Thursday, December 29, 2005

Changing times...

Another New Year is round the corner...Let me try to recollect my New year experiences...Nothing memorable happened it seems. A few vague memories that still linger are

1. Staying late night, turning a deaf ear to my Mom's words, watching DD-1 top 10 songs of the year, with bated breath, anticipating Rahman's number to top the chart. I can remember that night when Chayya chayya topped the charts of the year.

2. In the year 2000, I was writing a Mock-JEE paper at 12 in the night when my friend Ashwin called up to wish. His astounded words still linger..."Dei...celebrate panradha vittuttu ennada test ezhudhitrukke..."

3. In the year 2002, I was in the TV room of the second year hostel, Anna University shuttling between the few windows to catch a glimpse of the fireworks that were underway in the nearby Adyar golf grounds.

And that is all I am able to recollect. Well this year, I'll be in Madurai at my home for the new year and the new year is going to open with a bang for me with the Bhava Spandana (I mentioned in a few posts before).

~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ahh yes... People always come up with the list of bests at the end of every year. What were the bests for me :-?

1. Getting introduced to Isha Yoga
2. The effects of yoga on me: both physical and mental.
3. The time spent together with my gang of friends and of course, the wonderful lunches and dinners they prepare. Many a times I have felt it to be Hostel-Life-Part-II.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A small anecdote from my recent Mahabaleshwar trip (only for Tamil-savvy people;-)

We were on our way to Pune from Hyderabad in a Volvo bus. The lights were switched off. JP was sitting by my side while Vimal and Anbu were sitting behind me.

Anbu (to Vimal) : Dei, un water bottle-la innum evlo thanni irukku?
Me (to JP) : Ennada idhu loosuthanamaa kekraan...Idha kaettu enna panna poraan?
JP : Avanukku avasaramaa varudhu pola da !

Wednesday, December 28, 2005


And my pick of the album... Posted by Picasa

Vimal with a better view of the chasm in the background... Posted by Picasa

Yards away from the cliff-edge... Posted by Picasa

Anbu engrossed in his own "sight-seeing"...LOL Posted by Picasa

2 to 3 meteres from where I am standing is a free fall to the ground !!! This was an amazing view point. Posted by Picasa

The ring...An amazing imagination by Vimal- one of the two "unofficial photographers" our trip, Mouli being the other. Starting with the orange shirt in clockwise direction: Anbu, Bala, Mouli, JP, Sharma, myself, Bhoobi, Banti, Mukunthan and Murugu. Posted by Picasa

Too much to write...but where's the time!

I'm currently in a travelling spree. The last to last week, I accompanied Naresh and his father along with JP and Bhoobi to a few temples approx. 60 kms from Hyderabad. The prominent one among them was Yadagiri gutta. I had posted a few photos from that trip, but couldn't find time to write about that.

Last week, I had been to Mahabaleshwar with 10 other friends of mine: Sharma, Bhoobi, JP, Vimal, Banti, Koodu, Balsu and 3 of Bala's friends who later became our friends as well (Murugu, Mouli and Mukunthan). It was an amazing trip to say the least. I should find some time to write about this.

Coming Friday, I'm off to another long trip. From Hyderabad to Chennai to Madurai to Coimbatore and then back to Madurai to Bangalore to Hyderabad in a span of 9 days. I am eagerly expecting this trip to be one of the MOST memorable periods in my life as I am going to attend the Bhava Spandana program at the Isha Yoga Center in Coimbatore.

Till then...

HAPPY NEW YEAR one and all.

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Organic thinking???

I suddenly feel I'm getting regular at posting, however crap they may be ;-) Thanks to my self-effected change in work time, I am actually finding useful time to read blogs and write posts too.

Today, my akka had mailed me and had written about a small interesting incident that happened with her daughter, Situ (my niece). Here it goes...

This is one of situ's answers in her social exams.

Q: How do farmers in Punjab get good crops and harvest?
Situ's Ans: By growing good crops.

Situ is all convinced that her logic is pretty straight forward and correct even though the answer should have been something else :-). Not sure if this is what is organic thinking !!!

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

"The war of the Words"

There's an addictive pass time, which I would call "The war of the Words", about which I'm going to write here. This wasn't introduced to me; so you may call me to be the ingenious behind this "phenomenon" ;-). It is the messenger chat, same as any other chat [read as "vetti"], but a lot more defamatory, abusive, offensive, profane...(whatever you may call). Either of the chatter begins the conversation with an abusive word and it just goes on, sometimes with a duel of profanities fired from both sides, sometimes meaningless words and at some other times rhyming words.

A "riot of rhymes" in vetti chat will be something like
#1: "Dei panni"
#2: "ennada thanni"
#1: "poda venni"
#2: "adinggga... ;-)"

"Star wars" is the one where all unparliamentary words (the *ed words) are exchanged in a matter of few seconds. The name, by now, should be self explanatory.

There's another kind where LEG-PULLING is the sole aim. I'll paste a conversation I had with banti today...

Ramasamy: when r the results coming out?
Parthi: I dont know
Ramasamy: dei,u shud be knowing da
Parthi: how da
Ramasamy: coz u took the test
Parthi: i took the test? u?
Ramasamy: rn't u anxious to know if u r HIV +ve or NOT
=))
muhuhuhaahaahaa
Parthi: ohhhh that one, eh?
new virus found
VIH
Very Interesting Human
Ramasamy: FO

OK, now, the important part. Why these inanities (or insanities)? I find it refreshing. There's absolutely no meaning/emotions/significance attached to the words exchanged. As a matter of fact, this chat actually happens with those who are really close to me (that is, who understand I don't mean what I say ;-)).

I've heard back from people that they found it relieving when they have a short 3 minute conversation like this. It is a kind of stress reliever. More often, you end up laughing like anything. In case you people are interested, you can try these too ;-)

p.s: No awards for guessing what FO means ;-)

Tuesday, December 20, 2005


Hanuman simulation...lol...=)) Posted by Picasa

One solo shot with Naresh's car... Posted by Picasa

Straight down the throat..eh??? The pancha-mukha Lord Shiva... Posted by Picasa

Bhoobi,JP,Naresh and Naresh's father in front of the gigantic Hanuman statue en-route to Yadagiri gutta temple Posted by Picasa

Colors of India...took this snap outside a temple in Hyderabadi suburbs...Vivid, isn't it? Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

The story of onions...

Once upon a time, there were three friends: an onion, a tomato and a carrot. They were goody goody friends and they land up in a cinema theater on most of the weekends. They planned to go to the theater and started on their way. As they stood on the other side of the huge lane that separated them from the theater, enthusiasm started bubblingin the three.

Just as they were about to cross the road, a toddler stepped over the tomato..and lo...tomato was gone :-(
Before the two could realise what had happened, the toddler, who had stopped to see what had made his shoes wet, caught sight of the carrot. In no time, he was walking away with the carrot in the mouth.

Onion's heart was overflowing with sorrow at the loss of his dear friends and started giving vent to his misery. He was crying 24x7. finally God appeared before him and asked how he could help him out. Then Onion, amidst his sobs, said "Dear God, this man has made me friendless. He has taken away my best friends. So, whenever he troubles me, he should cry for what he did."

And god said "So, be it!!!!! Whenever man kills onions, he'll cry for it".

That's why tears flow whenever we cut the onions !!!!!

