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Sri Ramanavami

Happy Sri Rama Navami to everybody. Today I am at home with mom/dad on Sri Rama Navami. Its such a nice feeling. Woke up early in the morning, had traditional shower and prayed god, and had Panakam and Vadapappu as prasadam. In tv there is live cast of marriage ceremony of Sri Ram and Sita Devi from Bhadrachalam. Bhadrachalam is THE place for Lord Ram in Andhrapradesh. The temple is situated on a hill on the banks of Godavari River. There is a long story about how temple is being built. One Sri Ramadasu, a devotee of Lord Ram, built this temple with all the taxes collected from the City of Bhadrachalam. The king of the Nizam Kingdom, Tanisha jailed Ramadasu for not giving the fair of the taxes to the kingdom. Later its told that Tanisha has a dream in which Lord Ram asked him to free Bhakta Ramadasu and Tanisha did the same and also became a devotee of Lord Ram.

For lunch have festival food like Chitrannam, Payasam, Bhakshyam, Alu Curry, Beans Curry etc.

Dallas --> Newark --> Paris --> Mumbai --> Bangalore --> Hyderabad

Well this my first travelouge. Sirhari drove me to the DFW Airport. DFW is one of the major airports and it has a heavy traffic. When you drive to airport during peak time, you can actually see flights lined up in the sky one after the other waiting for landing clearance. Its is such a beauty to watch, well I could not take any pic today b'cos I was not going on the peak time. Anyway got checked in into American Airlines easily, no hassles and passed security arround 1:00PM. Plane is at 2:59PM. Previous night I was deprieved of sleep so just sat on the waiting chairs and slept I guess about 1:30mins of really deep deep sleep. Never do night out before travelling, Its crazy really, in the morning while driving I almost ran into a truck, but woke up in the last split second and slammed the breaks. Plane took off at arround 3:00PM, and this time I took a window seat and started observing arround. Exactly while my fight is taking off, in the next runway parallel to us, North West plane started landing, It is so cool to experience the phenomenon. Then I started observing carefully the earth from the sky. Dallas is a recent city and it is really well planned and you can see all the houses along with blue swimming pools arranged nicely in a perfect fashion, a nice view to watch. Suddenly I felt all clouds arround the plane as the plane is cutting through clouds. Some info about clouds according to my observation, cloud groups are actually stacked one over the other in layers and there is a space between each layer. When you are in between the layers, what u observer is that there is a stack of clouds below you which look so fentastic like the whole sky is a milky ocean, just like what u used to see in the old mythological movies. You will see another stack above you, in between you can see clear skies until the horizon. When the plane starts gaining height, it will try to cut through the clouds and you can see a lot of turblance with your own eyes. And I guess you know clouds are there only upto certain height, if you don't know, learn it now. As long as you are in the cloudy region you will not be able to see the earth. But as gain height and reach a considerable height, you can see the clouds layer that is spread until the horizon with boundaries being colored like red/pink/etc.. shades based on the amount of sun light that is there. One more thing you observe is that as you gain height despite the coulds you will be able to see the ground as there will be gaps between clouds groups. If clouds are really densly populated, you will not be able to see the earth. After a while you get bored and start sleeping as pressure/height differences start taking over you. I slept immediatly, as I was deprieved of sleep previous night. For a change AA had some food, basically a turkey sandwich and it was so cold, can't believe how can we eat. kya kare, bhook to lag raha hai na.

Then arround 7:00 PM reached over the NewYork skies. I started observing the ground from arround 6:30 PM and what a stark difference between south and north. In dallas we have 85'F and here its all ice/snow on the ground, you see white snow everywhere on the ground and you feel as if you are watching ocean,not ground. Anyways, once we entered NY airspace, I realized that when ever you fly to NY make sure you can reach while there there are night lights. Its so amazing to see scores and scores of lights just lying arround until the distance what your eyes can see. You can see beautiful brooklyn bridge. the towers of NY, ofcourse WTC missing. At the same time plane is moving very slowly or sometimes not moving at all, it is just occupying a little space in the air and waiting for the landing signal. You can observe that the plane goes like a snake with in a short space, in NY even air space is sarce and costly I guess, as plane descends you will feel as if you are going down in a lift, b'cos it just goes down in a very limited space, can't afford more space and as evening time is ususally peak time, probabaly we have waitied for about 30mins in the air for the landing clearance. All the while I was enjoying the scenic beauty of NY lights, its is an awestruck view which you should not miss if you get a chance to fly over NY. And finally I reached notorious Newark, airport where almost every desi that comes to US should have gone to, as this is the gateway for NJ. For me this is first time that I flew to Newark airport. I actually took a pic of the entrance.

When I entered the airport, i guess the temp. here is about 25'F or something and damn cold and my mind stopped functioning, i was having sleep deprivation and bad weather fluctuations made it worse. I had to literally ping my brain to get out coherent words and sentenses, As I started asking for directions to the security people in the airport, they are looking at me as if I am a dumb guy, lost and desperately seeking help. Well, I has to find a restroom and rush there and get my face freshen up to avoid strange pitiful looks. Only after sprinkling hot water on face, I could come to proper senses.

Then asusual security check, and I saw an old couple being almost strip searched, what a pity, old people always become victioims of this security as they usually have difficulty comprehending things, they forget to declare some stuff like belts, coins in the pockets and they go through the pain. There was one Andhra aunty and the security people were actually acting to show how to spread her hands legs so that she can uderstand, it was funny and pitiful to watch that.

