Akhil Tandulwadikar’s Blog

Want your boss to appreciate your suggestions? Then use this advice by scientists at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam.

The researchers found that statements sprinkled with expletives were significantly more likely to be believed than clean versions.

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The study asked a group of 54 students whether they thought themselves more likely to believe a statement if it contained swearwords.

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Both statements were rated more believable by the students given the four-letter versions. The denial statement with swearwords scored 5.2, compared with 4.2 for the sanitised version. The victim’s unexpurgated statement scored 6.3, compared with 5.1 for the one free of swearwords. The authors called the distinction “significant”, as swearwords were found to be more credible than the swearword-free testimonies. “Testimonies containing swearwords were perceived as more credible than swearword-free testimonies. Hence it is concluded that swearing increases believability of statements,” the authors said.

Now I know what to say the next time I meet my boss for an appraisal. And to take our learning further, here’s a fake mail from a Microsoft HR guy containing the choicest Hindi expletives that you could use. For Telugu expletives, read this discussion at Freehyderabad discussion boards.

Now get cracking you b******s! You can thank me later.

P.S: Feel free to share expletives from other languages.

Checkout this slide show of 101 best web freebies on Business Week.

My favourite web freebies that find a place in the slideshow are as follows. (And they are all Open Source!):

Ubuntu - Have a new PC? Now you need an operating system, and that can run up to an additional $278 for Microsoft’s Vista operating system or up to $200 for Apple’s Leopard. The Linux-based Ubuntu operating system is free and comes with a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, browser, e-mail, media player, and photo-editing software.

OpenOffice - The basic version of Microsoft’s popular Office suite runs as high as $400. There’s no charge for OpenOffice.org, and it’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Gimp - Adobe Photoshop is a powerful graphics program, but with a $999 price tag, few can afford it. Open-source download GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) performs many of the same image editing and retouching tasks for free.

and of course,

WordPress!! - One of the first free blog hosting sites, WordPress offers features like user registration, spam protection, and a wide variety of designs.

I use all of the above freebies and recommend them to anyone who is heading for a paid option. Already evangelised quite a few victims. That said, I do wish to own a Mac some day .

PS: All links open into new windows/tabs.

I have finished reading Sudhir Kakar’s The Indians - Portrait of a People. This book tries to capture the essence of the Indian psyche. What makes us Indians what we are. Of course, the first thought that pops up is how can you do that in one book? This country is too vast and too complex for that. And this he admits in the Introduction itself when he says:

How can anyone generalise about a country of a billion people–Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains–speaking fourteen major languages and with pronounced differences? How can one postulate anything in common between a people divided not only by social class but also by India’s signature system of caste, and with an ethnic diversity characteristic more of past empires than of modern nations?

And yet, he, along with his wife and co-author Katharina Kakar, manages to pin point the vital characteristics that are woven together to form the Indian identity. This identity is something that is common to every Indian irrespective of where he / she lives. Just like it would be in the case of a person from Africa, Japan or China. He is an African or a Japanese or a Chinese first, everything else follows. “The Indian-ness”, he says, ” is about similarities produced by the overreaching, Indic, pre-eminently Hindu civilization that has contributed the lion’s share to what we would call the ‘cultural gene pool’ of India’s people.”

If I have, to (gulp!) put his thoughts in my words, I’d say we are Bhel Puri of sorts. The main ingredients being Religion, History and Hindu culture patterns.

The Indian-ness is something that is so woven into our minds that we don’t even need to learn it. We imbibe it in ourselves as we grow up. It’s so ubiquitous, that very few of us fail to recognise this all important characteristic. We are just too involved in our day-to-day chores. Take for example, the existence of Hierarchies in our lives. They are everywhere. At our workplaces, families, schools and even in informal gatherings. We want to know where we stand in comparison to the other person(s). Else we feel that something is missing. Not that we use this as a yard stick to measure our ‘performance’. But somehow, we are more comfortable when we know where we stand.

