India vs China

Here is an interesting article on time.com. It tells economically which among the two : India and China is stable and why?

I guess one of the major factor, could be our Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh. With is vast experience in finance industry and brilliant qualifications, he was able to steer India through recession.


http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1957281,00.html?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0e78f2VFl

From the article you can see that:
"The government used the same tools as every other to support growth when the financial crisis hit – cutting interest rates, offering tax breaks and increasing fiscal spending – but the scale was smaller than in China." These are the exact steps that the financial gurus in the US are advising President Obama to take. Well, interest-rates have come down in US and fiscal spending has increased, but what really needs to be done are tax-breaks.

Another important point to note in fiscal spending ( stimulus money), our spending was less: just 3% of our GDP. That helped us provide the initial boost, and at the same time, didnt leave us with a hole. The hols could better be described as inflation. Well, there is inflation, agreed, but its under control.

Well whatever said and done, the reason why Indian economy is so strong, according to me, is because our people save, and we are so many :) ...so we are self sustained. From the above article:
"What we see [in India] is a fundamental domestic demand story that doesn't stall in the time of a global downturn,"

Also credit is hard to get (banks are heavily regulated) and hence we dont indulge ourselves in spending unwisely.

Lets hope this continues, and we at least achieve the the goal of bringing 30-40% of our population above the poverty-line.

dil to bacha hein ji

A beautiful song my Rahet Fateh Ali Khan ....a true prodigy of the great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan :D




Aise uljji nazara se hatati nahi
datse reshmi dor katati nahi
umar kab ki baras ke safed ho gayi
kaari badari jawani ki chatati rahi
wallah ye dhadkan badane lagi hai
chehare ki rangat udane lagi hai
darr lagatha hai tanaha sone mein jee
dil to bacha hai jee - 2 thoda kacha hai jee
dil to bacha hai jee
aise uljji nazara se hatati nahi
datse reshmi dor katati nahi
gari badari jawani ki chatati rahi

Kis ko patta tha pehlun me rakha
dil aisa baji bhi hoga
hum to humesha samajate the koi
hum jaisa hajii he hoga
aaye jor kare kitana shor kare
bevaja baton pe eve gaur karen
dil sa koi kamina nahi koi to roke
koi toke iss umer me ab khavo ge dhoke
darr lagata hai ishq me karane bhi jee
dil to ucha hai jee dil to bacha hai jee
thoda kacha hai jee dil to bacha hai jee

Aise udasi beti hai dil pe
hasane se ghabara rahe hai
sari jawani katarake kanti
piri me takara gaye hai
dildhadkata hai to aise lagatha hai jo
aa raha hai yahi dekhta he na ho
prem ki mare katar re
toba ye lamahe katate nahi hai kyun
aankho se meri hatate nahi jo
darr lagata hai mujhse karana baji
dil to bacha hai jee - 2 thoda kacha hai jee
dil to bacha hai jee

Chandryaan finds Water on moon :)

Well it may seem like an old news. I quit following the progress of Chandrayaan-1 after its launch. I blogged about it way back in 2008. Here:
http://jargoneer.blogspot.com/2008/10/chandrayaan-2008.html

Just today I read that India plans to put a man in space by 2016. Here:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20100127/india-moves-put-man-space.htm
6 years might seem like a long-shot, but reminiscing you might recall that Chandrayaan-1 was announced in 2001 and launched in 2008. So this does seem like very possible.

Chandryaan-1 though was disbanded on September'2009 due to malfunctioning of a Sensor. Reminds me a lot about my field of work. May be the sensors were not diagnosed properly :). Just trying to be a smart-ass ;). I am sure more brilliant minded people work for ISRO. Sad story of its failure can be found here:
http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Chandrayan_I_Mission_Failure_Setback_For_India_999.html


Well it was not really sad :) Because it was able to find water on moon. And this discovery led to jump-start of Chandrayaan-2. Which hopefully will be much better than the 1.

Here is an image from Chandrayaan-1 confirming the discovery of water on moon.

stickk.com

Quite impressed with this new marketing campaign by Staples. Its more like a free online contract that you sign for yourself.

How many times have you made a new year resolution, a commitment or a pledge, and never followed up with it. Eventually you end up giving it up. This is more like a self-note to yourself, which keeps you motivated. More so yo earn points for following up and of course doing what you committed for.

How does it help staples? Well, duh, you would want some office supplies; for example, you may pledge to organize your office, hence you will need the little stuffs to follow up on your pledge :) get the point !!!

