation is giving way to a world in which companies "co-create" products with consumers. That book gave Prahalad a reputation among designers. At the same time, he has been working to convince executives that today's needy masses, so often dismissed as subsisting largely outside of the global economy, are actually its future. Prahalad's 2004 work on that topic, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, has been hailed as one of the most important business books in recent years and turned Prahalad into a celebrity in the field of international development.

Street-smart innovation
Now one of the management world's most creative thinkers has an even more radical idea: He believes that the entrepreneurial ingenuity at work amid such poverty, where success depends on squeezing the most out of minimal resources to furnish quality products at rock-bottom prices, has cosmic implications for executives and consumers everywhere. Some of the most interesting companies of the future won't emerge from Silicon Valley or other places of abundant means, he says. They will come from places many executives don't even think about because they have been considered too marginal. They won't have that excuse for much longer, though.

In the world according to C.K. -- short for Coimbatore Krishnarao -- poor nations are incubating new business models and innovative uses of technology that in the coming decade will begin to transform the competitive landscape of entire global industries, from financial and telecom services to health care and carmaking. Globalization, outsourcing, the Internet, and the spread of cheap wireless telecom are accelerating dramatic change. Few Western corporations fully harness these forces, Prahalad warns. And that puts them in danger of being usurped by a new breed of supercompetitive multinationals completely off their radar, just as American industrial icons such as Xerox (XRX ), General Motors (GM ), and RCA were blindsided in the '70s and '80s by nimbler Japanese upstarts including Canon (CAJ ), Toyota, (TM ) and Sony (SNE ).

For his next book, due in fall, 2006, Prahalad is assembling case studies of Indian companies that could spawn entirely new ways to think about conducting business. Fast-growing telecom operators such as Bharti, Reliance, and Tata, for example, are profitably selling cellular service for as little as 2 cents a minute "even though they must buy the same hardware as Western companies," he says. Now they're preparing to launch broadband TV, data, and voice for around $30 a month -- about a third of the cost of such packages in the U.S. Bangalore's Narayana Hrudayalaya hospital charges a flat fee of only $1,500 for heart bypass surgery that would cost 50 times that in the U.S. and operates on hundreds of infants each year for free. Yet it is highly profitable, has no debt, and claims a higher success rate than most U.S. hospitals. Narayana also profitably insures 2.5 million poor Indians against serious illness for 11 cents a month per person.

Low wages alone can't account for such price gaps with the West, Prahalad contends. The real secret is ingenious cost-cutting practices, such as extreme reliance on outsourcing, novel use of technology, and making the most of capital investment. "These are radical innovations," Prahalad says, many of which can be adapted to the U.S. Just look at the info tech industry: Long dominated by giants IBM (IBM ), EDS (EDS ), and Accenture (ACN ), it has already been transformed by Indian companies such as Infosys (INFY ) and Wipro (WIT ) that supply top-quality services at lower prices. That, says Prahalad, is just the beginning of the revolution.

How seriously should we take Prahalad? His theories naturally draw skeptics. For instance, bottom-of-the-pyramid efforts don't always help the bottom line, notes Microsoft Corp. (MSFT ) Chief Technology Officer Craig J. Mundie. Prahalad's work has reinforced Microsoft's view that it must develop software using different pricing, payment systems, and technologies in developing nations. "But even if you can execute a plan to sell to the poor, it's not clear you can make money," Mundie says. "Many companies in many industries have struggled to make a go of it, frankly." In response, Prahalad notes that many once argued a sub-$500 PC was impossible. Now they cost as little as $100.

Prahalad hasn't always had the Midas touch himself. A San Diego software firm he co-founded in 2000 struggled and was eventually sold. Of that experience, Prahalad said he at least gained some insight into his own management style. "I get extremely energized when there is an extremely complex problem to be solved," he says. "But management is a lot of blocking and tackling."

Evolving insights
Prahalad has been developing his worldview for decades. Born in India's southern Tamil Nadu province, he acquired his inquisitiveness from his father, a prominent judge who was a voracious scholar of philosophy and literature. At age 19, in between earning a bachelor's degree in physics and a management degree at the Indian Institute of Management, C.K. worked as a manager of a Union Carbide (DOW ) battery plant. Later, while at Harvard Business School, he and classmate Yves L. Doz won attention with their 1975 doctoral thesis on multinationals, one of the first studies to argue that corporations need new structures to project global strategies while adapting to local needs. He also began nurturing concepts he would build on later in his career: that entrepreneurs should not let limited resources constrain their ambitions or let deeply ingrained biases blind them to revolutionary change.

Prahalad's broad curiosity means his business insights tend to be fresh and ever-evolving. He consumes tomes on the rise and fall of nations, the spread of languages, and the history of such commodities as salt, tobacco, and cod. He is fascinated by historical maps and bird migratory patterns, which offer clues of the world's shifting ecology. Prahalad lives with Gayatri, his wife of 35 years, in a sprawling home in San Diego's posh Rancho Santa Fe district but spends about 40% of his time on the road. While traveling he does his own case studies of new business models and pumps everyone -- cab drivers, factory workers, university kitchen staff -- for insights. Ask him to tell a joke, though, and he's stumped. "I have to admit, I am not very fun at parties," he admits.

Prahalad built his following among CEOs as a blunt and demanding corporate adviser. Rather than operate with a retinue of junior staff, he likes to arrive alone with his Toshiba (TOSBF ) laptop, fully armed after doing his own analysis of the company's competitive strengths and weaknesses. He then proposes practical ways to correct management flaws. "The best way to describe C.K. is, he's an out-of-the-box guy who is pragmatic," says Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ ) CEO Mark V. Hurd, who ran NCR Corp. (NCR ) until March. Prahalad has been on NCR's board since 1997. "It's quite an art to get a board filled with past and current CEOs to think of the world in a different way."

As a consultant, Prahalad begins by trying to force managers to shake free of their "dominant logic." The stunt Prahalad pulled with the top brass of Royal Philips Electronics in 1991 is legendary. The Dutch electronics conglomerate, losing market share fast in consumer appliances, hired Prahalad for a weekend brainstorming session. He started the Saturday morning meeting by reading a small item he said he had seen in the Financial Times. Philips was heading into bankruptcy, the article speculated, and bankers wanted to know management's game plan. "Forget what we are supposed to talk about. There is a major crisis," Prahalad warned. "You had better figure out what you are going to do about it." He broke the stunned executives into two groups. They returned several hours later with ideas for radical restructuring involving up to 50,000 layoffs. Then Prahalad admitted he made the article up.

But he got their attention. Then-CEO Jan Timmer soon launched a restructuring program with Prahalad supervising a series of meetings with 100 managers from each business unit. "His style was to apply all of the pressure he could," recalls Jan Oosterveld, a retired top executive at Philips who now teaches entrepreneurship at Barcelona's IESE Business School. "His style can be mean but effective." Philips has since turned itself around through major asset sales, layoffs, better product design, and a keener focus on core technologies.

When Prahalad started working with Indian conglomerates in 1994, "he was so sharp in his criticisms that it was like a punch in the gut," says CEO K. Vaman Kamath of ICICI Bank. "We thought we were leaders. He taught us that Indian banking was a complacent mess and that we would soon be competing with no abilities at all." Now ICICI exemplifies the kind of company Prahalad sees as the wave of the future. Developing financial software in-house to slash costs, it deployed 2,000 ATMs in urban neighborhoods and villages around the country. Taking a cue from microcredit agencies, ICICI organized thousands of self-help groups that provide loans of as little as $100 to poor women for starting businesses. Today, ICICI ranks as India's dominant consumer bank, having boosted its customer base sevenfold, to 15 million, in six years, while pushing 75% of all transactions online. And ICICI's $150 million microcredit business is profitable and expanding fast. ICICI hopes to use its low cost base to expand in Canada and elsewhere.

Prahalad thinks U.S. financial institutions can learn from ICICI and microlenders in Latin America. "Some 45 million people in this country don't have or don't use bank accounts or ATMs because they are too expensive. So they use check-cashing services, bond brokers, and other alternatives," Prahalad explains. "If the financial industry can bring the poor into the organized sector, there is a tremendous opportunity."

Developing nations are at the forefront of cost reduction in other industries. Among the reasons Bharti can offer telecom service so cheaply, Prahalad says, is that it keeps capital costs down by outsourcing everything from its network infrastructure to IT systems and promotes use of prepaid cards that generate cash up front. By making service affordable to the masses, Bharti can lure millions more subscribers, gaining economies of scale, and entice them to rely on cell phones instead of PCs for Internet access. "Somebody will eventually clean up these business models and bring them to the U.S.," Prahalad predicts. "If high-tech and credit-card companies aren't following these trends, they will get hit."

Prahalad sees big changes ahead in manufacturing as well. GM, Ford (F ), and other auto makers increasingly outsource design and computer-simulated parts testing to Indian engineering-services firms. India also is rich in microelectronics design and high-quality precision auto-parts makers specializing in small-batch production. Before long, Prahalad predicts, Indian firms will be creating entire systems for Detroit -- such as dashboards and chassis -- that will cut development times and costs. "Many companies don't understand yet that outsourcing isn't about exporting jobs. It's about importing innovation," he says.

Healthier health care?
Prahalad thinks globalization also can help rein in America's soaring health-care costs. That's one reason he is studying Indian hospitals such as Narayana Hrudayalaya, founded by cardiac surgeon Dr. Devi Shetty. Some reasons for its low costs can't be easily replicated elsewhere. The land was owned by Shetty's family. The hospital's 25 foreign-trained surgeons earn half what they could in the U.S. Outsize malpractice awards are rare in India, so insurance costs are low. But the hospital also operates for free on anyone who cannot pay and on any infant younger than one month. For the rural poor, it runs 39 remote clinics and mobile-testing labs with satellite links that so far have treated 17,000 patients.

Some the of the biggest savings come from its business model. In the U.S., the chief surgeon manages the entire patient process, from testing and diagnosis to supervising the operating room, recuperation, and billing. Narayana works more like an assembly line: The surgeons perform only surgery.

That may seem like a recipe for shoddy care. But Shetty asserts it actually translates into fewer mistakes because specialists focus on what they do best. The 1.35% mortality rate for coronary bypasses and 2.7% rate for aortic valve replacements reported by Narayana are roughly half the average of U.S. hospitals, according to federal statistics, though those aren't the only measures of quality care. "The importance of volume isn't well understood in our industry," Shetty says. "A surgeon doing three or four operations a day does much better work than one doing three or four in a week." The factory approach also leads to economies of scale. The hospital uses all of its expensive CAT scanners and X-ray and magnetic-resonance machines to the max. "In the U.S., a lot of this infrastructure is used five days a week," says Shetty. "We use ours 14 hours a day, 7 days a week."

This raises intriguing questions. If Indian doctors can effectively diagnose and treat heart conditions in farmers in distant villages, why can't American consumers use videoconferencing to consult offshore specialists 24/7? Why can't an enterprising hospital chain bring Narayana's model to the U.S., or at least set up hospitals in Mexico or the Caribbean charging a fraction of U.S. prices? There are plenty of reasons this seems unlikely: Few Americans would tolerate the inability to collect big damages for mistakes, and it seems far-fetched that the U.S. medical Establishment would back sweeping liberalization to license offshore doctors to prescribe treatments. Or does such change seem impossible only because we are blinded by our "dominant logic"? Prahalad is confident that superior business models will eventually prevail. Just gaze into the kaleidoscope, give it a twist, and the implausible in the 21st century global economy becomes more realistic than you might ever imagine.

By Pete Engardio

In the name of Marasim - March 27

2010-03-26T23:58:00.007-04:00

From: Pehle se marasim.. thru.. Kis kis ko batayengay..?

=========================================

From: Dafn kar do humen ki saans milay.. thru .. ek tasleem laazmi si hai.. (line not in this snippet)

=========================================

From: Maazi ki ruswai bhi .. thru ... Khaamoshi ki haasil bhi

=========================================

Tashvi-March2010

2010-03-26T05:28:00.001-04:00

Best of Poonam Dhillon

2010-03-20T23:05:00.008-04:00

# 1 Gapuchi Gapuchi Gam Gam
(Increase the volume, but only for this song)

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# 2 Aaja Re (Noorie Title song)

Downside to this song: The male playback singer is the "Chaandi ki cycle, sone ki seat" wala.

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# 3 Chori Chori Koyi Aaye

---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ----------

# 4 Pyaar Ka Dard Hai Meetha Meetha

---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ----------

# 5 Tu Tu Hai Wahi

---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ----------

# 6 Hum Jis Raste Pe Chale

---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ----------

# 7 Yeh Zameen Gaa Rahi Hai

---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ----------

# 8 Maang Loonga Main Tujhe Taqdeer Se

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Tashu.. like to be a Senator? (Vol 1)

2010-03-16T23:09:00.003-04:00

I've watched a PBS video on human trafficking in Russia and parts of Eastern Europe and I was shocked! Then came the article below on tehelka.com. I've not had the courage in my lifetime to think about, let alone work for victims of human trafficking. I have the loser's hope that passing the buck to Tashu absolves me of doing nothing.

Tashu.. would you grow up to be a Senator or Congresswoman some day? Seems like the best shot at improving human condition, including that highlighted in the article below.

(Source: http://tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne011108cover_story.asp)

Barack 1 year on

2010-02-27T06:09:00.012-05:00

I am not much into politics, really, whether in India or in the U.S. For me, there are no good or bad politicians, only smart and outsmarted politicians. There are though, dumb and dumber electorates. That's about elections.

About public policy - again, there are no good or bad administrators. There are only the inadvertently irresponsible, the moderately irresponsible, and the nakedly irresponsible. All that is enough to make politics fairly uninteresting for me. Nevertheless, ignoring cockroaches and ignoring politics, doesn't quite make for a hygienic livelihood, does it? So here I go..

Barack Obama.. what were my thoughts 1 year ago? (chronologically)
- Too young to run for the White House
- The guy whose campaign allegedly called Hillary Clinton the 'President of Punjab', causing me to think I was done supporting him
- The guy who won back my humble opinion after the one line "affordable health care" as opposed to Hillary's "universal health care"
- The guy who ran almost unopposed after my initial choice, John McCain, moved from 'immigration reform' (irrespective of whether it favored me or not - as long as it ended up being more humane to blue-collar workers of all skins) to 'drill-baby-drill' to style-over-substance by his choice of vice-presidential candidate

Barack Obama.. an year on (chronologically)

- Deserves the benefit of time (it has been just 1 of 4 years - or maybe 8 if the Republicans continue to trust the waters more than the sails, to take them to the shore)

- On foreign policy: Has made a calculated move on Afghanistan, though I fear it might not work. Let history judge the move. He hasn't done much else that's bold/decisive other than some good speeches. Obama - you get a 2 out of 5 on my book, as you failed to appear for several exams in the first place, notably the Middle-East one where I think you want to appear for the exam a few years from now.

