Zapak turns political

What does Zapak got to do with politics? Nothing, would be my answer on any other day but looks like they do help political leaders voice their opinion.

Medianama reports of a microsite for MNS in the Zapak site. The microsite brings in interactivity to their campaign which their site doesn’t offer.

Apart from the “Vote for us“ stuff on the site, it offers a flash game and that flash game is what caught my attention. Why? Because the protagonist of the game wasn’t Shivaji Maharaj, but Tipu Sultan. Hmm Something wrong there isn’t it? Why would a party who thrives on Maharashtrian pride have a game with Tipu Sultan, “Tiger of Mysore” on their page?

I think it is just a ploy to appeal to the Muslims in Maharashtra. the banner on top which showcases all their candidates makes it pretty obvious too.

“The youth and manase join forces for secularism & progress” it says. I have nothing against them being secular, but I do have an issue with desperately trying to be secular. Looks like they have abandoned secularism  for the sake of a few votes. Great going. Silently I hope they have abandoned their Maharashtrian chauvinism for good and not just for a few votes!

All that said, the site also shows that our political parties (their web team rather) realise the power and influence interactive games can have on a person. If this game had been developed earlier we could have seen our good ol’ Ad-vani games popping up on zapak and games2win.

That said check out this list of games that can be made around politics, I wrote on my gaming blog.

Filed under: India, politics

Maid in Bangalore

Yesterday

He: My maid hasn’t come for like ten days now!

She: Mine too. I have a ton of clothes to wash

He: Oh I have a washing machine, so washing is taken care of. I just hate washing dishes and I have to do it these days. That sucks!

She: Hmm I can understand, it’s okay as long as they inform before they disappear.

Today

He: Guess what, my maid turned up today!

She: Woah rilly? Mine too

He: Do all the maids in Bangalore plan and take leave together?

She: No idea, but I gave her a good hearing

He: Oh yeah, me too!

No one asked for their version – yet! But the mystery remains, where did the maids go for ten days? He stays near Indiranagar and she stays at Koramangala. Localities are not even close by. What are the odds of both the maids taking off for ten days and coming back the same day?

PS: I know it’s been a long time since I blogged, I owe it to my laziness and a dental problem I had (more on that later)

Filed under: Bangalore, India, People, chupchap , Bangalore, indiranagar, koramangala, maid, ubiquity

Now now… can we have some hybrids!

Imported cars are a rarity in India thanks to the more than 100 per cent tax that accompanies such products. They will continue to be a rarity if Indian Govt continues to impose such high taxes. But hey I don’t have a problem with that, but I do have a problem with Govt charging similar high tax on hybrid cars which have better mileage (by almost 40 per cent) compared to conventional petrol cars.

Honda Toyota launched hybrid version of Civic two days back and it was priced at Rs 21.5 lakh. If not for the taxes, the price would have been around Rs 11 lakh which makes it affordable for more number of people if not all. Isn’t it possible for Govt to reduce taxes for hybrids at least till the start producing such vehicles in India?

None of the automobile companies in India have started manufacturing hybrid vehicles as such; yet excise duty has been slashed to 14 per cent from 24 per cent. So isn’t it logical to allow imported hybrids at lower duty until production of hybrids domestically begins? Shouldn’t Indian Govt be offering incentives to people using hybrid cars? While world over Govts are taking serious steps towards energy conservation why is Indian Govt so lax about it? Why don’t they think about the amount of money they could save if more and more people start using such cars.

As of now the car is affordable only for the rich who, to be honest, won’t be as bothered by the hike as much as a normal Indian.

Filed under: India, Traffic , Automobile, cars, Electric Vehicles, Energy, Hybrid vehicle, India, Tax, Times of India

Its over.. finally!

A Pakistani bowler playing for a team captain by an Australian pulls an Indian bowler from a team captained by the Indian T20 captain and DLF IPL league has its winners — finally.

What a ride it has been! This whole tournament it captured our imagination (so much that I stopped blogging.. hmm okay it wasn’t just because of IPL!)

Now getting back to my ‘actual’ blog

My bet (an actual bet for Rs 300) was on the Rajasthan Royals, underdogs for most part of the tournament except the finals may be. No particular reason but a ‘logic’ which all my friends refuse to call logic. It goes as follows. No one expected India to win the T20 world cup because we were a team of nobody. No big players, no expectations, for respect for the format, nothing! Next thing you know Indians are T20 champions. I found a similarity here. Rajasthan a team with hardly any ‘popular’ players save the charismatic Shane, the most underestimated team of he tournament. Laughing stock of all bloggers and most offline friends of mine and well they return to haunt other teams and laugh at all those who laughed at them. Warne must be enjoying it for sure!

On a lighter note, Bangalore was the only team that lived up to its expectations. They were criticized to be a test team and stuck to the name through out!

