KolkataMusing (KM) is read by a large section of Indian diaspora spread all over the world. Visitors feel KM offers information of value on many topics, and eagerly look forward to its posts.
It's now time to make KM more broadbased. As a part of that KM now accepts articles from guest writers.
Here are a few points to consider:
Please ensure the materials you send like article, photo, picture, video, etc. are only yours and not copied from any source. You as writer of an article own full responsibility for its correctness, and relevance.
Articles on travel, cooking, celebration, and other lifestyle topics will be preferred, especially when they are accompanied by pictures, videos, etc.
Full credit will be given to the writer, including name, website, email (if preferred), phone number (if preferred, but we do not suggest). This will make any visitor to the site directly contact the writer without any intervention from KM.
Final selection of the article to be published will be made by Partha Bhattacharya. He may edit an article if required, and may at a future time remove an article from the blog if such situation arises.
Writers may not receive any payment for the articles they send. If however a writer consistently writes good articles supplemented with photos, videos, etc. KM may decide to link payment for further submissions.
Please send your articles to mahanagar.net[at]gmail[dot]com with the subject as 'Article for KM'.
Thank you.
Announce An Event
Do you own a dancing school? Are you opening a restaurant? Is a program of yours going to be staged soon? Do you want to announce a college reunion? Is the Durga Puja in your para a success?
Please, please announce/share any such lifestyle/sport event with the readers of KolkataMusing. Bring delight to them.
A few guidelines for you before you send:
No non-lifestyle event.
Pictures/videos are must, plus a write-up of about 200 words. Of course all of those ought to belong to the submitter only.
Write about any part of globe, but it must be about India/Indians. Preference though will be for Kolkata
Full credit will be given to the submitter, including name, website, email (if preferred), phone number (if preferred, but we do not suggest). This will make any visitor to the site directly contact the writer without any intervention from KM.
Final selection will be made by Partha Bhattacharya. He may edit a submission if needed and may at a future time remove a submission from the blog if such situation arises.
Submitters may not receive any payment for the announcements they send.
Please send your announcement to mahanagar.net[at]gmail[dot]com with the subject as 'Announcement for KM'.
Thank you.
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Ever since the city-based upstart, Xenitis Infotech, launched laptops in the range of Rs.20,000, the cat is finally out among the pigeons. The scramble to cut down prices of laptops is becoming intense with each passing day.
Intel, the chip major, is believed to be in talks with the PC makers, and it seems the day of laptops priced around 10K is not far off. How is Intel doing that?
John McClure, the chipmaker's South Asia operations director recently told the ET (Nov 22), "Our 45 nanometer (nm) process technology allows us to put smaller and more chips onto a wafer, bringing down the cost. Our core architecture, with its energy efficiency, allows us to have lower power consumption."
The quad-core technology, which both Intel and AMD are pursuing, is indeed capable of revolutionizing the chip-making process. The real development in terms of slash in prices seems to have just begun.
Intel's partner may well be the Taiwanese manufacturer, Asustek, with whom the chip giant plans to launch laptops for as low as just $199.
These developments are important because low-cost laptops plus affordable cost of high-speed broadband have the potential of unleashing a huge demand for Internet access.
That's the future shaping up, of which we still have no more than some rudimentary idea.
Intel's HQ at Santa Clara, California - the biggest chipmaker
I recall a comment by a blogger, who came visiting Kolkata from the south (Bangalore likely). Awestruck to see Ambassador taxis plying in the city, she had this to say, "The most surprising thing I noticed in Kolkatta was that there are still Ambassador cars plying on its road!"
Indeed, for as long as one remembers, the ubiquitous Ambys never deserted the city streets. The makers – Hindustan Motors, founded in 1942, owned by the CK Birla group – did little to change the car’s appearance, though under the hood the old warhorse went through periodic upgrading.
The car has become so synonymous with India’s elephantine old that it was no surprise to feel the way Shwetha (the blogger’s name) felt.
It’ll not be wrong to say that one of the biggest purchasers of Amby has been the government sector, and of course the hundreds of cabs that ply the city. This may soon change.
