O my Mother, My India !!!

YES, I am ashamed to call myself an INDIAN. My heart is so full of grief and emotions. I am a Christian but I can sense the feeling of dejection, helplessness, betrayal and anger in the eyes of my Hindu brethren. The reason being “Amarnath Shrine”.

It is true it was discovered just 100-200 years back but now it holds the highest reverence in the hearts of millions of Hindus worldwide. Amarnath is as dear to Hindus as Mecca is to Muslims. I am not a writer, neither professional nor freelancer but I feel so agitated over the happenings of Jammu that I am forced to write something.

Mark my words, this incident is going to be a watershed in the lifetime of our Ancient but newborn Country. Government has crossed the limits of pseudo-secularism. Let us first clear some facts one-by-one so that we may have better understanding of the situation at our hands.

• India is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual country with people of many faiths and religions living harmoniously.
• India has an ancient history and has been ruled by Harappans, Dravids, Aryans, Moghuls, British and now worst of all ’Politicians’.
• In India, every religion/faith has been given constitutional right of practicing and propagating their faith.
• Government gives millions of rupees as subsidies to Hajj Pilgrims.
• No other religion has got any such concessions from Government.
• Since Amarnath Shrine is located high in the mountains, it is very difficult for the elderly, sick and children to visit it.
• People use their hard earned money (for poor among them, it may be their lifelong savings) to visit the Shrine without any Government assistance.
• It was thought by the J.K.Assembly that some land be provided to Shrine Board on temporary basis so that they can provide necessary amenities to the Pilgrims during the season (i.e. only about 3 months), thereafter the land would again be handed over to the Forest Department. It is
  to be noted that the land too is barren and cannot be for agricultural purposes.
• This angered the hardcore elements of Kashmir Valley who misinformed and spread rumors that it is a ploy to settle the non-kashmiris in Kashmir. (makes me feel that they want to say that all Indians are foreigners to them)
• They started agitations and protests. Government succumbed to their pressure tactics and withdrew the land from Shrine Board.
• Hindus were deeply hurt over this decision as Amarnath Shrine is highly revered by them. They are asking why Muslims are given millions of rupees for Hajj pilgrimage but Hindus not given even a dime; forget that small stretch of land even for 3 months.
• The unrest in Jammu was simmering for a long time as they always feel that Jammu region gives 75% of revenue to State Government but in return it gets back just 25% government aid. Rest of it goes to the Kashmir valley alone. Do not even talk about Laddakh region, the lesser said-the better.
• This incident has vented open the simmering anger over this grave injustice to the region in general and non-Muslims in particular.

If my worst fears come true, then the majority Hindu votes of the Country will be polarized and in coming elections, Congress may be facing the heaviest defeats ever. Have we forgotten the price-rise/inflation issues? No !

Being a person of minority religion myself, I am apprehensive as to what it will bring to the minorities. God save the country.

If we really want to get out of this quagmire and want to make a prosperous India, we have to immediately take these steps ASAP.

• Order the transfer of land to Shrine Board
• Either there should be Pilgrimage subsidy to all or none. Under best scenario, line of poverty should be the criteria for subsidy.
• We are Indians first; not Kashmiris, Punjabis, Tamils, Bengalis etc.
• No Article 370 in Kashmir which allows separate ‘Prime Minister’, ‘National Symbol’ etc. to them. When I understood the true meaning of Article 370, I was shocked as to how this black Act was allowed in the first place.
• No more new Mandirs, Masjids, Gurudwaras, Churches etc. We already have millions of such homes for him in our country. God is omnipotent/omnipresent, so stop providing shelter to HIM.
• Proven terrorists should be terminated without any delay, otherwise there will be abduction of some Airplane or Minister’s son/daughter and we will be forced to free dreaded terrorists.
• Criminals should be banned from entering politics. Enough of these lathi-weilding, expletive throwing, paan-chewing ministers !
• Politicians should be graduates. Comeon boys! Even in Pakistan it is a rule now.
• Military personnel involved in purchasing poor quality equipments, hardware, warcrafts and traitors should be hanged to death.
• All political party formed on the basis of caste, faith, state should not be allowed to contest elections.

