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Showing posts from December, 2010

As we rush through life!

In Washington, DC, at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning in 2007, this man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.  During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. About 3 minutes: The violinist received his first dollar.  A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk. At 6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again. At 45 minutes: The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while.  About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.  After 1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over.  No one noticed and no one applauded.  There was no recognition at all. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world.  He played one of the most intricate pieces eve

The First Decade of this Millennium

So the first decade of new millennium has passed. We are going to step into a new decade. Still the memory of stepping into new millennium is fresh. Don’t you remember the millennium bug? All the institutions including defense, banking or any other using web network were frightened that they would lose the data as the computer would read the 1 st Jan of 2001 as 1 st Jan of 1901. I remember the 31 st Dec of 1999; till late hours we have been taking the print outs of all the accounts. The software industry as a whole had their hay days selling their millennium bugs cleansing software. However nothing happened anywhere in this planet. Nobody reported being charged by millennium bug in their system.  The hue and cry was forgotten soon. Except the share price of IT sector sore higher. They made huge profits. The last decade saw 9/11, Iraq war and global recession. In fact throughout decade headlines were struck by hot and chill news. Terrorism tops the list and a new term like financial

History repeats itself ! !

With ‘Raj’ ended and British colonial ‘Sahib’s packed up for their mother land. Most of them when back to their ‘home’; first oddity they faced, lack of service from soft-footed domestic servants. Ruling for 200 years in their oriental colonies,  they became so used to these ‘Khidmatgars’ or domestic helps; back home without them , for many life became painful experiences. There were many having never seen their ‘Home’ or Great Britain could never imagine a life without domestic helps. On the bank of Ganges or Hoogly  river there were many jute mills owned by mostly Scottish ‘Sahibs’; still some of their old English style Bungalows stand within the those old mill compounds, although mostly in dilapidated condition but they still show their elegance. It is surprising, how the ‘Memsahib’s could maintain them! How many domestic helps, Malis (gardeners) , ‘Khidmadgars’  were engaged for their upkeep! One of my friends after leaving Air Force joined as a Security Officer in one of these ol

Gross Wastage of Public Fund by Representative of Public!!!!

It is only possible in India. The all time record of session adjournments have been broken in this winter session of our parliament. Our leaders ( read opposition) have made it possible to put full stop of session activities for 23 days in the term of 24 days  winter session of parliament. Perhaps we should seek a place in Guinness Book of Records for such wise parliamentarian saga! The fund wasted for session less parliament is around Rs 146 Crores. This includes the allowances paid to our revered members of Parliament and all other expenses made to run full parliamentary session. Apart from wastage of public fund what has been more disgraced is parliamentary democracy.