Rubik's Cube

Auto & Mobile

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:30:00 +0000

We all witnessed the start of Farrata race F1, where machines zoomed 60 laps of 5.125 KM totaling to 307.249 KM in Budh International Circuit, Nodia. Sebastian Vettle of Red Bull finished first with lap record 1 Hr 27.249 Min. I am not a fan of F1 to watch the few cars racing for so long at the same track. But I am happy and I was sure that this even bound to happen.

Definitely Racing and Motor sports going be new big games in India. Businessmen and investor much watch this arena.

I am not an expert to guess this instead its very easy. Try to list down industries in which India is becoming self sufficient and where not. Its not Software or IT, its not Healthcare or BioTechnology, Its not media and publication. Its automobile, both 4 wheeler and 2 wheeler. Our Indigenous TATA launched Nano, Maruti separated from Suzuki, TVS building bike from loona alone, Bajaj changed the rule of the game with its Pulsur brand. Hero is total India Dhak Dhak.

Software is India’s one of the biggest export, but we still done have any programming language developed by Indian company. We have very few indigenous software applications. We are dependent on oracles and SAP’s CATIA, IBM, Linux, Microsoft and so on. The new trend of Internet based business is nothing new but indianised version of successful business model or ebay, amazon, groupon et all.

Ancient India was full of knowledge of Ayudveda and Yoga, but healthcare are still ruled by west. In the name of Bio technology, we are only a hub of back offices and clinical research centers.

With so many young authors flooding landmarks and flipcarts with Rupa’s, Penguin’s and Frog could only churn out college days romance of different form. All reality shows are franchise of some show abroad. So many years but no creativity and no originality. Hardly any Bollywood Films not inspired by any Hollywood movies.

The point I was making is that the Automobile industry is progressing differently. Mahindra, Tata, Maruti & Force Motors are taking head on with Ford, Toyota and Nissan and Hyunda. I don’t want to list Royal Endfield here as it should not be compared. But certainly TVS, Bajaj and Hero growing towards big brothers, Kawasaki and Yamaha ..TBC

One joke per post: Three companies participated in manufacturing challenge. English company made a needle as thin as hair. German Company made a hole in the thin needle. When Indian company turn came, they printed “made in India” on the needle.

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3 I’s for Success: Invention, Innovation and Insurance

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:11:00 +0000

Locks are considered as oldest invention in the history, much before we invented fire, wheel and other stuffs, we invented ways to secure the food. The form must have changed today but the concept remained the same.

Innovation came into picture to improvise to the extent of protect data using retina. This is because as the race was innovating to secure, another lot was busy ideating to decode. Term it lock picking or hacking. This was not enough to keep mind at rest, human needed assurance.

Origin of insurance is way back in history dated much Before Christ, The Babylonians developed a system which was recorded in the famous Code of Hammurabi, c. 1750 BC, and practiced by early Mediterranean sailing merchants. If a merchant received a loan to fund his shipment, he would pay the lender an additional sum in exchange for the lender's guarantee to cancel the loan should the shipment be stolen.

When I wrote about the invention of Locks, it was time when the human race was not enough human and the business was limited to hunting. Later invention was to find new place in form of new sources and new markets from where the goods can be purchased cheap and good can be sold expensive.

With entire planet been marred by race, humans are now innovating the places like moon and mars and ideating new ways to make life more comfortable and affordable. Irrespective of the irony that the race die out of hard work and stress to make life comfortable and affordable.

Race is inventing, innovative ways to insure, from spending small time from your day for Exercising or paying small amount from your income to a firm whose name, incidentally contains 3 I’s. If you are being lazy for workout, inventions like sauna belts are innovated to help.

In today’s world with abundance of variety, it’s a must to find what invention, innovation and Insurance are needed for your success.

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One Joke per post: A begger found a hundre rupee note. He went to a five star hotel and had full course meal. Bill 3000 Rs. Manager handed him over to police. He gave 100 Rs note to police and got free.

Atithi Devo Bhavo

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:10:00 +0000

Atithi Devo Bhavo commercials by aamir khan were reminded by Mr. Nagyya this afternoon.

A friend of mine had come to Hyderabad for a day for an interview. We went to a nearby shop for taking printouts of his resume. In the hurry to be on time he forgot to collect his USB drive from the cyber café. When, Mr. Nagyya, the owner of the cyber café found that we left the pen drive in his shop. He took out the mobile number from the resume of my friend and SMSed him that he left his belonging in the shop and request him to kindly collect.

When I went to collect on behalf of my friend, he asked me my identity and handed over the small little pen drive with satisfaction.

I wish, our politicians also have heart like him, who instead of stashing the citizen’s money into foreign banks brought it back to country and distributed back to the society.

Charcoal Sketch

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 05:44:00 +0000

Charcoal sketching is something which I had never tried before and was very excited to experience. I had been unlucky to miss most of the classes because of hectic work schedule but made sure that i attend atleast one session. First week I was proud of myself being able to manage both work and hobby by attending all 5 session entire week and no blogging. Then got into the vicious cycle of one task leading to another and thinking that will finish last piece before leaving for hobby classes. Which I could never able to do in the week two except the last 20 mins on day 8th, first day of charcoal session.

8 drawings were put up in the room, we were suppose to choose one and draw all by ourself. Charcoal are of two types, powder and sticks, and what we were given was like pieces of burnt sticks. I somehow managed to get some space in the room which was already occupied and then looked at the drawing placed in that corner of the hall. i had 20 odd minutes before the weekly status meeting would begin. i kept staring at the drawing and picked one stick of charcoal and start drawing without much thinking of the outcome.

I was myself amazed when i finished this artwork and left for the meeting.

