Crumbling facilities

If there are 2 entities people have little faith in, they are the police and the medical facility in Kolkata. Since our young days we’ve been hearing if police comes to your doorstep, you’re in for trouble. In Bengali, there’s a saying that loosely means between a tiger and police, the former is better.

Why is police so despised? Mind you, if in genuine trouble, we all perforce rush to the police. Yet, instances are pretty many where given a choice, people would much rather avoid the company of police.

One reason for such strong dislike is perhaps the strong-arm tactics that the police employ. I frequently watch ‘New Detectives’ on Discovery Channel, and I like the way the police in US crack the cases with the help of scientific evidence. There is no application of force or torture in custody to extract confession.

No such chance with our police force. Custodial deaths happen often. In their defense the police would say that hardened criminals need tough measures. Perhaps. But what in reality happens is that the men in uniform, doing what they do day in day out, frequently take recourse to beating to ‘solve’ cases.

Proof of pudding is in the eating. Despite what the police may claim, images of their petty doings, like taking bribe on road, making life hell in custody, refusing to heed complaints if there are interests involved, bowing to pressure from local politicians, and so on, are so vivid in public memory that the police are just not considered a trusted lot.

The recent killing of a criminal at the hands of collective mass of people in Chetla is a pointer in the direction of police’s inability and callousness.

The other entity that lacks confidence among people is the medical facility in the city. State-run hospitals have long failed the trust of common man. It’s not so much the doctors, but the facilities at the hospitals, which is the main culprit.

Ironically, whenever there is an unfortunate demise among patients, it’s the doctors who face the brunt of outrage. Last Sunday’s incident at city’s National Medical Hospital and another recent one in privately run hospital, CMRI are examples of people’s mistrust.

To take a ringside view, while it’s true that common people have to depend on these entities for their various problems, it’s also a fact that unless the social factors behind what prompts public ire for their apparent non-performance are adequately addressed to, things will continue to deteriorate further.

And, needless to say, that’s not a good sign in a civil society.

Where Are We Heading!

Q: Explain the terms PYT and CLT?
A: PYT stands for Pretty Young Things, and CLT for Cute Little Things.

Today’s TT informs it’s time for PYTs to vacate the space for CLTs. Why, what’s the great hurry, you may wonder! Provided you know what those terms mean!

Okay, here it is. PYTs are those youngish girls who walk the ramp, wonder in their eyes, their hips modulating with the hawkish background music that stands for nothing less than cacophony, hoping to make it big on the ramp, and thence hopefully to Bollywood as ‘item girls’, if nothing else.

Look at them closely, watch their eyes, see their parents’ delight, and you’ll know how they view their future. Which incidentally is nothing, but nothing other than longing for a holding-the-coattail career in Bollywood. Pity them, pity their short sighted parents.

For what they aim at is nothing to feel proud of, nothing to be of any value to real nation-building. Ah, high-sounding words, you’d say!

Yes, high-sounding, but isn’t nation-building what binds us all in pursuit of a glorious future?

And now, CLTs are claiming the spotlights from PYTs. If TT’s report is to be believed, kids as young as just 4 years old are made to appear for commercials that make them earn a cool Rs.2500 for a day’s work.

It’s the ‘pioneering’ work of who else but Bhawanipore Gujarati Education Society that makes the CLTs at tender age understand that anything that matters in life is nothing else but money.

It’s another matter that the society thrives and grows under the tutelage of imparting quality education. Quality education, huh!

Property prices hitting roof

Kolkata at last has come of age. It can now rightly claim prized place beside the veterans Mumbai and New Delhi, and the upstarts Bangalore and Pune – because Kolkata’s property prices are rising.

I’ve with me a graphics sourced from May 25 edition of TT that shows in graphic details what the current property prices are in Kolkata. Read TT’s article here.



For long, we’re told, Kolkata’s land prices have been kept deliberately low by local developers because they did not want the cream of their profit to be layered thin. What they were doing therefore was acquiring large tracts of land at rock-bottom prices, and selling flats they built on them at relatively higher prices, thereby ensuring in some cases as much as 80-100% margin for profit.

As long as Kolkata remained a strict no-no, this ploy worked. Of late however realty players from outside are lapping up lands quoting unheard prices. This has resulted in upward spiraling of property prices in Kolkata, which is now almost at par with other cities.

