Beggars make Rs 500 a day in Bangalore

This morning, I read (In Indian Express) that beggars earn(??) Rs 500 a day in a city like Bangalore. Beggars in Bangalore make the highest money in India. Rs. 500 a day, sums up to Rs 15,000 a month and that is a huge Rs. 1.8 lakhs (tax free) a year.

I read another article which said that beggars in mumbai earn as much as Rs 180 crore annually.
Read the article on http://www.indianexpress.com/story/9154.html

Another article on rediff says that 1 out of 5 Indians can't spend Rs 12 a day!
Read more : http://in.rediff.com/news/2008/mar/10poor.htm

India is truly a land of diversity

Kirchoff's law

I have been receiving this mail for quite a few years. I thought of posting it on my blog as well.

Click on the image to enlarge

Save the Tiger

Less than 1500 tigers are left in india now and at the current rate of deforestation and poaching the day is not too far when the beautiful cat and all other wildlife will be extinct.
Please add your name and email to the "SAVE THE TIGER" Campaign started by NDTV-Sanctuary and do your bit for the tiger and the forests of india.
The tiger needs all the support it can get..Please forward it to all your friends for support.

Here's the link to support the campaign.
http://sanctuaryasia.com/save_the_tiger_campaign.php


For more details

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/savetiger/sthome.aspx

Buying mobile phone in Bangalore

Buying a mobile in Bangalore

In the last one week, I went out with friends and family to buy 2 different handsets. This is what I realized ...
The major players selling mobiles in Bangalore are Nokia priority dealer, ezone, Univercell, sangeetha, Mobile store etc. The guys at ezone are careless. They just don't pay attention to customers. I didn't like their attitude. I have had such expereince in two different ezone stores in Bangalore. On the contrary, you get very good experience at Univercell. Each customer is taken to a separate table, where a a reperesentative displays all the mobile phones from all the companies, and, explains and compares the features of each phone. If you are trying to decide on which model to buy, you can go to Univercell and they will help you identify the phone that fits your budget.

There are some places where all these different stores are located walkable distance from each other. So, what I did was to go to each of these shops and enquire the price of a particular model. What I did to get the best deal was get the quote from one guy, then go to the next one and say that the first guy was offering the same handset at Rs 100 or 200 less. Then this guy would quote the best deal he can offer. Take this price and go the third guy and get a further discount. What I realized was, by doing this, the price of a basic phone (under Rs 2500), the price could be reduced by Rs 200 and for a phone in the range of Rs 6000 to Rs. 10,000, the price could be brought down by Rs 400 - Rs. 500. One of the handset, we bought was Nokia 6300, which was quoted at Rs 7800 in the first shop, was finally purchased at Rs 7450.
Just 2 days after buying the phone, out of curiosity, I walked in to a Subhiksha store and en quire the prices. Subhiksha is a chain of retail stores, which advertises on TV that they give the best deal in the market. When I started enquiring the prices of the phones I had purchased, I realized that the price these guys quoted were less than the best deal that the other stores could offer (and that too without bargaining). The price of the basic phone was less by Rs 50/- and higher models had bigger discount. Nokia 6300 was costing Rs 7350/- which was Rs 100 less than the best deal we could get in the market (for which we had spent 2.5 hours for running from store to store for comparing and bargaining the rates).

From Subhiksha website
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Call "60607777" for enquiries in Delhi & NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Baroda, Ludiana, Surrat, Jullundur Patlala, Ambala, Merut and many other towns.
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Atleast till now, I feel that Subhiksha gives the best deal in Bangalore for buying a mobile. Checkout their price before you buy your handset. Use the price quoted by Subhiksha to get further discounts at the stores mentioned above.

Gufa restaurant

On the eve of Valentine's, I was wondering, where I should take my wife out. Then one of my friends told me about Gufa in Jayanagar, Bangalore. I decided to try it out.
I called them up and reserved the table. They were not ready to hold the table beyond 7.45 p.m. So I reserved it for that time and arrived at the place in time. I was wondering who would go for dinner that early, but I later realized that the hotel was full by 8.30pm and the reason - It was an awesome place.
Gufa means cave and that the is the concept for this restaurant. The interiors looks like a cave. The place is softly lit and gives you an impression that you have come to a different era. The ceiling is low and the AC ducts in the ceiling also gels with the theme. The people who serve the food are dressed like 'Shikari Shambu' (people who read Tinkle know him - for others, he they are dressed like forest officers). There are people around who look like (are dressed like) cavemen. If you observe the walls closely you will notice some creatures like bats, snakes etc (ofcourse not real) on the walls. You will also see the roots of some trees. Occasionally, you will hear some strange animal noise in the background. It is just like being in a jungle.
We were assigned a table in one of the corners, where there was a single beam of soft light on the table. The food is also pretty good, but a little expensive.
A meal for 2 comprising of one drink, followed by 2 starters, main course and the dessert costs close to Rs 1000 (as of 2008). Non-veg might be a little more expensive. But it is worth going there once in a while for celebrating some special occasion like birthday, anniversary etc.
I tried to search for their phone number on the web and was unable to find it. So, I called Just Dial and got their number (call just dial at 080-23333333 to get any phone number)

Guffa Restaurant,
Jaynagar 3rd Block,
Bangalore
Ph: 080 - 41808777

Sachin's Records!!