Then enered plane and gosh Air India plane feels as if its a bhooth bungalow. Even the wall paper is so old and never upgraded. Air India badly needs to be privatized. Now I am writing this stuff from plane and I will have to switch this off in a moment. Later.

I was expecting that old airhostesses, but for a change most of them are young and they look pretty good(Am I gettign old ??). The plane is scarcely occupied and I am feeling as if its like a business class travel with almost a personal airhostess, which kind of makes me feel to consider flying Air India again. The most pathetic service I have seen is in Lufthansa, they just don't care atall. Except for the plane looking very old, rest of the things looks pretty good. Well, forgot to tell you, before taking off, there was some sound from the aircraft, like they are trying to start some engine and its kind of giving sounds like dadadadaaaaadadadaaaaaaadaadadadadaaaaaaaaa, gosh, I was so scared to hear that sound from aeroplane, imagine an aircraft which has to fly across the oceans making sounds like a Ashok Lyland lorry to start up, pretty scary huh. Anyways, I guess they successfully started engine and its going smmothly now and while taking off, I had the pleasure of watching the NY area lights which are soooo awesome.

Well,now coming to plane, the food served is so excellent, gosh desi food is desi food, it gets to your brains and I am just thinking about flying Air India again. Well, when I fly mom/dad here I need to book Air India, they will not be deprieved of food. Now heading towards Paris, I guess they will stop there for replenising fuel. I will have to take some pics at Paris. When I flew to USA for the fist time, I flew via Paris and it was such a nice airport.

Pheww, cannot get down the plane, have to stay on the plane at Paris. Anytime time I fly over Paris, its cold, well last year there was a severe heat wave during August. In western world Summer starts after Indian summer ends. And this time I am making trip during Indian summer and missing western spring, I guess I have an urge for wrong time, wrong place thing. I tried to get some snaps through the window. They cleaned the plane while while we are onboard, basically they vacuummed and cleaned loos. But after a while I realized that 1/2 of the restrooms are out of order and no paper, will you fly Air India again ?

There was a scary moment when I realized that my passport is not there in my coat or laptop bag. It was simply scary, the scariest part was, will they allow me to enter India, and then I will have to wait until I get my new passport and visa stamped for me to fly back to USA. My boss is going to scream about that. After a frenzied search, I found it lying on the floor, looks like it dropped down from the coat. Thank god, I am still on plane, if I had gotten down, I would have been in a big mess.

For a change as the whole plane was almost more than 1/2 empty, I got chance to actually sleep lying down on seats, feeling free just like bed. In between Captian was anouncing the cricket score and was delighted to know India won against Pakistan. Saurav and boys got the first ever one day series win for India on the Pakistan soil.

Got down at Mumbai at arround 12:30 in the night and it took about 1 1/2 hrs. to through immigration. Once I came out of airport, bought prepaid taxi to YMCA. As I appoached taxi stand, I felt as if I am entering a war zone, all the guys over there want my luggage, finally 3 gusy surrounded me and one guy was able to grab stuff from my hand convincing that he is the cab guy, all the three folloed me to the cab and put my luggage in the cab, before they asked for money, i gave 20 rupees and they are like after me for more money asking as if I am a culprit working abroad and they need to get paid for stalking me at airport, I didn't give in and after about 5 mins the actual cab driver came. They obviously have connections and the whole episode left me with frustration and just imagine what is the condition of a foreigner who comes to India, he is going to go crazy.

After all this stuff, I realized that I am not sneezing anymore, looks like Indias air is so sweet for me, actually people go abroad and gain color(fairness indian terms) and health, for me its reverse, immediately after I landed I am all fit and energitic.

Today Mumbai's weather is very very good, according to comments from people, its almost 3 weeks that they experienced a nice day. There is no hot sun and it is not sultry at all. Met Atanu and Suhit over the dinner and had some nice time chatting. Atanu gave some interesting points regarding sheep grazing in california when I mentioned about my dad's effort towards raising export oriented sheep breeds. Suhit has some interesting points regarding BPO space, need to look into his ideas and see if we can work together. I am sure its going to exciting.

You will know a pesons/place value when you actually loose them. For me India is like that, I miss it so much, I need to make all kinds of efforts to be able to gat back in a very good shape as an entreprenuer. I just can't wait for my new ideas to click and for somebody to come to me with loads of money and ask me to do some cool stuff.

Going to Bangalore in Jet Airways. All flights of jet during day seems to be over booked, no tickets huh! Way to Jet Airways, I wish Indian govt. opens up international airspace completely for Indian carriers, that will let Jet Airways go global and with a wonderful airline brand from India. Waiting to see that happen.

Stay In Bangalore/Hyderabad.

My bro Ganesh came to pick me up at Bangalore airport, I tried to call the hotel that I booked, but my bro is like 'Anna, I have kept my place really clean, stay with me and give me the money that you are gonna spend on Hotel, so that I can buy a mobile', make sense right, he is entreprenueric now itself. I decided to go with him, I don't have to do any more tipping or calls to reception or depend on anyothers for any kind of info. Well, I went to his place and I was apprehensive of his place as I still remember the really bad smell in his house as all of the guys who stay there are college going kids and you know how they keep their house. As I reaced his place, to my surprise he kept it really clean and I was relieved.

Had a nap for a while and went to Leela Palace, a 5 start hotel to meet butterfly, and we had a blast. I got attracted to her for sure, she got a great smile, I will post her pics later if she permits me. The whole ambience at Leela Palace was so beautiful, I really had a wonderful time talking to butterfly over lunch by the artificial wterfalls that are created there. I liked the gifts that she gave me, who doesn't like gifts :D, Just spent a few hours with butterfly and then flew back to Hyderabad.

