sukku

This is the real thing unlike the green elephants at Ramoji Studios. This was taken outside the temple in Pondicherry. I think the elephant was kinda cute but I always have the fear of getting close to an elephant as one never knows when they would stomp on you.

This photo was taken in Chennai the capital of Tamil Nadu. This church has really a unique façade and it looks like the "gopuram" of a hindu temple. I was driving through and got my driver to stop so that I can take a snap shot of it.

Has it ever occurred to you that time just passes you by before you realize it and you are whizzing away to that half century mark in your life. But being in that zone, you don't realize that you have aged. I still haven't slowed down yet, but over the years I know I have lost a couple of parts in my body. I took my appendix out when I was 22 or 23 years old and at 46 I took out my gall bladder as I had a 10 mm stone in it. It's like a car, the older it gets, you have to repair or replace the part, but in my case, it has been taking out the defective parts. I look at life with a positive attitude and I know whatever that happens, it always happen for a reason. But the funny part is that I don't know the reasons, but eventually it has a happy ending and also I really don't have a choice in this matter. Next year would be my 25th Wedding Anniversary and I am looking forward for that, my first boy would be leaving for Russia for his medical studies and I would also be ...

Well I just downloaded Firefox 3 RC 1 and I am on a test drive now. The browser is cool but my blogger site looks a bit handicapped. Some of the widgets cannot be displayed properly. But overall I think it is a cool browser as it is quite fast in loading the pages and maybe it would take some time for all the features to be displayed as this is not the full version. Anyone with FF RC 1 having any problems? Do let me know what you are doing to rectify it. I find the themes and add on are meant for the older version, it must be a matter of time for the switch over. I am blogging now with Fire Fox and I think I have a lot of tweaking to do. Just in case if you want to test drive FFRC 1, here is the link: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-rc.html

This is a snap shot taken during one of my visits back home for my holidays. I had my relatives from US and they wanted to see Kuala Lumpur and I had the privilege to show them Sultan Abdul Samad Building and "the building has long been a landmark for Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur. Its predominantly Moorish appearance suitably reflects the cultural background of Malaysia". The Sultan Abdul Samad building was constructed in 1897 and has long been a landmark for Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur. The unique Moorish-style building has a 41m clock tower, dubbed 'Big Ben'. The design of this building was undertaken by a British architect, A.C Norman, who worked for the Public Works Department at that time. In designing this building, he took into consideration some of the features of buildings in several Islamic countries. The predominantly Moorish appearance of the building suitably reflects the cultural background of Malaysia. The site of this beautiful building was carefully chos...

There are many incidences that I can recall to have a good laugh at times and I still remember an incidence with my driver. We stopped under a fly over and I realized that we are waiting for the lights to change colour. I also noticed that my driver had the emergency light indicator switched on. So I asked him, is there anything wrong with the car for you to have the lights on. He said to me, “ No Sir” and then I asked him, why are you having the emergency indicator on. To which he replied, when both indicators are flashing, it means the car is not turning left or right, just going straight. So I asked him, how did you get your license, to which he replied, Sir, I sat for the exam and then went for the driving classes and then passed my driving test for the license, little did he realize that I was being sarcastic with him. The other incident occurred with my secretary, both us went out looking for a laptop for the office and we were at a complex waiting for the lift. I knew the lift w...

After months of competition and elimination… after 96++ million votes… America voted DAVID COOK to win this year’s season of ‘American Idol’! David Cook got 56% of the votes, while Achuleta got 44%. Quite a close fight! Oh, he cried after the announcement! Very happy that Cook won and not the little Archie. Although Archie was also good, Cook showed more maturity in his performances, which I think made the audience love him more than Archie. Nevertheless, Archie too will definitely have a lot of recording proposals and contracts wowing him in the next days to come. Well this news is what I got from a blog in the net and it was a spoiler as I was eagerly waiting for the show tonight in India. Guess it has come to an end and I am happy with the result as I believe David Cook has the personality to carry himself.

I would like to share this poem with you and would like to know whether you have any regrets in life for not taking that road or do you feel that you should have taken it. The Road Not Taken (1920) By Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. For me, I guess I have always taken the road less travelle...

