I am aware of the phishing tactics of these mails, the impact if one falls to the trap and even aware of the amount of money banks and corporate spend to protect their information security, educating their customers about such phishing mails. But today i was literally ROFL-ing if there is such a term after i read this mail. At the end of the fun, i realized i should blog about it and here it goes… pretty self explanatory and funny to the core.

Hope you will enjoy as much as i did.

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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C. 20505 USA.

Motto: The Work of A Nation, The Center of Intelligence.

Attention: Fund Beneficiary,

REF: CIA BENEFICIARY WARNING NOTICE!!!

Dear Sir/Madam,

This is to inform you officially that after our investigations with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other Security Agencies in the Country for the year ended 2010, we discovered that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has placed On-Hold your funds valued US$25,000,000.00 with the Bank of America pending proper documentations.

However, we the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) after discussions with Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have decided to assist you in getting the said funds released to you as the beneficiary as soon as you are able to provide for us what is called "Presidential Immunity Seal Of Transfer (PIST)" from the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Furthermore, we have instructed Bank of America to hold on with the funds pending when we have received the said "Presidential Immunity Seal Of Transfer (PIST)" from you as proof that the said funds are legitimate anyway.

Finally, you are to contact the Supreme Court of Nigeria with the below details to obtain the "Presidential Immunity Seal Of Transfer (PIST)" to enable us approve the transfer of your funds to any Bank Account of your choice.

Contact Office:  Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Contact Person:  Mr. Idris Legbo Kutigi

Telephone No.:   +234 803 516 9741

Electronic Mail: ngsupremecourt@hotmail.com

Note: that we shall conduct immediate payment cancellation and then charge you for Money Laundering and Terrorism Act if you fail to provide the said "Presidential Immunity Seal Of Transfer (PIST)" for review within the next 72 hours upon receipt of this email.

We wait for your prompt response on this email.

Best Regards,

For: Central Intelligence Agency.

Mr. Leon E. Panetta.

The Chief Director,

Central Intelligence Agency.

Copy:         Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Copy:         Department of Homeland Security.

Copy:         International Court of Justice.

Copy:         Supreme Court of Nigeria.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an independent US Government agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior US policymakers.

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Hope this was good enough to smile and have a nice day !!

In life, it is quite rare to experience a complete spiritual upliftment without being religious. And this rare and blissful experience is felt by me only when i reach to places of beauty at high altitudes. I have been to Kodaikanal several times, Ooty a few times, Coorg a few times, Mahabaleshwar a few times and i must admit that i enjoyed every single trip as it is an experience by itself. But what i experienced during my visit to Meghamalai (means “The Cloud Mountain” in Tamizh) is something unique and has a spiritual feeling to it.

Meghamalai Map – Near Theni, Tamilnadu, India

The idea to get out of the madness of the city crowd came around end of August 2010 as me and my friend Sriram discussed a trip out of Chennai. He had got a new job and i was nearing an end of getting mine. We both needed a break and had spent the last few years running around in this race of mad rats. We wanted to feel a sense of rejuvenation without spending any money for anything inside the city. Basically, we wanted adventure and freedom from everything for a little while. We did not want to make one more trip to Kodai as we have been there several times. I suggested Pollachi and the Vaalparai hills to him as i wanted to visit that place and see what nature offers around there. I knew that Vaalparai has many such serenity that could kinder my spiritual side when i visit and my intention was also to move around the Sholayar forest and experience the deep forest at high altitudes and cool breeze. But my friend Sriram suggested that we go to this place called “Meghamalai” which was probably close to Theni. I wasn’t completely convinced with the idea, but decided not to disappoint my friend as he was passionately describing the place as a must visit and that his colleague had visited it earlier and it was worth another trip. Sriram told me that this place is unexplored and i quietly agreed to come and visit where none of us had visited before. It is indeed a challenge to see the unknown and experience surprises than go to a known place. Moreover with Sriram convincing me that he indeed knows people there to guide us and find a place to stay helped the decision to be made.