Once reached hyderabad, mom/dad were behind me asking me about Butterfly, I told them about her. Later they asked me to see a couple of more girls as usual desi style. And I had to do it, and what a funny story it turned out to be like. Went to meet a girl next morning and I was trying to explain her that I am also a victim of system and just feel free and easy and talk to be as a friend kind of and she was kind of like not responding to anything. I was kind of started feeling embarassed and apologized to her and at tha point of time she told 'I am not interested in getting married now!', there you go, got the catch, hehehe. I was so releived and asked her - 'Do, you have a story to tell me? Any sweehearts?'. She smiled and said 'Yes'. Gosh, it was like all kind of things that I don't want to happen, happen to me. Funny heh! Anyways there ends the story and I said good luck to her and ran out, told my mom/dad and laughed a lot.

After that, mom asked me to meet someother girl, i said nooooooooo way. Finally towards the evening, they convinced me, dare I say emotional black mailing, and I went to meet this girl really relutantly and there u go some really pretty/cool girl comes and I was so relieved talking to her. She is also very practical and we kind of had nice conversation. So, what do you think, she is short listed, lol, gosh can't believe this is happenning.

Here does not end the matter, after that, mom/dad asked me if its an YES for her. I was like 'mommmmmm, give me a break.' Let me think over it and let you know later. Ok, do you think here ends the matter, nooo, they want me to meet one more girl, ailaaaaaaa, I am exhausted, they told if I don't meet her today, I will have to comeback again and meet her, i was not ready to travel all the way to Hyderabad from Ongole just to meet this girl. So, we went to meet this girl at her place and I had a nice talk with her, her sister and brother. She is just 21yr. old and I felt as if she is a kid and so gave some advice on MBA related stuff etc and they liked getting some expert input/advice, I guess. Then we rushed to Ongole, and finally back at home by next morning, what a relief.

In Mumbai........

I am in Mumbai today, and heat does not feel as bad as I imagined. Anyway, still waiting to see how it feels in the afternoon. And one more surprising thing is that, ususally when people go from India to US, they kind of loose all theie allergies. I was haiving a constant snezing problem for the last one month and surprisingly once I landed in India its gone and feels completely fresh. Probably I am longing badly for India or may be ...........

I have been writing stuff on my journey and will try to edit it and publish it and its a different experience to look at the journey with a purpose of writing about it, its a whole different world.

Bye Bye Dallas - CYA

Hmm, finally after the whole night of putting stuff together on linux box and tarring it up, I am all set to go with a hurried pacakaging. All excited about this trip. Will be leaving in another 10 mins. Zoooom to India.

Cool Funny Quotes

* Smoking helps you lose weight.. One lung at a time!

* Sign on a famous beauty parlour window: Don't whistle at the girl going out from here. She may be your Grandmother!!

* Sign in a bar: "Those .....Drinking to forget........ Please pay in advance."

* When I read about the evils of drinking ...I gaveup.............reading.

* My Grandfather is eighty and still doesn't need glasses... He drinks straight out of the bottle.

* Laugh and the world laughs with you, Snore and you sleep alone.

* Seen on a bulletin board: Success is relative. More the success, more the relatives.

* Sign at a barber's saloon in Juhu, Bombay : We need your heads to run our business.

* A traffic slogan: Don't let your kids drive if they are not old enough or else they will never be.

* Seen in railway station at Patna : Aana free, Jaana free, Pakde gaye to khana free

My personal favorites:

* "A man in love is incomplete until he is married. Then he's finished."

* The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is the fact that it has never tried to contact us.

* Behind every great man, there is a surprised woman.

* A Spouse is someone who'll stand by you through all the trouble you wouldn't have had if you'd stayed single.

Sent by Vallabhi

Ready To Go.......

Finally ready to go to India, all set except for burning the software. I am flying via. Paris instead of London. It seems there is too much of crazy stuff going on like, u need a transit visa even to change a flight, which is completely insane. So, remember if anybody wants to fly over london, make sure that you have transit visa, else you will land up in a mess.

This month has been extremely fluid, the way things started moving. I did not have even any idea that I will be going to India at the start of this month and here I going to India tomorrow and expecting the trip to be very fluid too.

UGADI Subhakankshlalu

Greetings to you all on 'TAARANA NAMA SAMVATSARAM - TELUGU NEW YEAR CALLED TAARANA'

Nehru Book Controversy

[Via Not Really Indian] by [Moorish Girl]

A new controversy has erupted in India over a book penned by statesman Jawaharlal Nehru, Discovery of India, some sixty years ago. The BJP is upset at what they say is a poor portrayal of the 17th century warrior Shivaji. The BJP, you may recall, was also upset over John Layne's book on the same subject a few months ago, which resulted in OUP withdrawing the book from the Indian market. (The Complete Review has very thorough coverage on that issue.)

Advice to Call Center Reps

I have been observing the BPO wave for the last one year and actually exeriencing the Call Center Quality of Service. After observing for a while and going through various good/bad experiences, I thought I will write a post giving advice to the actual work horses in the Call Center Industry.

An year or so ago, when I made calls for support they started getting diverted to India and that made me feel very elated. Earlier most of the calls used go to Delhi and surrounding areas. These days I observed a lot of calls going to South India especially Bangalore/Hyderabad/Chennai, which gives me an impression that call center industry is picking up in South India too. Well, this conclusion is based on my exerience, not based on real statistics.