It's always nice to see a green background and I stopped at the paddy fields at Mahabalipuram, we were from Pondicherry and on the way to the rock-cut and monolithic temple by the seaside. I took the photo of my ex-colleague taking snap shots of the paddy field, little did she realise that I was taking her taking the shots. Here is what wikipedia has to say about this little South Indian town: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabalipuram

It had been a hectic weekend for me, power cut the whole night on Saturday until Sunday morning, and busy with company officials from Sunday midnight until last night. And the fate of my stay in India was decided on Monday exactly at 4.00 p.m. and as they say all good things must come to an end, my stay here in Hyderabad has indeed come to an end. It's been almost six long years working in this country and I am looking forward in getting back home for my new posting. I am leaving next week for home on a vacation for 10 days and would be back here in Hyderabad by the 1st week of June for my final few weeks. There are a lot of things that I have to do, to relocate myself, lots of things to dispose, documents to be kept for further reference and there are so many questions already in my head. I know this morning I woke up with a purpose, knowing my next course of action, not like how I woke up on Monday morning, it's the same morning but with a different attitude. It's how a d...

This was taken when I was in New Delhi, it is an unique temple shaped like a Lotus and it is a Bahai' temple. It is a tourist destination in Delhi and it was packed with visitors, I had some extra time to spare before I caught my plane to Hyderabad and asked my driver to show me a famous tourist spot which was close to were I was and the driver took me to this temple and I was impressed with the Architecture of the temple. The link to this temple by wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Temple

Well this photo was taken at Golconda Fort at Hyderabad. It's a beautiful fort but the photo that I loved most was the one where there were I guess hundreds or maybe more of bats on the ceiling and you can hear the buzz and see all that bat droppings on the ground, which by the way has a very peculiar smell. You might feel scared being under them after watching a lot of dracula movies, one never knows which bat is going bite you for it's dinner and turn you into a vampire. Anyway I enjoyed taking the photo and it turned out pretty well and the white dots are the bat's eyes. Hope you like the photo.

This photo was taken at Shilparam cultural village at Madhapur, Hyderabad. It was evening and a Rajastani folk dance was going on and what I liked about it was the colour and the energy from the dancers. ©sukku2008

I have been contemplating on installing Firefox 3 Beta 5 for quite sometime. When my fingers reach for the DVD from the latest PC magazine which has this software for free, something in me tells me to stop. Not that I haven't used Firefox before, but it was the older version and that too when IE 7 wasn't out yet. Beta's are usually buggy, correct me if I am wrong and it is for testers. Currently I am using IE 7 and Opera 9.27, I tried Safari 3.1 but I uninstalled it as I can't view most of the web pages and I have to download some plug ins (why go through the hassle?). So I thought to myself, what better way, then to solicit some views from the users themselves who are reading this blog and you can pass me some pointers and advice me whether I should or shouldn't install it. Should I wait for the final version? Let me know, how many browsers do you have installed in your pc and which do you rate as the best. ©sukku2008

I hope I didn't scare you with my posting on summer, the picture above was taken from the Hotel Taj Krishna that I stayed on my first trip to Hyderabad (6 years ago) during the winter. As you can see the lawn is well maintainted and it is a sight for sore eyes and I am sure even now in summer, it would be the same except for the hot breeze. ©sukku2008

Summer without power cuts is not summer in Hyderabad. I guess it's God's way of punishing us and maybe let us feel what it is like in hell. Yesterday I was in my room for 2 hours in the evening without power and decided to play some games on my HTC phone(pocket pc phone) and what happened after that was I screwed up my vision, couldn't read the letters on my computer when the power came back. Got scared though, so I placed an ice pack on both my eyes, now it's okay. This morning I woke up with a power cut for an hour, without A/C and the room was getting unbearably hot. I keep telling myself, why doesn't the public here take any action against the utility company. I mean electricity is not a free commodity, you are paying for a service and if you don't pay, the board would be more then eager to cut your supply. Just look at the consequences of the consequential losses that one would suffer due to this frequent power cuts, productivity comes down and life comes t...

