Wicked & Lazy Thoughts

Ra One V G.One

2011-11-02T16:06:00.000-07:00

Worth a watch. Will be a big success in small towns. Trust SRK's business n marketing acumen to convert a potential dud to a sure blockbuster. More to follow.....!

Renault Fluence V Chevrolet Cruze Review

2011-07-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

Cruze only option is diesel but compared to Fluence has more style and looks majestic on roads. However, it’s not as spacious as the Fluence. And the Fluence scores on ride and handling balance.

Verdict : Cruze for sheer style !

China Town : Malayalam Movie Review

2011-04-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

After a long time comes a decent Mohanlal comedy flick which is a good weekend watch. Though the post-interval script could have been better executed ( or copied from Hangover) by Rafi Mecartin. Jayaram & Dileep added fun to the proceedings.

Verdict: Good

Bought a newNE72

2010-07-06T15:33:00.000-07:00

ought the black color E72 couple of weeks back. It was a better choice than Blackberry which i felt was a tad too pricey compared to E72. I now have a 3G phone business phone with QWERTY key pad and 5 mega pixel camera to satisfy the photographer in me. The push email bit though is not as good as the blackberry but i am not missing anything.

Priced at Rs.16500 in Ezone, Bangalore India - its the best business phone in this price range.

Another great upgrade in Nokia E72 is the latest version Quick office pre-installed . Quick Office 6 will enable E72 users to open and edit Microsoft office documents like Word 2007 ,Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007 .

It also Has a Front VGA camera for video calling and recording . Improved navigational facilities through assisted GPS,compass and Nokia maps is another Nokia E72 feature built for a busy businessman’s life . qwerty keypad found in almost all Eseries devices (exception E52 ) is also available in E72 .

Connectivity facilities includes 3G, HSDPA(10.2Mbps), HSUPA, WLAN, EGPRS; Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio .
Though a business phone ,Nokia E72 is too a power packed entertainer with music player, media player and FM radio with RDS. Nokia E72 features next level web browsing experience with flash and JavaScript support to the latest .

E72 performs well on battery life by producing a full day long (12.5 hour) talk time .

Weighing 128 g , Nokia E72 has a dimension of 114 x 58 x 10mm which accommodates a good wide screen QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) display of 2.4 inch size and with up to 16 million colors .

NASA: North India's groundwater receding at alarming rate !!

2009-08-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

It was shocking to read the BBC report on a NASA gravity satellite findingthat many parts of North India like Punjab, Harayana and Delhi have lost their groundwater at an alarming rate in the past 6 years. We are losing water @ 4cm per year.

Till now 109 cubic kilometres of water, roughly equivalent to Americas Lake Mead and double the capacity of India's largest reservoir has vanished. These results are more alarmin than the findings three years ago by Grace scientists about loss of water in parts of Africa.

Water is an important factor in maintainin India pace of growth. If water harvesting is not made a national priority the day is not far when India will face internal strife on account of scarce water and inadequate food production.

Note: The Grace (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment) mission of NASA uses two satellites flying along the same orbit, one just in front of the other. Minute differences in the Earth's gravitational pull cause the two craft to shift slightly in their positions relative to one another. The mission can measure groundwater depletion because the amount of water in aquifers has a small gravitational attraction for the satellites. (Source BBC Report)

Ethics Act for Indian Politicians

2009-08-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

I was surpised to read that there exists an Ethics Act in US which requires people holding public office to declare any gift (even discounts) above $150. Click Here

Wish we had something similar in India?

Smart USA, ultracompact Smart Fortwo

2009-08-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

Smart USA has announced that the 2010 ultracompact Smart Fortwo will roll off the assembly line complete with a Last Will and Testament. "These little things have 70 HP and a three cylinder engine," said company spokesperson Artie Teaserman.

Ashes opener ends in a thrilling draw

2009-07-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

Englant held on to their last wicket to deny Australia a win in the first test of Ashes 2009 series.