Another important part of our lives is the ‘family name’. What does your father do? This is perhaps the most important question that Indians ask.

Sudhir Kakar covers all this and many more ingredients in this book. I enjoyed reading it.

Image sourced from here.

The West Bengal government has decided to call out Army to control clashes in Kolkata over Nandigram.

Earlier, activists of the All India Minority Forum protesting the violence in Nandigram on Wednesday indulged in brick-batting, blocked roads and clashed with police, which used batons and teargas to disperse the protesters.

The character, or lack of it, of India’s communists is on full display here. Nandigram burns for more than a month. Hundreds die. Forget sending the army, the CPI(M) makes sure that even the Police stays away. And when a bunch of protesters pelt stones, the army is called-in! Who needs terrorists when we have commies?

Update: Seems the situation is Kolkata is more serious than I earlier thought. The entire city had been brought to a halt due to the violence and lots of public property was damaged. It’s now being debated that the protests could have been used as a diversionary tactic. Mamata Bannerjee, who deplored what happened in Nandigram is yet to make a statement against what heppened today.

Update 2: This is my post # 100.

This piece of commentary by one of the Cricinfo sleuths covering the Australia Vs Sri Lanka match cracked me up big time:

Sangakkara played a delicious knock, counterattacking in the end with some breathtaking shots, before the fatal finger of fate intervened. Malinga indulged in some hit and giggle before Australia wrapped up the series win.

Fatal finger of fate? I did not know fate used fingers to make its interventions. Heck, I did not know fate had fingers in the first place! It took a cruel intervention of fate to enlighten me. And am I glad or what?

Details of which finger fate exactly used are yet to come by.

In Cricket, the two most famous runners between the wickets of recent time have been Sourav Ganguly of India and Inzamam Ul Haq of Pakistan. Both former captains are horrible good when it comes to running out their partners or themselves. Inzy claimed more than 38 victims for his opponents. And Ganguly has been involved in many a funny run outs like this one. Imagine what fun they could have been to watch if they played for the same team. The fans, the coach and the team members would have dreaded it and the betting houses would have gone berserk about who’ll get whom run out.

Why am I talking about all this?

Because in Karnataka, the JD(S), lead by the legendary sleeper-in-chief HD Deve Gowda, and the ever-whining BJP have drawn a political parallel to the hypothetical scenario I mentioned above.

The week-old BJP government in Karnataka headed by B S Yeddyurappa is set to fall as its ally JD(S) has decided to vote against it during the crucial trust vote on Monday in the state Assembly.
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JD(S) spokesperson Y S V Dutta said, after the legislature party meeting, that a decision to vote against the Yeddyurappa government has been taken by the party as “the BJP did not agree to our conditions to form the government. BJP cannot take us for granted”.

A few years earlier, the two had entered into an agreement according to which they were to share power for 2.5 years each. JD(S) was the first to get a shot at it. And after its time was over, it promptly ditched the BJP!

A few days later, President’s rule was imposed which effectively gave the Congress(I) full control over the state. This was undesirable! So, on November 8 the BJP and JD(S) patched up like old chums and Yediyurappa was made the CM. All’s over one might have have thought, but look what’s happened! Sleeper-in-chief is now away in Delhi negotiating a tie up with the Congress whom he had ditched in a similar fashion few years back.

Now isn’t this reminiscent of a classic run out scenario involving Inzy or Ganguly? First a yes, then a no…then a yes then a no…and finally one of them has to make the disgruntled walk back to the pavilion. This time it looks like the BJP is gonna be run out. Or may be not. Who knows?

Cartoon sourced from here. 

I fail to understand how this anti-racism warning displayed at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium, venue for the fourth Indo-Pak Cricket match, applies to the fans of the two teams:

“Spectators shall not engage in any conduct, act towards or speak to any player, umpire, referee or other official or other spectators in a manner which offends, insults, humiliates, intimidates, threatens, disparages or vilifies that other person on the basis of race, religion, colour, national or ethnic origin.“

Race or religion have hardly ever been the topic of contention in India-Pakistan matches. If a spectator raised anti-Islam slogans, for example, he’d be cursing his country more than Pakistan. Colour? Hardly any difference. Ethnic origin? Not Applicable.