Sketching Workshop: 1st week

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:31:00 +0000

For last 6 weeks, I been assigned to a project, which is in big mess and days are very hectic, worst is the work is very monotonous and don't feel like achieving anything. To break the monotony, I joined the sketching workshop, which is being conducted in office itself. The workshop is for 10 days for an hour a day but that one hour is very rejuvenating. I have been doing pencil sketching for a while but occasionally but never attended any classes.

The teacher actually doesnt do anything she shows some slides and ask us to practice or draw from the projector screen.

Day 1: i was amazed at the numbers, about 150 odd people was in the room, and was wondering how the days will go. on the first day we had been given the kit, 1 pencil set consist of HB to 8B, black charcoal, eraser, sharpner and drawing board. The type of paper is provided based on what is to be practiced.

We have been asked to draw lines only , 3inches long, straight, horizontal, vertical, criss cross, wavy, then asked us to draw basic shapes , triangle, rectangle, circle to make the hands free. i could well see the embarrasment on every one face, few felt insulting and stopped drawing. Then we all returned with a home work to practice drawing spiral.

here is what we drawn on day 1

Day 2 : second day we all went with a hope of really learnign something great, after all we have paid 1250 rs each. but second day was no different, she again told us about type of pencils and shading for 2 mins and asked us to draw the basics shapes agian, the only differece we were supposed to shade them as below

Day3: alas we were drawing something on day3 and also learn somethign scientific vanishing poitn concept one point, two point and also three point. and drawn something which can be visualised.

Day4: we started drwaing trees, and stones feeling better.

Day 5: started with a bit of difficulty, we have been given few landscapes and asked us to choose and draw any one. people struggled to find the easiest but all were difficult. we could draw about 10% of it and the hour got over. we are suppose to finish it in coming two days, monday and tuesday.

I hope to complete the big one..and more excited to use charcoal afterwords....

A day without Advertisements

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:19:00 +0000

I had a dream today, i was in a land where advertising was banned and it was such a wonderful experience before i got to know the truth.

I picked up and open the newspaper in the morning and there wasn’t any falling fliers. The all the pages had news only and first page was at the beginning and not after the advertisement page. There wasn’t any posters and banners in the street in the city landscape there were trees but not the billboards. Did not get to see any website name printed at the back of Auto Rickshaw and buses and trains will be cleaner and I could see the route map of the Local trains clearly as there was no stickers on top of it. Walls in the city was clean and painted with political party posters and rally slogans. No embarrassing undergarments drawing and secret disease cure on the railway track wall.

Prepaid to postpaid conversion call, Personal loan upto 15 lacks, Lifetime Club membership only for 99999 INR. Sale at central, lifestryle, peter England, Unlimited food offer at tasty buds, mozzerialla, Opening offer of Fashion and You. All day I didn’t got a SMS or phonel call regarding any of this. I surfed freely over internet, without any popup asking me if I am looking for a house, offering free screensavers nor letting me know the details of hot and single females near my area. No one send me any email regarding my winning million dollar lottery.

BUT just before I was about to enter my house thinking that I would get to see the complete episode without any commercial break on TV, they stopped me. Initially they were few. They were hungry they were jobless. Sooner there were many. There were marketers, there painters, there were artist, there were ad agencies, there were call center guys, models, hakims astrologers etc etc. They were young, old, working professional, homemakers, rich and poor all sorts. They were staring at me as if I have stolen all there money. One shouted from the crowd "hey, consumer, what will happen if you look at those wonderfull hoardings" then lots of voices "what harm, my SMS does to you". "we are in fact paying the bus, train, taxi to put ads on it and doing good to them". " we also will pay you for reading the SMS’s"

BEEP BEEP, i recvieved sms…I got up from sleep..but all the question still linger on my mind.

God's Existence

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Tue, 03 May 2011 14:34:00 +0000

After reading this short story, i couldnt resist but to reproduce...

A man went to a barber shop to have his hair and his beard cut as always. He started to have a good conversation with the barber who attended him. They talked about so many things and various subjects. Suddenly, they touched the subject of God. The barber said:

"Look man, I don't believe that God exists as you say so."

"Why do you say that?" asked the client. "Well, it's so easy, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God does not exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God exists, there would be no suffering nor pain. I can't think of a God who permits all of these things."

The client stopped for a moment thinking but he didn't want to respond so as to prevent an argument. The barber finished his job and the client went out of the shop. Just after he left the barber shop he saw a man in the street with a long hair and beard (it seemed that it had been a long time since he had his hair cut and he looked so untidy).

Then the client again entered the barber shop and he said to the barber:
"know what? Barbers do not exist."
"How come they don't exist?" asked the barber. "Well I am here and I am a barber."

"No!" the client exclaimed. "They don't exist because if they did there would be no people with long hair and beards like that man who walks in the street."

"Ah, barbers do exist, what happens is that people do not come to us."

"Exactly!" affirmed the client. "That's the point. God does exist, what happens is people don't go to Him and do not look for Him that's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

Know the features and Choose Right Mobile Phone for You

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Mon, 02 May 2011 07:15:00 +0000

I had shared in my previous post that I will come up with topic on selecting mobile phones.I am first brieafing the list of features in this post.

Evolution of mobile phone has surpassed the statement "Necessity is the mother of all invention". Cell phone makers are believing that whatever is produced will get sold. This is what making our life troublesome and We tend to pay for what we don’t want or don’t intend to use. Market is inundated with dozens of brands together making thousands of phones with variety of features and most importantly disparity of pricing.

Smart buyers avoid this by simply listing down the features they are looking for and they might need in near future. However to do that one need to be aware of what are the features available and are in the offing. I am attempting in this post to brief about the technology and features which are here now. Firstly I categorized the features based on what popular websites displays and then detail each of it. Though the features are interrelated I would keep it simple for the readers.

