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Phir Mile Sur — fail

January 26th, 2010
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On India’s 60th republic day, there was a lot of buzz on social networks about a new version of the amazing song, “Mile Sur Mera Tumhara”. It is called “Phir Mile Sur”. I really loved the original song from 1988 and wanted to see the updated version (part 1 and part 2) despite warnings from many people about its badness. I had to watch it myself to find out how bad it was and it is truly horrible. First of all, it is 3 times as long as the original and did I say that it is horrendous? It shows what is wrong with today’s India: unduly high importance/reverence towards Bollywood stars and Rahman’s electronic music which is mediocre at best.

Friends, I have taken a bullet for you. If you haven’t seen the new version yet, please don’t. Here is a link for the original song again. Watch it 3 times instead of the new crappy version.

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admin India, Music

Moon mission

October 22nd, 2008
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Congratulations to ISRO for successful launch of Chandrayaan-1, India’s first unmanned mission to the Moon. Pretty soon, Indian flag will be on the surface of the Moon as Chandrayaan-1 drops a probe upon reaching Moon.

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admin Astronomy, India

A New Great Lake–or Dead Sea?

June 10th, 2008
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ENGINEERING: A New Great Lake–or Dead Sea? — Stone 320 (5879): 1002 — Science

Read this very interesting article in Science about a large scale canal building project to divert drainage water to a large natural low-lying area in the desert to create a lake to irrigate farms around it. They have built thousands of kilometer long canals to feed this lake just to show-off the government power. The article talks about problems caused by such canals its detrimental effects on the land around them. This reminded me of a similar proposed project in India to connect all the big rivers by canals for conserving and redistributing water. I wonder what happened to that and if a rigorous scientific analysis was conducted to study its effect on the environment.

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admin India, World

India ETF

February 29th, 2008
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While there were many Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that invested in many single countries, there was none that focused on India alone. There are many Asia or emerging markets ETFs that include India, but no India ETF. Recently, that changed with creation of a new ETF: WisdomTree India Earnings Fund (EPI).

WisdomTree index is based on earnings of the companies and currently it holds about 150 companies. Because earnings is the main consideration for selection in the index, it is full of big stable companies with low P/E ratios. They also take into account the investability of a company as Indian government restricts the fraction of any company stock that can be held by foreign entities. This index portfolio has a dividend yield of 1.23% and P/E of about 14. The top 5 holdings are:
1. Reliance Industries Ltd
2. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.
3. Infosys Technologies Ltd.
4. Bharti Airtel Limited
5. ICICI Bank Ltd.
They account for one third of total investment. Annual expense ratio for the fund is 0.88% which is not bad.

If you were waiting for an India focused ETF, this is it. I think it provides a good opportunity to invest in the biggest Indian companies in a disciplined and diversified way. (Disclaimer: I am not a financial expert or adviser. These are my opinions. Make your own decisions after reading the prospectus carefully. I am not responsible for your loss.)

Powershares India Fund from Powershares will be available for investment soon and will be good to have another option for ETF investing in India.

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admin India, Money & Investing

Back in the USA

January 29th, 2008
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Came back from Hindustan over the weekend. I had a such a nice time for two weeks, I didn’t realize that it was time to come back. It feels good to be back with my babies. It was precious to see the happiness on their faces to see me.

The journey back home was very uneventful. Non-stop flight from Mumbai to New York was about half full and I had a whole bench of three seats to myself. I could make full use of them to lie down through most of the travel time. First class treatment in economy class fare. Who would complain about that?

Other than meeting with parents, friends and relatives to eat about 5-6 meals every day, there were just a few mentionable things I did.

  • I was invited to present a talk at the 50th Anniversary celebrations at my alma mater, The Bombay College of Pharmacy. The two-day (Jan 18-19) symposium was a great success with presentations mostly by alumni on topics ranging from genomics and drug discovery to formulations and regulatory affairs.
  • Keeping up with tradition, I had to visit at least one fort in the Sahyadris during my trip. This time, it was Lohgad near Lonavala. It is one of the best preserved forts as it was occupied and in-use till 1818 when it was transfered to the British without shedding a drop of blood or using a single bullet. Here are some photos…
    Lohgad 01-2008

    After eating a meal at one of Mumbai’s fanciest hotels, The Orchid, on the night before, I was treated to simple zunaka-bhakar for lunch at Hotel Baba at the foot of Lohgad. After the arduous hike in cool weather, freshly made hot zunaka-bhakar with onions and pickles was just heavenly.