You can register here and make a commitment :)
http://www.stickk.com/

Apple's new iPad

Find here the link for the launch of the new Apple iPad. Go Apple !!! and go Steve Jobs..smartest man on the planet !!

Also involves Netbooks thrashing :D
"netbooks arent better at anything, they are slow, they have low quality display, and they run crunky old PC Software." ~Steve Jobs.

http://www.marketwatch.com/video/asset/yho/%7B195FA38A-7707-428F-B84C-22BBC275774B%7D?siteid=yhoo


the above video is continued here:

Staind - right here waiting..

Ratatouille :D

I wish I could cook like Chef Remy :D someday insh :D

Immigration to America

"He knew what his father thought: that immigration, so often presented as a heroic act, could just as easily be the opposite; that it was cowardice that led many to America; fear marked the journey, not bravery; a cockroachy desire to scuttle to where you never saw poverty, not really, never had to suffer a tug to your conscience; where you never heard the demands of servants, beggars, bankrupt relatives, and where your generosity would never be openly claimed; where by merely looking after your own wife-child-dog-yard you could feel virtuous. Experience the relief of being an unknown transplant to the locals and hide the perspective granted by journey."

Taken from Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai.

Memorable Quotes from Vernon God Little By DBC Pierre -1

Saw-teeth of damnation I feel just thinking it, waiting for fiery
hounds to unleash mastications and puke my fucken soul to hell.

What I am learning is the world laughs through it's ass everyday,
then just lies double-time when shit goes down.

A lier is a psycopath- someone who paints gray areas between black and
white.

So I'm here with two spliffs, and two acid pearls in my pocket; nasty
gels, according to Taylor, like your mind would projectile-exit your
nose if you took one.

Anyways, I ain't that decisive in life, not with all this grief on
board, not with my anger evaporated. It fucken slays me.

My face goes Porked Monkey. It's the face for when life around you
travels in fucken dog years, but you stay frozen still.

Sent from my iPhone

U2 - One love and 2006 World Cup :)

Same version but this time in HD :)



Just Love you U2 - you rock my world ...inside out :D ....cant wait for your concert in July :D

Future Development of Masjid ul Haraam in Mecca.

Inshallah :D

Could accomodate more approximately 5 million worshippers.



An another proposed development is also seen here :)

Econ 101: foreign migrants are cheaper.

The title I came across, was from the freakonomics blog-site. The article can be found here:
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/italys-culinary-paradox/#more-24487

The article refers to recent riots in Italy between migrant African workers and the local police. As per the article, it wasnt astounding to known that native Italians, dont do 'menial' work - like picking up produce from the fields. Instead, its the burden of the migrant worker to do such work. In fact, if you were an Italian you would be better off living on dole (government assistant) than actually working in the fields.

This should not be a surprise, because its the case in almost every country of the world. In one of the comments in the above link you might read that it is economically more profitable to fly an illegal immigrant from Haiti to Miami,USA and transport him/her to any city in the US to do the work, than hiring a local to do the same.

There was a similar situation in Kuwait back in 1999. You can find more details here:
http://www.muslimedia.com/archives/oaw99/kuw-riot.htm and here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/500244.stm
This too resulted in deportation of migrant worker ( egyptians) to Egypt. The Kuwaiti government was so psyched, that they decided to raise-down the entire locality of Khaitan ( presumed to be a Egyptian ghetto), to prevent further riots. This definitely didnt do a bit to improve the conditions of the workers, which was expected, instead it destroyed the livelihood of many migrants doing business in that area.

Well, I guess nothing is going to solve this issue of exploitation. The only way to prevent this is to provide the third -world countries with investment opportunities, which would prevent the migration.

The Uncelebrated Engineer.

The Uncelebrated Engineer
Though engineers can't get no respect, we are the builders of the modern world.



By Jack Ganssle
Embedded.com
(01/11/10, 12:26:00 PM EST)
The crash of American Airlines 331 in Jamaica at the tale end of 2009 was horrific " the plane was destroyed and some 40 people were injured.
But none seriously.

The fuselage broke into two pieces. Engines came loose.

And no one was seriously injured.

The main landing gear sheared off. The nose was crushed.

And no one was seriously injured.

We who travel a lot get frustrated with delays, crummy food and cramped cabins. It's hard not to be grumpy when setting out on yet another trip. But think about the experience: the East Coast to Europe in a mere seven hours! We're doing 600 knots at 40,000 feet, the outside air temperature is -70, and turbines are spinning at 12,000 RPM. Half a million pounds of complex gear hurtling through near-space (the air pressure is around 3 PSI) simply must work correctly. And it nearly always does. Yet it seems amazing that the thing could work at all.

