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Eclipse-Starve-Globalwarming dilemma

It's solar eclipse today. I am not a very strict follower of all the don’ts priests dictated through TV, but with loads of issues I am already into, I didn’t want to question them or challenge them.

So, here was the deal. Complete the eating ritual before 10.30 and starve till the eclipse gets over. That’s around four hours!

When the eclipse was finally over, I wanted to head to Cafe Coffee day (don’t have a restaurant around here at this time). But then, I was suddenly confronted with several alternatives as my thoughts flowed like this. Why not go home for an hour or so and have some grub and come back? Well you definitely save ~100 rupees on snacks but end up spending around 50 rupees worth of petrol. But then, money is not a problem. Think of the global warming. Carbon footprint of going home is costlier may be? Again, well...are you sure carbon footprint for the snack preparation at the cafe is any lesser? Spending is good for the economy but I am about to build my house.

Well...well...well...I guess the taste buds win here. The thought of biting the donut topped with chocolate sauce is too good to think of anything else at this point!

Toll Free Numbers in India

Airlines
Indian Airlines - 1800 180 1407
Jet Airways - 1800 22 5522
SpiceJet - 1800 180 3333
Air India-- 1800 22 7722
KingFisher - 1800 180 0101

Banks
ABN AMRO - 1800 11 2224
Canara Bank - 1800 44 6000
Citibank - 1800 44 2265
Corporatin Bank - 1800 443 555
Development Credit Bank - 1800 22 5769
HDFC Bank - 1800 227 227
ICICI Bank - 1800 333 499
ICICI Bank NRI - 1800 22 4848
IDBI Bank - 1800 11 6999
Indian Bank - 1800 425 1400
ING Vysya - 1800 44 9900
Kotak Mahindra Bank - 1800 22 6022
Lord Krishna Bank - 1800 11 2300
Punjab National Bank - 1800 122 222
State Bank of India- 1800 44 1955
Syndicate Bank - 1800 44 6655

Automobiles
Mahindra Scorpio - 1800 22 6006
Maruti - 1800 111 515
Tata Motors - 1800 22 5552
Windshield Experts - 1800 11 3636


Computers/IT
Adrenalin - 1800 444 445
AMD - 1800 425 6664
Apple Computers - 1800 444 683
Canon - 1800 333 366
Cisco Systems - 1800 221 777
Compaq - HP - 1800 444 999
Data One Broadband - 1800 424 1800
Dell - 1800 444 026
Epson - 1800 44 0011
eSys - 3970 0011
GenesisTallyAcademy- 1800 444 888
HCL - 1800 180 8080
IBM - 1800 443 333
Lexmark - 1800 22 4477
Marshal's Point - 1800 33 4488
Microsoft - 1800 111 100
Microsoft Virus Update - 1901 333 334
Seagate - 1800 180 1104
Symantec - 1800 44 5533
TVS Electronics - 1800 444 566
WeP Peripherals - 1800 44 6446
Wipro - 1800 333 312
Xerox - 1800 180 1225
Zenith - 1800 222 004

Couriers/Packers & Movers
ABT Courier - 1800 44 8585
AFL Wizz - 1800 22 9696
Agarwal Packers & Movers - 1800 11 4321
Associated Packers P Ltd - 1800 21 4560
DHL - 1800 111 345
FedEx - 1800 22 6161
Goel Packers & Movers - 1800 11 3456
UPS - 1800 22 7171
Home Appliances
Aiwa/Sony - 1800 11 1188
Anchor Switches - 1800 22 7979
Blue Star - 1800 22 2200
Bose Audio - 1800 11 2673
Bru Coffee Vending Machines - 1800 44 7171
Daikin Air Conditioners - 1800 444 222
DishTV - 1800 12 3474
Faber Chimneys - 1800 21 4595
Godrej - 1800 22 5511
Grundfos Pumps - 1800 33 4555
LG - 1901 180 9999
Philips - 1800 22 4422
Samsung - 1800 113 444
Sanyo - 1800 11 0101
Voltas- 1800 33 4546
WorldSpace Satellite Radio - 1800 44 5432
Investments/ Finance
CAMS - 1800 44 2267
Chola Mutual Fund - 1800 22 2300
Easy IPO's - 3030 5757
Fidelity Investments - 1800 180 8000
Franklin Templeton Fund - 1800 425 4255
J M Morgan Stanley - 1800 22 0004
Kotak Mutual Fund - 1800 222 626
LIC Housing Finance - 1800 44 0005
SBI Mutual Fund - 1800 22 3040
Sharekhan - 1800 22 7500
Tata Mutual Fund - 1800 22 0101