The photo that I had posted was taken at our site a couple of years ago during summer(in Hyderabad) and it was a small pond which had cracked up due to the heat. So I guess it is easy for you to visualize what I am writing below. It is 10 in the morning and the temperature is already 30 degrees Celsius in my room and I can't imagine how it is outside. But I guess life goes on and I do empathize with the manual laborers toiling away irrespective of the scorching heat, after all they have to earn a living. On my way back yesterday I had seen a boy lying on the roadside and I guess it must be been sun stroke that he was suffering. I can't blame him for walking under the sun as he has no other option. Sometimes we complain about the seasons, but can you imagine if there weren't any season and everyday throughout the year is the same. Life then becomes monotonous and there wouldn't be any excitement in the waiting for what is in store every season for us. I am sure summer br...

Take a guess? What in heaven's is that structure! (Sri Aurobindo ashram's latest addition). History says that Pondicherry originated as a French trade centre in 1674, when it was purchased from a local ruler. Now a seaside tourist resort, Pondicherry(close to Chennai) contains the Hindu ashram (religious retreat) of Sri Aurobindo, now an international study centre, and several colleges affiliated with the University of Madras. This shot was taken in 2006 and the meditation centre was under construction, I guess by now it should have been completed. I had my lunch at the ashram, run by a white lady at the canteen, (maybe a devotee) it wasn't expensive, I guess I had chicken roast with the organically grown salads(in the ashram). It was an experience for me, and the town itself was more of a french colony with buildings which looks like it was taken right out a page in history. This is a nice place to visit and relax your mind as it has that magic in the air. ©sukku2008

I would like to share with you an incident that happened at my work place in Gebeng, Kuantan at a Petrochemical plant that we were building about ten years back. Well this place is in the interiors and it is quite far from the town. Getting a secretary for me was quite hard as no one would really want to travel that far and also to a male dominated construction site. But somehow I managed to get a secretary, a young Malay girl even though her knowledge of English was pretty bad, but then I thought to myself, half a secretary is better then none. I needed the secretary to sort out my paper work for filing as I had to be on the site most of the time either making my rounds or attending a never ending stream of meetings. At the site office, I had briefed my secretary on using the word processor in the computer and to check for the red marks for spelling mistakes and to make sure it is corrected accordingly. So I wrote a draft for the letter for my secretary to type it on the computer so t...

This photo was taken at Ramoji Film City at Hyderabad. I was at the restaurant above and saw the green elephants at the garden and decided to capture it on my camera. Ramoji Film City is I guess the biggest outdoor studio(spread over 2,500 acres) for shooting and maybe, the largest in Asia. I guess if you are in Hyderabad, then you shouldn't miss this. ©sukku

Everybody has a favourite spot on where they put their thinking cap and generate those wonderful ideas for their blogs or life issues. Some would be inspired after a nap (or during one), others while they are eating or drinking (make sure you don't get drunk). Some might think when they are travelling in a car, train or maybe on a flight (expensive way to generate ideas). I have a spot where I normally generate my ideas and it is on the "commode". That's when I am deep in my thoughts going about doing my business but great ideas do come out from there. It may sound a bit corny though, but it is a good spot and a quiet time for the mind to stop wondering and to concentrate and generate ideas like this one. I hope it is not a stinky idea! Do let me know where you spend your time to generate ideas? ©sukku

I would like to share with you an incident that took place about 4 years ago when I recruited a servant for my office and residence. Based on the company policy, he had to fill up the application form and I was surprised to see that he applied for the position of a “cooker”, now that really caught me by surprise. What am I going to do with a cooker? When I asked him what he meant by it, he told me that he wants to apply as a cook and since he knows how to cook, well that makes him a cooker. Anyway I employed him as my servant and I didn't want the “cooker” to cook. Just a couple of days back on NDTV( a news channel in India) I was watching the newscasters from various states reading the newspaper highlights of the day. What caught my attention was about a man found dead in a park with his throat slit by the residences in the park bench. And the news caster was saying that (in the past tense) that a man's throat was “slut”, oops....a blunder here and she corrected herself grace...