Telephony and Messaging:Telephony is the basic, what cellphone are meant for. Very commonly people list telephony as CDMA and GSM, earlier CDMA was advantageous as it supported high speed data transfer, but in GSM arena after HSDPA over EDGE the data transfer speed has increased tremendously, and also in GSM you can swap the SIM card between phone, where as in CDMA one need to get configuration done by the operator. However there is much less threat of SIM cloning.

If you are in international traveller CDMA will not offer international roaming, moreover the presence of CDMA is limited to USA and some part of ASIA and Europe, GSM is everywhere.

With 3G technology the voice telephony will not get affected much, but with better bandwidth and high speed the voice CHAT and live streaming of video and TV channels, currently in India the 3G service are little expensive and coverage is also not very good. There are roughly 30-40 TV channels on Live streaming. There is no unlimited plans for 3G as of now and the limited one starts from 500 onwards.

Please keep in mind that where ever the 3G signal are not available, the device will automatically switch to 2G services.

Messages can be maintained on phone and memory, it can have threaded view and lot improved text input methods, like Swype and voice etc. as you go high. More on MMS, push email etc.

Screen Type, Size and Resolution: Screen resolutions is nothing but number of pixel per inch, so with increased resolution the clarity increased. If one is looking for video and live TV etc. go for high screen resolution something above 240x320. Another factor of screen is type the TFT & LED the advantage of LED is you can view the screen clearly even under the sunlight. Related to touch screen the capacitive touch is much smoother than resistive touch. Other main touch features are

Accelerometer sensor which helps in auto rotate pictures

Multi-touch which helps in pinch zoom and rotation

Proximity sensor for auto turn off

User Interface: User interface very important specially for smart phones, do get a feel of UI and find you like it. Do check the review of usability of the phone you are contemplating on you tube videos.

Battery capacity: very Important, these days with high end processing capabilities of phones consumes lots of power. Ensure that your phone is rigged up with sufficient battery capacity. Mostly in reviews manufactures mention the talk time and stand by battery life only but that’s not sufficient, you should ensure battery life at optimum usage. Android phones has this drawback of consuming lot of juice. Even 1200 mAh is not sufficient on Andro sets it will require you to charge twice daily. Also check for life of battery.

Camera: What you want from your camera, still, recording, flash, resolution etc. a 2MP camera with good lens and auto focus is sufficient for normal use. For recording 30 frames per second (FPS) is normal. Less expensive ones comes with 15 FPS usually. If you want to use camera more extensively there are phones which comes with very high resolutions and much more advance features.

One Need a front camera also called secondary camera for video calls.

Audio/Video and gallery: the quality of sound and video varies a lot, the maker will have usability in mind, if you are using phone for entertainment, check for the audio quality. There are players which plays all formats of audio and videos and some are very limited. Look for the apps in the phone you are looking for. Also the gallery can be organized and synced from your online data, the more high end phone automatically organize the content. Check your needs.

Connectivity: Bluetooth, IR, Edge, dual band, 3G, HSDPA, Wifi: IR is obsolete, Bluetooth 2.0 is sufficient for occasional data transfer, however, if relying of Bluetooth on regular synchronization, then ver 3.0 is required. Using Wifi you can access faster internet on your device using broadband services. If your phone is capable of reasonable browsing capacity do look for wifi. Even if you don’t have wifi, you can access internet using Edge, GPRS or HSDPA or 3G connections. Earlier stated 3 is expensive as of now, but if you look few months down the line it may not be as per the past trend. Using HSDPA which will work with 3G bandwidth only u can view live TV, video chat and surf at much faster speed. Usually the HSDPA these days on phone claims to give 3.6 -7.2 MBPS of speed. Ensure your need.

Processor, RAM, Storage: if you are going to replace your Laptop with handheld device and later sync, if you want to play high end games and multiple programs together then a high processing capacity and higher RAM is needed. If an android phone having 600MHZ processor this will be just sufficient from starting and switching between applications. And if not used optimally this will hang as well. Normally these days most of the phones comes with the extended capacity upto32GB, but try putting one even 16 GB card and access the data on it. It becomes very slow. Only phone with high speed processer can smoothly support 32 GB memory.

Browser: Opera mini is supposed to be fastest browser, so if you are using GPRS which gives data speed usually upto 32-48 kbps, it’s advisable to use opera. Also check the if the flash player is supported or not. For android phone of 2.2 foryo and above support the flash but one might have to purchase from the market.

GPS, MAPS and Navigation: If you travel a lot, this is very handy, even if you in unknown territory, you can find your way using GPS navigation and digital compass. On some phone there are limited GPS subscription and some are lifetime, do check on yours if buying one with GPS build in.

Operating System: Look for operating system of the phone, special focus with intent of how the applications are available on that platform, how it is prices and accessibility. Symbian, BADA, android etc. are common for Indian market.

Applications: how the phone is loaded with applications such as games, SNS integration, search, Youtube, document viewer/editor, photo/viewer/editor, calendar, voice command, audio/video players, antivirus etc. etc. the list is very long, list down your usage and check for them. It should either be loaded or easily downloadable.

Organizer and Documents: if you are checking mails whether you can download upload any application or not, viewing and editing of documents like word, excel, notes etc. are possible or not.

Aesthetic: this is very personal, you must like the shape, size, texture, finish and handling of the phone you are buying.

Value for Money: when a salesperson will pitch in they will try to sell a phone which is fully loaded as you will have all you ask for, but that comes very expensive. It is standard practice that, you should list down the feature mandatory for you and feature that are good to have and you might pay additional dollar to have that in your phone. Keeping this list search for phones available and then from the available list go by the combination of asthetics and pricing.

One very good site for checking the phone review is gsmarena and for online purchase of mobiles with reasonable discount in India is flipcart.

I hope this post will help you choosing the right phone for you.

iBall Aasaan:Obliging Initiative

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:21:00 +0000

Mobile phones are not barely phones these days and that make my dad disinterested using a cell phone, he is more comfortable using a BSNL landline, and so he doesn’t carry any mobile. Which is very inconvenient for all of us.

