10:42 PM

Eddie Murphy is on stage to present the Jean Hearscholt Humanitarian Award. And the award goes to legendary Jerry Lewis. Nostalgic, huh ?

10: 54 PM

AR Rahman wins two Oscars for India, two more to the Slumdog Millionaire kitty.

AR Rahman wins the best Original Score for Slumdog Millionaire. Proud of you, AR Rahman..What more – He gives a live performance from Slumdog Millionaire….O Saya and Jai Ho along with MIA.

This is probably the best night for A R Rahman.

He is also nominated for the best background score and he wins it hands down. The song is Jai Ho and the lyricist is Gulzar.

Arguably the best night for Slumdog Millionaire, AR Rahman and India.

11:05 PM

Guess what ? Freida Pinto, from Slumdog Millionaire is on stage with Liam Neeson for presenting the best Foreign Film. The Oscar goes to “Departures”

The Japanese director is Berry Berry Appy and Sankoos everyone. Did I say, Freida Pinto was lovely in that Blue dress.

I think this is the first time, an Indian has been called on stage to present an award. I may be wrong, though !

Popularity: 29%

Time is 9:46 PM

I am back to my seat and three guys come to announce the best live action award. The category doesn’t sound familiar, but sounds important. Whatever !

The Oscar award for the best live action short film goes to will tell you later.

By the way, did I tell you – Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire are tied at two awards each. Lets see who wins the battle of the Oscars. My heart goes for Slumdog Millionaire but my brain for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I hope my heart wins.

9:52 PM

Hugh Jackman is back and is busy talking of “Change That Has Come”…..He is talking of Mamma Miah and the musical. He is now singing, dancing live “Mariah….” from Mamma Miah…along with guess who – Beyonce Knowles!.

Oh My God!

This is the first time I am seeing him on stage and Hugh Jackman is phenomenal.

A Musical Oscars indeed. All the performers from Mamma Miah look so beautiful including Beyonce Knowles

Time is 9:59 – Time for a break and some grub – Salads, bread crumbs, light mayonnaise and lots of water. Not so spicy, right ? So uncommon for an Indian like me. Isn’t it ?..anyways, time to move on

Five actors including Cuba Gooding Jr. comes onto present the Best Supporting Actor.

The Oscar goes to the Late Heath Ledger for The Dark Night and the family (his mom,  dad and sister) came to receive the Oscars. All three of them spoke and accepts the award. An emotional moment, indeed. May his soul Rest In Peace

Who will win the Best Actor award ? – Mickey Rourke ? Wait for some more time and you will get to know that…

10:13 PM -

The best documentary award goes to James Marsh, Simon Chinn for Men On Wire. The winner shows some magic on stage. Very creative!

10:17 PM

The best Oscar for the small documentary short film goes to Megan Mylan for Smile Pinki – Another Indian film. Wow! This probably is the best year for Indian cinema at the Oscars for a long, long time to come. Hey, this is Icing On Cake!

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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!

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India won the Chennai Test against England convincingly enough by six wickets. Sehwag once again proved that a solid start can change the course of the game and the psyche of opponents.

England was, for once, outplayed in the game and it did when it mattered most – the last innings of the match.

Sachin was brilliant. Scoring his 41st century speaks volumes of the cricket left in him, even at this age. He along with Yuvraj paved the way for an Indian celebration.

With that being said, are we now heading for the Top Spot in Test Cricket ?

We have a Captain Cool in Dhoni, a legend in Tendulkar, a Swashbuckler in Sehwag, A wall in Dravid etc who are raring to go and achieve the unachievable.

The question is even with these stalwarts on the side, can we still make it to the top ?

In my opinion we are just a few steps away from reaching the top. As per the latest ICC Rankings, India is placed 3rd only next to South Africa and Australia.

So, what would it take India to reach the top spot in ICC Test Rankings ?

A few wins. No losses – Slam dunk, isn’t it ?!

Let’s dig a bit deeper. What would it take the team to win matches after matches ? I have given a laundry list of “To Dos” which Dhoni & co can work upon…

1. Dhoni should maintain his cool, as he always has been
2. Sehwag, Gambhir & Tendulkar should continue the way they have been performing
3. Middle Order must be consistent even if it calls for a few heads rolling (Rahul – are you listening ?)
4. Zaheer, Harbhajan, Amit & Ishant need to set higher benchmarks and consistently perform
5. Get the team’s mind off from off-the-field issues

Off-Field Issues ?

• Security Guards are meant for your Security
• Who slapped whom & why
• Bollywood Dreams and
• Of course- Of DhoniLakshmi’s Kollywood Dreams

Unnecessary attention diversion, you see..

