Saturday, November 28, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Astrology
I never realized that I became a big sloth in 2008. I did not make a single blog post last year. So much for the resolution of 2007. When I think of the new year , inevitably I think of what is in store for me that year and the astrological predictions are the main pointers many of us rely to peek into the future .
I always wished if I could do palm reading even though I never believed in it . My interest came out of the experiences during my undergraduate days at CET , Many of my class mates used palm reading as a method of impressing the opposite sex. Many of the session would extend into hours and the attention the palm reader received inspired me to learn more about the field. But by the time I was able to recognize the lines in the palm , the market was over flooded by readers. It had become a supply and demand issue, there were more palm readers than the girls in our class and they started understanding the trick. This called for a new product offering . Astrology was the best way to differentiate from the competition.I started reading the astrological magazines and become a expert on astrology .
I started with the mathrubhumi panchangam and tried to decipher the symbols , stars and their relations and learn basic predictions. If two couples could give me their birth stars , I could tell them if their horoscopes would match or not . Then during one of the many trips to the Greetings Galaxy in Trivandrum to buy "accessories" for class sessions , I came across a book by Bejan Daruwalla . He is the god-man of Astrology, the guy writes yearly , monthly, daily and may be hourly predictions for different zodiac signs. I had a good collection of his books for different signs. It was an interesting exercise trying to match the zodiac signs for the girls with Bejan's predictions. I became expert in striking up conversations with the lasses on what the future holds for them. I wonder if the same tricks are still being used by the new generation at CET .
So coming back to the present , I thought of looking up what predictions Bejan made in 2008. It seems Obama has to thank Bejan for putting him to white house.
For the million dollar question in my mind for year 2009 , I looked up to see what Bejan says
1. What will happen to the financial crises ? When it will be over ?
Bejan : I know the horoscope for America – Gemini/Cancer.Wait till February or April. Wait and watch and then you can give me sweet, sugar-free ladoos because I am a Ganesha man. But I assure you in the name of both God and Allah, things will become better ( As told to IBN live)
I think the guy is tying this to Obama presidency ( give him 100 days to see if the markets move) . There may be a short rally during end of January but it cannot sustain until the fundamental housing problem is corrected. Bejan wants me to pay $50 for providing the personal prediction , i thought it is wise to stick to his free predictions and see if they match up .
Now for the million dollar question , my prediction is that the economy may stop going south after June . Many people claim that infrastructure spending will kick the economy out of recession. This worked in 1940's because of an important factor. After the world war , the infrastructure in both Germany and Japan were totally decimated . This helped American companies to improve their bottom lines by selling outside US.
A conflict inevitably happen right after or during a recession ( World war2 , Iran crisis in 1970s , Gulf War 1 , Gulf War 2 ). There are only two potential conflicts that may cause trillion dollar damages or more which could happen in 2009 and provide a jolt to the recession . ( Israel - Arab or India-Pakistan) . My main prayer for 2009 is that no armed conflicts happen any where in the world and hopefully Bejan will not predict a war for the year 2009.
I always wished if I could do palm reading even though I never believed in it . My interest came out of the experiences during my undergraduate days at CET , Many of my class mates used palm reading as a method of impressing the opposite sex. Many of the session would extend into hours and the attention the palm reader received inspired me to learn more about the field. But by the time I was able to recognize the lines in the palm , the market was over flooded by readers. It had become a supply and demand issue, there were more palm readers than the girls in our class and they started understanding the trick. This called for a new product offering . Astrology was the best way to differentiate from the competition.I started reading the astrological magazines and become a expert on astrology .
I started with the mathrubhumi panchangam and tried to decipher the symbols , stars and their relations and learn basic predictions. If two couples could give me their birth stars , I could tell them if their horoscopes would match or not . Then during one of the many trips to the Greetings Galaxy in Trivandrum to buy "accessories" for class sessions , I came across a book by Bejan Daruwalla . He is the god-man of Astrology, the guy writes yearly , monthly, daily and may be hourly predictions for different zodiac signs. I had a good collection of his books for different signs. It was an interesting exercise trying to match the zodiac signs for the girls with Bejan's predictions. I became expert in striking up conversations with the lasses on what the future holds for them. I wonder if the same tricks are still being used by the new generation at CET .