What sort of music do you listen to? Does mood affects your listening choice? Well let me tell you about my preference as I find that my choice of music changes with seasons and also with moods. Right now I am into heavy Rock like Led Zeppelin and Robert Plant (solo albums). I also like Pink Floyd and my favourite album of theirs is Division Bell. Even Scorpions are pretty good with their kind of Rock. Bad Company is also a pretty sleek Rock group with pretty good vocals and not forgetting Deep Purple with their Highway Star, Smoke on the water and Soldier of Fortune. Depending on my moods like I had said, Gypsy King with their Spanish style which is always nice to listen and it perks you up. When I am in a melancholic mood, I like Enya and also Enigma as there is some kind of magic in their music. Lobo and Neil Diamond is good for easy listening along with Lionel Ritchie. I feel that the loss of Freddy Mercury of Queen is definitely a tragic loss to the music industry, Queen without h...

Yes I was listening that song by Phil Collins this morning and I thought to myself...is it really paradise? If this is paradise then what is hell? Been checking on the comments on my blogs and there were just a couple of it. Now why so? Beats me! Maybe I am not doing the right thing here, maybe and maybe....so why analyse the maybes...and take away my paradise...you know the mind is a funny thing....it has the little voice which dictates how I should feel. Do you have that same feeling? I thought I told that little fella to shut up and let me be the boss but he won't listen...he wants to plant a seed of doubt in me and says that I am expecting too much. People are not interested in reading your blogs and they want to read something which is more interesting. Well who wants to read about your haircut and making raita as they are not hip. But I tell the little fella to be patient, someone out there would want to. I would be able to connect with someone! So I am waiting and the clock ...

Raita This is a very simple recipe and raita is usually eaten as a side dish with chicken curry, mutton curry, sambar or just have it as a dessert. A dish by it's own, if you are on diet! I will list down the ingredients for you below: 1. Yogurt or curd - 100 grammes or more 2. Onion - medium or large 3. Capsicum - small 4. Green chilly - one 5. Tomato -one red small 6. Cucumber 7. Black salt/salt 8. Chat masala (optional) 9. Corriander leaves Preparation Cut the onion into tiny bits (lengthwise and then perpendicular) Mince a small green chilly(seedless) Half a capsicum would do for the amount of yogurt I mentioned above, cut it to tiny pieces Use quarter a cucumber, peel the skin and deseed it and cut into tiny pieces Place all of the above in a small bowl and mix with the yogurt. Add the Black salt/salt according to your taste. To make it healthy, you can also add a teaspoon of virgin green olive oil. Top it with the fresh cut corriander leaves( a small bunch minced finely) and...

It's my favourite time of the month, a visit to the hair dressing saloon. Not that I love to spend my time there but it's just an occasion for me to celebrate my little pleasures in life with what I still have left off it(my hair). As you get older, the density of the mop at the top gets thinner/lesser and maybe I should be paying the barber extra for him to search for the "hair" when he is cutting it. He has to be extra careful in not snipping away as he pleases otherwise he would create a landing strip for maybe an Airbus 380. I have given up hope in getting the darn thing to grow and I have my greys at my sideburns too. I let nature takes it own course and I believe that one should get old gracefully. So what if I am losing my hair and I am not going to transplant hair from some other part to increase the density. I have seen people with hair transplant and it looks kind of vulgar and just to look 10 years younger? So what is in the hair that men are willing to spe...

It’s defined in the web dictionary as “Thin soup made out of tamarind and spices”. And today I was looking at the web for an easy rasam recipe but I somehow found that it was rather complicated. I made rasam for lunch and have enough of it for a couple of meals. Rasam is very easy to make and I guess you can say that it is a “bachelor’s soup or broth”. You can have this soup with plain steamed rice and maybe with some fried papads. I like it with omelette or “ikan bilis” (anchovies) and maybe some cucumbers. I took the photo of the rasam as it was boiling and I would like to share my version of the rasam recipe for you to try it. Ingredients 1. A stalk of curry leaves 2. A handful of sambar dal (tavur dal) 3. 5 red dried chillies 4. 3 green chillies 5. 4 pods of garlic 6. 1 teaspoon of black peppercorn 7. 1 teaspoon of mustard 8. A pinch of asafoetida 9. 3 large ripe tomatoes 10. A bunch of coriander leaves cut into tiny pieces 11. ½ teaspoon turmeric powder 12. 1 teaspoon of chilli po...