This is one of my favorite stories I use for children. I cook the story based on the situation I narrate them. For eg, when I was telling this to my niece (Seethu), she wanted to see Harry Potter. So I used the cinema name, theater name, the road names and other related stuff to make up for an interesting and familiar background. I am considered a good story teller, though I know not the verity of these claims ;-) Try these techniques and I hope they work for you too...

**This story is not mine. I read/heard it during my childhood days and just propagating the same.



Sunday, December 11, 2005

Am indebted...

Today, just as I am writing this post, the time is 20.35, Sunday. Location- My office cubicle. After we shifted to our own campus, I rarely come to office on the weekends. But why am I sitting here in front of my computer. It's because I couldn't restrain the magical influence of A.R.Rahman. Rahman's latest flick "Rang de basanti" has released this Friday and that's precisely the reason I am here...to listen to the songs. The lack of any kind of MP3 player/ CD player at home is pretty much felt.

Of late, Rahman had been working for a lot of period movies and the songs were mostly situation based. Though they gelled well with the movie, it didn't catch the mass appeal for most of the time. But this time ARR has done a commercial one, with lots of strings and flashy numbers. As usual, there's a good deal of experimentation as well.

Coming to the crux of this post, from the time Roja released, this humble spirit from Madras has held me by a strong mesmerising power. I can't imagine a day without this Legend's music. Such an ingenious he is, I just don't have words to express my gratitude for this highly talented genious. I don't think many will refute me if I say that his music forms an integral part of our lives. Dear Rahmanji, we are all so indebted to you. Many a times I consider myself really lucky in this aspect, to have lived through the musical journey of Rahman. May the almighty bless Rahman and his music a very long memorable journey...

I've got to leave homeward now...Dragging myself away from the charm of ARR with loads of reluctance pulling down my legs.

"Lukka Chuppii..."

p.s: The above song is one of the best melodies I've heard of late, rendered by Shri Lata Mangeshkar and ARR himself in RDB :-)

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Lived life...the real way...

On November 13th, the third part of Maestro Ilayaraja's "Netru Indru Naalai" was telecasted on Jaya TV. I had the oppurtunity to watch the whole telecast without any interruptions (thanks to my roomies who had gone out ;-))

It goes without saying that the programme was such a wonderful one. There were two masterpieces. One was from a Malayalam movie (a Balumahendra film, I guess it was Oalam or something like that) and the next was a Telugu piece. The first one was a wonderfully orchestrated piece with Ilayaraja chipping in with the aalaaps (if I may call the "dhamdhana dhamdhana" that way). The second one was rendered by Shreya Goshal, SPB and Ilayaraja with an excellent orchestration again.

I was actually doing some calculations with the TV running in the background. When these two pieces begun, I dropped everything and started listening to them and in a moment there were tears flowing from the eyes. The mind was blank. It was so blissful at that point. I let the tears flow as they wished, and laid there, still, basking in the beauty of the composition.

I felt I had lived that moment to the fullest extent. I was rooted in the present. It was an inexplicable feeling. It was then I remembered an excerpt from the Art of Living courses where they say something on the lines of "How many times have you laughed till tears flow out of your eyes...How many times have you forgotten everything and lived in that moment.....Those are the mometns when you have truely lived your life".

It was such a joyous experience. Thanks to the Maestro for that soul stirring music. It was as if, the string on which my soul was running was plucked and set into a vibration. As all of us know, Ilayaraja is such a spiritual person and it is no wonder that his spirituality has its say in his music.

I was so happy for having lived life the real way, at least for a moment...

Friday, November 11, 2005

Shameless shams

Today, I happened to visit the blogs one of the budding playback singers in the Tamil Industry. I visit her space sporadically and she had one particular post where she had talked about how a particular post was lost when she tried uploading it.

Being a very popular singer, her posts attract a large number of comments. As usual this post also saw a large number of comments. Many of them suggested saving a copy before posting, some other helpful software and such things. There were 17 such useful tips/empathy messages, none of which drew a response from this star.
Then, one particular guy, using a bug in the blogger, posted a comment in that singer's identity. Immediately came a furious reply from the singer followed by a few exchanges betweent he 'hacker' and the 'star'. Subsequent to this, I posted a comment on the singer's post which more or less, read something like...

"One interesting observation...Human beings generally tend to focus on the negatives more easily than the positives. So many people had given so much useful information, but they weren't able to attract a response but one hacked message is able to genereate an immediate response. Nice way to gain a person's attention na? Sorry about your lost post"

Now, to my surprise (and anger), when I returned to her blog sometime later, I found my comment missing and there was a new post. The new post carried a thank you all message (to all the commenters of the aforementioned post) and that the hack issue had been resolved.

What I am irritated about is why are people afraid to accept criticisms. By deleting my comment and subsequently sending a thank you message to the others, she has shamelessly concealed the whole incident. I definitely hate this whole attitude. And worse, it seems she's also involved psychology... Wonder what her patients will go thru a sham psychologist...

I am not going to reveal her name and hence attract more hits to her blog. I'll tell you, I was and still am mad with her God-gifted voice, but my obsession stops there. As a person, the lesser said, the better.

This is not a problem with her alone. Being in a star status and also being easy-to access (thanks to the blogger) she would have resorted to such a mean act. But many of us are like that. (Please note that I ain't perfect either...Just that I hate this attitude) We have ugly faces and we try to cover it up all the times in front of others. Why all this...

Monday, November 07, 2005

Logic...

One of the most valuable things I have learnt from my Isha classes is that logic is not all-pervasive: it is only a minor subset of the whole. The alphabet set of logic cannot explain life and world. It does cater to your materialistic livelihood. Period.

More often than not, we tend to disregard many occurrences as "illogical", thanks to our deficient logic.

I was having a good refreshing discussion with Bhoobi yesterday night, in our terrace. We were discussing about life in general intercepted with a few gleanings from our yoga classes. He gave a beautiful anecdote to explain the handicap of logic.

You eat one laddoo. It tastes amazing. You feel happy. Logic tells you that if you have 10 laddoos, you'll be still more happier... Sadly that is not the case, isn't it? Our experience says otherwise.

Well, all I can say at this point in time is that Isha is imparting amazing LIFE knowledge. Though confounded by logic many a times I guess I am realising a fraction of the drop of the ocean: logic is useless in the para-materialistic world.


p.s: If there's a way by which I can control all your lives for 10 days, I'll make you all attend the Isha course.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005


And the party consists of De-Noi,Banti, me and Bhoo... Posted by Picasa

Potato fry...Payasam...Rasam...close up Posted by Picasa

Kalyaana samayal saadham... Posted by Picasa

On Diwali @ Naresh's place... Posted by Picasa

Thursday, October 20, 2005


My cute lil niece...Paddhu Posted by Picasa

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Idling away...

Just as I am idling away my time, I was jus wondering what to blog...Nothing interesting is turning up...

Well just FYI, Anto, who was staying with us (Arun, Bhoobi, Raghu and me) is leaving our house today and will continue to stay with his Mother in a flat which is also in the same locality as ours.

We'll lose a hell a lot of things...

1) The peerless aroma (???) of unwashed pairs of socks
2) The amount of water Anto used to save us by
a) "Economical" bath frequencies
b) "Thrifty" wash frequencies
3) The yellow colored blanket which has the provided all of us with tremendous resistance to any kind of dirt-related diseases, thanks to Anto for maintaining it in the same state as when bought...To put things straight, he never washed it once
4) The "re-usability jokes" of Raghu revolving around "under ground" secrets of Anto.
5) The frequent hair washes we have due to Anto's forgetfulness in restoring the knob to tap-mode from shower-mode
6) Frequent quarrels from our downstair residents due to noise levels
7) And a lot more....