Ironically while searching a mobile for myself, I came across this phone, iBall Aasaan. I was looking for touchwiz screen, android phone with 3G, WiFi and GPS and this had only GSM telephony, SMS, Flash Light and FM. iBall Aasaan is projected as no nonsense phone for elderly people. I ordered one for my dad yesterday, which Flipcart.com promises to deliver within 4 Working days.

I am grateful to iball who took this initiative to design a phone for elderly folks. The special features it has

Big Number Display, in night time also it looks bright and enhance visibility

One button for receiving one for disconnecting, absolutely hassel-free

With inbuilt antenna FM radio works without earphones

Torchlight works even when phone is switched off

Last but very important: SOS button, at the back of the phone (look at the image) there is an SOS switch, if that is switched on, it will start calling upto 5 SOS numbers sequentially (with redialing) unless someone answer, and it will also send SMS to maximum of 5 numbers.

Saw one review on youtube before placing order. Click here for the video

If I be candid, even i would want to use such a phone cos, I had tough time getting accustomed to my new touch screen phone, I struggled for almost two days but couldn’t figure out simple thing like, how to forward an SMS. Finally, I resorted to a teenager to tell me which was actually easy, simply keep ur finger touched on the SMS it will populate all the option, they call it TOUCHWIZ. I am still looking for help in undoing the bookmark a website, I no longer want.

Signing off with the hope 1. flipcart delivers it as promised & 2. Dad will use handset this time.

will update the feedback of the user.

Anna and the casue: out of sight in Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:53:00 +0000

In my previous post, Lets Stop Pouring Water, I questioned the impact of Facebook in social movements. We saw abundance of messages requests and status updated in SNS (social networking sites). It died out as fast it started. Now can hardly see any such activities on these sites. I must say that FB can certainly be the fastest medium to unite large number of people across geography, BUT the faith and need should come from within or from suffering. There was no FB during national movement for independence, there wasn’t even telephones, but the momentum was huge. Let’s try to analyses the reasons behind it.

Something comes easily goes easily: the momentum was not deep rooted, majority of the people who were supporting the cause actually are seldom a victim of corruption, nepotism and red-tapism. Had they been a sufferer of any of these they would have stick to it. It was euphoria which majority felt and clicked the buttons. I cannot see any follow up.

Impact of health, wealth and ego: One need not have to suffer to protest, but to do so one has to be visionary and educated enough to realize the impact, direct or indirect, on health, wealth and our ego. Another way is to read and hear more from visionary leaders, this will also educate us. i guess we lack in this also.

Herd Mentality: Last week, I had been audience to this play "12 angry men" by Reginald Rose, in that the Jury’s opinion differed when voted in open ballot and in closed ballot. Same way any SNS is like an open ballot count, where people bound to follow the herd mentality. So we all did what is expected from a sincere citizens.

Non herd mentality: Herd or not, we are alike, this has been proven by many postulates of Behavioral Economics and Game Theory that we Indians choose easy way. majority choose to support by click.

Face Value: We take thing on face value, how many of us truly try to analyze the lokpal bill, we believed the bulleted points circulated in mails and links. To be honest how many of us were knowing exactly why anna was on fast. Was he fasting to get the bill passed or he was on satyagragh so that right set of people can come on board the committee who are finalizing the bill.

Conclusion: SNS's are enabler and not reformer, it helps us in achieving what we desire, but for that our desire has be strong.

Let's stop pouring water..

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 18:29:00 +0000

Anna hazare is on fast and rest of the army is on social networks. Post world cup this is the next new topic Netindians has got. I am afraid if IPL will get affected. Recently we all have observed a massive support activism over twitter and facebook about anti corruption lokpal bill. This has been most talked about tweet since world cup fever is down. It’s good that we know we have acute corruption in the country, that needs to be cleaned. But how is the question?

Recently I have put up a “what’s in your mind” status in FaceBook, whcih says "how does supporting any cause in FB helps?". I got good logical responses, saying FB is fastest and very popular and assumption that it helped overthrowing autocrats in countries. My answer is in that case Mark zuckerburg should get Noble peace prize.

If the speedy awareness will solve any cancerous issue like corruption, we should first ask for free 3G connectivity. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying these things are not helpful, but what bothers me is that, people I know are corrupt have put there status like supporting Anna. What is making me nervous that what if our new generation will start believing that a click on support will solve this age old problem. Corruption is a mindset which is in all of us. One bigger chunk, who works for private sectors, who doesn’t get much opportunity for corrupt actions should not be allowed to so loudly criticize. Find me a single guy from any IT company who has not gotten a fake medical bills, rent receipts and possibly to an higher extent like fake salary slip and fake experience letter. People are corrupt to their capacity.

I reiterate that people like official and politicians do the bigger damage to the society but this does not allow the smaller corrupt guys to criticize them.

Bringing the change is easier said than done, even if the bill be passed, it can not cure the core of the concern, if the mindset is not changed. basically human beings are greedy by nature, and if there is lack of governence the greed will override the common snese. that means if lokpal bill is implemented even partially, there will be improvement and hence " I SUPPORT ANNA" and i thank him or his effort for RTI (right to information).

I would conclude this post with an story I read in a book titled “why we Indians are the way we are”. The story goes like this….

One year there was extreme drought, due to lack of rains in a village. The head of the village called a priest to solve the problem. The priest advised, that if villagers will provide offering for the god of rain then there will be rains. He suggested that night time all the villagers has to put one tumbler milk to the dry well inside temple. The village head has made announcement that tonight every villager will pour one tumbler milk in the well. Everyone came out that night to pour milk. But there wasn’t any sign of rains. So next mornign priest walked up to well to see what has happened, he couldn’t see a drop of milk but only water.