- On healthcare: I too think he overlearnt the lesson from the Clinton era experience, by outsourcing too much to Congress and Senate. I wish he had rather picked a page from Bush-43's book and said "those that don't support healthcare reform are not patriotic enough". Who the hell cares if 43 was wrong in posing such a question when it came to the Iraq War - the move was so effective, even the likes of Hillary Clinton fell for a war I thought was pretty dumb, one favoring nobody but defense contractors. Anyway, Obama - you get 1 out of 5 for not learning enough from those you don't think highly of (and I don't either). On the healthcare policy itself - I wish I knew what it was about to be able to rate it on a scale of 1 to 5; fact is, I don't.

- On the economy: I will never know whether his finance team truly saved us all from a depression-style economy - I will have to go by the likes of Warren Buffett and many others who say so. I just think he has attempted to play safe - he has 'kicked the problem down the road' and hasn't truly favored the bitter pill right here right now. Obama - you get 2 out of 5 on my book, both those 2 points thanks to Warren Buffett and Co.

- On all others: While you've been on the cable tv more often than not, I don't really know of much meat I could gather. Come boneless next time!

Tashvi video (revisiting her first 1 month)

2010-01-14T23:27:00.005-05:00

http://java.smugmug.com/Children/Tashvi-Videos/10940180_NJVMC#764252538_cUZNV

I recommend seeing Full Screen with Stretch = ON

====================================================

These days though, she looks like this ..

SLR ki jai ho!

2010-01-06T00:00:00.001-05:00

Doll # 2: Tina Munim

2010-01-05T22:37:00.003-05:00

*From the archives*

I'll come to Doll # 1 later. For now let's start counting dolls starting with # 2:

These songs are sorted in the order in which I was able to search them. I am skipping "Uthe sabke kadam" and "Tu tu hai wahi" because they were covered previously in this blog.

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# 1 Jeevan ke din chote sahi - with Rishi Kapoor

What to watch out for? - Not much, because this is a Rishi Kapoor show. Let's make it an appetizer round - you can watch how a doll stands when listening to a party song.

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# 2 Dard-e-dil, dard-e-jigar

What to watch out for? - Again not much in the appetizer round - it's another Rishi Kapoor show. You can watch how a doll hides (with a head scarf) when listening to a song in a live performance.

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# 3 Kahin na jaa

What to watch out for? Not Tina Munim, not Rishi Kapoor. It's R.D. Burman's music. Jeez, this round is a teaser round.. not getting more of her songs quick enough, but I promise the next song is going to be a main course..

*** If you had to listen to only one song in this post, listen to this song. *** It is an unusual choice considering some of the more reputable songs on this post. However, that's my recommendation.

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# 4 Suniye Kahiye

Possibly the movie I'll remember her most by, possibly the song I'll remember her most by, and the red-and-white dress is possibly the outfit I'll remember her most by.

What to watch out for? - Doll dressed in red-and-white stripes. A close second would be the same doll in a white top and pink skirt. And the third would be the same doll wearing a jumper over a full sleeved top.

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# 5 Kya yahi pyaar hai

What to watch out for? R.D. Burman's music of course! Also, watch her paired with the son of Nargis and Sunil Dutt.. making his debut (was it?) - struggling to act, almost passing off for a college drop out. I don't want to mention his career after that.

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# 6 Shayad meri shaadi ka khayal

What to watch out for? Doll caught in a fishing net.

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# 7 Main solah baras ki

What to watch out for? The jumpers over a white top.. again.

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p.s: So who's doll # 1? -> My wife, of course.

Pappa's Lamborghini

2009-12-11T02:15:00.000-05:00

*From the archives*

Hare and Tortoise

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In case you find it difficult to follow, here's the transcript (Source: indianguitartabs.com)

2 yuppies in middle management race, one with brains one with phace
Tortoise car was on phinance money, Rabbit brought Pappa's Lamborghini

He drove on 120 ka speed! Was in the lead .. so got down for chai!
Lamborghini refused to start! RAM JAANE WHyyY? (chorus: whyyyy)

Tortoise came first with ease .. Told secretary and all colleagues..

His car was right battery was wroooong .. my Amaron lasts long really long
BOLO! Lasts long really long lasts long really long ..
Dhing tang Dhing tang Dhing tang Thish!

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I could not find a follow-up ad with Pandu and Mangal. But you can find more about that creative team here.

Stroll # 1: The "Roz" garden

2009-12-10T17:39:00.001-05:00

*From the archives*

Starting today's post, I'd like to take you out on a stroll. Let's start with the "Roz" garden.

CAUTION:

1) Patience pays (Read: You may find some songs boring; try again some other time; one day you'll love the song)

2) Never a rose without the prick (Read: "Click on the advertisements at your own risk")

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1) Roz Roz Ankhon Tale

The gud-ka-zaika line: Choti si dil ki uljhan hai, yeh suljha do tum

Video in case you don't mind the actor and actress:

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2) Ek roz main tadap kar

The gud-ka-zaika line: Main tera naam loonga

Get this widget

Track details

eSnips Social DNA

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Songs that my mind has somehow not been completely "sold into". But you can give it a shot..

1) Jiske sapne humein roz aatey rahey

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2) Roz shaam aati thi, magar aisi na thi

Guzzlers - Vol 1

2009-12-10T17:13:00.001-05:00

*From the archives*

Ghazals scare me!

Let me say that again - ghazals scare me. They have the ability to depress me at the slightest provocation. I have consciously avoided them for some years now. I'll speak of a few ghazals that I am aware of, along with honorable mentions of a few of my friends who introduced me to ghazals in various measures and at various times in my past.

The first one is for a friend, Rakesh Dharmala, who happens to be a Jagjit Singh fan. The lines he managed to etch on my mind go by... "aisa toh kam hee hota hai, woh bhi ho, tanhayi bhi". Let's start with an introduction by Gulzar..

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1. Ek Puraana Mausam Lauta

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This one is for a friend Rahul Zutshi, whom I vividly recollect having introduced me to the title line during another friend's (Anand Surelia) send-off party some 10 years ago. Send-off parties, btw, meant an evening of just sitting together with friends and singing away all evening. Some would share a drink with you, and some, like Rahul, would be teetotalers wondering why the drunkards (bar the bards) had to resort to drinking. Anyway, the guzzle..

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2. Jinke honthon pe haseen paanv mein chaale hongay

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3. This one is for another friend, Sandeep Deo, who succeeded in a few things while I failed him in some others. He succeeded in educating me on appreciating lyricists (Sahir Ludhianvi, Madan Mohan) and ghazals of Mehdi Hasan. I failed to pick up on his leads on literature and Western music.

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The rest, I dedicate to myself :-). Why not? Well, it's also to a few other folks that cared to share the same school of music with me. The next 2 ghazals are from an album called "Marasim", the set of ghazals I most listened to.

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4. Shaam Se Aankh Mein: There was something about the video of this ghazal that I liked. Hence, I'll go ahead and pamper myself with a video instead of just the music link.
The gud-ka-zaika line: "Koyi rishta nahi raha phir bhi, ek tasleem laazmi si hai" . Unfortunately, the paragraph with these lines doesn't find its way into the video below.

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5. Din Kuch Aise Guzaarta Hai Koyi
The gud-ka-zaika line "aina dekhkar yeh tasalli huyi, humko is ghar mein jaanta hai koyi"

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I covered "Chupke Chupke" and "Mujhe Tum Nazar Se" in other posts on this blog, so I won't bring those here. How about the following to finish this post?

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6. Ranjish hi sahi
The gud-ka-zaika line: "Pehle se marasim na sahi, phir bhi kabhi toh.."

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A country in denial

2009-12-09T06:48:00.003-05:00

I would think the US should pride itself on the fact that this is a country that 'accepts' change far more easily than any country on Earth. I don't necessarily mean the law 'accepting' the change as much as a man on the street accepting it in his mind. A few examples, with comparisons mostly with India:

# 1. Having a person of a different racial background at your workplace.. is accepted far more in the U.S than say in India. Try having a person from the African subcontinent in an Indian workplace.

# 2. If a child growing into adulthood were to say to his parents that he/she was gay, the parents, whether they go through hoops or not, would eventually accept the fact and get on with life. This might not quite happen even 60-70% of the time, but definitely far more often than in India.

# 3. If a child were to claim to the parents that he/she was abused as a child by a family friend and/or a stranger, the parents would not just be supportive and healing, but would also go after the accused in a fairly public way. They wouldn't seek to hush the whole thing up - at least not always. In India, how many times in a country of 1 billion, have you heard of a court case related to child abuse? Not many times I would think. You might say that the laws might not be adequately helpful, or that the parents are too poor, or that the justice system is generally less trustworthy, but despite all that, I would argue that there is a 'denial' aspect that convinces parents to just seek to hush things up.

There are more examples, but I wish to move to the point of my whole posting.

Why in case of the 'housing crash' that's been happening since 2005/2006, is there so much denial in U.S society? I've met in years past, people who lost 90% of their stock investment value put in bubble-era technology stocks. None of them told me they are hopeful that they'll recoup most of their investment back after 5-6 years or so. However, when it comes to housing, someone might just have lost $100k in the value of their home, but they'll always find a way to sweeten the bad news. Typical examples of sweeteners:

(A) I locked into a lower interest rate, so I have no problem at all even if prices are lower.
(B) Prices will come back up to where they were in 5-6 years from now, so I am ok.

Banks that have actual mortgage loans (or their derivatives) sitting on their balance sheet, are in denial as well. They won't even 'sell' the home at a loss (aka 'short sale') and instead wait it out until the homeowner vandalizes the home on his way out into foreclosure.

The otherwise 'smart/intelligent/well-read' Mr. President and his government do everything in their power to sustain home prices, even if they are aware that perhaps the real solution is not to sustain the prices, but to put it to best use to assist those in distress due to the housing crash or generally, a weak economy. For instance, I'd argue that it is better to assist a factory worker who has been laid off towards retraining him (*however difficult*) into a more sustainable career (*again, I don't know what would be a good sustainable career except in fields involving higher education*) rather than spend taxpayer dollars on helping a person earning $50k per year retain a $500k home.

All in all, the U.S is still in denial about the 'housing' crash. Perhaps I am making my argument too soon. Give it another 5 years, and I'm sure everyone will come to accept the facts. That's how I'd expect an American to be - "to not be in denial forever".

Compliments Bar - Vol # 1

2009-11-11T07:51:00.011-05:00

I thought I'd pick a handful of compliments I've given in my little lifetime. Unfortunately, since my memory doesn't always serve me right, I've had to rely on my Sent Mails, which brought me to plenty of left-handed compliments. They are compliments anyway!

Ranjan George - Nov 11 2009

Background: This is a Facebook comment on a picture of Ranjan lying flat on his back with his eyes closed, and with his new born baby lying on top of him, eyes closed as well. The picture till it lasts on Facebook is here.

Congratulations old pal! You look as serene in your sleep as you did in Pearl hostel ages ago-I thought it customary to glance through your window as I passed. Lo here I pass again and there's a doll joining you! Some things just get better with time. Wine does and so do you with your life.

Best Wishes to Sneha and you!
Java

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A certain "Zutshi" - Feb 07 2005

Hey Zutshi:

Belated Happy 4th Wedding Anniversary! Sorry, I missed
it out 2 days ago. Happened to recollect my chutka
gift of a soft-toy bull-dog, the train journey that
was bitterly cold, the inconvenience to your folks as
I conveniently fell sick, and all this right under the
nook of a curfew which I finally got to see in life
:). Well good times for sure, memorable ones - and
will miss those moments with your childhood friends.
Am so sorry am not able to recollect their names. I
can't forget the day either when one of them passed
away in the scooter accident barely days before
getting married. I share the pain you expressed in
your mail that folloowed. If he could somehow read
this mail in heaven and share the few good memories!

On another note, happened to inaugurate your much more
useful gift - the diningware. Felt really good eating
on the plates, and am eagerly looking to have some tea
in the cups. TEA reminds me of Kashmiri tea from our
college days.. kawa is the name I suppose. Really had
to wait till the middle of the night for the rest of
the hostel to sleep, before the tea came out of the
closet.. I mean the trunk. Each wait was worth every
sip. It's been a good 8-9 years since then.. and it
tastes good even now. You didn't make that again when
I visited you twice in California, did you?

Anyway, my best wishes to Swati (spelt Swathi in
Tamil) and you on your 5th year together! My best
wishes to Kunsh too who's given you company for the
last year and 4 months. And when you next call up your
parents, do let them know how fondly I recollect that
wedding eve 4 years ago. Tell them I recollect
everything from the moment the elderly driver and I
struggled to get in touch at the airport, to my
conversation with your Dad after eunuchs graced the
happy occasion, to the trip to the local departmental
store with your sister and you, to Jammu in the train
and back, to your maternal grandpa's advise on health
and everything else that happened that week. For
someone who loves to swim in memory lane so often, I
have enough to cherish for a long time to come.

Well.. have a good week ahead!

Ciao!
Java

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An Austin resident - Nov 25 2007

Vasu and I very much loved visiting you and spending time with you, Surya and Aditi. Would of course have been even better if Rajesh were around, but glad to catch up with him over the phone :-). We just loved your home a lot - Vasu and I took an extra special liking for the extended counter top in your kitchen. Overall, we found your home very spacious, well-lighted, and the kind that made us feel like owning one such. I guess it is also about the warmth of the folks that own it :-). Thank you for hosting us and treating us to great food and company, and tending to our smallest need. We hope to do at least half as much when you visit us. Please do consider visiting the DC area - before Vasu and I move out (if at all it shapes up that way).

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Another Austin resident - Nov 25 2007

Thank you very much for hosting us last week - ab kahan say shuru karen.. first thing, we show up on a week day, woh bhi 1 ghanta late - tumhari chai thandi ho gayee thi. And we get treated to awesome.. truly awesome food. It was the kind that impresses mothers-in-law, not just mere mortals like Vasu and I. I do hope you understand that's a compliment :-). Anyway, it was also the kind that one could wait years to be treated to.

Accha ab Suppi ko ek minute mujhe ek sawal karna hai .. "Suppi Sinha Roy, kya main pooch sakta hoon ki aapney meri gair-haazri mein Vasu ko woh Macy's card kyo diya? Ab Vasu koyi nayi-naveli dulhan thodi hai?" But anyway, thanks a lot for that too. Now for the cliche - "Ab iski kya zaroorat thi".

We are sorry we landed so late, we couldn't spend enough time with Sahana or with you. Now I am no good with kids, but I was just about to ask her the list of synonyms/antonyms. Sahas had truly prepared me to quiz whom he called "ET ki genius beti". She's truly a doll!

Overall - liked Austin a lot, and your beautiful home too - I'd have loved it even more during the day, esp. the backyard. All that is such a luxury in Virginia. If not for the traffic, would have landed a little earlier and spent more time. The wine did really kick me into talking more than I had imagined. Khair, some other time. Not sure if you'd happen to visit DC any time soon, but if you do, could you please visit us?

