Social Interactions in The New World

A friend was frantic yesterday. She wanted to know how to set up videocam on skype. Her sister was coming and she did not know how to set it up.

I had heard of colleagues in office sitting in cubicles next to each other and emailing each other instead of walking two feet to the other person's cubicle and talking to him.

But what my friend was planning was something even stranger. She planned to do a cam to cam chat with her sister who was coming soon.

This internet has completely taken over social interactions. What will happen if we have something urgent to discuss with people at home and if the internet is down or there is an electricity outage? Eeeeek.

Human Rights Violation

I read an article today about a poll.

I thought it would be a good idea to conduct my own poll and get some data about senior citizens.

I found the following statistics:

78%     People who had never heard of sudoku or other online games

67%     People who did not have a gmail account

85%     People who did not have a facebook and twitter account

94%     People who did not have any fans/followers in FB and Twitter

89%     People who did not hang out in the bars nor in malls

97%     People who did not write blogs

More than 70% of the people above said that they would like to do all the activities above but first they need someone to explain to them what these are.

I believe that this is a gross violation of human rights. We need another Hazare to rectify this situation.

I have decided. I will start observing a (north Indian) fast* until such time this is rectified. I implore people to support me in this noble cause.

* North Indian Fast: This is a special type of fast where you don't eat what you don't like for an extended period of time.

God's Own Hotel Keralafornia

A friend showed me this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHxEO28s8Mg) today. Lovely.

The original version of "Hotel California" by Eagles is lovely.

God's Wife

Another lovely post (http://www.funtoosh.com/jokes/life/173) sent by a friend.

Jokes

I loved these jokes.

http://www.santabanta.com/jokes.asp?catid=10453

http://www.funtoosh.com/jokes/garam_masala/641

Worst And Weakest

I came across this  http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/22649z/www.deesecret.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/find-a-heart.jpg.

I thought my friends would love it.

This is dedicated to all my friends who have such appalling taste. Sure enough, all of them loved it and thanked me. I just can't believe it.

India The New Tax Haven

Welcome to India, the new tax haven. I read this article (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri-tax/us-taxman-gets-after-wealthy-indian-americans/articleshow/7918848.cms) today.

Apparently an Indian American stashed undisclosed income in the Indian branch of a foreign bank.

And the IRS has asked that bank to list all Indians living in the US who have large balances in their India branches.


Can't believe that India is a place where people are stashing undisclosed money. Usually Indians hide money in banks in Switzerland / Cayman / Mauritius etc.


Hmm.

Satyam and Tax

I read this (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/sc-orders-status-quo-on-rs-617-crore-tax-demand-from-satyam/articleshow/7883404.cms) today.

I could not understand the position of the income tax (IT) department. As I understand the company called Satyam Computers (Satyam for short) fudged its incomes and over reported (not understated) their income. Presumably the company paid income tax on the higher (fictitious) income reported.

Shouldn't Mahindra Satyam be filing a case for a refund of the tax paid on the difference between the higher income reported and the newly restated lower income?

Am I missing something here? Does the IT department feel that it is always owed money no matter which way the income was reported?

Updated on 12-Apr-2015:
http://www.financialexpress.com/article/companies/satyam-computers-rs-14000-cr-scam-full-text-of-b-ramalinga-rajus-letter-to-board/62101/

Bihar and IIT

I came across this article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anand_Kumar) of a man coaching students from a relatively underdeveloped state Bihar and how most of the students end up getting admitted to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

I had earlier had a doubt as to whether this news could be incorrect. (There are so many spurious things in India). A good friend of mine who is fro Bihar disabused me. He told me this news was authentic.  

The guy Anand is amazing. I wish we had more such guys. As of 2017, Mr Anand has been doing a splendid job.

Additional reading: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Super-30-founder-invited-to-speak-at-MIT-and-Harvard/articleshow/43790773.cms

Workaholics

There (http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/Indians-among-most-vacation-ians-2077085642.html) you go. 

Indians take the fewest days as vacation (they are the 4th smallest vacation takers as per the survey). Of course, I am not sure whether this survey is representative. While people in the private sector do take very few days as vacation, those in the government sector spend very few days working.

Get Calls On Your Skype From Abroad Almost For Free

I came across this service (http://www.ring2skype.com/). This service is available in select countries.

If you have a skype ID, you can get a free phone number in a country (where the service is available), so people in that country can call your number (it is unfortunately not just a number but a telephone number with an extension). Then the call is routed to your skype ID (no matter which part of the world you have logged in to skype).

Here is the number to call me:
(Remember you will be charged for the call as per the plan you have with your telephone operator)

If you are from:       Dial this number (and extension)

Australia               +(61)280-148229  Ext 662
Poland                  +(48)223-988027 Ext 967

Romania                +(40)318-103743 Ext 803
South Africa           +(27)105-002316  Ext 437
USA                      +(1)267-7020901  Ext 170

Ain't this nice?

Out Of The Box Thinking

Someone sent me this (http://sallini.com/rumors/rumors_in.php?id=76). I loved it.

Nice Blog

I came across this blog (http://saucethefoodblog.blogspot.com/p/what-beast-is-this.html). The author has a very natural, easy way of writing. It's all about recipes.

This is another similar one (http://ovshake.blogspot.com/2010/04/seaside-pebble-man.html).

Go ahead read them and have fun.

World Cup Cricket Champion

http://www.thehindu.com/news/article1594925.ece?homepage=true., http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-economy/article1597504.ece, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/article1597036.ece These articles say it all.

I remember the day in June 1983 when India won the world cup championship in England. A generation later India won the championship again last night.