True, consumers are now shelling out more than what it used to be. At the same time, intense competition is forcing the realtors to ensure more value to customers, which means commensurately lower margins for them.

No project worth its name now comes without facilities of modern living. People have also learnt that good living means paying more for it, which they clearly don’t mind.

But then, is too high a property price good for long-term development? It surely is not – not for consumers, not for developers as well.

In the short term, high prices will reign. After all, the city hasn’t seen any real development for long, long time. It matters less as to how much the developers are paying for commercial properties. What is important is how the housing prices behave in coming days.

Once the dust of high prices settles, and several large format housing projects like Kolkata West International City come into being, the real estate prices can be expected to cool off.

One hopes that happens sooner than later.

3 years of UPA

If I’m asked what is it that holds the nation together and help it strive ahead, my answer will be that it is the social harmony among disparate sections of populace that is responsible, and one that has stood the test of time since independence.

To my understanding, social harmony cannot exist if there is a denial of liberty to people who belong to various caste, creed, race and religion. To that extent the current government is doing a commendable job, especially so in the aftermath of Gujarat carnage that happened during previous regime’s rule.

What however has come into sharp focus in recent times is social tension arising out of widely divergent income levels between the privileged few and unprivileged mass of people.

On the occasion to mark 3 years in office, the PM was rather somber. He cannot but reflect on his dilemma. On one hand, there is this scorching GDP growth, something unexpected even 2 years back. The stock market too is hitting highs on expectation of a charging economy.

On the other, incidents like protests in various states against land acquisition, farmers’ death in drought-prone areas in central India and the like have cast a dark shadow on India’s progress.

He had these grim prospects in mind when at a CII meeting on May 24 the PM urged the captains of industries to shun greed, graft and glitzy lifestyles, and instead explore ways to alleviate the conditions of the poor and needy.

In a roundabout way he reminded that the industries have benefited from the growth process initiated by the government. Wouldn’t they now share some of their spoils, thus returning favor to improve the plight of common people?

True, the government has started innovative measures like rural employment scheme. It plans to come with a new legislation for social security plan for unorganized workers who form the major chunk of the country’s workforce.

But the government knows the corporate India too has to do their bit to improve overall economic condition of the country. The notion the common people have in their mind that big businesses are too busy to count their money than care for them has to quash.

If not, the already palpable social tension may explode one day, and if that happens, it will not be good for anyone, whether the corporate sector or the governments at center or states.

Easy access to books

National Library is going digital. Just so it becomes easier for book lovers and researchers to access some of the rare books online like never before. The library has just completed cataloging about 2 lakh books, some published as early as 1607.

The procedure before they are available to readers is to standardize the cataloging in terms of MARC 21 that stands for Machine Readable Catalog currently in vogue in prestigious institutions like the Library Congress of Washington. [Refer TT story, Books a click away]

In June last year when the project started, I had speculated in my article, National Library's online venture and Google that probably it was in keeping with Google’s Library Project that was launched end-2004.

Google’s book search is still in beta, which may be because the project is still to take a final shape.

If National Library’s digitization of its treasure trove can be accessed from Google’s book search through mutually beneficial terms – provided at all this happens, now or in distant future – it will increase the institute’s stature in the eyes of discerning knowledge seekers.

National Library came into being in 1836 with the formation of the then Calcutta Public Library, the first proprietor being the illustrious Prince Dwarkanath Tagore after he offered a princely subscription of Rs.300, a significant amount at that time (reference: Wikipedia).

Now under the administrative control of Ministry of Tourism & Culture, National Library is the largest library in India, and one that is home to India’s public records.

After the present digitization drive is completed, magazines and newspapers published from 1584 till date will be just a click away. And yes, readers will be able to take printouts of desired texts against payment of fee.

Knowledge knows no bounds. Let there be none.

Ramakrishna Mission at Khar Road

Never been to this RKM, but like all RKMs this one at Khar Road, Mumbai doesn't seem to be any exception. A large praying hall, a quiet among the din, a place that initiates introspection, that’s what every Ramakrishna Mission is.

