Radio One - 94.3 FM. And also, why is there no hindi music station here?

I am hooked to this station everyday. The only time I listen to the radio is when I am driving. Earlier, when I was in madras, I used to listen to Radio Mirchi regularly, mostly because it was a good station and my bus played that on our journey up and down from college. I used to listen to Suchi and some chap in the afternoon talking and entertaining listeners. And the songs were not too bad either.

Recently, Chennai seems to have a new station. Radio One rocks. I enjoy their programmes and its very entertaining, especially between songs. I like their spoof on police in Chennai. Totally rocking. The RJ's aren't too bad either. In fact, I am told that Suchi of RM fame has moved here. Wonder what drew her. Anyway, competition is good for the market. Helps radio channels innovate continuously.

Which makes me think, why isn't there a radio channel that streams hindi music all day long? The answer to that lies in the fact that it does not seem to be a lucrative proposition. Let us look at the target segment. Who do you think listens to the radio?? Mostly, it is the auto drivers, tea shop owners, iron shop guys and the like. Now, the chances of them knowing hindi are practically nil. And if there is no audience, who will advertisers target? And if there are no advertisers, how will the audience make money. There might be a huge hindi speaking population in Chennai, but not all of them listen to the radio. Maybe its tamil which will rule :-)

Cheers

Another Tag - this time its question time

Was tagged by
Vaish. So its Q and A time. Here I go.

1. (a) Pick out a scar you have.

A scar about 15 cm long on my left thigh.

(b) Explain how you got it ?

Fell off when my bike skid about 7 years ago.

2. What does your phone look like ?

It is a Nokia 6630. Looks kinda big, but I am used to it now. I can make and receive calls, send and receive messages and it acts as a good alarm. Good enough for me !

3. What is on the walls of my bedroom ?

On campus, I have a mirror, a white board with some graph on it. At home, I used to have a poster of Brian Lara. But not anymore.

4. What is your current Desktop picture?

Currently, its a pic of me in a Manchester United jersey that she gifted.

5. Do you believe in gay marriages ?

I can't answer that as I am straight.

6. What do you want more than anything else right now ?

I already am satisfied with everything. Can't ask for anything more.

7. What time were you born?

2:20 am on May 12

8. Last person who made you cry ?

I don't cry usually. Last person was her. Though I was happy when I did. I don't cry otherwise.

9. What is your favorite perfume / cologne

Roger and Gallet (Open). Can't beat that.

10. What kind of hair/eye color do you like in the opposite sex?

Black or brown. And reasonably long hair :) Eyes, no prefrence. Brown eyes would be good though.

11. What are you listening to?

Nothing actually. The cell phone beeping occasionally indicating the arrival of a message. And the fan above me.

12. Do you get scared of the dark?

No.

13. Do you like pain killers?

Anything but injections :-)

14. Are you too shy to ask someone out?

No. Not at all :-)

15. If you could eat anything right now, what would it be?

Mmm. This is a toughie. I would say Home cooked rasam with potato curry :-) Rocks. Also thayir saadam. Yay !

I tag

Suraksha

Cheers

A Tag to bring me out of hibernation

This blog had almost died, and I had committed blogicide, Well Almost.
She tagged me and well, sometimes it takes a tag to write.

So here they are, things I like best

• Cuddling up with a book on a dark, gloomy day and fall asleep reading it

• Talking on the phone for hours, at all hours of the day and night with her

• Doing Crossword puzzles and breaking my head over simple words

• Aimlessly surfing the internet and refreshing websites faster than they update them

• Irritating people with PJ's, something that I am proud of :)
• The smell of wet mud just after a drizzle
• Train journeys in India, especially second class. The lush green fields, the different people you meet
• Watching Manchester United play, no matter how many times
• Driving around the streets of Madras, even though they're becoming crowded by the day

Will post more later.

And I tag anyone who wants to do this.

Cheers

Want to be a cop?? Break rules :)

An interesting sentence from a magistrate in a Delhi Court. A guy was arrested for drunk driving and in return, he had to manage traffic at a busy intersection in Delhi to make him realise his mistake.

Wish we had more such magistrates who look to correct the individual rather than pain him.

Full article
Here

Monday Mornings :(

Mondays are a painful day to work. Its the start of a long week and not something that I look forward to normally. Especially if the day is light as today is, you just don't feel like doing that little bit of work that you're supposed to.

Fridays are the same. I am looking forward to the weekend and don't feel like working in the afternoons. That leaves me with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesdays are boring because you've come to office twice already and you realize that there are two more days to go :(

P&G, where I work in, is an amazing place to spend time in. The work is fun, the people are ossum and the culture excellent. However, I don't like Mondays !

Cheers

An interesting e-mail

From the Housekeeping office,

"We have found a set of Keys : The loser may please contact the Housekeeping Office @ 4677."


