Quotes

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."

-- Lord Bertrand Russell (Welsh philosopher)

"If a person desires to be a humorist it is necessary that the people around him shall be at least as wise as he is, otherwise his humor will not be comprehended."

-- James Stephens (Irish writer)


"Take your work seriously, but never yourself."

-- Dame Margot Fonteyn (English dancer)

Dhaka Palace - Greece

On my recent visit to Greece, last day we came across a strange Indian restaurant called Dhaka Palace. As the name suggests it turned out to be a Bangladeshi restaurant. This was confirmed when we found a very unusual item "beef curry" in the menu.

A small description in the Holiday Inn's catalogue detailed it as, ''Indian curry restaurant with delicious Indian cuisines. Clean, draped tables, perfectly suitable for weddings, parties and ceremonies." This lured us to this place.

Grabbed a cab, hoping and searching we reached there. The restaurant was exactly as described. Walls were oil painted with Indian decors; the old wooden table that we occupied was draped with a table sized tissue paper.

After half an hour of placing the order, none of us were served the items we had ordered. Stuart’s order of cheese nan with chicken tikka was served with a nan without cheese. Ian, who had ordered vegetable biryani was served with vegetable rice and Robin could not make out what he was eating. As I was last to be served, was expecting an exclusively prepared vegetable korma.

On receiving my dish, it looked very fishy and some dredging revealed it to be CHICKEN KORMA. I was completely bewildered at the quality of service, and thanked God for saving me by a whisker. Being a vegan I always prefer to have a vegetarian food. I accosted the waiter to immediately cancel my order and in the end had to do with some simple vegetable biryani only.

Later, next day in the Greek office we found, that there was a better Indian curry restaurant at a walkable distance from our hotel, and the locality we visited wasn't considered to be good and should have been abandoned.

That’s called learning by experience.

Spread Trading

A spread is the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same or similar commodity in the same or different contract months. Spread trading is usually considered to be a lower risk strategy than an outright long or short futures position, and therefore margin requirements are usually much less than an outright long or short futures

Just like with any commodity a spread can be bought and sold at "x" price, and it can be charted just like any other market.

You must be asking "How do I make money if I am long and short the same commodity?" The answer is you are hoping to profit from the difference in the two contract months, not from a trend higher or lower in any particular market. With a spread, you follow the relationship, or difference between the contracts, without having to pick a market direction.

Some of the advantages of spreads are:

1. typically require smaller margin deposits

2. underlying market direction isn't important

3. seasonal patterns exist among spreads

Sunny Sheffield

A month's visit to UK Midland, Sheffield gave me an opportunity to explore UK's country side. Though Sheffield is considered as one of the UK city, I would rather call it a well developed village. It is surrounded by mountains, and roads within the city sway up and down. Whole city seems to have been built above a table of mountains.

Don't really know why is it called SUNNY Sheffield ? Like any other UK city except London, it too has a City Centre right in the middle of the town. There I was fortunate to experience Britain's biggest Halloween party called Fright Night. On the night, locals get together on the street fancying ghostly characters. There are traders who come around to sell articles of speciality and for kids, there are loads of games in action. I could not stop myself from clicking continuous rounds of photographs. They will soon appear on buzzy_biz. To view them you will require a yahoo id.

Meadowhall is another magnificent shopping place to visit. It is considered to be one of the biggest malls of UK. Tram service from City Centre gets you over there. Other major attractions around the city are York, Alton Towers - biggest amusement park of UK and Castle town.

While returning from Sheffield to London, until halfway I had Ford Galaxy to my availability while remaining half was covered by Mercedes. Timing were almost similar to what it takes to reach Bombay from Pune. We touched London in less than 3 hours, while it took another 2 hours to reach home. It seems same traffic situation applies to all major world cities.

If you are visiting UK, Sheffield is worth visiting, even it means for a shorter duration.

New wave of spammers

A couple of days back Guardian reported the new ways adopted by spammers. Here is a summary of the article:

Why spam is out of control ? There is no single cause, say experts, but rather a confluence of unfortunate events. One of the biggest problems is that the main vehicle for spam - vast networks of home computers infected with malware, known as "botnets" - have been growing in size.

