Game On! Challenge Your Friends with New Multiplayer Quizzes on Triviaah.com

 We have some exciting news to share! 🎉

At Triviaah.com, the team believes that knowledge is more fun when it’s shared. You’ve loved testing your wits in our solo quizzes, cranking up your brainpower one question at a time. But trivia has always been a social game—think pub quiz nights, family game night, or racing a coworker to see who remembers the capital of Mongolia.

That’s why we are thrilled to announce the launch of our biggest update yet: Multiplayer Quizzes are now LIVE on Triviaah.com!

How It Works

Gone are the days of passing your phone around the table. With our new multiplayer mode, you can now battle your friends, family, or strangers in real-time.

1. Create or Join: Head to the multiplayer lobby. You can either create a private "Room" for your friends or jump into a public match.

2. Pick a Deck: Host a quiz on any of our 1,000+ topics—or keep it random for a true test of skill.

3. Race to the Top: Everyone answers the same questions at the same time. Speed matters! The faster you answer correctly, the more points you score.

4. Live Leaderboard: Watch the rankings shuffle in real-time as your buddy makes a comeback on the last question.

Why You’ll Love It

• Bragging Rights: Finally, a way to prove once and for all who the "smart one" in the group chat really is.

• Remote Game Nights: Living far apart? No problem. Start a voice call and run a live Triviaah game night from anywhere in the world.

• Classroom & Team Building: Teachers and managers, this is for you. Our multiplayer mode turns learning into a friendly competition.

Ready to Play?

The Multi Player designed this to be instant. No account required (but you can sign up to save your ELO rating!).

Here is how to get started right now:

1. Go to Triviaah.com

2. Select any quiz

3. Click on "Play with Friends"

4. Create a room and share the URL with your friends.

5. Let the race begin.

What’s Next?

This is just version 1.0. We are already working on Team Mode (2v2), Timer Stakes (high risk, high reward), and seasonal leaderboards with real prizes.

Thank you for growing with us. Now, go prove your brain is bigger than your best friend’s.

[Click Here to Start a Multiplayer Match Now] ⬅️

Sharpen Your Mind Daily with Triviaah's Free Daily Trivia!

 In a world overflowing with digital content, finding a genuinely fun, quick, and free mental workout can be a challenge. Look no further than Triviaah's Daily Trivias—your new go-to destination for the best free online trivia that refreshes your knowledge every single day. No registration, no fees, just pure, unadulterated trivia fun.

What makes Triviaah the best free online daily trivia? It’s the perfect blend of variety, pace, and convenience. Whether you have a spare minute or want a longer challenge, there’s a category for you.

Kick things off with the adrenaline-pumping Quick Fire round. You have just 60 seconds to tackle 6 random questions. Think fast, because you only get 10 seconds per question! Finish early, and you’re rewarded with a bonus question to boost your score.

Prefer to test your broad knowledge? The General Knowledge quiz offers 10 mixed-topic questions to truly see how well-rounded you are. Or, take a step back in time with Today In History, a special 5-question set that connects you to the significant events of this very day.

For the specialists, Triviaah has you covered. Dive deep into dedicated rounds like Entertainment (Movies, TV, Music), Geography, Science & Nature, Arts and Literature, and Sports. Each pack contains 10 questions, giving you 15 seconds to recall facts and claim your points.

The best part? Fresh questions are waiting for you every 24 hours. It’s the perfect daily ritual to learn something new, compete with friends, and keep your mind sharp. So, what are you waiting for? Head to Triviaah.com and test your knowledge today.

Discover Your Next Literary Obsession with Literale

 Calling all bookworms and casual readers alike! If your daily Wordle fix has left you craving a puzzle with a little more poetry and prose, allow us to introduce you to your next obsession: Literale.

In a world of endless word games, Literale stands apart by speaking directly to the heart of every reader. The concept is beautifully simple, yet deeply engaging: can you guess a book from its iconic opening line?

There’s a special magic in a book’s first sentence. It’s the gateway to another world, the author’s first handshake with the reader. Literale harnesses that magic, presenting you with that crucial first line each day. Is it the haunting "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again" or the adventurous "The primroses were over"?

Some openings are instantly recognizable, while others are delightfully cryptic. That’s where Literale’s clever design shines. If you’re stumped, you don’t have to simply guess wildly. The game offers progressive, lifeline clues. Reveal the author’s name, the year of publication, or a key plot point to help solve the literary mystery.

More than just a game, Literale is a daily celebration of literature. It will have you racking your brain, rushing to your bookshelf, and feeling a profound sense of satisfaction when you connect the clues. It’s a warm welcome back to old favorites and a tantalizing introduction to books you’ve yet to read.

Ready to test your literary knowledge? Literale is free to play in your browser, with a new book puzzle waiting for you every single day. Your next great read—and your next literary victory—is just one opening line away.

