In last 2 days 21 babies have died in a hospital in Kolkata. Fingers are being raised on the Hospital management. Everyone wants to know who is to blame.
Once again, I would like to bring the problem of India’s huge population. How? Read on.

The event happened in a Government run, BC Roy Hospital in Kolkata. The children who were admitted were in critical condition. Though the state’s Health Secretary MN Roy explained that last June, close to 280 children were admitted out of which 87 died. However, this year 395 children were admitted but only 86 died. Well, he had to say something so he used his statisticians.

Everyone wishes to have everything in order and wants the Government to offer World Class services but no one cares to help the cause.

USA is 3 times larger than India in terms of the total area but holds 4 times lesser population compared to India. Can you imagine how difficult it is to manage this enormous mass of people in a country like India? Of course, everything is possible but the pace at which the population has increased, the economy or services had no chance to catch up. Or we will have to wait for the time when IIM pass outs get into politics to manage the country’s operations.

Another aspect is that the people in the subject who had to go through the unfortunate event of losing their children, would possibly belong to labor class or people poor than the lower middle class, who not even in their dreams can afford to think about treatment in private hospitals. Once again, it is the population factor. Have you ever seen a never ending queue in a hospital like Fortis? No. We have the quality services in our country but they do come at a cost. If someone is poor its his or her own problem.

India carries burden of a large percentage of economically poor people. The trend shows that these people include daily wagers, labor class people. The mental tendency is to give birth to more off springs who can earn more and their financial situation may improve. But they don’t realise the fact that while bringing up the children, they get poorer and poorer and none of the children gets proper attention and care in terms of education or health. A lot of times, they do not get complete education which results in them follow their parents and work as labor and the cycle goes on.

What needs to be done? Well, something can not be done in any time in the near future. The damage has been caused. We may be able to control the population by a crore or two but it won’t help. Something should have been done 20-30 years back. Or people should understand the importance of education. Only education can improve the situation, if at all. Education will ensure the present kids get the opportunity to run with the time and secure the future of their children.

A lot of people may find my views insensitive but the truth can not be suppressed. Imagine, our population was in the same ratio as the US. We would have done wonders. Everything from Corruption to Facilities, Cut off lists to education system, Public transport to Traffic snarls would have been at their optimized best.

Instead of cursing the system everyday, one should accept the facts that population is the reason India is so poor and to survive in this era, you need to be on the money to live a comfortable life.

News Source : NDTV India

I had previously expressed my anger about the E-Filing procedure for Income Tax in India. I had mentioned how faulty the mechanism was and you will be left stranded without getting to know the actual status of your E-Filed Return’s status.

What happened today gave me a bit of relief. I received a confirmation from the Income Tax Department of India that my Income Tax Return filed for the year 2010-11 has been received successfully on December 9, 2010. Well, the surprising thing is that it took them almost 6 months to acknowledge the receipt.

So one thing is for sure, the quickest and easiest method to file your income tax return in India is going to the Income Tax office only. With the current functional situation of the Income Tax Department that I have witnessed, it seems impossible for them make the process completely electronic.

Date – April 26th, 2011
Time – 5:39 PM
A call was made to Dominos Phase 10 Mohali Outlet. We ask for the available Pizza options as the dominos website was not working. The person informs us about them and we ask for a medium pizza. We also ask him if there is an offer available for us. He suggests we buy a Non-Veg Pizza and we can get another pizza free. We tell him that its just a couple of people to eat here so we do not require two pizza’s and would be happy to have some discount on the bill. The person responds that you are calling from Plot No. 444, Industrial Area Phase IX and there are many people working at your place so it should not be a problem. (He knew where we were calling from though he never asked for our Phone number.) We agreed to the deal and asked him to send over the order.

As time passed by, we realized that it was way over 30 minutes and called up at 6:26 PM to know the status on our order. Guess what? The guy now says that your order was not taken as you did not provide your address. Wow! We were surprised by the disgusting people they have sitting over there. Ofcourse, we did not capture the name of the guy who took our call initially so could not complain about him.