Writer of the following story doesn’t mediate when he visits the Mission. He doesn’t need to for it’s not needed to feel the touch of serene around. As he says, even if you do not mediate, you may still come out of the hall an altered man, at least for a few moments.

He though enjoys the daily ‘pilgrimage’ of people as they pass along outside the Mission. Let’s have his story.

Technorati Tags: ramakrishna mission, rkm, mumbai, khar road

Fishy tale and Hilsa

Dead fish off Australian coast - not a pretty sight! [Image source]
It’s that time of the year when the leases of ponds are renewed, and if there is going to be a change, the old leaseholder tries to drain out all the fishes before transferring the lease. The new leaseholder releases fresh rounds of baby fish and wait till monsoon when his stock becomes bigger enough to be caught and sold in the market.

Selling fish is a big moneymaking venture in Bengal, and so what occasionally happens is that if the old leaseholder or a new bidder looses out to buy the lease, he takes recourse to unusual means to vent frustration. Often that means mixing some type of plant extracts in the pond that increases toxicity level of the water, as a result of which the fish fails to breathe and dies soon.

Early this week something of this sort allegedly happened in 2 large ponds, one in Alipore in the heart of the city, and a bigger one in the suburb of New Barrackpore. In the latter case, the new leaseholder who earlier paid Rs.1.2 lakh to buy the lease from state fisheries department, has lodged complaint with the police (refer TT news).

Even though they are meant as catch for selling in the market, dead fish floating on water, some gasping for air, presents a ghastly sight. Such are bad days for any fish lover, and even the anglers who enjoy the thrill of catching live fish with all the skill at their command.

Talking about fish, the beloved, prized Hilsa is said to have started congregating in plenty in estuarine rivers of Bangladesh since last 2 weeks. It has rained heavily off Bangladesh coast last week following a cyclone, and this has reduced the salinity level at the river mouth, enough to lure hordes of Hilsa to enter river waters, which they do to swim upstream as far as necessary till they feel the water is conducive for laying eggs.

The first batch of freshly caught Hilsa has arrived at Kolkata wholesale markets, though when they’ll adorn the retail markets is anybody’s guess.

Trading Hilsa is a very lucrative business, and constitutes sizeable earnings for several large fish importers, mainly Kolkata-based. The same goes for exporters in Bangladesh.

Last year at one time because of a typical change in import rules and subsequent ignorance of babus in ministry of commerce in Delhi, many truckloads of Hilsa were held up at the border for several days. Since Hilsa is highly perishable, this has meant a huge loss of business for fish traders.

Fortunately, this year the rules haven’t come in the way of Hilsa coming to Kolkata markets thus far. It’s now an anxious wait for their arrival at local markets. That perhaps may happen just ahead of Jamai Shoshthi in the beginning of June.

Technorati Tags: hilsa, fish, bangladesh, kolkata, calcutta

True Value

It was Jagdish Khattar’s pet theme when he started True Value about 3 years back. Khattar, Maruti’s exuberant MD, could foresee that time may soon come when faced with onslaught of new models, people will prefer switching over to new cars selling off old ones that would still command fair value. [Image source left]

Today, in cities where True Value is present, Maruti sells nearly a quarter of all sales through car exchange. Analysts who track the development of auto sale in the country are of the opinion that used car market has grown almost as much as the total passenger car market.

Though Maruti enjoys the first-mover advantage in the car exchange market, still its scheme doesn’t attract more than 10% of used car sales. An overwhelming 60-65% of such sales happen directly between customers and owners, while another 30% cornered by brokers.

Close on Maruti’s heels, Hyundai, Toyota and Ford also have started their own used car ventures. Maruti has maximum True Value showrooms in the country, 229 by the latest count. Hyundai Advantage operates in 11 cities through 27 dealers.

And Toyota Kirloskar, which has just started its used car business, is seeing so phenomenal growth that its MD believes that the used car market is bigger than the current car market.

If you’re contemplating dumping your old Maruti in favor of that glitzy Logan or SX4, you know where to start. Head off to the nearest True Value outlet, or better still, visit their website here.

This story is collated from May 23 ET.

Scaling THE peak

Journey to the TOP! [Image source]
Today is the day in 1984 when Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to scale Mount Everest. It was little after noon that she reached the top where she then spent about 43 minutes (source: wikipedia).