So coming back to the present , I thought of looking up what predictions Bejan made in 2008. It seems Obama has to thank Bejan for putting him to white house.
For the million dollar question in my mind for year 2009 , I looked up to see what Bejan says
1. What will happen to the financial crises ? When it will be over ?
Bejan : I know the horoscope for America – Gemini/Cancer.Wait till February or April. Wait and watch and then you can give me sweet, sugar-free ladoos because I am a Ganesha man. But I assure you in the name of both God and Allah, things will become better ( As told to IBN live)
I think the guy is tying this to Obama presidency ( give him 100 days to see if the markets move) . There may be a short rally during end of January but it cannot sustain until the fundamental housing problem is corrected. Bejan wants me to pay $50 for providing the personal prediction , i thought it is wise to stick to his free predictions and see if they match up .
Now for the million dollar question , my prediction is that the economy may stop going south after June . Many people claim that infrastructure spending will kick the economy out of recession. This worked in 1940's because of an important factor. After the world war , the infrastructure in both Germany and Japan were totally decimated . This helped American companies to improve their bottom lines by selling outside US.
A conflict inevitably happen right after or during a recession ( World war2 , Iran crisis in 1970s , Gulf War 1 , Gulf War 2 ). There are only two potential conflicts that may cause trillion dollar damages or more which could happen in 2009 and provide a jolt to the recession . ( Israel - Arab or India-Pakistan) . My main prayer for 2009 is that no armed conflicts happen any where in the world and hopefully Bejan will not predict a war for the year 2009.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Phir Bhi Dil He Hindustani
Found an interesting link about what happens to our applications at Indian consulate in SanFranciso
I was surprised , how callous these guys have become . All sensitive information dumped on the road side . Didn't they have money to buy a shredder
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Is the earth shaking ? Bhoomi Kulungunno ...
After quite a few prompting , I have decided to overcome the writer's block and write a new post. Today morning , I was looking out of the window of my house at the Sunol mountains and the snarling traffic of 680 and wondered , what if I cannot enjoy the same moment tomorrow ? what if the shaking that I feel in my head is real ?
Rewind 9 months back
Iam sitting in front of Mr Amit (name changed) , the sales manager of Country wide at his office in Fremont .
Amit : Our bank is the largest bank in the US . Don't worry we can get you a loan easily
Kiran : But Amit, I don't have that high salary . What if I cannot afford to pay later
Amit : Don't worry , you can refinance your loan in no time . I will do it at a lower cost for you. I can approve any loan for you.
I met Amit in regard to a loan for a house I was planning to purchase . I was left wondering how big a fool I was , I could have bought a house long back and could have saved lot of money in taxes and rents. On my way back from the meeting with Amit , I get another call from another lender that they approved a loan with no money down . I was shocked , I always thought , one need a huge chunk of savings to buy a home, since a pauper like me can also get a loan I seriously began to doubt there was something rotting in the system. Was the great American dream so easy to realize ? I have read that people who cannot even make one mortage payment was given jumbo loans . It was all a great Indian rope trick played by Americans.
Rewind today morning
I read the article in Washington post - "Country wide - the biggest mortgage lender in America may file for bankruptcy protection " - Amit's face flashed before me . I understood that the downpayment for my house was paid by some generous souls in Japan and France . My mortgage owner has clubbed my interest payment and similiar payments into a security that was traded on Wall Street . The guys all around the world thought they were safe from the US credit crunch . Now they are paying for it , greed begets loathing , so I was happy.
Fast Forward today evening
I collected the mail and opened the letter from Country wide . There was a brochure from Amit - " If any of your friends are affected by sub prime crisis , please refer them to me I can bail them out "
After reading the flyer - i started noticing 2 that the ground is shaking a lot , is it the mortgage buyer's paranoia , or is it the after effect of South American earth quake . The lenders had started a frenzy of home buying and now they have made the home owners paranoid . I have to worry about my loan only 5 yrs from now , but what of the thousand whose loans are resetting this December . Will they cause the economy to go down , Will they Bangalore my job ?