But we were the two of us and wanted one more to make the adventure and fun better and who else would fit the bill than our good old travel mate Amit who with his sense of passion for jeeps, offroadings and the same love for travel and adventure. Sriram and Amit decided the trip details – almost nearly argued over a few things for more than a day and finally we decided to go in Sriram’s Santro as destiny would have it. We met on the 2nd of September 2010 around noon time at the OMR office of Amit and headed straight out of the city – packing ourselves with the absolute necessary stuff that we carry in all our trips. A journey that was filled with surprises as we did not know what to expect and without Amit’s 4wd – it was all the more challenging to reach the destination.

We planned to reach Theni via the usual route of Salem, Tiruchy and Dindigul and via the kodai road reached a small place called Chinnamannur Southwest of  Theni at 3 am the next day. Amit had driven most of the trip and was tired and after dindigul took a small nap at the pillion seat. I was concentrating hard on how Sriram is doing his night driving and was happy that he had improved a lot over the years and was a lot more confident in his own vehicle. As we got out of the vehicle and closed our doors with a bang, Amit woke up to see the place called “Nadar Lodge”. Mr. Bose, our guide to Meghamalai was waiting there for a long time and Sriram had ensured he knew where we were by informing him time to time. Since dinner was over long back and it was way past midnight, none of us had any intention to find the quality of the room or the place. We just followed our guide and crashed to bed after a little discussion. 

It was only in the morning that we saw that we stayed at a good place. Morning coffee was ready on our room as we woke up and forced us to get ready soon after a brief and sensible discussion with Amit on the nuances of a vehicle and how to drive in terrains. And we did get ready pretty quickly too and were looking forward to our journey to Meghamalai which was exactly 50 kms from Theni and so roughly 35 kms from where we were already. Mr. Bose suggested that we have our breakfast in Chinnamannur and took us to the Vasantha Bhavan where hot pongal and idly with sambar was a treat to the hungry tummy and after speaking over phone to my wife about my whereabouts and my younger brother Arun who was leaving to London for a good 2 years over phone and wishing him a good luck, i started the journey with my friends to our destination.  One more round of coffee suggested Mr. Bose and Sriram agreed. Amit and I looked at each other and decided to follow our leads and the coffee was at its best indeed.

First it was the little check post that had us to start wondering how this place would be followed by the tea kadai where Sriram made a few friends and a few pegs to start the 2 hour long journey up to the hills. We did not know what to expect as the place was breathtakingly beautiful as and when we started to move upwards in the little Santro that was quick enough to climb up and sturdy enough to take us through to the destination and beyond. One look from every turn was getting prettier but scarier too as we realized we are going on roads that were not really ready completely but had been put for a few days as a local MLA or a Minister had visited Meghamalai recently as informed by our guide. We reached a higher valley where we noticed a watch tower and since our guide was still far behind in his bike, we wanted to explore the places more. Amit was the first to move to the front followed by myself while Sriram parked the vehicle in a safe corner and moved towards us. Amit started to click a few shots while self and Sriram followed to climb up the tower and as we reached the top of the tower we clicked a few shots from there and the valley looked neat. Our guide who came by in a few minutes informed us that this was a watch tower used by forest officials to see the movements of elephants in that area. We were quite pleased by now at the destination being the right one. We were told that the forest officials do not allow too many tourists to these locations and one key reason being that there are so many dams that were used for hydro electric projects for the state of Tamilnadu and the preservation of natural eco system with all the inhabitant animals like Tiger, Bear, Elephants, Deer, several varieties of birds and monkeys were considered topmost priorities for the forest officials. A thought slowly crept up my mind that i am going to be in such a place which i have rarely seen or heard in the past and how true it was and how wonderful was the journey forward.

As we went back to our car and moved further, we decided to stop at every possible beauty spot and take some pictures that could keep cherishing our memories for a long time to come. Amit was cursing his luck as he could not get his offroading vehicle, his “Torque” which is built totally by him from the base. The valley had such tough roads and at every tough turn we took in the pretty santro, he missed it all the more. And so did the rest of us as we knew that it was not just Amit who would have enjoyed the ride but we too would have witnessed some thrill of our life.  We witnessed some unique trees, some great turns, excellent views on the way up. Suddenly we could feel the wind getting cooler and our breath cleaner and less polluted. We knew we were there but we did not want to stop and waste our time asking our guide, instead of enjoying each and every sight of the valley and the sprawling tea estates.