My Brain Waves Are Broken: A Hilarious Tour of Capitalé,

A Hilarious Tour of Capitalé, The Game That Makes You Feel Like a Geography Genius (Or a Complete Doofus)

Alright, geography nerds and aspiring know-it-alls, gather ‘round. Have you ever been confidently told that the capital of Australia is Sydney, only to be met with the pitying stare of someone who knows it’s actually Canberra? (Don't worry, your secret is safe with me.)

Well, the brilliant—and slightly sadistic—minds over at Triviaah.com have created a game that preys on these exact gaps in our knowledge. It’s called Capitalé (a way fancier name than "Capital Guesser," I might add), and it’s the Wordle-like game for map lovers that is equal parts addictive and humbling.

Let's break down the five glorious features that make this game a daily ritual for me, and why it might just have you questioning your entire education.

1. The "Helpful" Hint That Narrows It Down to, Oh, You Know, ONLY A THIRD OF THE PLANET.

You start your first guess. You type in "Tokyo." You feel good. You feel smart.

The game immediately pats you on the head and says, "Good job, kiddo! The mystery capital is... on the continent of Africa."

Cue the record scratch. Tokyo is not in Africa. My entire sense of global positioning is shattered. This first hint is a masterclass in making you feel both informed and utterly foolish at the same time. It’s the game’s way of saying, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single, wildly incorrect guess."

2. The Brutally Honest Distance Meter: "You're Getting Colder... Much, Much Colder."

After your humbling continent reveal, you guess "Cairo." Surely, this is it!

The game responds with a cheerful: "4,321 km away!"

Four thousand kilometers?! What is the mystery capital, on the moon?! This feature is less of a hint and more of a public shaming. It’s like your GPS is actively mocking you. "Recalculating... recalculating your life choices."

3. The Map Silhouette: For When You Need to Draw the Line Literally.

Stumped? The game throws you a lifeline: a sleek, black silhouette of the country. You squint. You turn your head. Is that... is that a boot? No, that's Italy, you already guessed Rome. Is it a wonky-looking fish? Maybe a lopsided mitten?

This is the moment you realize you can't recognize countries by their shape nearly as well as you thought you could. It’s a beautifully simple feature that separates the cartographers from the casuals.

4. The "Useless" Fun Fact That Becomes Your Hero.

This is my absolute favorite part. Just when you're ready to throw your phone across the room, the game offers a bizarre, less-known fact.

• For Paris: "There's a 'Zero Point' located in this city from which all distances are measured in this country."

• For Ottawa: "This city is home to a 7.77 km long skateway, the largest naturally frozen ice rink in the world."

• For Ulaanbaatar: "It is the coldest capital city in the world." (Okay, that one might actually help.)

These facts are the equivalent of a trivia-obsessed friend whispering the answer in your ear during a pub quiz, but in the most cryptic way possible. It’s genius.

5. The Tease of a Skyline: A Slow-Motion Victory Lap

And the pièce de résistance? As you get closer with your guesses, a stunning photo of the city's skyline begins to slowly reveal itself. Pixel by pixel, your correct guess is rewarded not with a fanfare, but with a beautiful, slow-motion strip tease of architecture and city planning.

It’s the ultimate "Aha!" moment. The blurry shapes sharpen into famous landmarks, and all your wrong guesses are forgiven in a wave of satisfaction. It’s the game's way of saying, "See? I knew you could do it. You big, beautiful nerd."

So, why should you play Capitalé?

Because it’s more than a game; it’s a six-guess adventure around the world. It’s a daily dose of learning disguised as a fun, frustrating, and incredibly rewarding puzzle. You’ll walk away with weird facts you can annoy your friends with and a slightly better grasp on this big, beautiful rock we live on.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go guess a capital. The silhouette looks like a slightly melted ice cream cone, and I'm putting my money on Reykjavik.

Ready to have your ego gently bruised? Go give it a shot at triviaah.com/brainwave/capitale!

ITIL Framework and Corp Ladder

A conversation on a typical cloudy day in the life of an IT engineer.Replace this with your own IT platform (we the IT engineers and railway beggars are very terretorial when it comes to his/her platform) and your techno-jargons.

IT Engineer : We have a problem with our system...the Websphere connection pool...it's reaching the maximum number of cursors that can be opened for the CRM database that we just upgraded to the latest version supplied by the vendor. Users are complaining on slowness of the system and some are unable to login.

IT Boss : Oh ok...so the pool issue ummm...ummm...get someone to look into it. I gotta rush for the problem management meeting. Get me the ETA in mail (waving his blackberry ) ...say in the next 30 mins. And make sure you raise the problem ticket.


Chances are in the next 30 mins, the IT engineer will be surfing his surf-board across the treachorous waves of IBM Manual, IT Toolbox groups, blogpages rendered via google.Then at the magical moment he will hit upon some page written by someone who had banged his/her head on the wall in a similar fashion. The dimaag-ki-batti will shine with the glory of a thousand sun. The websphere connection pool settings optimum parameter values will present themselves as if leggy female models strutting across the fashion ramp.

