The Loan...

There is this school going boy N and his elder sis M goes to the same school. M is elder than N by a couple of years or so, and is 2 classes ahead of him.


N is in 8th standard and M is in her 10th standard. She has to go to her coaching classes which is pretty far away (for a 15 year old to travel all alone), so her parents give her more pocket money than usual for a rainy day. N is wondering, what does M do with all her money?


N is now in 9th standard and M is in junior college (PUC). As a college kid, M gets more pocket money compared to N. M is a darling and always keeps on lending money to her kid bro N without ever asking it back. She even gets surprise gifts (pens / T-shirts) for N once in a while, and still manages to save some money. N always spends off all his cash and keeps wondering, what does M do with all her money?


N now goes to junior college (PUC) and M is now attending her graduation school in the University. Her pocket money is still more than N and she continues to be the darling money lender. Sometimes she gives money even without N asking for it. N's wallet is thicker miraculously to sponsor his Friendship day, Rose day and Annual day. M saves more and N spends more. N still wonders, what does M do with all her money?


N is now pursuing Engineering and M is working. She stops taking pocket money from her parents and instead, asks them to give all of it to N. N travels more than 70 km every day by train and hence is remunerated appropriately by his parents. Still, its not enough for him. M gives a good chunk of her salary to N and never mentions it to her parents. M is now saving more than ever and N is spending even more. And still he wonders, what does M do with all her money?


N now has a job and M is back in school, pursuing law. She manages her expenses very carefully with her pocket money and her savings. N does not make a lot but is very prompt on spending everything he earns within the first weekend. Every time he sees M with enough savings, he wonders what does M do with all her money?


N gets a very good job and earns more than he needs. Still, he does not save anything. He gets an opportunity to go abroad. M has just passed out of her law school and has purchased a T-shirt for N out of her first salary. At the airport, M gives him this T-shirt with her best wishes.


N learns a very valuable lesson. He saves everything he earned out of his onsite stint. His saving habit does not change even after he is back in India.


Within 1 year, M gets married. Anything and everything that M wanted in her wedding -- the wedding sari, the reception sharara, the mehendi lady, the make up lady, the food menu, the wedding hall, the decoration for the reception, the gifts to the guests -- was fulfilled. N exhausted all his savings till date for the wedding.


A couple of days after the wedding, when M met N, she said -- "N, I always wondered what does N do with all the money I give him? But today, you repaid everything back at the right time".


N replied "I just paid the interest back, the loan will stay with me forever".

Something nice to see

There was a fire in Carlton Towers on Old Airport Rd in Bangalore. 9 people died and several injured. Blood is of utmost importance for a speedy recovery.


But in India, the hospitals require that the patient's relatives arrange for a replacement donor before any blood transfusion request is entertained (yes, thats true). If you can convince the authorities that you will get a replacement donor later, then they allow the blood transfusion to happen. Else, the clock keeps on ticking.


So, for the ppl injured in today's fire, there needed to be immediate blood donors available. Intelligently, there were lots of requests sent via twitter and responses were immediate. And within an hour, there were enough volunteer donors at all Bangalore Hospitals. Actually, more than enough, because soon enough, there were tweets sent to stop volunteers rushing to the blood banks.


Feels good to see technology used for a good cause for once. Instead of all MMS scandals, this is one instance of good usage of technology.


Reminds me of something similar by Shashi Tharoor. He met a kid who needed funds for education and instead of helping the kid himself, he just tweeted about it. In less than a day, there were more than enough funds for the kid to not only complete basic education, but even to do his post-graduation.


And the only tweets from Shashi Tharoor that received publicity were Cattle-class.



Contradiction theory

Ever wondered how some things contradict themselves? Here are a few examples which have kept me guessing every time I hear / see / read anything abt -- 


1 - Auto Insurance -- Every company who offers auto insurance always claims that they charge 200-300-400... even 1000 dollars less than its business rivals. Still, everyone thinks that they are overpaying on their auto insurance.


