THe football season comes to an end with what was described as clash of titans between Europes best clubs. unfortunately Red devils failed to meet the expectations and loosed the match and title too easily. It is one of the night that nothing went right for United. Players lost rhythm, our midfielders lost possession too easily, passing was poor, defense was broken apart, at times Ronaldo was selfish n failed to run freely and we failed as a unit in a big match.
The good part is United lost to the only other team in the world that plays exciting football as Manchester United
I don't have any regrets, United retained EPL in spite of tough schedules and loosing out several players due to injuries, the team has depth and quality, the junior boys showed there class (Macheda- Rafel- Danny wellbeck) and I am sure united will emerge stronger next season
Ending with a small question
Kia Joorabchian and a group of Investors of Media Sports Investments own economic rights of which Manchester united player
Answer in comments
May 28, 2009
May 14, 2009
Proudest moments of Indian democracy
Are you proud of Indian democracy? if you ask this question majority Indian's will say No(Esp educated, Urban, still sleeping kind).
And yes, without any doubts there are significant loop holes in our Election system. getting Voter ID cards is pain, we don't know if our name is in election list or not, we don't know where our vote is,25% elected representatives have criminal records,majority are corrupt, politics became a business and the list goes on and on.
But on the other side of coin, they are few classic examples of Indian democracies strength:
1. Voting rights to all irrespective of caste, religion, and qualification: The right to vote was given to all Indian citizens without any struggle, unlike in many countries which took decades to get voting right
Blacks in USA were guaranteed their voting rights in 1965 by Lydon Jhonson. The world's most matured democracy took 100 years to give its minority a chance to vote.
Greece, gave women right to vote in 1952, after 64 years of aggitations
Indonesia took 36 years to sanction voting rights to women
Like many other gulf nations, Saudi Arabian women still don't have voting rights
2. Military did not interfere in politics and by and large bureaucracy is not partisan:
Unlike our neighboring countries or many African countries Indian Army restrained from taking hold of power and restricted themselves to their duty.
Many of my friends occasionally rant about, benefits of Army taking our India. They feel it is the only way to kick out corrupt politicians. Unfortunately its not a intelligent solution. I believe semi-functional, un matured democracy is much better than no democracy. Absolute power without any review system will be disastrous.
3. Peaceful transfer of power:
India has ensured a smooth, almost effortless democratic transition for more than six decades.Again a fundamental thing for any working democracy which we did not screwed up in last 60 years, except on one occasion when congress leaders thought Indira is India, India is Indira.
4. Indira Gandhi defeat
1977 elections truly tested fairness in Indian elections.Indira Gandhi's mindless decision to take on judiciary and two years of ruthless power killed all democratic institutions(independent media, Police, Judiciary), however people taught Indira Gandhi a strong lesson. Remember it happened in 70's when there is no 24/7 media
I think we made a good start in sustaining our democracy, by and large we are convinced that there is a need of one working democracy, now the challenge is to make it better.
We need to change the way we elect our representatives, scrap First past The Post(FPTP) electoral system, a legacy of British colonialism and a system our constitution writers choose given India’s extremely diverse and multi-ethnic society. Stop criminals and encourage internal democracy in parties, make fund raising process more cleaner, and ensure politics attracts right(not winning) candidates.
And yes, without any doubts there are significant loop holes in our Election system. getting Voter ID cards is pain, we don't know if our name is in election list or not, we don't know where our vote is,25% elected representatives have criminal records,majority are corrupt, politics became a business and the list goes on and on.
But on the other side of coin, they are few classic examples of Indian democracies strength:
1. Voting rights to all irrespective of caste, religion, and qualification: The right to vote was given to all Indian citizens without any struggle, unlike in many countries which took decades to get voting right
Blacks in USA were guaranteed their voting rights in 1965 by Lydon Jhonson. The world's most matured democracy took 100 years to give its minority a chance to vote.
