Category: Personal

Reality Shows

Prasad Ajinkya6 Comments

If I have to go by the entertainment shows on TV these days, then I think the society is slowly going to the dogs. So many of them, and all of them are just so wrong … they involve celebrities, big and small that people worship. That people want to emulate, that people look up to … and all of them so fucked up in the head.

Sadly my wife watches all of these brain-dead shows. (Sigh!!) Sitting at home can kill those grey cells. So one of the shows currently involves one small time celeb emotionally harassing a German girl who happens to be one more small time actress. The guy has gone on a pseudo-satyagraha until the girl doesn’t say that she loves him!! The nation which laid the foundations of non-violence and proving your point by sheer will power is now stooping to these tactics? And, the media is broadcasting this?? And people are lapping it up???

Then you have MTV and other youth channels who bring together idle and adrenaline charged youngsters to come together and scheme against each other. Are we as Indians really that idle and shallow that we derive entertainment out of watching all this?

– a sad and dejected Indian

Alexander

Prasad Ajinkya3 Comments

By Valerio Massimo Manfredi, this is one epic which I highly recommend to you all. I bought this trilogy set from Crosswords on the spur of the moment, the fact that I play Rise of Nations also helped pique my interest about wanting to know more on Alexander and his Companions.

More popularly known as Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king is said to have conquered most of the known world. Very few people have tried to do this and reached so far. Reading the books struck me that even back then, there were concepts such as PR, Marketing and branding. The fact that King Philip had huge heroic effigies of his son made throughout Greece ensured a faster acceptance of Alexander amongst the greeks.

The set talks about the lift, the rise and the ultimate death of Alexander and his kingdom. It tells us about how great men make great follies, and how heroes are borne out of great deeds. How leaders come to the fore and take problems head on, how expectations are managed effectively, how people believe in their leaders. There is much to learn about history, Manfredi has truly provided a masterpiece.

Updates

Prasad Ajinkya11 Comments

Do not want to rant and rave about what has been keeping me away from the blog, but this is the gist of it

  1. My sister Arati got married ps – Ashish, have mailed you the link. Her saasar is in Dombivali … quite far from where we stay. She is moving into a new house, new locality and building things up from scratch, god bless her soul
  2. Kida 2.0 is on the way :-), in 3 more months I would be a proud father!!
  3. The new job at Illumine is turning out to be quite an interesting assignment (and that is why you have seen more gyaan posts around here). More on this later. ps – Biggie, keep a watch out for this
  4. Most of my free time is spent in Multiplayer Rise of Nations over VPN :-)

Today was an opportunity where I got some free time from everything and am unleashing a slew of posts … Bwa ha ha haha!!

Summers here

Prasad Ajinkya2 Comments
  • Mangoes, mmmm …. yummm
  • When ice-cream, cold-drink and A/C sales spike up
  • School vacations, ahhh … those were the best. No more pencils, no more books … no more teachers’ dirty looks
  • When employees report early to office and stay beyond their normal time in order to stay in the cool recesses of their offices’ central A/C
  • When you want to discard everything else in life and head towards a beach and have some beers … read Goa!! :-)
  • Time for the Harry Potter films to come out and gather a throng of kids (and their parents) in the theaters
  • Shorter clothes ;-)
  • Families migrating towards hill stations

Summer gets me all nostalgic, what about you?

Mumbai Police

Prasad Ajinkya2 Comments

Just a note of appreciation towards the Mumbai police force. Today my entire family and I had gone to the police station for verification of our passport. Since the marriage, this is one of our initiatives :-)

The police officer came to our house and gave us the time and date for reporting to the police station. The D-Day arrived and we reported to the station on time. Everything was done so smoothly and efficiently.

I am mentioning it specifically, because this was unlike all the other government offices I have been to since marriage viz., marriage certificate, name change registrar, et al. This office was spic and span, tidy and manned by a very efficient person – Inspector S. M. Rane. Kudos!!

Amateur blogger

Prasad Ajinkya4 Comments

I have decided to use my fledgling blogging talents (ahem!?! or so to speak :) ) for making some money. There are quite a few blogs out there which pay good money for guest bloggers to write posts for them. Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000 per post. It doesn’t pay as much as our normal job does, but imagine – you can earn this money without any qualification as such!!

Another style of earning money would be google ads. So please do not be pissed if you see those on my blog in some days. Heres to turning a cost center into a revenue center :-)