Hybrids...

Cars, that is...

Why is it that of the 9-10 hybrid cars in the US market 2 companies are at the forefront and both those companies are Japanese, Honda and Toyota??

The Toyota Prius Compact Sedan gives 60 miles per gallon which is 26.67 kms/liter, pretty good when you compare to the monster SUVs probably giving like 8 or even less miles to the gallon (3.5kms/liter).

As Calvin says "I wonder if you can refuse to to inherit the world"...

Hip-Hop - Gansta Rap

Hail to Snoop Dogg. He sure is the Fo' Shizzle and best of all he is a big fan of the USC Trojans football team... :)
Before we go ahead let me tell you I copied "Fo' Shizzle" from a web site that I was reading somewhere. It means for sure, the real thing. I myself don't know nutin' about hip-hop other than the songs I list below.

These songs are really good, thought would share it... *Explicit Lyrics ;-)

• (Rock) Superstar - Cypress Hill
• Training Day In My Hood - Training Day OST
• Still D.R.E - Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg

Kids...

As I was listening to the Dishwalla cd (read below) a lot of memories came flooding back. I had played the cd after a long time but a few years back I used to listen to this cd a lot and am really attached to the songs. Anyway, it (along with the other things going on these days) put me in a funk. But I had the perfect solution ;)

Spending time with kids, not the bratty ones but the new born. If you don't have your own then do what I do :). My friend has a 5 month old girl, Avi. I must have held her for five minutes while the parents where getting out of the car and we were entering the restaurant. She started smiling in such an infectious way and just like that, when I was holding her, it melted me completely. And she has started developing a grip and she kept squeezing my fingers so hard that I just forgot about my worries…

Found this written somewhere about relationships and I thought I will just quote it here:

"...Now, I just go with the flow, am like a leaf on the river— following the current wherever it leads me...Somehow, there goes another leaf...The tide is somehow kind enough to let us bump into each other even when the other leaf already has its own leaf firmly stuck to it...so I move on"

Music...

Turned on my home system after a while so thats the reason of this post...

Whats playing on the home stereo -> Dishwalla - Pet Your Friends (The album with the song Counting Blue Cars)

What will play next -> Led Zeppelin - II (Thank You :))

What all did I consider before the current CD -> Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble; AC/DC - Back In Black (had to be)

Whats playing on my car system -> A misc Indi-pop CD with a lot of KK and the paki band Jal. Have KK's songs from the movie Iqbal on it. Have to catch Jal next time they are in Bangalore.

Whats playing on Winamp on my laptop -> Foo Fighters; Jal (again); Rang De Bansanti

What have I liked recently (Apart from the above) -> Imogen Heap :)

Which band is back in a big way -> Green day - American Idiot

15 Park Avenue...

Just noticed that my rate of blogging is once in three months. More like a quarterly report than a “blog”.

Ok, let me start with the reason for this blog…It is in the title. I saw this movie and decided I have to write about it.
My overall view is that it is an amazing movie by Aparna Sen. It is a very tragic story that may leave you frustrated at the end but will definitely send your brain into overtime.

Now, do not read any further if you haven’t seen the movie. You absolutely must see it, then you can read this and we can discuss the movie. But under no circumstances should you read this any further if you haven’t seen the movie.

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So about the movie isn’t it simply amazing?!?! Leave the ending that’s for later but the acting, the direction, the shots, the story, the places they are just so beautiful. Konkona Sen delivers one of the best performances by an actress ever. Shabana Azmi and Rahul Bose deliver as usual. The story itself is very tragic and traumatic. Watching that one scene was not easy.

Now the ending, I think it is an effort to make a bold statement. If you have proper ending then it is a happy or a tragic ending. That may defeat the seriousness and power of the rest of the movie especially if it’s a happy ending. I came up with numerous endings and read many more on the net and I’ll tell you how I think the story ends later.

