Occupational Hazards Just looking at the list of participants for this year's Mastermind, and their various occupations, was surprised to see one person list it as "Unemployed graduate". And so in a twist of Whose-Line-Is-It-Anyway meets Mastermind, I was thinking of the different occupations that could guarantee non-selections. (Without any malice:) Like:

• Witch doctor
• Bajrang Dal activist
• Kleptomaniac
• Hindi/Tamil language chauvinist
• Mongolian warlord

...And more on Mastermind A word that the series for 2001 was won by Archana Garodia Gupta who blazed to one of the most impressive victories ever: a full 41 points (23+18), joining Dayita Dutta, Ajoy Banerjee and Priyamvada to lift the sphere they hand out as the trophy.
Linux & GUI GUIs on Linux are getting really good and sleek, so much so that it has been rumoured that the Times of India will feature snapshots each day on all their pages :). Actually, I made a move to RH 7.2 recently and was impressed by the stuff that KDE had on display. And the good thing is the amount of choice: imagine around 10 themes, including Windows & Mac displays. Should go a long way in convincing the critics of the Linux usability model that there's now an attractive face in front of an impressive backend.
Rahmania A little on my fav. composer, A.R.Rahman. Just been listening to some of his offerings from Rhythm, Sangamam, Duet, Puthiya Mugam etc. and cannot still figure out why some of the pundits frown down upon him for his lack of melody, over-percussioning (Note that my musical illiteracy prevents me using the right terms) etc. There are some amazing songs in his oeuvre, and the variety is too good to overlook. Will continue puzzle me. More on this on another occasion.
Power outages continue to plague Maharashtra, though it hasn't reached the epic proportions it could. On a hedonistic note, one ought to be lucky to live near one's cable operator, unlike me. It is a tad irritating after you suffer 3 hours of a cut, switching on the telly tells you that the cable operator's area will go under the shadow for the next 3 hours, leaving you to fiddle with the radio. And despite what some people and the complete Times of India news machinery tells you, Radio Mirchi isn't hot unless you like to hear the same new songs (most are screechy at best). Yes, they do have shows featuring old Music, both desi and videsi, but that's 10% of the programming. And the RJs still have a lot to learn. We need some shows with alternate programming ideas, not an MTV on radio (that too sans Cyrus!)
Being John Malkovich is one of the maddest movies I've seen. The movie, about a porthole into the head of John Malkovich that's lets one be him, did answer my question: what happens when John M. enters the porthole to his own head?