Well, on a serious note, we'll miss all his furnitures, laptop, headtop (that's his belly), banterings and "kuthu-kuthu" game (where we poke him all over) ;-)

Bidding tata to Anto in his own style.... THAATHAA !

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

A medley of idiosyncrasies...

Better read this as a prologue
http://nareshchandrasekaran.blogspot.com/2005/10/life-and-fun-at-hyderabad.html

Well, a quirky idea sprang upon me as I was idling in front of my computer on what is a public holiday for many (Saraswathi pooja). I thought I'll put a few words about each of the janthus (read dear friends) I am living daily with. The following is the short description of what I'll associate with each one of them as soon as I hear their names.

1. Moothai (aka Anto sometimes)
a) The funny pronunciations. In anto's words "paathikku kaadu ketkaadu" doesn't even remotely connect to any forest (kaadu) or half (paathi) of anything. It just means "paatikku kaadhu ketkaadhu"
b) The portable pillows (read as belly)

2. Psycho/Korangu/Lassi/ Highly unparliamentary biological reference (rarely known as Raghu)
The hyperactive nonsense with an obsession to all food stuff that I hate. His peak in the nonsensical but rhyming ghazals have reduced, thanks to Moothai and I for taking over the reigns of kadi

3. Peeee/KoPeeeeee (also Arun)
I can never forget the Kopeeeee comedy in my lifetime (too unparliamentary to put over here). A highly process oriented person; an obsessed movie fan who'll watch movies for aspects which most even don't know exist; one who watches sports which I can hardly savor (F1, football....yuckkkkkkkkkk)

4.Bhooo/Kadiyan (Raghu has an obsecene way of slandering) (Frequently Bhoobi)
What he considers play of words and pun is the most horrible thing one can ever experience in terms of Mokkai, Kadi, Blade, or whatever you may call it. An excellent cook and a highly responsible person. The one who makes our house looks, at least at times, not like that of bachelors.

5. Jaybee/Sappaan (mostly JP)
Silent and poised with amazing unexpected funny cracks. Again an excellent cook. Among all the people I slander, I am at a loss of words when it comes to JP as I don't find much about him to tease :)) For that matter, not many will find either.

6. Kuruma/Maadu (aka Arvi)
Amazing eater and a ghee-obsessed person;-)
Many a times I have enjoyed his repartees with Raghu and comments in general.
The one and only bastion standing tall protecting the premises of Jee-Kaapee (Z-cafe). "Thunbathilum inbam kaanbavan" (One who sees happiness even during times of unhappiness). To elaborate, the one who derives happiness from the unhappiness of the rest of the world (when Jee-kaapeee is running)

7. Nuttu (aka Naresh)
The man of grandeur who always goes for the highest priced tags (whatever be it: from an undi to a suit)
The perfect fraud ;-) //Not many can decipher anything out of this except for the above mentioned frauds
An amazing narrator of incidents
A fundamental physict who sees matter in everything ;-)


It is a medley of all these idiosyncrasies that makes life out here interesting and most important of all : ENJOYABLE......

Friday, October 07, 2005

Unnodu Naan...

I know that I have been pretty irregular with blogging and laziness is the major reason for that.

Well, of late, I have been obsessed by one particular song from the movie Iruvar. This is actually a bit song (approx 2.5 mins) which begins "Unnodu naan...". This song (or rather vers interspersed with music) is rendered in the movie by Prakashraj during his intimate moments with Tabu.

When the cassettes came around 8 years back, this song didn't make much of an impression on me.

But now, I am growing mad over it. The voice of Arvindswamy, the occasional harmony (by Dominique, if I remember properly), the lyrics, the music in the background.....make me fanatically obsessed with this piece

1. Arvind's modulation of voice (tha passion and pathos are well rendered)
2. Vairamuthu's excellent verses
3. In my opinion, the most powerful reason : the backing vocals

You can download it from
http://web.music.coolgoose.com/music/song.php?id=199164

Thank you Rahman, for another masterpiece...

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Monopolies...Part 2

First read the previous post(Monopolies...) from top to bottom and then continue with this...

Baghu said:
No question that a free and open competition is the best stage for R&D. But as I said before, Monopoly is just one stage in the development of a market. A perfect competition and the commoditization of that particular product is the most mature and stable stage of the market. I totally agree that R&D is at its best at this stage. But that doesn't mean it doesn't happen when it is a monopoly. Infact it is by R&D that the monopolisitic firms prepare themselves for the years of cutthroat competition that the market is heading towards.With respect to IE's example, it was one of the startegies to keep the consumer attention on MS. Nothing more .. nothing less. No R&D was required IE, that wasn't and was never going to be MS's primary market. IE was just a marketing tool for Microsoft, not something it sells. Also R&D in IE would never ensure higher revenue / YOY numbers either:-) MS did not cease R&D in Office and Windows, the soul and spine of Microsoft.Also R&D is not the goal of a business, it is its soul. Infact R&D is one thing that is common between all stages of evolution in the market. It is at its best/ most eveident in the last steady state.On Gokri's link to the curve ( And why it is nothing more than utter bull shit):1. It assumes a lot of things that do not exist with any monopolistic company. Like the demand price curve is sloping downward. But practically it is not such a simple relation-ship, esp in monopolisitic settings. Because, monolpoly is often early stages of a market for that product. and is characterised by the rapid growth of the market SIZE itself ( irrespective of the price set). But the curve assumes a fixed market size and consumers consuming in different quantities depending on the set price. By market size I assume the total revenue opportunity in market. If this is growing, price*output will not be a constant.2. Marginal Cost curve is the one thats most glaringly false. It says, it increases exponentially w.r.t increase, because, of all things., OPPORTUNITY COSTS ( of not producing lesser output so as to increase profits) :)) I guess the opportunity cost of producing less, when you can produce more and aquire/convert more customers is far higher =))These are just two things that I took as examples.
Thanks
Prasanna S



PSV said:

I love this fight :-). Gokri, Rams whats your reply for Baghu's comments?



Murugu said:
Hi Rams,
Adding more fuel to the debate:

1.) Actually I gave the example of Intel only to signify the factthat R&D is a must. So, I do not mean to say that only technologycompanies need R&D. R&D is not in technology alone. It can beanything, which brings abt a new change. I do not see the differencein Intensities of innovation, and actually there shd not any intensitychanges in innovation. U shd be a paranoid always and expect theworst.

2.) For ur comment:> BTW, I am not sure of what the precise definiton of monoply is...I wud> go by the notion that market share >95% is monopoly. So, by my> notions, intel doesn't hav a monopoly.If u feel that Intel is not a monopoly and if u have a soft corner forAMD, what do u say abt the AMD's latest suit against Intel, sayingthat it is a monoploy? Any comments.

3.) For ur comment:> Intel is investing heavily in R&D as it doesn't want waht happened to> 64 bit computing where AMD had the lion's share.What number do u mean by lion's share here? 64 bit computing softwareis itself not readiy available in the market. Ppl @ intel feel thatAMD 64 bit computing in market is not a useful one becoz there is nostandard operating system (meaning which the corporates willuse)available at present for use. 64-bit processors are not doing anyjustice without their counteropart 64-bit OS's. So, it is just goingto be a burden on the customer. Only with Longhorn (or probablyWindows Vista) 64 bit computing support is available for corporates,and only then it will be good to judge the market share. Not now. Andinfact Intel is waiting for the Longhorn OS release for it can go into64-bit processor production and take it to Market in mass no.s. Only64-bit Linux support is present now, which many corporates do not evenbother to look at.It is not that Intel does not have the technology, but it is waitingfor the right time to market it and make it useful to the customers.

