Vishva Rupa...

I know there are too many disciples for Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Couple of years back when he conducted the world conference in Bangalore so many foreigners from US, Europe had visited. I was traveling back to US when I happened to see so many of the Americans & Europeans returning back from the conference and carrying so many photos & photo albums of Sri Ravi Shankar. For one moment, I felt like may be there are not many people in India like me who haven't recognized him & his 'power'... Just like Buddhism is not being followed in India but in other countries though Buddha is from India.

Anyways, recently I happened to hear his speech & there were as questions from audience too. One question was like 'When are you going to show us your vishva rupa like how Krishna showed Himself to Arjuna?' That is when i realized that people are considering Sri Ravi Shankar as an avatar of Lord Vishnu.

Personally, I can accept a human being scholarly, elderly, knowledgeable who can give you his blessings & advice but cannot accept him/her to be God...

Remixes...

The new cine songs in Tamil films are getting into the trend of doing remixes of all those hit dance tunes of 70's & 80's. The best part is, the tunes are proving to be really all-time hits. Everything seems to get synch'ed very well..

Song selection, mixing, voice selection, music - Vasantha Mullai, Eai Aatha, Engeyum Eppodhum, ponmagal vandhaal.

BTW, don't we have any copyrights for all those tunes?

Wireless...

After I have landed back in India, at last I found sometime to set up my Wireless router (with 220V to 12V adapters for the US modem which has its 120V power supply etc). Felt so good to set it up and now I want to access things wireless using the laptop which I have.

The one I have is provided from the company & is Dell Latitude D600 with Intel Centrino Mobile. As I used to do before, I thought this'll also be a very smooth process - MAC, WPA, Access List, Static IP, Modems etc. Everything is ready except the Wireless properties under 'Local Area Connection' properties or the wireless icon in system tray. So, after some initial analysis & setting up things in bios, I'm still not able to get my notebook connect to my router.

Fn+F2 is also not working. Rather I'm not sure if it is working or not. And the best thing is there is quite some references in internet about this but nothing really useful. I also tried the Dell Support site but in vain. Still trying...

CNN Heroes

I have been a great admirer of Sri. S. Ramakrishnan and I guess, I have written about him couple of times.

I recently came to know that he, the founder & president of Amar Seva Sangam, Aiykudi, has been selected by CNN as one of their heroes. The program on him is to be telecast on AC360 on 30th November at 10PM(ET) or 11PM(ET) or both.

Well, me being in India will miss it but no complaints because I keep talking to the HERO himself every now & then.

Mobile in Emergency

An email which I ran into today... Maybe useful.

"We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends.

If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this "ICE" (In Case of Emergency) Campaign.

The concept of "ICE" is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name "ICE" (In Case Of Emergency).

The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as "ICE."

For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. A great idea that will make a difference!

Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our Mobile phones today!

It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest .

ICE will speak for you when you are not able to!"

Thanks
Vardhini

Vocabs Mean Donation

Such a simple idea but will make some difference for someone in this world. If you are good at your vocabulary then you may want to try it out and see how good you are. The website is FreeRice.

It is entertaining, fun, improving your vocabs and ofcourse it gives you satisfaction because of the underlying cause and the amount of rice - well not that much but it sure can make a difference - you are donating. Hope it is truthful to its cause.

Quick Tips on Investment

I have started writing more on finance now a days - No idea why. So, being in a flow - here are a few quick tips on investment

• Do your own research. It's all your funds.
• Ask questions & get things clarified.
  
• Plan, proceed & make decisions. If you are not too sure, you don't take your step forward or do take your step backward before you lose much more. Don't make haste decisions.
  
• Always learn from your mistakes.
• Make things long term instead of daily trades.

Electric Two Wheeler

The new 2 wheeler introduced in India, Hero Ultra is making news. Why?

• Because it is being run in electric. That reduces the cost by 1/10th compared to petrol driven.
• It is less priced.
• It can give like 70+ mileage per charge.
• You don't need RTA registration.
• You don't need pollution testing.
• You don't need a driving license to drive it.
• Your maintenance cost is reduced drastically.
  

The only thing that can pull its sales back is, we can go only max of 25km/hr speed.

Google News - Biased

Google News has really grown up on me for its information, coverage, how we can personalize the page and some others. But...

The top stories in the first page are mostly say 90% about US. I mean, today's headlines should have been about the terror attack in UP, India but still that hasn't occupied the top. It is all about how Arab countries are handling US dollar fall, oil pricing, Iran etc. So, even when we see top stories in India, yes I can see the news about blasts but the headline is still from 'Voice of America'. So, you see what I mean by biased?

