Things - According to me

Hurricane Rita

2005-09-22T11:28:00.000-05:00

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?

2005-09-17T09:15:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-13T16:59:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-10T01:44:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-05T01:21:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-05T01:08:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-01T14:27:00.000-05:00

(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: ?

DONATE TO RED CROSS:

Tejas Shah
TheDesi.com

Blood Brothers Video - Karmacy

2005-07-16T14:18:00.000-05:00

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

Reply to Sardarji Jokes

2005-07-13T15:51:00.000-05:00

In past few months, i have received emails about people disliking sardarji jokes on my site. In response to those emails, i must clearify that jokes are only there for temporary fun and should not be taken personally. There are also jokes targetting Gujaratis, political leaders, and various other groups. Jokes are just for small laugh and nothing else. Let me reiterate my point that, they should not be taken personally.

Sardarjis are as intellectual as other groups. In fact, personally when i think of sardarjis, i think of them as great business people and drives mercedes and BMWs.

So please do not take sardarji jokes personally.

Tejas Shah

Desi Market

2005-07-13T15:17:00.000-05:00

Finally companies are realizing the potential of targeting specifically South Asian population. I was watching TV other day and there was an advertisement for a product that makes your clothes /carpet smell good. And after watching the Ad i said, "Finally, its about time".

No i was not excited about the product but i was more excited about the actors in the advertisement. They all were Desis. That's right, all desi actors. Finally, some companies are starting to realize how important it is to target this demographics.

There is such a big opportunity to target this niche market that is looking for things to spend money on. For more stats on this demographics go to, Time magezine's article: "Chasing Desi Dollars". According to the article companies like New York Life, MetLife, GM, Mercedes, have begin to produce ads aimed specifically at Desis. Recently, MTV launched MTV Desi targetting south asians.

ITS ABOUT TIME someone realizes the need to target this niche market. I think now is the time to invent various ways/products/services to meet the needs/wants of this demographics.

Tejas
TheDesi.com
DesiPeepz.com

Tsunami in Southeast Asia

2004-12-29T01:26:00.000-06:00

I am certain all of you have heard the news of devastating Tsunami that occured on Dec. 26th, 2004 in Southeast asia. The latest number i show of number of people dead is 55,000 people. 55,000 is such a large number. I was watching news and they were reporting that streets are littered with bodies, yes bodies, human bodies. They have so many dead bodies that they are using bulldozer to dump those bodies into massive graves. Yes, a BULLDOZER, that's how bad the situation is.

that's it. Power of nature is unmatchable.

Ways you can donate money for Tsunami Relief.
http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html

Tejas

Money IS everything...

2004-12-15T13:43:00.000-06:00

Growing up i have heard, "Money is not everything", especially in hindi movies. Always all the movies stating "Money can't buy you love". Yeah right. I have proof that money is everything and it CAN buy you lots of stuff, including happiness to some extent.

1st Example:
Have you ever sat in a flight that is about 8 to 9 hours long? People who pay about $1200 for tickets, get to sit in economy class, with small seats, very little or no leg room and crapy food. Compare that to people who can afford to pay about $1800 to $2000, get leather seats, much better food, lotsss of leg room, and even can make their seats into beds. Now, only way you can affrod to sit in the 1st class or business class is if you have money, else enjoy your economy class. Now try to get those 1st class seats with your "love" towards the airline. More money you spend better service you get.

2nd Example:
Parents usually don't pressure their kids to major in History or Anthropology or Fine Arts, even though kids are talented. Parents will usually push more towards well paying jobs in the fields of engineering, medicine, etc. Why? Cuz, they are well paying jobs, that's why. Parents are very sneaky, you know? very sneaky. but of course they want the best for us and after sometime you will realize that it is good that they push more towards careers that will pay well. But point being, even parents know that money is everything.

3rd Example:
Let's say you get sick with serious illness and you are an average joe. You go to hospital and you get average treatment. Now, lets say you are rich, and on the power of your green, you can afford the best treatement availabe. Notice the keywords "Power of the Green".

Money can buy you happiness to some extent. It can buy you luxury, good car, good health insurance, good standard of living, and may be well connected friends.

Now, don't tell me "Money is not everything".

Tejas

Elections 2004 Bush vs. Kerry

2004-11-03T13:24:00.000-06:00

Finally its over. Bush is back in office for next 4 years, fortunatelly or unfortunatelly? i don't know. Honestely, i was hoping for Kerry to win. One of the things that bothered me when it comes to Bush is this: why isn't he going after Osama Bin Laden and went after Iraq? Osama is still alive and well and has claimed responsibility for 9/11 attacks. Just because Bush made Osama gather up his things and move does not mean Osama is not dangerous anymore. I think he is still as dangerous as he was before, nothing has changed. I just don't see Bush's rational for going after Iraq. Now that Iraq has been conquered (and yes i mean conquered), country is in total disarray. Terrorist groups have been forming since the take over. Have you seen any of the kidnapping videos? So i think he put anarchy in Afghanistan and now in Iraq. So, what's next? Iran? No wonder middel east countries hate Americans.

