How does one judge this Illinois Governor? By american standards - a probable criminal, by Illinois standards - one more in a row and by the current Indian political standards - probably an uncorrupt statesman. Compare "Blag", if we can call him, to the average Indian politician and you will see how white he is - no pun intended.
Hey -interestingly, Blag has an Indian connection to the scandal. How? - The FBI is investigating into a fundraiser hosted by an Indian businessman - Raghuveer Nayak, which was meant to raise around 1 mn dollars for Jesse Jackson's brother - Jonathan. Blag was at the event and as per a Chicago tribune report, some of the businessmen present there talked about raising the money for Jonathan to get the senate seat. This fundraiser was held at the India House restaurant in Schaumburg, three days before Blag was arrested.
Good going blag, bringing a taste of Indian politics to Illinois. Probably not - long live Bobby Jindal.
On a much more magnanimous note, apparently the other governors are giving away their paychecks or part of it for the greater good of the economy and probably notionally plug their sub billion revenue deficits. Read http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28257834/ for details. Among the noteable ones are the Kentucky Governor - Steve and good ol' Arnie.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
Korean Cuisine - For Daring Epicureans
For the very first time in my life I sampled Korean Food. Korean food is far more pricier than its south east asian culinary cousins, and offers much more "variety". I love south east asian cuisine and have had my fill of Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai and of course - the indomitable Chinese. But, never Korean.
I pride my chop-sticking abilities and tolerance to "strong aromas". I also beleived that I was an all ingesting foodie demi God, until I had a Korean barbecue lunch. The restaurant, to set the coordinates straight, is located at the Chicago suburb - Schaumburg and is called "Soliphana". A colleauge who lunched along with me, came up with a semi-colloquial punch phrase post the meal - "Soliphana - Kabhi Math Jana". In Hindi that meant never go to Soliphana.
I ordered a Chicken dish with rice for lunch. The Chicken tasted very similiar to south indian curry with a bit of ageing and an extra kettle of oil and the "side dishes" seemed like the seawater wasn't as yet off them. Side dishes included sea weed, sea cabbage and 4 other dishes which proabably had some sea by its side.
I finished the whole dish and marked it down as one of the key survival milestones in my life.
Soliphana - Phir Nahi Jana
I pride my chop-sticking abilities and tolerance to "strong aromas". I also beleived that I was an all ingesting foodie demi God, until I had a Korean barbecue lunch. The restaurant, to set the coordinates straight, is located at the Chicago suburb - Schaumburg and is called "Soliphana". A colleauge who lunched along with me, came up with a semi-colloquial punch phrase post the meal - "Soliphana - Kabhi Math Jana". In Hindi that meant never go to Soliphana.
I ordered a Chicken dish with rice for lunch. The Chicken tasted very similiar to south indian curry with a bit of ageing and an extra kettle of oil and the "side dishes" seemed like the seawater wasn't as yet off them. Side dishes included sea weed, sea cabbage and 4 other dishes which proabably had some sea by its side.
I finished the whole dish and marked it down as one of the key survival milestones in my life.
Soliphana - Phir Nahi Jana
Monday, October 27, 2008
Winter Attire for a Sales Guy
Now, when you are a sales guy and posted in a really cold territory like Chicago, I can bet that your total cost to company is going to be less than your peers outside Chicago. The main reason for this being the extremely high cost of "good" winter wear.
Two aspects define winter wear for a sales guy - (1) must look presentable (2) must keep you alive (or warm)
Walking into top a retailer store such as JC Penny, Macy's or Sears should take care of (1) and (2), but should burn a nice deep hole in your wallet too.
Best bet would be Burlingtons that strikes a balance between (1) and (2) and leave you with a relatively low bill of USD 350-400.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
The Consumer Market
My first blog and I want to keep it straight. The US and Global markets are taking a plunge and everybody's got questions, suggestions, answers and cribs. An interesting observation is that one argument seems to counter the other creating a balmy zero sum game.
The Consumer Market, my field of play, takes the first hit as discretionary spending shrinks and people begin to hold their cash close to their heart. Silicon biggies cut costs, lay people off and sell businesses. TI wants to sell off its baseband part of the wireless business. SanDisk loses Samsung as a potential buyer, as flash prices crash and the business is evaluated as unprofitable and "deteriorating" by Samsung.
In the consumer space, the rot begins at the silicon level and then traverses into the OEMs, manifesting itself as R&D budget cuts.
The Consumer Market, my field of play, takes the first hit as discretionary spending shrinks and people begin to hold their cash close to their heart. Silicon biggies cut costs, lay people off and sell businesses. TI wants to sell off its baseband part of the wireless business. SanDisk loses Samsung as a potential buyer, as flash prices crash and the business is evaluated as unprofitable and "deteriorating" by Samsung.
In the consumer space, the rot begins at the silicon level and then traverses into the OEMs, manifesting itself as R&D budget cuts.
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