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Friday, March 20, 2009

Which way?


The two big buys that Tata motors did seem to be on two ends of the quality/ reliability spectrum. Wonder which way they will move under the Tatas.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Got a raise... while unemployed

I finally got a raise... my first raise in 2+ years. It came through the unemployment insurance check courtesy the Federal Additional Compensation Program. There in lies the irony. Ever since I started working for a startup in the fall of 2006 I had not gotten a raise. In fall of 2007 I was told that they were putting a formal evaluation and pay cycle scheduled to go into effect in Feb 2008 and all adjustments would happen then. Come Feb 2008 I was told that the company has not met its goals so while they would like to give me a raise they can't. There was no official communication. My manager kept the discussion about it alive till June of 2008. Then, I realized that this was never going to happen.

Friday, March 06, 2009

Is "Jai Ho" the new "India Shining"?

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Jai Ho 'cost Congress $200,000'

They say nothing succeeds like success. I bet that is what Congress-I (Do we have variants with all 26 letters? Not yet.) is hoping. I guess they are hoping that the feel good factor of "Jai Ho" will translate into electoral victory. However, it is quite possible that this might be the new "India Shining."

During the last elections the rival BJP launched a polished, feel good, rah-rah campaign highlighting how things have changed for the better. Little did they expect that the campaign title would boomerang. The english only title was considered a great example of the issues with the developments that had happened - only the educated elite were getting the benefits. I am not sure how well this stuck with the public the end result was BJP did not win enough to form the next government.

So, will "Jai Ho" be the sound of "selling out to the west" or "poverty porn" or just a "fantasy that only happens in Bollywood movies." BTW, does Slumdog qualify as Bollywood movie? I think so. The theme is even though the guys made it are not.