Harish Palaniappan's tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009-10-11://3 2010-01-20T00:04:40Z Movable Type 4.32-en Brothers in Arms - A short story tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2010://3.333 2010-01-19T22:47:49Z 2010-01-20T00:04:40Z This short story is also published at booksie.com here, and can be read as a downloadable/printable e-book here. Brothers in Arms -The Story: Sitting near the window on an inclined chair, Dayanand was looking out into the streets from his third floor apartment. A long line of people were leading into the building from about 500 meters away. Some of them dressed in rags, and others in clothes. Being sick for a couple of days now, Dayanand had to consider resting though his heart willed occassionally to support other volunteers at the apartment-turned-community service house. Volunteers were busy handling the usual noon business of serving free lunch for the under privileged. Dayanand used the time to think about means to relocate the service to a more spacious hall from the small camp now at the entrance of the apartment building. It was also becoming more difficult to see people from the line move around often to make way for large vehicles that had to turn into one of the narrow streets nearby. The road leading to the building was too narrow good enough only to allow two wheelers besides the queue of people. Most of them on the line where sick and old people, coming from nearby slum dwellings. In Port Nagar, Dayanand's temporary lunch serving shack was the only place these people could look to for food. Once a port brizzling with trade on the sea front, Port Nagar slowly became a poor man's village after the port was shifted to a neighbouring developed town of Thoraipakkam on the shores of the state of Tamilnadu. Since people who lived then moved to the new port area, Port Nagar got replaced with less privileged people, uncared for resources, unkept garbage dumps, almost everything... except its name. Dayanand was one of the few who didn't move to thoraipakkam though it meant he lost his job as Assistant supervisor of Cargo handling at the port. Dayanand stayed for just one major reason... because he wanted to support the people who worked with him. They all lost their jobs when the port moved, because the new port would use machinery to lift cargo from ships and boats rather than using people like it was. They all had worked together to make the port grow bigger in trade transactions to allow it decide to move to a developed area which was more suitable by its geography for having a port and had more space for the port to expand. Dayanand helped his people create new livelihoods, making some of them able to do construction work in neighbouring towns.. while some others became fruit/vegetable/flower sellers. When the area was getting vacated, migrants from different slums nearby started moving in to help themselves live in huts of their own rather than in crowded shacks in the slums. Most of them worked in different towns travelling by bus or cycles, and few opportunists found better work in cities nearby and commuted by their own vehicles. Many... Harish This short story is also published at booksie.com here, and can be read as a downloadable/printable e-book here.

Brothers in Arms -The Story:

Sitting near the window on an inclined chair, Dayanand was looking out into the streets from his third floor apartment. A long line of people were leading into the building from about 500 meters away. Some of them dressed in rags, and others in clothes.

Being sick for a couple of days now, Dayanand had to consider resting though his heart willed occassionally to support other volunteers at the apartment-turned-community service house.

Volunteers were busy handling the usual noon business of serving free lunch for the under privileged. Dayanand used the time to think about means to relocate the service to a more spacious hall from the small camp now at the entrance of the apartment building. It was also becoming more difficult to see people from the line move around often to make way for large vehicles that had to turn into one of the narrow streets nearby. The road leading to the building was too narrow good enough only to allow two wheelers besides the queue of people.

Most of them on the line where sick and old people, coming from nearby slum dwellings. In Port Nagar, Dayanand's temporary lunch serving shack was the only place these people could look to for food. Once a port brizzling with trade on the sea front, Port Nagar slowly became a poor man's village after the port was shifted to a neighbouring developed town of Thoraipakkam on the shores of the state of Tamilnadu. Since people who lived then moved to the new port area, Port Nagar got replaced with less privileged people, uncared for resources, unkept garbage dumps, almost everything... except its name.

Dayanand was one of the few who didn't move to thoraipakkam though it meant he lost his job as Assistant supervisor of Cargo handling at the port. Dayanand stayed for just one major reason... because he wanted to support the people who worked with him. They all lost their jobs when the port moved, because the new port would use machinery to lift cargo from ships and boats rather than using people like it was. They all had worked together to make the port grow bigger in trade transactions to allow it decide to move to a developed area which was more suitable by its geography for having a port and had more space for the port to expand.

Dayanand helped his people create new livelihoods, making some of them able to do construction work in neighbouring towns.. while some others became fruit/vegetable/flower sellers. When the area was getting vacated, migrants from different slums nearby started moving in to help themselves live in huts of their own rather than in crowded shacks in the slums. Most of them worked in different towns travelling by bus or cycles, and few opportunists found better work in cities nearby and commuted by their own vehicles.

Many vacant lands/ areas in port nagar became obvious comfort zones for dumping garbage of nearby towns. Garbage laden lorries and automated dumpers plied round the clock seemingly committed to creating a reputation for port nagar as a dumpyard in quickest time.

Loud cries and short lived protests by Dayanand and a few others could only stop the dumpers short of the lands already occupied by people. Dayanand and his short team of people where only in their twenties and didn't have leadership skills or confidence to effectively understand or plan better ways to save port nagar when it all started happening around them.

After 22 years now, their efforts have forced the corporation to provide occassional relief by way of resources and some cleanup work.

Dayanand's interest in helping people help themselves on a temporary work plan had to change to a permanent and long term effort with more and more under privileged people turning up in front of him for taking some support. Almost everybody who came to Dayanand's shack a few handful times got his/her immediate neccessities of food, shelter and clothes served.. somehow, with Dayanand and his bright team sparing a few bucks of the money they earned everyday in collective organization.. and a new livelihood for self-support happened for all people who came for help.

Some of them, very courageous, who saw light at the dark end of life when they came to him, chose to stay with him volunteering to help Dayanand's actions become movements to support more under privileged.

Dayanand had been interviewed by people from "The Trader's Journal", only a couple of weeks before this day... for highlighting his social work and committments in their magazine for their annual feature "People near us who make a difference".

Dayanand felt ironic about the interview after it was done, and shared his thoughts with his long time volunteers-turned-friends, telling them "they converted this into a social neglect and are rewarding us who stayed to work on the neglect.. we become cleaners of their shit".

Leaning forward from his chair, he occassionaly took and glanced through the magazine on his desk, which had the feature published with his interview included... reading rather something else other than pages that carried content about his work.

Right then a pal asked "Pradeep Gupte ka bhi interview hai usme.. kabhi tho pado".. (There is also an interview of Pradeep Gupte in it.. do read it sometime).

To which Dayanand smiled and replied "haan tho isse hi uske baare mein maloom padtha hai.. ab thak tho mujhe milne aaya nahin".. (yes, from this only I have to know about him.. hasn't yet come to meet me).

After a few minutes of saying which, dayanand took the magazine again and started going through Pradeep's interview.

Pradeep Gupte had been at a difficult war last year at Kargil near India's border with Pakistan.

Many years back, Pradeep had left Port Nagar along with others when the port moved. After a few years at Thoraipakkam port, he joined the army.

In his 12 year stint at the army pradeep rose to lead a battalion for a year and a handful of months. In the handful of months he was at the difficult war after which he had to retire from army due to his handicap. He lives with his wife and 3 kids at Mehruzabad near Hyderabad, about 750 kilometers from his old home at port nagar.. which is now Dayanand's apartment-cum-community service house.

The war at Kargil was at its peak, with India and pakistan both grilling each other's forces.... trying hard for a victory at some point in the war zone. A visible victory was needed... visible enough to the world media at any part of the war zone to allow the victor to promote on it and weaken the enemy's diplomatic defences with the world.

At war, it is strangely considered that the victor who lost equal men but still took over
control was the side which was righteous .. atleast the righteous-most of the two.

Pradeep's Madras battallion with 43 soldiers where countering enemy lines at Point 1280 on the Line of control in the kargil war zone. The geography of this particular area around point 1280 exposed pradeep's battallion more open to the enemy lines, because the enemy lines where in higher altitudes on mountaneous terrain as against Pradeep's flat lands sloping towards the mountains.

Pradeep planned every move carefully, as he was obviously aware he had 43 men ONLY, and he cannot afford to lose much of them if he planned to surprise the enemy sometime.

He instructed his team to dig not just trenches in the nights but short caves with green cover at the manholes.

He selectively and through shifts sent a couple of his best men every night to plant mines on strategic points near the mountains in secrecy and silence.. and then return back to the closest caves/trenches before dawn... so as to avoid a risk of sudden offensive of heavy enemy forces moving in on their positions.

These men who went on the secret, time consuming, highly sensitive night missions, sometimes where able to compromise and kill a few men from the enemy trenches at the lower side of the mountains in the silence of the night, and could also carefully carry their bodies to camouflage them a little far from enemy lines so that they don't notice the bodies quick enough.

The enemy lines were sometimes made to believe that the Madras battalion was kilometers away and could never advance but only fire at many positions on the mountains. So they didn't advance much to the lower part of the mountains which would have helped attack the madras battalion deeper. They also wanted to keep their stronger position at higher areas to clearly have control of attack, rather than moving lower and defending.

After securing some of the lower areas of the mountains and reducing risk of sudden enemy advance with strategically planted mines, Pradeep lead his men attack by surprise at enemy positions... all the way gradually conquering many areas of vast mountaneous terrain.

