Being Cyrus

Its very natural to have some expectations from the movie you are going to watch. I try to control my expectations to avoid disappointment as many a times i feel cheated when what is promised in the trailer is not there in the movie. But this time it was not the case, Being Cyrus gives you more than is promised in the promos. Yeah its a refreshing movie, it has a story, the story is handled perfectly by the director and the performances are brilliant. Some of the dialogs are still in my mind, when Saif Ali Khan says something like, 'people make eye contacts but she makes breast contact whenever its possible'. Or the fight between Boman Irani and the neighborhood woman.

Dimple Kapadia, Naseerudin Shah, Simone Singh all look as real characters. The essence of the movie is the story which makes you ask many questions and gives enough clues and all of them are answered beautifully in the end. The movie has lots of dialogs with Parsi words and one where the old father says 'All of us used to f*** the officer's wife one by one but she had a liking for me'. The movie was made in English so it does not look that crude, may be in Hindi it would look nasty.

Whether it 15 Park Avenue or Mixed Doubles or Being Cyrus all are song free, have a duration of 2 hours, deal with a interesting theme and you dont have to make an effort to sit through them. May be with the addition of more multiplexes more such movies will come to the viewers. And more advertisements will come your way, this time PVR Hyderabad has started sending boys who come during the movie to take your orders and actually interrupt to ask if you want to order something. The big hotdogs which are shown during the break as 'special for the day' at PVR candy bar are tempting enough and there is absolutely no need to sell them during the movie.

Munnabhai MBBS

Are Hindi movies unrealistic? Some situations in the movies are difficult to accept but there is no limit to what can happen in real life. Everyday in workplace and TV i see fake people getting applause from others even though everyone knows the person is question is a fraud one. In Delhi Public School, Ranchi which is quite a reputed school in Ranchi there were teachers who taught nothing and knew nothing but still everyone loved them. Students loved him as he was not serious and gave many liberties in class. And his peers had to respect him as he was close to the principal. A friend of mine even went and complained to the principal but nothing was done. Then i got the chance to see some amazing professors at University of Roorkee(now IITR),some worse than school teachers, after lots of discussion with my friends i agreed that in India only those who don't get jobs pursue higher studies and PhD and this explains the poor quality of academicians. But this is not true for small schools only where a teacher pronounces 'canal' as 'channel' or private colleges where simple engineering graduates are teaching. This is true probably for all the professions and everywhere. In Hyderabad recently a fake doctor who got job in a Hospital showing false experience as doctor was caught. In villages illiterates can be fooled and they even agree for surgery at the hands of Pakhandi Babas. On national television(NDTV) Suhel Seth gives powerful remarks and sometimes i am also lured into believing that he will kill Jessica Lal's murders someday or the other. And can the indian multinationals be far behind, in my first job in a respected software company(partly because of its stock market performance) the person who was awarded the most valuable players of the team was the one i never saw working. He was only poking nose into other's job which was presented as if he was helping others because of which he could not do his own work and had to stay late in the night everyday. After that i had the privilege to see a person whose ability to play with words is impeccable. Without knowing anything he speaks confidently about everything and manages to get away with all his lies. Sometimes i think SAI BABA has given some special blessings to him, may be he was Sai Baba in his last life. The fact is some people get more in life than they deserve and the only reason i see behind this is Pichle Janam Ke Punya.

Hyderabad

Hyderabad once the city of Nizams is now the city of software companies/BPOs and shopping malls. The Cost of flats like the one shown in the third photograph is 40 lakhs for a 2 BHK. And not to the speak of the traffic, while the roadside trees are being cut to make the roads broader no effort has been put to create a lane system for the vehicles.

Stansfield plans 20 business schools

The Singapore-based Stansfield School of Business is contemplating a major foray with an investment of Rs 170 crore. The Stansfield Group is planning 20 business schools in the country during the next three years. The business schools will come up in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Bhopal.

Good News!!!