At the end of our long drive, we reached the canteen run by Pachaiammal – a kind lady who agreed to cook the lunch for all of us including our guide. After the reassurance from our guide, we decided to look around the place and witnessed some really beautiful dam, huge pipes that were probably pumping water up and down the valley to villages. “Not just villages and towns like Srivilliputhur, Rajapalayam, Kovilpatti etc”, reminded our guide, “these water are source of energy to animals on the way and they go till the last dam where these water are utilized for hydro electric power projects run by the state government of Tamilnadu.” We decided to look around further, take a few snaps, have a few pegs and join back for lunch before it started to rain. The rains in the mountains are unlike what we see in the city as we could see the clouds gather up the mountain summits and roll down into rains which cover the entire place with fog and mist. And at the end of the rain, the leaves are fresh with dew and the whole place looks like a heaven.

We finished our sumptuous lunch and thanked Pachiammal and her aide for the great food and after having a few discussions with few fellow travellers from Madurai who had lunch too at the same place, we left towards our Guest house. This was the moment we were waiting for and surprisingly beautiful it was and still fresh in my memory. The guest house is run by the local government body and it is called the Highwavys Dept Guest house. It is at the perimeter of a large lake which is surrounded by pretty hills that has roads going around the forests and mountains. The recent rains had covered the lake and the hills fresh and it was a great time of photo shooting for me and Amit while Sriram was busy organizing the rooms and the paying the advance for us. We drove to the end of the shore and took some great pictures. We realized that there were a few houses nearby and some of them had their walls broken into bricks recently. When we enquired with the locals, they told us that the elephants had destroyed that place the night before we arrived as it ran berserk in search of food. "Do elephants attack humans too ? Do they kill people ? Or do they search food only ?” we enquired with caution. “Well, they are generally harmless sir, but if you happen to see them, better to stay at safe distance”, warned the local man. Somehow, he sounded very wise to us at that point of time as we decided to take the pictures at a later point of time and first go check up the place where we would stay for the next 3 days.

Sriram had done a good job of befriending the supervisor of the guest house, as he usually does and ensured the room was clean and was well equipped including a hot water geyser and comfortable beds. We checked in our rooms and took a much needed nap for about an hour or two until we were woken up by the noisy conversation that Sriram had with the room in-charge. Amit was still asleep, freezing with cold and wearing a leather jacket and under a blanket. When we both looked at Sriram, he was very comfortable in his jeans and tee shirt and gave us back a great smile. “Go for a tea and a walk buddy ?” enquired he – to which both of us were not ready. But since he was ready to go alone, we decided to move ourselves out of the bed and join him for a wonderful tea and some conversations with the canteen owner and our guide who was still around. 

This story will continue in part 2 and 3 of the same title soon.

I recently watched the first Hindi Movie that ever made sense to most of the viewers – and it did so well because of the fact that it was talking about the most common issue we face today, especially the youngsters in India – who are simply not following their passion but instead succumb to the pressures of joining the rat race earlier. This movie named itself as 3 Idiots, but was the most intelligently crafted Hindi Movie in the past decade.

For those who were too busy not to watch the movie or those who do not understand Hindi cinema – the meaning of the word Idiot is described in the first sentence of this blog. The movie was well crafted because it not only conveyed a great meaning, but also followed the general rule of Hindi movie making of following the main story through the eyes of someone from the main story, with a flashback, some nice songs and a Hero who has a Heroine and some great friends. But the difference was the meaning it conveyed and how it connected with the burning issue that i mentioned in the first paragraph of how many youngsters today do not live up to their passion and succumb to the pressures of the rat race quite early on.

