No time to play...

No time to play (tagged!)
Originally uploaded by "SD (off more often than being on)"

In the age of Playstation/Xbox, internet, satellite/DTH, computer games, shopping malls.. et al, where do the swings see themselves being occupied by kids these days...

sigh...

The man who saw tomorrow

Should he be named a visionary, the one who became a darling of millions (roughly 320 mn) of middle class households in India? Am talking about none other than our dear Finance minister, Mr P Chidambaram.

He came with a slew of sops for salaried individuals (or I should say tax payers :)), giving benefits to the tune of 40K-50K per year per earning member in a family.

Now consider this:

- Inflation is in the region of 12%, compared to measly 5% when the budget was announced

- Air turbine fuel (ATF, which is nearly 40% of operating cost of an airline) has caused airlines to increase the fuel surcharge on all sectors

- With oil prices touching all time peak (though now it has slipped a lot, to the figures of 120$ per barrel, still it is pretty high), the govt has been forced to increase the retail oil prices by Rs 5

- Increased interest rates, CRR, bank lending rates etc.

Let's see what has been the impact of this on a small nuclear family:

- If a nuclear family of 3 makes a domestic air-trip every year, there earlier cost of the travel (to-fro, only airlines) if it was say 15K, would be easily
in the region of 25-30k, making a dent of additional 17k (on an average) per year.

- Assuming the similar family had a 4 wheeler vehicle, and they consumed 80 lt of petrol every month, the cost would have gone up roughly by 5.xx * 80 = 400+ Rs per month, which translates to nearly 5000 Rs in a year. Note, you can even add additional LPG price (of say 50 * 6 cylinders) per year.

- Inflation figures do not look good either. Assuming a monthly ration budget (for the same household) of 5000 Rs. We can take a conservative contribution of essential goods (including oil) which effect a common man because of inflation, say 70%. So with inflation hovering at 12%, the monthly budget for the household would have increased by: 5000 * 12% * 70% = Rs 420 or approx Rs 5000 per year (assuming inflation stays at this level)

- If the same household has taken a loan of 20 lacs for 20 years, with increased interest rates, the additional EMI burden would be roughly to the tune of 400 Rs, which means roughly Rs 5000 per year.

The net effect: 17 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 32K

So you can see how our dear Finance minister saw the future, he knew what was in store for us, and gave a respite to (I can say 'at least') the salaried middle-class Indians, and hence the title, 'The man who saw tomorrow'.

Please note, this is not to say that the self-employed population does not pay tax (and did not get benefits from the new income tax slabs), but the effect is directly seen on working class, where tax is deducted at source.

Now let me come to the essence of writing this up - given the above facts, how can we ensure the benefits which the govt passed on to us during budgets stay along with us, and let not increased cost of living, bother us. And above all, how to envision the big picture - saving fuel, saving environment, conservation etc to help the planet and yourself.

Most of the people would be already aware of the things, but I would like to highlight them in a different way in my next post on 'What is your carbon footprint?' and how to reduce it.

Deal Time

Recently I came across someone requesting for various deals available either through Credit Card or otherwise.

I thought of utilizing the service already provided by various banks to come up with this ready reckoner. Most banks like HSBC, ICICI used to send these mailers earlier, but are either being stopped or I am missing them in my spam folders.

Anyways, they are a good source of information for various deals in a city and is updated each month.

So here are some from HSBC:
All City Offers

City Specific deals (updated each month):
Bangalore
Delhi

(For other cities, click on All City offers.)

Visa Gold

All HSBC special-offers-and-discounts

This one on HSBC and BookMyShow.com is one of the good offers, if you watch movies regularly.


From ICICI:
WOW Deals from ICICI

(I shall add more in leisure)

1000 places to see before I die

As mentioned, in the corresponding post Been there done that, here is the wish list for places yet to see in my life:

1. Leh, Ladakh - India
2. Andaman, Nicobar Islands - India
3. Srilanka
4. Lakshwadeep Islands - India
5. Mauritius
6. Maldives
7. Great Wall of China - China

(More to follow, to complete the list of 1000 places :) )

Been there done that!

It's been a pretty long time since I got a chance to update my blog.
Just plain lazy or been very busy.. dunno..

Of late, have been thinking of keeping a record of some of the good things in life to do. One of them has been exploring the world. Well, that is a far fetched dream, but in an earnest attempt, let me begin with places I have already visited in India (and other few places elsewhere in World).

Sometime in near future, I shall perhaps Geo-tag my photos on flickr and elsewhere to indicate the places visited. But for the time being, let me begin with a static list of 'Been There, Done That'!

I shall also maintain a '1000 places to visit before I die' and try to see how often I can move the items from this list to 'Been there...' list.