Just have look at the records held by Sachin Tendulkar. No wonder why British Prime Minister is suggesting him for the honor of Sir ........
Records Held by Sachin Tendulkar
1. Highest Run scorer in the ODI
2. Most number of hundreds in the ODI 41
3. Most number of nineties in the ODI
4. Most number of man of the matches(56) in the ODI's
5. Most number of man of the series(14) in ODI's
6. Best average for man of the matches in ODI's
7. First Cricketer to pass 10000 run in the ODI
8. First Cricketer to pass 15000 run in the ODI
9. He is the highest run scorer in the world cup (1,796 at an average of 59.87 as on 20 March 2007)
10. Most number of the man of the matches in the world cup
11. Most number of runs 1996 world cup 523 runs in the 1996 Cricket World Cup at an average of 87.16
12. Most number of runs in the 2003 world cup 673 runs in 2003 Cricket World Cup, highest by any player in a single Cricket World Cup
13. He was Player of the World Cup Tournament in the 2003 Cricket World Cup.
14. Most number of Fifties in ODI's 87
15. Appeared in Most Number of ODI's 407
16. He is the only player to be in top 10 ICC ranking for 10 years.
17. Most number of 100's in test's 39
18. He is one of the three batsmen to surpass 11,000 runs in Test cricket, and the first Indian to do so
19. He is thus far the only cricketer to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, India's highest sporting honor
20. In 2003, Wisden rated Tendulkar as d No. 1 and Richards at No. 2 in all time Greatest ODI player
21. In 2002, Wisden rated him as the second greatest Test batsman after Sir Donald Bradman.
22. he was involved in unbroken 664-run partnership in a Harris Shield game in 1988 with friend and team mate Vinod Kambli,
23. Tendulkar is the only player to score a century in all three of his Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy debuts
24. In 1992, at the age of 19, Tendulkar became the first overseas born player to represent Yorkshire
25. Tendulkar has been granted the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award , Padma Shri and Padma Vibhusan by Indian government. He is the only Indian cricketer to get all of them.
26. Tendulkar has scored over 1000 runs in a calendar year in ODI's 7 times
27. Tendulkar has scored 1894 runs in calendar year in ODI's most by any batsman
28. He is the highest earning cricketer in the world
29. He has the least percentage of the man of the matches awards won when team looses a match. Out of his 56 man of the match awards only 5 times India has lost.
30. Tendulkar most number man of match awards(10) against Australia
31. In August of 2003, Sachin Tendulkar was voted as the "Greatest Sportsman" of the country in the sport personalities category in the Best of India poll conducted by Zee News.
32. In November 2006, Time magazine named Tendulkar as one of the Asian Heroes.
33. In December 2006, he was named "Sports person of the Year
34. The current India Poised campaign run by The Times of India has nominated him as the Face of New India next to the likes of Amartya Sen and Mahatma Gandhi among others.
35. Tendulkar was the first batsman in history to score over 50 centuries in international cricket
36. Tendulkar was the first batsman in history to score over 75 centuries in international cricket:79 centuries
37. Has the most overall runs in cricket, (ODIs+Tests+Twenty20s), as of 30 June 2007 he had accumulated almost 26,000 runs overall.
38. Is second on the most number of runs in test cricket just after Brian Lara
39. Sachin Tendulkar with Sourav Ganguly hold the world record for the maximum number of runs scored by the opening partnership. They have put together 6,271 runs in 128 matches
40. The 20 century partnerships for opening pair with Sourav Ganguly is a world record
41. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid hold the world record for the highest partnership in ODI matches when they scored 331 runs against New Zealand in 1999
42. Sachin Tendulkar has been involved in six 200 run partnerships in ODI matches - a record that he shares with Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid
43. Most Centuries in a calendar year: 9 ODI centuries in 1998
44. Only player to have over 100 innings of 50+ runs (41 Centuries and 87 Fifties)(as of 18th Nov, 2007)
45. the only player ever to cross the 13,000-14,000 and 15,000 run marks IN ODI.
46. Highest individual score among Indian batsmen (186* against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1999).
47. The score of 186* is listed the fifth highest score recorded in ODI matches
48. Tendulkar has scored over 1000 ODI runs against all major Cricketing nations.
49. Sachin was the fastest to reach 10,000 runs taking 259 innings and has the highest batting average among batsmen with over 10,000 ODI runs
50. Most number of Stadium Appearances: 90 different Grounds
51. Consecutive ODI Appearances: 185
52. On his debut, Sachin Tendulkar was the second youngest debutant in the world
53. When Tendulkar scored his maiden century in 1990, he was the second youngest to score a century
54. Tendulkar's record of five test centuries before he turned 20 is a current world record
55. Tendulkar holds the current record (217 against NZ in 1999/00 Season) for the highest score in Test cricket by an Indian when captaining the side
56. Tendulkar has scored centuries against all test playing nations.[7] He was the third batman to achieve the distinction after Steve Waugh and Gary Kirsten
57. Tendulkar has 4 seasons in test cricket with 1000 or more runs - 2002 (1392 runs), 1999 (1088 runs), 2001 (1003 runs) and 1997 (1000 runs).[6] Gavaskar is the only other Indian with four seasons of 1000+ runs
58. He is second most number of seasons with over 1000 runs in world.
59. On 3 January 2007 Sachin Tendulkar (5751) edged past Brian Lara's (5736) world record of runs scored in Tests away from home
60. Tendulkar and Brian Lara are the fastest to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket history. Both of them achieved this in 195 innings
61. Second Indian after Sunil Gavaskar to make over 10,000 runs in Test matches
62. Became the first Indian to surpass the 11,000 Test run mark and the third International player behind Allan Border and Brian Lara.
63. Tendulkar is fourth on the list of players with most Test caps. Steve Waugh (168 Tests), Allan Border (158 Tests), Shane Warne (145 Tests) have appeared in more games than Tendulkar
64. Tendulkar has played the most number of Test Matches(144) for India (Kapil Dev is second with 131 Test appearances).
65. First to 25,000 international runs
66. Tendulkar's 25,016 runs in international cricket include 14,537 runs in ODI's, 10,469 Tests runs and 10 runs in the lone Twenty20 that India has played.
67. On December 10, 2005, Tendulkar made his 35th century in Tests at Delhi against Sri Lanka. He surpassed Sunil Gavaskar's record of 34 centuries to become the man with the most number of hundreds in Test cricket.
68. Tendulkar is the only player who has 150 wkts and more than 15000 runs in ODI
69. Tendulkar is the only player who has 40 wkts and more than 11000 runs in Tests
70. Only batsman to have 100 hundreds in the first class cricket

Anarthaa Shashthra

Click on image to enlarge

Shivaji - The Boss or The crap

Seriously, how did Rajani Kant even think of acting in such a badly directed movie. I think it is just a movie for Rajani fans and nothing else. Screen play is pathetic. This is the costliest Indian movie made till date and I wonder how the producer decide to put his money on a film which has no substance. The director has tried to bring a good message about fighting corruption (by targeting those having black money), but the narration is extremely poor.
I had to tickle myself to laugh at the comedy scenes. It is better that I don't talk about the sequences involving Rajani proposing to the heroin and trying to convince her parents for the wedding. I would expect Rajani to come out with movies with class. People have a lot of expectation from his movies. Also, I am just wondering if the heroin had any role to play in the whole movie.
After all the hype that the movie got, I am out of words to say how disappointed I am after watching the movie.
My advice to those who are planning to watch the movie is - "Leave your brain behind before watching the movie"

Blood Bath in the Stock Market

Long back, I read in a novel, "If your cobbler is talking about the stock market, then it is the time for you to get out the market". That was the case in the recent past. Everyone (housewives, small traders, businessmen, salaried etc) were all pumping in money to get a chunk of Reliance Power IPO. People borrowed money to get in to the IPO. 3 days after the IPO closed, there was a blood bath in the Indian stock market. Market has lost more than 30% in the last 10 days.
There is an interesting article on www.moneycontrol.com which talks about people forgetting the fundamentals. People are not studying the market before investing money. There is a lot of liquidity in the market and people want to stay put. They read all the success stories and go after making quick money. The retail investors have lost a lot of money now.

Udayan Mukherjee of money control writes

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The thing about life is that one makes mistakes. Many mistakes were made in the second half of 2007 and those sins have to be washed away by blood, such is the way of financial markets. Some participants will go down under and never be able to get back to the market again but most will survive. The pain will linger for many months, maybe years but lessons have to be learnt. Every such debacle has lessons for us and the sooner we forget them the more we suffer.

The first lesson is not to let stock price performance become the sole reason for buying, a mistake which was made in abundance in the last 3 months. What couldn't be explained by fundamentals was credited to liquidity. The present lost all relevance as people chose to focus on the distant future, perhaps simply because the present could never justify those ticker prices; only a hazy dream of the future could. Traders and investors had no time for fundamental analysts, in many cases they were labelled "cribbing fools". Chartists became the most celebrated tribe on the street as only they could see and predict the one way run to glory for many of the hot stocks even as fundamental watchers cringed at valuations....till the music stopped. Don't get me wrong, charts do work in trending markets but once stock prices veer away completely from fundamental value, people need to get careful. But they never are. Now that the blinkers are off, people should ask themselves why stocks like RNRL, Ispat, RPL, Essar oil and Nagarjuna fertilisers have lost 50-70% of their value. It is simply because their stock prices had snapped all connection with underlying business fundamentals, earnings and value. Their stock prices became the only reasons for buying them which works for a while but not forever.

The other big lesson, one which should have been driven in earlier in May 2006, is the danger of overextending oneself in the futures market. The lure of stock futures is easy to understand. Put in some margin, take a big exposure on a fast moving stock, make a killing when prices shoot up. Repeat exercise. Just that people forgot that prices may also come down and at a pace which noone can even imagine, maybe their friendly stockbrokers forgot to tell them that part of the story. The result : unbridled speculation that ran into lakhs of crores, excesses that we are paying for today. Even this fall will not cure investors of their love for futures speculation but if at least some amount of caution is injected it would have been a worthwhile learning. Futures are not toys for amateurs, they are time bombs in the hands of inexpert and inexperienced traders, it's only a matter of when the fuse runs out.