These botnets have existed for about five years. They are created when worms or Trojan horse programs are used to infect a PC, taking control of it and forcing it to accept commands sent by a central controller. The commands, traditionally sent via a real-time online chat protocol called Internet Relay Chat (IRC), were initially used to force large numbers of bots to attack a target web site, flooding it with traffic in a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.

DDoS attacks still happen, but bots are increasingly used to send spam emails, in effect acting as their own mail servers. In the 1990s, spam was mostly channelled via unprotected email servers online, used to send thousands of unsolicited emails anonymously. But then network administrators began locking them down.

Now, spammers send email directly from home machines thanks to botnet operators who program them to become email servers and then sell their processing power and bandwidth.

How can botnet operators maintain the overall volume of email while reducing the number of emails per bot? By increasing the number on the network. According to Dean Turner, senior manager of Symantec's Security Response team in the US, the company saw almost 4.7m new active bot network machines in the first half of this year. And Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer at the SANS internet Storm Center, which monitors online threats, saw the number of attacking client machines rocket from 770,000 on October 15 to 1,845,000 six days later.

The trade-off for more focused spam will be the effort involved in gathering information about their targets, explains Heron. But just as legitimate markets evolve, so do illegitimate ones, concludes Watson. "One of the common opinions in the botnet tracking community is that in this particular arms race, the black hats currently have the upper hand."

Virtual Local Guide

Gone are the days when you hire a local guide to see historical places! While standing in a queue outside Buckingham Palace, I was wondering about how and who would explain me the significance of the corners of Her Majesty's Queen Elizabeth's official residence.

Once we entered the palace the first thing that was handed over to us was the mobile phone-like device with a pair of headphones. This was an interactive device which behaves exactly like your local guide and explains each of the state rooms in full details. Each of the rooms has a number clearly visible. If you want to repeat any of the details for that room, you just need to dial that number on the keypad.

I was overwhelmed by this fantastic device. All the instructions were being accurately vocalized and went on synchronously, as we walked throughout the palace.

Technology is taking it's leap to surmount incorrect human acts. May be we in India we can implement such devices at historical monuments like Red Fort, Taj Mahal, Mysore palace, etc. This will give organised employment to the unemployed, who will take care of such systems and at the same time save tourists from being duped by the local unorganised guides.

Eighth wonder of the world

Is there any race going on for the eighth wonder of the world? With Disneyland in California claiming to be the eighth wonder and now an amazing roadway Jebel Hafeet Mountain Road in UAE, convinces me of countries and organisations vying to claim the eight wonder.

Governments of the world are employing dedicated efforts to claim the eighth wonder of the world. Where does India stand here? Is it even making any attempt to build an eye-popping monument or infrastructure in addition to Taj Mahal? This is a wake-up call for the Government of India to emerge from the chronicles of corruption and stream to quickly improve and build a spectacular marvel of excellence in engineering.

Human-less work force

At most of the common places in London or may be in the whole of United Kingdom IT is playing a big role. I am talking of the positions in India like apartment security guard, bus conductors, ticket collectors, motor man, etc.

Yesterday, I had been to a place called Bow Church by DLR (Docklands Light Railway). The fully automated trains on this line are driverless. Coincidentally, I was able to grab the front seat in the very first coach, a place where motor man sits. I was amazed at the way DLR was being operated. Though, there is an operation board, it is generally locked up. Occasionally, you may find a PSA (Public Service Agent) roaming around in the train and if need be, monitors the operation with minimal intervention. Running on elevated track, many liken DLR to a roller coaster ride as the train climbs and swoops its way through Docklands to Greenwich.

How much time before this becomes a reality in an Indian city like Bombay? Bombay is in extreme need for human-independent mode of transport. Transport strikes will become nightmares, once such systems are implemented.

Travel to London - Part II

As I entered the flight, the attendant guided me to my seat. I unpacked some of the technical handbooks from my cabin bag and comforted myself in the one of the allotted aisle seats. Flight was pushed backed from it's original position. Although it was moving, it felt as if it was being dragged by some small vehicle, as yet the engines were silent. It felt that it was being lead to the start of the runway. Suddenly, there was a pause of about 2 minutes, I was completely lost. Didn't knew, what the pilots were up to. We were strictly instructed to be seated and tighten our seat belts.