Why because everyone thought that if only he would pour a tumbler of water, there wont be any difference to so much of milk and with that mind no one pour milk everyone pour water only.

Only supporting anna will not help, Let’s stop pouring water….

FALTU Review

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 21:59:00 +0000

Yesterday, watched this inspirational movie FALTU, which is acronym of Fakirchand And Lakirchand Trust University. The theme of the movie is a question mark on our education system and on the future of those students who score less marks and stuggle to get admission to college. I particularly like the question protagonist pose to the education minister that "if the passing marks are 30% then why admissions cut offs are 60-70%?". Though the serious thought behind FALTU has been conveyed across audience but the presentation could have been more controlled. Humor was in perfect mix but mainly targeted to younger lot. Despite the flaws, I would recommend it as time worth spent.

We all know the answer to the question, it’s simply supply demand gap. With the current population growth rate colleges and facilities are not increasing. Think how many of us have thought of becoming the teacher. Parents will clap for the movies like tare jamin par and 3 idiots but forget the lesson themselves and brainwash the child to take the proven path only.

I have witnessed finest of artist, painter, writer and thinker doing job which doesn’t suit them. And in the rush to become rich and famous in what they don’t like they have long forgotten what they are passionate about. With few exceptions, the society at large does not encourage hobbies and extra curricular activities.

The new generation does have many formal courses which were unconventional in previous decade; they also have the choice to pick from various career options. But supply is too less in comparison of the bulk of talent we have. We need more colleges, institutions, forums and clubs to unleash unorthodox creativity.

All the students and professionals will write the hobbies in their CV’s but they don’t really mean it. Entry of realty shows like Dance India Dance, Indian Idol, 60 seconds of fame, Comedy circus etc has brought in some changes, but there are lots to be done.

I am intentionally ending this post without any solution/conclusion. Let the creativity rule.

Lesson from Team India

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 21:05:00 +0000

Yesterday was fabulous win for India over Sri Lanka, In fact for the last three games the team has played has defied the Image of Indian cricket team of past. This has reminded me of recent satsang, where Guruji, sri sri ravi shankar spoke about the power of selflessness. He told that the people who have lesser needs and desire for themselves become more powerful. He also told that this is the reason, why we seek blessing from the elderly people. Old people like grandparents usually do not need anything for themselves so they become powerful, they can heal and their blessings work.

Last few days we all have witnessed the gallant and commited team India playing world cup matches. Under the leadership of MSD entire team dedicated the victory to little master blaster. The fact which made them all powerful and unbeatable was that they were playing selflessly. No personal record chasing no grudges and as united single focused chak de India team.

Let’s all take lessons from our champion team and individually take pledge to be less greedy and discipline our desires to make the nation victorious and be proud citizens

Happy April Fool Day

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:55:00 +0000

Today has been very good, very relaxed, a wonderful fool’s day.

First I made fool of myself by getting convinced that the office is closed today and so I can sleep till late. And I actually did sleep till 9 AM.

Then I recorded in my own voice “Its April fool today” and set it up as the cellphone ring tone for today. So that I will be alerted when someone is trying to play prank at least over phone.

I am happy cos today is the Friday and I can wear casuals to office.

I am happy cos today is last working day of three day long weekend, Monday is holiday for Ugadi.

With the happy mind came to office and checked the plan for today, someone has revised the plan for good and all the work which I was supposed to do today has been re planned in coming week. I hope no one is playing prank here :-P

Now since I don’t have much work and relaxed mind, I read articles on 10 best April fool’s day prank/tricks came to know weirdest of idea, the top three I voted were…..

1. Ask your friend for his phone, store your number with some celebrity’s or ex name and send SMS/ call them.

2. Change the setting of key board, operating system in such a way that whenever someone type common work like and, the etc, it will be replaced with some word of your imagination.

3. Put a coat of transparent nail paint on all the pens/pencil of your colleague and then call them to note down a message for yourself.

With the happiness and enthusiasm of today being the Fools day I was eager to know the reason of why April 1^st has been chosen as the day for fools. And the history revealed all….

The history of April Fool's Day or All Fool's Day is uncertain, but the current thinking is that it began around 1582 in
France with the reform of the calendar under Charles IX. The Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day
was moved from March 25 - April 1 (new year's week) to January 1. Communication traveled slowly in those days and
some people were only informed of the change several years later. Still others, who were more rebellious refused to
acknowledge the change and continued to celebrate on the last day of the former celebration, April 1.

These people were labeled "fools" by the general populace, were subject to ridicule and sent on "fool errands," sent invitations to nonexistent parties and had other practical jokes played upon them.

This harassment evolved over time and a custom of prank-playing continue on the first day of April. This tradition eventually spread elsewhere like to Britain and Scotland in the 18th century and was introduced to the American colonies by the English and the French. Because of this spread to other countries, April Fool's Day has taken on an international flavor with each country celebrating the holiday in its own way.

Think if they had iPhone and Blackberries in those days, we wouldn’t be celebrating it these days.

What a Gentleman!

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:45:00 +0000

Do I need it?

Is it worth?

Wait for some more time before prices goes down further.

To buy or not to buy, I contemplated for long and researched every bit before I finally purchased the new touch screen android handset from Samsung, last week. I had not inserted my personal SIM card yet, and was using alternate SIM to get used to of the features. My nephews used it more as gaming screen than I used it as phone.

Yesterday, I found this mobile again before I realized I had actually lost it. The story goes like this…

I was travelling alone from Darbhanga to Kolkata. And as usual all belongings were kept inside the Laptop bag, decked under pillow. When the train reached penultimate station Bidhanangar Road, I woke up and hurriedly disembarked train as the stoppage is for 1 min only. Another 20 mins, i reached my friend’s place, where I was staying for the day. There, we talked about job openigns, career, friends and family before I mentioned about my recent purchase. I was telling him the advantages and disadvantages of inexpensive android OS. I finished tea and moved to show him the handset, and my phone rang, it was GV, she asked me if I have my new phone with me. I told " actually I had switched it off and kept it inside the bag pack". To my surprise she mentioned she received a call from that number asking if it is our’s. She was right, when i checked the bag it wasnt there. I called up immediately, but the phone was not reachable and then switched off. I knew for sure its gone. But to my surprise the guy called again.

