Karthik Writes..

The wait is over... Today's Newspaper confirmed that INDIA is the Top team in Test cricket as per ICC standing. This bunch of cricketers made history and achieved what could not be achieved by their predecessors. Dhoni after getting the top job, now holds the record for not losing a game in 10 matches he had captained... One interesting note here. This is what I observed during the presentation ceremony after wining the test series. Presentation is on and the chief guest hands over the Trophy to Dhoni .. Dhoni calls the team to come and pose for the Photo as it is now a custom to do so.... So till then all is usual.......here comes the differentiator Dhoni hands over the Trophy to Pragyan Ojha ...the new comer in he team and the debutant in this series.. Ojha takes the trophy in his hands and sees the coveted trophy unable to believe that it has been given to him... This act is sure to add to the confidence of the young O jha , who was made to look important by his capt

Hmm...its neary 2 months Since I wrote hear...I will not call mysel busy but was quite occupied and could not have a blog written...hoping to continue soon...and in a more regualr manner..:)

Every one knows that Satyam cinemas is the best in the Chennai city if not in the whole of India . Recently they have also opened a full fledged gaming zone across three floors in the same multiplex and I decided to see whats this all about. As I ventured into this building I has totally taken by surprise and awe on the variety of gaming devices and consoles that have been gathered under one single roof...mind boggling. You name it , they have it. Being a gaming enthusiast, I Could not resist myself from obtaining a membership card for myself. But these devices are really new to me and I decided to take on a racing simulator and it was a good experience racing in a track , feeling the jerks and bumps of a real race. But I found the Price little bit overpriced though.. The other Section I tried next was the Wii gaming. There were no slots initially and I had to wait for 30 mins until I got one. WoW ....this was really a good experience for an hour and I managed to stick on to

This is really an interesting bit of news that I had come across today. A colleague of mine, a peer in fact , with whom I did not have much interaction came to my cubicle to invite me for his marriage. I had heared about him and was aware that his marriage was due for long and now that it has materialized.... As usual I conveyed my wishes and asked about the girl. He just pointed a few rows in front of me and told the girl in green salwar was the bride. That was real surprise for me and asked if its an arranged marriage. He sweared it was an arranged marriage and it was by pure coincidence that they got the girls contact and it got materialised. They have been in the same hall for so long and yet took all this while for things to happen. Long live the couple.... Anyway I believed him and accepted his statement...did you ??

Pranab travels in economy class, Sonia travels in economy class, Rahul traveled in train....these are some of the austerity measures and we are supposed to think that goverment wants to cut down expenses. The idea is good but it is not yet another way to get publicity. Do it in all areas including Govt functions, cut down the fleet of cars that accompany politicians, the mountain of shawls that they recieve which barely hangs for few seconds(do they recycle this ? Just a thought :) ) over their shoulders, the power they draw for meetings(which goes unaccounted). The list is endless........ Do this in silence and not for publicity....

Swine flu..the latest in the headline these days....not sure how it all originated but it seems to create havoc and take lives of those infected in a matter of few days. Everybody is really scared and the worst part is, children are the most easy targets. Parents have to be really on their toes to keep their wards away from this. I also got few masks.but little hesitant to use it....Not sure when the medical world finds a cure for this deadly virus...hope it is sooner.

As I was going through the pages of Ebay , which I do more often these days I happen to see an MP4 player with lots of feature loaded and with a touch screen interface which mimics the iPod. Being a gadget freak( I think I can call myself that way) I thought a lot about it and was interested in buying it. It really had a host of features which included music player, Mp4 video player, Radio, camera, ebook reader, picture viewer, voice recorder/player, lot of small apps...hmmm was really attractive. Only think was, that it was not a branded one...ofcourse if its branded it would have been priced very heavily. I logged out with an indecisive mind...... Day 2... Again same idea...same website..this time tried to connect with the buyer to know more about it...He told only the positives as expected. Went to other sites to read the reviews. Compared the same with a Branded product. I received a huge shock..it was priced 6 times higher that my target price...Again logged off. Day 3... PRESSED

