Many of us working in the corporate world have taken the Myers-Briggs psychometric test at least once. For those who are not familiar with Myers-Briggs (M-B), it is a test designed to understand a person’s psychological preferences and the M-B assessment classifies a person into one among the 16 different personality types. These 16 types are based on the 4 preferences mentioned below. According the M-B’s official website, the preferences are

1. Extraversion(E) or Introversion(I)

2. Sensing(S) or Intuition(N)

3. Thinking(T) or Feeling(F)

4. Judging(J) or Perceiving(P)

A personality type is a combination of the 4 preferences above. For example, one person’s personality type could be ENTJ and another could be ISFP. The details about these 16 types can be found here.You may find out your own personality type by visiting this link

M-B test has been quite popular in the corporate circles and is used in identifying an employee’s personality type and assigning tasks accordingly. Now, a website called Typealyzer has come up with a new tool that determines the M-B personality type of a blogger. Unlike the real test where one is required to answer a series of questions, determining the blog personality type is quite easy. Submit the link of a person’s blog website to Typealyzer and voila! – you get the blogger’s personality type.

I personally found this website very interesting. After finding out my own “blog” personality type, I ventured into finding the “blog” personality types of IndiaSpecial’s most popular authors like Kandamangalam, Mukund, Nars and others in the list. I was surprised by the pattern I found. I don’t want to spoil the fun by revealing what I found. So, find out for yourselfJ.

It would be interesting to understand the implications of this new tool, Typealyzer. Will bloggers start writing differently? What do you think?

Note: This article is based on a blog post by Rachel King that appeared in the Technology section of BusinessWeek magazine on March 22.

Image Credit: Xurble

Popularity: 17%

Hugh Jackman is back to host the Academy Awards. He welcomes Daniel “Mr. Bond” Craig and Sarah Jessica Parker, from the “Sex & The City”. They announce the award for Art Direction.

And the award goes to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Donald Burt and Victor comes to collect it.

The award for best Costume Designer goes to Michael O Connor for The Duchess.

The award for best Make Up goes to Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Greg Cannom wins it. More than make up, he seems to be too fast at pronouncing names he wanted to thank in his 45 second speech.

Benjamin Button receives its second Oscar award.

Time is 9:27 PM EST

The vampire star from The Twilight comes to announce “Romance of The Oscars”.

Ben Stiller and Natalie comes to announce the best award for the Oscars. Ben Stiller looks funny with that beard and dirty chewing gum. He says Slumdog Millionaire was shot on the cellphone. He looks lost J, pretending funny- may be…Oh yeah, talking about the wizard cinematography.

Who will win this award – Slumdog ? Lets wait and watch.

And the Oscar goes to Anthony Dod Mantle for Slumdog Millionaire. He wants to thank 1000 people but can’t.

Congratulations – The Slumdog Millionaire team for the second Oscar award. I am excited!

Time is 9:36. Time for a break!…

Image Credit: MasterOrz

Popularity: 16%

The Oscar fever has caught on and for the first time, I am blogging live watching the Oscars, from the comforts of my home. Nothing can beat this experience. Seeing it live, munching my favourite triscuit, watching my two kids screaming louder than the Oscar host and blogging as Slumdog Millionaire is about to win Oscars – At this point, I don’t know how many, though!

The expectations are high among Indians that music maestro AR Rahman, who has bagged three nominations for “Slumdog Millionaire”, will bring home the coveted trophy. What a moment that will be!

Other two Indian films vying for the glory are “Smile Pinki” and “The Final Inch”.

The time is 8.30 PM EST.

Ok, the Oscar Awards has begun and so is this live blogging.

The time is 8:33 PM

Singer, Dancer, Actor Hugh Jackman enters the show with startling display of his talent. He starts of with the song on Slumdog Millionaire, moves onto Benjamin Button – what a startling display, picks up Anne Hathaway for an impromptu dance. Jackman performs about the other movies – The Reader, The Wrestler and Nixon. What a Live Performance that was!

The time is 8:40 PM

Hugh Jackman introduces all the nominees including Mickey Rourke, the couple – Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie, the guy who played Nixon, Demi Moore.