The other learning which I hope will play out in the future, as it has in the past, is that it pays to be brave in times of panic such as these. If I was allowed to invest myself , which I am not, I would have no hesitation in deploying serious money into the market today, knowing fully well that prices may fall more tomorrow. And I would be standing there tomorrow to buy more of the same, till my money ran out. India is going to be a terrific stock market story for many years to come, even an intermediate bearish patch cannot shake that conviction of mine. At best, one will have to wait a bit for the returns to follow. That's alright. You are happy to put money in a bank FD and then wait for one full year to collect that measly 8%, aren't you? Then why does the stock market need to give you 20% every month? In the last one year, I haven't seen so many good stocks trade at such mouth watering levels. Forget trading, avoid the duds which were fuelled up by operators, just go out and buy those bluechips. They will deliver, even if there is a global market meltdown for a while, and if you are a bit patient you will be rewarded. But do remember January 2008, as history will repeat itself again in the future. Just that our memories tend to be too short and our greed too much.

Udayan Mukherjee

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(source - www.moneycontrol.com )

Nikhil turns one

Time flies, Nikhil is already one year old. We had a small party at home to celebrate his birthday. After the birthday, I took a big cake to a school for special children. I met the principal of the school and told her that I want to share the cake with the kids. The principal of the school was very excited to see the dog shaped cake and exclaimed 'Oh, you have got Jimmy. The kids are going to love this'. I had to leave for my office immediately. I gave a call to the to principal of the school in the evening. She sounded very excited. She told me that the kids were thrilled to see the cake. They all sang 'Happy birthday' to Nikhil and enjoyed the cake. I was very happy to hear this. I wished, that I could have been present in person to enjoy the moment with the little ones. This was the most satisfying way of celebrating Nikhil's birthday.

Tare Zameen Par

I Watched Taare Zameen Par (TZP) last week and trust me, it is one of the best movies I have seen in the recent past. The concept,narration, direction are all excellent.
The movie highlights the problem of dyslexia, one thing that many people don't care about, or in many cases, people don't know about it. Atleast in India, after seeing this movie, I guess many people will be aware of it, if not act take action.
I have known children with this problem. There is an immense pressure from parents and peers to perform well at academics. Little do they care or realize that all kids cannot scale up to all the challenges. I am told that in the western countries, the schools/parents identify dyslexia at an early and put the kids through a different learning process. In India, off late, a few schools have started this, but this trend has to catch up.
This movie is a real eye opener. Amir khan has done and excellent work in bringing out the good talent in Darsheel Safari (Ishaan Awasti in the movie). Unlike other movies of Amir Khan, this movie is not 'Hero centric', but 'concept centric'. The songs are very good. I am not going to discuss the movie here. If you are reading this blog and haven't still seen the movie, then it is time to do it. It is a must watch movie

The Great Sir Edmund Hillary Dead

May his rest in peace.


What an achievement by these two - Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.
I was reading this article on espn site which talks a lot about his life. I didn't know before reading this article that he had done a lot for Nepal.







Read the article at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3190797
It is quite an interesting read

Tata's Rs 1-lakh car - the Nano

So the much waited Tata's Rs 1-lakh car - the Nano is here. There were a lot of people questioning if Tata's could stick to their word of getting a car at such a low cost. Yes, they have proved it again that they can revolutionize this industry.
Thinking about this car, so many thoughts run through the mind - both positives and negatives.



Positives

This is definitely a boon to the middle class for whom affording a car is a dream of their lifetime. Thinking about the dust and heat that is present in our cities, this car is a big relief.
As the families grow and get little ones in to their family, people have to start thinking about getting 4 wheels. It is definitely not safe driving in India on a 2-wheeler. It is a scary picture when I see women sitting on 2-wheelers, balancing on single side of a 2-wheeler with a kid in her arm, where the kid is getting squeezed between the two parents. Sometimes, in bigger families, the elder kid is fighting for his space on the petrol tanks of the motor cycle when the driver is struggling to balance the vehicle. At times I see 3 kids and two adults on a single 2-wheeler. I think it is time for these people to upgrade to a small family car.
Rains are another nightmare times when it is very difficult to travel on 2 wheelers. Public transports are never reliable in such conditions.

Nano Taxi

Today, an auto rickshaw costs around 1 lakh to purchase. With the introduction of Nano, I think a lot of auto drivers will probably think of buying a Nano and using it as a taxi. I am sure, some smart company will quickly come out with an LPG kit for Nano, which can lower the cost of running. Given a choice I would prefer traveling by a Nano than an auto rickshaw. But for that the price of traveling by a a Nano-taxi should be comparable to traveling by a rickshaw

Negatives

Well, without having seen the car personally I cannot comment anything negative about the car. Ofcourse, one cannot expect too much for 1 lakh. The car doesn't come with most of the features (rather - no features). As they say, 'you pay peanuts, you get monkeys'. I wanted to bring out my thought on the implications that this car might bring on our infrastructure. In cities like Bangalore, people are already struggling with the terrible infrastructure. Bangalore has one of the highest vehicle density in the country. This city already boasts of the highest number of 2-wheelers in the city. The roads are all cramped. This car is just going to add to our agonies further. There are days when people take over 2 hours to reach their home after work, and in 2 years if there are a lot of cars on road, we can only think of reaching home the next day morning.
Today there is an auto rickshaw strike in Bangalore. It was a pleasure driving to office as there were no auto rickshaws on the road. I didn't have to use breaks much and I didn't have to change gears often. I think rickshaws constitute anywhere between 5-10% of vehicles on Bangalore roads. After removing more than a lakh of autos from the streets, the roads had decent traffic. Now imagine if around a couple of lakhs Nano's got added to our streets - "God help us please - are you listening". A few months back I read in News Papers that someone was making a few under passes in Bangalore in 3 day's time. I wonder when that project will see the light of the day. I hope it is time for the Govt to seriously has to start thinking about these kinds of projects.
I am not even going to talk about the fuel consumption which will add a burden on our reserves, nor am I going to talk about the heat and noise emitted by these cars.

Pricing

1-lakh is just the dealer price and one has to shell out atleast another Rs 25,000 to drive a car home. If one decides to add a few accessories like seat covers, better tires, AC,etc, then the car price will come close to 1.5 lakhs, which is still a reasonable.
If one can make a down payment of Rs 25,000 and take a loan for the rest of the moeny, then they can have a car for an EMI of around Rs 2000 p.m.

Happy Driving ...

BSNL Bangalore 2007 marathon

My aunt who works in BSNL called me to ask me, if I would be interested in taking part in the marathon conducted by BSNL. Without a second thought, I said 'YES'. There were several races that day - 42 km full marathon, 21 km half marathon, 5 km marathon run for charity, run for senior citizens and for physically disabled. There was representation from many countries.
I roped in my colleague Manju and my cousin Nanda for the run. The race was expected to begin at 9.00 am for which the reporting time was 8.00 am. Me and Manju reached in time and even had break fast at the venue. Nanda was as usual late and reached when the race was about to begin. We all got T-shirts and caps from BSNL - thanks to my aunt who arranged it.
I was not sure if my fitness level was good enough to complete the 5 km stretch. But I was able to complete the entire stretch of 5 km in one go without stopping for rest (I took 10 seconds break twice waiting for my friend to catch up). I could complete the run in 25 min - thats 5 minutes per km. I was amazed at my own performance.
We waited for others to finish the race. My aunt finished her 5 km stretch 15 minutes after we had completed. My uncle took part in the race for senior citizens.
There was a senior couple (husband 80 yrs and wife 69 yrs) who completed the 5 km stretch as well. There were hundreds of kids from various schools as well. They finished the race with much more ease.

