...shoOOonya...

In Politics, there are no permanent friends and there are no permanent enemies - quote by a senior politician of India Somehow, this shows the attitude of politicians in India today, who know that they can't be very 'strongly expressive' in their opinions since they might have to approach some other party to form a coalition party post election results. The hundreds of small political parties and some of the significant ones too, are ready to align themselves with any leading party irrespective of their ideology or election manifesto … Politics has become business and not a service which a person in power offers to the country. There is a need for the fresh and intelligent people in politics who join the political space with the understanding that if you want to make a difference to people's live on a large and lasting scale, you got to get inside the administration and policy making of the country and do your deed. Someday ... If life does give me what I want ...

I wrote a few days ago about advertising spend during Recession. You can check out that post here . It is common to hear about reduced ad spend by large and small corporations during recessionary times. And this is exactly what I had questioned a few days ago. Shouldn't companies increase ad spend and promotion and drive consumption to fight the recession (which is sometimes only in the head and nowhere else).   Today, while flipping through channels in my hotel room, I chanced upon the new Airtel ad with Madhavan and Vidya Balan. It ends with a nice little dialogue by Madhavan, "Pyaar main cutbacks nahin hone chahiye" (There should be no cutbacks in love) Now that's the kind of advertising I was talking about. Rather than 'cutback' on advertising, Airtel (Bharti) is advertising and spreading the message which leads to increased consumption or at least is an attempt to halt the trend of 'decreased consumption'. More companies should take cue an...

Susan Boyle … "Britain Got Talent" fame ... YouTube Sensation !!! Everyone is writing about her on the blogosphere … so I guess every blogger worth his / her salt should be writing about her .. So here I am .. writing about Susan Boyle, who became an overnight global sensation after her appearance in BGT. Her YouTube video is all set to break records and become the most viewed video of all times. She has spurned millions of discussions on various platforms and forums on a variety of topics and subjects and she is being discussed by all professions from IT to Medical to Trainers to Teachers to Motivational speakers to any 'Tom, Rahim and Hari' alike …   The blogger community today consists of two types of bloggers today .. those who have blogged about her and those who haven't J (how insightful of me) With this post, I just crossed the line :D If you are wondering what is my take / opinion / feeling /thought on the Susan Boyle incident … well … I guess a lo...

This is probably an article from the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper - Sunday Edition . The Business Section asked readers for ideas on " How Would You Fix the Economy? " Some people thought this was the BEST idea.  He nailed it!  (Remember ... its the US economy they are talking about)   There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force; pay them $1 million a piece severance with stipulations: 1) They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed. 2) They buy NEW American cars. Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed. 3) They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.   All this, and it's still cheaper than the "bailout".   Smart !!  Isn't it !!

Earth Hour - Saturday 28th March 8.30 to 9.30 PM - It was about switching off all lights to bring awareness about Climate Change and Global warming. When I first heard of Earth Hour, I literally thought it was an initiative to save electricity and thereby help the environment. Of which, I was not really convinced since even if the world switched off all lights for an hour, little would be saved. In fact, the idea was also counter-productive since electricity can't be stored so what is not consumed could potentially go waste. What is required is not just one hour of 'lights out' … but a daily reduction in power consumption. That's what will really help. But, then I realized that the initiative is more about bringing awareness about global warming & climate change; so I joined in to support. Indeed the concept of Earth Hour is a very good marketing and awareness building tool.    My take on Energy Conservation: Earth 'Hour' by itself is definitely not v...

I am faced with a nice little challenge ...   I have to schedule about 90 training sessions totalling about 400 hours of training; to be delivered by a pool of about 15 trainers over the span of 18 days to about 300 trainees from 3 companies and 2 large departments (and i am not allowed to mix different company people in same training sessions except for about 7 sessions); with an additional challenge of some of the trainees overlapping across several training sessions and yes ... not to forget the availability constrainsts of the trainees as well as training equipment/facilities like laptops, classroooms etc.   WOW !!   Some amazing times ahead ... considering that there will always be some cancellations and rescheduling and late arrivals to training which will mean i have to factor in extra hours !!!

I recently began to visit the Gym. Have spent a few minutes on the 'cycle' and the 'treadmill' ... and even pulling some weight around !! What I was wondering is … so much of potential 'physical' energy is utilized by humans in their gym visits everyday. So much energy is spent on the cycle, the stepper and the host of the equipment out there Isn't there some way to harness this energy conversion and utilize the mechanical movement of the equipment to generate some amount of electricity or energy … So much cycling, pulling, pushing, lifting of weights, running etc is happening in the millions of the gym's across the globe where we humans are trying to burn off the calories (energy) which is stored in our body but not consumed ! Is any Gym equipment manufacturer thinking of this possibility of harnessing this source of energy generation? Something which could be used as a small energy source for the Gym itself thereby helping it decrease its own...