4.) For ur comment:> IT IS COMPETITION THAT IS REDUCING THE PRICE....NOT R&D DIRECTLY. WHO> MADE THESE NEW TECHNIQUES EVOLV---->R&D--->WHO MADE R&D MORE> SIGNIFICANT--->COMPETITION;FEAR OF LOSING MARKET SHARE.>> EVERY BUSINESSMAN IS PRIMARILY CONCERNED ONLY IN HIS MONEY. NO ONE IS> DOING PUBLIC SERVICE BY REDUCING THE COST OF THE PRODUCTS. BY REDUCING> THE PRICES THEY CAN GET MORE PRODUCTS SOLD AND HENCE GREATER IS THEIR> ROI. HENCE THEY DO ALL THIS.As I have stated in my prev mail, for me it is competition just addsto the fuel. Competition is not the one that makes R&D moresignificant. It is not just exploring the ways to reduce the cost ofpresent techniques but also research in some unventured domain's,where the competition will not have any impact. Venturing into newdomain's is also R&D.It is correct to say that no one is doing a public service. But, atend of the day u also shd get benefitted and the customer also shd getbenefited. I can increase my market share, only if can satsfy thecustomers. So, I think that customer satisfication is the main motivebehind R&D .Customer satisfication ----> profit ++Without customer satisfaction, there is no meaning in profits.

5.)For ur comment:> DEFINITELY R&D PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE AS U SAY. BUT THE REASON R&D> WAS DONE , IN MY POINT OF VIEW, WAS COMPETITION IN ALL SECTORS(READ AS> HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, PERIPHERALS....) AND> THE CUSTOMERS BENEFITTED THE MAXIMUM FROM THE NEUTRAL PLAYING GROUNDS.In R&D, as when u r exploring in unventured domains, u don't firstthink competition. U produce some demonstrable results and only then,u think how u can make profitable for u and also the customers, andhow to out-perform ur competitiors. So, the competition factor comesat a later stages(perhaps the final stages). Hence, I strongly feelthat competition does not pave the way for ur R&D.

6) For ur comment:NO COMMENTS. I HAVE MY SOFT CORNER FOR AMD. TO SAY 'IT WUD HAV OUTBEATEN' , IT MIGHT BE PARTLY TRUE IF ONLY THE REVENUES OF THE NEXT FEWYEARS R CONCERNED. BUT MANAGERS PLAN AHEAD (IN LONGER TERMS). HADN'TINTEL INVESTED IN R&d AND HAPPILY SAT SATISFIED WITH THE TURNOVERSTILL 2008, IN 2010 AMD WUD HAV REPLACED INTEL. AMD IS THE GROWING FIREWHICH HAS SPARKED RECENTLY, INTEL KNOWS IT HAS TO STOP THIS FROMTURNING INTO A FOREST FIRE AND HENCE THE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS THAT GOINTO RESEARCH.Even Intel agrees that competition is necessary for u to perform in abetter way.To give u one example, in the early 1980s, IBM choose Intel'sso-called x86 chip architecture and the DOS software operating systembuilt by Microsoft. To avoid overdependence on Intel as its solesource of chips, IBM demanded that Intel finds a second supplier.Intel agreed to that fact, and gave away the "286" chip technology toAMD in 1982. Clearly this piece of account, explains how Intel valuesthe need for a competition.Competition helps u to raise ur bar everytime. AMD has been a goodcompetitior for Intel from the 80's. Had intel looked into AMD'scompetition alone, it wud not have gone into domains where AMD isnowhere near! (I do not want to give company specific info and haveremoved some examples) Atleast for Intel, I can confidently state thatcompetition is not the the driving force, which makes it to investbillions of dollars in R&D. Intel has done a lot of things in such ashort span of time, which we wud have never dreamt off, and it iswaiting for the right time to make it available outside(money makingis not intended here).

7. )For ur comment:NO ONE SAID MONOPILIES DONT INVEST IN R&D. IT CAN ONLY BE INFERREDFROM THE ABOVE ARGUMENTS THAT PRESSURE AND INTENSITY ON R&D IS REDUCEDIN A MONOPOLY.May be for software companies like Microsoft, the pressure andintensity on R&D is reduced and u look at competition like Google,Linux, Mac, etc., , to reinvigorate ur R&D. But for Intel thecompetition pressure is only minor part of the whole pie and it is itssoul or backbone.

- Murugu.

Rams said:

Good arguments.

Well, to recollect my sense back to the topic of discussion...the point of discussion is "In monopolies, R&D pressure is less"I still strongly stand by this as most market behavior reflects thesame.

Always,Counter examples can be given to any statement.Similarly, from Murugu's account, it seems Intel is an exception to the topic of discussion.

More counter examples as per Murugu's point numbers.>

1.) Actually I gave the example of Intel....actually there shd not any intensity> changes in innovation.....It is perfectly idealistic that intensity of innovation shudn't changeat any point in time. Most monopolists aren't that way (Indianrailways, EB,....)>

2.)> If u feel that Intel is not a monopoly and if u have a soft corner for> AMD, what do u say abt the AMD's latest suit against Intel, saying> that it is a monoploy? Any comments.I was not aware of this. You may be correct. Have to get a morequantitative definition of 'monopolist'.>

3. What number do u mean by lion's share here? 64 bit computing software> is itself not readiy available in the market....U shud be a better person to comment as I don't have that muchindustry knowledge wrt processors. My arguments were purely based onwhatever I heard from people and the version I heard says that "AMDwas superior in 64 bit computing ">

4.) As I have stated in my prev mail, for me it is competition just adds> to the fuel. Competition is not the one that makes R&D more> significant. It is not just exploring the ways to reduce the cost of> present techniques but also research in some unventured domain's,> where the competition will not have any impact. Venturing into new> domain's is also R&D.Obviously, in new ventures, there is no competition that is drivingthe R&D but it is the market which the product might create. But thepoint of discussion is not what drives R&D but "Is the intensity inR&D drive lesser in monopolies". I still hold that intensity is indeedless once a monopoly is established.>

4. It is correct to say that no one is doing a public service. But, at> end of the day u also shd get benefitted and the customer also shd get> benefited. I can increase my market share, only if can satsfy the> customers. So, I think that customer satisfication is the main motive> behind R&D .> > Customer satisfication ----> profit ++> Without customer satisfaction, there is no meaning in profits.>I can only say that u r an idealistic businessman. When 99% of the ppluse my products, my focus will be more on how to retain theclientele...I'll give some kewl features....I wudn't be breaking myheads in R&D so much as i wud have been had my market share only been, say,50% (or 75% for that matter).To give those little kewl feeatures i do invest in R&D but not to anextent i wud hav done in a free market.>

5. In R&D, as when u r exploring in unventured domains, u don't first> think competition. U produce some demonstrable results and only then,> u think how u can make profitable for u and also the customers, and> how to out-perform ur competitiors. So, the competition factor comes> at a later stages(perhaps the final stages). Hence, I strongly feel> that competition does not pave the way for ur R&D.Ur points r valid, but inappropriate in the context. As i said, we rnot talking abt the lifecycle of R&D but abt "Intensity of R&D inmonopolies">>