Gosai Ghat and ShivanaSamudra Trip

During the October holidays, my sister and nephew were at home and we decided to go out on a one day outing. I suggested ShivanaSamudra and everyone agreed. We started from Bangalore on my car on mysore road. There are 2 approaches to shivanasamudra - first via kanakapura and the other via mysore road. I was told that the Mysore road was better for driving. We started by 9.30 am and were quickly at Ramanagar. We stopped at my favorite breakfast place - Kamath Lokruchi. After relishing on different kinds of dosas for an hour we started again. It was quite a sunny day and everyone in the car started complaining about going to ShivanaSamudra as there was no shelter there and we would be baked in the sun. My sis suggested that we go to Gosai Ghat near Mandya. I quickly called up a couple of people to find out what was in Gosai Ghat. My friends suggested that I go to that place as there was a river(kaveri) flowing there. To reach Gosai Ghat, I had to take a left turn on mysore road at Sreerangapattana. We reached the place by noon. We could see a few people taking bath in the river. There was a lot of water in the river. The place was NOT very crowded. We all got in to water and spent more than an hour there. My 10 month old son was having a great time playing in water. This is a good place for one day outing from Bangalore. The only problem is that there is no place for the ladies to change clothes. One has to take the cover of some temple shrines.
We were very hungry when we started back from there. One place I prefer to have lunch on Bangalore mysore highway is Hotel Haripriya in Mandya. After having lunch we decided to go to ShivanaSamudra. One has to take a deviation in Maddur to reach ShivanaSamudra. This road is not all that great, but you can drive on that road. One particular stretch of 4 km is quite bad near Malavalli. We reached ShivanaSamudra by 5.30 p.m. There is a beautiful water fall here. It is called the 'Gagana Chukki' falls. Close by is another falls called 'Bhara chukki' falls. But as we reached the place quite late, we didn't have the time to go to the other falls. There was a lot of water in the falls. It was a treat to watch. The weather was also cool and the sun was just setting. We enjoyed the sunset over the falls. They have even started a hotel at this place. People can stay here for the night. It is a nice getaway from Bangalore. We started from there just after sunset. Driving in the dark in the Malavalli road (bad road) could have been avoided if we had reached the place earlier. But, once on mysore road, you can reach Bangalore in an hours time.

To reach Gosai Ghat from Bangalore
Bangalore - Ramanagar - Chennapattana - Maddur - Mandya - Sreeranga Pattana - Gosai Ghat - Roughly 120 KM from Bangalore

To reach Shivana Samudra
Bangalore - Ramanagar - Chennapattana - Maddur - Malavalli - ShivanaSamudra - Roughly 110 KM from Bangalore

Carelessness causes wastage of money

I recently realized that I had misplaced the copy of my car insurance. The insurance company was located in Delhi. Upon calling them up, they told me that I have to send a Demand Draft (DD) for Rs 50/- in order to get a new duplicate copy.
I quickly went to the bank close by to get a DD. I landed up paying Rs 56/- as the service charge, for a Rs 50/- DD. I was cursing myself for choosing a private bank over nationalized bank as the DD charges were high. Upon inquiring later, I found that the DD charges were only marginally lesser in Nationalized banks. A few years ago, I remember paying not more than Rs 10/- for DD of this amount.
After getting the DD, I payed another Rs 60/- for courier. A couple of days later, I was going through a pile of papers at home and found the misplaced insurance document.
I had unnecessarily spent Rs 166/- (excluding a few long STD phone call charges)for being careless. Had I sorted out my pile of papers earlier, I wouldn't have spent the money and time. I have learnt my lesson.

Indo-Pak match - Me on TV

Ask any Indian, what his/her fav sport is, and the answer you get is "CRICKET".
It is the sport the nation breathes. Well, today I got a 5 day pass for the India-Pakistan test match at Bangalore. Ind-Pak matches are always very exciting. How could I miss a chance to watch it.
Me and my cousin reached the stadium. There was a huge crowd waiting to get in. Some were busy looking for tickets. It is very difficult to get tickets for a test match in Bangalore on a weekend. In the past I have paid Rs 300/- for a Rs 50/- inspite of reaching the venue at 6.00 am to buy tickets. I have seen that sometimes the tickets are sold at the counter for 15 minutes when we see a "sold out" board. The rest of the tickets goes to black market. I stopped to get my face painted with the tri-colour. I also bought a flag outside the stadium.
I managed to sneak my camera in to the stadium. But the security snatched the stick that was with the Indian flag. They think that the mob will start a fight with the stick.
It was an exciting first day of cricket. Though India lost 4 quick wickets, Yuvaraj and Ganguly played a spectacular innings. Yuvi's score was the highest by any left handed batsman in Bangalore. Our statisticians collect some crazy statistics these days.


We were jumping and screaming at every shot. I was waving the Indian flag and having fun. Just then, one of my friend's called me to tell me that he saw me on TV. A few more friends and relatives called me and told me that they all saw me on TV during the match and during the highlights. I am going again tomorrow also. Hope Indian can post a big score - Amen

Road trip from Bangalore to mysore on a bullet

Two weeks ago, I had to got o Mysore for some personal work. I was continuously debating with myself whether I should take a bus, train or drive in my car. After some thought, I thought of doing something, which I rarely get an opportunity - long bullet ride.
I was up and ready with my helmet, leather jacket and clothes for a day and was off. I started from home by 10.30 a.m. After giving a quick stop for fuel, I was off on the high way. You are in a bilssful state when you are enjoying the sounds of a bullet while going at 60 KPH. It was a very pleasant day with the sun not being very bright. There was a pleasant sunshine and cool breeze. I was already enjoying the cool breeze on my face. Initially I was cruising at a lower speeds, but as I covered more distance, I started gaining speed. By now, I was touching 70 kmph. I reached Ramnagar and gave a 20 minute break. While I was sipping tea from a road side tea stall, I quickly made a few phone calls. I started from there and started touching 80 kmph and above. Even though I was traveling alone, the journey was not boring. On either side of the road was lush green paddy fields. Paddy seeds are sown right after monsoons during June-July, which cover up the entire fields by October. By now I was already at 90 kmph. Riding the bullet is simply effortless. I used to earlier own a Hero Honday Splendor, which, used to take a lot of effort to reach 70+ kph ( I have covered thousands of kms of highway trip on my splendor as well). I gave my second 20 minute break at Sreeranga Pattana to make a few more phone calls. From here, on a few occasions my 500 CC bike Bullet touched 95kms. I didn't go above this, because if something were to go wrong, I would have to run around alone to get help (had to be extra careful as this was my first solo long distance ride). Within minutes I was at Mysore ring road, where I took a deviation towards T.Narasipura, which was my final destination. T.Narasipura is a small town, 30 kms from Mysore. My problems started from here, as I had to go on some really bad roads. There were small stretches where there was no road at all. It was a dirt track ride at certain patches. Bullet, which is known for bad shock absorbers, was already hurting my back. I reached my destination by 2.00. pm. Discounting the two 20-minute breaks that I had taken, my journey was for 2.5 hours and I had covered 170 kms. After having my lunch and taking some rest, I headed back to Mysore. This time, I was feeling that I was riding on Mars (Mars has craters too). By the time I reached Mysore, my back was hurting a lot. I took a pain killer and went to bed.
The next day, I had to visit T.Narasipura again before going back to Bangalore. I decided that I had enough of the bad roads. I parked my Bike at Mysore Bus stand and took a bus to T.Narasipura. After finishing my work, I was back in Mysore by 4.00 p.m. My cousin called me up and told me that she would join me on my way back to Bangalore. I took the Bullet from the Mysore Bus stand and went to her office. After reaching there, I asked her, if we she was ready for Ass-Ass-I-Nation. She told me that she was very excited about this trip. We started from Mysore 5.15 P.M. I told her that I was going to cover maximum distance while we had sun shine. Riding during night is something I generally avoid as the headlight is not very bright. The reaction time to obstacles will be very less as we can spot them very late.
Right from the word go, I started clocking 90 kmph. We witnessed beautiful sun set en-route. I cruised comfortably all the way till Maddur. By now, I had started losing sun light quickly. I had decided not to stop till I reached Kamat Lokruchi at Ramnagar. I reached there by 6.30 PM. I had covered 90 kms in 1 hour 15 minutes. The traffic was low as it was a week day and hence we were able to cover the distance quickly. We stopped for some snacks and coffee. The hot Mirchi Bajji and coffee was perfect after the ride. We sat there and relaxed for an hour. I asked my cousin, how she felt and she said that she was enjoying the ride.
I had another 50 kms to cover before to reach home. I thought that I would take it a little easy and cruise. But as I started, I realized that I had surrendered to the supreme power of the Bullet. There was no way, I could go below 80 kmph. There were occasion when I was cruising at 90 kmph even in the darkness. The temperature had started falling. This year we are having a cold winter. Bangalore recorded some lowest temperatures in decades this year. The traffic was also thickening as we were closing Bangalore. I reached home by 8.30 kmph. I had coverd the last 50 km in 1 hour.
After reaching home, I asked my cousin, if she was ASS-ASS-I-NATED, and she said with a smile "Not As(s) much".

