If you are wondering what happened after March 2005, well, Null Pointer moved to its own home. Please do follow me there.

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

It hit me!

I had only read about the comments spam so far, and noticed how other blogs were seriously affected by these unsolicited comments. But today I noticed atleast 3 such spam comment on two of my earlier posts and removed it. The comments were inserted by Viagra sellers on much older posts (incidently one was titled - An age thing). I was also going through this article that shows ways to fight this pest and hope that freeroller.net will do something about it. Shame on you spammers, may you perish in hell!

Sunday, September 28, 2003

Tanmay is 1 year old today

Today is the first birthday of my son Tanmay. It is due to the little angel that I and Mitali were introduced to the joys, pressures, fun and responsibilities of parenting. Tanmay has ushered in a breeze of vitality and energy in our lives, infact he has tought us to relish the meaning of life itself. Today our parents, friends and well-wishers join us in wishing the apple of our eye a very happy birthday. God bless you son!

Thursday, September 25, 2003

Band Loyalty

During my recent Mumbai visit I was curious about the listener ship for various FM Radio stations and much to my expectation (hey, I am not generalizing, just my view here) I found that though the listener ship is good, there is nothing like Brand loyalty here. People switch back and forth the stations on their tuner as they would on their TV remote. The most fascinating part is that people switch stations as soon as the RJ takes over or some oldie song would be played. They would happily stay on till the time the stations play the song, even tolerating some of the most stupid radio ads I ever heard, the moment RJs start their tongue wagering it's on to some other station. Ya, the name of the station hardly matters when there are so many players -- there is Red 93.5 FM of India Today Group, Radio City 91 FM of STAR, Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM of the Times Group, Go 92.5 FM of Mid-Day and Win 94.6 of Millennium Broadcasting (I do not know there may be more of them). With all those numbers anyone can go eerie.


The fact that pains me here is the duress on the Radio Jockeys (RJs). Where would the producers allow for creativity in writing scripts for the shows when the slogan of the station becomes less talk, more music. With so many players vying for attention you do not have any option but to keep your act short and crispy. That means less of RJing, just seconds of blah blah and then you are taken over by what sells the music. [Incidentally Radio Mirchi, Indore had offered me a full-time job for RJ after I had cleared their tests and audition, I do not know whether it was a sound decision but I did not accept it as I was looking only for some part-time fun, now that I think of it perhaps I did better, at least I would not have succumbed to this concept of less talk.]


All in all, in the race for revenue, creativity is called for not only in programming but also in campaigning. As a matter of fact, concerns over marketing strategies overpower those over content. Afterall stations have the same pie of advertisers to share, the race is for who manages with the biggest chunk. Talented and genuine RJs in these scenario can only grin and bear. For the rest who anyhow manage the buk-buk just to get their pocket-money (and listening to FM at Indore I can bet there are many such RJs), it was never a matter of concern anyway.

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Blogs and Anonimity

Some blogger like Jivha want others to respect his anonimity. I agree with him. As for me I wish people do not co-relate anything that I say on my blog with my job or my employer. A mistake (now stands corrected) was mentioning my current employer in a post (in any case you can view my Resume and know who they are). Now I did not wish to put any disclaimer on my blog, but it goes without saying that my Employer has nothing to do with my opinions and I never sit for a meeting with my superiors to reach a consensus on any post before I make it public.


Another point that often plagues me is my online resume. It has been there on my geocities homepage for years, seldom updated and indexed by many search engines; you type my name and it pops up as the first result. Now, this does not mean that I am always in a job-hopping mood. Recently one of colleague quipped with a gleam in his eyes (as if he had dug-up some dark hidden secret of mine) and a silly grin, "Hey, you put your resume on Google, eh!". First, buddy Google does not host my resume page. Secondly, I am not responsible if my meta-tags work well. Thirdly..SO WHAT! Infact, I am thinking of adding a note to my resume page "Not Available", or should I remove it altogether??

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

The "Woh" factor

Many of you might have noted the patni factor in the former UP ministerAmarmani Tripathi's case nabbed by CBI for his role in the murder of poetess Madhumita Shukla. Many press-wallahs say Madhumani was the mastermind behind the killing. Unlike the usual Indian wives infested by the woh factor she wasn't the one to do the rona-dhona and be a silent spectator to her swami's misdeeds. Without demeaning the loss of human lives, I have to comment that Madhumita's murder while she was carrying the minister's child is perhaps no less heinous than the injustice that Amarmani did to his wife with this extra-marital affair. Did she have any right for justice or not? As for Madhumita, she had seen rampant examples in our society where people even do not take it as a matter when it comes to illegal marriages. While people like Shabana Azmi have succeeded on religious behest others like Hema Malini had done it in broad daylight in front of dumb press. However, these ladies were already famous when they did that and Madhumita wanted to be rich and famous both. The price of chastity was nothing for that.