"We are looking for a senior Admin person for our software company (5 yrs old)"   This was the opening line for a email ad / request for a job ...   I was wondering ... what the "5 year old" refers to ...   Is it a 5 year old company OR Do they need a 5 year old "senior admin person" (that would be real fun) OR Do they need a 'senior admin person' with 5 years experience   This statment reminded me of one of those email forwards where they pick up emglish statements and then do a post mortem on them to bring out the humour due to transferred epithet !!  

The Indian Lok Sabha / general Elections kicked of yesterday !! And the Indian Premier League 2009 begins tomorrow ... The two greatest, largest events of 2009 i guess ... I think you shud also read (if not already done it) my friend Shubham's post on IPL and Elections here

Was watching NDTV news channel   and then came the time for a break and the host of the show said, "We will be back after a short break. Really short. Remember... we are in a Recession" well ... no denying that fact ... but it set me thinking ... Recession is a reality ... although some of us do understand some of the basics of recession and know that it is a downward spiral brought about by lowered consumer spending (so essentially we bring about the recessions ourselves) So what I was wondering is … In such times of recession; should the companies reduce ad spend and let the consumption fall OR should it actually intensify marketing, come out with 'recession-fighting' schemes and offers to spur consumer spending !!   Whadyasay ??   BTW … If you are wondering why NDTV news channel is finding mention in my blogs these days; well that's the only Indian news channel I get in my hotel right now J    

मेरी जिंदगी मैं जब भी प्यार आया हैं , रिटर्न टिकेट के साथ आया हैं !   Translation: Whenever love has come into my life, it has come with a return ticket !   A dialogue from a Emraan Hashmi starrer ... dunno which movie it was ... just while channel flipping i came across Emraan saying this dialogue to Mithun Chakraborty     Dont ask me why i blogged about it ... it just touched me very deep inside ...   P.S. Googled the star cast and found the movie name: DIL DIYA HAI ... strange .. i never heard about it ..    

It was just a lazy weekend evening (saturday) when I was flipping channels randomly when I chanced upon NDTV news channel. Amidst the Tytler news , Indian Shoe-issue and other political news; I came across a piece of news which amused and shocked me at the same time. How on earth can any political leader in our country even think like this!! Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, unveiled his party's manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls in Lucknow on Saturday. He said that the party is against English medium education and the use of computers and will work to ensure that they are curbed if a government is formed with its support. He further added that previous governments have promoted forward trading, share trading and mall culture. Any government formed with their support will either reduce or stop it completely And yes …. For all you guys and gals drawing good salaries in the private sector … here's Mulayam Singh for you … he says "The salaries provided by private ...

A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me, I'm afraid of widths. ~ Steven Wright Me afraid of widths .. naah ... hmmm ... actually yaaah ... of late ... Lately when i noticed my weight just about to touch 85 ... some bells started ringing somewhere ... so with due consultation of a few friends I am on diet planning now ... My chief consultant in this matter is my Best friend Shraddha who is now officially my Fitness Expert :D (Infact, she is the one who shared the above quote with me). so what does my preliminary diet plan look like ... No Pizzas :( for the entire month! (This was the biggest sacrifice :) Also drastic reduction on the consuption of cheese, butter, white breads, mayonese, potatoes, rice, banana etc etc ... They are all OUT Gym visits, wheat breads, healthy cornflakes or likes, eating small portions every 3 hours etc etc ... are IN !! Also ... Salads have part of my diet. lets see ..where does all this lead to ...

Do you see the car driving on water !! Naah ... its not really a water body ... Its a Puddle !! A HUGE rain water puddle in a Parking lot :) It rained pretty heavily in Dubai 2 weeks ago ... first hail and then heavy rains ... the parking lot was literally entirely under water (a few inches maybe) With the markings invisible (under water), the cars drove around clueless and somehow managed to park themselves But the challenge was then to get out of the car and walk out :) in water .. This particular car managed to get a 'landing space' on dry land ! This parking lot is right opposite the hotel where i was staying 2 week ago (i recently moved to another one ... pics from new place in a few days .. i am still unpacking ... very slowly :)

Well ...   after two 10 minute appearances in the Gym Cycling ...   i took the next step ...   I tried the treadmill !!   :D   PS . . . I am moving from one hotel to another ... hope the Gym out there inspires me the same :D