Obama : Second Stimulus Package !!

2009-07-10T15:54:00.000-07:00

Obama : Second Stimulus Package !!

India's first "sea bridge" opens to traffic this week

2009-06-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

Finally, India's first "sea bridge" opens to traffic this week, aiming to ease chronic congestion on Mumbai's notoriously choked roads.

It is hoped that the 16.5-billion-rupee (340-million dollar ) eight-lane freeway will help cut the 40-minute journey between the suburbs of Bandra and Worli to just eight minutes.

Check out the video here.

Obama neglecting India

2009-05-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

There is no doubt in my mind that the Obama administration is neglecting India. Lack of attention to India would 'nt have been an issue but I think the issue is of bias. Obama is has some kind of grudge against either India or Manmohan Singh. For India the golden period witnessed during the Bush administration time has ended. Now a days US state department is influenced by China-Pak a lot. Historically too democrats have never been great friends of India and Obama is going a step further. Add to that Obama's antipathy to Bush administration and its favorites like MMS.

There were rumours of Hillary Clinton make a visit to India which evaporated into thin air as soon as it became clear that M/s Manmohan & Co will be back at the helm of power.

What disturbed me more were couple of new items about Pakistan expanding its nuclear arsenal and China blocking 2.9 billion $ in aid from ADB to India. The first one we can't do much as its been China policy all these years to help Pakistan gain strategic superiority over India. Under Bush administration atleast the Chinks were not so brazen about it now with Obama administration looking the other way, there nothing much we can do about it except join in the race.

The reasoning behind Chinese attempt to block aid is that part of the proceeds witll be used in Arunachal Pradesh which the chinks consider somehow to be part of their nation. Hope MMS in his new avatar will have the guts to take on Chinks in international forums. Its time for our central governments to show some strength and help organizations worldwide to rake up Tibet issue.

The US silence or lack of support on these important issues shows that India is once again without friends. We need to rebuild our bridges with Russia and engage Japan more. Time for Japan to become the biggest investor in India. Make India the largest market for Japanese products and see the fun.

Secondly, we should go slow on the US companies angling for Nuclear Power projects in India. Give the first few contracts to French.

Show some spunk MMS !

Red Chillies - All thats wrong with Malayalam Movies

2009-02-22T22:30:00.001-08:00

Being a Mohan Lal fan its really disappointing to watch him in such crap movies. Mohan Lal looks stylish and does well but the story, climax and rest of the cast is such a big let down. Can they get a decent, convinving enough story in Malayalam these days. Sreenivasan seems to get better scripts and after that may be Mamootty. Atleast Mamootty is not doing boring movies these days.

Even masala films have to have a certain standard. We need a multiplex revolution and higher ticket prices to improve the standards of our films. look at bollywood and how its has come a long way in the past 5-6 years with movies like Bhejay Fry, Oye Lucky, Dev D, Khosla ka Ghosla, Johnny Gaddar, Taare Zameen Par.

We should look up to Hollywood and Bollywood and not imitate Tamil, Telgu industries for mainstream movies. We need to draw our inspiration from Padmarajan, Fazil, Bharathan, Priyadarshan of 80's and early 90's and redifne malayalam cinema for the next generation.

Artists and directors who criticize Mamoooty and Mohanlal for present state of Malayalam films are a bunch of hypocrites. How many new directors and artists have they introduced in the past 10 years?. Even if its a Prithviraj movie, the rest of the cast is the same as in a Mohan Lal or Mammooty movie. We need to retire the other usual suspects in a malayalam movie Kavirponnammas and sukumari's, the Sreenivasan brand of satire, Jagathy brand of humour, Thilkan style of wrath, Rajan P Dev style of hamming, Nedumudi Venu's pathos. Directors like Kamal, Sathyan Anthikad, Shaji Kailas, Sibi Malayil who are stuck in a time warp and cant add anything new to the industry. They have all become complacent and the fire within them has died long ago.