Deccan who seemed to be the strongest turned out to be the worst. Mumbai too had a similar story to say but they have the absence of Bhajji and Sachin during various stages to blame their defeat. Kolkatta started with a bang and finished with a kaboom (self-destruct one). Mohali hmm they tried and tried but never looked good enough. They were in news more because of a cry-baby Sreesanth and ‘huggable’ Preity. Chennai would been the champions if not for the Aussie exodus and yes Rajasthan who were expected to lose all matches won almost all. Not fair I say.

Everyones happy not even Dhoni looked sad. The only person crying at the end of the day (apart from Sreesanth that is) is Kapil Dev. Remember him? The guy who led India to their first world cup victory in ‘83? The guy who played PR for ICL–what did you say? What’s ICL? Hmm let me think.. Indian Crisis League? Am not sure I don’t remember actually!

PS: In case you didn’t notice Bangalore did have a presence at the finals. The match referee was none other than Javagal Srinath. Saving the face of Bengaluru I guess!

PPS: I heard Mallya is watching only F1 these days to get over the highs lows of IPL. He is also thinking of changing his team’s name to something that doesn’t resemble any of his other brands. At least their brand value won’t be affected!

PPPS: Apparently players are requesting Shah Rukh to send one of these sweet messages he used to send to his team through out the tournament, on a daily basis. Apparently they feel they (the messages) will motivate them to win next year.

PPPPS: The previous two were cooked up by me. If you wanna sue me I will declare bankruptcy. The joke will be on you then! =P

PPPPPS: Yes I copied this funda of PS, PPS, PPPS, PPPPS, PPPPPS from a letter Gandalf writes in Lord of the Rings! Tolkien’s not alive so he can’t sue me! =D

PPPPPPS: Now that reminds me. Remember the Rs 300 I mentioned at the beginning of the post. What do you reckon I do with it? Suggestions pls!

Pic credit: GULF NEWS and iclinfo.wordpress.com

Filed under: Bangalore, Cricket, India , 300, Bangalore, Cricket, India, IPL, Kapildev, Mallya, Rajasthan, Royals, Shane, T20, Warne

India’s security compromised?

This post is a continuation of the thought presented by Chacko on the post India’s Internet security at Mutiny.

Why do terrorist attack or at least make plans to attack Mumbai so often? May be because Mumbai is the financial capital of our country! The extremists are under the impression that a bomb can pause a city that never sleeps. They wish to halt the booming Indian economy and want to see our stock market crash more often than windows! None of this ever happened even though they ripped through the soul of the city multiple times in a decade.

The recent turn of events in West Asia aka Middle East, though has exposed a chink in India’s armour. The growth of the Indian economy has a direct relation to the booming BPO industry, which is over dependent on the new medium.

Also check this part from Emily Wax’s report on the incident at Washington Post

 ”Most of the larger companies know that you have to have multiple layers of the Internet to do business on the world stage. Indian companies have learned their lessons to have backups during past breakdowns,” said Raja Varadarajan, executive vice president of Quatrro, a company that provides technical support to computer users in the United States. “We are talking about millions of dollars and jobs. What we want is to have such a good setup that the only way we find out there was a slowdown is by reading it in the papers the next day.”

Now let me think like a terrorist… I want to hurt the Indian economy… What if I disconnect India from the rest of the world? What if I simply break all those cable passing through India? Wow, that will be fun. They will loose all business links and will loose out billions of dollars in form of losses! WOW that’s fun! Also its easier to carry bombs on open seas than to smuggle them or create them in India! Oh I don’t need bomb all I need is an ship which obviously has an anchor!

Now here is my point. Should we wait for such a terrorist attack or should we create a backup? An internet connectivity with the help of a satellite linking instead of physical optical fibre linking alone? An internet connection which cannot be compromised from forces outside our border?

Filed under: India, Terrorism , BPO, India, Internet, internet outtage, Terrorism

Temples, mosques, churches and money

Cross posted at Mutiny

If I were to ask any ordinary malayalee, if Kerala is a secular state or not, the answer will be an outright yes. The state hasn’t witnessed religious tension for a very long time as Hindus, Muslims and Christians co-exist here celebrating each others festivals with much joy (in front of the television of course!). But after speaking to a friend of mine I am having second thoughts on the secular nature of the Govt in Kerala.

Why oh why, should the govt have rights over all the money that comes into the temples in Kerala? In other words, why does the govt have control over the devaswams (a body that makes revenue, administrative decisions, for temples)?
In other words why is Kerala govt concerned solely about the money that comes into Hindu temples alone? Why don’t they form devaswams like body for churches and mosques in Kerala? Why?

Is this secularism? Can this be even considered to be a secular act? Why does the govt have to keep a tab on what temples are doing with their money, when no such attempt is made with churches and mosques?

So should govt have a say over monetary transactions of religious institutions at all? I would say yes to that. Because having an eye on the administrative functions of religious bodies, govt can control religious extremism which might originate within the closed doors of religious institutions.