Chances are in the next 30 mins,the IT boss will be blabbering his higher management on the 33 point structured approach methodology. In all comming meeting this methodology will be used to measure the data quality and availability. That very data which will be collected across 43 non-structured approach of calculating something that need not be calculated at all.

Chances are in the next 30 mins,the IT Managment feel very bored and ask the manager to add 44-th,45-th and 46-th data trend and decide the date for the next meeting.

The funny part is higher you climb,the more detached you get from the real world and the real problems.Sitting below the alter of the great board-president and his cohorts, the high priests religously track excel sheets hoping the issues get sorted out themselves.

Long live the ITIL framework and its holy practioners. Jai ho.

Sankat City : Almost there

Immediate first reactions first
-------------------------------------
1."Ekdum bheja-fry...paar fultu solid boss", that's how the Mumbaiya lingo would describe this phillum.
2. After a long long time,there's a Hindi movie( Rajashri pics not counted in ) that got hordes of characters. And every one of them is relevant to the plot.
3. Situational comedy that gets surreal at times. And oh boy, what a level of never seen before surreality.
4. The sincerity of the entire team is captured in frame to frame.
Not a single character is extra soft or extra loud than the scripts demands.
Chunkey Pandey excluded, but then again since when did you watch Chunkey Pandey for his acting skills.

But...but...but...after so many decades we could have had a worthy successor to Jane Bhi Do Yaroon ...sadly we didn't.

Handling so many characters with so much details is the biggest strength and weakness of this movie. Trying to establish each and every character's traits in the shortest possible time, as the story unfolds, the director seemed to have lost it midway.

To prove the point ask a simple question : Which of the characters do you feel for across the reels ?

Personally I didn't feel for anyone in the movie. Neither love, nor hatred. And it's either one of the two emotions that pulls you for the second viewing. As for me there was no attachment or connection to the characters, so not sure whether there will be a planned second viewing.

Having said all these, let me repeat again and again there are scenes and dialogues in this movie that'll be treasured in my grey cells for a long time to come.

Like the mermaid dream sequence,
like the moon and the bubblegum scene,
like the Manoj Pawa's description of Sikandar Khan's body,
like the Ash without Abhishek request

And for these gems, Pankaj Advani aap ke liye A VERY BIG SALUTE. Saar next time there's no escape...it's got to be even crazier than this.

Flogging the dead blog

From now on this blog will try to rise out of the ashes successfully like the Phoneix or as unsucessfully as Mr. Ricky Ponting.

Any thing blog-worthy like

1. The U,V,W,X,Y or Z turns of the econonic downturn which is as cyclical as Yahoo Shammi Kapoor's pelvic thrusts while gyrating to "Aao Twist Kaare". Seriously yaar ! I keep on hearing that there's been the biggest recession since 1920s but no banker yet to committed suicide by jumping from the Wall Street sky-scrapers. Is something fishy-fishy going under the water. Somebody needs to do a deep-dive.

2. Slippery oil prices slipping up and down as if a monkey climbing an oiled bamboo. Up it goes three centimeters and down it comes two centimeters, so Bablu tell me how long will it be till the bandaar stops the pole dancing and be content eating the banana.

3. Manmohona UPA goberment and Pranab-babu's bujet which was even less colorful than Mannu-ji "you can have it in any color so long as it is buloo" paagdi. On a related note I cannot think of any Kangress politician with a colorful wardrobe. Sonia-ji's favorite color is white,Rahul like it white... and take others A.K. Anthony,S.M.Krishna,Pranab Mukherji it's a "Kyun chaunk gaaye Tide" ad. Now realising what a pivotal role Shivraaj Patil played in the last ministry.

4. Budhdo-babu whose only difference with his Russian counterpart Gorbachev would be that after the left are left no-where,the poor guy won't get a teaching job at the Kolkata University Bangla Dept. Sooner or later Momota didi who is her unique way is a Lady Yell-It-Queen would take over the reigns. As Nokur-mama would've said with a disapproving nod "Ghor Koli..Ghor Koli !!"

5. Brain dead Hollywood flicks where New York will be ravaged one more time by
A)Aliens
B)Natural Disaster
C)Robots
D)Zombies
or a combination of two or more of the above mentioned forces.
While the Bollywood director saab will watch and rewatch these flicks and cut-copy-paste with
A) Heavy dosage Kiron Kher as the loud Punjaabi Maa
B) A Fibreless zero calorie heroine
C) Heavy Moral Fibre ( Compensating on the fibre department where the hero won't sleep or kiss the heroine without the saat-phere)
D) lil bit of SRK hamming + Bachchan Sr voiceover
= Lo kaar lo baat baan gaya nah hit phillum formula

will be followed like a paparazzi, stripped like a LA lap-dancer and then blogged like umm whatelse a worthless blogger.

In short nothing will be spared, including reader's sanity. So keep on following at your own peril.

Basically Blah

From the BBC article "Who knows why oil prices are high"

So what is it that moves oil prices up and down?
"It's the fundamentals, stupid," says Mark Lewis from Energy Market Consultants.
The fundamentals are factors that influence the supply of, and demand for, oil.