During day break, Pradeep would call for support fire from the Air force, also planning
strategic hits at enemy lines at the top of the mountains.

After about 23 days like this, Pradeep's battalion and support fire had advanced to top of some moutaneous terrain, all the while, more men, medical and food support, and air support kept coming in with proper planning.

The enemy lines didn't expect to lose much terrain in a month, and so when it eventually happened, their planning was compromised, and they were surprised often with sudden attacks losing positions gradually over the days... which clearly shattered all their estimates of force and support requirements.

Also, the enemy lines almost never understood the secret landmining strategy Pradeep's battalion was executing which made them afraid of advancing quicker to counter sudden attacks against their positions. They were mostly fighting in the dark even in the day due to fear of mines and fear of sudden attacks. They were trying to make theories of who planted the mines and how far before the war they could have been planted... which they missed to realize at all that it was done in the dead of the nights.

Pradeep's advancement at the end of one month and a couple of days at the peaks around point 1280 encouraged central command to send more support forces, medicines and air fire.

About the time when Pradeep's men took control of almost all peaks around point 1280 he had lost 32 men to enemy fire, most of them of the initial 43 member team which were fighting, and gained 84 men in regular support forces. The force's strength kept on increasing, because most of the men stayed with Pradeep all through instead of returning even after replacement forces for them arrived.

Pradeep conquered most peaks, after which, a few more Colonels came in to lead more men.

And after a couple of months Pradeep returned with injury due to a landmine blast. The injury left pradeep with both his legs amputated, and he returned to his small home at Mehruzabad. His family was happy he was back while many of his men of the 43 had died in the war.

"The Trader's journal" noticed Pradeep after he was awarded the Param Veer chakra a year later, and some newspapers had reported that he was from Port Nagar in Tamilnadu. They then interviewed him for making his people proud back in Port Nagar. They had questions like how he felt when an enemy soldier was down, and what was the secret for his victory. For such questions pradeep hadn't replied anything more than "I did what I had to do". Also for one question he replied that he didn't kill for the chakra or even the country's pride, but only to keep him and his men alive, all through executing orders he received to capture areas in and around point 1280.

As Dayanand continued to read Pradeep's interview, his eyes gleemed wide open on the last few interview questions printed in the magazine.

"We are proud you are from port nagar, people there would love to know what you like about port nagar or something you want to say to them"... to which Pradeep had replied

"I have my twin brother there.. I left him alone to his social attitude without understanding things when I decided to move out of Port Nagar.. I haven't tried to see him for years now... but after all this war and what I have achieved with killing people... which has left most of my men dead while I still live, and the remaining of my men equally handicapped or wounded permanently. I tend to think that helping sufferers is better than eliminating aggressors... the former more important than the latter.. I realize I should have to be meeting my brother and helping him with his work.. but only if I wasn't an amputee".

A tear runs down a cheek of Dayanand as he places the book back on the desk, leans back and stares through the window again.

There was a last question printed on the mag.. "What is the name of your brother?".. to which Pradeep had replied, "Dayanand Gupte".

]]> How important is it to be Motivated / Inspired? tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009://3.332 2009-12-05T17:04:45Z 2009-12-05T17:49:07Z Firstly, who needs to be motivated / inspired ? In my humble opinion, almost EVERYBODY needs motivation or inspiration to keep going with life.. there might only be differences in whether it is SOMETHING or SOMEONE that motivates a person. By design: I think it is by design that human brain needs 'reasoning' to be able to do something or think something.. which is given by motivation.. and this motivation might sometimes come from the inner self itself.. like being motivated to jump out of the 68th floor of the world trade center if it is under terrorist attack, for living through the situation. And then comes the question, how important is it to be motivated? If there is dire need to find a vaccine for HIV, a capable scientist would need no other motivation to invent one.. while another scientist might be motivated with some huge pharamaceutical bonus in the pipeline if there was a vaccine. Without motivation, all these people might still be working on the vaccine, but not as good as with some kind of motivation. The more the motivation or inspiration, the more better the brain gets satisfied that it achieving what is to be done is indeed important. Well, you should be wondering why on earth suddenly I am motivated to write this on my blog.. simply because I read some interesting blogs and was guilty there was no update for a long time on my blog. No, that doesn't mean, you have wasted time reading this.. Here are some ideas if you go depressed, or go bored about something that you can help your brain with some motivation. 1. If you are a techie, nothing better than reading about other techie achievements, latest gadjets, learning to program something weird and new, etc., 2. If you are business guy, nothing better than buying yourself some nice gadjet to help yourselves. 3. if you are a simple guy with simple needs in life, I think you should motivate yourself to be a bigger than simple guy.. may be starting with reading some autobiographies of people who achieved big things coming from simple backgrounds. ok, whoever you are, I hope you dont have to read something like 'Win in 6 steps', 'Success in 21 days', 'How to become a millionaire in 101 ways' etc., For everybody: Some interesting videos like those you find at http://TED.com might just do it.... Harish Firstly, who needs to be motivated / inspired ?

In my humble opinion, almost EVERYBODY needs motivation or inspiration to keep going with life.. there might only be differences in whether it is SOMETHING or SOMEONE that motivates a person.

By design:
I think it is by design that human brain needs 'reasoning' to be able to do something or think something.. which is given by motivation.. and this motivation might sometimes come from the inner self itself.. like being motivated to jump out of the 68th floor of the world trade center if it is under terrorist attack, for living through the situation.

And then comes the question, how important is it to be motivated?

If there is dire need to find a vaccine for HIV, a capable scientist would need no other motivation to invent one.. while another scientist might be motivated with some huge pharamaceutical bonus in the pipeline if there was a vaccine.

Without motivation, all these people might still be working on the vaccine, but not as good as with some kind of motivation.

The more the motivation or inspiration, the more better the brain gets satisfied that it achieving what is to be done is indeed important.

Well, you should be wondering why on earth suddenly I am motivated to write this on my blog.. simply because I read some interesting blogs and was guilty there was no update for a long time on my blog. No, that doesn't mean, you have wasted time reading this.. Here are some ideas if you go depressed, or go bored about something that you can help your brain with some motivation.

1. If you are a techie, nothing better than reading about other techie achievements, latest gadjets, learning to program something weird and new, etc.,

2. If you are business guy, nothing better than buying yourself some nice gadjet to help yourselves.

3. if you are a simple guy with simple needs in life, I think you should motivate yourself to be a bigger than simple guy.. may be starting with reading some autobiographies of people who achieved big things coming from simple backgrounds.

ok, whoever you are, I hope you dont have to read something like 'Win in 6 steps', 'Success in 21 days', 'How to become a millionaire in 101 ways' etc.,

For everybody: Some interesting videos like those you find at http://TED.com might just do it.

]]> Bank Errors - Indian overseas bank's Gross mistakes tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009://3.331 2009-11-03T19:24:33Z 2009-11-03T19:31:25Z It so happens like my Mom got a letter from the Indian Overseas bank or IOB, two years back, informing of a Fixed deposit that has matured which they are automatically renewing. My mom tried to search for and think of when she made that fixed deposit some 10 years back and where she kept the original certificate of the deposit to claim it back. She approached the bank, which requested her to search all places where she might have mis-placed it.. because without the original certificate it would be difficult for them to process it. My mom had agreed and over the next few months, in about 3 months she searched over at many places, including her ancestral home in her native town when she went there for a relative's wedding. She couldn't find the originals.. She approached the bank, which said that it can provide a duplicate 'original certificate' if she filed a banker's bond document requesting for it saying she lost the originals at a cost of 250 indian rupees. It so happens that, She made the request, got a certificate, and also the amount of the deposit on its maturity. Two years after this, Yesterday, she gets a call from the bank saying that it wasn't her money, that they had processed it by error.. and the original depositor has approached the bank for the money with the original certificate. They said.. 'We are calling up to notify you of this issue.. and request you to check your documents on this.. and we will call you again in one hour'.. My mom immediately recollected that it is why she could never remember anything about the deposit, and neither find the original 2 years back.. she waited to see what the bank tries to tell her in their next call. The called to say that they would expect her to visit the bank and possibly re-credit the amount back to the bank. It seems the original investor himself has been the bank's manager 2 years earlier. At the kodambakkam branch of IOB. And that he had deposited this in the name of 'Uma' which was his wife's name. Since my mom's name also happens to be Uma, the bank had sent the intimation of the renewal to the wrong address and lost record of the original investment temporarily (or permanently). My mom consulted a relative who once worked in IOB, who told her that sending a wrong intimation letter can be understood as a clerical error, but they have went aboard to wrongly give the money itself to you, which is totally ridiculous.. and dont pay them unless you get it in writing from them that they made a mistake on this and are requesting a re-credit. By common sense, most of us would say, the bank will never a letter like that confirming on its handling of the money which could be used to dis-credit the bank publicly.. and neither they can sue my mom because... Harish iob.jpgIt so happens like my Mom got a letter from the Indian Overseas bank or IOB, two years back, informing of a Fixed deposit that has matured which they are automatically renewing. My mom tried to search for and think of when she made that fixed deposit some 10 years back and where she kept the original certificate of the deposit to claim it back.