Greece, gave women right to vote in 1952, after 64 years of aggitations
Indonesia took 36 years to sanction voting rights to women
Like many other gulf nations, Saudi Arabian women still don't have voting rights
2. Military did not interfere in politics and by and large bureaucracy is not partisan:
Unlike our neighboring countries or many African countries Indian Army restrained from taking hold of power and restricted themselves to their duty.
Many of my friends occasionally rant about, benefits of Army taking our India. They feel it is the only way to kick out corrupt politicians. Unfortunately its not a intelligent solution. I believe semi-functional, un matured democracy is much better than no democracy. Absolute power without any review system will be disastrous.
3. Peaceful transfer of power:
India has ensured a smooth, almost effortless democratic transition for more than six decades.Again a fundamental thing for any working democracy which we did not screwed up in last 60 years, except on one occasion when congress leaders thought Indira is India, India is Indira.
4. Indira Gandhi defeat
1977 elections truly tested fairness in Indian elections.Indira Gandhi's mindless decision to take on judiciary and two years of ruthless power killed all democratic institutions(independent media, Police, Judiciary), however people taught Indira Gandhi a strong lesson. Remember it happened in 70's when there is no 24/7 media
I think we made a good start in sustaining our democracy, by and large we are convinced that there is a need of one working democracy, now the challenge is to make it better.
We need to change the way we elect our representatives, scrap First past The Post(FPTP) electoral system, a legacy of British colonialism and a system our constitution writers choose given India’s extremely diverse and multi-ethnic society. Stop criminals and encourage internal democracy in parties, make fund raising process more cleaner, and ensure politics attracts right(not winning) candidates.
May 13, 2009
Check It Out
Edgar Hernandez a.k.a "Patient Zero"may be the first person to have contracted the swine flu, or the New H1N1 virues. I hope he survived the deadly flu. BTW, Common seasonal flu kills 250,000 to 500,000 people every year worldwide.
Bill Waters claims to found out the original formula of Dr.Pepper from a book he bought at a antique stores. The formula is written in Alderton’s notebook labeled “CASTLES FORMULAS
Dr.Pepper was started out in the late 1800's as a syrupy additive to tonic by pharmacist,Charles Alderton, an employee of Wade B. Morrison at the Old Corner Drugstore. The original formula drink contains ‘denatured rum,’ and vanilla, among other thing and was probably sold as a "digestive" to help make stomach medicine palatable.
Cambodian Farmers expressed concern about the rice harvest after the royal oxen refused to eat the grain. more on this thamasha here
E.U levied a $1.45-billion fine on Intel for bribing retailers and manuf to shut its main rival out of European markets.Neelie Kroes, EU Competition Commissioner joked after passing the judgment that Intel can change its latest advertising slogan from "sponsors of tomorrow" to "the sponsor of the European taxpayer". More.
April 21, 2009
Homai Vyarawala Tata Nano First Owner
Tata's gifted the much awaited Nano to 96 year old Homai Vyarawala, who is India's “first Woman photographer’. Homai sold her 55 year old Fiat car to buy a brand new Nano and respecting her passion for the car, Tata's gifted the car to her.
