critique on role of Indian media coverage for the blasts

Sad and shameful; Mumbai fell victim to yet another well-planned attack by well-trained terrorists of the Deccan Mujahadeen group. The worst part of the event was the coverage by the Indian media. 

Just by the sheer presence of the military trained terrorists, the media tried to portray this event as a "war." This is disgraceful coverage. The spin that they provided to the matter was aweful. Was this a matter of every other journalist trying to create a sizzle from their news to be differentiated or was it just plain reckless journalism? For a discerning audience, this will stand out as one of those events when the media grossly failed. 

Everyone has tried to hijack this event to serve their agendas. The right-winged parties have tried to portray it as a war and mentioned that Pakistanis have created this terror attack. The media covered it as Pakistani attack than as "an attack by Pakistan-based militant groups." Some have gone to the extent of drawing parallels between the New York 9/11 event and this one. NYC event was much bigger. With similar vein, these folks want India to go on and bomb-out Pakistan. That's crazy!

Media must understand that we exist in a much multi-lateral world. The bombing out of Afghanistan and Iraq served no good for the US. Besides, that was not a reaction to the 9/11. It was simply an agenda which the neo-conservatives had used to hijack the public attention and create a consensus to declare a war. It had two benefits: guaranteed election win in absence of a strong Democratic rep and continued revenues to the likes of Dick Cheney, who holds controlling interest in Halliburton. 

Also, there are anti-political propagandas being spread in the Indian populace. "No security, no tax" is an unintellectual thought. Media perpetrates it further. Anarchy will not help India achieve its dreams. Such tragedies should not de-rail us from our path to prosperity. If an anarchy (due to such anti-political agenda) sets in, I would say the terrorists achieved their final objective of de-railing India. 

Mumbai has come out resilient and should stay so. The media must help it rather than obstruct its path to show the world that Mumbai is resilient. Media's code of ethics must be questioned when "India's 9/11" is used by journalists to increase the circulation numbers of their newspapers. On a concluding note, I leave an example of responsible journalism. Check out this article by Suketu Mehta about Mumbai in NYTimes and you will get the idea of where I am coming from. He concludes it nicely - 

If the rest of the world wants to help, it should run toward the explosion. It should fly to Mumbai, and spend money. Where else are you going to be safe? New York? London? Madrid? So I’m booking flights to Mumbai. I’m going to go get a beer at the Leopold, stroll over to the Taj for samosas at the Sea Lounge, and watch a Bollywood movie at the Metro. Stimulus doesn’t have to be just economic.

mumbai meri jaan

A nice article by NYU Prof Suketu Mehta, who is author of a book Maximum City. 

Worth checking out here. 

world's first moving building

The growing prominence of the Middle East increases the attraction towards owning a piece of real estate in Dubai. Such attractions bring in enough wealth to shoot up fancies of the architects. 

Here's an example of sheer modern nature of Dubai's real estate market. Check out this video below:

Is Dubai the new New York? I can't wait for this upcoming trip to Dubai in Dec.

trip to da 'burgh

yea, I got to go to pittsburgh !

I literally felt home during this trip...thanks to Bal, Val and my old memories. 

The weekend started on Friday with the Pittsburgh Symphony performance. Joshua Bell just crossed us on the sidewalk and Bal told me - that's Joshua... I asked Bal skeptically - really? (You never know when Bal's pulling one on you). Later, we crossed Honneck too!

On Saturday, I went to the Carnegie Museum of Art and just roamed around the Oakland area and in CMU campus to catch up with friends and my cousin Sarang as I didn't want to disturb Bal and Val's routine. They made a great dinner for Sat night. Home food - at last !

On my way from OH to Pittsburgh, I saw this funny bumper sticker... check out the picture.

"MY KID AND MY MONEY 

GO TO 

CARNEGIE MELLON"

Finally, prior to getting out of Pittsburgh, I got to check out the Nationality Rooms at the Cathedral of Learning (I missed out on those while exploring Pittsburgh...one of those too close to be important things...). Finally, caught up with a friend over at Starbucks and flew back to work. 

Pittsburgh reminds me of the days and the proverbial feeling - "The world is my oyster" . The weather was just right.... I could capture the fall season's beginning. I wish I could visit Pittsburgh once more this fall. 

These days, my work takes me anywhere. Fortunately, this time it took me to Pittsburgh airport. However, the work was at Village of Tiltonsville, OH. 

yoga bears...

Here's an interesting article in WSJ. Check it out here.

pay me my rent

this is a funny video they showed something about on cnbc (of course, without the expletives).

too much travel...

