Anurag Jain's Blog
Tuesday, August 31, 2004

AKKA World Kannada Conference

2004 AKKA World Kannada Conference will be held during September 3-5, 2004 at Orlando, Florida. Details here.

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The 'Lost Post'

A visitor to my site has requested me to put this info up in an effort to retrieve his passport.

Mr. Mohan lost his passport yesterday in Bangalore. The possible areas where he might have lost are: St. Marks Road, Sampige Ram Nagar, and Konankunde. If anyone finds it, please contact at 080-26321789. The finder will be suitably rewarded.

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Friday, August 27, 2004

Two B-Plan Competitions

1) Avenues 2004 - Annual B-Fest at SJMSOM, IIT Bombay.

2) ANANYA-The Business Plan Competition-Xpressions-2004, XIM Bhubneswar.
Announcing the event: August 19th
Receipt of business plans: September 15th
Announcing the results: September 21st
Presentation by Team During XPressions: 4th October
Contact Numbers and Emails
• Sanjib Kumar Jha- u303043 AT ximb.ac.in, Ph - 9437111081
• Jeevan.J.Arakal- u303017 AT ximb.ac.in, Ph - 9861170376
• Chelladurai.A u303010 AT ximb.ac.in, Ph - 9861232675
• Varundeep u303048 AT ximb.ac.in, Ph - 9437111048
• Anjaneyulu u304024 AT ximb.ac.in, Ph - 9861140475
• Kusuma u304017 AT ximb.ac.in , Ph - 9861134516
• Prakash Sinha u304027 ATximb.ac.in , Ph - 9861105091

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Continuity and Change: a photo exhibition on Kuppam

"
Kuppam, a small agrarian community of three hundred thousand, located between Bangalore and Chennai, lives up to its name, " a meeting point". It is where a hoary past and a dynamic present meet an ambitious future, Where tradition meets modernity, Where strength meets adversity, And ingenuity meets challenge. It is in that special confluence of continuity and change that she renews herself every day.

Hewlett- Packard is privileged to be working in this special community for the past 2 ½ years to enable sustainable socio - economic development through deployment of Information and communication technology. The exhibition " continuity and change, is our endeavour to walk you through our neighbourhood, to help you see through our eyes and explore this beautiful place that we have come to call home during these past two plus years.

Exhibition details
Continuity and Change, a photo exhibition on Kuppam at Time & Space Gallery, 55 Lavelle Road, (Opposite Java City ) Bangalore 560001
Dates 23rd August to 30th August 2004 Time 11 AM - 8 PM
"

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Amrish Puri is PG 13's Dad!

Did you know that Amrish Puri's heart-ripping (literally) act in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was the major force behind the birth of PG13 rating in Hollywood? PG-13 is currently celebrating its 20th birthday. Its nice to know that the ultimate Bollywood baddie gave Heebies Jeebies to the American audience too! And, to think how Amrish Puri almost didn't take Mola Ram's role!

Of course, I never liked Temple of Doom for the stupid way it portrayed Indian society.


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Thursday, August 26, 2004

Life of David Gale

Sample this brilliant quote (emphasis and italics added) on Fantasies from The Life of David Gale :

Come on, think. I want you to reach back into those minds and tell me, tell us all, what it is you fantasize about. World peace? I thought so. Do you fantasize about international fame? Do you fantasize about winning a Pulitzer Prize? Or a Nobel Peace Prize? An MTV Music Award? Do you fantasize about meeting some genius hunk, ostensibly bad but secretly simmering with noble passion and willing to sleep on the wet spot? You get Lucans point. Fantasies have to be unrealistic because the moment, the second, that you get what you desire, you don't, you can't want it anymore. In order to continue to exist desire must have it's objects perpetually absent. Its not the it that you want, it's the fantasy of it. So desire supports crazy fantasies. This is what Pascal means when he says we are only truly happy when daydreaming about future happiness or why we say the hunt is sweeter than the kill. Or be careful what you wish for, not because you get it but because you're doomed not to want it once you do. So the lesson of Lucas is, living by wants will never make you happy. What it means to be fully human is to strive to live by ideals and ideals and not to measure your life by what you've attained in terms of your desires but those small moments of integrity, compassion, rationality, even self-sacrifice. Because in the end, the only way that we can measure the signifigance of our own lives is by valuing the lives of others.
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Bzzwings

IIM Bangalore invites innovative business ideas for Bzzwings – the business plan contest organized as part of the annual business meet, Vista.

The event will be held in three phases:
Phase I: Participants are required to mail a soft copy of their executive summary before 15th September, 2004. The results of this round would be
announced by 3rd October, 2004.
Phase II: Five to six teams would be selected in phase I based on the quality of the executive summary. These teams will have to submit the complete
business plan by 20th October, 2004.
Phase III: All the teams selected in the first round will have to present their business plan to a panel of distinguished judges at the Indian Institute of
Management Bangalore on 6th November, 2004.

Team Size
The number of members per team cannot be more than three.

Prizes
First Prize: Rs 30000
Second Prize: Rs 20000

Important Dates
Last date of receipt of the executive summary 15th September, 2004
Results for the first phase 3rd October, 2004
Last date for submission of business plans 20th October, 2004
Final presentation of business plans 6th November, 2004

Contact: startup AT iimb.ernet.in More details at http://202.41.106.14/~fii/bzzwings.html

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Wednesday, August 25, 2004

KQA Quizzes on Sunday, August 29th

The Karnataka Quiz Association (KQA) will hold two quizzes on Sunday, August 29th 2004 at the Daly Memorial Hall, Nrupatunga Road, Bangalore.

Event I
Entertainment Quiz. Quizmaster: Madhav Nair

RULES
The quiz is open to all members of the general public, irrespective of age or institutional affiliation.
Teams of four members. Entry Fee: Rs.75/- per team. Six teams qualify

SCHEDULE
Registration: 1000hrs. Prelims: 1030hrs. Finals: 1115hrs

PRIZES
I: Rs.1,000/- II: Rs. 800/- III: Rs. 700/

Event II
KQA's Collegiate Quiz Championship. Quizmaster: Arul Mani

Rules
The quiz is open to individuals from PUC/XI & XII, Undergraduate and Postgraduate institutions. Unlimited entries per institution. Entry Fee: Rs.25/- per entrant
The eight best prelim scores qualify, irrespective of institution. The winner will be declared College Quiz Champion for the season 2004-2005

Schedule
Registration: 1400hrs. Prelims: 1430hrs. Finals: 1530hrs

Prizes
I: Rs.500/- II: Rs.400/- III: Rs. 300/-

The best lady entrant : Rs.500/-
The best PUC entrant : Rs.250/-

For more information on either event, please call at 98452-06690.

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Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Email: A researchable domain

In the latest issue of MIS Quarterly (MIS Quarterly Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. iii-xiii/September 2004), Editor-in-Chief Ron Weber sort of issues a call to the MIS professionals to see email as a researchable domain. Even from a non-research perspective, the edit makes a good read on typical email behaviours! Coming from the editor of such a reputed IS journal, it seems like a good topic to do IS research on.

