My Den!

E-Registration : Inclusion of name in Electoral Rolls

2011-10-28T19:29:00.000+05:30

You can now register yourself to the electoral rolls in TamilNadu via the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer website.

Go to the below link http://www.elections.tn.gov.in/eregistration/ to register.

SOHO creates jobs

2011-10-28T08:18:00.001+05:30

The below is a portion of an article at equitymaster.com. I fully agree with it now.

For eg., in India, real estate companies are taking huge loans and keeping large land banks. This means it is expensive for small flat builders to get more land to construct new homes. These loans taken do only one thing, they keep land out of reach to smaller builders and potential home owners. Who funds it ? Banks. Where do you put your life earnings, in the bank to be lent to the same builders. This is turning out to be a vicious cycle whereo the main "inflated" profits are being shared by banks and its share holders. To be more fair to the situation, the larger "value created by banks" are also shared to their employees as higher pays. It is not fully wrong, but it has a cost to the rest of the ecosystem. So does it mean, there should be no banking, no. I do not know. But to be fair overall, the govt. should allow big banks and even real estate companies to go bust to train the system to behave.

SOHO creates jobs, large corporations destroy it in the name of profitability. The below article is about he US Fed. I really hope our government policies do not destroy our economy.

Why is unemployment so high?
Well, who creates jobs? Small businesses.
Big businesses cut jobs. That is how they maintain profit margins so they can pay bonuses to their over-paid managers.
Small businesses...growing businesses...businesses that are adding value and building wealth...create new jobs.

Why so few new jobs now? Because more and more money - capital allocation decisions - are in the hands of the feds. The feds always favor existing businesses...big businesses that make campaign contributions and whose lobbyists take them to lunch. They never favor small start ups. The start ups don't have any money...or any lobbyists. The start ups have no political power.

The feds favor big businesses in direct, obvious ways - such as tax credits, bailouts and government contracts. They also favor big business by making it hard for the start ups to compete with them.

Let's just say, dear reader, that you wanted to start a new kind of bank. You saw that the big banks are ripping off their clients...losing money...and getting bailed out by the feds. So, you figure you'll do to the banks what Napster did to the music business or Amazon did to the book business. After all, moving money around is just an electronic, digital process. It should be dirt cheap to run a bank. You could even create a much better way for customers to hold their money. You could allow them to choose what currency they would like...or they could hold their cash in gold...just with a few clicks on a computer keyboard. You could set it up so no customer would ever lose money...because his account would be backed by, say, 100% physical gold. And you could cut credit card transactions and banking fees down to a fraction of what they cost today.

Read the full article, here

Error in Starting Apache 2.2 with OpenSSL :

2011-10-04T19:13:00.000+05:30

I got the below error while trying to get SSL setup with my Apache on Windows 7, Apache 2.2.

SSLSessionCache: Invalid argument: size has to be >= 8192 bytes

It seems it is because of a bug in Apache when the file path has Program Files (64) in it, i.e "(64)". So I just replaced it with some folder i created such as "C:\Program Files\Apache_Logs".

SSLSessionCache "shmcb:C:/Program Files/Apache_Logs/Apache2.2/logs/ssl_scache(512000)"

The below url was useful.

http://arfore.com/2009/08/24/sslsessioncache-error-on-apache-for-windows/

BTW to debug Apache, you could run the below in the command prompt too. It gives more info than the error.log. The SSL error above did not show up in the log file.

httpd.exe -e debug

Flynn Effect : Newer born children getting smarter

2011-09-20T20:26:00.000+05:30

As per Flynn Effect, newer born children are getting smarter. This is based on older tests taken by the newer children. It was observed that they score over 15% better. Read more about it here.

Chennai public transport system

2011-09-10T18:20:00.002+05:30

Chennaion the move to build a pedestrian friendly public transportsystem....

Chennai all set for agreater transformation in the area of transport that includes comingup of grade separators,outer ring road formation, arterial roads up-gradation, construction of flyovers, subways and lot more.... 22new projects have been announced by the state government.

Small roads in thesuburbs would be improved thereby reducing traffic in the majorroads. Grade separators and flyovers would reduce vehicularcongestion.

Hereare some of the major infrastructure projects being taken:

Monorail:

Monorail is yet anotherproposed project with the aim of transporting people within thecity's congested areas. Focus will be mainly on the suburban areas.

Imagecourtesy: The Hindu

MajorGrade Separators

Vijayanagar in velachery
Kaliamman Koil amman street junction Jawaharlal Nehru salai
Pallavaram kundrathur road – GST road Junction
Kolathur red Hills road

Gradeseparators (or flyovers as some of us call it) under construction

1)Mint Junction

2)Thirumangalm

Railover Bridge

Rangarajapuram
kathivakkam high road -Conchrane basin road

RailUnder Bridge

Villivakam
Monegar Choultry Road (M C Road)

PedestrianSubways

Near Little mount on Anna Salai
Ekkaduthangal on Jawaharlal Nehru Salai and Kasi theatre
MKN road junction on GST road

Wideningof Bridges

Bridge at Tiruvottiyur
The North Buckingham Canal
Ennore Expressway between Kargil Nagar and Satyamurthy Nagar.

Below is a graphic courtesy The Hindu of the fulll rail transport system proposed for Chennai.

Mother's remedy to beat cancer!

2011-09-02T22:20:00.002+05:30

Having a healthy lifestyle is not a guarantee against cancer. But if we follow some simple tips we can help ourselves.

A cut on our body heals by itself without our thinking about it...then why not cancer?? Our body springs into action when some changes happen in our body ....

For that we must keep our immune system working fine! Here are some tips to keep our body and our immune system healthy

Stay away from junk food like French fries, soda, refined sweets etc
Avoid keeping food items, water ,milk in plastic jars... instead use steel containers
Avoid smoking and exposure to smoking
Limit red meat and animal fat
Do not cook oil on high heat
Include as much as garlic on your daily diet
Increase your fibre intake
Replace non stick pans with iron pans as teflons used in non stick pans releases toxic gases when heated to certain temperature

King pair in Cricket or Golden pair!

2011-08-13T09:07:00.001+05:30

If a batman gets out for a duck on the first ball of two innings in a match, that's a king pair.
From Wikipedia :
King pair (also Golden pair): a batsman who gets out off the first ball he faces in both innings of a two-innings match, without scoring any runs in either one.

Placement opportunities for freshers : http://www.shredskerala.org/

2011-06-01T12:51:00.000+05:30

I am sure it is old news for many, but just for the record. If you are a fresher and looking for placement opportunities, you may want to use the http://www.shredskerala.org/ website to attend some interviews.

ANTLR for custom data formats and configuration definition

2011-05-18T10:28:00.000+05:30

ANTLR can be used to define data formats instead of using XML /JSON/YAML etc

What is ANTLR?
ANTLR, ANother Tool for Language Recognition, is a language tool that provides a framework for constructing recognizers, interpreters, compilers, and translators from grammatical descriptions containing actions in a variety of target languages. ANTLR provides excellent support for tree construction, tree walking, translation, error recovery, and error reporting. There are currently about 5,000 ANTLR source downloads a month.

ANTLR has a sophisticated grammar development environment called ANTLRWorks, written by Jean Bovet.

rediff.com bloopers

2011-05-02T11:41:00.000+05:30

Checkout the screenshot. Read the title of the first news item. I am not going to elaborate. Normally rediff has titles that people end up clicking and reading. Not sure if its one of their stunts!

Sugary foods leading to Obesity : Video

2011-04-28T18:57:00.000+05:30

Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin. Series: UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public [7/2009] [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 16717]

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dBnniua6-oM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Print IDFC Infrastructure Bond Certificates

2011-02-01T10:08:00.002+05:30

If we purchase IDFC Infrastructure Bonds via our Demat account, you will only get e-statements. It looks like you will not get a physical bond certificate. I purchased the initial bonds in Nov. 2010. I have not got it yet.

Here is how you can take a print our of the Bond certificate. Go to the karvy website and key in your IDFC Infrastructure Bond application number. You will get a PDF there. Download it and save for your reference.

http://karisma.karvy.com/investor/jsp/IDFC-APP.jsp
Got this info from HDFCSec Call Center.

There are also other tools in Karvy website to track IPO or Bond status. Go to this link to track IPO allotment status.

ctrl + shift + arrow key does not work in Firefox

2010-12-16T15:50:00.001+05:30

After upgrading to Firefox 3.6.13, I got the latest Firebug too. But Firebug 1.6.0 overides some default shortcuts in the editor area.

Ctrl + shift + arrow key does not work in gmail or zoho mail and other mail / content editors.

I just Googled around and found that its a bug with Firebug's and its slated to be fixed in Firebug 1.6.1 (beta here)

I got around it by removing the shortcut in Firebug as suggested here.

How to disable the Pointing stick or Touch pad mouse of DELL E6400

2010-11-02T13:37:00.000+05:30

To disable DELL E6400 Pointing stick or Touch pad mouse open up "C:\"Program Files"\DellTPad\DellTPad.exe".

Go to the option "Device Select" > Disable what you do not want.

The pointing stick turns out to be a pain while typing text. Especially while typing "b" and other text around it. I ended up making too many errors while using this.

Good Dictionary for Indian languages

2010-10-22T09:26:00.001+05:30

Shabdkosh is a good Indian languages Dictionary. The site has abilities to translate English words to many of the popular Indian languages like Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil etc. They provide even the transliterated and original scripts for the word. You could even enter a word in Malayalam and read the meaning in English.

Free Educational Videos

2010-08-26T12:07:00.000+05:30

Below is a list of sites that give you free online videos for your various subjects in school to engineering to economics. I have listed them below, in order of simplicity (i have felt).

KhanAcademy is a newer one with a tweet from Bill Gates himself a few days back !

http://www.khanacademy.org/

http://academicearth.org/

http://learnerstv.com/

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

RESIDEX : Residential Property Index like SENSEX for Indian Real estate

2010-03-30T15:30:00.002+05:30

RESIDEX is an index that shows the price of property in various cities in India based on transactions. It was initiated in 2007 and is maintained by National Housing board. Hope it was done earlier :-) that would have given us a perspective of how much real estate had really boomed in the last decade.

Its like the SENSEX for Indian Real estate. Here is some values from the National Housing board website.

The cool thing is it has even details about zones within big cities. So for eg. Chennai has 10 zones and it gives the index for each of it. Look at the index value as Rs 100 paid for something, what's the cost now. In Chennai it says the prices have dropped by 27% in Mylapore; Adyar; Velachery; Thriuvanmiyur. RESIDEX for Chennai zone.

There is a company website that gives good stats for analysis about the real estate market - http://www.knightfrank.co.in/.