I think the links are listed based on their popularity and how many people read such news items. As a news site, they should change on how the links are being provided taking the actual news itself into consideration and how crucial it is. What say, G?

BTW, the site has too much of refresh issues recently and it has got nothing to do with Firefox 3.0 (Beta).

Are Bucks In?

That LSU loss to Arkansas today should have been a great thriller. What else you need - The #1 BCS team game, home game and still the team couldn't get themselves a win, that too a crucial game which turned out to crush their National Championship title game.

Now, turning to the next set of teams in the BCS - Kansas(2) & Missouri(4) - The Big12 leaders game. I feel it;s Missouri's game and hence Kansas should go down in rankings.

West Virginia(3) has still 2 games to go on to decide their fate. With Kansas also down WV will be at top spot and as per this year's trend they need to lose a game:)...

So, it all boils down to Bucks & Missouri... How weird?

Titanic Revisited

So, the news of yet another Cruise ship getting hit by an ice berg and is now being in the verge of sinking reminds us only of Titanic. Though now, there are no dying passengers as reported and everyone is safe enough.

But even after such a long time from Titanic, do we conclude that people haven't learnt a lesson about such tragedies? The whole cruise ship is sinking because it is taking water into it & the hole is because of ice berg. Can't technology find some simple solution which can look out for such items around the ship's circumference, cut them through if needed?

MFs in US

When I think about the Mutual Funds in US the global funds have been in the top when compared with other sector/diversified funds. Especially the Latin American funds are topping the chart for may be for past 3-5 years. Brazil should be the one which is driving such good results and it is quite visible from Brazil's stock market index. Also, Mexico effects can't be overseen it seems...

It just proves yet again that BRIC with other Emerging economies are more likely rocking the world and even grown economies like US are much influenced. BTW, Head of Morgan Stanley's Emerging Markets Strategy is cautious on India & China when compared to Brazil, Russia, Taiwan & Turkey... Some new developments.

Why SIP?

When we know for sure that the market is having an upward slope why should we go for a SIP? We are actually increasing the risk rather than averaging it out.

Especially like the Indian Market which is driven now a days more & more by the large cap segment, there is no point in using SIP for large cap funds. Our SIPs are going to get less & less units on a monthly basis as the NAV keeps increasing. Probably, the same should be considered on small caps & mid caps which are more oscillating and not really seeing the growth which the market "seems" to show.

One time investment is best for now but should we wait for correction because the NAVs are at their new peaks & still increasing. Even a correction will be in small scale and the market shows no signs of decline. So, my take is even now is no bad time. Use SIP if you are left out with no option...

Best Warne Delivery

Someone reminded me of Warne's best spin ball. Here it is...

Global Warming

With too much of attention from all quarters of the world on the global warming especially UN submitting the final reports from the research done by some 2500 scientists, what are the leaders from countries gonna do about the same?

The best thing that is going to initiate some attention from everyone is carbon emission taxes for all levels of daily life including business organizations, business leaders, political leaders to a common man. The 'some' attention will turn to be a 'huge' factor if the tax is heavy compared to all others.

Also, things should happen voluntarily - products should come up with information on how much carbon emission is it going to do over the years of its life - like people looking for expiry dates, like now a days look into 'saturated fat' level for edibles, we should start looking for carbon emissions.

A small change should tickle the right emotions of every human being and that'll put in a revolutionary change - Something like the mask in 'V for Vendetta'.

Losing War

Bush keeps asking the congress for more funds to tackle all problems in Iraq & Afghan. How many ever times he keeps asking, he already know that atleast the Iraq war was an unasked one and a huge blunder which he initiated... which is becoming more of an expense with no ends seen.

With no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the basic reasoning behind the war is void. With no sight of Bin Laden & not much of progress in Iraq, he doesn't want to pull any strings on Iran. The only thing he is doing good now is, as a leader he is still motivating his troops to get things to an end.

End?? But where is the plan? Are there any fruitful progress?

Infrastructure Funds

All indications are still very strong for investing only in Indian Infrastructure funds. My analysis on equity MFs gets me back almost all the infras as consistent performers.

• ICICI Prudential Infrastructure
• UTI Infrastructure
• JM Basic
• DSPML TIGER
• Canara Robeco Infrastructure
• TATA Infrastructure
• Couple of opportunities & sector based funds
  

BTW, how is DSPML Technology alone always leading the Tech sector and is still giving positive returns in spite of decrease in dollar value?