  • A wild party with 7 other friends whom I first met about 34 years ago in kindergarten or शिशूमंदिर . The only people I know longer than these guys are probably my parents and a few other relatives. Here are some photos from that night…
    Parag 2008 Thane trip

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admin India, Me

NYC to BOM

January 14th, 2008
1 comment

This was my time on Air India and It was one of the best airline experiences ever. Direct flight from New York to Mumbai takes only 13 hours and 40 minutes. This route is serviced by new Boeing 777 planes that are really nice. Lots of legroom, the seats are comfortable and are equiped with personal on-demand video service. I had unlimited and uninterrupted access to TV after a long long time and I made full use of it. Other than about 4-5 hours of sleep, I was watching it constantly.

Here are the movies that I watched:

  • Casino Royale: It is probably the most action-packed Bond movie ever. I was getting tired watching all the running around. The new Bond is the best built, but his face most definitely is not suitable for Bond. As I had mentioned before, he looks like a KGB agent.
  • Khosla ka ghosla: I like it. Anupam Kher did a good job without making a fool of himself. The movie is made very well, too.
  • Lage raho munnabhai: bande me tha dum, vande mataram!!! Quite entertaining. I am not ashamed to admit that I like Sanjeev Dutt.
  • Eklavya: It was OK except Amitabh Bachchan. It was painful to look at him. He looked so so old and his costume and make-up didn’t help him.
  • Uttaraayan: Watched a Marathi movie after a long time. It was a good adaptation of “Durgi” by Jayawant Dalwi, but it could have been made better. The dialog lacked substance and cohesiveness at times. Also, it should included more poetry as it was an important part of the relationship between Raghu and Durgi.
  • Bhagum bhag: couldn’t take more than about 10 minutes of it.

The best part about all these hindi movies was that they were edited to remove all the songs and made to fit in less than 2 hours. It was just perfect. All the three movies had Boman Irani. He seemed much better than Kader Khan and Johny Lever. Maybe, after a few more movies, he will become unbearable too. Also, two of them had Vidya Balan. She looked quite good. Probably one of the best of the newer actresses in Bollywood.

Looking forward to watching a few more movies on my way back on the 25th.

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parag India, Me, Movies

Protected: Ganesh Chaturthi 2007

September 16th, 2007
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admin Adit, Arts & Culture, Ashwini, India, Kids

The Indian Autorickshaw Challenge

January 17th, 2007
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The Indian Autorickshaw Challenge

This must be a really exciting race. Should follow it in August.

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parag India

How to get into a college

July 25th, 2005
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There are many many ways:

  • If you are a God-fearing meek individual, you should study hard, try to do well in exams and with your marksheet, you can get into college.
  • If you are not so good at studying but a resourceful person, you can try to cheat in exams, get good marks, and get into college.
  • If you can qualify for reserved seats, you are in.
  • If you have access to political influence, you are in.
  • If you have a rich daddy, you can buy your way into the college.

But, don’t try what these students did in Meerut. Even in a lawless state such as U.P., rushing into admissions office with a gun doesn’t work. This has only escalated the situation. Now, the professors are going to carry a gun along with their books. I am so glad that I am done with college.

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parag India

Women’s rights

July 12th, 2005
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I had made a post earlier, about Hudood law in Pakistan. If one thinks women in India are in better condition, they are wrong. The plight of muslim women in India is equally bad if not worse than Pakistan. There is muslim personal law in India which seems to be as ridiculous as Hudood law. Recently, the case of Imrana made news in all the media. I heard about this case in this Op-ed by Salman Rushdie in New York Times. (Thanks, Mayuresh).

Imrana, a 28 year old woman with 5 kids was raped by her father-in-law. The panchayat and clerics decreed that she would have to leave her family (because after the rape, she was like a mother to her husband) and get married to her father-in-law. There were no consequences for the father-in-law to face, other than getting a new wife.

The All India Muslim Personal Law board supports the clerics decision too. They went as far as conducting their own investigation and concluding that Imrana was not raped. They have always supported all issues on the side of Muslim Personal Law.

This happened in Muzaffarnagar, U.P. The current CM of UP, Mullah Mulayam Singh had these pearls of wisdom to offer about the case:

Today, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav also endorsed the view of the Darul Uloom at Deoband on the issue that she can no longer live with her husband.

“The decision taken by Muslim religious leaders in the Imrana case must have been taken after a lot of thought,” said Yadav.

“The government will not interfere in the case till we have more details. The leaders after all are very learned,” he added.

If this doesn’t make a case of Uniform Civil Code, then I don’t know what will. But, considering how the Shahabano case was disposed off by Rajiv Gandhi’s government to appease the muslim minority in India, this case wil not do a damn thing.

A quote from Rushdie’s article that I agree with wholeheartedly:

at the risk of being called a communalist, I must agree that any country that claims to be a modern, secular democracy must secularize and unify its legal system, and take power over women’s lives away, once and for all, from medievalist institutions like Darul-Uloom.

While nothing happens with the Imrana case despite all the outcry, it is happening all over again.

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parag India