Cities	2007	2008 Jan- June	2008 July- Dec	2009 Jan-Jun
Delhi	100	124	130	121
Bengaluru	100	73	76	58
Mumbai	100	112	117	124
Kolkata	100	114	140	159
Bhopal	100	139	151	139
Hyderabad	100	96	92	65
Faridabad	100	100	121	136
Patna	100	103	100	107
Ahmedabad	100	106	100	127
Chennai	100	104	95	120
Jaipur	100	119	115	71
Lucknow	100	103	102	104
Pune	100	101	97	103
Surat	100	101	98	111
Kochi	100	106	95	90

http://www.nhb.org.in./Residex/Data&Graphs.php

Your bank deposit, helps keep real estate prices up!

2010-03-25T14:28:00.000+05:30

http://www.equitymaster.com/ht/detail.asp?date=10/8/2009&story=2

Immerse yourself in 2008
But there is something interesting in the RBI data on what banks have done with your deposit money.
But, before we head there - we need to remind ourselves where the world was in December 2008.

Lehman Brothers had gone bust in September 2008.
Merrill Lynch had to be rescued by Bank of America in a shotgun marriage arranged by the US government.
AIG had to be bailed out.
While most Indian banks were healthy, there were concerns that a few banks (which had relied on excessive foreign lines of credit for their excessive growth) may not have money to repay their foreign loans and needs to be "rescued" by the RBI.

Indian companies, in general, had borrowed about USD 20 billion from foreign banks and investors.
This USD 20 billion included what Tata Motors had borrowed for its acquisition of Jaguar, or the working capital borrowing by an Indian company using "cheaper" foreign money to invest in its Indian businesses.
By October 2008, the foreign banks were told to send all their money back to "home country". Their parent banks were in trouble and they needed all the money back in safe US government or UK or Euro government bonds.
Foreign banks were not only refusing to lend any new money to any Indian company, but they wanted all the loans that were falling due returned. They refused to "revolve" or extend the loans.

Too add doom to the gloom, many mutual funds were holding debt issued by Indian real estate companies and these companies were not able to repay this debt.
The Indian companies had parked their surplus cash with these mutual funds. They now wanted it back (to repay their foreign bank loans or for use in their own operations), and the mutual funds could not repay it.
Ouch!

The Indian stock markets were collapsing.
And the general consensus (uh, not from me) was that the Indian stock market could head as low as 4,000 to 6,000 levels from the 8,000 levels of the BSE 30 Index.

And the final knock-out punch: the sale of shares by foreign investors (uh, speculators will be more accurate) to the extent of Rs 70,000 crore and the act of converting this into US Dollars led to a decline of about -30% in the Indian rupee in the year 2008.

Even the sweet and normally confident anchors on TV channels looked like Rakhi Sawant - one day after being with a child.
The financial newspapers stopped publishing photographs of attractive models to add colour to their India fantasy stories.

That, then, was the India we were in.
December 2008.
Please roll back your mind to that period.

And add the spice: there was an election coming up.
Which many believed (eh, not me) could take India into the bullock cart age.

Rescue me!
Let's take a quick peek at what was happening to real estate developers.

People had stopped buying real estate.
Salaries were being held back - the days of the guaranteed 25% annual increase were over.
Jobs were at risk.
Offices were empty.
Businesses were closing down.

Real estate developers were about to go bust.
They were desperate for cash.
There was no money inflow from the sale of real estate.
But there were debts to be repaid.
And the real estate developers also had payment obligations for all the land that they had agreed to buy as they went about building their "land banks".

In this environment, what were the PSU banks doing?
They were pretty busy lending money for real estate.

Table 1: Your friendly neighbourhood bank is here J

*in Rs Millions*	May 29,2009	May 23,2008	May 29,2007

Loans given (excludes agriculture loans)	25,582,500	21,747,670	17,515,780

Real estate loans by all banks	944,990	621,780	451,600

Real estate loans to total loans given by banks	3.7%	2.9%	2.6%

Growth in real estate loans	52%	38%

Growth in total loans (excludes agriculture loans)	18%	24%

Source: RBI data
Between May 23, 2008 and May 29, 2009 the loans given by banks (excluding the loans it makes for agriculture) grew by +18% - from Rs 21,747,670 million to Rs 25,582,500 million.

But the loans given to real estate grew by +52% - from Rs 621,780 million to Rs 944,990 million.

This period is for May 2008 to May 2009 - in a few weeks we will get data for the period October 2009 over October 2008.
That data will probably be more telling.
Global credit markets froze after Lehman's collapse and the "growth" in loans may be more than what this "older" data shows.

But even this "old" data shows the huge rescue of the real estate developers.

It should be noted that "loans to real estate" does not include the loans made to individuals who borrow money to purchase their homes. Those mortgage loans grew by 5% confirming the data from the real estate industry that home-buying has slowed down considerably.

According to industry estimates (and a research report by a foreign stock-broking house), the growth in the number of new homes sold in 5 cities (Bangalore, Bombay, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad) has declined.

Between April, May, and June of 2008 there were 15,000 units sold in these 5 cities. This works out to an average of 33 units per day per city.

From then on it went into a tailspin and reached the low level of 5,000 units for the period January, February, and March of 2009.
This works out to an average of 11 units per day per city.

It has since picked up - mostly in Bombay - to an estimated 9,000 units for the 3-month period July, August, and September 2009.
This works out to an average of 20 units per day per city.

The point is: there was a small growth in homes purchased - so there was no significant growth in loans given to individuals for purchasing real estate.

But there was a huge (+52%) increase in loans shown to real estate developers - loans given to keep the real estate companies afloat.

Given that foreign banks were asked to send money back home and not to lend in India, much of this increase in "loans to real estate" was probably made by the Indian banks.

And given that ICICI Bank (the largest) and many other Indian private sector banks were being careful and re-assessing the risks they had taken in many previous loans, the chunk of the "loans to real estate" must be from the PSU banks.

Your bank deposit, helps keep real estate prices up!
So, there it is:
You wish to buy real estate but are waiting for it to decline to a price that you can afford to pay.
Stock prices jump around too much so, correctly, you don't wish to put your idle money in stock markets because you may need the money at anytime to buy real estate.
Your bank deposit is with the PSU bank.

The banks have used your money to give it as a loan to real estate developers.
Their act of giving the loan to real estate developers gives them badly needed cash.
The real estate developers no longer need to sell their real estate to get "cash flow" to stay alive.
They got the money from the banks.
Now, the real estate developers can charge you a higher price for real estate.
They can sell it on their terms.
Their terms, of course, are to make a 100% to 300% profit from you.

So, if the calculations in Table 1 above are correct, then the loans to real estate developers were about Rs 323,210 million or Rs 32,321 crore.

Table 2: The British taxed our salt; the powerful "tax" our real estate

	May 29,2009

Growth in real estate loans, in past one year (Rs million)	323,210

Avg cost of construction (Rs/sq ft)	2,000

Square feet financed (millions)	161.61

Avg property size, sq ft	1,000

No of homes denied, directly	161,605

These Rs 32,321 crore was - from a cash flow perspective - the equivalent of selling 161,605 homes of 1,000 sq ft each.

So, some 161,605 homes that would otherwise have to be sold by the real estate developers to generate cash flow for the developers (to match the loans they got from the banks) have not come to the market to be sold.

Instead, an estimated 34,000 homes were sold for the 12 months ending May 2009.
And property prices had fallen by -20% to -30%.

What would happen to real estate prices if banks had NOT given these loans (from your deposit money) and if 161,605 homes had to be sold in the 12 months ending May 2009?

The 161,605 homes that did not come to the market are 4.8 times the homes that were sold in the 5 cities in that same time period.

You saw what happened when foreign investors sold Rs 70,000 crore of stocks?
The BSE-30 Index collapsed from 20,500 to a level of 8,000.
A decline of -69%.
But real estate developers have a friendly banker.
That is why property prices have fallen "only" by -20% and are now heading up again!

So, why this sudden friendship?

Well, we had a national election coming up.
Politicians possibly need money to fight elections.
Though this may be a coincidence.

And then many politicians - across political parties - possibly have someone they know from their family in the real estate business.
And they needed to rescue them.

The foreign banks stepped out, the Indian banks stepped in.

The governments control the PSU banks.
A suggestion, a nudge, a wink, or a phone call is all it takes.

And a little bit of your money.
Just a little bit.

Rs 323,310 million of extra money that went to the real estate developers is only 1% of the total bank deposits in the country.
What's a little 1% between friends?

But it is sufficient to ensure that real estate prices may not fall to levels that are affordable for you.
For the aam aadmi that every Finance Minister and every government and every politician is so worried about.

Mahatma Gandhi walked to the sea and made his own salt.
The politicians were all there to pay homage to the great soul on October 2nd.
Dressed in their white khadi and solemn faces.

Like the Mahatma, you can protest, too.

Walk up to your neighbourhood bank branch manager and ask him, "How much of my bank deposit in your bank is going to fund real estate developers who then keep prices so high that I cannot afford to buy real estate?"

Maybe you wish to give your deposit to a bank that only gives real estate loans to individuals who buy homes or offices or shops?
You can deal with banks that refuse to give money to real estate developers.
This small act will force the real estate developers to sell those 161,605 homes that they would need to sell to pay back the loans from your bank deposits.

And then you can buy your real estate at a more "real" price.

Finance remains a very corrupt business, in my humble opinion.
As does real estate.

So, where does that leave the financing of real estate in the ranking tables of corrupt businesses?

Junk calls from ICICI Bank continues

2010-02-08T10:55:00.001+05:30

This is really frustrating. After all the negative brand image that ICICI got in the last 2 years over arm twisting existing home loan borrowers, they continue to irritate other customers too.

They introduced a new fund called RICH Fund and trying to get their customers to switch to it. I have got almost 40+ calls in 2 months from them and it simply does not seem to stop. The most idiotic thing is the fund I am in cannot be switched, either. I checked by calling their call center on whether it is possible and they said it does not make sense.

However their service agents in Chennai do not seem to know that. The dumb process that ICICI uses is blindly hadover all mobile numbers of customers to all their agents and ask them to have a field day irritating users and act as if they are working.

The funny thing is the calls seem to come from the same set of 3 offices in Chennai over and over and over again.

So here are a list of numbers that you can safely ignore :

044-6450 1164 (Saidapet Branch)
044-6450 98**
044-6450 9896 to

044- 6462 68**
044- 6462 6894

I am sure the whole series of 100 numbers will be junk.

Monthly car sales in India

2010-01-07T16:21:00.000+05:30

Here is a nice excel sheet that shows the monthly sales of cars in India.

DAV Public school velachery website

2009-12-16T15:43:00.000+05:30

Finally the DAV Public school velachery website was launched a few months back. The URL is

http://davpsvelacherychennai.co.in/

This however does not come up in Google results for some reason. Hence this blog post to give it a link.

B-Tree database index algorithm - low cardinality field

2009-12-01T10:40:00.001+05:30

Good article describing B-Tree database index algorithm. I was specially looking at impact of using an "index on a low cardinality field".

http://mattfleming.com/node/192

Microsoft calls ZOHO the "Fake Office". http://fakeoffice.org/ is born.

2009-11-06T10:20:00.001+05:30

Microsoft calls ZOHO the "Fake Office". http://fakeoffice.org/ is born.