This was Mr. B. Nandi, train A/C attendant of our coach. Who found this handset, he struggled to switch it on and called up last dialed number, with the help of someone who knew how to operate it. He waited for me at the station for about half an hour, escorted me to the shed where they retire after journey, checked my ticket and gave back my phone. I thanked him, wrote an appreciation letter, gave some token money and returned back with the questions in mind.

What dint he kept the phone with himself?

Did he knew about mobile tracker feature of Samsung phone?

What would have happened if I would have enabled password protection?

What if the terminating station would have far from the place I stayed?

This has happened once and may not happen again, so I promised to myself to activate the mobile tracker feature, learn more about theft insurance, which I bought for Rs 99 and last but not the least be more careful when GV not accompanying.

Gudgudiya sedi nedo (smoke the hukka)

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 12:59:00 +0000

"Gudgudiya sedi nedo" I heard this song first time in Raghu Dixit concert, he narrated the meanings of first two lines in English for those who dint know Kannada. I was transpired by those two line, minutes after I came back from the concert I was searching for the meaning of entire song and after reading it two times I downloaded the song in kannada. And I loved it. Since then I have individually shared this song with many so thought of putting it in my blog too.

English Translation of "Gudgudiya sedi nedo" poem by the great Kannada poet Sant Shishunaala Sharif, a 19th century spiritual poet of North Karnataka, who is also called KABIR of south India. The best part of his poems is they will take you inside the depth of life so easily that you don’t even realize. Raghu dixit version has meditating characteristics.

I am sure you would love this song certainly after reading the translation.

Smoke the hookah smoke the hookah
smoke out the disease inside you

Open your mind and throw out the daily feelings,

Burn the chillum called faith with help of burning coal called intelligence.
Smoke the hookah smoke the hookah

smoke out the disease inside you

feel good, open the small cloth bag called mind
take out the hash called lust and crush it

put it in a chillum called faith
light it up with burning coal called intelligence

Smoke the hookah smoke the hookah
smoke out the disease inside you

think brain as the body, shape as of chillum.

fill with water of lord shiva [varashishunala]

close this with cloth with regret/feelings...
Smoke the hookah smoke the hookah
smoke out the disease inside you

Only good thoughts(feelings) will raise up,
bad things will get burnt

your fumes will only bring intelligent people near you,
as your thoughts are good.

You will near to lord shiva [varashishunala]

Smoke the hookah smoke the hookah
smoke out the disease inside you.

why being enterpreneur SUCKS

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:26:00 +0000

Do you want to quit that job and work on your own idea? Remember turning an entrepreneur sometimes sucks. Even if you have made up your mind to be the one. Be mentally prepared to face the below listed challenges which are certain. Prepare for some of it and if you can't "Ignore it". I came across this list in the annual copy of magazine “Entrepreneur”.

The banks hate you. They will give a call center fresher a credit card, but not an entrepreneur like you.
Respect you will get NONE, until successful, if you have to pull down the shutter then god only can save you.
That guy next door, who code for living at Infosys or TCS will be apple of even your own parent’s eye.
You will be scum of the earth, for everyone in the housing society.
Your dad will still mention your old job when asked by his friends
You will lose friends. No one wants a jockey who is gone 24/7 building his dream.
you will never have enough money, never in the beginning.
No one will marry you, but that will cheese off your parents more.
No one will date you either. That will cheese you off more.
The government. Enough said.

My advice is don’t try to take care of all or any of the points above, if you try if will worsen. Concentrate on your dream and wait for your time when your idea is sold. Everything fall in place then. Just know it be aware that’s it.

I have done it by typing it. It’s your turn to internalize by reading it.

Limit, Continuity and Loophole

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 13:26:00 +0000

It’s not about calculus, it’s about politicians and officials those who stash their money abroad. When I hear the money taken as bribe to the tune of hundreds of crores of rupees or the combined asset of some officials or politicians being to the tune of thousands of crores, all my fingers get used when counting zeros and still don’t understand the value of it. I wonder do they really know the worth of it.

In one of the similar article in TOI says : "Take 50 crore for a magnificent mansion. Add two lakh for food each month (the price of onions has gone up), five lakh for travel (petrol is getting dearer), two lakh for help (must treat the people right), one lakh for electronics (ironically, telecom prices are going up), another two lakh for education (you have to care for your future) and another four lakh for miscellaneous expenses. That adds up to 16 lakh a month or two crore a year. Take a normal lifespan of another 50 years and you get a 100 crore. Add another 100 crore for inflation. That's 250 crore: $60 million." Read full article

Does the politicians and corrupt officials gets down to that number and do they stop after achieving the goal. Biggest question is do they really able to utilize the money which is parked in some foreign bank. They are being able to enjoy only a percentage, in fact they don’t need more than that. In past, Various schemes by government has helped in recovery, like declaration of black money, retiring 1000 Rs note in 70s etc etc. but the practice has not stopped only. Because people might start taking bribe or illegal money for their need in the beginning but later they can’t stop it, also

They gets into vicious cycle and unable to get out of it.

Additionally, they become greedier by each passing day, without knowing the value and outcome.

We need this money, one because it’s our money and second we need it for developing our nation. The other side of story is we cannot stop this drain as this has become habit and from top to bottom in governance is part of it. What can be done is to retain this drainage in our own country. We should have some kind of judiciary and banking loopholes so that the people having black money can keep the money in India itself and do not resort to foreign banks abroad. By this loopholes I don’t mean to promote corruption, instead recycling the money into country’s economy.

