TATA good bye to Singur

I watched Ratan Tata on the videopod broadcast of NDTV, announcing the decision to move the "Nano Project" out of Singur. A very well balanaced appearence, exactly letting the media know the reasons why the decision was taken and who is to be blamed for it. He also clearly seggregated this issue with the other investments in West Bengal, and a promise to be a part of the development of the state in the future. The sign of a true entrepreneur and a great visionary.

I believe, it is time for the people of West Bengal to take a decision, as to how they want to progress in the development path. Agreed, rural agricultural development is necessary and it should be fostered and protected by the state government, but industrial development is required urgently too. Once upon a time, West Bengal hosted great many factories and production houses. Today all those are shut down, due to labour issues. Now a fighting attempt is being made by the most progressive left leader of the nation, and he is critised from within his party as well as by the opposition.

It is also time for the people of the West Bengal to rise from the highly philosophical armchairs that they think they are sitting on, to do some hard work on the ground and put their intelligence into some concrete output. The stragety of weekend "bandhs" and "dharnas" is proving to be irritating and damaging for them.

The world has moved a lot ahead outside of West Bengal, than they can even imagine.

By the way, I have always had this wild thought in my mind, to settle down somewhere in this state, in my old age. Let us see!

Turmoil Again

Today was another day of turmoil in the US financial markets. A 158 year old financial institution announced banckruptcy due to the global credit crunch. It is said that it had around $46 million of mortgages account. Merrill Lynch, is also being bought out by Bank of America at $29 per share.

This did send the stock markets into a tizzy, but what one wonders is the impact it would have on the job situation and the general economic condition of that country and the countries that have substantial workforce of these organisations. The roubustness of the US economy is necessary for other economies to sustain themselves. At this point of time, there is no other economy that can be an alternative to the US, in leadership.

Back in India, a direct consequence of the banckruptcy declaration is the immediate wipe-off of around Rs. 2,000 crores from the institutions in which it invested. Their stock prices fell immediately.  I am not sure as to how much it is correct to predict that the Indian Banking sector is immune to the sub-prime crisis in the US. The crisis is now not limited to just itself, it has spread into other financial sectors, and in the long run is going to impact us, if it is not controlled and taken care right now.

Let us hope for the best.

A Wednesday

Today on a Thursday, I watched "A Wednesday". The movie is an absolute thriller till the very end. Though such movies are unrealistic in real life, the underlying social message it carries, adds a lot of extra thrill to watch such gripping action packed drama.

The movie is paced very well. The performances of Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher are beyond description. In totality, a must dekho movie.

Amongst other things, there has been a  "change of guards" sorts at the workplace. New demands have been placed too! Let us see :)

nVidia card dies finally

My nVidia video card, finally hang up it's boots today. It simply refuses to respond and causes the screen to freeze on Windoze load. I wanted to check if the problem was with the card or the driver, but gave up after finding that my Fedora Core 8 DVD was corrupt. I am back to using the on-board Intel(R, and all that) graphics card. I am unable to use the Aero(R) interface, since that would require a video card. With the cost of car loan at it's peak, I will withhold the new card purchase as of now. In any case, I am not interested in spending more on my desktop. Come December, I may be mobile, in my use of computer at home :)

Also took this opp. to clean my keyboard thoroughly. Plugged out all the keys from the base frame and washed them with soap water. I did have a hectic time putting back all the keys properly back. I do have a much hygenic keyboard now, atleast!

My inability

I am so pathetic! It is such a simple thing. Everyone seems to be able to do it with ease. It doesn't require logic or brains either. Why can't I do it?

It has been almost 3 and 1/2 hours into it, I cannot still ease up the clutch pedal to the "biting point", release it gradually and apply gas simultaneously. Obviously, I should remember to be on the first gear for all this. Blast me!

I knew I was delaying it. Amongst a few other things in my life, this is one thing that I should have done much earlier.

Washed Away?

I was totally drenched today evening, while returning from my client's place to my office to catch my cab.

Was it because the All Mighty wanted to wash away the remaining tit-bits of the 12 year old story? Or was it because he wanted me to get wet, catch a cold and fall sick with fever, and have another miserable time?

Well I will know that in a day or two.

फिर वही

वही सद रंग नाला फर्साई,
वही सद गूनह अश्क़ बारी है|