Drive safely mam :)
April 19, 2009
2009 Brand Equity Quiz Questions
27 teams battled out in Hyderabad leg of brand Equity Quiz.I guess this is the easiest prelims in recent BEQ's. The toughest part was understanding the question in first go, Derick did not repeat the questions and they are hardly visible on the screen
Prelim Questions:
In Hyderabad, what is auctioned by Balapur utsav Samithhi - The famous Ganesh Ladoo
The store mangers of which retail gaint are known as "Karthas" - Future Group
twitter.com is founded by Jack Dorsey
What is the new name of Guinness Book of World Records - Guinness World Records
Aceralia (Spain), Usinor (France) and Arbed (Luxembourg) merged in 2002 to form which company - Arcelor
To arbitrage is to make fit without risk
Dabur is named after blah blah n blah. Is that statement true or false - True
Time magazine called which brand an example of peer production - Wikipedia
The device was called Leapfrog, then became Strawberry, a reputed linguist suggested Straw is slow word and thus the brand name was changed into - Blackberry
Under whose leadership GM started "A car for each purse and purpose" - Alfred Sloan
If it is Incredible India,for India, what is for Australia - Amazing Australia
THe word comes from old english word for anxiety - Business
Who received royal warrant as the only English supplier of coco to Queen - Cadburys
Payment method invented by Marselis Berry - Travelers Cheque
Longest running hoarding campaign - Amul
In 2008, which economist was appointed as advisor to PM - Raghuram Rajan
OSRAM brand name originated from
In its centenary year, what did yamaha added to its name - Corporation
The small swedeish town of..produces what - Absolot Vodka
In 1987 Mills and Boons was entered into Oxford dictionary
Print ad of horlicks
Pic of Alexander Graham bell
Logo of ISB
Prelim Questions:
In Hyderabad, what is auctioned by Balapur utsav Samithhi - The famous Ganesh Ladoo
The store mangers of which retail gaint are known as "Karthas" - Future Group
twitter.com is founded by Jack Dorsey
What is the new name of Guinness Book of World Records - Guinness World Records
Aceralia (Spain), Usinor (France) and Arbed (Luxembourg) merged in 2002 to form which company - Arcelor
To arbitrage is to make fit without risk
Dabur is named after blah blah n blah. Is that statement true or false - True
Time magazine called which brand an example of peer production - Wikipedia
The device was called Leapfrog, then became Strawberry, a reputed linguist suggested Straw is slow word and thus the brand name was changed into - Blackberry
Under whose leadership GM started "A car for each purse and purpose" - Alfred Sloan
If it is Incredible India,for India, what is for Australia - Amazing Australia
THe word comes from old english word for anxiety - Business
Who received royal warrant as the only English supplier of coco to Queen - Cadburys
Payment method invented by Marselis Berry - Travelers Cheque
Longest running hoarding campaign - Amul
In 2008, which economist was appointed as advisor to PM - Raghuram Rajan
OSRAM brand name originated from
In its centenary year, what did yamaha added to its name - Corporation
The small swedeish town of..produces what - Absolot Vodka
In 1987 Mills and Boons was entered into Oxford dictionary
Print ad of horlicks
Pic of Alexander Graham bell
Logo of ISB
April 16, 2009
Twitter Yes or Twitter No
I had a good number of discussions/arguments on Twitter(A.K.A micrblogging) and the hype around it with many of my friends and colleagues. Many of them think twitter is rubbish and serves no purpose.
Nay sayers generally argue, why do you want to know pointless status updates of others, how many are your friends, its better to do status updates on facebook
Without getting into the debate of how good it is, I believe Twitter is revolutionary and will be a critical tool in how people connect and network with each other.
Social networkers serve a dual role as both the suppliers and consumers of content, and your experience depends on the kind of content supplied by others. What will you do if none of your friends are on the same social network, what will you do on a social network without an active community? What will you do if no one is contributing (supplying) content?
The problem I see is, users fail to understand how twitter works and what they can do on twitter. We are not used to this kind of real time communication channel
Twitter enables you to have conversations, some time beyond your friend circle, connect with a diverse set of users (mostly techies and 2.0 kind of guys)
So the core experience on twitter depends on who you are actually following on twitter, the kind of content they generate and quality of conversations you participate in.
Agreed you feel lost if none of your offline friends are using twitter and you are the first one on twitter. But if you want to connect with some interesting users in areas of your interest (like start ups, web2.0, tech, politics, sports) you should give twitter a try, because that’s where conversations are happening, not on Facebook groups
Twitter yes or Twitter no?
The answer to it depends on what do you want to do on a tool/service(FB or Twitter).
Do you want to network with people?
Do you want to connect with your friends?
Do you want to take part in discussions/conversations via groups or on real time?
Who do you want to talk with? (2.0 guys or friends)
You will enjoy twitter:
If you follow people who are creating content with similar interests ( like say u r interested in F1 and connected with users who are creating interesting content about F1)
Or your real life friends are active on twitter
I guess many started using twitter because of reason 1
So how can I connect with users of my interest? It may take time to find people you are interested in connecting with, but move slowly, try to understand how it works, use search.twiiter.com, track hash tags, use hash tags.