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A blog fan - Jan 20 2008

In response to blog fan's email -> "The blog is very interesting (and as usal- well written!) - and the "wet bar" was really nice trip down memory lane- "pahla nasha" was when I finally in tears!"

My response:

Dhanyawaad!
(I am almost saying it like Amitabh Bachchan saying Dhanyawaad in the song "Ke Pag ghungroo bandh" .. to just remind he, he utters a few lines with the audience saying wah-wah)

I am glad you liked the Wet Bar section. I didn't know the songs to be so powerful; I guess they are.

Ab house hunting ka toh yeh haal hai .. (again remembering from an Amitabh dialogue-with-mausi in Sholay) - "ki Austin mein ek baar naukri mil jaaye, toh apne aap house hunting process shuru ho jaayega

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A certain "Basha" and a certain "Kingshuk" - April 18 2008

Background: (1) Basha is married to a Turk. (2) Baby-faced Kingshuk keeps getting sent to England no matter how many employers he changes.

Hi Basha,

Now that you chose to spam everyone in the mailing list, let me not disappoint you by not including everybody in our intimate conversations...

Java - I got that name coz my grand-dad went by the name of Javaji.. which ended up being my middle name. I used to get called out in the classroom with that name, much to everyone's amusement. Somebody finally decided to put me out of my misery by formally calling me Java... a couple of years before Sun released Java.

Kingshuk.. no, I don't know if he has a kid. Would be difficult for me to figure out who is the parent and who is the child if I see Kingshuk with his child in a family photo.. You are waiting to see him on Big Brother? I am waiting for him to be named Sir Kingshuk Banerjee.. the Queen must be searching her closet for the sword with which she says .. "Arise Sir Kingshuk.. ". Kingshuk must have contributed, besides paying taxes (and late fees), enormously to the literary circles in the British Isles. I can't imagine him not being knighted.

You dieting? Well maybe you'll finally start looking like Abbas.. (the movie actor).. I always thought you resembled him a bit, though nobody (including you) seemed to agree with me in college. Send in some pictures, will you? As for your learning Turkish, if you haven't picked it up in all these years, I doubt you'll pick it up any more (right, I do mean to discourage you - if I can't speak my mother tongue well, how dare you learn another language!!!).

- Java (born decaffeinated)

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Doll # 6: Grace Kelly (right, Hollywood joins in)

2009-11-03T23:13:00.000-05:00

*From the archives*

My doll series is taking a big turn now.. I had planned on having good songs to go with my posts, but I figure it doesn't hurt to stretch things a bit and include dolls that rightly would never have had a chance to grace Hindi movies..

Most of us grow up to not live up to the names our parents have given us (Note: I am talking about Indian names, that always have a meaning associated with the name). In the days of depression (1929), the parents of this doll gave her a name, a name she lived up to - Grace!

My favorite part of the video above: Grace in a blue dress entering the home... both instances - one, where she has a bouquet of flowers in her hand, and also the one where she doesn't have a bouquet.. :-)

P.S: For those interested in Zodiac signs, it doesn't hurt that she was a Scorpio.

Lady with the scarf

2009-11-03T22:26:00.004-05:00

I've never fully watched the movie Serendipity, but one thing I'll always remember about the movie as I watched some 5 random minutes of the movie => the lady with the scarf. Kate Beckinsale may or may not have caught my attention otherwise, but with the scarf, she'd always catch my eye.

I don't quite think I'd put her in the Doll Series. I considered, but then chose not to. BTW, it has nothing to do with the fact that Doll # 1 doesn't think highly of Kate's looks.

About my choice of video: I searched through so many other videos of hers, and figured, I'll stay true to what I'll remember her best by - the scarf.

*Preferably watch the video below in HD*

Age of changing stripes - to Red, White and Blue

2009-11-01T08:37:00.016-05:00

Daylight Savings Time

1999: I had just landed in the U.S for only the 2nd time in my life. This time, quite unknown to me at that time, I was moving for a much longer-term (read: 10 years through this year). One thing that puzzled me was when people changed clocks in October. I thought it was another of those cases of an American comparing himself to the Englishman and saying -> if your car has a right hand drive, mine will have left hand drive. If you turn ON the lights by switching DOWN, I'll do so by switching UP.. and so on. The fact, unknown to me at that time, is that even Britain has Daylight Savings Time. Perhaps it is safe to say - before prejudice, there's ignorance.

2009: I love the fact that, thanks to Daylight Savings Time, when I get back from work during the summers, there's always enough sunshine to go about my evening chores as though I left early from work. Up until 2001, I used to rush to the basketball or the tennis courts. These days it's about grocery shopping or a quiet drive through Virginian meadows. All in all, I've taken to Daylight Savings Time as a child would to a pool of water.. suspecting at first, but once in, it is so much fun! Ducks are different.

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News

1999: I got sick of news here in 1999. I couldn't relate to a thing on CNN or Fox News. I had a tougher time understanding what the news-readers spoke, or the jokes they had a good laugh at. I thought the whole of the country had a one-track mind, with an inability to look beyond the country's borders. An occasional peep into the world outside was more of a high-school grade news coverage, laden with... what else, prejudice and ignorance.

2009: I watch Charlie Rose (nightly) and Fareed Zakaria GPS (every Sunday) regularly. I also watch CNBC, though I've gotten somewhat bored of it lately. CNN has gotten much better, and Fox News much worse - though I don't bother wasting my time on either of them. There are some free channels like WHUT that are quite informative. By the way, I get the jokes (finally) and enjoy them. Now, whenever I watch Indian news channels (AajTak, Headline News, etc.), I feel like puking.

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(to be continued.)

Age of crumbling adamance - Vol 1

2009-10-17T19:32:00.007-04:00

Orange juice: In the summer of 2005, I remember saying to a family acquaintance - "There's no way I can have my dinner without orange juice, especially if I have to eat rice". That'll change, I was told. That winter, as I turned 30, I went for that general blood check-up to see if my cholesterol and triglycerides were in check. Ever since, I've learnt to live without orange juice in my daily life.

Uninterrupted sleep: I remember saying that all my life - "Once I go to sleep, there's no way I can wake up until the next morning. I fear I might sleep through a fire accident too." For the record, when in college, I've slept off many a time without finishing my study for the exam next day. Sleep for me wasn't something I could control - like the breeze blowing, it would just come to me every night when it had to. I would just succumb. Then came the spring of 2009, when I had to partake in baby care. Now, just as one can close the window when the breeze blows, I wake up at the first (or maybe third) cry of my daughter.

Hindi music: I remember saying in my years leading up to my marriage - "It is supremely important that my wife to be and I share a very similar taste when it came to Hindi music. In case there's nothing else to share, at least there'll be Hindi music." It's another matter I did end up with someone that shares the taste. On a quiet evening like today when there's time to think, I wonder if it would have mattered at all had my wife not shared in my taste for Hindi music. It would have, but not nearly as much as I made it out to be 5 years ago.

Tennis: I once said to a friend years ago - "What? I'll have to make do with dusty tennis courts like this, if I have to live in India? This alone is good enough for me to stay back in the U.S". It's again another matter that I did end up settling back in the U.S, but I've been to a tennis court less than a dozen times in the 10 years since I first said that.

With Malice towards "Sexy and the City"

2009-08-23T12:39:00.002-04:00

Credit to Khushwant Singh for his column series - With Malice Towards One and All.

On the TV program "Sex and the City"
My wife loves this program so much, I feel compelled to share my thoughts:

From the viewpoint of entertainment value - I'd advise girls to go ahead watch it and enjoy themselves.
From the reality perspective - for all I know, what the program states might in fact be true for a good number of people in New York City.
From the script viewpoint - I think I've liked it a lot; there's a tasteful mix of pun, including in the punchlines for the episodes.
From the directorial viewpoint - I think it's a thumbs up there too. The most notable aspect for me is that the main character is shown with her faults; there's no attempt to portray the person as a saint.

Now to what I don't like about the program - like many Hollywood romantic flicks of late, it attempts to portray as reality something like the following:

Commitment in a romantic relationship is a big deal; it'll take you at least 20 years (starting with your first date in high school) before you can be lucky enough to find someone to settle down with.

That the opposite sex (men in this case) are complex beings from some other planet; chances are that 9 out of 10 men you come across will have something weird about them.

That pre-marital sex is not just common, it is simply as natural as having a glass of water when you are thirsty.

While I want to be careful to say the above might in fact even be true for at least some people, here's what I think of relationships:

No education is worth it if you don't have a degree to show for it; no relationship is worth its salt if you don't have a marriage to show for it.

Like good education, good marriages don't come without sacrifice.

Like education again, marriages aren't gifts that a caring parent or friend can just give you.

In your college, if your choice of major is wrong, you can't just blame the major for your inability to succeed despite your honest attempts at studying. Likewise, in marriages, if your choice of a life partner is wrong, you can't just blame it on your partner if the marriage doesn't work out. Like changing majors, you are allowed to divorce and choose a new partner. Remember though, that you can't just keep changing majors as and when you want. At some point, you just back your instincts and stay put with the major you've chosen.

Education isn't something you just achieve the day you graduate; the day you graduate is the beginning of your education for the rest of your life. All of us have heard something to that effect spoken of during graduation speeches. Only some of us remember that sentence as we go through life. Replace "education" with marriage and "graduation day" with "wedding day" - and it'll all just fit in.

Like education, there is no perfection in marriage either. You just do your best, and chances are that you'll have a rewarding career and a rewarding life.

Kids growing up don't love to study, but I see no celebrated TV programs that tell children how difficult education can be and that they should delay graduating for as many years as they possibly can. Why then should I celebrate a program that suggests the same about marriage?

With Malice Towards "Michael Jackson" (and his clansmen)

2009-07-04T23:02:00.039-04:00

Credit to Khushwant Singh for his column series - With Malice Towards One and All.

On "Michael Jackon" and his clansmen (aka Bollywood movie criminals)

Much of the world will remember the last 2 weeks for one thing - the death of Michael Jackson. When I first heard the news, my first reaction was to move on to the next TV channel as if I didn't care. 2 weeks since then, I still don't care. While I am not much into Western music, I had huge respect for the maker of "Beat It". I lost it all when the first allegations against him of child abuse surfaced. For me, he is no more than a criminal who got away, thanks to his money. His death is an unspeakable loss to music, yet good riddance as far I am concerned.

For me it does not matter what good deeds one has done. If someone, especially someone famous, commits a crime, then for the rest of my life I'll be able to see that person through only one prism. I wouldn't care if up until the crime, the person was Stalin or Mother Teresa. I don't even care if the legal system finds the person guilty. The rich and the famous will always attract con men who come up with false allegations to get money. But sometimes, you just know that the accused is guilty. It is for that reason that I have no qualms equating to toilet paper, the likes of Michael Jackson, Salman Khan, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sanjay Dutt, and more recently, Shiney Ahuja. To their undying fan followers, I have two words - Sorry knuckleheads!

Switching to the topic of knuckleheads, I wonder why most of them, despite their educated background, don't have better human beings to put on the pedestal. I can understand love for entertainers - from Hollywood and Bollywood to music and sports. What I can't fathom is blind love for the disgraceful lot within these entertainers. I may not share in a Bollywood fan's respect for Abhishek Bachchan and Hritik Roshan, while I might share in his respect for Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan. I might even be a loner in my respect for the likes of Irfan Khan, K.K.Menon, Ranvir Shourey, and Vinay Pathak. What I'd expect from an educated person is a boycott of any of the above-mentioned folks were any of the latter be accused of crimes ranging from shooting an endangered species, cultivating underworld friends for advancing their career, gun-running, match-fixing, to plain first degree murder. Not quite so I understand. Knuckleheads tend to raise the pedestal carrying the criminals, even higher.

After T20 cricket, let's do a T80!

2009-06-27T07:06:00.036-04:00

Following the success of T20 cricket, the shortest version of the game, I'd like to propose having a T80! What's that?

-> 80 overs a side spread over 2 days
-> 1 innings per team
-> Whoever makes more runs at the end of the 2 days, wins the match

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One major change: Instead of Team 1 batting all of Day 1 and Team 2 batting all of Day 2, how about this?

One team bats the first half of Day 1 (40 overs) then "pauses" innings; they'll then "resume" batting in the second half of Day 2 (40 overs). Total = 40 + 40 = 80 overs.

The opposing team starts batting on the second half of Day 1, and bats through the first half of Day 2 (80 overs straight).

REASON for the above change:

To sustain audience interest -> Everyone wants to see a bit of batting (and bowling) from their favorite team on each of the 2 days.
To keep the match "balanced" -> If Team 1 starts out badly on Day 1, everybody does not have to go through the misery of watching them bat slowly through the day. Come the 2nd half of the day, and you have Team 2 batting, and with Team 1 with a chance to redeem themselves with some good bowling. Keep the match interesting till the last ball is bowled!
To manage "weather" scares -> What if Day 2 is entirely rained out? You'll still have a match result using Duckworth-Lewis. (Note: Duckworth-Lewis is currently used only for T20 and 1-day matches, but assume it gets adapted for T80).

REASON for not having Team 1 bat in the first half of both days:

Ah! Dangerous, isn't it? Whoever bats first on both days has to contend with the moving ball in the first 30-40 minutes of the day. Whoever bats second on both days, on the other hand, benefit from the conditions ideally suited for batting.

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Other rules:

The same ball is used for a Team through innings.

Stricter rules than Test Cricket for wides: Any ball going down the leg side is a wide. For "off side" wides, rules be as strict as in 1-day / T20 cricket.

Stricter rules than Test Cricket for no balls: Generally, 1-day / T20 cricket rules apply, including the 1 bouncer per over rule.

PowerPlay rules: Except the last 10 overs of each innings, the whole match has PowerPlay rules with a restriction of only 3 (not 2) players outside the circle.

PowerPlay rules (continued.): The fielding side gets two "5 over passes" per innings, periods during which they can get skip the PowerPlay rules. The first pass should should be taken within the first 40 overs. The second should be taken within the first 60 overs.

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Why T80 at all?

-> Something for the purists who can't really spend 5 days waiting for a Test match result.

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Why have PowerPlay when the version is intended for purists? Nobody wants almighty swings of the bat like you have in T20s. Then why have PowerPlays?

-> For the fielding side: The idea is to simply encourage wicket-taking as opposed to the fielding side setting defensive fields for the whole innings.
-> For the batting side: Even if you have field restrictions, the Gayles and the Sehwags won't just be swinging their bats all day. Instead, having 60 overs of 3-players-outside-the-circle encourages the batsmen into taking calculated risks.
-> All this while you also savour Test match like innings from batsmen and bowlers alike.

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EXAMPLES OF "RIVETING" MATCH SITUATIONS:

SCENARIO 1:

Team currently batting needs 80 runs to win the match on Day 2
40 overs to go
Unfortunately, there are only 3 wickets remaining. Here's why this situation emerged:

When this team batted on Day 1, they "went after" the bowling team and scored 270 runs in 40 overs, but lost 7 wickets in the process. The opposing team decided to quietly bat out their 80 overs and score 349 runs, accelerating towards the last 10 overs.