The ending is totally open to interpretation and that’s the key. Maybe Aparna Sen wanted everyone in the audience to have their own endings. Each person gets to have their own, pick what you are comfortable with. Why should she do it for you, she made a movie with a story now you go pick the ending. Go spend some time analyzing which one you like and complete the story. There, now you have something to call your own instead of just accepting what she had to say.

Figuring out the ending for yourself is an exercise that may actually even tell you more about yourself. For example: I found myself thinking of positive endings because Shabana Azmi ends up finding a nice decent man; Rahul Bose stands up for what is right despite the fact that he might loose everything. All this makes me think that something positive happens at the end. Like others I also thought of “Sixth-Sense” type of endings but in my mind they are all too far fetched.

But the pick I made for my ending is that I like it the way it is. Open ended. I like the fact that every time I think of this movie I am left wondering what might have been. Every time it makes me think “how come, huh?”. It makes me think about what could’ve happened. Seriously discuss it over your next drink or get-together. Rip it apart or appreciate it but talk about it, the story, the tragedy and obviously the ending that’s what I think this movie is meant to do.

Scrubs...

One of the funniest sitcoms I have watched in recent times (comes in India on Start World 8:30PM on Monday). Its about these medical interns trying to cut it out in a hospital filled with hard asses doctors and a demented janitor!
The episode I saw dealt with death. Each of the characters had a dying patient on their hands. I loved the part about the old lady saying "I think I am ready to die" to JD (one of the interns). Then she asks are you scared and JD nods upon which she gives him a hug. She eventually does pass away.

Over all the episodes are very slick and funny especially the interactions between JD and Elliot with Dr. Cox...

One by one they all fall down...

Stage 10:
What a stage it was, Lance Armstrong's team didn't worry about early escapes and later on as a complete team set such a scorching pace that only 4 riders including Armstrong, finished in the first group out of the 40-50 sized group that was together at one point. It was a sight to see as the threats faded, the riders falling behind with their tanks below the empty mark.
Armstrong finished with Valverde (team IBA) at the top with the other 2 riders coming 9 seconds back.
Vinokourov finished 5 minutes 18 seconds behind. Ullrich finished 2 minuets 14 seconds back thanks to his team mate Kloden who helped him during the last kilometers. Basso was the only one who kept some respectability finishing a minute back.
It felt like you were seeing something special the way Lance rode the last section.

Stage 11:
One category-1 climb and 2 category-H climbs on this stage...
Vinokurov set out to prove himself and did that by finishing first on this stage. Armstrong’s team didn’t really chase him down abut kept a high tempo and limited the final difference to about a minute and 15 seconds.
The downhill ride was breathtaking with the riders hitting speeds in the excess of 60 kilometers an hour.

Stage 12 and 13 are fairly flat, ;-) at least compared to the previous two stages (10 & 11).

Stage 10 - Here come the Alps...

Stage 10 of the Tour De France will take place today.

Lance Armstrong lost the yellow jersey to Jens Voigt on stage 9. Armstrong is currently third but Voigt and Moreau (currently 2nd) are not mountain climbers and are expected to drop in the coming days. Armstrong maintains his lead over Vinokourov (T-Mobile), Ullrich (T-Mobile) and Basso (CSC).

Today's stage (192.5 Kms) is extremely grueling. First real test on the Alps and sorting of the front-runners is expected to start. There are two category 1 climbs with the second one leading right up to the finish. Here are the details of the climb they are both longer than 20Kms and have a gradient of about 6%.

Km 118 - Cormet-de-Roselend (D.217-D.902) - 20.1 km climb to 6 % - 1 Category
Km 192.5 - COURCHEVEL (Altiport) - 22.2 km climb to 6.2 % - 1 Category

Very exciting day in the tour…

Movies

Saw a few hindi movies in the last month, overall a couple of good ones that should not be missed. Read on...