Instantly, engines started roaring, and the bird thumped-off the runaway. I couldn't take my eyes off the faraway window on my left. Machine gradually gathered speed and took-off. Objects on the land started becoming smaller and smaller and soon we were in air. All that was visible was sky and clouds. Flight attendants and airhostess were off, serving beverages and juices. As I was not well, I preferred some piping hot tea for myself.

Being alone on a maiden flight and that too when you are not well, becomes a boredom. Soon luncheons were served. Being a veggie I preferred veg. meal pack. It was pretty good then heard of.

As London approached, the altitude was being reduced at an enormous rate. A severe pain kicked-off in my ears. It felt like my ear drums would soon blow-off. Pain was intolerable and I had to immediately call one of the flight attendant. Upon explaining the problem, he instantly pointed it to be the result of the cold that I was suffering from. He asked me to take deep breaths and exhale while trying to yawn, similar to the way we do while waking up in the morning. Asked me to nibble a chocolate. Remedy surely brought some relief. As the aircraft touched ground, pain was almost off. That was a bizarre experience that I would always remember.

My check-out took only 45 mins. As I was not carrying any coins or calling cards, I used my India credit card to ring up my room mate in London. He guided me to reach Canary Wharf and agreed to pick me up from station. Started-off experiencing London tube train with a change at Piccadilly Circus reached Canary Wharf in half an hour. He was there to pick me up and there I was, at my new, but temporary address in London.

The apartment was cosy and comfortable. It has all the required amenities and is well above expectation. I helped myself with some hot dinner and got inside the bed for a good night sleep.

Travel to London - Part I

Travel to the city of London happened at a blink of an eye. At a short notice of 4 days, I was conveyed about my overseas trip. On a lovely Friday afternoon in Bombay when we were preparing for my sister's night-flight to US, my cell buzz zed and it was none other than my senior, who intimated me of the urgent travel requirement to UK, for next Wednesday.

I was stunned at the news, even though I had a very faint idea about the subject. This being my first overseas travel, I had to start from the tail-end of purchasing my baggage, as well. There was an overhead of purchasing new suits, ties, blazers, etc. as they form mandatory part of the attire, while working at HQ office. Within 2 days I completed my priority shopping, and rest of the list was left with my parents.

Monday morning I had to travel back to Pune to collect tickets and other relevant data and documents. These helter-skelter made me fall sick, as I hardly slept or ate anything. By the time I reached Pune, I was engraved in perfect cold and fever. Things in Pune were not easy. Completing long travel formalities, segregating and packaging my luggage and data clean-up from my PC, made life worse. There was an added UK airport requirement of chest x-ray too. Most of my time and energy was consumed, and by the time I reached Mumbai (Home), it was already 11pm, Tuesday night.

On the way, back to Bombay, I text messaged my news of travel, to all near and dears. Some called back, while some messaged back and some even made to my home by 11:30 pm. I was supposed to take a 'British Airways' flight scheduled to take-off at 1:00 pm next day, on Wednesday. As I was deadly tired and was suffering from high cold and fever, I decided to take some rest before getting onto final packaging and set my alarm to 3:30 am.

Starting at 3:30 in the morning got everything together. Packing went for 4 long hours which included arranging clothes, spices, initial food, etc. As usual weight of the luggage exceeded the permitted 23 kgs. This lead to packing and unpacking, most of the time, reaching trade-offs. My parents accompanied me to the airport. When leaving home it was dry and sunny, but soon the rains took over. Though, airport is at a 30 minutes drive from my home, it took us 1.5 hrs to reach. Finally, finding my way through the morning traffic and rains, checked-in at the airport at 10:30 am. Parents waited until security check was completed.

Rest of the experience will be continued in Part II.

Mumbai BLASTS back

On 11th July, 2006, after a gap of 13 years, Mumbai was again struck by the serial bomb blast. This time Mumbai suburban trains fell victim to the catastrophe.

Last 2 weeks kept Mumbai terrified, first by the torrential rains, followed by bandh called by Shiv sena activists and now the serial blasts. Inspite, of these events the ever-resilient Mumbai showed all the courage to return back to normalcy.

In the normal situation people of Mumbai are least bothered about each other. But, in the event of calamities Mumbai ensures to minimize loses by generously helping those, affected. After yesterday's bomb blasts and closure of Mumbai's lifeline,(suburban trains) many social communities came forward and worked all night to ease the situation. Locals were seen distributing free biscuits, tea and coffee. While some were seen helping Mumbaites get back to home. This allowed Mumbai to get back to business almost instantly.

