Snow Storm New York/New Jersey - 9th and 10th Feb 2010

Snow storm ravaged NJ/NY and much of east coast over the last two days. Here are some pics.

Disclaimer: Poor light has affected the quality of the pictures. And I took them with a phone camera with not-so-good resolution.

My Toyota buried under snow.

Anderson Avenue

Snow covered trees always remind me of Christmas

The snow on the sidewalks was almost 3 feet high in some places

My Apartment signboard

The biggest brand ambassador you can imagine !

Mr President, Commander in Chief of USA, the most powerful man on the planet is (unwittingly) promoting Weatherproof Jacket company ! Who could be a better brand ambassador for a company?

Place: Time Square, New York

Clicked with my phone on my way home at night

Story about the controversy: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/business/media/07garment.html

Fresh cakes?

Boy! I wonder how they would have made such cakes back then which are still fresh since 1934


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

'The Destroyer' in action

Amidst all the things happening these days, I could not resist the temptation of jotting down a few words for Sehwag for his batting performance yesterday. He literally butchered the Sri Lankan bowling attack with a ton of runs. With 40 boundaries and 7 6's, Sehwag played shots all across the ground. He made strokes at will. Whenever he wanted and wherever he wanted. The runs kept on flowing. Though he missed the world record of highest 300s in Test Cricket, he scripted a special place for himself in the history of Test Cricket. Hats off !

Festive Times

The Good Ol' Christmas Tree is back for the season in Bloomberg compound



Time 23rd Nov, 17:30
Place Bloomberg Tower, NY

The Colbert Report - A Sampler (11/10/09)

For those who don't watch this show, this is a good place to start. One of the best episodes in a couple of weeks.

Another absurdity of Manhattan

Gratuity: something given voluntarily or beyond obligation usually for some service; especially tip.

This is how Webster dictionary defines the word gratuity. And this is the most common sense meaning of a tip or a gratuity. It has to be volunary. Now I agree that there are gratuity etiquette. You normally give 15% or more as a tip in restaurant or any such service that you receive. But New York city has a way with twisting definitions and meanings.

I went to The Olive Garden restaurant at Times Square in midtown Manhattan a couple of days ago with a friend who was visiting US for the first time. Olive Garden is famous for its overly courteous (read nosy and interfering) waiters and high end (read unnecessarily expensive) dining experience. But what got me the most this time was the bill we got at the end. The restaurant had already added 15% mandatory 'gratuity' to the total. And if this was not enough to piss of customers, there was an additional blank field for 'Extra gratuity' !! My friend was taken aback by these crazy customs of the NY city. And there was just one thing I could say to him. 'Welcome to The City, my friend'.

A Dangerous Trend

Continuing the dangerous trend of narrow minded regionalism, Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan said that more importance should be given to Marathis in employment in Maharashtra.
This is extremely disturbing. I was not much worried about comments made by Shiv Sena leaders or MNS party workers. But when the Chief Minister of a state starts making such remarks from his official post, it is indeed time to start getting anxious.

Any great economy is founded on basis of multi cultural meritocracy. Take any great city. Like New York or even our own Mumbai. What made them great? Was it some extra ordinary governance? Or some political party? No. what made them great were the people living and working in them. It was the talent that built the economy of such great mega cities. Cultural diversity, tolerance, respect, secularism and above all pure talent act like bricks and mortars of an economically viable city. If a couple of centuries ago, politicians of New York city had started throwing tantrums that 'we won't allow any non-americans to work in New York', would it be the financial capital of the world today? Similar argument can be made about Mumbai or any other city as well.

This trend is even more dangerous than caste system and reservations. Because here, politicians are trying to divide the country in even narrower factions. The day the politicians successfully bring such legislation in any state or city, it will be the death knell for meritocracy in India. The politicians have been driving long nails into coffin already. It's just a matter of time. Unless the citizens of the country wake up from the slumber, rise above the narrow mindedness of regionalism, and say 'No' to such politically motivate moves, India is on its way down.

To Sing or Not to Sing: That is the Question

Jamiat-e Ulama Hind passed a 'fatwa' banning Indian Muslims from singing Vande Mataram - India's national song. I don't know what provoked Jamiat after more than 50 years since Vande Mataram was designated as national song. Were they deliberating whether it was against Islam to praise your Motherland all these years? Or it dawned as a divine message upon their leaders one fine morning and they decided to release a fatwa. I don't know.

However, the recent controversy made me curious and I revisited the song to find out its meaning. And here is what I found.

1.
Vande Mataram
Sujalam Suphalam
Malayaja Seetalam
Sasya Shamalaam Mataram
Vande Mataram

Translation:
Mother, I bow to thee!
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
bright with orchard gleams,
Cool with thy winds of delight,
Dark fields waving Mother of might,
Mother free.