Some samples from the edit:
..In short, we have human, technological,and in some cases organizational problems to solve.
.. In this editorial I have taken a somewhat jaundiced view of e-mail. I have done so purposefully to try to show that e-mail phenomena provide a rich lode to mine for research purposes.
..Curiously, we have little published research about e-mail in our major information systems journals,2 even though for many of us it represents perhaps the most-significant computer application we use.
.. In this light, I hope to motivate more high-quality research and more high-quality publications on e-mail.
.. I believe technological developments associated with e-mail use therefore need to be informed by social science research.
.. Nonetheless, many of us claim that as members of the information systems discipline we are well placed to study phenomena associated with human-computer interactions.

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Saturday, August 21, 2004

Reliance Crumbling?

According to today's story in the Times of India, an unnamed business group is having family problems between the two brothers. Its more or less certain that the news article is talking about the Reliance group, the largest private player in India with sales approaching/in excess of 20 billion dollars (I guess).

It'd be a shame to see such a beautifully created empire created by Dhirubhai Ambani taken hostage to family feud between wives. Mukesh and Anil are a wonderful team, and even after Dhirubhai, they have been able to continue inspiring Indian entrepreneurial capital by their 'Think Big' attitude and actions. I hope they stay together and continue taking their unified company to big heights. Right now, theirs is approximately one-thirteenth of the largest company in the world (Wal-Mart: turonver 250 billion US$ approx). Creating such a mega corporation sitting in this part of the world is no mean feat, esp. when you look at figures considering the exchange ratio of 1:45 between Indian rupee and USdollar! I hope the brothers stay together, pool their energies, and take Reliance to the top of the world, literally.


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Mobile Phone Directory in India.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is being proactive and is debating the issue of bringing out a mobile phone directory (Here's the consultation paper inviting feedback). Despite its negatives, I think such directory is required. In fact, I have been waiting for one! I get so many calls from numbers that I do not know. With such a directory, at least I can get info on who tried to call me.


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Student Delegation from Pakistan

A student delegation (6 in number) from Lahore University of Management Studies (LUMS), Pakistan, will be visiting IIMB during 24th August to 26th August. This is a part of their tour to India and have already visited IIMA, Jaipur, Mumbai, Gujarat, IIMK, etc.

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Friday, August 20, 2004

A Hanging: Much the same after 73 years?

Let me state at the outset that I am against death punishment. I know its a debatable issue but the subject of this post is not that debate.

The subject of this post is actually the striking similarity between real life and fiction. Amongst all authors, George Orwell especially (leave Nostradamus out of this, will ya!) seems to have had a knack of writing about things well ahead of their time. Things that would much later become either true or at least a matter of public debate. For instance, '1984' was actually written in 1948 and still remains one of the most powerful works of literature. '1984' has contributed to our day-to-day vocabulary in a very powerful way (e.g. 'Big Brother').

With this background, lemme tell you about my recent 'Orwellian experience'. Last week, I read a short essay called 'A Hanging' (alternate link) by Orwell. It almost feels like you are reading about the recent (14th August, 2004) hanging of a rape/murder convict Dhananjoy Chatterjee in Kolkata. The thing though is, George Orwell wrote this essay in 1931!

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Manufacturing-Marketing Interface: Evaluation Of Product Line Extensions Considering Manufacturing Planning Factors

Attended the subject topic research workshop yesterday by a colleague, Sarang Jagdale. Abstract follows:
Marketing wants product variety, clearly a need to survive in competitive environment. Manufacturing wants stable production schedule to gain on economies of scale and stability in production factors. The revenue interactions by offering wide variety of products is an extensively researched topic in the literature especially marketing literature. On manufacturing side offering variety is researched through modularity and commonality in product design. A new stream of research has come up in which researchers combined the issues from manufacturing and marketing in offering wide variety of products. Product variety can be offered through new products or creating variations and options in existing products. Later is typically referred as product line extension. Line extension strategy is followed by many firms including consume durables and non-durables, industrial products manufacturing firms, and services firms. From review of studies there exists no research, which attempted to evaluate product line extensions from manufacturing planning perspective. To do this one needs to inculcate demand dynamics caused by launching of product line extensions.

This study is an attempt to build a model for a firm that produces and offers multiple products. Each of these products belongs to a product line and /or manufacturing class. Now the firm is contemplating on offering more variety through product line extensions. Each of these line extensions belongs to a manufacturing class. A product line extension builds its demand from cannibalization, capturing unsatisfied demand, and capturing competitors' demand. Evaluation of trade-offs involved in selection of which line extensions to offer depends on demand dynamics caused by launching of product line extension. On the supply side this demand dynamics results into variations in mix and volume. Question for the firm is which line extensions to select and how to plan them.
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Thursday, August 19, 2004

Howard Rheingold's on next level of Social Networking

In an MNBC article, Howard Rheingold (Author of 2001 book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution) comes up with some fantabulous observations. Sample some:

The dogma is that the two major means of organizing for economic production are the market and the firm. But Benkler uses open source as an example of peer-to-peer production, which he thinks may be pointing toward a third means of organizing for production.
------------------
All these could dramatically transform not only the way people do business, but economic production altogether. We had markets, then we had capitalism, and socialism was a reaction to industrial-era capitalism. There's been an assumption that since communism failed, capitalism is triumphant, therefore humans have stopped evolving new systems for economic production.
------------------
If you want to think out of the box about innovation, let's not put all of our bets on 50-year-old PhDs in laboratories. We now have dispersed the means of individual and collective innovation throughout the world.

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Tim Leary's legacy: Children of Dope

I really liked this quote from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) captures a subculture phenomenon very beautifully when he says:

We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled that 60's. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's (link added) trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.

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Bzzwings 2004

Bzzwings 2004- The Business Plan Contest of IIM Bangalore is being organized by the StartUp Club in association with the Forum for Industrial Interaction.

Important dates:
Last date of receipt of the executive summary 15th September, 2004
Results for the first phase 3rd October, 2004
Last date for submission of business plans 20th October, 2004
Final presentation of business plans 6th November, 2004

Prizes
First Prize: Rs 30000
Second Prize: Rs 20000

All doubts or queries may be addressed to startup AT iimb.ernet.in

Bzzwings Contact
Rahul Agrawal, PH: +91-98802-93940, Mail: agrawalr03 AT iimb.ernet.in
Saurabh Gautam, PH: +91-98803-08501, Mail: suarabhk03 AT iimb.ernet.in

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Film festival on 21,22,23 Aug at IISc

"
A Collective Chaos film festival in association with National Film Archive of india. Please check the website for more details - www.collectivechaos.org
A festival of 12 films by internationally acclaimed Indian film makers.

