Archive for the ‘People’ Category

Obama cannot use his Blackberry because of security issues

Monday, November 17th, 2008

After the election, it turns out that Barack Obama has to leave behind a lot of his old habits. One being his addiction to the Blackberry, which has been a constant companion through out his career and proved powerful during the election times, when it was attached to his belt.

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Now, the President of America, he being the latest one, has to go by the rules and code of conduct which will not allow him to use his blackberry.
Source

How sad ? In my opinion the Blackberry guys should gift him a custom one. May be / May be not.

Make A Difference – A good effort worth supporting

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008

Thanks to Kenney for introducing me to this foundation.

MAD

I want to introduce you to the most wonderful NGO in the world, which was working right under our noses and still we failed to see how they were Making a Difference

Make A Difference (M.A.D) is a youth volunteer network that currently functions in the three cities of Cochin, Pune and Chennai… 312 volunteers teach more than 1200 underprivileged kids English and computer skills in these three cities to enable them to have better career prospects…
These children live in street shelters and orphanages. Without proper guidance, their lives will go astray. MAD makes sure that they have the proper life skills to make it in life. Then MAD tries to get them placed at jobs where they can live their potential…

MAD was recently picked as one of fifteen finalists for the international Youth Social Entrepreneur Awards which is a prestigious award bestowed by the Ashoka group. MAD became the only Indian entry in this competition in spite of 521 nominations from 60 odd countries. The final winner will be picked by online voting.

Let’s try and bring pride to our country by spreading word about the achievements of our countrymen. To stand up and be recognized in such a multi-faced international crowd is an achievement in itself.

Please Vote now at http://vote.makeadiff.in

Thanks All !

Who killed Soumya Viswanathan ?

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

I don’t think anything made sense of the word “Tragedy” than for this incident. TV journalist Soumya Viswanathan shot dead in her car at the wee hours of 3am in the morning at the Nelson Mandela road of Delhi. Everyone I spoke to regarding this, responded with anger, frustration and disbelief. And more interestingly, soon after the incident, was unfolded a series of events, that can envy any B-grade bollywood movie script writer. Drama, Insensitivity, Anger, Rage, Suspense – all that.

To me, this is a solid example, a torch light that leads to some very shameful revelations.

- Our lives in this country are probably cheap and not the most valuable, except for your family.
- One has to defend, live, protect, survive everything on his own. If you expect any support from the Govt, you are the biggest fool.
- You are living in one of those places in the world, where everything is so good, that they are practically lies.

First off, soon after the news was broken, like many millions out there, disbelief caught me and threw more questions than answers.

Picture 5

Why a journalist? Where is the missing link?

As a normal civilian, the incident just sent a letter to my brain, posted – “Even a journalist can be murdered, and no one will bloody question. Power is the right,nothing is wrong.”

As anyone would, the first guess I had was that Soumya had enemity with someone, or someone did not clearly like what she was doing.

Interestingly, Headlines Today (where she worked) did not ever utter any background of the event, they did not tell what story she was handling at HT, what was she working late on, and of any possibility enemity. This was shocking to me.

Later on , another channel revealed that she was working on the Malegaon bomb explosion late until morning. Why didn’t HT reveal all this?

HT was awkwardly skewed when it reported her death not mentioning anything about Soumya, what she did at HT, when did she join them, had she reported anything suspicious, anything….. I mean these are general questions people would ask them, had they not guessed it? Or was it deliberate?

Again, when Shelia Dixit (CM – Delhi) stated on TV again to HT, asking “Why Soumya was so adventurous at a place where she shouldn’t have? “, it was more like declaring that “Delhi is the most insecure place in India, you better stick to yourself and as a CM, there is nothing much I am doing here”.

Ridiculous ! How can a CM give such irresponsible comments?

I guess she is probably telling us a similar thing about the bomb blasts – Why are you people going out in public to crowded places where there is a risk for bomb blasts?

There is a lot more questions being asked about the mystery and I’m pretty much sure that the Police might not even come close to the real culprits. I don’t want to let that happen, but that’s what the recent trends suggest me to believe.

As of now, there are a lot of movement supporting Soumya happening, you might want to join them.