But besides that, i am so glad that elections are over. I was getting tired of all the political ads on tv and radio and everywhere you look. One important thing that i was following, which is local was the Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington, TX. Voters have approved the stadium, which i personally think will be good for Arlington. However, i have not gotten too much into details of the deal.

So that's that for elections, at least for now. Kerry accepted the defeat this morning at around 10:02 am cst by calling Bush on the phone. Kerry fought well. Did you know that Kerry campaign had raised about $51 million ONLY just in case if they had to go to court for recount and other election matters?

So what's next for Kerry? I know one thing for sure. He is gonna be on Late Night shows, of course :)

Tejas
http://www.thedesi.com
http://www.desipeepz.com

Is BS degree Worth it or is it just BS Degree?

2004-10-20T11:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday i discovered that my BS degree is just BS. I wasted about 4 years of my life and spent about $25K on my "education" just so that i can say i have BS degree on my resume.

Now, if you think about it. This is what i could have done. I could have taken some programming classes, like .NET or JAVA or something and boom there you go. Job is waiting for you with $60K a year. Simple is that. Now where does my BS degree in Managment and Information System come in play? No where... Its just BS degree.

Other thing if School says, we put students first and we operate not as a business but we exist only for the students. Again, that's BS. I am taking this Graduated class at UTD. It is 2 hour 8 weeks class, Financial Accounting. And i am suppose to take another 2 hour 8 week class, Managerial Accounting. Each costing $550. Now, couldn't they add those two classes together and make it ONE 16 week, 3 hour class and charge students $850 for it, just like other 3 hour classes? NOPE. They can't do that. They would loose about $300 PER STUDENT. Now, that is loosing lots of money.

If they make college so expensive and focus on making $$$, how do they expect people to go to school?

Tejas

Pop up problems?

2004-10-20T11:39:00.000-05:00

You got pop up problems while browsing the net? Your answer is most likely yes, if you are using Internet Explorer. I recommend using Mozilla FireFox. Since i have started using it, i have fallen in love with it. No pop-ups, it has tabbed feature so i don't have to open 10 different windows. It is very nice.
Link: http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

Google Desktop search: Google has introduced a new product for free, Desktop search and it is pretty cool. Once you install the software on your computer, it index your computer and just in case if you need to find something on your computer, just type it in. And it will search your word, excel, powerpoint documents, as well as your AOL IM conversations. Notice, how they chose not to search MSN or Yahoo conversations :) but it is pretty cool product. Negative side of this product: do not install it if you are sharing your computer with other people or computer is located in internet cafe or such places.
Link: http://desktop.google.com/

There is speculation in the market that Google will come out with its own version of Instant Messenger. Now, how cool would that be? Just matter of time. I am currently using GMAIL, and it is pretty nice, i like it.

However, i think what Google needs to come out with next is Toolbar for Firefox browser.

I just wish i had money to buy stocks of Google when it went public at $85. Current stock price is: $145.69, imagine the possibilities :)

Enjoy.

Tejas
http://www.thedesi.com
http://www.desipeepz.com

Google with its own Browser?

2004-09-20T16:29:00.000-05:00

Yup, you read that right. I just read an article in New York Post that Google has hired some top notch people, so it can create its own browser and its own instant messaging system. How wicked is that? I think that is great, finally someone has guts to go head to head against big Microsoft. Plus, more competition is good for us, the consumers. Have you all tried Firefox? It is good browser, i am hooked to it, since i have started using it. Google just needs to create a toolbar that will be compatiable with Firefox.

Microsoft is having bad year so far, according to me. It was discovered that IE has very critical security problems, so people started switching to Mozilla. So IE is lossing it Market Share. Last figures i read were, IE was down to 85% from about 92% and Mozilla's Firefox is gaining on it. Even though MS still holds big chunk of IE market share, its still big decrease.

Google is the company that is going to change the world, this time. Just like Microsoft changed the world by introducing MS office ages ago. Microsoft better wake up and smell the roses. Let's see how this war turns out to be.

Tejas

We all live in the past

2004-09-14T16:30:00.000-05:00

Have you ever noticed that all of us live in the past?

Have you heard these phrases, "that's how it is done in the past", "when i was your age..." etc.

Of course, we all should learn from our past experiences but sometimes it limits what are capable of achieving. As we grow older, we think of our past, our high school days, our college days and may be when we were single or not. However, it is interesting how we only remember only the good experiences, at least most of the time. So we think about our good experiences we had in the past and we miss out in the present or may be in the future, b/c "that's how it is done in the past."

