Ghajini

The 1st promo is out today. This is easily the most awaited film of the year.

Office today

- Commute time ~5 minutes.

- Half the seats empty since all the Southies were away at their 'native' for Diwali.

- Cafeteria only 70% full at 1 PM.

- Super calm inside the ODC. Volume 10 on the Walkman sounds like 16. I can even pick up some bass lines I never could before.

- Vacant parking slots at 3 in the afternoon. No parallel parking.

- Our team at 50% strength.

Happy Diwali

The Google banner has been so since Sunday. Anyway, yesterday was the holiday for us even though no one was quite sure when the actual Diwali day was. A somber evening it was yesterday, reasons for which I shall expound on later.

Deepanjan also perhaps is in the same dilemma as reflected in this post of his. Anyway, Happy Diwali to all & especially the ones who emailed/SMSed their wishes.

Wahing Machine

Bought my 1st ever piece of white good - the Samsung WA78K1 5.8kg fully automatic washing machine.

Red, White & Brown

Took in Russell Peters' latest DVD after it took an irritatingly long time to download.

All new jokes with the good old lampooning of different cultures especially Indian. It does get tedious sometimes when he keeps on harping about India & Indians but I guess that's because I myself am one.

Nonetheless, you can't hit pause once the thing starts playing.

Suzuki GS 150 R

Suzuki launched it's long awaited 150cc contender today.

Looks are in the same vein as the Pulsar & Unicorn with nothing standing out in the profile. However, the speedo is 'dual mode' with Power & Economy settings while the taillight features twin stacked LED clusters.

It's pretty OK, nothing radical, and one can't expect much more from Suzuki India - the way they've been going so far.

'new' CBZ Xtreme

I usually don't bother to post about Hero Honda's 'new' variants of existing bikes - but this I gotta do .... check out the 'all new' CBZ Xtreme with differently colored alloys (!) & umm .... all new stickering. So much for the festive season releases by India's largest 2 wheeler company.

The reappearance of Akshay

Akshay was released from my last project about 2 weeks after I was (a month back). Our lunchtime group was broken & soon life had once again settled down the usual software engineer's rhythm of meetings, deadlines & coding.

Walked in this morning & entered the rest room to see Prashanth standing in front of the mirror. Somehow, his presence got me thinking of the 'old days' of the last project - of Baishaly & how she would call Akshay 'baalak' .....

I'm lost in this train of thought while standing before the mirror & out of the corner of my eye I spot a familiar figure coming in lugging a backpack .... it's Akshay himself & he mouths the familiar greeting, 'aur bhai kya haal hai?'.

The usual questions follow - 'tu yahaan kya kar raha hai?, tu to release ho gaya tha na?' etc. Turns out he's been bought back to work on some CR's for the old project.

Now, how coincidental is that? You start thinking of someone who left a month back & zap .... within seconds he reappears before you in person! Good. Lunch times will be less boring now.

Akhila: "so you work out at the gym?"
Me: "...... no, ....... why?"
Akhila: "I can see the veins on your arms, so i thought ......"


Ha! ..... if only she knew.

Chandrayaan 1

India has successfully launched its first mission to the Moon.

A famous win

Yes, it is.

A match that saw a complete role reversal with the Aussies a pale shadow of their aggressive selves & the Indians massively dominating proceedings throughout.

Very enjoyable. Perhaps it was MoM Dhoni's captaincy .... he is looking very good in the leader's role now.

Layoffs & meltdowns

The rumours started about 6 months ago, but all in a space of that little time things have been going horribly wrong in the financial world.

Wikipedia already has a dedicated entry for it & the Great Bong has done a series of postings here, here & here trying to explain to laymen what it's all about.

Yes, the great financial meltdown of 2008 is a reality even as I write.

The job market has got tougher .... hikes are not half of what they used to be even 4 months ago. Attrition is consequently down to single digits. Worse, threat of retrenchment hangs heavy in the air with every new day bringing in news of layoffs in some industry or the other. This week it's airlines (one of the worst affected sectors with fuel prices rising & passenger numbers falling drastically).