The title above i.e Job satisfaction is a every important aspect in one's life. Job satisfaction can be on a higher side based on the closeness of your passion and the day to day job we do. It is no way related to the Earnings you get. You may get a heavy purse but if your mind does not get involved then Job satisfaction can be something you will never experience. Many of us do the day to day job just for the sake of doing it and not with Passion. I hope this statement in true for most of us. If you dispute this and really mean it , then my congratulations to you for getting a job in line with your Passion. There is also another side to this. but that really requires a great mind. It is developing passion in the job you are given. This is the most practical way to attain Job satisfaction. but as conveyed before, its a difficult to achieve and if you belong to this clan, again my kudos to you. I can hear you asking me where do I belong....? Like many of us, I am also in search of th

Airtel super singer 2008, now has become a part of our 9 PM Tv schedule these days. This year long event now has reached its Climax. But somehow the interest level is not the same. Most of you might agree that this has been dragged for more than two months. We are almost half way through 2009 and still viewing super singer 2008....I hear ed there is a junior singer 2009 also starting. Hope this at least will stop by 2009..?? No doubt that Airtel super singer has brought good talents to the foreground but there are too many recall rounds and the same set which had got eliminated again comes back and then gets eliminated again...I really don't understand that if the Idea is to extend the show , then whats the need for this elimination. I remember a poor contestant who lost patience and said that he is withdrawing because of shortage of attendance in college on account of attending this Super singer show.....this is sheer non sense from the organisers. Then came the finals a f

Now Australia is in the News for all wrong Reasons. Guess what ! the most peaceful country in the world has now been branded as a Racist Country by the Asians living over there. But something tells me from the various inputs received ,Australia is not all to blame for. Australia has education as the third biggest source of income and is really building its base on the foreign students who fly down from across the world mainly from Asia . Having said that can they really afford to be Racist is the question that comes to mind. Australians are no doubt a mixed group of people with various levels of education and majority of them are really assertive (unlike Indians ) no matter what their level of education is. This being the case how do our Desi guys conduct themselves in a foreign land is also a thing to ponder. For instance, Desi's form large groups on streets and keep talking loudly ,blocking the path and Australians find this really awkward and unlike Indians being assertive t

IPL this three letter word has chang ed the fortunes of many cricketers and non cricketers. Why non cricketers ?.Its because of the involvement of the Bollywood and Corporates this time. The eight teams are owned by them and they run business with them. For more info visit www.iplt20.com IPL 2 has been made a great one especially for the man who was been behind this - Lalit modi . Its actually a great guts move to have the tournament shifted from India which is what the "I" in IPL stands for to South Africa. A move against the Politicians of India. The tournament was on the verge of being Cancelled due to the elections during the same time. But it was the business man in Modi and using his good offices made the move of shifting the tournament itself and thereby giving a nose cut to the politicians. That two in a very short span of time .Really great Ability. IPL has been more of a smash hit last year when it gained a huge fan following. It also brought to light

Singh is king...this is not about the Akshay starter movie, but about out very Dr. Manmohan Singh who has been given the mandate to rule the country for the second term. Manmohan singh was criticised as much as possible by the opposition as being weak or a puppet etc . etc. But the people have reestablished the trust on Manmohan Singh. Manmohan Singh may not be a great orator and cannot Woe people by taking, but ha has his own way of governing and it was spotted by none other than the late Rajiv gandhi who made him the Finance minister in 1990. Manmohan Singh opened india to the world and thus brought in the Globalisation which by far has more positives than negatives. Considering the Present scenarion when corruption and caste rule the political arena Manmohan Singh appears to be a man not associated with these. The BRAND Manmohan Singh is something which the comman man can associate with himself and has rightly done so. Never under estimate the man in Manmohan Sing

Its election 2009 and after the D Day its time for Horse trading. We have seen this happening time and again and this is the same scenario that the Common man has to encounter after he has done his job. What else can he do after Elections. These days I believe people are slowly losing faith in the whole system. Elections have been mar ed with Violence, Cash for votes, Cast clashes and every year the voter turnout seems to have decreased . This year too Elections are No different. Alliances are made and broken in a jiffy. Some parties are always in power no matter if its NDA or the UPA is at power. So in these cases we really doubt if they really have any stand for themselves and the most obvious thing is to mint money. Come Elections and only those who are very keen on voting are the first time voters. No doubt they are excited in exercising their franchise for the first time ever . Their hopes or short lived and they are made to feel as to why have they voted. I strongly feel tha