The state government is permitting a launch of 300 Tata Indigo cars as AC taxis in the city. These are luxury cabs, to be armed with GPS (or geographical positioning system) facilities so that they can be located wherever they are in the city and directed to nearby places when required. They will charge 25% more than the normal fares.
This is unlikely to make much dent in the Amby’s formidable 35000-strong presence as taxis in the city unless the number increases in the near future. There are some Tata Indica luxury taxis, branded as Blue Arrow, but their numbers are very few.
The Indigo cabs will be operated by the car-rental agency, the Orix Group, and these for now will run only in the city.
Meanwhile, the crisis-ridden Hindustan Motors, having lost all the first-mover advantages to produce state-of-the-art cars, is banking on hiving off part of its vast tract of land in Hindmotor complex for real estate development with US-based companies.
This alone is creating renewed interests for the Hindustan Motors scrip at the bourses, and analysts argue the cost of land in Hindmotor is a strong case for the stock’s revaluation. Ok then, if not car, let it be land.
Kolkata's enduring duo: blue private bus and yellow taxi
We’re approaching that time of the year when festivities come visiting us, and we gear up to make those occasions memorable and enjoyable. And pray tell me, what is a ceremony in the winter without some hard partying!
Talking of partying, none comes as close as taking in to your favorite drinks – I mean those that always leave you craving for a wee bit more.
Okay, let me stop beating around the bush. I’m referring to hard drinks, and here I’ve some practical tips on how to get over a bad hangover the day after.
Have a look at the tips by Jack Wells, who is a regular contributor and editor for WineHappy.com social networking site. You may read his wine reviews.
But before the tips, here is the statutory warning. Do not ever drive while drinking or just after you have had your drinks. You not only spoil whatever fun you had, you run the risk of putting yours and others lives at risk. So beware.
7 Tips To Get Rid Of A Wine Hangover By Jack Wells
How about teaming up your favorite meal with the best of wine this weekend? It sounds a great idea but don’t you think you may overindulge? Well, you may not mind this but what about the hangover you have to face, the other morning.
How about spending you entire Sunday afternoon sitting inside the bathroom, with one hand on your forehead and the other on your stomach? Scary isn’t it?
Hey, hold on! I am not trying to scare the life out of you. I am just showing you the real picture of a hangover that you may require to face the following day after you have overindulged in your favorite wine.
This sounds really bad but don’t worry, there are many tips you can follow in order to get rid of a wine hangover. All you need to do is to follow the instructions given below:
a) Water, water and water:
Water is the key to get over the wine hangover. Drink plenty of water. Alcohol has a tendency to dehydrate your body. This is the main reason that most people end up having a lot of liquids in the form of plain water, lemon water, coffee and black tea without having pee for a single time.
If you want to stay away from the temptation of overindulging in wine, the best way is to have a glass of water for each glass of wine you desire to have. Wine is a great source of water, but the presence of water tends to produce adverse effects on the body.
Hence, it is necessary to keep hydrating your body with water.
b) Binge in:
Sounds great! Believe me, it really works. Eat your favorite meal or some snacks an hour before a drink. This will save you from getting involved into overindulge and the hangover. The meal or snack should include bread or pasta.
c) No prescription drugs:
So you want to save money! It’s a good idea but you should not save money via mixing your glass of wine with prescription drugs for more effects. This will only damage your body. Drink less if you really want to save money.
d) Milk:
Drink a glass of milk prior to consuming wine. This will provide a protection coat to your stomach and helps you absorb the alcohol in the wine.
e) No salt:
Salt will prove dangerous as it tends to maximize the process of dehydration. You should stay away from salt when having margarita...
f) An aspirin:
An aspirin will help you to remove headache. Avoid taking ibuprofen or paracetamol. These medicines usually have adverse effects on the body especially after the consumption of wine.
g) Avoid dark drinks:
The major hangover you experience may be due to combining red wine with whiskey. You should mix whiskey with soda or water. Avoid mixing it with cola and tonic.
Hangover is due to over indulgence in wine. Try to stay away from it. Follow the instructions mentioned above you would feel better after a wine party with your friends.
Not every place permits drinking at night, like this one at Victoria, Australia. [Image source]
I'm back after a short hiatus. There have been other things piling up, so the only way I could finish them was to take a break from posting daily in a couple of my blogs. Which is what I did.