Btw, being on topic of 1000 places to visit before I die, here is the link to the official site for the places to explore in the world:

1000 Places to see before you die


Trekking

Pachmarhi - Madhya Pradesh, June 2007
Jungle Lodges@BR Hills - Karnataka, October-November 2007
Yelagiri Hills, Tamilnadu, April 2008


Toursit (out of India) - site seeing

Singapore - June 2006
Genting, KualaLampur - Malaysia, June 2006
Montreal, Canada - Jan 2008


Hill Station - site seeing

Srinagar, Pahalgaum - Jammu & Kashmir, October, 1986
Simla - umpteen number of times, forgot the count :)
Kullu, Manalli - Himachal Pradesh, October 1999
Mussorie, UP - June, 1992
Coorg, Madikeri - Karnataka, twice: January 2004, December 2004
Kodaikanal, TN - April, 2004
Darjeeling - Gangtok - Kalimpong, Eastern India, May 2005
Yercaud - TamilNadu, October 2006
Ooty, Coonor - TN, twice: February, 2006, May 2008


Monuments

Taj Mahal - Agra, Uttar Pradesh, Nov 1986
Hampi, Badami - North Karnataka, January-February 2004
Halebiud, Belur - Karnataka, twice: December 2004, October 2006
Qutub Minar, Jantar Mantar, Old Fort, Red Fort, etc - Delhi (many times, forgot the count :) )

Waterfalls

Niagra Falls - Newyork, USA, July 2001
Vernal Fall - Yosemite National Park, CA, USA, June 2000
Hogenakkal - TamilNadu (TN), October 2006
Sivasamundaram - Karnataka, August, 2005
Irpu Falls - Coorg, Karnataka, India, January 2004

Places/Cities - site seeing

Mysore, Karnataka - May 2005
Nandi Hills, Karnataka (near Bangalore) Nov 2006

(More to follow...)

पहला पोस्ट हिंदी में :)

मुझे लगता है कि मुझे हिंदी में ब्लोग करने में थोडा समय लगेगा।
मैंने काफी कोशिश करी की मैं समय को इंग्लिश में लिख सकूं, परंतु ऐसा हो ना सका।

खैर कोई बात नहीं, हम फिर से कोशिश करेंगे। Ok I have to type taim, which gets translated correctly! :)

Best of TV Ads - Millimetres Matter

(Links courtesy BestAdsOnTv.com)

This perhaps one of the finest ads in recent times. And indeed, not to forget, the macro videogrpahy is really awesome. Also shows how much effort it requires to shoot such videos.

If you cannot view it, install Apple Quicktime plug-in on your machine from here

Kyonki saas bhi kabhi patli thi

Came across this hilarious post on www.india-forums.com on the ever-popular-ner-say-die-spirit-kapti-channel's (star plus) trump card: Kyonki Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi..

LOL!!!... it is too good..

Kyunki saas bhi kabhi patli thi!

Also, I am amazed at people writing reviews/what-happened-in-the-episode kind of stuff for these serials??!!!! I think we Indians do not have got better things to do!

Some of the best Indian TV commercials

After having compiling a list of worst Indian TV commercials.. here goes some of my best TV commercials list...

1. Naukri.com - Hari Sadu. Perhaps till date one of the fav ads of all times. Hats off to the agency which did this work - FCB Ulka. No wonder the ad has won Campaign of the Year award.

http://www.infoedge.in/images/press_release/Hari%20Sadu%20Campaign-Release.pdf

The video can be seen on Youtube:

2. Captain Cook (salt) - perhaps one of the old time favourites of mine which showed how negative connotation can be used to advertise brand. I do not recall seeing any such other Indian TV commercial using this style.

3. Hutch - You and I commcerical series with Cheeka (the dog). Lovely series of ads, though I doubti if the commercial and network were linked at all :)
Some wiki information about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheeka_(dog)

4. Fevicol ads - hen and egg, pakde rehna chhodna nahin (hanging from bridge), hundreds of people on a truck in some remote place in Rajasthan, a woman labor putting her kid on top of Fevicol can.. the list is endless.. simpy marvelous pieces of work. could google this:
http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Fevicol_'Pakde_Rehna_Chodna_Nahi'_commercial-79635-1.html

(rest later)

Worst Indian TV commercials..

I had been thinking for quite sometime compiling a list of my all time favourites and most hated TV commercials... for the time being this post shall cater to the latter... I shall have a separate one for the former sometime later..

1. Young India undergarments

2. Frooti's Digen Verma (if I got the spellings right) - this one had created a lot of hype about the product being talked about. Though I do not mean to say the Ad was bad, but the teaser concept was bad, the way it unfolded. What the heck.. it is just a Frooti!!! It definitely create a lot of hype and perhaps rang some cash registers too for Parle Foods... but the end was crazy!
and
Pepsi TV - on the same lines as that of Digen Verma.. this one too did not make any sense at all to me. I initially thought they are actually coming up with a TV channel.. even though they would have.. the ad would have remained bad...

