March 13, 2009
Just trying out the google tag verification….
February 27, 2009
Life is pretty hectic with work just piling up like crazy…the “Work In” box just smirks at the “Work Out” Box from a distant top ! And outside the workplace, things are as gloomy, with every possible news page screaming about the recession and portending the evil effects of the same…the only web pages that won’t seem to talk about recession might be the ones with a couple of ‘X’s in their rating 
I have somehow always believed that the concept of recession has got a high degree of virtual touch to it..something that is a result of that one big economic disaster that has cascaded all the way down through the smallest of the business ‘tributaries’ and thus spread just an air of cautiousness which in turn results in companies falling prey to this. My point is, if we keep asking “what if disaster had not hit it?”, from the last affected firm, and work our way back in history to the ones initially affected, then there could be a high probability we will end up concluding that the initial hit had just spewed its effect on the others….than actually exposing the blaring loopholes of an economy..By making this statement I am also inclined towards accepting what Mr. McCain (remember he was the republican presidential nominee for USA 2008 elections?) had said in one of his address that the economy was fundamentally strong. This comment of his did bring a lot of ire from all quarters on his understanding of economy, but when we look back, may be we should give credit to this old man as he might just be right there.
My point is this. The day the powerful economic corridors of the world smell the stench of recession in the form of a collapse of a stable establishment (we could read Lehman here, for the sake clarity!) they should take it upon themselves to ensure that this wave does not crash upon the remaining. It is easier said than done, but the fundamental to a stronger economy lies here and we should all invest in finding a solid mechanism to achieve this. Else, it will always be a fission reaction waiting to happen.
January 26, 2009
My alma mater, The Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, has been ranked 15th in Financial Times’ Global MBA Rankings for 2009. Last year, ISB became the first Business school from India to be ranked in FT -100 rankings and was placed 20th then. So, it is a marked improvement in one year to climb 5 rungs higher!!! For more details on the same, you could click here
Makes me proud of being an ISBan and this really fires my cylinders to set higher standards to match that of my alma mater!!!
January 25, 2009
During my recent visit to India, while discussing the web 2.0 applicability in today’s web based business with my cousin, he happened to mention about Yahoo pipes. The whole idea was absolutely fantastic and something that has capability of serving as one neat tool for today’s query based web portals.
Yahoo pipes is a powerful tool that mashes various content in the web by aggregating the numerous information in the web, playing around with this information and customizing it according to the user’s requirement. For someone familiar with UNIX, Yahoo pipes is similar to the pipes option available in UNIX. But Yahoo pipes gives much more flexibility and has an enormously user friendly interface. I tried creating a few pipes and must say that it is quite a fun doing so.
If you are interested in knowing more on the same, you could click here.
December 21, 2008
Ques: What would Lord Brahma say when he finds his vats (as in sankskrit) rising up?
Ans: vats up dude!
November 27, 2008
The ongoing, and radically different way of terrorist attacks that has been happening in Mumbai, India has taken the fear factor among the public to new levels. While the police, along with Army is doing its best to bring the situation under control, and we are certain it will do so sooner or later, what this incident leaves back as a trail is not just the blood of scores who succumbed to this ghastly act, but also a question on the very capabilities of the Intelligence.
We also cannot help but fret over the complete inability of the government in doing a whit in putting any coordinated effort in thawing such acts. Come to think of it, how many times have we heard the head of the nation coming out and addressing the nation, “condemning such acts of violence” and then going back and sitting like a lame duck. And how many times have we heard someone coming up and facing the nation, assuring that some proactive steps are being taken to ensure that they have national security on top agenda. The answer is so blaringly obvious and enough to put any level headed person of the concerned department to shame.
One attack on WTC was enough to prompt US to wage a full-on war. While the attack itself could be termed quixotic by some, it did go a long way to prove that the US government does care for its people treats it as a question of national pride and to show what is the right place for such perpetrators of violence. But, it is a sheer pity that the spate of terrorist attacks across the length and breadth of India over the last year has not touched the right nerves of the Indian goverment to get their acts together.