The good news for me is that I'm ready to write some posts now. The bad news is I've to stutter from other assignments to here and back, so the posts may be few and far between. If only some of my readers could help...
Here is a video feed of Guinness record seekers. You may be knowing that people go to any length to have their names etched in the Guinness records. Sample some here.
Btw, if you have a blog and wish to have this video in there, just click on the button 'embed' and follow the steps told.
Who knew Kolkata would see the army staging flag-march in the wake of daylong mayhem that threw life out of gear in the central parts of the city? This happened on Wednesday, Nov 21, and late in the night curfew was clamped in the affected areas.
Going by records, the need to summon the army to patrol the city streets last arose a decade and a half back. Curfew too visited the city after a long, long time.
And while the press and the intellectuals dissect the issues as to whether the city’s social fabric and harmony are in the danger of being in tatters, I’ve a query in mind that to me is equally intriguing.
I’ve argued in my last post on Nandigram that the administration, instead of allowing the gunners of the ruling party taking control of the place, should have asked for paramilitary forces (like it has now) or the army long back to do the work.
Look at the dichotomy. While the government took just one hour to have the army on the city roads day before yesterday to quell violence, it refused to do anything of the sort in the entire 11 months that lawlessness prevailed in the Nandigram.
To a lay person like me, at both places violence happened that were against the laws of the land, and put at danger the lives of common people. If so, the ways to tackle them ought to be essentially the same.
But no, that did not happen. If having the army in Kolkata was the right decision, then Nandigram should have also seen similar action long back instead of letting it simmer for nearly a year.
Wonder why the steps are different to tackle the same situations! Any guess?
The situation at Nandigram is complex and quite difficult for an outsider to make any sense of. The use of force by the cadres of ruling party to evict the opposition was a big operation in scale and brutal. But the fact is that the tone and tenor of this action is not anything new and sudden in West Bengal. Only that this time the stake was too high. [Image source]
People of the state know that the rule of the party reigns supreme, and in many cases the role of the administration is secondary. There are numerous instances, but instead of repeating them let me try to find out what is different this time.
As I’ve noted in my past articles, India has now emerged as one of the top destinations in the world for investments, and they are mind-boggling by any standard. India’s promising GDP growth and the booming stock markets on the back of superlative performance by the key infrastructure sectors are just 2 indications bearing testimonies to that.
In tandem with the rest of the country, Kolkata too, being a key city in eastern India and gateway to not only the North East but also the South-East Asia, is poised for phenomenal growth. In fact West Bengal is on the cusp of attracting huge investments from both inside India and abroad.
My guess is that the money waiting to find its way for investments in the state is so massive that its force has become the deciding factor to determine the course political destiny of the state. Here is how.
Most investments need land but acquiring it has become difficult in the state because of the opposition protest. The irony is that though the Left Front has the people’s mandate in the last elections it fought on the plank of progress, it still cannot make the headway in making land available to the industrialists due to some mindless protest by the opposition.
Didn’t the opposition protests make any contribution? It did by raising the awareness of potential land-losers that they could indeed get higher compensation for giving away their land. Jindal’s proposed 10MT steel plant at Salboni is an example.
Unfortunately however, despite the tangible gains it earned that it could sow now to reap benefits later, the opposition party rather chose to let its typical brand of agitation go on and on in search of continuous political mileage. In the process it made the situation murky and inhospitable for large-scale investments.
It fitted the opposition purpose because it could then prove that the business climate in Bengal is not conducive for investment. If by that the state suffers, let it.
The investors meanwhile are growing restive. Judging from the several high-profile visits of business delegations from different countries and those of VVIPs like the Prime Ministers of Italy and Japan, the US Secretary of Finance, and suchlike, it is not difficult to conclude what a promise lays in store for West Bengal in terms of investments.
The Telegraph’s KP Nayar, the Washington-based diplomatic editor and the US correspondent of the daily, wrote in the paper’s Nov 14 editorial, “Bengal is a prize that is being eyed by global corporations.”
So, what takes? Let me again quote another famous saying, this one by none other than Deng Xiao Ping, the indisputable architect of the Chinese economic might, “It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.”