I salute the entire aviation industry, and in particular the engineers who designed an aircraft that even in its own destruction saved 154 people. But in no press account I've read has any reporter or pundit commended the engineers whose efforts meant so much to so many.

We live in an engineered world. Every second of each day is mediated by some product created by a team of engineers. Your clothes are made on machines that are astonishing to watch in action. A humming infrastructure feeds power, water, and data into our homes.

No matter what sort of transportation we use, from the bicycle to spaceship, it is the product of an obscure group of engineers. This Christmas season electronics " embedded systems " flew off the shelves. How many teenagers ever stop to think about the design efforts poured into that iPod or Wii?

With the start of 2010 we enter another decade (at least numerically speaking) which will see the birth of all kinds of new and cool products, each the result of engineers quietly going about their work. By and large the public doesn't really understand what engineering is all about; too many conflate it with science.

My hat is off to you, dear readers, the creators of a wonderful world of opportunities for so many, and the inventors of tomorrow.



Jack G. Ganssle is a lecturer and consultant on embedded development issues. He conducts seminars on embedded systems and helps companies with their embedded challenges. Contact him at jack@ganssle.com. His website is www.ganssle.com.

Dargah-e-Hakimi, Burhanpur - A Management Marvel

Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Apr 28, 2003

 

A management marvel

Rasheeda Bhagat

No formal training in management or the hospitality industry, and yet Dargah-e-Hakimi is run with an efficiency that is mind-boggling.