After the mushrooming of private engineering colleges in Southern states and now all over India, its the turn for the B-Schools now. Clearly with so many engineers working all around managers are needed to manage them. And as most of the elite B-school passed outs cant be hired by the Indian Companies, they will take recruits from these very colleges. Indian Economy is booming so placement wont be a problem and Stansfield would definitely create a brand, if not as powerful as ISB then atleast better than the second grade B-Schools. We all look at International brands with respect and Chennai Business School has already started advertising for the coming session with a one MBA year course much like ISB.

In engineering the private colleges have not been able to create any powerful brand, Amity is still looked with suspicion and the entrance tests to most of private colleges are conducted by state boards which leads to doubt about the quality of the passed out grads. But in B-Schools for admission everyone asks for the CAT/GMAT score which leads to standardization. This year Chennai School of Business has asked for CAT/XAT/GMAT score, it will select a few, probably those who have a higher percentile or GMAT score and it will get a ranking based on the minimum score it takes. Next year all those applying to say MICA/TAPMI will also apply to CSB as last year people with percentile score of say 94 were selected at CSB.

What will happen is yet to be seen but India needs more of world class B-Schools and we hope to see some them coming in the next 3 years.

Made in India

Bill Gates was asked on a talk show on NDTV24*7 during his visit to India, if he sees big software products coming from Indian companies his reply was for next 3-6 years No!,but next 10 to 15 years – YES!!! Given the fact that in 2002 India had meager 0.2% of the US$ 180 billion global software product market share and MADE IN INDIA brand has low acceptability and reach when it comes to software products we have a way to go.

There are software products coming out from Indian Companies trying hard to get the market share, take for instance Pramati Technologies(winner of NASSCOM Distinguished Technology Product Company Award) which had to form partnership with E-biz consultants like Yasu Technologies to get its WEB SERVER sold to customers. With biggies like IBM and BEA in the web server market it is targeting only 4-5 percent of the web application server market in US.

Cranes Software winner of Distinguished Application Product Company Award at NASSCOM Product Summit 2005, played a beautiful innings by buying up products for Systat Inc.(its US subsidiary) in three stages where each acquisition, from the US-based SPSS Science, was bigger than the size of Cranes at that time. The story how it did it is as interesting as the growth of the company which had revenues of around Rs. 1,633.8 million in FY 2005 of which 80% came from selling propriety products.

Ramco's fight with SAP and Oracle to take on global ERP market took around 10 years for it to get into profit mode, its first product was incidentally launched by Bill Gates as it was first ERP system to run on a Windows Server while SAP the ERP market leader had its own platform. The Adaptive Enterprise Solutions built on Ramco VirtualWorks has helped Ramco achieve a turnover of over USD 50 Million.

And not to forget Yasu which ranked 178th in The Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2004 and is recognized as one of the top 50 technology companies in the Deloitte Technology Fast50 India 2005 program.

Product development is on the higher side of innovation and has higher risk proportion than usual service based projects carried out by bulk of Indian companies, but more than that the lack of understanding of what a big “Made In India” brand can do to India is what is stopping other Indian companies to enter global product market.

Do you feel you are superior than others?

There could be many reasons for one to feel superior over others.
And it is more so in India with many diverse cultures existing together.

A Hindu feels he is better than a Muslim because of religion. A Tamilian thinks he is above a fellow non-Tamilian. A South Indian feels he is always more progressive than a North Indian. A IITian feels none of the private college engineers can be in anyway better than him. A IIM graduate may be getting 4 times the normal pay for the same work because not only he but his employer also believes he is great compared to other MBAs. A girl is mostly thought of as a poor student when it comes to Maths and Physics. A Indian is not considered as sincere as a Japanese. All this just means even before i meet a person the person has already formed a opinion about me based on my Sex, my Mother Tongue, my home town, my Nationality, my Caste(taking a idea from my surname), my Religion, my Education and the College i passed from. That explains why people add the name of their institute to their mail ids or why blog writers mention where they passed from. Brand carries a lot of weight when people interact with you but here the brand is not made by you, it has been added to you right after your birth and could depend on your career choices also, like if you are working in a well known company it adds to the image you have.

