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The Democratic party controlled House of Representatives in the US today passed the Iraq pullout bill. Obviously Bush has threatened to veto this bill as soon as he gets it and now the house and the president are headed for a showdown. The house just like the rest of the country is totally polarized. The republicans and conservatives are still adamant about the war.
The civil war in Iraq is beyond the US armed forces and the troops are hopelessly caught in the middle. The US is now erecting a wall to divide the people of someone else's country. Read this story: Building a wall in Baghdad instead of policy in Iraq

This just indicates how Bush and his folks have no idea what they are doing in Iraq. The justifications for this war have changed year to year ever since it started and all of them have been artificially manufactured. Being an outside observer I hope this bill passes because this US occupation in Iraq right from day one has been nothing but stupidity commited to cover up for some totally different failure.

These were some of the pro-pullout comments in the debate in the house...
"Our troops are mired in a civil war with no clear enemy and no clear strategy for success," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.
"How many more terrorists will President Bush's foreign policy breed before he focuses a new strategy, a real strategy? This bill says enough is enough."
"He was wrong then. And he's wrong now. It's the will of one nation versus the stubbornness of one man."

Now the other side. I am just surprised people are saying these senseless things. Politicians are the same everywhere man. So power hungry that they'll join any two sentences with no logical connection just to defend their claim.
"[By pulling out] We will embolden our enemies and it's our kids and their kids who will pay a very, very steep price,"
Can't even comment on this. Makes no sense...
"We have a solemn obligation to the American people to finish the job we started."
The job was wrong to begin with and is still wrong to date. What obligation, do they even remember what it was originally after the Sept 11 attacks?
"Al-Qaida will view this as the day the House of Representatives threw in the towel,"
This is just some bravado...

Some articles covering the bill:

U.S. House approves Iraq pullout date, despite likely veto
House OKs Iraq Pullout

Blue Mountains...

Visited the Nilgiri mountain ranges a couple of weeks back, this area is really ‘wild’ with the Mudumalai and Bandipur national forests at the base of these mountains. But in terms of wildlife the trip was fairly disappointing because the national forests were closed due to the danger of forest fires.

It was really dry all around. Check out how parched everything was…


Also in terms of trekking/hiking it was disappointing because we could do neither. But among the good things on this trip, one good thing was the weather on the mountains. Once you made your way up the mountains crisp cool breeze, clear skies and fresh air greeted you.
Oh by the way the drive up the mountains was extremely picturesque and challenging. The Zen performed beautifully, compared to some of the other bigger cars that kept getting into trouble on the steep climbs. The car was in first or second gear almost throughout, same thing coming down. The beauty around made it tough for me to keep my eyes on those 30 odd hair pin bends. My rubbernecking (rubberneck: To look about or survey with unsophisticated wonderment or curiosity) definitely gave some heartburn to the co-passengers, whose brunt I soon faced ;-)
Anyway once on top, taking all that fresh air in at the higher altitudes, you felt really rejuvenated. At night you could see about a gazillion stars in the sky. Spectacular show, it was...

Two incidents that happened were, one, seeing two porcupines darting across our jeep headlights in the middle of the night. I thought they were chickens but then I saw the spikes! Beautiful spikes with white streaks! These two porcupines looked as if they had just raided some food store in the middle of the night and were scooting away with the loot atop their heads.
The second incident was going to an animal watering hole in the middle of the night and just waiting...waiting in pitch dark, in silence. I had read somewhere that when one of our senses is deprived then the brain compensates by making the others more sensitive. This was definitely the case as we couldn't see much at all but our hearing was working overtime. There were 3 or 4 owls in the area each hooting away to glory in their own tone and rhythm. And then suddenly there was a small growl followed by a rustle and a soft sound of water trickling. It came from the opposite bank, just once, but we couldn’t spot anything or make anything out…

Here is the panoramic shot of the valley…

Students for Bhopal

Students for Bhopal is a group that is trying to get justice to the people of Bhopal who suffered (and continue to suffer) in the toxic chemical leak from Union Carbide's pesticide plant during the very early hours of 3rd December 1984. This incident is now widely acknowledged as the worst industrial disaster ever. Union Carbide is a US based chemical company which cut corners and due to it's blatant negligence, methyl isocyanate and other deadly gases leaked into the atmosphere. Other than killing thousands (8,000) on that night the leak left nearly 150,000 people severely disabled for life. A total of 22,000 people have died since that tragic day.