The time is 8:45 PM

5 yesteryear Oscar actress winners including Whoopi Goldberg introduces Penelope Cruz, Marisa Tomei, Demi Moore et al.

Penelope Cruz wins Oscar for the best actress. She goes to the stage and thinks she would faint…but doesn’t. She gave an emotional speech saying it is art which unites the universe. You are too good and beautiful. Penelope – Congratulations !

The time is 8:54 PM

Some type pad clicks. Few sentences and sounds of a typewriter. I don’t know what is happening.

Enter Steve Martin and Tina Fei. They starts joking around, as usual and soon picks up the mike for announcing the best screenplay. Now I understand why there were those type sounds.

The best screenplay award goes to Dustin Lance Black for Milk. Dustin, on the stage, emotionally talks of “Hope” for Gays and Lesbians across America.

Next comes the award for the best adopted screenplay…and the award goes to Simon Beaufoy, the writer for Slumdog Millionaire.

Oscar # 1 for Slumdog Millionaire. Wondering why Vikas Swarup for Original Screenplay. But yes, he thanked Vikas Swarup and the other two musketeers and his love for India.

I am so excited now. My friend, Madhavan, who wrote Will Slumdog Millionaire Win the Oscar Awards, pings me on Gmail. We exchange congratulations for the first in the kitty and many to go.

The time is 9:03.

Enters Kungfu Panda and his star friends…I am talking of Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston. He is hilarious.

The best animated feature film goes to Wall-E. Oscar is taken by Andrew Stanton. He thanks everyone..nothing extraordinary of a speech. The show goes on

The best animated short film goes to La Maison En Petites. Kunio Kato collects the award and “Sanks” everyone!…Sankooo..meaning Thank You.

Time for a break!

Popularity: 27%

Recently I was holidaying in US with my wife. I had the opportunity to visit various places of interest and to meet and interact with many enthusiastic Americans.

During my stay there, I observed that although a majority of the Americans were comparatively less educated than the Indians, they were very much focused; and they prioritized the national interest over the individual’s. Neither they suppress their income nor do they try to evade tax in any form. Almost every citizen there feels proud to contribute their share and strengthen the national exchequer. There could be very rare cases of corruption or malpractices.

Whereas here in India the scenario is totally different. Let us take the following cases:

• Individuals, other than those who are being subjected to TDS from salaries, whose income exceeds the taxable limit, do they file the IT Returns with their total income declared? Do we have systems where suppression of income can be detected by the authorities?
• What about the same in corporate segment?
• What about the huge amount of Service Tax being manipulated by companies and firms engaged in service industry?
• What about the huge amount of Sales Tax being manipulated by the traders?
• What about the officials with assets (both fixed and current) disproportionate to their income?
• What about the huge amount of black money being generated by politicians, business tycoons and goons?
• What about the officials awarding contracts to companies who do not have the required merits/credentials to execute such contractual works?
• What about the enormous hawala and benami transactions?

India has been classified into four segments in terms of corruption: a) alarmingly corrupt, b) very highly corrupt, c) highly corrupt and d) moderately corrupt.

Source: Ankwd.com

As a matter of fact, the evasion of various taxes by individuals, firms and companies could run into billions of rupees. In the very near future, the increase in these areas could be in geometrical progression! The sooner these issues are addressed, the better.

In simple definition, true patriots are citizens who love their nation more than anything else.

We, as patriots, should try to evolve systems to plug the loop holes in the required areas, earlier the better!

Jaago India! Jai Hind!

Popularity: 15%

The aspect of “managing perceptions in human interaction” was something that I never really thought of, in the past, as a key attribute to good leadership. This changed when I listened to a discourse by Swami Sukabodhananda. His discourses are of a specialized form in that they are mostly related to management, leadership and human interactions.

Before I go any further, a statutory disclaimer – I am not affiliated to him or any company of his, in any capacity, nor am I paid to write about him!

SS, as I’ll refer to him henceforth, is very widely traveled and has interacted with management institutions worldwide in various forms. Uncle N of mine introduced me to a lecture of his – on Stress Management, I think, about 10 years ago.