The rivalry among the two countries is political. Does a Pakistan hai hai chant become a racist comment? Does it come under the purview of the ICC’s anti-racism code? Heck, is what Indians call Pakistanis and vice-versa ICC’s business at all?

The ICC is being overactive in imposing its anti-racism code on India, which hardly has any history of racist comments being made at sporting venues. I have no intention of giving the Indian crowds a clean chit though. The crowd behaviour, at times is pathetic, to say the least. But racism?

Barely a day before the Children’s Day, a third standard boy, Guru Srinu, 7, was on Tuesday kidnapped by an unidentified person from his school, Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, Tirupati.

That was yesterday. My friend, Smack, as he is called on the Freehyderabad Discussion Boards, had been following this news with great interest. And this is the update he provided on what happened to the boy:

Today I came back from office and was following the news. I thought the kidnappers will let the boy free.

But just now, few minutes ago it was flashed on TV that the kid was murdered. I could not stop tears in my eyes. How can someone be barbaric to kill a small boy?????

Can’t say much. Don’t have words. Rest in Peace.

The 53-member Commonwealth has given General Musharraf 10 days to lift Emergency rule, doff his army uniform and release political prisoners or face suspension for the second time in less than a decade.

He couldn’t care less. In fact, I am sure he’d be laughing his ass off at the threat.

After all, Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth for 5 years following, the 1999 coup, till 2004 when Mushy promised to ‘respect’ democratic norms. Less than three years down the line he showed just what he meant by that. Even if the emergency is lifted, Mushy has effectively removed all the obstacles to his long term stay at the President’s post. Therefore, the democracy in Pakistan is not fractured, but totally bed-ridden and disabled. A farcical election is now in the offing.

Meanwhile: Is this the first sign of an anarchy in the making?

In the southern city of Karachi, gunmen opened fire on two police stations as Bhutto supporters protested against her house arrest, but no one was hurt.

“About 35 to 40 armed men fired while the PPP workers were holding a protest rally,” said senior police official Fayyaz Khan.

The attacks occurred in the PPP-dominated Lyari neighbourhood but it has not been confirmed if the gunmen were party supporters, he said.

Ian Chappell says in his column at Cricinfo:

Imran Khan was one of the better international leaders and he believes a good captain should “understand bowling”. Tendulkar definitely comprehends bowling when he’s facing it, but from his actions as a captain he doesn’t appear to understand bowlers.

The Indian selectors wouldn’t have done Tendulkar any favours by appointing him Test captain a third time. His first assignment would have been in the toughest environment: Australia have lost just six Tests at home since the start of the 1995-96 season. In addition, during his first two stints as Indian captain he was at his peak as a player. Now he’s no longer a dominant batsman.

While I am a bit skeptical about the last statement, I agree with the rest. Tendulkar has lead India twice and failed both the times. Isn’t this enough proof for the selectors that he is not captaincy material? Thankfully, common sense has prevailed and Anil Kumble, who in my opinion is the right man for the post, has been chosen. Further, with the Aussie tour coming up, it’s important that Tendulkar is under no extra pressure. This is his last tour down under and let’s hope he makes it as memorable as his previous three tours.

And, I also disagree with Navjot Singh Sidhu when he says:

“Are they not playing with the interest of the country,” Sidhu, a former India batsman and now a commentator, asked. “When you appoint Kumble as captain of the team, it is nothing but a retrograde step. He is a stop-gap arrangement.”

That’s total rubbish, but coming from Sidhu, I am not too surprised. He was OK with Saurav being given the captaincy of India when Dravid stepped down. Age did not mater then, but now all of a sudden, it does! I am sure he would not have said anything like this had Sachin accepted the offer.

That said, I hope Kumble is able to handle the aggressive young guns like Sreesanth properly. That will be his biggest challenge in the Aussie tour.