Friday, April 29, 2005

Whats your opinion on B-school Blogs?



Do you feel B-school blogs are self-glorifying or useful or just waste of time or pathetic or ...!

well,why not a poll ?



Your Opinion on B-school Blogs ?
Informative and Useful
Neutral ( not bad , not good)
Self Glorifying
Waste of time
Copy Cats



Thursday, April 28, 2005

Teach them how to protest and..



Japanese Army's Atrocities -- Nanjing Massacre
The rape of Nanking
Former Chinese "Comfort Women" to Sue Japan
The Museum of Nanjing Massacre

.. Having spent two years in south east asia,i can understand the anger of chinese protestors against 'japanese arrogance' and 'attempts to ignore history'. But , China is playing a dangerous game,the same protestors unleashed against japan,in the not so distant future, could turn against communist party demanding more freedom,voting rights and reforms.We can only pray that Hu Jintao does'nt do a 'tiananmen' again if such a situation does arise.


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Wednesday, April 27, 2005

the group

....546 messages on last count ,thats the number of messages on the yahoo group 'spjimr2007' ,the new yahoo group of our 2007 batch.

What are people talking on the group?
Well,they are talking anything and everything from laptops(most popular topic) to bowling meets.Then there were clashes of the cities ( must add, friendly ones ) ,bangalore vs mumbai for some time and then bangalore vs mumbai vs rest.Sensibly enough, very few people got into these discussions.Then there are fellas who are organizing meets after meets in their cities.'Banglaore gang' is planning it's second meet ( or third !) and so is mumbai.Rest of cities have their chotu meets as well.I met three fellow future students in the chennai meet (if that qualifies for a meet) and another two in hyderabad over the weekend.

One senior was invited to be part of the group and someone ,knowingly or unknowingly a fellow grp member suggested that the group should be limited to students of 2005-2007 alone.The nice senior,was obviously unhappy and left the group ,too bad ,he was really being helpful answering our queries,even the stupidest of the queries ,with loads of patience.

There are pictures and loads of pictures of induviduals , and groups of induviduals from the meets,constantly being updated. Then there are files and files, an excel comparing laptop features offered by the institute ,excel for loan emi calculation,etc etc.

And of course how can i forget the polls,poll to pick meeting dates to times,poll on laptops ,poll on 1yr vs 2 yr program,poll on loans offered.

I wonder, if you are living in the same city why don't you just pickup the blooooody phone and arrange for the meet. why complicate !


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Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Best biryani in India

Best biryani outlets in India! , we just had a long discussion thread on at indiamike ,and after dozen or so postings, the master list , for you.Am looking forward to the biryani at hotel alfa ,near andheri , mumbai ( close to our campus ),if you are near any one of these places, just run there ! Nothing like a fabulous yummy biryani.

Bangalore – Samarkand in Commercial Street , Nandini – there are 4 of them , Hyderabad in Koramangala, Biriyani Merchant in Castle Street

Chennai – Usilampatti on LB Road, Ponnuswamy in Ethiraj Salai, Karaikudi on RK Salai, Malgudi in Savera Hotel in RK Salai, Anjappar on Nungambakkam High Road and Banana Leaf in Indira Nagar

Hyderabad - Bawarchi, Paradise, Madeena, Basera, Garden Restaurant (close to Paradise), Niagara , Azizia, Madina (near Charminar - the original), The Nizam Club (in my opinion the 'real deal'), if you can find/persuade a member to take you there. Banjara Darbar and Narmada

A must have after Biryani, Khubani-Ka-Meetha and Paan. A great Hyderabadi tradition

Shoranur railway station

Calicut - Sagar, Lucky

Nagpur - Babbu Ki Biryani, Mominpura

Delhi - Kake Da Dhaba

Royal mughal kitchen is called karim's. This is the restaurant run by the descendants of the Royal cooks of the Mughals. While this lineage might well be alleged, once you eat the food, you will agree that they ‘must’ be he actual royal cooks. The original one is in a bylane, very close to the Jama Masjid. The other one, Dastar Khwan-e-Karim, is in Nizamuddin somewhere near the Durgah. And, believe it or not, they have a website: http://www.karimhoteldelhi.com/index1.html so go on, look, eat..i recommend this place to each and all.

