Dark Circle

Hey All!

What few song's I've made finally found their way to the net

You can listen to them here

Thanks!!

Flattening of the Retail Market

[Note 1: Suck it, I don't mean flattening as Thomas Friedman meant.. I mean Flattening as in 'Flat Anna' as in 'Thassal Gone' as in 'Slept Of' or in extreme cases .. 'Died']

[Note 2: I'm sure many would disagree with this post :) ]

One thing I cannot fully understand is why 'Retail' is becoming such buzz word in India. I feel it'll only undergo one or two boom and bust cycles. Why? .. The Internet...

Internet penetration in India is on the rise. Yes, in the villages too largely thanks to mobile phones, open source software and companies such as FINO and ITC's E-Choupal which are largely bringing the informal and 'undefined' market into the organized sector. Conventional models of internet connectivity and growth based on developed countries won't prove efficient here as the growth in these areas is largely due to the stupendous growth of new technology.

Even in the urban areas not many of us would want to visit the groceries or the Kirana stores for our daily needs when one can simply place an order from work using an online portal and the goods are being delivered right to your doorstep. This might even be possible in the villages due to mobile phone penetration where companies can deliver goods to villages on a bi-weekly basis with almost zero inventory cost thanks to pre orders made by the village dwellers.

Of course it will be a while before companies can achieve economies of scale and this practice becomes widespread, but personally these options are going to become available way before Wall - Mart conquers every street corner. But then again there will always be shops who provide further value to the customer by enhancing the shopping 'experience' making shopping a leisure activity rather than a necessity. Probably a trend that Malls should pay more attention to before they start construction!

So, lets consider that this does happen. Internet enabled services does destroy the retail sector (even the unorganized ones!) . The amount of prime real estate that gets freed up due to this would be major change everywhere!! With shops closing all that area can be put to more productive use.

Ah, well .. but I guess I am but idealizing. I'm sure there will always be unions, communists and probably even local goondas who might stop all this from happening....

Image Courtsey www.indiaretailbiz.com

The Adam And Eve Paradox

[Note 1: This has been explained as a short conversation]

[Note 2: God, here, may or may not refer to K-Sama]

[Note 3: Adam and Eve might be a bit slow in the head]

God:"Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die"

Adam:"Alright!! So you're saying that its evil to eat the fruit of good and evil because then we'll know what is good and evil is and we won't end up eating the fruit?? ^_^ "

Eve:"No dear, he means that if we don't eat from the fruit then we won't know that eating from the fruit is evil!"

Adam:"You're right! But don't we already know that?"

Eve:"Know What? :) "

Adam:"Good and Evil of course dumass :\ "

Eve:"Oh yes we do! But we didn't eat from the fruit yet!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Adam:"Then how do we already know whats good and evil?"

Eve:"Yes yes, very good question!!!! Ooooooh, u'r so smarttt!!! <3>

God: o.O

Picture courtesy: Wikipedia

na na na na

Na nana na

na na nana nana nana

nana na na nana na na

nana na na nana na na nanana na na

I Have The Moon, You Have The Internet

[Note 1: This little piece was inspired by the title of a track by an artist called The Field]

[Note 2: I am no poet and my knowledge of poetry is almost zilch. Do forgive me if I have crossed the line by even calling what I have to present as poetry. But then again, someone told me about there being something called poetic license...]

[Note 3: Just because this piece has anything to do with the net, I hope it is not viewed as 'not classical' enough to be worth writing poetry about]

On this Field of light, the city sleeps, the damned cold wind blows

It soothes the skin, but cuts and burns, through that wretched soul

The cigarette butt is thrown, and now there’s nothing, nothing left to fret

So it’s back downstairs, down to hell, back to that internet

Like a rising star, his dreams took’en flight, bright to burn the sun

No time for compromise, for idle delights, or petty things called fun

But soon the evil that, had got the better, Those creeping little things

That stray through dark, dark alleys, and other living beings

Then one day, he met a man, staring up the sky was he

“The stars are free, don’t you see. Like them must we be!”

