Manu Sharma who allegedly (yeah right) murdered Jessica Lal in 1999 was acquitted by the court today.
One more instance of rich and famous manipulating the system to get away with the most heinous of crimes. It just pains my heart to see this happen again and again and again. Is our system so spineless to not even stand a fighting chance against these sophisticated thugs. That fellow shot that young model at point blank range and now he is getting away scott free. Today when I read it in the news, my immediate reaction was to be cynical. But no, I dont want to cynical anymore. India can never be a land of our dreams if privileged few continue to be above and beyond the arms of law. When was the last time a politition was convicted or a stock market scamster brought to justice? Its instances like these that do more damage to people's trust in the system than anything else.
Outraged and frustrated, I sent an email to Bharat Uday Mission. Not sure if anything will happen but just couldn't pass it as another news headline which will be stale in a day.
I hope somewhere an Indian Elliot Spitzer is reading this blog. (Since only two people read this blog, I hope you know that its YOU I am talking about)
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Monday, February 13, 2006
Giving back an earful
From the recent India-Pak cricket match. At least for this cop, the thaw in the relations between the two countries has not brought any peace J. 
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Rang De Basanti
Saw RDB this evening. Liked it but I must confess it was a bit of a let down mainly because of all the hype surrounding the film. Dont get me wrong its a good movie but its just not able to shrug off the "Bollywood movie" tag. Cinematography and the technical aspects of the film are pure brilliance but the screenplay was loose. Not compelling enough, felt something was amiss. Perhaps a bit elitist (pinkospeak). These bunch of kids had everything going for them and the sudden turn in their thought process was a bit far fetched. Also not sure if the film really represents today's youth, especially the once who dont live in big cities, dont have access to flashy cars and who have more worries in life than deciding where should they party next. I think there are few people still left in India who fall in that category, right ? Didnt see them in the movie at all.
Anyway the larger issue the film is trying to address is - How do you create a revolution in India ? Take over the Akashwani Bhawan and fill the air waves with revolutionary thoughts ...hmm ... is that what he said ? No. He said become a conscious citizen, join army, get into IAS and participate in the political process of the country. Cynic in me is screaming "BOOOOOOORRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGG!" but thankfully I am not a cynic. I believe. This is the way forward for India and in a lot of ways its already happening. Everyone now I then I read incredible things common men and women of country are already doing to empower themselves and those around them. The problem here is institutionalizing this empowerment. For all its quirkiness, the current goverment did promulgate the "Right to Information" bill, which if implemented in letter and spirit has the power to bring accountability into the system like never before. Access to information and the right to use it to demand justice can institutionalize the kind of revolution the film talks about.
Bottomline -We have a long way to before this happens. Even the film had to be specially screened for clearance by guess whom ? Indian Defence Minister!
Anyway the larger issue the film is trying to address is - How do you create a revolution in India ? Take over the Akashwani Bhawan and fill the air waves with revolutionary thoughts ...hmm ... is that what he said ? No. He said become a conscious citizen, join army, get into IAS and participate in the political process of the country. Cynic in me is screaming "BOOOOOOORRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGG!" but thankfully I am not a cynic. I believe. This is the way forward for India and in a lot of ways its already happening. Everyone now I then I read incredible things common men and women of country are already doing to empower themselves and those around them. The problem here is institutionalizing this empowerment. For all its quirkiness, the current goverment did promulgate the "Right to Information" bill, which if implemented in letter and spirit has the power to bring accountability into the system like never before. Access to information and the right to use it to demand justice can institutionalize the kind of revolution the film talks about.
Bottomline -We have a long way to before this happens. Even the film had to be specially screened for clearance by guess whom ? Indian Defence Minister!
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Endless Wait
Didn't go for workout even today. The wait is excruciating, cant seem to concentrate on anything. Staring out of my window, I have seen the Bainbride ferry go by 10 times already this evening. Next couple of weeks will continue to be very difficult, at least I will learn the complete evening schedule by then.