Bachendri now works for Tata Group where she helps management teams of Tata Steel to build team spirit through adventure activities.

Today again is the day when a 18-year old American woman from California, Samantha Larson has reached the summit. Samantha creates record of sorts by being the youngest non-Nepalese woman to climb Everest.

Ming Kipa Sherpa was only 14 year old in 2003 when she as the youngest girl ever scaled the Everest from the Tibetan side.

Here is a video of Smantha Larson presented by Associated Press.

This and that

2 stories that steal my eyes this morning are a bit opposite to each other.

Both laud human feeling as the foundation of lasting relationship, but while one laments that the Indian society has become more intolerant, the other narrates how people from the south on job to Kolkata are slowly finding the city an inclusive place to live in.

The Times of India article, 'What happened to our society?', informs that Anna Kashfi, alias Joan O'Callaghan, never returned home to Calcutta after marrying Marlon Brando. Divorced in less than two years, she tried out many careers and finally ended up as a cleaning woman in a LA suburb.

This is a completely new knowledge for me. I dare say many people know this. But, how does this relate to our society’s lack of concern?

The answer comes in the next sentence. Yet people in Calcutta still remember her with pride. Oh, really! How is it that this sounds completely alien!

From the ToI article the author’s contention of our supposed lack of concern for others is not clear. However, the article is worth reading if only for a treasure of information it presents.

The other article, titled Southern Comfort, is rather forthright. It comes from Kolkata Newsline of Mumbai’s Indian Express group, and tells tales of techies from ‘faraway’ Hyderabad and Tamil Nadu, who are slowly finding Kolkata a not-so-bad place to live in.

They find comfort that they’re able to see southern films in cinemas like Roxy and Priya. It’s okay if that gives them succor as they toil hard for living.

The author, Premankur Biswas, however makes the story a tad elongated than what it would permit.

He laments that Bengali film enthusiasts like Madhurima Mukhopadhyay, a first year student of Mass Communications at Jadavpur University, finds no interest in Telugu or Tamil commercial blockbusters, though she likes a Mani Ratnam or an Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

Not surprising that, because an occasional look-in aside, commercial films in other languages you know nothing of can rarely draw serious film buffs.

Subrata switches to EB

East Bengal fans have reasons to feel happy. Yesterday, Subrata Bhattacharya, the mercurial yesteryear Mohun Bagan stopper and a successful coach, has agreed to train EB players in the coming season. With him at the helm, the drought of trophies at East Bengal may perhaps end at last. [Image source on left]

Subrata has been a successful coach at Mohun Bagan. It’s under him that the club won NFL title twice in the past and became runner-up once. Yet for unexplained reasons, his service was terminated by Mohun Bagan last season, and since then its performance just collapsed.

Of the 3 big Kolkata clubs, East Bengal is by far most organized. The club officials do not unnecessarily poke into coach’s work. There is lot less bickering, and more or less the coach is free to carry out his plans.

Yet, after Subhas Bhowmik’s sterling coaching of the team 3 years back, East Bengal’s performance simply went downhill. After Bhowmik left, the club tried 2 foreign coaches, first Belgian Phillip de Rider last to last year and then Brazilian Carlos Pereira last year.

However, club’s fortune failed to move northward.

All this has taken heavy toll on popularity of football in Kolkata and Bengal. Spectators hardly go to see their favorite teams playing. This year’s performance of the Kolkata clubs has been so bad that at times it seems there’s no end to the tunnel of darkness (see my post, The Whitewash).

Perhaps, just perhaps, things are happening that look good. In Kolkata the Indian Football Association, the parent body of everything football in the city, is planning to initiate changes in the way the game is managed.

The big thing is going to unravel in Delhi when the Brazilian President comes calling next month. A 6-member football delegation from Brazil is coming with the president to finalize measures that will help Indian football over the long term.

Today’s TT has this as the lead story. It’s titled, Brazil to play soccer saviour; Blueprint for India pact, a dispatch from TT’s veteran Washington-based journalist, KP Nayar.

Learning In Australia? A Tough Call.

Protesting exploitation!! [Image source]
Sometime back I attended a Canadian education seminar at the city's Grand Hotel for my son. The institutes that came didn't seem to be front-ranked in their country. Yet there was considerable rush of wannabe students who wish to pursue further studies there.

