Hurricane Rita

Yet another hurricane is about to hit gulf of Mexico. Rita This one is stronger than Katrina. Gas prices are expected to go up to $4 to $5 per gallon, imagine that. Well don't imagine that anymore, because it is going to happen, in few days.

Finally when gas prices were coming down to pre-katrina levels, Rita had to come. Its gonna rain like crazy over the weekend here in Dallas. So i am going to get some flash lights and make sure we have enough dry food at home, because electricity is gonna go out. No idea what else to write. all i can say is, things doesn't look all that good. If price of gas goes up, price of everything else goes up. People are leaving Houston and coming to Dallas, because when Hurricane reaches Austin, it is still going to be level 1.

Good thing is, we have technology to predict these matters and people have taken these warnings seriously. People did learn lot of stuff from Katrina, since it is really fresh on minds of everyone.

Tejas Shah
TheDesi.com

Watch a movie by yourself?

Have you ever gone to a theater and watched a movie by yourself? its quite an experience. Yesterday i went to watch a Madagascar by myself at a dollar theater. On my way there, it didn't seem like a big deal, but once i entered the theater parking lot, i started doubting myself about the idea of watching a movie by myself. But i decided to go along with it, no matter what. Movie was hillarious and very relaxing. I think the tough parts are entering the theater and leaving the theater. But it was quite an experience.

Even more tougher would be to go to a restaurant like Olive Garden by oneself. That's even more tougher, because, its not dark and people keeps coming and going.

When i told one my friend that i have been to a theater by myself, she was "awwww"ing me and thought that it was sad. But i totally disagree with her. I think it requires lot of courage to go to places by yourself and it shows level of comfortness with oneself. I think its good spend time by yourself, with yourself, after all you are your own best and worth enemy and a friend.

Tejas Shah
TheDesi.com

MSN PPC Search Engine

MSN PPC is going to be just like Google. As my colleague calls it, it will be Google2. It is interesting how MSN is making improvement to the product/service that already exists, yet AGAIN. They did the same thing with Browsers. If you look at it from strategic marketing perspective, MSN is looking at the first mover and seeing if it is working out, and if it is, than they will join the party and offer the same service that first mover provides plus a little bit more.

Since Google's AdSense is working out, MSN will also come out with their own version of AdSense. Even though the rep refused to know anything about it, but naturally that's the next thing from MSN.

Have you noticed how Google never makes annoucements or have press releases about their upcoming products, but how it gets out from time to time and creates a buzz? Like Google OS, Google Talk, Gmail, to name a few. In comparison, big companies like MSN try to create excitement about their products by press releases. Now the question is, which one is better? Creating a buzz and leaking little information about your upcoming products and making consumer more hungry for the product or using press releases to create excitement about your products?

Tejas Shah
TheDesi.com

Born Into Brothels

YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS DOCUMENTARY. ITS A MUST, HAVE TO.

An amazing documentary that will inspire, sadden, and make you wanna get off your rear and do something for other people. Just a powerful documentary, beautifully made.

If you don't know what this documentary is about, here's a synopsis: An american photographer goes to Red Light District in Culcutta, India. And she teaches the photography to the kids who are born into the brothels. These kids loves the photography and the american photographer does her best to take them out of the brothels and enrolls them into a school. Unfortunately, some were taken out by their parents. But this is an amazingly powerful documentary, A MUST WATCH, can't emphasis it enough.

Tejas Shah
TheDesi.com

Mangal Panday and Rebellion

I just saw the Mangal Panday, a bollywood movie. This movie is the most expansive movie made in indian film history. Aside from that, this movie was a flop in India and quite lot people have told me that it was alright.

But for some reason, i thought it was a good movie. This movie sparked a thought in my head. When this moment started, may be at that time, people also thought that they were "terrorists". Yes i know, i am not comparing apples to apples. But, may be that's what these terrorist are trying to do. Get independence from something, fighting for a cause. And i am sure they think they are right, even though we all think they are wrong. But what if, and only if, they are right about some things and we are not. What if and only if, we are just blinded by the fact that they are terrorists and whatever they do is wrong. may be they should work on communicating better and stop killing people.

Let me make my self clear, I do not agree with their methods of murdering innocent people, beheading them. That is totally barbaric. These people have problems with countries and their governments, what do innocent people have to do with that. They have been killing innocent people for years now in Iraq, troops are still there, things haven't changed, GET THE DAMN POINT, you killing reporters or people is not working, you blowing yourself is not working. Stop involving religion in this and give bad name to your religion.

Tejas Shah
TheDesi.com

Hurricane Katrina and Racism

The delay on the part of goverment to rescue the survivors of the hurricane tells you a lot. Hurricane affected area was mostly black and poor. It was mostly people who could not get out of the city due to not having transportation or financial power.

What took government soooo long to respond to a natural diaster that happened in your country? Didn't government realize the magnitude of this event? What if it had hit California or Florida rather than New Orleans? Would the response have been this slow? I highly doubt it. I was watching a news clip on the internet and when Tsunami hit Asia in 2005, US government was distributing food from helicopter in Malasiya in two days. And that last time i checked, Malasiya is another country on another continent. Katrina happened on US soil. This also shows that may be government do not care about people affected by nature because they have no one to blame that on, no country, no individual, or no religion to blame that on.

This slow response on the part of government has convienced me that that racism still exists in United States or government do not care about poor people. This proves that color of your skin and number in your bank account matters, regardless of how much unity US claim to publicize.

Tejas Shah
TheDesi.com

Hurricane Katrina

(Picture: property of cnn.com)
An entire city is destroyed, millions are homeless, 80% of the city is under water, who would have thought this could happen in real life? The real life.

No idea how I should start this. Power of nature is unmatchable, unimaginable, destructive. Hundreds of people dead, may be thousands, countless homeless. I feel disgusted seating at work and not being able to help, except for the monetary donations. The same feeling I had when earthquake struck India in 2001 and tsunami in 2004. Just sad that rest of the world still keeps on going, but good in other ways.

extremely unhappy with how federal government is handling this situation.

this disaster is going to have long lasting effect on the people of US and may be people around the globe. Gas prices are already up to $3/gallon, and it is keep going to go up. Entire economy is shaken. It is disgusting how government is not doing anything, city is lawless, diseases are about to spread.

According to the news, people are shooting at the helicopters and looting the stores, people with guns are roaming the streets. Diasters bring out the best and worst in people. According to one article, one old lady was stuck in the house but she asked the rescuers to get the people next door who had small kids. And when rescuers went to the next door they found 15 people. On the other hand, people are ordering rescuers to save their families and thus situation has become very tense and they had to completely abandon the rescue mission thanks to few people.

The power of nature: unstoppable, unimaginable.
The power of people: ?

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Tejas Shah
TheDesi.com

Blood Brothers Video - Karmacy

If you have not seen this video, it is a MUST watch. It is the first music video i have seen by a guju. And may be the best desi music video based in US. Beautifully directed and produced, awesome lyrics and i think the best part was the end part where they dedicated the video to their grandmother (Ba), that was very touching.

Very talented group of people. Finally a meaningful video that talks about the important things and doesn't have half naked girls and fast cars in it. Good job guys keep up the good work and keep coming up with meaningful material.

Here's a link: http://www.rukusavenue.com/BB_Web_sub_bug_large.wmv

Tejas Shah
TheDesi.com