Mating

(Via Andrew Sullivan)

Gonna Write For Technorati

Image via CrunchBaseI got an email from Technorati a few days back saying they want me to write for them. I promptly agreed. This is not a big change to my lifestyle, if any. All they ask is that I first publish a post at their site. After I do that I can go ahead and publish the same at my own blog.

Why did I say yes? Are you kidding me?

1. There's not going to be additional work for me. I have been an avid blogger on my own. Now I get to cross publish. 
2. This will bring me more visibility. 
3. I get to link to my own blog from my posts at Technorati. That is going to jack up the traffic at my personal blog. This just might be the number one reason to do it. 
4. Technorati is a Top 30 property on the web. I am okay being associated with their name. 
5. They asked for my Google AdSense ID. They will run ads on my behalf to go with my posts. So I guess there might be some money too. I am not complaining. 

Economic Reforms In India

My friend Ashutosh Tiwari posted an article of his on his Facebook wall. It was first published in the Nepali Times.

Guru Of Business: Ashutosh Tiwari

During the 'licence raj' in the 70s and the 80s, while India was posting its so-called 'Hindu rate of economic growth' of around 3.5 percent a year, Bollywood portrayed industrialists as villains. These were rich men who lived in palatial buildings, befriended politicians for licenses and permits, smuggled goods, evaded taxes, and exploited labourers....... Since the mid-90s, however, with India's annual economic growth averaging about seven percent, Bollywood has churned out decidedly pro-capitalist movies. The bad industrialists are gone. So too are the pitiable poor who tug at the heartstrings of socialists everywhere. It's not labour and factories that make up the plots of today's movies. Instead, they are about the intra-family relationships of wealthy multi-generational clans with roots in India and branches elsewhere.

The current Prime Minister of India started economic reforms in the country in 1991 when he was Finance Minister. Thanks to those reforms India has seen almost China like growth rates for almost a decade now.

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Amitabh Bachchan Shoots For Just Dial’s New Ad

JustDial.com

Amitabh Bachchan Shoots For Just Dial’s New Ad
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Music is an integral part of our lives, our being and our existence, irrespective of what the others may have to say on the subject. It lifts, cajoles, caresses, envelopes you in a bind which never leaves you. A piece heard at an impressionable age remains with you for a life time. Music and song collectively is a force, which has serious physical ramifications. We have heard of the great Tansen stories and the effect his music had on weather conditions. We have seen strong and sharp classical music notes and chords, demolish glass and shatter it to pieces. We have seen and heard the power of religion when it encompasses the rituals that connect it to sound. The prayer meetings of different faiths - the ‘bhajans’ the ‘azaan’ and the hymns bring a feel of religiosity. Strengthening belief with its repeated recitation. The Gods are pleased it seems when they are sung to. Music has the power to impress them to. And of course I miss mentioning the singing of Anthems and the fervor of patriotism it invokes. Your own anthem of your own country does something to us. It instills in us a sense of belonging. This is my land, my country, my flag and my anthem. I belong to it, and it belongs to me. That is a lot to be said about any other music heard.

There is that other little matter of football and the singing crowds and the belief that the energy of collective singing shall most certainly move mountains, or least of all a goal in favor of your home team. The beauty of all this being that the singing invariably gets carried along from the playing field to the nearest bar for most of the day. Sometimes many days !! And when it does it may not all turn out to be pleasant.

So …. melody ! And the strange effect it has on our psych irrespective of age and place and moment .. !!

Kushner Honored

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Jerry Seinfeld

FoodSpotting Follows Me On Twitter

I just realized FoodSpotting follows me on Twitter. They must not mind seeing me in their stream all the time. I show up often. It is like when I was doing democracy work for Nepal a few years ago. One visiting politician said, "I know a whole bunch of people in Kathmandu, the only person who ever emails them is you."

The First Major Revolution Of The 21st Century Happened In Nepal
FoodSpotting Third Thursday: Ai Fiori, 5-7 PM

FoodSpotting Third Thursday: Ai Fiori, 5-7 PM

Monday lunch at a food truck was perhaps not the best idea, even though it was on the 15th of the month. But I am so glad the biggest event at South By South West revolved around food trucks. 2011 they did on one day, I think the plan is to do every day in 2012. That is when things are going to go really crazy for FoodSpotting. They do that and then they can raise 10 to 20 million dollars. Yahoo is going to want to buy them.

"I am a man of the people."
- Laloo Yadav

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I showed up on time and there was a long line. Amy Cao and Jeremy Frank had not RSVPd. Soraya Darabi RSVPing does not count, she does the Scott Heiferman thing, I have noted a few times. Scott will RSVP for events to be there in spirit. Besides, I was aware of the ongoing 99 Percent Conference. And I am thinking, there is this ridiculously long line, and Nick Rovisa is the only name and face I seem to remember from the RSVP list. If he does not show up, I will not even know who to look for. 10 minutes later I just went in.

Mafia Politics In Nepal

Third World Guy

Who cares?
When those with responsibility behave irresponsibly

DAMAKANT JAYSHI

FROM ISSUE #552 (06 MAY 2011 - 12 MAY 2011)

Just when one thought that our battered political parties could do without another round of unsavoury episodes, we have had more last week and the one before that. These come after the arrest of lawmakers from MPRF and Nepali Janata Dal on allegedly tampering and selling their diplomatic passports, the trial of a UML parliamentarian for taking bribe, the nabbing of an NC Constituent Assembly member in a gambling den and the cheating by a Maoist lawmaker at the SLC exam by making her daughter write answers on her behalf. Enough eroding the credibility of the parties of all hues.

Of all the goings-on, two of the most glaring stand out. One is the politicking at the Bharatpur Cancer Hospital in Chitwan and the other unethical conduct of now recalled ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Hamid Ansari.