During my calls I have talked with very good/good/bad/pathetic support people. On the whole what I observed is that the number of bad support calls that I am experiencing have increased over the one year period of time, which actually prompted me to write this post.

Here I am going to list some advice, (I have stopped giving advice to people, when one day while giving lecture to my brother, he retarded telling that 'Success Is Different For Different People, Your Thinking Process Of Success Is Not Similar To Mine', so true right, but now I want to give some advice which might help to quench my thirst for giving advice), for the Customer Service Reps, how they can deliver better support.

Here We go, read the free advice:

1. When somebody calls you for support start with a warm smile, instead of that stiff regular greeting. Show enthusiasm in your tone and make the customer feel that you are there to help him solve the problem.
   
2. Get your accent right, its a must. I dont want to struggle understanding what the rep is talking about. I guess the best accent is that of News Readers. Yes, did you observe News Readers they usually don't have regular collaquial accents, instead a real good decent CLEARLY spoken accent which makes every body love to hear to news readers. Watch news and observe how CLEARLY they speak and adapt that style. That should help a lot in day to day customer support. Once you get the basics right (Speaking Clearly), then you can start adapting accents if your management insists on that.
   
3. Talk with confidence and you will get that confidence when you have considerable knowledge about the product/service you are supporting. So work hard and get a good understanding of the various features of the product/service you are supporting. That will give you a lot confidence and an automatic smile while you talk which will make customer feel that he/she is talking to the right rep.
   
4. There is usually an akward silence in the calls and nobody likes a silence on phone, some times it feels as if the connection is lost. Just make sure that it is not there or reduced considerably. While trying to find out the solution you can engage the customer with some light hearted talk and I am sure they would love that. Make sure that you make the customer smile/laugh while doing the service that effort put into making the customer smile/laugh will help a lot in making things go easy. You have to get adapted to doing multi tasking.
   
5. Let the customer realize that you are trying every way possible to solve the problem. Customer calls with a problem and probably they are in a bad mood which is normal thing a lot times, so make them feel good and dont' make them feel that you are just trying to get some info from them and spitting out some info to them. That thing will make customer feel more frustrated after the call. Guess what, on the other side of the phone there are human beings, so talk in a way as if you are talking to human being, instead of machine.
   
6. Develop the attitude of being polite, that's inbuilt into the western culture which is kind of rare to find in Indian culutre(No offense please, just my opinion). You will know it only if you expericence it. It does not matter how warm/lovable you are at heart, all that matters is how warm/lovable are while you speak. So, learn how to be polite/warm/affectionate while you speak. That is what basic communication skill is all about. Understand that there is lot of observation going on across the world on Indian Call Centers and be prepared to take the pressure with a smile and attitude.
   
7. Most important thing, you need to be continuous learner. I have read some where that Indians have good knowledge, but they dont' usually participate much in user groups and enhance their konwledge. User groups is the best way to keep yourself at the cutting edge. So start user/study/conversation/book/lecture/seminar/accent groups and participate in them with diligence and make sure that you are at the cutting edge. Ask the best reps in your office to give lectures in those meetings and take tips from them, always appreciate people with knowledge and try to learn from them. If ask them they would love to give it to you. That will help you a lot, this is my personal experience.
   
   
   

These are just some points that came to my mind and hope these help you people to provide a better customer service. I did not include one point above, here it is, develop a attitude of being able to talk causually to the customer, like talking to a friend, instead of being stiff lipped professional. This will bring down the barriers of communication. This is my personal opinion, you can take it if you want.

I guess enough of lecture, and my thirst for giving advice is also quenced by now, so guys rock and roll.

If anybody wants to make any comments/suggestions please feel free to do so and may be forward this link to all your buddies.

Good/Bad follows in cycles

Well, for the last three days, its been really hectic, frustating and elating. Yes, I decided to go to India and started shopping for tickets. I tried to contact some local agents and was not able to get contact to a sales rep, pretty weird, then I did online shopping www.makemytrip.com and the rates they gave me are out of proportion. I started freaking out and started wondering if its a right decision to go on such a short notiece. Then I again called a local ticketing agency, got some outrageous rates. Again did some online shopping and got frustrated. I again called the same local agency, Lawson Travel and luckily a rep called Nilophar picked the phone and she gave me some cool rates and I booked a tikcet on NorthWest airlines immediately. Next day she called up and said that my return date does not fall under promotion that is going on for NW and I will have to change my return date for about a week, which made me go buts again, then she gave me a nice deal on Air India, fianally I am flying on Air India, for a change. The worst part of Air India is they don't accept credit cards, I don't know what to say about that, its really funny, if I have to pay using credit card, I will have to pay extra carge for credit card processing. Some body save Air India and its passengers.

Well, then Nilophar gave me a link to my itenerary and I checked it yesterday morning, the journey is going to be Dallas --> Chicago --> London --> Mumbai and back on the same route. I clicked on the link again yesterday night and the route is changed for my surprise Dallas --> Newark --> Paris --> Mumbai and return on the same route. I don't know whats going on, I tried to call Nilophar today, she seems to be not there. Gosh, I am going crazy. This is just one story.