"We really don't know what the fundamentals are doing at any point in time," Mr Lewis says.
"The markets are looking for signals from the fundamentals. Some of them are irrelevant, some of them are wrong, some of them are meaningless, but they affect prices nevertheless."

Believe me this two paragraphs are from the same article which finally says no body has any clue why the oil-prices have gone high. Another case of a confidently confused analyst. Wish I got a job like Mr. Lewis that pays me for uttering gibberish.

Olympia : Gods' Abode

Oly beef steak --- Just ask any true-blue Kolkatan about it and if he/she doesn't get misty eyed with nostalgia there's definitely a problem with that bugger's lineage.

Did you know Ritwik Ghatak had his last drink with Uttam Kumar in this pub discussing about their next film. Ghatak had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital where he took his last breath. There are so many such stories associated with the stalwarts of Bong-heartland and this pub. I wish someone comes up with a book on the known and unknown stories of this legendary pub on the Park Street.

Long live Oly pub and its steaks -- HIC

[ pic courtesy : Oly pub group on Facebook ]

It's all becoz of the software bug

If you've seen the movie Office Space, you must remember the priceless expression on the faces of the 3 software programmers, when they found out that their money swindling virus that was supposed to deduct a few pennies only, has amassed a whooping $305,326.13 only a day after it was introduced. And this was followed by the declaration from Micheal Bolton with a dead-pan humor that it must've been a bug in the code that he overlooked.

Phew...sometimes real life follows the reel life!!!

The estimated 500+ billion dollar losses in sub-prime will now be attributed to a software glitch that apparently caused wrong AAA+ ratings for these stinky investments.

Somewhere in some corner of this zaleem IT world, entrapped in a cubicle, a computer programmer is scanning through lines and lines of if-else loops and is sweating a lot. Don't worry bro, pretty soon to save their own skin and regain the investor's faith in this "your guess is as good or as bad as mine" type silly economics, they'll implement another mandatory auditing like SOX or BASEL2.

So wipe those beads of sweat and hang on there.... you'll be back in action in no time adding more else-s to the ifs.

The Outsider

The Outsider has always been my favourite novel. My admiration started in the early pages where the main character Meursault informs his boss about his mother's death and adds "I am sorry", before realising he needn't have said that. Since opposite attracts, that was the moment the hypocrite in me feel in love with the urtmost honest Meursault -- an outsider to anything and everything surrounding him.

As they say, life really moves in circles. Last Friday morning I got a SMS from a colleague saying that he has to fly back home as his dad has passed away and he sincerely apologizes for any inconviniences caused. In my ideal deja-vu WTF moment I realised we all have become the Outsider from our own surroundings. And then I typed in "Take care...sorry to hear abt ur father.."

Sub-prime Crisis and Silence of the Liberal Bloggers

Around U.S. $200 billions went down the drains.

Around U.S. $135 billions were written off by taking loans from Mid East and China.

Around 10 biggies in Wallstreet laid off their CEOs or if the CEO was spared then who-ever he/she found to take the blame.

And all because of this ?

We can be either sprititual and blame that human greed is the cause all the woes.
Or try be pragmatic and pin-point that the major cause was the lack of regulations.

The proponents of free market solutions to anything and everything from child-education to saving extinct species - the leading liberal bloggers of desi blogosphere are suspisiously silent on the issue.

But knowing their shortsightedness [1] it's neither suprising nor amusing.

[1] Almost all the subprime SIVs had AAA ratings by all leading rating agencies. How do you apply caveat emptor in these situations.

DEJA VU

The landscape is a trapestry of dried yellow grass and brown patches of rocky infertile soil. The only touch of greenery are the weeds that thrive even on these desperate conditions. The sole remains of anything remotely human is the broken shack at the extreme left-hand corner of the picture I am trying to paint. The cracked walls with missing bricks here-n-there complement the torn down roof . The large rectangular voids outside and inside are the reminders that once upon a time there was a door to this house and some windows as well. There should be a broken bath-tub lying outside to depict that someone someday had a nice bath here under the sun.

A twisted tree without any leaves throwing its branches in an angry retort stands against the backdrop of the sky. The dead bark fills up the empty right-hand corner with the mighty emptyness of its presence. What shall we colour the sky ? Dusky Orange ? Murky noonish yellow ? Nah...I'll make it the morning reddish tinge on the light blue background. And there shall be no clouds. Drawing the clouds is making promise of rain and out here the promises have been carried to the grave and whispered by the spirits. Human ears are deaf to such alien pronounciation of dead hopes from the never to be falling raindrops.

To complete my picture and the story there shall be an unceremonious grave at the foot of the dead tree. Engraved on the tomb-stone will be the words "DEJA -VU".

We all have one such picture stored somewhere in our grey cells. What's your picture look like ?

Rukawat ke liye khed hain

As I keyed in my username/password into blogger login pages, my request was immediately heard by the ever alert login process. Wasting not even a nano-second it immediately forked a thread to probe into the blogger database and returned with the details of my user profile. The log-in process made no error to remind me that my last post was on Mar 27-th.

