Illegal downlod, Bond, Travellers,Wave

I am back from a meeting of our association in which we discussed the inordinate delay about our Housing project of Renaissance project Park III. It looks like it is going to take more and more delay with things moving at snails pace in the common utility front like power and municipal water. Looks like we need to escalate the issues. Matters were not helped by the traffic chaos due to the Marathon relay arranged here today. Just wonder, when the public will have free access to roads without all the nuisance of rally, marathon, protests etc!!!!. Bangalore traffic has become nightmare!!.

I was not surprised to read that people all over the world are resorting to illegal downloads from sites. The articles show that in Aussie land, Uk the use of bit torrent sites is rampant and is a big concern due to the recession in which people care for every penny. This is more a personal experience as this week I spent about 85$ for renewing my wife's laptop Norton's account. The satisfaction of buying original stuff is amazing!!. Of course, I must make a disclosure that some of the info that comes from Bittorent sites are useful, no questions!!. It comes from a click of a mouse and of course, the charges you pay of 45$ per month, for your ISP provider is the cost for that I guess!!!.

This week marks 100 years of James Bond's secret service MI6. What a character!!, and thrilling the audience in both paper and celluloid. My favorite Bond actor has always been Sean Connery. No questions. Don't remember seeing the latest bond movies!! (Bump in to them in flights more to kill time!!).

It is coincidence that as I read about the violent attacks on Indian students in Australia this week. I read couple of articles about Aussies being the worst tourists abroad!!. It is not surprising given the adjustments needed to be a traveler!!. It is tough and needs resilience to fit in to local culture and a sense of emotional adjustment.

We agree that politicians are made of stronger stuff and don't let their emotions out!. So it was kind of strange to read about El Salvador's president weeping over his son's death and bring the perpetrators to justice. After all every one is human!!.

Google news on Working on Algorithms to see which employee would leave has interesting aspects of employee retention prediction. In a sense, scary that it becomes commercially viable!!. On other google news, watch out for Google wave, the interactive aspects of communication which would go to a next level. My feeling / excitement on seeing demo of Wave was the same as when I saw MS sharepoint about 3 years back!!! for data storage and interaction and which is part and parcel today for me at my work in Honeywell.

Ok, so on IPL Cricket, the Hyderabad team won the championship. It was a great result and personally satisfying one, more so they beat a team in the final sponsored by an Brewery brand!!!. I am also glad that I stayed away from live cricket having watched in total less than 20 Minutes over 35 days. Good for me!!.

Till next week, take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik
Bangalore,India.

Iron Lady, WSJ, Toddler, expenses,

The week was a hectic one with the preparations for the house warming ceremony Friday for our new apartment at Renaissance Park III at Malleswaram. The last 3 weeks work was like about 3 years work to bring the house to speed with the chasing/ followup. The function went well, hopefully we should be able to move in the next 6 to 8 weeks.

I could not write about the Iron Lady I admire most,(Conservative of course, who else) Margaret Thatcher last week due to various issues covered and for want of time and space. It is 30 years since she assumed office and brought a turnaround to the British economy as well as the famous war. She and Golda Meir are the kind of leaders the world needs to turn things around. I am sure her leadership style would return to UK in the next 50 weeks!!.

Glad to see the Wall Street Journal print edition in India. While I follow WSJ articles online as well as through the Indian print partner Livemint till now. I need to decide on subscribing to it. The subscription price US$ 250 for 2 years at 50% discount, looks little high for a personal subscription. With the recessionary trends, I wonder any individual would ask for official subscription ??!!! Worth hearing comments!!!

It was an amazing story of toddler ordering an excavator for 15,000 $ thro online auction site. He wanted a toy and ordered it online. I recollect my cousin informing me that his son tried online buy once and burnt a hole in the wallet!!. Perils of online access.!!

Echoing my views on the Pathetic state of Indian TV coverage here is the column by Mahesh Vijapurkar. Very practical, best way is to go back to the old days of watching TV News twice a day (Morning and night).. Just wonder when the standard of Indian TV would improve????, not in my time. Anyway, I had stopped watching/ wasting time. It is less than 10 min a day!!!.

The expenses scam in UK is a big news, the speaker resigned an historic event. Wonder what the British would think, if they hear the way our Member of Parliament do things, to me what the British folks did is nothing compared to what our guys do here!!!.
But people are sensitive and politicians are thin skinned!!!.