Union Carbide is still killing people of Bhopal because it left without cleaning up chemicals which continue to daily seep into drinking water sources around the factory. Dow Chemical has since acquired Union Carbide and refuses to clean up the contamination and compensate people who have suffered due to this poisoning.

Some hard facts:

• More than 27 tons of methyl isocyanate and other deadly gases turned Bhopal into a gas chamber. None of the six safety systems at the plant were functional, and Union Carbide’s own documents prove the company designed the plant with “unproven” and “untested” technology, and cut corners on safety and maintenance in order to save money.
• Today, more than twenty years after the Bhopal disaster, at least 50,000 people are too sick to work for a living, and a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirmed that the children of gas-affected parents are themselves afflicted by Carbide’s poison.
• Testing published in a 2002 report revealed poisons such as 1,3,5 trichlorobenzene, dichloromethane, chloroform, lead and mercury in the breast milk of nursing women living near the factory.
• Yet when the Independent speaks of "rape", the Guardian of "disgrace" and Jon Snow of "a crime against humanity", they are not talking about THAT NIGHT - but of what has happened since to those who survived it. Today, more than 20 years after the disaster, Bhopal remains a humanitarian disaster.
• Union Carbide left without cleaning it up. Tanks full of toxic chemicals have corroded and burst, dumping their contents onto the ground. Worst of all, twenty monsoons (three months of heavy rain each year) have washed the toxins Carbide left behind deep into the soil, poisoning the drinking water of the same people Carbide gassed 20 years ago.

Links that you can read up on this tragedy:

• Students for Bhopal
• What Happened
• BBC articles and videos on Bhopal - watch the video 'One Night in Bhopal'
• Bhopal Disaster - Wiki - a lot of research links on this page
• Bhopal - The world's worst industrial disaster - Greenpeace

I would like to urge you all to sign up on the Students for Bhopal web site, subscribe to their newsletters/mails and try to participate in some of their initiatives like calling government officials in Madhya Pradesh...spread the word...

Audioslave - Revelations

In music videos I usually prefer 'band' videos. As in videos in which the band just performs, not in some outlandish setting or a live concert but something like a studio or a fixed set sort of place. Videos in which the band members just play the song as they actually would at any other time...anyway I just like such videos.

Audioslave made such a video for their song 'Revelations' that I really liked and found to be amazingly cool. There is another video that I like, 'Sweet Child O' Mine' by Guns N' Roses. The GnR one has a little too much glam in it than the Revelations one. You can watch both of them below for yourselves...

My spirit doesn't feel like sleeping tonite...

We have been having terrible weather in B'lore over the past month or so. It has been hot and stagnant...but it rained today and the mercury dipped south!

Now the curtains are fluttering in an ever so light cool breeze...the water has 'chilled'. There is that wet earth smell in the air...there is an invigorating pleasantness and freshness all around. I am sure B'loreans will revel in this weather tomorrow but spare a thought for the unfortunate and unlucky ones who have no or inadequate shelter...

Superman spins a web?!?

Could you take my picture...
Cause I won't remember...

It was a very strange coincidence that about a week back when lazy dude, geek guy and I were more than a little 'elevated' and this song (Take a Picture by Filter) was playing in the car. Coincidence because we were in a state where quite possibly the next day we wouldn't remember what all had happened ;-)

It was after quite a long time that the 'Tools Team' decided to de-stress, unwind and chill out. After a very disappointing stint at 'Legends of Rock' things went into high gear when we hit the '13th floor'. Once there we had an Intel strategy meeting, a team strategy meeting and many other strategy meetings. Believe me not all the strategy meetings revolved around work! I only wish someone had taken minutes, ha! It sounds boring cause it looks like we were discussing work but you had to be there to see what we were up to. Plus we were having a tough time keeping our concentration because of you know, the 'surroundings' ;-). Once we stumbled out of 13th floor, Lazy Dude in fact acted contrary to his name, put in some extra effort and went back to wave g'nite to someone! One more funny incident was when Lazy Dude in his 'elevated' state remarked "Ha! What does Superman do. He just shoots something from his wrist, what is that he does na?" That's Spiderman, man!