Mumbai - Alfa, Andheri West

Nashik - Mazda Cafe, Old Agra Road

Mysore – RRR, Ghandi Square

Calcutta - Aminia, Nizams, Bedwin, Shiraz and Zeeshan.

Indore - Pasha Ki Biriyani - this guy is an Afaghani - His show is located in Anand Bazar. Nafeez - This is amongst the best resturant for Biriyani and Haleem and is l ocated at Saket

Chicago - Gareeb Nawaz on Devon Avenue in Chicago

S'pore - "Andhra curry" in little India

Sunnyvale Downtown - Turmerik

Mtn. Vw. - Shiva's, Amber

Santana Row - Amber.


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Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Dakshin Chithra

What is DC?
...
Dakshin chithra is a museum , or is it a heritage spot ! or just another touristy thing ,......?
....

IMHO,Not a great place ,not a bad place either ,if you are in chennai and running out of options ,this is one nice place to visit,it's on theecr road ,roughly 4-5 kms after MGM resort.Am sure , it is more useful for the phoren tourists or first timers to south india.Besides ,the entry fee is just 50 rs and it's not really a dead place like other museums.
...
They have replicas of traditional houses from various southern states , with all household utensils,furniture ,and some dummies thrown in etc(typical singapore style tourist things ).
...
must add , it is very informative ,if you are keen on any of the following :
1.architecture
2.palmistry (full time astrologer there )
3.shopping ( the usual girlish things )
...
They do organize some events from time to time.When we were there , they has the ugadi festival (telugu new year ) and a dance troupe had come done from my home town (hyderabad) to give the visitors a nice street show ,some folk songs and dances ( banjara or lambada dances as they are known back home)
....
They have a photo exhibit, ( india through my eyes !) by some french photgrapher , these days.and before i forget , they are looking for volunteers for their activities
........
9 months work
5000 pm allowance
daily pickup and drop from beasant nagar , chennai
....
hope the info is useful ,here are some pics

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Sunday, April 17, 2005

A Tale of Two Indias : Can the north ever catch the south?

An old article from Business Week ,nice read on north-south divide.
I don't have the link any more.

A Tale of Two Indias : Can the north ever catch the south?

.....................................................
But Karnik reassured his customers that the trouble had not affected the south, home to India's tech industry. "The south Indian states are more concerned with the economy," he said.

From afar, it sometimes seems as though all of India is in flames. But in fact, the world's second most populous nation increasingly is a country of two solitudes: the overpopulated and impoverished north, where religious tensions are giving foreign investors pause; and the go-go south, home to the majority of the nation's technical institutes, an educated workforce, and progressive legislators. The unrest is only deepening the national divide. For while New Delhi remains an island of investment in the north, states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat, once magnets for investment, are starting to lose ground to the south. Says Subir Gokarn, chief economist at Credit Rating Information Services of India Ltd. in New Delhi: "Informed foreign investors will look at India not as a whole but as islands of prosperity and poverty."

The growing divide between the four southern states--Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala--and the rest of the country is prompting the south to become increasingly independent. Angry that the region's economic health has provided the central government with an excuse to limit federal funding, southern leaders are pushing for more decision-making power over education, employment, poverty alleviation, and infrastructure. "There can be no meaningful economic liberalization without decentralization," says Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. There are even murmurs of secession. "Our India, with no Ayodhya temple talk, no Pakistan, no Delhi, no rabble-rousing politicians," muses an influential south Indian executive. "It's seditious, but what a delicious thought!"
..............................

Of course, no one seriously expects the nation to split in two. In fact, north and south have been regions apart for hundreds of years. Northern India endured a series of foreign invasions, and as a result developed a vibrant but confrontational culture. Southern India, far from New Delhi and bracketed on three sides by the Indian Ocean, instead developed strong commercial ties with foreigners. Moreover, the north's militant, caste-based brand of Hinduism is nothing like the south's peaceable faith, the product of 60 years of religious reforms that eroded the power of the caste system and separated church and state. In the south, says Kamala Ganesh, who teaches anthropology at the University of Bombay, "the political and religious divide has already taken place."


