how to find out which hosting is a website using

http://whoishostingthis.com

India's Nuclear Energy Dreams Over

First the Japan Earthquake and now the Explosion at French nuclear plant of Marcoule. Enough evidence of the mental havoc that a Nuclear Project can wreak. I am not sure after all this it will be a smooth sail in India to go ahead with the proposed energy capacity expansion through the nuclear route.

To figure out which e commerce platform a site is using

http://builtwith.com

R.I.P. Jag Mundhra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jag_Mundhra

Social entrepreneurs covered in I have a dream

I bought the audio cd of the book(here is the paperback version) by mistake but Flipkart refused to replace it with the book- so much for their famed customer service. This coming after they refused to replace the phone which was not working on delivery - had to take it to the MicroMax service center myself. Flipkart - bad service :-(

So I am forced to listen to the audio CD. I feel that 4 of the stories are very boring may be because of the haphazard stories or because they are way too long :

1. Parivaar Ashram (Vinayak Lohani)
2. BPA (Bhushan Punani)
3. Akansha Foundation (Shaheen Mistry)
4. Pratham

Here is the list of Social entrepreneurs and their ventures covered in I have a dream.

1. Sulabh Internaional (Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak) - Needs no Introduction.
2. Conserve India (Anita Ahuja) - Something about helping rag pickers.
3. Avishkar (Vineet Rai) - A venture fund for socially relevant causes.
4. RangSutra (Sanjoy Ghose & Sumita Ghose) - Connecting village artisans to markets.
5. DesiCrew (Saloni Malhotra) - Rural BPO
6. Ecosphere Spiti (Ishita Khanna) - Travel,adventure & Eco-tourism in Himalayas, started with Sea-buckthorn
7. Selco (Harish Hande)- Solar energy systems on a mass scale.
8. Pipal Tree Ventures (Santosh Parulekar) - Providing vocational training for the skills in the construction industry to unemployed youths in the rural area.
9. Project Chilika (Dinbandhu Sahoo) - Seaweed cultivation/Ocean farming in Orissa. Taught villagers ocean weed farming as opposed to aqua farming(fish cultivation) as it doesn't destroy ecological balance.
10. Super30 (Anand Kumar) - IIT JEE coaching for underprivileged.
11. Mirakle Couriers (Dhruv Lakra) - A courier agency that employs low-income deaf adults. Dhruv also worked in Dasra - an NGO and Merrill lynch before. Also got Echoing Green fellowship and N.C.P.E.D.P. Shell Helen Keller Award 2009.
12. Shreesh Jadhav - Monk, Belur Math
13. Parivaar ashram (Vinayak Lohani) - A residential place for orphans,tribals and children of prostitutes. Supported by (Ramesh Kacholiya) Mumbai Group of Friends.
14. Madhu Pandit Dasa - President of ISKCON Bangalore
15. Goonj (Anshu Gupta) - Through systematic collection, sorting and delivery Goonj reaches every scrap of waste clothing from urban India to someone out there. To use with dignity, wear with pride.
16. Parivartan (Arvind Kejriwal) - Needs no Introduction.
17. Blind People's Association (Dr. Bhushan Punani)
18. Akanksha Foundation and Teach for India (Shaheen Mistry) - Teaching the less privileged.
19. Pratham(Madhav Chavan) -  a network of non-governmental organisations that promote primary education for disadvantaged children.
20. Association for Democratic Reforms (Trilochan Sastry)

Not enough Oxygen in India

JODHPUR,Rajasthan:(September 03, 2011) Three patients lying on ventilator support at the intensive care unit of MDM Hospital in Jodhpur died on Friday morning as their oxygen supply ended abruptly.

Kurnool, Anddhra Pradesh(September 03, 2011) : Eleven infants have died in two days at the Government General Hospital at Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh, allegedly due to a defective oxygen supply system.

Speed Post vs. Other Couriers

1. Coverage - more than any other courier. They cover every place with a PIN code in India.
2. Service in Tier 2/3/4 cities - better/faster than others.
3. Service in Tier 1 cities - time is pretty much the same but the problem is they don't call the addressee before going/delivering. In big cities where both husband/wife are working and many people live alone - you can't go without calling. Here is where private couriers score against them. It results in many failed delivery attempts and increased the delivery time.
4. Prices : lesser than others.