Came across the NIGHT JACK Blog of a frustrating British policemen. Very Intestine facts. On the Blogfront, here is an interesting post by Anna Farmery on Blogging facts.

I leave this week, with the former South Korean president, Roh Moo -Hyun committing suicide over corruption and favouritism scandal. Not surprising there, the high moral and ethics that prevail in South Korea which I had witnessed. Our politician will say........../

Until next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Election, Balmer, Ramesh, Food, Counterfeit

So, the results of the Indian elections were out yesterday, Saturday and as with the election results over the last 8 months all over the world, it has been a disappointing results to take for me. The only silver lining I see in this election is people have voted overwhelmingly for a party with interests/ focus in the national main stream. So this at least gives the government of Dr Manmohan Singh, that comes in a free mandate to do reforms which are badly needed without the whims to attend of smaller, regional parties and the left which I feel should have been long consigned to museum as happened in other parts of the world. So in the interst of national development, we hope things start happening after 5 retarded years. Wishing the Prime minister good luck till next elections. May be, we await a leader who would do a turn around for our agenda!! There is always hope!!. (Labor waited 18years in UK, so a 10 is acceptable)

As a practice now a days I stay away from TV and followed the whole election (but for 15 minutes of TV) on the web. My classmate Thirumalai Rajan, settled now in Bay area, Frisco runs a blog called IDLY VADAI( A south Indian Breakfast dish) in which I followed the fortunes of politician from my state of Tamil Nadu. Interesting developments as well as shameful display of money muscle power.

Moving away from political chaos and mess, it was refreshing to hear Steve Balmer speak to upcoming students at Stanford on challenges and issues ahead in Tech world as well as in MS. Worth a listen from the Microsoft CEO. On another front, this week I tried MS IE 8.0 for a change after downloading, and I was pleasantly surprised, it is not bad after all. Although when I tried to set up weather (It is now raining since 2pm, 4 hours ago) for Bangalore in the browser, there were B and C grade cities, but no Bangalore( A city with 7 mio people!!!).

Of late, I have switched to spending more time on listening to the south Indian music more of instrumental types, which I find very very soothing. I hit up on a great fusion of Western and south indian music by Ramesh of Nadaswaram fusion. A fabulous one especially Malai Soodinal.(Garland exchange during Indian marriage). I am looking for the lyrics for the songs, can anyone help?

So, the recession effects are beginning to take efforts in this part of the world. I am seeing in some places where, canteen food is no longer subsidised and you got to pay for yourself and buy food. I am seeing amazing change in the crowd behavior that comes to canteen has dwindled and many many people carry packed food from home, I am yet to do the switch over. Also the good part is the wastage of food has shrunk dramatically. I see clean plates at the disposal points, a great feeling. Food waste is a crime. Also hearing from friends that some companies are switching to 4 day week. Hmmm, sign of times!!!. Lets hope things move back to gear fast.!!.

I was amazed to read about the counterfeit racket in Lima, Peru. What was shocking also there was an arrest of 90 year old woman in robbery attempt. Wonder where things are going????!!!.

Till next week, take it easy and take care; live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.

Outage, Githa, House,Evil

I was away last week and was tied up to ceremonies due to death in family and so good to be back.

I was away in Bombay for the ceremony and for the first time faced power outage in Bombay, black outs are common. Being a regular visitor in Bombay for more than 24 years, this was a surprise and I was always felt that Bombay is immune from power cuts. Everything is relative in time, it appears!!!.

I got access to the audio of teachings of Swami Chinmayananda on Bhagavad Gita. ( 55 parts each of 2 Hrs!!). What master preacher he was!!, he has presented the complex aspects of Krisha's battle field teachings to Arjuna in an elementary form with a sense of wit and laced with real life incidents. Worth listening. I plan to spend 2 Hrs on Saturday/ Sunday for this.

We are nearing the completion of our new apartment, Renaissance Park III in Malleswaram, Bangalore. The Project delayed by a year, we hope to see some happy end to this ordeal, may be over the next 4 to 6 weeks. We are in better shape than many other projects which are in inordinate delay as well as being scared by news paper advertisements by authorities (DLF) warning of purchase of properties.

So after 20 days, yesterday, I spent 8 min to watch live 11 balls in IPL. It was an accident, but yes, the fact that I stayed away from this evil for 20 days is a good sign.

Ok, till next week, take it easy and take care; Live consciously.
Regards
Karthik.