It was a wonderful long drive on the Bullet. I would like to call it the Biking Nirvana. I had covered a total 400 kms in 2 days. I roughly got 30 km per liter of Petrol.

Total Distance: 400 KM.
Total Time on road: 4 hours 45 minutes.
Bike: 500 CC Bullet.
Top Speed : 95 Kph.
Mileage: 30 kmpl.
When: November, 2007.
Route: Bangalore - Mysore - T.Narasipura - Mysore - Bangalore.

Tata Indigo XL review

Yesterday, my friend Nawaz called me up to get some thoughts on buying a new car. He had been doing some research himself on the web and also been talking to his other friends. From what he had heard from his friends, he seemed to have been quite impressed by Tata Indigo XL. When he called me up, he was very upbeat and was explaining the features a lot. He asked me if I could go along with him to the Tata show room to take a test drive of the vehicle. I agreed and went to the show room with him. I had never test driven a new car and it was my first time.
Tata Indigo has petrol and and Diesel variants. In each of these variants, they have two models - Classic and Grand. At the showroom 'Grand' was there a display piece and we started inspecting while we were waiting for the executive to come and attend to us. The car looked good. At first glance, the most impressive thing about the car is the space. There is a lot of room inside. The back seat is very spacious and 3 people can sit very comfortably. Tall people won't have any problem stretching their legs when they are seated in the back seat.
By now the executive came to us. She started explaining the features of the car. The classic is the more basic model which has a 1.4 ltr engine. The boot (trunk) is quite big, but still not as big as I had expected it to be (as there is a lot of room inside). The interiors are not very great with the car. They have tried to give a wooden finish to the front panel, but it is made of plastic and doesn't go well with the car. The 'Classic' comes with premium fabric upholstery which is pretty good. One very good feature which I haven't seen in any sedan is split AC. There are separate AC ducts for the back seat. This feature is something, I have seen only in Qualis and Tavera. But even in those, the AC ducts are on the roof, but in Indigo, they are at the bottom (between the two front seats). This is a cool feature. Another unique feature is the chiller. The chiller is in the glove box and can keep your cool drinks chill (ofcourse the AC has to be ON for this). Fog lamps, all 4 power windows, power steering, rear defogger and central locking, front seat height adjustor (for both seats) are all default in the Basic model. There is no Cup holder for the driver's seat. It is there only for the passengers in the back seat.
The basic model comes at around 6.1 or 6.2 lakhs on road in Bangalore and is a good buy.
The Grand comes with a few extra features. It comes with leather upholstery, 4 speaker DVD player with two LCD displays behind both the front seats, a car phone kit (free nokia phone and a charger) and power seat height adjuster.
Now it was the time to test drive. I took out the 1.4 petrol for a drive. I could only drive it in busy Bangalore traffic. It had a smooth pickup even when the AC was on. The gear shift was smooth. Really not much complain with the car. This is not to be considered as the the full 'GO' for this model as the drive was only for 2 kms in traffic. One has to drive the car before making their choice. However there were a few things I was not comfortable with the car. The gear seemed to be very far from the driver's seat. One has to reach out for it. I am used to driving a Maruti Baleno which has a very big front window shield which gives a very clear view of the road. I was not very happy about it in this car. For tall people whose head almost reaches the roof, the road view is not very clear.
After the test drive of the petrol version, we tried the diesel version. I sat in the car and turned the ignition on and I was immediately disappointed. There was a lot of engine noise and vibration. It was like sitting in a truck (OK, I am exaggerating here, but I was very unhappy). The Grand Diesel comes at around 8.75 lakhs in Bangalore. Who would want to pay so much money for a diesel car with just 1.4 ltr engine which makes so much noise. Atleast I wouldn't. The diesel versions of Verna are so smooth when compared to Tata Indigo. Classic makes a good buy for that price, but Tatas will have a difficult task selling the diesel version of Indigo XL, that too when they have the image of a taxi.

Mukesh Ambani - Richest man in the World

Yes, it is true. Today, Mukesh Ambani became the richest man in the world. It is a little hard to believe, but it is true. He makes India proud. Indian Stock market is on a continous bull run which saw reliance stock scaling new heights.
After the death of Dhirubhai Ambani, Mukesh got Reliance Industries and has strived hard to reach the peak. Hope the bull run continues and he stays at top for a long time to come.
He has surpassed Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft and Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu.


1. Mukesh Ambani - $63.2 billion
2. Carlos Slim Helu - $62.2993 billion
3. William Bill Gates - $62.29 billion
4. Warren Buffett - $55.9 billion
5. Lakshmi Mittal - $50.9 billion

kimi wins the 2007 championship

what a victory to Kimi and what a win for Ferrari. It was a stunning victory for Kimi Raikkonen who needed to win and get maximum points. Before the race I thougth that Kimi won't make to it to the top of the championship points. But the good strategy from Ferrari and good driving by Kimi put him on the top. Unfortunately for the Rookie Lewis Hamilton, it was a disaster race.

Drivers points

01 Kimi Räikkönen 110
02 Lewis Hamilton 109
03 Fernando Alonso 109

Constructor Points
01 Ferrari 204
02 BMW 101
03 Renault 51

Rich Dad Poor dad's Robert Kiyosaki

Funny mahabharat climax scene :))

This is a funny episode from the movie "Jaane bhi do yaaro"

watch the video

Cool Down Tommy, He's Leavin, You Don't Have To Bite Him...

This is how Sreesanth reacted when Symonds got out during the India-Australia cricket match in the future's cup 2007

click on the image to enlarge

Free medical treatment at sathya sai super speciality hospitals

Medical expenses are one killer of an expense and can leave bring you to streets. Some of the treatments can run in to lakhs of rupees. If you are not prepared (read http://mail2nagen.blogspot.com/2007/07/tips-on-medical-insurance.html ), either you will have to borrow from evrey relative/friend or let go of the patient.
Time and again I had heard of Sathya Sai Super Specialty Hospitals which give free medical treatment to everyone. Today I bumped in to a nice article which talks about a patients experiece at SSSIHMS and also the research happening there (read the article here )
In a country where 70% of the people live either below poverty line or can just afford a basic life, hospitals like sathya sai hospitals are a boon.
I have no personal experience with this place, but have heard that the treatment comes totally free. Downside is the waiting period. For some of the surgeries, one has to wait for a turn.
I have read that the Sathya sai hostpitals are in Prashanti gram in Andra Pradesh and white field in Bangalore
Some links
http://www.saihospital.org/ssshhospitals.htm
http://www.sathyasai.org/saihealth/content.htm
http://www.sathyasaihospital.com/

Pranesh Comedy

Pranesh Comedy Part 1


Pranesh Comedy Part 2


Pranesh Comedy Part 3


Pranesh Comedy Part 4



Pranesh Comedy Part 5


Pranesh Comedy Part 6


pranesh comedy part 7

Deepika Padukone on ftv!!!