During the intervening 28 years, the Indian team went through some highs and many lows. Good cricketers came and went but big success was not much seen.

I am reminded of a story here. This is about a court case involving the custody battle for a child.

After listening to what the husband and the wife had to say, a judge decided that the mom will have custody.. the child refused saying the mom beat the child often. The judge then said that the dad will get custody of the child. The child didn't like that too saying that father beat him frequently.

The judge was intrigued. He suggested that the child's aunt or grandmom could be given custody. The child said NO, they also beat him often.

Now the judge was at a loss. The judge finally told the child that the custody will be given to the Indian cricket team.

Because no matter what, the Indian cricket team could NEVER beat anyone.

Such was the reputation once of the indian cricket team. It is nice to see the team do well. It was also nice to hear the gentlemanly speech of the captains of the Australian, Pakistani and the Srilankan teams after the quarterfinal, semifinal and final matches, respectively.

Incidentally my niece pointed out that the eyes of the Srilankan captain (Sangakkara) was captivating. And that his doe eyes (http://flashnewstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/sangara.jpg) would suit a woman so much better. I personally was more attracted towards his English. He spoke very well at the end of the match yesterday, good accent and well modulated.

The reactions of the Indian and Srilankan press are summarized well here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/9445113.stm).

This is a nice post (http://ovshake.blogspot.com/2011/04/dear-men-in-blue.html) written the day prior to the match.

Another Kolam

I had written about Kolam earlier. Tamil women are adept at making kolam (which is usually drawn on the floor at the entrance to the house). It could be a small one on regular days and larger colored ones on auspicious days. I had earlier written (http://Calmisc.blogspot.com/2011/01/margazhi-kolam.html) about it.

Today I saw an article on kolam.

This practice and this art is unfortunately fast becoming obsolete in the city. in villages it is still common to see women clean the area outside the house and draw a nice kolam twice a day.

I reproduce here the picture of a kolam that Cashew, a friend of mine, made.

Golden Anniversary

I read a nice post (http://www.hindu.com/mag/2011/04/03/stories/2011040350150400.htm) on golden anniversaries in the newspaper today.

It's true what the author says. That there are fewer such anniversaries these days on account of later and shorter marriages.

Tweeting And Marketing

I was talking to a friend of mine who was thinking perhaps she should advertise her product (a software tool) on social networks. 

I was a little surprised. Advertise on social networks? Like Facebook? Twitter?

Twitter seems like senseless chatter, Facebook equally so.

Tweets especially and even stuff on FB seem juvenile. Could people really be reading this stuff? What purpose do these networking sites serve? 

Here is an answer to that question: http://askville.amazon.com/purpose-Twitter-interested-micro-blogging-overkill-messaging/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=9294424. I am not convinced.

And finally, is social networking the right place to market your product? Is it among this mindless chatter that we expect someone to understand and purchase a software product? I am told that this is a trend these days.

Am I awfully off base here?

Wrestling In The Real World

I was traveling by train recently. There was a family of 6.5 (husband and wife in their 30's, 2 teenage daughters, five year old son and parents of the husband in their 60's) sitting next to me. The younger of the girls was exceedingly fair and pretty. They were a handsome family.

The person that this story is about is the little boy who was too young to have a seat for himself (children up to the age of 5 travel free). He and I got close and we started playing. I asked him whether he knew how to do "panja" (hand wrestle). He didn't know, so I explained the intricacies of the game to him.

It was a little tricky since his arm was shorter than mine and when our fingers were entwined together our elbows could not be together, his elbow was hanging somewhere midair, if you know what I mean. He brushed the issue aside and challenged me to a bout.

People around us were watching this war between a tough north Indian and an equally tough south Indian. I lost 3 quick games in succession each in about 5 seconds.

The victorious man then looked around and pointed to a 20 year old guy (who was a student and who was from Bihar) and told him menacingly "You next". The student was knocked out in a few brief sessions.

The boy couldn't hide his thrill. He looked around and asked each of his siblings and parents. Each one shook their head, none was willing to challenge him.

The only person who was man enough to tackle him was his grandmother. The grandson and the grandmother started hand wrestling. 

I have to go into the psyche of the boy now to do justice to what happened next. Here was the Hitler who had overrun eastern Europe (me) with ease and then conquered the low countries (the student) to the west and north with equal ease. And now looking at his grandmother to lay her arms and beg for mercy. Little did he expect that history would be repeated, that his grandmother would be a Winston Churchill who proclaimed loudly that she will fight on the seats, on the berths, on the beaches, on the aisles etc.

After beating me and the guy from Bihar hands down, he thought beating his grandmother would be a piece of cake. Even at such a young age, children know who would be a stronger opponent and who wouldn't be. And for the life of him, he couldn't accept the stiff fight that his grandma put up.

His entire family family burst out laughing seeing his perplexed face as he tried to pin his grandma's palm down.

It reminded me of a friend who recounted what a doctor said to her "Children (in India) these days are so pampered by their family that when they become adults they are hardly able to face the harsh realities of the real world".

I hope this boy learns to wrestle well.

Recipe For Baingan (Eggplant)

A friend of mine wanted to know a recipe for cooking eggplant. I came across this today, so here is a recipe (http://www.hindu.com/mp/2011/04/01/stories/2011040151391100.htm).

Arab Hospitality

I read a lovely post (http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-life/article1589110.ece) today on Arab Hospitality. 

What I love about this post is the very natural way the author writes about her trip these countries, gently touching on the points that she wants to make, giving examples, letting the reader mull over and digest what he has just read. And there is no religious fervor in the writing. Its absolutely sweet to read her article.