In one of the chapters on the CD, he talks about an incident that occurred during a regular classroom session he had with management folks from around the world. He had noticed that a lady in the back row looked tired and was finding it difficult to concentrate. He requested her to move up to occupy one of the empty front seats, and continued with his lecture.

He noticed that the woman seemed very agitated since the earlier event, so after a while, he asked her if everything was OK. The woman was honest enough and said she was upset – she believed that the Swamiji (as many of his admirers/followers/disciples call him) had insulted her by picking her out in front of everyone else, and making her come up to the front.

Right after she said this, the Swamiji asked if everyone in the room felt the same way as regards to the woman’s reaction. A gentleman, who was seated on the other far side of the room raised his hand and said he would have felt privileged had he been picked instead to come up and occupy the front row. He hadn’t noticed the woman being distracted and that she was therefore being called up to the front. He had felt that the Swamiji saw something in the person to “promote” her over the others in the room – to be seated right up front, in the thick of action!

Look at what perception does – it was a simple gesture by the speaker to encourage one of the distracted folk to be more involved, but two different individuals perceived the same event at two extremes. One looked at it as a reward, while the other deemed it a punishment. Every word uttered, or every action performed, will look different when taken out of context or seen in a different light.

An oft-repeated line conveys the same message – no two fingers of our hand are the same; which meant to say no two individuals are alike. This story goes beyond that – individuals react differently to the same event; so the onus is on the leader to convey the message in a form that ensures reception in the right spirit. The expectations are changing: leadership before was about conveying the right message; leadership now is to not just convey the right message but also ensure it is received right.

Keep in mind – the T and the I don’t need crossing or dotting when written as capital letters!

Image Credit: Pedrosimoes

Popularity: 10%

Media coverage of events across the world has grown manifold in the past decade or so. With the advent of newer forums that use the Web2.0 infrastructure – blogs, twitter, podcast, etc – there are more than enough avenues for folks to get their daily share of news from.

The traditional print news media is caught blinded by this explosion of sorts. Not worrying about traditional competition anymore, they are just looking for ways and means to keep their current customer base in place and not lose market share to the new media outlets.

No matter what the level of news reach the online publication options provide, there’s still bound to be a time and place for traditional print: be it on an airplane, be it fulfilling the morning ritual of a quick glance at the newspaper with a cup of coffee, or lying down by the pool side on a quiet Saturday afternoon with a newspaper in hand.

So, as an editor to a leading news publication, the biggest challenge is to capture and retain the attention of the reader. Does one go the mass market way and provide a tabloid, or does one focus on providing enriched content that adds cerebral value to the reader? The answers to these questions determine the critical choice of whether to put certain events’ coverage on page-1 or page-3 of the newspaper.

If someone were to pick up a USA-Today and Wall Street Journal in Boston today, there’s a marked difference in the Page-1 content between the newspapers. The same difference is obviously visible when one looks at The Hindu & Times Of India in Bangalore, which is on the other side of the world.

While these newspapers cover the same little urban village, that is the world, and the content is from the same events worldwide, there’s a marked difference on what the focus of these newspapers is, especially when it comes to deciding what goes on Page-1!

As the executive editor, or whatever he or she is now called, what goes into them making these choices? Does their role move beyond just the coverage; do they owe something to the world at large i.e. the customers, by virtue of their bi-partisan positions? Is there a moral side to it? It must be hard to strike a balance between being a self-righteous moral police and being seen as enticing audience with sensationalism.

Essentially, there’s a simple answer to this seemingly complex conundrum and the solution is equally applicable to an individual or entity. The clues lie in answering one question:

Are you a false positive or a false negative?

Stripping all the jargon around it, would you rather be seen as doing the right thing, or would you rather do the right thing and not care about the perception or the end results?

What would you do??

Image Credit: Neogabox, Quarter Mae

Popularity: 9%

India rewards her “Brightest”, “Bravest” and “Best” on the Republic Day.

The awards come in three categories (I think outside of the awards for the defense forces)

I am no expert on some of these fields, but have a fairly informed opinion on sports. The year 2008 has been a watershed year for Indian sports.

