Z-Blogs

When we start incorporating ancient concepts in a modern idiom, sometimes, not a new idiom, but a new idiocy, is born...A prime example is trying to incorporate the concepts of "Vastu" in modern buildings; this results in weird architecture like this: Instead of having that water tank set four-square on the building, it looks like some tacked-on piece of architecture...an architect told me that often, owners of buildings are very keen that however strange the building looks, it must conform to what their "vastu" experts say. The building just has to be built in such ways, then! But it does…

Piracy? Something to be ashamed of? Not at all! Everything is open and above board now... So...now you know where to get your official pirated stuff now!⊕

Here's the image of Ganesha which was installed and worshipped in our apartment building today:As I photographed the homa being conducted, I fancied that I could see the image of Ganesha in the flames:With a little imagination, one can see Ganesha, facing left, his fan-ear on the right-hand side, his head, single tusk and rounded belly on the left-hand side....!I hope Vinayaka Chaturthi brings peace and plenty to the land, and to the homes of the devotees!⊕

There is so much of disposable products in our lives. From plastic bags to diapers to pens (whatever happened to ballpoint refills - does nobody use those anymore?) For a cup of tea in a clean glass When I am outside and I feel like having some hot tea, I think twice before getting a cup. Most of our small tea shops or vending machines use plastic cups, occasionally paper cups (which do have a plastic coating).I generally ask for a glass or steel tumblers. Even if they are available, the downside is the hygiene level of the tumblers. I…

We chatted up some nice folk from NITT who seemed to love every minute of being there. But, but, but, what about staying away from home, cruel weather, homesickness etc, We pried. To this I heard the singly most common sentiment that's been expressed by nearly every NITian I've known. They admit that the one thing they'll take home with them, even after graduating, is the friendships garnered. I heard, not for the first time, somebody speak about how they could never connect with people from outside college the same way again. The rapport and camaraderie established are based on…

Mango Technologies Private Limited is a software solution provider for the bottom 50% of the mobile handset consumers market. CEO and Co-founder, Sunil, answers a few questions for Entrepreneur's Corner: Question: How did you select this line of business - or did the business select you?Answer: Lekh Joshi and I, have worked in this domain for more than 10 years, in large multinational OEMs and operators to deliver various types of phones in the market. In the past along with some of our key members we have built first designed in India, dual SIM mobile phone, I was the second…

When can we truly 'fly over'?I hate the word flyover. After crawling for half an hour to cross a few yards near the Yestwantpur junction - where a 'flyover' construction is underway - the BBMP mocks at me by saying 'Construction is in progress. Go Slow'. There must be a grammatical error here - the word 'Slow' should be the first word in the sentence. Is there any flyover in Bangalore on which we can literally 'flyover'? If it were not in any stage of construction, there would be a traffic jam on it. Its more practical if these extended…

"The problem", remarked a friend wistfully as we stood up amidst stifled murmurs and blasé one-liners, "is that they think we're really stupid and we think just the same about them." I looked at her and nodded as we began to repeat after the voice blaring from the speakers. After we were finished taking oath, she clarified concernedly, "neither is entirely true you know!" So college started a few weeks ago, and we third-years had been practicing cocky swaggers, meaning to intimidate the fresh troop of students that will enter college next week. The new entrants are, with fashionable indifference,…

Surely BBMP, which seems, sometimes, to go out of its way to cut down full-grown trees, can take a leaf out of the book of these people, who own a shop in Vyalikaval. Messrs. P Mohanlal Bhanwarlal, who run a jewellery and pawnbroker's shop near Chowdiah Memorial Hall, decided that, as devout Jains, they could not offer "himsa" to the living tree; therefore, they actually built their shop around it.Doesn't the presence of the tree hinder the customers? "Actually," say the owners, "Our customers are happy to see this, and the way you saw it and came in, it is…

Ranga Shankara has a very laudable project called "Other Voices" where smaller, more intimate plays are sought to be staged to a much smaller audience. One example of this was "1, Madhav Baug", enacted by Revathi which was staged in a small upper room in Ranga Shankara to just 25 viewers at at time.Tickets for these 9.30pm shows go on sale, however, ONLY at 9pm at Ranga Shankara. And this is proving to be a problem. In fact, if you see this photograph of the announcement of the play, you can see that it says, "tickets will go on sale…