Travel

Club Mahindra Holidays - 1800 33 4539
Cox & Kings - 1800 22 1235
God TV Tours - 1800 442 777
Kerala Tourism - 1800 444 747
Kumarakom LakeResort- 1800 44 5030
Raj Travels & Tours - 1800 22 9900
Sita Tours- 1800 111 911
SOTC Tours- 1800 22 3344
Healthcare
Best on Health - 1800 11 8899
Dr Batras - 1800 11 6767
GlaxoSmithKline - 1800 22 8797
Johnson & Johnson - 1800 22 8111
Kaya Skin Clinic - 1800 22 5292
LifeCell - 1800 44 5323
Manmar Technologies - 1800 33 4420
Pfizer - 1800 442 442
Roche Accu-Chek - 1800 11 45 46
Rudraksha - 1800 21 4708
Varilux Lenses - 1800 44 8383
VLCC - 1800 33 1262
Insurance
AMP Sanmar - 1800 44 2200
Aviva - 1800 33 2244
Bajaj Allianz - 1800 22 5858
Chola MS General Insurance - 1800 44 5544
HDFC Standard Life - 1800 227 227
LIC - 1800 33 4433
Max New YorkLife - 1800 33 5577
Royal Sundaram - 1800 33 8899
SBI Life Insurance - 1800 22 9090

Hotel Reservations

GRT Grand - 1800 44 5500
InterContinental Hotels Group - 1800 111 000
Marriott - 1800 22 0044
SarovarParkPlaza- 1800 111 222
Taj Holidays - 1800 111 825
TeleshoppinAsian Sky Shop - 1800 22 1800
Jaipan Teleshoppe - 1800 11 5225
Tele Brands - 1800 11 8000
VMI Teleshopping - 1800 447 777
WWS Teleshopping - 1800 220 777

Others
Domino's Pizza - 1800 111 123

Cell Phones
BenQ - 1800 22 08 08
Bird CellPhones - 1800 11 7700
Motorola MotoAssist - 1800 11 1211
Nokia - 3030 3838
Sony Ericsson - 3901 1111

Indian Railway General Enquiry 131
Indian Railway Central Enquiry 131
Indian Railway Reservation 131
Indian Railway Railway Reservation Enquiry 1345,1335,1330
Indian Railway Centralised Railway Enquiry 1330/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9

Lalbagh flower show

Not early in the life I came to learn that I was acrophobic (fear of heights). It took sometime however to know I was afraid of crowds as well. With population of India touching 100 crores, this phobia might prove as one hell to me. This was the main reason I avoided crowded places like plague. But the annual flower show at Lalbagh was too tempting to resist. And of course, my recent love for photographing flowers overcome the phobia, to take me to it on the final day of the show on 15^th, the Independence Day.

By looking at the crawling traffic from over one kilo meter from the Lalbagh’s main gate, I imagined the rush. But, still wanted to give it a try. I maneuvered the car in to the park gate carefully thinking the worst is over. In the park, the car moved an inch or so every alternate minute. There were no policemen or volunteers that guided the drivers to the parking lots, though all of them were there, looking busy. Following couple of cars, we landed in what can be termed as Human Ocean. People were all over the place, all I can see people and nothing else. They were half surprised and half irritated watching me drive through them. I remembered movie The Mummy where the lead characters get in to such trouble albeit horrible than mine. After driving with break and clutch firmly pressed for over half an hour, I managed to see something other than people. I parked my car along side a road in the middle of the park, where some other vehicles accompanied mine.