Ajantrik - Ritwik Ghatak
Agraharathil Kazhuthai - John Abraham
Ashad Ka Ek Din - Mani Kaul
Devi - Satyajit Ray
Elippathayam - Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Estheppan - G Aravindan
Garam Hawa - M S Sathyu
Ghatashraddha - Girish Kasaravalli
Ishanou - Aribam Syam Sharma
Khandahar - Mrinal Sen
Naseem - Sayed Mirza
Paroma - Aparna Sen

20th 21st and 22nd August 2004 at Satish Dhavan Auditorium, next to J N Tata auditorium, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
"

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Bangalore Cares
6.30 p.m. Fri, Aug 20. Queens Statue, MG Road


"There is a sense of disquiet and a feeling about impending doom about the deteriorating quality of life in Bangalore. The more things seem to change, the more they seem so fleeting and insignificant in the larger chaos of our urban lives.

A random poll among citizens threw up a host of issues. Citizens wake up to infrastructure woes in terms of pot holed roads, overflowing drains, half complete flyovers coupled with long daily commutes and grid locked traffic. One in four Bangalore household has locked up on an average around Rs.
40,000 advance towards a site layout project, the fate of which is uncertain. If this is the dismal present, what hope for the future? Does anyone care? Are we "like this only"? What can an average Bangalorean do?

For one, we can sit up and take note when people do make a difference. By celebrating and saying thank you to government officers who have made a difference to Bangalore. One officer for example is Jayakar Jerome, the former BDA Commissioner. He could have done nothing and we would not have noticed. He turned around a moribund, about-to-be-closed organization into a robust, functioning body. And in the process the city benefited - be it commuting over the completed outer ring road, the Hebbal or Hosur flyover. Lalbagh has a new lease of life after 100 years. Over 50,000 Bangaloreans got sites with clean titles allotted. Jerome has now moved on, as is the way with Government.

But as Bangaloreans, we can show that we care. That when someone does stand up to make a difference, we can stand up and acknowledge.

It is time citizens said a simple thank you. It will show that Bangalore cares and that Bangaloreans are willing to celebrate anyone who makes a significant difference. And there are many out there.

Bangaloreans can show that we care. Through a positive symbolic gesture. By making the effort to show concern about the future. It could be about any aspect of living in the city we all care about.

Bangalore can show it cares. By coming to Queens Statue, MG Road at 6.30 p.m. on Friday, Aug 20, 2004. With a candle, or a diya, or a torch. To symbolically show our gratitude for those who have made our daily lot a little better. And show our concern for the future of the city.

Bangalore can show it cares. By spreading the word around. Queens Statue, MG Road. 6.30 p.m. Friday, Aug 20. With a light that shows you care.
"

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Lone Wolf Quiz

"
Canara Union's 21st Annual Lone Wolf quiz for individual entrants will be conducted by KQA on Sunday, 22nd August 2004. It will be held at The Canara Union, 8th Main, Malleswaram. The quiz will cover topics of general interest and will include audio and visual questions.

The Rules:
Solo quiz contest. Open to all. Entry Fee: Rs. 20/-

Schedule
Registration: 1500hrs. Prelims: 1530hrs. Finals: 1615hrs
Quiz Master: Kiran Vijayakumar
"

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Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Air Supply in India. Sponsors Invited

Air Supply are gonna be in Delhi and Bangalore in November 2004! I love the number they have done with Mehnaz: "You are the reason" :)



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Monday, August 16, 2004

Computer Bowl's Funny Trivia

I think this is from 1992 Computer bowl I was watching recently. Bill Gates was the quizzer along with the show host Stewart Cheifet. Sample the following tongue-in-cheek answers from respondent when neither of the team seemed to know the answers.

Bill Gates asks the question: "Since 1984, a contest has been held on Usenet for the most unreadable, bizzare but working C C program. What is the name of this contest?"
After ascertaining that nobody in his team or the other knows the answer, Jean Louis Gassee, Chairman and CEO, Be Inc. replies: Windows! :))

In the same episode, certain time is elapsed after the question above and a funny moment comes again. Theis time, Bill Gates asks: "This 1985 movie was about two nerdy teenagers who use a computer to conjure up a woman of their dreams. What is the name of the movie?"
Again, neither East coast nor West coast knows the answer. Seeing the silence, Mitchell Kertzman, Chairman and CEO, Powersoft Corp. responds brilliantly: Bill and Paul's excellent adventure! (Fashioned after Bill and Tedd's Excellent Adventure) :)

I am sure Bill Gates wouldn't have conducted any quizzes after that! Just kidding :) He actually accepted all these comments quite gracefully, smiling all the time.

What, you want the real answers? Okay, okay you eggheads, here they are:
Answers: --->1) Obfuscated C Contest 2) Weird Science<---
(To see the answers, select the space between the arrows with your mouse - click and drag mouse over the next line just like you select text in word processing applications. Or just press Ctrl-A)

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Saturday, August 14, 2004

Lesser than Bush's IQ

Neat 'Sale' hoarding in Chennai. I think its Landmark's advertisement, but not sure.

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Freedom jam tonight

6 pm onwards. 60 groups performing original compositions....entry free. at The Club on mysore road. Be there ! www.freedomjam.net

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Treasure Hunt in Bangalore on 15th Aug 2004

"
Dear Friends,

Karnataka Tourism Forum, the accepted representative of Tourism industry in Karnataka is in association with Departments of Tourism of Government of Karnataka and Government of India, organizing a Treasure Hunt, in Bangalore, on August 15th 2004. This will be a mega event and like in 2003, a grand success. The maximum participation is for 250 cars and 250 motor cycles. It will be wonderful opportunity for you and your friends and family to participate in this grand event. Apart from supporting the cause of tourism in Karnataka, each participant will get the following benefits at no extra cost other than the registration fee:

1) Registration fee for cars is Rs.500/- Infosys special offer : Rs.250/-
2) Registration fee for motorcycle is Rs.250/- Infosys special offer : Rs.125/-
3) Free petrol sponsored by Bharath Petroleum
4) Assured free gifts worth around Rs.1000/- for each registration - sponsored by various companies
5) Lunch for 2 persons per registration, at finale venue

Do not miss this golden opportunity, to be part of Karnataka on the Independence Day.

For more information, kindly read the poster below.

Presenting

Namaskara Snehithare!

We warmly welcome you to participate in the Karnataka Heritage Hunt 2004. This unique Heritage Hunt is to promote the culture and heritage of Karanataka, in a memorable way. The event will be a colorful extravaganza, carnival style and therefore, we urge you to be creative and keep the following tips in mind. The hunt is open to two and four wheelers. Dress-up your vehicle to reflect any one of the following themes of KARNATAKA
* Heritage * Adventure * Wild Life * Culture *

Participation fee: Two wheelers - Rs. 250 / Four wheelers - Rs. 500/-

Heritage Adventure Wild Life Culture
Remember. There are great prizes to be won!! Plus loads of surprises!!
Prizes for:
Best Decorated Car
Best Decorated Bike
Fancy Dress Traditional Style Contest
(E.g.: Dress up like Krishnadevaraya, Kempe Gowda / Maharaja of Mysore or Kittur Rani Chennama)

Invite your friends to participate and get rewarded

Reporting Time: 10.30 am, Reporting Place will be informed to you at the Registration Offices
Date: 15th August

To participate, download forms www.karnatakatourismforum.com and complete the registration process by visiting any one of the KTF member offices listed on the website or call us the number shown on the subject line.