In a recent interview Microsoft called Zoho the 'Fake Office'

Fake? Well, if by "fake" Microsoft meant that there is no CD or DVD to buy, no bloatware to download, nothing to install, no hundreds of dollars to pay... then yeah, we agree.

Why would Microsoft want to discourage you from trying the Fake Office? If it was truly a "Fake" Office, then we wouldn't pose a risk to them, would we?

Sign up and decide for yourself. Takes less than 20 seconds

Original post:
http://blogs.zoho.com/general/microsoft-calls-zoho-the-fake-office-so-does-that-mean-bing-is

Touching Video. 25,000 people die of hunger out there.

2009-09-29T13:48:00.000+05:30

Touching Video. 25,000 people die of hunger out there. Let us not waste food and other natural resources.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGNmvNIgqlY&feature=player_embedded

Recruiting IT folks in India ?

2009-09-28T17:46:00.000+05:30

Recruiting IT folks in India ?

Good article by Atul.

http://atulchitnis.net/diary/showentry/503

Kerala's Syrian Christians face ageing, dwindling numbers

2009-09-24T00:07:00.001+05:30

:-(

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala's Syrian Christians are an unmistakable elite among all major communities in the state in socio-economic indices. But
material contentment apart, the community's future appears dreary, as rapid ageing and dwindling fertility rates push the group towards the negative growth zone.

Social scientists fear that the community could go the Parsi way in the country in the near term.

A study by KC Zachariah of the Centre for Development Studies here points to the size of the Syrian Christians likely to hit a maximum of 30.21 lakh in 2011 and then decline to touch 28.51 lakh by 2031. Their net growth rate during 2001-31 is projected to be negative 0.19% (-0.19%) per year, and the percentage of Syrian Christians to the state's population is likely to drop from 9.5 at the beginning of the century to 8.4 by 2031.

"The trend has its roots in the already declining population rate, compounded by the fact that migrating Syrian Christians go to countries from where they are unlikely to return, as against those who migrate for a few years and return to the state", Mr Zachariah told ET.

Syrian Christians' bleak future in terms of population growth is in stark contrast to the community's accomplishments on the socio-economic indices. On a socio-economic scale of 1 to 5, with rank 5 being the most desirable, Syrian Christians are the only ones who have a rank higher than 3, while Nairs, Ezhavas, Latin Christians and Muslims all have a score between 1.5 and 2.

But with such a glittering feat in socio-economic indices, the community will be hard pressed to ensure that it thrives in the future, as it faces the twin issues of fewer children and an ageing population. Mr Zachariah's study shows that while the last century began with an elderly population of 4% in the community, the century ended with the elderly making up 10% of the community.

The first quarter of this century is likely to witness the elderly population in the community touch 25% of the total, growing at 3% per annum, as against a negative 0.35% growth for the total population.

Not surprisingly, Syrian Christians have done more than any other community in establishing homes for the elderly. A couple of years ago, it was seen that nearly 50% of the 125-odd old-age homes in the state were in Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts where Syrian Christians abound, and that the Syrian Christian community managed 95% of these homes.

While there is concern that the community's clout could dwindle alongside its falling numbers, Mr Zachariah points out that it need not be so. He says the community's clout can be maintained or even increased by developing its human and material resources, and that a policy option for the community could be to invest an increasing share of its resources for the development of its human and material resources

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Keralas-affluent-Syrian-Xians-face-ageing-dwindling-numbers/articleshow/5044015.cms

Buried alive in what you do ?

2009-09-23T11:07:00.003+05:30

The closest thing to being buried alive is the medical condition known as ventral pontine syndrome or pseudocoma. The below is a good article from indiatimes.

However some of us are really buried alive in our work with very little social interaction to speak off. Take care.

Without detracting from Bauby’s appalling experience, it’s still important to consider sometimes that, in a similar way, most of us are also locked-in in our kind of lifestyles. And that, generally, what we manage to accomplish during our brief existence can also be compared with the blinking of an eye while the rest of our potential lies seemingly paralysed. We too remain dimly away of what’s going on around us but feel helpless to participate or intervene. Fortunately, there have been exceptions again.

Prince Siddhartha Gautama was a locked-in in the suffocating microcosm of the palace of his father, King Suddodhona, living a life of paralysed luxury, hermetically shielded from the outside world and suffering for nearly three decades. But his blinking eyelid realised there was more and wanted out. Thus he was able to escape being buried alive in his pseudocoma and gain enlightenment which opened his eyes to spell out a teaching for a whole world to read.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Cosmic-Uplink/Locked-in-is-as-locked-in-does/articleshow/5040299.cms

Chennai Property When should I buy my house ?

2009-09-13T16:36:00.005+05:30

There are quite a few reasons why property prices go up. Here are 2 out of the many reasons.

* Buyers buying more than they really need :-)
* Builders and land owners get greedy seeing demand picking

1) Buyers buying more than they really need :-) or in other words people buy a second house so that they can give the second house on rent and also have the feeling (yes that's what it really is) they are saving income tax by claiming the interest component as exemptions from the tax they pay.

However going forward the finance ministry is possibly going to make it unattractive to invest in a house unless you really need it, and hence may ensure only those who really need a house invests in land or buys a house.

I think Finance Ministry will kind of ensure there is a better home buyers market.

Two reasons for the above statement :

A per the new recommendations and IT Code possibly taking effect April 1 2011,

a) Removal of all benefits for buying a house i.e the interest component will be, no more exempt from income tax. This makes it actually more expensive to own the second house as you need to still pay tax on the amount that you were previously saving. Yes it also makes it seem expensive for first time buyers. But wait first time buyer have normally lesser salary and they actually do not loose much as income tax slabs itself would have increased your pay to compensate the removal of the benefit.

b) As per the new code, Long Term Capital Gains and Short Term Capitals Gains will be clubbed and there will be no differentiation between the two.

c) All capital gains will be included as part of INCOME for that year.

This is a very damning thing. Especially for salaried class. Even if you sell your ancestral land you are going to pay "Income Tax" for the profits you gained out of selling it. People selling land to get their child married are going to feel the pinch for this as these are people who need the money and buying bonds etc are not going to help.

This will hence kind of force some people to sell their land / flats before the tax code actually comes in to place to make sure their returns are not impacted.

Ofcourse the above case is within the context of newer slabs for Personal Income Tax planned for 2011. You can see the various slabs in the below image.
http://www.hindu.com/pp/2009/09/12/images/2009091250010102.jpg

So what ?

I think flats and houses will see some kind of best prices in the year 2010 if the Finance ministry decides to go with this recommendation in 2011 because investors may stop buying the second house helping to cool demand (maybe to a small extent). Additionally those sitting with land banks may want to clear some of it so that their "Income tax" is within limits.

Now the new IT Code itself could reduce the "buying" capacity of a home buyer as he is going to pay more taxes or have the perception that he does not get tax benefits. Hence he will perceive the house as being more expensive now than before.
This will in turn put pressure on the builder to reduce prices. But in reality it looks it will be a zero sum game for the buyers.

Good luck with timing the buy of your home.

Well this blog post is only half complete, Will need to update this in the near future.

This blog has been inspired from data obtained from the article in the Hindu.

Tamil Nadu Government Websites

2009-09-13T16:34:00.001+05:30

Tamil Nadu Government Websites to make life easier

Check Guideline values when buying property in the below website.
http://www.tnreginet.net/

Apply for Marriage Certificate via Tamil Nadu Government Website
http://www.tnreginet.net/igregn/webAppln/index.asp

Tamil Nadu electricity Bill Online
http://www.tnebnet.org/lt/web/service.php

Chennai Corporation Pay Property Tax
Verify/Print Online Birth and Death Certificate, Pay Property Tax Online, Latest News on Chennai Corporation.
http://www.chennaicorporation.gov.in/

Chennai Metro Water Payment
http://www.chennaimetrowater.com/mmctaxsearch-login.htm

Updates for business critical functions vs twitter updates

2009-06-27T13:53:00.002+05:30

Updates for business critical functions vs twitter updates. http://performance360.blogspot.com/2009/06/irony-updates-for-business-critical.html

ManageEngine Interop TV Interview

2009-06-27T13:24:00.002+05:30

OK time for some shameless self promotion.

Last month we (from my company) attended the Interop Tradeshow in Las Vegas. Well I had the opportunity (by chance) to be interviewed at the show for ManageEngine.

You can find the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-a2K9nxJDg

Thanks Alex for taking the pain to record it.

Turn off windows beep error sound

2009-06-22T16:52:00.000+05:30

If you get in to trouble with some parameter for a command line tool in windows, you get an annoying - LOUD noise. Irritating to say the very least. Now you can turn this windows beep sound by running the below 2 commands in a command prompt.

prompt>net stop beep
prompt>sc config beep start= disabled

Troubleshoot Apache Module Rewrite

2009-06-17T13:23:00.000+05:30

Simple troubleshooting tips to get Apache Module Rewrite to work. This is most probably an idiots guide so geeks excuse.

If you have been trying to get Apache Mod Rewrite to work for the last 2 hours, then welcome.
Some keywords : mod_rewrite errors in windows or ubuntu linux. I got it working with Apache 2.2 and PHP 5.2.9.2.

Simple troubleshooting steps to make it work.

This is only a troubleshooting article for getting mod_rewrite to work. There are lots of others on the web that are useful for setting mod_rewrite up. Basically I went wrong where I had "Indexes" for my "Options". The most irritating thing in many forum posts is the incompleteness / assumption that others know how to put the entries.

There are basically 2 ways of configuring mod_rewrite.

Approach I Setting the required "Options" in the httpd.conf file
Approach II Setting the required "Options" in the .htaccess file

NOTE :
x) MAKE SURE YOU USE YOUR OWN SYSTEM PATHS FOR THE FOLDERS AND FILES !
y) Please note the parent folders .htaccess could affect your sub folder's .htacess file's setting. Hence it is recommended you try out examples given on the web as it is, including using the same folder path
z) The rewrite rules you see in this page are for 2 popular rewrite examples found on the web.

Two simple examples for Mod Rewrite / mod_rewrite
http://www.wallpaperama.com/forums/how-to-test-check-if-mod-rewrite-is-enabled-t40.html
http://www.workingwith.me.uk/articles/scripting/mod_rewrite

Approach I Setting the required "Options" in the httpd.conf file

So below changes are to be tried in the httpd.conf or our apache's equivalent httpd.conf.

1) When hitting the URL http://localhost/test-programs/modrewrite/alice.html if you get

Not Found
The requested URL /test-programs/modrewrite/alice.html was not found on this server.

then most probably your problem is you have set to AllowOverride to None.

AllowOverride None. Change this to AllowOverride All

2) Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /test-programs/modrewrite/alice.html on this server.

The above error you get if you have set the folder's Options to

Options Indexes MultiViews

Change to
Options MultiViews

i.e remove the "Indexes" and make sure you also have Options All set explicitly.