Indian IT's big 3 have shown resilience so far, but I wouldn't count on that continuing indefinitely. Word in the market says that the US will experience zero percent growth this year & maybe the next as well. Knowing how heavily most Indian IT companies are dependent on Uncle Sam land for contracts, things are bound to get tougher.

Hoping & praying is the only option left it would seem.

Russell Peters India tour

One of my favorite stand-ups is here in B'lore .... and I cannot go ..... damn!

I promise myself ..... next time, I surely will.

Chinese GP

Hamilton wins it for McLaren & is now 7 points ahead of Massa. The championship is all but in the bag for the Silver Arrows ..... yes!

Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.
- Ellen Goodman

Sachin is the highest run scorer in Tests

Sachin became the highest run scorer ever in Test cricket today.

I remember the time back in the 80s when Daddy dragged me in front of the telly to witness Gavaskar achieving the same record.

Good to see it back with an Indian.

Volvo B9R

Volvo launched India's 1st multi-axle bus today.

Bullet Classic

What a beauty of a bike from Royal Enfield!

Dada to retire

After months (maybe years) of intense speculation during which everyone seemed to have had their knives out for him, Sourav Ganguly finally announced his retirement from international cricket today.

This man was one of the factors why Indian cricket is the force it is today. I try to go back & remember the many instances when he helped the team with things that took place on the field & off it. Taking charge of the team just after the match fixing scandal had broken out, he slowly but surely built up a team of believers. Most of the stalwarts of India's new generation of cricketers came through under Sourav - Bhajji; Yuvi; Irfan & Kaif to name but a few.

I could go on & on, but his biggest contribution was transforming the team's character into one that wouldn't waiver in the face of the worst kind of gamesmanship indulged in by the Whites & Pakistanis - and I respect him for that one reason the most.

So Dada - it was a privilege watching you play for the tricolor. All the best & thanks for the memories - including this iconic image of that surreal evening in London a few years ago ....


Like we used to say after every great performance of yours - "Jeeyo dada!". It surely is the end of an era.

Nokia 5800

Back in May, I'd talked of the iPhone launching in India alongside Nokia's 'Tube'. Well the iPhone 3G did get launched (to a not so warm reception), but there was no sign of Nokia's iPhone killer.

Until now that is .....


This then is Nokia's latest touchscreen - the 5800 which sees Nokia reverting back to it's old numeric nomenclature system .... no N & E Series-ing here, although it does come tagged with the XpressMusic brand.

What's more Nokia's not launching it the usual way. The launch countries will be the likes of India, Indonesia & UAE. So eat your heart out 'developed world'.

Back in that post, I'd also talked of 1 of those 2 being my next mobile. Well, the iPhone turned out to be a major disappointment in terms of features & price & that leaves only 1 option for me. I'm getting my hands on a new 5800 as soon as possible.

Mitsubishi Outlander

HM-Mitsubishi (finally) launched the Outlander in India today. Check out those tail lights - typical Mitsu flair!

Dostana

Pretty good album. Vishal-Shekhar are on a roll. Love their beats & love the way they use Sunidhi's super voice.

And Pri Chops is looking hot here!

It's a deal

The nuke deal with the US is finally through - as reported here, here & here. Not that it's the 1st one. We got another with France the other day as reported here & here. And there's another one coming up with the Ruskies soon.

It's amazing how time & circumstances change so quickly. The NSG was formed with the explicit intent of denying nuke tech to countries like India which had tested nukes & not signed the NPT. And now the NSG itself (under heavy US pressure) allows an India specific waiver which paves the way for all these deals. Good for India. Goes to show that power only respects power. Had we held on to the idealogical baggage like we did till the 1990s, things would have continued the way they were.

As for our dear neighbours, they're doin the old flap-flap. Carry on losers. It's India's day today & you know it.