I went out to the back yard to see what the shaking was all about . It was just some Thurappans having their own fun , nothing major ...
Rewind 9 months back
Iam sitting in front of Mr Amit (name changed) , the sales manager of Country wide at his office in Fremont .
Amit : Our bank is the largest bank in the US . Don't worry we can get you a loan easily
Kiran : But Amit, I don't have that high salary . What if I cannot afford to pay later
Amit : Don't worry , you can refinance your loan in no time . I will do it at a lower cost for you. I can approve any loan for you.
I met Amit in regard to a loan for a house I was planning to purchase . I was left wondering how big a fool I was , I could have bought a house long back and could have saved lot of money in taxes and rents. On my way back from the meeting with Amit , I get another call from another lender that they approved a loan with no money down . I was shocked , I always thought , one need a huge chunk of savings to buy a home, since a pauper like me can also get a loan I seriously began to doubt there was something rotting in the system. Was the great American dream so easy to realize ? I have read that people who cannot even make one mortage payment was given jumbo loans . It was all a great Indian rope trick played by Americans.
Rewind today morning
I read the article in Washington post - "Country wide - the biggest mortgage lender in America may file for bankruptcy protection " - Amit's face flashed before me . I understood that the downpayment for my house was paid by some generous souls in Japan and France . My mortgage owner has clubbed my interest payment and similiar payments into a security that was traded on Wall Street . The guys all around the world thought they were safe from the US credit crunch . Now they are paying for it , greed begets loathing , so I was happy.
Fast Forward today evening
I collected the mail and opened the letter from Country wide . There was a brochure from Amit - " If any of your friends are affected by sub prime crisis , please refer them to me I can bail them out "
After reading the flyer - i started noticing 2 that the ground is shaking a lot , is it the mortgage buyer's paranoia , or is it the after effect of South American earth quake . The lenders had started a frenzy of home buying and now they have made the home owners paranoid . I have to worry about my loan only 5 yrs from now , but what of the thousand whose loans are resetting this December . Will they cause the economy to go down , Will they Bangalore my job ?
I went out to the back yard to see what the shaking was all about . It was just some Thurappans having their own fun , nothing major ...
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Mayavati nee Manohari ( Mayavati you are beautiful)
Mayavati is one interesting lady I have followed in the Indian political landscape . She has completely cast her maya on the people of UP . UP is one of the worst states in India as far as social development is concerned . It carries 1/6th population of India but development index is far less than the rest of India . If it takes a backward caste women to clean up the mess in the state screwed up by the upper cast , so be it . I wish her the best .
There was an blasphemous(enlightening) post I read on Nehru family . http://www.sikhsundesh.net/nehru_dynasty.htm . If it is true , god save India..
Iam off to Canada today on a well earned vacation . Looking forward to spending some time with the family.
There was an blasphemous(enlightening) post I read on Nehru family . http://www.sikhsundesh.net/nehru_dynasty.htm . If it is true , god save India..
Iam off to Canada today on a well earned vacation . Looking forward to spending some time with the family.
Friday, April 27, 2007
It's been a while
Wow , the time flies away , winter and spring are gone . It has been almost 3 months since I wrote my last post . Well, nothing much happened . Finished the last quarter at my MBA . Really getting screwed with the new classes . Attended couple of seminars and wasted away part of my sabbatical . One thing I enjoyed was reading some C++ books again . After a while every body goes into the daily grind of making a life and forget what is interesting in their life . I love programming , especially C++ programming . But the sad part is I have not wrote a worthwhile C++ program in almost 5 years . Also I realized that I did not read a C++ book in more than 6 years .
I read this book - Exceptional C++ Style 40 New Engineering Puzzles, Programming problems and solutions. It is pretty good and makes a good weekend read. One quick interesting guidelines from the book regarding virtual interfaces
Guideline #1: Prefer to make interfaces nonvirtual, using the Nonvirtual Interface pattern (NVI).
Guideline #2: Prefer to make virtual functions private.
Guideline #3: Only if derived classes need to invoke the base implementation of a virtual function, make the virtual function protected.