Trying to keep busy in any way possible. Read about Greenblatt's Magic Formula for Investment in his new book. Its a good idea, although there is nothing innovative here. Everyone knows: Buy High yield and with good ROI companies, but no one knows what the future yield or ROI will be. Backfitting strategies into past performance makes any strategy look good. But how do you stretegize when you don't have numbers? Greenblatt gives you the numbers but there are a lot of retailers at the top of his ranking, who can go bust overnight. How do you know then that by going for heigher yield you are not buying more risk ? You still have to do your research says the fine print. For most people like me the transaction cost itself will eat away a big percentage of gains. Thank you Sir! I will stick with my own little index fund strategy. On the other hand may be I should give it a try, at the very least it will keep my mind occupied. Naah! its too costly an indulgence just to distract myself, counting ferries go back and forth is much cheaper. :)
Damn the test match is also not going anywhere. When push comes to shove Team India is the first to chicken out. Bunch of bozos.
Trying to keep busy in any way possible. Read about Greenblatt's Magic Formula for Investment in his new book. Its a good idea, although there is nothing innovative here. Everyone knows: Buy High yield and with good ROI companies, but no one knows what the future yield or ROI will be. Backfitting strategies into past performance makes any strategy look good. But how do you stretegize when you don't have numbers? Greenblatt gives you the numbers but there are a lot of retailers at the top of his ranking, who can go bust overnight. How do you know then that by going for heigher yield you are not buying more risk ? You still have to do your research says the fine print. For most people like me the transaction cost itself will eat away a big percentage of gains. Thank you Sir! I will stick with my own little index fund strategy. On the other hand may be I should give it a try, at the very least it will keep my mind occupied. Naah! its too costly an indulgence just to distract myself, counting ferries go back and forth is much cheaper. :)
Damn the test match is also not going anywhere. When push comes to shove Team India is the first to chicken out. Bunch of bozos.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Children of heaven
OMG! I love children’s films, but this one is special. Remember the warmth that fills your heart when you see a couple exchanging an unexpected kiss or a stunning valley that opens right in front just after you take one last turn to reach the mountain’s summit – this movie is 1.5 hrs of just that feeling. The innocence, love and untiring efforts of the young brother and sister to make best of the situation will melt the coldest of hearts. How can a country which produces films like this ever mean harm to anyone? If were Bush, I would give you your nuclear toys Iran! (Ugh ..its probably the bottle of wine I had with the movie that’s I saying this.)
No seriously, this is wonderful movie. The young girl’s lost shoes sets up the plot and create a situation where the brother and sister have to secretly share a pair of shoes because they know that their parents can’t afford another one. The struggle of main character ‘Ali’, the brother in this film, reminds me of ‘Chaipu’ of ‘Salaam Bombay’ because they both are desperately fighting odds to achieve something. For Chaipu, it’s the train ticket to go back to his mother in village while for Ali it’s the pair of shoes he wants for his sister. At the end both don’t get what they wanted, but while ‘Salaam Bombay’ breaks your heart, ‘Children of heaven’ fills you with hope and a promise for the future.
Majid Majidi, the director, did end the movie ‘Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar’ way, but herein lays the beauty of the screenplay. Even after winning, Ali did loose and yet in a lot of ways he did win. Go see the movie to know what I mean. :-)
No seriously, this is wonderful movie. The young girl’s lost shoes sets up the plot and create a situation where the brother and sister have to secretly share a pair of shoes because they know that their parents can’t afford another one. The struggle of main character ‘Ali’, the brother in this film, reminds me of ‘Chaipu’ of ‘Salaam Bombay’ because they both are desperately fighting odds to achieve something. For Chaipu, it’s the train ticket to go back to his mother in village while for Ali it’s the pair of shoes he wants for his sister. At the end both don’t get what they wanted, but while ‘Salaam Bombay’ breaks your heart, ‘Children of heaven’ fills you with hope and a promise for the future.
Majid Majidi, the director, did end the movie ‘Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar’ way, but herein lays the beauty of the screenplay. Even after winning, Ali did loose and yet in a lot of ways he did win. Go see the movie to know what I mean. :-)
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Blue
Krzysztof Kieslowski is regarded as one of the leading film makers of our time and after watching Blue, the first part of his trilogy ‘Trois couleurs’ (Three Colors), I understand why. The theme of the movie is
Juliette Binoche powerfully brings out the raw emotions of Julie, often relying on nothing more than deep melancholy eyes and unnerving silence. Kieslowski is a master of using music instead of dialogs (there are very few of them) in moving the story forwards. Some of the scenes, especially the one in which Julie hears her husband’s music while swimming, are absolutely hair raising. The delicate screenplay and soul touching photography truly make this movie stand apart. One of the better once I have seen in a long time.