This resilient nature is Mumbai's answer to those, who want to strand it. If you try disturbing Mumbai, it blasts back with all the vigour. Come what may, Mumbai will never stop breathing.

Do you really need college degrees to be successful?

When you look at the world's most successful men, you find most of them are college dropouts and don't have a college degree. The likes are Bill Gates, Azim Premji, Dhirubhai Ambani, et cetra. Does this mean to be successful in today's business world, college degrees are not a necessary ingredient? Then why do corporates stress on employees possessing a valid college degree ?

Bob Rosner from ABC news writes :

My undergraduate years were a valuable time for me. I learned how to do my own laundry, how to drink Jell-O shots, how to use a cafeteria tray as a sleigh, how to kiss with one leg on the floor, how to cram all night for a test and how to forget everything the moment that the test was over — all helpful skills to possess, sort of.

Just last week I talked to a woman who had run an office for two U.S. senators, been a successful entrepreneur and is currently thriving in an entirely new career. She accomplished all of this without a college degree. Yet, there are many jobs that she cannot apply for.

That does leave us with a problem. If we are going to level the playing field in terms of those with, and those without a college education, how will we decide who are the better people to hire? We'll have to look at each person and not use a convenient, and often inappropriate, yardstick.

A few considerations: What has the person accomplished at work? How do the people they've worked with feel about his or her contributions? Has the person traveled abroad? Has the person done volunteer work? Does he speak another language? Does she know what's going on in the world? Does the person understand your industry and its competitors? I would argue that all these are more reliable measures of what a person can contribute to your organization than a tired, old piece of sheepskin.

Click here to see Bob Rosner in an exclusive interview with ABC news.

Wake up America - India rising

Check out this video- Makes you feel proud, for India.

Click here!

True Lies

Lie for the sake of lie. Lying frequently is a habit that could ruin the life of others as well as yours. If there is an issue, it should be openly communicated and if lied upon, could translate into a bigger issue. If true picture of the problem is known, a way could be found out to solve it. But if, the problem itself is not clear, then it becomes difficult to find a solution and it is quite possible that you could end up finding a solution that could be irrelevant.

Some people become so used to lying that they are not even aware that they are lying. It becomes their inherent habit and in the process they keep creating problems over problems. Though in Bhagvad-gita, lying has found support from Lord Krishna. He proclaims, "Lie spoken for the benefit of mankind is not a lie and is equivalent to 100 truths". Liars always stick to those lines to justify, when caught. This way they invite more problems.

What we can conclude from here is "Lying makes a man imperfect". Though truth is bitter, you should have the courage to face it. Running away from reality won't solve the problem, but would inflate it unnecessarily. Face it to solve it and get rid of it as soon as possible.

"Use" or "Utilisation"

I have often seen the word "use" being frequently used by managers in the corporate world. E.g. "We can use Mr. X for support and use Mr. Y for coding". I am against using such words, which amounts to the insult of the person in whose context it is being used. The correct word, which sounds better, is "Utilisation". After all, organisations utilises your skills for performing certain tasks or activities that you might be expert in.

The word "Utilisation" shows respect for that person's skill set. It also makes you feel that you will be paid or rewarded as per your skill sets whereas word "Use" makes you feel exploited. It makes you feel that they just want your skills without paying you appropriately.

The word "Utilisation" expresses two-way give and take relationship, while "Use” specifies only one way flow - from employee to employer. Though, employee anyway continues doing the work, that he is assigned, the use of words shows up it's difference in his quality of work.

Different words send different vibrations among employees, even though managers might not have intended what the receiver interprets. Thus, managers should be extremely careful in this regard as different words with almost same meaning, create different meanings for different people.

Rule 49 (O)

Here, I got a very interesting e-mail from a friend regarding exercising Rule 49 (O). It says :

In a particular constituency, if a voter has dislikes all of the candidates competing there, then he can show his dislike to all of them by registering for 49 (O).

Steps for doing this :
1. While registering the name at the time of voting, convey the booth officials that, you want to go for Rule 49 (O).
2. Register your signature in the 49 (O) form available there.