In last 11 days, I have been in 4 cities .... mostly for work ... phew !

I was in NYC to begin with - lounging around with some friends and having a fun time. As usual, I had to pack my bags for Monday morning; this time for Dallas. Dallas was unusually cloudy and rainy.

Second, I headed out to Chicago on Thurs for training on Fri. The W on Chicago Lake Shore Dr had an awesome view. The lounge had a city view rather than the lake shore view. However, that lust for the view during my stay was fulfilled by the lake view room!










Finally, heading out of for a run from W, I realised that the art form at the door was really cool - fairly functional as it leveraged the wind of the windy city !




You must check out this video of the same...which is fairly close to the view I had...


At the crack of the dawn, the sunshine woke me up and the view was gorgeous..
















The Wave lounge time was well spent there in my penthouse prior to me shifting to The Loop where I had a serendipitous meet with a fine young lady at a breakfast place of Hostel International. I caught up with my network down there over the weekend and spent the whole weekend almost in a non-productive way before heading out to Dallas.

Again, mid-week, I headed out to Denver for a less-than-24-hour trip. This time I explored Denver-night-life like I never did before. It was fun...that's all I can say. The next morning, I completed my meeting and headed back to Dallas. Fortunately, the Avis folks upgraded my PTCrusier to a modern pearl blue 08 Sebring convertible - sheer luxury ! Check out this video here:



Back in Dallas, I decided not to return to NYC for the weekend as too much travel can be disruptive for health. I plan to explore the show put up at JWM Turner here this weekend. My experience with Dallas night life has not been mixed and I will just sit back and study for the upcoming tests.

I need to rejuvenate prior to the next week's beginning to present the most productive me! I hope the Heavenly set of Westin helps me recoup soon.

ufos

This is an interesting historic event - the National Archives related to UFOs exposed by UK .
National Archives of the UK government have all the records here.

Nick Pope, the former MOD officer, had revealed this 3 months ago. I happened to see it on Larry King Live today.




Even the Pope issued a comment - check here.

I was not a big fan about UFO stories. However, the Ministry of Defence of a leading developed nation has released a good amount of data . It would be interesting to check out how this saga unfolds.

25 broadway in movies...

25 Broadway - I work here - or at least that's what my business card reads.

I just saw an interesting scene from a movie named Hitch. The clip showed exactly the same gate which I walk down sometimes. A misogynistic trader walks out of the building and Eva Mendes plays hard ball with him for some information. After Eva kicks him, his head is stuck in the bull's behind.

wanderlust...

I was in Denver in March, DC in April, Dallas in May ! Three D's with my Uncle D....

I visited my cousin sister in Arizona in Dec last year, my friends in California, Seattle, and Wisconsin during Jan-Feb this year, and finally, I will be headed to meet some in Chicago in May.

Besides, I have a plan to visit Mumbai and London in June-July.

living in historic times...

US needs change to come out well after these historic times. Aging demographics and the on-going mortgage crisis will make US imbecile. However, focus on total factor of productivity and education can improve the situation.

It's 8 am on a Thursday morning. I am getting out of Washington D.C.'s JW Marriott's executive suite (they gave me an upgrade due to my platinum status) and I notice the headlines in the Journal (I refer to WSJ as the journal). The headlines reads:

"Weak Economy Forces Elderly To Delay Retirement"

I recollect my Macroeconomics concepts and conclude: The Long-run aggregate demand for the US economy has quantity of labor as a major concern right now with the aging demographics and restrictions on immigration for workers.

Yes. I am living in historic times and this roller-coaster ride is interesting to observe. Would this be the beginning of the end for a formidable power that was the United States? I will not hazard a guess as US has shown resilience in jumping back from such situations. However, a few incidents post-4/1 gave me evidence that we may begin the end.

A few days later, on 4/4, the USCIS issues a notice about allowance for extensions on OPTs or Optional Practical Trainings for F1/H1B cap-gaps. The following week, USCIS issues the lottery system for both Masters quota as well as the Bachelors quota. All this is a reflection of a policy issue resulting in inefficient allocation of resources. On one hand, the country wants to relax trade barriers. On the other hand, they have created labor trade barriers themselves. A quota system usually results in less than efficient allocation of resources. The current H1B quota system results in similar inefficient allocation of resources. The folks who are denied work permits in the US will sit in UK and other parts of the world in order to ensure that work is done. The displacement of where the work is done from where it affects due to the Internet revolution has made this possible. Hence, the country loses significant GDP by not allowing entry to the immigrant skilled workers.

How will US remediate this?
I have no idea but have some opinions around the same. May be I will blog those on the Trendwhizo blog next....

