I never knew the Law & Order guy is former Senator Fred Thompson. That is until he made the following observation

‘‘Twelve million illegal immigrants later, we are now living in a nation that is beset by people who are suicidal maniacs and want to kill countless innocent men, women and children around the world,’’

I don't know how he made the connection between illegal immigrants and suicide bombers. But vote for him. Let us have some fun.

How about something like the American Idol's vote for the worst for the 08 presidential election. Any nominations ?

are getting more attention. Coca-Cola (KO) acquired Glaceau. The news is interesting because Tata Tea and Tata Sons owned 30% of Glaceau. Tata's last August acquisition seemed really good. It didn't appear this good. A 77% profit or $523 million in absolute value. But I still feel Tata missed the opportunity to get majority stake in Glaceau. May be they didn't want to outbid Coca-Cola now. But the acquisition may have helped Tata Tea more.

While Tata would have benefited from Glaceau's presence and operations for its products, now Glaceau is going to benefit from Coca-Cola's presence. I like the former better. May be Coca-Cola has something to compete with Gatorade now. But just that won't be sufficient, no ? On that note, lot of people I know don't associate Gatorade to the Florida Gators. Why ? I don't know.

This man says the value of the dollar to Indian rupee will go down to 38. Paris is paying immigrants to return. What is next ? Paying me to go home ? Or is it outsourcing Saravana Bhavan Orders to US ?*

*Check Burger King outsources to India. (via Seeni)

The Hindu reports transactions with BSNL, like mobile and fixed line bill payments, have gone online. That doesn't mean you can pay the bills online. You can pay them at the old telegraph offices/DTOs waiting in a line. Mr. Dinesh Varma, when we think of online, we think of this.

As an aside, The Hindu glosses over this effort as strategy. What it misses is that the effort is required to engage the staff BSNL has. That BSNL never fired anyone when it moved from operator based dialing to STD type service. It engaged all the 'operators' and 'monitors' (as the supervisors are called) in processing applications and bill payments for which it had staff already. (In BSNL's defense, the number of lines went up too). BSNL won't fire employees even when no one uses telegram. It morphs those offices to customer service centers to process bill payments.

Will you buy BSNL stock when it becomes public ?

The fruit has multiple names in Tamil - kodikappalli, kodukapalli and konapuliyangai. The Scientific or English name is unknown. That is if Google is to be believed. All I can find is an image of it.

Missing something is one. Not knowing the name of what you are missing is another.

India is the global leader in Basmati rice exports and we are the best in kabaddi. We try hard to maintain status quo in other fields. For example, Badminton.

Mellifluous.

His name, Pugazh, meant fame. To pronounce it as 'PugaL' with the tongue rolled and touching the innermost part of upper roof of the mouth for the 'L" part was difficult for everyone. Even his parents didn't pronounce it correctly. He never knew why all Tamilians insisted on spelling the letter which sounded like a twisted 'La' with a 'zha'. They called the letter the pride of the language. The spelling hurt his. He sincerely wished he can change his name. At the least the way he spelled it. He started signing as Paul G. He said it is for the sake of his clients.

The man had 3 daughters. He didn't have any hair. His house was the one among the two in the middle of a paddy field. He was sure that the boys in the other house were rowdies. Otherwise they will be in the hostel, he reasoned.

None of them wore shirts at home. He often heard 'Nila Kayuthu' in loud volume. He was sure the whistles from the other bathroom were intended. The screens he installed didn't help too. The younger one insisted that studying in the terrace and wearing her favorite nightie while doing so is the only way she can pass.

The goons never seem to go to college as they claimed they did. One or other was there in that house always. He had to pack the girls to his sister's for the holidays. Full moon nights confirmed his feelings. Only rowdies try Kamalahasan's 'Thakida thathimi' and Sivakumar's 'Thanni Thotti' on the parapet wall. But the music wasn't the same always. Sometimes it was good like the music from Veedu. But he never understood why they chose one to the other.

All his daughters are married now. There is a new bunch of rowdies living there. They mentioned that the previous bunch is in the US writing software for some company. He wished for a grandson. He didn't have any hair left to lose.