Plagiarism....bad, bad very bad

She is 19, pretty and had the world at her feet. Signed $500,000 contract with her book publisher, got into Harvard and signed a movie contract. There was nothing else she could have asked for. Everyone was awed and slightly envious of the girl. Now the young author finds herself in the middle of a plagiarism allegation. She says that she was un-intentially influenced by the book. So un-intentially influenced that even some of the lines are similar as reported by NYT. It sounds similar to when a professor caught people cheating in my class (they even had the same typos).
I am sure things will work out in the end thanks to goddess Laxmi. But, will I ever pick her book up?

I was wondering in the random world

I was wondering yet again, one click after another took me into the depths of the virtual world. I lost track of where I had begun, how I had started and why had I wondered away. I then found myself on the wiki of the true father of Pakistan. The guy who dreamt of a muslim state and passed the torch to Jinnah they say. He is no other than the man who gave us "Sare Jahan Se Achaa". I was in disbelief, having sung that song in my terrible voice all through my childhood in school assemblies; I now realized that this man was the one who never really believed in the true hindustan or did history corrupt yet another story of Sir Dr. Muhammad Iqbal.

Oh Darling Yeh Hai India...

The mere thought of watching her fills me with revulsion. The word "Mayawati" brings to mind the ugly woman who is worse looking than Kashi Ram himself (he would make a prettier woman than her). The self crowned Mumtaz Mahal is now making an attempt to immortalize herself and her boyfriend Kashi Ram by having their statues erected next to B.R.Ambedkar's all over U.P. She blames it yet again on the caste system. This move according to her is a revolt against the upper castes. Isnt there anything anyone can do? I will need a blind fold next time I drive through U.P. It will be much better than having to look at that face.

Herb Sendek moving to Arizona State?

NC State men's basketball coach Herb Sendek has reportedly accepted an offer to coach at Arizona State University - ending almost a decade long stint here at NC State.

Herb's career was marked by 5 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances in his last 5 years, Herb did hold his own somewhat on arguably the toughestcollege basketball neighborhood of Tobacco Road (Wake Forest, Duke, University of North Carolina along with NC State) - all teams that have held the national championship at one point or the other. In that sense he took a program in the doldrums and took it to respectability and some level of consistency. He was also instrumental in ensuring that his teams remained disciplined and well-behaved year after year. But his career here was also marked by his perceived inability to take the team to the next level - ACC and NCAA title contenders.

Thanks Herb for helping create a good, solid team from the broken pieces you inherited. But this team needs to go further. Good luck at ASU.