But do we miss out on quite a few beautiful relationships or experiences just because of this prejudiced way of meeting people. The idea of seeing every person as a new person gives you the chance of getting new friends and well wishers every where you go. But its a hard thing to do we have been fed with constant doses of wisdom which tell how to know a person just by his religion or state. And it takes new forms once our ego comes to play.

Valentine's Day

A boring day for new channels with no major story, Valentine's day dominated the English news channels today, truly it brings good luck to everyone. Shiv Sena gets the much needed publicity as the only day of year it is active is Feb 14^th and News channels and Serial Makers get a extra event to add in their usual bulletins and soap operas. Earlier Holi and Diwali were the only celebrations in a TV soap family but now all of them go to Valentine's day parties to find their valentine. And while all those lucky people who have found their love are enjoying at parties, singles are busy voting for SMS polls on NDTV judging if Valentine's day is relevant or ridiculous.

Indian Idol saw the exit of Panna Gill, one of the top performers, true in a democracy like India the contestant liked by majority is always the imperfect one. Audience hates perfection, those who present themselves as perfect seldom get the votes. The idea is to present oneself as a normal person right from your neighborhood or be prepared to voted out. Cry ,shout or yell but prove that you have limitations and janta will come to your rescue with votes.

Why Job Hopping is so common in India?

In India its very common for someone working in a software industry to have changed three companies in three years. The number of jobs available in market is one thing which facilitates it. But still why are Indians not loyal to their companies? Are companies recruiting wrong persons in wrong jobs? No one would agree to that as most of the big companies have elaborate rounds of interviews which screen the candidate at various stages . Still most companies have not been able to come out of this problem and when talking of engineering college grads from so called Top Colleges in India most of them leave their first job within a year of joining.

The problem lies somewhere when a future engineer starts thinking about his engineering career or even before that. As soon as a student leaves 10^th class and enters +2 his journey into a future which wont be guided by his interest begins. He starts preparing for engineering entrance exams without being sure he wants to be a engineer at first place, next comes his engineering branch which is decided by his rank and not by his interest and then it continues with a job he gets where he is not sure what work he would be doing. And though there are strict selection process for selecting engineers the pressure from parents/friends/ego/competition makes many work hard and get into engineering even if they don't like studying it. And so is the case with companies recruiting engineers even if they put all kind of tests to screen out the employees who wont prove to be good. Now from the point of view of a company a good employee is one who would work in the company for a longer period and has the minimum necessary skills required for working there, which most of the times is a non-issue as the work done in most Indian companies can be done by anyone provided he can effectively communicate with everyone in the team. Then why do companies test the engineers for technical skills so vigorously? The reason is studies tell that a person will stay in a job if he is working on something related to his interest field. So companies ask a lot of technical questions to know if the person is really interested in Software or not. Clearly put if you want to be in software industry you should be interested in software and if you are interested in software you should be having a good amount of knowledge of software. That means the testing of technical skills is only to know if the person is really interested in choosing software as a career. But this method does not work so well in India as it would have done outside India as here we can do anything to get money and studying some topics to get a job is not something big for us. Yes some companies have found some innovative solutions to this problem. Like you would be seeing many companies that tell we take people from IITs only, this does not mean the work being done there is very good, but it serves two purposes very nicely. One is IITians hate to work with non-IITians and they feel great when they are working with IITians. They feel they are at a great place and to prove themselves to other IITians they work very hard. HR people understanding this thing either go only for IITians no matter how the job aligns with the person's interest or if the job really needs people with good aptitude. The second way HR managers have found is to recruit people who can do the job but are not all ambitious or come from college where even getting a job is big thing. So they remain faithful to the company and work hard as they got a job they would have never thought of having at first place.

Those who go into IIT or other top colleges after lots of hard work and dreams of achieving big success in life develop a sense of superiority complex which makes them feel they are level above the other normal people who could not perform so well during pre-engineering days. And this makes them believe they should be paid more. And for a engineer whose first wrong choice was either this career or his branch of study makes his next mistake by going for a job where he would be working with IITians but something which wont give him any satisfaction of having accomplished great things. This can lead to more job hopping or dissatisfaction.