Must Watch:

• Parineeta: This is the latest one I saw and probably the best of the lot. Parineeta (The Married Woman) is a adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel. The leads Saif Ali Khan and Vidya Balan have done a wonderful job. I liked the music and it blended well with the movie.
• Sarkar: Ram Gopal Varma's tribute to the "Godfather". This is a mix of the classic Godfather story and Bal Thackery's life. Amitabh Bachchan plays the lead and is supported well by the rest of the cast. The two sons played by Abhisekh Bachchan and K K Memon have acted really well. I felt that the movie could've have been made in a much better way by giving Amitabh more screen time and making the comeback by the "good" side a little more complex. All in all a good movie.

Can Watch:

• Bunty Aur Bubli: Story about a couple, driven by circumstances into conning. Overall a time pass movie, quite funny at places with the usual loud songs and masala of hindi movies.

Watch if there is nothing else to do:

• Paheli: Amol Palekar's film based on a folk story (from Rajasthan I think). Its a watchable film but at the end of it the story doesn't hold very strong.

Don't Bother:

• None

Tour De France 2005

The tour started on Saturday with a bang! David Zabriskie who is not even the leader of his team CSC came first riding the 19 Kilometers in 20 minutes 51.840 seconds. Lance Armstrong came in 2 seconds behind on Saturday's individual time trials. Both men had an amazing ride with the 3rd place rider finishing 51 seconds behind.

This is Lance's last year and he plans to retire. He has already made good start building about a minute of lead over his main rivals...LIVE STRONG!

The Tour Live

Three Stories...

This is an excellent piece, quite inspiring. Take your time and read through all of it, definitely worth it. This speech was given by Steve Jobs (CEO, Apple Computers) at the commencement of Standford University this year.

Stanford Report, June 14, 2005
'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Formula-1 US Grand Prix :-)

I switched on the tele late last night to catch the F1 US grand prix and it was 2 minutes to start time. Everything looked normal except the commentators were talking of something that I didn't pay too much attention to at this point. What followed was simply bewildering.

After the warm up lap 14 cars pulled in the pit lane. I thought maybe sudden rains were expected and these 14 cars needed to change their tires and the remaining 6 cars had made the switch earlier. Then they showed that the 14 cars backed into their garages marking that they were out of the race and the race started with 6 cars!!! Then I listened in closely and found all cars with Michelin tires were not going to run. The 6 cars had Bridgestone and Ferrari was among them and the others were Jordan and Minardi, the minnows.

Simply the worst race or incident in F1 ever. I switched off after about 5 minutes. Ferrari won the race probably running in cruise control. People are blaming Ferrari for continuing with the race, why? They got their tires right, they did their homework, why shouldn't they race...

Google Search:

"United we stand, divided we fall." -- Aesop (620 -560 B.C.)

The Reliance feud between two brothers that started about 6 months back is over. It happened when the mother realized that the brothers would not reconcile and gave an ultimatum to the parties involved to resolve the matter. India's most famous company is now split...

Google Search:

It's Official: Apple Switches to Intel

So it did happen...Sometime in 2006 Apple will start using Intel processors and by the end of 2007 all Macs will ship with Intel processors.
Follow this link to read the reactions and headlines being generated all over the world: Google Search:

Intel and Apple?!?!?

Some of you may have heard the so called rumours about Apple switching to Intel processors. Paul Otellini (CEO, Intel) called it the “Haley’s Comet of Rumours” but this news has refused to die down…and is expected to be announced Monday according to the cnet report below…This deal will add about 2% to Intel’s MSS but the biggest thing about this deal which I absolutely love is the competition that will be created to Microsoft…With Google already troubling Microsoft (see GATES VS. GOOGLE: Search and Destroy) and now this news, are these the signs that are pointing to the end of Microsoft’s domination??? In any case I am sure Bill Gates is at this moment in a brain/nerve racking meeting with his trusted associates :D

Read all about it:
CNET News.com
Business Week
EWeek
Top Tech News