Done.
Now, if the number of 49 (O) count is larger than that of the winning candidates total vote count, then a re-election is called there.

More than all, the shameful fact is,
This 49 (O) is available ever since 1960, but it is in no way conveyed to the people. Neither the government communicate this, nor did the election commission.

As long as the people are unaware of this one, the political parties are enjoying by winning the election and ditching our country. To stop this disaster to continue further, we don't need to take a sword and fight against the government. Just help every citizen to know that they have such a powerful weapon which can be used for ensuring their welfare.

None of the media will be ready to publish this 49 (O). Let us do this by ourselves. Communicate this information with all your family, friends, neighbors as much as you can and let them know their right. Please send this mail to everyone you know and request them to spread it across to everyone.

Convey this information to as many people you know. Not only, we get a satisfaction that we have done a good service for our country's welfare.

This is very well equal to what our patriots have done for the independence of our country.

Very less time left before the next election drama. Before that lets make sure that everyone speaks about this word "49 (O)".

Need v/s Greed

There is a very thin line between man's need and his greed. Say, if a man earns Rs. 10,000 and is able to satisfy his basic wants with Rs. 6,000, he will be a satisfied individual. He will feel happy. But, when his income increases, his wants too increase proportionately. In economic terms this is called 'Marginal propensity to consume'. This increase in expense then turns into greed. We will always find such individuals running for more money to satisfy their "unlimited demands of life". That's how we find most of the people in this world, unsatisfied.

His want for more money never ceases and he enters a rat race of living life with more and more lavishness. Thus, never allowing him to do something big, that he had wanted to do in life. A self-controlled and disciplined man keeps his wants stable, even when he has a raise. This allows him to do things that he had always wanted to do. He is not afraid of failure and becomes a successful individual in society.

We can see this from various examples. One of it is, Infosys head and founder Narayan Murthy. He still lives a common man's life, washing his own clothes and utensils. He has not employed any servant at his residence, even though Infosys employs more than 20,000 IT professionals.

This shows that living life simple will leave you with more money, allow you to be more satisfied and do things that you had always wanted to do, as money is no more a concern.

Secrets of Management

A man flying in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. Reducing altitude, he spotted a man on the ground and descended to shouting range. "Excuse me," he shouted. "Can you help me? I promised my friend I would meet him a half hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man below responded: "Yes. You are in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field. You are between 40 and 42 degrees North Latitude, and between 58 and 60 degrees West Longitude."

"You must be an engineer," responded the balloonist.

"I am," the man replied. "How did you know?"

"Well," said the balloonist, "everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost."

Whereupon the man on the ground responded, "You must be a manager."

"That I am" replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going. You have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is you are in the exact same position you were before we met, but now it is somehow my fault."

Oil companies - Making losses or PROFITS

Regularly, we hear the hue and cry from oil companies making losses and their demand to increase petrol/diesel prices. Especially, oil PSUs take front stage in this rally to increase prices of petro products. Making losses is a very ugly reason to raise prices in a competitive business. When private players can afford to make huge profits without raising prices, it's a matter of shame for the PSUs to beg for their alterations.

The issue lies not in prices but unnecessary operating expenses lavished by careless government officials. It's not the prices but the system and culture prevalent in these companies that requires change. Our largest refining and marketing company IOC, controlling 50% of the country's diesel market and 45% of the petrol market reported a loss in the third quarter. For the first nine months of FY06, net profit stood at Rs. 890 crore against a net profit of Rs. 3,998 crore for the same period in FY05. Company's director marketing, NG Kannan said,

"Indian Oil will lose Rs 5,000 crore on the sale of petroleum products, even
after taking into account government subsidies, oil bonds and cross-subsidy
payments by upstream oil companies."

Private players like Reliance, spearheaded by Ambanis have shown impressive growth in the same period eating into IOC's market share. Despite of constant pressure being put on the Govt. for price raise, I have never seen any negative figures in their balance sheets. Is this cry only fictitious to make more internal profits for the babus to enjoy? If it is real, then Govt. should insist on them following efficient, sound and proven practices to cut-cost, while learning lessons from private companies.

