Pulp Fiction: Indian husbands for Russian Women...

[Click on the title for the link to the original article]

Here is something you didn't know!!! Russian women prefer Indians, or more exactly one woman thinks so.

This may be moot, but who do Indian women prefer?

Having associated with Indian mens of multiple marital status-es and fertility, I can assert that most of them would prefer - well, just about anyone!

Do you want me to expand on this disparity? Not unless you have something really against the Indian male.

Well, I thought I would do my bit of social service for the Indian male, pointing him towards Russia in case the girl next door just continues to ignore him.....

Good Luck Indian Male. May the 1 billion become 2 through your efforts....

How will India shine? The status of Orphaned HIV patients

This is not new. It took them about 60 years to pass laws, that will probably remain effectively only on paper- banning child labor.

There is another breed of children in India that suffers silently. This is the breed of children who are HIV positive. These children are the worst - having themselves not been responsible for their disease in any manner whatsoever.

Why then do they have to pay the heaviest prices which even India's worst criminals don't pay?

This is not new - like I said in the beginning. Earlier, a couple of years ago, I presume, HIV positive children were expelled from schools based on the protests of "educated" parents.

Now the question is not "How do we educate these idiots?"

It is more of, "How do we protect the children after they have been, for the lack of better words, 'discovered and condemned'?"

I would like to know more about the legal challenges. I have written to the organization of people surviving with HIV in India.

Let us see what happens...

Shortage of workers in India?

If you are the underdog in Indian HR, maybe you have something to celebrate. However, if you are at the top, you have a lot to worry about.

There is a projected shortage of about 500,000 workers in the near future, whereas salary increases and other employee retention efforts are costing companies not only in functionality and competition, but also in operational margin.

Does it mean India is in danger of losing its edge? Not necessarily. A projected demand on workers usually means that the tide is turning your side. However, if this is not properly handled, then the country might endanger its stronghold on the outsourced business.

Well what about those of us who think that all this is anyway a sign of a badly shaped bubble? Well, I am one of them, and I still do think it is a bubble. Except maybe its growing big slowly...well who knows. Maybe time will prove us wrong!

BJP: Misplaced, Misdirected Strategy

[Click on blog title for original article; if article is missing, find full transcript below the blog]

Okay, lets recap. There was once a time when L.K. Advani was called the "Tiger" and so on. Eventually he turned out to be worse than a lazy housecat - in terms of strategy.

He was unable to do anything really good with the nuclear blasts and the aftermath (the only good thing being Abdul Kalam, which of course is commendable). We were not effective in using Kargil to our advantage (a good opportunity to have brought Pakistan to its "friggin" knees). We were unable to make Madeline Albright apologize more effectively about her misrepresentations on Kashmir (do Indians remember this anymore) nor where we able to put the Clinton administration in place for their policies on Pakistan (which has mushroomed into very bad pro - Pakistan policies by the Bush Administration, which is a joke because now Pakistan effectively sponsors terrorism in India AND Afghanistan)..

But we digress.

So you want to take out camps in Pakistan and Bangladesh? How? Like the Israelis did in an exemplary manner that has resulted in permanent conflict?

Like the Israelis have now won themselves enemies in ALL their neighboring nations?

Of all the ill conceived plans of self - defense, Israel's plan is the worst. The recent "war" in Lebanon proved that. While killing civilians and taking out infrastructure may go well with Israelis seeking revenge, it has not done them one bit of good in terms of long range strategy.

Whatever Hezbolla has suffered because of the recent comedy of errors by Israel, Israel comes off feeling the worst. Now they have lost the control they had in Lebanon. They cannot fire into Lebanon at will. Well they can, but wait for the first peacekeeping personnel from some Western country to die (or worse still China) from this "friendly" fire and see this escalate in the UN.

Do we need this trash in India? No. If at all we have an effective plan, it has to make sure it is well co - ordinated, and a one step action eliminating ALL terrorist camps.

Do we have the capability to do this? Only the Indian army knows. So lets not delve into it.

How do we take the "international community into cognizance"? We cannot. No one will agree to such a move.

So what do we do? We build intelligence, weapons and wait for Pakistan to make the next mistake (Kargil). And then, we do the damage. Its a pure war tactic.

Do we sit and watch till then?

No, we expose Pakistan. Provide REAL proof. We guard our borders. We capture terrorists. We keep them in prisons and learn from them. We wage an economic war over Pakistan (quite easy considering how much that country spends ((whatever the US gives it)) on terrorism).

But, lets please not start randomly bombing "neighbors". Imagine what will happen if one other "neighbor" of ours decides that we have terrorism camps.

I don't know about you, but I am glad this guy Rajnath is NOT in power.

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Israel ‘lauds’ Rajnath idea to quell terror 10/8/2006 1:49:11 AM
- By Our Special Correspondent


New Delhi, Oct. 7: Israel has "appreciated" Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Rajnath Singh’s idea to let India take a proactive role in dismantling terror camps in Pakistan and Bangladesh after taking the international community into confidence, the party said on Saturday.

Mr Singh, who met Israeli ambassador David Danieli at the party office here, credited Israel with showing respect to the sentiments of the international community by "not targeting areas beyond Hezbollah influence and subsequently withdrawing troops" in the Lebanon conflict.