We need new, fresh, young blood in industry in all aspeccts of film making. We need higher ticket prices to support quality films.

Malayali Wins Oscar

2009-02-22T22:14:00.000-08:00

Congratulations ! Resul Pookutty the First Malayali to win an Oscar. Born in Kollam, Kerala and a graduate of FTII, Pune Resul has worked with major Bollywood productions like Ghajini, Black etc.

Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan are among his greatest supporters.

On the subject, of malayalees at Oscar - its becomes interesting when you consider that both AR Rehman and Manoj Night Shyamlan have a Kerala connection. Well, it just goes to show that having a Malayali connection helps !.

But Malayalees would never stoop to such levels. They consider themselves Indians first and Indians last unlike that judge with a man's voice on Idea Star Singer who professes not to know a single word of malayalam. Why do malayalees suffer her and her racist, superiority complex on Asianet. Great artists like Shivaji Ganesan, Kamal Hasan are not ashamed to speak in whatever little malayalam they know when giving interviews but a third grade artist who nobody cares for in Bollywood is put on a pedestal by us Malayalees?

Its time Rajeev Chandrasekhar does something about this.

Sincere, Proud Malayalee

Why NDTV stock price will come down?

2009-02-02T12:21:00.000-08:00

NDTV Ltd has reported consolidated loss of Rs.117 crs for Q3FY09 on Equity of Rs.25 crs. The company also said it has embarked upon a cost-cutting and rationalisation exercise in its news business and expects advertisement revenue growth to slow down.

Its board has decided to split NDTV into two groups - one to carry out news and other businesses, and the second for the entertainment and allied businesses. Instead of focussing on core activity they are opening entertainment channels - one after the other which is not helping the brand as NDTV Imagine or Good Life have been big failures. Look at how well COLORS has been able to sustain, grow viewership with aggresive strategy.

NDTV lacks the imagination of its competitors and more specifically, has not been able recover from the brutal blow dealt by Rajdeep Sardesai / Raghav Bahl duo when they launched CNN-IBN.The duo also managed to weaken the love affair of NTDV and Kangress Party. The way CNN-IBN went about to accomplish this by being more Christian than Christ. They managed to prove to Kangress bosses that during a crisis and as an ally for their propaganda machine - CNN-IBN is more than willing to go that extra mile than an NDTV.

Moreover, NDTV rose to dizzying heights because of the patronage from Delhi babudom. They used to recuit all the Babalog in to the company and give preference to well connected which caused lot of frustration among talented journalists. CNN-IBN tapped into these insecurities and launched an establishment friendly (pro-kangess) channel that values professionalsand became a runaway sucess.

This does not imply that there will not be any more churning in the English TV News Channel space. I feel there is still some vaccum in the media for an anti-establishment English news channel either left or right wing.

I think in backdrop of the Satyam saga be careful with all Indian ICE stocks esp the Media and Entertainment companies - no matter how popular the product or service is. Given the rumours floating around in the stock market about some well known media companies cooking up balance sheets - investors should be more careful and look to exit these counters. Some analysts believe NDTV stock price may well touch Rs. 40 - Rs. 50 range very quickly.

I would surely exit this stock.

Why CEC is right is asking for removal of Navin Chawla

2009-02-02T12:04:00.000-08:00

I believe the CEC N Gopalswami has done the right thing by asking for removal of EC Navin B Chawla. He should never have been made the EC in the first place but for his so called LOYALTY to Gandhi family. Here is a man who was indicted by the Shah Commission inquiring into the excesses during the Emergency for having been 'authoritarian and callous' and for gross misuse of power "in cynical disregard of the welfare of citizens". Further, it declared that he was "unfit to hold any public office which demands an attitude of fair play and consideration for others". At the time of Indian Emergency (1975 - 77) he was secretary to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.