Reason 2, will take some more time to happen, I hardly know any one who loves twitter because many of their offline friends are updating their status messages on twitter
Twitter is growing like crazy, but the challenge they may face is getting on board users who understand twitter at first go, or else users will skip it as one more dotcom with no real purpose
The second question people generally ask me is difference between updating status messages on FB and Twitter
There is hell lot of difference
Networking on twitter is much easy, and you can easily find a bunch of people who have similar interests, and start talking with them with little effort. On FB u can find people, but can’t easily talk with them
On FB your r status messages or not search able, its reach has limitations, its personal(to you and your friends) and are not part of conversations. Twitter is more open, u can use it with various tools and developers have more scope of building useful tools. Openness is a limitation on facebook and thus limits innovation
FB has recently copied some twitter functionality, but its question of Open Vs Private and both are popular for there own reasons
Nay sayers generally argue, why do you want to know pointless status updates of others, how many are your friends, its better to do status updates on facebook
Without getting into the debate of how good it is, I believe Twitter is revolutionary and will be a critical tool in how people connect and network with each other.
Social networkers serve a dual role as both the suppliers and consumers of content, and your experience depends on the kind of content supplied by others. What will you do if none of your friends are on the same social network, what will you do on a social network without an active community? What will you do if no one is contributing (supplying) content?
The problem I see is, users fail to understand how twitter works and what they can do on twitter. We are not used to this kind of real time communication channel
Twitter enables you to have conversations, some time beyond your friend circle, connect with a diverse set of users (mostly techies and 2.0 kind of guys)
So the core experience on twitter depends on who you are actually following on twitter, the kind of content they generate and quality of conversations you participate in.
Agreed you feel lost if none of your offline friends are using twitter and you are the first one on twitter. But if you want to connect with some interesting users in areas of your interest (like start ups, web2.0, tech, politics, sports) you should give twitter a try, because that’s where conversations are happening, not on Facebook groups
Twitter yes or Twitter no?
The answer to it depends on what do you want to do on a tool/service(FB or Twitter).
Do you want to network with people?
Do you want to connect with your friends?
Do you want to take part in discussions/conversations via groups or on real time?
Who do you want to talk with? (2.0 guys or friends)
You will enjoy twitter:
If you follow people who are creating content with similar interests ( like say u r interested in F1 and connected with users who are creating interesting content about F1)
Or your real life friends are active on twitter
I guess many started using twitter because of reason 1
So how can I connect with users of my interest? It may take time to find people you are interested in connecting with, but move slowly, try to understand how it works, use search.twiiter.com, track hash tags, use hash tags.
Reason 2, will take some more time to happen, I hardly know any one who loves twitter because many of their offline friends are updating their status messages on twitter
Twitter is growing like crazy, but the challenge they may face is getting on board users who understand twitter at first go, or else users will skip it as one more dotcom with no real purpose
The second question people generally ask me is difference between updating status messages on FB and Twitter
There is hell lot of difference
Networking on twitter is much easy, and you can easily find a bunch of people who have similar interests, and start talking with them with little effort. On FB u can find people, but can’t easily talk with them
On FB your r status messages or not search able, its reach has limitations, its personal(to you and your friends) and are not part of conversations. Twitter is more open, u can use it with various tools and developers have more scope of building useful tools. Openness is a limitation on facebook and thus limits innovation
FB has recently copied some twitter functionality, but its question of Open Vs Private and both are popular for there own reasons
April 06, 2009
Indian Elections Trivia
The popular coinage "Aya Ram, Gaya Ram" originated in 1967 when a Haryana legislator Gaya Lal changed his parties thrice in a single day
In 1957, CPI made history when it became the first Communist outfit in the world to take power through the ballot box( Kerala)
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections 230 parties fielded candidates and 40 parties recorded representation of one or more seats in the House.