It is very much true that you cannot change the jobs available in economy but the courses of study like engineering should also be oriented according to needs of the industry. And may be with opening up of career opportunities in other areas and with them getting respect things will change in future where a person would not be forced to do things he doesn't want to do in life.

Thumbs down to Times Now

Times NOW turned out to be dumber than expected, they too like other channels carried one exclusive story followed by the so called impact it had on everyone. This new phenomena called IMPACT(the old one being Breaking News and JustIn) was started by NDTV and was taken miles ahead by CNN-IBN with new operations almost everyday. Today it was Operation WaterRat on CNN-IBN which exposed how easily Indian Coasts can become the source point for RDX and other explosives but at the same time NDTV 24X7 had a good debate on India and Pakistan, though the topic is old the content was good. TIMES NOW has a slow kind of feel, its not as aggressive as CNN-IBN. One very important differentiator now a days is the priority given to stories and NDTV 24X7 is the winner here as it puts the stories in the rank they deserve. Every English News Channel has a sports bulletin at 19:30 hours and Face the Nation kinda discussion at 22:00 hours and all these were started by NDTV and no one wants to break this trend it seems. TIMES NOW gives more weightage to the story it thinks is exclusive, like today it was on the Expose on letters sent by PMO to other ministers which somehow shows that no minister is listening to what Manmohan is saying even though the hot topic today was Airport Privatizations and was well covered everywhere.
TIMES NOW lacks what ZOOM had, there THE TIMES OF INDIA focused on its strength which is Masala but here it is trying to create a image of channel which is good at journalism which definitely TIMES group is not. Has Times forgotten the basics it learnt in Newspapers, YOU NEED NOT BE THE BEST TO BE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL,BUT YOU NEED TO FEED THE VIEWERS WHAT IT WANTS AND IN INDIA IT IS MASALA.

Reality of reality shows - part 2

What is really fascinating about reality shows is the sense of power it gives to the viewers. Whether its KBC or Indian Idol it is the power of feeling superior which drives the viewers. How many of us feel elated when we see contestant in KBC not able to answer a question which we can easily answer? We feel the same when the contestant we predicted wins in Indian Idol voting. And the list goes on, i think to a certain extent Indian Cricket also is more like a reality show. We know the players personally and we take interest in their personal lives also, we like discussing about them and it makes us feel we are patriotic and know so much about who will play how. Its not the sheer pleasure of watching a game but the pleasure of predicting and commenting which satisfies us. Tell me how many of the viewers understand the nuances of the game, certainly not more than 50% of the total viewers but we all know the name of the players,which city the person belongs and it is not unusual to hear comments on one's region and other characteristics which don't have any relation with the game. Cricket in India is another show like Indian Idol but just has vast reach, may be because of the simpleness of the game. And without any voting power we gladly take the role of selection committee when it comes to cricket.

And this is what brings TRPs to any show, the more we get to discuss and more the predictions and comments more is the number of eye balls a show gets. So it seems a viable strategy by reality show producers like Indian Idol and Fame Gurukul to bring contestants with which the viewers can identify. Remember Qazi Taqueer(Fame Gurukul), he won just because of his never say die attitude and because he could express it(his attitude) quite comfortably. This explains why shows like Deal or No Deal don't seem to take off, just because the format is not interactive. Gone are the days when people would watch a soap opera with a predicable story pattern, as it does not bring any excitement. Formats like Idol and Gurukul give people something to talk about and bring more than committed viewership, yes Indian Idol was a kind of addiction which made Abhijeet Sawant, the singer with largest selling Indian album.

I know a person who likes Qazi so much that he bought the Fame Jodi album even without hearing the songs. So is there anything wrong with these reality shows? No nothing wrong with this, if The Times of India becomes largest selling newspaper selling gossips and articles with no head or tails but on topics which are of immense interest to people. And if Aaj Tak,Star News and India TV capitalize on the sensational news using sex scandals, scams and hidden cameras pouncing on soft targets like Film Stars, then may be SONY should definitely bring in the desi version of Big Brother.