Budgeting the Future

What does Budget 2006 holds for a common man? We saw FM P. Chidambaram delivering his budget on 28th Feb 2006. Nothing more than, "increase in service tax from 10% to 12%" was talk of the town among majority of the individuals. What went unnoticeable was the reduction in excise duty on small cars, which could badly impact the lower middle class and below, in the near future. This reduction would spruce up the demand for small cars, increasing the demand for fuel. Last year we saw fuel prices increasing as faster as Indian Stock Markets. Fuel prices are the key and important deciding factor for pricing necessary commodities.

E.g. Increase in diesel prices, push's up the transportation cost and thereby increasing the prices of commodities being transported. Though FM has made an attempt on reducing the excise duty on processed food, it anyway won't affect the lower middle class. Since, they form the least population who buy processed food. FM should seriously think about it and come up with a policy that would protect them from being dejected or left out from the budget.

Real estate greenfield - Pune

Over the years Pune has outgrown as a hot IT destination. Given the mount-top salaries enjoyed by young software professionals, it has zoomed the property prices. A place costing Rs.1500 in area like Kalyani Nagar now quotes at around Rs. 2700 - Rs.3000 per sq. feet. That's almost a 100% appreciation in a year's time. Kharadi is an fast upcoming area, which looks good from the investment perspective. I guess this area would fully develop in a span of 4-5 years. Only disadvantage that it has is, it is 9-10 kms away from the station. But, folks who do not have much to do with plying to station area frequently can seriously consider this option.

To me Alandi road area near RTO also looks good. It has Golf Course in it's vicinity. Pune station is just 5 kms away while Shivajinagar, Deccan and Kalyani nagar are almost at 3 kms distance. If you are planning to drive down to Mumbai, it has a more convenient route to follow to the expressway. And last but not the least, even the rates are not too high, given the openess and the location that it enjoys. Military establishment called ‘Bombay Sappers’ surrounds this area. This won't allow much of a construction activity while retaining it's natural aesthetics. People from Mumbai can definitely consider this for investment.

A job or a career?

Pankaj Bhargava from TNN, for Economic Times wrote :

Even today, in most homes, the emphasis is still on being educated enough to get a primary qualification, like engineering or medicine.When I hear such discussions, I remember a story I read many moons ago. In short, it was about two lads in a village.

One went on to complete his education, got a job in a government organisation and was well regarded. His job, however, never excited him and he would drag himself to work everyday, coming to life only when he reached home. By his mid-forties he looked as if he were in his fifties. The second lad did not complete his education, and went on to work with a mechanic. He was not well regarded in his village.

But, he enjoyed what he did. He keenly observed all that happened in the shop, interacted closely with customers and understood their issues. He also learnt to identify defects and find ingenious solutions to them. His reputation as an ace mechanic grew. He managed to set up on his own and soon collected a large clientele. Whenever anyone met him, he would be extremely cheerful, enjoying every moment of his time. In his mid-forties, he still looked thirty.

So, is education about learning in the formal system or is it about learning continuously from life?

This is very true, atleast for a developing country like India where formal education is still considered a top most priority without giving a second thought to something more than that.

What is RSS ?

Tim O'Reilly writes :

RSS is the most significant advance in the fundamental architecture of the web since early hackers realized that CGI could be used to create database-backed websites. RSS allows someone to link not just to a page, but to subscribe to it, with notification every time that page changes. Skrenta calls this "the incremental web." Others call it the "live web".

Now, of course, "dynamic websites" (i.e., database-backed sites with dynamically generated content) replaced static web pages well over ten years ago. What's dynamic about the live web are not just the pages, but the links. A link to a weblog is expected to point to a perennially changing page, with "permalinks" for any individual entry, and notification for each change. An RSS feed is thus a much stronger link than, say a bookmark or a link to a single page.

RSS also means that the web browser is not the only means of viewing a web page. While some RSS aggregators, such as Bloglines, are web-based, others are desktop clients, and still others allow users of portable devices to subscribe to constantly updated content.

RSS is now being used to push not just notices of new blog entries, but also all kinds of data updates, including stock quotes, weather data, and photo availability. This use is actually a return to one of its roots: RSS was born in 1997 out of the confluence of Dave Winer's "Really Simple Syndication" technology, used to push out blog updates, and Netscape's "Rich Site Summary", which allowed users to create custom Netscape home pages with regularly updated data flows. Netscape lost interest, and the technology was carried forward by blogging pioneer Userland, Winer's company. In the current crop of applications, we see, though, the heritage of both parents.