6)> Had intel looked into AMD's competition alone, it wud not have gone into > domains where AMD is> nowhere near! (I do not want to give company specific info and have> removed some examples) Atleast for Intel, I can confidently state that> competition is not the the driving force, which makes it to invest> billions of dollars in R&D. Intel has done a lot of things in such a> short span of time, which we wud have never dreamt off, and it is> waiting for the right time to make it available outside(money making> is not intended here).As far as unventured domain is concerned R&D cannot hav competition asthe smotivator:accepted.But still the last line "money making is not intended here" only makesme think that Intel is turning into a "non-profit oriented company";-)No company will innovate for the betterment of the world unless itgets its' returns.>>

7. >> May be for software companies like Microsoft, the pressure and> intensity on R&D is reduced and u look at competition like Google, Linux, Mac, etc., , to reinvigorate ur R&D. But for Intel the> competition pressure is only minor part of the whole pie and it is its> soul or backbone.>Insider shud know better. I'll keep mum on this ;-)I don't know if i'll continue this discussion any further for the dayas my day's chores r already screwed up ;-)


So, to summarize (MY POINTS) for the day, R&D is non-competition motivated in case of new ventures. But, as far as monopolies are concerned, R&D will be less intense as when compared to their initial entry periods.


Rams said:

One last mail for the day;-)

For baghu's comments, they are valid. I had stated that R&D does happen, but it is on the intensity I was debating on. Baghu doesn't claim that it is as intense as it was in the inception period andhence I don't find anything in discord.Bagu's IE version is true...IE is no profit market for MS
Regarding the curves, I still haven't gone thru the links that gokri sent.... that seems to be a nice alternative to screw up the rest ofmy office chores ;-)

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Monopolies...

I am copy-pasting a series of discussions a group of our friends were having. The argument is still underway...

Anand Prabhu wrote:

guys,

a nice article.. i agree with this one.

http://www.cooltechzone.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1645

take a look.

Cheers,
Anand




Gokri wrote:

Hi all,

I was interested in MS and monopolies in general. Abt whether it is wrong to love MS, I donno. But monopolies are not good for the customer for two reasons.

1) They dont settle at the lowest price for the customer
2) They do not drive the industry forward, letting the customer pay for inefficiencies.

I got interested and worked some numbers to show why monopoly ends up bad for the customer. I put the marginal cost as zero (neglible, storage medium costs) since there are no production costs once Windows is developed. Hence the only cost is initial.

The same logic works for any monopoly even if the production costs are constant: the company will stop producing beyond a point to keep prices high. Though the competitive price would have been lower. Microsoft could sell more copies of windows if it chose to, but it has kept the prices high for the reason shown in the xl file.

All said and done, monopoly behaviour is exhibited by every first entrant. And I would be very happy to be a monopolist myself :)

But it reduces the pressures on R&D and innovation. We still use the same user interface as did Win95. Also, the monopolist does everything, including taking losses in the short term to bleed a new entrant who obviously cannot stand it for long. Hence the curbs on monopolistic tendencies in the US through Anti trust laws.

And needless to say, the senti part near the end - 'brought computing to ordinary folks like you and me' and all, come on, whom are we kidding ? Its every businessman's dream to end up as a monopolist. I admire Gates' acumen in forging the industry to get that.

Regards,
Gokulakrishnan S



Parthi wrote:
Good one indeed!



Baghu wrote:

The numbers are just too trivial to be correct , Gokri. A lot of things are wrong.1. In a lot of products , esp in software products, the marginal cost is not so much dependent on the cost of production but the cost of selling it. You have completely ignored the cost marketing and the sales force it takes to sell an additional unit, hence all your second column numbers are wrong. Infact the cost of selling one additional unit is known to exponentially increase in certain cases( even when cost of production is on the decreasing trend).2. Also I strongly disagree with your view that monopoly implies less emphasis on R&D. The monopolies infact face a stiffer chanllenge of showing strong YOY numbers. Because they get to grow big soon, the effort it takes to grow even marginally bigger is enormous. 3. Also on your point that monopolies don't settle for the lowest price for the customer - Nobody is doing social service. No market will stay a monopoly for ever ( In fact I always advocate that monopoly is just one stage in the process of evolution of a market), hence it is imperative that you make hay while sunshines. Now, that said, there are sometimes more than enough reason for settling for lower prices, depending on how important this particular customer is for your future ideas. This, also because you have worked so hard to be at a point of sale to a customer, you would not want to give that all away, you want him to buy all the other things you have made! This is called CUSTOMER REUSE ( as opposed to code reuse).Talking about Microsoft, I, for one believe that it has done so far so well, mainly because of its innovative sales and marketing strategies (which includes pricing and bundling) more than anything else. But even this giant is having a hard time with XP adoption levels, raising question or two about prospective Vista adoption levels. My guess is that XP sucked the most marketing dollars, and earned the least ROI, of all windows versions, so far (just guessing though).Also just read somewhere: Linus trovalds once said about Bill Gates, "After meeting him, I came to know that I knew nothing about technology and he knew nothing about business" :)

BAghu.



Murugu wrote:

Good analysis da BAghu.I second ur opinions.




Gokri wrote:

Hi rams,
M. cost is manufacturing cost. M. revenue is marginal revenue, the revenue one gets by selling the last product produced. Benefit to the seller is the total benefit accrued to him, (Total Revenue - Total cost) His gross profits, so to say. I shudnt hav been called it Marginal, its total Benefit. In competition, new entrants will come in as long as this is +ve.
Baghu,
1) The nos I sent were for demonstrating a monopoly business which makes an initial investment of 1000 Rs and sells goods at 1500 etc.. Obviously Not Microsoft ! True the marketing and sales expenses would be there. My example was overly simplified. But with any nos thre, the social inefficiency of monopoly would hold. Read these links which explain:
These links would help:
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Monopoly.html - very good article by a famous economist, Stigler.
http://ingrimayne.saintjoe.edu/econ/Monopoly/Overview15mi.html
> 2. Also I strongly disagree with your view that monopoly implies less> emphasis on R&D. The monopolies infact face a stiffer chanllenge of showing> strong YOY numbers. Because they get to grow big soon, the effort it takes> to grow even marginally bigger is enormous. Do they have a stiffer challenge to show YOY nos, when they have no competiiton to compare to ? and
If the effort to grow marginally bigger is enormous when u are monopolist, you would shut shop and run if there is cut throat competition ! Though some economists argue that monopoly is beneficial for R&D since nobody reinvents the wheel, it has not been accepted. There are some misconceptions about R&D and microsoft like this one:
http://www.thehoya.com/viewpoint/111699/view4.htm
But, plz see no R&D is big enough that it hurts society to be reinvented twice. Eg. Boeing and Airbus, The only two commercial aircraft manufacturers. Both are on their toes developing newer aircraft because of the other. New aircraft design techniques are reinvented twice on either side of the Atlantic.. also both have partnered and set up Joint ventures to develop some technologies. This has worked. Intel has innovated to keep ahead of its competition.
And its easy to be content with today's technology. Economists say perfect compeititon is the best driver of R&D and innovation.
> 3. Nobody is doing social service. No market will stay a> monopoly for ever ( In fact I always advocate that monopoly is just one> stage in the process of evolution of a market), hence it is imperative that> you make hay while sunshines.
Totally agree. Am in business, not an NGO. thats why I want to be a monopolist.
> Now, that said, there are sometimes more than> enough reason for settling for lower prices, depending on how important this> particular customer is for your future ideas. This, also because you have> worked so hard to be at a point of sale to a customer, you would not want to> give that all away, you want him to buy all the other things you have made!> This is called CUSTOMER REUSE ( as opposed to code reuse).
These kinda customers you have to agree will have to be a small chunk of your business, small enuff not to hurt your profits. And in any case, the monopolist wouldnt have to sell for less because the essence of being a monopolist is that there is a demand at a price and you are the only guy producing that product.
Read the Stigler article closely... would clear up misconceptions about monopolies. The sheer size and achievements of any monopolist (e.g. Indian Railways) overshadows the inefficiencies to society.
There are no 'evil monopolists', only good businessmen. Would say Gates knew a lot more about the s/w business than Linus Torvalds knew about the kernel.
Regards,
Gokulakrishnan S