No profits... From 'Sivaji'

The word is out from most of the distributors of the movie that Sivaji, the movie from Rajni has not met up to their expectations. I already wrote that the movie is nothing but any other Director Shankar's movie with similar story line but the spending has been more than lavish. Hype, AVM-Shankar-Rajni-ARR combo are only the factors.

The timing of the movie release is also like the movie got to occupy the theaters for 150 days which will end during the Diwali time frame. Ofcourse, the combo pack would have made enough profits but same is not the case with the middlemen.

What More in a Mobile?

Yesterday I was seeing Nokia N95 and was having discussions with my friends on what more...

• To start with, N95 can be just upgraded only to 4GB. When iPod's are having 60GB we can't accept only 4GB upgrades. Cell phones should come to a level to replace external hard drives in short.
• Battery life need to be increased considerably.
• Along with GPS, it should start acting more like Satellite phone.
• We should be able to watch live television programs by directly linking it to satellites.
• Cell phones should in short replace laptops.
• They should have bio-thumb scanning, voice scanning, eye scanning to be accessed.
• An in built mirror
• Projector
• A credit card storer - initially to store those external credit cards & get back the ones which we need. But later the cell phone should itself become credit cards - Just store the codes to act as Visa, Mastercard, Amex or whatever. The customer selects what he wants to swipe/scan and that happens.
• An compact optical disc custom built for mobiles only which stores info, videos, movies...
  
• Looks like I can patent some of them:)
  

Deal or No Deal

Here is the game... & I guess many people would have watched it. It is a sure craze from NBC channel at US.

My question is, what is the calculation behind it. In simple words, it seems like the banker's offer is some percentage of the expected value. So, all I did is played the game once to determine the expected values and the percentage offers made by the banker. Then I played once again and seems like the values tally. Here is how the calculation goes...

• When we have 20 boxes (after opening 6 boxes), offer is 10% of the expected value
• With 15 boxes left, offer is 30% of the expected value.
• With 11 boxes, it is 75%
• With 8 boxes, it is 83%
• With 6 boxes, it is 95%
• From this point onwards only one box will be opened before the next offer is made.
• We'll get 100% of the expected value from here...

So, now the question that stands is, why only those specific percentages are offered every time instead of directly offering the 100% of the expected value?

IRS Wanna Return

Just couple of days back only I had written about Indian tax returns filing and how they are delaying the refunds they have to send.

At the other end of the world in US where I have had only good experiences till now obviously there will be people who wouldn't have got their refunds from Feds on time. Well, here is a good news about how the IRS are willing to give back the pending refunds. The best thing is, a person can search to know if he really has some balance to be obtained... Hope, India too turns all those documents & ledgers into bits & bytes.

Cloned Monkey

Guess today's hottest headline from the medical field is the cloned monkey. When monkey can be cloned we are obviously very close to cloning humans but as always it is a question to be answered if this is going to be a good development. As far as human cloning & related stem cell growth are gonna be used for curing diseases and other such medical advancements we can be in the right path.

Have you watched the movie 'The Island'? The concept was great - cloned human beings who live a real life are basically available as medical insurance for rich actuals. If the 'actual' lose a limb, then the respective clone's limb will be used as a replacement hence extending the life of humans by double & more. So, if humans are cloned then we may probably be getting into such cases...

By the way, is Kamal's 'Dasaavathaaram' based on human cloning?

Public Inconvenience

If you drive in a Indian National Highway at night time, you sure can feel the burning sensation in your eyes because of all those glaring lights ahead of you. Today as I was coming back to house driving through the city, I felt the same way... This is because the street lights are all switched off and the streets & roads are too dark. I was in fact cursing people for not switching on the street lamps.

But I realized that it is not the switchman issue today but because of a political party which has organized a public meeting that too not in a ground but in its head office itself which is in fact located at one of the good spots of the city.

No wonder there is too much of crowd, too much of darkness, too many vehicles, too many traffic jams and all power supply only for that meeting. Why the leaders always want to be a public nuisance?

Automation but from outside

To my understanding about the Process Industries automation market, Invensys really has some of the best products in the sector. No other HMI product is even close to that of Invensys. Also, many other products for data collection, logging & reporting from plant floor are also available in Invensys under different sub-groups.

But what turns out to be a surprise is, why Eurotherm has opted to go out of the organization to look for a similar product from ODS. I guess anyone can make a good justification - Eurotherm could have become an internal customer to one of Invensys' sub-group itself. This could've been really cost effective.

