An Indian in Germany

2009-09-30T09:24:00.002+05:30

Youth!I have in my hand The Indian Express dated Sept 30 2009, The Platinum League 75+ a 4 page marketing feature celebrating Indian enterprises 75 years or older. Bank of Maharashtra turned 75 this year! Anyway coming to the point it starts with a great quote by Samuel Ullman "Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin,

2008-07-18T20:22:00.002+05:30

Story of StuffInstead of writing my own sentences, let me quote."What is the Story of Stuff?From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff

2008-05-11T08:08:00.002+05:30

Dubiya on Indian ApetiteUS faces food shortage. Dubiya chooses to hint that this is being caused by hungry middle class Indians (and ofcourse the Chineese). Yet all the facts tell a different story. Biofuels, reduced food production and increase in per-capita consumption... don't they matter?Rather than making offhand referenece to imaginary causes, a President should invest time an energy on

2007-12-09T13:51:00.001+05:30

55th Sawai Gandharva Music festivalSwara Bhaskara, Padma Bhushan, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi is singing after a gap of 4 years.I am lucky to be listening to him live.His Golden voice has enthralled audience.This is a memorable moment.

2007-11-09T11:04:00.000+05:30

Pune to Tarkarli & BackMTDC has a beautiful beach resort in Malvan at Tarkarli. This is close to the historic Sindhudurga fort. We visited Tarkarli between 30th Sept and 1st Oct 07.We Started from Pune on 29th Morning and reached Kolhapur by the evening. We had darshan of Mahalakshmi on 29th evening and 30th morning. Both times we went to the temple during Aarti time. The early morning darshan

2006-12-17T11:47:00.000+05:30

Sawai Gandharva Music Festival 2006We had the opportunity to attend the prestigious Sawai Gandharva Music Festival (7th ~ 10th Dec) this year.Day 1:Day 1 was a mesmerizing treat. Was lucky enough to leave work early and listen to the Shehanai of Sailesh Bhagawat. Later that evening Dilshad Khan and Sabir Khan enchanted the audience with their Sarangi Jugal bandi.Day 2:We were in late a bit on

2006-07-22T14:07:00.000+05:30

Google Videos Middle East Mess and the PR MachineThe raise of Google is well know to Netizens... Addition of features is more a habit than an event/news in Google....One of Google's many features is video. It has a top 100 feature where you get to find out what the Net likes... this is probably one medium of information/news which is not under the control of the state..... While most serious

2005-07-04T17:11:00.000+05:30

Auto drivers in ChennaiLast FridayI was in Chennai and was travelling around in Autos. The utter contempt for traffic rules and discpline auto drivers had, made wonder what were the rules they followed. I came up with three rules and a foot note.Don't get caught (by the police)Don't touch other vehiclesDon't get toppledIn effect they seem to be using the gready algorithm.

2005-06-26T22:55:00.000+05:30

Mathera trip & Journey to Visakhapatnam Student life is very different from professional life and just like everyone else, I learnt it the hard way. To say that I missed the cool monsoon months of Madras, cycling in the rain, and the chilly snow filled winter of Kaiserslautern would be an understatement. Of course the winter months of Pune did fill some gap and as the monsoon starts, I am already

2005-03-04T09:48:00.000+05:30

Javed Akhtar...I read about Javed Akhtar on this site long back. Y'day a conversation reminded me of this site and today I fished out the link. It is a must read if you like Javed's lyrics and wonder where the source is... So just go ahead... Javed Akhtar Apne Barei Main in English or Javed Akhtar Apne Barei Main in Hindi -Bhaskarps:- I lost the travel logs thanks to Brinkster which closed my

2005-02-28T10:18:00.000+05:30

Religion, Faith, Belief explained..."When you're in a belief system, it's not that you stop asking questions, it's that they become irrelevant. Why don't you ask yourself about the existence of gravity? It's because a lot of the stuff you do every day presupposes it and it seems to work, so where's the motivation to question it? In belief systems, you tend to enter this strange state where you

2005-02-15T09:06:00.000+05:30

Dont forget the good old GNUI was looking for an authoritative article that discusses the contribution of Linus Trovalds to Linux and also amount of his own code in the first kernel released by him. I hit something rather interesting. A faq page on why Linux should be called GNU/Linux and not just Linux.The first question was "Why do you call it GNU/Linux and not Linux?"The fact is that a large

2005-01-16T14:49:00.000+05:30

Scientists failed to warn about Tsunami! "Unable to find telephone numbers"... pathetic excuse... Are will living in an age where telephone is the only means of communication... is it only the government that needs to be informed? Can't this information be relayed all over the globe within minutes using satelite tv channels? Even a kid would have got the idea of using News channels like BBC and