This is as true for the global companies as it is for the ruling Left Front in Bengal. And it does appear true with the Congress at the center as well, looking at supposedly quid-pro-quo understanding between it and the CPM for not creating din over the Nandigram issue in exchange for IAEA negotiations.
Do I support the Nandigram onslaught the way it was carried out? My answers are 2-fold – one unequivocal ‘No’ and a partial ‘Yes’.
No, because this job was for the security agencies to do. If the state police proved inadequate, the government could have easily asked for central forces and even the army like it happens in the North East states. By allowing the cadres doing the job it is proved that the administration is subservient to the party in West Bengal.
However, I also feel that the ‘liberation’ of Nandigram is good in the sense that it will help pave the way for investments to come relatively unhindered to the state. And therefore I repeat Deng’s saying, “It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.”
If now I dare make a forecast, it will be that Nandigram will shortly be in the limelight again - this time for investment, suggested shifting of chemical hub to Nayachar island notwithstanding.
It’s that time of the year when the diyas glow at every doorstep, the air is rent with sudden bursts of color and light, people with new attire greet each other with sweets, and businessmen play cards with the hope that luck will smile on them.
As I write this the mahurat trading at the Indian bourses have nearly concluded with the Sensex sliding by over 250 points. The sentiment has been weak in the entire week, but perhaps the bellwether index will rise in the coming days. That is what the stock players will ardently hope for.
Meanwhile here in Kolkata after a daylong overcast spell the sky has long last cleared a bit in late afternoon bringing relief to all.
Today being also Kali Puja, the festive fervor and gaiety are all too pervasive. Here is wishing all my readers a very happy diwali.
Lest you think festival of lights is unique to India, pause for a while and have a look at the following images and the video of the spectacular fireworks display.
In Kolkata the authorities are bogged down by what defines an ear-shattering sound. The city environmentalists feel 90 db (decibel) is all that a normal person can withstand. The figure is 125 db for the rest of the country.
Those who are against fireworks feel that festival of lights is only about silent lights like diyas, candles, and the lighting decoration. What they miss is the gorgeous show of lights that emanate from fireworks.
In other countries people enjoy display of fireworks on different occasions that inevitable accompany ear-splitting sounds. True such displays take place in large open space like riverfront, harbor, and suchlike.
Kolkata has the resplendent Hooghly river. The environmentalists and the powers-that-be can think about public display of fireworks mid-river so that people can enjoy the spectacle. If such an event is arranged, may be the propensity to burst high-decibel crackers in populated areas will decrease.
Be that as it may, even as I detest silent diwali, let me bring to you some fantastic images of fireworks as they happen elsewhere in the world.
The largest annual fireworks display in North America, called the Thunder Over Louisville, occur during the Kentucky Derby Festival (image below by Caomai). The display is launched from eight 400-foot barges on the Ohio River and also on the Second Street Bridge that spans over the river.
Thunder Over Louisville, 2006 DSC01929Originally uploaded by Caomai
The biggest fireworks event in the world however happens on the New Year Eve at Funchal in the Madeira Island in North Atlantic in Portugal.
A picturesque city by the same name, Madeira welcomes thousands of tourists on the last day of the year to witness this magnificent 5km long firework display lighting the night sky in a riot of colors. Enjoy the video below.
Members of Writers Guild Of America have struck work from today. Their demand is for the revision of paltry share they earn from the sale of DVDs and online distribution of talk shows.
This time such a costly mistake is not to be repeated. Which is mainly why the talks between the guild on one side and the studio-owners and producers on the other have not made headway thus far.
It may be my fond hope but perhaps this strike will for the first time drive home the point that writers – be it of talk shows or web contents – deserve much more than what they now get.
If designers have their price, so do writers, because both mesh together to create a complete content. If one is weak the whole thing becomes weak.
However, since the strike hits the daily talk shows the hardest, there are already waves of protests against the strike. See the video below.
It’s not that only the small-time producers will feel the pinch. The story is the same for the writers as well. They will be without earning as long as they are on strike.
One hopes there is an early breakthrough in favor of the guild. I’m sure lots of people around the globe are watching the events at Hollywood closely.