I was reading an article on this subject and I was prompted to write about it based on my experience in writing my blogs. I think what you post depends on the subject matter and how much thought that you have put on it. The simplest blog would be a cut and paste job from the internet or from the other blog sites. Now that would make you a copycat and after sometime I guess the readers would be able to spot a rat and maybe your visitors would start dwindling. I write what is in my head and correct it as I go along and I follow this tip that I had read from a book by Lindsay Camp aptly titled " Can I change your mind? -The craft and art of persuasive writing. Remember the reader and the result (RRR) is a good point to keep in mind and also to visualize your piece as an advertisement, now if you were to place an advert on the newspaper on what you had composed, does it have the impact to pull the buyer(reader) and be swayed by it. An ad (in our case our blog) that doesn't persuad...

TIMES NEWS NETWORK New Delhi: Unimpressed by US President George W Bush's hypothesis of a better eating India causing woes for the US, the UPA government dished out figures to claim that American cereal consumption had gone up substantially despite a significant decline in food production in North America. Quoting Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) figures, minister for science and technology Kapil Sibal on Wednesday said cereal intake in India was projected to have grown by a mere 2.17% from 193.1 million tonnes in 2006-07 to 197.3 million tonnes in 2007-08. Around the same time, the Americans had eaten a lot more, Sibal claimed. "In the same period, consumption of cereals in the US has been projected to have grown from 277.6 million tonnes to 310.4 million tonnes," the minister said. In fact, the Chinese -- another people accused by Bush of gluttony -- actually ate moderately. According to the FAO figures quoted by Sibal, cereal consumption in China had gone up by ...

A very long title indeed but I really want to know what does it take to get the visitors to say a few words as common courtesy. Is it window shopping at the blog sites, look see and disappear. Why can't you make your presence felt. I have my polls for you to click for instance but no one even bothers to click on it. The least you can do is let me know whether what I am doing is ok or not. I always leave a comment on other peoples site and if there is a poll, my curiosity won't leave me until I click and find out the statistics. So visitors, do me favour and be a little generous. I am not asking you to donate any money, but just your kindness. Be a good sport.

This photo was taken way back in 2003 when my family made a trip to Chennai. I was in Marina Beach with them and a food stall caught my attention. Why can't the owner of the stall at least get someone to do a spell check before he gets it painted. My guess is that this stall would have been washed away after the Tsunami hit Chennai beach in 2004 or did it survive that?

Washington: Close on the heels of President George W Bush’s remarks linking Indians’ food habits to rising global prices of commodities, the US has now partly attributed the surge in oil futures to the increased demand in India and China. “There are a lot of different ways that we can reduce our dependence, but we have more to do and it’s just — and also I would point out that, obviously, the demand for oil is growing around the world,” White House deputy spokesman Scott Stanzel said in a briefing. “Many developing nations like India or China are having greatly increased demand, which obviously is having an impact on price,” the senior White House official said responding to a question on the crude oil price crossing $120-mark. The White House official stressed that it was important for the US to become less dependent on foreign sources of energy. Stanzel spoke regarding Bush’s remarks, which have drawn a lot of flak from India, saying the US saw “higher living standards” of people the...