Places to visit around bangalore

There are lot of places to visit around Bangalore.There are a few one day trips and a few that can be done in 2-3 days.
One beauty of Bangalore is, you find hills all around Bangalore. 50-70 kms in any direction going out of Bangalore, you fill find hills.
On Tumkur road, you will find Devarayana Durga, Shivagange etc.
On Mysore road, you will find RamNagar
On Bellary road, you will find Nandi hills
On Hosur road, you will find KrishnaGiri.
On kanakpura road, you will find kabbal durga
On Magadi Road, you will find Savana Durga

There are a lot of pilgrimage spots to visit as well.

-----Place------Dist----Type
-----------------------------
Sri-Ram-Betta---50--Piligrim
Rangasthala-----60--Piligrim
Savana-Durga----60--Hill
Ghati-Subramanya70--Piligrim
Nandi-hills-----70--Hill-stn
Revanasiddesh-be70--Piligrim
Shiva-gange-----70--Piligrim
Antharagange----75--Piligrim
Chikka-Thirupath75--Piligrim
Kanva-reservoir-80--Dam
Mekedatu--------80--Ravine
Kaivara---------85--Piligrim
Sheebi----------90--Temple-Paint
Devarayana-durga100-Piligrim
Kokkare-Belluru-100-Birds-sanctu
Kudumalai-------100-Piligrim
Melukote--------100-Piligrim
Muththathhi-----100-River
Vidurashwatha---100-Piligrim
Sri-Rangapatna--120-Piligrim
Bheemeswari-----125-River
Karighatta------125-Piligrim
Shivasamudram---125-Water-fall
Ranganathittu---130-Birds-sanctu
Adi-chunchanagir140-Piligrim
Lepakshi--------140-Piligrim
Mahadevapura----140-River
Mysore----------140-Historical
Shravana-Belugol140-Piligrim
Hogenakal-------150-Water-fall
KRS,-Balamuri---150-Barrage
Mudukuthore-----150-Piligrim
Talakadu--------150-Piligrim
Chunchana-katte-160-Water-fall
Kadiri----------160-Piligrim
Nanjanagudu-----160-Piligrim
T.-Narasipur----170-Piligrim
Sathanur-dam----175-Dam
Somanathapur----175-Archeology
Hemagiri--------200-Water-fall
Ramanathapura---200-Piligrim
Tiruvannamalai--200-Piligrim
Halebeedu-------210-Archeology
B.-R-.-Hills----220-Hill-station
Bandipur--------220-Wild-life
Gopalaswamy-bett220-Piligrim
Harangi---------220-Landscape
Nisarga-Dhama---220-Land-scape
Kabini----------230-Wild-life
Nagarahole------230-Wild-life
Belur-----------240-Archeology
Mudumalai-------240-Wild-life
Yercaud---------240-Hill-station
Bababudangiri---250-Hill-station
Irpu------------250-Water-fall
Kemmannugundi---260-Hill-station
Kudrehabbe------260-Landscape
Talakaveri------260-Land-scape
Bhadra----------270-Wild-life
Manikyadhara----270-Water-fall
Muthodi---------270-Wild-life
Subramanya------275-Piligrim
M.-M.-Hills-----280-Piligrim
Bisle-----------300-Hill-station
Gajanur---------300-Barrage
Horanadu--------300-Piligrim
Mandagadde------300-Birds-sanctu
Shringeri-------350-Piligrim
Ulvi------------300-Birds-sanctu
Nagar-----------320-Archeology
Ooty------------320-Hill-station
Coonoor---------340-Hill-station
Ikkeri----------340-Archeology
Keladi----------340-Archeology
Dharmasthala----350-Piligrim
Hampi-----------350-Historical
Hampi-----------350-Archeology
Kudremukh-------350-Hill-station
Mantralaya------350-Piligrim
T.B.-Dam--------350-Dam
Varadahalli-----350-Landscape
Agumbe----------357-Hill-station
Moodabidiri-----360-Archeology
Gudavi----------375-Birds-sanctu
Humbucha--------380-Archeology
Jog-------------380-Water-fall
Karkala---------380-Archeology
Kaup------------380-Beach
St.-Mary's-Islan386-Landscape
Katil-----------387-Piligrim
Devarahole------400-River
Magodu-falls----400-Water-fall
Mrudeshwara-----400-Piligrim
Satodi-falls----400-Water-fall
Udupi-----------415-Piligrim
Honnavar--------425-Piligrim
Gokarna---------460-Piligrim
Maravanthe------467-Beach
Badami-&-Aihole-500-Caves
Kollur----------500-Piligrim
Kollur-forest---520-Wildlife
Yana------------580-Landscape
Gokak-falls---------Water-fall
Varaahi-------------Landscape
Koravangala-----200-Archeology
Ridge-----------250-Landscape
Mosale----------200-Archeology
Doddagadduvalli-200-Archeology
Munnar---------550--Hill-station

A BRIDGE TOO FAR

A BRIDGE TOO FAR ……Awesome…..!!!!!!!!!

The Lord surveyed the Ram Setu and said "Hanuman, how diligently and
strenuously you and your vanara sena had built this bridge several
centuries back. It is remarkable that it has withstood the ravages of
the climatic and geographical changes over centuries. It is indeed an
amazing feat especially considering the fact that a bridge at Hyderabad
built by Gammon using latest technology collapsed the other day even
before they could stick the posters on its pillars."

Hanuman with all humility spoke "Jai Sri Ram, it is all because of your
grace. We just scribbled your name on the bricks and threw them in the
sea and they held. No steel from TISCO or cement from Ambuja or ACC was
ever used. But Lord, why rake up the old issue now."

Ram spoke "Well, Hanuman some people down there want to demolish the
bridge and construct a canal. The contract involves lot of money and lot
of money will be made. They will make money on demolition and make more
money on construction. "

Hanuman humbly bowed down and said "Why not we go down and present our case"

Ram said "Times have changed since we were down there. They will ask us
to submit age proof and we don't have either a birth certificate or
school leaving certificate. We traveled mainly on foot and some times in
bullock carts and so we don't have a driving license either. As far as
the address proof is concerned the fact that I was born at Ayodhya is
itself under litigation for over half a century, If I go in a
traditional attire with bow and arrow, the ordinary folks may recognize
me but Arjun Singh may take me to be some tribal and, at the most, offer
a seat at IIT under the reserved category. Also, a God cannot walk in
dressed in a three-piece suit and announce his arrival. It would make
even the devotees suspicious. So it is dilemma so to say."

"I can vouch for you by saying that I personally built the bridge."

"My dear, Anjani putra, it will not work. They will ask you to produce
the lay-out plan, the project details, including financial outlay and
how the project cost was met and the completion certificate. Nothing is
accepted without documentary evidence in India . You may cough but
unless a doctor certifies it, you have no cough. A pensioner may present
himself personally but the authorities do not take it as proof. He has
to produce a life-certificate to prove that he is alive. It is that
complicated."

"Lord can't understand these historians. Over the years you have given
darshan once every hundred years to saints like Surdas, Tulsidas, Saint
Thyagaraja, Jayadeva, Bhadrachala Ramdas and even Sant Tukaram and still
they disbelieve your existence and say Ramayana is a myth. The only
option, I see, is to re-enact Ramayana on earth and set the government
records straight once for all."

Lord smiled "It isn't that easy today. Ravan is apprehensive that he may
look like a saint in front of Karunanidhi. I also spoke to his mama
Mareecha, who appeared as a golden deer to tempt Sita maiyya when I was
in the forest and he said that he won't take a chance of stepping on
earth as long as Salman Khan is around."