What a judgement !

Cheers

I love Office 2007

It can do APA referencing, something I have never been able to do since the time I have come here. Professors here are very particular about referencing and insist on APA style. Now that I have Office 2007, it does it automatically. For a change, Microsoft rocks !

Question - Will Bermuda beat Bangladesh

Even if they did, I don't think our boys deserve to play the Super Eights. A dismal performance to say the least. And all you Sachin fans out there, this was one more example of a situation when he din't perform when absolutely necessary. He should hang up his boots and retire gracefully.

I can go back to hoping that West Indies will finally have their glory days and lift the cup ! And that the Indian team is safe!
Cheers

A Day of Upsets (?)

India (quite deservedly) have lost to neighbours Bangladesh. And as I write this, Pakistan are well on their way to become the first team to book seats on the plane back home. For players like Inzamam, this would be his last world cup. Sad ! Oh Yeah, they might as well go now as O'Brien has smashed Shoaib Malik for a six as I type this.

Coming to the India match, I don't have anything say as it was a completely listless performance. Its like they din't turn up to play at all. In what was a good Queen's Park Oval Track, they could manage 191 only, that too thanks to the last wicket partnership. Losing 5 wickets for two runs means you don't deserve to be in the World Cup, let alone win it !

I shudder to think of the kind of money that people would have lost today via betting on the W/C matches. Both the favorites were beaten, and comprehensively. Oh wait ! A wicket.. Pakistan need 5 more and the Irish need19. Whattay !! If India bow out, it would be the sponsors losing a helluva lot of money because the viewership in the subcontinent would obviously decrease !

Am off to watch the last few minutes of the Irish Match ! Cheers

Half a term more :-)

Another half a term and I would have completed the most gruelling part of my academic life ever ! Its probably the most gruelling part for all of us ! 19.75 credits would have been completed. Each credit comprises of 100 hours of work including 30 hours of classroom contact hours. I did some rough math and it turns out that a minimum of 5 hours of work would be required every day of the week throughout the year to satisfy this requirement. All this translates into one word - INSANE !!

By the end of the third term, we are just about ready to give up, if we haven't already ! Third term involves more group assignments than any other term with the quizzes drying up, courtesy MANAC. I shall save MANAC for another post, its a story in itself. Ask any IIM A student about MANAC and tell me what he/she tells you :)

Mid term exams due towards the end of this week. Lets see how they go :)

Cheers.

P.S - Do check out the video in the next post.

Manchester United - The New Era

Watch this - All Man Utd fans. Some of the greatest moments ever :-)

Been a while ! But I am back

Yeah i know, I have been saying that once too often, but I shall attribute it to the hectic schedule as always. The third term started with jet lag for me. I had travelled approximately 24 hours halfway across the world and sat in a WAC lecture. For the uninitiated, WAC stands for Written Analysis and Communication, quite a painful course. It consists of 3 or 4 classes and about 3 written reports, all to be submitted on Saturday evening. There is a famous tradition behind all this known as the WAC run. This run is done when people finish their reports at the last possible minute and run from their dorms to the classrooms in order to submit the report. Sometimes, as I personally found out, students are locked up in their rooms and not let out until the last possible minute. All the tuchchas gather in the long pathway from the mess to the new campus underpass and shoot videos as some fachchas run. Its another WAC weekend next week and the case is frigging 27 pages long. And I have a class tomorrow.

I also have a marketing quiz tomorrow, one of the few times in the first year that quizzes are announced. Our professor, voted unanimously by all as the chillest prof here. Where else would you find a professor, who announces a quiz, then feels all guilty about it, gives only multiple choice questions, attaches last year's paper and explains in an email why a quiz is necessary.

Well, am off now. Going to mug (or atleast try to)

Cheers.

New Year is here !!

Happy New Year !!

I am in Ner York City this time for new year and it has just been ossum. Times square was filled with people on all directions and 12 streets were blocked. Saw most of the sites in this city over the past two days. However, the city IMHO is over-hyped and has nothing spectacular. Off to LA tomo evening..
And yes, I almost missed my flight from Mumbai on 28th. More on that in a later post. Until then, have fun and be good !

Cheers

Sreesanth at his swinging best !

Easily the funniest thing I have ever seen on a cricket field. Sreesanth was showing his heart, his dance and his bat at Nel ! Someday, Nel needs to be fined for his sledging !! Cheers

Is the justice system in India finally coming of age ??

In the recent weeks, India has seen some landmark decisions in its courts.

There was Sanjay Dutt, who was convicted under the arms act but acquitted under TADA and his sentencing is due next month. Then, there was former Union Minister Shibu Soren who was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his secretary. Incidentally, his first night in jail was a troublesome one as mosquitos bugged the hell outta him !