The below is sure to work if you have set it in the the right location. Use the whole configuration below EXACTLY AS IT IS, except for the folder path.

Alias / "C:/wwwroot/"
Directory "C:/wwwroot">
Options All MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

Note MultiViews has to be added for sure.

OR the below one. Note it is required to have "FollowSymLinks" or "SymLinksIfOwnerMatch" in the options, but you still need MultiViews.

Alias / "C:/wwwroot/"

Options FollowSymLinks SymLinksIfOwnerMatch MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

Some places to look around for errors :
Apache Error log file to check messages in :
C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\logs\error.log

Options FollowSymLinks or SymLinksIfOwnerMatch is off which implies that RewriteRule directive is forbidden: C:/wwwroot/test-programs/modrewrite/alice.html

REFERENCE:

For your benefit, I am putting all the relevant httpd.conf entries below. This is how mine looks.

I access it on my PC as http://localhost/test-programs/modrewrite/alice.html

MAKE SURE YOU USE YOUR OWN SYSTEM PATHS FOR THE FOLDERS AND FILES !

DocumentRoot "C:/wwwroot/"

#
# Each directory to which Apache has access can be configured with respect
# to which services and features are allowed and/or disabled in that
# directory (and its subdirectories).
#
# First, we configure the "default" to be a very restrictive set of
# features.
#

Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride All
Order deny,allow
Deny from all

#
# This should be changed to whatever you set DocumentRoot to.
#

#
# Possible values for the Options directive are "None", "All",
# or any combination of:
# Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews
#
# Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All"
# doesn't give it to you.
#
# The Options directive is both complicated and important. Please see
# http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#options
# for more information.
#
Options Indexes
#Options Indexes All
#Options Indexes MultiViews

#
# AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.
# It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:
# Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
#
AllowOverride None

#
# Controls who can get stuff from this server.
#
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

ServerRoot "C:/Program Files/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2"
LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so

The below is required only if you also want PHP to be working.

LoadModule php5_module "C:/SoftwareInstallations/PHP5292/php5apache2_2.dll"
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
PHPIniDir "C:/SoftwareInstallations/PHP5292"

Here are the alias entries with relevant permissions.

Alias / "C:/wwwroot/"

Options All MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

For more help content, search for "MultiViews" in your httpd.conf file. If you have apache2.2, maybe your main conf file for Apache maybe its apache2.conf. Best do a search for "MultiViews" in all your conf files and make sure you read the help content too.

Approach II Setting the required "Options" in the .htaccess file

If you are not allowed to modify your httpd.conf, then you can also set the "Options" properties in your corresponding .htaccess. Please note the parent folders .htaccess could affect your sub folder's .htacess file's setting.

I donot have .htaccess file in my C:/wwwroot/ or test-programs/ but only in my C:/wwwroot/test-programs/modrewrite/ folder.

That means my httpd.conf alias permissions entry is as below

Content of httpd.conf

Alias / "C:/wwwroot/"

#Options All MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

Content of .htaccess is below

Options All MultiViews
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^link([^/]*).html$ rewrite.php?link=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^alice.html$ bob.html

OR AS BELOW

Options Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch MultiViews
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^link([^/]*).html$ rewrite.php?link=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^alice.html$ bob.html

For performance reasons it is recommended to have .entries in the httpd.conf itself instead of every folder.
The above 2 rewrite rules are for 2 popular rewrite examples found on the web.

Mounting jumpdrives on RedHat Linux

2009-05-06T22:37:00.001+05:30

Login as "su" super user on your linux machine and add the line below that helps you mount the jump drive on boot up. Addd the line in bold below.

my - /etc/fstab file

LABEL=/                 /                       ext3    defaults        1 1
none                    /dev/pts                devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
LABEL=/home             /home                   ext3    defaults        1 2
none                    /proc                   proc    defaults        0 0
none                    /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults        0 0
/dev/hda7               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
/dev/fd0                /mnt/floppy             auto    noauto,owner,kudzu 0 0
/dev/sda1               /mnt/jumpdrive          auto user,noauto,unmask=000 0 0
/dev/hda8               /mnt/ddrive             vfat    auto,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda9               /mnt/edrive             vfat    auto,umask=0 0 0
/dev/hda10              /mnt/fdrive             vfat    auto,umask=0 0 0

/dev/cdrom              /mnt/cdrom              udf,iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0

Additionally if you just want to mount a jumpdrive for a one time use, you can just use the "mount" command.

#
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/jumpdrive

If the folder /dev/sda1 does not exist create it.

Gold Prices to remain stable ? China is buying gold.

2009-05-04T10:03:00.000+05:30

US tops based on Gold held by Govt. China is also buying gold to diversify its reserves. See new article on this story here. This is good for the overall Gold market as prices could remain stable for more time. People are slowly moving out or diversifying out of the dollar ?

To see a listing of countries based on Gold held - http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=2086287

PM Manmohan Singh : Iron Fist in Velvet Glove

2009-05-04T09:58:00.000+05:30

PM Manmohan Singh : Iron Fist in Velvet Glove : A nice articel about the PM in rediff.com. I agree that this is one of the better Prime Ministers we have had. The achievement of this man starts right from 1990 with economic reforms. Kudos to Congress President Sonia to choose him as PM instead of herself !

Some excerpts from the article

Even on the nuclear agreement he was willing to let the Left Front take credit for securing a final agreement that was in the nation's interests! This was a compromise formula communicated to the prime minister by a senior Left leader. When the final 123 agreement between India and the United States was made a public document, one view within the Left Front was that they should take credit by claiming that they had helped secure a better outcome than what the prime minister was capable of securing from the Americans.

Clearly, Singh was willing to stoop to conquer. But when this compromise formula was rejected by the hardliners in the Left, Singh had no option but to show the iron fist in his velvet glove. Never under-estimate the determination of a self-made man!

More often than not Singh would get his way through patient consultation.

But apart from this formal consultation, he would be on the phone with UPA leaders like M Karunanidhi [Images], Sharad Pawar [Images] and Lalu Prasad and keep them informed on every major decision, and get their concurrence before acting. His is a classic cabinet style of functioning. On major policy issues he would keep even the Left in the loop. ...............The downside of such a consultative process is, of course, that decision-making takes time and tough decisions don't always get taken. But that is the price we pay for having diverse coalitions. There is a paradox in the liberal angst about politics and policy in India. On the one hand we celebrate coalitions as a mirror of our diversity; on the other hand we want 'tough' leaders who will impose their will.

Full article
http://election.rediff.com/column/2009/may/03/guest-pm-symbolises-iron-fist-in-velvet-glove.htm

Java Support in Google AppEngine

2009-04-15T11:12:00.000+05:30

Java Support in Google AppEngine

http://googleappengine.blogspot.com/2009/04/seriously-this-time-new-language-on-app.html

There is also another good blog from Groovy about writing for AppEngine using Groovy
http://blog.springsource.com/2009/04/07/write-your-google-app-engine-applications-in-groovy/

Code Rewrite : why it is bad (a link)

2009-03-31T08:40:00.001+05:30

Here is a link to a blog on why Code Rewrite is bad.

Power of Positive Talk : Do not use the word Try.

2009-03-08T15:07:00.000+05:30

A forward. I liked the part about "Hold on to the tree". It really makes sense.

I remember my dad teaching me the power of language at a very young age. Not only did my dad understand that specific words affect our mental pictures, but he understood words are a powerful programming factor in lifelong success.
One particularly interesting event occurred when I was eight. As a kid, I was always climbing trees, poles, and literally hanging around upside down from the rafters of our lake house. So, it came to no surprise for my dad to find me at the top of a 30-foot tree swinging back and forth. My little eight-year-old brain didn't realize the tree could break or I could get hurt. I just thought it was fun to be up so high.
My older cousin, Tammy, was also in the same tree. She was hanging on the first big limb, about ten feet below me. Tammy's mother also noticed us at the exact time my dad did. About that time a huge gust of wind came over the tree. I could hear the leaves start to rattle and the tree begin to sway. I remember my dad's voice over the wind yell, 'Bart, Hold on tightly.' So I did. The next thing I know, I heard Tammy screaming at the top of her lungs, laying flat on the ground. She had fallen out of the tree.
I scampered down the tree to safety. My dad later told me why she fell and I did not. Apparently, when Tammy's mother felt the gust of wind, she yelled out, 'Tammy, don't fall!' And Tammy did... fall.
My dad then explained to me that the mind has a very difficult time processing a negative image. In fact, people who rely on internal pictures cannot see a negative at all. In order for Tammy to process the command of not falling, her nine-year-old brain had to first imagine falling, then try to tell the brain not to do what it just imagined.. Whereas, my eight-year-old brain instantly had an internal image of me hanging on tightly.
This concept is especially useful when you are attempting to break a habit or set a goal. You can't visualize not doing something. The only way to properly visualize not doing something is to actually find a word for what you want to do and visualize that. For example, when I was thirteen years old, I played for my junior high school football team. I tried so hard to be good, but I just couldn't get it together at that age. I remember hearing the words run through my head as I was running out for a pass, 'Don't drop it!' Naturally, I dropped the ball.
My coaches were not skilled enough to teach us proper 'self-talk.' They just thought some kids could catch and others couldn't. I'll never make it pro, but I'm now a pretty good Sunday afternoon football player, because all my internal dialogue is positive and encourages me to win. I wish my dad had coached me playing football instead of just climbing trees. I might have had a longer football career.

Here is a very easy demonstration to teach your kids and your friends the power of a toxic vocabulary. Ask them to hold a pen or pencil. Hand it to them. Now, follow my instructions carefully. Say to them, 'Okay, try to drop the pencil.' Observe what they do.
Most people release their hands and watch the pencil hit the floor. You respond, 'You weren't paying attention. I said TRY to drop the pencil. Now please do it again.' Most people then pick up the pencil and pretend to be in excruciating pain while their hand tries but fails to drop the pencil.
The point is made.
If you tell your brain you will 'give it a try,' you are actually telling your brain to fail. I have a 'no try' rule in my house and with everyone I interact with. Either people will do it or they won't. Either they will be at the party or they won't. I'm brutal when people attempt to lie to me by using the word try. Do they think I don't know they are really telegraphing to the world they have no intention of doing it but they want me to give them brownie points for pretended effort? You will never hear the words 'I'll try' come out of my mouth unless I'm teaching this concept in a seminar.
If you 'try' and do something, your unconscious mind has permission not to succeed. If I truly can't make a decision I will tell the truth. 'Sorry John. I'm not sure if I will be at your party or not. I've got an outstanding commitment. If that falls through, I will be here. Otherwise, I will not. Thanks for the invite.'
People respect honesty. So remove the word 'try' from your vocabulary.
My dad also told me that psychologists claim it takes seventeen positive statements to offset one negative statement. I have no idea if it is true, but the logic holds true. It might take up to seventeen compliments to offset the emotional damage of one harsh criticism.
These are concepts that are especially useful when raising children.