Footboard Travelling:)

Avoid footboard travelling...:)

-Thanks to Anil

Thirukkural not on net?

A quick Google for Thirukkural in Tamil and its meaning in English/Tamil is not yielding any positive result. Most of the references lead to what Thirukkural is & who Thiruvalluvar is. There is also couple of locations which gives us all the Kurals but not the complete picture.

How different? Is there no place in net to give explanations for the verses?

Optimizing Business Efficiency

When I used CPlex for deciding the number of part-time & full-time resources to be employed during the four climatic seasons for the accounting department of Huntington Bank and that too with Mixed Integer programming, I didn't find a big deal of it. Because once I was able to clear off the variables, constraints, assumptions, inputs and the optimization equation CPlex was more like using any other tool or language to put my requirements into equations to get the answers which I need.

So, how far CPlex 11 is going to be more useful? Does it have it's own library functions? Are there in built equations which we can tweak for our needs?

ERP to ECS

Though there is quite some good market that can be catered with ERP systems, organizations which are very much stable now with their existing ERP are looking to move forward. The shift is quite visible in the process industries who are moving from ERP systems to Enterprise Control Systems - The system where the ERP will be integrated with real time data collection & reporting from the plant floor environment so that the top management get better visibility...

IPS & SAP are working closely on this. A new terminology at the classes of Operations Management & Supply Chain Management in B Schools:)

HCL - Out of the box

HCL one of the IT outsourcing companies from India is recently being talked about a lot - not for how the company is performing in market but - for the management's approach towards employees. This article in Business Week throws some light on the same.

So, do we get to see our seniors' ranking at any point of time? Will there be a day when the management says 'Employees first! Customers second'. I doubt that!

Also, the brief detail about Nayar is quite encouraing...

"Tall and forthright, Nayar, 45, didn't arrive at the top of HCL Technologies easily. Plunged into poverty in his teens after his father's death, Nayar and his two brothers took turns working, so the brothers not working could study. After seven years as an engineer at HCL, he was tapped to run an internal startup, where he tested out some of his ideas. Nayar can be something of a management iconoclast, unafraid of making provocative statements."

Tax Returns

After quite some years I filed my tax returns at India. I was quite positive because the returns are getting filed online and you also have the option to auto-credit the balance amount from the federals to your bank directly.

Being in US for few years, I was really expecting the returns to come back to me like in may be a week. I know, it is ofcourse too much to ask and that too in India - So, I extended my expectation to say 2 months. But Indian government officials and the organizations never plan to improve or increase their efficiency even after so much of computerization. From the start of April till now, there is no hint about my money coming back.

Looks like I can't keep waiting like this forever. May be I need to take actions to speed up the process of getting back my money. Any experiences? Will I be pulled in for corruption? Is this going to be a smooth process? Or can we reliably wait?

Sriperumbadur...

Hmmm... I happened to go to Sriperumbadur - The place known for Rajiv Gandhi's assassination - recently. People have had been talking about so much of industrial developments happening in that place - Like Hyundai factory, Dell factory, today Samsung announcing its manufacturing facility, SIPCOT promoting the place like anything and so on. Actually, Chennai is thinking about its new expanded international airport in that locality.

With so many things going on what I realized out there is, there is no increase in land value or for real estate investment in that locality. Sriperumbadur is more like becoming an extended Chennai and actually my expectation was that more of human settlements will happen around the locality to take advantage of the industrial developments happening. But the areas seem like they are made just for industries with very few houses coming up. Any reasoning?

Twins

If it is tough to digest a fact like this news for me or for you, just imagine the plight of her parents, how the baby would have undergone such a huge operation at 2 years and the 30 surgeons' condition.

Parents will ofcourse be happy if they know that they are going to have twins. But because of different multi-birth issues which we are seeing in the media the parents should also be prepared for such unwanted tensions & any extreme conditions.

Air Conditioner Criteria

I happened to run a quick research on Air Conditioners and how to select one of them... But the number of criteria seems to be a lot. So just look for the following if you are making a decision.