One More Idiot

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:59:00 +0000

I read the poem again and could not believe that this was written by him in the examination hall, when everyone was trying to solve numerical of Strength of Material (popularly called as SOM). This guy was a friend of one of my batch mate. He attempted thrice before he could crack the prestigious entrance of IIT and joined our campus one year later than me. I won’t called this guy looked like a poet from romanticism in a navy cadet uniform, but his eyes were what I would call a pair of speaking eyes.

After completing two semesters, he quit. He quit something he got so hard. But seems he quit because he knew what he does not wanted. I heard from sources that that he started teaching IIT aspirants in Bokaro, and later he left that also to pursue graduation in English literature from Delhi University. Last I heard from my friend that he was pursuing masters from DU.

I little care of what he wanted and absolutely unaware of what is he doing now. But I am sure must not be doing something which he don’t like.

3 Femindiots

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 06:54:00 +0000

This post is about three females, who has done things they want despite being from very traditional Indian middle class families. I call them achievers and feel great to share classrooms with them. Since, I cannot rank their achievement so I am ranking them chronologically in the post.

Sonali : She was the first lady marine engineer of India. Her father was in pharmacy profession in Allahabad, Still sho chosen to take up IIT Joint entrance exam and finally joined Marine Engineering college. This college had never seen a girl cadet before. So all the arrangement had been done to accommodate her. The discipline was tough for a girl that too for four long years.

She not only completed the education and training successfully but also joined the Merchant Navy career, after serving on high seas for 4-5 years she has taken a shore job at Jamnagar with reliance group.

Capt. Poonam Joshi: She had served Indian army for 5 years for short service commissions, that not the point I was making. While at service she has joined the expedition team sailing on pacific ocean. In this expedition 4-5 member troop take head on to ride waves of ocean for 2-3 weeks and abode on the small boat all by themselves.

Post her service in Indian army, she did her MBA from IIT KGP and now working as SAP consultant in USA.

Saraswati : Few years ago in India it was very difficult for a girl to choose profession of her choice, even boys are not getting enough options to choose and get settled down. But Saraswati, first did Engineering from B’lore and worked for Infosys. This didn’t gave her a kick I suppose, so she pursued MBA from IIT KGP and landed job at MNC IBM. But this also appeared mundane, she quit IBM and started preparing for Civil services from Delhi.

She got selected for prestigious IPS (Indian Police Service). She hailed from lesser known village tumkur in karnataka, which has earned her nickname "Tumkur ki maharani" & also "Tumkur ka Terror". We never knew what she was destined to.

My expectation from this post is to inspire younger lot to chase their dream. There are times when we don’t choose right career options in our life, there is nothing wrong is correcting ourselves and changing path. Instead of cribbing about sacrifices lifelong, go ahead and follow your heart and do something you are good at. I am working on a post on tips to choose right career path will be back soon. Until then watch movies like "Patiala House" and "Social network"

PS: Femindiot is combination of Female+Indian+ Idiot, this is an extension of Indiot (Indian+Idiot)

Home Loan: ICICI vs SBI

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:24:00 +0000

When I planned to take house loan last year, got advice from everyone to take it from nationalized financial entity and not from private banks. People supported blindly that nationalized banks are always good. But despite all the recommendations I went ahead with ICICI, because when I did all calculations it worked cheaper for me in coming 3 to 5 years, which mattered more for me, as I feel after 5 years I will be financially more secured than today. I gave all the possible documents required, the representative came home and when I had to enquire anything in branch there was one inside my office campus. Though it took almost a month to get the loan sanctioned, but this was due to the reason I wanted to get interest rate of previous month as exception, this has to get signed by senior authority.

Recently, my brother also decided to buy a house in pune and hence taking a home loan and he followed to societal advice and went ahead with SBI home loan. They had an offer till Dec 31^st 2010 where theywere giving some rebate on interest rate and loan pre closure. He applied well before time, but he dint got the offer. Not because of his mistake but because his file got lost somewhereduring the process. He had to go to local and main branch for every single enquiry. There was no assistance from bank in filling up the form, he had to resorted to outsiders for working on how to fill up applications etc. He provided all the document sought by them, but still they keep asking them for one thing or another. At the end they pushed an insurance with one time premium of 45000 Rs for 17 Lakhs. And additional 8 thousand worth insurance against house property. All these conditional add on’ he had been given no choice. If I can count my brother has taken at last 5-6 full day leave excluding saturdays to run after them. They have not even offered an apology for the delay or losing the file they shouted "Take it or leave it" statement. And he has to pay 0.5% more than he initially agreed for.

I can see the only advantage with nationalized banks is that during the time of crisis it will bother you less. For example when the market goes bad the difference between Private and public sector interest rate will be more. However, with such high inflation and interest rate in current market the private companies playing even with their nationalized counterpart.

I fail to understand that despite all the convenience and fast processes provided by private players and months of difficulties and negligence offered by our sponsored public institutions. Why citizens choose the later. Almost all the top economist says economy is driven by private players in India. This will only improve more when we stop relying on BSNL, Indane, SBI, Post Office, PPF and likes.

We shout for service quality to any private company, but we will say "this is the way it works" for public sector. Why do we want better service only from private sector. The Quality of public sector will only increase when, we started asking for it and live with "NAHI CHALTA HAI"

Sensex, Valentine & You

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Stock market is just not letting bear go away. almost since last one 10-15 days market has cling on to bear and not allowing anyone to get bear for their dear one. Last year you could afford a nice furry pink color bear for your valentine, but this year the lost love of market has come and hit all of us from the back. Two days to go for valentine day, we are praying to the bull to return to his love and roam in dalal street happily with BSE and add some basis points.