Convert Pdf to PPT Online

http://www.convertpdftopowerpoint.com/

Rice creates more equality in society than Rotis

Almost everyone from North India can identify with a common household scene which plays out nearly every day. Man/men of the family are feasting on Rotis while the woman/women are running around preparing and serving them. Once the men finish, women start eating. And while men get readily prepared/hot Rotis, women are content with mildly hot/cold Rotis.

Now replace Rotis with Rice. Unlike Rotis - each of which is prepared/cooked separately, Rice is cooked at the same time for every one. Every one eats together, the same quality, the same degree of heat. Hallmark of a harmonious, liberal and equal society.

Could it be one of the reasons/ramifications that Southern Indian states have better living conditions/liberty for women than the Northern states :-)

De Montfort' Doctorate to Dhoni - Least Expensive Way to Advertise in India

If you are a university keen to attract Indian students, how would you go about advertising yourself?
If you have brains as good as De Montfort you would bestow an honorary doctorate on visting Indian Cricket Team's captain.

The video clip of the ceremony would broadcast on all the news channels, news would be published
in all the newspapers and you would have saved gazillions of advertising dollars in one single stroke. And
yes, don't forget to stick your website url on the podium.

Comparing book prices across online book stores in India

http://www.mysmartprice.com/
http://www.indiabookstore.net/

Motivation : Few days back I have a dream by Rashmi Bansal was selling
for Rs. 50/- (including cash on delivery charges) on Infibeam, while on
Flipkart it was Rs. 101/-. 

Amrita (A Sublime Love Story) - Hindi Play

Watched it @ Rang Shankara on 27/8/11.
Notes :

1. 105 minutes without an interval was too long a duration.
2. It was a play about Amrita Pritam's life.
3. Lead actress Lovleen(Lavlin) Thadani looked very much like Amrita Pritam herself.
4. Vijay Nangyal, who played Sahir Ludhianvi, also looked like Sahir.
5. Dug up more about Amrita Pritam - she was married at the age of 16 first. Then left him and fell in love with Sahir Ludhianvi and eventually settled down with Imroz. Pretty bold for her times, ain't it?
6. 2003 Hindi film Pinjar is  based on her novel by the same name.
7. Khushwant Singh once said her autobiography can be written behind a revenue stamp. In response she named her autobiography Raseedi Ticket (Hindi/Punjabi for Revenue Stamp).
8. Ticket Price : Rs. 100/-

Frenemy

Copied verbatim fro Wikipedia :

"Frenemy" (alternately spelled "frienemy") is a portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy" that can refer to either an enemy disguised as a friend or to a partner who is simultaneously a competitor and rival.^[1] The term is used to describe personal, geopolitical, and commercial relationships both among individuals and groups or institutions. The word has appeared in print as early as 1953.^[2]

Contents  [hide] 1 People 2 References 3 See also 4 External links

People

A Businessweek article stated that frenemies in the workplace are common, due to increasingly informal environments and the "abundance of very close, intertwined relationships that bridge people's professional and personal lives ... [while] it certainly wasn't unheard of for people to socialize with colleagues in the past, the sheer amount of time that people spend at work now has left a lot of people with less time and inclination to develop friendships outside of the office".^[3]

watch full length movies at yahoo

http://in.movies.yahoo.com/movieplex/

Rama Bijapurkar's fascination with Nirma

There is an author by the name of Rama Bijapurkar, who wrote a book by the name of : We are like that only - understanding the logic of consumer India. I read it recently and dug up more about her on the internet. One thing that really surprises me is her very very positive projection of the Nirma washing detergent.

It was a quantum jump in wash quality and convenience compared to the laundry soap that most low income consumers were using, because detergent powders were so unaffordable. Because of the low price, and the large number of poor Indians unhappily watching their clothes yellow with laundry soap, he sold enormous volumes and, despite the low margin per unit, made good money in absolute terms - even by the stringent standards of profitability of any MNC. (Source)

But she also knows that 65% Soda Ash in the detergent can ruin the hands using them for life. So here is the justification she offers : 

Even if  the detergent had 65% Soda Ash, was harsh on hands - the consumers' answer was that they used a stick to stir the bucket of detergent so that their hands were protected.