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SCENARIO 2:

There is a 60% chance of rain washing out Day 2.
Rain is also forecast for the last hour of Day 1. Bottomline: Duckworth-Lewis will definitely come into play.
The team batting first is currently at 100/1 in 25 overs. So effectively the team has 15 more overs to bat, after which the opposing team will bat for likely about 25 overs.

Question 1: Should the batting side captain ask his team to accelerate the scoring OR preserve wickets? Remember, they have lost only 1 wicket which puts them in an advantageous position with the Duckworth-Lewis method (Note again: Assume that the D-L method has been modified to cover the T80 format which is a little different from the T20 and 1 dayers)

Question 2: The fielding captain has not yet used his first "5 over pass". He has to use it over the next 15 overs. Should he use it right now, or wait till 35 overs are complete?

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Happy Birthday Sahassio!

2009-06-12T23:56:00.003-04:00

I rarely wish my friends on their birthdays, and even less so through this blog. But it so happened that my song of the day seems to have fit someone born this very day. I've known him through the years to be a flamboyant romantic. While I don't quite think he has ever heard this song, who cares - I like the song. This goes out to him, his wife, and his lovely twin angels.

Sahassio - Wishing You A Very Happy Birthday!

If the video link doesn't work, try the audio link further down.

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Tere Liye Palkon Ki Jhalar

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The Hazard of Oz - 70 years on

2009-06-04T21:36:00.028-04:00

It's the 70th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz. As far as the colored inhabitants of Australia are concerned, it's a Hazard of Oz. Both Dorothy Gale and Sravan Kumar Theerthala dream of a better place "somewhere over the rainbow" and reach Oz in the process. The former is a fairy tale, the latter is reality 70 years on.

Simply said, some parts of Aussie cities are witnessing increasing crimes committed against Indians studying in Australian universities. My thoughts:

THOUGHT # 1: Note this line for a second. "Stabbed with a screwdriver!" What the **** is that? And it's no ordinary stabbing. While it is too early to say, it could well be "Stabbed to death with a screwdriver" or "Stabbed to memory loss with a screwdriver". I can't help digging up a part of Australian history, perhaps left untamed by civility. Perhaps I like their American counterparts better - a gunshot and you rest in peace. Long live the cowboys and their guns! It's much like falling prey to a tiger/lion vs. falling prey to wild dogs. If you read how wild dogs hunt their prey, you'll pray to have a choice on how to die.

Thought for the day: Screwdriver!

THOUGHT # 2: Notice how crime peaks, whether hate crime or otherwise, during periods of high unemployment. That's it! You just have to be extra careful and thoughtful about times like these in any part of the world. Animals turn extra-wild when kept hungry for long periods. Why can't the same be true of humans without employment?

Thought for the day: It is the economy stupid!

THOUGHT # 3: Many people think it's a hate crime. I agree, but only partially. Hate cannot manifest itself smack dab in the middle of a recession alone. Why has the frequency increased only now? The answer is that the "hungry animal" (aka unemployed individual) looks for the easiest prey. Who better to pick than a brown colored foreigner in Oz, who without a local family and strong social structure (except for a few friends), will surrender his cash tamely and die an unfortunate death, while the incident forces his fellow countrymen to catch the next flight home - increasing your chances of hunting for the few jobs available. Why wouldn't you use this "opportunity"?

Thought for the day: Like the Oz policemen say, it's not a so much a hate crime as it is an opportunistic crime!

P.S: My deepest sympathies to families of those affected by these crimes.

IPL # 2: Predictions and Misses

2009-05-23T15:29:00.010-04:00

The IPL Season 2 Final is tomorrow. Thought I'd take a few minutes to review my own rankings/predictions from an earlier post.

Of the Top Four teams I predicted, Three made it (viz. Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad)!
At the end of the round robin 56 matches, 5 out of 8 teams stood at exactly the same rankings as I had predicted. Specifically: # 1 Delhi, # 4 Hyderabad, # 5 Punjab, # 6 Rajasthan, # 8 Kolkata.
In the 56 round robin matches, teams I supported won 59% of the time!

Am I not thrilled at beating the odds on my predictions? I certainly am. However, I am fairly disappointed with myself that I did not simply support the same teams I supported last year: Hyderabad and Bangalore! When I made my predictions last year supporting these 2 teams, both of them came at the bottom 2. When I changed my rankings this year, they came at the Top 2!!

A letter to a friend

2009-05-17T07:23:00.039-04:00

Dear Mr. Advani,

The BJP lost in the 2009 elections. It's ok! Thought I should share some thoughts of mine.

---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ----------

What could you have done differently?

That's always difficult to say. You'll have a thousand ideas from others by now. I'd have liked you to have done the following. I am sure you'd have thought about each of these, and decided against these.

[# 1] Have Modi and you acknowledge that the 2002-Gujarat riots were a self-inflicted wound on a self-respecting nation. Ideally, I'd have liked everyone from Modi to the foot-soldier on the street to be prosecuted for what they did. At the very least, at least an apology of the Congress-kind for the 1984 riots would have been face saving. I don't care that Modi won the state elections in 2002 and then in 2007. On my books, he and his government committed a crime, and the Vajpayee-led government, and you as the then Home Minister, let that happen. All talk about it being a "good lesson" for Muslims, is wrong. The victims were for a good part, the poorest of the poor, the weakest of the weak. For the 7th year now, you are in denial. Knowing you, I know you realize it was wrong. I am waiting for you to acknowledge it some day..

Target Audience for # 1:
- (Retention) Every supporter of yours driven by conscience.
- (Growth) Every supporter that you failed to cultivate by the time of the 1999 elections.
- (Cleanup) Every supporter of yours who lives in denial on 2002-Gujarat; they can either change their views for good, OR leave the party fold, even at the risk of you losing their support.

When you do what's right, what have you to fear? "Karmanye Vadhikaraste .." would have applied if you had done that. Not when you haven't done so.

[# 2] Approached the 2004-2009 period as the Opposition Leader far better.
Example: I was stunned the first day I heard you opposed the US-India nuclear deal. I later understood that certain provisions within the deal was what you were against, and not the deal itself. For someone as articulate as you, my own misinterpretation (and that of those in the media, including Mark Tully) seems an approach intentionally driven by you as a means for electoral gain; you probably wanted the deal naysayers to start supporting you. Instead you lost the support of the base that was yours in the first place. Poor choice, Mr. Advani.

[# 3] A better team
- A team that couldn't predict the landslide losses you faced in the 2009 elections, makes me think you didn't learn enough lessons from the 2004 debacle, and from more recent state elections in the 2004-2009 period. Operationally, it appears the Congress beat you at a game where I'd have thought the BJP was better at.

---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ----------

What can you do next?

1. Pick a good successor. Modi is disqualified as far as I am concerned. Try someone else.
2. Depending on what your doctor tells you about your health, leave enough time to set and pursue a new goal in public life. Retire immediately from Parliament. Maybe go out and teach University students in Pakistan! As outrageous as it sounds, go try it! I am serious. Try the same in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ----------

What I learnt from you?

1. An ability to appreciate the meaning of the word "appeasement" of a community, while also retaining my respect for the word "diversity".

2. An ability to respect knowledge and awareness of the world around. You are among the most well-read and articulate of the people I know in public life.

3. That the road to success is not a straight line.

---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ----------

What I did not learn from you?

That the road to success goes through the cost of a few thousand lives. I retain my learning from my life that there are narrower limits to deviating from the straight line that I'd ideally have wanted for the path to success.

---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ---------- X ----------

Good luck friend!

IPL # 2: Teams I support

2009-05-07T20:28:00.010-04:00

In season 1 of IPL, I supported teams based on their Fairplay award ranking. Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers were my favorite teams based on that approach. Teams I support must watch out though. It certainly spelled disaster for both teams, as they kept losing matches after my rankings came out in this blog post and finished IPL season # 1 at the bottom 2!

For IPL Season # 2, I could continue supporting teams based on Fairplay award rankings, but thought I'd give my usual suspects a break this year. This year I'd favor business-efficiency more! I will support teams that have the smallest squads! Here are my favorite teams:

NOTE 1: Just to be sure I don't get influenced by the outcome of any match, I release my rankings before the outcome of the 1st match between Mumbai and Chennai. Chennai needs 73 from 40 balls with 6 wickets in hand.

NOTE 2: In cases where 2 teams have the same number of players, I chose the players I favor more (e.g. Sehwag over Tendulkar, and Dhoni over Gilchrist - since VVS isn't the Deccan captain anymore).

Delhi Daredevils (24 players)
Mumbai Indians (24)
Chennai Super Kings (29)
Deccan Chargers (29)
Kings XI Punjab (30)
Rajasthan Royals (38)
Royal Challengers Bangalore (42)
Kolkata Knight Riders (52)

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RESULTS TRACKER:

Did my favored team beat their opponent?

YES > Mumbai beat Chennai
NO > Bangalore beat Rajasthan
YES > Delhi beat Punjab
YES > Hyderabad beat Kolkata
YES > Chennai beat Bangalore
NO > Kolkata beat Punjab
- Match abandoned -
YES > Hyderabad beat Bangalore
YES > Delhi beat Chennai
YES > Rajasthan beat Kolkata (tie-breaker)
YES > Punjab beat Bangalore
NO > Hyderabad beat Mumbai
- Match abandoned -
YES > Delhi beat Bangalore
YES > Punjab beat Rajasthan
NO > Hyderabad beat Chennai
YES > Mumbai beat Kolkata
NO > Rajasthan beat Delhi
YES > Bangalore beat Kolkata
NO > Punjab beat Mumbai
YES > Delhi beat Hyderabad
YES > Chennai beat Rajasthan
YES > Mumbai beat Kolkata
NO > Bangalore beat Punjab
NO > Rajasthan beat Hyderabad
NO > Chennai beat Delhi
YES > Punjab beat Kolkata
NO > Bangalore beat Mumbai
YES > Chennai beat Hyderabad
NO > Rajasthan beat Punjab
YES > Delhi beat Kolkata
NO > Hyderabad beat Mumbai
YES > Rajasthan beat Bangalore
YES > Chennai beat Punjab
YES > Delhi beat Mumbai
NO > Punjab beat Hyderabad
YES > Chennai beat Rajasthan
YES > Mumbai beat Bangalore
YES > Delhi beat Kolkata
YES > Hyderabad beat Rajasthan
YES > Bangalore beat Kolkata
YES > Mumbai beat Punjab
YES > Delhi beat Hyderabad
NO > Bangalore beat Chennai
NO > Rajasthan beat Mumbai
NO > Punjab beat Delhi
NO > Chennai beat Mumbai
YES > Hyderabad beat Kolkata
NO > Punjab beat Hyderabad
YES > Delhi beat Rajasthan
NO > Kolkata beat Chennai
NO > Bangalore beat Delhi
NO > Kolkata beat Rajasthan
YES > Chennai beat Punjab
YES > Delhi beat Mumbai
NO > Bangalore beat Hyderabad

Count ("YES") = 32
Count ("NO") = 22
* 2 matches were abandoned *

Choti baatein..

2009-04-26T16:10:00.002-04:00

My mind is pretty much occupied with the following song from the movie 'Anand'. It is dedicated to a friend who sings well, sings this song very well, and whom I recollect beginning this song with the words "Choti baatein". His name also happens to be Anand.

Of idiotic husbands in idiotic movies

2009-04-17T21:39:00.010-04:00

On the floor below mine, a Hindi movie called Aaina is playing. I wouldn't have bothered posting on my blog related to the subject had it not been for this movie being from the most well known of Hindi movie producers - Yash Chopra.

The movie plot is quite simple: 1 man, and 2 women.
Condition # 1 - the 2 women are sisters
Condition # 2 - the elder sister always gets what she wants, including those meant for the younger sister

Question: What do you think happens when both women fall in love with the same man?

My simple 1 line answer: Depends on what the guy wants. He should marry whoever he loves.

Movie's 3 hour long answer (btw, the movie is still going on - it's about 2 hours by now):
1. Younger sister falls for the guy.
2. Guy falls for the older sister.
3. Older sister reciprocates to the guy's proposal.
(I go out make a phone call to India and am back.. movie still going)
4. Something happens and the guy is now married to the younger sister.. pray how?
5. Older sister realizes she wants the guy.
6. Younger sister tries to ignore first, but then it's a Hindi movie
7. Sindoor ki laaj
8. Bharatiya naari
9. Mangalsutra
10. Hindustani pati
(I come out to write this blog post)
11. Ah, the movie has ended! I can hear the music at the closing of the movie. My bet is that the elder sister passed away, and the guy and the younger sister (his wife) lived happily ever after. I am willing to bet $100. What's your bet?

Indian cricket should find a new player at # 6

2009-04-02T22:44:00.019-04:00

I write minutes after Yuvraj Singh has been adjudged LBW to Jesse Ryder in the 3rd Test at Wellington. As knee-jerk as my comment sounds, it seems high time Yuvraj Singh is replaced by someone else at # 6! It is not his Test average of 36 that bothers me. Instead, it is the fact that when you add up his 18 innings spread over 4 years outside the Indian subcontinent (Zimbabwe, West Indies, Australia, New Zealand), he has scored only 243 runs at an average of 15 runs per innings!! I believe 18 innings and 4 years is good enough a chance. Why bother wasting time in grooming him? He is a good one day player and a good 20-20 player. Let him play those shorter versions of the game while the selectors look elsewhere for a # 6 batsman for the Test squad.

Quoting myself from a blog post written 15 months ago when Yuvraj was with the Indian team touring Australia:
Yuvraj is having difficulty surviving even 10 balls. In the 20 balls between the 2 innings, he was out at least 3 times in my opinion, and he barely survived edging at least 3-4 other deliveries.This might be hard on Yuvraj, but honestly - it doesn't look like he'll do well at all at Sydney. He is just unable to read Brad Hogg - at one point even Kumble was reading Hogg better - AND he is extremely uncomfortable with Stuart Clark's outswingers to a left-hander"

Yuvraj still has one more innings in the Wellington Test to disprove me and other naysayers. Unless it's a match saving century, I've really written Yuvraj off for a spot in the Test squad.

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So who are my suggestions for the # 6 Test spot?
-> I wish I followed Indian first class cricket more regularly to be able to make a suggestion. For now, the 2 names that come up most often are Rohit Sharma and S. Badrinath. I've seen more of Rohit than Badri. Despite Rohit being the more preferred candidate, I don't quite think he is up there yet. It doesn't hurt to give him a good run of 4-5 continuous Test matches. Ditto with Badrinath.

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Mera Bharat Mahaan!

2009-03-25T22:48:00.006-04:00

"Sau mein se assi beyimaan, phir bhi mera Bharat mahaan" - dialogue from an early 90s Bollywood movie starring Nana Patekar. For those not familiar with Hindi, it translates to - "Out of every 100 Indians, 80 are cheats. Even then, I gloat and say - my India is Great!"