Oil prices are up! Prices of essential commodities are up thanks to inflation. World economy looks bleak and share markets are not doing well either. So what else is new? Look at the state that we are in after so much that we have learned from our past experiences. What does the future really holds for us? Is there a way out here? When are we going to see happier times? ©sukku

It's nice to be in that mood, just letting life cruise by at it's own speed. You take things as it comes. You reflect on the good things as well as the unpleasant incidences and see what went wrong but not being bogged down by it. Life is nothing but a summation of the moments or experiences that have brought you to this very present state that you are in. And what is in store for me in the future as I guess is very much determined by my choices that I took to be here where I am. So sit back and spend some time reflecting where you are heading and make the necessary corrections if you find that something is not right. Only you know what is right for you. ©sukku

It all started when my driver informed me that he saw a snake in the garden and he told me that it was a huge king cobra. So I informed my neighbour and she called up "friends of the snake society", they came over and checked my garden and there was no sign of the snake and they left after that. Meanwhile I told my servant to close the back door in the kitchen and after that I made my tea and jokingly told my servant to clean up the area where I kept the plastic bags which I normally save from the supermarket trips so that I can use it as my garbage plastic bags. When I was in the study room, suddenly I heard her screaming and I knew that she must have seen a snake or the worst case was that she would have been bitten by one. She came running out of the kitchen and I told her to close the kitchen door connecting to my living room immediately and I can see her shivering. Then I asked my neighbour to call the snake catchers, they came back after 10 minutes and they caught the ...

This afternoon I tried my hands on changing my 2 column template into a 3 column template that I seem to have a fancy for as it looks great. I saved my old settings and ventured into the unknown territory as I am not an IT geek (maybe a dinosaur). I was refering to a blog site which shows you how to go about doing it. And I messed it up. I wish there was a simpler way to go about doing this (anyone to help me on this). So what I did was change my previous template (minima)to the current one which is "minima blue" and it looks cool. Don't you think so? Maybe I should just keep my fingers to myself and be satisfied with what I have. It's the contents that matters, and not the appearance. The sad thing though, there are not many hits on my blogs and that seem to be a wee bit depressing (not that I am contemplating suicide). Unlike my blogs in Opera, where I had a lot of hits and have many friends there, I wanted to venture in greener pastures but it doesn't seem to l...

Some qoutes to cheer me up, to remind me that I am not alone. To be alone is to be different, to be different is to be alone. Suzanne Gordon, Lonely in America, 1976 Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up. Pearl Buck, US novelist in China (1892 - 1973) A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval. Mark Twain They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts. Sir Philip Sidney English poet, politician, & soldier (1554 - 1586)

This post is for a very good friend of mine, Lynette who asked me over the phone for the chinese stir fried vegetable recipe as she had the pleasure of eating what I had cooked over dinner. So I am posting my recipe for her on this blog and also for others who would like to venture into some quick and healthy food. Ingredients 1. Half a caulifower ( 150 grams)(cut the florets in to small pieces about 1 inch) 2. 1 carrot - sliced thinly 3. 3 Baby corn- cut lengthwise 1 inch 4. 1 capcicum- cut into lengthwise 1 inch 5. 4 pods garlic minced finely 6. 1 medium onion trimmed and cut into 4 wedges, layers separated 6. 1 inch ginger(optional)thinly sliced 7. Cooking oil (1 tablespoon) or more 8. Black Pepper either freshly grounded or use the standard black pepper powder, adding based on your preference, I sprinkle a couple of dash 9. Salt to taste 10. 2 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with a cup of water(optional) 11. Maggie chicken stock 1 cube(optional) mix with little water Cooking process He...

Sitting under the coconut tree with the sounds of the waves and a cool breeze chilling me, while I am sip a nice cocktail, the name which I can't recall as I am already floating with it(it's out of this world). The waiter asks me how do I want my lobster prepared as they had just caught a couple of them from the sea. And I ask for the chef so that I can instruct him how to cook it, the way I want it. And I see some pretty ladies/girls sun-bathing with their sun-tan lotions on their body and kids jumping into the water, not afraid of the waves. The sand in the beach is white and you can see the water so crystal clear. The sun is shining ever so bright but I can't feel the heat, only cool breeze with tiny droplets of moisture in the air. What a setting, I can be here forever and don't have to worry or think about work. No phone calls, no internet to check on emails or to think what to write on my blog. Then I wake up from my sleep, where are those lovely ladies, where is ...