Reality of reality shows - part 1

Talent hunt shows and reality shows are ruling the TV channels now. Sony's highest TRP gainer is Indian Idol and so is Zee's Saregama Challenge 2005 and Star One's Great Indian Laughter Challenge. As Industry estimates tell Sony invested around 50 crores for promoting Indian Idol and Fame Gurukul when it launched them but the total investment for Indian Idol 2 is only 20 to 22 crores. Does that mean the cost of promotion is more than producing the show, one reason could be Sony goes overboard in promoting the shows and may be its needed also as families which are glued to Star Plus would find it difficult to tune to Sony. As mostly mothers watch the Ekta Kapoor soaps on Star Plus and in a joint family system no one dares to change the channel and it is true for other small families also as the wife gets to decide the channel if there is no cricket on show. But still Star One has managed to create a new space for itself without any major marketing strategy other than promos on the No.1 channel, Star Plus. Though Star One had tough time buying frequency on the prime band by greasing cable owners as no one really thought there is space for yet another mass entertainment channel in Hindi. May be comedy(Great Indian Laughter Challenge) and new ideas(Nach Baliye) worked in its favor. But still its Great Indian Comedy Show(poor & stale content) does not have as much popularity and nor does shows like Bluff Master which are unique and have great content also. The bottom line is good shows gain popularity even without huge publicity and marketing tricks. Much of Great Indian Laughter Challenge's popularity can be attributed to word of mouth publicity through MMS forwards or email forwards containing clips of Sunil Pal's and Raju Srivastava's performances. And sometimes even the best coverage and publicity does not work as was the case with Channel V's Superhit Singer which was simulcasted on all the Star Channels but it never clicked and it could never create stir which Sony managed to create with Indian Idol.

Welcome to Yahoo Chat!

Chatting has become a special part of my life, all my old friends i was scared of missing are close to me because of Yahoo Messenger. Yahoo brought the concept in a popular way through the Yahoo Messenger long ago(in last century) which remains unchallenged even today, yes Google has added a very powerful voice chat feature but the Smileys of Yahoo, the Buzz (Ctrl+G), the changeable font size and the invisible status message are too nice to forget and move on to Gtalk.

Chatting has left an indelible impression on my mind, even when i can talk directly i prefer to chat, partly because i can write anything i want, but in office or other public places i cant say everything

loudly. And this led to newer ways of chatting other than the Yahoo, Gtalk or IP Messenger. Yes when i want to see the expressions of the person i am chatting with i go to his seat, open a notepad then i type one line and he types the other, then we laugh, smile or smirk looking at each other. This all started when in my previous company me and my friend always had something to tell about our colleagues and project manager, so as soon as i sensed something funny or fishy, i jumped to his seat and typed the same. And this continues till date and this gives me immense relief as i am able to express myself without any censorship.

And i have seen as we grow up we are told to control our emotions, this leads to accumulation of feelings which needs a vent to escape. Its makes sense to say less when you are saying something which can hurt others but more often than not it hurts you the more. And it is quite possible people who talk in a calculated manner are more successful in professional life, but i personally find it very difficult making a rapport with someone who talks diplomatically. All this comes from the family you belong to, if your parents are white collar professionals chances are more that you know when to talk what and how to be politically correct, but for those coming from family backgrounds with blue collar jobs, it is difficult to accept that many a times truth is unacceptable in corporate world.