I am reminded, in anger, about the above line after I heard that the former Indian cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin, was going to contest Indian national elections on a Congress party ticket! This gentleman stands accused of "throwing" away cricket matches in exchange for money. The charges of course never stood proved. In India, you can get away with murder in broad daylight if you have the money to buy your way out of the situation. Convicted murderers have gone on to be members of the Union cabinet. So I guess I should be less angry that a cheat should stand a chance of entering the country's parliament. Turns out, I am not angry with the murderers or cheats themselves, but sorry for the brainless creatures that vote these guys to power.

I have never voted in an Indian parliamentary or states election, if that's the question you are going to pin me down on. I guess I couldn't care less if those that stand in front of me and behind me in the queue at the election booth, have the brains of a cow.

Maybe in another lifetime, I could claim "Mera Bharat Mahaan"!

150k miles and more

2009-03-04T22:56:00.007-05:00

Last week, my beloved car went past the milestone of 150k miles! Vasu and I bought the car 5 years ago when, as newly weds, all we had in the bank was perhaps $12k, of which we spent $10k on the car. We have driven about 66k miles since then, which probably is reasonable for 5 years. But I'm just so delighted we've gone past the 150k mark; I couldn't help capturing the image below at the intersection of Route 7 and Fairfax County Parkway.

Mercedes ki Jai Ho!

I haven't been without my share of regrets owning the car. On average, I spend between $800 to $2.5k each year on repairs and general maintenance! Then there are some portions of the car that just don't work like they are supposed to - I could spend more and get it repaired, but why bother unless it's an essential? People had advised me against buying this "white elephant" and instead going with the reliable horses from the Honda or Toyota stable. I chose otherwise anyway - and experienced what owning a white elephant is. And finally, its a V4 engine, not a V6!

But all said - touch wood - I haven't had an instance when the car wouldn't start on a cold day for no rhyme or reason (except twice when we left the headlights ON all night), OR stop in the middle of nowhere. The V4 engine works just fine for me. I love that it's all leather - black leather so you don't see many stains either. (It is another matter than I start yelling at anyone that dares to open a food item in the car). I love the fact that the car has a sunroof/moonroof, and is generally, a comfortable car. The back seats could do some improvement - esp. with heating, leg room and arched corners, but it is decent.

I had a 1988 Honda Accord that I bought in 2000 and sold in 2004 and I loved that car too, despite all its repairs. My wife thinks I just love any car I own, even if it's a piece of junk. Could be! What's wrong with that anyway?

DC Metro Area: Housing to bottom in 2015!

2009-02-15T05:30:00.062-05:00

For those living in the Washington DC metro area, Congratulations, Badhayi Ho! We are at the halfway mark in the great housing crash of the 21st century! There are posts aplenty on the subject, so I'll stay on the crisper side.

When will the housing market bottom (for the Washington DC metro area)?
Short Answer: 2011 was my prediction for a while now, and stated in past posts as well, but now it seems 2015 or thereabouts might be the right answer.
Long Answer: I looked at residential data a couple of ways and it is all pointing to the fact that houses in the DC metro area are currently (Feb 2009) overpriced by between 30% to 45%. I'll speak for the Northern Virginia side of the DC metro area. The 30% overpricing is in the more far-flung areas such as Loudoun County where I currently reside. The 45% is in the immediate DC suburbs like Arlington and Fairfax counties, esp. in areas close to the metro. These areas haven't really fallen as much as they ought to have. No worries, they'll all come down gradually.

How can I be so sure? (for the Washington DC metro area)?
Short Answer:
Due to my belief that
(1) Housing's correct growth path is 1% per year adjusted for inflation,
(2) The key economic driver for housing prices is, besides unemployment figures, the mortgage payment, and
(3) During a housing crash, it takes twice as much from midway-to-"housing bottom" as it takes from "housing peak"-to-midway.

Long Answer:
More on (1): Let's look at my favorite housing chart below (Source: The Last Good Idea and Case Shiller Index)

One thing might be apparent - that house prices are generally flat when adjusted for inflation, except since the most recent boom. That explains the 1% growth rate I state, adjusted for inflation.

What the graph also corroborates for me is that for Northern Virginia, the housing boom picked up in the year 1997 and hit the peak in the summer of 2005. At the peak, house prices were at least twice, adjusted for inflation, as much as they should ideally have been.

Now more on 2)
I have always believed that what home buyers care most about when buying their home is their monthly mortgage payment. In the last 5 years, my observation has been that when presented with an attractive mortgage payment, home-buyers are willing to overpay for the asset, using the services of Messrs Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM), and ARM's gun-totting cousins. Without the arm-twisting tactics of the ARM Brothers (*their rate is almost like 30 year fixed these days*), homebuyers will now have to turn to the grandfatherly 30 year Fixed Mortgage, which despite government intervention will rise back to the above 7% range that has historically been the norm. In other words, up go the mortgage payments from the artificial 5% to the meaningful 7% and down go the prices of inflated assets to their meaningful value 40% down. All this if the prospective homebuyer has a job in the first place, else the 40% down will be even worse. At the time of this post in Feb 2009, the 30 year Fixed Rate mortgage is still around the 5.25%, which means we have at least 30% or more to go down.

More on 3)
With 1) and 2) to support me, I'd say we are at about the halfway mark in Loudoun County, but not yet halfway down in parts of Fairfax County, thanks to the metro that takes commuters to their jobs in DC. Now if it has taken 3 years since the peak for Loudoun to be halfway down to the bottom, and Fairfax to not yet be there, how long more would we have to endure before the bottom? To answer the question, take a graph of *any* previous housing crash, even a stock market crash, and you'll notice the one unmistakable pattern in what is usually an inverted bell-shaped curve -> the halfway point from the peak is reached somewhat fast, but from the halfway point to the trough (i.e. bottom) is a lengthy period, usually twice as long as the peak to the halfway point. I don't see a reason why the great housing crash of the 21st century should be any different. On that simple Math note, we are still 6 years away from the housing bottom - which I predict to be the summer of 2015.

The government will try to intervene, as always, but to do what? The most meaningful intervention by the Government is to go on a spending spree to fill the void left by the consumer, thereby saving at least some jobs. But the one thing the government will be unable to do is to make a dead man stand. The Housing Boom is now a dead man, who'll finally be buried 6 years from now in 2015. Until then, you are free to wait by his bedside in the hope he'll come out of his coma. I have better things to do.

Vote for One Baby!

2009-02-14T00:34:00.097-05:00

3 months into bringing up Tashvi, my wife and I are thinking whether we should go for a second baby. Unlike my wife who grew up adoring her sisters, I was born a lone child. But I loved every moment of it!! One could argue - What would I know in any case, growing up without a sibling? I couldn't care less; I had all the attention of my parents, and to a great extent that of my grandparents, uncles, aunts and so forth. For me, there can be nothing more natural than being a lone child.

A good number of people I know don't think the way I do. In fact, some felt sorry for me, as though being a lone child was the equivalent of being handicapped. Some argue that a sibling helps you truly understand how to share and ease into being part of the bigger world outside. Some others argue that in every phase of life, it helps to have a sibling for company, someone you could always count on. Still some others argue that it is a safety net for parents, since if God forbid they lose one child, there's always the second or third one.

My personal thoughts on each:

Thought Set # 1
True, lone children can take a while adjusting to the world outside home. Not having a sibling can be a lost opportunity towards worldly education. I think from my personal experience, that the gap can be worked towards, and is not nearly as hapless as it sounds. You can see a physically handicapped person from a distance, you can't see a lone child when you see a stranger.

Thought Set # 2
Company of siblings - it's actually a mixed bag; it depends on whether you want the company of siblings in the first place. I like to think of siblings as an intrusion into "my space" - both my physical space and my decision space. I have grown up to be extremely independent. I grew up knowing how to play chess, carrom, cricket, and cards, all by myself. I simply played on behalf of my opponent as well as myself. For carrom, I had to go across and sit on the opposite side after every shot. For cricket, I had the stumps when I had to bowl, and the wall when I had to bat (throw the ball fiercely at the wall and it becomes a bowler). For cards, I had to put the 13 rummy cards down after every move. Chess was the easiest - I didn't have to move an inch. The downside - I don't think I mastered any of those games.

Let's set playtime aside, I almost always make most of my personal decisions in that most derided of words in business - "isolation". I might consult a friend or two, but it is invariably my decision in the end. The slightest bit of pushing and prodding from a friend whose counsel I am seeking, and he'll never know for the rest of his life that he is out of favor *forever*, as far as seeking his counsel is concerned. How dare he nudge me! Predictably, it hasn't been perfect decision-making in my life. I'll leave the bad decisions in my life aside (not that I've come to regret any in a large sense), I'll talk about my Top-5 life-changing decisions all of which (except the first and the fourth) I credit myself for.

(1) Being born to my parents (credit to the Almighty!)
(2) Choosing to study Engineering over Medicine
(3) Choosing to do my MBA despite the astronomical costs
(4) Marrying my wife (Ok! she takes the credit for this too)
(5) Not buying a home (*life changing because of the $ amount involved*)

I've always loooooved the fact that I am at peace with myself for having nobody but myself to credit (or blame) for most things that have happened in my life. Now who wants the company of siblings to encroach upon my physical space OR decision space? Not me.

Thought Set # 3
Safety net in case one child is lost to fate - I know of a few children that have passed away even before they could hit their teens. I have also heard of enough young men and women passing away prematurely. But that's not even approximately 1% of the people I know. In fact, per the Disaster Center statistics the chances of a person passing away before the age of 44 years is 0.3%! That's why I am not sold on the argument of "safety net" yet. I seem to always want to compare statistics on road accidents, or heart attacks that seem far more prevalent than a son or daughter passing away prematurely. Further on that argument, who knows how kids of today will treat their elders? I haven't set a great example myself, choosing to live half the world away from parents who have nobody but me to call their child. If anything, I have the comfort of knowing there's isn't anyone else besides me for them. In case I had a sibling with a nature similar to mine, my parents could rest assured they'd have fallen between the cracks! So much for the hardship of bringing up a child! Ask my parents, they'll know but won't tell you.

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After my rebuttal above of the key arguments for 2 or more children, now to some thoughts on why it's good to have a lone child - as a parent. The one that stands out most is *affordability*. We are not in biblical times that affordability just means having food, shelter and clothing. I would define affordability for a parent as one where the freedom of choice for the child isn't curtailed. The freedom I speak of is not merely material comforts, but more importantly the freedom for the parent and the child to pursue careers of their choice without worrying too much about the financial position of the family.

My definition of affordability above has been hugely influenced by that one thing that my parents couldn't afford for me - the same freedom of choice in my career. I don't blame them, and in fact would like to thank them for instilling in me the respect for the Math and Science disciplines, that provides for me the comfortable life I currently have. I could have been a I-don't-really-know-what had I the opportunity to do so - maybe in music or literature or history, I swear I don't know; never let my youthful mind drift far enough in the direction of identifying it.

So, treading the path of the billions of parents before me, I hope to *afford* for my child what my parents couldn't afford for me - the freedom of choice in a career. Perhaps my wife and I could *afford* two children per my definition above, but why make it so hard on ourselves? As it is, affording for one child itself would be an endless.. and in the end, a mindless pursuit. People not only work hard, but could even beg, borrow and steal for their children. I only want to pursue my chosen career and call it quits when I want to - without that ever affecting my ability to afford my child. I hope that makes it a mindful pursuit; but does it?

On that abrupt note, here I vote for One Baby!

p.s: Even if my daughter were to complain all her life (and that's a big "if") that she didn't have a brother or sister to play with, I'll bet on my life's savings she'll thank me on my deathbed .. if she chooses to make it in the first place! :-)

Disclaimer: No, I refused the Chinese government's offer to fund my website considering I was promoting the One Baby concept. Nice of them to offer though.

Satyam: Truth comes of Age

2009-01-18T09:31:00.027-05:00

September 1996: I have the first job interview in my final year at the Engineering college. Yes, the company recruiting is Satyam Computers. Nopes, I didn't make it to the job. Good riddance! Not that I'd have stuck to the company for so long anyway. I joined IBM instead and worked there for the next 4 years before moving out for higher education.

My not-so-educated thoughts on Satyam from September 1996 to December 2008:
(1) Another family run business (Read: stay away from being employed by them if you can)
(2) Along with TCS, a less respected cousin to Infosys and Wipro - partly also because of the starting salaries offered in 1997

My thoughts on the Satyam scandal, as crisp as I can keep it:

1) Am I surprised?
Nopes. Quite expected of at least a few of the family-run business in India. Yes, it is that casual for me. I am quite certain that within the next few years, you'll see a few more Indian businesses do the same.. my bets are on the holiest of the cows - Reliance Industries!

2) Will it affect outsourcing to India and Indian companies in general?
I don't see why that should be so? The losers in the U.S are those who held Satyam stock, not the ones who gave Satyam outsourcing business. If Target goes bankrupt tomorrow, would I stop purchasing at Walmart? Perhaps this is not the most exact of comparisons, but that's the best way I find of putting things in perspective. U.S. companies are addicted to shopping for "value" outsourcing (i.e. they want to get the Walmart kind of low cost software services of acceptable quality), and I see no reason why they would switch to high-end shopping when they are staring down the barrel.

3) What is the best article I've found so far about the subject?

The one below from Rediff.com (http://www.rediff.com/money/2009/jan/17satyam-once-hes-out-the-society-will-embrace-raju.htm)

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Raju need not fear ostracism once he's out - society will embrace him.

A friend in Washington told me that Indians working in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund began to swagger around with a new bounce to the step and a gleam in the eye when the Rs 64-crore (Rs 640-million) Bofors scandal broke.
'We are in the big league now' they gloated. 'Not your chota-mota stuff!' The Rs 7,136-crore (Rs 71.36 billion) Satyam [Get Quote] fraud must have them bursting with pride.

Size is a national obsession. Indians have stashed away more than anyone else -- a noble $1,456 billion -- in Swiss banks. We thrive on superlatives. Even Jawaharlal Nehru rejoiced in the Suratgarh farm being "the biggest farm in Asia".

A policeman claimed during the nineties' spate of kidnappings in Calcutta he could identify the kidnappers from the ransom demanded.

A crore (Rs 10 million) meant impressive Delhi criminals; a few lakhs suggested dehati gangs in Bihar; a measly thousand or two indicated local street-corner toughs. "Boys who extort Durga Puja chanda" he said contemptuously.

A double-column newspaper heading reflected another aspect of the complex.
'Grandpa Dawood celebrates in Pak' reported with no hint of criticism that 'champagne corks popped' and 'hundreds of kilos of pedas' were distributed in Karachi, Dubai and Mumbai to celebrate the birth of India's most wanted fugitive's grandson.

I shouldn't imagine any Mumbaiker refused either the bubbly or sweets. For that matter, Delhi and Mumbai society hostesses would probably scratch out each other's eyes for the honour of lionising Ibrahim Dawood at their parties if he ever appears in India.