For the special case of the destructor only:
Guideline #4: A base class destructor should be either public and virtual, or protected and nonvirtual.
OK , I devoted most of the time discussing C++ , i feel miserable i did not find anything interesting to write about after 3 months.
Next month should be eventful , Iam going to Vancouver , celebrate Megha's birthday , 2 weeks off from work and trip to Korea. Spiderman is coming out and that is what will make my May worthwhile .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJV4KqK0LpY
When I think about spiderman it reminds me of the Sunday lunch at my home . The Doordarshan used to show spidy at 1:45 , right after we had lunch . Somehow spidy is associated with my childhood , my mother's cooking every sunday and the funfilled childhood.
I read this book - Exceptional C++ Style 40 New Engineering Puzzles, Programming problems and solutions. It is pretty good and makes a good weekend read. One quick interesting guidelines from the book regarding virtual interfaces
Guideline #1: Prefer to make interfaces nonvirtual, using the Nonvirtual Interface pattern (NVI).
Guideline #2: Prefer to make virtual functions private.
Guideline #3: Only if derived classes need to invoke the base implementation of a virtual function, make the virtual function protected.
For the special case of the destructor only:
Guideline #4: A base class destructor should be either public and virtual, or protected and nonvirtual.
OK , I devoted most of the time discussing C++ , i feel miserable i did not find anything interesting to write about after 3 months.
Next month should be eventful , Iam going to Vancouver , celebrate Megha's birthday , 2 weeks off from work and trip to Korea. Spiderman is coming out and that is what will make my May worthwhile .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJV4KqK0LpY
When I think about spiderman it reminds me of the Sunday lunch at my home . The Doordarshan used to show spidy at 1:45 , right after we had lunch . Somehow spidy is associated with my childhood , my mother's cooking every sunday and the funfilled childhood.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Second life
One of the blogs I read everyday is TechCrunch ( www.techcrunch.com) . This week they carried an article on Second life . Business week also ran a story about the website . I decided to give it a try . Created a virtual avathar - Kiran Karas . The concept is pretty interesting , rather than trying with guys pretending to be girls , in second life one can try exploring a virtual world. I heard that one of the famous university ( not sure if it is Harward or MIT ) has a virtual class room in second life.
Iam taking a two weeks spring break from work to recharge myself ( it is called sabbatical).This is one book I intend to read upon during the time
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Roughcut)
by Steven D. Levitt (Author), Stephen J. Dubner (Author) "
Because of the missed chance of meeting Warren Buffet ,I don't have any plans for spring break. There are some students from the program selected through a lottery to go and meet Mr Buffet and ask him questions . What should have I asked Mr Buffer , if I were selected to the group ?
At 76 years of age Buffett announced in June that he would give away more than 80%, or about $37 billion, of his $44 billion fortune to five foundations in annual gifts of stock, starting in July 2006. The largest contribution will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
My questions would be
1. Why do billionaires become freaks at the twilight of life ?
2. Why don't he buy some land in second life or start a stock exchange or a night club there ? Is that a good investment.
I would have been kicked out of the study group anyways . So it is better that I did not win the "Meet Buffet Lottery ". ( A case of sour grapes ? no way .......)
Iam taking a two weeks spring break from work to recharge myself ( it is called sabbatical).This is one book I intend to read upon during the time
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Roughcut)
by Steven D. Levitt (Author), Stephen J. Dubner (Author) "
Because of the missed chance of meeting Warren Buffet ,I don't have any plans for spring break. There are some students from the program selected through a lottery to go and meet Mr Buffet and ask him questions . What should have I asked Mr Buffer , if I were selected to the group ?
At 76 years of age Buffett announced in June that he would give away more than 80%, or about $37 billion, of his $44 billion fortune to five foundations in annual gifts of stock, starting in July 2006. The largest contribution will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
My questions would be
1. Why do billionaires become freaks at the twilight of life ?
2. Why don't he buy some land in second life or start a stock exchange or a night club there ? Is that a good investment.
I would have been kicked out of the study group anyways . So it is better that I did not win the "Meet Buffet Lottery ". ( A case of sour grapes ? no way .......)
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