Fuel price hike won't affect consumers: Deora

For these kind of donkeys and 'useless citizens' of India, everything is free. Only when an individual earns by doing some work and pay from that earning, he / she will realise the pinch of price hike and coping with the same.

See, how unabashedly, this nonsense fellow has made comment that Rs. 35 hike should spread out as Rs. 1 per day for family that consumes 1 LPG and so it is not at all a hike!!

Fuel price hike won't affect consumers: Deora

Wearing shorts to Temples

Wonder why guys who come to worship wearing shorts as though they treat it as a picnic spot. One might ask - What's in a dress? Then we can have exemption for everything. Why can't they just stick to tradition at least to th temples - by coming in dhoti or full pant? These guys think they were born and brought up in US.

I saw a guy yesterday at a Narasimhar Temple (at Moovarasampet near Nanganallur). This temple is most revered and supposed to be centuries old. The 'Pavithrotsavam' was underway and none of the typical elders in the temple management seem to be bothered about stressing some dress code. Hmm ..If a girl would have worn a shorts and entered the temple, they will think that it is abacharam and raise a big issue. Dress code should be uniform and strict like how it is done in Guruvayurappan style temples.

Wearing Shorts has become a de-facto in our current life-style - at office outings, beaches, picnics; but I think we should have some line drawn between partying and temple visit.

Kareena Kapoor Strip-tease & Sony Vaio

If the advertisement had just said that Sony Vaio is available in different flavours or colours, that would be sufficient. I don't need Kareena Kapoor doing a strip-tease to make me buy that product. No IDIOT buys a laptop (or for that matter, electronic gadgets like these) because it is endorsed by a popular personality.

It is still a wonder why advertising agencies (and the companies) believe that star endorsement is still a selling point for these kind of products? Why waste huge amount of money on a person (for doing cat walking and displaying the product) when people buy that product out of respect and performance of the brand?

Is there a Financial clause by which money spent on advertising can be shown as an 'Expense' (or 'loss') and claimed deduction from paying tax? Not sure.

People don't remember who endorsed Sony Vaio 10 years from now. They will still look towards 'SONY' for its legacy, usability, pricing and features.

'Live Traffic' gadget in blog

This gadget at least helps us to know who has been visiting our blog and what they have been reading. Whether the writing or article makes sense or not, we can feel happy that someone in this world is dropping and reading our jottings.

GMail ID - Dots insignificant

Ever realised GMail treats your mail ID with or without dots as the same? Know this so that you don't delete some mails thinking as spam!

My ID doesn't have a dot. I have sometimes wondered how mails sent to the same ID as mine (with a dot in the middle) land in my inbox. I ignored couple of times as spam, but the third time got me curious to check. Back of the mind, I thought GMail had a bug :-) which I can write to them about and get it fixed.

But I when I carefully looked at the mail header part (sent to my ID with dot), I saw a small snippet "(Yes, this is you.) Learn more. When I clicked that 'Learn more', it took me to a page and explained why it is so

Gmail doesn't recognize dots as characters within usernames, you can add or remove the dots from a Gmail address without changing the actual destination address; they'll all go to your inbox, and only yours
homerjsimpson@gmail.com = hom.er.j.sim.ps.on@gmail.com
homerjsimpson@gmail.com = HOMERJSIMPSON@gmail.com
homerjsimpson@gmail.com = Homer.J.Simpson@gmail.com

PS: Having a dot to show clarity in your mail ID is of least significance for the mail server!

Argos.Co.Uk - Sand at a Price

I was searching a suitable play item in Argos for my 1.6 year old daughter. Few of my colleagues are there at UK and I thought I will ask them to get.

I discovered an Interesting "Toy"
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/3650574/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7CToys+and+games%7C14417629.htm

Sand for a price? whatever they term it - refined and safe to play with, no bacteria and properly filtered, blah, blah. Still, I just cannot imagine how still sand is packaged and marketed ! Or did I get it completely wrong?

I think our local politicians would be delighted to introduce this as a play item in India - anyway, all sand quarries are under some politicians control - legally or illegally, though the latter is the usual norm.

"தாய் மண்ணே வணக்கம்" என்று சொல்லி கொள்ளை அடிப்போம்

FIFA 2010 - Observation on the QFs

Brazil showed excellent defense in the first half in their QF against Holland. But they could not even maintain even 50% of that in the second half. Frustration was growing evident in the Brazil camp as they kept losing the plot.

Germany, in their QF against Argentina showed excellent defense throughout the match. They also scored a very early goal like Brazil, but they didn't allow their defense to get weaken and kept attacking.

Pele and Maradona were (and are) at war of words. Two greats throwing brickbats in childish manner (Pele was throwing more). Both their countries are out.

Hotel Palmgrove - No more a place for middle class

The food prices are way too above for a middle class to think about affording. Having such a large group of Hotels (and real estate), the hotel can offer a competitive price on food menu. Till 3 years back, South Indian meal used to be Rs.55 inclusive of service tax. It has been jumping slowly ever since and now it is R.98 (with service tax). The quality & quantity remains same with zero improvement and there are no other change to ambiance as well (in order to justify).

Let Palmgrove not quote the rising inflation as the reason. A largely or commonly consumed food certainly cannot jump from Rs. 55 to Rs.98 (an increase of Rs.43 in 3 years). It puts Palmgrove in line with some of the Mutual Fund dividend schemes except that it is in reverse.

Many of us have stopped or avoid going there for lunch as there is no value for money. To top it, the waiters expect a tip for their service - stand their scratching their head or giving a smile (or salaam) at you indicating that the job is not done.

Why the hell they charge service tax separately and encourage waiters also to receive tip?