Lightning Studio

Lightning Studio. Pretty amazing stuff.

Brain drain hits India's engineering sector

Article here.

I have a few friends who are mechanical engineers by education. None of them works as a mechanical engineer. What's worst, all of them work as software engineers (bar one). Its depressing, but I could see this coming a mile away. The tough part will be, how do we fix this problem?

Any suggestions?

Controversies....

India loves its controversies. The latest ones are of course Sourav vs Greg, and more to the point of this post, Paheli vs Black.
When I heard of Paheli being India's entry for the Oscars, I did initially feel that pehaps Black would have been a better choice. But the more I thought about it, I realised that although I enjoyed both films immensely, Paheli did seem like a better choice as India's choice for the Oscars, rather than the heavily anglicised Black. Incredibly this morning, I read a much better article which puts forth Paheli's case. here are excerpts, followed by the link to the article :

"First things first, the two films being debated upon have quite a bit in common: Both feature the masterful cinematography of Ravi K Chandran; both highlight their sensational leading lady, Rani Mukerji; and both are undeniably works of extreme directorial self-indulgence.

But the difference lies in that very fact. Amol Palekar's bright abandon in Paheli leads to a languorously unhurried fairytale, a unique love story told without fuss. On the other hand, Sanjay Leela Bhansali trips the light narcissistic with his mega-budget Black to emerge with a half-baked, often derivative and crucially flawed film."

"if Black was set in the local marketplace, and you'd have seen Rani stumbling around in Lokhandwala (a northwest Mumbai area), it would have been a lot more effective. Indeed."

Read the full article here.

India's Quiet Revolution

An interesting read from a rediff article.... The entire article can be found here.

Educating the masses -
After primary education was made a national priority,
enrolment --especially for girls -- showed dramatic gains.

Primary education (grades 1-5 
for ages 6-11)             1993(%)        2002(%)
Total gross enrolment 
ratios1                      82             95
Among boys                   90             98
Among girls                  73             93

More columns...

In yet another look at the aftermath of hurricane katrina, here's an excerpt from a column ---

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But let me conclude with one devout hope. I never want to be caught in a catastrophe like the tsunami or a hurricane, but if I am, then, please God, let it be in Asia and not in an American city!

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Read the full column.

Some of my photos

I did manage to update some webpages over this weekend and make this webpage of some photos I have taken that I like a lot. The photos have been touched up courtesy of Photoshop Elements, but I have not put in any special effects. You can find the pictures here. If you like any and/or save any, give me comments to this post.

Photo-A-Day

I like this concept.... I should probably do something like this. Maybe photo-a-week or something. The link here.... Photo-A-Day

On the other hand...

In all fairness, the other side of the story must be heard. Here's an article which describes the other side of the govt response to hurricane katrina.

Find the article here.

Ted Rall's column....

Although I don't always agree with Ted Rall, I think here he is right on the money ---

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Reuters reports from inside a convention-center-cum-refugee camp:
"Sitting with her daughter and other relatives, Trolkyn Joseph, 37, said men had wandered the cavernous convention center in recent nights raping and murdering children. She said she found a dead 14-year old girl at 5 a.m. on Friday morning, four hours after the young girl went missing from her parents inside the convention center. 'She was raped for four hours until she was dead,' Joseph said through tears. 'Another child, a seven-year old boy was found raped and murdered in the kitchen freezer last night.'"

The horror of the aftermath is so extreme that it nearly erases the memory of the initial disaster.

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Read the full column here

Aamchi Mumbai

Its been a while since my last post, but work has been overwhelming. I expect to post reviews of a few movies that were absolutely awesome (... like Sarkar).

But Hurricane Katrina has been hogging the news in the US and rightly so. I just received an email today with a forward. Admittedly I have not checked all the facts but based on the news I've seen and read on the web, most of this stuff rings true.

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Rain in Mumbai

inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18

inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1



population of new orleans... 484,674

population of mumbai.... 12,622,500



deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina...100

deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.



number of people to be evacuated in new orleans... entire city..wohh

number of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000



Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless

Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE



Time taken for US army to reach new orleans... 48hours

Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours



status 48hours later...new orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricty

status 48hours later..mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usual

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I realise that there is the possibility that hurricane katrina had more power than the rain in mumbai, yet the magnitude of rain in mumbai was much much higher. Some parts of Mumbai are below sea level and the flooding was similar. Yet the preparedness of any city to disaster is an indication of several things....