The other side of Outsourcing

The other side of Outsourcing

Thomas Friedman visits India and explores the other side of Outsourcing.He filmed this documentary for Discovery Channel .

Thomas L. Friedman, a world-renowned author , journalist and a three time Pulitzer prize winner is writing for The New York Times since 1981 .

Reflections 2005 - The year it was

A lot has been written on the earthquake,floods and bombs some other events that shaped India of 2005 were :

10.MPs asking commissions to release aid
Poor and needy please wake up ....there is nothing such as free lunch.Your representetive needs to be financially strong to support you folks....rich individuals make 'gareeb' politicians.

9.MPs receiving bribe to ask questions in Parliament
Some eight MPs were caught asking money to raise questions in Parliament.Most of the MPs are from the party I had high hopes from and voted for them every time there were elections.
I'm surprised they don't ask money for getting up every morning and brushing their teeth.I had another analogy in mind ......but I want to keep it clean 'coz there is a 11 yr old that reads and likes this blog.

8. Dada is thrown out of India team
This issue caused such a stir that a question was raised in Parliament .I'm not sure if event #9 played a role.

7. Lalu/Rabri are shown the door
Each circus has to end ..this one lasted for 15 years.The woman who could not balance her domestic budget all her life ,played with multi million INR state budget to her heart's content.

As JFK rightly said 'People get the goverment they deserve'.

6. Amitabh Bachan is sick
This issue got so much of press ....as a Hindu priest quoted "this much has not been written even about Lord Shiva in the Vedas'.

5.Raj Thakre kicks Bal Thackrey's A@#
The roaring tiger didn't even purr when his 40 yr old political empire crumbled to pieces.The prodigal nephew turned into an ambitious opponent.The real son is more of a lap cat than a tiger .He is still cleaning the debris after the hurricane.

4. Sania Mirza's Skirt
Fundamentalist don't like the size of her skirt.....Thanks for pointing it out..next time when she is on the courts ...forget the game .I'm measuring her skirt length.If she starts playing in Salwar Kameez she won't win a game but for sure she will make a few people happy.

No pun intended but where do you keep the extra balls to serve when you play tennis in a dress........?

3. Dance bars are closed in Mumbai
Crowd active in the Mumbai cultural scene is disappointed & looking elsewhere to appreciate this art form....People even fear that this art form that flourished vigorously under patronage of police & politicians may die soon in its absence.
With these bars now closed politicians and doctors are looking for other avenues to invest...may be Web 2.0 startups.....

2.Ambani brothers split
If the elder brother is a shrewd business man and younger brother wants to run an oil refinery and produce a movie at the same time.....It was about to come..sooner or later.This corporate feud has settled for now but in words of George Carlin there is still enough bull#@#@ left to open 2 law firms and a religious book shop.

1.Job reservations in private sector.
Now this is something I cannot wait to get implemented...There is so much I want to write about it ....I cannot wait to see the can of worms it's going to open.How would Narayan Murthy react to people immolating themselves in front of Infosys ....just an afterthought.....

Bhagwun (The Almighty)

A Designer friend of mine ...as talented as Amitabh but in alltogether a different profession compiled a list of his 10 best dialogues that have kept the Bollywood fans glued to him for last three decades.This gentleman has seen all Amitabh movies x 10 times.....as they say there is always a good time to watch his movie and I can bet there are millions more in our country of billions for whom life imitates art.

It's easier to explain nanoscale engineering but what makes this guy a phenomenon is beyond reasons.

This thespian of acting has blended anger,emotion ,comedy in one and became an icon globally.An icon so powerful that some fans call him 'Bhugwun' (The Almighty) .

As our beloved star turns 64 and he is not as angry as he used to be .Here is an avid fan's tribute.Amitabh's 10 most memorable dialogues.

10. Kaalia
"Hum jaha pe khade ho jaate hein , line wahin se shuru hoti hai."

9. Trishul
"Sahi baat ko sahi waqt pe kiya jaye to uska maza hi kuch aur hai, aur main sahi waqt ka intezaar karta hoon."