The main lead of the movie is a character who is shortly called “Rancho” and who is the most passionate of Engineering and follows his heart to learn Engineering from one of the greatest universities in India – not to merely score well or pass out with great colorful scores which he eventually does too but to learn Engineering more from the best place. He follows his passion so deeply that he even gives away his own identity for the sake of someone who is merely interested in the Degree Certificate than even attempting to go to the University. And he ends up becoming a big scientist himself who has lived up his passion of learning Engineering and also lights up a few lives in the process including a good two room mates one of who happen to join the college by force but his true passion lies in Wildlife photography and the other who ends up in the college because he wants to end up looking for a great paying job only and not the study in itself, because he badly needs to support his needy family. These are the most common problem that Youngsters in India are faced with – 1) They are forced to choose Science or Medicine because their Parents or Siblings or Relatives influenced them strongly to take it and they do not have any interest in either Science or Medicine. 2) They have been told over and over the years that either Engineering or Medicine could only lead them to a career that will begin with a great paying job and so to address their commitment of supporting their responsibilities they are scared to venture into any other areas.

When i watched this movie for the 1st time, i smiled and smiled away as i knew that in my entire life, i was always influenced to be someone else but being an adamant child and a very rebellious one too, i have always proved that my conviction of what i want to do in my life, is probably the best above all such influences or advices. I would never forget the day i choose a career which was not so popular when my choice was made, and neither was it against my passion. I loved computers and just loved everything around it – even today i love the feeling of it so much that i enjoy and relish every part of the technology, so much so that i get up in the wee hours of early morning to write these thoughts into a story that will soon go up on my blog site. I am loving the Dell D420 that i use here to type these words, i love the fact that i am writing it without disturbing my beloved wife or my lil girl both of who are fast asleep, by using a USB connected light that is pointed straight to my keyboard – probably something that may not be healthy to do daily but i simply love these technologies for the fact that they are designed so well – the Dell D420, the USB light and even the beautiful daughter who is probably the best technology ever created by a Super Engineer – the nature.

Coming back – the movie also made me smile because the choice that i made 13 years back where i risked not to join what my close relatives wanted me to become (a Chartered Accountant – a so much successful career stream and a natural choice for me as they called it, because of the fact that i did a Commerce Graduation – and my dad was a banker), which was probably the high paying career too, but it was not my passion. I smiled also for the fact that my friend who was one of the viewers of the movie the same day kept on commenting on me as the Character “Ramalingam – or Silencer” from the movie, but had himself chosen to do an MBA without a passion for the Management course, but for higher success in his Career that will ensure he gets more pay. I did not blame him nor do blame him now, because he is still unsure of small things like why he wants to buy a car – for its utility or because he wants to show everyone that he has one. I also realised that he had mistaken that Photography was my only Passion – a passion that i am loving and living it up without affecting the thirst for my 1st passion – technology.

But it is not just my friend today who does not lack passion but many of our friends too – lack sensitiveness and passion – both of which are very very important in life and in career too. You have to be sensitive towards life and career that will enable you to choose the right career but also be highly passionate about it as only the non stop passion in you will lead you through thick of times to a successful career which would be meaningful too. We all must love what we do the best and that must be our job too. And if that happens, all of us will be geniuses in our own way. We all would become the Ranchos of the story that we write through our life and not end up becoming someone who simply want to run ahead in the rat race. Let us work on our strong points and trust our strengths alone – like i do always – never run the spellchecker while i write or finish writing such blogs – because it kills the essence of what flows through from my mind and because i am better than any spell checking tool any day.

Passion is truly the motivation and the only tool that will show us apart from others and not make us stupid but maybe IDIOTs. Let us draw some inspirations from such good stories, movies or incidences and try to relight some meaning and dignity to our lives. Let us live and lead life in our own terms – and touch the lives of those around us positively.