A cricket crazy country that we are, the men in blue took us to great heights, literally to the point of knocking on the numero uno spot in both versions of the game. It was a record of sorts when the Olympic team returned home with much more than expected.

Saina made phenomenal headlines and showed that there is life in badminton beyond Prakash Padukone and Gopichand.

I’m sure I am missing a lot more, but I guess we are fairly well covered with the highlights! For winning an Olympic Gold, Abhinav rightly got the Padma Bhusan. He did the country proud by doing what no other Indian has done. An Olympic Gold is indeed a big deal. I still remember the day that happened – I was neck deep in work when a colleague walked up to me and said we won gold. I continued working and said, something with my broken Hindi meant to say, stop giving me crap and to work. It was only when he insisted that I check out IBN Live.com that I actually acknowledged the fact that we indeed had a gold against our name. Great effort; well recognized.

The Padma Shri rewards MS Dhoni, Balbir Khullar, Pankaj Advani and Harbhajan Singh. I don’t know who Balbhir Khullar was. A quick Google search says it’s a name associated to the field of hockey – Fair enough, it’s our national sport after all! Pankaj is that snooker chap! I know he was on a winning spree and his picture certainly does come to my mind and I am sure to most others too!

Harbhajan Singh – a name that courted more controversy than any other in 2008 – Slap gate being the biggest of them all! I don’t for a moment want to take away the fact that Bhajji is an exceptional cricketer. He’s a fighter to the core and I’ll doff my hat off for him any day. But I just can’t come to terms with the fact that we’ve rewarded Bhajji in a year that got him into the news for all the wrong reasons! To me, it’s just not acceptable.

Bad behavior when rewarded with good consequences will result in bad behavior! Being the sports crazy country that we are, and also one where the media is sitting in every nook and corner expect the loo, issues and concerns are covered pretty widely. Every kid watching cricket saw Bhajji slap a peer. Without getting into the list of some of his other on field antics, I strongly feel Bhajji does not deserve this award. It’s unfortunate that we chose to reward bad behavior. Are we running short of sportsmen to reward? Give me a break – the wrestlers and boxers who also played a huge role in getting us the much touted fame would have been better candidates for an award as high as this than Bhajji.

While I’d pick Bhajji if I had to play a game of cricket in my side 10 times out of 10, his behavior is certainly not worth awarding.  While the WHAT of your performance is extremely important, the HOW is equally important. Without this, you will land up creating a team filled with morons – look at Bhajji’s nemesis and counterpart in controversy, Andrew Symmonds for a second. Exceptional talent but tons of associated bad behaviour and attitude – just can’t keep himself away from controversy.

Do you want to see your kids growing up learning to play a game from folks like these? I’d rather have my son play a game like Dhoni or Bindra rather than be an exceptional talent like Bhajji or Symmo and get into trouble every other day.  I really wish the authorities look at performance holistically before choosing to reward anyone.

Image Credit: Marco Bellucci

Popularity: 15%

This being compensation season, I had to get to work today despite the fact that today was a holiday!!

I gave the gym a miss, piling on the excuse that I’m not at my fittest best today. I left home a little beyond my standard time and was bracing myself up for the hour and a half ride to work.

As I passed the by-lanes to get to the main streets, I was greeted to lesser than usual traffic. WOW! What a pleasure it is to drive on days like this. Turning on my music, I started cruising, enjoying the great Bangalore weather and the pirated MP3.

There was a sense of nostalgia.

The not-so-crowded roads took me back to my teen days, when my cousin and I could go from one corner of the city to another, in pretty much no time. Bangalore used to be a blissful place to drive around – cool all through the year, disciplined drivers, an odd honk here or there and a lot of green.

How I wish this could last forever!!!  I went to the extent of proposing legislations that make governments declare two days a month as days when people have to stay home and I could get to work enjoying my drive, maybe IT organizations need to have everyone work from home and that can take the traffic away and then this screechy sound of metal touching metal!