Rams(I) wrote:

This is turning out to be an interesting affair. Regarding Baghu's comments>"Also I strongly disagree with your view that monopoly implies less> emphasis on R&D. The monopolies infact face a stiffer chanllenge of showing> strong YOY numbers. Because they get to grow big soon, the effort it takes> to grow even marginally bigger is enormous"I don't think so. The emphasis on R&D will be significantly lesserwhen u r a monopoly than when u r in perfect competition. Best knownexample is IE. There was no innovation in IE when it was factuallyestablished that 99% of the computers in the world use IE as theironly browser. . But Ican confidently state that it was only after Firefox's encroachmentinto the browser market that IE7 team was built and now IE7 has beenrolled out with Vista.R&D will still be there in a monopoly, so as to promote newer featuresand products, but the intensity wouldn't be the same as when you arein perfect competition.Another example I can quote is the shattering down of the monopoly inthe Indian airways by the privatisation adn consequential opening upof the market for the private players. The rest is history. You cansee the dramatically spiralling down air fares. Though this exampledoesn't have much with R&D in particular, it does deal with monopolyand the customer benefit. This ratifies Gokri's stand that customersbenefit from the minimum prices in a perfect competition.




Murugu wrote:


There can be quite some exceptions to this as well. Take the case of Intel R&D. Intel has a share of 84% (AMD -15%) inthe overall processor market making it a monopoly, but it doesn't meanthat it does not invest in R&D. Infact Intel is know to be one ofhighest investors in R&D every year. R&D is the basis for a technology company. You need to invent newthings every now then, to make sure that u grow every year. YoY newtechniques and processes make the cost of the processors coming down,which is ultimately going to help the customer.For eg: When we bought computers in our college days, the old P3ones,used to cost around Rs.50K. Now, P3's are out of market. Allthese changes happened in over 3 years. Now u get very good systemsfor Rs.20K. Is this not a benefit for the customer?? How will this bepossible without R&D?If Intel had thought against R&D, it wud have just had the P3 andpolished it every now and then, and tried to sell it at the same cost.I'm sure even then, it wud have out-beaten AMD. But, Intel didn't. I agree with BAghu comments :>"Also I strongly disagree with your view that monopoly implies less> emphasis on R&D. The monopolies infact face a stiffer chanllenge of showing> strong YOY numbers. Because they get to grow big soon, the effort it takes> to grow even marginally bigger is enormous"Competition will just add fuel to it! Without R&D, every technologywill dig its own grave. U need to differentiate from others, to makeur products selling and retain the customer market share.If u r going to sit still, someone will eat upon ur market share,dethroning u from ur top spot.So, I cannot completely agree with the point that monopolies do notinvest in R&D! R&D is their backbone.
Regards,
Murugu.



Rams(I) wrote:

Murugu,The point is NOT "Monopolies don't invest in R&D".They defnitely do invest as stated in my argument
>"R&D will still be there in a monopoly, so as to promote newer features
>and products, but the intensity wouldn't be the same as when you are
>in perfect competition."

It is the intensity of innovation that is the question. If you are a monopoly, there is no need to bet ur fortunes in R&D. But when u r inperfect competition, u'll be kicked off the field if u dont hav a newinnovative selling point when compared with ur competitors.

BTW, I am not sure of what the precise definiton of monoply is...I wud go by the notion that market share >95% is monopoly. So, by my notions, intel doesn't hav a monopoly.

Intel is investing heavily in R&D as it doesn't want waht happened to64 bit computing where AMD had the lion's share.

Also, u shudn't be seeing monopoly only from technical companiesperpective...Wat gokri wanted to say was from a more generic perspective.More responses inline in CAPS...


> R&D is the basis for a technology company. You need to invent new
> things every now then, to make sure that u grow every year. YoY new
> techniques and processes make the cost of the processors coming down,
> which is ultimately going to help the customer."

IT IS COMPETITION THAT IS REDUCING THE PRICE....NOT R&D DIRECTLY. WHOMADE THESE NEW TECHNIQUES EVOLV---->R&D--->WHO MADE R&D MORESIGNIFICANT--->COMPETITION;FEAR OF LOSING MARKET SHARE.EVERY BUSINESSMAN IS PRIMARILY CONCERNED ONLY IN HIS MONEY. NO ONE ISDOING PUBLIC SERVICE BY REDUCING THE COST OF THE PRODUCTS. BY REDUCINGTHE PRICES THEY CAN GET MORE PRODUCTS SOLD AND HENCE GREATER IS THEIR ROI. HENCE THEY DO ALL THIS."

"> For eg: When we bought computers in our college days, the old P3> ones,used to cost around Rs.50K. Now, P3\'s are out of market. All> these changes happened in over 3 years. Now u get very good systems> for Rs.20K. Is this not a benefit for the customer?? How will this be> possible without R&D?"

DEFINITELY R&D PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE AS U SAY. BUT THE REASON R&DWAS DONE , IN MY POINT OF VIEW, WAS COMPETITION IN ALL SECTORS(READ ASHARDWARE, SOFTWARE, PERIPHERALS....) ANDTHE CUSTOMERS BENEFITTED THE MAXIMUM FROM THE NEUTRAL PLAYING GROUNDS.


"> If Intel had thought against R&D, it wud have just had the P3 and> polished it every now and then, and tried to sell it at the same cost.> I\'m sure even then, it wud have out-beaten AMD. But, Intel didnt

"NO COMMENTS. I HAVE MY SOFT CORNER FOR AMD. TO SAY \'IT WUD HAV OUTBEATEN\' , IT MIGHT BE PARTLY TRUE IF ONLY THE REVENUES OF THE NEXT FEWYEARS R CONCERNED. BUT MANAGERS PLAN AHEAD (IN LONGER TERMS). HADN\'TINTEL INVESTED IN R&d AND HAPPILY SAT SATISFIED WITH THE TURNOVERSTILL 2008, IN 2010 AMD WUD HAV REPLACED INTEL. AMD IS THE GROWING FIREWHICH HAS SPARKED RECENTLY, INTEL KNOWS IT HAS TO STOP THIS FROMTURNING INTO A FOREST FIRE AND HENCE THE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS THAT GO INTO RESEARCH."

"> If u r going to sit still, someone will eat upon ur market share,> dethroning u from ur top spot."

BY "SOMEONE" U R ACTUALLY MEANING \'COMPETITION\' ;-)"



So, I cannot completely agree with the point that monopolies do not> invest in R&D! R&D is their backbone.",1]

NO ONE SAID MONOPILIES DONT INVEST IN R&D. IT CAN ONLY BE INFERREDFROM THE ABOVE ARGUMENTS THAT PRESSURE AND INTENSITY ON R&D IS REDUCEDIN A MONOPOLY.