Now, I don't understand one thing. No matter how you stir the bucket of detergent, to wash the clothes you have to put your hands in detergent. So how did the consumers avoided that? The answer is they couldn't. And countless hands have been ruined by using Nirma detergent - for life.

I hope book writers like Rama Bijapurkar apply their common sense to their writing rather than simply trying to please the corporate bigwigs.

Jhoom - Ali Zafar

The album Jhoom by Ali Zafar is as good as it gets....

Purchasing condoms in India - Online is the way

Republishing a useful article from here. The author works for http://condomone.com .

I have spent 29 years of my life in India, so I do know a little bit about how difficult it is to go to a medical shop and ask for condoms.

Here are few possible scenarios :

1. The shop owner doesn't keep condoms, so he will refuse you and laugh on your back or pass some lewd comment as you turn around to leave.
2. If you happen to know the shop owner, you will not even go to the shop in the first place.
3. If there are other customers already at the shop, you will wait for them to leave so that you can ask for condoms.
4. You will buy some condom, any condom in a hurry and leave the shop as soon as possible.
5. You won't even check the expiry date. Or worse, you don't even know there is such a thing called expiry date for condoms.
6. If you ask the shop keeper too many questions about brands/varieties, he may get angry and ask you to leave.
7. If you are a female, you won't even think about buying a condom yourself.
8. If you want to buy condoms from a shopping mall, even there you will wait as long as possible so that the condom shelf does not have anyone standing nearby. And again, you will pick some condoms in a hurry and leave as soon as possible.

If these are the problems faced even by the highly educated people, then what would be the fate of others?

India seriously needs condom reforms and easier ways to purchase contraceptives need to be there.

Condoms are the only contraceptives without any side effects, apart from the fact that they also help in protecting one from STDs.

Apart from condoms, there are products called lubricants, which serve two purposes :

1. Enhance the pleasure during intercourse
2. Reduce the friction during intercourse, so that the chances of the condom damage are minimal.

Very few medical shops keep lubricants with them.  And again, buying them has the problems same as buying condoms.

So, what's the solution?

Buy condoms online.
At an online condom store, you can compare condoms/lubricants across different brands and categories and receive them at your doorstep.

But all online condom stores are not the same. There are few things which you should ensure before buying online.

1. The shipment/parcel should not mention the word condom or any word which gives away privacy.
2. Your bank/card statement should not mention the word condom or any word which gives away your privacy.

About the author :
Author works for http://condomone.com.

Past present & future

I am constantly trying to forget the past and take my attention away from the future. Paradoxical it may sound but it works as I wrote these lines using this formula.

Shaitan and RGV

Watched Shaitan few days back. It's a bold and adult movie. Belongs to that new genre in Bollywood. Somehow my mind tracks every such movie back to Ramu, the RGV. He may fade out but will remain alive through the inspiration he gave to many filmmakers.

Love will follow - Book Review

I just finished this book named Love will follow - Why the Indian Marriage is Burning.
Written by a psychologist Shaifali Sandhya, who has come across many cases pertaining to failing/failed Indian marriages, it contains many case studies.

I concur with the principal conclusion of the book that the institution of marriage in
India is in a state of deep shock due to the extremely rapid changes in past 20 years
or so. Women have become much more educated, they earn well, their parents bring
them up very well. But the life after marriage hasn't change that rapidly. And in most
of the cases women(wives) are at the receiving end of the bargain.

Still, the book could have included few case studies where women are not at the receiving
end. That would have made it a more balanced writing.

Despite the lack of balance it's an eye opener for those willing to take a plunge into marriage
as it informs them about the problems they might end up facing. For those who have
tied the knot, it may help them mend some cracks.

When I bought it from Flipkart, the discount was around 25%, now it's 50%.
Either it's selling a lot or Flipkart is simply trying to clear the stock :-)