Jai Shree Ram


PS: Not sure who the original author of the post is. I got it as an email forward and posted it. I found a couple of links on the net posting the same article.

http://markets.moneycontrol.com/india/messageboardblog/16/51/message_thread/1922761/2222807
http://whimsicalmind.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/a-bridge-too-far/

Balle Balle - India won the T20 world cup

What a great day for Indian cricket. India won their first Twenty 20 world championship. What a great show by the players. They played as a team and held their nerve till the last. There were too many anxious moments in the match. The match was never over until the last over. I was thinking that Misbah almost pulled the match away from India. Thanks to some sensible bowling and fielding from Indians. Good catches were taken.
There was heavy traffic today evening after 4.30 p.m. Everyone trying to head back home to watch the match.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni has achieved a one of the greatest success in his life and that too while serving his first series as a captain of Indian cricket team.

The team which won the world cup

G Gambhir
Yusuf Pathan
R Uthappa
Y Singh
MS Dhoni (captain)
R Sharma
I Pathan
J Sharma
Harbhajan Singh
S Sreesanth
RP Singh

Source of photos http://www.cricinfo.com/

Indian Idol 3

I am forced to watch some of these programs like Indian Idol, Nach Baliye etc. The TV gets hogged during these shows at home.
Yesterday, there was the finals of Indian Idol 3 program on Sony TV and we were all watching the show. The anchor said that people of India were voting to chose the winner of the contest. What surprised me was when he said that they had received more than 7 crore (70 million) SMS votes. First reaction would be - WOW.

But then, if you put your thinking caps on, what occurs is -

In a country of 100 crore, 70% leave in villages. So I don't think that they would vote.
That leaves 30 crore people to vote.
Of this 30 crore, I guess the whole of TN, Kerala and many of the other south Indian states would not be watching Hindi channels.
So, we can reduce another 5 crore of the urban crowd.
That leaves only 25 crore people to vote
Assume that most of the people from other states, would like to watch Tele serials in Hindi and their local language. And also assuming that there are many poeple who would watch other music, sports etc channels, I can conveniently reduce the audience watching sony TV to less than 10 crore - I find this number to be very big too ( Unfortunately, I don't have any live statistics or any TPC numbers - all these numbers are arrived by me by some guess and logic).
Now there are other similar programs (song and dance competition) on STAR TV and other channels which are telecast at the same time. These programs attract good number of audience as well.
Many of the remaining viewers are students on prepaid and other middle class folks with a lot of them on life time free incoming scheme (this scheme doesn't have any messaging or outgoing facility).
Now the voting crowd (in my opinion) is definitely reduced to less than 7 crore (which is the number of votes received). Now think, how many people out of this lot would have cell phones.
With the SMS charges to these programs costing between Rs 3 - 5, how many people would send SMS to make someone win a contest. Even if we go by the logic that some people (5 percent of voting crowd) vote multiple times, 7 crore votes can't be reached.

I think, the numbers are just built up by the TV channels to generate curiosity amongst the audience. 7 crore votes NO CHANCE.

Spiderman Ganesha

Click on the image to Enlarge

Yuvraj 6 Sixes vs England Twenty20 World Cup Match

What a match it was between Indian and England. Yuvaraj Singh was at his best, scoring 6 sixes in an over. Thats a World T20 record. No one has done it before.
When Yuvi got out, commentator said, that Yuvi came like a Thunder and went like a lightning.










Watch the video ball by ball where yuvi scores 6 sixes



Hope India beats South Africa today and go over to the next round

Bangalore Rains

It has been raining continuously in the past few days in Bangalore. Rains are good signs, but can Bangalore handle so much rains. Infact Bangaloreans fear rains.
Rains brings Bad roads, overflowing drainages, pot holes, traffic jams, flooded roads, power cuts and lot more agonies. Bangalore is one of the world's most preferred destinations for IT, BPO and call centers. This city has created jobs for lakhs of people. There is money flowing everywhere. Govt is collecting a lot more taxes. But where is all the money going. Why is Bangalore infrastructure so bad. I won't talk about how Govt should wake up to improve infrastructure. This gets discussed every day in the media. I just hope that something will be done to address issue and we can enjoy the rains in the coming days. We used to enjoy the rain a lot when we were kids. I hope that our kids too enjoy the same. Bangalore should take cue from Mumbai which receives a lot more rains than Bangalore and that too for months.
Just a glimpse, of what happened to our roads last week.

Silk board junction

Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina answers a question

Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Reenactment

New announcements from SUN

Today Sun Microsystems made a couple of annoucements. These two announcements will help SUN expand its business with customers where it doesn't have an account.

1. Sun and Microsoft have announced an expanded relationship including Sun becoming a Windows Server OEM Read more on this at
http://www.sun.com/software/windows/
Sun Streams Through Windows

2. Sun Acquire Assets of Cluster File Systems, Including the Lustre File System

About Cluster File Systems, Inc.

Cluster File Systems, Inc. (CFS) is a leader in high-performance, scalable cluster file system technology. Extensive experience, innovative insights, and proven engineering have enabled CFS to dramatically surpass the scalability limits of modern computing. The Company's premier Lustre File System currently powers clusters with ten of thousands of nodes and petabytes of data, delivering groundbreaking parallel I/O and metadata throughput on many of the world's largest Linux-based supercomputers. CFS provides technical support, training, and engineering services, and is actively working with storage and cluster vendors to develop the next generation of intelligent storage devices. The Lustre File System for Linux is open source software developed and maintained by CFS. For more information, visit www.clusterfs.com.

Read more on this on
Sun Microsystems Expands High Performance Computing Portfolio




Additionally, there were more announcements earlier
The technology landscape shifted again earlier, with another announcement between Sun and IBM - IBM has joined the OpenOffice.org community.

Get a life

click on the photo to enlarge

Sun Seeks 1-For-4 Reverse Stock Split

If the reverse stock split is approved by our stockholders, Sun will exchange one new share for every four outstanding shares. As a result, Sun would have one-fourth as many outstanding shares, but each share would be worth approximately four times as much. In general, a reverse stock split will not impact the market value of Sun as a whole

Read more on
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070905/sun_microsystems_stock.html?.v=3

How JAVA got its name

James Gosling the father of Java says, how it was named

------------
Begin forwarded message:

From: James Gosling
Date: August 24, 2007 8:16:58 PM PDT
To: Jonathan Schwartz
Subject: How was Java named?

The story goes like this:

We needed a name. We had been using "oak" (which was selected essentially randomly by me), and while the team had grown attached to it, the trademark lawyers ruled it out. We had lots of email debates about names, but nothing got resolved. We ended up in the awkward position where the #1 thing stopping us from shipping was the name.

Our marketing lead knew someone who was a "naming consultant" (I don't remember his name, but he was great). We could neither afford the price nor the time of a conventional product naming process. He agreed to do something rather odd, but effective and quick: he acted as a facilitator at a meeting where about a dozen of us locked ourselves in a room for an afternoon. He started asking us questions like "How does this thing make you feel?" (Excited!) "What else makes you feel that way?" (Java!) We ended up with a board covered with essentially random words. Then he put us through a sorting process where we ended up with a ranking of the names. We ended up with a dozen name candidates and sent them off to the lawyers: they worked down the list until they hit one that cleared their search. "Java" was the fourth name on the list. The first name on the list was "Silk", which I hated but everyone else liked. My favorite was "Lyric", the third one on the list, but it didn't pass the lawyers test. I don't remember what the other candidate names where.

So, who named Java? Marketing organized the meeting, the consultant ran it, and a whole pile of us did a lot of yelling out of random words. I'm honestly not real sure who said "Java" first, but I'm pretty sure it was Mark Opperman.

