Rhythm of life

2 gentleman came to see me at my office. Nicely dressed and fluent in english, with laptop and a bag. They started asking me personal questions like my bank balance etc. made entry in one of the excel with macros (Macro had bug!) and their first version showed I need to save 18L per year :D Then he came up with another figure 3.35L / year. He didn't care to explain how the figure is down >80%.

Then he said buy Birla Sunlife ULIP saying it's best in the market, I must buy that. I heard them for 1 hour. I bought time saying I need to do some research on my own before buying it. When I Googled it there were many funds available who were charging less fees and had proven track record. I was wondering why was he trying to sell only Birla sunlife to me. My gut feeling was saying don't buy it from these people. Still I met them next day, I told him clearly that I doubt their motive as they are not offering any option to me and they are making decision for me. If they had given me 2-3 options I could have picked one and wouldn't be so skeptical about the whole thing.

Anyways, I didn't buy policy. But he was supposed to be my wealth manager! But he was trying increase his and his companies wealth by selling product which I thought was not the best. Then I talked to my friends and to my surprise all of them were also contacted for the same product.

In conclusion, they are nothing more than modern day cheaters.

One, they didn't make any disclosure on their company's tie up with Birla Sunlife. Second, they claimed to be wealth manager but acting as marketing guys (I called up my RM to inquire if they were from Birla sunlife or Citibank, it was that bad). It's next to cheating your customer who is already having business with you.

2 Jawans died and many more got injured. Almost all news paper carried the story on their front page. But Times Of India didn't even care to write 1 line about it, not on front page not on 10th! As if it just didn't happen. May be because they are carrying 'Aman ki aasha'. But aman can't return to weak. Only strong has the right to demand peace.

How pathetic? It's time to move to Hindu/Deccan if you are in Hyderabad.

Now that issue is almost dead I can think about it more clearly. It is fact that makers of 3-idiots didn't show enough grace in acknowledging Chetan Bhagat (CB) 's role. Issue wouldn't have got so much attention, if VVC & Co. had just said, "sorry we should have placed it in the beginning, we never thought CB will make such a big deal out of it. We will correct it in future releases.". Then CB would have looked real publicity hungry guy. But that didn't happen. They fought for silly thing like where the credit line should appear. Do you think that these people are really that naive or arrogant? Arrogant may be, naive i don't think so.

In the final analysis, I get the feeling that it was more of typical filmy way of getting publicity out of controversy. I'm not sure if both parties are hand in glove but both have benefited from this trivial issue. FPS sales have increased more than 30% and 3-idiots' collections have been highest.

So, it's not about creativity stupid, it's about money!

Anyone who has read FPS, knows what 3 idiots is based on. It's no brainer.

I wonder what Raju Hirani and Vidu Vinod Chopras think?

Whole plot is based on FPS. When I was watching movie whole first half was based on the novel. In the interval I thought now, plot might change to something, but to my surprise even after interval movie goes back to college. And I had no doubt in my mind that it was Five point someone with pre and post modification, but heart of the story was five point someone.

By making rancho topper or not having sex with professor's daughter in her house or finally getting married or adding the plot how rancho was poor guy who studied for knowledge not degree doesn't change the whole damn thing. Javed Jaffrey was guest artist wasn't the hero of the movie. Who was the hero? Rancho? What's the movie's theme? College life? Where is the argument?

What is shocking is why film makers are shying away from giving due credit. Remember Omkara? Vishal Bhardwaj shared due credit. And VVC & company should when you had formal contract. What's wrong then? I don't know. You already paid him the money. Show some grace.

It's really bad that, creative people don't respect others creativity.

My 2 cents.

- I have become better at CS.

- Developed proof of concept called Jugaad : where you can use developer machines as grid of machines to run your jobs.

- Developed 2 features for google reader

- Developed fully working site for finding production rollbacks in GWT

- Got two awards in a year

* others

nothing great worth mentioning

Move is completely regressive and against the stand India has taken in international forums. It is also shocking because likes of Kamalnath and others have advocated increasing H1Bs in the past when U.S. introduced restrictions on H1B. I just wonder how can you suggest something to someone and then do exactly opposite yourself and on top of that defend it.

It requires lot of courage and leadership to do the right thing in adverse conditions. World lacks them everywhere.