Friday, May 06, 2005
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Whoever said fundamentalist cant make good economists ?
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=42274
The Paki finance minister is secretly wishing that more actresses follow Meera. With so much "talent" in Pakistan, its only a matter of time before thier economic woes are taken care by the revenue generated by these fines.
The Paki finance minister is secretly wishing that more actresses follow Meera. With so much "talent" in Pakistan, its only a matter of time before thier economic woes are taken care by the revenue generated by these fines.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Farewell Food, no Thought
I am in the process of moving out of DC to start a new job. Since my current company is on a week long cruise this week I decided to quit last week itself. I know, I should I have quit after the cruise but these damned ethics came in the way. Life will be so much more simple without them.
As I announced my resignation, I knew people would be taken aback. I expected a few handshakes and goodbyes, but what I got was 8 farewell parties in the last 6 days. Physically it was very tough, my gastric juices and stomach have never been subject such rigorous tests. It was only a matter of time before they revolted thus increasing the number of bathroom visits.
May be, by acknowledging my sins I will be condoned and the extra layer of fat around my stomach will magically vanish. So here is what happened in the last few days
Date :
Group : Few RADG (Racist Asian Dinner Group) members
Venue :
Agenda: Update on the latest of the racial slurs.
Date :
Group : Java Team
Venue : On the borders
Agenda: Hedging bets on my returning back to Appian
Date :
Group : Appian open all Dinner
Venue : Bailyes Pub & Grill
Agenda: Farewell sugar talk
Date :
Group : DC Desi (non ABCD)
Venue : PF Changs
Agenda: Celebrating birth of one more ABCD of the Group
Date :
Group : NON RADG (Racist Asian Dinner Group) members. Some pseudo Asians were also present
Venue : Tachibana
Agenda: How to make the perfect Maki Sushi
Date :
Group : College buddies
Venue : Heritage
Agenda: Keep the rumor mills running
Date :
Group : Couple one on one
Venue : Charcoal kabob
Agenda: Investigating Indian culinary influence on everything edible in this world.
Date :
Group : Couple one on one
Venue : Gua-Rapo
Agenda: Liberals - free for all
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Four stages of work
My friend and I were talking about our work at lunch today. He told me about a grid that he has come up with to clearly define 4 stages of the work. This is what the grid looks like.
Most people are stuck in the 4th quadrant where they are neither trying hard nor making swift progress. My initial assessment was that the most productive quadrant is Jamming but you can’t sustain trying hard for a long period of time. The key is to be in Cruising quadrant. It’s much better for your endurance. The only problem is that it’s very easy to slip from Cruising to Slacking. The other paradox is that if you try hard not to go from cruising to slacking, you might risk getting into Jamming. The key is to make a healthy balance between not trying too hard and still being focused. It’s really difficult to that especially so many interesting things going in the workspace. Some of them are shown below
Conflict Resolution
Is this really a release blocker bug ??
Enthusiasm of your colleagues
Your own desires to find your inner self
| Trying hard | Not trying hard
| |
|---|---|---|
| Making swift progress | Cruising
| |
| Making slow progress | Grinding | Slacking
|
Most people are stuck in the 4th quadrant where they are neither trying hard nor making swift progress. My initial assessment was that the most productive quadrant is Jamming but you can’t sustain trying hard for a long period of time. The key is to be in Cruising quadrant. It’s much better for your endurance. The only problem is that it’s very easy to slip from Cruising to Slacking. The other paradox is that if you try hard not to go from cruising to slacking, you might risk getting into Jamming. The key is to make a healthy balance between not trying too hard and still being focused. It’s really difficult to that especially so many interesting things going in the workspace. Some of them are shown below
Conflict Resolution
Is this really a release blocker bug ??