Mandira Bedi aur Sony

It seems Mandira Bedi brings good luck to Sony, starting with the EXTRA INNINGS which brought a shift in Sports/Cricket commentary towards Glamor, to Fame Gurukul and now in Deal or No Deal. All have been trend setters, every channel puts a lady in the commentary box in every sports now a days be it football or WWF. And now Madhavan is being replaced by Mandira Bedi to bring more eyeballs to Deal or No Deal. Sony has been trying very hard to the right node and who knows may be it has been successful but the current system of TRP ratings shows it in poor light. I have been a die hard fan of SONY's marketing strategies. No one comes near to Sony when it comes to promoting the channel. And it has always been the front runner when it comes to implementing new ideas. Even today Indian Idol or Deal or No deal has the best IN PROGRAM ad placement, barring the Nokia ad all other placements are quite well fitted into the script and effective also. Look for instance at the idea to have every leaving participant leave a message on the Asian Paint wall or Chloro-Mint representing Re.1 in Deal or No Deal. As Sony is busy promoting itself during the AD breaks it makes perfect sense to find new innovative ways to sell the in program ad spots. Look the way Fame Gurukul was promoted across channels using tie ups with MTV and AAJTAK, Star and Zee have all the channels in their bouquet but they have not been able to create the BUZZ Sony has done with its perfect execution of 360 degree marketing tactics. It has tried to sell the channel as a whole and has reacted very swiftly to he viewers choice by scrapping poor shows, but it has been quite unlucky as the Media Planners go by the TAM ratings which are very much tilted towards Star. Sony lacks a distribution channel, it does not have the Rahejas or Siticable with it so it becomes difficult for it convince the buyers of having a stable and secured viewership. But hope this year will prove to be a milestone year for Sony as it is launching all the hit international formats in a Indian Avatar may be starting with Cadbury's Bournvita Confidence Challenge. Viewers are looking for a change and it has been proved with Star One's success. The old weepy shows on Star Plus must die soon. And one more urgent need is that of a more metro like English Channel which shows Indian shows, otherwise all these viewers have to tune to lifestyle cum News channels like NDTV Profit. Zee Cafe has created a sort of sluggish image for itself otherwise it would have hit the jackpot, but no wants to switch to Zee Cafe for entertainment. We can surely and safely have the Indianised versions of Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City.

Chameli ki Shaadi

This January many people i know will get heart aches as she ties knot with her boyfriend. I am not talking about a TV or Film Star but she is someone who has broken several hearts. I know her since my +2 days and wherever she has been, guys have been there to fall in love with her. May be its not love but when you see everyone competing for the same girl you tend to believe she is precious. When i saw her for the first time i knew this is the girl i always wanted to marry, her short hair, her dressing sense, the colors she wore(blue and red), everything made me feel i want her, but the problem is everyone feels so. And there is the catch she can chose whoever she wants from may be over 200 shortlisted guys. I am not sure what my position is in the waiting list to marry her, but after having a crush on her for 8 odd years or so i still wonder if she was a right choice for me. After all marriages are made in heaven so if i was to marry her, we would have met in some way or other. But we never talked apart from the usual Hi or Bye. Does that mean she is not suitable for me, atleast that is what i would conclude as God has been very generous in giving me good people around me.

When you choose your soul mate there are many things you should look at, your hobbies should match,otherwise there would be very few things for you two to share. And all of us have something in our life which could be our purpose of living or our aim in life, your partner should be able to appreciate that, if that is not the case i am afraid your marriage will turn out to be a mere agreement and mostly this is what happens in India as everyone but the couple should feel good about the marriage. In order to keep parents and relatives happy the basic reason behind getting married diluted. And the need for a partner is different for different people. Some want a caring partner, some want a dependable partner and some look for someone they can care for. If the roles are complimentary its fine but if both are say dominating it leads to fights and quarrels. It takes time to realize what we want from our partner, may be after you settle in job the need arises, as during college days we look for a partner to hang out or just to make everyone jealous. This explains why many of the love marriages are not successful and many a times by luck you get a wife through arranged marriage who suits you perfectly. There is a nice way to know if the girl or boy you are dating right now is good for you. Just think have you been able to tell him/her everything about you? If the answer is yes its great as if the hearts are not connected and if you are not exactly comfortable with her the chances are you cannot express yourself properly. It does not matter if you are a introvert or extrovert because if only two people are talking you should be able to pour out your heart to her. So keep your search on and may be i will soon have a crush which materializes into love and then to a marriage.