She approached the bank, which requested her to search all places where she might have mis-placed it.. because without the original certificate it would be difficult for them to process it. My mom had agreed and over the next few months, in about 3 months she searched over at many places, including her ancestral home in her native town when she went there for a relative's wedding.

She couldn't find the originals.. She approached the bank, which said that it can provide a duplicate 'original certificate' if she filed a banker's bond document requesting for it saying she lost the originals at a cost of 250 indian rupees.

It so happens that, She made the request, got a certificate, and also the amount of the deposit on its maturity.

Two years after this, Yesterday, she gets a call from the bank saying that it wasn't her money, that they had processed it by error.. and the original depositor has approached the bank for the money with the original certificate.

They said.. 'We are calling up to notify you of this issue.. and request you to check your documents on this.. and we will call you again in one hour'..

My mom immediately recollected that it is why she could never remember anything about the deposit, and neither find the original 2 years back.. she waited to see what the bank tries to tell her in their next call.

The called to say that they would expect her to visit the bank and possibly re-credit the amount back to the bank.

It seems the original investor himself has been the bank's manager 2 years earlier. At the kodambakkam branch of IOB. And that he had deposited this in the name of 'Uma' which was his wife's name. Since my mom's name also happens to be Uma, the bank had sent the intimation of the renewal to the wrong address and lost record of the original investment temporarily (or permanently).

My mom consulted a relative who once worked in IOB, who told her that sending a wrong intimation letter can be understood as a clerical error, but they have went aboard to wrongly give the money itself to you, which is totally ridiculous.. and dont pay them unless you get it in writing from them that they made a mistake on this and are requesting a re-credit.

By common sense, most of us would say, the bank will never a letter like that confirming on its handling of the money which could be used to dis-credit the bank publicly.. and neither they can sue my mom because that would also prove they accept the error.

But my mom also had a point that they could try to make this a mistake on us by trying to screw up with other relationships I have with the bank in my savings account or other accounts in future... and my mom prefers to recredit the money back to the bank because she understands now that the money was never hers as she doesn't remember making any such investment, and she only had to believe it otherwise because of the bank's letter.

The amount was small.. 33.5 thousands and I told my mom that she is deciding to give it back only because the amount was less and she wouldn't if it was some 2 lakh indian rupees.. to which my mom quickly adds 'if it were 2 lakhs I probably would not have believed that letter at all firstly.. because I never had that kind of money to deposit then'

Whatever.. this episode proves how badly IOB is capable of goofing up.


Another similar episode:

This has happened in the Kanadukathan branch of IOB which is Kanadukathan near karaikudi town, some 10 hrs drive from Chennai.

My mom went to the kanadukathan bank to check on her account and stuff.. while she noticed the manager of the branch has changed. She came back home and asked her father (my grandDad) what was with the old manager who was a nice man and was there for almost 4.5 long years.. (it seems IOB managers are transfered only once in 5 years)

My granddad has narrated the below episode.. as reason for the manager change.

It so happened that somebody who had taken a jewel loan at the bank, came back to repay the loan and take the jewels. While the repayment was processed and jewel furbished back to the claim processing clerk who returns the jewellery, in those few minutes between the time when it was going to be handed over to the customer, the jewel got stolen.. The bank claimed that somebody who was at the branch that time had taken it.. these were old days and even these days IOB only have surveillance cameras in its branches in cities, not lesser towns/villages.

The guy bluntly said he wanted his jewels back and not its cost. This issue got on for a while as a disagreement when the bank chose to informally settle the dispute with panchayat like meeting with the branch manager, some of the clerks, the customer, and some outsiders who were influential. It was forced upon the customer that there is no way they could get back the jewels, and so he will have to take the cost value of the jewels. Also it was forced upon the manager that he bear the cost from his personal money because neither the bank can blame anybody to take up the responsibility or pay part of the amount, nor they could open-up on the lost article because it would discredit the bank's way of handling it.

More so, I think IOB managers decide things based on the cost of it and put the cost to the bank.. they write it off... except strange cases where the manager takes ownership of the error.

And so it happens that the manager paid up the 60 thousands from his pocket, and subsequently requested an immediate transfer from the branch because of the episode.

]]> Are Cartoons and full-animation films better movies? tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009://3.330 2009-11-01T11:38:11Z 2009-11-01T12:17:41Z Well.. I think so.. mostly because of the decrease in the number of quality artists these days.. do you realize it. Almost 90% English, Hindi, Tamil films seem to have considered the 'thrill' / 'rushes' they call coming today from doing some kind of Computer graphics on the film more than having very involving actors with very generously detailed story telling. I think these are the days of king kong, godzilla, Transformers, X-men.. and it all started with Finding Nemo, X-men 3, and movies like Rat-ta-tou-lie.. At my official visit to Belgium, I saw two movies back to back at UGC cinemas .. one was some sandra bullock movie which I am happy I have forgotten.. the other was 'Transformers 2'. I loved the detail of Transformers 2, as much as I loved Transformer 1.. and why not, they even very clearly established the old links left behind in the first part to the second part. At No point, did I feel like I was watching an animation film. Now that I am married, I occassionally get to convince my wife that booking tickets for an animation film for two adults is not ridiculous,.. and make her come with me to a 3D movie .. UP. yes, it was called 'UP' and my wife seemed to enjoy it as well. Though it was her first 3D movie (she almost forgot when she last saw any 3D movie).. she was occassionally frowning that I was not only seeing an animation movie myself.. but getting her to see it.. and then the 3D glasses are not good.. the glasses giving her an headache for which I interestingly ask her to hold them with one finger in a particular focal length for the rest of the movie.. "whaaaat !" she said, but eventually had to do it to continue watching the movie. Full-length animation films, sometimes still called cartoon films, which have no human characters are getting better and better and importantly easier to watch or sit-through than any other type of movie.. ofcourse, I must agree that I am feeling so much good for animation films only because they are a welcome change of movie type after a bunch of non-animated movies. not otherwise. We need more harrison fords's... anthony hopkins's, arnolds's, stallone's, .. all of them younger.. to revive the better movie segment genre of english movies... and we could almost forget people like tom cruise, russel crowe, who are more busy with reviving their personal lives, than reviving anything like movie industry. As for me, I am looking forward to 'AVATAR'.. coincidentally today it seems like the movie has had its world's largest live viewing movie trailer released today.. also, the comic-con conference had these questions 'How many of you wanted to see another planet once.. are you ready to go to Pandorum?' to huge crowd uproars before showing off some 25 secs of Avatar's upcoming movie clips.... Harish Well.. I think so.. mostly because of the decrease in the number of quality artists these days.. do you realize it. Almost 90% English, Hindi, Tamil films seem to have considered the 'thrill' / 'rushes' they call coming today from doing some kind of Computer graphics on the film more than having very involving actors with very generously detailed story telling.

I think these are the days of king kong, godzilla, Transformers, X-men.. and it all started with Finding Nemo, X-men 3, and movies like Rat-ta-tou-lie..

At my official visit to Belgium, I saw two movies back to back at UGC cinemas .. one was some sandra bullock movie which I am happy I have forgotten.. the other was 'Transformers 2'.

I loved the detail of Transformers 2, as much as I loved Transformer 1.. and why not, they even very clearly established the old links left behind in the first part to the second part. At No point, did I feel like I was watching an animation film.

Now that I am married, I occassionally get to convince my wife that booking tickets for an animation film for two adults is not ridiculous,.. and make her come with me to a 3D movie .. UP. yes, it was called 'UP' and my wife seemed to enjoy it as well.

Though it was her first 3D movie (she almost forgot when she last saw any 3D movie).. she was occassionally frowning that I was not only seeing an animation movie myself.. but getting her to see it.. and then the 3D glasses are not good.. the glasses giving her an headache for which I interestingly ask her to hold them with one finger in a particular focal length for the rest of the movie.. "whaaaat !" she said, but eventually had to do it to continue watching the movie.

Full-length animation films, sometimes still called cartoon films, which have no human characters are getting better and better and importantly easier to watch or sit-through than any other type of movie.. ofcourse, I must agree that I am feeling so much good for animation films only because they are a welcome change of movie type after a bunch of non-animated movies. not otherwise.

We need more harrison fords's... anthony hopkins's, arnolds's, stallone's, .. all of them younger.. to revive the better movie segment genre of english movies... and we could almost forget people like tom cruise, russel crowe, who are more busy with reviving their personal lives, than reviving anything like movie industry.

As for me,
I am looking forward to 'AVATAR'.. coincidentally today it seems like the movie has had its world's largest live viewing movie trailer released today.. also, the comic-con conference had these questions 'How many of you wanted to see another planet once.. are you ready to go to Pandorum?' to huge crowd uproars before showing off some 25 secs of Avatar's upcoming movie clips.