For participation contact ;
Ulsoor 51134034, Koramangala 25532324, Lavelle Road 22242227, Vasanthnagar 22206760, M.G.Road 51233000, Malleswaram 23340036, St. Mark's Road 51122652, Jayanagar 26541140, BTM Layout 26780926.
"
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ShowCause Notice: Freedom Rock 2, August 14th, 2004

ShowCause celebrates its 50th gig with the second annual Freedom Rock (or F-Rock, as some call it). F- Rock is Delhi's answer to Bombay's Independence Rock, and Bangalore's Freedom Jam. Not a very loud answer, yet, but give us another year and (to paraphrase Catwoman) hear us roar.

Free from the Brits, but not the Britneys
Freedom Rock does not currently espouse any cause but itself. That's right… just one earful of Freedom, and another of Rock. Freedom to Rock as much as we want to.

Our aims are humble… to get rock back into circulation. Bit by bit, to get eyes off gorgeous navels over blue thongs, and their ears onto what we think is a truer form of music. The way things used to be in the good old days of five-channel cable TV. When a Strings video was something you'd turn up, rather than turn off.

Last year saw India's punk flag bearers Messiah and high school stars Copperstoned at a sold-out show at Super Stars, NOIDA. This year will feature classic rockers Nakshatra and punk rockers The Superfuzz Bigmuff.

Nakshatra, billed to be the next Parikrama, featured at Levi's Great Indian Rock earlier this year. Over the years, they've risen from being just another band to the super-tight, ultra-talented act they are today. And along the way, winning several major competitions and headlining at numerous events. This is a band that, according to Indrajit Hazra of Hindustan times, "…could have put AC/DC, Deep Purple and Iron Maiden out of business…"

Nakshatra are:
Gregg Sharma - Vocals
Sumix - Guitars
Francis Gangmei - Guitars
Arpan Guha - Bass
Amit Kumar - Drums

The Superfuzz Bigmuff is Copperstoned in a new avatar, with a change in line-up, and a mature out-of-school performance, they have been known to upstage bands they've opened for. Drawing inspiration from The Who to The White Stripes, their music is best described as retro-punk or as they say, "rock and roll infused with the late 60's & early 70's kind of sound played with new wave intensity". For the curious, Superfuzz and Bigmuff were two guitar pedals used by Jimi Hendrix in the '60s.

The Superfuzz Bigmuff are:
Sanchal Malhar - Vocals / Guitars
Damian Souza - Bass
Aman Gulati - Drums

ShowCause is a South-Delhi based firm that provides professional concert production services. We're a one-year old company... with three years of experience from our days of freelancing under no known name. We've worked with corporates, NGOs, colleges and pubs. And, we hold Delhi's only Independence Day rock concert, Freedom Rock, an annual event.
We are not your average event management firm. We specialize in music related events... rock concerts, in particular. Whatever be the scale. We handle everything from conceptualizing to execution, and more, putting together a kick-ass show. We provide complete concert production solutions, customized to suit your requirements, as well as tertiary services to fill in any essential activities that any other event manager would have overlooked.
Freedom Rock -2 is our 50th gig to date. The big Five-Oh. And exactly one year of our existence. A lot to celebrate? We think so.

For more information, contact us:
>> ShowCause >> D - 396, Defence Colony, New Delhi - 110024 >> www.showcause.net >> mail@showcause.net
>> Joseph Pottenkulam >> +91.9891.392.399 >> joseph@showcause.net >> Achint Jain >> +91.9891.303.875 >> achint@showcause.net


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A Few Campus Events

1. Alumni vs Current Batch Cricket and Tsepak Matches

----Original Message-----
From: Sports Secretary
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 5:00 PM

Hey all,

As you all would know, the IIMB batch of 2004 will be there on campus this saturday. We take this opportunity to engage them in a duel of BEFG gulli cricket and tsepak, starting with cricket at 10.30pm.

Be there to cheer our batch.

Regards,

All Play, No Work
Sports Secretaries

2. AdrenaLAN - The gaming contest

-----Original Message-----
From: Sigma
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 7:59 PM

Hi Folks,

Ppl interested in participating in the contest but havent send their entries yet, pls do so by midnight tomorrow. AdrenaLAN starts on Wednesday 18th of Aug which is only about 5 days away so hope you guys are all getting ready to be the next AdrenaLAN champion.

The rules of the games, along with the scheduled time slots will be sent to you in a couple of days. Make sure that you read all the rules properly and make your self available on your alloted time slot.

Please direct all your entries to Prashanth Naik (naikp03) giving the following details.
Your Name:
Nick name:
Computer Name:
Room No:
Games you wanna participate in:
Remember, the deadline for sending your entries is midnight tomorrow.

Cheers!!
SIGMA, The Force

3. Ecstasy!!

-----Original Message-----
From: Students Cultural Committee
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 7:20 PM

Hello all

There is fun, there is joy, there is happiness...and then there is Ecstasy! So announcing one of the BIGGEST intecollege competitions for Dance, Music and Theater in Bangalore, at your very own campus : Ecstasy 2004!
14th - 5:30 - Theater
14th midnight - L Square!!! (with class of 2004!)
15th - 4:30 - Music
15th - 9:00 - Dance
Loads of fun and there are prizes for the best cheering audiance teams too!!

Catch you there...
Cheers!
Culcom
We aim to entertain!!

3a. Ecstasy!!
-----Original Message-----
From: President - PGP Students
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 8:13 PM
To: President - PGP Students
Cc: Students Cultural Committee
Subject: Ecstasy ! 2004...

Greetings to all,

The Students Cultural Committee of IIM Bangalore invites you to its cultural event, Ecstasy 2004. This is a cultural competition that features the best colleges of Bangalore.

The theater competition is to be held on 14 August (Saturday) , 6 pm onwards at the Auditorium.

Please do grace the occasion with your presence.

Regards,

Culcom
We Aim to Entertain!!
PS: We would request you not to bring small children along. The entry and exit will be disallowed between plays. Also the front entrance is being closed and the entry will be from the fire exits behind.

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Friday, August 13, 2004

More Trivia

Back in the early days of computing, IBM 7094 had a light to tell you that the oil pressure was low. what was the oil used for?

Answer: ---> For cooling the memory! <---
(For answer, select the space between the arrows with your mouse - click and drag mouse over the next line just like you select text in word processing applications. Or just press Ctrl-A.)