Foreign investors have endorsed south India's rich business climate with their pocketbooks. Over the next three years, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Texas Instruments, Cisco Systems, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard are all doubling their operations in Bangalore. "Bangalore was the natural choice for Cisco," says S. Devarajan, vice-president of Cisco's Indian global development center, the company's largest such facility outside the U.S. "The corridors of power are very clean here."

........................................
Moreover, the violence in the north is forcing existing foreign and domestic investors in India to start hedging their bets--all to the south's benefit. HSBC Holdings PLC has postponed its plans to open a branch in Baroda, Gujarat. "Political and economic stability is what companies look at when making investments," says Zarir Cama, chief executive of HSBC India. "Governments that espouse that, strongly and sincerely, win." The bank, which has been rapidly building up back-office operations in India, will now focus on southern India, creating 5,000 new jobs for the region by 2004. The World Bank has its India head office in New Delhi, but its back-office operations in Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu. And General Electric Co., which has four call centers in and around Delhi, has expanded southward, attracted by the talent in Bangalore, where it is building its only research-and-development center outside the U.S., and to Hyderabad, where its new accounting back office is based.

The south's growing critical mass is giving it extra clout in the capital. In fact, the man who launched India's economic reform program in 1991 was India's first southern Prime Minister, P. V. Narasimha Rao. Subsequent coalition governments have found key supporters among southern regional parties. These, especially Naidu's Telegu Desam party, have not hesitated to use their influence. As a religious moderate, Naidu has shown his displeasure with the Hindu nationalism of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. After the Gujarat riots in February, Naidu refused to send his representative to New Delhi, and says his continued support is dependent on the government adhering to a secular line. In early March, when the fight over the temple in Ayodhya nearly turned ugly, the southern leadership sent the respected religious leader, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi, to help find a peaceful solution. His presence was a pointed reminder to the BJP that the south represents 180 million Hindus who prefer to co-exist with other faiths.
.............................

Such progressive thinking has caught the attention of northerners who yearn for the south's prosperity, tech industry, and peaceful way of life. Even the chief minister of the communist-run state of Bengal is talking about making it the "IT capital of India." Clearly, in the future the central government will be under increasing pressure to make sure that the southern model of a modern India spreads to the rest of the country.


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Saturday, April 16, 2005

Enigma that is tamil nadu

In spite of the dravidian movement,left leaning etc , parts of Tamil Nadu still remains an enigma to me , some people like 'frogs in a well' refuse to change and i wonder why ????????????!!

........
Read this:
Children 'buried alive' in India
NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- Indian police have charged 80 people for burying children alive in an ancient Hindu ceremony known as "the festival of pits."
The ceremony, in which children -- some less than a year old -- are buried alive briefly and then dug up, happened on Monday in southern Tamil Nadu state, The Asian Age reported on Thursday.
Authorities have been trying for years to stop it and people found guilty face up to three years in jail and/or a fine of 5000 rupees ($114).
..............



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Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Road trip: chennai to yelagiri

If someone tells you that yelagiri is just 190 km away from chennai,slap him ,
am still trying to catch the fella who told me that.

....
578 kms in two days ,was the distance we covered over the weekend ,You can expect the distance to be atleast 250 kms from tambaram to reach the hills ,assuming you are taking the bypass roads wherever possible and not getting into the towns of vellore ,arcot,etc. One thing i learnt form this trip was never never prejudge a hill station by it's height above sea level or freezing temperatures, the beauty lies elsewhere.