This blog is my special tribute to the fearless road warriors in Hyderabad. It is a breath taking experience if by chance you had the honour of driving in Hyderabad or at least be a passenger in a Taxi, Auto or a hired car. I had my pleasure of driving around in Hyderabad (that is on Sundays and Public Holidays) and being driven around by my driver. Each time when I am on the road I get this strange feeling that I am going to knock someone or vice-versa. The safest way to drive here I guess is to drive on the opposite side of the road, whereby the drivers would give way to you.I had my drivers making U-turns wherever they please(sick of educating them), I see cars parked wherever they please and sometimes right in the middle of the road. I had a funny experience with one of my drivers, whom I had the privilege of reliving him of his duties. He had stopped under a flyover, and I noticed that he had the hazard lights on, and I asked him if there was anything wrong with the car, he told m...

The prices of essential commodities are increasing day by day. So what do we do? Our salaries have not increased over the years and even if it did, inflation is at an all time high now. So that really leaves a huge hole in our pockets. There are a few steps that we can take to buffer the effect of rising cost of living. I have drawn out a list that can be used as a guideline: 1. Stop eating outside unless it is necessary. Fancy restaurant cost you fancy money. 2. Cook extra food so that you can refrigerate it for later use in the week (saves on gas, oil, time and labour). 3. Eat more raw vegetables (saves on cooking oil) and limit your intake of meat. 4. Switch to cheaper brand of rice/cooking oil. 5. Stay away from the bottled drinks and drink more water. 6. Switch off all unnecessary electrical appliances and lights. 7. Don’t buy extra clothes, more than required just because it is on sale. 8. If you need to shop, make a list and stick to it. Don’t be distracted by special offers. 9....

It 's a day where I get to relax to whole day and with the heat outside I guess I should stay indoors. My servant came at about 10 a.m. and I was busy with my laptop surfing the net. I made mutton curry for lunch which I would keep for tomorrow too, saves me fom cooking. Had a short nap in the afternoon and back to the net again until 7.30 p.m. I started a new group at google at http://groups.google.com/group/blog-corner. Then it's IPL cricket on the telly, I am watching Chennai vs Rajastan and it doesn't look good for Chennai. I guess cricket is not the same after the Australian players had left their respective teams to prepare for their tour against West Indies. I guess it will be either back to my book or the net tonight. Not much of a choice.

SHASHI ON SUNDAY The future, of course, is never what it used to be. There was a time when predictions of global food shortages were rife in conventional wisdom. Writers like Paul Ehrlich and the "Limits to Growth" school of the 1960s and 1970s kept saying that the world's population was growing past the point at which the earth could sustain it. The burgeoning new environmentalist movement added their own concerns about the dramatic threats to our fragile ecosystems brought about by heedless development. And the new breed of futurologists spawned by the Cold War — whose ideas were given new currency by the accelerating pace of technological change in the era of man's first walk on the moon — kept issuing dire warnings that our planet was imminently going to run out of food as the global population grew and the land available for agriculture inevitably proved inadequate. By the early 1980s, the doomsayers began to look silly. They had not anticipated the Green Revolu...

The surrounding was a little strange as the plane landed at the airport. I can glance from the window that the landscape looked very parched and the grass was brown. I can also see the mirage on the runway. As the pilot announced the local time at the airport that I was about to land, I changed the time at my watch and this was a brand new watch that I got as a gift for my overseas trip for my studies. I had to wind two and half hours back from the place where I was flying from. To my surprise I saw some workers working at the airport, their skin tanned working under the blazing heat and they were wearing only loin cloths. They were doing manual work, just like a scene from a movie where you find jailbirds toiling away breaking rocks in some hill with a sledge hammer. Now this was about thirty years ago, when I was a student in pursue of higher education to be a Doctor (now that I am an engineer). Sitting alone on the flight and looking at the scenes unfolding before me was a cultural ...

Netlore Archive: Circulating via email, the text of a speech allegedly given by Bill Gates in which he sets out 11 rules of life for today's high school students. 2003 Variant: Email example contributed by Sarah C., 12 July 2003: BILL GATES' SPEECH TO MT. WHITNEY HIGH SCHOOL in Visalia, California. Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! To anyone with kids of any age, here's some advice. Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world. Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it! Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself. Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-...