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Measuring Risk Preferences in Online Negotiations

Attended this workshop by a fellow PhD student, Rohtas Kumar. The abstract of the topis is here:

The path towards an integrative negotiation depends crucially on knowing whether and how the negotiating parties differ either on risk perception or perceived risk attitudes [Weber and Hsee 1998]. An understanding of risk preferences of an individual could prove valuable in the negotiation process and outcome. It would also help the negotiators to better understand their opponents and their issues. Although knowledge of the dynamics of risk taking is still limited, several authors have shown that decision makers can be simultaneously risk seeking and risk averse in different domains and situations, implying that risk preferences are context specific [Slovic 1972; Hershey et al 1982; Payne et al 1980; MacCrimmon and Wehrung 1984; MacCrimmon and Wehrung 1990; Schoemaker 1990; Shapira 1997]. There is little correlation from one setting to another in a persons risk preferences [Slovic 1972]. Only those tasks highly similar in structure and involving the same sorts of payoffs have shown any generality and as similarity decreases these cross-task consistencies rapidly decline. Thus, an individual who takes risks by guessing often on a mathematical exam (under negative marking) is likely to be high-risk taker in other exams as well but that does not imply that he would prefer a high-risk occupation. The context specificity not only relates to the substantive domains (e.g. negotiation outcome versus health outcome), but also to measurement procedure (e.g. response modes or question framing) [Hershey et al 1882; MacCrimmon and Wehrung 1990; Pennings and Smidts 2000]. No single measure of risk preferences is adequate to capture the complexities of risk taking behavior and different types of measures reveal different risk preferences [MacCrimmon and Wehrung 1990]. The objective of the present study is to examine the individual risk preferences in online negotiations. Specifically, to examine whether risk preferences are related across payoff domains (gain situation, mixed outcome and loss situation) and for different measurement approaches and whether these risk preferences share a common variance that can be attributed to a global construct.

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Thursday, August 12, 2004

Lagaan at IIMB

"In keeping with the Independence Day spirit we will be screening the OSCAR nominated "Lagaan" instead at the same time and venue. A few details are given below and the synopsis of the movie will be put on http://spidi later today.

Movie: Lagaan (2001)
Genre: Musical/Drama/Romance
Director: Ashutosh Gowarikar
Cast: Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh, Rachelle Shelley, Paul Blackthorne, Suhasini Mulay, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rghubir Yadav
Awards: Nominated for OSCAR
Date: Friday, September 13, 2004
Time: 8.15pm
Venue: IIMB Auditorium
Runtime: 224 minutes
Language: Hindi, Bhojpuri, English
Subtitles: English
Colour: Yes
Rating: Open to all age groups

Regards
Dress-Circle
"Keep Watching"

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A Few Events

1. IMR Round Table on "Supply Chain Management"
IIMB Management Review (IMR) Round Table on "Supply Chain Management” on Tuesday 17, August 2004 at CPP Seminar Room No.2 between 1.30 pm to 4.30 pm.

2. Talk by Prof. Abhay Abhyankar

"I am happy to invite you for a talk by Prof. Abhay Abhyankar of University of Durham on "Exchange Rates and Fundamentals: Evidence on the Economic Value of Predictability" on Friday, August 13, 2004 at 3.00 p.m. The venue is Committee Room. Please make a note of it in your calendar.

With regards,
M S Narasimhan

Exchange Rates and Fundamentals:
Evidence on the Economic Value of Predictability

Abhay Abhyankaraa, Lucio Sarnobb and Giorgio Valentebc
aUniversity of Durham
bUniversity of Warwick
Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Abstract

A major puzzle in international finance is the well-documented inability of models based on monetary fundamentals to produce better out-of-sample forecasts of the nominal exchange rate than a naive random walk. While this literature has generally employed statistical measures of forecast accuracy, we investigate whether there is any economic value to the predictive power of monetary fundamentals for the exchange rate. We find that, in the context of a simple asset allocation problem, the economic value of exchange rate forecasts from a fundamentals model can be substantially greater than the economic value of random walk forecasts across a range of horizons.

JEL classification: F31; F37.
Keywords: foreign exchange; monetary fundamentals; predictability; parameter uncertainty; asset allocation."

3. Int'l Conf On "Globalization & Competitiveness"
Third International conference on "Globalization & Competitiveness" is being organized at IIT Kharagpur during 11th to 13th January 2005. Vinod Gupta School of Management and Department of HSS of IIT Kharagpur and Academy of International Business (India Chapter) are jointly organizing this conference. Paper format and submission details are also available at http://www.iitkgp.ernet.in/aibconf


4. CRY Quiz

"Dear Friends,

Child Relief and You and its volunteer group, Friends of CRY have been organising FACT (Free a Child Today), a general knowledge quiz, open to corporates, since 1998. The proceeds from the quiz go towards education of underprivileged children in CRY projects across the country. Last year FACT enabled CRY to raise funds equivalent to supporting the education of more than 1800 children.

FACT this year takes place across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Calcutta, Chennai and Hyderabad. Like last year, Derek O' Brien is the quiz master this year. Be prepared to send your team to the National Finals at Delhi. And here is a bit of trivia - FACT was born in Bangalore.

To participate:
  Keep yourself and your cheerleaders free on Sept 5th in Bangalore
  The team size is the same as last year i.e. 2 per team, AND you can send in as many teams as you like.
  Investment- Rs 8000/- per team (equivalent to funding the education of 10 children for 1 year)
  For first timers- this is a trivia quiz
  More details at 25484952/ 25488574/ cp.blr AT crymail.org

More details enclosed in the participation form. Do remember, you would be making a statement by just participating in this quiz. We, of course, promise to give you a hard time once you get there.
All the best!!
Warm regards"

Sridevi Raghavan
CRY"

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Wednesday, August 11, 2004

More Trivia from Computer Bowl IV (1992)

In a 1993 interview with Pat Robertson of 700 Club, one of the the designers of the Intel 386 (or 80386) chip said "God was responsible for the success of 386." Who said that? Was it:
1) Gene Hill
2) Ted Hoff, or
3) Gordon Bell

For answer, select the line below with your mouse (click and drag mouse over the next line just like you select text in word processing applications). Or just press Ctrl-A.

Answer: Gene Hill

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Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Trilogy CEO & MphasiS President on Campus

Hi,

The StartUp Club invites you to two interactions with entrepreneurs with entirely different perspectives.

On Tuesday, August 10th 2004, at 6:30 p.m. in the Auditorium, meet Joe Liemandt, founder and CEO, Trilogy. He brings together judgement, dedication and luck in an amazing combination. Winning his first contract at the age of 20 and becoming the youngest man on the Fortune 500, Joe will interact with us to share his insights on the business of creating a new business.

On Wednesday, August 11th, 2004 at 2:30 p.m. in the Auditorium, talking to students will be Bhaskar Menon, President, Mphasis. An ex-Citibanker heading Citigroup’s worldwide e-commerce arm, Bhaskar will talk about his experiences of creating Mphasis and converting it into an instant global corporation.