2.
Shubra Jyotsnaa
Pulakita Yaminim
Pullakusumita
Drumadala Shobhinim
Subhashinim
Sumadhura Bhashinim
Sukhadaam Varadaam
Mataram
Vande Mataram

Translation:
Glory of moonlight dreams,
Over thy branches and lordly streams,
Clad in thy blossoming trees,
Mother, giver of ease
Laughing low and sweet!
Mother I kiss thy feet,
Speaker sweet and low!
Mother, to thee I bow.


These are the stanzas we normally sing. It's a no brainer to think that there is anything Un-Islamic in these.

However, later on in the song, the following stanza appears.

6.
Tvam Hi Durgaa
Dasha Prahara Nadhaarini
Kamala Kamaladala Viharini
Vani Vidhyadayini Namaami Tvam
Namaami Kamalaam,
Amalaam, Atulaam
Sujalaam Suphalaam Mataram
Vande Mataram

Translation:
Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen,
With her hands that strike and her
swords of sheen,
Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned,
And the Muse a hundred-toned,
Pure and perfect without peer,
Mother lend thine ear,
Rich with thy hurrying streams,
Bright with thy orchard gleams,
Dark of hue O candid-fair

And I think this is what got onto the nerves of the leaders of Jamiat and other Muslim leaders in the past. And even at the time of adoption of this song as National Song there were same controversial voices of protest. And that is what prompted Congress at that time to adopt only first two stanzas as National Song.

Anyway, controversy surrounding Vande Mataram is not new. It has been under attack for a long time. Jamiat just added a spark to ignite it again.

What is your opinion?

[Translation above is by Shree Aurbindo taken from Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vande_Mataram]

Downward Spiral

Every time I open a news website, I am welcomed by some macabre headline staring at me. And it is not that I frequent just one or two sites. Sites ranging from Indian news to CNN and Time have only sad stories to tell.

Some of the latest headlines:

- 4 MNS legislators suspended for attacking Azmi
- UPA ministers' travel expenses: Rs 300cr in 3 yrs
- Pak daily passes 'death sentence' on US journalist
- Naxals could hit investment climate, warns FICCI
- Speeding car mows down 3 in Noida
- Suicide bomb attack kills 3 in Pakistan
- India is world's No.1 in retail theft: Survey

All these are just from Times of India site for today. And these are not all. Such news occupy pretty much 80% of the site.

Here in US, the papers are flooded with Fort Hood killings, Cleveland rapes and murders, Legalizing marijuana (This has surprisingly become such a hot topic these days. What a waste!), Tropical Storm Ida, Hateful radical preaching outside the mosque in NY and on and on and on.

Sometimes I wonder, is the entire world degenerating into misery, woes and sadness at an accelerating pace? Deterioration of everything over time is inevitable. Home towns becoming inhabitable due to pollution and traffic, weather becoming more and more hostile, terrorism eating the society alive, widespread epidemics of diseases increasing and so on. But in recent times, the pace of that seems to have accelerated.

Like the God is in a hurry to fold the game on our little planet earth and maybe start afresh.

Empire State of Mind

Continuing the mood.. Turn up the volume ! Enjoy.

"Empire State of Mind" by Jay Z and Alicia Keys

The City I Love

Clicked some shots while walking back from office yesterday. Boy, I love the city.

Place: Around Times Square, New York City
Time: 9:00pm, Wednesday, 29 Oct 2009
Camera: iPhone [explains low resolution!]

"A Cricketer's life is very challenging" - Yuvraj Singh

Humorous Quote by Yuvraj Singh - "A cricketer's life is very challenging'

Yeah sure. Driving a Crore Rs. worth Hummers in India. Dating Bollywood Actresses. Appearing on front covers of fashion magazines. Wearing Tag and Rolex. Contracting with companies for a few million bucks for posing in front of television. Flying business class to coutries. Living in five star hotels. Having one billion people as fan base.

 

Boy, it sounds so challenging and tough. I am jealous as hell. Are you?

Joy of the first bicycle ride

Do you remember the feeling of your first bicycle ride all by yourself ? Your parents pushed your bicycle from behind, ran with it and then eventually let you go on your own. A moment of fear then a delicate balance, then surge of self confidence and finally the feeling of liberation! Your bicycle sailing on the road. Your first ride.

I was in a park jogging today and I saw a little kid on a bicycle with his father. I saw him ride on his own after a while and I saw his face. That triumphant and jubilant face reminded me of the days when I was learning the bicycle. Though the memories were very hazy, I could still feel it myself after all these years. And although I can't recollect who it was that taught me, I do remember the place. It was in the playground of my uncle's vacation home in the suburbs of Sihor town. It was a very old Atlas cycle of red color with handles bent inward as it was the style in its days. It was a bike almost a generation old at that time. Nevertheless, it did the job!

CFA Level 1

Today I got my result of CFA Level 1 exam that I took last month. I passed. Hard work of six months paid off in good! Feeling happy and proud :)

Edit: CFA = Chartered Financial Analyst [http://cfainstitute.org/]

'Legally Gay' in India !

Today Indian society took a giant leap forward. The Delhi High Court ruled today in favor of decriminalizing the gay sex between consenting adults. This is an extremely bold ruling considering the nature of Indian society and prevailing orthodoxy of Indian culture.