Meanwhile enjoy this hilarious video, titled ‘Heroes of the writers strike’.
Founder of Lockergnome, the blog on technology news, the erstwhile TechTV host, a software tester, and engaged with so many more things, Chris Pirillo is also a passionate video presenter.
Searching Chris Pirillo on YouTube brings no less than about 500 results, and though not all of them are his or Lockergnome’s, an overwhelming majority does belong to him. And pray consider what a large range of topics they are on..!
I’m particularly enamored by the one in which he holds forth on how to make money online. His nearly 12-minute tete-a-tete on the topic opens up new vistas for people who have just taken in to the Internet looking for decent earnings.
Even those who are at it for a while and have already dipped their feet in the so-called uncharted waters of the net will stand to benefit from the depth of his knowledge.
Chris says that to succeed online one has to find a niche and dominate it (run with it). No second opinion there, but the common dilemma for many is how to do that.
While Chris’ video I refer above (see it below, and read about it here) can certainly remove many a dilemma, the one thing that distinctly stands out is that his Lockergnome already has 698 videos as of this writing, having joined YouTube just a year back. That roughly translates to 2 videos every single day.
Okay, it’s pretty difficult to match that awesome figure, but if you can do about say 200 targeted videos a year (remember YouTube is free), you can be assured of solid traffic to your site. Once that happens, monetizing the traffic becomes relatively easy.
If anything, Chris Pirillo teaches us to ‘just do it’. Meanwhile if you want to know a bit more of Chris’ mind, head over to Darren Rowse’s April 2005 interview of him – old but still gold.
Chanakya was a statesman and the chief architect behind the success of the Maurya dynasty. He was also a noted economist at that time leading to his being also referred to as Kautilya.
He was a professor of the Taxila University, also called Takshashila. But Chanakya was better known as a master strategist, a person who also successfully wore the hat of a clever diplomat.
Delhi’s Chanakyapuri is so named as a tribute to this great personality, and aptly the place is home to the diplomatic missions of nearly every foreign government. Now Kolkata is slated to have its own enclave in New Town that will house foreign consular offices.
According to the TT news, the US embassy wants a suitable plot in New Town to have the city consular office located there comfortably. And indeed so too are about 40 other foreign missions in the city.
Douglas G. Kelly, the director of the American Center in Kolkata, has said to the TT, “We are aware of the government’s plan to come up with a diplomatic area… We are interested in shifting there, though we are yet to get all the details of the proposed diplomatic area.”
New Town is lucrative because it is well planned and uncluttered. And yes it is close to the airport.
Meanwhile China has decided to open its consular office somewhere in Salt Lake. Since the place is to be finalized yet, the Chinese consul-general to the city, Mao Siwei, is presently operating from a 5-star hotel.
Frisco, a nickname of San Francisco, the 14th most populous US city with about 7 million people taking the Bay Area into consideration, is a wealthy and picturesque place to live in. Yet, according to Caille Millner, the San Francisco Chronicle editorial writer, Frisco is a less safe place than Kolkata where she has just been to.
Caille doesn’t hide her disappointment that a city like Kolkata with thousands of destitute and homeless people would feel more safe than one of the top-class US cities like San Francisco. Indeed some of the comments to her article do suggest a degree of indignation that Caille should feel so. And herein lies an irony.
I’m reminded of an article in The Hindi Business Line that reported the findings of a survey done by MTV Networks International. The survey found that 60% of the Indians in the age group of 16-34 are happy, while the figure plummets to just about 8% in case of Japan.
Caille does speak about the gun culture in US, but she fails to touch upon why such tragic incidents take place at regular intervals.
I do not however wish to suggest that life is like paradise in Kolkata. In fact at times life is so hellish that given half a chance one wouldn’t mind going to US for greener pastures, and I count myself in that group.
The point though remains that wealth is not the first necessity to feel happy, and therefore safe. For many of us if there is money in the pocket, it feels good. If not, it doesn’t feel bad either.
Life is not going to be the same again on the web, thanks to OpenSocial. To me, a non-techie, OpenSocial is like a super highway that conveniently connects to social websites that are affiliated to it. When you catch the ‘highway’ you’re able to reach any of the affiliated social sites seamlessly.