Had it been attached to the code snippet to handle emotions,it surely would've added the extra words "Lazy bum your last login was May 27-th". But last heard Google labs haven't had met with success in doing so --- so mercifully I was spared of the humiliations.

Coming back to the topic of long absence between the period of India booted out of 50 overs WC to India lifting T20 WC --- it's really been a long time since my browser has opened the blogger URL. Frankly speaking blogging was replaced by slogging at the office after a job change in May.
But that's not an excuse for there are hell lot of blogger --who work 26 hours a day yet continues to churn out posts with nearly the same regularity as the toiling obstetricians in the maternity wards around the country continues to show the light of the day to newer babies.

So the real excuse is my inability to prioritize the fine splits of minutes spent in deciding which topping and which bread to choose from the Subway offering to something more creative like writing a blog. But then again the moment I try to write a blog the question arise what topic to write about. Usually the easiest to pick up is the nautanki provided by politicos both desi and videsi variety. Sadly by the time I scourge through my RSS subscriptions to find a news and do a google search for the finer details all it returns is 50000 links by more alert bloggers.

So next in list cometh the movie reviews --- infact everytime I see a movie I mentally write a blog post about it. But then again the moment I come to print about it I see another 600000 techorati tags showing the same content. Baffled by the stiff competiton I am forced for a change of marketing strategy -- tread in the least treaded paths ---switch to personal experiences.

As soon as this proposal is placed in the shareholders meeting of grey-cells in my brain who are responsible for maintaining this blog , the pluses and minuses are being weighed by the legal team. Any De-saad esque escapades are a strict no-no, else as the great Baburao Apte said "Raat ko Ramlaal ke saath sona padega". So what remains is still a dangling question mark pf what's left whose curve is no joy to look at.

Till I straighten out the "kutte ki teri doom" types question mark, my regularity of posts will be comparable to the times Fardeen Khan gets the best actor of the year award. On second thoughts make it the number of times CPM threatens to withdraw support from UPA . That'll ensure atleast 3 posts a quarter.

ps: To all the kind hearted souls that kept asking online in blog/orkut or offline about what happened to this blog, this post thanks u all for reminding me to blog while I slog. Otherwise living is all about just inhaling O2 and exhaling CO2...not much fun it that.

Off-Stumped Vision

It was the worst of times and it was the worst of times. Of the two firangi coaches in Indian subcontinent, one was left murdered after an un-predictable defeat and the other was seen hiding behind a bullet-proof glass while his team was getting booted out of world cup. That, in short, was how cricketing fate of two neighbors had been over the last one week.

While Bob Woolmer's yet to be solved murder mystery throws a light on the criminalization of the gentleman's game, India's defeat and the aftermath surely shows the huge scale of commercialization of the game. The only thing common between legitimate and illegitimate businessmen sitting on the two sides of the fence is the exorbitant amount of money they throw in.

But the glaring difference lies in the fact that while betting rings can hedge their investments, the corporate world doesn't have much cushion when their logo displaying players flop. So likewise the hype is created before the tournaments, the media thrashing is largely driven by interests of those who have invested into this circus. That's probably I'm ranting my investment of S$100/- that allowed me to watch only 3 matches played by India.

I'm now curious how the corporate world will implement the hedging concept when they will sign the next contracts with these walking bill-boards. Would there be penalty clause for every catches dropped, every ball misjudged and every extras bowled? If that be the case then the cricketers could hedge their earnings by secret tie-ups with the betting association for each of these penalties. So the thrill will be in speculating for every ball bowled whether the sponsor paid more for the batsman to hit a six or the better paid more to give a lolly catch to a pre-determined fielder. Just like stocks and bonds, the game of cricket will again enjoy the odds of uncertainty making the matches worthwhile watches. Also if you have access to inside information, you can make some hay while the sun shines.

And those of you complain about Krish Srikant's nonsensical analysis – there’s good news for you as well. In future you might see these ex-cricketers replaced with market analysts and conmen who’ll be much more knowledgeable on the odds and evens of the game than those who have wielded the willow. Add a lil dash of Rakhi Sawant and Mandira Bedi to this cocktail and what you get will be total entertainment.

Till all these goodies come to the cricketing world, left with much less option, I'll be cheering for Sri Lanka in this world cup, for their obvious Bong Connection.

Amar Naam-Tomar Naam, Nandigram-Nandigram !!

"Amar Naam-Tomar Naam, Vietnam-Vietnam" [ English: My name-Your name is Vietnam-Vietnam]

This was the slogan that as a young leader Budhadev had been shouting his lungs out across the streets of Kolkata. Because then Vietnam was merely not a country located somewhere in SE Asia - it was an ideology that defined what fighting spirit meant. It was an ideology that took side of the David against the Goliath - the ill-equipped Vietkongs against the mighty American Imperialism.