Then, total yesterday was pretty frustrating, HP service people told that my laptop has a defect which is not covered under warranty, for gods sake I want to know whats covered underwarranty, and they asked me to pay $650+tax for the repair, I decided to ditch the laptop and I frenzily started shopping for a new one, and everybody has a return policy of 15days, if something goes wrong with it, I cant return it as I will be in Indai and I will be in a mess again and I was trying everywhere no luck, everywhere its just 15 days. Then finally my roommate Sekhar told that he saw some laptops at Sams Club and they usually have more returns period. I drove frenzily and they closed the door on my face, hmm, what a day. Then returned back home and tried to download all the stuff and organize it on linux box with the help of Sekhar's laptop. Sekhar is one real good roommate I got after a long time. Usually 19 is a lucky number/day of mine and for a change this 19th is completely out of sync. Then once I entered 20th everything started chaning, the stuff that I downloaded and organized on linux box was going really well with out any glitches and my mom came on line and had a real nice chat with her and everythign seems to be falling in place. Then in the night at arround 3 in the morning talked to a guy in London about a huge project and if I can get hold of that project, it will be a huge one and a stepping platform for my future, what a DAY! Got up in the morning and went to Sams Club and inquired about return policy, they said they have return policy of 6 months, wohoooo, and their warranty covers anything and everything for 3 years, what more better will I get at this point of time. That was it, cool I bought one laptop, no interest, no payments for 90 days deal and a nice warranty, cool na. Then in the after noon Sri came and I discussed about the project that I had a call about and he gave a wonderful solution which blowed my mind, that is kind of perfect solution. After that both of us went to BestBuy and I ended up buying one cool digital camera Canon ELPH S410. Its a really cool small camera which I just put in my pocket and go anywhere. I am all excited about that. And finally this long post is also possible to do. Looking forward to more exciting things today.

One more exciting thing, I published my first complete infomation oriented post completely written by me at Living In India.

WOW WHAT A DAY!

Good things and bad things follows in cycles and all one should do is just be patient and capture the best of them.

Test Your DSL Connection

Here is a site which helps you to test your DSL connection. There are lots of reports that you can get abour your DSL. Try it out and see.

http://www.dslreports.com/

VNC My PC

Today Swaroop gave me some links to VNCing home PC from anywhere using browser.

Here are the links:

http://www.realvnc.com/
http://www.showmyip.com/
http://www.gotopc.com/
https://www.gotomypc.com/

I need to figure out how to get this things working?

Arvind as somestuff which helps him to see his desktop from any where. What are you using for that Arvind?

What Pakistanis really think of us!

India is quite the other picture from this side of the border. Beyond the niceties at the people-to-people level are the stories that intrigue thrillers are made of.

First of all, to see India on the foreign page of all newspapers, next to Britain and the US, is quite a different experience. Then, there is this sinister side to everything that our nation apparently does.

A bulk of the Letters to the Editor is about India, its "ill-conceived" policies and its perceived anti-Pakistan schizophrenia. Next to the popular obsession with American high-handedness is the subject of their 'Big Brother' neighbour.

In fact, the India that is portrayed, or should one say sprayed, in the newspapers here is the India one is quite unfamiliar with. Here is an example: Apparently, the Vajpayee Government has planted its spies all over the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and one paper talked about the country having claimed that it was a RAW tip-off on al-Qaeda and its operatives that led to the recent operation against Osama-bin-Laden and his group of motley fugitives.

Then there are reams on the issue of nuclear proliferation. No, not about Pakistan's nuclear father Abdul Qadir Khan being done in, but about the nuclear proliferation being allegedly indulged in by India and the act going unreported due to its clout with the West!

According to a main edit by Sobia Nisar: "Although critics falsely allege Pakistan for sponsoring proliferation to non-nuke states, the fact is that India has been engaged in coercive nuclear proliferation for years - leading n-scientist Y S R Prasad was exposed in October 2003 while transferring N-tech to Iran."

Amazingly, India, the writer asserts, has "proliferated" to North Korea, Libya and Iraq to name just a few nations. Not just that, two of the five nuclear tests carried out in May 1998 were actually Israeli tests, according to Nisar, who has a host of not just Pentagon sources but some PTI reports from India to base his allegations on.

Wait, there's more. According to one front-page lead, India is in a desperate race to match up with the superior missile technology of Pakistan and has set up a new defence procurement organisation to fund an Israeli missile programme to exclusively produce a Pakistan-specific long range nuclear missile (code-named Lora) with a range of 200 km.

Then there are the domestics, Gujarat being the focal point. Almost everybody asks and tells you about the Best Bakery case being pushed under the carpet by one "Milosevic" Modi.

And, just to keep at par with the Wild West tags on either side of the border, the NWFP finds its counterpart in Bihar. How? Well, just Wednesday, apparently a "dark skinned Dalit" woman was burnt to death by her family "under the supervision of village elders".

The signing off line mocked: "This is how democracy works!"

Source:What Pakistanis really think of us! - Sify.com

Going to India -Yahoooo

Last night I decided to go to India coming tuesday, its a real short time, hmm, my plans are always like this. Anyways, I am all excited about this trip. Hoing for lots of things to happen. Gosh, here is no time to shop anything, all things go wrong at the same time, even my laptop at service stgation, its going crazy. I need to figure out how to get the loptop on time, If I don't get it on time, I am in a mess. Well, on the whole, from yesterday lots of good things are hapenning at a fast pace and most of them are good things and hoping for the best things this trip.

Well, I will be witnessing elections and cricket this time, can't wait for that. Hopefuly I should get some chance in participating in campaigning.

Truth For The Day

A small truth to make our Lifes 100%.......