8.Satte Pe Satta
"Chain kuli ki, main kuli ki chain! Chain kuli ki, main kuli ki chain! Chain kuli ki, main kuli ki chain!"

7.Chupke Chupke
"Jis tarah gobhi ka phool phool hokar bhi phool nahi hota, waise hi gainde ka phool bhi phool hokar phool nahi hota."

6.Zanjeer
"Yeh tumhare baap ka ghar nahin, police station hai! Is liye sidhi tarah khade raho!"

5. Agneepath
"Pura naam, Vijay Dinanath Chauhan. Baap ka naam, Dinanath Chauhan; Maa ka naam, Suhasini Chauhan, gaon Mandwa; umar chhattis saal..."

4.Namak Halal
"I can talk English, I can walk English, I can laugh English because English is a very phunny language."

3.Shahenshah
"Rishte me to hum tumhare baap lagte hain , naam hai Shahenshah."

2. Deewar
"Haan, main sign karoonga, lekin pehle us aadmi ka sign le ke aao, jisne mera baap ko chor kaha tha ; pehle us aadmi ka sign le ke aao jisne meri maa ko gali deke naukri se nikal diya tha; pehle us aadmi ka sign le ke aao jisne mere haath pe ye ('mera baap chor hai') leekh diya tha. Uske baad... Uske baad, mere bhai, tu jo kahega us par main sign karoonga."

1.Sholay
"Tumhara naam kya hai, Basanti?"

A Potter's World

On a balmy December afternoon what one can do is either act lazy keep on sleeping on the couch in the living room and watch a bollywood flick....or go out and head to Saltspring Island.

Saltspring Island is a half hr boat ride from from Victoria and the most populated (appx 10,000) of the Canadian Gulf Islands.Its about seventeen miles long and nine miles wide.There are large no of musicians,artisans and sculptures living on this island.

So this weekend we head out and meet Gary Cherneff. He has made Salt Spring his home for last 30 years. He is exhibiting his work for last 32 years. He is represented in private collections as far as Japan, UK and Australia.Gary Cherneff's studio is nested in a long winding driveway in a forest.The studio is a 2 storey structure split in the Gallery area & the workshop.

Gary's wife Beth runs her studio just next to Gary's.She owns 'Flowers by Arrangment'.

Overheard

Recently two monorails crashed in Seattle....That's not the Seattle I grew in ...earlier the only thing known to crash in Seattle was Windows 98.

P for Passport

Some useless statistics .........

60% of Canadians don't have passports.
80% of Americans don't have passports.
& only 30% of US Congressmen have passport.

Fellow countrymen and neighbors...if you have seen enough of each other ,stop strolling in each others backyard and start seeing the rest of the world.

Congressmen, I'm not surprised at the above figures although English is my second language and I always thought antonym to pro-gress was re-gress......but it's not.

Cheaper by dozen or two

A friend of mine had sent us tickets for a movie premier.Since we reached early we had to wait outside the theatre for few minutes.

The family standing next to us demanded our attention immediately.The daughter was clinging to Dad's legs,two sons were running amock in the lobby ,a toddler trying to free himself from his mother's arms.Another young guy (GAP youth size) was pulling his mothers overcoat and trying to hide under it....This valiant woman seemed undeterred with all this crying , pushing pulling. At the same time she was comfortably involved in girl talk with another woman in the line.They were busy talking about everything under the sun and I was not evesdropping ,they were just talking loud. I could hear the conversation drifting away from the weather to the kids and gradually to how old and how many ? Now I was hearing that was clearly not for my ears ... This woman had 8 kids. She was accompanied with 7 and one was at home and to top that she had no plans to stop , she wanted to have 20.Suddenly this Mom looked mightier than a polar bear who had just hunted down a whale......

I was feeling dizzy by then and it was not the caffeine in my Venti latte.

