Posts from — September 2003

With critics flaying the juvenile Boom, left, right and centre and even prompting Aditya Bhattacharya (son of veteran filmmaker, Basu Bhattacharya) to write an open letter to Kaizad Gustad… no wonder Kaizad seems to be in a hurry to claim that he’s not a part of Bollywood.

We’re gonna have a debate in our office this evening. I’m involved in organizing the event. Two teams have made it to the finals after an interesting elimination round couple of days back. The topic is…

Do we need a management degree to be a good manager?

Let’s hear your views! Go ahead… drop in your comments… :-)

Well, I’m glad that US has used its veto power to halt a UN resolution which asked Israel to desist from exiling Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and to cease any threat to his safety.

Monday’s (September 15, 2003) Dilbert comic strip pokes some fun at IITians, by making them seem like work maniacs who have inhuman abilities to slog and thus outpace their American counterparts.

It seems techies and the rest of the Indian community in the US have reacted very strongly to this portrayal of Indian software developers.

But I, frankly, don’t see what the hue and cry is all about!!

The people who’re protesting against this will only get painted as “in-duh-viduals” by Scott Adams! ;-)

[via Harry's Livejournal]

Was there really some specific intelligence information (about possible terrorist strikes in Mumbai) that the authorities in Mumbai received on the eve of the second 9-11 anniversary? or was Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal merely shooting off his mouth, as is his wont?!

We may never know for sure.

Earlier, Bhujbal had gone public with claims that he had received specific information that terrorists were about to strike key installations in Mumbai on 11^th September. As a result, there was an unprecedented level of high-alert in the city. The “key installations” in question were put under round the clock vigil by the policemen and people were tense.

Immediately after Bhujbal gave these statements, everyone from senior police offcials to people in the home ministry were up in arms and refuted the presence of any such intelligence information. Bhujbal’s deputy, Rajendra Darda, even went to the extent of publicly contradicting Bhujbal by saying, “There is no threat in the wake of 9/11. There is no information either. But our police are always vigilant.“. Even top police officials, past and present, criticized Bhujbal for shooting his mouth off in public.

9-11 passed without incident. There were no “incidents”. Was it thanks to the police bandobast or was it due to the alert sounded by Bhujbal? Well, Bhujbal, not one to miss a trick, publicly declared that there were no untoward incidents because ‘the terrorists changed their plan.‘

By the way, one of the “key installations” in the list was supposed to be the famous Siddhivinayak Temple (which is right next to my house btw). Since early morning on 9-11, the police had cordoned off the access road to the temple and the traffic was diverted. No one was allowed to even park a vehicle on the cordoned-off stretch of road. Policemen were patrolling the area in numbers. They had set up sandbag-bunkers on all sides of the temple with arms and ammunition stacked for any eventuality. The whole area around my building resembled a war-zone. There was no way to approach the temple without going through at least one or two police-lines. It was an impressive show of might and resolve by the police.

The road is still cordoned off and the police presence is still very much evident around the temple. I dunno how long will the police disallow vehicles from plying along that important stretch of road.