Like me there was another person at the seminar looking for information about his daughter's higher education. Strangely I found he was not getting enough attention by the college reps, wearing a no-interest look on their faces as he made the rounds.

I inquired the reason from one representative. He told me this man was planning to immigrate to Canada, and since education is highly subsidized for citizens there (including presumably immigrants), the colleges would much rather prefer students from other countries.

It’s because in latter case they can charge hefty amount for fees.

A recent incident of international students holding a dharna at Central Queensland University (CQU) in Melbourne, Australia (picture above) serves as a good example of what I learnt at the Canadian education fair.

According to a TOI report, the allegations are that CQU "intentionally fails them" to make extra money. The tuition fee for each subject costs about Rs.75900, which has to be paid again for the subsequent year.

The news report further says that according to a recent report in the Australian media, the failure rate among CQU's international students is twice that of local students.

If this is not the case with other Australian institutes, then one may say that there is something wrong at CQU.

On the other hand, if international students figure equally badly in other colleges as well, would it not be fair to assume that Australia's own students are rare specie of geniuses!

The baton passes on

Maneka Sorcar is a proud legatee of that hard-to-find tradition of scientific magic, termed Indrajaal. PC Sorcar, who himself inherited the tradition from his illustrious father, PC Sorcar senior way back during tumultuous times of 1971, is called the Maharaja of Indian Magic. And why not! [Image source]

But I like PC Sorcar’s conviction. The way he smilingly rubbished the supposedly supernatural powers of Sathya Sai Baba in a televised show late last year (see my story, Raining truths), it speaks volumes of his utter disregard of the malpractice that defames his passion, the world of magic.

On a Star Ananda episode not long back that showed interviews with PC Sorcar and his family, Maneka came across as a person of quality, groomed as she is by her meticulous father. Her solo show debuts at Star Theater day after ‘morrow.

Maneka being perhaps the first woman magician to inherit a mantle passed on by two generations there is a talk as to how she would fit the bill as a woman.

Coming to think of it, does it really matter if a magician is a woman or a man? Not really. What though surely matters is how she performs on the stage.

And that I suppose she will be quite adept at given her broad shoulders to bear the weight of expectations. Here is wishing her the best of success.

Technorati Tags: pc sorcar, indrajal

JBIC, Kolkata & Future

The 3 words may soon prove synonymous going by indications. When the Raichak to Kukrahati bridge was walloped by the Indonesia’s Salim Group as part of gigantic infrastructure project it plans to build, the Japanese were unhappy. For good reasons.

JBIC, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the entity that apparently prepared the feasibility and funding for the bridge project, was a tad slow on the take. Which gave enough time to Salim Group and the government to discuss and finalize the project. And indeed the Salims’ are moving pretty fast on the project (see my story, The way they work).

JBIC in the meantime was pacified by the government with the offer for building the East-West metro from Salt Lake to Howrah. The government also asked it to prepare a report for revamping the city’s transport system.

There’s a small irony here. Unlike the past, there is no dearth of investors who’d be willing to build infrastructure projects in the city. The Americans for example are pushing the CM very hard to come visiting US so that several projects can be decide upon.

The Japanese too are eager that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee visits Japan at the earliest. The present consul general of Japan in Kolkata, who has studied at Vishwabharati and JU when he was in Kolkata 31 years back and recently taken his charge, was unhappy while speaking at a recent meet that the CM hasn’t yet found time to make a trip to Japan to attract investments (see this FE story).

Seen in this perspective, yesterday’s meeting a JBIC team had with the government was important. As it now stands, if the East-West metro is built with JBIC plan, the fares will be without any subsidy. Which means the metro will have to earn profit mainly from ticket selling itself. The proposed fares on the 18 km + route will start from Rs.8 (2 km) up to Rs.19 beyond 18 km.


The other JBIC proposal submitted yesterday regarding Kolkata’s road infrastructure has not been accepted. The government is now planning big. It wants to build elevated ring road, extend Bypass to Baruipur, decongest BT Road with flyovers at Tobin Road, Sinthee More and Chiria More and one at Dunlop, build a longish flyover from Maniktala to Howrah Bridge, wien VIP Road to 10 lanes, and so on.

