Good Joke

Marketing - The Joke

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, "I'm fantastic in bed."That's Direct Marketing.

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her andpointing at you says, "He's fantastic in bed."That's Advertising.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed."That's Telemarketing.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie, you walk up to her and pour her a drink. You open the door for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, "By the way, I'm fantastic in bed."That's Public Relations.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says, I hear you're fantastic in bed."That's Brand Recognition.

Daddy DayCare

For the last 10 days, my wife has been working long hours, quite literally long (8:00 am - 10 pm) and I have become a 'single parent' for these 10 days. Never imagined it would be so tough.

I am up by 6:30 am, get ready after having a cup of tea and also, get my son ready (which is a challenge in itself). My wifehas already left for work by then (7:30 am or so) for work. After that, I prepare my son's bag (milk, snacks, breakfast), dress him and put on his shoes. Then, I put on my shoes and prepare my laptop bag. While I getting ready, my son takes off his shoes (or poops) or does something else - which means an additional 20 mins. Somehow, I manage to put him the car seat and manage to leave by 7:50 am. The ride to his daycare involves 20 odd mins of traffic and by the time I get on to I-66 is its peak rush hour (8:15 am). I takes me an hour to get to work. I work until 5:00 pm and leave work (again on I66) to get to my son's daycare before 6:00 pm. As I have to leave early, I have been taking shorter lunch breaks.

I pick up son up and then take him to a grocery store or a similar place - an outing for him. We get home around 6:30ish and I let him loose for 15 mins or so while I prepare his food. Then, it's dinner time which can take anywhere between 15 mins to an hour (depending his mood). Then, it's bath time (45 mins - massage, bath, toweling, hair drying). Finally, the challenge is to feed him milk before making him sleep. If I am lucky, he sleeps immediately but usually he takes roughly 15 mins to sleep. Finally, when my son goes to sleep, it's 8:30 and I am exhausted.

I always appreciated how much effort my wife has to put in and will have to put in but this has given me even more respect for what mother's have to go through.

What i have learnt in these 10 days - PATIENCE. Oh, I can't wait for this Friday when my wife's long shift gets over...

Last King of Scotland

Whole heartedly recommend this Movie.

Forrest Whittaker is staggering as Idi Amin.

Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft.

The deal with Google is an acknowledgment of YAHOOS! incapacity to innovate. Threatened with a takeover, the best thing YAHOO could do was talk to Google. Of course, Google was more than willing to 'help'. What a lucky break for Google!

As for YAHOO, it has shown how dependent it will be on Google in the future for its revenue.

Funny Moments in Cricket.

This clip is really worth watching

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1180210/funny_cricket/

Obama vs McCain

This will be a good election. Two completeuly different candidates. One who wants more government involvement and the other who wants to reduce it, One wants to stay in Iraq and the other wants to withdraw.Same issues different approach. Dare I say socialism vs free market?

Obama thoughts remind me of India - Government sponsored healthcare, government backed bailouts from the sub prime mess, more protectionism. May be socialist is too strong an adjective but it does seem that way.

As the Economist states, American can choose between two qualified and decent candidates - essentially, a choice between gradual path socialism or keeping capitalism?

What will America choose in November will be an interesting to see?

Good Article

A great article on Indian Cricket (although a bit dated)


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7283996.stm

How to make butter chicken

A simple recipe to cook butter chicken. I tried it yesterday (my wife was mighty surprised that she got a break from cooking)

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1268414/how_to_make_butter_chicken_recipe/

Tips:

1) Too many tomatoes could make the chicken sweet (courtesy: my wife)

2) I used Butter Chicken Masala for more flavor

3) Half and Half can also be used instead of Yogurt (courtesy: my wife)

Time Flies

Wow.. Time Flies. I was planning to get more active since I finished school. Vacation was busier than when I was in school.

1) Week 1 (and part of Week 2): my son was sick
2) Week 3: Guests (for my graduation)
3) Week 4: Florida trip
4) Week 5: Guests again!!

where did the time go? Anyway, I'll write up something about our Florida trip (our first trip with a baby).