If A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Is equal to
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Then H+A+R+D+W+O+R+K = 8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98% only K+N+O+W+L+E+D+G+E = 11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96% only L+O+V+E=12+15+22+5=54% only
L+U+C+K = 12+21+3+11 = 47% (don't most of us think this is most important???

Then what makes 100%
Is it Money? ..... No!!!!!
Leadership? ...... NO!!!!

Every problem has a solution, only if we perhaps change our attitude.
To go to the top, to that 100% what we really need to go further..... a bit more. ........

A+T+T+I+T+U+D+E = 1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

It is OUR ATTITUDE towards Life and Work that makes OUR LIFE.

IIM-A graduate prefers to start a primary school

Rather than joining the latest batch of managers drawing hefty salaries, a student of Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad has decided to serve the cause of primary education.

Vardhan Kabra is the only candidate from the 2002-04 batch of 166 pass-outs of IIM-A to refuse attractive job offers.

"When I had taken the Common Admission Test (CAT) two years back after an engineering degree from the IIT, Delhi, I had other plans. But during the the two years at the IIM, I felt that a lot remains to be done for innovations in the country's method of basic schooling," he told UNI.

He is quite clear about the project. "It will be a day-school, not a residential one. It will give as much as 50 per cent importance to extra-curricular activities. Teaching should not be a burden," he said.

He, however, is yet to decide the location of his school. It could be in a city like Ludhiana, Indore, Goa, Surat or even New Mumbai but definitely not a big city because land costs would be prohibitive.

Source:IIM-A graduate prefers to start a primary school - Sify.com

If anybody has Kabra's contact, can you please send it to me.

VOIP Phone Activated

Finally today I got the VOIP phone from Vonage activated, my house is kind of wireless activated and with VOIP phone :-) and running two Windows machines, one sun machine and one linux machine powered by Pragatee, all excite. I need to monitor how this VOIP phone is going to work for me. As of now, there is lot of noise and data loss in the voice transmission as I see. Need to figure out how to get over it.

Its Raining..............

Click on these thumbnails and see the beautiful pictures.

When Is The Last Time You Talked To Your Customers?

[Via Rajesh Jain]: Norm Brodsky Writes: One day flying JetBlue, I found myself being served by David Neeleman, the airline's founder. When was the last time you met your customers and asked how you could better serve them?

Let me tell you about an experience I had last fall on a flight from New York to California. As usual, I was flying JetBlue.

On this particular trip, I was taking an evening flight from New York City to Oakland. As we sat in plane, buckling our seat belts and checking out the televisions in front of us, a middle-aged man with slightly graying hair stood up in the front of the plane. He had on the long apron that JetBlue flight attendants wear, with his name stitched into it. "Hi," he said, "my name is Dave Neeleman, and I'm the CEO of JetBlue. I'm here to serve you this evening, and I'm looking forward to meeting each of you before we land."

I was sitting in the 11th row, and it took him more than an hour to reach me. "Nice airline you have here," I said. "Where do you come up with all these great ideas--like the televisions?"

"I get most of my ideas on flights like this one," Neeleman said. "The customers tell me what they want."

"Oh, listening to your customers," I said. "What a novel idea!"

He laughed and asked me what I did. I told him I was a businessman, but I also wrote a column in Inc. magazine. "Really?" he said. "What's it about?"

"It's about customer service, among other things," I said.

"I'll have to read it," he said and wrote down my name. I asked him if he often came on flights and talked to customers. "Not as often as I'd like," he said. "I can work it in at least once a month, sometimes more. My other responsibilities make it more difficult now, but I get out here when I can."

Sitting next to me was a young man who sells a high-energy, water-soluble food supplement. He made a pitch for offering it on JetBlue. Neeleman listened closely, nodded his head, and took a sample. The salesman felt good about the exchange.

Across the aisle from me was a JetBlue frequent flier. He said he was having a problem with his seat assignments. "That shouldn't be happening if you fly that often," Neeleman said. "I'll give you my e-mail address, but you're going to have a hard time reaching me. Here's someone who can help you." He gave the passenger another person's name and contact information. "Tell him you met me on this flight and explain the situation. He'll take care of it."

After about 20 minutes, Neeleman excused himself and moved on to the next row. I went back to watching television. The other flight attendants continued making their rounds. When they came by my row, I asked if they'd ever worked with their CEO and chairman before. "Oh, yeah," one of them said. "We bump into him all the time."

An hour or two later, I felt a tap on my shoulder and looked up to see Neeleman standing there. "One of your Inc. colleagues is on the plane," he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I hadn't seen anyone I knew.

"There's a young woman back there who just ran the New York marathon," he said. "She says you don't know her, but she knows you and would like to meet you. Can you come back with me?"

I followed him, utterly amazed. When I go to a party, say, and meet a lot of people I don't know, I can never keep straight their names or occupations. Here, Neeleman had just met more than 100 total strangers, and yet he'd made the connection between two of us and was about to introduce me to a colleague I didn't know.

It turned out that the young woman worked in Inc. 's San Francisco office and was heading home with her husband after her marathon run. I chatted with her for a few minutes and then returned to my seat. Sitting there, I couldn't help reflecting on Neeleman's business acumen, not to mention his devotion to his company. After all, he didn't have to spend five and a half hours doing customer service. I'm sure he'd put in a full day's work before setting foot on the plane. I'm also sure he could have used the time productively in other ways.