In first general elections, many women in northern India were reluctant to register under their own names, wishing instead to identify themselves as A’s mother or B’s wife. However EC was reluctant to add their names as A's wife or B's mother, nearly 2.8 million eligible women voters who refused to cooperate with EC, or whose husbands would not permit them to do so, had to be struck off the rolls.
Panduranga Rao is India's first and only elected candidate to conduct a referendum on his work. Panduranga Rao was elected as Sarpanch of Allagadapa village (Nalgonda Dst, AP). After 3 years as sarpanch, he thought it is important to know his performance as sarpanch and conducted a referendum with help of few NGO's. Out of 1789 polled votes, 1710 supported him. He entered in Limca book of Records in 2006 as the first elected representative in India to hold a referendum on his tenure. Guinness World Records, is examining to enter his name. Hats off ,for upholding the spirit of democracy.
Over the years the number of candidates for lok sabha polls are increasing with the figure touching 10 contestants per constituency in 2004 compared to 3.83 in 1952.
In 2004 4,218 candidates lost deposits out of them 907 are from UP. Out of total contestants 77.6% candidates lost deposit
Out of 5,435 contestants in India only 1351 are from National parties and out of them 541 lost deposits
In 1952 elections India used multiple ballot boxes system. Each ballot box was marked with its party’s symbol, so that a voter could simply drop the paper he or she was given on entering the voting booth into the appropriate box
Total Registered parties in India - 1027,out of them 980 are not yet recognized. A few aspirants started parties with some innovative names like " Bharthiya prajatantrik shudh gandhiavadhi krishik dal"
In first Parliament elections 533 independents contested in election and 37 won in 2004 election 2385 independents contested and only 5 won
13th loksaba(1999) has seen highest number of women representatives in parliament - 49,where as in 1977 only 17 women candidates won
In only 5 elections 40 or more women representatives got elected in India
In five Indian states and one union territory, women voters outnumber men(Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Puducherry)
1996 Vajpayee Govt has highest number of ministers - 90
Just before 2004 elections 27 guys jumped into rival parties and contested on rival party symbol. out of them 20 lost in elections
In 1989 K.Ramakrishan was elected from Ankalapally parliamentary constituency by just 9 votes majority.
In 2004 elections 23 Mp's won by less than 5000 votes and 6 of them got less than 1000 votes majority
20,140 litres of violet ink will be used in Indian elections as EC decided to put ink from top of the nail to the bottom. Voters' ink was developed by the Delhi-based National Physical Laboratory, the ink's manufacturing has been licensed to Mysore Paints, a 72-year-old company owned by the Karnataka government. Only one man in the company knows the formula for making the ink - its quality control manager. And he does it behind a secure, locked door and alone.
Vote difference between congress and BJP in 2004 elections - 4% in 1998 it was just 0.4%
The highest voting percentage in any general elections has been 62.2% in 1957, the lowest was in 1967 when only 33% cast their vote
EC decided to give photo ID cards to all voters in year 1993
2009 General Elections would be the first time when the entire country, except the three States of Assam, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir, would be using the Photo Electoral Rolls
" `Ballot` and `bullet` are both derived from words for `balls`. The Greeks dropped a white ball when they favoured a candidate, and a black when they were against.
The word candidate comes from the Latin `candidatus` meaning `one clad in white` and most, till this day carry on with this white!"
A B Vajpayee is the only parliamentarian to be elected from four different states- UP, Gujarat, MP and Delhi!
Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were first used in Kerala. The highest number of candidates that an electronic voting machine can support is 64
IN 2009 elections Uttar Pradesh is not fielding a single serving or former Prime Minister from its sprawling constituencies.
The average age of MPs in the present Lok Sabha is 52.63 years
No ruling party has won re-election after serving a full term since Indira Gandhi led the Congress to victory in 1971
----------------------------------------------------------------
P.S: Collected from various newspapers over a period of time
Click here to meet King maker of Indian politics Mr.Subba Rao
In 1957, CPI made history when it became the first Communist outfit in the world to take power through the ballot box( Kerala)
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections 230 parties fielded candidates and 40 parties recorded representation of one or more seats in the House.