Florida next week.

We are going to Florida next week - a long deserved vacation after 2 years of hard work. Our first trip with my son. We know it's going to be an adventure!

Roseola Virus

Last week was quite an adventure. My son fell sick on Wednesday had a temperature of 99.5 deg. F. We thought that that it was just a minor ailment but his temperature climbed to 103.6 by Friday. We went to the doctor's immediately who couldn't diagnose the condition either. He had no ear infection, no flu, no strep virus and his chest X-ray was fine! That really had us worried.

As soon as the doctor gave him some Motorin, his fever went down to 100.5. She told us that he simply had a bad virus and that his fever should go away by Sunday. If it didn't she wanted us to bring him in on Monday. So, we continously monitored is temperature from Friday - Sunday. He had temperature on Friday (upto 101), which went down in the morning of Saturday to 99.5. By afternoon he was normal but the temperature came back Saturday night (101.6). Sunday morning he was fine (temperature down to 99.5) with it completely disappearing by afternoon and not returning on Monday.

However, by Monday morning he had a rash. We took him to the doctor anyway who told us that he had the 'Roseola Virus' (common and that the rash would go away within 24-48 hours.

To all the new parents (like us). Following are the symptoms/indications of the Roseola Virus .
1) Fever lasts for 3-5 days and can be unusually high for a short time (upto 103.5).

2) Spikes up from low fever to high. In my son's case, the fever climbed from 99 to 103.6 in about 2-3 hours on Friday.

3) After 3-5 days, the fever breaks and is replaced by a rash (red dots) on the body. This means that the child is recovering

4) The rash goes away within 24-48 hours.

5) If the child has high fever and no other causes such as ear infection, flu, strep etc. are detected by the doctor, Roseola is a possibility.

6) By giving the child Motorin or Tylenol, the fever can be managed.

It's always good to take your child to the doctor. Especially, when you don't know whats going on.

Post MBA blues...

I wrote my last exam on last Friday (04/25). I am 'officially' an MBA.

Weekend went by quickly playing with my son. However, today I had nothing to do and I felt really restless. I did some stuff around house but really don't know what to do. I am enjoying this feeling which will last until June 1st.

I'll start blogging regularly from now on.

Longest Day in the MBA experience

Last Wednesday, 04/09/2008, was the longest day in my MBA experience. It started at 6:45 am and ended at 11:45 pm, 10 mins. before 04/10 - roughly, 17 hours! It beat the previous record of 15 hours!

Anyway, MBA is done today

You can find answers for anything now a days..

.. after a bit of 'ego surfing' I found the following,

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/30589863.cms.

One of my contributions to the 'The times of INdia' - Endgame section was published.

An Incident worth discussing...

OK, so, here goes - I witnessed the following on the metro the other day.

I was on my home from school on a relatively empty metro (enough space for one person to occupy a one whole row). A man was sitting, well sleeping, in the row front of me. He had the row to himself. The metro stopped at one of stations and a large (obese) man climbed into the train. Without looking around for any empty seats, he squeezed himself next to the sleeping man. As soon as the large man sat down, the sleeping man woke up, and looked at the man next to him and pointed to an empty row in the car. In short, the large man was rudely (or at least I thought so) asked to move. The large man did move but kept throwing the sleeping man dirty looks throughout the journey. This happened in less than 3 minutes.

OK, now the question - A decade or so a back, I would have clearly thought that the sleeping man was rude and should have been admonished. However, in today's world where obesity is frowned on and where airlines try to charge large people extra money for tickets, I wonder if it was the obese man who was rude. Granted that the large man didn't see the empty row, but should he have looked around atleast?

I still think that the sleeping man behaved rudely. Would it have been correct protocol for the sleeping man to get up and move to an empty row?. I wonder if the large man would have simply sat in an empty row had he seen one....

Sehwag's Triple Ton.

Virender Sehwag's un-beaten on 309 in the first test against SA. 91 runs behind Lara's world record of 400*. Can he do it tomorrow? I surely hope so. To be honest, I was a slighly disappointed Sachin Tendulkar didn't get a chance to bat. Oh well, he'll get a chance in the next test.