Warm regards,
The StartUp Club
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Monday, August 09, 2004

Trivia from Computer Bowl IV (1992)

When the Apple III first came out, there was a problem with loose ICs. To remedy the problem, the company told Apple III owners to do something to make sure their integrated circuits were firmly in their socket. What were the users instructed to do?
1) To drop the computer 1 foot onto a flat surface.
2) Push each chip into its socket by hand.
3) Stand on the motherboard.

Believe it or not, answer is that Apple company instructed the owners to drop the computer a feet onto a flat surface!

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TiE Bangalore Networking Meeting on Tuesday, 10th Aug '04

Dear Mr. Jain,

Please mark your calendar and register for an exciting TiE Networking Meeting on Tuesday, 10th August 2004

"Application Security - Trends and Opportunities"

Panelists:
Prabakar Sundarrajan, CTO, NetScaler, San Jose
Anand Talwai, CEO, Vinciti AQ Inc
Jayabalan Subramanian, CTO, NetMagic, Mumbai
Moderator:
Rakesh Singh, GM AsiaOps, NetScaler, Bangalore

Prabakar Sundarrajan is CTO and Executive Vice President of Strategic Planning and Corporate Development. Sundarrajan has more than 20 years of technology experience in the networking, Internet and eBusiness markets. Sundarrajan is responsible for driving the company's technology vision, product and corporate strategy. Prior to joining NetScaler, Sundarrajan was senior vice president, technology for Exodus Communications, a pioneer in Web hosting. In that position, Sundarrajan was responsible for the company's technology strategy for managed eBusiness applications. During his tenure at Exodus, he also held the positions of vice president of technology, and vice president of research and development. Prior to joining Exodus, Sundarrajan was in product line management with Transarc Corporation, a subsidiary of IBM, and defined Transarc's Encina Object and desktop strategy. Earlier in his career, Sundarrajan held management and technology positions with Hal Computer Syst! ems, Tandem Computer, Hewlett-Packard and Intel. Sundarrajan holds a master's in computer science from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Anand Talwai is CEO of Vinciti AQ Inc (a wholly owned company of e4e) and has guided Vinciti grow rapidly and establish itself in its core Technical Support business.

In 1999, Anand set up Wipro Net Ltd and as CEO directed it to a leadeship position in the corporate Internet service provider market in India. In 1995, Anand helped create and was CEO of Wipro British Telecom joint venture Wipro BT Ltd, which focused on satellite communication and value added network services business. In addition, he created Wipro's Communications Division, the top network integrator in India.

Anand has a master of technology degree from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and is a graduate of IIT-Madras.

Jayabalan Subramanian, CTO, NetMagic Solutions Pvt Ltd, has about 12 years of experience in designing and implementing wide-area backbones in India. He had performed project engineering functions for Indchem, Mumbai, implementing country wide and International private voice-data networks for various enterprises including TCS, Air India, National Stock Exchange, Essel Group among others. He subsequently worked for Calisys Technologies and implemented large networking projects for VSNL, MCI-GTS among others. Mr. Jayabalan brings expertise in the areas of MPLS, ATM/Frame Relay, TDM, IP over cable, DSL and wireless technologies apart from Internet technologies like Routing, IPSEC/SSL VPN etc. He has been responsible for design, deployment and management of NetMagic Network and headed consulting teams on numerous projects including WNS, Houston (BSNL- MPLS Network) and Virtela Communications. Mr. Jayabalan has a B.E. in Electronics and Telecommunications from Bharatidasan ! University, Tiruchirapalli.

Rakesh Singh is general manager of NetScaler Private Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of NetScaler based in Bangalore, India. Prior to holding this position, Rakesh was director of product management and marketing for NetScaler, Inc., In this position he was responsible for directing and marketing the company's product line. He has over 14 years of engineering and product management and marketing experience with networking products, application servers, clustering and high-availability systems, databases and operating systems. Prior to joining NetScaler, Rakesh headed product management for the application server product line at iPlanet, a Sun-Netscape alliance. In this position he led a team that defined future application server product releases and strategy, and delivered products worldwide. Prior to that, he was product line manager for clustering and high-availability enterprise software solutions at Sun's Solaris Software division. He has also worked as a technic! al consultant for Digital Equipment Corporation and Sybase.

Rakesh holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business, a Master's degree in computer engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, India.

Date : Tuesday 10th Aug 2004
Time : 6.45 P.M
Place : Vijay Nagar Hall @ Taj Residency, Bangalore
Event Sponsors : NetScaler
Non Member Meeting Fee : Rs. 350/-

Participation through registration mail Alfio Aquien at: alfio AT tiebangalore.org or call 2212 0009 Xtn-185.
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Sunday, August 08, 2004

Modern-day Man Without A Country

Even though he is currently a 'wanted' man in the US, former world chess champion Bobby Fischer seems to be saying no to the offer, and is rather heading towards becoming the modern-day 'Man Without A Country' as he has decided to renounce his US citizenship. His website is already a 'Website Without a WebPage' (www!). Fischer, currently detained in Japan, is wanted by US authorities for playing (and winning) a 1992 match in Yugoslavia, thereby violating US and UN bans on doing business in Yugoslavia. Wonder what happens to a person's rights who does not belong to any country! What are the other examples of idiosyncratic, eccentric, swimming-against-the-stream behaviour of legendary geniuses?


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Saturday, August 07, 2004

The Wonder Years

This wonderful quote from the Episode 4x01: 'Growing Up' (or #47) of this fantastic series Wonder Years, The (1988-1993) captures growing up so beautifully:

Growing up is never easy. You hold on to things that were. You wonder what's to come. But that night, I think we knew it was time to let go of what had been, and look ahead to what would be. Other days. New days. Days to come. The thing is, we didn't have to hate each other for getting older. We just had to forgive ourselves...for growing up.


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Thursday, August 05, 2004

Role of Trust in inter firm dyads: The case of Indian offshore development centers (SODC)

Attended this research workshop today by a colleague, Amrendra Kumar:

Recent developments in many aspects of theory and business practices worldwide have accentuated the need to step back and have a fresh perspective of some of the compelling emergent imperatives. On the theoretical front, conventional models of organisation of economic activity are being complemented by including sociological variables (Sztompka, 1999) while, on the practice side, many firms, finding it difficult to cope with the complexities of handling multifaceted competition, are resorting to arms length arrangements with other firms. Rapid development in Information technology is driving down governance costs having implications on firm size, industry structure and competition (Bryanjolfsson et al., 1994; Nooteboom, 2002); value chain fragmentation is leading to disaggregation and isolation of efficiencies (Evans & Wurster, 1997) making it unviable for firms to be present in all parts of chain; increased rate of globalisation and higher complexity levels of input and output markets (Zuscovitch, 1994) is making it difficult to sustain differential position in those markets.