News you can Enjoy

Times Group has finally joined the battle for supremacy in the English TV News channel market with TIMES NOW, the second offering from by Times Group after Zoom established itself as a lifestyle and gossip channel. The channel has already lured the cable operators and booked a prime frequency slot for itself and promos featuring well known personalities from Movies,Sports,Politics are there on the air much before the official launch of the channel on 26^th

of January. The channel like its other sister brands( indiatimes.com & Zoom) will piggyback on The Times of India, so be prepared to see reports in Times asking you to tune to the channel. I think it will be more like English version of Aaj Tak/Star News and it may succeed also. The reason is we watch News much like we watch dramas and reality shows. One example is Star Ananda the Bangla news channel which rose to No.1 position within few weeks of its launch,like Star News it also served news as a drama. Go to any house,you will see people enjoying news which criticizes politicians or Ganguly for that matter. We don't want to see the serious issues but we like to see anything which makes us feel that we are not the only wrong doers but everyone in this country is.

This is what Times of India does, it gives everyone the power to criticize the government or cricket players. And till now channels like NDTV 24*7 or the new one CNN-IBN haven't been able to create a image like that. They are more upmarket and NDTV Profit is more like celebrity lifestyle channel with shows on bikes, golf and gadgets. CNBC TV18 is a great news channel and it gives loads of information. Headlines Today is not sharp as it claims but has good coverage on sports. But still the battle could turn out to be difficult as CNN-IBN also looks ready to tap the same audience with India TV styled stings. What i expect from these news channels is more international news as both(CNN-IBN & TIMES NOW(Reuters) have international partners and there is no focus on international news by news channels these days.

It may take some time to take the share away from NDTV but if NDTV is hearing please reduce the ad break duration for your news programs otherwise the long breaks will force the viewers to tune to other No.1 wannabes.

Dare to think beyond the IIMs

Rashmi Bansal's blog points to the actual situation of placements in IIMs. It is true that as always grass look greener on the other side and B-School salary packages are there to debate upon, but is it the responsibility of the B-Schools to provide Big Salary packages during placements, many international B-Schools don't give campus placements and it seems that IIMs don't want to give admission to grads whose real aim is to get a big salary package, all my friends who are in IIMs had to give to some other funda of life to make the interviewers understand why they want to do a MBA, the point is IIMs never acknowledge directly that campus placements is what they offer,which may not be the truth as the press releases by IIMs talk a lot about the campus placements to establish their superiority over others. But still the bottom line it is not fair to expect from the IIMs to provide exact salary details of companies and ensure they are correct. Because the people who go to IIMs are learning so much about how businesses run, about finance, about HR and they have access to all kind of media(both MSM & non-MSM) and valuable suggestions from seniors. They are expected to do impossible things so finding true details about salary of a company is like a child's play for them.

But there are people who need to be informed!!!

There are thousands of people in coaching institutions preparing for IITs and IIMs. You can easily guess the situation by remembering the uproar when IITs restricted JEE to 2 attempts only. There are many in states like Bihar who prepare for JEE for years on stretch, i have even met people who have dropped 5 years after 12^th to go to IIT. And there are many engineering and other graduates who leave their jobs to prepare for IIMs. For these people the career itself is spoiled if they dont get into IIT even after years of work and thousands of rupees. A typical school student has access to main stream media only and they are forced by parents to prepare for IIT. A friend of mine who was very good in Maths was getting top engineering branches in colleges other than IITs, but as IIT K was the top college(according to India Today) he joined a dual degree M.Sc. course in IIT K. What i mean to say he can never achieve what he could have had he joined Comp. Sc. or a branch which suited his aptitude and moreover now he is in software industry where his 5 year specialized branch knowledge has no use. This is story of many who joined IITs in search of education and now are left only with a superiority complex that they are the best as once they topped the JEE. Not to talk of the students who could not join IIT and are paying for the years wasted in preparation.

What is needed?

One good step taken by IIT council is that of limiting the number of attempts to 2. It should be limited to 1 attempt for those don't have any genuine medical or other reason for a drop. The next step should be that of scrapping off the obsolete branches and introduce branches for undergraduate courses which are relevant to the Indian economy. It wont be wrong if i say that private colleges contribute more to the economy of India by producing computer science engineers in big numbers, which is in fact today's need. And next step is to create awareness that IIT is not the only thing and the IITians and IIM grads about whom we get to hear so much are the ones who would have done so even without the tag they are carrying,for they are talented and motivated people.