My fellow Contrymen, if you agree with me or want to add your suggestions, you are most welcome. My advice to all is to dream the dream of our Ex.President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam.

THE WONDERFUL INDIA OF 21^ST CENTURY.

JAI HIND !

ALEX THOMAS

Full Multimedia phone from Intex for 5000/-

Source:  http://www.unwireindia.com/2008/05/multimedia-phone-by-intex-in-3333/

Intex has announced Intex IN3333 tri-band GSM Candybar style mobile phone which features 265K colors CSTN display, MP3 ringtones, FM Radio, GPRS and Bluetooth functionality, and offers upto 7.5 hours of long battery time

Intex IN3333 is a stylish bar phone which provides you the best of utility & entertainment features. The phone supports a 1.3 megapixel Camera along with Video recording option .This phone has an integrated Web Cam (and) which can be used as a USB PC webcam . The USB port in addition can also be used (as an) for a Pendrive. IN3333 can store upto 1000 contacts and 300 messages .

Along with these utility features, music-lovers could amuse themselves with a simple yet appealing assortment of features like- FM , Music player , Sound recorder . One can enhance the multimedia experience by the dedicated Music keys , one touch Camera and FM key on the top .Also download and share your favorite content through GPRS and Bluetooth functionality . There are 4 exciting games for game lovers and twin language support to allow menu display & messaging both in Hindi & English. Expected to meet the ever rising (expectations) demands of consumers in terms of functionality, design & price, this stylish bar phone with 260k colour & 2 inches TFT screen retails at Rs. 5000/-

Source: http://www.intextechnologies.com/index.html Technical Specifications

Features Description Product type Stylish Bar phone Network (MHZ) GSM 900/1800 MHZ Screen External 260K Color, 2 Inches TFT Screen Screen Size (Pixels) 176*220 High resolution Dimensions (mm) 107*45*15mm Talk Time   Stand By Time   Phone Book Capacity 1000 Phone book SMS 300 Memory Card Type T-Flesh Micro SD MMC Card Ring tones 64 chord Polyphonic and MP3 Ring tone Speaker phone Available Caller Group Dedicated Audio/Video/Picture assignment Camera Type 1.3 Mega Pixels (SE) Zoom Digital Zoom (+VE, -VE Zoom) Video Camera Video Camera with Voice Video Recording/Play Available Language Support English & Hindi Video Player Available Music player Available Sound recorder Available FM Radio Available Games 3 games in this software pack Stop Watch Available calender Available To do list Available alarm 5 times alarm setting option world clock Available Health Available calculator Available unit conv Available curr. Conv Available Blue tooth Available USB Port Connectivity Can be used as pen drive GPRS Available Web Camera Can be used as USB PC Web Camera

SIDCUL in Escorts Farm, Kashipur

SIDCUL plans to develop another industrial estate in Kashipur

Shishir Prashant / New Delhi/ Dehra Dun April 10, 2008
Source: http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?leftnm=3&autono=319573
This will be the third biggest in Uttarakhand.
The State Industrial Development Corporation of Uttarakhand Ltd (SIDCUL) is now planning to set up an industrial estate at Escort Farms in the Kashipur area of the Kumaon region.
After Haridwar and Pantnagar, this will be the biggest industrial estate to be developed by SIDCUL, the state government’s nodal agency for industrialisation.
Government estimates suggest that the new industrial estate can attract investment of over Rs 5,000 crore.
A preliminary detailed project report (DPR) had been prepared, official sources said. The new industrial estate will be spread over 530 acres, 65 per cent of which will be for sale.
There will be nearly 145 industrial plots in the proposed industrial estate. At least 79 plots will be of one acre each, 29 of 4 acres each and the others being in different sizes. The area of the plots will range from 0.63 acres to 12.35 acres.
“This time we are not hiring consultants, because of our bitter experience in the past,” said a top government official.
Since the tax holiday scheme for Uttarakhand is expiring on March 31, 2010, the government is in a hurry to decide the allotment of the plots. Though Chief Minister BC Khanduri wants the tax breaks to continue for another period of three years, sources said Escort Farms might be the last industrial estate before the tax incentives came to an end.
The Sitarganj Industrial Estate, being developed by Eldico Company, has run into controversy following reports that the allotment of plots was allegedly carried out before the main agreements were signed. Officials said the government was now maintaining an arm’s length from consultants and developers.
Following this controversy and the setting up of two commissions of inquiry, the government was shying away from further industrialisation in the plains.
In the case of Escort Farms, SIDCUL has now two options for the development of infrastructure facilities. “We may undertake the infrastructure work ourselves or give the contracts to government agencies like PWD and Jal Sansthan,” said the official.
Escort Farms was at the centre of a controversy in 2006, after the Uttarakhand government decided to take back the land from the settlers there. This led to a big agitation, with Akali Dal pitching in. But later, the government managed to free the land holdings of 600 acres. Now this particular land will be used to develop the new industrial estate.