But that was long-long time ago – more than three-four decades ago. During these dull times of sinking WB economy, Buddhadev rose from his student leadership days to become the C.M. of West Bengal. From the day one he made one point clear - he was a no-nonsense C.M. whose motto was to bring back the long-lost economic glory of W.B. Everyone was glad to see a communist leader who earnestly speaks of foreign investments, disinvestments, importance of private sectors and so on.

After sometime his efforts paid off – investors started coming in. We were beginning to shred off our usual skeptical "Kissu hobe nah" attitude and start dreaming with Brand Buddha. Of course the distracters were there - a group of disgruntled intellectuals, bunch of disillusioned Naxalites and a crazy opposition who kept on saying this was not the way towards prosperity. We didn't pay any heed to these barking dogs and prayed for the caravan to pick up the gears.

Then came the Singur SEZ controversy - so far we were told industrialization meant heavy investments, creation of a lot of new jobs, improved lifestyle for all - in short Sonar Bangla at your doorsteps. But why do the farmers and share-croppers disapproved the idea of sacrificing their lands for our bright future. We were initially assured they are only a handful; the majority has already willingly given their share of land to this noble purpose.

The problem was in an age where information is accessible like never before, the claims of the government were very short-lived. We saw faces of hopeless farmers, whose sole means of livelihood were getting snatched, telling their side of the story on our television. We were shaken but not stirred - we thought these people need to be explained the importance of industrialization. Only then they will happily jump in the party.

Meanwhile the opposition leader Mamnta Bannerji started her brand of gimmick politics and a series of bandhs ensued. The govt. responded in its usual arrogant manner. Still we were waiting for good sense to prevail and open the windows to the dawn of prosperity. Contrary to our hope, things worsened to the extent of fencing the proposed factory side and declaring curfew to prevent people from bringing down those fences.

While Singur was creating the waves, the next proposed area for SEZ or rather a part of it, Nandigram was feeling the tremors. Without much surprises the villagers at Nandigram retorted back, saying a “BIG NO” to land acquisition for the proposed SEZ. But where the surprise came was the intensity with which they fought back. Such was the furore that local party cadres of CPI-M had to flee their houses - this was something never seen before incident in rural Bengal - the strongest hold of CPI-M support in Bengal.

Meanwhile back at Kolkata Writers Building, the government was chalking out its next plan of action - how to win the confidence of the denizens of Nandigram. To restore orders back at Nandigram[read to reinstate CPI-M ], a 4000 strong police force marched their way towards the villages. What followed next was the biggest bloodshed that Midnapore ever witnessed since the days when Matangini Hazra unfurled the Indian tri-color in Tamluk.

The acquisition of fertile land, the figures for a just compensation, the SEZ way of industrialization - were no longer a matter of political debate over a cup of tea. The intensity of the terror was more than enough for us to be both shaken and stirred. In fact for the first time since these movements have started, there was a strike that received support from the general public. But what were we protesting against the brutal tactics of LF government or supporting the plight of the farmers?

Were we protesting against the neo-liberal economy that as opposed to classical capitalism doesn't create its own infrastructure? Neither does it ensure equal growth for all the people. Or were we showing our disapproval of SEZ which in itself a declaration of our handicap to ensure that investments can happen anywhere without providing additional carrots for the investor. May be it was a little bit of all of it, which at the end of the day, brought us face to face with the ruthless reality of the neo-liberal economy.

With govt declaring that no land will be acquired for SEZ over there, Nandigram might return to normalcy, may be over a period of time people will forget about the deaths, but the debate over which is the correct avenue to prosperity needs to happen. Do we really need the SEZs - where labor laws are relaxed (ie. easier exploitation), where the govt indirectly use my tax money to support Mr. Money-Bag Investor? Do we need to revisit our decadent land laws - does the right to own property or even more the right to livelihood qualify for a rethinking? Another aspect is with more stress of heavy/medium industries what role agriculture play in WB economics ? Will it co-exist with industrial cities in and around the fertile Gangetic Delta or will be dispensed away.

Until these questions are answered the brand Buddha might have the halo - but it will fail to illuminate us in these times of darkness. Until then Nandigram will signify the indomitable spirit of freedom - the freedom to live with head held high. And who knows may be today’s youth who'll be tomorrow's leaders are already shouting on the streets of Kolkata "Amar Naam-Tomar Naam, Nandigram-Nandigram".

ps: Sunil Ganguly, possibly the biggest name among living Bengali writers and also an ardent Buddhadev fan said that for a C.M, Buddha is remarkable in terms of the number of Sunil's poems he recites from memory. There was also a poem penned by the C.M's uncle Sukanta Bhattacharya about how the stairs that you climb in an effort to reach heights have their own revenge by toppling you down in Emperor Humayun style. I hope with his photographic memory Buddhababu still remembers those lines while planning for the next course of action.

Update: Hypocrisy takes a new meaning when the CPI-M will hold protests against the Reliance-promoted SEZ of Navi Mumbai on Friday.

India Uncut : Dude Where Does My Magazine Subscription Go ?