]]> Reader's Digest India - Website tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009://3.329 2009-11-01T10:10:48Z 2009-11-01T10:51:10Z The other day, I tried buying an RD subscription on their website at rd-india.com Though it looked like a legitimate website, the very idea that it had 'subscribe now' and 'buy now', send a joke 'get paid'.. kind of links 'ALL' over on the first page of the website.. more than showcasing magazine articles.. made me slightly uncomfortable about using my credit card to pay them online.. for a new subscription I was registering. I ended up paying them online, only because they were using a 3rd party online payment services provider which I trust. After I made the payment, I read that the subscription will start only 4-5 weeks afterwards'.. uncomfortability begins again. And I start looking up my mailbox to see whether they are confirming my payment, or sending an e-invoice or something.. but no mails from reader's digest.. "very well ! looks like I dropped my money into a black hole" I said. Then I took to my "patience patience" learning about how indian company's work on such services.. and waited to see that no email, nothing until 4th week.. I went back to their website to see that they had put up some contact numbers.. one of which very clearly looked like an invalid tollfree number right away.. 1800 00 800. I took to the other New Delhi paid-call number. Their customer support is well attended.. but only on Monday - Fridays 10am - 6pm.. Evven if you call one minute earlier or later, you will get a message very very ignorantly telling you their working hours and disconnecting even without a 'we request you to call us later during office hours' kind of thing. Again, the typical traditional "Who customers ?" Indian attitude. I could get to two customer executives on two consecutive days to enquire about my black hole subscription. Both days, both the executives took all information from me, like phone number, address, email ID, etc., mimicking to verify my stuff with their system.. and after they got the information which they probably filled up to their 'Huge happy marketing database' .. they simply happily said 'Our systems are having technical issues.. we request you to call later'... and I said, 'When is later.. I called yesterday also to hear the same thing from you'.. 'well sir, I dont know how long people take to fix the system.. I suggest you call us tomorrow again sir' I told myself.. you got to be jumping over their head now.. dont you see they are that kind of attitudinal people .. and I said 'well.. it looks tricky.. because your online payment system works.. so that you take the money.. your marketing system works.. so that you can get all my information when I call you.... but your customer support system alone doesnt work.. Is that the importance you give to it.. are you one of those websites who run away with unclaimed money of busy people who think just paying up will get them... Harish The other day, I tried buying an RD subscription on their website at rd-india.com Though it looked like a legitimate website, the very idea that it had 'subscribe now' and 'buy now', send a joke 'get paid'.. kind of links 'ALL' over on the first page of the website.. more than showcasing magazine articles.. made me slightly uncomfortable about using my credit card to pay them online.. for a new subscription I was registering.

rd_nov09.jpgI ended up paying them online, only because they were using a 3rd party online payment services provider which I trust. After I made the payment, I read that the subscription will start only 4-5 weeks afterwards'.. uncomfortability begins again.

And I start looking up my mailbox to see whether they are confirming my payment, or sending an e-invoice or something.. but no mails from reader's digest.. "very well ! looks like I dropped my money into a black hole" I said.

Then I took to my "patience patience" learning about how indian company's work on such services.. and waited to see that no email, nothing until 4th week.. I went back to their website to see that they had put up some contact numbers.. one of which very clearly looked like an invalid tollfree number right away.. 1800 00 800. I took to the other New Delhi paid-call number.

Their customer support is well attended.. but only on Monday - Fridays 10am - 6pm.. Evven if you call one minute earlier or later, you will get a message very very ignorantly telling you their working hours and disconnecting even without a 'we request you to call us later during office hours' kind of thing. Again, the typical traditional "Who customers ?" Indian attitude.

I could get to two customer executives on two consecutive days to enquire about my black hole subscription. Both days, both the executives took all information from me, like phone number, address, email ID, etc., mimicking to verify my stuff with their system.. and after they got the information which they probably filled up to their 'Huge happy marketing database' .. they simply happily said 'Our systems are having technical issues.. we request you to call later'... and I said, 'When is later.. I called yesterday also to hear the same thing from you'.. 'well sir, I dont know how long people take to fix the system.. I suggest you call us tomorrow again sir'

I told myself.. you got to be jumping over their head now.. dont you see they are that kind of attitudinal people .. and I said 'well.. it looks tricky.. because your online payment system works.. so that you take the money.. your marketing system works.. so that you can get all my information when I call you.... but your customer support system alone doesnt work.. Is that the importance you give to it.. are you one of those websites who run away with unclaimed money of busy people who think just paying up will get them their subscription ??' .. to which the executives simply either hung up the phone.. or said something ignorant and closed the conversation.. without even a generic apology or 'sorry for inconvenience' thing.

How do you trust such people with your payment.. that too online when even on the telephone they can't support their business with attitude. ??

I recommend, you either subscribe to reader's digest the old model way.. 1. Buy a reader's digest book at a mart.. 2. Tear the subscribe / gift a subscription page in the book.. 3. Subscribe by snail mail.. choosing to pay by VPP or value paid post

RD.COM seems a much better and attended website.. but rd-india.com is definitely not a reliable website..

Did I get my subscription finally: Yes, on the 5th week.. but till today, not a receipt or invoice or payment confirmation email.. or any email.. I only have my credit card statement and transaction information for proof of purchase.

Is RD such a nice good book for information? Actually, reader's digest is as the name suggests mostly a very good compilation of what readers contribute regularly as jokes, stories, real-life stories, suggestions. RD pays the readers higher than what most magazines pay their readers.. very simply because RD depends a lot on readers for content more than writers and regular columnists.. I think there arent many regular columnists or writers for RD except for an editor compiling everything well.

RD is a pass-time read .. not definitely an informational magazine and for news it contains only side-lined news not the important news you would read anywhere.It is more popular / successful only because it took to a very professional content publishing style in the book.. many times better than almost all indian magazines.
But. Reader's Digest is a pass-time read.. when you want to read something which doesnt need your brain's attention.. and I would say more than 65% of content in reader's digest is 'humour'.

]]> Wave tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009:/blog//3.328 2009-07-23T14:29:48Z 2009-07-23T14:38:38Z Google is an inspiring company.. no doubt.. If you are a techy, especially ones who love developing web applications, and are amazed by how maps.google.com works and all.. you.. should try the wave. It is a new thing Google is going to launch - this year end. What does it do? Stuff you *should* see for yourself. http://wave.google.com/ - see the demo there. . For non-techys too, the demo in the above link will be interesting.. but if you have a skill of ignoring selective words spoken to you.. the tech words that the presenters use.... Harish Google is an inspiring company.. no doubt..

If you are a techy, especially ones who love developing web applications, and are amazed by how maps.google.com works and all.. you..

should

try

the wave.

It is a new thing Google is going to launch - this year end.

google_wave_logo.jpg

What does it do? Stuff you *should* see for yourself.

http://wave.google.com/ - see the demo there. .

For non-techys too, the demo in the above link will be interesting.. but if you have a skill of ignoring selective words spoken to you.. the tech words that the presenters use.

]]> Nasa website's Space Place tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009:/blog//3.327 2009-07-21T13:23:24Z 2009-07-21T13:39:05Z As a young man I was fond of physics.. especially space related physics, and then other stuff like electricity, measurements, and of course Magnets. Today when I suddenly want to look up mathematics to calculate distances between places or objects far from us where we can't possibly run a tape to measure, google links me up back with my long lost love, Space measurements and rocket science.. through a NASA link. It was not surprising that it was a NASA link because the National Space Agency is one of those few who understand the value of sharing the knowledge in a public domain...though without reaping commercial benefits. Visit : The NASA space place website... if you like Physics, or if you would like to do small small physics experiments or take small-time encouragement classes for kids in your place... then you will like this site.... Harish As a young man I was fond of physics.. especially space related physics, and then other stuff like electricity, measurements, and of course Magnets.

Today when I suddenly want to look up mathematics to calculate distances between places or objects far from us where we can't possibly run a tape to measure, google links me up back with my long lost love, Space measurements and rocket science.. through a NASA link.

It was not surprising that it was a NASA link because the National Space Agency is one of those few who understand the value of sharing the knowledge in a public domain...though without reaping commercial benefits.

Visit : The NASA space place website... if you like Physics, or if you would like to do small small physics experiments or take small-time encouragement classes for kids in your place... then you will like this site.

nasa-spaceplace-21july.png

]]> Tontine - Interesting concepts tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009:/blog//3.326 2009-07-16T08:40:44Z 2009-07-16T09:17:36Z Accidentally stumbled on this word in wikipedia.. Tontine.. an interesting word to know. It has an interesting meaning. Actually two meanings.. one a software tech word, another as a finance scheme name. First the techy: Tontines are secret programs that generate many secret keys (or codes) to be given to as many people protecting a particular data/information in digital format, locked with the program.. and if more than one person who has these codes come together, they can use their keys to unlock the program and see the actual information. As wikipedia says it: a tontine is a secret sharing algorithm which allows n people to share secret data, such that any k of them can reconstruct it by combining their keys. This was interesting, because I have always heard of only one person entity, or two person entity holding the secret code to protected information in software.. so knowing that 'n' person entity could hold keys, though two of the keys would be enough to unlock the information that is protected, was interesting. Second the finance scheme: Tontines are financial schemes that work like this - All members of the scheme put in a capital amount and get paid dividends every year until their death.. and the capital is never paid. And on death of members the dividends paid to others adds up with proportionate value of the divdend that would have been paid to the dead if they were alive. After many many revisions and transitions of this, 'pension' schemes were invented it seems. It is named Tontine, or Tonti-ne, after the person Lorenzo de Tonti who is credited with inventing or popularizing the sceme first in France. The wealthy Tontine scheme: The Tontine scheme had many variants.. one of the popular variant was this: Apart from the normal dividends payment of the scheme, the total capital of all investors in the scheme is paid to the last surviving investor.. and eventually the last survivor becomes very wealthy. This variant of the scheme has been popularized much by novels and stories that use this wealthy variant as the plot for murder mysteries where all investors of the tontine are killed to get all the money to the last survivor. Why don't we have this scheme today: Looks like this scheme or its variants was mostly used by governments in early days (something like 17th century or 18th) to raise funds for wars, and big expenses... and governments or marketers inherently allowed young people also to become investors on the scheme whereby a 5 year old girl can invest some 300 Livres(one of many currency types used in ancient France) and reap dividends till she dies. Government started feeling the costs of surviving the scheme go up and up because people lived longer.. also girl children were chosen by parents for the scheme because women were known to live longer than men in those days. Other than this, private companies or agencies who ran tontine schemes mostly made a... Harish Accidentally stumbled on this word in wikipedia.. Tontine.. an interesting word to know.