Though there were lot of compliments to the Film  " Jodaa Akbar" one of the Asutosh Gauriker's film  the fact that it was a period film kept me away from this for some time. Even though I had a moderate liking for History and the Mughal dynasty which ruled India for long, a Hindi film set at this outset was not on my list. Having seen the other two Asutosh Gowrikar's films namely " Swades " and " Lagaan " and being a favourite of really well made films,I was still not sure whether I should see this Classic on little known Jodaa , a Rajput Prince until my friend said it was really good and even went to the extent of saying its a "not be missed" category. I started my hunt for the DVD of this Film and met with failures in my first few tries. Luckily I got hold of a copy in the next few weeks and started to watch the film with very less expectation and also with a neutral mindset. On completion here I am writing this blog. In all it

Every Indian news Channel , started following the Oscars with keen interest this year, more so because this year we have an Indian(?) film the Slumdog Millionnaire being nominated for a whooping number (10 ?) of Oscars. Getting nominated for Oscars is certainly not a new thing for Indian film in recent times going by Lagaan and another film by Mira nair I guess which went into the Academy for nomination. But strangely I am really puzzled by the sense of Pride that we show towards this Award. This is really an American award given BY the Americans, FOR the American films and TO the American film world( Thanks to Kamal Hasan who coined this phrase in line with democracy definition) which has excelled as per their knowledge of best workmanship in line with their culture. Of course their is one Award in the Category of best Foreign film What according to me should change is that the point that only if it is recognised by the American world , should be think that film or artist t

As I sit down to write this blog after a month when my father was critically ill and was hospitalised, I still could not hide behind the kind of commercialism that had come into the medical field. Also the doctors whom I met no longer do this as a service but as a means to their end and also to the extent of accumulating and reserving for their heirs.  There was one old doctor I had to encounter whom I met on a night in the wake of emergency due to my fathers health condition who after treating him as slowly as possible(I was really frustrated with the slowness he exhibited in dealing a emergency case) was grossly engrossed in counting the cash collected for the day after instructing his nurse.  Also when asked again and again on the health condition replied that he can be admitted if I want to do so.(He left it to my discretion !!!) Again the next morning as there was no signs of improvement I had him admitted.  Later during the day when this doctor came for his rounds when asked on s

Keep insurance and investments separate A N Shanbhag We have often pointed out and will do so once more - we are not in favour of any plan from whichever insurance company that seeks to combine insurance and investment. Such a blend, without exception, tends to be sub-optimal. It is always better to keep insurance and investments separate. All endowment, whole life policies and ULIPs are examples of combination insurance plans. On the other hand, a term insurance plan has no cash payout at the end of the term. This means if the policyholder were to pass away during the term of the policy, his family will get the sum assured. However, were he to survive he will not get a single rupee. In other words, term cover is pure life insurance and has no cash or surrender value. If this is indeed the case, why do we favour term insurance as against a traditional endowment or whole life policy which, at least pays, at the end of the day, no matter what, either the sum assured or the maturity value

Good news is here......... If you are in Chennai and have the habit of watching Tamil regional channels, you would have seen the ad where two men standing on top of their residence terrace, fixing their "Dish" antenna, try to snub each other whose choice of DITCH TV is the best..!! Now, we go to the next stage where BSNL plans on launching the Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) in India. IPTV is a system that delivers digital content services to subscribers using the Internet protocol over a broadband connection using closed network infrastructure. The subscribers of BSNL's IPTV services will have access to over 140 television channels and an extensive movie library with Hollywood and Bollywood titles at no extra cost. Additionally, video, music, games and education on demand can also be availed. The company has launched services initially in three cities - Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ambala - and will later take it to the rest of the state. In the first phase, the IPTV serv

As I was observing on the Process of Appraisals that were going on in my new Organisation, it brought about the subjectivity that is present in the system. The only way to come out in flying colors is, be a pet to your Boss and reap rich dividends. Though the companies claim about the various thought process that has been put forward in designing the appraisal system, it all boils down to the previous line you just read. I know a guy who always came out with the best score possible during the appraisal not because he did a great job but for his attitude to tasks given by his Boss. I do not claim that he is a person who just thrives because of the "pet" tag , though he does pretty decent job. But if you consider his peers who do the same "decent" job, they somehow end up lower than him. WHY ? Again it is how he presents himself to the boss...Watch below some of his action. Never disputes the idea told by the Boss. Can always spot some think good in the Worst of