WordPress Tags: Idiot,Hindi,Movie,viewers,fact,youngsters,India,passion,Idiots,cinema,word,Hero,Heroine,friends,difference,paragraph,Rancho,heart,greatest,Degree,Certificate,ends,lights,room,college,lies,Wildlife,photography,needs,Science,Medicine,Parents,Siblings,career,commitment,responsibilities,life,conviction,technology,Dell,words,wife,girl,keyboard,daughter,Super,Engineer,nature,Accountant,Commerce,Graduation,banker,friend,Character,Ramalingam,Silencer,Management,thirst,times,Ranchos,essence,tool,motivation,areas,computers,technologies,geniuses,strengths,inspirations,incidences,itself,blog,himself

The SDAT Tennis Stadium in Chennai was built on the occasion of the SAF Games in 1995 by the Tamil Nadu Government. It has since played the host to the Chennai Open tennis event annually since 1997.

The facility comprises of one centre court and four practice / match courts. The floodlit centre court has a seating capacity of 5800 and all courts have a hard (PlayPave) surface.

I was here to watch the Finals between Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland against Marin Cilic of Croatia which was won by the later who was seeded No. 2 and was the defending Champion here.

Though the crowd was favoring Wawrinka mostly, turned up to say the Cilic Mantra several times after he came back strongly from the 2nd set onwards and won the game 7-6(2), 7-6(3).

My last blog was probably not suitable enough to review a great movie like “Avatar”. So i have decided to be fair and give away a true fit review for this creation from James Cameron, the same director who gave us True Lies and Titanic.

I have been awed by the improvements made by James Cameron in his movie making. as i have been his regular fan right from Jaws, True Lies and Titanic. He is probably one of the few directors who can give real life to his characters, irrespective of what they are – Humans, Sharks, Aliens, Ships and even Graphical imaginations. If he had made the half of the US teenagers stop surfing for a few months after his Jaws, he has made us all go ga-ga over the cool spy Arnold in True Lies and showed us what a luxurious star vehicle Titanic would have been apart from making us realize the real incident of Titanic. And this time around too, he does not fail to make us drop our jaw with amazement when we see the CG come real on screen through Hanging Mountains, Modified Helicopters and Space ship like Airplanes, Archaeopteryx like Dinosaur birds, Modified Alien Horses, Tiny Alien Dogs or Monster dogs, etc

If the dedication and vision of James Cameron isn’t enough along with the special effects and CG, the Storyline is pretty impressive and will remind us of the many major challenges like Human Greed, Deforestation, etc. It is amazing how Cameron has adapted parts of the Indian Epic Ramayana in making the main characters in Cyan skinned look with a “V” mark on their forehead with bow and arrow, the ritual style to transfer the soul from Dr. Grace to her Avatar body is copied from the native African rituals.

The story begins with our Hero Jake Sully transporting himself to a planet called Pandora (interestingly there is a tiny moon of Saturn by the same name) where he is asked to transfer his soul to his Avatar body that resembles the native Na’vi tribe who are blue skinned cat people with tails. The Humans are greedy to occupy this planet and want to take over the Na’vi tribe thinking they need civilization and education, but their aim is to take control of the enormous amount of native mineral of Pandora called the Unobtainium (the name itself states it is Un obtainable) that is capable of fueling their sky machines. But since the Na’Vi tribe has been living under a huge tree that is grown on top of the rich mineral ground, the Humans plot to infiltrate the Hero into the tribe and convince them to move away. And what happens in the process of such transformation of the Hero’s soul and the Hero’s mind in process of learning and appreciating the Na’Vi language and culture, is the remaining plot of the movie.

A great CG work, fantastic Storyline, great cast including Michelle Rodriguez of Fast & Furious fame, Giovanni Ribisi (i remember him as the feeble brother of Nicolas Cage in “Gone in Sixty Seconds”) amongst others, and lots of money has gone into making this movie probably not just the top grosser of 2009 but for the decade itself.

Those who have not bothered to see it, check it out in the nearest theaters, and those who have seen it in 2D, check it out in 3D. The avatar is also in games (see avatargame.us.ubi.com ) and also check out the related sites like avtr.com and pandorapedia.com that highlights the huge success of the movie.

And lastly i leave behind the trailer for those who have not bothered to know this movie has finally arrived in theaters.

Enjoy watching… again and again!!