Instead he chose to walk up and down the aisle talking to as many customers as he could. That takes commitment. I know from my own experience how hard it is to maintain direct contact with your customers as your company grows. Then again, look what he gets out of it--all of those wonderful ideas, to begin with. He told the guy across the aisle from me that JetBlue would soon be implementing one of them, Wi-Fi in its airport lounges, and that it was working on providing another, high-speed Internet connections on flights. "There are a lot of things we want to do," Neeleman said.

Second, by keeping in touch, he gets a real-time sense of the market. He knows first hand what's going on out there, and he'll see trends before his competitors. That's one of the biggest advantages of having direct contact with customers. Markets change. Technologies change. Customer wants and needs change. If you have your finger on the pulse of the market, you're a step ahead of the competition. If you don't, you run the risk of getting blind-sided.

Source: Inc.com | Street Smarts: Learning From JetBlue

Truly amazing experience and to be remembered for ever.

My Buddy's dad in press!

"Construction activity will be suspended indefinitely till cement and steel prices are brought down to a reasonable level. The worst sufferers are general public who have to pay much higher rates due to manipulation in prices by cartels formed by manufacturers from the steel and cement sectors," said Arun Chaturvedi, president of FREDAG.

Source: Builders to stall work over steel prices - The Times of India

This statement is regarding the current steep increase in prices of cement/steel and Mr. Arun Chaturvedi is father of my buddy Prateek Chaturvedi.

One thing that is mystery, why prateek is coding here in USA when his dad is President of Builders association of FREDAG. I can't believe this.........

IT Project Management

Looks like Programmer and Project Manager, aren't they!

Subscribe to your downloads and sleeep happy

Do you want to subscribe to downloads just like you subscribe to RSS feeds in the night and sleep happily being assured that they are downloaded when you wake up in the morning, read this.

By Wires News Article: Speed Meets Feed

A demo publishing system launched Friday by a popular programmer and blogger merges two of this season's hottest tech fads -- RSS news syndication and BitTorrent file sharing -- to create a cheap publishing system for what its author calls "big media objects." The hybrid system is meant to eliminate both the publisher's need for fat bandwidth, and the consumer's need to wait through a grueling download.

"The idea is that the files you subscribe to download overnight, so you get on your computer in the morning, and they're already there," said Grumet, whose background includes a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, plus a stint at now-defunct Web development firm ArsDigita.

"I could wake up in the morning and find the latest recordings from my favorite band loaded into my portable MP3 player, and just pick it up and go."

Grumet claimed that by connecting RSS to BitTorrent, he solved the problem using two programs with which many Net enthusiasts are already familiar. BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file-sharing system that optimizes bandwidth usage to enable its users to take full advantage of broadband connections, downloading a DVD's worth of data in hours rather than days.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based protocol used to serve news headlines and weblog entries in a streamlined, organized format that lets users subscribe to "feeds" of their favorite content.

Cricket - India Vs Pakistan - The war goes global

Written By Kamran Abbasi @ www.cricinfo.com :The war goes global

Kamran explains how the second/third/... generation indians in western countries are getting addicted to Cricket and asserting their presence by uninhibited public display of their support to their fav. teams India/Pakistan.

Excerpts:

But then one day it happens: India will play Pakistan in England. It is an exhibition match. The venue is wonderfully inappropriate. Harrogate is a sleepy, very English town, true blue in its politics, and truly Yorkshire in its outlook. No matter. Every Datsun and Toyota in Britain heads for Harrogate's small ground, jamming country roads and side streets all the way back to Leeds. Cars are full, horns are blaring, and flags are flapping. This match is the outlet for years of frustration, like some giant ejaculation.

The locals, bemused, prepare for war – and, unfortunately, so do some of the supporters. The ground can hold a few thousand, but ten times too many turn up, overwhelming the ticket guards and the decorative fences that divide the arena from suburban gardens. Everyone gets in, mostly without paying. There are hundreds of fans going berserk on the rooftops of stands and terraces; thousands fill the outfield, reducing the playing area to the size of a football field.

But this is no happy mixing of rival fans celebrating the occasion. Instead, two tribes have gone to war. Flags are carried like standards, scarves worn like battle ornaments. This is 1947 or 1965 or 1971 played out in a proper little English town. This is embarrassing. The players are frightened. Each wicket, each boundary, excites a pitch invasion, our heroes running for cover. An Indian fan runs to the middle, tricolour carried with pride. A thousand Pakistanis set off in pursuit. This is madness.

Somehow the match is completed.

Meanwhile, the legions flood out of Harrogate, leaving behind a wrecked cricket ground and shocked town. Who won seems irrelevant to me. We arrived like zealots, brayed like donkeys, and left without shame. How did we come to this – a wild passion breeding blind prejudice? But this is just a beginning and, of course, there will be much bigger stages and more vivid memories – Sharjah, Bangalore, Chennai, Old Trafford, and Centurion; Miandad's six, Gavaskar's last stand, Ajay Jadeja and Waqar Younis, Venkatesh Prasad and Aamir Sohail, even before we get to Anil Kumble's perfect ten, Shoaib Akhtar's yorker, and a bearded century followed by a peerless ninety. Cricket's order has been upturned in these 20 years. India and Pakistan stand on the threshold of world domination. But a big question remains: do we have the maturity to lead the world? Let us hope that this tour, if it goes ahead, will be a new beginning and not the end.

Infosys poses challenge to America

Nandan Nilekani, CEO of Infosys, gave me a tour the other day of his company’s wood-paneled global conference room in Bangalore. It looks a lot like a beautiful tiered classroom, with a massive wall-size screen at one end and cameras in the ceiling so that Infosys can hold a simultaneous global teleconference with its US innovators, its Indian software designers and its Asian manufacturers. “We can have our whole global supply chain on the screen at the same time,” holding a virtual meeting, explained Nilekani. The room’s eight clocks tell the story: US West, US East, GMT, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia.