It was observed that bull was serving valentine market, and enjoying guarding all the bears inside glass cages, well lit and decorated, This market is happy to release all the bears, red, pink and yellow, to whoever dare to cross the bull-guard. Bull for all, now know that his term with this valentine market will get over this Monday so moved towards the dalal street and from Friday noon the bear has moved 265 steps. Valentine market after knowing that bull will move out of her market soon, resorted to a scam release 2 come 65 steps near to teddy bears, a flat 32.5% scam. The other part of the scam is overnight they move all the Glass cages of colorful bears up by 32.5% and disillusioned You.

You, who was eagerly waiting for this day when you will bring colorful bear to your valentine so that she will forget all your bull (shit) and start loving you, still doing a circus with bull and bears of two market.

Facts:

1. Florists and gift shop inflate the prices by 30-40% during valentine season and no discount.

2. In 2009, 90% of all the online orders with Ferns and Petals, happened for valentine day.and 10% for remaining 364 days.

Two States: one car vol: 2

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:30:00 +0000

In today’s job scenario, we often change locations, sometimes temporarily for short term deputations and sometime permanently when we change our base and company. Central Govt. employees goes on transfer from one state to another. This bring misery for changing house moving goods and transferring vehicle. We get surplus of info for looking out for accommodations and packers and movers over Internet and other sources. But when it comes to vehicle registration, NOC, entry into other state and road tax etc. there is no clarity and information also not clearly displayed on the state RTO portals.

This make more difficult as the rules and taxes are not the same in all states.

In my previous blog, I mentioned that i will collate the information and get back to you. Here is this post compilation of information from various sources, people & portals. Mostly the information is verified from the authentic sources but can change with course of time or exceptions can be found to these

Terms:

Vehicle Registration: This is only an identity of vehicle, given by RTO in a state, to track and identify ownership in case of theft, damage and accident etc., the cost of registration is nominal vary from 100-2000 Rupees. One vehicle can have only one registration no at a time. In case one want to move out to another state and want to change the registration one has to surrender the first registration.

Road Tax/Life time tax: Road tax is given to state govt. for using the infrastructure of the state, earlier the road tax was given for 1,5,10 years, now the rule has changed and one has to pay the life time tax at the time of registration. In case the vehicle is moved out of state this can be refunded based on number of years of use. However you cannot hear this unless you have a relative in RTO.

NOC: No Objection certificate is given for the vehicle to take the vehicle out of state and consent is taken from 1. RTO for tracking and re-registration. 2. Police: to verify that the vehicle is not under theft, 3. Financier : if loan has been taken and if it is hypothecated to any institution than in that case consent of the institution is also required.

Octroi: This is special tax levied by Municipal corporation and not the state, it is tax on entry of goods for use/consumption within areas of the Local Bodies. Very few cities like mumbai, Baroda, chennai etc are levying octroi.

When Visiting other state only as tourist: you can show the toll bridge slip, petrol bunker receipt etc to prove that the vehicle entered recently. If the stay is prolonged than better take the challan for entering the state. There are naka’s at state entrance, but are not operating properly in most of the Indian states. Maximum on 30 days is the period when you can be considered in transit.

When going to other state for some time and don’t want to Re-register the vehicle in new state: Pay the road tax for the period one intend to stay with old number. I am not sure of interval one can stay. But as per AP RTO site, its mention that in case one want to stay for more than an year the re-registration is must.

When going to other state and want to Re-register the vehicle in new state: 　you need to get the NOC from old state authorities and pay the life time tax to new state get the new registration in the new state. Surrender the RC of old state and get the balance of Road tax paid to previous state.

Below is the link for a detailed case by case procedure from Karnataka Hope this helps…

http://knol.google.com/k/rules-to-transfer-vehicle-within-india#Case_1(3A)_New_vehicle_(3C)_30_months

How will you justify this...

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:06:00 +0000

It’s happened with me not once, not twice but many a times at least 10-12 times in my recent memories and it happened again today.

I was busy in the office with my team members resolving an important issue, we were on call from US discussion how to resolve an database issue. The call on my phone was going on for hours and we were checking the possibilities. In the mean time I felt like calling an acquaintance, which was not necessary that time and this idea came out of blue, usually when I am into something, I don’t usually get deviated.

Since my phone was not me and being used for the onsite discussion, I resorted to an old email which had his number. I used my office phone to call them and checked how are they doing.

Once the onsite call got completed I saw two missed call on my phone, from the same friend of mine, I thought he might have called again to tell me something but when I checked the timing he called me before I called him@ 7:05 PM and I called him @ 7:10PM.

I call it………6^th Sense..what will you………

Two states: One car

noreply@blogger.com (Asit Lal) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:18:00 +0000

A friend of mine, who has relocated to Hyderabad 2months ago from Pune and bring along his car, brand new i20, which bears Maharashtra registration. Two days ago his vehicle was seized by a vigilance team and he had to pay, life time tax in Andhra Pradesh. The tax which is 12% for new car is an heavy penalty.

Since the seizure was done by senior vigilance officer, nothing could be done by the RTO officials. Otherwise he could have paid one year road tax along with some penalty, he could have saved lot of money.

Now as he has already paid lifetime road tax to AP, he can claim refund from Maharashtra by registering the vehicle in AP and surrendering the RC of Pune. There are lots of technicalities and nuances of these rules which are not available in any of the RTI portals. One can get some info from less reliable sources over Internet but can not be guaranteed.

State Governments of AP and Maharashtra and likes are claiming to implement e-governance, but fail to provide even basic of information to the user. and we suffer from this inability of government. we can be taken for a ride under exclusive rules which are not made available to mass.

If you are in Hyderabad: Vigilance team appears to be very active in Hyderabad since a week, seem they are running sort of revenues and out for collections. Keep your papers ready and reviewed.

Try searching for any such rules you will realize yourself.

If you spend time to read this blog. do a favor to yourself send feedback to RTI portals if you dont get information.

I will compile the information and place them in next post.