2 - Cosmetics -- Every cosmetics company in the world claims that their products make the user look younger and more beautiful. If women keep on using cosmetics every day, then by now, the only cosmetic products that would be needed would be baby skin products. Because every existing product makes a woman look even younger. So, after years of using these products, the skin should be like a baby's skin right?
        Still, they keep on making newer products. To make the user look even younger.


3 - A SC Johnson Family company -- This company makes so many home use products -- room fresheners, candles, cleaning wipes, dusters and sprays. And they really have no competition. So, in most of their ads, they end up belittling their older products and prove how their newer products are better.


4 - US Government -- Every Councillor, governor, senator, congressman and president promises to cut spending across the ranks while campaigning for the election. Yet the federal budget continues to grow, leaps and bounds. Every time Mr. President makes an announcement with some initiative to add new jobs, the unemployment goes up by atleast 10 points.


Some things are so self-contradictory.

STRENGTH OR NUISANCE VALUE?

The Tiger is turning senile. Desperate to prove his clout, he is trying to flex his muscle to the point that it might snap.


It is difficult to accept the fact that you are no longer strong. Right, "no longer strong". The superlative forms of this word "stronger" and "strongest" do not apply to ShivSena any longer. Long gone are the heydays of mid-1990s when it was at its crowning glory with power in the state and center. Today it is a political party struggling hard to justify their existence. And Bal Thackeray is not helping by farting like a someone with an overdose of beans.


There were strong indications of his idiosyncracies when he named his son as his successor instead of his well-groomed nephew. Hey, if you want to run your organization as your home, feel free. But remember, Shivsena is a public company and, sooner or later, your shareholders are going to drop you like a hot potato if you fail to deliver. Remember, yeh public hai aur yeh sab jaanti hai... 


Today, the only time Shivsena or MNS are heard of is when they create some sort of ruckus. Their tirade against North Indians or insistence of Marathi or ridiculous bans on movies or sports. Ask them to show even one constructive act in the last decade and the debate ends then and there.


It is very heart wrenching for someone who grew up as a hard core Shiv Sainik to write this blog. If someone would have foretold this to me 15 years ago, I would have never believed it. But today, a progressive India led by Manmohan Singh, P. Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia feels more magnetic. Rahul Gandhi's educated speech is more charming than Udhhav Thackeray's artificially pumped argument.


Someone needs to explain the difference to Mr Thackeray (any of the 3 Thackerays) that there is a very subtle difference between strength and nuisance value. Strength is something that empowers weak people and brings them closer. Nuisance value is something that helps no one, makes the society weaker and alienates you from your followers.


Open your eyes and face the harsh reality before its too late.

SMELLS FISHY

(Heads up -- Pls do not click on any links until you read the entire posting. Click on the links after reading the posting once to reveal the hidden players.)


This is the story of a small village, one of the most prosperous, amongst all other villages in the vicinity. This village represented the stuff dreams are made of and everyone craved to eventually live in this village.


In this village, there were 3 doctors (Doc1, Doc2 and Doc3). These "original" doctors were born and brought up in this village, local "sons-of-the-soil". They lived together happily, taking care of the villagers whenever anyone needed help. They were loved by everyone and everyone was proud of them. They were considered icons of this prosperous village and served as an example to the rest of the villages.


Then slowly, as the "land of the dream" beckoned, more and more doctors came to this village to ply their trade. A few of them never made it big, a bunch of them cracked it big. The ones who cracked it big were "specialists", who mastered a particular branch of medicine.


Slowly, two specialists (One and Two) started encroaching the space owned by the originals. And why not, they gave better service for lesser fees. Whenever any patient visited the originals, they used to fall ill soon. But instead, if they visit these specialists, they never fell ill again or at least not for a long time.


Gradually, the reputation of these specialists overshadowed the love and pride for the originals. The specialists were icons of success and originals were the icons of failure. Villagers from far and wide used these examples in their day to day life to quote success and failure stories.