LET\'S FIGHT MORE "
RAMS.


Friday, July 29, 2005

No posts for a loooooooong time...

It has been a very long time since I blogged that I atlast decided to blog...Too many things happened in the lapse...

1) One of my friends got married (Anita) and the best foto is below
2) After attending the marriage we went to Kutralam. "We" refers to Naveen, Ganesh Prabhu, Meera, Prathima, Sathya, Deepa, Ayesha, Radhika and me. We had a great time in Kutraalam and to exemplify that is the foto below.
3) We finished a critical deadline successfully.
4) To bid farewell to one of my team mates(Roshan) and also to commemorate the completeion of 1 year in Microsoft by a few people (that includes me :-)) we went for a team outing and the next foto was taken during that
5) The best part is however the ISHA yoga course I attended (and practising). Four of us attended: Anto, Bhoobi, Shiva and me.

There were also something or the other interesting happening all over that I couldn't find some time to update this being called Blog.

Going by the cliche, last but not the least, Windows Vista (previously code named Longhorn) Beta1 has released and do try to be one of the first to use the next generation OS ;-)

[The last line marketing could be the side effect of a few blogs of MBA grads which I was reading over the last few days)

My team outing... Posted by Picasa

Yippeeeeeeee....It's kutraalam... Posted by Picasa

Anita's marriage Posted by Picasa

The removed post is back:"Marriage..."

I had written a post on why people married and my bad writing skills conveyed what I did not intend to...Worse, it got circulated in my professional quarters that I removed it...As I was cleaning up my machine I found this deleted post and thought I would post it back with a few editing ;-)

Well, the question was simple (WAS interesting then 2 months back...but not interesting any longer)..."Why people married".

The consolidated reasons are:
1. Companionship for life
2. Love
3. Carnal satiation
4. Security

Some felt marriage was a bondage...Some felt it gave a guarenteed companion (or may be, forced...????) to whom one can always look to...Some felt it gave one a person to possess for life...

Though some of the gleaning aren't of my choice, however, I have put the essence of al the different view points...The purpose of this post is to remind me of myself that I had indeed written acontroversial post and of course, an oppurtunity for me to get more feedbacks on this spicy topic...

Cheeeeeeeerz...

Wednesday, June 01, 2005


My foto which many liked... Posted by Hello

Monday, May 02, 2005


Prabu in front of my office Posted by Hello

prabu Posted by Hello

Saturday, April 23, 2005

My dear...

The guileless smile,
The bursts of anger,
Instantaneous penitence,
Childish innocence...

Magnanimity of heart,
Patriotic fervor,
Reconciling spirit,
Ocean of friendship...

Time knows nothing of these...
Nor do we know when
The candle in the thunderstorm called life
Gets blown away by the winds or drenched by the rains...

As the candle gave way to Darkness,
I am blinded in total void...
And through the void, a tiny tear looks out,
To bid goodbye to a part of Me...

Thursday, March 03, 2005

The story of 4 parrots...

Once upon a time, there were four parrots-Beauty, Riches, Power and Lazy were their names.
As their names stand, so they are in the their characters. They have their daily conversations in the afternoon in the banyan tree at the center of their town. The conversations invariably center on each of their desires and how they are targeting them.

As usual, it was a nice summer afternoon and the conversation just began...

Beauty: Hey people, noticed my beak...(with a proud twitch of the neck) I have applied a new shiner on it...and now, Beauty has the shiniest beak!!!

Riches and Power acknowledged that it was indeed splendid lest they should attract another round trumpet blowing from Beauty. It was their tact to acknowledge Beauty even if the reality was otherwise as Beauty feels offended if her beauty is not praised.

Riches: Folks, I think this is the last day I will be meeting you people. I have made all arrangements to move to the next province. Their province has given me the permissions to settle their and as an incentive, they have also given me a nest loaded with yummy cashew nuts.

Beauty,Power: Ahh...really!!!!That sounds great. Well, you were earning 3 cherries a day here for cleaning the termites...What are you going to earn there?

Riches: I am as caluclative as ever, folks. Wouldn't I thought about it? Well...I am goin to clean the termites there as well....but I am getting 3 cahsew nuts instead of cherries....yippeeeeee.....All of you should be knowing a cashew is worth 50 cherries...
(Riches' eyes were flashing cashew nuts...)

Power: (To Riches)Yeah...indeed
(To himself)Cashews are the only edibles available there...(smirking)"Poor Riches"...

Riches: What about you powers...are you still going to stay in this province eating these cheap berries, cherries and nuts? You have to go out to see places yaar...

Power: As you all know, I am planning to become the next ruler of our province. I have already imbibed enough information on the current politics. I have started preparing my manifesto for the upcoming elections. Do you people know...the strongest propaganda from my side will be to give free nuts to every parrot in this province so that all their hunger is satiated in the most nutritious way.

Beauty: Ahh....that's a really great proposal...

Riches: Indeed, that would satisfy the common masses...But for the intellectuals and high-born like me, the next province promises more...

As they were talking they hear a flutter...Lazy, who had slept after the mid-day meal, had, as usual, come late to the meeting and was beginning to settle when, all of a sudden, a huge maze of twains fell on them....

"ahhhhhhh..............ohhhhhhhhhhhh.....scrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeechhhh...
crrrrrrrrrrr..scrrrrrreeeeeee.........
oh god........................helppppppppppppppppppppp..........."

"A good catch for the day", the bird catcher said to his wife!

Presently,

Beauty hardly ever makes her up nor does she boast any more of her beauty. She was staring at the only person in the house, her master, a blind old rich man...

Power is speaking the same words repeatedly every day..."Hey folks, welcome to the Bingo Circus!!!!!" to earn his single 'nut'.

Riches is longingly looking at the plate of the bird catcher if he could get another crumb of bread.
(The bird catcher's son wanted one!)

And Lazy, who escaped the net of the bird catcher, is here, narrating the story of 4 parrots to the whole world!

Sunday, February 27, 2005

Black...

Well, one reallllllly gud movie from bollywood at last.

After repeated endeavours to get a ticket to the movie 'Black', I was indeed fortunate to get it last weekend. I was a bit apprehensive in the beginning as I had got a lot of hype about the movie. I am always afraid of hype as many a times many good films ended up with me as an anti-climax. but 'Black' was an exception. Inspite of the N number of rave reviews and endless accolades showered by my friends, it did live upto the expectations, or rather, surpassed them all!!!!!!

Rarely do I get emotional. Particularly, when it comes to movies, it is pretty rare and I can count such instances witht he fingers on my one hand (there are only two as far as I can remember-Pasamalar(shivaji) and 'vedham pudhidhu'). But there are two stark differences between 'black' and other movies that exercised my lachrymal glands. In the other movies, tears rolled down towards the climax and because of an extremely miserable state of affairs. But to the contrary, whenever Rani Mukherjee triumphed against all odds in her life, tears of joy were pouring down.

Amitabh and Rani have given their career best in this movie. The technical aspects of the movie were impeccable. Kudos to the entire team with a special mention about Sanjay Leela Bhansali as it would be a sin if I didnt mention the name of the creator of this wonderful movie. Though Anto claims that SLB had done a blatant plagiarism by remaking 'The Miracle Worker" and not revealing it to the public, I am still happy that this plagiarism has helped us all to know that such a brilliant teacher did exist "Anne sullivan"!!!Helen Keller being the student goes without a saying...