As I looked at this, a thought popped into my head: Who else has such a global supply chain today? Of course: Al-Qaeda. Indeed, these are the two basic responses to globalisation: Infosys and Al-Qaeda.

Infosys said all the walls have been blown away in the world, so now we, an Indian software company, can use the Internet, fibre optic telecommunications and e-mail to get superempowered and compete anywhere that our smarts and energy can take us. And we can be part of a global supply chain that produces profit for Indians, Americans and Asians.

Al-Qaeda said all the walls have been blown away in the world, thereby threatening our Islamic culture and religious norms and humiliating some of our people, who feel left behind. But we can use the Internet, fibre optic telecommunications and e-mail to develop a global supply chain of angry people that will superempower us and allow us to hit back at the Western civilization that’s now right in our face.

“From the primordial swamps of globalisation have emerged two genetic variants,” said Nilekani. “Our focus therefore has to be how we can encourage more of the good mutations and keep out the bad.” Indeed, it is worth asking what are the spawning grounds for each. Infosys was spawned in India, a country with few natural resources and a terrible climate. But India has a free market, a flawed but functioning democracy and a culture that prizes education, science and rationality, where women are empowered. The Indian spawning ground rewards anyone with a good idea, which is why the richest man in India is a Muslim software innovator, Azim Premji, the thoughtful chairman of Wipro.

Al-Qaeda was spawned in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan, societies where there was no democracy and where fundamentalists have often suffocated women and intellectuals who crave science, free thinking and rationality.

Both Infosys and Al-Qaeda challenge America: Infosys by competing for US jobs through outsourcing, and Al-Qaeda by threatening US lives through terrorism. As Michael Mandelbaum, the Johns Hopkins foreign policy professor, put it: “Our next election will be about these two challenges — with the Republicans focused on how we respond to Al-Qaeda, and the losers from globalisation, and the Democrats focused on how we respond to Infosys, and the winners from globalisation.”

Very interesting story, read More @ Infosys poses challenge to America

My Biggest Fear

Via and By Jivha - the Tongue: My biggest fear

Quick…state some of your worst fears?

Fear of failure? Fear of heights? Fear of the dark? Fear of being alone? Fear of being poor? Fear of death?

Wanna know what my biggest fear is?
Being normal.

That’s right…being “normal”.

While I am afraid of almost all of the fears listed above, my biggest fear is to be a normal person, a nondescript person who was born, lived and then died unnoticed. A person who did not really stand out in life.

A person who succeeded in business not because he made the rules, but because he played by the rules.

A person who was loved not for what he was, but because he loved.

A person who had friends not because he was interesting, but because he happened to be with people across various points in time and life.

A person who was complimented for being normal, when in reality he was being insulted.

A person who never wanted to be popular, but never could be too.

I fear insignificance. I fear conformance. I fear normalcy. I fear safety.

I fear time. For every passing moment means one less moment for me to prove my fears wrong.

I fear distance. Because it takes me further away from the people I love, the only ones for whom I may be “different”.

I fear reality. Because in reality, I am quite “normal”.

I fear true love. Because love doesn’t distinguish between “normal” and “different”.

I fear chance. Because the odds of me being “different” are quite remote.

Sometimes I wonder, am I “different” but haven’t realized it myself, or am I “normal” but the rest of the world hasn’t realized it?

A very interesting summation by Jivha. I am also a human being in the same kind of thinking process, glad to know there are others souls who belong to the same group.

Rehman Scoring Music for LORT Play

Via Nimbu Pani.

The Lord of the Rings musical, a stage play to be unveiled, has our own A.R. Rehman as music composer. Isn't it cool to know.

Americans/Europeans etc.. - Moving to India for Jobs

That's when his Las Vegas-based company, Creative Healthcare Solutions, which provides Internet technology services to healthcare clients, started seeing jobs being awarded to companies in India and China.

Instead of protesting against the offshoring of work that might have gone to U.S. firms like his, Dunn, 55, has decided to get in on the game. Call it a case of, "If you can't beat them, collaborate with them."

Recently, Dunn found himself contacting head hunters in Bangalore -- southern India's Silicon Valley -- where many information technology (IT) and other white-collar jobs have sprouted in recent years.

Today, experts say, there are about 30,000 foreigners working in India. That's a virtual drop in the bucket for a country that has a population of more than 1 billion -- and far less than the 250,000 foreigners (mostly English) living in India some 60 years ago, just before India's independence in 1947.

But the number of people willing to uproot themselves from homes in New York to become expatriates in New Delhi is expected to grow in coming years. In fact, it's already become easier for Indian employers to attract foreign workers.

Sent by Kiran Kumar Jakkaraju, Source CNN: Job seekers look to India - Mar. 12, 2004

Well, looks like I am always in the wrong places @ wrong time. I was in India/Asia when IT was booming and in US when IT is in deep recession.

I guess I will have to look for challenging opportunity in India and get back and make a difference.

Anybody listening?

Priyanka - Karachi Pics

These picture would be one of the most memorable pictures in the minds of Indians where Priyanka Gandhi is seen jubliant and dancing in public display of support to Indian Cricket team at Karachi. Rahul Gandhi is also seen in the picture clapping. Dynastys for sure ooze their charm.

Watch Priyanka's Karachi Trip Gallery