Talk about transformations and you don't have to look any further than the Asian subcontinent; and one of the major contributors - India. Couple of years here and there and you would miss so much that you would feel nothing but embarrassed in front of "The Common Man". Yes I'm talking about the common man as portrayed by R.K Laxman; and the common man knows a lot ... lot more than one can possibly think of.

Trip back to India now a days (business/pleasure) comes as a surprise for many. The very outlook of cities change in a matter of days, forget months or years. The rate, for example, at which the shopping malls are propping up in cities is ridiculous and one starts to get a feeling that - are we in line with something like happened in the west? The way one used to spend $$ in relation to the $$ earned has changed drastically. More and more money flowing in to the market has only caused prices of commodities, real estate to skyrocket and make the common man's wallet thinner and thinner.

Sticking to 'shopping malls' read somewhere the other day that the country would see ~600 of them in the coming 2 years span. Thats an amazing rate of ~1 per day in a country that is yet to accept the rate of change that it has been seeing in the past 7 years !! Now, I'm stressing on these outlets 'cause they are nothing but hangout places for college kids and the young generation, I've seen the older generation getting lost out there and trying to accept these changes as a norm of the 21st century.

On a recent trip, learned a lot as in the way things are and the way one can expect things to unfold. Money is being poured into the stock market and every Tom, Dick and Harry now owns few thousand Rs. worth of a stock or the other. Was amazed by the interest and the knowledge that the 'common man' shows now-a-days, quite literally I was embarrassed. Cell phone revolution, SMS, Explosion of TV channels, $ being poured by investors, BPOs are all changing the face of the nation.

Slow and steady, cities are getting destroyed though. One can actually see the effect with an increase in vehicles on the roads, infrastructure development not catching up with the development, daily commuting hours rising higher and higher and what not. I also had been to God's own land for a few days and realized that in a few years it may not live up to its name!! This is something strange and something that I had not seen in the past. Things like these used to take some time to trickle down to Kerala but not anymore.

Oh well, that's probably the new face of India, changing India, Incredible India. Hope we all are prepared to accept the new face :)

Signed: Rajesh

It came as a surprise to me, it really did. Early morning yesterday I was getting my daily dose of News when I read that the Nobel Peace prize this year was being awarded to the UN Climate change panel and Al Gore.

The selection committee probably did not receive any nominations this year, 'cause nothing else could explain their selection. First of all i'm having tough time understanding what Global warming (or creating environmental awareness) has got to do with peace. Some might say - Of course there is but I don't buy that. I mean if they wanted they could have given Gore an environmentalist award or something but Peace prize ?? What a farce.

If you see there are quite a lot of folks around the world who devote their entire life for the cause and should be recognized (The prize is more of a recognition than the $$ amount you get). And if we talk about the work this guy has done (making a documentary - An Inconvenient Truth) - that itself has got so many inaccuracies.

Searching the 'net' I found quite a lot of articles written in the last couple of days on the topic. One of them I came across is this. How to win a Nobel prize. Soon they will come up with 'How to win a Nobel prize for dummies' and you could buy it in stands around the world.

To prove a point Mr. Gore would probably have to buy an HEV for himself; Oh - how would he go and collect the prize then? Nevermind - he has his private jet !! :P

A $5000 bond from the government. Yup, that was what Hillary Clinton has in mind for the future American kids. A proposal that would help parents start an account to use for paying for further education of their kids. Now, approximately four million babies are born each year in the US. So the total amount (roughly) would be four million times five thousand dollars = twenty billion USDs. Wow !! Is this a small amount? And ever wondered where this money would come from? Of course, the tax payers money.

I'm not a supporter of Candidate A or Candidate B but hearing comments and statements like these, which (we all know) are nothing but a vote buying scheme, how could one pay no attention? Why should every citizen (or a non citizen) pay tax which ends up being helpful for a few? Isn't eliminating income taxes for children's education a better Idea? On top of that, why pay for someone who may not end up going to college at all.

A Week after Clinton's speech, Sen. Barack Obama came up with statements like ... "It’s a tragedy that many Americans have to ride the bus or have to settle for a Toyota. Cars are a sign of hope. My proposal allows for all families to have an American-made car, which will bring hope to millions of Americans that have none."

What?? Did I read that correct? Is it a tragedy that many have to ride the bus? I think they should look at other countries and learn something and try not to mess around with mother nature by promising cars and contributing towards global warming.

Wow!! I didn't know this. 25 years ago CMU prof Scott Fahlman invented a smiley face :-) using just 3 keystrokes and what a way to start an emoticon race. Users of Yahoo Messenger would know of the many many variations ; like :-D, :-P, :-S :-( and ;-)

These smilies spread from CMU to other schools to other businesses and then around the world. Now a days these are so common that you can find them almost anywhere on the www world. The best part is that there's no language barrier. A :-) means the same in English, French, Spanish, Zulu or Mallu ;-)

Dr. Fahlman was quoted as saying "I sometimes wonder how many millions of people have typed these characters, and how many have turned their heads to one side to view a smiley, in the 25 years since this all started". Come to think of it, I think I actually might have turned my head to one side during the initial stages. After a few years, we now see folks @ Google making it interesting, swinging these emoticons vertically so that you don't have to "turn your heads sideways" :P

Couple of years back, i.e in 2005, I thought I saw Maveli up here in Boston - but then I was wrong. Last year this time, I was back home in Kerala, India celebrating our harvest festival - ONAM.

This year - Oh well, just a few phone calls, this post and a few snaps from last year ;-)




Wish you all a Happy Onam!!

Some were surprised when the "Missile man" became President of the largest democracy in the world. I had other reasons though; I was surprised by this. Do you have an answer to his question?

One of the most devastating defeats in the tennis world yesterday. Matchup between Federer n Roddick and the scores suggest what happened in Melbourne yesterday. 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 -- Federer completely embarrassed Roddick, thereby entering the Finals of Australian Open in style.

I'm not sure who could stop FedEx but having seen Roddick play for the past 3-4 years I know that he's not the one. Head to head stats show a staggering 13-1 record in favor of the Swiss with the only loss coming way back in '04 at Montreal. All Roddick had to say was "It was frustrating. It was miserable. It sucked. It was terrible. Besides that, it was fine,".

He might have lost his Mojo again (not that I've seen him find it in the past) ... somebody please find his Mojo !! The Mojo girl has reached the finals this year though, Sharapova defeated Clijsters pretty easily.

Back to the drawing board - Andy !!

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Name: Rajesh

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