2005-01-15T11:57:00.000+05:30

VSIL Engineers Innovation... Engineers from Vertias Software India in Pune came up with an innovative idea to help the Tsunami victims. Apart from donating in cash to the VSIL foundation, over the weekend they are doing a door to door campaign to collect donations in return for domestic help. They are knocking on doors and offering to clean shoes or do some help in return for a donation. Well

2005-01-06T21:03:00.000+05:30

How about visiting a simple site for a change? Are you not tired of visiting a site with hundreds(if not thousand) of pages and URLs all over them? How about checking a simple site with say just 4 pages and with as few as 5 external links? go to www.2038bug.com and you will find just what I am talking about. Time to see a simple site, simple message. -Bhaskar ps:- I am writing about this site

2005-01-05T17:07:00.000+05:30

/.Two characters! now change that to slash dot and add .org => slashdot.org and you will find all the news that matters if you are a nerd... (not necessarily... if you are into IT you should like it actually!).This was what a site put on its page when they were "slashdotted"...Dear Visitor,We're sorry we missed you. Tonight our site appeared on Slashdot.org.And, in its infinite bounty, Slashdot

2004-12-30T13:24:00.000+05:30

Tsunami in South Asia! I was supposed to be just another lazy Sunday. I went for a late breakfast cum early lunch when I got the news from home about the Tsunami. Soon I was in front of the TV. As the story unfolded it became clear that it was a catastrophe. A rude reminder that we cannot escape the fury of nature. The immediate task is certanly to reach out to the effected areas, bury/burn the

2004-12-09T08:53:00.000+05:30

where is raaga.com ? ---------- Raaga is back! I found nothing on the site that discussed about the brief disappearence! So Enjoy! ---------- Yesterday I went to www.raaga.com and what I found was Russian American Aids.... which had nothing to do with the raaga we all enjoyed over the years! I was disapointed and thought that the domain name has been sold and that the good times are over! the

2004-11-16T01:15:00.000+05:30

Goodbye Chennai... I leave Chennai today and move to Pune where I will work for Veritas. This is an end to a wonderful period. It was fun to study in IIT. IIT M has done wonders to my life. I met many new people, made many friends, learnt a lot, went to Germany and I started my career right here as a project associate. That is my IIT life in a nut shell. The wrapper is more beautiful than the

2004-10-08T11:05:00.000+05:30

Trip to Hyderabad Been to Hyd and back. To kill time I was reading this months Outlook. Stumbled on something I think should be on this blog! Well shall we say its all about "Outlook, Monbiot, McKinsey, Naidu and all that!" Will save us both time if I gave you the links... Check Monbiot's article in Guardian and Outlook on Monbiot...What is the point I am driving here... the same as I tried

2004-10-01T23:57:00.000+05:30

Advantages of forgetting your mobile phone at home! Today I forgot my mobile phone at home. I returned home in the evening to find 19 missed calls and 3 SMS. However I had no regrets. I was Happy!... u see if u forget your mobile... your boss cant call you and ask you to rush somewhere... your friends cant bug you to buy telephone recharge coupons and scratch the number and inform them.... the

2004-09-22T11:21:00.000+05:30

The Village Manoj N Shyamalans latest flick. I have seen it and I came out satisfied! So now I have decided to write a critique. But you find better ones elsewhere. So let me limit you two of my own observations. 1)The scene in which Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) tells Noah Percy (Adrien Brody) "...there are different types of love..." and Noah pokes him with a knife.... Noah is also trying to

2004-08-17T22:42:00.000+05:30

Kind of busy these days Back in India my blog has turned rather dull! One topic I think I can write about is state of academic/research affairs here. But then it is not a very good ideas, especially because I earn my bread and butter from this system. So then looks like this the end of this post! but wait! not yet... something surely worth mentioning... Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has won a

2004-07-11T21:52:00.000+05:30

Shame Shame!! Hi there! Read my blog "Welcome to America!" well now I found something to add! The defence minister of a friendly nation(India) was strip searched! Not once but twice! Huh! I hope, next time the americans visit us, the Indian authorities respond in kind! :-)) I wonder how effective these new security measures are! Only time will tell.

2004-06-20T21:11:00.000+05:30

A critique on 5 films Watched five films in 48 hours. Much more than too much I guess. So decided to bore the non-existant audience of my blog with a critique. A Family Affair A Family Affair (french film with english subtitles) screened at satyam cineplex Chennai. The most remarkable thing about the movie is that 95% of the movie is shot in a small bar. Story of three siblings. Movie depicts

2004-06-13T13:23:00.000+05:30

Welcome to America! "Somewhere along the way, in the process of trying to develop a foolproof system of protecting itself against genuine threats, the US has lost the ability to distinguish between friend and foe. The price this powerful country is paying for living in fear is the price of its civil liberties." - Elena Lappin Read Guardian Special Report titled "Welcome to America" by Elena

2004-05-23T01:01:00.000+05:30

Back with a BloG Back in India I have been quite busy! Not busy enough to keep me from blogging! Just that I got lazy!!! Well there is a lot to write.... a bit too much may be... of friends lost and gained... about the fellowship of VuMaVu... the general elections... the abnormal weather in Chennai (that is where I am right now).... and many more things! So lets skip the intro and get started!!!