Life is not a big deal

Whenever i feel low i remember the story i read in The Times of India's spirituality column, it goes like this.

A small kid used to watch his mother busy with threads of different colors but he never understood what his mother is trying to make. Once when his mother was putting embroidery into a Salwar Kameez, he looked at some long-some short threads hanging from the lower side of the cloth. It didn't look nice at all, with no clear design and all kind of knots it looked ugly. He asked his mother why she has made a dirty looking dress after all that hard work. His mother replied “You are looking at a incomplete work and from the bottom side, once i finish making it take a look at it from the top and you will see the beautiful flowers.”

The flowers of our life are also being made by God, but since we are looking from the wrong side we cannot see the beautiful flower it will become once it is complete. There are good and bad events in life like the long and short threads but once all the dots in your life connect, the final picture is perfect.

So never think why something which you wished didn't happen, only God has the perspective to see the events of our life in right way.

Best Actress in Kkkrying role

I am waiting for Smriti Irani to turn mad. She is a great woman though,even after playing the same role of Tulsi for more than five years, she has not lost her mental balance. But i think many viewers have. Many young children who watched the serial since childhood as their mothers could not find enough fantasy in their own life have begun to show unusual characteristics, these children cannot trust others. And how can they, any one in the family can be the murderer, even father can send murder his son or send him to jail and may be he is not his father, well that can be explained as a 35 year old is too young to be a father of 30 year old son.

Ekkkta Kkkapoor has every right to show anything but why does Indian Television Academy has to give K-serials the label of mainstream TV and create special category of awards like best actress in Supporting Role, Best Actress in Main Role which is in fact Best Actress in Krying Role, for Smriti Irani.

Undoubtedly Ratna Pathak Shah(Sarabhai vs Sarabhai is the best TV serial in recent times) is the best TV Actress today, why create special categories? to please Ekkta Kkkapoor?

Buying a condom

It is a very embarrassing if not a very difficult thing to do. Go to a shop say 'Moods Please' you get it and walk away with a smile. It did not turn out to be so easy for me. But first why did I need a condom? Oh just to see if what they show on TV is true for real life also , i mean is buying a condom a easy thing or not? So i went the neighborhood medical shop near my Hyderabad house. I could not enter the shop easily as there were a couple of women buying some medicined and i didn't want to make them feel that they are there for some disease and i am there to do some masti. So i waited for them to go, then i entered the shop and was about to ask him that some other person came and asked for some cough syrup, oh condoms now days come in different flavors and varieties and i was there struggling to buy a simple one. I mustered some courage and asked the shop owner 'Nirodh hain kya?'.'Kya?' he asked. I said 'Nirodh!Nirodh!!'.'Kitan Hona?'he asked. I said '3 nahin 4 dena', he replied' 5 ka packet aata hain'.'De do',I said. Then i gave him a Rs.50 note and that was a big mistake i made. The shop owner started shouting 'Everyone does this! Where do i get a change!I don't keep condoms for this reason! Very few buy and i don't sell it to children! You don't have to pay any money go and take it with you! I don't want any money, these condoms are here for more than a year!'. I asked 'How much do they cost?', he replied '3 Rs', i gave him 2 Rs. and told will give 1 Re later and ran away from the shop.

Coming Up Next:Using a condom!

Bluff Master

Why do you watch Hindi Movies? You are not expecting a good script anyway! The only reason is Star Power. Yes so if you are a SmallB fan or a Priyanka Chopra dewannaa, watch Bluff Master. With Nana Patekar in his best comedy avatar,the dialogs given to Nana are delivered with excellent timing and ease.

SmallB stares a bit too much into the camera and that is what i feel critics call a intense actor.

At times i felt he has forgot his lines and looking for some clue. Priyanka should have got more screen time for her role in the movie, she looks beautiful and sensuous. Music is different and good for a change but it is difficult to make out what the lyrics are and what they mean.

Farah Khan choreographed song with AB's baby rotating all around with girls on bed can cause serious neck ache if you try to follow it.

Overall the movie is a good time pass if you are looking for some fun time and Priyanka Chopra.