It has an interesting meaning.
Actually two meanings.. one a software tech word, another as a finance scheme name.

First the techy: Tontines are secret programs that generate many secret keys (or codes) to be given to as many people protecting a particular data/information in digital format, locked with the program.. and if more than one person who has these codes come together, they can use their keys to unlock the program and see the actual information.

As wikipedia says it: a tontine is a secret sharing algorithm which allows n people to share secret data, such that any k of them can reconstruct it by combining their keys.

This was interesting, because I have always heard of only one person entity, or two person entity holding the secret code to protected information in software.. so knowing that 'n' person entity could hold keys, though two of the keys would be enough to unlock the information that is protected, was interesting.

Second the finance scheme: Tontines are financial schemes that work like this - All members of the scheme put in a capital amount and get paid dividends every year until their death.. and the capital is never paid. And on death of members the dividends paid to others adds up with proportionate value of the divdend that would have been paid to the dead if they were alive.
After many many revisions and transitions of this, 'pension' schemes were invented it seems.

It is named Tontine, or Tonti-ne, after the person Lorenzo de Tonti who is credited with inventing or popularizing the sceme first in France.

The wealthy Tontine scheme:
The Tontine scheme had many variants.. one of the popular variant was this: Apart from the normal dividends payment of the scheme, the total capital of all investors in the scheme is paid to the last surviving investor.. and eventually the last survivor becomes very wealthy.

This variant of the scheme has been popularized much by novels and stories that use this wealthy variant as the plot for murder mysteries where all investors of the tontine are killed to get all the money to the last survivor.

Why don't we have this scheme today: Looks like this scheme or its variants was mostly used by governments in early days (something like 17th century or 18th) to raise funds for wars, and big expenses... and governments or marketers inherently allowed young people also to become investors on the scheme whereby a 5 year old girl can invest some 300 Livres(one of many currency types used in ancient France) and reap dividends till she dies.

Government started feeling the costs of surviving the scheme go up and up because people lived longer.. also girl children were chosen by parents for the scheme because women were known to live longer than men in those days.

Other than this, private companies or agencies who ran tontine schemes mostly made a scam of it. The scheme was more attractive and easy to swindle a lot of money which many did use of well. This led to the England and American governments banning the scheme in those days itself.. so it never came to more recent centuries.

They say, there are tontines even today in the underworld.


Read more on Tontines at: Tontine - wikipedia

]]> MJ - came a full cycle with his life tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009:/blog//3.325 2009-07-13T00:37:49Z 2009-07-16T09:26:27Z Michael Jackson's dead.. after coming a full cycle in life. and his legacy is kindled once again ..probably for the final time. My First: I remember how I got to know of Michael Jackson as a viewer of the doordarshan videos on how he rose from being a child prodigy to giving hits like Thriller, I am bad, Billie Jean, Remember the time.. and so albums. And when my dad first took me as a child to the burma bazaar in parrys corner of madras, and curiously made me select my first english songs cassette and I asked for michael jackson. and the shopkeeper himself suggested boney M and those where the first two english cassettes we had at home.. it was the late 80's. And burma bazaar was the only place where you could buy english song cassettes then in madras... they usually came with lyrics of all songs printed in a separate booklet as a default. i cursed the shopkeeper in my mind for years later since he hadnt given the lyrics book with our purchase. It was MJ's "Dangerous" album that I got. I wrote MJ with a big sketch pen on the side of the cover.. which I later learnt was the popular nickname for Michael jackson. Guess what.. i didnt understand a word of the songs in the cassette for a few years though i listened and enjoyed it probably a 1000 odd times. Those days, you didnt have CD's, cassette players costed 2000 rupees or so, in the economy of today that cost is equivalent to some 20000 rupees. And obviously there was no internet then .. and music had to grow slowly in your life then. not like you immediately catchup with all popular songs. I got my own first english cassette, a new boney M when i was at college.. thats when i got to shop myself for my stuff. Thereafter things picked up slowly with interests in music, movies, books, magazines.. my dad introduced me to all of them as habits and especially only english habits. ah. yes.. i got to understand michael jackson's and many other people's english accents as i started hearing more. and also from lyrics that started to be printed on the cassette covers itself instead of being sold as supplementary booklets. I am making this post.. to have my observations recorded in the recent days, on news about MJ, the days after his death and the turbulence in the minds of his family, supporters, and everyone thereafter. Child prodigy: As a child MJ turned many heads with his music and flair for fast dance movements. He popularized that genre of dance 'the brake dance' (or break dance.. how do u call it)... and moonwalk.. and many other styles. Moonwalk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MichaelJacksonMoonwalk.ogg Cover of One of MJ's albums. As a teenager his album 'The Thriller' and its video were blockbusters.. so much a blockbuster that it spread all around the globe without marketing, and even without youtube, or... Harish Michael Jackson's dead.. after coming a full cycle in life. and his legacy is kindled once again ..probably for the final time.

mj-bg.jpg

My First:

I remember how I got to know of Michael Jackson as a viewer of the doordarshan videos on how he rose from being a child prodigy to giving hits like Thriller, I am bad, Billie Jean, Remember the time.. and so albums.

And when my dad first took me as a child to the burma bazaar in parrys corner of madras, and curiously made me select my first english songs cassette and I asked for michael jackson. and the shopkeeper himself suggested boney M and those where the first two english cassettes we had at home.. it was the late 80's. And burma bazaar was the only place where you could buy english song cassettes then in madras... they usually came with lyrics of all songs printed in a separate booklet as a default. i cursed the shopkeeper in my mind for years later since he hadnt given the lyrics book with our purchase.

It was MJ's "Dangerous" album that I got.
Michaeljacksondangerous.jpg

I wrote MJ with a big sketch pen on the side of the cover.. which I later learnt was the popular nickname for Michael jackson.

Guess what.. i didnt understand a word of the songs in the cassette for a few years though i listened and enjoyed it probably a 1000 odd times.

Those days, you didnt have CD's, cassette players costed 2000 rupees or so, in the economy of today that cost is equivalent to some 20000 rupees.
And obviously there was no internet then .. and music had to grow slowly in your life then. not like you immediately catchup with all popular songs.

I got my own first english cassette, a new boney M when i was at college.. thats when i got to shop myself for my stuff. Thereafter things picked up slowly with interests in music, movies, books, magazines.. my dad introduced me to all of them as habits and especially only english habits.

ah. yes.. i got to understand michael jackson's and many other people's english accents as i started hearing more. and also from lyrics that started to be printed on the cassette covers itself instead of being sold as supplementary booklets.

I am making this post.. to have my observations recorded in the recent days, on news about MJ, the days after his death and the turbulence in the minds of his family, supporters, and everyone thereafter.


Child prodigy:
As a child MJ turned many heads with his music and flair for fast dance movements. He popularized that genre of dance 'the brake dance' (or break dance.. how do u call it)... and moonwalk.. and many other styles.

Moonwalk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MichaelJacksonMoonwalk.ogg

Cover of One of MJ's albums.
Michael_Jackson_1971_got_to_be_there.jpg

As a teenager his album 'The Thriller' and its video were blockbusters.. so much a blockbuster that it spread all around the globe without marketing, and even without youtube, or pirate CDs.

300.ad.MichaelJackson.Glvactn.1208.jpgKing of Pop:
In his twenties, his shows and albums were so much popular that any other musician was considered a hobbyist or an unknown in the industry. He had all the audience and fans to himself.

His fans and probably some new marketing guy in the team started calling him the 'King of Pop' with nobody to dispute him being called so till today.

And there used to be a lot of military personnel (or so dressed up security guys) providing cover and security for him on his shows. especially lining up around the stage or MJ's way on to the stage.. .so much so that people remarked that he was the only one popstar on earth that has a full military company securing him.

His personal life:
As it happens with all people in the entertainment industry, especially the celebrities, Michael Jackson also made weird decisions in his personal life, weird statements to the press to the court on charges, etc.,
He underwent plastic surgeries on his face probably more times than you and I would have in mind.. to personally have memorablia of looks of his love lifes, or just because he thought that look is hot. His nose and chin, and his entire complexion change from being a black to becoming a white, are the most regarded on his list of plastic surgeries or changes.

michael_jackson.0.0.0x0.400x317.jpegHis Home:
MJ bought a huge golf course like area, called neverland ranch, and converted it into everything he wanted.. his estate, home, his own private amusement park, with private rail lines to go around the place with rail stations, etc., The area fully developed as a huge estate, had long roads, with circles and fountains, statues and figurines, scenic backyard, all in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsbniHqKLtc
http://www.videopark.com/mj.htm

Lived life king size, had everything he needed brought to him and was occassionally pulling children, crowds of them, as invitees to his house to play around and use the amusement park.