2004-02-28T04:50:00.000+05:30

Strange End To A Plesant Stay!!! Our stay here had been rather plesant (In Germany!). The exit has been rather hectic. This certainly was not the way I thought I would blog this event. I had hoped to write about all the wonderful people I had (why has the we suddenly changed to a me!!!) please let me rephrase... we had met here in Germany. Spent the day running around and finishing off errands,

2004-02-20T23:25:00.000+05:30

Urban Legends Received any mails about one of the following? 1) Aids infected syringes in Cinema Halls! 2) Save my baby with photo and all the crap about an agreement with AOL? 3) Yahoo is going to make its messenger a paid service! (especially as an offline message on Yahoo messenger) 4) Forward this mail to 10 people you will get THIS and 100 people and you will get THAT! Felt it was

2004-01-06T17:42:00.000+05:30

Computer Babu Naidu Yours truly has always been a critic of Computer Babu Naidu, the Cheif Minister of Andhra Pradesh. I hail from the state and have seen nothing but hype and spin surround his ambitious looking policies. He had time and again succeded in arm-twisting the Central Govt. into granting more to AP. Friends have written me off as too severe a critic in dicussions. I have always

2004-01-05T02:34:00.000+05:30

Swiss Trip Christmas in India meant just a one day holiday and I am sure 1st Jan was not a holiday for schools. However, here in the west things are quite different. A string of parties and a wonderful holiday, that is what this piece is all about. Two parties with office collegues, one with friends and one with the Tiwaris apart from my own birthday party, the holiday season had started on a

2003-12-11T21:09:00.000+05:30

Tech HumourSearch engine manipulation... a bunch of guys decide to label George Bush as a miserable failure.... big deal!... not that hard actually!!!How did they do it?.. simple... on a bunch of sites place the link http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html as the link to the words miserable failure<<- Just like this!Bingo! its done.... google searches the internet.. max # links with words

2003-11-30T18:54:00.000+05:30

Benvenuto... Time : 5:30 PM Geb-49 Erwin Schrodinger Straße I receive a phone call. An invitation for a dinner. And just as the deal is being clinched an unexpeceted twist and the plans cannot be confirmed. Time : 6:30 PM Geb-10 Meisenweg. I check mail and then there is an ambigious description of when and where. After a few more frantic emails the plan is ironed out to the minutest details. I

2003-11-24T23:21:00.000+05:30

The Waiting Game Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The waiting game It is always a game of the powerful exploiting the powerless. Once having been at the receiving end of things, Isreilis are supposed to know the value of dignity, freedom and peace. This, unfortunately doesnt' seem to be the case. The longer this injustice continues, the stronger will be the resolve in Islamic world to

2003-10-06T13:30:00.000+05:30

Durga Puja-Trip to Frankfurt 6:00 AM I wake up to the irritating sound of the alarm. By the time it is 6:30 I am in the kitchen. I cooked Pravannam and offered Naivedyam to the Goddess Durga. It is about 7:35 in the morning and I am in the bus stop. It is a bit cold and the town is still sleeping. I reach the Rathaus (City centre) and a brisk 10 minutes walk takes me to Hoptbahnof-the main

2003-09-30T01:56:00.000+05:30

Football Fanaticism And All That Kaiserslautern is a small town (a population of 100,000) where you barely get to see police except for an occasional patrol car. When it comes to football, that is to say, when football comes to KL, it is a different story all together. It must be the same all over Europe only I realized it now. A stream of people coming from all three roads that leads to the

2003-09-23T02:27:00.000+05:30

I want to shout! I am back After a few weeks of silence I felt my blog had died a rather early death. I was under the impression that nothing worthwhile was happening to write about, until I realized that it was not true. I could write a little about my trip to Darmstadt and about the four movies I have seen in the mean while. But surely these were under the category 'not worthwhile to write

2003-09-02T02:31:00.000+05:30

The Indian Ethos Movies Last Sunday was Vinayaka Chaviti. Last weekend was very enjoyable. We had planned to visit Heidelberg on Saturday but called off the plans fearing that the cloudy weather would play spoilsport. Friday evening, having given up the travel plans we decided to watch a good movie. After a little confusion we ended up watching the telugu movie 'santosham'. Well I dont intend

2003-08-29T18:47:00.000+05:30

My First Blog Half an hour well spent in the Guardian Unlimited Online. I lost track of time reading something titled "My granny was a book thief" . I take a look out of the window. It is raining outside. A hot summer has come to an end. Drops of water racing down the glass. I see a change... a change in weather... Just an hour ago I was walking back from the Mensa. The breeze was cold but