A competitor to Nokia 3500 Classic in medium budget segment

If you are looking for a cheaper but reliable alternative to Nokia 3500 Classic phone, then look no further.

Here comes J-210 from the Samsung stable.

Like Nokia 3500 C, it has got a 2 MP camera to capture an image or to make videos in 3GPP or MPEG4 format. It also has got FM Radio with recording facility and support for all the music formats like MP3,ACC,ACC+eAAC and WMA Bluetooth with A2DP ver 2.0 that has ability to connect with compatible stereo. J210 has internal memory 25MB plus slot micro SD

Alex Thomas

Budget Mobiles fight-out in Rupees 3500-5000 range.

Planning to buy a cellphone in Rs.4000.00 (+-)500 range ??

Well here is what I found in the 3 most popular mobiles of this category….

The review clearly shows that while latest LG KP220 is best in terms of features, LG Dynamite offers good features but low battery life and current craze Motoyuva W270 has the best battery life but sadly no camera and very small screen (non TFT)

Particulars	LG	LG	Moto
	Dyn.195	KP 220	W270
Price	4490	4790	3600
Display size	128 x 160	128 x 160	128 x 128
Display colour	256 k	262 k	65 k
Display type	TFT	TFT	CSTN
Internal Memory	60 mb	60 mb
Flash Card	1 GB	2 GB	2 GB
FM Radio	Yes	Yes	Yes
FM Alarm	Yes	Yes
Radio Rec.	Yes	Yes	Yes, only ringtone
RDS Support			Yes
MP3 player	Yes		Yes
Conversation rec.	Yes
Talktime	2.30 to 3	3	9
Standby	250	300	450
GPRS	Class 10	Class 10	Class 10
Bluetooth	Yes 1.2, A2DP	Yes 2.0, A2DP
WAP	Yes, V 2.0	Yes, V 2.0	Yes
Addressbook	500	500	500
Camera	VGA	1.3 MP	No
Video Rec.	Yes		No
Weight	70 g	72 g	94 g
USB	Yes	Yes
Hindi SMS	Yes	Yes
Java	Yes	Yes
	BUNDLE
	stereo headset	stereo headset	256 MB micro-sd card, usb data cable, stereo headset
	REMARKS
	Battery life seems to be too low	Battery life seems to be too low	It cant let u shuffle playlist while listening songs. No Camera

Budget AMD X2s versus Core 2 Duos. (Value for money oriented)

