Provoke some...

Definition of “Villain” as per dictionary.com: 1. a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel. 2. a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot.   Let me repeat some of the words mentioned above – Cruel, Malicious, Wicked, Crime, Scoundrel, Evil. Now can you imagine someone who is all these words and still be “adorable”? Isn’t it a dichotomy? How can someone be “evil” and “adorable” at the same time? Well if you want an answer you need to watch Shahrukh Khan in Don 2. Here is a villain whom you would love to love, a villain whom you don’t want to be killed by the protagonist and a villain whom you want to woo the leading lady.   There are some more examples of such villains whom we adore. Lalu Prasad Yadav is a loving character and will always be notwithstanding the fodder scam or the total collapse of law and order in Bihar during his governance. Then there is Charles Sobhraj, a seri

Pick up any gadgets magazine and you will have scores of pages dedicated to new products, their features, specifications and comparison to other similar devices. Similarly, any new technology product launch boasts about the "revolutionary new" features, enhanced specs, first-in-the-industry functions... Amoled screen, Carl Zeiss camera lens, Dolby sound, capacitative touchscreen, turn-by-turn navigation, 3G/HSPA, faster processor... to name a few.  Off late a few products have started talking about what these features can do for you... never lose your way, take notes in your handwriting, edit your videos, check your email on the go, upload your photos to Facebook... Just two years back no one wanted a tablet device, knew what it was or what it could do. The select few in the technology world who had heard or read about such a device had anyways written it off stating what would anyone do with it? So when Apple launched iPad in March last year, doomsayers touted it as the

All of us wish to succeed. Doesn't matter which field we choose, be it medicine, business, entertainment, tourism, sports, law, administrative services or corporate. Irrespective of where we are from, Gangtok to Gandhidham or Kargil to Kollam. Nothing to do with the socio economic class, religion, caste, gender or region. In spite of physical differences, shortcomings or handicaps. We all just want to be successful. Right from the formative years, we study hard, half of us would rise at unearthly hours while the other half would be getting to bed at that time, putting in 90-100 hours every week. Those of us who choose sports as the profession would invest similar number of hours on the field. Majority would be hopping from one tuition class to another interspersed with tennis, karate, dance and music classes while one is also expected to participate in quizzes, debates, Olympiads and extempores. Great... Finally all the hard work pays off and we end up being a successful entrep

16 million views on YouTube... Record sharing on Facebook & Twitter... Scores of cover versions... Dozens spoofs... Hundreds write-ups across umpteen publications... Caller tune for millions mobile subscribers... Wikipedia page... All this and more in just over 15 days of release. According to folklore (yes, it has reached that stage), director Aishwarya wanted a lilting song on heartbreak and composer Anirudh Ravichander obliged. Singer Dhanush then supposedly came up with this song in just 20 minutes. He said "When I was writing down the lyrics, I kept in mind all the English words that are used in the Tamil vocabulary. Words like I, you, me, how, why, cow.. I just framed them into sentences and thats how I came up with the song." And everyone is wondering... What is in this song that makes it what it is? The lyrics are absolutely absurd, is sung by an occasional singer, video shot in a drab studio and the music is not out of ordinary... then why is everyone seems t

Just behind my house is the sprawling "Infocity", part of the 35 sqkm mega ITIR (Information Technology Investment Region), an ambitious government initiative with an objective of creating employment opportunities and economic growth. ITIR is like a Mega SEZ where the Central Govt funds the development of External links like Highways, Rail and other transportation infrastructure, State develops internal public amenities and provides infrastruture for private developers to build their campuses and manufacturing units.  One day, on my umpteenth fitness initiative, I went for an early morning walk in the "state-of-the-art" Infocity only to be welcomed by masticating cows sprawled right in the middle of the road adorned by cow dung, dirt and dog's pee, the concoction's smell heavy in the air. The state of the jogging/cycling track was even worse with cobwebs dangling from thoughtfully planted dense trees. There was no hope in hell that I would walk on that roa

The huge debate recently was whether the government should bail out Kingfisher Airlines? The counter argument, spearheaded by Mr Bajaj, is that in a democratic (read, capitalist) environment the private sector needs to fend for itself. Companies that are unable to manage the business intricacies should be allowed to sink. The Government as well as majority of the people don't think that tax payers' money should be used to save a plunging private company. Got it... The tax payers' money should be spent on developmental projects and for the overall uplift of the country... a country in which 25% people are below poverty line... which as per the latest planning commission report stands at Rs 32 per day. And anyways, Airlines as an industry can never fall in the ambit of the set of industries or sectors where the Government would like to invest. It is an industry for the elite, for the crème de la crème and definitely not for the masses. I am sorry but am I missing something

When I was in college, all of us from the so-called ‘middle-class’ were inspired by one name – Rajat Gupta, who lost his journalist father at the tender age of sixteen and then his mother two years later and went on to become the Managing Director of McKinsey, one of the world’s largest and prominent consultancy firm. Ramalinga Raju was born in the family of farmers and was just an ordinary commerce graduate from Vijayawada. He founded Satyam Computers and became an ideal for all the IT entrepreneurs as he brushed shoulders with the likes of Azim Premji & Narayan Murthy as his company scaled heights. Then something snapped… In 2009, Ramalinga Raju was imprisoned on charges of cheating, embezzlement and insider trading. And just a few days back, Rajat Gupta was apprehended by FBI for alleged securities fraud and insider trading. At the time of their incarceration, Ramalinga Raju and Rajat Gupta had a personal wealth of more than USD 1 billion and USD 100 million respectively, th