More recently, our Election Commissioner Navin Chawla and his wife Rupika ran the Jaipur-based Lala Chaman Lal Education Trust which had secured MPLADS funds from Congress MPs — A.A. Khan, R.P. Goenka, Ambika Soni, Dr Karan Singh and Mr A.R. Kidwai. Exclusive: Chawla accepted funds for private trusts. The trust was allotted six acres of land by the Congress government in Rajasthan when Mr Ashok Gehlot was the Chief Minister. As usual our English media conveniently forgot to highlight the case as it belonged to Madame's trusted foot soldier.

Navin Chawla has stated that after his appointment as Election Commissioner, no money has been collected. His response is both irrelevant and irresponsible. The moot question is whether before his appointment as Election Commissioner, he was a private citizen or a member of the IAS. If he was a member of the IAS, then he was very much governed by the All India Services Conduct Rules and as per these rules, any collection of unauthorised money unconnected with one's official duty from any member of the public or any organisation is prohibited.

In March 2006, the National Democratic Alliance presented the President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam with a memorandum signed by over 200 MPs for his removal. The memorandum questioned his impartiality in light of his alleged links with the Indian National Congress.

In May 2006 Jaswant Singh the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha moved Supreme Court of India seeking removal of the controversial Election Commissioner Navin Chawla taking the plea that he would not be able to discharge his duty impartially in view of several allegations of improprieties against him

Finally, the real reason he was appointed EC is because, by sheer seniority, Chawla would be the Chief Election Commissioner in 2009 after current CEC N Gopalswami term ends. He was cleverly planted into the Election Commission to help the Congress and Madame in 2009 election. Which is why I believe there is nothing wrong with CEC recommending his removal in the interest of safeguardings India's democratic credentials.

Can India can defeat Sri Lanka. 5-0 whitewash !!

2009-01-26T15:47:00.000-08:00

A 5-0 whitewash by India in their five match ODI series against India starting on Wednesday would make an interesting three-horse race for the top spot in the Reliance Mobile ICC championship rankings.
In that case, India will get 123 rating points, equal to that of South Africa but three less than Australia (126), calculated after today's fourth ODI between the Proteas and Ricky Ponting's men.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team would then get the chance to go to the top of the rankings before long if all results against the Lankans go their way and they make a winning start to their series against New Zealand early in March.

But if India lose 0-5 to the Lankans they would slip below New Zealand (113) into fifth position. Such a result would catapult Sri Lanka (107) to third spot.

Irrespective of India vs Sri Lanka result, South Africa will go to top of the table if they win the fifth and final match of the ongoing series against Australia in Perth on Friday.

Victory for the Proteas in that match would put them level with Australia on 125 ratings points. However, South Africa would be just ahead of their hosts by a fraction of a ratings point (124.85 points compared to Australia's 124.64). India will retain their third place in that case.

Australia though can regain the number one position immediately as they take on New Zealand for five ODIs, just two days after the Perth match.

Whichever side leads the ODI Championship table on April 1 will collect USD 175,000 with the runners-up pocketing USD 75,000. The same is true of the Test Championship with the top team walking away with USD 350,000.

Source PTI

Pakistan to ban Indian Television Channels

2009-01-19T15:25:00.000-08:00

The Pakistan Senate Standing Committee for Information and Broadcasting is demanding a ban on all Indian televisions. The demand is illogical and impractical as the Pakistani cable operators would not like to drop their most lucrative and popular channels from their rosters to make appease dim witted political brats. Even the public at large will not like to come home and stare at PTV.

GoDaddy says to be Indian is the Best thing on Internet.

2009-01-19T15:11:00.000-08:00

Its official, the grand daddy of domain name registration GODADDY has official come out said that Indians are the best in the world in Internet and an Indian Top Level Domain TLD will take you places.

GoDaddy suggests also that .IN's association with India and its burgeoning economy will give .IN added appeal. Noting that "The .IN Registry calls .IN 'a unique symbol of India and its role in the world'," GoDaddy says: "Currently 60 million of India’s more than one billion residents are avid Internet users. Only three other countries on earth have more people online."