3. Sharuhkkkkkkhan's Lux ad!!! (that makes 2 for SRK: Pepsi TV and Lux) - Gosh!! I dunno what the hell was he thinking when he signed for it... perhaps to be a beast amongst beauties...!!! :D

4. Some saria's ad - Dharmendra... maalik ki mohar :d

5. khushboo waalah dollar!!! ($ undergarments advertisements)

(more later....)

Try this next time you travel by air

I am on vacation these days... got a chance to visit Delhi after more than a year now...

Well the most interesting part of the trip began with our flight..

Our flight was not a direct flight from bangalore... but via Hyderabad.. so we had to suppress our anxiety to reach Delhi a bit longer.. but it was compensated by having two meals :)... mmmm.... suprisingly enuff, they were good.. Air Sahara has improved a lot I shall say...

When passengers started to board from Hyderabad, then began the 'guess-who-shall-sit-next-to-us'. With Pooja taking the window seat and myself taking the middle seat, for obvious reasons I was more curious to know who shall accompany us in the remaining part of the journey. And our being the 5th/6th row from the last, we were more interested in people approaching the fag end of the plane...

The intersting part is what you speculate, bet and what you get in the end... me and Pooja were constantly betting on this person would sit with or not sit with us... it is real fun.. trust me.. try it next time you are seated first and waiting for someone else to be your co-passenger...

First came a fatso.. bald guy.. who would have probably fitted on 2 seats.. and we said.. nahinnnnnnnnnn.. yeh nahin (no, please.. not him).. phew luckily it was not him

Then we saw another fella having a small kid.. and we said no please no... not him.. the kid would wail like anything and we would not be able to sleep..

phew we were lucky again..

Then walked in another old illi-poon.. (no translation here.. he he :) ) and we said.. that's it.. our fate is sealed now.. he is looking towards our seat only.. and it is gone now... but god was with us.. and we were lucky yet again..

And time went by... we saw a local jaat couple apporaching us, we saw a real old couple went by us, a firang, a cool.dude.com etc etc... but finally I think we got the best deal... (considering both me and Pooja's wishes :) )... a decent, educated middle aged lady who seemed to be an educationist.. and definitely an elite person.. as she wanted to solve Deccan's crossword :)

So in essence.. it is fun to do this excerise...

but remember... others who would have occupied seats would also be doing so with you!!! :D

First Thoughts

hmm... what to blog in 'first ever' blog ?.. that's the question probably every blogger would have faced or at least 95% of bloggers? well I aint' no different.. :)

but really I wonder what I would blog and why the hell I did not begin blogging before?

My dear friend Ritesh (whose blog URL I have forgot for the time being.. but would plug it in as and when I shall recall :D [added] http://riteshdahiya.blogspot.com), had been pestering me for long now.. that why the hell I do not blog..

he says..(ahem. ahem) U have the creative skills, u can make people laugh, they would love to read your blog.. I would defienitely like to see your blog.. (and I thought.. bachchu I know what you mean to say ... that you would just see it and would not read it!! ;) )....

anyways... here I begin with my first official blog..

I have not planned what I shall pen down here.. but some things which come to my so-called borrowed mind are:

1. The view of the world as seen from my lenses :p (you must be thinking tell me something new buddy)

2. The view of the world as seen from my camera's lenses :p :p (that essentally means some photos I would be uploading... and that also means that I have rewritten point 1 above)

3. My frustu feelings which I encounter..

4. My pleasant experiences...

5. (hmm.. thinking... what else....) something related to life? ;) (again u thinking.. hey philospher... buzz off... But I shall say... don't worry pal, it aint be boring.. trust me)

6. Something related to em-bee-ae... and my attempt to understand the world of business (well let me know, if and wheneve I make a blog on this whether it made sense on the complex topics... it should not.. :) otherwise the whole essence of MBA.. the confusion part would be over :D )

7. Something related to technical tuff.. which comes across my eyes..

and things like that..

well.. I think thats nuff for the day.. atleast to begin with...

have a quiz tmrw.. and need to cach up with lots studies..

aur upar se biwi aane waali hai (my wife is about to come back to home)...
aur agar usne mujhe yeh blog-shlog karte huye deh liya.. to gahr se bahar nikal degi ya raat ko khaana nahi degi... so signing off.. paapi aur mote pet ka sawaal hai..

(and if mywife sees me blogging while I should be studying.. she would chuck me out of home and no dinner.. and that wuld be a killer for a fatso like me)

p.s1 uff... this hindi to english translation work... need to hire somene for this :D..
p.s2 but I wonder woul ever someone from only English cult read my blog??
ps3 but who cares.. i shall do the conversion.. u never know some might do!!! :)
p.s4 wow... so much for day one of blogging... kwel...
p.s5.. aah I love this PSes :) that reminds me of my HCL days :D :D =))
ps6... aint got more work dude? no more PSes