So now we ask him to take the order again. Another shock, he refuses to give us the Buy one get one free offer unless we had a coupon. We told him that this offer was suggested by the person who took the call earlier. He still insisted that we had to give them the coupon to get the offer.

Finally our dominos pizza arrived at around 7:00 PM. Dominos Pizza always marketing there 30 minutes or free offer but it needs to go a long way to have professional people taking orders. Everytime you will call them, the call opening comes with an offer which you would never understand in the first go. They just run through the lines just for the sake of it and yesterday’s experience makes me hate them more.

Read about their anti-environment activities here – Dominos Menus Flying Everywhere

It is almost two weeks since the Chandigarh’s new Airport Terminal was completed. It has come as a great relief for the commuters as they had to walk quite a bit while departing or arriving to the Chandigarh Airport during the construction. Though almost all the airlines operators have shifted to the new building, there is a lot remaining.

No doubt, the new Chandigarh Terminal has great space and facilities, a lot of it is still not functional. You would find a Cafeteria for the waiting passengers and comfortable seaats near the departure and arrival gates. One thing you can’t ignore is that the new terminal is still crowded with workers and building equipments and material is still lying around. The washrooms near the arrival gate is still under construction and the security set up is still not complete.

The new Chandigarh Terminal still doesn’t have the machines to scan cargo. However, new facilities like a ticket counter, tour and travel agency and taxi counter are operational in the new building. The CISF has also deployed extra troops in the premises.

My visit to the airport on Friday April 22, 2011, gave me a shock of my life. I wasn’t frisked while entering the airport. I had gone to pick my relatives. Just like the old airport, the visitors need to pay Rs 30 and get a slip to enter the building after showing an ID. When I entered the Chandigarh Terminal, the policeman just had a look at the slip and did not check me. How surprising is that?

The thing that amuses me is that the passengers still walk under the open sky while boarding or de-boarding the flight and the check-in luggage is still carried in the open Tractor-Trolleys. The standard of a modern day city still seems to be far off.

Thanks to – Times of India

For those who just tuned in, read the Driving Sense in India – I before proceeding with this one.

So here I continue, giving you reasons why driving in India is a p**n in the a**.

Reason 4 – The A** Sniffers
Its a usual thing for you to find a car behind you, keeping the minimum distance possible and blowing their horn or flashing the head lights continuously. These are the people who are in such a hurry that they would make your life hell on the road. You will have to pay more attention towards your rear view mirror than towards the front. These people have no patience what so ever and of course no mind at all.

Reason 5 – The I-think-I-am-smart-kind
Quite often when you reach an intersection, you will find a car coming in from the right or left. These people would come almost to the middle of the intersection and leave just enough space for you to pass. Now won’t you be wondering whether he will stop or not? Won’t it be wise to stop just where the intersection begins? Idiots…

I am gonna stop for now. These reasons are the most frustrating ones and I feel like shooting all these people. I wish for a day when our traffic rules can actually be implemented and used against these people. Stay tuned for my coming up post on how to tackle these road freaks.

Its been almost 5 years now since I got my driving license. Boy, I was so excited the day I got the license to drive. But a question keeps on popping-up in my mind. Have I really been able to enjoy driving on Indian roads? The answer to the question undoubtedly is a ‘No’. I have not. Why?

Well, most of you would already know what I am trying to convey here. There are a lot of reasons due to which driving on Indian roads becomes a p**n in the a**.

Reason 1 – The Zip Zappers
You would commonly see a large number of people who are in tremendous hurry to reach their destinations. Though, every now and then every person needs to reach somewhere in a short time-frame but is it worth risking your or anyone else’s life? There are people who would change lanes frequently, overtake every piece of metal that comes in the way, keep on flashing their headlights even if they could see the long queue ahead and honking their damn horns. I simply hate such people. Driving is a great way to take stress away from your mind but with such people on the road, you just can’t relax. Can you?