Ironically, the name neverland (not kept by michael jackson) comes from the pied piper stories where the pied piper leads all rats in neverland behind him with his music.. which mj did to people with his music.

His weirdness:
His statements, sometimes rejections, sometimes shocking acceptance of guilt on charges against him in courts on child abuse, child molestation, even one involving the Richie Rich / home alone star kid.. sometimes even involving private settlement of the cases with money.... all disappointed and dwindled his fan base, more than how much his 'no-shows for many years' affected it.

Heal the world: Sample his video.

Sample this video in above link, to see his inspiring song for love of children and the world... and you would think twice before discussing whether all those child abuse charges on him were for real.

Sample him:
Sample these videos in the below link to see how his fans enjoyed his music.
this, this, this, this and this.

His Last Days, O2 and Jackson 5:
In his last days, he was rehearsing heavy, all set for a comeback. Called the O2 concerts, or the 'This is it' concerts, 50 of them planned starting october 2009.. with the 'Jackson Five' (Five family members including MJ)

Michael_Jackson_1984.jpg
After his death, of what is reported a massive heart attack, there is a lot of news that he died because of drug over dosage.. which was given to him to get him perform during the rehearsals he was undergoing.

Whatever be the cause, MJ is gone, and a face-saving comeback, atleast one of those 50 planned too couldn't happen, which probably will also end chances of his legacy living beyond him for a longer time.

May he RIP.. for having entertained not just a few sections of people.. but an entire world for a lot more time than the time his misgivings or bad news about him disappointed us... and for healing hearts and worldly issues with music like the black-or-white, heal-the-world, you-are-not-alone, etc.,

News is that, they are refunding tickets sold-out for O2 concerts.. and the Jackson-4(instead of 5) may decide about doing one O2 concert as a tribute.

mjkid.jpg






]]> India lobbying in the US ? tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009:/blog//3.324 2009-05-13T02:02:49Z 2009-05-13T03:15:35Z You would have heard about the recent restrictions that US government is putting on outsourcing services and export trade for other countries.. majorly affecting Indian and Chinese interests in the US market. I subscribe to a newsletter from a non-government, non-profit 'National US INDIA chamber of commerce', which reports 'clear-and-accounted' lobbying of some Indian companies in the US for easing US stand on its restrictions.. India Inc paying millions on lobbying in U.S. Wednesday,6th May 2009 Washington: Indian companies, including top corporate entity RIL and industry body Nasscom, are paying thousands of dollars on lobbying with lawmakers and government departments in the U.S. on issues ranging from immigrant visas to bilateral trade and individual business ventures. Four Indian entities - Reliance Industries, Nasscom, Sun Pharma and Orchid Chemicals - have together paid close to $2,75,000 (about Rs 1.4 crore) towards lobbying their causes during the first three months of 2009, says the disclosure reports filed by lobbyists firms with the Senate and the House of Representatives. Out of this, RIL has paid $1,90,000 to BGR Holding, a high-profile lobbyist group that has many Fortune 500 firms and foreign governments as its clients, for providing 'strategic counsel on issues related to trade.' Incidentally, the U.S. Congress and House of Representatives are currently considering new legislations to penalize companies that supply petroleum products to Iran, which includes RIL. The penalty could include a ban from doing business in the U.S. Besides, Nasscom has paid $70,000 to the same lobbyist, BGR, in the first quarter of 2009 for lobbying on international technology and immigration issues. Indian software industry has reacted sharply to the recent moves by the U.S. administration to put curbs on H1-B visas, a skilled foreign worker visa that have largely been given to Indian IT professionals in the past. While the payment made by Sun Pharma in Q1 2009 is below $5,000, Orchid Chemicals has paid $10,000 for lobbying on issues related to the U.S. drug regulator FDA's policies. Sun Pharma's lobbying issues have been related to the citizens' petitions and FDA reforms. While there are no past disclosures about RIL's lobbying attempts, Nasscom, Sun Pharma and Orchid have been quite active on this front in the past. Purnima Voria, Founder/CEO National US India Chamber of Commerce (NUICC) My take: US 's recent restrictions on trade is more so like war-time Restrictions / Sanctions which could have very serious reverberating summary effect on the industries.. especially in India, because India's software industry and general economy itself is very much dependent on business with the US. While US is doing this as a economy-saving measure for themselves, they are actually making it worser for them without realizing it, because these restrictions would mean many US industries or products built there will be more costly than in recent past, though there will be advantage that unemployment problems in US will get a breathing, and also US people will grow more mature to have competitive salaries in their jobs and more drive to... Harish You would have heard about the recent restrictions that US government is putting on outsourcing services and export trade for other countries.. majorly affecting Indian and Chinese interests in the US market.

I subscribe to a newsletter from a non-government, non-profit 'National US INDIA chamber of commerce', which reports 'clear-and-accounted' lobbying of some Indian companies in the US for easing US stand on its restrictions..

India Inc paying millions on lobbying in U.S.

Wednesday,6th May 2009

Washington: Indian companies, including top corporate entity RIL and industry body Nasscom, are paying thousands of dollars on lobbying with lawmakers and government departments in the U.S. on issues ranging from immigrant visas to bilateral trade and individual business ventures.

Four Indian entities - Reliance Industries, Nasscom, Sun Pharma and Orchid Chemicals - have together paid close to $2,75,000 (about Rs 1.4 crore) towards lobbying their causes during the first three months of 2009, says the disclosure reports filed by lobbyists firms with the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Out of this, RIL has paid $1,90,000 to BGR Holding, a high-profile lobbyist group that has many Fortune 500 firms and foreign governments as its clients, for providing 'strategic counsel on issues related to trade.'

Incidentally, the U.S. Congress and House of Representatives are currently considering new legislations to penalize companies that supply petroleum products to Iran, which includes RIL. The penalty could include a ban from doing business in the U.S. Besides, Nasscom has paid $70,000 to the same lobbyist, BGR, in the first quarter of 2009 for lobbying on international technology and immigration issues.

Indian software industry has reacted sharply to the recent moves by the U.S. administration to put curbs on H1-B visas, a skilled foreign worker visa that have largely been given to Indian IT professionals in the past.

While the payment made by Sun Pharma in Q1 2009 is below $5,000, Orchid Chemicals has paid $10,000 for lobbying on issues related to the U.S. drug regulator FDA's policies. Sun Pharma's lobbying issues have been related to the citizens' petitions and FDA reforms. While there are no past disclosures about RIL's lobbying attempts, Nasscom, Sun Pharma and Orchid have been quite active on this front in the past.

Purnima Voria, Founder/CEO
National US India Chamber of Commerce (NUICC)

My take:

US 's recent restrictions on trade is more so like war-time Restrictions / Sanctions which could have very serious reverberating summary effect on the industries.. especially in India, because India's software industry and general economy itself is very much dependent on business with the US.

While US is doing this as a economy-saving measure for themselves, they are actually making it worser for them without realizing it, because these restrictions would mean many US industries or products built there will be more costly than in recent past, though there will be advantage that unemployment problems in US will get a breathing, and also US people will grow more mature to have competitive salaries in their jobs and more drive to make cheaper products or services.. rather than thinking cheaper always means outsourcing or allowing the markets to import.

An important thing of Note about US: I don't know How and Why the US legalises things like Lobbying the senate and lawmakers, spending billions for election campaign taking money through donor companies/industries itself, and all..

If bribing a senator to help work on a law is accounted as legal as 'Lobbying' or such people as 'Lobbyists', accounting those costs, then it is like just running a Casino.. not a government I think.

Also, if companies/industries can donate huge sums legally (after paying taxes) to the republicans or democrats, and if the parties can spend any amount for election campaigns, then I think they are just making all their hard earned money flow into forming a government which will then run the casino.. and all politicians and lobbyists make lot of money, and people make "nothing".. all this legal.

It is typically a routing that politicians in america have created over the years to bring all the money to their coppers.

There are presidential campaign reported expenditure websites and accounted statements online, which have something like 20-60 billion US$ being spent by the ruling party's next presidential campaign. That is a horrifying canal route bleeding every American's pocket to make that sum. The capitalist organizations bleed the people by over-pricing their products, then donate it to presidential campaign funds. .. This happens in every country.. but then, it will only be a few hundred millions.. not any close to the figures that americans pay to their president and his people.

First Americans have to correct all this, rather than stupidly thinking that buying services from India / China is costing them their economy. Buying from these countries could only make their economy stronger because of cheaper costs.. Is it real that they don't understand that ?, and they still believe all their president's and governments words about where all the money has gone ?..