A few days from now, for all we care, it might just end up as just another incident in our history, just another spicy news to the media and just another political agenda for the opposition to strengthen their chance. When will we rise beyond the ordinary?
October 18, 2008
The global cascade: Lehman seals our marriage plans
Posted by chandra26 under Lifestyle[3] Comments
Because of Richard Fuld, the nuptial desires of millions of IT folks is at risk. Well, that is the best inference I could make after reading through a web article, wherein it was mentioned that back in India, the wise fathers are quite wary of giving their daughters away to IT folks due to the current economic crisis wave that is rising to crash upon their blooming career.
While I am not going to use this post to analyse the veracity of above fear, what I am presently pondering about is what might happen if the IT folks affected with the prospect of not being married, queue up outside the Finance ministry and ask for some bail out package! And what if all fathers who already made the plunge, formed a separate queue to ask for a different bail out package!!
Imagine P. Chidambaram making an address to all fathers of the ‘Brides-to-be’ that things are under control and it is ’safe’ to invest their daughters in IT folks’ life; Followed by a bailout package if things go wrong later!
Guess that should be the last thing that Chidambaram ever imagined in his deliverables as the Finance Minister…
June 29, 2008
Just when this blog was about to go down, among the many others that I had created in past, as another blogging attempt gone waste, realization struck me on time to save it from the same…..
So, here is the mindless post to just make it alive again..
March 6, 2008
After quite a hard day, having diligently performed the role of a a pious consultant, I was just wondering if there can be any profession that would just make my life significantly less thornier than what it is now…and something that could make me feel light throughtout the time when I am working…something that could give me plenty of opportunity to ideate and develop the scope of work..something that could give me plenty of scope to work on other interesting, adventurous and recreational aspects of life…something that does not make me pale and worn out…
well.. having given the above conditions, my brain tried processing the output but after almost 15 minutes, it simply drew a blank……………..At least..till now..
March 3, 2008
3rd Mar 2008: A stupendous display of grit by Tendulkar saw India home in the 1st final of CB series. It was almost after 3 years that I watched one entire innings of a cricket match and it was worth the entire night that I spent sacrificing the sleep!!
The kind of synergy that Sachin and Rohit Sharma had was commendable and their partnership ensured that India romped home and Australia (Ponting in particular) eat the words belted out in the pre-match conference! Rarely have I seen such a refined Sachin who does not give any room for mistakes, not succumbing to the various tempting offers by bowlers and focussing entirely in taking the team close to the target.
But then, was Manjarekar a bit too hasty in commenting on the elephant in the room? Or has he helped the cause by awakening the grit in Sachin?
February 28, 2008
Its 23:15 hours here in Lisbon and no surprises that I am still at office….Just staring at the monitor with no real focus on the heaps of work at hand..there comes a time when my inundation with work is so high that mind just stops reacting to any command…
Somewhere in the midst, the simple pleasures of life are getting lost…in the calmness of the night, I can just manage to hear my heart say “Get some life dude”…
February 27, 2008
It was late yesterday night when Sriram (the one who works all weekends, sends official mails at 3:00 am, cribs about his tummy, livens up at the name of Cricket, talks on anything under the sun, and answers to the name of Shanie…) decided to give back something to the society from which he has supposedly taken a lot! And thus came the idea of preparing a new dish!!!
And Lo! What a dish it was!!! Just one bite of the dish and I knew that this is nothing less than being close to divine….And I am also sure that coming generations will have great folklores on Sriram for giving this to the world! Well, the recipe for the same remains a closely guarded secret which will be passed to the future generations of his family only..But I did manage to have the initial copyrights to publish the photos of this slurpy, mouth watering dish (links below) that was invented on the 27th February 2008 at 00:25 hours at the auspicious premises of Pestana Sintra, Lisbon.
And yes…the dish has been christened as “Chemuras”…(no points for guessing why named so )
February 27, 2008
Well, the last few weeks have been highly demanding and so much time was spent on work, that life out of office has been pretty much inconsequential… Lot of things have happened in the past few weeks that deserved me writing something about…… Obama’s prevalance over Hillary, the ridiculuous figures paid to the IPL league players, the Oscars, and of course the Australia India spats!!!
