The Burnt Out Argument

Often one hears IIT faculty saying that students are not performing
well since they
are burnt out due to excessive coaching before IIT.

So if someone works very hard during his IIT days and then goes on for
a job/Ph.D.,
will he also underperform since he has burnt himself out?

Infibeam Midnight Delivery doesn't work

I recently ordered a cake for Midnight Delivery from Infibeam.
While ordering - in the special comments - I wrote again it to be a midnight delivery - just to emphasize.
After ordering I called the customer care to confirm that it would indeed be a midnight delivery - and I was assured that yes it would be.
Still it was delivered at 4:30 in the evening.
Afterwards I called their customer care  - and they were clueless.
I emailed them seeking a response - and no response even after 3 days.

Conclusion : Infibeam Midnight Delivery option doesn't work.

Flipkart TV Ads : For Whom?

For quite some time Flipkart has been doing TV advertisements now.
I recollect 2 of them. One about an old granny with a mouse to order books.
Another about 2 cool dudes chatting about ordering an MP3 player online.

Both of them seem to be targeted at English Speaking audience which has
interest in their humoros ads. I find it a bit strange.

Flipkart already has some brand awareness among the English speaking junta,
the kind which will be able to understand their offbeat ads. I have personally
watched these ads with people - decently educated, who wouldn't mind a bit
if they couldn't understand even 1% of the ad and would gladly watch MTV Roadies
with full enthusiasm.

Now, don't underestimate people who watch MTV Roadies :-) Most of them would
happily and already do buy stuff that Flipkart is selling - but from other sources.

Not to speak of the parents who actually call the shots in many families about what
and how to buy stuff for their kids - including books/gadgets and TV/Washing machines.

So, why can't they simply have ads in Hindi - with someone saying

Flipkart पर खरीदिये सबसे सस्ती किताबें और लैपटॉप !

A really good way to search Hindi Content Online

www.hindi.co.in

Skype rules the roost

For quite some time I had not done any video chat over the web.

Of late I had  to.

I have the always so slow Tata Photon+ at home, so Yahoo Messenger

and Gmail Video Chat just couldn't cope with it.

Then came the Skype !

It was amazing to say the least.

The experience was much much smoother and better.

Here's how I would rate them for Video Chat :

1. Skype (Best)
2. Yahoo Messanger(Better)
3. Gmail Chat (Good)

UC Berkeley Video Lecture

http://video.google.com/ucberkeley.html

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/