The originals were out of business and out of money. They eventually asked the villagers to get them some money so that their hospitals can survive for some time at least. They promised to work hard, charge less and give good service in return for the financial assistance. The villagers had no option but to lend a helping hand to their one-time pride icons.


But as soon as the money came in, the villagers started demanding a recovery plan. The doctors were threatened to shut shop unless a recovery plan was put in place and there were enough signs of the recovery plan working. The game was slipping away from the originals and something had to be done to restore parity.


And then, one of the super-successful specialists committed a mistake. It was something which was not as serious, but then the scavengers pounced on it. It was made to look way bigger than it actually was. The local news reporters played their part hype up the whole thing.


Suddenly it was found that the other super-successful specialists committed a mistake as well. The media feasted on these specialists with an aim to subdue these specialists and create enough space for the originals to grow again. Slowly, there will be equilibrium and all of them will graze in the green pastures of the village for next few years.


Until, the neo-specialists threaten the survial of the neo-originals and commit a mistake... 

WTF!!!

This one qualifies (and might win) the award for the laziest person in the whole world...


And if that one was not good enough, here is another one... 


Both these, courtesy S... Enjoy!!!

WELL SAID - 2

This one comes from Randy Pausch in his last lecture. The whole lecture qualifies under this series, but one sentence particularly captured the gist of the "last" lecture.


We can not change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.


How apt in that scenario!!!

Logged in to www.timesofindia.com to check out the latest news and this is how the page looked.




1 - Something terrible happened 14 months ago and even today we have not done anything about it. There is 1 fellow caught, he denies everything he was caught doing and we are spending crores to protect him.


2 - A person with dubious history of financial dealings gets Padma Bhushan simply because he supposedly facilitated a very important deal between India and US, though he did nothing really.


3 - A political party surviving for existence is trying to squeeze one more drop out of an issue which has already been chewed to death. Apparently with an election due in 2 years.


4 - A celebrity craved for publicity does another act, just to stay in the limelight.


5 - Tips to get a gun.


6 - Finally, one achievement for India -- and immediately someone else has to comment on it.


7 - Another publicity hungry celeb gives a "byte"


8 - No comment on children and pornography. They just dont fit in the same world.


9 - One stupid player bites the ball and creates news. Its called "Bite-gate".


10 - A home minister can not guarantee safety of the countrymen promises security for Australian cricketers.


11 - Stray dogs reach black bucks before Salman-Saif can.


12 - One family likes its d-i-l and it makes news. Thats 2 times in the day for the same family. Target achieved for the day, lets think abt making news tomorrow.


What is there to look forward to read when you open the website? (Read it as -- what is there to read when you get the newspaper in the morning?)


Reminds me of a very good article I had read many many years back. How true can an article be, even 10-15 years after it is published!!! How I wish I could get a picture of that article?


Those were the days when Yasser Arafat was alive and Israel-Palestine were going at each other fiercely. Just one day ago, there were 2 suicide bombings in Jerusalem claiming the lives of at least 20 odd civilians. Try taking a guess that the day's newspaper headline.


The headline was about how an old couple had grown a beautiful garden in their backyard in spite of the terrible summer that year. It had elaborate pictures of all the rare flowers they had grown in spite of all the water problems. A smiling picture of the old couple sharing was at the top center of the page.


And no, that newspaper did not live in denial. The details of the blasts from the previous day, the names of the victims and other grim details were listed on page 2.


But that article at the forefront of the newspaper ensured that anyone who opens the newspaper starts to read it with a sweet smile. The smile will survive the scars of page 2 for sure. More importantly, the reader will enjoy reading the newspaper. Even after the newspaper is folded and kept aside, the happy news will keep on showing up and continue to soothe even the quickest of glances. And most importantly, the reader will look forward to reading the newspaper the next day... every day... 


How I wish I could get a picture of that article? Not only for my blog readers, but for the news reporters and newspaper editors of tomorrow.