CPU Charts 2007

CHART PREPARED ACCORDING TO SIMILAR PRICE BRACKET

		e4500	5200+
TESTS	CRIETERIA	INTEL C2D	AMD x2	WINNER
PRICE PERFORMANCE INDEX	less	24.63	19.37	AMD
AVG ANTIVIRUS SCAN	less	1.32	1.21	AMD
TRANSCODING DVD9 TO DVD 5	less	11.01	8.49	AMD
DIVX ENCODING 2 min.	less	2.36	2.28	AMD
LAME ENCODING	less	4	3.32	AMD
PCMARK 2005 CPU	more	4639	5356	AMD
PCMARK 2005 MEMORY	more	3030	3774	AMD
PINNACLE STUDIO 11 PLUS – MPEG 2 CAM MOVIE	less	1.48	1.47	EQUAL
SERIOUS SAM2: DEMO	more	100.4	124.8	AMD
SISOFT SANDRA: ARITHMETIC ALU	more	16705	19013	AMD
SISOFT SANDRA: MULTIMEDIA FLOATING POINT	more	54291	54296	EQUAL
SUPREME COMMANDER: 60 SECOND GAME	more	24.1	34	AMD
WINDOWS EXPERIENCE INDEX	more	4.8	5.2	AMD
WINDOWS EXPERIENCE INDEX: MEMORY SCORE	more	5.9	5.9	EQUAL
XVID – 2 MINUTE DVD MOVIE	less	2.59	2.5	AMD
WINNER				AMD

Remark:

1.   Above chart
shows that under standard working, AMD X2s are much better than C2Ds. Higher
end C2Ds are much better than

X2s. So, if you have money, go for C2D’s if you look for
value, AMD is still better bet.

2.  Don’t know
whether http://www23.tomshardware.com has prepared this list under standard
conditions or does it have Oced C2Ds

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Racism: Reply from India to Aussie media

Hi Folks!

I recently came across this article posted on dadesiforum.com by King Aragorn

http://www.dadesiforum.com/t149709.html

PS: Similar post is there in www.maxdesi.com/showthread.php?p=74044. I do not know which one is original. So mentioning both addresses

I will try to enhance your understanding of the situation. I am from India and you can rest assured that Media here, despite being partisan, has also questioned whether we as a country are Racist or not. I would just like to make some things clear to you, since you are a respected Cricket Writer in Australia. Some Indians also have stirred up trouble here or got their facts wrong, so i apologise on their behalf and will try to present a clear picture.

Anyways, i’ll start off by answering your question and then moving onto the big issue. Bastard (aka Haraami in Hindi) basically implies not knowing whom you belong to, or who your parents are (not being born out of wedlock, as some people have explained). If the word Haraami is used in India, it is viewed as offensive and is used when the speaker is trying to demean the other person. Monkey (aka Bandar), on the other hand, is hardly viewed as offensive here. When you are kids, if someone looks comical, or does something crazy, you would say ‘kya bandar jaisa dikhta hai’ (you look like a monkey) or ‘kya bandar jaisi harkate karta hai’ (why are you acting like a monkey?). It basically could compare with saying ‘you look like a clown, mate’. Saying monkey does not usually associate you with Hanuman, the Hindu God. But i would like to state that it was some foolish media writer who give it that spin, rather than the team. The team has always stated that the term ‘monkey’ was not used.

Now moving onto how Racism is perceived in India. We as a nation ourselves are Black / Brown so most of us have ourselves been dumbfounded to hear that a charge of racism would be leveled against 1 of the players. Symonds, going by the colour of his skin, is as black as any of us. India, as a nation, may have many drawbacks but racism is not 1 of them. In India, the colour of the skin doesn’t matter to the people as a matter of race, although the fairer amongst us may be considered better looking or more beautiful by other Indians. So even though Symonds may not be regarded as good looking as some other who may be fairer than him, considering him sub-human probably wouldn’t even occur to us. And, to be fair, the crowds last time the Australians came over, also made fun of him because of the way he keeps his hair and applies the cream. Now, if do your best to look like a clown and then are pretty happy to dish some advice out in the middle also, you are inviting some heckling from the crowd. If the crowd catch on to something that annoys a player, you can be sure they’ll use that thing only. Now, by opening this Pandora’s Box, the Australians have virtually ensured that when they tour in October, Symonds will be called a monkey at every venue. What earlier some sections of the crowd may have done just to heckle him (thinking not of racism), will get more fierce and maybe intentionally more racist next time.

Discrimination does happen in India but not on the basis of the colour of a person’s skin. Our bane has been the ‘Caste system’ which has led to discrimination and social unrest. But the colour of one’s skin would not probably make him sub-human in Indian’s eyes, rather than just maybe making him less attractive.