Ask yourself how many compliments you give yourself daily versus how many criticisms. Heck, I know you are talking to yourself all day long. We all have internal voices that give us direction.
So, are you giving yourself the 17:1 ratio or are you shortchanging yourself with toxic self-talk like, ' I'm fat. Nobody will like me. I'll try this diet. I'm not good enough. I'm so stupid. I'm broke, etc.. etc.'
If our parents can set a lifetime of programming with one wrong statement, imagine the kind of programming you are doing on a daily basis with your own internal dialogue. Here is a list of Toxic Vocabulary words.
Notice when you or other people use them.
Ø But: Negates any words that are stated before it.
Ø Try: Presupposes failure.
Ø If: Presupposes that you may not.
Ø Might: It does nothing definite. It leaves options for your listener.
Ø Would Have: Past tense that draws attention to things that didn't actually happen.
Ø Should Have: Past tense that draws attention to things that didn't actually happen (and implies guilt.)
Ø Could Have: Past tense that draws attention to things that didn't actually happen but the person tries to take credit as if it did happen.
Ø Can't/Don't: These words force the listener to focus on exactly the opposite of what you want. This is a classic mistake that parents and coaches make without knowing the damage of this linguistic error.
Examples:
Toxic phrase: 'Don't drop the ball!'
Likely result: Drops the ball
Better language: 'Catch the ball!'
Toxic phrase: 'You shouldn't watch so much television.'
Likely result: Watches more television.
Better language: 'I read too much television makes people stupid. You might find yourself turning that TV off and picking up one of those books more often!'
Exercise: Take a moment to write down all the phrases you use on a daily basis or any Toxic self-talk that you have noticed yourself using. Write these phrases down so you will begin to catch yourself as they occur and change them.

For some peace of mind

2009-02-23T13:01:00.001+05:30

Earlier post I had linked to Warren Buffets financial advice for 2009. Below one too is some good advice to make sure you have some peace of mind. I got it as a forward, however felt it is a good read.

An Angel says, 'Never borrow from the future. If you worry about what may happen tomorrow and it doesn't happen, you have worried in vain. Even if it does happen, you have to worry twice.'
1. Pray
2. Go to bed on time.
3. Get up on time so you can start the day unrushed.
4. Say No to projects that won't fit into your time schedule, or that will compromise your mental health.

5. Delegate tasks to capable others.

6. Simplify and uncluttered your life.

7. Less is more. (Although one is often not enough, two are often too many.)
8. Allow extra time to do things and to get to places.
9. Pace yourself. Spread out big changes and difficult projects over time; don't lump the hard things all together.

10. Take one day at a time.
11. Separate worries from concerns . If a situation is a concern, find out what God would have you do and let go of the anxiety.
If you can't do anything about a situation, forget it.
12. Live within your budget; don't use credit cards for ordinary purchases.

13. Have backups; an extra car key in your wallet, an extra house key buried in the garden, extra stamps, etc.

14. K.M.S. (Keep Mouth Shut). This single piece of advice can prevent an enormous amount of trouble.
15. Do something for the Kid in You everyday.

16. Carry a Bible/Holy Koran/ Gita with you to read while waiting in line.

17. Get enough rest.
18. Eat right.
19 Get organized so everything has its place.

20. Listen to a tape while driving that can help improve your quality of life.

21. Write down thoughts and inspirations.
22. Every day, find time to be alone.

23. Having problems? Talk to God on the spot. Try to nip small problems in the bud. Don't wait until it's time to go to bed to try and pray.
24. Make friends with Godly people.

25. Keep a folder of favorite scriptures on hand.

26. Remember that the shortest bridge between despair and hope is often a good 'Thank you Jesus '
27. Laugh.

28. Laugh some more!
29. Take your work seriously, but not yourself at all.
30. Develop a forgiving attitude (most people are doing the best they can).
31. Be kind to unkind people (they probably need it the most).
32. Sit on your ego.
33 Talk less; listen more.
34. Slow down.
35. Remind yourself that you are not the general manager of the universe.
36 Every night before bed, think of one thing you're grateful for that you've never been grateful for before. GOD HAS A WAY OF TURNING THINGS AROUND FOR YOU.

Warren Buffet's Financial Tips for 2009

2009-02-23T12:59:00.000+05:30

We begin this New Year with dampened enthusiasm and dented optimism. Our happiness is diluted and our peace is threatened by the financial illness that has infected our families, organizations and nations. Everyone is desperate to find a remedy that will cure their financial illness and help them recover their financial health. They expect the financial experts to provide them with remedies, forgetting the fact that it is these experts who created this financial mess.

Every new year, I adopt a couple of old maxims as my beacons to guide my future. This self-prescribed therapy has ensured that with each passing year, I grow wiser and not older. This year, I invite you to tap into the financial wisdom of our elders along with me, and become financially wiser.

#Hard work: All hard work bring a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.
# Laziness: A sleeping lobster is carried away by the water current.
# Earnings: Never depend on a single source of income.. [At least make your Investments get you second earning]
# Spending: If you buy things you don't need, you'll soon sell things you need.
# Savings: Don't save what is left after spending; Spend what is left after saving.
# Borrowings: The borrower becomes the lender's slave..
# Accounting: It's no use carrying an umbrella, if your shoes are leaking.
# Auditing: Beware of little expenses; A small leak can sink a large ship.
# Risk-taking: Never test the depth of the river with both feet. [Have an alternate plan ready]
# Investment: Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

I'm certain that those who have already been practicing these principles remain financially healthy. I'm equally confident that those who resolve to start practicing these principles will quickly regain their financial health.

With Best Regards,
Warren Buffet

Should I buy Tata Capital Secured NCD- Non Convertible Debentures

2009-02-20T10:20:00.001+05:30

Tata Capital announced availability of Secured NCD- Non Convertible Debentures. The issue opens till Feb 24.
Interest UP TO 12% per annum ( compounded annually ) for 5 years.

Should we buy Tata Capital's bonds or not ? Is it better / Safer than Fixed Deposits (FD) ?

Well to understand what is a bond, From Wikipedia
A Corporate Bond is a bond issued by a corporation. It is a bond that a corporation issues to raise money in order to expand its business. ^[1]The term is usually applied to longer-term debt instruments, generally with a maturity date falling at least a year after their issue date. (The term "commercial paper" is sometimes used for instruments with a shorter maturity.)

My take : (this may be fully wrong so read it at your own risk)

Buying bonds from a company (here Tata Capital assuming they are doing this for Tata Group) is like buying shares of one company. Investing in FD is like buying a mutual fund.

Well the benefit of buying a Mutual Fund diversifies your risk in to multiple companies, similarly buying a Fixed Deposit is like buying multiple companies' debt. So chances of loosing full money is lesser when investing in Fixed Deposit instead of bonds.

So buy the financial instrument based on your risk appetite. Personally I will not put my money in this bond as I am very risk averse seeing the current financial mess we are all in. OK one more point, I have already burnt my fingers in shares too.

BJP raising the bar on Using Technology

2009-02-05T13:11:00.002+05:30

Below is an Ad about Advani as PM. Online versions of IndianExpress, The Hindu etc are sites showing this Ad. I even observed Google Text Ads in a few websites.

Even though Mr Promod Mahajan (late) was known to be the techno politician, the BJP seems to have enough Internet / Technology savvy people around to guide the party. Most importantly someone there had the management skills to listen to those tech savvy advisers. Change is really sweeping the political class.

However we really need to see how much of an impact this will have on final results. I am afraid we as voters do not vote once we get in to a comfy zone (read as, become well off). Unless you are well off you are also not going to see this Ad (no internet access). That means these Ads for all you know will be seen only by people who will not vote. I could be wrong.

Hope all politicians really understand how the Internet and Technology can make our Rural masses world beaters and invest more in education and bringing technology to the masses in our country.

Good Luck for the elections !

Get an ID card via India Post for Address Proof Requirements

2009-01-29T20:28:00.000+05:30

Get an ID card that can be used as an Address Proof - via India Post. You can get it from your nearest post office for a Rs 10 (application form) + Rs 240(cost for card).

Check the below link to know about which post office you can get it from.

http://www.tamilnadupost.nic.in/psvc/adproof.htm

Twitter is over capacity.

2009-01-27T11:27:00.000+05:30

Twitter is over capacity.
Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again.

The above is the message I get for the last 5 days when trying to upload a profile photo. I try to access it around 11 AM IST (+5:30 GMT). Looks like the servers are very loaded even during asian time zones. Well the photo was just 25 KB and a .gif file.

After 5 days, I hit up on this post http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/topics/unable_to_upload_new_profile_picture_over_capacity ; and tried uploading a .png instead. It worked !

Hmmm. what ever be the reasons, it worked.

I think .png is not a popular type of image being uploded by users and twitter may be segmenting load based on type of image used. That means, lesser load on their servers handling .png files ? Maybe .. maybe not.

should i buy a house now in india ?

2008-12-30T14:52:00.002+05:30

Many Indians are finding it hard to decide whether they need to get their dream home now or wait till they make the jump to buy a house. Choosing a house is not easy, let alone financing it. There are lots of possibilities.

Here is a good article from outlook india. This was a long overdue article on the real estate market. Thanks to Arvind in bringing this article up in our blogs. This will surely help you make an independent choice whether you are ready to make the jump or not.
http://money.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?sid=10&cid=70&articleid=7978

My view is probably you really need not buy a house now. You can get a better deal later. In the mean time stay outside the expensive residential localities too otherwise you will end up paying too much on house rent.

Some good graphical representations in the above article.

http://money.outlookindia.com/MagIssueImg/31Dec08/Pg-42-salary-increase.jpg

http://money.outlookindia.com/MagIssueImg/31Dec08/Pg-40-credit-squeeze.jpg

The government policy too is one reason for the boom in reality prices. With more income even persons not really interested in getting a home buy it because of Tax benefits.

Good Article on Good Website Design Techniques

2008-12-03T15:27:00.000+05:30

Well this is an old post. However I came across it recently and found the article really useful for designing websites that are appealing as user friendly.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/04/20/35-designers-x-5-questions/

It covers top design techniques and covers critical things you should double check with your website that is designed. Covers css, html, fonts etc.

Financial Turmoil explained

2008-11-14T15:17:00.000+05:30

Check out the below blog for a visual representation of the reasons for the financial turmoil.

http://blog.mint.com/blog/finance-core/a-visual-guide-to-the-financial-crisis/

Also below are some explanation for various terminologies as used in the US that are often quoted.

http://www.personalhomeloanmortgages.com/mortgage_faq.asp

What is a mortgage?
A Mortgage (also called a home loan) is a legal contract made between a lender and a borrower that uses property as collateral to secure the loan. The lender can take possession of the property if the borrower fails to pay the prearranged home loan payments.

What is a mortgage refinance?
occurs when borrower uses the money from a refinanced loan to pay off an existing home loan. Borrowers typically do this to extend their home loan period, apply for a lower interest rate, or to use some money out of their equity.