Another note, launched DesiPeepz.com in the first week of this month just to be in competition with Rate Desi site. Target audience is of course teenagers, some people might not like picture rating sites, or have negative attitude towards it, but i am just doing this for the experience of running another site. Also, i outsourced this site to a company in India and had good experience, but thing with someone else making your site is, if you want to change something, or do something else, it takes lots of effort.

Oh well, you live and learn.

Tejas

9/11 Anniversery

2004-09-14T16:27:00.000-05:00

9/11 Anniversery just past by last weekend and it seems like people are forgetting 9/11 or may be they are moving on with their lives. i went to 9/11 site when i went to NY last month and you can feel something in your heart when you are standing in front of the site. it was really heart-breaking that thousands of innocent people had to die for no reason.

Olympics - Athens 2004

2004-08-14T13:52:00.000-05:00

Olympics started yesterday. It is such an amazing event that is held every 4 years. It is awesome how world comes together for this event and takes a break from fighting each other. it is wonderful how sports brings the world together.

Also, what is more amazing is how they have organized the event. How the manpower is used to organize numerous events. Refrees, security, construction workers, and what not... it is marvelous.

Olympics brings the world together every 4 years for good.

"World Champions"? - World What???

2004-08-11T22:43:00.000-05:00

Have you ever noticed, how NBA championships are called "World Champions", even though all the games are played by America's team. Same thing with Superbowl games, winners are called "world champions" even though there is a league in Europe for "American Football". so what's up with this? did i mention, same thing with baseball champions?

Are Americans the only one playing basketball, football, and baseball games? or does Americans think that world revolves around them? i mean seriously, come on now.

Look at World Cup Cricket or Soccer World cup. Now those are really world cups and winners are truely world champions. b/c it involves other countries, and thus winners are called "World Champions".

Same thing ABC, NBC, CBS "World New tonight, with, "blah blah blah..."". if you watch the news, there is nothing in the news about world, its all US news, US politics, and places where US is involved, such as Iraq and middle east. When earthquake happened in India in 01, it came in the news may be once, even though there are millions of Indians living in US. In contrast, look at BBC World News, now those are really WORLD NEWS, it comes on PBS at nights.

Seriously, is America so involved in itself that it forgets that there is world out there besides its own?

What's imp - Concepts or Grades

2004-07-21T14:31:00.000-05:00

I have a final tomorrow in my Global Economy class. I have to get an A in the exam to get an A, i think. However, this one time, i was talking my professor and he was saying it is sad that students are more worried about grades then comprehending concepts that exam is going to cover. which i think is pretty sad. but look it at from student's point of view, the way education system is set up that, if you don't have certain GPA you will not be admitted to certain program or get into good college. For example, in order for you to survive in MBA program you must maintain GPA of 3.0. that means, you better not get two C's in two classes, else you will be put on probation. Now, as a student, i will try my best to get an A just to stay alive in the program.

Question is, what's imp, concepts or grades? i say, both are imp. i think the fault is in the education system, who puts so much emphasis on grades and entrance exams. i do not remember anything i studied in my astronomy class, because, i was required to take 6 hours of science, and so i did. i think universities require students to take certain classes, like history and math and sciences, just to keep them in school for longer period of time and tution.

Tejas

Job Search after college graduation

2004-07-16T21:18:00.002-05:00

let's go back 4-5 years, when economy was good. This was the time
when college graduate's starting salary was nothing less than 50K, no
experience was required, training was provided to you, person just out
of college with no experience was getting 2-3 job offers from big
companies.

Let's fastforward to the time after 9/11. College graduate's
starting salary is 25K-30K, experience is required, even after you
apply at 50-60 companies, if you are lucky and if you had the right
skills you might get one job interview.

I belong to the post 9/11 group of graduates. I graduated in Dec.
of 2001, the worst time to graduate from college. while in
college, just like others, i was hoping to get a good job that i
enjoyed, which pays well and then pay off the college loans. but
that didn't happen. 9/11 changed everything. no jobs were
availabel, companies started to laying off people, which increased the
number of experienced people in the market and lowered the value of
college graduates. They expected college graduates to have
experience, but how were we suppose to have job expeience if you will
not offer us jobs? everything was going down.

Even now, if you look at it, people who obtained well paying job before
9/11 and who were able to survive numerous layoffs, are about to buy
houses at the age of 28. Imagaine that, age of 28. Of
course, that makes me feel undervalued and un-intelligent.

IF i had graduated only one semester early? Now, i do have a job
that i do not enjoy and does not pay well. things have
changed. i am trying to obtain more education and trying to look
for something better.

If i were to give advice to people who are graduating from college now,
i'd say, try to get internship while in college and don't expect a
starting salary of $50K when you start a job, unless you have graduated
from a prestigous school and are going to work for multinational.

One day changed the life of millions for the most part worst, started
wars, thousands died. it might be this way, but what are you
gonna do, this is "the way things are according to me...".

Tejas