A big blue BTS bus just went past touching my car, just enough to cause a blue scratch mark from the boot to the two doors! The damage in Bangalore terms, 3rd degree – something that is not carnage enough to cost you a bomb, but something that can cause a bit of carnage to the heart! The guy didn’t bother to stop – he just kept going on and on. I was game for a fight and said, let me chase him down and started racing! Within moments, I gave up. Not because my car didn’t have the vroom or the guy I was going to pick up an argument against was too powerful – I’ve seen many such non value adding fights on the streets before – they are a waste of your energy and poke a little hole to your pocket as the bus driver is not going to pay you any money!

I pulled up to the sides to look at my most recent addition, the big blue scratch in addition to the other dozens of scratch marks & dents that adorn the body of my car. I’m not alone here and I see this on every other car – The brand new Civics, the Audis that recently hit the road and the good old 800s – they are all there to give me company! I’m on that ever growing list of people who believe that these minor things are best left unattended to!

Five years ago, I’d bought a brand new Zen. The car had a few “medals” and I was off to the showroom in a hurry to fix this. I spent a good 8K change and got the car to the office – the car looked like mint and I walked up feeling good. In less than 5 minutes, a security guard called me at my desk to say that a stray dog entered the office car park and damaged a car – it just lifted its legs and scratched my car bumpers; thankfully, it couldn’t get higher. I came down running to check my damages and a migration manager who came along was laughing out loud, feeling sorry for me within (as he claims). So much for getting my car fixed. I’ve sworn since, never to fix these minor issues.

Back to today, I was wondering if I did something wrong. Like every other driver, I can swear and say that I was the best and never put a foot wrong. I continued driving to work and while driving, it dawned upon me that maybe the “extra space” was what caused the incident. There are days when I can drive in bumper to bumper traffic and still get home without anyone touching the car, but it’s the suddenly freely available extra space that make drivers lose control. Look at what driving in bumper to bumper traffic means to us!

Popularity: 11%

I started working about a decade ago and bumped into this pretty girl from a state in India called Gujarat. She was hired to work for me and I must clarify that I had no role in her selection…these were early days you see!!

We got chatting about our lives one day when I asked her the question, “What gets you to Bangalore?”. She didn’t pause a second to think and replied pat saying “I am looking for a bright career in the IT industry”.

I was real cocky those days – cocky about the fact that my city was considered the Silicon Valley of India and was a real magnet in terms of attracting all these young people from different parts of the country. I’ve had countless conversations when I’ve raved about Bangalore and ridiculed her state for being “under developed”. I’ve even gone to the extent of ragging her saying “do you guys have roads, public transport etc back home?”.

Gujarat’s transformation from being one of those under developed states about a decade ago to being a top draw for investments has been phenomenal.

How did all this happen?

One man and his desire to make things happen – Narendra Modi. Here comes a leader who like most of his counterparts says, I will do X, Y & Z and unlike his counterparts goes on to deliver all of them. The result – public loves them and want more. To do what he did with the Tata’s to bring in the Nano was probably the tipping point in this state’s ascendancy.

His leadership and the state are raved about today. And why not?

A recent corporate summit had Sunil Mittal and Anil Ambani suggested that Modi’s prowess should get him the big job in the country soon – being Prime Minister. What baffled me the following day were the reactions that were expressed for Industry leaders making that remark. The party that he is a part of, itself, was in arms, needless the mention the Congress and the other numerous fingers and toe parties that are around the country.

That gets me to ask the question… WHAT THE HELL?

Here’s a guy who has done what he said he will – that is the fundamental principle of good governance and people like it. All that they want is someone to focus on development and do what he/she promises to do. India over the last 12 months has clearly seen and recognized this – If Modi won a second term and Sheila Dixit a 3^rd, it’s just the fact that the work they do speaks volumes for them. It’s a known fact that no politician is clean and I don’t want to even go there.

What people want is good governance, tangible signs of development and keeping up of promises.

As leaders running businesses, it is extremely frustrating to see the lack of this across the country. Case and point to this is what’s happened to Bangalore over the last decade. While Gujarat was on it’s upswing, the Congress with Dharam Singh and the Son of the s(p)oil, Deve Gowda but Bangalore and Karnataka into reverse gear.