Back to the economy

On other hand, I see following image of of Chair Bair on CNBC while reading the WSJ article:

She asserts that the regional banks are in good shape. However, Dick Bove vehemently insists that the regional banks are not in good shape and initiates a Sell on those stocks. He points out that the FDIC watch list has expanded and most of the banks on that watchlist are regional banks. He has a point.

Macroeconomics wise, I can see that this downtrend will last fairly long. The mortgage troubles will spill over into auto loans and personal loans. Later, this will snowball US into recession. I think we are already in a recession - only NBER has to confirm. 

The cycle will not turn up until a source of spending is generated. A potential source is alternative energy. However, the OPEC might take a call to reduce oil prices to keep the junkie alive. OPEC parties are shrewd and will probably try to kill the alternative energy projects. However, society needs to understand this plan and not go by pure RoI-wise for investments in research for alternative energy sources. 

We will see a spate of business failures. Also, we will see a spate of job losses due to business failures. In a bid to become fit for survival, companies will cut jobs in an anticipation of becoming fit. The cycle of recession leading to job losses leading to foreclosures leading to recession will continue unless a source of funding such as govt spending is identified. I will not be surprised if the unemployment will hit double digit figures, yes more than 10% !

We will also see a rise in crime rate. The social fabric will deteriorate. To what extent this might happen cannot be gauged. Noone can predict the future. It will be shaped by the actions that various central banks will take. The developed world provides social security - that fund will have a huge payout due to unemployment and other issues. However, that may not be enough to sustain living at a higher price level for the population.  

The existing paradigms will change.  Consumption smoothing and the all the concepts that Greenspan, an erudite market manipulator, tried to imbibe in the minds of the US residents have back-fired. He built an apparatus during the Clinton administration and later, progressed during Bush administration. This was the only way for him to show prosperity during his tenure. The US household networth is usually composed of two aspects - home and investments in the capital markets. The capital markets were not doing good after the tech bubble burst. Hence, Greenspan had to push up the real estate prices. Thus, he started the functioning of the apparatus he put in place for stupid lending. Moral hazard is one of the job description line items for the position of Fed Chairman. The results will be seen in the next few quarters. 

Will there be another source of growth - such as the emerging economies? May be. The world mortar of growth was dependent on the US consuming the goods produced by China and the services produced by India. The savings of Chindia went to support excesses of the developed world. US in particular force-fed 2 billion dollars a day to the world. The emerging economies will suffer in the near short term. However, in the medium term, due to the savings rate, they will have capacity to survive. Inflation will reduce if oil prices reduce. If oil prices go back to $50 /bbl, then Chindia may never slip into recession. 

Emerging markets will tank severely. I already emptied my Equity side of the assets and I am about to sell my Real Estate during my next India trip. 

Why do the cash holders not come in and buy and stabilize the markets? I mean the oil powers have trillions of $s in their sovereign wealth funds to come in and stabilize these crises. I don't think they are welcome politically. Also, the developed nations have an ability to create their own SWFs by printing money. Yes, it can lead to general price-level rise (a.k.a. inflation); however, it is better than giving up your assets to unreliable outsiders (aka Barbarians at the Gate). I hope they don't follow the Zimbabwe path which led to quadrillion percent p.a. inflation rate - lol. 

May be I am super-cynical; only time can tell!

layoff survival guide

An interesting link I came across during the search for executive recruiters !
Layoff survival guide provides a compendium of best practices which a person must follow while doing a job. This reminds me of the book Bait and Switch !

I bet this book will sell really well in the days to come. Also, the traffic to this website may have peaked.

washington, d.c.

DC is a visual delight during this time period. Fortunately, my job brings me here for work this time around ! The blossoms bring optimism in contrast to the other important agendas being tackled at the Hill. My trips to DC end up becoming a memorable time of my life and here's an account.

I checked out dinner places such as Zaytinya, Jaleo, Adam's Morgan, etc. I will miss meeting a friend of mine once I am out of this project.

a - The Blossoms - they bring in some optimism during the national crises (oil, subprime, etc). Check the Yoshino cherry tree Bloom Watch here.

b - CNBC had their special episode based out of there. In a hot debate, we are having several sessions and congressional and senate member hearings. The credit contraction is going to result in an inopportune set of issues for the developed nations. On a side note, I received the IRS letter about the stimulus just recently.

c - DC's environment is well maintained. Personal safety and health facilities are good. Education is available via educational institutions such as Georgetown and GWU. The transportation is good - few chokes here and there. Public services are plenty - as will be expected in a developed nation's capital.