Enthusiasm of your colleagues
Your own desires to find your inner self
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Cruise Bio
Each year my company goes on a weeklong cruise trip to the Caribbean - Mexico (or Alaska if the HR Manager is really pissed at us). Before the trip all employees are asked to prepare short bios about themselves. These bios are compiled into a small book, which is distributed among the employees as a memento of the trip. Here is my bio for this year’s trip.
Name: Abhishek Agrawal.
Birth city:
Etawah, UP - India. It is an overgrown village of a half a million people in the middle of nowhere
Prone to:
Frequent spells of selective amnesia
Convicted of:
2 speeding tickets and 1 for jumping a red light (and also for trying to drive through the wall). Oh yeah, once reprimanded for stealing 2 year olds ice cream.
Claim to fame:
$3000 phone bill
Talents:
Still trying to find one
Dreams of:
Making a product so efficient that customers don’t even need to buy it.
Believes:
Life is an angry bull and you are a stupid matador. You stand in its path, grab the bull by its horn and try to bring it down. The bull hurls you in the air and you land with the control of a helicopter with no gas. Even though your body is badly scratched and there is blood dripping down your face you don’t give up. You stand up once again and charge back towards the bull. The result is no different this time. You keep fighting until you are tired, exhausted and your motivation becomes that of a wet noodle. Beaten to submission you don’t know where to go and what to do. You loose all hope and THEN you make the decision of your life, YOU MARRY IT!
Name: Abhishek Agrawal.
Birth city:
Etawah, UP - India. It is an overgrown village of a half a million people in the middle of nowhere
Prone to:
Frequent spells of selective amnesia
Convicted of:
2 speeding tickets and 1 for jumping a red light (and also for trying to drive through the wall). Oh yeah, once reprimanded for stealing 2 year olds ice cream.
Claim to fame:
$3000 phone bill
Talents:
Still trying to find one
Dreams of:
Making a product so efficient that customers don’t even need to buy it.
Believes:
Life is an angry bull and you are a stupid matador. You stand in its path, grab the bull by its horn and try to bring it down. The bull hurls you in the air and you land with the control of a helicopter with no gas. Even though your body is badly scratched and there is blood dripping down your face you don’t give up. You stand up once again and charge back towards the bull. The result is no different this time. You keep fighting until you are tired, exhausted and your motivation becomes that of a wet noodle. Beaten to submission you don’t know where to go and what to do. You loose all hope and THEN you make the decision of your life, YOU MARRY IT!
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Saturday, September 25, 2004
Extreme Programming:
Almost everyone who has ever been a part of a software development team has experienced a sense of anger, frustration and helplessness at how “things just get out of control”. Unlike manufacturing, software development process grants each person the potential to completely wreck the product cycle with an unwitting minutest intervention. Is this a person or a process problem? Why do software development projects fail? How can we alter the process of development to make it less sensitive to the actions of the people involved in it?
Appian sponsored Java Users Group (AJUG) decided to find answers to these questions by looking at the alternate software development methodologies. We started with looking into details of Extreme programming – first proposed by Kent Beck. His book, "Extreme Programming Explained" is broadly divided into three parts – The Problem, The Solution and The Implementation, each of which is about 50 pages. On a Saturday afternoon it will take you less 3 hours to go through the whole book.
Kent recommends paradigm shift in software development process. The emphasis is on designing little, implementing, testing and repeating the process as fast as possible. This is completely antagonistic with the most technology team’s emphasis on designing early and thoroughly. The book strongly recommends use of XP methodologies like pair programming, unit and functional testing, which definitely have a lot of positive points. Kent also provides a rather simple yet remarkable way of cost benefit analysis of adding a new feature during the various stages of product life cycle. Unfortunately in one and half pages the idea is bit under sold but then this is not a book about pricing software.
One of the most intriguing ideas put forth is the concept of common ownership of code. Most technology projects have core of their architecture closely guarded under the watchful eyes of their most senior programmers. Kent makes a strong case for allowing every member on the team to make any change they deem necessary to any part of the system. At first this seems completely illogical and fraught with risks, but he explains that with pair programming, automated testing and refactoring its not as perilous as one would wonder. The left liberal in me is convinced but the pragmatic one tells me that the risk involved are highly dependent on the ability of every member of the team to understand the architecture and also on the quality of the automated tests. Weakness in any of the two can end in some disastrous consequences. I have spent sleepless nights (not quite) thinking about this, but I am still not convinced. Common ownership is highly depend on the XP methodologies and cant be put to practice unless other XP stuff is working very well for the team.