First of all, the word “Avatar” comes from the Sanskrit word of the same name which means “Reincarnation” and so was Lord Rama the Avatar of Vishnu who is the God of Protection as per Indian Mythology. I felt i was dreaming when i watched the Cameron movie for the 1st time in a theatre that was filled with people full of expectations. Yes, the movie is well made and is definitely a good benchmark for future movie makers in both Hollywood and elsewhere.

I am not even trying to criticize the efforts that went behind the best movie of 2009, but trying to analyze from where Mr. Cameron got these motivation. To be clear on what i mean, let me show some pictures here to make sure it is well understood.

Lord Rama was the 7th Avatar of Lord Vishnu whose Avatars in their order of apperance on earth depicts the evolution of living beings on earth starting from a water based Fish to a turtle that lives in both water and land and a boar that lives in marshy lands, to a half man-half lion in Narasimha, followed by the dwarf in Vaamana and the Sage Parasurama being the one before Prince Rama. He was born in the Sun-descendant (surya parampara) family, was depicted to be in the color blue of the rain clouded sky (greyish blue)  and was wearing the Vaishnavite symbol of “V” Nama on his forehead with a white line in the center. The battle against evil king Ravana was fought with the heroics of Vanaraas (Monkey Warriors) and won with Lord Rama winning against King Ravana who had all powerful vehicle that could fly and be controlled by him and had ten heads.

The Hero of the movie Avatar is a physically challenged marine officer who is transformed into the body of the Avatar, a native of the moon called “Pandora”  who call themselves “Na’avi”. The Naavi tribe has the color blue and the Hero is seen with this “V” on his forehead when he is completely qualified to be one among the tribe. Incidentally they fight their own war but have tails like monkeys, whereas the tail was used for the vanara warriors as per Valmiki. The villian of the movie is a captain who leads the operation against the Naavi tribes and uses a big flying vehicle to destroy their base just like Ravana did in the 1st battle with Lord Rama’s warriors.

Now i am wondering that either James cameron is extremely blessed by the almighty that he depicted this story with so many common elements with the great Hindu Epic, or has badly been narrated the story by someone who did not read the Ramayana completely or did not want to give away the complete story to him.

Whatever it is … it was an enjoyable moment to watch the characters come alive… and if someone can rightly picturise the great epic Ramayana in movies – it can only be James Cameron who might have been sued by Sage Valmiki’s descendents for Avatar.

To anyone who needs scientific proof of existence of Lord Rama, either go check the google earth images for “Rama Sethu” or “Adams Bridge” between Indian Subcontinent and Srilanka or simply read this http://bit.ly/4tTcP1 

Some coincidences really make you wonder and wish !!

Have a Happy New Year 2010.

Has anyone outside India just realized that India is not anymore a place with snake charmers, elephants, the Taj Mahal and beautiful women ?? Have they realized that the might of India is now taking shape in architecting the future of the World ? Is it emerging as a largest Democratic economy ? Well, these may be proud facts suitable to speak about in a inter country cultural or political congregations, but there are hard facts that are still to be seen as internal improvements in India. And one of the most important and the most needed at the moment is sadly the same thing which probably existed way back before Indian Independence some 60-70 years ago. The whole nation stood by its leaders – displaying solidarity and Unity – the Power of Togetherness created an Independent Nation for the 1st time in 200 years from the East India company and British Rule or perhaps even the 1st time in 450 years of Colonial rule.

To give the facts right,  especially for the Gen X who have sadly mourned for the demise of Michael Jackson or proudly follow Manchester United Football games or even have the latest gadgets updated in their collection, these are the years of facts about India:

1. As Portuguese Colony(fully or partially)   – 1510 –1691
2. As Dutch Colony(fully or partially)           – 1605 –1825
3. As Danish Colony(fully or partially)          – 1696-1869
4. As French Colony (fully or partially)        – 1759-1954
5. With East India Company (partially)         – 1612-1757
6. Under East India Company(nearing full)   – 1757-1857
7. British Occupation (Officially full)          – 1858-1947  

But these did not end our struggle from 1947 onwards as it continued in this pattern :