The walk from there to the ‘glass house’ was even more adventurous. Most of the lawns were covered with the plastic covers, papers that people have left behind after having snacks. Very few dust bins available were overflowing. The scene around the glass house was just gotten worse. In a corner police, fire vehicles stood and police were watching at the crowd helpless. There was an unorganized queue that neither had boundaries nor a entry point. Before my phobia took the ugliest experience, I decided to walk back. Taking a shot of the glimpse of the Taj Mahal made with flowers from over 50 feet with my 3x zoom camera I was not in a mood to curse anybody for the decision to return.

This is a wonderful example of things going out of control. Yes, that best explains the situation. To me, this is no different than the riot like situation we all experienced when Dr. Raj Kumar passed away. Last time when I visited (two years ago, and on republic day flower show), things were different and the crowd was manageable. With media giving more publicity to these events, naturally the turn out will be more. Imagine two years ago we had only two main stream Kannada channels, today I see at least three more added. Two years can change a lot, and every year the management of the park should revise the plans to accommodate more people, seek more police, incorporate stringent crowd managing rules.

Same old blue bottle Coconut oil...?

Did you look at the picture? Which coconut oil is it? Parachute. Sure? Look again, its not.

This is a look alike for Parachute coconut oil by Marico. You may not get this product in the big stores like Foodworld or others. Mom bought this in an emergency at a local shop. She thought its Parachute. She infact asked for Parachute. We were using this from almost a month, and then suddenly one day when I poured some oil on my palm, it smelled like rotten coconut. I asked how come? Is this too old like…several years or something? Mom replied No. Still didn’t get idea. Later in the day, my wife observed and informed us. I did not fight with the vendor. I kept it with me just to take a good photograph of it and tell you all about this. So, be careful guys. There are cheaters all over the place.

If you know something like this, let me know. Share here. Let everyone know.

Crime and Punishment

Long ago I read/heard a story of a philosopher and his disciples. One of the disciples asked why god can’t punish only the ones who are sinned. Why should he punish all innocents around the sinned? The guru took a moment and started walking along the riverbank without answering the question. Disciples too followed him. He stopped at a place and so did the disciples. Moments later the disciple that asked the question felt something was biting his leg. He observed he was on an ants nest. He took the nest and threw it to the river. The Guru looked at him and smiled. He said you answered your question. Why did you throw the entire nest whereas only one ant has bitten you?

This seems to make lot of sense nowadays. One bad deed by our fellow citizen results in punishment of few more surrounding him. Take the case of Haneef or the Sanjay Dutt. If you are part of the crime in whatever manner you are bound to be punished. I am not comparing these two. Haneef came out clean, but his unknowing deed of lending a sim card costed him several days of mental torture. Dutt may not have planted the bombs but mere association in the crime plan was sufficient.

Update 14August: I read an excellent column on NDTV, that highlighted several factors including following:

Sanjay's well-wishers may lament and mull, but the law -
Sec 7 of the Arms Act - requires that the accused be sentenced between 5 and 10
years.

Often media forgets to mention the facts. It is this kind of columns that are useful to everyone. Again thats my opinion. Though I sympathized Sanjay initially, reading this cleared my vision. Judgement is fair. Our legal system may have loop holes and flawed but instances like these help regain confidence on it.

Takeshi's Castle...must watch

Remember TeleMatch? It was my favorite TV program. This was telecast during late 90’s on DD2. It’s a one hour program of very uncommon, creative, physical games that teams will play. Mostly all of them are time based. The participants will be wearing special costumes for specific game and will be on a specially made setting. Most of them were made as Forts, ponds etc.

Recently I saw similar kind of game program in POGO TV called Takeshi’s Castle. This is originally a Japanese program and voice commentary is given in Hindi by Javed Jaffery. Though I did not count, there will be around 5 to 10 different types of games. Many are played in water, mud etc making the game funny. Mostly participants are not trained and are highly naïve making it much funnier. No particular skill is required, just a little common sense and persistence. Everyone in the family will love this alike. Important thing is every one will love to participate in such game as well.

I wonder why our own channels are not making these kinds of programs often. It might require some creativity but that’s all. Most of the equipment can be reused across episodes.

BTW, Takeshi’s Castle on POGO TV is aired at 17:30, 19:30 and 21:30.