There was one message which I really liked in the movie....Living a life to lead others live a life!!!!!

BLACK: An eye opener in many ways.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

YAPOL...

Well...

The previous post attracted quite a few heated opinions...When reading the opinions, I realised another interesting issue (which I had also discussed with one of my friends in Trilogy in one of those hour-long chats).

One of the opinions claimed that girls won't generally prefer to propose first. Going by this, I conclude that it is the boys who have to propose first. But here is where I find the hitch. There is one trait in girls, which, at least a few guys like me, find it awful /incompatible /apprehensible /....whatever you may call : the lack of the ability to maintian the status-quo of the relationship. Most of the girls tend to keep away from the guy who proposed to them. I find this absurd. He would have been a long time good friend before he proposed, and all of a sudden, he becomes an outcast. A guy, who has liked the girl so much that he decides her to be his life partner, obviously will not want to lose her relationship. If girls can be rational and maintain the pre-proposal state of affairs, then guys proposing first will not be an issue.

For those who are still wondeering what YAPOL means, it is Yet Another Post On Love.

p.s: When writing this post, I had to be extra conscious to avoid generalisations;-)

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Love is in the air...

Ahhh.....

Yet another Valentine's day...I became aware of this only yesterday as I saw cars flying past with a lot of little hearts decorating them. So, what shall I do for this v-day? This question shouldn't be occurring to me as I have never done anything for any of the gone by v-days (so is the case for many other functions/occasions as well...I just do nothing!). Well, this question comes into picture as I was just now talking with my colleague and he wanted something 'dramatic' to happen. He suggested going around with, say 15 roses and trying his luck! I wished him the best of luck (as that is all I can do...I am in no mood to get slippered with a critical deadline round the corner;-)).

As he left, I was just wondering what could be 'dramatic'. Suddenly it dawned on me: Why not girls propose first instead of the guys doing it first. I guess both parties do take the initiative, but most cases I know of are the ones where the guy takes the initiative to propose. I can't help but quote Anto here..."It is we who who should dream about them always...It is we who should go doting after them...It is we who should spend during all the dinners...It is we who should propose first...It is we who should get all the 'bulbs' ('bulbs' is a slang used to denote turned down proposals). Anto is just one step short of beginning a 'Men's upraisal movement'!!!!!

I guess I have done my part for this v-day....a post as usual...And one more thing, this will be the last v-day that I'll be idle. The story will be different next year (hopefully :-))...
So.................................



HURRY UP ;)

Sunday, February 06, 2005

Pornography legalised...

DISCLAIMER: The following material may be offensive for some. Read it at your own discretion.

The other day I got an oppurtunity to see an interview of Kamal Hasan. He was pretty open and direct, as he always is. The topic of discussion was meandering and touching various topics when at last it got to the topic of this post- Legalising pornography. What follows is a brief recollection of the discussion.

DISCLAIMER repeated.

~*~

One of the greatest studs in the international film industry, Mr.X (I couldn't remember his name), who was also a member of a well known jury, came up with this proposal, it seems. He was chucked off for this seemingly offensive idea by the superficial minds. First, it seemed too offensive for Kamal as well. But on deeper reflection, it dawned upon him that it was indeed a great idea.

Kamal's claims in favor of legalisation:

'Curiosity kills the cat'. Particularly in India, where a guy gets to feel his carnal pleasures at the age of 25+ on an average, this curiosity is bound to get ten fold. Inability or lack of infrastructure (particularly with the uneducated masses) in getting the desired information leads the bewildered curious minds to such extents of frustration that they get into 'practical experimentation' . The easiest access they have are sex-workers...STDs follow spelling their lives into doom.

One interesting fact Kamal pointed out was that in many schools, the encyclopaedia pages depicting the male and female anatomy were glued in order to 'not corrupt' the children's minds.

If porn is legalised, every common man gets to see the "most concealed taboo" of the society for ordinary prices. He'll see it once, twice...may be even hundred times. But he has found a vent to his desires. Once he gets to know of the essentials, that's it. "Is that all?". He stops watching these and starts concentrating on his life-ambitions. This is atleast better that this won't get him any STDs.

~*~

Seemed pretty logical to me!


Three fundas in lover-search :)

What follows is an excerpt from an interview of actor Madhavan's. The questions, asked by college students, were monotonously centered around love and love-marriage. Madhavan gave three funda for people determined to find their true-love...I liked the third one the most ;-)

Funda #1 : Try, try, try...Till you succeed...

Funda #2: Fortune favors the brave...

Funda #3: There's always this magic word: NEXT.

Note: Two cine-actors, who make real sense off-screen (in real life, TV interviews,...) are Kamal Hasan and Madhavan. After seeing a few of their interviews, I made it a point not to miss any of theirs!



Thursday, January 27, 2005

So much to write...

It has been a real looooooooooooooong time since I wrote anything. I had wanted to write on many topics but finding time is the problem. Night times are most amiable for my writing skills. Unfortunately my profession also demands me to write (plans, code, etc.) that my nights are being used up by my professional creativity alone.

Well, I am just jotting down some of which I can remember about which I would want to create a separate post once I find some time.

  • The Microsoft annual party- put on fire by Kay Kay and Sunidhi Chauhan. I got an oppurtunity to sing the chorus (that is how I'll term it ;-)) with Kay Kay!!!
  • My vacation in hometown.
  • The Bangalore friends' visit to Hyderabad.
  • Kamal Haasan's interview on TV.
  • Snippets of Madhavan on love-life.
  • And the latest....Reviving of Tennis.

I am writing this post at the end of one of legendary matches I have EVER seen. Though it was Safin who had the last laugh, it was classic quality tennis that won at the end of the day. Hats off to two great champions-Roger Federer and Marat Safin!!!!!!

After the retirement of my idol Pete Sampras, hardly have I followed tennis. But this Australian Open has been too good for hard-core tennis fans. So many matches going into the deciders and they too, stretching beyond the minimal 6 games limit. Too good!

Let us see. I want the remaining semi-final and the finals also to be nail biting as well.

Love all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday, January 02, 2005

Integrity in behavior

Many a times, I have discussed about this word 'integrity in behavior' with my friend/house mate Anto. I am going to write about this "integrity" in the context of the people I meet everyday. Though there are multitude dimensions in which integrity can be discussed, there is just one context, quite a recurrecnt one, about which I'll write here: "Integrity in behavior towards people".

Quite often, I find people exhibiting different behavior in different places.During a casual chat, their behavior is normal but when it comes to a bigger social gathering, their outlook is totally different from what I see everyday. Please don't confuse this lack of integrity with sophistication.

Another remarkable example is the behavior among members of the same-sex and with that of the opposite-sex members. Though I don't know if this applies to girls as well, I know for sure that this is the case with a considerable number of guys I have seen. Some guys turn a 'macho-man' in front of girls..Some try to play a 'hep'...Some portray a 'cho chweet guy' while their true persona(which I see everyday) stinks.

FEMINISTS SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH...And the funniest part in this is that most girls fall for these guys only. As my friend once said "Invariably, all girls make the wrong choice". Though I am not able to interrogate the verity of this statement, this seems to be true in at least most of the cases I know.

I am not trying to conclude anything out of this rambling. It is just that I don't understand why people want to maintain different behavior to different people. Why can't they be the same always.....