In first general elections, many women in northern India were reluctant to register under their own names, wishing instead to identify themselves as A’s mother or B’s wife. However EC was reluctant to add their names as A's wife or B's mother, nearly 2.8 million eligible women voters who refused to cooperate with EC, or whose husbands would not permit them to do so, had to be struck off the rolls.
Panduranga Rao is India's first and only elected candidate to conduct a referendum on his work. Panduranga Rao was elected as Sarpanch of Allagadapa village (Nalgonda Dst, AP). After 3 years as sarpanch, he thought it is important to know his performance as sarpanch and conducted a referendum with help of few NGO's. Out of 1789 polled votes, 1710 supported him. He entered in Limca book of Records in 2006 as the first elected representative in India to hold a referendum on his tenure. Guinness World Records, is examining to enter his name. Hats off ,for upholding the spirit of democracy.
Over the years the number of candidates for lok sabha polls are increasing with the figure touching 10 contestants per constituency in 2004 compared to 3.83 in 1952.
In 2004 4,218 candidates lost deposits out of them 907 are from UP. Out of total contestants 77.6% candidates lost deposit
Out of 5,435 contestants in India only 1351 are from National parties and out of them 541 lost deposits
In 1952 elections India used multiple ballot boxes system. Each ballot box was marked with its party’s symbol, so that a voter could simply drop the paper he or she was given on entering the voting booth into the appropriate box
Total Registered parties in India - 1027,out of them 980 are not yet recognized. A few aspirants started parties with some innovative names like " Bharthiya prajatantrik shudh gandhiavadhi krishik dal"
In first Parliament elections 533 independents contested in election and 37 won in 2004 election 2385 independents contested and only 5 won
13th loksaba(1999) has seen highest number of women representatives in parliament - 49,where as in 1977 only 17 women candidates won
In only 5 elections 40 or more women representatives got elected in India
In five Indian states and one union territory, women voters outnumber men(Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Puducherry)
1996 Vajpayee Govt has highest number of ministers - 90
Just before 2004 elections 27 guys jumped into rival parties and contested on rival party symbol. out of them 20 lost in elections
In 1989 K.Ramakrishan was elected from Ankalapally parliamentary constituency by just 9 votes majority.
In 2004 elections 23 Mp's won by less than 5000 votes and 6 of them got less than 1000 votes majority
20,140 litres of violet ink will be used in Indian elections as EC decided to put ink from top of the nail to the bottom. Voters' ink was developed by the Delhi-based National Physical Laboratory, the ink's manufacturing has been licensed to Mysore Paints, a 72-year-old company owned by the Karnataka government. Only one man in the company knows the formula for making the ink - its quality control manager. And he does it behind a secure, locked door and alone.
Vote difference between congress and BJP in 2004 elections - 4% in 1998 it was just 0.4%
The highest voting percentage in any general elections has been 62.2% in 1957, the lowest was in 1967 when only 33% cast their vote
EC decided to give photo ID cards to all voters in year 1993
2009 General Elections would be the first time when the entire country, except the three States of Assam, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir, would be using the Photo Electoral Rolls
" `Ballot` and `bullet` are both derived from words for `balls`. The Greeks dropped a white ball when they favoured a candidate, and a black when they were against.
The word candidate comes from the Latin `candidatus` meaning `one clad in white` and most, till this day carry on with this white!"
A B Vajpayee is the only parliamentarian to be elected from four different states- UP, Gujarat, MP and Delhi!
Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were first used in Kerala. The highest number of candidates that an electronic voting machine can support is 64
IN 2009 elections Uttar Pradesh is not fielding a single serving or former Prime Minister from its sprawling constituencies.
The average age of MPs in the present Lok Sabha is 52.63 years
No ruling party has won re-election after serving a full term since Indira Gandhi led the Congress to victory in 1971
----------------------------------------------------------------
P.S: Collected from various newspapers over a period of time
Click here to meet King maker of Indian politics Mr.Subba Rao
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