In my World

I sat through this 2 hr DVD 'The inner and outer world of Shahrukh Khan' .I watched this documentary 'coz my wife loves Shahrukh Khan and with similar sentiments she tolerates Bipasha Basu movies. We call them The Gay & The Tramp respectively for the same reasons also.

Nothing new in the DVD that I didn't know about the Khan.The thing that caught my attention in the documentary ...Largest Mcdonald in the world is in Orlando,Florida and is owned by a Desi.

Amrita Pritam

Renowned Punjabi poetess and writer Amrita Pritam is no more. She was awarded with Padma Vibhushan and Gyanpeeth Award for her literary prowess.

I got a chance to read her autobiography in high school 'Rasidi Ticket'. A lot of it I couldn't understand.I didn't complete it reading but somewhere I continued to follow her achievements, her life.I was also intrigued by her relationship with Sahir Ludhianvi & Imroz.More than anything she lived life on her terms as she wanted to.

Listening her reciting her poems was like watching Yehudi Menuhin in concert. It was an eternal bliss.

Few lines from her last poem were ....

Yeh jism hota hain to sub kuch khatm ho jaata hain,
Per chetna ke dhaage kaynaati kano ke hote hain ,
Main un kano ko chunungi,Dhhagon main lapetoongi,
Aur tumhe main phir milungi .......

From Darkness to Light

Happy Halloween !!!

Optimism in Adversity

Southern Indian is soaked in rains.Bangalore,Hyderabad and Chennai took the brunt this time. After the stock traders of Mumbai it was time for IT stalwarts to figure out what's gone wrong with the place where they have invested millions and want to spend a few more.

I received these two pictures from a friend of mine in India.This guy communicates with his Japanese client in Hindi, so I won't doubt the authenticity.

Catching fish in flood is what Indian life is all about. Kudos to the Junta and my friend who right now is standing knee deep in water and working on the floating server to get his world class enterprise application up and running.

Splendor Sine Occasu

Before I moved to Victoria, Parliament building attracted me as a tourist too.This piece of art is a strong symbol of what Victoria is all about.

Vancouver Island was so huge that British Empire found it unmanageble and leased it to Hudson Bay Company [similar to East India Company but these days they are a super store chain and East India Company is still run by locals].

A young engineer from UK, Francis Rattenbury was awarded the contract for the building.He was only 25 when he started working on this magnificient piece of architecture.The architecture looks inspired by US Capitol Hill and Tajmahal.It is also rumored that he copied the design of a Maharaj's Palace in India.It also resembles Vatican, but forgive me father for I have sinned. Politicians work inside the building and this resemblance ends here.

Francis Rattenbury led a very high profile life in Victoria . Later he moved to UK and was murdered by his second wife.But this resemblance with Donald Trump too ends here.

Parliament Building is infact the provincial legislature.On a summer evening picnicing on the lawns of Parliament Building, eating a Tofu HotDog I often read & wonder why British Columbia chose the motto 'Splendor Sine Occasu ' (Splendor without diminishment).

This grand architecture is an evidence enough for me.

*** My spouse's office is also inside this building and..........Darling for the umpteenth time .......Yes, your office is better than mine.

Russell Peters

One of my favorite comics......He is of Indian origin and funny at the same time.

Must watch clip .... (appx duration 45 mins)

http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~albertck/Funny%20shits/Russell%20Peters.wmv

Da' Pub UPAT

I welcome ya'll to this great event tonight.Da Pub UPAT is pleased to induct Ms Harriet Miers to the Hall of Fame.Ms. Meyers is our newest member.Da' Pub is also pleased to have previous hall of fame inductees tonight :

Ashlee Simpson
Michael D. Brown
Tom Delay
Arnold Schawznegger
Paris Hilton
Madonna
& My Man George W.

Applause !!!

Friends don't forget to join us on Halloween when we meet again to witness a dual between Ben Affleck and Jack Hanna to qualify the next nominee.

Applause !!!

**Da' Pub UPAT [Unqualified People At The Top] is an equal opportunity employer.

Bollywood 2.0

The recent bollywood films dazzle ..its like moving to Firefox after using IE for years.