• Brand
• Price
• Window or Split
  
• Dimension (in door, out door)
  
• BTU (Ton) - This depends on your room capacity. 12000 BTU = 1 ton. And the products range from 8000 to 36000 BTUs. Also, remember to select the BTU based on the total volume that'll be empty in the room, how much will be the usual temperature in the room, how many people & how often do they access the room, which floor the room is in if you are staying in multi-storied building. (Check reference)
  
• EER (represents energy saving) - Move closer to 10.78
• Noise Level - Products range from 25 to 50
• Type of compressor - Rotary (is preferred with less noise) vs Reciprocating
  
• Digital (non-analog)
  
• Fan Speed settings (how many)
• Air direction
• Types of filters - Anti-Bacteria, deo-odorizing (Some new varieties are Plasma etc)
• Ease of cleaning filter
  
• Dehumidification
• Auto restart, Timer, Energy Saver - Really helps in saving energy
• Warranty
• Remote Control
• Preferable - Fast cooling, Child lock
  

Beggars

For quite sometime, I have been counting the number of beggars I'm bumping into (I'll explain the reason down). But from start of yesterday evening till today morning when I was traveling in a train I ended up counting 20.

For sure we won't be seeing so many beggars everyday but such a big number really makes me feel pity for the condition of India. It is ofcourse a very sad feeling but that is not something which makes me feel sympathetic towards those beggars. I'm someone who'll strongly discourage the act of begging.

At the same time, I would like to encourage the act of serving the society by all those charity based NPOs - They also depict the bad state of many individuals and in turn, our country. So, linking the above two - The number of beggars will be converted to a factorized currency amount for charity donation.

Life...

There are other topics on which I had some discussion in past couple of days... May be we can call it a bit philosophical because ultimately the discussions ended up unanswered and the pending questions are like...

• Can we control the functioning of our body? I mean the internal parts like heart, digestive system etc do function on their own and till now we haven't found a way to control them using our brains. Why can't we treat them as our external organs like hand, leg etc?
• Why do we live? Our life span is so short like for 80 years when compared to that of the universe which has been existing for ever but 80 years is no short time for a man. So, what is our life purpose?

Whatever it is... Just enjoy life, those feelings & every single moment - Because life is to be lived.

Indian Majority...

One of my discussions recently went in the direction of how the 'Majorities" (compared to Minorities) are being treated and why they are not gaining enough attention from media and others. There were so many issues put forth and I was more a listener because I never have had thoughts in that direction...

• What happened to all those victims from 1984 Sikh massacre? Did they really receive some compensation?
• What happened to all those who got burnt in 2002 at Godhra? They were just pilgrims returning from a holy trip and they were all burnt to death with petrol & closed train doors. Did they receive enough attention and justice? But why the Muslims alone who died because of Hindu leaders alone becoming a burning issue after 5 years?
• How could Karunanidhi make a call that there is no Ram god? Can he do the same against Christians or Muslims?
• Why is Rizwan's (the husband of Priyanka) death alone getting so much of attention? Aren't such things being committed against Hindus too?
• The beating of Taslima Nasreen in Hyderabad on her articles against Muslims gained more attention...
  
• And so on & many more...

Aren't Hindus not properly being represented in their home land? Or have Hindus become emotionless...?

Indian Business Market

As I was travelling around during Diwali, I happened to know that one of my relatives is working for Honeywell contols at Chicago and it seems, has been trying to get back to India for quite sometime. To my surprise he has lost faith in getting a good break in India as he is not getting the job he needs after a try for like 5 years. That is in fact surprising in such a booming economy like India.

So, are the developments happening only in software & IT sectors in India? And as we can always hear now a days, are the Reliances & the Ambanis the only people from large cap & from sectors other than IT who are driving the Indian markets? May be it is true, because my relative revealed another truth that Honeywell has their development center at Madurai and not in any of the major IT hubs in India. And that is one of their primary strategies to reduce their costs. Everyday, many leaders in IT sector keep discussing about India not being an cheap labour place any longer, but the reality is still the IT jobs are being pushed into India to only reduce the costs.

Well, at the other end yet another relative was telling me how the textile market has always been on the boom. Most of the branded clothings at US can be seen to be made at Asian countries like Pakistan, India, Thailand & Indonesia. My relative is at one of the top posts at a factory meeting more than 40% of Victoria Secrets demands... How surprising - Those luxury lingerie niche market being catered by Limited Brands is mostly from India?

Lights

WISH U ALL A VERY HAPPY, SAFE & PROSPEROUS DIWALI!!!

Can all traditions be followed?

There are many traditions in Indian & Hindu culture and they have been followed blindly by our ancestors, parents & even by us. But can all of them be followed as they are?

This topic is out here because of Jaswant Singh's recent controversy of serving diluted opium as per a tradition in Rajastan for an occasion. Jaswant being a senior BJP leader, one of the ex-Foreign minister & ex-Finance minister should definitely have had given this some thoughts.