Amit VermaVarma, undoubtedly India's most-read blogger, had crossposted an article from Mint about the how the dumb-headed babus at GoI offices are chanelling our tax money for purposes that ulimately serve no-one. To prove his case, he cites our FM's allocation of "Rs. 563.88 crores for the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy" in 07 budget.

These days we are getting so much used to read these kinda news. I even developed a natural reflex action - Read the story, then take a deep sigh and if the figures are too high nodd your head heavily in disapprovement. If the figures are not too high, nodd my head less vehmently, while chucking out a Tsk-tsk sound out of my tounge. When all these steps are over, I finally get back to my life and forget about the misuse of my tax-money. Somehow today I went beyond my natural reflex action and instead of a deeper sigh, took the deeper googling route to this piece of news item. A little probe lead me to this particular government department's (also known by sweet acronym AYUSH) website.

What I gathered from this website that folks in this department are supporting:

753 Ayurvedic hospitals with a total bed-capacity of 35182
223 Homoeopathy hospitals with a total bed-capacity of 11205
15193 Ayurvedic dispensaries and 5634 Homoeopathy dispensaries
450 UG Colleges with an admission capacity of 24880
57 PG Colleges with an admission capacity of 2128
9493 manufacturing units of which 7997 are producing Ayurvedic medicines.

If these figures don't carry any meaning, let me share another fact from their Citizen's Charter [link in pdf] - Among this list, there is the Advanced Ayurvedic Centre for Mental Health in none-other than the renowned medical institute NIMHANS. Now if NIMHANS can be claimed as a center for psuedo-science, then probably Freud was a voodo magician too.

Asides from all these figures AYUSH is responsible for enforcing the quality control for all Ayurvedic, Homeopathic and natural medicines. In other words they are responsible that we are not sold cow-urine in the name of natural medicines. Not sure if that pisses off Amit or not.

Also if you want to know more about what happens to your tax money at AYUSH, here's one more info - AYUSH also manages the company known as Indian Medicines Pharmacutical Corporation Ltd. This is one of those sarkaari units that, to the joy of the libertarians around blogging world, the GoI hope to disinvest. Incidentally this company's net worth is Rs. 316 crore and made a profit Rs.0.77 crore in 2003 as per the last figure Google could obtain for me from the net.

So does the allocation of Rs.563.88 crores to AYUSH sounds money going to drains? After browsing through all these figures, even my most skeptic avatar also fails to agree that AYUSH is something similar to moustache allowance of Lucknauwi Havaldar.

Before making my point about Amit's nearly research-less work, let me put the disclaimer I am in no way a fan of our FM, neither I say GoI is the best when it comes to plan the crores of tax-payers' money. In fact if somebody decides to rank the governments around globe for planning their expenses, I've no doubt India's position in the list might be even worse than its FIFA ranking.

Having said that let me come back to the point I'm trying to make. Unlike any other fukat-main-blog-likhnewala blogger, Amit is a journalist who's paid by the paper that publishes his articles. Being paid for these articles makes him even more responsible for checking the facts and figures before making it to print. As far his blogging is concerned, it's his blog - his own space in this big WWW. He is fully entitled to write whatever he feels like. Heck, I wouldn't mind even if he cook-up gossips about the Bollywood nymphets without backing them up with hard evidence.

But Amit dude, when it comes to serious journalism, please do make it a point to do your research work (it took me only 10-15 minutes of surfing time ) just to see if any single paisa of the enormous Rs. 563.88 crore has been put to any good use or not. Otherwise your articles are no different from those extra-imaginative journos at HT Tabloid who get paid to update us about Bipasha Bose and Celina Jaitley's sex life at regular intervals that you keep on cribbing about. Atleast I don't have sources to verify their stories and also I don't hear the nymphets protesting about misquotes.

Looking at the state of things, may be I should to start a series of posts on "Where does your Magazine Subscription fees Go?". The first in the series would definitely touch upon aspects of "Funding the Cow-Lover" to pay for his broadband connection which happens to be a prime requirement for his bovine Google Search.

ps: Bongopondit's take on the same AYUSH fund allocation in the lines of why bio-technology gets only a fraction more to natural medicine was much more sensible than Amit's take. Then again, he's not paid a single cent to write about it. May be that is where the difference between passion and profession kicks in.

The Q-Factor

The Q factor for Physics
The Wikipedia defines :

The Q factor or quality factor compares the time constant for decay of an oscillating physical system's amplitude to its oscillation period. Equivalently, it compares the frequency at which a system oscillates to the rate at which it dissipates its energy. A higher Q indicates a lower rate of energy dissipation relative to the oscillation frequency. For example, a pendulum suspended from a high-quality bearing, oscillating in air, would have a high Q, while a pendulum immersed in oil would have a low one.

A higher Q indicates a lower rate of energy dissipation relative to the oscillation frequency. For example, a pendulum suspended from a high-quality bearing, oscillating in air, would have a high Q, while a pendulum immersed in oil would have a low one.