For Amarmani it was a vicious circle of lust and revenge; his lust that inspired his wife to seek revenge. Being in politics the backbone was already missing. He would have managed with all this beautifully if only things would not have leaked as they do in several other similar cases in the Indian polity. What happens to him next? May be he would witness decades of trial and die in a jail; may be he would get scot-free and bring another Mulayam to CM-hood; May be he would get another Madhumita.


The bitter part in this story of lust, greed, hatred and ruthlessness that I noticed is the missing human-factor. Madhumita sure had a heart as had Amarmani, they might have loved each other even if for a very short-while. Whatever happened to that? When the CBI arrested the defaced mantri he felt a pain in his chest. If only Amarmani had felt this pain before, when he let Madhumita murdered, with his child.

Monday, September 22, 2003

Mumbai Musings!


For those who still keep track of my blog despite of almost 2 weeks of absentia thanks for watching the space. Last week has been pretty hectic for me as I got the opportunity to visit the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) the collosal darbar of Reliance Empire,  spread across 140-acres at Navi Mumbai. DAKC houses the National Headquarters, Internet Data Centers, Call Centers, Applications Development Laboratories and the National Network Operations Centre of Reliance Infocomm. If you are there for the first time you are bound to be struck with an awe. 2.2 million sq. ft. of office space spread over 14 buildings where DAKC houses 10,000 people (and we are perhaps not counting the countless consultantas like me who were there on short trips). Monumental!


So you have these access controlled doors, revolving doors, electronic barricades (reminded me of those at Kolkata Metro stations) amidst lush lawns with himalayan fountains, wide clean roads, covered approach roads insides the blocks and cute green Golf-carts to drop you at your work-place. You see the place and you quip,"who says the golden pre-dotcom days have gone". Needless to say for the staff there it might be merriment all the way, sadly (may be owed to my short-sightedness too) very few seemed to be actually working there. Frankly, with gigantic food courts with all assortment of delicacies avilable at your disposal, who would like to.


P.S. Hey! I spotted Ram Jethmalani at the Airport during my return while I was going for the security check. Not that I am any great fan of his but getting an autograph from him wouldn't have been bad either ;)

Monday, September 08, 2003

AnotherChapter

A new workplace, new colleagues and a new (for me) technology to explore and work on. Life is good :) Kudos to the parting team, I owe you a lot. Thanks for all the affection and the learning experience. More details to follow once I settle down a bit.

Friday, September 05, 2003

A Mix bag


  • You may expect the phoren people publicly brag about it. You may even expect the desi celebrities like Neena Gupta and the Poojas (Bhatt/Bedi) rendering expert advices. But his holiness the Dalai Llama talking about the "ups and downs" of savoring the forbidden fruit. Bless me Buddha!

  • Amit points out that now even the Hindustan Times has jumped into the blogging bandwagon. To me the platform seems more appropriate as a discussion forum rather than a platform for blogging.

  • Jivha has invited nominations for Indian post to be featured in the Bharteeya Blog Mela.

  • Perhaps many of us got rejected at one recruitment process or another. But this guy put up an entire blog making the incident public. The blog has an an interesting account of  his grievances during the recruitment process at Accenture.
  • This is hilarious man! I may have read this post here quite late, but you may enjoy reading this coversation with a Nigerian Spammer.

Thursday, September 04, 2003

The Hawk Arrives!

Better late than never! Atleast 4 more MIGs had crashed since I wrote this. The good news is efforts of the kins of Late Flt  Lt  Anil Gadgil who had lost life in a MIG crash at the political helms seem to have bore fruit. 20 years and more than 155 MIGs later the government has awoken and okayed the purchase of 66 British Supersonic Hawk AJTs (Advanced Jet Trainers).  An 8000 Cr expenditure well worth. Civilians and experts have been making this demand for ages now, they have been expressing concerns due to the lack of training the pilots, they have been training on indigenous subsonic aircrafts such as Kiran and then leaping on straight to a MIG supersonic. The AJT procurement was approved way-back in July 1993 by the La Fontaine committee but zeroing-in on the right aircraft took considerable time.  And while the country was loosing millions of ruppes and human-lives on the crashing MIGs people in the ministerial corridors were dilly-dallying on the price factor, if only Tehelka hadn't exposed their true-faces.