There certainly wasn't any brilliant marketing mind who went through a coherent thought process.

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Sun Ranks amongs Top IT Employers in India

Sun Microsystems with an employee base of about 1,000 made its entry into the Dataquest-IDC Best Employers listing at No, 10 largely driven by a high employee satisfaction score. It scores high on compensation and topped the rank on the new age priority, work-life balance.
Read more India's top IT employers http://www.indiainfoline.com/news/innernews.asp?storyId=43817&lmn=1

Sun Rising

Recently Sun Microsystems announced that it is changing its ticker symbol from SUNW to JAVA.
Today more people know Java than Sun Microsystems. Company is using the popularity of Java for it branding. This has not been received well by SUN fans and other techies. Read the comments on Jonathan's blog http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/java_is_everywhere#comments
Sun, once the darling of Wall street is trying very hard to stay profitable, after years of bleeding. Recently it announced a partnership with Google, in which they'll be distributing StarOffice for free as a part of their Google Pack.
Sun has always come out with very cool technologies, but somehow not been able to convert them to revenue. Hope these new marketing gimmicks will help SUN to be back on top as the most preferred Hardware/Software vendor.

How Men Talk to their Wives on the Phone

Easy Auto in Bangalore. So no more auto rick problems

I found out about Easy auto from a friend of mine today. I have not used their service. If someone has used this service and has had any good/bad experiences can post their comment here

How does Easy Auto Work?
Passengers have to register themselves using Passenger Registration Kits (PRK), to avail door-to-door service at a cost of Rs.75/-. Any one in the family can avail Easy Auto using the same registration. That is, using a single PRK you can register up to ten phone numbers, which will be used as identifiers by the computers.

Registered passengers can use Internet, Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) or Short Message System (SMS) to hail an Easy Auto. Others can simply hail one, at any of our Easy Auto Stands or on kerb side.

For hailing Easy Auto using SMS, you will have send in your location code to 9844-11-22-33. You will get a receipt confirmation message along with request code. If this message does reach in 5 minutes after your SMS, you may have to try again. Please remember any network congestion can affect smooth flow of SMS. After the confirmation SMS, you will get another in a few minutes along with Easy Auto number followed the auto driver's mobile number. To complete the procedure a parallel SMS will be sent to the auto driver. Please ensure to call the Easy Auto driver within 5 minutes or else he will be assigned to another passenger.

For hailing Easy Auto using IVRS, you will have dial 9844-11-22-33 and follow the instructions told to you. To complete the procedure a parallel SMS will be sent to the auto driver. Please ensure to call the Easy Auto driver within 5 minutes or else he will be assigned to another passenger.

Who can use Easy Auto?
Easy Auto can be used by anyone. A registered commuter gets door-to-door service. For registration, the user will buy a kit from any of the Spice outlets in the city at a cost of Rs.75.00. This is a one-time fee to be paid by the commuter.

Visit http://www.easyauto.in for more details

Happy birthday India

India completed 60 years of Independence on 15th Aug 2007. Here is a small video wishing the motherland a Happy birthday

Code for Freedom Contest from Sun Microsystems

Code For Freedom is a 6-month campaign in India's academic community. With a theme that ties Open Source to Freedom. Sun Microsystesms is launching this campaign during the 60th year of Indian Indpendence. The associated contest is open to any college student in India and provides laptops, iPods, equipment, and T-shirts as prizes. The goal of the contest is to catalyze academic community participation in Sun open source projects.

SUN is showcasing OpenSolaris, NetBeans, GlassFish, OpenPortal, and Apache Derby. http://in.sun.com/codeforfreedom

Accident I witnessed

Today morning, I left home early and was on the way towards Mysore road. I was at this junction where roads from 3 residential areas converge towards the Rajarajeshwari nagar main road. All of a sudden, I heard a big sound and when I turned towards the direction of the sound, I could see 2 people on scooter skidding on the road. My view was obstructed by a passing BMTC bus. I heard some commotion and some screaming. I quickly parked my car and went towards the accident zone.
I first thought the BMTC bus had hit the scooter, but no one in the scene claimed so. What I figured out was that, due to continuous rain the previous night, the road was wet and the gentleman riding the bike had applied breaks at the junction and skidded.
I saw that the man who was riding the bike was up on his feet. He was wearing a helmet and wasn't hurt. His clothes were a little dirty. The other person was still on the ground and was screaming in pain. As I approached, I noticed that he was bleeding from his leg, as his leg appeared broken. People had started gathering and discussing on what could have happened.
The victims seemed to be BHEL employees going to their workplace in the morning. Now a few more BHEL employees appeared on the scene. A lot of people had gathered but not a single person was ready to do anything. They were all mute spectators. As no one cared to bother, I thought of taking him to the hospital in my car. Then someone called for an Auto Rickshaw. I thought auto rickshaw would be a better option to take him to hospital than a car as getting in and out of the rickshaw is easier. Even after a minute the rickshaw driver did not come. Then, one of the BHEL employees said that he would get his car. I rushed forward to help this man to the car. To my surprise, I did not get any help from anyone else. One person lifted him by the shoulder and I lifted the victim by his legs and waist. We needed more help as the man's other leg was hanging. I kept asking people to come forward and help, but it all fell on deaf ears. After asking a couple of times, one gentleman came forward, but with a cigarette in his mouth. He wouldn't let go of the cigarette, but atleast he came to help. The 3 of us put the injured in to a Maruti van. I asked the owner of the car to take them to Manipal Specialty hospital which was around 2 km from there. Now a couple of other employees joined the victim in the car and they drove to the hospital. I did my little part at the spot and left for my office.
I had seen in Indian movies that when an accident occurs, people stand watch. No one comes to help. It wasn't that bad this morning, but not good either. We need a system like 9-1-1 like in the US, where one can expect help within minutes of making a call. We took more than 5 minutes to get the person in to the car before he was rushed to the hospital.
I wish that man a speedy recovery.

At Big Bazaar

We generally visit Reliance fresh store for our vegetable shopping. They have given us a 'Reliance card'. Every time we shop at Reliance store, points get accumulated which can be redeemed later.
One day I happened to visit Big Bazaar, and was looking for some toys for my kid. One gentleman wearing a Big Bazaar uniform approached me and asked me if I needed a Big Bazaar card. I was not very keen but he kept asking. So, I asked him, how I would benefit. He told me that every time I shopped at Big Bazaar, I would be accumulating points which could be redeemed later. I was wondering how it was different from a reliance card. He told me that every month, I could just walk in to any Big Bazaar store and pick up 1 kg of sugar free. This got me interested. So, I thought, why not try it as I wouldn't be losing anything. I asked him what I had to do. He presented me with a form and asked me to sign it and give my visiting card and he would fill up the rest. I did so, without even reading the form (what a moron I was). The guy was courteous and told me that the card would be mailed to me and walked away thanking me. I totally forgot about it.
After a couple of days, I started getting cards from ICICI executives asking me if I had applied for a credit card. I answered them in negative. I got a couple of more calls regarding the same which made me think. I then realized, what could have happened. By signing for a Big Bazaar card, I had actually signed up for a ICICI credit card. The ICICI executives confirmed my thoughts.
I had made a fool of myself by not realizing that it could be a credit card and not a card like reliance card. I can't blame the Big Bazaar totally, but they sure did hide facts from me. Never did that person tell me that I was applying for a credit card. He kept repeating that it was a Big Bazaar card. A good marketing trick, as the word 'credit card' would chase many customers away. I am sure many people would have become Bakras like me.
After nearly a month, I received the credit card with Big Bazaar photo on it. During that month, I had to answer too many calls from ICICI who kept calling to confirm my date of birth and my address, Grrrr. Any ways, I am enjoying free sugar every month. Today, 1 kg of sugar costs around Rs 15/-. So, I will be benefited by Rs 150 over a year.