I watched this ad for the third time today, and I just cant help but laugh..

The initial controversy started in the blogosphere with a fiery post by Gaurav Sabnis, based on, and linked to the JAMMAG report on the credibility of IIPMs. (Read the original JAMMAG article: “IIPM – Tall Claims“)  No points for guessing why none of the mainstream  newspapers found it interesting to report the controversy. The article initiated the review based on the institute’s quote of their rankings on the “Outlook-C Fore rankings 2003″. I very well remember the amount of stress with which they had this rankings advertised on their full page ads. I guess this controversy finally resulted in Outlook having a relook at their data and eventually withdrawing their rankings. Check this out: Caution Notice re: IIPM in Outlook magazine. The Gaurav Sabnis post, reviewing the JAMMAG article, actually invited a lot of backlash from the institute and even claimed to tarnish his employer, IBM’s image due to which he resigned. He resigned primarily to protect his freedom of speech and his employer’s reputation. An explanation here: An Update. Rashmi Bansal, the editor of JAMMAG also had her share of hate from IIPM, read more here: Lies, damned lies and fake blogs.

I never trusted this guy and his institute and somehow knew he would be busted some day. I wrote this institute off a long while ago, primarily for two reasons:

a). An institute that puts out Big Bazaar or Spencers like ads to sell their degrees? What kind of branding is this? Does fiery quotes make a good brand?

b). I know a friend who had to struggle real hard to find a job after his IIPM MBA and finally had to settle with a graduate level BPO job.

c). I would not mind a degree that is not recognized by the AICTE or UGC. But if it is not industry recognized and would not help you in your career, then what is the use?

Going back to the recent Careers360 article, a couple of excerpts:

IMI Belgium is not a recognised higher education institution (neither in the Dutch nor the French speaking part of Belgium). Since it is not recognised it cannot award recognised degrees.
     – response from NVAO, the accreditation organization of Netherlands and Flanders(Belgium) about IMI Belgium, the institute IIPM claims awards the degrees to IIPM students.

“What did you learn?” I ask. “We are frequently taught by students who passed out from the last batch and work for Planman Consulting,” said Ramesh. (a former student)

The “international placements” that IIPM offers are a pretty interesting read too. Any recruitment consultant, recruiting for Middle East companies could give you similar deals.

Personally, as I should have told my many friends, I would trust a man who’s spent almost all his career in the States and still holds an Indian passport to work on my behalf than some professional politician.

I would never think of voting for the BJP nor for the communists, my only choice always was the Congress. Therefore, I realized today that I knew none of the other candidates contesting at Trivandrum, apart from Tharoor.

I personally don’t expect or feel that Tharoor should involve himself in grassroots issues at Trivandrum. Based on his background, everybody predicts that he would be the foreign minister for the next UPA government. I am sure that is the best fit for him. As for grassroots governing, don’t we have MLAs, Corporations, Panchayats etc.? Then again, I wish if Tharoor could be like the Tamil Nadu Central ministers who channeled a lot of new programmes and industries to Chennai during the UPA rule. Everybody does so, AK Anthony was the one who initiated the Brahmos assemblies unit in Trivandrum.

No points for guessing which part of Oberon Mall that I like most. Yes, it is Level 4, the food court. But the only food stalls available as of now are Krispy Chicken (a Chic King kinda), BTH vegetarian hotel, a Chinese hotel and Krispy Chicken serves Arabian food also. And none of it is very good. My fondness for the Food Court is not the food, but for the amazingly designed space that it is. Do check out below:

Check out the view of outer Ernakulam from the Food Court below. One more Real estate boom and all this greenery is gone.

A very well presented video on what Islam is really about. Pray that you watch the whole video, and understand clearly the true message of islam. I get all these weird questions, rather remarks from people, which I just could not properly answer. Mostly because I myself have insufficient knowledge to truly explain what Islam is all about. A good effort by Baba Ali to put up this simple video. Hope it dispels some of the confusion around.

The Ummah Films channel on Youtube is by Baba Ali, who creates videos on Islamic messages, primarily targeted at Muslims. Though ‘Why Islam’ is a normal video, most of his videos poke fun at unislamic Muslim practices and are humorous in nature.

What I need to give to this person and his videos were that his humorous videos kindled my thirst for Islamic knowledge and inspired me to think and seek further knowledge. Insha Allah, may Allah give him the reward for that and purify his intentions.

My favorite videos in the channel are(in no particular order):

Looking for a Spouse online

Who hijacked Islam?

Muslim characters at Work

Fisibilillah Discount

The Haram Police

Videos that non-Muslims could also learn from and appreciate:

The Art of Complaining

Racism and Pride

Escaping the Holiday party

Looking for a Spouse online

If you have a question yourself, go ahead and submit it to the Ask Baba Ali series at: http://www.askbabaali.com/.

See the entire Youtube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ummahfilms.

A couple of pple have also come together under the Ummah Films banner to make a film, Tommorrow Never Comes
. Not much, but has a pretty good message to it.

If there is some original idea, that India can boast of, in the reality shows space, it is Vanita Ratnam. Where else do you have a show contesting housewife mothers. Yes, one of the main prerequisites to take part in the contest is that you need to be a mother.

Telecast between 8 to 9 pm on weekdays, the second edition started broadcasting on 31st March 2008. Well, it is a nice opportunity and all that for housewives who otherwise would have only tonight’s dinner to think of. There is a whole array of reality shows that are happening in various Malayalam channels. There are a couple of them for Singing and Dance; then there is one for journalism, one for men on cooking and even on e for babies! Yes, u feel so sorry for the babies.

Coming back to Vanita Ratnam, you might wonder how it would have caught my fancy. Well, I am sure that there are thousands, if not lakhs of people like me who are relieved that their mothers arent spending prime time, sobbing away at some stupid serial plot, which has been running for like ten years now. With this craze of reality shows i am happy that there is at least one reality show happening during prime time, which has pretty much weaned mothers away from serials. At least my mother now watches only one serial, which unfortunately shows a little before prime time. And since you cant change channels when mommy is watching the show you at least have something better to watch than see serial villains trying to look really pissed, but even the babies at the reality show for babies wouldnt look more innocent.