It has been a good week for the Security forces as the Cabinet sanctioned 4500 cr. more for strengthening the forces (it's another thing that that includes purchase of six VIP jets and a new jet for the Prime Minister, who says Politicians are short-sighted.)

The ASI Mockery - Part 3

Have a look at this report that appeared in the Times of India. Those who detested my earlier views expressed in Part-1 and Part-2 and who believe that the ASI's report has not been doctored may find this story interesting. Based on this report I wonder how ASI even made its conclusions public, or was it just a media moment. As per the TOI report "by the ASI’s own reckoning, there exists no indication of any temple-like structure having existed from 1200 AD to 1500 BC (the expected antiquity of a Ramayana site), i.e., over a period of 2,700 years."


The newspaper further says that "Whatever may be the outcome, the fact remains that in the entire Ayodhya region where excavations have been undertaken by the ASI since 1975 — at the disputed site, at Hanuman Garhi and at Sita-ki-Rasoi — despite the discovery of numerous coins and terracotta figurines of varied antiquity, none of them are connected to Rama, Sita or Laxman, or Dashratha."


The interesting twist in this reportage is, however, the mention of discovery of the Jain terracotta figurine during the excavation which, says TOI, could actually strengthen the claims of Jain community over Ayodhya. The quote from Praful Bidwai's article, Archaeological finds are subject to a wide range of interpretations, seems all the more true now.

Monday, September 01, 2003

The ASI Mockery - Part2

I had posted my views on the ASI report on Ayodhya excavations here. This was also published by a local English daily Free Press. Both evoked some strong responses. The one received online was deleted by me due to the racist remark.  It has been a regular (read secular) trend in our country to reject all ideas criticizing fundamentalist ideas terming them Marxist. My observation on the ASI report was to emphasize the fact that irrespective of their results, such findings can hardly assist the court in reaching any conclusion. Praful Bidwai had written in one of his articles, "Archaeology is a social, not a natural, science. Archaeological finds are subject to a wide range of interpretations." According to noted archaeologist Shereen Rutnagar, "the mere discovery of objects, however, well-preserved or tell-tale they might seem, does not count as archaeological evidence


There are also many facts regarding ASI we must consider, as quoted in Bidwai's article. ASI is an independent body just alike other such bodies as CBI. It reports to the central government, leading which are BJP ministers charged with instigating the razing of the Babri mosque in 1992, including Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. In the past many eminent archaeologists and historians had criticized the excavation order and appointment of a private company, Tojo-Vikas International Pvt Ltd, as an 'adviser' to the ASI. Labour contract for the digging was awarded to Bajrang Dal-VHP activist K K Pandey. Many scholars question the competence of ASI to conduct scientific and impartial excavations. ASI hasn't had a professional archaeologist heading it for 10 years.


In a report published at rediff.com it has been mentioned that a leading archaeologist Sitaram Rai has questioned ASI's conclusion. Other experts such as Suraj Bhan, former head of the department of archaeology, Kurukshetra University (Haryana), D Mandal, former professor of archaeology, Allahabad University, and Shireen Ratnakar, former professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, JLNU agree that "that there was no temple at the Ayodhya site." Rai said the ASI had failed to report evidence recovered during the excavation, like whether the disputed site had Muslim habitation around it, which suggested that no previous structure had been demolished to build the Babri mosque. Rai believes that the ASI report was "not objective, flimsy and self-contradictory, and had been prepared under political pressure."


The Saffron brigade had very cleverly thought that giving a scientific bend to their argument may ease-out their work, the building of the temple, or atleast beginning of that process before the ensuing elections. Not only Hindus and Muslims but various other parties are involved in the litigation. The dispute created and nourished by political and not religious contentions cannot be solved in a jiffy without taking all parties in confidence. Courts can only suggest measures and serve as a medium to reach an amicable solution, they cannot perhaps render a verdict on whether to build a temple at disputed site or not. Ultimately this has to be handled amicably by seers of all communities under a political leadership with spine, unfortunately this would be inconceivable for a long time to come.

World's first Hindi blogzine

I feel elated in presenting Nirantar , World's first Hindi blogzine. It has been the result of untiring efforts of so many Hindi blogger...