The three mausoleums at the dargah Maano tau bhagwan, na maano tau paththar"(for a believer it's God, for a non-believer it's just a piece of stone), Jaya Bhaduri tells Amitabh Bachchan in the Bollywood blockbuster Abhiman . A simple expression of faith that has stuck in one's memory. Visiting Dargah-e-Hakimi in Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh, about 65 km from Bhusawar in Maharashtra, and listening to the innumerable legends associated with the Dawoodi bohra saint Saiyedi Abdul Kader Hakimuddin (1665-1730), brings back those words. Burhanpur, which is situated on the banks of the river Tapti, is a crowded, dirty city, which has allowed its monuments of historic importance to decay and crumble. Mumtaz Mahal lived and died here and Shah Jahan had originally planned to erect the Taj Mahal in Burhanpur. But the logistical difficulty in transporting huge quantities of marble to this town clinched the deal for Agra. The few monuments it does have in terms of Mumtaz Mahal's palace and her bathing chambers are in such a dilapidated state that it makes you wonder what right we have to protest against the war on Iraq having destroyed so many historic memories of Iraq. But move away three km from the centre of the town with open drains, swarming flies and filthy, pot-holed roads, to the little village of Lodhi and through the outer gates of the Dargah-e-Hakimi, and you feel you've been transported to another world. Spread over an area of 125 acre, the Dargah complex looks more like a five-star resort than a place of religious significance. The only difference is that you get to enjoy the lush green lawns, the well laid out gardens (maintained by a contractor at a monthly fee of Rs 90,000), immaculate service and delicious, mouth watering food, for a pittance, compared to five star rates. When we visited Dargah-e-Hakimi in the second week of April, the place was attracting about 1,000 pilgrims a day. The moment you land and complete the registration formalities at the plush, air-conditioned, computerised office, your entire group is invited for all the three meals for all the days of your stay. Oh yes, it's an invitation and you don't need to pay a dime for the food. How the 1,000-odd people are served piping hot, delicious, non-vegetarian food, complete with dessert, tender mutton and basmati rice, with a fruit thrown in sometimes, is mind-boggling. As the Bohra pilgrims come from all over India and overseas, and no prior bookings can be made here, it would require an F&B manager of exceptional skills to cater for an indefinite number of people. When you pose this question either to the man-in-charge of the kitchen, the people who serve you food with a smile or the accounts manager in the office, the reply is a smile with a finger pointed in the direction of the dargah. "Only he knows how everything works to everyone's satisfaction here," is the stock reply you get. "He", the 17th-century saint was known for his piety, humility and extreme eruditeness. A Hafiz-e-Koran (he could recite the entire Koran from memory), his recitation of the Koran could mesmerise any living being. Legend has it that one day while travelling through a forest, he was reciting the Koran when a tiger walked by. The animal sat before the scholar, and quietly walked away once the recitation was over. When Syedi Hakimudin died in 1730, his enemies exhumed his body on some pretext after 22 days, but found to their shock a fresh and fragrant body. Over the years, people's faith grew in Syedi Hakimuddin's miraculous powers. The word hakim denotes a healer and thousands of Bohras flock to his shrine, taking a mannat (wow) for shifa (cure) from disease and seeking restoration of the health of both the body and the soul. As in Ajmer, it is said that whoever comes here with a prayer on her/his lips, does not go away disappointed. Those who have their prayers answered, their sick loved ones cured, their sinking businesses nursed back to health, and their other problems solved, come back with a generous offering. Mind you, even if you land at the dargah at midnight or 2 a.m. and find the office closed, whoever is available to greet you will first of all invite you for a meal! You are asked to leave your luggage outside the office and it is later delivered to your room, which may cost you from Rs 200 (for four adults) to Rs 1,000 (for an air-conditioned room), and no tips please, you're told. One of our lunches — for 1,000 odd people — was taken care of by a group of five friends from Kolkata. At other meals, somebody donates the ice cream, somebody else takes care of the lamb chops, and the story goes on. Once again, legends abound on how thousands of people are fed at this dargah. Kutub Khan, the accounts manager at the dargah, says that on most of the days the food is just "sufficient to provide a wholesome meal to all the guests." But on days there is excess food, it is given away to its 250-odd employees. But he does recall the day, a couple of years ago, when all of a sudden five packed buses came in from a nearby town. "The man-in-charge of serving was worried that he might fall short of rice. But as he kept serving, his ladle never hit the bottom of the huge vessel!" He added, "You see how hot it is here already. The peak of summer is a month away, but despite the heat, nothing ever gets spoilt here; the milk never curdles, nor the meat gets spoilt." On a busy day, about 125 kg of rice, 80 kg of atta and five to six lambs go into the preparation of a meal. The complex has an automated laundry, where you are charged Rs 2.50 a piece for getting your clothes washed and ironed. And clothes rarely get mixed up or lost. The original simple brick-and-mortar resting place of this saint has been converted into a grand marble mausoleum, with lovely, ornate etchings. Etched on the inner walls are several verses from the Koran, some in letters of gold. Several thousand square feet of the courtyard surrounding this as well as two other smaller mausoleums, are covered with marble flooring. Hundreds of visitors converge on this space after dinner each evening, as the moon comes up, sitting on the cool marble floor, with hope in their hearts and prayers on their lips. Till the dargah is declared closed around 10 p.m. and you have to withdraw to your room. Immediately outside the mausoleum is a little pool of water with a fountain. This is said to contain healing and soothing properties and every visitor carries it home in a little plastic bottle. What is heartening is that a separate time is ear-marked for allowing non-Bohras (Muslims, Hindus and Christians) to offer prayers at this dargah. As the noon sun was at its strongest, one found Naresh and Manohar, college students from a nearby town, their heads covered with their handkerchiefs, braving the burning marble flooring to steal a few moments of prayer. They had come for a friend's wedding "and didn't want to miss the opportunity to have darshan of such a great peer (saint)."
The plush living quarters So what did they pray for? "To get a first class in B.A.," is the spontaneous chorus! All the rooms in this complex have attached bath are neatly furnished and kept clean. Those who cannot afford to pay for individual rooms are accommodated in a huge dormitory, but when it comes to meal-time, no distinction is made between the different classes. One can stay at this complex up to a period of 21 days at a time, enjoying all the facilities on offer. But conditions do apply. For one, you have to strictly follow the dress code; women have to wear a two-piece burqa, which, mercifully, does not cover the face and men have to wear white kurta-pyjama and the typical Bohra cap. Also, before every meal, you have to attend the 30-minute majlis (recitation of religious verses). But with the verses being recited by a group of professionals, it is a pleasure to attend these sessions. So will the truckers' strike affect the procurement of grains for the guests? Mulla Shabbir, in charge of kitchen, laughs. "We have enough grains to feed guests for the next six months." While wheat is procured locally, Basmati rice is acquired from Delhi though truck loads and dhals from Mumbai and Gujarat." One cannot resist the temptation of asking one of the managers about yet another legend, that truck-loads of grains come with both the `sender' and `receiver' being `Hakimuddin.' He smiles, "They call this a miracle. But we know that several people who want to donate anonymously, resort to this way of providing food for the pilgrims." As simple as that. But what is not so simple, or easy to understand, is that the key people who run this place have no formal training in either management or running a hospitality venture. Once again, the answer to your puzzled question comes in the form of the finger pointed towards the mausoleum, "He has taught us everything." Pictures by Pervez Bhagat

Response can be sent to life@thehindu.co.in