Similarly, the poor might flock to gaze on Charles Sobhraj; the rich will fall over each other to shake his hand. As someone said of Britain's royal family, our heroes are famous for being famous.

Fame is the spur, never mind for what, bearing out Wilde's aphorism that 'the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about'.

The frequency with which the phrase 'world famous' is used implies we live not for ourselves but for the world. Even in remote towns Indians frankly confess to absurd doings like eating dahi while turning somersaults in the air to make the hallowed Guinness Book of Records.

A R Rahman put it nicely when he said, "Indians are crazy about Oscars". Slumdog Millionaire would be far more enjoyable if the Oscar judges enjoy it.

Indira Gandhi was uncharacteristically out of tune with this mood when she wanted tax evaders to be ostracised. She must have known that people admire and envy a leading member of a prominent industrial family who pays no tax.

Sir Biren Mookerjee was thought to be inept when the tax people threatened to seize some of the grounds of his Calcutta mansion.

Mrs Gandhi wasn't the only premier with a blind spot. V P Singh's prescription to force corrupt Indians to migrate showed he had no idea that half the population would happily call itself corrupt to escape foreign exchange and travel restrictions.

'India's Enron' has done India proud. It doesn't lead the fraud pecking order with WorldCom (Rs 43,650 crore or Rs 436.5 billion) or Xerox (Rs 29,100 crore or Rs 291 billion) but the real Enron lags behind with only Rs 2,866 crore (Rs 28.66 billion) missing.

Our Byrraju Ramalinga Raju has also beaten the flamboyant daredevil of the derivatives who gambled away the world's oldest merchant bank. Nick Leeson's fun and games cost Rs 346 crore (Rs 3.46 billion) less than Raju's creative accounting.

The pujas and representations by his friends confirm Raju need fear neither ostracism nor forced emigration once he's out. Society will clasp him to its bosom.

Reports say he chatted 'for several hours' with fellow Andhra jailmate, Kosaraju Venkateshwara Rao, former chairman of Hyderabad's Krushi Bank, who allegedly duped depositors of nearly Rs 32 crore (Rs 320 million) and fled to Bangkok.

What did they talk about? Raju may have said that Rs 32 crore was peanuts. "Even Global Trust went under for Rs 812 crore (Rs 8.12 billion)!" Also, that 8,300 Krushi depositors were nothing to write home about since Satyam's 53,000 employees and their dependents probably account for 424,000 jobs.

Rao wondered why Raju, with offices from Toronto to Calgary and Parsippany in New Jersey to Santa Clara in California, hadn't run, like three Satyam colleagues.

'The government runs faster' Raju replied. Bangkok is a hop, step and jump away, but India established diplomatic relations with Costa Rica and sent an ambassador to get Dharma Teja.

Foreign isn't safe. Look at poor Akshay Vishal in America! "Besides, how will anyone know one has refused VIP treatment (even if it wasn't offered), turned spiritual and reads Buddhist books if the Indian media doesn't have access?

===============================================================================

Hitler and the Housing Bubble

2009-01-08T00:09:00.002-05:00

Source: http://brambletonhomes.blogspot.com/

Laxmi-Pyare-Vol 1 (Ek Duje Ke Liye)

2009-01-04T19:52:00.049-05:00

When I was 10 years old, I asked my parents who their favorite music director was. Dad said R.D.Burman, whom I took another 10 years to start appreciating. Mom said Bappi Lahiri, who happened to be my favorite too in those years. There was only one another music director I knew at that time - the duo of Laxmikant Pyarelal. They weren't among my favorites then - may I concede that my music sense was still in its infancy when I was 10.

20 years after that question of mine, I came to give the duo a slice of the respect they deserved, thanks to Sanjay Leela Bhansali who drove Zee TV to feature an episode of SaReGaMaPa 2005 on the duo. Even today, I still don't know of enough Laxmi Pyare compositions that I adore as much as R.D.Burman's. But here's one Laxmi-Pyare movie that was shot in my beautiful home state of Goa. The movie was released in 1981, an year before my family moved to Goa from Maharashtra. I was 5 then, and ever since, I've found new ways of loving the music of this movie.

Notes for self (lest I should forget with my age catching up):

[1] The teeny tiny water fall featured in the song "Tere Mere Beach Mein" is Harvalem, about 2 kilometers away from home. The lake and the gardens are in Mayem, about 10 kms away from home.

[2] The college featured in the song "Mere Jeevan Saathi" is my alma mater - St. Xavier's College, Mapusa.

[3] The beach featured in the song "Hum Bane Tum Bane" is my favorite of all Goan beaches - the stretch covering the "sister beaches" of Anjuna and Vagator.

Let's start with my alma mater then...

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[1] Mere Jeevan Saathi

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[2] Tere Mere "Beach" Mein

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[3] Hum Bane Tum Bane Ek Duje Ke Liye

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This one is a little sad and gloomy, but still worth listening to..

[4] Solah Baras Ki Baali Umar Ko Salaam

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SRGMP 2009: Vol 2 (Such a waste of time!)

2009-01-03T15:09:00.030-05:00

This is a sequel to the Vol 1 post I put up 2 months ago. My favored contestant in that post - Soumen Nandi - is still in the race, and made it to the Top 3 last night. I'd rather greet my success at picking a Top 3 candidate with a yawn, because I concede defeat! Sa Re Ga Ma Pa 2009 has been a waste of time!

With well over a 100 songs sung, I have hardly any fond memories. I recollect with pleasure all but 1 or 2 songs in the whole 2009 series. I do seem to recollect, with visceral hatred might I add, all songs sung by one of the contestants who shouldn't have been in the contest in the first place. I refuse to give the contestant as much as an advertisement by divulging her name here (not that I recollect her name at this very moment). Sa Re Ga Ma Pa has a history of bringing a thorn-in-my-flesh candidate each time. It was Twinkle Bajpai in 2005, Mauli Dave in 2007, and the-girl-I-refuse-to-name in 2009. The overall quality of the contestants seemed a poor second tier to the contestants of the 2005 and 2007 series. Thanks to Dish Network's DVR facility, I am able to finish viewing an entire 90 minute episode in around 10 minutes - needless to say, I even forward the contestant's songs after I hear very ordinary first few lines. At one point, I even found an episode of "Indian Idol" (which I regularly trash) to be better than Sa Re Ga Ma Pa; at the very least, Indian Idol features better dressing sense that Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.

Why did Sa Re Ga Ma Pa lose its edge this year? My theory is that that music purists have given way to businessmen through the years. The very first Sa Re Ga Ma Pa hosted by Sonu Nigam in the 90s was purely a show of good singers. Over the years the program got more and more jazzy, full of all kinds of guests to enhance the mass appeal of the show. This year it became a slapstick comedy show driving even moderates like me away. I also imagine some recent MBA-types hired by Zee TV, got into the act of slicing and dicing the market segments, tossing in cross promotion and other marketing theories, leaving a show worth flushing down the toilet. My wife's observation is that the show badly missed Ismail Darbar, who no matter how emotional, was able to bring some very good candidates to the show. He brought Debojit, the eventual winner in 2005, and Amanat, the # 3 in 2007. Her point is taken as well.

If anyone has any suggestions for me about what other music shows are worth watching (other than Indian Idol), please post a comment on this blog.

Kanday Utay

2008-12-21T13:36:00.016-05:00

Since having moved out of India some 9 years ago, I've not often had a chance to familiarize myself with the latest Hindi songs released. I usually watch the once-a-week 1 hour program that has previews of new songs. My other opportunity is the show - Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, where some of the contestants introduce me to new songs. All in all, I couldn't really say I've found a wealth of good Hindi songs in the last 10 years. I can say that the technical quality of video making has improved drastically, and so has the attire of the artists involved. It is the creative aspect that, while being good, is repetitive and doesn't make for compulsive watching. The same beautiful places that all look the same, the same fall leaves, the same lake, the same chunari resembling a boat sail, and in case of album videos, a different model walking in slow motion against the same settings.

Recently, I came across one such video which, though beautiful, is somewhat banal and hence forgettable. There's yet another pretty model, but the one exception - it's a Rahat Fateh Ali Khan song.

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Kanday Utay

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Tashvi: Dec 18 2008 - Pehli Nazar Mein Kaisa

2008-12-19T01:51:00.004-05:00

For best quality, and assuming you have iTunes (or a MP4 player), I'd recommend you download using this link. If you don't like downloading, you can use the embedded video below.. has a poorer quality though.

p.s: Our apologies to those that were thoughtful to meet with us after Tashvi was born, but whom I couldn't capture in my camera. There are quite a few of you.

Fully Faltoo

2008-12-12T00:37:00.005-05:00

You have to be extremely familiar with both Bollywood and Indian cricket to make the most out of this video:

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Tashvi: Pinku Gripe Water + Duur + Chaand Sa Mukhda

2008-12-06T23:09:00.002-05:00

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Pinku Gripe Water

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Duur

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Chaand Sa Mukhda

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Fatwa Time: Superstar Rajnikant uses Castor oil!

2008-12-01T23:17:00.004-05:00

I figure it is time to earn my fatwa from Rajnikant lovers. Here's something I came across:

Don't be Udaas!

2008-12-01T22:54:00.000-05:00

P.S: I do not recommend Microsoft Outlook 2007

Mangal gotta cot!!

2008-11-30T23:39:00.004-05:00

This post is a sequel to the Pappa's Lamborghini post which captures another of Amaron battery's funny ads. The one below is about Mangal and Pandu.

Lyrics:

Ek tha Pandu havaldaar, on duty very khabardaar

But Mangal Singh hoshiyaar, jail se hua faraar

So long the race began,

Race took them very far, kilometer ek lakh bees hazaar

Pangal-Pandu-Mangal Pand, Pandu back, Pandu front, Mangal back,

Mangal-Pandu-Pandu-Mangal, Mangal-Pandu, Pandu-Mangal, Mangal-Pandu-Pandu-Mangal,

Huh!

Finally, Mangal got caught!

An armchair (hammock actually) critic's thoughts on 2611 - India's 911

2008-11-29T12:01:00.062-05:00

First, I am saddened and stunned by the events that just unfolded between Nov 26-29 in Mumbai. My sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims.

Turns out I haven't lost anyone known to me to the incident above, so I'll manage to keep my post "cold" with an occasional mistimed attempt at humor, much to the annoyance of most readers, if any.

NOTE: I managed to have "0" hits to my blog in the last 10 days - tells you how "tasteless" my blog has been of late. I thought why not write a post so that I can have "0" hits the whole year round. To reduce my chances, may I recommend you take a deep and gentle sniff of your wine before proceeding? Here I go.. "chal meri Luna (which I thought was a better way to start then "Chal Dhanno" of Sholay fame)..

===========================================================

While the rest of the world sees the blood on the streets, in the railway station, hotels, homes or cafes, I am only able to see the silver lining. There's the one outrageous line below that is central to the rest of this post:

I wish this incident never happened, but assuming there wasn't going to be a way to stop it, I'd like to thank the establishment that sent these terrorists for two things: One, for the perfect timing of this incident, and Two, for choosing South Mumbai over elsewhere in India!

Here are the three broad reasons why I am thanking the perpetrators:

# 1 Because of both the timing and the location of this incident, the terrorists have ensured that "terrorism" finally has a chance of becoming a Top 3 electoral issue in India. It has never been in the Top 3, lagging way behind economic issues which manifest themselves in apparently disparate issues such as jobs, caste based reservation, price of onions (read: inflation), free electricity, election freebies (blankets, liquor, sports gear, loan write-offs, free hut, free illegal land, etc), . The only non-economic issue that's in the Top 3 is secularism, the existence of which I'd hope to explain in some other post. The timing is great because the general elections are just 4 months away, short enough to not go out of public memory. Second, because of the highly visible nature of South Mumbai, after years of poor people losing their Rs. 1 lakh lives in terrorist acts in India, finally we have some million dollar lives lost, lives of people that are able to "influence" and drive the electoral menu. If the rich and powerful get hit, there's a bigger chance politicians will strive towards improving the ground realities. They just can't get away with the right words at the right time.

NOTE: I say Rs. 1 lakh (translates to approx. USD 2000) lives to refer to the highest amount I have ever heard an Indian politician donate to the next of kin each time there's a "common man" killed in India by an act of terrorism.

# 2 The 2nd reason the timing is great is because it is the first "on your face" foreign affairs and security issue that Barack Obama has come across. I say it "on your face" because the issue wouldn't have mattered much had there been no American/Western victims and casualties. This incident ensures that even before he gets into the shoes of the President of the United States, his team that includes Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton have time to digest and adjust their foreign policy. I would argue the above will be to India's benefit, though it remains to be seen if the next Indian Prime Minister will be smart enough to make the most of it.

# 3 The Indian economy in general was getting away with mediocrity for too long. Without any large-scale improvements in infrastructure, clean government, law, police, education or work ethic, the Indian stock market and real estate just kept going sky high for 6 years in a row. Fortunately, the Indian stock market started crashing an year ago, so a first check came about. Now, with the latest development above, I expect business travel and hence the general economy to be hit in a way that will make everyone realize that improvement in the economy has to be "earned" and is not just a give-away. Work harder India! By that I don't mean work 60 hours weeks; instead those that sit in armchairs and barely work (including those in government, business monopolies, political parties, real estate etc. and earn like princes) ought to earn their keep.

===========================================================

Tashvi: My first 10 days

2008-11-21T01:41:00.008-05:00

S&P 500 Fair value - Wrong by 40%

2008-11-19T14:53:00.019-05:00

This post is a sequel to the S&P 500 Fair Value post I created back in Oct 2007. I had predicted the fair value of VFINX (which is an indexed fund based on S&P 500) to be at $133 as of Oct 2008. As of today (Nov 19 2008), I am off by 40% compared to the actual market value!!

My apologies to anyone who invested based on my assessments of fair value. When I created my post, the actual market value of S&P 500 was 15% higher than my assessed fair value at that time. I had intended the post to prompt folks to move away from S&P 500 until it fell at least 15-20%. Turns out that it has fallen 3 times more than what I thought it would fall. If you still count on my judgment, I'd advise staying with S&P 500 even now. Consider the following 1 bullet point:

*** S&P 500 in its current value today is only TWICE as its value in Nov 1994 (the most conservatively rated time during the 1987-2000 period), counting for a 4.3% annualized growth rate in the last 14 years. Too good to be true for long! ***

Also, I still do stand by my assessments of fair value. I had said:
OCT 2009: $143
OCT 2010: $155

Let me add the years 2011 and 2012 too:
OCT 2011: $167
OCT 2012: $180

For the purposes of disclosure:
(1) I sold off all my S&P 500 positions in my brokerage account somewhere around my fair value assessments. At roughly the same time, I had sold 50% of my S&P 500 positions in my 401k. So the other 50% fell from the cliff.
(2) My 1 person Board of Directors (read: my wife) fired me from my position of looking after the house finances. This was after I incurred huge losses in the Municipal Bond market a couple of months ago. See this post for more details. For now, I only consult.