And so that little glow, that once shone through, for a moment lit,

With that bright starlight, ‘twas God’s greatest gift, Oh! But until

And so he swore, never before, was he so aghast

That the stately robe, that he used to whore, was but an ill fit mask

He threw them away, only to be, filled with an unknown dread

So he ran, back he went, back to his internet

That mad man laughed, till tear’d his eyes, for he knew that God could see

That man’s greatest boon, wasted too soon, would never set one free

And so he sang, long in the night, until the break of dawn

“Oh you fool, I have the moon, but the net has killed your song”

Image courtesy: http://static.open.salon.com/files/moon1230534473.jpg

In Praise of Idleness

Bertrand Russell in his eponymous essay "In Praise Of Idleness" provided all of us slackers a quote to justify ourselves by. But of course he meant something deeper than what the title misleadingly suggests...

In the essay he delved into what modern society is creating around it. He argues that machines were created to ease our burden and reduce our workload and not increase it, as was happening in the early 20th century. He also stated that "Idleness" was a necessary period of a person's day where he/she could reflect on their actions and take the time of better themselves, be it through meditation, introspection or even the development of arts, crafts and other hobbies. He quite correctly pointed out that the industrial revolution was destroying all that the machines were (theoretically) supposed to aid us in pursuing by taking our load of mundane activities.

.... and this was the trend seen till the 21st century. With industrial production increasing the world over, the number of hours worked per individual was on the rise. As the humungous boilers, furnaces and power plants could not be stopped once they are started they needed people to manage them 24/7.

But then something happened - The rise of the IT Professional. With the ability to have flexible working hours and even the joy of working from home, the IT world is an entirely different reality from that of the industrial age. With companies like Google encouraging their employees to have a minimum of 10% of their time working to spend on pet projects (or even just laze around and wait for inspiration to strike!) Bertrand Russel's Ide(a)l(e) world has started to take shape. Sure there are IT professional who are overworked, but companies are beginning to realize that employees are most productive when they are happy and happy when they can be 'Idle'.... if at least for a while....

Maybe technology and capitalism IS the answer to everything. It is truly a blessing that corporate psychology has been able to justify what Russell spoke of almost 80 years ago to and convince Human Resource personal that letting people do their own thing is the best option for everyone in the long run..

Why Chelsea will win EVERY championship this year

K-Sama's patronage is for the men in blue!!

Victory is ensured!!!!

"Man proposes, God disposes" - K-Sama to all Chelsea haters

[For those who came in late.. K-Sama is GOD]

Bachelor

From the olden days being a bachelor was considered chivalrous and sacrificial. Remember Bheeshma from the Mahabharatha who took an oath of 'never "seeing" a woman again' and was rewarded with a boon of being able to choose when he would die? This was considered to be a great sacrifice of a heroic nature.

Even in modern times many of India's most respected personalities are unmarried. Think about A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Atal Bihari Vajpayee or even Ratan Tata. They are considered to have sacrificed their lives for the motherland...

But of late, if someone remains a bachelor beyond a certain age people simply say:

"He's Gay!"

I'm Lost...

Feeling the Bumps

[This post has nothing perverted, shame on you if you thought about anything dirty.. no wait.. I wrote this line .... it was me doing the thinking.. oh crap - ) ]

It was one day, at night, that I really felt the bumps. At 9:45 PM with its ever present bangs and rattles, the bus was hurtling down the road that connected St.John's hospital to somewhere. Save for the four IT professionals going home after a tiring day's work, there was no one in the bus apart for me and a friend. And thats suddenly when it happened. With no warning, the bus flew over a speed breaker at top speed with me and my friend being thrown into the air a few inches. I could've sworn out butts were a bit flattened after the fall. But before we could recover, it happened again, only this time we were thrown much higher and almost no one in the bus could suppress a "Ah!" or a "Fck" or even a "Otha Omale".

And this got me thinking "I use this route everyday to work, and how come there's no discomfort at all? How come I didn't realize that there were even speed breakers on this road? Why, with a bus full of people and with many hanging onto the footboard, didn't a breaker of this size make its presence felt?"

But then I realized that we all had to thank that thoughtful bus driver, who might just have wanted to go back home to his family on that friday night, a little bit early..

System.out.println()

Ok, I'm learning Java and other related stuff.. properly... but the most annoying thing is by far..
"System.out.println();"
Compared to cout (in C++) and printf (in C).. I mean 'System.out.println()' just to print something on the screen is waaaaay to long a command. Granted, IDE's such as Eclipse allow you to type 'syso Ctrl+Space' to get the command but it is still more than the number of keyboard presses than cout or printf ....

Java :\