Big Brother - Shilpa Shetty Wins Finally

After so much of racial slurs and all that, Shilpa Shetty has won Channel4's reality show Big Brother. Shilpa is 'not-so-successful' Bollywood actress with a 'hot-like-bomb' body.

It seems that with a win in much hyped and controversial Big Brother, her career will get an international dimenssion.

There is a saying in Sanskrit which goes like - sit on donkey, tear your clothes...do whatever you want to be famous. Because life comes only once! This is the real mantra today.

Read about Shilpa Shetty on Channel4 itself.

Iraq - Is US relying on Experience In Post-War Japan?

It seems that the plight of Iraq is not ready to die down even after the US's tormentor of Iraq - Saddam Hussein is dead now. Does the root of the faulty US policy lie in the experience of USA in post-war Japan? US is thinking that replacing the governments is like licking lolly-pops. But USA is wrong.

Read this news from Guardian Unlimited -

" Two nearly simultaneous bombings in a mostly Shia commercial area in central Baghdad killed at least 72 people and wounded at least 134, Iraqi officials said today."

Isn't it right that the US is now deep within shit which herself has created. Even if US sends more troops to Iraq, the resistance in Iraq will not die down. The basic problem with USA's Iraq policy is that US policy relies heavily on
1. An artificial government which has been installed there by disturbing a natural order. The overthrow of Saddam should have come from Iraqis themselves. Not by force of US.;
2. On military might.

USA thinks that only these 2 factors namely, a so called democratic government & battalions of troops will ensure a peaceful Iraq. Probably, USA policymakers are taking cues from their post WW II Japan experience. But Iraq is not Japan, Mr. Bush. You don't need some political pundit to tell that Iraq is a much more complex issue. In Japan, USA didn't touch the monarchy. So the Japanese always had somebody to look up to. Chances of a total chaos were thus very limited in Japan. However, such is not the case with Iraq. What the poor Iraqis have is some weaklings labled as 'Democratic Government' in Baghdad.

Bad policy-making Mr. Bush!

My Readings & Rural Attraction

May be owing to my childhood years, when atleast a quarter of an year would be spent in a village, I have a very strong attraction towards rural India. Rather the folklore, customs and traditions, conflicts which are a trademark of rural life. A very vivid, rich & colorful life is out there in rural India.

This fascination of rural India is also reflected into my reading habits. My favorite writers in Indian literature are not who write about metropolitan life or hassles of a city dweller. I rather like Sri. Naa. Pendse and Go. Ni. Dandekar (Marathi), Mahashweta Devi (Bengali), S.L. Bhyrappa and K. Shivram Karanth (Kannada) and notably Premchand (Hindi). All these writers have very beautifully portrayed rural Indian life, especially a rural India in transition in first half of century, when the city-ward migration has just begun. Their works depict the rural fabric getting disturbed due to the arrival of all that we see as established today - the so called 'modern' things (Indian standards of modernism). One more thing I which i have observed about my reading habits is that I really like the literature about the Western Ghats region of India - Konkan & Coastal Karnataka especially. The Marathi I mentioned have written numerous books about the life in this region. Sometimes I have this irrestible feeling that This is the region where I belong...

Wow! Wordpress enters Web 2.0

Is it only for my current theme, or what? But it is really good. Isn't Web 2.0 about Extras?

Fidel Castro Close To Death?

According to CNN & BBC, legendary Cuban Leader Fidel Castro is close to death. Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez is reported to have said this. Castro is fighting for his life in a Cuban hospital for some days now.



After throwing up the regime of General Batista, Castro is on throne in Cuba from 1976 as the president. A perpetual rebel, Cuba's relations with USA were never good.

I will remember Fidel as a brave man who signified the last straw of Eastern bloc of cold war.

Here is Castro on Wikipedia.

Podcasct:Rajeev Samant of SULA Wines

At Blogcamp.in 2006, I heard Robert Scoble across the oceans live on Skype. His venture PodTech.net was launched in India (?) with induction of some emminent bloggers like Kiruba Shankar of Kiruba.com and Amit Agarwal of Digital Inspiration among others. I was very much interested in Scoble's venture but rarely visited this site may be I didn't find the content very useful and interesting (interviews and interviews [& interviews] of small start-ups which really don't make much difference to a common man). But just by chance I happened again to visit Scoble's site and in IndiaTech section, found a surprise. There was an Interview (again!) with Mr. Rajeev Samant of Sula Wines, first vine-yard in Maharashtra. Ms. kamala Bhatt asked the questions. She really has a wonderful voice. I wonder what equipments she was using for interviewing?

Well here is the podcast -

[podtech content=http://media.podtech.net/media/2007/01/PID_001780/Podtech_Sula_Tie.mp3&postURL=http://www.podtech.net/indiatech/venture-capital/1315/from-oracle-to-a-successful-vineyard-rajeev-samant-of-sula-wines&totalTime=654000&breadcrumb=3F34K2L1]

Asimo Runs At CES 2007

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9NNCHFEX7g]

The 10 Most Underreported Humanitarian Crises of 2006

In all the hype and hoopla about technology, web 2.0, Iraq war and etc. there were thousands of our fellow human beings who died waiting to hear from outside world. Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian organisation, presents the Top 10 most underreported humanitarian crises of 2006. How many of these did you read about?
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

read more | digg story

Most Popular James Bond - Sean Connery? Nah!

Who is the best bond ever? Is he Sean Connery? or Pierce Brosna? According to Blogpulse trendsearch, Daniel Craig beats earlier two bonds in last 6 months on mentions in blogs.

Top 10 Firefox 2 Extenssions

Best thing about firefox is the ability for the user to customize the browser in thousand ways. Daily 100's of extensions add up to the stable of firefox. Here are top favourites for me -

1. Mouse Gestures: I can't live without this. I carried this habit from my short switchover to Maxthon (a good but 'heavy' browser).

2. Google Toolbar: Yeah, this is a must have. Especially the Level Up button on the toolbar is very useful apart from the Google Suggest in the search box which predicts the search term. Level Up takes you one level up in the directory of a site.

3. IE Tab: I think this is the one extension which virtually makes Internet Explorer browser totally dispensable. Great extension especially for the websites not configured for other browsers.

4. GreaseMonkey: Genie comes and asks what are your 2 wishes? I say Give me a Million Dollars and second wish is - grant me 2 more wishes! Well, GreaseMonkey is that second wish for a firefox user. It opens door to millions of other extensions called user scripts (which run on GreaseMonkey).

5. Adblock Plus: It sits there without ever attracting your attention and there it really wins. It IS supposed not to distract the Firefox users by the ugliest Internet phenomenon - Pop-ups.

Other honorable mentions are - Tab Mix Plus, Google Notebook extension and Scrapbook.

You can install these extensions for your Firefox browser here.

My Google Reader Trends for Last 30 Days