Bangalore bursts at its seams with little to no development in the last decade – the results here to see in the form of crippled infrastructure, no new industries coming in and of course, traffic jams turn this city to a standstill at pretty much any time of the day.

I consider myself fortunate for not having to bump into that pretty girl often these days – she must be dying to give back to me some of the hell that I gave her!

Is it unfair for the people of India and the business leaders to ask for someone who’s proven himself at governance and delivering on his promises to lead them? I think we’ve had enough of the days of Presidents who can’t walk and Prime Ministers who can’t talk (we’ve had exceptions alright, but the need is for exceptions to become the rule).

Come on… these requests are not unfair at all – it’s not about being favorable to one party or the other.. it is picking someone who is the right man to drive the bus, and drive it forward of course!

Popularity: 15%

You’ll invariably find a PS note at the end of an article. I don’t mean to be different and start with a PS note. I just reckon that this article might hurt a few sentiments and hence want to be sure that I clarify a few things upfront!

PS: This is just my point of view on something that is fundamental to the Hindu religion. I don’t mean to ridicule or question a religion that I believe and practice. I am just airing out a few questions that I have in my mind… and being in the corporate world, I think these are conflicts of interests!

So here we go!!!

India being a Hindu country – I have no clue on the stats, but know for a fact – a vast majority of us here are Hindus. I grew up in pretty strong Hindu tradition where my grandparents and parents repeatedly told me the importance of doing the right thing, being truthful at all times and the price that one will have to pay in front of the lord for being dishonest and selfish.

I still remember my grandparents telling me that if you lie, the gods will poke your eyes! I am sure every south Indian Hindu would have heard this or a variant of this in some shape, form, size or color.

Super – all things that are in the spirit of doing the right thing and living a guilt free life!

I saw a post on rediff.com – http://specials.rediff.com/money/2009/jan/12slde1-pooja-havan-to-help-raju-get-bail.htm

A group of Hindu pundits are performing a Pooja and Havan – invoking God’s help – to help with the bail application of Ramalinga Raju, which the courts said no to a few days back.

If the dharma says that forgery and cheating are crimes that the gods won’t tolerate and forgive – how is it that these Hindu pundits are out to invoke the same god, to save a criminal?

Save someone who has himself confessed that he is a cheat?

Save someone who has swindled public money for private gains?

Save someone who forged documents to take himself to such great heights and made corporate India look like a bunch of jerks eventually?

Isn’t this a conflict of interest? Isn’t this something that would drive the gods crazy??

I now know why we say the Gods must be crazy!!

Popularity: 11%

Slumdog Millionaire! Another face of metro India. This one definitely is yet another Rags-to-Riches story. That’s Slumdog Millionaire.

But there is a difference. There is no villain, or revenge or any romance behind the trees in this movie. The movie released on the 5th of December is directed by David Boyle who has a few movies like Shallow Grave, A Life Less Ordinary & The Beach to his credit. Based on Vikas Swaroop’s story, the entire movie revolves around Jamaal, a poor child who grows up in the slums of Mumbai.

The movie starts with an almost millionaire Jamaal being interrogated in a police station for his suspected involvement in a fraud which is believed to have helped him win the acclaimed game show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’. Irfan Khan, playing the inspector’s role tries to get Jamaal to confess to the fraud. Jamaal reveals how experiences from his life help him win the game.

Each question takes the audience back into Jamaal’s, his brother Salim’s and his love interest Lathika’s life. Life in slums makes him a beaten slum dog. Experiences like the death of his mother in the Hindu-Muslim riots, a small stint with the tourists in Agra, transformation of his brother Salim into a gangster are the key to his answers in the game show. There is a subtle romance shown between Jamaal & Lathika throughout the movie.

The movie highlights problems in India like begging on streets, life in slums, poverty, child prostitution, betting etc. It shows how children from slums are forced into a life of crime, sex & hatred.

Anil Kapoor, Irfan Khan and Saurabh Shukla have done a great job. But it’s worth mentioning the work done by the small lot of actors who morphed themselves into the characters of slum dogs. Dev Patel, Tanay Chheda, Ayush Khedekar and Vikas Swaroop play the main character Jamaal.