District of Columbia has its own unique challenges. For instance, they didn't have a team and hence, they got Nationals now.

On the flights back home, I ended up meeting two fine individuals who believe in doing the right things and not the popular things - one's a save-the-earth lady and the other has great pride for her country and serves her country!

This has indeed been a memorable phase in life.

noodles

Due to proximity to the place where I work these days, noodles & co has become almost a staple food for me. I eat there atleast 3-4 meals a week. Some of my favorite dishes are:

• tomato basil bisque (this soup is a palatal delight!)
• indonesian peanut saute (very healthy and I asked to quadruple the cilantro in it)
• penne cavatappi

I love the concept that I can get the noodle dishes for various cuisines under one roof - the Asian, the Mediterranean, and the American !

Check out their menu on their website...the website-design is fairly creative.

a new windy city?

New York City has gusty winds over the weekends continuing onto Monday morning. Check this report here. Is NYC becoming the windy city, a title that Chicago had?

After I left from the movie hall, I asked my friend, who just arrived from India, to join me for dinner and he backed out stating that there were strong chilly winds outside. I was intrigued when he backed out in such a way. Little did I know that the winds were so bad. .... 40 MPH !

Damn ... I couldn't stand and I couldn't walk straight - on top of that - the overcoat wasn't helping. After picking up my take-away order from the Italian place, I wasn't inclined to get out of that warm cosy place. The earlier walk of a few hundred meters had put me in a shock about the possible shock. It was about 6F and strong winds on top of that. I started thinking - what happened? When I went inside the movie hall, it wasn't as bad. Suddenly the weather deteriorated?

Cloverfield was good but not as good as to tolerate this tormentation of the weather. There was a weather warning of winds - but nothing about the strong chill !

Anyways, next time it is windy, I will make sure not to step out without car. The walk back from the Italian place to my apt complex was dreadful with the forehead giving a sensation of frozen blood....

And No, I am not exaggerating. On return back to house, my other roomie, who went to leave back his friend, saw cars moving side to side or front to back, the stuff that appears in movies!

I hope there are no casualties due to this. My prayers with the homeless!

in a new york minute

the genus of human spirit v/s the over-engineered malice.

The latter was triumphant until the game changed in a new york minute :)
Yay ! - The Giants won !

bay area

celebrating the new year !

First weekend in NYC - shopped around for deals in the new year, had a brunch at bryant park, picked up some books and on the way back, met an interesting person on the Path train, who quickly became an acquaintance.

Second weekend in Seattle - The goal was to meet my friend(s) and spend some quality time with them. The walking tours of Seattle were great and are well described in another blog on Seattle.

Third weekend in the Bay area - long weekend. I got to catch up with my high school buddy in San Jose area, his other buddies in Mountain View, and then an undergrad acquaintance in Stanford. On top of this, I got to explore San Francisco further. The details on this visit to Bay area is here.

Last weekend - firm's QSM at Sheraton; later followed by an evening at Divine Bar in UWS, a fun dinner at Le Colonial in UES, and finally, some shaking-a-leg at Azza Lounge.

More details on the last weekend:

Sheraton doesn't have anything distinct from a hotels perspective for the mid-Manhattan area. The whole day we spent there was a good relief for me as I got to make some interesting observations and I got to network some more.

The promoters of Divine Bar West claims to be one of the city's most unique places. However, putting some ruby red lightings, orange walls, zebra barstools, and a rooftop may make it unique but all these inclusions do not make the place creative. The finger food (such as the Milano bruschetta) was good and the ambience was relaxing. However, those are basic requirements for making of a good lounges and do not make the lounges extra-ordinary. It's a great place for birthday dinner.

Le Colonial, an upscale authentic Vietnamese din, surprised me with fine dining at relatively affordable prices. The table had a champagne connoisseur, who ordered the 1996 vintage Brut - a champagne which is crisp and dry with a fine persistent sparkle. Apparently, Le Colonial is a chain in the major cities in the major US cities of NYC, Chicago, and SF (they covered all their bases - lol!)

We went into Azza with great expectations due to referral from the Le Colonial manager. We got a free entry. However, the place was relatively low key that night - a Friday night in a slowing down economy!

On Sat, the day began late and later, caught up with few friends in the neighborhood and later extended way past in the night almost till the morning. On Sunday, the day started late again - but caught up with friends at the La Maison Du Chocolat place at Rockefeller Center with some acquaintances for a quite Sunday evening after the skating rink in Central Park.

All in all, the new year has begun well. I am not sure if a similar momentum will continue in the direction of pure hedonism as the efforts will now be focussed in the direction of pursuits for a larger cause.

dining in the city ...