I call this the victory of 'Modern India'. The rational side of the Indian society won this long and hard fought battle. Not surprisingly, all religious leaders came out, bashing the high court's decision.
Ironically, for them, it is OK to kill, burn, rape, plunder in the name of religion. But it is not OK to have a loving relationship between two consenting adults who happen to be of the same gender. I would just like to tell them one thing. It is the victory of love over hate.

http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/delhi_hc_legalises_consensual_gay_sex.php
http://ibnlive.in.com/pdf/gay-judgement.pdf

No Angels. Only Demons.

A valuable lesson was reaffirmed when I came out of the theater after tolerating Angels and Demons for more than 90 minutes (And the movie was still going on). The lesson was 'Garbage In, Garbage Out'. A trashy book can only give birth to a trashy movie if not worse. The demons of this movie are going to haunt me. For a long time to come.

Ron Howard's Angels and Demons had the honor of becoming the third movie I left half way in the theater. The same thing had happened with the book. There are few books I have left unfinished. This was one of them. The movie is a complete waste of time, money and energy. Just within half an hour, it will leave you exhausted with its unbearably haphazard screenplay and a camera work that trivializes the art of movie making. The actors will leave you breathless, not with their stunning acting, but with expressionless faces and senseless dialogue deliveries. There are so many problems with this movie that this can be taught in a course like 'How not to make a movie'.

The entire movie is about some insane man who poses as a follower of some imaginary bizarre ancient cult 'Illuminati', taking the Vatican hostage with a stolen 'Anti-matter' from CERN. I know it sounds ridiculously funny. God knows what I was thinking when I decided to go for it!

In this agonizingly long movie, Robert Langdon, the Harvard professor runs around the Vatican churches, following some directional clues given by the statues of saints. A big problem with the movie is lighting. It seems that the entire movie was shot in twilight without the camera lights. How can a director be so ignorant about visual look of a movie escapes my reasoning. I am not claiming that I am very attentive in listening to dialogues. But I have a reasonable ability of understanding dialogues of a movie without much effort. However, dialogues in this movie are hardly more than whispers. And the background score (which by the way is completely out of place), adds to the inaudibility of those whispers.

The size of this post would have been five fold if I had stayed till the end of the movie. Fortunately for you and me, I did not. So you won't have to bear with me and my stinging attacks on the movie anymore and I preserved my own sanity as well.

One Year

It has been one hack of a ride! Sometimes smooth like a sail. Sometimes rough like a storm. I complete one year at job in Bloomberg LP today!

Optimism, Delusion or Propaganda

First they projected Congress as the winner in all of their opinion and exit polls to create a positive aura around Congress party and their leaders. And now once that task is done (helping them win election), media is now all praise for the newly elected government even before they start doing anything.

Sure the results were an eye opener. Initially, I thought, maybe I was wrong. It is possible that the media rightfully projected the winner with support of a good fundamental analysis. But now after all these days, when I constantly see articles showering optimism, praise and appreciation on the new government, day after day, I sit back and think - something is fishy here.

Every single day, IBNLive.com is full of news regarding how the government is dedicated to make India a better place. Be it their 100 day education scheme or their plans for divesting the ailing Government business entities.

Today's headlines on IBNLive
- Promises to keep: UPA govt has its task
- How the govt plans education for all
- How the govt plans to shelter homeless
- How the govt plans to fight terrorism
- How the govt plans to feed the poor
- Why India Voted for Congress (Rajdeep Sardesai)
- Voting For the Nation (Sagrika Ghose)

Today's headlines on NDTV
- Divestment back
- IPO market to get a divestment boost?
- Divestment, sops likely for steel sector
- Blog: BJP: Against the tide

To be very honest, after the initial shock of the defeat for BJP, I recovered relatively quickly as compared to last general elections. Because I believed in what the news sites were saying. I thought maybe this is the change people voted for. Maybe this government is what people wanted at the center. And I still don't deny the fact that I have highest respect for Dr Singh.

But then every day media got louder and louder. Praising the government even before the parliament session was in place. Publishing opinions, blogs which were full of 'mud-throwing' on BJP and attributing fragrant flowery bouquets to Congress. All of a sudden people like S. M. Krishna, Sharad Pawar, Pranab Mukharjee, A K Antony were turned into heroes. Like the 'Ultimate Saviors' of the nation. Who in next five years will change the face of the nation.

Once again, people will call me a religious fanatic! They will call me 'A moron, stuck in the past'. But those people who oppose my posts are so narrow minded that they have forgotten the concept of freedom of expression. People here proudly call themselves 'Democrats' or 'Republicans'. They don't have to pretend that they are neutral. Then why should I be shy of openly supporting a party like BJP?

I realize that my ramblings here in this blog are useless and pretty much irrelevant at this time. But the media sure as hell sounds not only fishy but repatitive and boring now. I hope they stop running marketing campaign for Congress and go back to business of journalism.

Eric Cartman - Interview

Respect Mah Authorita !