Compared to what government is now thinking looking at future, JBIC’s proposal was apparently very lukewarm. It has been assisted by a Mumbai-based company, which has no experience about city traffic. So JBIC has been told to engage a city-based company for proper appraisal.

From the newspaper report it appears there is not much time for JBIC. This is perhaps a firm indication in many, many years that indeed the moneyed are queuing up to invest in the city and the state.

The whitewash

It’s a drama of the absurd. Kolkata clubs pay astronomical sums to recruit players and coaches for the football teams, yet all they achieve is peanuts. This is a new development, and it seems despite all fanfare in the beginning of the season, there is a competition as who among the 3 would touch the nadir at the earliest.

Football’s health in Kolkata has been on decline for quite some time, and this year’s breathtaking disaster shows how deep the malaise has set in. Let’s look at some telltale signs.

Mohun Bagan had built a dream team, with perhaps the best striker-duo in India – Barreto and Bhaichung. Yet it finished at 8th place, just one notch above relegation. It changed coaches like playing poker, and after Chima Okerie left there was just no coach at all.

Mohun Bagan’s earstwhile reject, Beto and Sunil Chhetri played their hearts out for Dempo and JCT respectively. The 2 became the champion and runner-up of this edition’s NFL.

The less said about Mohammedan Sporting the better. Perpetually in the grip of mal-administration, the club performed so badly that in their last match they made a NFL record by consuming 9 goals against Mahindra at Cooperage. The way they played, it begs the question as to why at all they played the match. Hadn’t they played, they’d have probably been handed a fine but at least they could escape the ignominy of 0-9 defeat.

Like Mohun Bagan, Mohammedan too rejected Nigerian striker Odafa Okoli as it did JCT’s later recruit Edeh Chidi. Odafa, after doing rounds at Peerless and Bangladesh’s Muktijodhdha, was picked up by Churchill. And there he blossomed as his talent came to use for his club. Odafa is the NFL’s highest scorer this season.

The other Kolkata giant, East Bengal, is marginally better than its brethrens. Yet it miserably failed to capitalize its chance of winning NFL in the second leg.

It’s said that when EB won several matches on the trot in 2nd round, its captain Alvito D’Cunha, instead of remaining with the team to ensure further wins, nonchalantly left for home apparently to remove tattoos on his hand. He missed 3 matches, and by the time he returned the title had already slipped away from EB’s grip.

Who knows what would happen next year? Spectators hardly go to witness matches, something that was unimaginable even 2 years back. The new bosses at IFA, eminently capable as they are, have promised to chart a new chapter in city’s football scenario (see my story, An able administrator). Will they achieve anything fruitful? We’ll wait and watch.

Technorati Tags: east bengal, mohun bagan, mohammedan sporting, football, calcutta, kolkata

Emami Chisel

A Ganesh Pyne creation, 1990. [Image source]
The first permanent address of an art auction center in the city is going to be at the Emami Group’s HQ on EM Bypass near Ruby Hospital. There, occupying 2 floors of the Emami Building over a total area of 14,000 sq ft, will the auction center be.

Emami Chisel is a joint venture between Emami Group and Chisel, an art outfit that also owns Aakriti Art Gallery. The first auction is slated for end-2007 or beginning 2008, and from then on there’ll be 3 to 4 auctions in a year at the center.

The focus will be on modern and contemporary art as these are the ones that are mainly in demand among discerning buyers. To that extent, Emami Chisel is in talks with other art galleries, art collectors and artists allover the country to source paintings and sculptures for auctions.

Of the 2 floors being planned for to locate the auction center, the ground floor will exhibit works of art that are going to be auctioned about one week before the event till the auction starts.

The upper floor will see the thick of action at the time of auction. There will be both on-ground and online auctions, which means NRIs and foreign collectors too can have opportunity to lap up paintings and sculptures.

Technorati Tags: indian art, art auction, art gallery, emami chisel, calcutta, kolkata

Owning a website that rewards

Truly speaking, owning a website today is nothing more than a child’s play. Scores of web hosting companies and website designers are there who, once they’re paid, can launch your site in less than half an hour.