Keyboard or Pen

As they say "The pen is mightier than the sword". But, I would say Keyboard has become mightier. Blogging has given new dimension to the above quote by Edward_Bulwer-Lytton. Blogging has given individuals the freedom to exercise their right to ‘freedom of expression’.

Apart from giving a global reach to the web community it allows bloggers to publicise their area of interest without bothering much about who’s who of the readers in different parts of the world.

Given the free sites like Blogspot, Bloglines, etc,. which allow you to create blogs, and other sites providing free services like hit counter, xml feeds, blog ratings form easy ingredients for bloggers to use.

Shall this new trend of sharing information, rephrase the quote as “Keyboard is mightier than fighter jets” ? Or advancing further should we say “Blogging is mightier than nuclear weapons” ?

What Matrix Persona Are You?

You are Morpheus, from "The Matrix." You have strong faith in yourself and those around you. A true leader, you are relentless in your persuit.

What Matrix Persona Are You?

Reality of "Taj Mahal"

"The Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan in the memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal built the Taj Mahal. It was built in 22 years (1631 to 1653) by 20,000 artisans brought to India from all over the world. Many people believe Ustad Isa of Iran designed it." This is what your guide probably told you if you ever visited the Taj Mahal. This is the same story I read in my history book as a student.

NOW READ THIS.......
No one has ever challenged it except Prof. P. N. Oak, who believes the whole world has been duped. In his book Taj Mahal: The True Story, Oak says the Taj Mahal is not Queen Mumtaz's tomb but an ancient Hindu temple palace of Lord Shiva (then known as Tejo Mahalaya) . In the course of his research Oak discovered that the Shiva temple palace was usurped by Shah Jahan from then Maharaja of Jaipur, Jai Singh. In his own court chronicle, Badshahnama, Shah Jahan admits that an exceptionally beautiful grand mansion in Agra was taken from Jai Singh for Mumtaz's burial . The ex-Maharaja of Jaipur still retains in his secret collection two orders from Shah Jahan for surrendering the Taj building. Using captured temples and mansions, as a burial place for dead courtiers and royalty was a common practice among Muslim rulers.

For example, Humayun, Akbar, Etmud-ud-Daula and Safdarjung are all buried in such mansions. Oak's inquiries began with the name of Taj Mahal. He says the term "Mahal" has never been used for a building in any Muslim countries from Afghanisthan to Algeria . "The unusual explanation that the term Taj Mahal derives from Mumtaz Mahal was illogical in atleast two respects. Firstly, her name was never Mumtaz Mahal but Mumtaz-ul-Zamani," he writes. Secondly, one cannot omit the first three letters 'Mum' from a woman's name to derive the remainder as the name for the building."Taj Mahal", he claims, is a corrupt version of Tejo Mahalaya, or Lord Shiva's Palace. Oak also says the love story of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan is a fairy tale created by court sycophants, blundering historians and sloppy archaeologists. Not a single royal chronicle of Shah Jahan's time corroborates the love story.

Furthermore, Oak cites several documents suggesting the Taj Mahal predates Shah Jahan's era, and was a temple dedicated to Shiva, worshipped by Rajputs of Agra city. For example, Prof. Marvin Miller of New York took a few samples from the riverside doorway of the Taj . Carbon dating tests revealed that the door was 300 years older than Shah Jahan . European traveler Johan Albert Mandelslo, who visited Agra in 1638 (only seven years after Mumtaz's death), describes the life of the city in his memoirs. But he makes no reference to the Taj Mahal being built. The writings of Peter Mundy, an English visitor to Agra within a year of Mumtaz's death, also suggest the Taj was a noteworthy building well before Shah Jahan's time. Prof. Oak points out a number of design and architectural inconsistencies that support the belief of the Taj Mahal being a typical Hindu temple rather than a mausoleum. Many rooms in the Taj Mahal have remained sealed since Shah Jahan's time and are still inaccessible to the public. Oak asserts they contain a headless statue of Lord Shiva and other objects commonly used for worship rituals in Hindu temples. Fearing political backlash, Indira Gandhi's government tried to have Prof. Oak's book withdrawn from the bookstores, and threatened the Indian publisher of the first edition dire consequences.