These related developments point to a perceptible movement towards specialisation - of assets and capabilities, standardization - of offerings within the specialised domains, and fewer constraints to manage relatively complex governance structures. The first two are triggered by the proximate product market conditions while the last one is a macro phenomenon catalyzing changes across market spaces. New organisational forms i.e. modes of organizing and managing transactions, are emerging the literature about which asserts that "hierarchies are becoming increasingly infused with the elements of the market" (Foss, 2002 B). These diverse yet related themes paint a backdrop in which firms have to depend more and more on their relationships with others in order to create and deliver value, and these relationships are becoming more manageable with advances in information and process technologies.

The present research engages itself with the role of trust in the governance of inter-firm dyadic relationship. The central thesis is that Trust moderates the impact of relation specific assets and uncertainty on costs of coordination. In doing so, it opens new avenues for interorganisational relationships by enabling more options in terms of governance structures and mechanisms. It is also part of the agenda to test "higher Trust is associated with closer relationships" hypothesis. An instrument to measure the involved constructs has been adopted from literature and has been developed after subjecting it to a pretest. Final sample would include software offshore development centers and respondents would be the delivery managers.
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My Karma Ran Over My Dogma

Well, not really. But here are some witty quotes from Dogma to compensate for the blatant title lie. :)

Liz: You're Catholic, can't you talk to them? (about anti-abortion protestors)
Bethany: They hate me more than you. At least you have an excuse, you're Jewish, you don't know any better.
Liz: I don't think they'd accept that one, we used that one already when we killed Christ.

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Liz: He said that faith is like a glass of water. When you're young, the glass is small, and it's easy to fill up. But the older you get, the bigger the glass gets, and the same amount of liquid doesn't fill it anymore. Periodically, the glass has to be refilled.
Bethany: You're suggesting I need to get filled?
Liz: In more ways than one. You need to get laid, Bethany Sloane. You need a man, if only for ten minutes.
Bethany: It's been my experience that the average male is never a man. Not even for ten minutes in his entire lifespan.
Liz: That'a a bit militant. You thinking of joining the other side?
Bethany: Couldn't do it. Women are insane.
Liz: Then YOU need to go back to church and ask God for a third option.
Bethany: I think that God is dead.
Liz: The sign of a true Catholic.

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Bethany: Then - I don't mean to sound ungrateful - but what are you doing hanging around?
Jay: We're here to pick up chicks.
Bethany: Excuse me?
Jay: We figure an abortion clinic is a good place to meet loose women. Why else would they be there unless they like to fuck?

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Metatron: Tell a person that you're the Metatron and they stare at you blankly. Mention something out of a Charlton Heston movie and suddenly everybody is a theology scholar.

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Nun: You don't believe in God because of Alice in Wonderland?
Loki: No, "Through the Looking Glass". That poem, "The Walrus and the Carpenter" that's an indictment of organized religion. The walrus, with his girth and his good nature, he obviously represents either Buddha, or... or with his tusk, the Hindu elephant god, Lord Ganesha. That takes care of your Eastern religions. Now the carpenter, which is an obvious reference to Jesus Christ, who was raised a carpenter's son, he represents the Western religions. Now in the poem, what do they do... what do they do? They... They dupe all these oysters into following them and then proceed to shuck and devour the helpless creatures en masse. I don't know what that says to you, but to me it says that following these faiths based on mythological figures ensure the destruction of one's inner-being. Organized religion destroys who we are by inhibiting our actions... by inhibiting our decisions, out of... out of fear of some... some intangible parent figure who... who shakes a finger at us from thousands of years ago and says... and says, "Do it - Do it and I'll fuckin' spank you."

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Bethany: I don't want this, it's too big.
Metatron: That's what Jesus said. Yes, I had to tell him. And you can imagine how that hurt the Father - not to be able to tell the Son Himself because one word from His lips would destroy the boy's frail human form? So I was forced to deliver the news to a scared child who wanted nothing more than to play with other children. I had to tell this little boy that He was God's only Son, and that it meant a life of persecution and eventual crucifixion at the hands of the very people He came to enlighten and redeem. He begged me to take it back, as if I could. He begged me to make it all not true. And I'll let you in on something, Bethany, this is something I've never told anyone before... If I had the power, I would have.

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Metatron: I am to charge you with a holy crusade.
Bethany: For the record, I work in an abortion clinic.
Metatron: Noah was a drunk. Look what he accomplished. And no one's even asking you to build an ark. All you have to do is go to New Jersey, and visit a small church on a very important day.
Bethany: New Jersey? That doesn't sound like much of a crusade.
Metatron: Aside from the fine print, that's it.
Bethany: What's the fine print?
Metatron: [mumbling into glass] Stopacoupleofangelsfromenteringandthusnegatingallexistence.
Bethany: Wait, wait, wait. Repeat that.
Metatron: Stop a couple of angels from entering and thus negating all existence. I hate when people need it spelled out for them.

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Jay: So what's up? You got a friend for Silent Bob, or are you just gonna do us both? If so, I'm first. I hate sloppy seconds.
Bethany: You're a man of principle.

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Jay: So do you do anal? Is it true that chicks fart if you blast 'em in the ass?

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Jay: She's fucking pissed, dude. She'll never fuck us now. Well, maybe you, but definitely not me. Tell me how she is.
Bethany Sloane: NOBODY IS FUCKING ME! YOU GOT THAT!

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Jay: Guys like us just don't fall out of the sky, you know.
[Rufus falls out of the sky]
Jay: Beautiful, naked, big-titted women just don't fall out of the sky, you know.

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Bethany: You're saying that having beliefs is a bad thing?
Rufus: I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier.

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Bartleby: The humans have besmirched everything bestowed on them. They were given Paradise, they threw it away. They were given this planet, they destroyed it. They were favored best among all His endeavors, and some of them don't even believe He exists. And in spite of it all, He's shown them infinite fucking patience at every turn. What about us? I asked you... once to lay down the sword because I felt sorry for them. What was the result? Our expulsion from Paradise. WHERE WAS HIS INFINITE FUCKING PATIENCE THEN? IT'S NOT RIGHT, IT'S NOT FAIR. We've paid our debt. Don't you think it's time? Don't you think its time we went home? and to do that, I think we have to dispatch of our would-be dispatchers.

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Bethany: Jesus didn't have any brothers or sisters. Mary was a virgin.
Rufus: Mary gave birth to CHRIST without having known a man's touch, that's true. But she did have a husband. And do you really think he'd have stayed married to her all those years if he wasn't getting laid? The nature of God and the Virgin Mary, those are leaps of faith. But to believe a married couple never got down? Well, that's just plain gullibility.

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Rufus: We were sent by Him who is called I Am.
Cardinal Glick: Cute.
Rufus: Worked for Moses.