]]> Wedding Photos tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009:/blog//3.323 2009-05-04T03:33:57Z 2009-05-06T04:10:14Z If you didn't know.. I recently got married.. to be exact on April 9th. Many of you, my friends, graced the occassion with your presence, or phone call wishes,.. or even through emails.. it was nice of many of you to do that, finding time.. I can't remember how many times I have missed attending friends marriages or even dropping in an email.. so it was great. And so, whether you are a friend or a foe, relative or a stranger.. you might be interested to see the photos of my marriage and the wedding reception.. in the below link. The marriage was a traditional fare and you will find 40-50% of the process same as what any average hindu marriage follows in India. You can find photos here: MyPhotos.HarishPalaniappan.com I / Triveni will be excited to see your comments on the photos if you get time. Thanks.... Harish If you didn't know.. I recently got married.. to be exact on April 9th.

Harry_trivy_weddingreception.jpg

Many of you, my friends, graced the occassion with your presence, or phone call wishes,.. or even through emails.. it was nice of many of you to do that, finding time.. I can't remember how many times I have missed attending friends marriages or even dropping in an email.. so it was great.

And so, whether you are a friend or a foe, relative or a stranger.. you might be interested to see the photos of my marriage and the wedding reception.. in the below link. The marriage was a traditional fare and you will find 40-50% of the process same as what any average hindu marriage follows in India.

You can find photos here:
MyPhotos.HarishPalaniappan.com

I / Triveni will be excited to see your comments on the photos if you get time. Thanks.

]]> Vista safer .. tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009:/blog//3.322 2009-05-03T10:00:47Z 2009-05-03T10:29:27Z Finally, I have fully moved to using windows vista from xp for... everything.. from development, to blogging at home, to browsing the internet... and I am happy I made this shift soo much later after vista arrived (what a couple of YEARS back already!!). The shift to vista, more than anything else, becomes more safer an OS for me to rely on these days, after going through all kinds of childish viruses.. if they were intelligent viruses atleast i would have had nice time trying to find a fix.. but these childish viruses would come in through a weakness of firefox or internet explorer, write some dlls on my laptop, overwrite explorer.exe to create those dlls everytime explorer.exe did anything.. and what for all this.. just to make more channels open, close firewall blocks, disable antivirus .. to just have fun having taken over some space on my laptop.. other than that the writers of those viruses achieved nothing.. typically nothing.. i didnt lose any files, i could even work normal offline, and only when i connected to internet they used my internet bandwidth to spread making my laptop a host.. again all that for nothing, but just to go to another system or a usb key, or a cd written.. on my system. Children who learn software try all this, trying to disable something and say 'wow my code shutdown the computer' like stuff when they learn new programming areas.. and get happy about the *achievement*. so, with vista's security features, which is like even if you open a program on your laptop, vista will ask did u try to open this to verify security.. the childish safety issues which eat up a looot of productive time is now secured.. but only for now.. i think with simple modifications in the code of those children.. even the 'did you want to run this program' request could be avoided or already answered programmatically.. and the children will be back. anyways.. giving me back my productive time... and for sometime allowing me to not bother about the best way to block children viruses.. which is installing a personal firewall managed by me with a password on my laptop.. and allowing or blocking each and every port and request on the computer .. this would be pain to do.. so i am happy that i don't have to do this for sometime. also, i think Microsoft is fully focussing on supporting vista and malware affecting vista or program updates and security updates for vista.. so much that .. I really see a lot of windows update items available every now and then when my laptop automatically checks, which is far more than what windows update items or frequency of updates are available for windows xp off late.. Vista, in the US costs close to 50$ if I am right.. and with a decent firewall + antivirus like AVG/ mcAfee internet suites.. for a few extra bucks.. should be all that is... Harish vista.jpg

Finally, I have fully moved to using windows vista from xp for... everything.. from development, to blogging at home, to browsing the internet... and I am happy I made this shift soo much later after vista arrived (what a couple of YEARS back already!!).

The shift to vista, more than anything else, becomes more safer an OS for me to rely on these days, after going through all kinds of childish viruses.. if they were intelligent viruses atleast i would have had nice time trying to find a fix.. but these childish viruses would come in through a weakness of firefox or internet explorer, write some dlls on my laptop, overwrite explorer.exe to create those dlls everytime explorer.exe did anything.. and what for all this.. just to make more channels open, close firewall blocks, disable antivirus .. to just have fun having taken over some space on my laptop..

other than that the writers of those viruses achieved nothing.. typically nothing.. i didnt lose any files, i could even work normal offline, and only when i connected to internet they used my internet bandwidth to spread making my laptop a host.. again all that for nothing, but just to go to another system or a usb key, or a cd written.. on my system. Children who learn software try all this, trying to disable something and say 'wow my code shutdown the computer' like stuff when they learn new programming areas.. and get happy about the *achievement*.

so, with vista's security features, which is like even if you open a program on your laptop, vista will ask did u try to open this to verify security.. the childish safety issues which eat up a looot of productive time is now secured.. but only for now.. i think with simple modifications in the code of those children.. even the 'did you want to run this program' request could be avoided or already answered programmatically.. and the children will be back.

anyways.. giving me back my productive time... and for sometime allowing me to not bother about the best way to block children viruses.. which is installing a personal firewall managed by me with a password on my laptop.. and allowing or blocking each and every port and request on the computer .. this would be pain to do.. so i am happy that i don't have to do this for sometime.

also, i think Microsoft is fully focussing on supporting vista and malware affecting vista or program updates and security updates for vista.. so much that .. I really see a lot of windows update items available every now and then when my laptop automatically checks, which is far more than what windows update items or frequency of updates are available for windows xp off late..

Vista, in the US costs close to 50$ if I am right.. and with a decent firewall + antivirus like AVG/ mcAfee internet suites.. for a few extra bucks.. should be all that is neccessary for a pain-free internet access laptop.

Why a firewall.. windows firewall is easy to hack.. Microsoft has clear specs and allows programmatic control of windos firewall which a hacking program can easily manage without your knowledge.

Though those 'Do you want to run this program', 'Did you try to open network properties, if yes, press continue' are frustrating.. I think this is going to be the order of the day hereafter on windows OSes, and that should be good news for MAC-OS or linux based systems which are at present less vulnerable to viruses or hacking..

]]> All about How Harry met Trivy tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009:/blog//3.321 2009-03-23T16:46:20Z 2009-04-23T11:19:42Z Triveni and I met at Cry .. child rights and you.. a social cause organization's chennai office. I was initially not talking much with trivy though I like her, because I thought Ravi was a boyfriend.. she had brought Ravi to a CRY meeting and this guy's chatter was so much for me to ignore his presence and try to like trivy. Geetha was a friend at Cry.. who I met there too.. and my flirt in me makes triveni think I had a crush on geetha rather than her.. trivy was always sitting close to geetha if they both came for any of the meets. So, trivy also didn't try talking to me. Geetha and I spoke now and then .. ofcourse on things related to CRY... of which geetha still thought I was trying to make a move on her. Though I liked geetha, I wasn't sure of her or neither was I trying to talk to her with intentions other than just feeling nice about meeting or talking to her. It turned out that geetha now and then mentioned to trivy about my moves or thoughts... from what she assumed as my intentions. This only got trivy keep out any distant thoughts about me from her head.. I couldn't get any closer to knowing or liking trivy.. because Trivy was not a regular to Cry. Later I found she was not a regular to.. "anywhere".. not college, not her mom-dad's place.. not to her friends places.. except for one place.. and that place is not on the planet.. orkut that is. Ravi turned out .. to be her orkut friend. Trivy turned out to be not a regular at cry.. because she liked going to orkut (you should hear her say that as if that was like going physically to some place).. and reading out who did what from there.. from photos, peoples names (ya, orkut people change their first and surnames often to show what they are doing or feeling like more than their real names)... and importantly learning things from something out of this world called "crap".. er er.. its "Scrap" in orkut.. trivy thinks that orkut crapping.. er er. scrapping is out of the world idea. An year and a half of advice later she "goes to" orkut less often.. but still can't avoid it.. she and her ridiculous list (read gang) of friends on orkut scrap each other.. like scrapping each others head. That is how ridiculous I feel still about her habitat, her living area.. her orkut page.. and now one more step ahead.. her facebook wall, she is trying to get that going. Going back to history of me meeting trivy.. At the end of the wait.. I think I decided, if you want to talk to triveni, you should install gtalk and try. That happened one day, and I was talking to her initially about how we can help CRY .. and later about .. like they say "all things... Harish Triveni and I met at Cry .. child rights and you.. a social cause organization's chennai office.

I was initially not talking much with trivy though I like her, because I thought Ravi was a boyfriend.. she had brought Ravi to a CRY meeting and this guy's chatter was so much for me to ignore his presence and try to like trivy.

Geetha was a friend at Cry.. who I met there too.. and my flirt in me makes triveni think I had a crush on geetha rather than her.. trivy was always sitting close to geetha if they both came for any of the meets. So, trivy also didn't try talking to me.

Geetha and I spoke now and then .. ofcourse on things related to CRY... of which geetha still thought I was trying to make a move on her. Though I liked geetha, I wasn't sure of her or neither was I trying to talk to her with intentions other than just feeling nice about meeting or talking to her.

It turned out that geetha now and then mentioned to trivy about my moves or thoughts... from what she assumed as my intentions. This only got trivy keep out any distant thoughts about me from her head..