Later at around 11 or 11:30 we were infact not even allowed to eat at one of the Coffee Day outlets. After looking at the 3 of us they politely made a lame excuse that they were only allowing to take away food. So we did take away the food and ate it on the bonnet of my car in total Bombay ishtyle...

Mangalore Coast Trip

(Rough and better late than never)
Days: 3 days, 2 nights
Total distance driven: 1150kms
Places visited: Mangalore, Ullal Beach (base), Suratkal Beach, Udipi, St Mary's Isles, Maravanthe Beach, Shri Mookambika Temple @ Kollur.
Gripe: Weather didn't cooperate.
High points:
- 'Shark Tooth' on the beach under starry skies
- B'fast at a quaint place in Udipi
- Maravanthe
- 30km drive through the mountains to the Mookambika temple


Sunrise behind the lighthouse @ Suratkal beach

Aaila! Tendulkar!

Tendulkar should consider quitting - Ian Chappell

I don't agree with the conclusion of this article but some of the points being brought up are correct. First off, I don't believe Tendu is playing for the sake of statistics.
One of the biggest problems is that Tendu does not have a role in the team. Give him a role and ask him to perform in that role and I believe he will get it done. Anyway here is the article...
ps: Navjot Singh Sidhu is the biggest ass on all of cricket TV today. This guy never talks logically and only uses clichés that make no sense. He doesn’t give other people a chance to talk at all, cutting them with some dumb lines that only he thinks are smart. He is so irritating that given a choice I would pick to even watch Mandira Bedi over him.

(via CricInfo)
Ian Chappell
In the fallout from India's early demise at the World Cup one of the major decisions will concern the future of Sachin Tendulkar.
Before anybody else makes a decision on what will happen to Tendulkar the player himself has to have a good long look in the mirror and decide what he's trying to achieve in the game. At the moment he looks like a player trying to eke out a career; build on a glittering array of statistics. If he really is playing for that reason and not to help win as many matches as he can for India then he is wasting his time and should retire immediately.
When you think that for a decade Brian Lara and Tendulkar went head to head in a wonderful battle of stroke play to establish who was the best batsman in the world, they are now worlds apart in effectiveness.
Lara's quick-footed tip toe through a terrific innings against a good Australian bowling attack when the rest of the West Indies top order succumbed easily was in direct contrast to Tendulkar's stumbling effort in the crucial Sri Lanka match. The amazing thing about Lara's brilliant career is the fact that he hasn't changed his style at all over seventeen years. This is a credit to his technique and mental strength, as the aging process generally makes a player more progressively conservative.
Tendulkar hasn't worn as well; his last three or four years have been a shadow of his former self. His double century at the SCG in January 2004 was a classic case of a great player really struggling. He came to the crease out of form and despite amassing all those runs and batting for in excess of ten hours he was no closer to recapturing his best touch than he was when he started out. It was a tribute to his determination but it was a sad sight to see; there are enough average players around that you don't won't to see a class one reduced to that level.
Tendulkar hasn't been as lucky as Lara; the Indian batsman has suffered a lot of injuries in this period where his play has deteriorated and there is nothing that melts your mental approach quicker than physical handicaps. Lara has been relatively free from injury and he certainly doesn't have the weight of numbers riding on his shoulders that Tendulkar does.
However, the population of the Caribbean might be small but they are extremely demanding. Despite all the fuss and the odd controversy that has surrounded Lara's career he has remained himself; this is my game and that is how I play. For whatever reason Tendulkar hasn't been able to maintain his extremely high standards for the last few years and unless he can find a way to recapture this mental approach he's not doing his team or himself any favours.
If Tendulkar had found an honest mirror three years ago and asked the question; "Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the best batsman of all?" It would've answered; "Brian Charles Lara." If he asked that same mirror right now; "Mirror, mirror on the wall should I retire?" The answer would be; "Yes."

Intel FABs

Couple of days back Intel announced that it would build its next FAB (Fabrication factory where our silicon chips are made) in China. India lost out.