With .IN TLD's Godaddy hopes to replicate the success it has had with .ME (Montenegro) TLD which received 20,000 applications in the first 24 hours when registrations for the .me domain name opened in July 2008 .

Go Daddy Go !!

Shut Up Sajid Khan !!

2009-01-19T14:33:00.000-08:00

Sajid Khan has done it again but this time he found his match in Ashutosh Gowariker. Bravo !. Well done Ashutosh for standing up to this brat and tell him to SHUT UP. Sajid whose only claim to fame (apart from being Farah Khan's sibling) even after directing disastrous Hey Babyy is some anchoring he did for shows like Kehney Mein Kya jarz Hain & Ikke Pe Ikka on Zee & Sony in the 1990's . His cheap jokes and ridiculing legendary actors & movie makers may have been appreciated by some during the intial phase of cable TV in India but not now.There are far better entertainers than him and he is anyways not a patch on Suresh Menon (who incidentally used to be the side kick in many of his earlier TV shows), Raju Shrivastav and Sunil Pal.

His true colors and class (or Crass) was evident when he retorted to Ashutosh '' Kisi ka baap bhi mujhe shut up nahin bol sakta ". I opine the only reason he and his sister boorish behaviour is tolerated is because of Shah Rukh's closeness. To turn the question over its head. Are they encouraged by SRK to act as his henchmen and intimidate the film fraternity. Its high time SRK disassociates himself from them.

And please Sajid dont even compare your shitty PJ's with Oscar awards nite humour. They dont humiliate legends over there. They celebrate their contribution to cinema and their humour is like a back handed compliment which the stars & audience appreciate.

Get a life Sajid !

Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman ! or Hamara Kenneth Lay !

2009-01-07T11:47:00.001-08:00

To say one was shocked by Satyam disclosures today would be an understatement. What a journey for Mr. Raju from Satyam to ASatyam.

How can one person fool 53000 Employees, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Foreign Institutional Investors (FII’s), Auditors and file ASATYAM after ASATYAM every year to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Must be a brave man to even think doing this in dream if you are the CEO / CFO of a Nasdaq & NYSE listed company, having an illustrious board and know about Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX ) Act, 2002.

Enron? Kenneth Lay? Does it ring a bell - Mr. Raju?

First we have fiasco over the MAYTAS deal and several weeks later, before a crucial board meeting, suddenly Mr. Raju decides to become a Gentleman with a reveal all resignation letter!

Yeh baat kuch hajam nahin huye!

Accepted IT services are not a physical commodity and with worldwide operations it easy to cook up earnings but to say that Rs.5040 Cr of Cash never existed is too much. Satyam is major player in Indian IT industry and it should have had significant cash flow like its peers. Mr. Raju says they had only 3% margin in last quarter. Considering the world economy in latter part of 2008 this is very much acceptable but what about the quarters and years before 2008 - the golden period for Indian IT services. What happened to all the cash generated in those years?

Can he really inflate the operating margins without connivance or knowledge of others? Even if there were others who helped him the fundamental question remain- Why? What was his compulsion? What was the compulsion of other people who might have helped him?

If the aim was to increase stock prices and sell some part of his holdings - He did not do that also. Then why did he take all this pain? False pride or feeling of inferiority when compared to peers like Infosys and Wipro? Will a person put so much on stake? It may seem plausible in a typical Bollywood masala movie but not in corporate India of last decade.

I am no Sucheta Dalal but could there be a story inside the story. The truth may not what we all think. Is it possible that there was actually cash on the balance sheet but it was diverted to MAYTAS or some other project? All this is a cover up or damage limitation.
Once the MAYTAS deal was off, there were more chances that the issue of missing cash on balance sheet could have resulted in criminal proceedings as against a corporate litigation for falsifying accounts.

Diversion of funds is easier to do almost single handedly with bank than taking the risk of falsifying accounts, get it approved by auditors of international repute and then file with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission risking action under SOX Act.