My professional life takes me to different cities and to many places within the cities I visit.

My base office New York has been fun in the socializing dimension ever since I joined. I regretfully missed out on the Waldorf Astoria holiday party recently due to my latest project (the first one out of town and a significant one for me). Here are some quick review notes on some of the places in the city that I've been to:

Marquis - at Times Square

This place is run alike any other Marriott flagship property - professionally !
The decor was pretty up to date. ....though I would still love to have some NYC taste to it.

We were mostly in the ballroom for our event. As I had done some quickie research in advance, I knew that they had New York's only revolving restaurant and lounge - The View. I decided to visit it for dinner. Food wasn't as great but the revolving view is refreshing.

It's a tourist magnet ! Consider it as a New York hour for the tourists. Yea baby, 58 min/ revolution. The range of people I could interact with were not only from throughout US but also from Europe.

Service was satisfactory and one of my friends admired the signature drink the bartender provided ( the Floradora). I realised that this was a good place to come and kick back after the vexations of a long work day or after shopping in Manhattan !


Hilton , 1335 Avenues of Americas-
The ballroom in the middle east part of the city was plain vanilla. It wasn't as well-decorated as the Marquis one. However, the place was much more spacious vis-a-vis the Marriott Marquis.

The facade needs renovation as it projects an old image, and lacks the energy that must radiate with a Hilton at New York. It consumes a prime chunk of real estate piece and hence, shouldn't be an eye-sore!

I didn't get a chance to explore their restaurant as I was busy networking. btw, I got to know that we had a band and I got to meet our band's manager at this place.


Gansevoort , Meatpacking district -
Exceptional rooftop bar that I adore in the meatpacking district. I liked the energy exuberated by the place and the kind of crowd it attracted. Sweeping views will leave any visitor with a lasting impression of the New York City Skyline.

Surprisingly, during my second visit to this place, I ran into Conan O'Brien at the entrance :). This was when we had a social event at the Garden of the Ono for financial services practitioners. Ono was a dimly lit, sleek, sophisticated, and Asian-inspired wonder world.

I love the outdoors more (both the rooftop and the Garden) and hence, would recommend this place only for the summer or early fall ! Visit the place well dressed - trendy, hip, and fun ! Suits or work clothes are fine too...

Trinity Place - financial district area
A financial district restaurant/bar with a difference. The service was great. Finger food was tasty. We had a whole room booked for us and we were about 20 people. I couldn't spend too much time here as I had to join some friend's bday party for sake-bombing (as their DD)!

Zanzibar -

Tell the waitress I'll come back to Zanzibar.... Billy Joel in his album 52nd Street, the first ever album on a Compact Disc (CD) in Japan in the early 80s.

This drove me to this classy midtown eastern place for an evening social despite of hectic schedule that workday.

The structure of the building is old but the decor is creative to make it look trendy hip. There is a total of 4 rooms to hang out at.
1 st room - huge circular fireplace ( anybody wanna make some smokes?)
2nd room - Suede chairs with tiny red ottomans to eat.
3rd room - large bar with a DJ
4th room - sarfari afica theme room to lounge.
We had booked the whole of the 2nd room for about 20 people.

An acquaintance liked their vodka gimlets....It's a good happy hour place as the food wasn't great. Also, I despised the service quality. Apparently, cost pressures have led the joint-owner to employ curt, non-service-oriented employees.

Mesa -

Cramped! is what I remember the first thing about the seating arrangement we were provided for our dinner place. We were about 12 and accordingly, reservations were made. Not only did they not do any reservations or planning (as we had to wait more than my tolerance limit) but also we were given a place of 8 and asked to fit in 12. It was awful !

The food was not great - didn't have many healthy or vegetarian options. I had a starter of a pumpkin soup and main course again had some pumpkin element. Their desert platter is a must-taste.

Rio Di Zio Tribeca Churrascaria - Tribeca/SoHo

Ambience:
Decor is bright and trendy. Liqor serving is good. One of my colleagues enjoyed the frosted beer glasses they had. Red wine choice was good.

Food options:
It's a steakhouse - so its a big meathouse ... ! Salad bar was awesome ! Delicious vegetarian specialties abound and they even have sushi (which is actually really good). The main course barely had healthy options. I am a vegetarian and the chef could make up a primavera pasta for me.

Misc comments:
This was my first time at a Brazilian steakhouse. The cooked meat is brought in full to the table and you are asked if you wanted a slice of it. I got to know a new system of cards (green or red) by which you would indicate the server about whether you are full or not.


My flight's announcement's been made and I have to leave. I will write the rest at a later date.