Anyway, here's wishing Sehwag the best of luck. I hope both of Lara's records get broken soon (400* and 11953)

Wikipedia...

I am amazed at what can be found on Wikipedia. More importantly, I am impressed that people take time out of their busy schedules and lives to contribute. I have used this site innumerable number of times to search for information ranging from Accounting examples to Bollywood movie plots - two extremes, really. The reason for making this entry is because I realized that I visit this site atleast twice a day. After so much use, I now blindly trust information found on the website. And, so far, I have never been disappointed with the quality of information.

I was lamenting, a few days back, that people (especially kids) in the age of internet spend less time reading books (history, fiction, science, whatever subject..) and more time surfing the internet. However, Wikipedia has restored some of my faith. I am certain that a lot people who contribute to this website are not only young but simply motivated to learn and share.

Instead of beaming (and sending) simple messages (or article), why not simply beam http://www.wikipedia.org/ into the outer space and let intelligent life (if it exists) learn more about Earth and it's inhabitants :)?

Anyway, to end this post, I do hope I can contribute in maintaining and expanding this excellent and vast source of information

Tendulkar getting close to a landmark...

Tendulkar has score 11782 runs so far. He's 171 runs behind Brian Lara (11953). Getting mighty close to the landmark of being the highest run scorer.

I hope he passes this landmark when India plays SA in March. I am keeping my fingers crossed!

20/20 Cricket

I don't know - Somehow, I just don't subscribe to the concept of 20/20 cricket. I saw the world cup and I saw India winning it etc. etc.
But then, right now we are losing 4-1 to the mighty Australia. Considering our victory at the 20/20 world cup, what happened? I don't accept the argument that the 'troika' (Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly) are too blame. We have to face the fact; 20/20 is MATKA; you go out and hit; whoever is lucky wins.
50 overs atleast provides somes leeway for the captain to control the game - make strategic bowliing and fielding changes, choose either batting or bowling based on the pitch etc.
20/20 does allow some strategic element to it but not a whole lot. The philosophy is hitout or get out. I just can't subscribe to that. But then, 20/20 is designed to entertain the masses and not appeal to the intellectuals (of cricket). THis is perhaps the last step in commercializing the game.

W.G. Grace would not have been happy!

Yellow Journalism and India....

I have always been fond of reading news papers/magazines such as the TimesofIndia, The Hindu, Indian Express etc. and perhaps, that is why I am very sensitive to the radical change these newspapers have gone through during the last few years.
The website of the Times of India, now resembles a tabloid, usually containing gossip columns on bollywood stars, their sex-lives and routinely posting on it half-naked pictures of models - both, men and women. The HindustanTimes, on it's website, now proudly publishes a special section called 'HTTabloid'. Just today (04/04), the web edition of the 'Times of India', has posted a picture of three women in bikinis entitled 'Girls wanna have fun'.
What has journalism in India been reduced to? Over-sensationalizing trivial stories and giving those more importance that real news worthy items. Disgusting, is the only word I can sum those up with. India-today, a respected news magazine, has fallen into the same category regulary publishing populist stories - tap into the public mood, write what they want to see/read/hear in order to sell the news paper.
I was reading just the other day that over the last few years a dozen or so new publications have sprung up in Mumbai. The aim is not journalism but yellow journalism. Perhaps, the target audience is not the educated but targeting the vast mediocre audience that has suddenly become cash rich due to the the outsourcing boom. It is true that money cannot raise the intellectual IQ of people. The King of England was once asked by a man to make him a gentleman, the king replied, 'Sir, I can make you a Lord or an Earl, but a gentleman, I cannot'. The gentleman is a metaphor for someone who appreciates intelligent content and not mindless drivel that is what seems to be demanded by the public. We should stop complaining about America and it's press and take a look at our own house. We aren't much different from the American press. But, hey if this is what we demand, then this what we deserve.
After as the REVERED 'Times of India' proclaims, 'Girls just wanna have fun'.