The BJP chief also described the Israeli action on the Hezbollah as a move aimed at "self-defence", a party release said.

"He (Mr Singh) had also suggested in the past that it was necessary for India to have a proactive role in dismantling the terrorist camps in Pakistan and Bangladesh, but only after taking the international community into confidence."

"The Israeli ambassador said his government appreciated the ideas of the BJP president," it added. Mr Danieli’s meeting with Mr Singh came ahead of the expected visit of the Israeli Prime Minister in December.

The ambassador used the occasion to explain to the BJP president the position Israel had taken in its conflict with the Hezbollah, the party said. "He (Mr Danieli) said it was the right of Israel to protect itself against any possible terrorist activity, but their government maintained a high level of restraint while targeting Hezbollah hideouts in Lebanon," the BJP statement said.

Mr Singh said that Israel was having some advance technologies in the field of agriculture development which could be useful for states like Rajasthan and Gujarat as they suffered from water scarcity.

Also, Mr Singh separately met Pakistan’s National Assembly member Gyanchand Singh and North-West Frontier Province provincial Assembly member Gursharan Lal. Both Pakistani leaders discussed with Mr Singh "the prevailing political situation" in their country and exchanged views for better cooperation on political and parliamentary level in the future, the BJP release said.

What does India lead the world in? And how bad is it?

Why are we leading the world in some of the worst things?

Why are businesses in India unable to stand by any level of dignity, ethics or decorum?

Well how bad is this. Very!

Businesses reflect a collective thought. So if you are part of an organization that is greasing government officials or any responsible people, then it reflects on you as well.

Just like companies expect you to embrace their goals, vision and ambition, they also should expect you to embrace their corrupt attitude.

Now, the interesting aspect is, an employee of a corrupt organization would not have any desire to be loyal to the organization itself.

"If my boss cheats, why cannot I cheat."

An important aspect ignored by these businesses. I think acts of personal responsibility are important.

The two key proponents for change have to be:

1. Leaders of major organizations.
2. All employees of small businesses.

Just like we have "Green" or "Eco" businesses, we need "Clean" businesses. I am interested, are you?

Kerela's Healthcare state..what does it reflect?

One has to ask oneself.

We live in a country where we told the world we could deal with our own tsunami problems.

Then, how is it that Kerala needs the help of WHO?

One has to really ask such questions. Given Kerala's communism based political atmosphere work and progress are often very much disconnected from reality. This is the most probable natural explanation for the lack of progress in the state.

Blog 2: The follow up

So, this is the blog you will read first or in the order it shows up if there are follow up blogs...but you know how to get to "Blog 1". :p

Okay here is the deal. This is just downright irritating. It is long, and I will try to keep it interesting, but "interesting" is not how I felt.

I admit, traveling back to India after 5 years is no joke, and you need to adjust to many quirks. But not at the price of INR 7,500. That translates to about USD 150 - 180 a month.

Let us call the organization, "The Company" for ease of use.

So, I set up a service to buy a mobile device and subscribe for a monthly fee of unlimited "Platinum" internet service with this company.

I was told "You will get a bill at the end of the month, it is enough if you pay then."

I offered to pay then and there but the offer was declined.

And then a strange thing happened around the middle of last month! I got some strange SMS.

Here is the actual text:

"Dear xxx Customer please pay Rs. 2462.25 to continue enjoying ISD services. We value your association with us. Thank you."

Note:

1. The grammar is incorrect. There was no comma after the Customer.

2. There is no associated deadline with the payment request.

3. The you is not capitalized in Thank You.

Leave alone the fact that I did not know I had ISD services on the phone.

Now, I made a mental note to check up on some later date. Then, I got another message:

"Dear xxx Customer please pay Rs. 3649.25 to continue enjoying Outgoing services. We value your association with us. Thank you."

-- Note the absence of a deadline and the funny art of capitalizing random words in the middle of a sentence.

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Then came the hilarious part where next day, I received this, "Outgoing calls de-activated."

Well you know, the damned thing stopped working.

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Let me explain in a separate post what happened at "Customer Service"

Blog 1 on Customer Service in India (Explanation to Follow)

This is the transcript of a complaint I sent to a "large" wireless service provider. Lets just say that the guy who runs this company and I share the fate of bearing the same alma mater.

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Complaint About Miserable Customer Service

I registered for your mobile internet access for my laptop on August 29th. Though the initial set up was good, here is a list of things that happened that were just miserable:

1. You have a 3 SMS message system which is downright out of sync with any logic. This system automatically cancelled my connection on a random SUNDAY afternoon asking me to pay a particular amount. That is the cynosure of bad customer service. How does a customer pay on a Sunday?

2. You have a random system of assigning a credit line of Rs. 2000 which doesnt amount to a full 50 dollars or so, to anyone. How does that work?

3. I did not receive a copy of my bill for the month through September 29 at all, and I have already received one of your SMS messages.

Is there anyone aware of the words "Customer" and "Service" that works in your organization.

Of course I do not expect to hear sane replies or apologies from you, but do not assume this is the last you will hear from me about your abysmal levels of customer service.

Srihari