More recently, Navjot Singh Sidhu, the man famous for his quotes was convicted in an age old case (1988) and sentenced to three years in prison. Earlier, the impression among the general public was that powerful people would never be convicted, even if there were tons of cases and charge-sheets against them.

In my opinion, this trend is changing and soon we should see more and more tainted famous people behind bars ! In fact, the supreme court has quashed petitions from Lalu and Rabri asking all their cases to be dismissed ! Way to go !!

Atleast now, these people will think twice before they do something wrong. I mean, having someone as a union minister, someone who has murdered his own secretary is simply not done!! Alas, the prime minister, one of the most respected people in India has no choice as his hands are tied because he has to run a coalition government.

Hopefully, things have changed for the better now!

The Leading Lipstick Indicator :-)

Came across this in a quiz yesterday. Was amazed that such a theory existed..
Check it out :)
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/lipstickindicator.asp

From investopedia,

An indicator based on the theory that a consumer turns to less-expensive indulgences, such as lipstick, when she (or he) feels less than confident about the future. Therefore, lipstick sales tend to increase during times of economic uncertainty or a recession

You can just imagine the creative answers it got from the participants :-)
Cheers.

Should Chappell go ??

I have always maintained that Chappell was never the right man for the job. Recently, I read a news article in which it was said that Sunil Gavaskar also opposed his appointment when Chappell was interviewed.

Well, Sunny seems to have been right on the money as the Indian team is not performing at all. To use an oft-repeated argument, it all started with the Ganguly - Greg spat after the Zimbabwe tour following which things were never the same. Ganguly went, and with it, the fighting spirit in the team. Dravid is a class player, no doubting that. He is also a good thinker, but lacks that X factor which Saurav had. When Saurav was on the field, he was charged up and demanded good performances. I don't see that with Rahul Dravid.

Another thing that is prevalent with the current team is that some players take their place in the team for guarantee and they never seem to be dropped. They consistently don't perform for 10-15 innings and suddenly, one innings they perform and people go, "aaah!! There you go!!." Something needs to be done about this!

There is just too much money in Indian cricket and the performances to match them are just not there! Greg Chappell is paid a lot of money as coach but I don't see any results. And its been a while since he has taken charge. The will to win just does not seem to be there!!!

If this team goes to the world cup with the same attitude, we might as well concede defeat and not play !

Cheers

Memoirs of a WimWian

Mid terms going on here. I can't believe that its been close to 5 months now at WimWI. Time has just flown by and 25% of my stay here is already over. When I reflect on the things that I have done so far, lots of fond memories have already been formed.

T-Nite will remain on every fachcha's mind long after he has left the hallowed portals of this campus. It is easily the best thing that happens in the first term. A period of bonding, intense competition and more importantly, its 4 nights of complete fun. The mugging is forgotten and the PGP office is generous enough not to schedule quizzes during this week. Those were the times when the entire section used to be present in the classroom even at 3 and 4 in the morning and sleep was forgotten. Needless to say, we caught up on sleep in the classes and this is the first time I actually slept in class. At IIM A, all our classrooms are horse-shoe shaped with 4 rows on the three sides, each at different levels. I sit in the well (or the bottom row), right under the instructor's nose. This works to my advantage because it is not in the line of sight for the professor and cold calling is minimal. Cold-calling is a phrase associated with business school students around the world where you're randomly called in class to answer any question that the professor throws at you. It is fun when someone else is cold-called but believe me, its not funny when the victim is you as I found out quite recently in an accounting class. I was staring into space when the professor asks me something from the case of which I had no idea. I looked blankly at him and he offered me a glass of water :P.

There are other memorable things that have happened here, especially in the dorm. The dorm culture in most dorms is quite strong and your loyalty is first to your dorm, then your section, then your batch, and finally your institute. After the institute comes the loyalty to your girlfriend. Dorms go out to dinner together, drink together, have parties, and also make tempo shouts. Tempo shouting is a tradition where one group out-shouts the other. Mind you, these are not random shouts, but the words have a meaning attached to them too:P

I'll complete this post later as there is a mid term in 5 hours and I need some sleep.

Good night :)

Whattay Match !!!

Chelsea Lost!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

John Terry sent off.. Half a dozen or so players booked.. Lost to Tottenham by a goal. And Man Utd won yesterday against Portsmouth.. Three points clear at the top!!!

We are well on course to win the title..

Where are y'all, Chelsea fans?????????????

Also, Arsenal lost earlier to West Ham.. All you Goooooooooners, say aye!!!

Bring 'em on!!!!

Go Red Devils Go!!!

Cheers!!

PS- Mid terms from tomo.. :) Wish me luck :)

Happy Diwali

Another example of where this country's politics is headed for..
Read this

And yeah, Happy Diwali to all once again !!
Cheers