Facebook – A group seeking “Justice to Soumya”
Orkut – Soumyas Orkut profile

McCain Obama debate – McCain calls Pak president Asif Ali Gaddari

Saturday, September 27th, 2008

McCain may be the “man from yesterday” but this was sure over the top.

In the presidential debate today, it was alarming to hear Sen. McCain address the Pakistan President as Mr. Asif Ali Gaddari.
I’m sure he didn’t mean it. Of course, the president’s name is not familiar with the Americans, but Sen.McCain should’ve rehearsed the debate well ahead.

As a matter of fact, “Gaddar” in Hindi means “Traitor” – I trust Sen.Mc Cain didn’t really mean it.

Sramana Mitra releases her first book – Entrepreneur Journeys

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
If you are an entrepreneur, and if you didn’t know Sramana, you probably would’ve been living in a cave.

An inspiring human being, an expert in her domain, Sramana blogs at www.sramanamitra.com on business consulting, entrepreneurship and strategy.

Recently, she’s published her new book “Entrepreneurship Journeys” which is on sale at Amazon

According to Stewart Alsop,

“Sramana Mitra is herself a symbol of everything that is great about America: a geek, an entrepreneur, an immigrant, a leader. In Entrepreneur Journeys she has taken on the task of modeling how entrepreneurs transform economies into resilient, growing systems that provide a future for our children.”

Go check out the book ?

Mark Zuckerberg – I admire this guy

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Mark is the founder of facebook.com, he’s young, is a Harvard dropout, is popular for wearing adidas flipflops to conferences and for his casual yet insightful presentations. Some people call him a backstabber as he is claimed to have stolen a friends code that was similar to facebook of today.

What brand would Abhinav Bindra endorse?

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

Now that we have a star, one that’s composed, calm and sharp…which brands would buy him? I’m guessing after MSD, Abhinav Bindra would be the next super star in Ads at least for some time. Of course, he’s no competition for the cricket boys…but I think he’s managed to carve out a niche, just like Viswanathan Anand.

What Bindra can flaunt
- His medal of course.
- Calm, poised and sharp nature.
- Sophisticated gentleman.
- The thinker..shrewd look.
- Power play.
- Corporate man (he owns a software firm)

What he should hide
- He’s short, but many are.
- He’s thinking too much.
- Frown..he could smile a bit.

What brands could he endorse? (What I’d like him to be in)
- Sophisticated high-end watches like Omega.
- Clothings and Suits galore…
- Spectacles.
- Premium Cars.
- Hotels and Clubs.

What he may end up doing ..
- Some NIIT like computer courses.
- Spectacles.
- Clothings.
- Boost.
- May be some biscuits..(Remember V. Anand?)
- Watches.

Anything else that may suit him?

Abhinav Bindra wins Gold in shooting at Olympics -Yaaay!

Monday, August 11th, 2008

At last a gold! Indian Tricolours fill fly high in Beijing today when Abhinav bindra won the gold at shooting event scoring a perfect 100 ! (I don’t know what that means, but this is something to cheer about!)

Indians have always done well in shooting, I guess it’s got to do something with the “shikaar” habit of ours.

Saina Nehwal – There’s something with this girl

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

Now that Sania has lost her charm, there got to be someone to take over. And there are all possibilities that it could be this girl than anyone else – Saina Nehwal.
And Beijing Olympics could be a platform for her. With her new “electrifying” performance at yesterdays Badminton game (did you see that?) I’m sure you’d ditch Sania to Saina (if you ever were Sania’s fan that is).
She won over a Russian player (can’t remember the name) and in all her strokes the “future star” style was engraved. I think this is an excellent opportunity for India in the Beijing olympics. Now that our shooting hopes have fainted, I’m glad to see this star rising.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve always seen “unknown players” rise and shine in Olympics from India. There was Mr. Rathore and Mr. Rane who won accolades for us. There was Anju Bobby who was again unheard of before her wins. (No expert data here, so excuse me.)

So I shouldn’t be surprised to see Saina Nehwal come up this time and shine her way through to Indias masses. Okay, now, I think you must be guessing that I’m head over heels for this girl…Not really. But honestly, this girl has all the star power and “charisma” for a crowd puller. Check out some pics of Saina..and I’ll bet you’ll agree with me.

Saina Nehwal pic

Hell, forget all that, check out her track record – Impressive!