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I often wonder when I read about the bailout packages dished out by Governments all around the world to aid banks and other financial institutions that are on the verge of bankruptcy especially the amount of money spent in bailouts in last couple of months is staggering. I am even surprised that there was not a single protest from anywhere and these financial criminals go unpunished. It is the common man who is going to bear the burden of additional tax and increased debt.

Why should tax payer’s money be used for bailing out greedy banks and corporations that have done business only with profit as motive and no concern for morals or ethics and absolutely no concern for the consequences for their acts. Putting public money in corporate coffers is just not acceptable. Financial crisis that has happened is a man made crisis done through substandard policies, deregulation and greed. I can understand putting in public money for natural disasters like earthquakes or folds. Governments all over the world have spent trillions of dollars on bailouts already

This kind of bailout is ABSURD!

We must collectively protest this .This is real money, my money, your money, our money which is hard earned paid in the form of tax.

Why should banks and financial institutions which never cared about the creditworthiness of people who lined up for loans or the soundness of derivatives business be rewarded. We should not allow government to write checks on tax payers’ account. This measure will increase the budget deficit by a significant amount, with no guarantee of recovering the amount and not holding anyone accountable for the misdeeds they have done.

What is the signal you are sending to the corporate world and investors through these bail outs? Do your businesses as you like and we will reward you for the blind errors you might commit. Is this the right way?

As far as I am concerned, there should be a thorough probe into the events that have led to this disaster and every CEO, Executive or Government who were part of this financial carnage should be jailed, their assets sold and put in a bailout fund.

It is time to wake up and realize that greed is the basis for all the financial disasters and find a way, may be strict disclosure norms, increasing the transparency in strategic decision making, making one responsible for his actions and

Few weeks back Finance Ministers of several Asian, Europe and Americas countries met and decided to act rapidly on the financial crisis

And now stock markets are being artificially manipulated by bailouts by governments.

When corporations see that the demand is coming down , it is natural for the stock to take a beating. But every other day we see CRR, SLR rate cuts which means our money is loaned back to us and the market stages a rally of any significance. FIIs and Badla traders slowly and routinely remove their money from our markets to invest elsewhere leaving the retail investor in a fix.

It is certainly not a good thing for a responsible, saving, taxpaying citizen, with no defaulted loans or credit card debt to compensate for the that Wall Street gamblers will go bust on their stupid and greedy bets, over-leveraged and poorly managed businesses with huge losses.

Let me tell you some interesting fact. Lehman has set aside $2.5 billion as bonus for their employees even as they went bankrupt for the great performance they showed in pushing the bank to bankruptcy.

What do you call this?

Popularity: 31%

Whenever we think of performance some key questions come to our mind

• Why does performance dip?
• Was the performance high at all in the first place?
• How or why does a high-performer migrate into a low performance zone?
• Does interest level play any role?
• Does monotony set in after being in the same role for some time?

These and many more such questions haunt the employers of today. Some insights into the key aspects that try to answer these questions have been described here. I have given a shot at how two of them – knowledge and enthusiasm/interest level play a major role in the performance of an employee. Well one could call it a theory of performance lifecycle, since lifecycles is the word being used everywhere. It’s become pretty hep in the corporate lingo.

The different stages of performance levels are given below:

1.   Low Performance – High Enthusiasm / Low Knowledge

This is the stage when an employee joins the organization and is new to the environment. He wants to know more about the job and is highly thrilled about the new environment. Like with all new things, he is obviously highly enthused. However, like in most cases there is a gestation period to this too and it takes a while before he learns the dos and don’ts of the job. Therefore he goes through a low performance period.

2.    High Performance – High Enthusiasm / High Knowledge

Once the employee is up the learning curve, he is ready to kick a@%! He has just finished all his knowledge acquisition on the project/process and is just waiting/getting started with his initial phase of getting into production. Another point is that he also wants to prove his worth and build credibility; hence the performance level at this stage is invariably at the highest level.

3.    Mediocre Performance – Low Enthusiasm / High Knowledge

By now, the employee has proved his mettle and is more relaxed and composed now. The adrenaline rush is not there any more, nor does he get a kick out of the regular mundane tasks. But since he is already well acquainted with his tasks, he is still good with the job. The performance is no more outstanding as the enthusiasm level starts dipping.

4.     Low Performance – Low Enthusiasm / Low Knowledge

There comes the last stage, where the employee’s enthusiasm level heads southwards and hits the rock bottom in no time. This also affects his know-how of the job. As days go by, his interest levels dip and he doesn’t bother keeping himself updated with the ever-changing work environment and the processes and procedures. This added with the mundane routine without any new challenges, with nothing exciting happening around him, in turn leads into frustration and the performance further dips.

A point to note is that there is no set standard timeline for one to move from one stage to another. It just happens at its own pace depending from one individual to another.

Popularity: 8%