However to make your website a success, to have visitors come to your site and like it, to retain their interest in your site, to make them click on your products and services, you need to have content, solid content, and yes a sound plan to expand your website.

Unfortunately, none of these are the jobs done by either a hosting company or a site designer. Yet when a person not in the know of what actually matters, plans to launch a website of her own, she is led to believe by the 2 entities above that all she’d need is their service to succeed on Internet.

The fact is hosting and designing website constitute just about 10% (or even less as time passes) and proper content development 90% of the works you need to do to succeed on Internet over the long term. This is the reason I recommend SiteSell to all my would-be clients and readers who plan to start website shortly. Why?

Because SiteSell offers everything you’d need for a new website in a single package.

It includes domain naming, hosting, designing, keyword searching, keyword brainstorming, search engine optimization, submission to SEs, link building, log file analysis, click tracking, and so much more.

Why don’t you compare SiteSell’s package with those from reputed ones like Yahoo!, Verisign and Microsoft bCentral?

If you’re a doubter like me who never buys anything before trying it out, there’s good news. SiteSell allows you no-obligation free trial, so in fact you’ve nothing to loose.

But that’s not all. You’ll also be a SiteSell affiliate – you can be one even if you don’t buy SiteSell – and able to earn hefty commission for every sale that happens through you.

There’s so much to gain from SiteSell that it’ll not be a wonder if you start several websites with SiteSell. It’s like an addiction, so to say.

And now, here is an excellent chat from Ken Evoy, the president of SiteSell. Just click on it to listen what Ken has to say:




Technorati Tags: sitesell, site sell, ken evoy

Mr. Asha of Liverpool

The Asha, sans frills! [Image source]
When Dipak Choudhary and his wife, Chandana, first set feet in Liverpool, UK in 1963, all he had with him was a princely sum of seven thousand pounds and that elusive treasure called ‘hope’.

No wonder then that the restaurant he opened on April 4, 2004 at the ground floor of the apartment building where they stayed had to be named what else but ‘Asha’.

It’s through Asha that the Brits first came to know the Indian cuisine. It’s a long path for them from casual indifference to eager partaking of Indian delicacies, thanks to Asha.

I was looking at Mike Chapple’s account of the restaurant on Bold Street, Liverpool, and this is how he sums up about Asha:

Decor: Pleasingly retro.

Atmosphere: Warm and friendly.

Service: Peerless.

Child-friendly: Very.

In fact, despite its enormous popularity, Asha is steeped in traditions. Its no-frill environ sharply varies from other gorgeous Indian restaurants nearby, and the food is still served by waiters from Bangladesh.

Asha celebrated its completing 40 momentous years in April 2004, when Dipak Choudhary was a 65-year old proud owner of his creation. Today, turning 68, Dipak is going to sell off his dream-child, Asha.

As he says there is nobody to look after it after him. His sons have preferred other professions, and so an illustrious 43 years later he is set to return to Kolkata, his roots.

Perhaps he may start yet another Asha in his hometown, this time as legacy of and tribute to a self-made career. [Collated from Sraboni Basu’s story in ABP, May 18].


Technorati Tags: the asha, liverpool, indian cuisine, cuisine

Budhia, the child marathoner

Budhia Singh - feasting on a child 'prodigy'! [Image source]

Remember Budhia Singh, the small boy just 4 years old last year, whose long-distance running, egged on by full-bodied airhead CRPF jawans, created furor in the media? Well, he is going to run again, sorry walk, and this time it’s all of 500 km.

He’ll start on June 6 from Bhubaneswar and complete the distance to Kolkata in 10 days (refer The China Post news). Last year, he ran 65 km solo marathon apparently to create some record when he was stopped. Had he run another 5 km, he’d probably have created the record his ‘coach’ Biranchi Das wanted him to achieve.

Budhia is an undernourished child whose father died when he was 7 months old and whose mother wanted to sell him off for Rs.800 out of extreme poverty.

Biranchi Das raised the child after Budhia’s mother chanced upon him 2 years back. Is the man trying to plough back his investment he made on the child? Little doubt he is, though he denies that.

Whether Budhia walks 500 km or not on June 6, only the future will say. But his is not an only example. Here is a poignant story of a Chinese fish-farmer who dreams to see her 8-year old daughter run marathon in the 2016 Olympics.

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