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Rufus: I'm telling you, man, this ceremony is a big mistake.
Cardinal Glick: The Catholic Church does not make mistakes.
Rufus: Please. What about the Church's silent consent to the slave trade?
Bethany: And its platform of noninvolvement during the Holocaust?
Cardinal Glick: All right, mistakes were made.

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Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Bond Girls - Duel

You gotta listen to this energetic composition called Duel by Bond Girls. Its a fast-paced orgasmic symphony of violin, cello, and electronica. Bond is a really fascinating group with their videos featuring saris and Balle Balle and the works!! Download Duel from here. (mp3, 3.98MB) (copy and paste link in browser, don't click it. If everything else fails, goto DoctorJoe)

(Exact details of the number are: Composed by Tonci Huljic. Performed by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Clem Clempson, Clem Clempson, Gareth Cousins, Phil Todd, Phil Todd, Mark Wood, Bond (string quartet), Gay-Yee Westerhoff.)

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UC Launch on Saturday, August 7, 2004

"
Hello,

The University Challenge City Launch will happen in Bangalore on Saturday 7th August at the ING VYSYA Auditorium, M.G.Road, Bangalore. A written prelim will be held at 12 noon - teams will need to report earlier. One team will be chosen to take on last year's winners, Sardar Patel College of Engineering, in the final which Siddartha Basu will host. College teams that have not yet registered may still do so. Please confirm your entries at the earliest: mail arul_mani at hotmail.com or call 98452-06690.

The contest is open to teams of 4 members from the same college with no restriction on the number of teams per college.
The Schedule
Written Prelims: 1200hrs
Finals hosted by Siddartha Basu: 1400hrs

Quizzers who would like to witness the finals are most welcome. Siddartha and the BBC guys are keen on an informed audience for the show.There are some audience prizes as well.

Registered teams will be contacted shortly.
"

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Monday, August 02, 2004

Self-Indulgence is not a principle..

..at least Hobbes thinks so. But what the heck, I am a man of principles (a la Calvin!) and I say self-indulgence is a principle in life. Ergo, I indulged myself on the weekend just gone by, by watching 7 movies. A record for me. Watched all of them on my computer (except the one on Friday). Started with Quatre cents coups, Les (400 Blows), a 1959 Oscar winning French movie. On Saturday, it was back-to-back three brilliantly fantastic movies: Good Will Hunting (1997), Dogma (1999), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). After this fanbtabulous Saturday triology, two of the three Sunday choices High Fidelity (2000), Northfork (2003), turned out to be not so good. The third Sunday flick Deewaar was neat though.

Interestingly, came across these neat Indian references in three of these mainstream movies: In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, three Indian movie songs are playing in the background when Jim Carey and Kate Winslet are talking in their apartment: Tere Sang Pyar main nahi chodna (Nagina), Mera Man Tera (Guide?), Wada Na Tod. Then, Good Will Hunting has reference to Ramanujan and to "Dots, not feathers" by the way of explanation about his being Indian. And lastly, High Fidelity features the composition "This India" , written and performed by Harbhajhn Singh and Navinder Pal Singh.

Even though I didn't like the movie itself, here are some witty quotes from High Fidelity:

* What came first? The music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns or watching violent videos that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands, of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery, and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?
* She was nice. Nice manners, nice grades, nice looking. She was so nice, in fact, that she wouldn't let me put my hand underneath on even on top of her bra. Attack and defense. Invasion and repulsion. It was as if breasts were little pieces of property that had been unlawfully annexed by the opposite sex. They were rightfully ours and we wanted them back. Sometimes I got so bored of trying to touch her breast that I would try to touch her between her legs. It was like trying to borrow a dollar, getting turned down, and asking for 50 grand instead. I wasn't interested in Penny's nice qualities, just breasts. And therefore, she was no good to me.

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Gokulashtami series concerts in Bangalore

Venue - Odakathur Swamigal Mutt, Ulsoor. All concerts start at 6:00 PM. Schedule of concerts at the 27th Gokulashtami celebrations of the Sree Guruvayurappan Bhajan Samaj Trust:

21/8/04: Trichur Ramachandran - M A Sundareshwaran - K V Prasad - M A Krishnamurthy
22/8/04: 10:30 AM: Lecture demonstration on 'Ragas and Rasas' by Chitraveena N Ravikiran, 6:00 PM: N Ravikiran (Chitraveena) - Mysore Dr M Manjunath - P Satish Kumar - Sukanya Ramagopal - Sundar Kumar
23/8/04: Sanjay Subrahmanyan - Mysore M Nagaraj - Karaikudi R Mani - V Suresh
24/8/04: T N Seshagopalan - V V Ravi - Guruvayur Dorai - T V Vasan
25/8/04: P Unnikrishnan - H K Venkatram - Arjun Kumar - Giridhar Udupa
26/8/04: S Shankar - H N Bhaskar - Vellore Ramabhadran - H Sivaramakrishnan
27/8/04: No programmes due to Varalakshmi Vratham
28/8/04: Hyderabad Brothers - Sriram Parashuram - Srimushnam Rajarao - S Karthick
29/8/04: U Srinivas - S D Sridhar - Trichi B Harikumar - E M Subramanyam
30/8/04: T V Shankaranarayanan - T K V Ramanujacharyulu - Tiruvarur Bhakthavatsalam - Vaikom Gopalakrishnan
31/8/04: Malladi Brothers - Nagai Muralidharan - Umayalapuram Sivaraman - B S Purushotham
1/9/04: T M Krishna - S Varadarajan - Kamalakar Rao - N Amruth
2/9/04: Abhang Bhajan by Sri K Ganesh Kumar and party, Mumbai.
3/9/04: O S Thyagarajan - B U Ganesh Prasad - Neyveli Narayanan - B Rajashekhar
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Sunday, August 01, 2004

Lipton Thespo 2004

Open to anybody who is 25 years and below, Thespo is a Youth Theatre Festival that attempts to showcase young talent in the city.

In it’s fourth year in Bangalore, Thespo has grown to enormous proportions. It is now a 3 city Festival, having included Delhi to the duo of Bangalore and Mumbai. Lipton Thespo Bangalore, in its own way has also grown in that this year, Lipton Thespo Bangalore 2004 will be a Multi Lingual Festival and open to plays of all languages.

For those who came in late….. Thespo, produced by Harlequin Entertainment, gives Bangalore’s Youth Theatre Practitioners the added advantage of being given the chance to perform in Mumbai and to compete against and meet other like minded youngsters from other parts of the country. As a further incentive, Thespo takes care of all costs for the staging of the plays thereby giving you a chance to perform to a paying audience in a professional scenario.

For all those interested in participating, helping or anything else, there willl be an orientation meeting on Sunday, the 1st of August at Opus, #4, 1st Main Road, Chakravarty Layout at 4:30 P.M.

For details call 98861 10301 or 98453 73547 or just email harlequinentertainment ATrediffmail.com
PS- Graphic designers are also invited…plenty of opportunity for you as well!!!
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