This issue is getting enough recognition that this'll sure set an example for everyone from committing such blind crimes... What say?

Slump...

With effects of US subprime crisis still lingering, European markets are facing hardships. The latest news is about CitiGroup CEO stepping down.

But what is going on in the slow moving Industrial Automation market? When the whole European market is in slump, Invensys has gained. Heard from Ulf Henricksson CEO that actually the firm is going back to acquisition formula starting with Cimnet & its 'Factelligence' technology. But seems like the firm is actually reorganizing itself - like that of APV sell-off, the recent news on takeover talks in the controls segment and the heavy concentration on Railways... Wait n watch...

2 Q's for Today

• Why is Pakistan cricket team asked to continue their tour in India in spite of their nation being in Emergency? Is it possible for an individual to concentrate on things when his home country is under military rule?
• Why is Gold price increasing non-stop and is beating some 8 year old records? Is it because of USD value declining?
  

Emergency...

George Bush has always been keeping US people under fear of terrorism and attacks and Musharraf is no different.

He has also been trying to keep Pakistan under his control - now with things all going against him and not able to stop the violences - he is imposing emergency in the whole of Pakistan. My guess is the Supreme Court decision on his running for Presidency as Military chief should be going against him. The rule always applies - "Never ever take a military ruler or a dictator for goodness of a country".

US should first stop funding Pakistan & supporting Pervez. That'll probably initiate to put a full stop for his dictatorship...

Auto Strike

I still can't understand the reason behind all these auto rickshaws in strike at Hyderabad. There are two good things that are happening now...
1) All autos compulsorily need to have digital meters. This is just not a change but for sure it is going to help public. Not like in other places like Chennai where autos do have digital meters but the prices are still on bargain basis. Here in hyderabad, auto drivers do respect meters mostly but the only problem is many autos do have tampered meters. So, can you understand my doubt? These people still want analog meters so that they can tamper and exploit the passengers. The basic reason behind the strike is itself invalid.
2) The next action which the Andhra government has proposed is just like Mumbai - To move away from autos to taxis & cabs in few years. This is just to reduce and avoid traffic congestions it seems. Though I still am not able to find the logical reasoning behind this, but still may be a good move. Because the government is providing additional benefits for the auto owners & drivers who would come forward for this transition.
Hope things will be settled soon and public will reap the benefits soon.

Happy Days

No other big budget, hyped up - Chiruta, Adithi, Tulasi - movie are able to stand this low budget 'Happy Days'. With an increased curiosity I watched it and it does meet all your expectations. Actually speaking, this is about college days - seniors, ragging, friendship, love - and so there is not much of a story... The movie stands out because of screenplay, dialogue delivery, expressions & ofcourse a great music. I had always had the opinion that Telugu crowd goes for those colorful masala commercial story with lots of actions, songs & dance. But just like the other film Anand, Telugu fans have yet another time appreciated the well made story.

If you get a chance & if you still are young at heart, you just want to check this movie. Triggers all those sweet memories from your college days...

Trains' open toilets

I guess India is the only country which has trains with all those open toilets. Just imagine how many trains, how many couches, the number of bathrooms, the number of people traveling... And everyone is contributing to a public health disaster in all those tracks which are the basic infrastructures connecting the nook & corner of the country. I with my mom, have been traveling very often now a days in trains and whenever I use the toilets I feel for the country and all those rural people who stay near the railway tracks. I guess, everyone will have that feeling...

With World Toilet Summit 2007 happening in India now, I guess Lalu should get ideas from the same, put his surplus funds from the railway ministry into use and take an initiative to put an end to this health hazard (as noted in The Hindu daily)

Translate

Such a nice editor from Google - You just type the localized words in English as you speak or as you are used to typing in your IM windows and you'll see them right away getting converted into the localized script with the PERFECT spelling. And the best part is it supports some of the important Indian langs like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam & Kannada.

Just check it out!

Before All?

Sometimes we get to know the hot news from someone else before we actually hear it from THE person.

This has happened some times for me but I always wonder how people do get inside information about a company & the proceedings there before even the employees get to know the actual news. One website which has always amazed me like this is Jim Pinto's. He has always come up with the latest sensational news in the industrial automation industry - be it Siemens, Rockwell, ABB, Invensys - before even the CEO decides to make the announcement to the public. Like today's event of APV sales or Mike Bradley's stepping down...

The problem zooms in when the stakeholders get to know such info from such third parties.