1. Independent India Partition into 2 parts (with Pakistan & East Pakistan/ Bangladesh that attained freedom in 1971 from Pakistan) – 1947
2. States Reorganisation Act released – 1956 with the following major states and Union Territories :
   • Andhra Pradesh – Formed by adding Andhra and Telangana of Hyderabad State.
   • Assam
   • Bihar – Currently the Jharkhand and Bihar
   • Bombay State – Currently the Maharashtra – Enlarged by adding Saurashtra and Kutch, Nagpur division  Marathwada regions of formed Hyderabad.
   • Jammu and Kashmir – Currently the POK, COK, LOC, and Indian parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
   • Kerala State – Formed by merging the Malabar side of Madras State with Cochin and Travancore. Palakad given to Kerala and Kanyakumari given to Madras State (now Tamilnadu)
   • Mysore State – Current Karnataka – Was merged with kannada speaking parts of southern Maharashtra and western Andhra.
   • Orissa
   • Punjab – Current Punjab and Haryana – Enlarged by merging Patiala and East Punjab States Union.
   • Rajasthan – Enlarged by adding Ajmer and Merwara regions and was renamed Rajasthan from the name Rajputana.
   • Uttar pradesh – Current Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh
   • West Bengal
   • And the Union Territories were :
   • Andaman & Nicobar Islands
   • Lakshwadeep Islands
   • Delhi – Now a State
   • Himachal Pradesh – Now a state
   • Pondicherry – Now a State
   • Tripura – Now a state
   • Manipur – Now a state
3. Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Goa, Daman and Diu were added to Union Territories by 1962.
4. Madhya Pradesh divided into 2 – Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh in 1st Nov, 2000.
5. Uttar Pradesh divided into 2 – Uttar Pradesh and the himalayan range of Uttarakhand on 9th Nov 2000.
6. Bihar divided into 2 – Bihar and Jharkhand in 15th Nov, 2000.
7. Now in 2009 after so many divisions Andhra Pradesh has demanded for a separation of Telangana State. Home Minister P.Chidambaram has accepted the division but the Govt seems to be backing off. But if this division is given, Maharashtra will see a demand for a Vidharbha, and more such issues will crop up.

After all such divisions, do we still need more and do we still fail to understand the same power and beauty of togetherness that we displayed 6o years ago ? Do we blame the leadership or do we display the solidarity amongst citizens of India ? How many such divisions can we take in future ? Do we let our great nation with such valuable history be ruined by petty politicians and separatists who are just a few among us ? Why can we not change this trend ? Let us stand united in 2010 and make our New year and new decade truly a year of India – as our great leader like APJ dreamt. Let us make their dreams come true.

STAND UNITED FOR A UNITED INDIA !!!

JAI HIND !!

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village.  An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long," answered the Mexican.

"But then, why didn’t you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife.  In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, play the guitar, and sing a few songs… I have a full life."

The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard, and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day.  You can then sell the extra fish you catch.  With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

"And after that?" asked the Mexican.

"With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant.  You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City , Los Angeles , or even New York City !  From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the Mexican.

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards?  Well my Friend, That’s when it gets really interesting," answered the American, laughing.  "When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions?  Really?  And after that?" said the Mexican.

"After that you’ll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings doing what you like and enjoying your friends."

"But I’m doing that already !!" said the Mexican leaving the Harvard MBA thinking !!

I started as one of the oldest users of Hotmail when it was first launched as the world’s first free web based email service (the name itself derived from the HTML technology that was used first to ) and continued till now when it runs on Ajax Technology.

I used to have a Yahoo ID too as an alternative for chatting with my friends (somehow i liked the Yahoo Chat Interface) and for personal use alone.

But beyond all these i have used the Netscape Mail as the client for emailing. Although i am not trying to state that i am as old as Ray Tomlinson, but i am sure that he would have been as surprised as me when i saw the interface of Gmail (For Google Mail) in the developer’s invite only preview edition first in April 2004. It was a paradigm shift to traditional emailing with amazing usage of JavaScript technology. It was the 1st time ever when emails and their replies were threaded like conversation using the subject of the mail. Before i could realize the whole potential, almost all my friends and colleagues had a GMAIL address of their own. With that kind of effectiveness and support from the Google apps, the expectations from Google Wave is bound to be higher and more. But did Google really meet such expectations with wave is a question that one cannot answer until it goes completely public after their Beta version.