What is a home loan?
Home loan: see definition for mortgage

What is a home equity loan?
A is a type of loan that allows a homeowner to obtain cash loans based on the present value of their property minus the mortgage amount still left to be paid off. Homeowners often apply for home equity loans to pay for expenses such as home remodeling, debt consolidation, college education, and other long-term investments.

What is a home equity line of credit or HELOC?
Home equity lines of credit or HELOCs give homeowners access to an open line of credit, where only the outstanding balance accrues interest. HELOCs provide flexibility by allowing borrowers access to money on an as needed basis.

What is a second mortgage?
A second mortgage is a type of mortgage refinancing that allows you to acquire a second loan on your home in addition to your first home loan.

What is a reverse mortgage?
Reverse mortgages are loans that allow homeowners to transfer some of their home equity into cash. In contrast to traditional home loan mortgages, reverse mortgages do not require borrowers to repay their home loan until the homeowner no longer lives primarily at that residence, although he or she stills owns the residence.

What is a mortgage lender?
A mortgage lender is a financial institution that provides prospective homeowners with the funds over a long-term period to pay off their home loan mortgage. Borrowers are required to pay monthly installments to their lender which includes principle, interest, and additional lender fees. Examples, mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers.

What is the difference between a mortgage broker and a mortgage banker?
A mortgage broker is the middleman who helps match borrowers with lenders based on corresponding needs and standards. Mortgage brokers arrange more the 80% of all transactions between borrowers and lenders, yet mortgage bankers actually finance and distribute the largest portion of home loans compared to all other lenders.

What is a mortgage principle?
The mortgage principle is the amount of loan money that a homeowner borrows excluding the interest.

What does APR mean?
Annual Percentage Rate ( APR ) is the percentage used to figure out the total cost of your cash advance loan by taking into account all fees charged by your lender in addition to your loan principle and interest.

What does the word "naviscreen" mean?
Naviscreening is the concept of directly connecting (mortgage) buyers with regionally specific, prescreened, and competent lenders through the simple completion of a universal and secure form.

What is a fixed rate mortgage?
A fixed rate mortgage is a home loan with steady interest rates and monthly payments that do not change throughout the life of the loan.

What is the adjustable rate mortgage?
(ARM) have monthly payments that change periodically due to fluctuations in market interest rates.

What is an interest-only mortgage?

are loans that require the borrower to pay only interest on the principle in monthly installments for a fixed period.

What is an amortized mortgage?
Amortized Mortgages refers to loans that are paid in installments comprised of both principle and interest, and which is paid off (or amortized) over a fixed period of time.

How do you calculate LTV or loan-to-value ratio?
The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of your home is calculated by dividing the fair market value of your home by the amount of your home loan.

What are lender fees?
These fees usually range anywhere from 2 to 5 percent and may include, but are not limited to, things such as appraisal costs, document preparation, and application costs.

What is the Truth in Lending Act?
The Truth in Lending Act is a federal law that was enacted as part of the Consumer Protection Act. This law requires lenders to reveal all information to the borrower and detail all costs associated with the transaction.

Visit to Paris, France

2008-09-20T15:16:00.004+05:30

Well we spent 3 days in Pari ! That's how Paris is pronounced in France. Well here there surely is more traffic than we have seen so far. It took us 1.5 hours where the normal travelling time was 40 minutes from the airport to the hotel.

We were at put up in the biggest business district in Europe, La Defense. That's where we stayed and had an official work day too. Check some photos. More later.

In Sweden : Good food and general comments

2008-09-14T05:26:00.005+05:30

Sweden in general (9 million) seems to have more population than Denmark.
Temperature outside : 11 degrees. Cooler than Denmark. Just fine. Need a jacket.
Hotels are good. Here it seems unlike big luxurious hotels in US, the hotels are cost conscious. The finishing is not the best I have seen. However they are actually good enough and seems to be more sensible. It is better to stay in a hotel down town than outside the city. We stayed first two days outside the main town, to reduce travel time for the official meetings. More points :

Taxis are easy to get.
Roads have more people.
Very nice roads.
Left hand drive.
Good cars.
Side roads are neat and clean.
Currency : Swedish Kroner. Here both Euros and Swedish Kronars are accepted. However when they give the change, you only get Swedish Kroners.
1 Euro approx. 10 Swedish Krona
Taxis accept Credit Cards.
There are specific lanes for cycles here too.
Near Shopping centers the roads have people on the streets :-)
Fantastic People. A lot of people in general have migrated from different countries. You will also see people who have a lot of mixed nationalities. We met a waitress whose parents had parents who were mixed : jewish + swedish, african american + white and her boy friend is actually, Italian, Serbian parents.
Europe has a lot of languages. Each country has a diff language of its own. Danish, Swedish, Serbian, French, German etc. They are diff and each other can't normally understand the other. However it is written like English i.e it uses Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet.
THe food is in general bread, meat (beef, pork, chicken) and sea food.
Lots of historical buildings and many of the buildings have an ancient architectural look.
Lots of varieties of food present. We had food in a typical Swedish restaurant, Indian and then a Lebanon Restaurant. The Indian and Lebanon Restaurant were very good and enjoyable food. The other food was ok but we were getting a bit bored with the typical; European way of cooking food light.
Night life looks good. People are there on the streets even after 12 AM. We had a walk down the old town. Nice bridges and beautiful streets and old time architecture is seen in the buildings. Its not just concrete !

BTW hope you saw my previous blog on the football match.

Next Stop Sweden : Saw the match Sweden Vs Hungary

2008-09-13T01:44:00.008+05:30

Well our next stop was Sweden : Sept 9 to 14.

We got to see the world cup qualifier round between Sweden and Hungary in Solna, Sweden. What a game. First half was getting boring. The second half was action packed. 2-1, Sweden won.
Sweden managed to score 2 goals. Hungary made a consolation "literally" last minute goal. I guess the whistle blew after 10 seconds or something.

Below snaps have our partner Thorir. Thanks for your fantastic hospitality you and your team at Inuit.

My take on Sweden latter.

Euro Tour : First Stop Denmark

2008-09-13T01:41:00.002+05:30

Well, I had the opportunity to visit Europe as part of an official visit from our company to visit partners and customers. Will be blogging about the personal experience to various countries here.

Our first stop was Denmark : Sept 6 to 9 2008.

Will be blogging going forward on my European trip adventure, starting from Denmark. We will be going from here to Sweden, France, Italy,Germany, Portugal, Poland, UK.

Started along with Alex D Paul from Chennai to Denmark to Copnehagen. Reached Copenhagen at 11:30 AM. Immigration at Brussels, Belgium.
Flight from Chennai to Brussels took 11 hours. Brussels to Copenhagen : 2 hours.
Brussels has a nice airport. Similar to Singapore airport. Strange thing is the security checks here is lesser than India / US.

Afternoon, after lunch, we were joined by our partner here Martin of Draware.dk. The typical Danish food / lunch seems to be bread / burgers. We had a huge beef burger with some juice. People here donot drink water. Only beer :-) Pleasant climate. We went to the hotel at 3 PM. Its a 100 room hotel in a fantastic / post card green kind of surrounding. Too good. This hotel has just 1 lady at the front desk, no persons to help out with bags etc, all self service. The only strange thing is there is no elevator in this hotel. So we had to carry our suit cases 2 floors up.
Denmark in general (5 million) has very less population though.
Temperature outside : 15 degrees. Very pleasant, not cold.
Taxis are hard to get I guess.
Very less population.
Very nice roads
Calm traffic flow. People stick to the "max" traffic speed. If it says 40 max, then they do not go over 45KM/hr.
Left hand drive.
Good cars.
Side roads are neat and clean. Not that broad though. The main roads are 3+ laned. Roads are very straight.
There are specific lanes for cycles here. Also people go cycling and boating as a hobby on weekends to get some exercise.
Near Shopping centers the roads are not too crowded.
Fantastic People.
Can see Sweden from here on the coast. Denmark has over 5000KM of beach line (not necessarily straight though)!
Denmark is one of the 3 Nordic countries along with Sweden and Norway. Scandinvian countries include Nordic + Finland.
Lots of historical buildings and many of the buildings have an ancient architectural look. The scene from the hotel window, too go ! Like the botanical gardens in Ooty /or a golf course you can say.
Some other peculiar things : cars drive with the lights switched on. There is no way to switch if off. It seems that is built in to the system as it reduces accidents.
Sept was very good weather.

Checkout a few snaps.

Life Saving Identifying a Stroke

2008-07-11T16:29:00.001+05:30

During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured
everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) .....she
said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.

They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she
appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of
the evening.

Ingrid's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been
taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 pm Ingrid passed away.) She had
suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs
of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don't die.....
they end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.

It only takes a minute to read this... A neurologist says that if he can
get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects
of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke
recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for
within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE
Remember the '3' steps, STR . Read and Learn!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately,
the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer
severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of
a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three
simple questions:
S Ask the individual to SMILE.
T Ask the person to TALK and SPE AK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently, e.g.
It is sunny out today)
R Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call for help
immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

New Sign of a Stroke -- Stick out Your Tongue

NOTE: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue. If the tongue is
'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other,that is also an
indication of a stroke.

Free Tool to Record how to demos

2008-06-17T18:59:00.001+05:30

Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software. It useful to for
creating "How To Demos" about software products. You can even add voice
in addition to screen captures.

Checkout about this free tool in the below link :
http://www.debugmode.com/wink/

MTASC : Free Flash Compiler

2008-05-15T18:37:00.001+05:30

MTASC is the first ActionScript 2 Open Source free Flash compiler.

From their website, "It can compile large number of .as class files in a very short time and generate directly the corresponding SWF bytecode without relying on Macromedia Flash or other tools.".
This means you can create flash application using their compiler without having to buy flash developer licenses. It can't get better than that.

http://www.mtasc.org/

Japanese have different emoticons

2007-08-31T14:47:00.001+05:30

Just came to know recently that Japanese use a different set of characters to represent their emotions on the web. whatjapanthinks.com is a site that points to the various Japanese emoticons. Also Japanese emoticons are also known as Anime emoticons or manga style smiles.

BTW the above website seems to be a good read for those planning to visit Japan, it gives some good info about the life style in Japan.

Create 3D models with Google's sketchup

2007-06-28T19:35:00.000+05:30

Create 3D models at ease with Google's sketchup service. You can make
sketches of office buildings, houses, etc and the best part is, it is
free for personal use. Those building your dream house, try your hand at
this software. Its gonna be helpful to visualize your plans.

Checkout the flash presentation in the below page
http://sketchup.google.com/products.html

100 WAYS YOU CAN LOVE YOUR WIFE HER WAY

2007-06-26T00:50:00.000+05:30

100 WAYS YOU CAN LOVE YOUR WIFE HER WAY
(Author Unknown)

Discuss this list with your wife. Ask her to check the ones meaningful to her, and then have her arrange them in the order she considers important. Use the list as a basis for learning her views. Your relationship can be greatly strengthened as you learn how to use these suggestions.