I couldn't get any closer to knowing or liking trivy.. because Trivy was not a regular to Cry.
Later I found she was not a regular to.. "anywhere".. not college, not her mom-dad's place.. not to her friends places.. except for one place.. and that place is not on the planet.. orkut that is.

Ravi turned out .. to be her orkut friend.
Trivy turned out to be not a regular at cry.. because she liked going to orkut (you should hear her say that as if that was like going physically to some place).. and reading out who did what from there.. from photos, peoples names (ya, orkut people change their first and surnames often to show what they are doing or feeling like more than their real names)... and importantly learning things from something out of this world called "crap".. er er.. its "Scrap" in orkut.. trivy thinks that orkut crapping.. er er. scrapping is out of the world idea.

An year and a half of advice later she "goes to" orkut less often.. but still can't avoid it.. she and her ridiculous list (read gang) of friends on orkut scrap each other.. like scrapping each others head.

That is how ridiculous I feel still about her habitat, her living area.. her orkut page.. and now one more step ahead.. her facebook wall, she is trying to get that going.

Going back to history of me meeting trivy.. At the end of the wait.. I think I decided, if you want to talk to triveni, you should install gtalk and try. That happened one day, and I was talking to her initially about how we can help CRY .. and later about .. like they say "all things under the sun".

Chatting with trivy was more interesting than liking to talk to geetha who mistook my intentions with her and even turned down twice or thrice my offer to drop her off even 500m away in my bike.

And more than that.. trivy turned out to be interesting because, she listened with an open mind and blabbered with an open mind about herself when she knew I was not asking things with intentions.

We started to talk about brothers, sisters, whose childhood was most difficult, how we got into what fields of study for what reasons.. and all that.. including whose doggie pisses longer.

If you are curious.. its her doggie that pissed longer... and her brother used to have the "doggie pissing" photo as a thumbnail image on his orkut page.. which trivy would point you to go see if you spoke to her those days.

Yes... they even take photographs of these things these days... even though they know the doggie will do that again 4 hrs later.

]]> Like in many of our slightly over 3 hour chat sessions, I and trivy realized that we both have a lot in common in our lives or things that often lead to dating, marriages in movies.. and we seemed to like it and say to each other that things are that way... and giggle (sorry.. its blushing.. trivy tells me later one day it is called blushing... heck, I knew only flushing)

On another chat, I told trivy I studied in AVM school and she was like "whaaaat" "OMG".. and all for a while on chat.. then she tells me "I also studied there.. can you believe it".

If you are curious.. yes, I believed it and it was true.. she could tell all teacher names, who thought what and still wonders why I didn't know her or any of her batchmates, while she seemed to know (not me) but some of my batchmates.

She is a classic "remember-all" when it comes to people, what they do, and all her gossipy stuff.. and the "forget-all" when it comes to remembering what she was saying a second earlier if you even cough while she talks..

Our story developed this way, and I was eagerly praying for that day.. which did come.. the day I don't have to type to talk to trivy but "really" talk.. the day internet was not neccessary for our connection to exist.

She did share her number.. and one or two blunt, what-to-talk calls later, we both were fine. .. I had a terribly good feeling about trivy though I hadn't dated her, or, neither have I did the 'wait in that corner of your house without the risk of being noticed by a neighbour so I can pick you up' kind of stuff.

It was this time, she met with a mild accident in an autorickshaw, and she cried at her house, and chatted all that with me on gtalk before going off to cry more.. She was unhappy about nobody caring about her accident and stuff like that.. and I started calling her and telling her to go consult a bone specialist immediately to check for fractures.. which all she liked to hear.. except that I was telling her to consult a doctor at around 00:30 am.

The next day, I called up trivy in the morning, made her come to the busstop, ride with me to a doctor.. only that I didn't tell her which doctor and all, and went direct to one of the best hospitals in chennai the Apollo specialities in nandanam.

I further went directly to the "emergencies" ward with all the right intentions, got a pointer to a doctor's desk.. rushed her there.. and then the doctor was not there, or he would come only in the evening they said. Only that all this was happening for a mild fracture as later it turned out to be.. and trivy was having pains in her joints because of straining more than the accident which only triggered it. The doctor who trivy calls 'chocks' (chockalingam) and his attendee nurses were all smiles the way I was jumping at them for saying doc is available only in the evening and my girl had met with an accident and having fractures everywhere... that was my feeling though trivy didn't have one fracture...not till this day. :o)

Trivy was surprised about all the attention I was showering at the hospital .. in that she is an emergency ward patient just from a big major accident, although she was not looking a bit like a patient, leave alone an emergency ward patient. I was telling her, "whaat .. did I make too much a scene for this with the nurse.. and look at you, nobody would agree you met with an accident, you are not even looking dull".. and she blushed and giggled for all that.

Soon after, a couple of days, and,
I was out of chennai for a relative's marriage after strangely calling up trivy more than once to tell her how long i am gone, and when I am boarding the train, going to come back and set foot in chennai, etc., in detail... which I had never done before with anybody.. it was like I didn't want to go.

And from my relative's marriage I was finding things unbearable until I called up and spoke to trivy for only 10 mins... or one hour I don't remember.. :o)

Trivy was on the call itself like indirectly saying "you are going to have tough time with me.." for me interestingly advicing her to take her medicines properly.

Once I was back I thought.. I shall propose to her to marry me.. and I planned an evening nice enough for it.. I started at 3pm itself.. for a 5pm or later meeting with her.. bought her more than one card.. went to coffee day (where the incident was to happen).. wrote down what I wanted to write in all the cards.. prepared the gift and things wrapped in a cover, called her up around 530 and met her.. she was only coming with me for a coffee.. and was telling stories about her day around chennai, and all that.. and we were in coffee day around 7 or something I think.. I don't remember the time of the incident, but because of repeated brickbats from trivy I remember the day was november 17th.. (hope it is correct, or she is going to kill me when she reads this)..

I gave the cards one by one, she was all glee and bright with cute eyes wide open.. trying to read them without showing off excitement.. the first 4 cards I had planned would tell only jokes about her.. and the fifth one makes the proposal.. so as to cool her down in case she didn't like the idea.. and more so to cool me off in case she has to only return one card out of five. Isn't that a nicely thought of plan.. pat me on my back. .. and No you may not copy the intelligence behind this approach.. I am gonna patent and copyright it.

If you are curious.. First thing trivy said was.. "I wanted to propose you first maaaan".. and then she made a call and told her bro. about it.. and that stupid fellow in all his mind was asking her for some pocket money I guess, instead of wishing her well. She never said "Yes" and all that day.. like it happens in movies.. though she mentioned indirectly she was accepting it..

To this day, she still thinks and tells me "you were supposed to give those to geetha na.. " about the cards... whenever I take up the sweet many ways I proposed her.. Stupid idiot goose she is.. that is how she scolds me when I do something. so, this is my turn. :o)

Thanks for reading.. how Harry met Trivy..

]]> What happens when Indian music wins oscar.. India jinxed up. tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009:/blog//3.320 2009-03-23T15:30:19Z 2009-03-23T15:43:21Z Jai Ho has done India so much good, that Indians will realize this only a few more months down the line. I did hear of some femalish band buying into JaiHo, remixing it up, and making the music more reachable to the west.. especially the hindi lyrics that needed translation. But I never knew it came out so interesting... as Jai Ho (You are my destiny) The interesting part of the music is.. I could see the album as a celebration by the world, of India's vibrance... and the celebration of India's interest to grow and work and celebrate with the world as a mature country with globalized indians. Ofcourse, India is poor.. and all this can be seen as falsification of the country's image.. but take it straight, probably working with other nations is what is going to teach how to eradicate poor, keep clean, make less babies and all that.. like all those foreign banks and supermarkets came over and made our own business people do their kind of service, eventually raising the bar now in banking and retail sector to an unbelievable amount in just a span of less than 10 years.... Harish Jai Ho has done India so much good, that Indians will realize this only a few more months down the line. I did hear of some femalish band buying into JaiHo, remixing it up, and making the music more reachable to the west.. especially the hindi lyrics that needed translation.

But I never knew it came out so interesting... as Jai Ho (You are my destiny)

The interesting part of the music is.. I could see the album as a celebration by the world, of India's vibrance... and the celebration of India's interest to grow and work and celebrate with the world as a mature country with globalized indians.

Ofcourse, India is poor.. and all this can be seen as falsification of the country's image.. but take it straight, probably working with other nations is what is going to teach how to eradicate poor, keep clean, make less babies and all that.. like all those foreign banks and supermarkets came over and made our own business people do their kind of service, eventually raising the bar now in banking and retail sector to an unbelievable amount in just a span of less than 10 years.

]]> Are you a Mac or a PC ? Are you sure you are happy then ? tag:www.harishpalaniappan.com,2009:/blog//3.319 2009-03-23T06:29:57Z 2009-03-23T06:33:46Z This one is cool. Mac has done a series of ADs which obviously haven't still reached the PC populated, old modellist lives in India. he he.. yea, after seeing these ADs.. I donno.. they have made me think I am old modellish too. Must watch Mac-vs-PC Ads... Harish This one is cool. Mac has done a series of ADs which obviously haven't still reached the PC populated, old modellist lives in India. he he.. yea, after seeing these ADs.. I donno.. they have made me think I am old modellish too.

Must watch Mac-vs-PC Ads

]]>