For many years there has been a tussle between Intel and the Indian government over this FAB. It is a $2.5 billion investment and there was no doubt that the Indian government wanted to get this FAB but at the same time the IT ministers were not ready to make enough concessions to convince Intel to get them to build the FAB in India. Apart from the tax exemptions and such, Intel was also worried about things like the bribes you have to pay at transportation check points plus the red tape at our ports and customs. In the 2007 budget some new incentives were introduced to attract the semiconductor manufacturing industry but looks like those weren't enough…

Semiconductor manufacturing given the scale of these FABs and the size of the industry itself can hugely impact an economy. It has the ability to bring in huge amounts of foreign investment and generate employment. These FABs run round the clock and bring in good technology because they are extremely high tech, all good benefits for any economy. If India had bagged Intel's FAB then given that Intel is the leader in semiconductor manufacturing it would have been a huge green signal to the rest of the players to view India as a viable destination...

Oh well I am sure there are other fish left to fry...
Intel Makes $2.5 Billion Bet On China

Taxman!
If you drive a car...I’ll tax the street
If you try to sit...I’ll tax your seat
If you get too cold...I’ll tax the heat
If you take a walk...I'll tax your feet
-- Beatles

Lyrics of that Goan song in the Nike ad...

'Wait, partner, wait
First let me play
If you don't play, I'll keep chasing you all day

Our game is like this only
Where we have no time to think
It is the game of cat and mouse
That I have begun to love
And in the falling running breaking
My destiny is entwined'

I could make out bits and pieces beforehand, stuff like 'khelche amche osle' which means our game is like this only, then the last word is 'phasle' which is entwined and some more words here and there like that.
This ad is awesome therapy if you are having a slow day and want things to pick up or need a jump start :)

Here are some pictures from a recent drive...

The Indian FM and the 2007 Budget...

In the 2007 budget, again in my limited knowledge, nothing has been done to address the first issue and very little towards the second. Nothing incites me to continue to pay my taxes and no encouragement is there for more people to start paying taxes starting this year. In terms of allocation, he has increased spending towards education and farming but from what I've read looks like there are many other obvious areas in which a growing country like ours should have increased spending but have been ignored.

And coming to inflation, this just bums me out. The FM has been caught napping. Despite a drop in oil prices inflation continues to increase in the country. And our eccentric FM is refusing to move and is just sitting and waiting for a good monsoon to solve the problem for him. Well a good monsoon solves almost all problems in our country. Any kid knows that but my expectation as a citizen of this country is that you get off your fat ass and do something about this rising inflation starting now!

Here is my cousin's post:
In a post last April, real estate bubble, had indicated actual inflation is not what the government is reporting. The finance minister and his boss, the PM, are doing whatever it takes to hold on to their chair. It seems, they need another mandate from the IMF and world bank to continue reforms. As a citizen we would love to pay our taxes, if we are convinced the money is put to the right use. When you visit any of our government offices, can you ever believe they spend our money right. They do no work, accept bribes which adds to our overall tax bill, bad role models for our next generation. Whom will they emulate when they pay bribes to get their temporary driver’s license and one more to make it permanent.
One of the real drivers of inflation is the cost of real estate, however this did not get mention anywhere. Real Estate prices will get tamed only if there is more legal straight forward supply and tightening of interest rates. It will make Indian services and manufacturing more efficient. In education, 2 lakh more teachers will be appointed, who will never come to work, however they will press the button alongside the Hand symbol, many times, during the next general elections. Chidambaram has proven to be slimy and a pervert one more time. Its time we get these fossils out and replace with new blood.

Vishal

Here is a picture of my friend Vishal (bee-sh-aal). His dad is a guard in my building. We started to get to know each other one day when I had popped into my apartment for a couple of minutes to quickly pick up something. I had left the door open and suddenly as I turn back I see him standing right behind me. He asks me 'kya kar raha hai?', 'darwaja kyon khula hai?' He knew me so I told him that I was about to leave again to which he replied 'bahar ja raha hai!'.

These days we have become good friends. He likes to chew 'Happy Dent' :) and helps me almost on a daily basis to take my stuff out from the car when I get back from work. Over multiple visits he now knows how to operate my TV. Couple of days back we both sat and watched about 15 minutes of 'Takeshi's Castle' a comic game show on Pogo (the kids TV channel).
Slowly I have gotten to know more about him. I know that to get to his school I have to "pehle aaise jana, fir aaise, fir seedhe, fir aaise, fir seedhe." Now I only have to remember the accompanying hand gestures to figure out which turns were left and which were right! :D

A bad sketch of the posters hanging on the wall of my cube...I can't draw straight lines for nuts! :)