The Q factor is particularly useful in determining the qualitative behavior of a system. For example, a system with Q less than or equal to 1/2 cannot be described as oscillating at all, instead the system is said to be in an overdamped (Q < q =" 1/2)"> 1/2, the system's amplitude oscillates, while simultaneously decaying exponentially. This regime is referred to as underdamped.

The Q factor for Indian Politics
The Wickedopedia defines :

The Q factor or the Quattrocchi factor compares the time constant for decay of an oscillating Indian political system's amplitude to its swinging periods.

A higher Q indicates lower rate of political energy dissipation relative to the parliamentarian hungama frequency. For example, when the skeletons at the Congress closet start rattling, the parliament would have a high Q factor. While when the closet is well guarded by CBI (Central Bureau of Indulgence), the Q factor would be a low one.

The Q factor is particularly useful in determining the qualitative behavior of a political system. For example, a regime that tends to undermine the Q factor to vanshing values, cannot be described as vacillating at all, instead the government is called an overthumped Congress government. However, if Q goes on higher values, the benches in the parliament shake, while simultaneously creaking and cracking exponentially, that opposition is definitely an underhumped non-Congress one.

Can You Feel The Love Tonite ?

Tomorrow is Feb 14-th a day marked on the calender with a Nerolac shade of mera-wallah pink to celebrate the love and other contagious viruses in the air - for tommorow's the Valentine's Day.

After a trend-analysis of previous few years graph that showed no ups-and-downs, the predictions are that we will be witnessing these incidents across our nation :

1. The cupid at Hallmark will have its arrow aimed right on target at the growing purchasing power of emerging Indian middle class.
2. Tommorrow will record the highest sales of roses, greeting cards, soft toys and multiplex tickets all at pricest of prices.
3. The left out singles will hide inside the deepest dungeons just after declaring the futility of this date as a commercial ploy by the multinational gift-selling corporations.
4. There would be a steep rise in liquor sale to quench the thirsty Devdas-es who've lost their Paro-s to circumstances beyond their control.
5. Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal will let out fumes of anger at the moral degradation of traditional Indian values.

As usual they have decided not to sit idle and let their energys spent in the worthwhile cause of maintaining the neighbourhood's Basanti's Izzat-N-Abru in a brand new showroom condition. In case you missed out the last years agenda or the years before that, here is the re-freshed/re-phrased plan of action for this year:

We request young couples not to visit parks and restaurants or organize parties on Valentine's Day. Those who do not listen to us will be beaten up," Ved Prakash Sachchan, the convener of the militant Hindu group Bajrang Dal, told The Associated Press in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state.

"In the name of Valentine's Day, there is an attempt to westernize Indian culture and we will not allow this to happen," he added.

Hindu activists also have put up billboards across Lucknow asking young lovers not to hold hands in public.

Traditional Indian society does not approve of public displays of affection between the sexes, including hand-holding and kissing.

Another Hindu hardline organization, the Shiv Sena, has said it will photograph couples caught in supposed compromising positions and hand over the pictures to their parents. Volunteers will stake out public parks, cinemas and shopping malls to "keep an eye on young people," Vijay Tiwari of the Shiv Sena said.

Certain things will never change, although I might find myself growing from 16 to 32. And in this 16 years, BSE might have rose and fall unpredictably, but the Bajrangis and Sainiks have always lived upto my expectations. Thanks to their tireless efforts to warn me that today is when the firangi St. Valentines wishes to corrupt an innocent Indian like me, tonight I am feeling again like my 16 year old wide-eyed avatar - who earnestly longed to be corrupted just by holding hands and kissing in public.

I am quite liking the way I'm feeling young at heart. And all those well-wishers spamming my inbox with on online prescriptions for promised Fountain of Youth - you can now go to cyber-hell. As a token of gratitude towards my militant Hindu brothers, I am now determined to give a befitting reply to all those spammers. How about sending each of them a mail with a subject-line of "Jai Bajrangbali" and a body-text of "Hanuman Chalisa" typed in Monotype Corsiva font size of 48 ?

A Bullet for a Bullet

According to this Reuters report the U.N. is pretty serious in its business of supervision of arms agreement between the Maoists and Nepalese government. As a part of the exercise, the U.N officials are visiting the Maoist camps to evaluate the sanitory conditions. Being a member of tissue wiping Western society, Ian Martin, the represntative of the U.N. secretary general, had found the standards quite unsatisfactory. Which is not surprising as he's quite alien to the concept of answering the nature's call amidst nature. But what intrigues me is not his apathy towards the Indian sub-continental practice of the shortest route to human waste recycling. Rather the interesting part of the news is the way that this particular arms agreement is being carried out.

The arms will be locked in containers watched by U.N. monitors. The Maoists will keep the keys, and the army will also store an equal number of weapons before the election set for June.

I'm imagining the clerk in charge of maintaining the stocks at the army warehouse asking his supervisor, "Could you approve this purchase order for new kookris. At the last count we fell short by twenty-three pieces against the Maoists' stocks."

The proverbial expression of "a bullet for a bullet" suddenly makes much more sense !!