Do not forecast your future by looking at the present!

read the following somewhere...

Do not forecast your future by looking at the present!
In 1923 a meeting held in Chicago was attended by Charles Schwa , head of the world's largest independent steel company, Samuel Insull President of the world's largest utility, Howard Hopson head of the largest Gas company, Ivar Krueger President of the International Match co, one of the world's largest companies that time, Leon Frazier president of the Bank of International settlements, Richard Whitney president of the NYSE, Arthur Cotton and Jesse Livermore two of the world's largest speculators and Albert Fall member of President Harding's cabinet.

Twenty-Five years later Nine of them ended as follows:

Schwab : Died penniless having lived for over five years on borrowed money

Insull : Died Bankrupt in a foreign land

Krueger and Cotton : Died bankrupt

Hopson : Went insane

Whitney and Albert Fall : Just released from prison

Fraser and Livermore: Committed suicide

Car that Runs on Air: From MDI and Tata Motors

Tata Motors is planning to launch a Car that Runs on AIR !!!!!!

Using the technology designed by a company called MDI.

Some links for the AIR car are:

http://www.mdi.lu/eng/affiche_eng.php?page=minicats
http://www.cyber-media.com/aircar/
http://www.cyber-media.com/aircar/pictures/
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/06/01/tata-motors-air-car/
http://trak.in/tags/business/2008/07/01/tata-motors-air-car-minicat/


I am very excited about the AIR CAR !!!! And eagerly waiting for its release.
I have been following this development for about a year and half and I did not expect a ready car so early !!!

So my wish list is as below (in the same order)
(1) Air Car if it is available in a year or two
else
(2) A complete electric car
else
(3) A hybrid Car

Rafael Nadal is Numero Uno

This is a historic day in tennis. Rafael Nadal broke the record streak of 237 weeks of Roger Federer's Top position to dethrone him and become the No1.

It is both a happy and sad day. Happy for Rafael Nadal who takes over from Roger Federer. Rafael was THE lone worthy heir to the throne and he deserves to take the baton. It is a sad moment because it marks an end of sorts of domination of Roger on the world tennis.

I am not writing an obituary for Roger nor am I writing him off. But the fact that Rafael beet the unbeatable at Wimbeldon only goes to show that Roger has peaked and his Worthy opponent has taken over. I wish to see more and more encounters between the two greats before Roger calls it a day.

Cudos to Nadal and Roger, pull up your socks !!!!

Frederick Forsyth : Icon

I randomly picked this novel as my first novel from Frederick Forsyth's Stable.
Believe me I was totally gripped by the novel. Not for a second did i feel this was a fiction writing. It sounded so realistic that I felt as if the events have actually been narrated as is.

Frederick has a great nak of story telling.
I searched for a small writing about the novel and found the following excerpt from the website: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/edition/?isbn=0593028015

I quote:
It is summer 1999 in Russia, a country on the threshold of anarchy. An interim president sits powerless in Moscow as his nation is wracked by famine and inflation, crime and corruption, and seething hordes of the unemployed roam the streets.

For the West, Russia is a basket case. But for Igor Komarov, one-time army sergeant who has risen to leadership of the right-wing UPF party, the chaos is made to order. As he waits in the wings for the presidential election of January 2000, his striking voice rings out over the airwaves offering the roiling masses hope at last--not only for law, order, and prosperity, but for restoring the lost greatness of their land.

Who is this man with the golden tongue who is so quickly becoming the promise of a Russia reborn? A document stolen from party headquarters and smuggled to Washington and London sends nightmare chills through those who remember the past, for this Black Manifesto is pure Mein Kampf in a country with frightening parallels to the Germany of the Weimar Republic.
unquote

The novel was written in 1996 about Russia in 1999. So this is a pure work of fiction.


Plot : * * *
Story Telling : * * * *
Suspense : * * *
Over All : * * *

From the land of white elephants: Going back to bangalore

After 2 weeks on intense discussion in Beijing, I am finally heading back to bangalore.
Currently in the Business Lounge of the Thai Airways in bangkok nibbling on the sandwitch and gulping the pineapple juice.
My flight would leave for Bangalore in another 2 hours. Had a transit of about 9 hours in bangkok. Took this opportunity to browse, Read newspapers, hog on all the dishes :) and continue on my novel "The Fist of God" by Fredrick Forsyth. An interesting and absorbing novel. After reading his novel Icon I have fallen in love with his style of narration. more on the novel later...

Its around 7:30 PM bangkok time and I am feeling very very sleepy. Did not sleep one bit yesterday as I had a flight at 8:30 in the morning and I am damn sure I would have fallen asleep in the room in china. So as I did the last time, I sat all night in my room. Am waiting for the flight so that I can doze of there. I should be back in bangalore by 11:30 India time.

So She She beijing and Bangkok. Hope to visit again (in the heart of hearts I do miss Beijing and Phirk Thai at Holiday Inn Lido Beijing :))) )