1. Communicate with her; don't close her out.
2. Talk to her without harshness.
3. Do everything you can to understand her feelings.
4. Be interested in her friends and occasionally give her time to be with them (if they are trustworthy).
5. Ask her opinion frequently.
6. Show her you value what she says.
7. Find ways to help her sense your approval and affection.
8. Protect her on a daily basis.
9. Be gentle and tender with her.
10. Make an effort to laugh together every day — even through the toughest of times.
11. Avoid making sudden major changes without discussion and without giving her time to adjust.
12. Respond openly and verbally when she wants to communicate.
13. Comfort her when she's down emotionally. For instance, put your arms around her and silently hold her for a few seconds without lectures or put-downs.
14. Show interest in what she feels is important in life.
15. When you feel a need to correct her do it gently and tenderly—speaking the truth in LOVE.
16. Allow her to teach you without putting up your defenses.
17. Make special time available to her and the children.
18. Go the extra mile to show her that she matters more to you than your need to do something that threatens her sense of security.
19. Compliment her often.
20. Be creative when you express your love, with both words and actions.
21. Sit down with her to set specific family goals to achieve together for each year.
22. Allow her to buy things she considers necessary without hassling her.
23. Be forgiving when she offends you.
24. Show her you need her.
25. Learn to accept her the way she is; discover her uniqueness as special.
26. Admit your mistakes; don't be afraid to be humble. She'll appreciate that!
27. Defend her to others—especially to your family.
28. Allow your wife to fail; lovingly discuss what went wrong after you've comforted her.
29. Rub her feet or neck, or scratch her back after a hard day.
30. Take time to sit and talk calmly when either of you is upset about something
31. Take her out on romantic outings.
32. Write her a letter occasionally, telling her how much you love her.
33. Surprise her with a card or flowers.
34. Express to her how much you appreciate her.
35. Tell her how proud you are of her.
36. Give advice in a loving way when she asks for it.
37. Lead your family in their spiritual relationship with God. This is very important to her.
38. Show her that you prefer her to others—give her your attention and your time whenever possible.
39. Don't expect her to do projects beyond her capabilities.
40. Pray for her to enjoy God's best in life.
41. Take time to notice what she has done for you and the family (and let her know you notice).
42. Brag about her to other people, both in front of her and when she is not with you.
43. Share your thoughts and feelings with her.
44. Tell her more about your job when she expresses interest.
45. Take time to see how she spends her day, at work or at home.
46. Take care of the children before or after dinner (whichever she prefers, to give her time to herself).
47. Pray together with her after a hurtful time.
48. Help straighten up the house after mealtime.
49. Let her take a bubble bath or some other activity while you do the dishes.
50. Understand her physical limitations and help her with the children.
51. Discipline the children in love, not anger.
52. Help her finish her goals, hobbies, and education.
53. Treat her as if God had stamped on her forehead, "Handle with Care."
54. Work to get rid of habits that annoy her.
55. Be gentle and thoughtful to her relatives.
56. Don't compare her relatives with yours in a negative way.
57. Thank her for things she has done without expecting anything in return.
58. Be verbally supportive and honor her in front of the children.
59. Make sure she understands everything you're planning to do.
60. Do little things for her—an unexpected kiss, coffee in bed.
61. Treat her as an intellectual equal.
62. Surprise her by asking her to give you a list of 3 things she'd like done around the house within the next month. And then make it your goal to do them.
63. Discover her fears in life.
64. See what you can do to eliminate those fears.
65. Discover her sexual needs.
66. Surprise her with a 15 second kiss (with no expectations to go any further).
67. Work to keep yourself in shape.
68. Plan your future together.
69. Don't quarrel over words, but try to find hidden meanings.
70. Don't forget to use common courtesies with your wife like holding the door open for her and pouring her coffee. (Too often we're kinder to strangers than we are to our own spouse.)
71. Ask her if you offend her sexually in any way.
72. Go out of your way to help her feel valued over anyone else.
73. See if she's uncomfortable about the way money is spent.
74. Take her on dates now and then. You dated her before you married which helped you to fall in love, now date each other to STAY in love.
75. Hold her hand in public.
76. Put your arm around her in front of friends.
77. Tell her love her often.
78. Remember anniversaries, birthdays, and other special occasions.
79. Go shopping with her if that is what she would enjoy. (And don't keep looking at what time it is when you go with her. That will be a pleasant surprise to her.)
80. Make it a point to teach her to hunt and fish or whatever you enjoy doing if she'd enjoy it.
81. Surprise her by giving her a special gift from time to time.
82. Share the responsibilities around the house.
83. Don't belittle her.
84. Let her express herself freely, without fear of being called stupid or illogical.
85. Carefully choose your words, especially when angry.
86. Don't criticize her in front of others—keeping her dignity in tact.
87. Don't focus on the physical features of another woman (because, whether you understand her reasoning or not, that makes your wife feel dishonored).
88. Be sensitive to her needs—looking for ways to bless her.
89. Let her know you want to spend special time with her and the children.
90. Fix dinner for her sometimes.
91. Be sympathetic when she's sick—and help her however you can.
92. Call her when you're going to be late.
93. Honor her by not disagreeing with her in front of the children.
94. Take her out to dinner and for weekend getaways.
95. Do the "little things" she needs from time to time.
96. Give her special time alone with her friends.
97. Buy her what she considers an intimate gift.
98. Read a book she recommends to you.
99. Give her an engraved plaque assuring her of your lasting love.
100. Show her affection without sexual intentions.

http://www.marriagemissions.com/ is a very good website and you should check out its content.

Personal Insurance

2007-05-28T21:47:00.000+05:30

Many companies push the benefits of ULIP (unit linked insurance plans) which is equity linked as a good insurance product. Don't get fooled. If you are looking for insurance, then invest in a purely insurance product and the best is to go for a "Term Insurance" from a reputed Insurance Company (LIC, HDFC etc). Term insurance ensures that you can insure yourself for a large amount for a reasonable cost. Ofcourse you do not get anything back on expiry of the policy, unlike ULIP or other insurance products. But end of the day, the cost to benefit ration surely points to a Term Insurance as the best for Life Insurance, because even in a ULIP or other products there is a cost for insurance, it is only the fact that you .

Checkout the below website. I have to say, http://www.personalfn.com/ gives a lot of investor and people friendly articles on various investment guidelines.
http://www.personalfn.com/insurance/

Their story on Term Insurance

Below are some other resources too
http://in.rediff.com/money/2007/may/04insure.htm

buy a house or stay on rent ?

2007-05-03T23:14:00.000+05:30

Here is a good article on the various considerations on whether it makes sense to buy a house or stay on rent. Read it fully.

http://www.personalfn.com/detail.asp?date=4/30/2007&story=1

I would say it is still better to buy a house. In the end the article does not consider the actual value of the property at that time, which would surely be substantial and make up for the opportunity loss.

A K Antony : New Indian Defence Minister

2006-10-24T18:25:00.001+05:30

It looks like the Prime Minister and Finance Mnister means business.
By making A K Antony the Defence minister, they have ensured a non-corrupt
person controls a huge amount of government money almost 4%of Indian GDP) and hopefully he does a good job.

He is not seen as a smart politician, but a good person, with a corruption free public life. From 1991 to 1995 he was the Minister for Civil Supplies, Consumer
Affairs and Public Distribution in Narasimha Rao ministry. This is also the first time when two ministers from Kerala get to the Central Govt.

Congrats to you and all the best to all the new ministers!

Muhurat Trading

2006-10-19T10:35:00.000+05:30

BSE and NSE will conduct Muhurat Trading on Diwali, Oct 21.

Muhurat trading is seen in India as an occasion for an auspicious beginning to the traditional Hindu new year. Investors place token orders and buy stocks for their children, which are held for the long term and sometimes never sold. Traders normally book their intra-day profits, however small they may be.

Brokers on the BSE normally start the New Year with traditional ceremonies and pujas.

source

Happy Diwali !

Advertising Standards Council of India

2006-09-18T19:19:00.000+05:30

Last week while watching TV, I saw an ad by Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI ) regarding where to report complaints on advertisements. I have seen the ad only once though. It seems many FMCGs are in their radar. You can go to their website for more info. Checkout their mission statement here.

Some of the controversial ads were those of Dabur Red Toothpaste that guaranteed strong teeth.

Now the most important part : You can send your complaints to asci@vsnl.com or
Use their website :
http://www.ascionline.org/two/howtocomplain.htm

Message of Good Friday

2006-08-27T17:29:00.000+05:30

In April this year, on Good Friday, I was at St. Thomas Mount Marthoma Church. Okay, I know this blog should have been made 4 months back. But for some reason it was left as an ofline draft.

We had a nice sermon on what is the importance of the death of Jesus on the cross and how sin came in to this world. It was well said by the preacher with the below 2 stories.

Why sin came into this world?

A boy was advised by his father not to take the road to the market that crosses through a river side. But he disobeyed and took this road which was a short cut. On his way he fell into the river and began to cry for help. His father heard it, jumped into the river and saved him.

The father had advised him not to use that road, but the son disobeyed. Out of his (father's) sheer love for his son, he still went ahead risking his life and saved his son. This is the same case with Adam and Eve. God asked them not to eat of the fruit of the tree of life but they disobeyed God and sinned. God being merciful did not destroy them, but sin came into the world. God gave humanity a way out of it. Believe in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Now why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Why did'nt God just forgive?
God could have. But sin is not so trivial to be just forgiven. God is merciful but even more, righteous. Sin must be punished. To prevent us humans from being punished, he sent HIS only begotten son Jesus Christ into the world. Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead so that whoever believes in HIM will be saved and will have eternal life. That is the significance of the Crucifixion of Christ.

Quick View : Time in different cities

2006-08-19T10:55:00.001+05:30

www.timeanddate.com helps you find time at diff places in the world in an easy to view format.

View the time in diff places of interest.

Now you too can you create such a link :

Step 1 :
You can add your list of interested cities, by adding the relevant 'ID' to this url. Search and find the ID ('n') in the website http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/.

Here look at the link for your city. Eg: for New Delhi it is http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=176

Step 2 :

Hence 176 is the city id and just add it to the below list for the cites parameter.

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/personal.htm l?cities=553,127,70,179,188,136,248,33,236,122,240 ,57,2,676,19,195,570,83,257,116,95,262&sort=2

At work I have this bookmarked in my web browser. Very useful.

10 definitions for Web 2.0

2006-08-19T10:06:00.000+05:30

Here is a good blog by Ian Delaney that tries to define what is web 2.0. It is a bit technical and assumes a few things in terms of the words used. But still worth understanding and reading.

From the article, some highlights on what it is :
* It contains the wisdom of the crowds
* Any app that uses Web as a platform
* There is more colaboration in web 2.0
* Apps with a rich user experience
* Its a marketing buzz word

http://twopointouch.com/2006/08/17/10-definitions-of-web-20-and-their-shortcomings/

New planets for our solar system ?