Oscars- Must say I was a bit dissapointed about ‘no country for old men’ escaping with the oscars..I always had this staunch support for ‘There will be blood’ which I thought was much much more deep in script than ‘No country’, which was just a few sprinkles of violence on a loose script, worsened further by a shoddy end which is highly unworthy of an oscar. ‘There will be Blood’ on other hand, holds itself in script till the end, and is greatly anchored by a solid performance from the lead actor (Daniel Day). Some consolation for this movie that he at least got the best actor oscar.
Will fill in more in subsequent posts…
January 28, 2008
First the BIG news!! Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, India (which also is my alma mater) has been ranked 20th by Financial Times in its list of top 100 business schools in the world. Some articles in the net on the same are:
And now, on a personal note, I had the widest possible grin on my face and my chest swelled to match Obelix’s ponch when I read the news today!! For an Institution that is just 6 years young, this is indeed a stupendous achievement and being the first Institution from India to have this extraordinary achievement it just adds crowning to the glory!!!
And I was not at all surprised to see that a google search for “ISB ranked 20th” resulted in almost all results from blogs of fellow ISBans!!! 28th January 2008 is indeed a significant day in ISB’s chapters…
January 12, 2008
Going by the initial reviews pouring in from various sections, the new TATA Nano seems to have set the auto market afire!! I was personally impressed with the outer structure of the car from the first looks at various auto shows. It does not look as if TATA compromised much on the aesthetics front, in order to meet the 1 Lakh benchmark.
With a 30-litre fuel tank , 4-speed manual gearshift, top speed of 100 kmph and a mileage of 23 km per litre, this baby does kick hard!!
UK media have also gone to the extent of saying that never after the launch Volkswagen Beetle did any car create such a buzz worldwide as does Nano. And this is some statement to make. It will be interesting to see how TATA capitalizes on this tremendous headstart that they have received from all corners to achieve their sales targets for this car.
Now that it has already scored on the looks and basic configuration front, it will also be interesting to see the how the Nano responds to the road tests carried out by private agencies!
January 7, 2008
Well almost forgot! We had been to Salzburg and Vienna during our christmas vacation…One awesome trip that was..A detailed post will follow on the same!
January 7, 2008
Much has already been written about the ugly turn of events in Australia during the Sydney cricket test. The remarks have been pretty much caustic against the australians by an overwhelming majority of people, with, surprisingly the australian media itself pushing the aussie team to the guilletine.
The on field behavior of the aussies in general, to say the least, has been uncouth with Ponting himself setting a bad precedent for the team mates to follow. Come to think of it.. What seems to have pushed this to such abysmal levels could be the fact that after long, aussies have come up against a team that has really stood up to their might and matched them. Not to deny the fact that there have instances in sydney, when India clearly had the upper hand.
And true to their spirit, it was imperative for aussies to indulge in sledging. Ably aided by some splendid support from the umpires, who went to the extent of recognizing the 3rd umpiring skills of Ponting, it ensured that test went to aussies in a platter..
Mind you, this is not to take any credit out of the aussies as an able team capable of winning matches. But this is just to say that they do not need anything else other their existing superb cricketing skills to win a match..including sledging..
And if India does want to take any credit out of the fight that they put up in this test, well, all I can I say is, a true test of skills awaits them as they head for a bouncy Perth..if at all the BCCI actually does allow their players to continue the series that is..
January 2, 2008
It was heartening to see the people of stuttgart come up together to welcome 2008 in a big way! in my last 9 months here in Stuttgart, never had I seen any occasion inducing as much energy into people here as much as new year’s eve did! I was witness to a typical Indian Diwali’sh atmosphere with all that bursting of crackers.
It was one day when the eternally asleep and dead silent streets of stuttgart were jolted by such high decibel levels!! For us Indians here, it was just a trifle too late a diwali!!
PS: Things are back to what they were before