This is not an official review of Google Wave but a user opinion only. I have like many others expected a lot more to come from Google Wave but sadly have not seen so much yet. To begin with a few goodies to discuss:

• It is a great re-invention of email into a conversational tool. Probably this is what Google means when they call it a collaboration tool. It allows the users to reply to the mail as a conversation just like in Gmail, but also lets them add few more users to the conversation which could be replayed from the initiation for the new users to understand the source.

• There is a straight forward way to see what the other user is typing while we are online too and part of that conversation. Google has promised to bring an option to quickly turn such feature OFF because of privacy issues.

• Any element (picture, Video) of the conversations (Google calls it a WAVE), can be broken into a new Wave (Conversation) with entirely different people in the wave and making it look like a new Mail(Wave).

• Anything written in a Wave with pictures or video can be converted into a blog with Google’s Blogger as a user added and all the comments made in the blog becomes part of the conversation. I have not seen this functionality at work yet, and am going to try this soon.

• Instead of giving only limited Invite Only edition, Google has gone forward a bit more with 25 invitations per invitee to bring all their friends and colleagues to Google Wave. I see that the primary reason for this is to allow them to enjoy the rich web 2.0 feature of Google Wave which is the basic essence of differentiating Wave from Gmail. So it is not free stuff given without a purpose.

Now since i have discussed a few goodies, lets move to the not so good parts:

• Although any number of users can be added to a Wave, it is NOT POSSIBLE to remove a user from the Wave. If you happen to discuss about your boss in a conversational wave and one of you accidentally add the same boss into the Wave, it is time for all of you to search a new job. 
• Though Google has promised for the feature to TURN OFF what the others see while you type, it is still not available in the developers preview.
• The option of inserting a blog into a conversation is not supported (for now) for Word press or other Blog sites and only for Google’s own Blogger. Now that is not a open source according to me.
• The new additions to the Wave conversation appears to be in Green, but when too many people do too many discussions, it is very difficult or near impossible to realize which are the newer additions after my last visit to that Wave. I am hoping Google will improve this.

Overall, Google Wave is here to stay for those youngsters who want to discuss their holidays with photos and videos or those who want to be connected with a lot of friends in one window. Otherwise, there is not anything called a Groundbreaking yet to be seen in the Wave.

This is applicable to everything including human life. When any place has limited number of people living there, there is a sense of togetherness and belonging attached to each of them towards each of them. History has proved that such place existed and people lived happily. The same history has proved that the moment there is increase of the people in that area, through invasion or population growth, that sense of belonging and togetherness turns to selfishness and hatred. Reason is that the other persons quality is not seen as rare anymore…. there are more of the same breed and quality… and one becomes replaceable… disposable.

But these trends always existed in Human race and it continued to wave in and out. But what is happening these days is unexplainable and does not form any basis for any theory to be formed…. as there is no rational behind these incidents. Hatred has become a common quality in people and selfishness is the rule of the day. There are no motives behind such selfishness and acts of Hatred… people don’t care about their neighbours, their colleagues, their brothers and sisters, their fellow human friend, simply because they don’t want the other person to be what they want to be, or they want something that they are not ready to share.

This kind of state is due to what i call "Excessiveness". There are excessiveness in plenty in the issues connected with the modern world. People are born with everything in excess and so they take all those things as granted and do not really value them. The need for earning things had been a source of motivation to people in my generation and the preceding generations but today there is a no need for earning things – especially because there has been too many things provided and “not earned” and that makes even the basic things unimportant and taken for granted. All these are because there is excessive money, material comforts and painless source of getting things.

People of today might feel i am being one-side blind and not focusing on the real issue. But the reality is that while this trend continues – one day the very human soul and qualities of hard work, passion, motivation, etc will disappear making this place less competitive for the right things and cut throat for all the wrong things.