Music is by none other than A R Rehman. The back ground scores and a few tracks are in sync with the movie’s pace. The album sounds enchanting.  The movie has been edited to perfection and keeps the audience glued to their seats. It’s a gripping 120 minute long movie.

There are a few drawbacks in the movie which can go unnoticed or be ignored. The movie is a definite watch and has been nominated for many international awards. It has bagged Golden globes for best drama, director, screenplay and music score.

A rating of 8 out of 10 for the movie.

Don’t miss it.

Popularity: 24%

Over the last few days, there has been so much of attention given to Satyam, Ramalinga Raju, his admission, his arrest etc.  The entire corporate world is speaking their heart out against Satyam and its founder.

One aspect that received less attention is the Corporate Political nexus.

This is very evident in the Satyam saga.  Although the politicians ,the Naidus and the Reddys of the world,  are trying their best to stay away from the Rajus, it is a well known fact that Satyam’s progress and the awarding of the various contracts in Andhra Pradesh and the other parts of the country could not have been  possible without  ”Under The Table” dealings.

A controversy not so long ago in rewarding the Hyderabad Metro project was brought to everyone’s notice and Mr.E Sreedharan had quite famously said about the rewarding of the contract as

“Making available 296 acres of land to BOT to Maytas consortium was like selling the family silver”

It is a known fact that without the politicians, the corporate honchos are helpless in getting contracts after contracts. And without the contributions from the corporate, large scale spending on elections and self progress can never be achieved. 

While it may be extremely difficult to prove, given the fact that everyone connected to the Satyam scam would have washed off their hands and destroyed all or any of the remaining evidence so, the existence of relationship between big businesses and the politicians can not be denied. This nexus has only seen the common man suffer.

So who are these sufferers?

The worst sufferers are definitely the employees and the shareholders of the company. 

Spare a moment also for the hundreds (if not thousands) of future entrepreneurs who would not even dare to start a venture in India, knowing very well what they will have to compromise on their ethics and morality to be rewarded contracts.

How often do you see the likes of a Narayana Murthy or an Azim Premji emerge victorious without actually paying heed to the politician’s demands.  And if you dare to be different from the rest, you are often harassed mentally and in some cases physically until you succumb to the political pressures.

Given such environment to do business, it will be indeed surprising that how many small businesses and entrepreneurs will be able to make it big in India.

A dream will remain a dream if the lawmakers in India do not make exclusive provisions to severely punish those politicians and the corporate who indulge in unfair practices. There has to be a fear for the law of the land.

Last decade saw India leaping after the economy liberalized.  Now that some of the moles are out, the government should take extreme measures to ensure that the future years will be profoundly remembered as an age of trust, honesty and transparency where a rejuvenated India will emerge and a common man can dream…and dream big!

Popularity: 17%

Last couple of weeks, two multimillion dollar news/ reviews caught my attention – Multimillion dollar stories of a dog, a shoe and the many games people play.

One was of course of “The Bush Shoe” and the other was the latest movie going the rounds- Slum Dog Millionaire

US President George Bush was attacked with a shoe by a Cairo based Iraqi TV reporter Muntadar Al-Zeidi. The shoe has gained tremendous popularity – in the middle eastern world and the western world. Although shoe throwing is considered as an insult in many parts of the Middle East, this particular incident was an exception of sort. There was allround praise for Mr.Zeidi. In fact I even heard the news of a Saudi man willing to give $ 10 Mln to get his hands to those “Godly” shoes

In his last days as President, Mr. Bush has certainly earned the respect from his followers so much so that it took a shoe for all the talking. Apparently the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al- Maliki had clearly heard the thrower’s accompanying cry of “This is a goodbye kiss, you dog”

Check out the many shoe games that has come to the market post this incident. There are many, here are the top five

1. Sock And Awe

2. Bush Bash

3. Flying Babush

4. Bush’s Boot Camp

5. Can You Throw a Shoe at Bush ?

What a mess indeed, huh ?

Talking of dog and of course the million dollars, it seems Slumdog Millionaire has caught its viewers by surprise.