Reason 2 – No respect for the red signal
People need to understand the reason traffic lights are installed at a point. Either the point takes on a lot of traffic everyday or the connecting roads are blinded and people can’t see if a vehicle is coming till the time they reach the spot. At a time you are in a hurry or in the wee hours, it is not much of a problem jumping lights but not with your eyes closed. One should stop, have a look and pass slowly. People just don’t care and whoosh away.

Reason 3 – The Cell Phone freaks
This is another one of the irritating breeds. Ok, you got an urgent call, you need to pick. Bloody park your damn car on the side and talk. What the hell do you think you are doing in the middle of the road, driving at a slow pace and blocking everyone else’s way? Sheer stupidity.

Phew! I will have a few more posts in the coming weeks to express my harsh views about the Non-Sense Driving Sense in India and the failure of the system to stop this menace.

Facebook has become more important than a television for most of the people these days. People tend to check Facebook before they brush their teeth in the morning. I am not much different than this breed.

Recently while surfing on Facebook, I went through the Account Settings and saw an option saying “Download Your Information”. My curiosity drove me to click on the link and to my amazement, it was something I really wanted to have as an option. It queued up my request to download my facebook history. You must be wondering what information it would download. It gave me access to anything and everything I ever posted on Facebook, My Facebook History. Yes, you read it right, it would download everything. Everything means all the status updates, messages, photos and videos. Thanks to this option, I now know that I joined Facebook. It was September 2008.

The best part about this functionality is that the data is organized in an HTML file. You can open it in your browser and can see an interface just like facebook. It links to everything just like the actual website. The images and videos are organised in respective folders.

I am sure, I would have been quite late in realizing this tool exists and probably one of the last ones to write about it as already 129,000,000 results show up in Google but as I did not find any of my peers sharing this important piece of information on Facebook, I thought may be there are more of the kind.

So, if you are interested to know about your facebook history, go hit this button in your facebook Account settings.

It is well known to everybody, the level of controversies has been brought by the Umpire Decision Review System aka UDRS in the World Cup. The 2.5 metre-barrier of the ICC for LBW decisions, empowered Ian Bell to drive England to tie against India, under the review system. Had the decision been gone to the Indian side, the picture would have been different altogether.

When Dhoni raised fingers against the UDRS, he was asked to learn the basics and read the ICC rule book. But this very rule didn’t seem to be a problem when John Mooney was given LBW after using the UDRS against India on Sunday, though the replay clearly indicated that he was outside the 2.5 metre barrier. I guess, ICC should read the cricket bible themselves and train the umpires on its basis.

This rule outlines that in case there is a distance of 2.5 metre or more, between the impact point and stumps, only the on-field umpire can reverse the decision even if the ball is being shown hitting the middle stump by the hawk eye. Earlier, the on-field umpire could reverse the decision only if the ball was hitting the centre of the middle stump.

Now, what is the point of having the review system if the decision can not be finalized by the TV Umpire? It was meant to ensure correct decisions when the need arises and save the agony one gets into in case of a wrong decision. If the ICC really wants to caryy the UDRS in the future, it would be much better to give the full power to the Third Umpire. It should be his decision that stands out once a referral is taken.

Overall, the system needs to be uncomplicated and easy to get used to. Two different decisions in similar circumstances clearly show its lame architecture. No doubt, ICC flaunts the fact that the percentage of correct decisions in the World Cup has risen to 97.82 from 90.18 due to the use of UDRS but its a long way to go.

Well, we have all talked about these scripted reality shows on television. MTV Roadies is no different. Specially, after one of my friends was kicked out from Roadies 7 Finale, even after being the most deserving candidate due to his all-round performance throughout the show.

