Arbit Scratchpad

Justed finished watching the 2007 movie from Dreamworks 'Bee Movie'. Lately watched Pixar's 'Wall-E' and 'Kung Fu Panda' too... Also 'Madagascar 2' - Wall-E was the best in terms of realism and sheer graphics (won the best animation Oscar 2009, having beaten Kung Fu Panda), Kung-Fu Panda was absolutely hilarious and Bee Movie the cutest of them, including some cool music by Hans Zimmer... (Image Source:  http://blog.beliefnet.com/moviemom/beemoviepromo.jpg )

The annual business fest ‘Convergenz’09’ conducted by the IIMB-PGSEM student fraternity happened on 15th March 2009. The pre-lunch session in the morning saw the finals of the business plan - Alchemy (judges panel consisted of Venture Capitalists and Professors of the NSRCEL, IIMB) and Case presentation competition (on the topic of beating Nokia’s market dominance in the Indian mobile handset market); with the finalists vying for the top slot; the sessions were thoroughly contested and interesting pitches were made. The ‘Turing Test’ business/technology quiz finals were conducted by Prof Rajeev Gowda in the afternoon after the written elimination rounds and Arul Mani the VP of Karnataka Quiz Association was also present for the show.  The panel discussion at the end of the fest, in the late evening was well attended and consisted of panelists of repute from the IT Industry including Srini Rajam, CEO Ittiam Systems and Y V Prakash, Director R&D, Honeywell Technology Solutions and e...

A wrong move can do you in and be very costly. You got to keep playing. Are you ready for the next move? It is often tempting to make a move – think of all the possible traps! One move at a time. Rarely otherwise. That was a sure trap. You figured it out… You got to follow the rules. Each piece has it's unique style. You have to 'sit through the match' to win it. Never underestimate your opponent. Sometimes to elicit the level of your opponent, make a reckless move. If the opponent is repeatedly making stupid moves unable to acknowledge - that's the sign of an unworthy opponent.  Sometimes pawns dont matter much, but they are often the most useful. Often what you see on the board is not what you get. You can go a long way, but then your own pawns are blocking you. It is not easy to checkmate. More easy to check. Sometimes it is hard to keep playing - but the sharpest, grittiest mind wins! Think upto 10, 20, 30 moves ahead??? The next move is based on a future consequenc...

Poetic Soul ---------------------- The poet sings a merry tune, Verses flow and maidens swoon. A tingle in the air makes me rhyme, I sing in carefree joy, all the time! - SHAMIT BAGCHI

I pray to the almighty creative energy store. Bestow in my heart enough love, and Bountiful affection; with which,  Can I gift every passerby, all those  With whom I have ever met, and who are yet  To appear, as I traverse this path of life!

The newspaper DNA (Daily News and Analysis - http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore ) seems to have involved in not verifying its sources of photographs and having used my photographs (does this amount to plagiarism? I think it does) after it carried some of my pictures in the 'After Hrs' section of its newspaper on 31st January 2009, which I had taken at the IIMB Yamini 2009. It is good that they covered the event but they should have cited/verified the sources of the photographs. In all probability they or their sources just picked up the photos from my blog, with the belief that no one would notice anyways - seems they could not escape as luck would have it, I spotted them in the DNA paper on Saturday. It was early in the morning when as I flipped open the last page of the supplement that I was stunned to see my pics, which I was able to recognize immediately - however there were no credits anywhere in sight! Please check the photos below from the e-paper version on their website...

Close to 8 hours of classical arts (music and dance) on a single day – usually people watch one recital in a day we watched four of them back to back. I have gone to a couple of classical recitals till date but something of this nature was a dream come true! Not that I am bragging, but then the sheer experience of it all was stupefying to say the least. Let me start from the last item which got over at 4:30 AM, yes 4:30 AM on 26 th Jan, 2009, that's today, our Republic Day. The dusk to dawn musical concert 'Yamini 2009' in association with the Spic Macay chapter at IIM Bangalore was an experience for me like never before. The last item - the flute recital by Pandit Ronu Majumdar reached its crescendo in a Druta Teentaal at around 3:30 AM, when the speed of play along with Sudhir Pandey on the tabla reached so high that it was just impossible for me to keep track of the tala , which I had been trying to keep track of throughout the recitals – so I just sat in silence soa...