Slumdog Millionaire is a story of a Mumbai Boy who won the Hindi version of famous reality show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”. The film is directed by Danny Boyle and written by Simon Beaufoy and is based on the book Q and A by Vikas Swarup.

The story sound simple – Jamal Malik  goes into the Hindi version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and wins it. How can the illiterate boy from the slum with zero knowledge win such a prestigious show ? Things get complicated when the producers of the show do not believe that the boy indeed won it fairly.

Will that deter the boy from reaching his ultimate goal ? What is his ultimate goal ?

He loves a girl from his childhood days and has lost touch with her. Now he wants to get reunited with her. He knows for a fact knows that she watches every episode. Inorder to find her he goes to the show and wins it.  What mattered to him was the girl and not the million dollars that were waiting to be taken.

The Director Danny Boyle revealed on MTV Movies Blog that it is a true story. The movie stars Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan. Music is by A R Rahman.

I browsed around to get see what others are talking about the movie. And here are few of those ketch ups

1. Although set in India, Film’s appeal are universal

2. It is a Crowd Pleaser

3. One of the most dynamic and exuberant underdog stories

If you are keen to take a sneek peak, watch the theatrical trailer here.

Image Credit: Wikimedia

Popularity: 15%

In continuation to the previous post, here is another one that will be of great interest to you..This one talks about the two great Khans – Salman & Shahrukh. If you thought I’d leave Aamir, then you are wrong. Aamir will be featured in the next one. Watch out, meanwhile take this !

Salman Khan

I have seen Salman Khan dance, emote, show his bare chests, be the good boy in reel life, otherwise in real life. But rarely did I get a chance to read what he writes. Yesterday was one such day when I read what he wrote and believe me he does write really well.

I started off thinking-when I write this article, I will probably talk the usual – all beauty no brains. But to my surprise, he changed my thinking.

Don’t believe me ? Read the below

Art is created in loneliness and exhibited in public. Aamir khan also said once that an actor’s best period is when he has no work. What he probably meant was that such time off gives an artist, ample scope for introspection and brutal self-analysis. This is what helps an actor to grow as an artist and as a human being. We movie stars are almost always surrounded by people and usually have a very hectic schedule… Loneliness is a luxury…precious to us. Continual self-analysis is a dream. We have to steal moments of loneliness or should I say being alone…to look within. This inward journey is highly rewarding.

You can read more of Salman Khan at http://duskadum.blogspot.com/. Sad, he doesn’t maintain a personal blogsite with his brand on it – something like SalmanKhan.com

Alexa Rank for Salman Khan’s blog is 194, 638 – Not so bad !

Shahrukh Khan

If Salman Khan can create six packs, so can Shahrukh Khan. If Salman pick up a fight, so can Shahrukh too. If Salman Khan can write, then Shahrukh will also not be left behind. Shahrukh thinks he is a fighter and is a winner in everything that he does.

I am not a big fan of Shahrukh Khan but the way he carries himself off screen, makes me wonder why I wasn’t one. There is a bit of professionalism displayed in his writings but not good enough to make the reader think, though. I have heard him speak several times. It seems his oratory skills have not folded well into his pen.

Another point that I have observed is that he has not updated his blog since the IPL days – from May. That is not being a professional. It seems he has created the blog only to link with his IPL pitch, very commercially driven. He has used the IPL hype to his advantage. The appearance of his blog has an IPL touch to it. Check the Knight Riders website and you will know what I am talking about.

After reading Shah Rukh Khan’s blog, all I can say he has a lot to learn to make that emotional connect to his readers.

Here’s a glimpse of his writing style.

It is you, fans, and your generous wishes and comments that have always driven the passion in us. For that, I am thankful. I know that even when we lose a wicket, you will be there to cheer us on so that the batsman heading to the pavilion can walk with head raised, so that the batsman coming in to play can feel encouraged, and so that the opponent knows what incredible force they are up against.

Was it encouraging ? Or did it look phony – as in K..K..K..K…. Kiran ! You decide…

Anyways, you can read his blogs at http://www.millanofthevillains.in/blog/home.asp

Alexa Ranking is @ 1,405,757 – Not very impressive

Popularity: 12%