More importantly, when you’re riding the ‘highway’ you as a user can distribute your contents to the combined population of all the affiliated websites.
A similar example may be that of being a Google account holder. When you’re one such, you can with a single identity access many Google properties. It makes your multiple web tasks easier provided you do them with Google’s products.
Like Google, Yahoo too is permitting access to its properties like mail, MyBlogLog and Flickr with a single identity.
Earlier social sites were like islands with no connection among them because each was someone’s standalone property. OpenSocial connects them, thus opening the floodgates of seamless mixing among the users of all those sites. This will also see hundreds of more social websites debuting shortly.
One is tempted to imagine that there may soon be 2 more social highways albeit less busy than Google’s – that of Yahoo’s and Microsoft’s each with their own loyal social websites.
Herein below is the video in which Google explains what the new concept is about.
PayPal offering withdrawal to Indian bank account [image not to scale]
If you’re in India catering to works outsourced online from other countries, and receiving payments through PayPal, here is good news. You can now withdraw funds from PayPal directly to your account in an Indian bank.
This is great because earlier PayPal would send you a cheque (check in US English) by post usually drawn on Citibank, which you then deposit to your account to lay hands on your money. To cover this expense PayPal used to deduct at least $5 from the amount you withdrew.
The other advantage is that now you can cut short the time to receive your payment to around 5-7 business days, down from 2-3 weeks earlier.
The banks that as of now have tied up with PayPal are State Bank of India, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, ING VYSYA Bank, UTI Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, and of course Citibank.
As you may be knowing, PayPal is an ebay company, which the latter acquired in October 2002 to facilitate payment between buyer and seller that takes place in ebay, the world’s largest online auction site.
Last year in August PayPal transferred its all non-US, non-EU accounts to its newly established office in Singapore. And now in just a little more than a year, PayPal is offering bank transfer service to its Indian clients, which is quite remarkable.
In a way this step of PayPal was expected because it presumably has a considerable client base in India – mainly online service providers. The bank transfer option comes close on the heels of PayPal offering fund transfer service to a Visa branded card.
If you haven’t already done so, open a PayPal account today and start receiving/sending money online. It’s easy and free to start. If you wish to sell products/service online, PayPal is the best solution for you.
Okay, I’ve borrowed the headline term from today’s TOI story. But pray read it again, perhaps you’ll appreciate why I like it.
The month has just passed, but what a month it was! It brought holidays in plenty, as much as half the month, especially so for the privileged government employees. Let’s examine.
It started with Mahatma’s birthday, and ended with a bandh – sorry Bangla Achol. In between there were the festive days – the Mahalaya, the Id, the Durga Puja and the Lakshmi Puja – all coming in rapid succession.
Add to the list the weekend offs. What you get is there were just 16 working days in the whole month. Mind you the state government employees abstained from work on Oct 30 observing a no-one-knows strike.
The month of November is not bad either, except that bhai-phonta has clashed with a Sunday. Oh, what a waste..!
Recently, a suspected UFO was sighted in the eastern sky in the wee hours, and the news spread like a wildfire. Apparently, one Farhan Akhtar from his 10th floor flat at Kalikapur (on EM Bypass) was intrigued when at 3-20 in the morning of Oct 30 he stared at the eastern sky and happened to locate a bright object that continuously changed size and shape. See this Yahoo news / IANS story.
Eager to capture it as a video, he fished out his handycam hurriedly and caught the unique spectacle therein, which he showed later in the day to the astronomy scientists at the MP Birla Planetarium. Seemingly the same video was thereafter telecast in a Bengali TV channel for a long time.
A raucous publicity such as this was enough for unscrupulous people to reap as much benefit as quickly as possible – if necessary why not do a little trick! After all, anything is game in ‘breaking’ news. Let’s have a look at some tenuous attempts.
Several videos appeared in YouTube, but the one that stood out was by Arunava Mukherji, a 60-year old gentleman who joined YouTube just a day back. See below.
No sooner than Arunava’s video debuted on YouTube, at least 2 websites made it their own with no proper credits one would normally expect. Here they are:
Intel's HQ at Santa Clara, California - the biggest chipmaker