Tashvi: Defining the pleasure

2008-11-19T00:01:00.012-05:00

I've had a few friends ask me how it feels to be a Dad to a little girl. I thought I'll pen down a few of my thoughts and compare the same a few years from now.

First, let me clarify that it is not a "top of the world" feeling. I don't feel the same as I'd have if I had achieved a goal after years of pursuing it single-mindedly.

Second, I don't feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities and the way parenthood is going to change my life, at least not yet. I am not saying I enjoy holding on to the added responsibilities, but I don't enjoy filing my tax returns either, but I have to do that whenever I have the pleasure of earning. Ditto with parenthood.

Perhaps the closest I came to defining parenting was via the following 2 quotes to friends of mine:

(1) "My life seems more complete".

More specifically, when I moved from being a bachelor to being married, I had this huge feeling of being complete. It was as though I had spent half my life waiting to be married, and I truly felt I got granted my wish to feel more complete. I'd describe the pleasure of parenthood as something similar, though something I had to wait a lot less for. My wife and I have been married for more than 4 years now. It is not that we got bored without a kid, as one of our other friends cited to us. For me, it was more of a phase of life that was waiting to happen, perhaps waiting only for the right moment, and that moment came this year. I felt more complete as a parent than simply as a married man. Perhaps someday I'll feel even more complete as a grandparent - just that it just has to be at the right moment, not one too soon.

(2) "I feel like I have been given a precious gift - not unlike a luxury car, or an estate home - but something that'll last a life-time". I have not worked sincerely towards achieving it, and hence the feeling won't exactly compare with perhaps getting my first job. Instead, it feels like something I deserve as a gift from the Almighty, finally found its way to me.. and I love it. I remind myself constantly though, of the following Kahlil Gibran quotation:

"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you."

Tashvi: Picture Therapy

2008-11-18T00:57:00.018-05:00

I am given to understand that parents are prone to dreaming of having their kids achieve what they could never achieve themselves. So I won't be out of line in dreaming of Tashvi being more well off financially than I am, more intellectual, maybe a swimmer or gymnast, maybe a painter or musician, maybe a Governor or even President. For me though, it is more about what she does for herself than what she does for me or for others.

For starters, I wish Tashvi grows up to find therapeutic uses of means that are easily accessible to her.

What the hell does that mean?

For example, I hope she grows up to use the healing power of the air that we breath far more than the average person does. Ditto with sunshine, rain drops, butterflies, bees, trees and geese (all she needs is a lake nearby). There are a few therapies that I hope she can inherit from me, if not cultivate herself. One of course is "music therapy", something those familiar with this blog will be well aware of. Another is what I call "picture therapy". There's nothing intellectual in it. Here's an illustration:

(Remember to turn the speakers ON)

(I'd encourage you to view the following in Full Screen Mode)

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Also, I found the following video uploaded by another blogger. I chose to embed the video in this post, first because of the beautiful song it is based on, the kind that I am hoping Tashvi grows up to appreciate and live by, and second, for some beautiful pictures.

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Tashvi: Music Album 1

2008-11-16T01:40:00.005-05:00

Tashvi completed the first 5 days of her life.. here's a little snapshot (Remember to turn the speakers ON):

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Tashvi: Day 1 photos

2008-11-11T22:42:00.006-05:00

"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you."
- Kahil Gibran

R.D.Burman - Vol 2 (Love Story)

2008-11-07T23:24:00.016-05:00

In the last R.D.Burman post, I covered the movie Betaab. In this week, I'd like to cover the 1981 movie "Love Story" starring Kumar Gaurav and a doll that goes by the name Vijayeta Pandit, sister to Jatin and Lalit, and married to Aadesh Shrivastav.

As described in the previous post, I won't be listing in chronological order. It appears I've taken to picking an R.D.Burman movie in each post.

Tonight also happens to be my birthday.. celebrating with R.D.Burman songs!

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# 1 Yaad Aa Rahi Hai

Gud-ka-zaika line: Yeh ruth ki rangraliyan yeh phoolon ki galiyaan ro padi

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# 2 Dekho Maine Dekha Hai Ek Sapna

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# 3 Kya Gazab Karte Ho Jee

What I had wished: That the song were picturized on Vijayeta rather than Aruna Irani

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# 4 Kaisa Tera Pyaar Kaisa Gussa Hai Tera

Kaisa Tera Pyar

Gud-ka-zaika line: Tu bhi muskura dey, mujhe bhi hansa dey, o mere acche sanam

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Ajnabi Blvd

2008-11-03T23:29:00.018-05:00

Let's go from the Oldies to the Newer ones.

# 1 Chalo Ek Baar Phir Se

Gud-ka-zaika line: Na zaahir ho tumhari kashmakash ka raaz nazron se

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# 2 Ek Ajnabee Haseena Se

Gud-ka-zaika line: Woh achanak aa gayi, yoon nazar ke saamne, jaise nikal aaya ghata se chaand.

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# 3 Ajnabi Kaun Ho Tum

What to watch out for: Her similarity to her niece who goes by the name.. Tabu.

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# 4 Ae Ajnabi Tu Bhi Kahin

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# 5 Ajnabi Mujhko Itna Bataa

Lines to watch out for: Raaz tere sabhi, khol degi abhi, in labon pe jo muskaan hai..

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# 6 Woh Ajnabi (The Train)

What to ignore: The actors

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SRGMP 2009: Vol 1 (For Soumen Nandi)

2008-11-02T09:31:00.019-05:00

In SRGMP 2005, my favorite was Vineet Singh who ended up ranked # 2.
In SRGMP 2007, my favorite was Amanat Ali who ended up ranked # 3.
In SRGMP 2009, my favorite is Soumen Nandi. He could rank anywhere between # 1 and # 8.

The one difference between Soumen and the other two is that, very early on (even before they entered the Top 10), both Vineet and Amanat sung songs that I uniquely associate with them. With Vineet it was "Kitna Pyaara Vaada Hai" which first identified him, and then "Tera Jaadu Chal Gaya" to nail his place. With Amanat it was "Kadhi Aa Mil Saawan" which first identified him, and then "Mora Sainya Mo Se Bole Na" to nail his place. With Soumen, I've not yet found such songs. I believe his best is yet to come.

For now, there's just one song that I am halfway down to associating uniquely with Soumen.

Teri Yaad Saath Hai

*I'll update this post again when I've found something about Soumen - I hope he doesn't bow out on Nov 7th. If he does, my next favorite is almost certainly one of the girls. *

Doll # 18: Lisa Ray

2008-10-31T22:46:00.007-04:00

I wonder what I've been thinking - not counting Lisa Ray till # 18 is as though I don't know counting. Thanks to a post by a fellow blogger, I feel compelled to introduce a good song (unfortunately the only good song) of Lisa Ray.

Dekha Jo Tumko

>> Filler songs follow (i.e. not really songs I love, but just so you get a chance to see Lisa a bit more <<

Rang Rang Mein

Sona Sona Roop Hai

Best of Poacher Khan

2008-10-31T21:49:00.026-04:00

Ok, this post is dedicated to all girls who love Salman Khan.. and esp. to anyone whose birthday falls on April 16!

# 1 Dil Deewana Bin Sajna ke (1989)

Note: I couldn't tolerate the video (awful dressing sense, and poor grooming in the 80s Hindi movies). In the past posts, I'd have tolerated putting the video, but not anymore. That's why it's just the embedding of the audio.

Gud-ka-zaika line: Jee yeh chaahe banaake aanchal tumko lapetoon tan pe1

Get this widget

Track details

eSnips Social DNA

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# 2 Tumse Jo Dekhte Hi (Patthar ke Phool - 1990)

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# 3 Saathiya Tune Kya Kiya (1991)

A line I just remember: Jhuka basanti hai tu

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# 4 Bechain Hai Meri Nazar (Hum Aapke Hain Kaun - 1993)

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# 5 Jaana Sunoh (1995)

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# 6 Deewana Main Chala (1997)

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# 7 Madhosh Dil Ki Dhadkan (1997)

*** If you had to listen to only one song in this post, listen to this song. ***

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# 8 Aate Jaate Jo Milta Hai (2000)

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# 9 Tumse Milna Baaten Karna (2003)

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# 10 Kyon Ki Itna Pyar Tumko (2005)

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# 11 Salaam-e-Ishq (2006)

I am not particularly fond of this song, but it got featured in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and since then, I've been able to like it more.

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R.D.Burman - Vol 1 (Betaab)

2008-10-25T18:29:00.018-04:00

It has taken me 71 music-related posts in the "Wet Bar" section of my blog, to have the courage to do what I've been waiting to do since Day # 1 of this blog -> chronicling the music of R.D.Burman. Since I cannot in any manner beat the umpteen websites dedicated to R.D.Burman, I've decided NOT to list my R.D. Burman posts in the chronological order that I normally prefer. Instead, I'd go by the order in which it occurs to me.

I'll start with the movie Betaab released in 1983. The song below is not my all time R.D.Burman favorite, nor is it the favorite song in this movie itself. No, I did not like the movie, nor the actors in the movie. Instead, it is the song that I just about hummed a few minutes ago before telling myself - "Chalo, aaj ho jaaye @ R.D.Burman Post".

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Teri Tasveer Mil Gayi

Gud-ka-zaika line: Ab ke bahaar mein, is intezaar mein, dil ka woh haal tha, mushkil yeh saal tha

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Jab Hum Jawaan Honge

Jab Hum Jawan Honge

Gud-ka-zaika line: Yeh bachpan ka pyaar agar kho jaayega, dil kitna khaali khaali ho jaayega

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Tumne Dee Awaaz

Gud-ka-zaika line: Umr hee aisi kuch yeh, tum kisi se pooch loh

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Doll # 17: Michelle Innes

2008-10-25T02:02:00.004-04:00

There again, who the hell is Michelle Innes...

First, she's not from Hollywood, she is... the one featured in the 2 songs below:

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Is Kadar Pyaar Hai

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Dhoom Pichak

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Best of Chupke Chupke - Hrishikesh Mukherjee

2008-10-23T23:12:00.023-04:00

Prerequisites:
(1) Hrishikesh Mukherjee must be a familiar name for you.
(2) You should've seen the movie before to enjoy fully; in case you've not, I'd suggest go ahead just watch the whole movie -> it's the last video on this post.

Some portions I fondly recollect:

==============================

A shayari by James (the driver):
"Aaj baagh mein khilengaa ek gulaab,
Saaki, pila dey pila dey pila dey julaab" ("laxative")

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Dharmendra - the Chowkidaar

Lines to watch out for:
1. Jitna Bada Jishm diya hai, utna bada dil bhi diya hai
2. 2 Biwi Baarah Bacchey (so similar to "Do Aankhen Baraah Haath")

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Genius Jijajee

Lines to watch out for:
1. Accha to teesri shaadi hai tumhare jijajee ki

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Dharmendra - Hiring the Driver

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Dharmendra - Driver waiting for his wife

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Sharmila Tagore - Ab ke sajan saawan mein

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Ghar mein Chor

1. Aa gaye tum?... nangey pair kyon aa gaye ho..?
2. Kaun hai tu? ... Chor... Kya kar raha tha? .. Chori..

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Amitabh - the "Karola" Professor

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Dharmendra - The Driver learning English

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Complete movie

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Mr. Bean - Vol 1 (Punjabi)

2008-10-23T21:52:00.009-04:00

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Punjabi music

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The poor dentist

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Parking Garage

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Rooftop Driving

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Separated at Birth

2008-10-22T23:28:00.004-04:00

The first one: Tara Sharma
The second one: Kristin Davis
==================================================================================

Hearts and Minds - Reloaded

2008-10-14T01:18:00.005-04:00

This post is a sequel to "Hearts and Minds" that I posted a little over an year ago.

I had the displeasure this last month (Sep/Oct 2008) of watching myself lose 8-10% of the value of all my investments parked in municipal bond mutual funds. While I am saddened by my losses at the municipal bond market, I would think that waiting out through the next 6 months would provide an opportunity to recoup the losses, esp. since municipal bond funds not only are most stable in price (they recover their price in less than 6 months, even if they lose initially), they also yield 4% tax free on average - which is more like earning 6% per year.

Enters my wife with a good argument - "I don't care how much the mutual funds went down percentage wise. I only care about the $ amount you lost. Short half the bonds. Figure out a way to make up for the current and future losses. Get a higher paying job". I thought - "Ya right, in this market!" . Unlike last time, I figured there wasn't any point in convincing her. I began wondering what was most important to me AND how much I am willing to pay for it.

What is most important to me?
Peace of mind - I didn't want to ruin every other conversation with my wife with her reminding me about the losses. That's like me trying to forget I have a wound under my bandage, while my wife gets a prick, opens the wound and just pokes around. Nice! (hardly)

How much am I willing to pay for it?
Any of these:
(a) Giving up rice for the rest of my life (*Dream on - not so easy*)
(b) Ask her to invest on her own only to find that we lose 50% of all our savings (*Yes, that I genuinely don't have a problem with in exchange for "peace of mind", but of course she does*).
(c) Really... anything between (a) and (b).

So how am I making up for our losses?
- I don't really know. The only option so far is.. right, get a better paying job - that's as though I've intentionally chosen a lower paying job over a higher paying one. Anyway, it is what it is.

How will I invest going forward?
- Don't you know by now? I am not investing at all! Consider this for a second - "I am willing to give up 50% of all the savings my wife and I have, just to have peace of mind (as defined above)". That's the equivalent of me giving up on investing somewhere where I can make a 150% return on investment (I say 150% because 33% of the profits are lost to taxes anyway). So in other words, I can afford to leave money under my pillow for the next 10-15 years of my life - instead of putting it on even S&P500 which would yield 150% in 10-15 years - all if only the bandage on my wound is not opened.

Have I bought my wife the home I said last year that I'll buy by this time (see this post)?
- Nope. Instead, she bought into my argument to wait out the housing bust for some more time. Maybe we'll buy in the spring of 2009. Can't wait with our daughter coming home this November.

Is this truly the smartest way to deal with my situation - to just "give up" and commit the ultimate financial hunger strike ->"not invest"?
- No. It certainly isn't the smartest way. The smartest way would be to say confidently that I'll get all our invested money back without any losses, if she could give me another 6 months. The smartest way is to flood her with articles that praise municipal bonds, and how the FDIC is so underfunded that one should seriously consider if the $250k deposit guarantee per bank account is truly something the FDIC can deliver on. The smartest way is to get some of our friends to speak to her and convince her that what I am doing is the right thing for us.

But then again, I am reminded of the first time I met her. I didn't have to tell her I couldn't live without her. I didn't have to flood her with roses and cheesy phone calls all day. I didn't have to boast about any of my accomplishments (not that I think I have any). I didn't have to explain to her how I was better than any of the other eligible bachelors. I didn't have to bring in others to tell her that I was a good guy. In short, I didn't deal with the whole dating scene in a "smart" way. All I did was be myself, at the risk of losing her to another man. After a few weeks, she chose me.