That’s a very good question to ask? Do you know the reason why you blog? I can list down the reasons why I blog: 1. I blog therefore I exist! (lame excuse). 2. I know someone somewhere is reading my blog and he/she says “Hey that’s a pretty cool blog".Let me save this site(wishful thinking). 3. Pass down my experience (in other words I am older by the day). 4. Share a common interest with others if ever they decide to comment on my blogs. 5. A cheap way of publishing my thoughts on the internet. 6. Sharpens my mind and broadens my horizon. 7. Enlighten some souls along the way (so I can earn my brownie points). 8. Improve on my writing skills. 9. Pour out my frustration or joy on my blogs. Maybe tickle some of them too. 10. Killing my boredom I guess ten reasons would be sufficient to keep me blogging. What are the reasons that make you a blogger? Feel like sharing it with me. ©sukku2008

SE Asia Ganging Up To Control Staple Crop Price Chidanand Rajghatta TNN Washington: As if the world wasn’t coughing up a heavy enough price for the oil cartel, it now faces the frightful prospect of paying through its nose for one of mankind’s staples — rice. Shockwaves are rippling through the trade world following the announcement in Bangkok that the Thai government is considering forming a rice cartel in partnership with Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Thailand is the world’s largest rice exporter (not grower), and the move is evidently aimed at using its dominant market position to influence the price of rice in the same way that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) tries to manipulate oil prices. The other four neighboring countries being roped in are also significant rice exporters. A cartel is a formal agreement among firms or countries aimed at coordinating on matters such as price fixing, total industry output, market shares, allocation of customer...

Location: Hyderabad Date: 02.05.2008 Time: 10.00 a.m. Well yesterday I told myself that I would start maintaining an online journal or a diary so to speak. I am posting this at Opera and also here. Both my driver and servant still haven’t turned up and I guess I can do without the driver as I still can drive around by myself. But the servant is the tricky part, my kitchen sink is filled up with dirty dishes and the house needs sweeping and mopping. I thought that since yesterday was a holiday, both my employees had decided to take leave due to May Day, maybe they needed the break (hard labour). I can live with that, but today I hope they turn up otherwise I have to start cleaning up the dishes to restore some order to the house. The heat is unbearable these days and the thermometer is rising to 42 degrees Celsius and it should pick up to higher readings and peak at maybe 45 or 47 degrees Celsius by mid May. My lunch has not been cooked yet, as the chef is busy with this blog and also h...

By PAUL B. BROWN It’s a tautology, of course. If you insist on doing everything yourself, your business will never grow beyond what you can personally handle. People who run small businesses know this, but as Beth Schneider, president of Process Prodigy, which “helps business owners leverage the best business practices,” points out on Entrepreneur.com there’s “something in us that fights against asking for help.” She added: “It’s almost like there’s some rite of passage in being able to do it all ourselves. But the reality is, you can’t do it all and focus on your strengths without stretching yourself in too many directions.” And that means small-business owners need to delegate, if they wish to grow, a concept, she concedes, that can be difficult to accept. “Delegation is about handing over authority, and for many small business owners, that’s a scary concept because you don’t know what will happen when you give up control,” she writes. WHY NOT? Michele Hanson-O’Reggio, writing on sol...

Cherie Carter-Scott PhD is a very modern guru. Her theories explain our attitudes and behaviour with a special clarity, and provide a practical guide to behaviour and self development. Dr. Carter-Scott achieved her PhD in human and organisational development and for the nearly 30 years has been an international lecturer, consultant and author. She founded the MMS (Motivation Management Service) Institute and has been called a guardian angel to CEO's. Carter-Scott's book 'If Life Is A Game, These Are The Rules' is essential reading if you are interested in behaviour, relationships, communications, and human personality. Cherie Carter-Scott's rules for life - also known as 'The Ten Rules For Being Human' and referenced in her book with Jack Canfield: 'Chicken Soup For The Soul' - are a map for understanding and pursuing personal development, and for helping others to understand and develop too. 'If Life Is A Game, These Are The Rules' is also c...