2006-08-16T20:03:00.000+05:30

We are going to have 3 more planets added to our solar system soon.
Hooray that's going to bring down property prices :-))

The current number of nine planets in the solar system will change to 12.

If this proposal gets through, then the 12 planets in our Solar System will be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon and 2003 UB313. There will also be a category called plutons which is actually something like a standard for including a celstial body. A pluton is a prototype like the planet Pluto.

Check out
The International Astronomical Union website for more details.

Da Vinci Code

2006-08-16T18:51:00.000+05:30

I am not a prolific reader of books. I only buy books or borrow it from a library and keep them in my shelf (and ofcourse return the borrowed books only at the return date not a day earlier :-) ) The books i take are what most people consider boring like self learning stuff, thought for the day, technical books etc. And rarely do I buy a novel. But I did read Da Vinci Code. It was an accident - just when a friend told me about the controversial book, the book changed hands back to its owner, right in front of me.

With all the controvery behind The Da Vinci Code, I was not surprised to see that it got a mention even in the ODB too a few months back.

The story is good. I would not consider it such a great thriller though.

I do not see why people let the author have his way by allowing him to rake in a controversy and make more money than he deserved ! I am sure end of the day, no believer would have left the church, Dan Brown made more sales of his book than expected and people got another controversy to chew on for a few days.

Another aspect I see is that this may have had a more positive effect on non-believers. I say this because if you needed to know what the controversy is you needed to understand the true nature of Jesus. That would have atleast made a few people curious about Jesus and learnt more about Him.

The controversy in DVC is they promote goddess worship and self-deity and deny The Biblical Jesus.

Our Daily Bread

2006-08-07T09:57:00.000+05:30

I just love Our Daily Bread, and make it a point to read this book every morning along with The Bible. I have to say thanks to my cousin, Sajichayan who introduced me to ODB. I still remember he gave me a few of these books back in 1993 and I have tried to read it every day, ever since.

Its published by RBC ministries (www.rbc.net) and distributed in India by IBL.
You can get a copy by mailing India Bible Literature, 67 Beracah Road, Kilpauk, Chennai - 600 010.

Not sure how much it costs for the subscription now, but it sure is worth the daily read. I would recommend it to children and adults too. They have versions in English, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam.

For those in India who want a free copy, email me your address and name and I will try to gift a one year subscription to you ! You can find my email id in the last para here.

Stock Markets limping back ?

2006-08-06T11:11:00.000+05:30

Stock Markets are almost getting back to May levels after the stock market crash. Atleast as far as Mutual Fund NAVs are concerned. I have been an investor in Franklin Templeton blue chip fund for over 2 years.

The NAV on May 25, Rs 104.07, and the NAV as of August 4, 2006 is 102.59.

Eventhough the markets may not have fully recovered and is still considered very choppy, it looks on the path to recovery. Ofcourse this is a mutual fund that invests in the best companies of various sectors and normally these companies are the first to bouce back on an equity market recovery.

I would consider this a good time to start investing in stocks/equity market (via mutual funds) and is surely better than the shock i got after the stock market crash :-). Ofcourse you should have already, I hope. With lots of nice ways to time the market you could start investing in funds more regulary now. I will get back later on how I time the markets ;-)

Good luck investing !

10,000 Crores and Indian Railways

2006-08-06T11:03:00.000+05:30

What 10,000 Crores ? I guess you already know, that's the profit the Indian Railways led by ex-Bihar CM, Lalu Prasad Yadav achieved for the Indian Railways. If you thought the Bihar politician was all for only Aam admi and the earthen cups, you are wrong.

He is a politiican and a tactician to the core. When he gets going, he could achieve what he wants.

Eventhough the train fares have not be increased on the look of it, there have been considerable increase in other areas of train travel and railway services. Recently I had to make a Tatkal booking from Madras to Chenganuur. What do you think is the Tatkal charges now : its Rs 150 (previously Rs. 50), for non-season times, its Rs 75.

Previously there were only 72 seats under Tatkal. Now too it looks like 72 seats but you can even book a Tatkal waiting list ticket. What that means is that you could book up WL 25 to WL 50 in tatkal waiting list and 'pay' money, jump the normal waitinglist queue and get a ticket. For those having a waiting list ticket closer to WL 20 to WL 50 need not actually get it as tatkal WL tickets are given priority - so it looks like a bidding war kind of sorts. If you have money, then you could go for a tatkal ticket, pay the Rs 150 extra and jump the queue.

No comments on whether this is good or bad. Previously people go through brokers and travel agents by paying the extra money (Rs 200) and get a ticket. Now they can go through legitimate ways. Another enhancement :-) to the pricing is tatkal tickets are only for the full travel of the train, meaning if you are planning to get down at Chenganuur, you still need to pay all the way to Trivandrum (last stop). That's another new, pay for what you do not want.

Well if you think I am trying to say these price increases alone have led to the railways turnaround, it is not. I understand transporting goods on trains have become dearer by over 30%. Yes that actually increases cost of consumer goods, but not the primary product of the railways - basically railway travel and hence the minister still remains the darling of the poor while the blame for price rise goes to the rest of the market !

Whatever, kudos to the railway minister and all the best to give a us a train service that rocks !

Italians surging !

2006-07-05T12:40:00.000+05:30

Germany's dream shattered, but Italy deserved to win just like Argentina deserved to win the quarter finals against Germany. Today we saw an attacking Italy when the commentators were predicting a very defensive game from both sides. Kudos to Klinsman and the Italian coach for their belief in attacking.

The first half was simply terrific and could have been one of the best games of this world cup so far. The end of second half showed both teams tiring out. Even in extra time, there was a lack of enthu for some time. When suddenly the Italians struck with a superb goal throught Grosso. Here again I would say there was a lack of concentration by the Germans as they were more resigned and waiting for the penalty kicks to start. But the Grosso goal shocked them out of the world cup. I guess the shock therapy started with the two superb chances that Italy had on the goal earlier through Gilardino and Zambrotta.

We should not forget the loss was also to some extent Germany's fault when they could have scored atleast in one of the 2 easy chances they had. But that is not to take anything away from the Italians. The Italians sure look ready to take the cup. I think the only team that cold threaten Italy is Portugal. Sorry France you cannot match the Italian aggression!

Gibu Kurian Mathew

2006-05-30T18:43:00.000+05:30

Gibu Kurian Mathew

Well if you ask me why I have this blog with my name in the title, then its for the search bots to make sure people who search for me, find me. I have a long list of lost friends from back in the 80s. I hope those guys search me out ! Well I have tried with not much success.

1)Well my history has quite a few friends from Junior School, Salmiyah,Kuwait. Some friends' names : K P Shaher, Aanand Vasudevan, Sudeepth C Anand, Manoj, Kulveer, Mehboob Gani, George Jose, Jobi, Vivek, Jacob Joy, Sundara Kumar, and a whole lot of others .....

2)St Mary Central School, Tiruvalla / Thiruvalla , Kerala > Some names : >Saju Verghese, Rishikesh , Sathish Chacko .....

3) St Berkman's College - SB College Chengnacherry, Kerala : Sunil, Nebu , Sujith, Pazhe :-) , etc..

4) Karunya Institute of Tech

5) InPractice Technologies, Chennai
6) Now AdventNet, Chennai

Guys it sure would have been nice to get in touch :-)

Well what triggerd this post : I got a mail to my office ID from a long lost friend Aanand Vasudevan !

Some other spellings for the bot : Gibu K Mathew or even Gibu Kurian Matthew.

Contact Me:
You guys can get in touch with me by posting a comment here with your email id or mail me at "gibukm" -at- gmail.com. Obviously you need to remove all the space and special characters (like --, ") .

Stock Market Crash

2006-05-25T22:54:00.000+05:30

We witnessed the biggest ever stock market crash in Indian stock market history in the last 7 days. Starting May 18 through May 22.

May 18 Sensex losses 826 points
May 19 Sensex loses 453 points !

Here is what I did. I invested in 6 mutual funds during this time. I invested 35% of the funds I had for investing into 3 mutual funds on May 19. I exited one stock SAIL (at a profit though) and moved that money into another 3 mutual funds. Well I would say donot panic sell. There is no need. I jut thought it was ok to sell SAIL.

Well my preferred fund houses are Templeton, Sundaram and Reliance in order of preference. I would compare this mode of investing on different days of a crash like an SIP :-) I am already invested in some of these funds via a monthly SIP. But the fact that these funds like many others wiped out all the gains to levels 3 months back got me thinking , Why not do a SIP kind of stuff during a crash too. Yes there is an entry load but still I think it is a good bet. I was expecting the markets to recover on May 19. But it furthur tanked ! Hence the only option was waiting for the initial upward trend or stability and then going for another round of invetment.

I guess this is a less risk prone strategy of investing in stocks. I know it makes me look like a scared puppy in front of the bears and bulls. Who cares about machoism I just want to ensure my hard earned money works hard for me and I get it back.

Well I am no pro in investing, but I have a strong feeling that this is a good strategy (esp. for those busy people) to use if you have the money in hand during a crash.

Some of my preferred websites to track the stock market are : www.equitymaster.com and hdfcsec.com. The login version in equitymaster.com terrific especially if you want to do trend analysis etc.

Website Monitoring - Site24x7

2006-05-12T16:25:00.000+05:30

Here is a new website monitoring service - Site24x7. You can monitor your personal websites or corporate websites. The free version will allow you to monitor one website. Its currently in beta though.

Try it out and send your feedback!

In Vegas

2006-05-12T16:20:00.000+05:30

I was in Las Vegas last week for the N+I tradeshow. The tradeshow went well. Its my second trip for Interop. I was there same time last year. I had other friends from office along.

This time the show had lesser visitors but we did have more fun :-) We took the Singapore > Tokyo > LA > LV route. Solid 22 hours of flying, not to say the one our wait at the immigration and security checks in US airports now.

Our return trip had a 2 hour city tour of Singapore. Well Changi airport Singapore rocks!

My dad is 60 now !

2006-04-20T08:24:00.000+05:30

My dad turned 60 years old and joined the senior citizens club. He has been an inspiration and constant source of advice and a role model for me. Thanks papa !

Carols was fun

2005-12-28T14:58:00.000+05:30

We go to the St Thomas Marthoma Church in Pazhavanthangal, Chennai. The parish members are real friendly people. Last week 3 days before Christmas they came for the customary carol rounds. We had good dinner together and had some fun.

First WebLog - A thought & Disclaimer

2004-02-04T18:33:00.001+05:30

"Do to others as you would have them do to you"
St. Luke 6:31

Some places where I blog :
http://blogs.adventnet.com/weblog.php?w=42
http://blogs.appmanager.com
http://blogs.site24x7.com

Disclaimer:

This blog has my personal views. It is not intended to hurt anyone directly or indirectly. If there is any objectionable content, you can post a comment in the respective blog entry and I will try to rectify it as soon as I can.

Thanks for you understanding.

BTW, know more about me from this post on Gibu Kurian Mathew.