So where has the Kerala govt gone wrong? In not making the law applicable for all religions? In other states, this wouldn’t be such a big issue because of the fact that followers of Christianity and Islam form a minority. But in Kerala Muslims and Christians together form almost 40% of the population, while in many areas they form a majority. Also, many of these institutions receive flurry of money in form of donations from malayalees settled abroad. Their income may not be as big as that of the devaswams; but they are still pretty high.

Is it right to let huge sums of money go unaccounted? No, they create problems for these religious institutions. We have already heard enough allegations (even on mutiny) on how church is misusing funding so availed for conversion and how mosques might be encouraging extremism!

Can’t govt put an end to all this by making it a LAW*, than a biased restriction?

* By LAW I mean a rule that is applicable to everyone and not to a particular class of society alone.

PS: The ‘friend’ I mentioned in the first paragraph is son of a Devaswam employee

Filed under: India, Kerala, Religion , Christianity, hinduism, Islam, Kerala, Religion

Happy Republic Day

I used to hate going to school on Republic Day, not that I wanted to sleep, but because I wanted to see India display it’s military might. I used to love the tanks, missiles, the smart army officers, their coordination and yes the sight of national flag flying high and proud!

I couldn’t catch up on the telecast this year (sad) .. But thanks to the Internet I got to see a few pictures from this year’s celebration.

Photo credit: Shailendra Pandey

Filed under: India , India, Indian armed forces, Republic day

Of Indian roads and TATA NANO a rethought

Three days since the release of 1 lakh car from TATA, I am having hick ups on the concept.. agreed; its a great creation packed with innovation. But does it have what it requires to succeed? A lot of people are concerned about the congestion on Indian roads. But that my dear friends is restricted to the major India cities (at least for now), which have an overwhelming population.

The real users of the car will be the middle class who form the majority in the Indian towns. Now let me describe these ’small towns’ the dominant population here are small businessmen and people working in service industry like banking! And this class forms THE target audience for the car.. So what are the problems of having such a small car in these towns?

First of all towns have narrow roads and they may not be able to handle the sudden explosion of traffic! And knowing our politicians they are not bound to widen the roads in a giffy.. they will take their own sweet time by which the small towns will face traffic problems earlier found only in cities like Bangalore.

Also about the roads again.. having driven in these small towns we need to keep in mind that they may not have best of roads and one kilometre out of the town you reach villages where the only form of transport are jeeps and TATA Sumos. Will NANO’s baby tyres be able to carry it on the rough terrain? Can Nano rule the roost in an area under the rule of big brother Sumo? I doubt it!

Filed under: Bangalore, India, Traffic , Bangalore, indian roads, NANO, Tata, Tata NANO

BAJAJ — Rickshaw to TATA Nano

Why should one buy Tata Nano?

Well for one its as cheap as an auto (almost)

An autorickshaw costs Rs 90,000+taxes while a basic model of Nano costs Rs 1 Lakh+taxes

1> It can accommodate 4 people

2> It looks better than an auto.. and goos enough for a car!

3> Its a car.. means u can ride in the rain! ( You wont get drenched like in an auto)

4> Great mileage – 23kmph! (wow!)

5> Eco-friendly (meets bharat 3 and will meet euro-4 standards)

5> Last but not the least — killer price for a car!

Is it just a modified version of an auto?

Here are a few reasons why I believe so!

1> Its has only one viper in the front

2> Base size (platform) is slightly bigger than an auto thats all

3> Wheels look as small as an auto (am not sure if it is :-p )

For Bangaloreans

I have a killer reason why Bangaloreans should buy Auto.. Autowallahs are going on strike on Jan 11! They want the rates to be hiked to Rs 10/metre!

Kewl Idea

Hey taxi guys .. how about running Nano as a Taxi at rates cheaper than taxi slighly more than autos? What say? May be that will cut the autos to size

For those interested here are the specifications of the car

PS: By the way Ram got inspired by GTA series of posts and decided to write smthing about autokkarans in Chennai.. take a look!

GTA – Temple city

Filed under: Bangalore, India, Traffic , autorickshaw, Bangalore, cars, Tata, Tata NANO

Who deserves bashing?

CROSS POSTED AT SILICON INDIA

This post is inspired by a post made at Bangalore blues and the discussion that followed.

IT bashing has become quite the ‘in thing’ in the past month. First there was the Outlook article followed by an outburst of suppressed emotions of a lot of Bangaloreans. But is IT the culprit here? There are many who will nod their heads and say YES.. but I beg to differ…

Its true that the coming of IT/MNCs has resulted in an inflation, an inflation in costs but not income…. cost of living has been increasing while the pay packages remained the same in almost all industries except those related to IT!

So who deserves the bashing? IT industry who pushed the country forward, injecting more money into the economy or ‘other sectors’ who held back instead of pushing themselves ahead along with the IT sector, thus offering no infaltion in income for it’s employees?

Filed under: Bangalore, India , Bangalore, IT, | Balu |