Moving onto the Hogg comment, although it would be considered insulting, the players must have heard things like that before and will not have taken such a small thing to heart. This charge is just a tit-for-tat charge on the face of it. The thinking is clear, “The Australians get away with Murder, and we can’t even say anything, let us make a point too, even if it’s a small one”.

As for the Harbhajan incident, i greatly doubt whether he really did call Symonds even a monkey or not. Can you believe that a whole team and then the entire nation would bet their pride on this matter if it wasn’t true? If Harbhajan had said it, i’m sure he would have accepted it then and wouldn’t have created such a furore.

As for the new spin, that the term was misheard, that is VERY POSSIBLE. Even though again it’s a media spin, saying a derogatory term like ‘teri maa ki ..’ (or Your Mother’s …) would be a very possible scenario since if you want to abuse, that is among the most common abuses used in Hindi and Punjabi. Harbhajan, being excitable as he is, and having learned English mostly in the last 4-5 years, would probably get abusive in his native language. Not that the Indian public would endorse him abusing Symond’s family, i’m sure these kind of instances might have occurred before also and with the Aussies doing it too. But then the principle of ‘what’s said on the field stays on the field’ must’ve made the instances die down.

Although in this case, 2 points are very interesting. Why was Procter so convinced the word was used? Considering the standing of Sachin (not only in India), why was his word disregarded? It was essentially an instance of one team’s word against another, so why favour anyone? Secondly, Aussies mention that a similar instance happened in Mumbai while Harbhajan denies this. This also needs to be looked into.

Regarding the whole uproar, i will mention some relevant points:

1. Regarding Ponting’s sacking, it was not India or the India media that brought that up.

2. Ponting, talented though he may be, has been the worst offender of all in the way he’s handled the issue. The Australian team played as it does all the time, but the way the captain Ponting handled many issues has created many problems. Despite 16 wins in a row, i do not regard his captaincy skills on the pitch on par with Mark Taylor or Steve Waugh. He is winning simply because he has a good team in which each person knows his role. As a Diplomat, he’s worse than maybe any Aussie captain i’ve seen in last 20 years (that’s how long i’ve been watching cricket).

3. The Indian team has always insisted that the word ‘monkey’ wasn’t used. Secondly, Sachin has already denied that he sent the purported SMS (even then, i see the Aussie media still reporting he was the mastermind). Thirdly, Kumble had mentioned that this wasn’t the only issue but the ‘final nail into the coffin’.

4. Also, Indian public as a whole have also overreacted. But the way Cricket is a religion here in India and anything related makes news, that is to be expected. But please let me make it clear, all these effigy burning pics shown are isolated events really. 20 or so people get together like in every city and do these kinda things, hoping to get on TV. These are not mass scenes, nobody has the time here to indulge in such stupid and silly things all day long.

Cricket controversies (Aus-India Series)

Many people say that India should stay and fight there but my question is: why should we stay there and show our valour when the game itself is being umpired by cheaters!

Our bowlers will bowl a beauty and umpire will give not-out ! Players like Dravid will be given out caught without even touching the ball !

My suggestion is to come back for sake of pride. There is one more way too, if BCCI really loves its money and wants to avoid penalty. Ask the players to play the next match. When batting, do not offer any shots and get out plumb. When Aussies get out, do not appeal and when bowling, bowl lollypop balls to Aussies. Finish the whole game in 1st day itself. This way we will vindicate our stand and avoid financial loss too

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Merry Christmas and Eid Mubarak to all !!

Image courtsey: http://www.uncommoncourtesy.com

Viewing disabled picture uploaded in imageshack

How to view picture uploaded in imageshack

Seeing Yellow Frog in places of images??

For Firefox
On the firefox browsers address bar type ‘about:config’

then on that page on filter type in ‘network.http.sendRefererHeader’

double click on the ‘network.http.sendRefererHeader’ and change the value to 0 (zero).

For Opera
Opera users on the other hand can simply press F12 and disable referrer logging.

Now refresh the page and try you will never see that frog again.

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