.....
Here are some reasons why you should consider yelagiri for a weekend getaway

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The u-bends and s-bends to the top of yelagiri , god send for bikers,
+
the long trek to the siva temple on top of the hill from mangalam village (atleast 1 hour up)
+
the cheap and yummy hot food in the cold and still not too cold weather of yelagiri
+
lack of irritating ring tones ( no mobile service)
+
nice secluded and pleasant guest houses
+
the absence of tourist armies
+
the closest hill station from chennai
+
quite close from bangalore as well (seen quite many KA reg vehicles)
+
and very importantly, some really nice and friendly village folks
......
You will fall in love with yelagiri,i will post the pics soon
...
The route we took:
tambaram bypass--->poonnamale---> sriperamabadur---->vellore ----->vaniyambad---->ponneri------->yelagiri hills
...
Places to stay at yelagiri:
VS lodge : suggested by the hotel owner at hotel yelagiri !
Taj resort : large area , beautiful garden,pricey but worth it
Hotel Hills : typical small town ,but good hotel,good security,couple of games - table tennis,volley ball,
prices: 700 std room and goes on upto 1500 for deluxe room,perfect for families
quite pricey for the rest of us
Hotel yelagiri: 500 ++ cost , good for breakfast ( we had our breakfast here)
Hotel negress: quite popular with families again, rooms start off @ 750
Sterling resorts: another realtively upmarket resort
Lake view : nice golden retriever of the owner ,excellent food, moderatel y priced,nice location ,perfect for dinner, owner's name is kumar
..
Must Do:
..

Take a bike:
Take a bike and practise yor ridign skills ,the roads have very less traffic,so come down the ghat section and go back up and try all crazy bends and
push the speeds if you can .
...
The trek:
Take the trek to the top of the hill - takes 1 hours if you are fast walker ,startt off from a village called mangalam,1200 puls steps roughly,
gets lonely and bit eeire as you reach at the top , it's just you , the monkeys,colourful lizards and the odd python, we did spot lots of beehives ,but no bears
...
honey:
Cheap and best quality honey 750 ml for 80 rs, and i did'nt bargain, i felt it was a fair price for the pure honey, yelagiri is one of the main sources
of good honey in tamil nadu.

..
some pics here:









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Thursday, April 07, 2005

The Laptop dilemma resolved .

Before I kick off my MBA, the bloody choice I have to make is between the two laptops ,one is IBM R52 and other Toshiba A80,on offer from sp jain, it’s pretty much a close race ,


I was inclined towards Toshiba for it’s picture and audio quality, but then I realize it makes sense if am crazy about 3D video games etc ,then there are concerns about the quality of the toshi laptops supplied to the previous batches(apparently!);

...

IBM also had it’s share of blame with many batteries going for a toss after 1 year , how convenient for them that they give only 1 year warranty on batteries ,but then IBM has 60 GB HDD while toshi bundles a media reader 6 in 1,but then I realize, I don’t own any one of those 6 media cards supported by the toshi reader,while IBM is cheaper by 6000 bucks.

Guess what, I will buy the IBM and use the 6000 extra to buy a transcend 512 MB mp3 player.

..

But then....


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Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Project Hope or Project Hype - oberoi's publicity stunts

I was following bollywood actor vivek oberoi's project hope , after tsunami , and esp he did gain a lot of media attention out of the tsunami relief operations and then came Jayalalitha's accusations yesterday , as below in the media , and i feel this time around Jayalalitha is right.
....
...
Jaya rubbishes Vivek relief
Chennai, April 4: Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa on Monday targeted Bollywood hero Vivek Oberoi, accusing him of not doing anything tangible in the tsunami-hit Devanampattinam village of Cuddalore district, which he had adopted soon after the December 26 disaster.
....
...

Piqued by the actor’s statement on Sunday that he had to shift his Rs 11-crore Project Hope to the neighbouring Union territory of Pondicherry because of delay in allotment of land by the Tamil Nadu government for houses for fishermen, Ms Jayalalithaa said: “He has done little, but derived a lot of publicity. He did only 10 per cent of the tsunami relief work, while our government did the rest at Devanampattinam.”
.......................................................................................................
...........................
She accused the filmstar of trying to ride piggyback on the government’s relief and rehabilitation efforts to “seek publicity for himself,” and to create an impression that it was all due to his “personal effort.” ..............................................................................
...........................
_
So i wonder if vivek's project is a project hope or project hype.
I know many people get involved with NGO's for one of the following three reasons
  1. Money
  2. Publicity
  3. Political ambitions.
Sad but true!

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