Basket Case

What a wonderful way of celebrating Republic Day ! I just loved the concept and the wonderful entries. Surely my try out list is a little longer now. :-) A happy and thoughtful Republic day to everybody. May you become a more responsible citizen in the year to come.

Call centers and BPOs are the poster material for many people these days who firmly believe that English is the way to go forward. I have been trying to see how far their stand goes. To me the whole hoopla about the necessity of learning English seems more like a rather short sighted view. the BPO and the call center industry primarily serves US and UK now a days. Together they constitute a very small part of the world population. Two of the major developing countries of the world, China and India still have only a rather small portion of their population using English for their daily transactions. The huge number of English speaking population that are reported are a little misleading in this respect. Consider that India is estimated to have 35 crore English users. For example my father would qualify as a English user since he is able to use it on purpose but he is not comfortable using it in his daily life. Now consider that the developing economies of these countries are creating a ...

I hold you as a thing enskyed and sainted; By your renouncement an immortal spirit, And to be talked with in sincerity, As with a saint. Measure for Measure, 1. 4 USA remains one of the only 3 countries which do not use Metric System of measurement. For somebody coming in from a country that uses metric system, it can be a real pain in the ass. So temperatures are in Fahrenheit, distances are in miles, weights are in pounds and liquids in gallons and I am in trouble. So how do you decide how difficult would it be to walk home from a grocery store which is 1 mile away, carrying 4 pounds of potatoes and 1 gallon milk when the temperature is 60 degree Fahrenheit. I would rather walk and find out. Even now it is so easy to get lulled into the sense of closeness when suddenly a factor 1.6 pops up. Now I don't have any pro or anti metric stand since I haven't found any huge benefits of one o...

Many overdue posts lurk in the darkness while I sleep and dream the Czech Dream . Journey of a nation from a communist past to Capitalistic future seen from the eyes of two cynics, I mean in a good way, the kind of cynics every society needs. How the people depraved for years become such a easy target for consumerism - that endless world of cheap deals, huge super stores and feel good experience and how the media plays a associate while claiming innocence. An exchange between the directors and ad agency guys who are a part of the whole game is very telling: "Maybe you filmmakers lie to people, but we advertisers don't!" However the film is a very clever one. Not because of the prank but how it pretends to hold up a mirror to a consumerist society but along the way slyly puts the partners in the game, the advertising agency, the media production companies, the market survey companies under scanner. It is them who are the real subject of the movie and the whole prank is ju...

This dose of LangDig is going to be a pretty big one, owing in part to my extended vacation and in part to the accumulating bits from every edition. I have tried to organize the clips in categories so that they are easy to follow. Some of these stories are now around 1 month old but better late then never ! Also it is broken in two parts, this one being news and the second one being of general articles. Political : Let us start by looking at the reactions to the Marathi being compulsory in all the schools. CBSE is not amused . IBN tries to carry out a debate over the recent spat of make-compulsory steps taken in Karnataka and Maharashtra and when Congress has done it, can Bala Saheb be far behind ? Taking a clue from the neighbors, Andhra Govt is considering making sign boards in Telugu compulsory . In a function organized to award Gidugu Smaraka Puraksaram-2006 to C Dharma Rao , who has done lot of work to bring up Telugu, Andhra Pradesh CM said that they will push harder to get cla...

also wants to have a say, not because it rejoices at the new year but because it sees everybody else rejoicing ! I'll tip my hat to the new constitution Take a bow for the new revolution Smile and grin at the change all around Pick up my guitar and play Just like yesterday Then I'll get on my knees and pray We don't get fooled again ! -- The Who, "Won't get fooled again !"

- Today, tomorrow, next week, next year - Somewhere a full stop. - The fear of death - Of a life again - Of never waking up - Of an endless wake - Of things words don't know of - Because we go to them in silence - On the floor of reason - The what ifs hang - Protected from love - walk we safe - And we count the years - One two and three - longing for insecurity - longing for no name - craving for loosing the me - Let this be the year - Let this be the day - Let this be the hour - To you I wish - Not conquest - But surrender ! Have a magical and most wonderful year !