Elections 2009

The result of elections in India was "Aww" both for the public and the politicians. Some political parties did exceedingly well while some did exceedingly poor. I am not much into reading about politics but was happy to know that one party (happens to be Congress) has got a majority mandate from the people (58% of population voted). The News channels where covering reviews of all parties after the results started coming out and it looked like everyone was clueless so as to put reason for what they saw in results. One good thing which happened is the Left’s dissidence to oblivion. The first thing which comes to mind thinking about them is the party which always made “ Hoo Hallah” whenever government approached on doing something. The one which can sack anytime its long serving party members, One which seemed to be always arrogant. It felt the only objective they had was to make “Noise” and make it visible to as many. It is ok to disagree I feel when one is not in agreement with certain actions planned but for Left it felt like there only task in the last government was to disagree about anything government planned. They looked to be more of opposition part then the ruling government. Even opposition would be better than them I feel. These are just my views from the information I keep coming across in magazines, news channels and other media sources.
Looking forward I hope the new government formed will be much more stable and able to taker decisions in time rather than spending all energy in keeping all allies happy. Future looks to be promising for India under leadership of an impeccable Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh- The most humble of politician I have ever seen.

Hyderabad visit

ICFAI Business School campus (IBS) @ Deepti's hostel room in IBS Golkonda Fort

Malaysian Township...Rain tree Park residence

Awesome food cooked by Abhinav and Shruti :).. @ Abhinav's residence in Malaysian Township

Hyderabad Airport view

Travelled down to Hyderabad on weekend for admission of sis to IBS. Fortunately,MBA friend Abhinav is already settled down in Hyderabad ( whom I had last met in 2007 only in Singapore) so it became very easy to coordinate and move around in the city. The IBS campus is impressive and seeing lot of construction work in progress looks like they are in ramp up mode. Abhinav & Shruti showed great hospitality for inviting me and sis to their residence for the weekend. Abhinav loves driving and so was willing to show me around the city apart from having 2 visits to IBS campus which is around 40 KM from the city. The residence of Abhinav is a great place. I had not seen such big (around 1800 apartments) planned residential accomodation before. It reminded me Prince George Park(PGP) in Singapore. On Sunday , Abhinav and Shruti both cooked awesome chicken... I knew Shruti was great at cooking but Abhi has also picked up quite a lot over past 2 years.... must be under guidance of chief chef(Shruti) :). Had a good time. Hyderabad infrastructure is really impressive......right from the Airport entrance.

Swine Flu

Recent news in highlight across the world has been the outbreak of swine flu which originated in pig farms in Mexico and is rapidly spreading across the globe. Usually considered to be restricted to pigs alone , the new strain H1N1 has spread to humans as well and medical experts are still to come out with a definite cure of same. Whether it is over hyped by the media remains to be seen but as of now it seems to be spreading fast .esp in Mexico and US. WHO has raised the alert level to 5 ( max6) and is tracking the progress on daily basis on its website to update all and has sent a team to Mexico as well to unearth more details. The Internet has come in handy to spread the awareness of the flu but it has its limits esp. in developing countries where majority still do not have access to net ...newspapers and other media channels are making up for that. I just browsed through BBC and came across this article showcasing the major pandemics in the past century.It is too early to say that swine flu will compare to these.....Hope it does not. On other thought seeing the numbers as big as 50 million I wonder does nature have its own way of eradicating access through such outbreaks. With so many wars being fought across the globe it does not seem nature has to put in much additional effort. Hope the flu is brought under control and goes off as quickly as it came.

Latest on Swine flu spread by Economist.

Value for money

Value at the bottom of pyramid is truly reflected by the following article on Economist. The innovations are bound to happen where there is huge untapped market and Indian enterprenuers have struck the right cord. I myself wasnt aware of many names which have captured the attention of the west which is now looking at India as an example of good value for money services at hospitals.

Gaurav's Wedding

( ...during haldi session)

( he had a same static pose all the while right from leaving the house till the marriage place.....) (....enthusiastic dancers....havent seen such enthusiam to dance before) ( even they had their share of dancing seeing everyone dance around :) )

(Gaurav & Avantika)

( ...around 1.30-2 A.M. )

(...with Ravinder)

Travelled to Roorkee to attend my engineering friend Gaurav Rishi's wedding. Fortunately, Gaurav's house is big enough to accomodate 20-30 people and I happened to be one of the lucky ones to be in that along with other common engineering friend Ravinder. Gaurav had invited few of his foreign colleagues from Germany. They were in full enthusiasm and aww seeing the way Indian marriage is done and of course the crazy dancing session of 4 hours in the evening...right in the middle of road as the barat progressed from Gaurav's home to the wedding venue ( about 600m away) and then on the Disco Jockey at venue. The craze for dancing was such that it took about 2.5 hours to reach and enter venue. It was a good experience....even non dancer like me danced a lot in whatever way ;). After barat reached people had their dinner followed by photo session with the bride and groom. By 12 AM preperations began for the pheras which continued till 2.30 AM. We were completely exhausted by then and headed straight back to Gaurav's house to catch up some sleep. Felt glad to catch up with best pals and see one settling down in life.

Untested solutions

Good article on Business World by Nayan Chanda on the resolutions made in G20 summit held recently to tackle global financial crisis . I found it quite amusing....

Finally...Weight under Control

Finally....after 8 months since I posted blog on Weight Control....I have finally reached my target of 71 Kg...infact 70.4 Kg. Feels good. Since movement to Chennai the eating pattern has changed and that is likely cause of reduction. Breakfast- 9 AM , Lunch- 1 PM and Dinner - 6.30 PM. Now I can understand why most chinese are so slim and fit....one factor must be the meal timings especially the dinner one.