Hindi movie fans like me are easy to please.Some Latkas good Jhatkas lots of melodies and I'm sold.Plots don't matter,stories are immaterial.If I can forget a bad day for a 2 1/2 hrs of razzle dazzle. I want to buy a ticket.

Storylines have moved out of Gulshan Nanda novels , Reservoir Dogs to folk tales of Rajasthan. There is a lot of originality. Teen Deewaren,Black did give me a mometarily flasback of seeing a 70s Hollywood classic but even than it had a lot of original stuff. There were a lot of movies which have made Popcorn my staple diet.Paheli,Mangal Pandey,My wife's murder,Chocolate,Ramji Londonwale are a few.The list is increasing by day.

Bollywood has been an integral part of being an Indian.If you are an Indian in any corner of the world from Louisiana to Ludhiana you have a birthright to gossip about Karishma's domestic dispute. That's how I keep myself busy on a taxing 30 hr flight home.My neighbor's 3 yr old son cannot remember his parents name but he knows who Bunty & Bubli are .

Bollywood fans are as fanatic as a suicide bomber.Nothing will deter them from watching hindi movies even when they have to spend 1/2 hr to figure out why Shahrukh is wearing lipstic.But the metrosexual hero is appealing to lot of urban & rural fans.

When I see Jr & Sr Bachan dancing together in 'Kajra re'... 'm on my feet .Salman & Sushmita's gyrating gospel in the rain thrills me more than War of the Worlds....... ..beat David Dhawan to that Spielberg.

Elk grazing by roadside,Jasper

Lake Vermillion,Banff,Canada

When God made this place,he was showing off - Banff,Canada

Tall Ship Festival ,Victoria BC  

Spring at Minter Gardens  

Spring in full bloom at Minter Gardens  

Setting sun at Lake Okanagan 

Evening Ferry to the Mainland from Victoria

Bathtub Race,Vancouver 

BC Elections

Festival of democracy is back . News channels have dug out their teams of Pundits & Analyst out of hibernation.Ugly billboards are at every street corner.

I'm a voter. I am like an oriental tourist in a hindu temple not sure if I'm gettting a'Dim Sum' or 'Darshan' when the results are out in May.

Bhangra Underground

Oh yes ...I'm totally getting used to it. Adjusting to my new life better than I thought I would.Its cold..I'm sick and its raining for last one week but its good. I like it.

There is more India in Canada than I thought.There is too much of Punjab in B.C.There are more Indian grocery stores in Vancouver than 7-11.There are more Indian Video stores than Blockbuster...and that's just an iota of the big Punjabi influence in B.C.

I'm seeing some good Punjabi Rockers (Poppers doens't sound right)on T.V. Punjabi M.C is one of them and there is Babbu Mann and the legend Gurudas Mann.

My ears find it difficult to tune to the new kind of folk music. Its Bhangra Underground USA and Gangsta Bhangra.I think I have heard similar titles before and seen the video of scantly clad beautiful girls dancing in the background and ugly guys in the lead belting out uglier lyrics.The bad thing, I can relate with these guys ...

Next on my schedule to head to the video store to grab a copy of 'Jakhmi Jaagirdar-II'.I have heard the sequel is better than the first.

Vancouver Skyline 

Dear Star & Buc Wild

Philadelphia Power 99 FM recently aired a show where two gentlemen (Shockjocks) Star and Buc Wild called up a call center in India and cursed the operator calling her bi##@@ and f$$% . It was a comedy sketch, I guess not .

Star and Buc Wild did cross a line by cursing a poor girl who doesn't even know what kind of jerks these guys are. Star and Buc Wild stop venting out your frustration on innocent folks.Its the corporate greed that is moving jobs to other countries and nothing else.

Trust me ,the day Clear Channel Communications finds cheaper RJs than you two ...someone will be broadcasting your show from China making an obscene call to you .

Bellagio,Las Vegas