From the archeological perspective to discredit or validate Oak's research, the current government should open the sealed rooms of the Taj Mahal under U.N. supervision, and let international experts investigate. But this won't be a good idea for a country like India. A situation could arise where a few religious zealots or politicians acting as religion guards will decide to destroy the Taj Mahal to restore the original temple, which may or may not exist underneath.

Sometimes its better to keep some things undiscovered for the better good of "religion", called humanity.

Magic 10000 - Sensex shining

FIIs continued it's inflow of funds, propelling the BSE to reach a magic figure of 10000. This was a moment to be noted in the history of Bombay stock exchange. On the other TV channels when Sachin was showing Pakistan way to the boundaries, we saw BSE hitting new highs.

But, that's not all. In days to come we could see Sensex peaking the heights of 15000. Budget will play a key role in fuelling the exchange further. Presently, country's economic policies are being designed, governed and closely monitored by the two economists, Dr. Manmohan singh (Prime Minister) and P. Chidambaram (Finance Minister). Both have earlier experience being the finance minister of the country. Mr. Singh introduced the 1991 Liberalisation policy, throwing economy open to the foreign investors when he was the FM. Mr. Chidambaram too in his last budget introduced policies, bringing common man's money into the equities.

Looking at the International market Dow, after the time of technology bubble burst, here is what Economic times reported today:

"Sensex crossed 6000, then a historic high, in the same year. But then, both the indices crashed as the technology bubble burst. However, the sensex suffered far more. Dow fell to a low of 7286 in late ’02, while the sensex plummeted to 2595 in late ’02.

Since then, however, the sensex has skyrocketed almost four-fold, while the Dow has not even recovered to its earlier peak. All those global financial managers who rated India as risky and the US market safe are looking rather foolish."

This clearly indicates the confidence shown by the FIIs in the Indian markets and Indian Economy.

Never start a project unless all the resources are available

This is one of my bitter experiences to have witnessed in my career. It's not only about the number of resources, but also their skill sets. Always commit the estimate, after you have evaluated the skill levels of the resources available. Concrete estimates come only after all the requirements are freezed up.

It should not happen that requirement that is given to you initially, is just a tip of the iceberg. Later on, you may find yourself trapped in a soup fighting over the new requirements and time, all the way throughout the project development. Especially, when you are also fully involved in coding, testing and management. This won't leave you with enough time to manage as well as solve the problems/hurdles.

Development is not the only factor that should be considered, but also the environment under which the work is to be carried out, plays an important role. Due to lack of office space in small companies I have seen developers being made to sit parallel to the marketing and call support departments. Core development requires peaceful atmosphere where developers can concentrate writing creative lines of code. Given the nature of job for marketing department, they are the people of interactive personality and are in the habit of sharing unwanted stuff whenever they find time between marketing calls. This may frequently interrupt the development process. It is not to blame them, but is the requirement of their job profile. I mean interactivity and not bugging the the developers :-).

One more aspect of environment is your software system environment. This is where you will initiate coding. Ensure that system environment is all setup to the satisfaction. If not, also provide the estimate for the same.

Invest wise, haste foolish

It's high time of the year to file income-tax returns. Especially, for the salaried class its impounding necessary to meet their investment commitment of Rs. 1,00,000 u/s 80C. This will allow them to enjoy tax-exemption in the first tax slab of Rs.0 to Rs.1,00,000.

Investors need to be careful while selecting from various investment options available. Amount should be wisely divided among LIC Insurance, ELSS, PPFs, MFs, etc. LIC is a safe bet but do not provide handsome returns. Depending on your income, minimum of Rs. 25000 can be allocated here. PPFs are not much attractive and would recommend, not to invest more than Rs.10,000. MFs provide handsome returns and can be looked forward to form a major part. Though, all the MFs may not provide consistent returns and a reliable investment agent can be consulted. One should not ignore the fact that equity MFs are subject to market risks.

ELSS also prove to be a good option covering tax-exemptions at the same time giving handsome returns. They carry a locking period of 3 years.

Here are some basic checks that investors can consider before making investments in ELSS :

1. Look out for the history of returns.

2. Company should be well-known and have a good operational record.

3. Shares in the portfolio should enjoy good sentiment in the Cash-market.

4. NAV movement during bad times.

5. Frequency of dividend payments.

So, go ahead, load your gear and wisely meet your commitments.