One thing I used to believe was that the auditions for Roadies are not scripted. Though they showed only the one which would be interesting for the audience but still it never seemed to be scripted. On February 13, 2011, the MTV Roadies episode of Pune auditions showcased a candidate who touched a lot of hearts. Suraj aka Nagesh, I think would have left thousands of people heavy hearted with moist eyes. An ordinary man, betrayed by life struggled through his youth and entered the Roadies auditions. The judges were stunned listening to his story and for the first time in a Personal Interview they had nothing to shout about, nothing to harass the candidate. They were just shocked.

Here is a byte for you-

Now after watching this, I am sure all of you who are watching this would be amazed by the courage of this lad. Not only did he walk through a tough life but also is determined to achieve. This was something that never happened before on MTV Roadies.

Coming back to the point, I came across an article online, shown to me by one of my friends. I was shocked for the second time and this time the intensity was twice as much as the previous shock. This article revealed the truth, the truth about MTV Roadies and Suraj aka Nagesh.

Suraj aka Nagesh is no struggler. He has been a student of Indian Institute of Bartending. If the image above doesn’t satisfy you check out this link – Truth of Suraj aka Nagesh

Suraj aka Nagesh from MTV Roadies 8 is worthy of the 9th student profile featured on this institute’s website. If you pay attention, Suraj aka Nagesh from MTV Roadies 8 is a happening guy from Jalna with his eyebrow pierced. He is far away from being a broke.

Not only is Suraj aka Nagesh of MTV Roadies 8 successful at bartenting, he grabbed attention of a lot of students at a Bartending Seminar and Workshop held on Tuesday 27th July, 2010 for Merit Swiss Asian School of Hotel Management.

Suraj aka Nagesh P. Mithun from MTV Roadies 8: In 2010, Suraj aka Nagesh from MTV Roadies 8 should have been working in Mumbai as he claims. At this time Suraj aka Nagesh had taken a train from Jalna to Mumbai and worked as a sweeper. Suraj aka Nagesh’s profile, clearly states that he was working at a call center.

The workshop details reveal that it was held in July 2010. It is quite obvious that Suraj aka Nagesh from MTV Roadies 8 Pune Auditions was undergoing the study in the institute during that period or completed it before that which brings us to the conclusion that he was working in a call center in Mumbai even before 2010. Please find the workshop details with the mention of Suraj aka Nagesh on this link.

Studying at IIBT would cost as much as Rs 55,000 for a one-year course and Rs 9,000 for a course for 6 weeks. To head the workshop he would have at least spent an year in the institute.

Roadies 8 is going to be another success for MTV. Now, considering the experience Raghu and Rajive have, it just sounds impossible that a guy could fool them so easily. They have the expertise to find out facts about people. When we can find these over the internet so easily why in the world can’t they find them. So, I would come to the conclusion that it was a stupid script that MTV ran to get more TRP and after everyone comes to know about the truth, their viewer-ship would come crashing down. This was the only reality show that I enjoyed watching though I simply never watched the initial 5 seasons, but followed MTV Roadies from season 6 onwards. So with the revelation of the Truth about Suraj aka Nagesh from Roadies 8 Pune Auditions, you just can’t trust a reality show no matter which one it is.

Special Thanks to -PhotoTamasha

This post is dedicated to my mother and father. I have been through a million experiences so far in my tiny life of 23 years.  What I have experienced is that no matter how bad things go, there is no one else who can stand by your side, no matter what the situation is.

I love my mom and dad. I have been very independent from the very beginning and tried to take my own decisions. I understand that I am a novice when it comes to taking decisions. I have taken bad decisions a lot of times and entered a hole in my life. It is my parents who have stood by my side to support me and make me stand again on my feet. They have not only supported my decisions but also helped me to get back to track.

There was a time when I had a million people around me. They used to help me, care for me and motivate me to do things. But then came a time when everyone was off to their own ventures. I was left alone and made to help my own self. At that moment I realized that people are with you for a reason. It is for their own benefit, their own reason.

Then I found that there are people who are with me forever. They are with me not for any reason, not for any benefit. They are with me just because they love me. They want me to be benefited from their experience. Their love is condition less and they ask nothing in return. They are my parents. I love you Mom and Dad.