I am hoping for such a thing a second time. Maybe the "financial hunger strike" will end some day when she begins to measure my financial judgment by my decision reasons rather than the decision outcomes. Maybe its good to let things take their time. It took a few weeks during the "courtship days". Maybe it'll take a few years for the financial understanding to kick in between us. But then again.. I am told that the only thing in my favor during our courtship days was my month of birth - she always wanted to marry a Scorpio and I was born in November. What's that one thing in my favor this time to get rid of my "financial hunger strike"?

Doll # 16: Winona Ryder

2008-10-13T23:08:00.005-04:00

I guess it is clear by now that the doll series goes beyond Bollywood AND by now is almost a random order of when a person comes to my mind.

So here's Winona Ryder. Special thanks to Kingshuk Banerjee who (or his bro) had this picture album of Winona that he showed me about 10 years ago. I finally got to see her in the movie Autumn in New York. I am often surprised (shocked actually) by some of her unconventional photos (e.g. imagine pink hair), but all in all, she's a doll... (and for those that track Zodiac sigsn, she's a Scorpio)

Narcissism - Celebrating Scorpios I know about

2008-10-13T22:11:00.063-04:00

Some Scorpios that I know about, and whom I'd like to call out:

Cricketers (alphabetically)
- Adam Gilchrist
- Brett Lee
- V.V.S. Laxman

Bollywood (alphabetically)
- Aishwarya Rai (also Doll # 10)
- Juhi Chawla
- Kamal Hasan
- Shahrukh Khan
- Swaroop Sampat (also Doll # 8)

News/Entertainment/Hollywood (alphabetically)
- Calvin Klein
- David Schwimmer (of all people, the "Ross" guy in the series "Friends"; I should have hidden this)
- Danny DeVito (alright, there's at least one Scorpio that can make you laugh)
- Demi Moore
- Grace Kelly (also Doll # 6)
- Julia Roberts
- Larry King
- Leonardo DiCaprio
- Martin Scorsese
- Vivien Leigh (of "Gone with the Wind", and Darjeeling-born!)
- Winona Ryder (also Doll # 16)

Businessmen (alphabetically)
- Bill Gates
- Ted Turner

Politicians (alphabetically)
- Laura Bush (not quite into Politics, but still)
- Leon Trotsky
- Hillary Clinton
- Teddy Roosevelt
- Pandit Nehru and his daughter, Indira Gandhi

Artists/Philosophers (alphabetically)
- Claude Monet
- Leopold Mozart
- Pablo Picasso
- Voltaire

Scientists/Medicine (alphabetically)
- Christian Bernard
- Jonas Salk
- Marie Curie

Military/Generals (alphabetically)
- Erwin Rommel
- Gen. Patton

Sports (alphabetically)
- Nadia Comaneci

Uncategorized
- A handful of my friends and colleagues (and some of their children) whom I won't name here
- My mother-in-law, my nephew, my unborn daughter (Tashvi) and me.

Honey Bee - Vol 12 (Seene Mein Dil & Pritam)

2008-10-12T02:46:00.018-04:00

1) Seene Mein Dil

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2) Ek Din Teri Raahon Mein

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3) Jaane Kaise Shab Dhali (Raqeeb)

What to ignore: The make-up for the actress.

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4) Teri Ore

What to ignore: The possibility that Pritam might have copied (aka "inspired by") the music from elsewhere.

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5) Kyon AajKal

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6) Tere Bin Main Yoon Kaise Jiya

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7) Jaane Kya Chaahe Man Baanvra

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8) Pehli Nazar

What to ignore: That Pritam copied (aka "inspired by") the music from elsewhere.

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Doll # 15: Isha Koppikar

2008-10-10T22:15:00.017-04:00

[User Agreement]

******************************************************************************************************************************************
Doll # 1 reserves the right to modify, remove, or scrap the Doll Series at her own discretion. So enjoy the post till it lasts.

******************************************************************************************************************************************

It is rather unfortunate that Isha hasn't been able to get lead roles in Bollywood. Maybe her best is yet to come. Let's wait..

Since this site is PG-13, so I am not going to list "Ishq Samundar" here even though I love listening to the song. I don't like the "Khallas" song, nor a few others. That leaves the 2 songs below:

Aaj Ki Raat

For those that do not recognize her - she's the one in black.

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Aashiqui Mein Teri

For those that do not recognize her - she's the one in green, and comes in the latter half of the song.

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Best of Rishi Kapoor

2008-10-05T00:39:00.031-04:00

Nope, I won't start with a song from Bobby.. I didn't quite like the songs that much. I'll start with Rafoo Chakkar songs..

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1. Kisi Pe Dil Agar

Video rating: 1.5/5 (The song is good, so is Kashmir, and the shikara. The same song played today, 25 years later, can be choreographed somewhat more acceptably to me).

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2. Ek Main Aur Ek Tu

http://www.radioreloaded.com/tracks/?20291

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3. Hai Agar Dushman Zamana

Video rating: 2/5 (If you are a Qawwali lover, it is higher)

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4. Parda Hai Parda

Video rating: 2/5 (If you are a Qawwali lover, it is higher)

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5. O Hansini

Video rating: 2.5/5 (The video at least stayed true to the meaning of the song - they couldn't make the actress fly like a bird (Hansini), but by dressing her in white and throwing her in slow motion, they did leave the effect of a flying bird around). Decent!

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6. Koyal Boli

Video rating: 1.5/5 (I wonder how else they'd capture the expressions of a girl who can't speak; decent job)

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7. Jeevan Ke Har Mod Pe

Video rating: 2/5 (Ok, a regular 70s party song)

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8. Dard-e-Dil Dard-e-Jigar

Video rating: 3/5 (purely because of Doll # 2 - Tina Munim)

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9. Poocho Na Yaar Kya Hua

(I chose it ahead of the other songs in this movie, esp. Hoga Tumse Pyara Kaun)

Video rating: 2.5/5 (Padmini Kolhapuri in the yellow and black outfit is a famous snap; decent song)

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10. Tu Tu Hai Wahi

Video rating: 3.5/5 (I am being partial - it happens to be among my most favorite songs of Doll # 2 - Tina Munim who features in the 2nd half of the song)

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11. Kahin Na Jaa

Video rating: 2.5/5 (Again, purely because of Doll # 2)

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12. Ek Baat Dil Mein Aayi Hai

Video rating: 2/5 (A let down for the seriousness of the song)

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13. Chehra Hai Ya

Video rating: 3.5/5 (After 20 years since the movie, the song doesn't really seem out of place; I do not have to transport my mind to the 80s to enjoy the video. Also, the video and the lyrics are in better sync than most songs)

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14. Tere Mere Honthon Pe

Video rating: 2.5/5 (Thanks to Switzerland! Also, am not a great fan of Sridevi.)

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15. Meri Sahibaan

Video rating: 2.5/5 (Thanks to Madhuri. Also, if I see a girl in a bandana or a head-scarf or a neck-scarf - I'll toss in an extra point)

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Best of M.M.Kreem (Hindi only)

2008-10-04T01:01:00.006-04:00

1. Dil Chura Liya Saathiya

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2. Tu Mile Dil Khile

Tu Mile Dil Khile - Criminal - For more amazing video clips, click here

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3. Gali Mein Aaj Chaand Nikla

Gali Mein Aaj Chand in Zakhm - The best home videos are here

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4. Jaadu Hai Nasha Hai

Since I'd veto the video out anyway, thought I'd share a different voice than Shreya Ghoshal's.

Jaadu Hai Nasha Hai by Me - The funniest videos clips are here

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Best of Sanjeev Kumar

2008-10-04T00:00:00.007-04:00

1) Tum Aa Gaye Ho

Note: The pretty lady in the song is.. the grandmother of Riya Sen and Raima Sen.

Also, the song is as old as I am!

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2) Baahon Mein Chale Aaao

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3) Meri Bheegi Bheegi Si

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4) Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koyi

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5)Dil Dhoondta Hai

Slow version

Get this widget

Track details

eSnips Social DNA

Fast version
Dil Dhoondta Hai

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6) Is Mod Se Jaate Hain

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90s Detour: Best of Aditya Pancholi

2008-10-03T23:08:00.011-04:00

Mainstream Hindi music lovers, pardon this big detour -> I've found a couple of songs featured on Aditya Pancholi.. of all people.. to be worth listening to.

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# 1 Palkon Ke Tale

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# 2 Lagne Laga Hai Mujhe

Ice-cream ka zaika line: .. mehsoos yoon hota hai kyon ki har pal main tere saath rahoon..

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Beijing Olympics: through the eyes of a yawner

2008-09-13T15:34:00.012-04:00

Beijing Olympics (Read - The Chinese Emperor's New Clothes): through the eyes of a yawner

Alright, the Beijing Olympics are over now. Enough has been written about it, spoken about and shown on television and the internet. Now that the dust has settled, maybe my post will grab a little attention.

Most Americans around me seemed surprised the Chinese were doing so well, on and off the field. No offense to Americans or Chinese, but since I wasn't surprised, I yawned.

Then a really tall monster of a guy kept hitting the headlines for grabbing gold after gold. He went by the name Michael Phelps. The high point of the Olympics for me was when he won a split second gold while trailing hopelessly behind the eventual silver medalist. I had one word for the silver medalist - "dumb". No, it was truly a surprise for me - so I was agape, but not yawning. Great job Michael. Thank you for giving me 1 of 2 things to remember the Olympics by.

So what's the 2nd thing I'll remember about the Olympics? The Chinese government parading "barely teens" as 16-year old gymnasts so they could win more golds. I have one word for the Chinese government - "Cheats". No offense meant to any Chinese individual - I know it's your much deserved event and moment of honor. For all I know, the gymnasts in question might even be 16, but "O Great Emperor, when it was time to coronate you, you could have done away with the Emperor's New Clothes". Since that didn't surprise me either.. Yawn!

Best of Rani Mukherjee

2008-08-30T00:14:00.020-04:00

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1) Jaadu Hai Tera Hee Jaadu

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2) Tum Paas Aaye

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3) Yeh Hawayen Zulfon Mein Teri

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Repeated several times on this blog but... in the interest of staying complete..

4) Jaane Dil Mein Kab Se

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This one is repeated in this blog too, but in the interest of being complete..

5) Saathiya

Saathiya
by vdensdon

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6) Mangalyam

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7) Tauba Tumhare Yeh Ishaare

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8) Suna Na Suno Na

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9) Kabhi Neem Neem

Yuva: Kabhi Neem Neem
by clockwatcher2

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10) Saanson Ko Saanson Mein

HUM TUM - Saanso Ko Saanso Mein
by poojabolly

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11) Chup Chup Ke

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12) Mitwaa

Hindi - Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna - Mitwa Shahrukh Khan & Rani
by doudoudu13

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13) Hey Shona

TRRP - Hey Shona
by pagali7

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Best of Roop Kumar Rathore

2008-08-28T00:09:00.007-04:00

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# 1 Khamosh Raat

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# 2 Aankhen Teri

Note: I was close to listing Nauheed in the Doll series, but sadly, she doesn't have enough good songs to make it.

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Glenlivet Vol # 2

2008-08-23T17:14:00.017-04:00

Glenlivet Vol # 2

There are 2 simple pre-requisites to songs listed in the "Glenlivet series".

* Prerequisite # 1: I should have had at least one sip of Glenlivet
* Prerequisite # 2: I should have hummed or sung at least a line of the song myself, in exactly the order listed below, after Prerequisite # 1

CAUTION: Compiling songs under the influence of Glenlivet can cause me to forget that there is an audience I am supposed to court via my posts. Inconvenience regretted.

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Volume compiled on: August 15 2008

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1. Jaane dil mein

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2. Kabhi kisi ko muqammil

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3. Ae dil e naadaan

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4. Saawan barse tarse

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5. Dil jo na keh saka

Dil Jo Na Keh Saka
by waferthin

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6. Kabhi to nazar milaao

Note: Aditi would have made it to the Doll series, except that she's got just one song to list.

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7. Chori chori chupke chupke, palkon ke

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8. Zindagi ke safar mein guzar

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9. Likhe jo khat tujhe

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Best of Rekha

2008-08-07T23:49:00.017-04:00

1) Tere Bina Jiya Jaaye Na

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2) Aapki Aankhon Mein Kuch

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3) Aajkal Paaon Zameen Par

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14kFjbVD8kQ

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4) Salaam-e-Ishq

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5) Pardesia

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6) Yeh Kahaan Aa Gaye Hum

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7) Dekha Ek Khwaab

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8) Dil Cheez Kya Hai

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9) In Aankhon Ki Masti

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10) Zindagi Jab Bhi

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11) Humein Aur Jeene Ki

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12) Katra Katra

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Song # 12 above is from a movie in 1988, which means in the last 20 years, I've not liked a single song of hers! There's one song in Parineeta that came close, but I didn't like the song enough.

Doll # 14: Sandali Sinha

2008-07-29T01:10:00.003-04:00

# 1) Koyi Fariyaad

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# 2) Tum Bin Jiya Jaaye Kaise

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Best of Salim Sulaiman

2008-07-28T23:47:00.006-04:00

Some of the songs are "too racy for my comfort". So I'll have to embed only the audio files, not the videos.

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# 1 Is Kaal Kaal Mein

Kaal Dhamaal - rani

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# 2 Yeh Hausla

Since I couldn't get an original video, had to make do with the following SRGMP one for now..

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# 3 Aaja Nachle

Note: If you watch most actresses dance (esp. Aishwarya Rai), you feel they've worked really hard on their dancing skills, and once every often, you feel like encouraging them. Then you watch an actress like Madhuri, past her prime, dancing in Devdas or in the above video, and you think - wow, more than anything she is enjoying her dance rather than focusing on the steps. The same applies to actors too. There are the Hritik Roshans on one side, and then the Amitabhs and Shahrukhs on the other.

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Best of Anand Raaj Anand

2008-07-28T22:54:00.016-04:00

Some of the songs are "too racy for my comfort". So I'll have to embed only the audio files, not the video ones. For some cases, like the second one below, I just was not able to get the video files anywhere at all.

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# 1) Pyaar Kiya To Nibhaana

Gud-ka-zaika line: Ab zindagi ka maqsad, hai bas tumhara saath..

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# 2) Hote Hote Pyaar Ho Gaya

Gud-ka-zaika line: None perhaps

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# 3 Ishq Samundar

Gud-ka-zaika line: None perhaps

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# 4 Maahi Ve (from Kaante)

*** If you had to listen to only one song in this post, listen to this song. ***

A note about the video: When Malaika Arora first burst into the scene with Jass Arora in "Gur Naal Ishq Mita", while I found the song catchy, I didn't quite think highly of Malaika. Sometime later came the Chaiyya Chaiyya song in Dil Se. Still nothing much to impress me. Then came this video and I could finally vouch for her looking .. let's call it gorgeous. Sorry though, can't put the video out here.

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# 5 Saaqi Saaqi

The only word that I think highly of in the whole song: Saaqi

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