Overall this book is worth every penny of its value. You might not agree with any of its ideas, but it does provide some fresh insights on tackling problems we face on a daily basis. It’s not a fast paced suspense thriller - DaVinci code, but it’s closest to that in the world software engineering. I will specially recommend it to the people who are disturbed by the chaos and confusion surrounding development of software products and are looking for more repeatable and predictable processes.
I do agree with the Kent about this -- Embrace change!
Appian sponsored Java Users Group (AJUG) decided to find answers to these questions by looking at the alternate software development methodologies. We started with looking into details of Extreme programming – first proposed by Kent Beck. His book, "Extreme Programming Explained" is broadly divided into three parts – The Problem, The Solution and The Implementation, each of which is about 50 pages. On a Saturday afternoon it will take you less 3 hours to go through the whole book.
Kent recommends paradigm shift in software development process. The emphasis is on designing little, implementing, testing and repeating the process as fast as possible. This is completely antagonistic with the most technology team’s emphasis on designing early and thoroughly. The book strongly recommends use of XP methodologies like pair programming, unit and functional testing, which definitely have a lot of positive points. Kent also provides a rather simple yet remarkable way of cost benefit analysis of adding a new feature during the various stages of product life cycle. Unfortunately in one and half pages the idea is bit under sold but then this is not a book about pricing software.
One of the most intriguing ideas put forth is the concept of common ownership of code. Most technology projects have core of their architecture closely guarded under the watchful eyes of their most senior programmers. Kent makes a strong case for allowing every member on the team to make any change they deem necessary to any part of the system. At first this seems completely illogical and fraught with risks, but he explains that with pair programming, automated testing and refactoring its not as perilous as one would wonder. The left liberal in me is convinced but the pragmatic one tells me that the risk involved are highly dependent on the ability of every member of the team to understand the architecture and also on the quality of the automated tests. Weakness in any of the two can end in some disastrous consequences. I have spent sleepless nights (not quite) thinking about this, but I am still not convinced. Common ownership is highly depend on the XP methodologies and cant be put to practice unless other XP stuff is working very well for the team.
Overall this book is worth every penny of its value. You might not agree with any of its ideas, but it does provide some fresh insights on tackling problems we face on a daily basis. It’s not a fast paced suspense thriller - DaVinci code, but it’s closest to that in the world software engineering. I will specially recommend it to the people who are disturbed by the chaos and confusion surrounding development of software products and are looking for more repeatable and predictable processes.
I do agree with the Kent about this -- Embrace change!
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Strategy and Strategic Planning: (Henry Mintzberg)
I really like Henry's work in strategy and planning. These are the excerpts of some intersting points he made in an article I read recently.
Most successful strategies are visions not plans.
Strategy making process - capturing what managers learn from personal experience and experiences of others and the hard data from market research, and synthesizing that learning into a vision of the direction that the business should persue.
Does not involve formanl techniques.
Planning represents calulating style of managment and not commiting style of mangment.
Learning plays the most crucial role in the development of novel startegies.
Business unit managers should take full and effective charge of strategy making process.
Planners: Ask the right question ? Dont try to find out the right answer.
Strategy making process should not and cannt be formalized. Formalization hinders creative thought process, which is the the most essential part of Strategy making.
Thursday, April 29, 2004
"Location" - Clusters and Competition: Michael Porter
Michael's take on Locations. This is definitely interesting. May be companies competing in close affinity is not that bad afterall.
Clusters suggests that much of the competitive advantage lies outside a given company or even outside its industry, residing instead in the locations of its business units. eg: Odds of building a world class mutual fund company are much higher in Boston than in any other location or a textile related companies in North Carolina (although I would rather move them to China).Clusters attract foreign investments. (You can build world class facilities, but without presence of conducive clusters its difficult to attract industries. This explains why efforts by governments to divert industries to specific locations has failed so often -- Butibori in Nagpur)
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