A blessing in disguise!

Hi friends, at last Google has updated page rank list and it is not good news for me. My page rank which was 4 for about 2 years has gone down by one number. Since six months my blogging activities were almost nil because of my ill health (I was operated for gist removal) and I was expecting reduced page rank at least by one. Even after complete recovery from the illness I failed to update my blog at least once in a fortnight. I cannot expect traffic to my site or expect to get a higher page rank unless I fulfill the basic conditions of blogging like posting good contents regularly and visiting my friend’s pages. I paid heavily for my laziness but I count it as a blessing in disguise for my blog. I take this opportunity to say sorry to my visitors for my inaction and promise to blog with valuable contents.

Few days in hospital!

Hi friends, I was away from blogging activities since January -2011 and my last blog post was published on 17^th of December last year. During a routine health check up, a gastrointestinal stromal tumor (gist) was detected in side my abdomen and subsequently I underwent a major surgery at KMC Hospital- Mangalore. Still I wonder how I became a victim of this dangerous disease in spite of practicing a disciplined food habit and a decent life style. This sudden development kept me away from my professional duties as well as personal hobbies for about 45 days and now I am happy to receive green signal from my doctor to carryout my normal day to day activities. Thanks to the latest technologies and medications, the surgery was virtually painless and kept me in a joyful mood till I was in the hospital. I want to use this blog post to express my sincere gratitude to some doctors and few of my relatives who helped me during these days. My niece Nivedita Kamath, wife Shobha, son Vinayak, dil Varsha, bother K T Kamath, sister Chandrakala Shenoy tried to keep me comfortable all the time at the cost of their comfort and I think I am a blessed person to have such nice people in my life. I can’t put an end to this blog post without mentioning the help of talented doctors like Jayaram Shenoy and Krishna Prasad who are masters in their field. I pray Almighty God to keep all these people always happy so that they can bring smile on others life.

Japanese World Class Manufacturing concepts- not new to Indians

Hi friends, as mentioned in my blog profile I am serving in Aditya Birla Group which is already in the Fortune 500 companies list and aiming to be in the list of 150. Our unit has adopted World Class Manufacturing concepts which were originated from Japan and harvested its benefits to a great extent. I feel any borrowed concept or tool aimed at increasing the performance of systems need not be copied as such, they can be modified as per prevailing situations. I have observed that many of the concepts included in the Japanese WCM system are being followed in Indian house holds since centuries and the sad part is that we blindly follow and imitate others. In this context, I remember an age old Kannada proverb “hittala gida maddalla” which means the plant grown in the backyard is not medicine. Any way I am publishing the following article which I have submitted for an in house essay competition aimed at promoting the so called WCM culture among employees.

Our achievements after adopting 5 ‘S’ concepts by P Kamath

There was a time when our business was operating on seller’s market but slowly we slipped from that advantageous position because of various factors like adoption of liberalized trade policies by government and entry of new players in to VSF manufacturing. In addition to this, expectations of the stake holders of our business including customers, employees and society has gone up considerably which not only resulted in reduced profit margin but also compelled us to think about producing product with better quality. So with an aim to achieve excellence in all walks of industrial activities, our management decided to adopt and implement WCM concept and I feel that was the best step taken at a right time which yielded multifold benefits. I am working in this organization since 30 years and happily associated with every development activity in my work place connected to WCM and observing the positive changes took place throughout the plant at large. It is proved beyond doubt that 5 ‘S’ is one of the main pillars of WCM and unless you follow all the 5 steps holistically, reaching the standards of world class may remain a dream for ever.

I would like to memorize those successful steps taken at GRD by which today we could be counted among World class manufacturing units and as a testimony to our claim of attaining rare position of manufacturing excellence, we have been awarded with Chairman’s Platinum Award. I would like to thank our management for not sparing any effort to make our journey to excellence a smoother one by furnishing necessary infrastructure and moral support. As “old habits die hard”, it was a Luke warm response to WCM in the initial days but with wide spread education on the benefits of 5 ‘S’ in the work place and beyond, employees started practicing it slowly.


Friends, remaining part of the essay will be continued as next blog post.

Lessons learnt by a student in the process of becoming independent

Hi friends, I am continuing my previous post on education system in ancient India. I know it is not proper to compare systems which exist on different eras but by counting the positive aspect one system, we can bring changes to the present system. I am happy to read the matured comment for my post “Education at Gurukul in ancient India” by my blogger friend Always happy from United kingdom and according to her “Ancient gurukul system was good, modern education system isn’t bad either, it is up to individual student and parents how they use it. It has its pros and cons.” Any way as promised, I am listing out the lessons learnt by a modern student on his way to become independent. I am not sure whether these lessons are own experiences or copied from any other source but my source is SJCE college magazine published on the year 2002 and the student who wrote the article is Ann Jacob. Thank you Ann.

It takes courage to be yourself
Everybody will not like you and it doesn’t matter as long as you like yourself
You can be lonely amidst gazillion friends if there is no empathy.
Something that doesn’t kill you will ultimately make you stronger
Standing up for what you believe in won’t win you friends, but the peace you feel within beats all.
The best way to overcome fear is to face it.
Be kind for everyone you come across is fighting a harder battle
Truly loving another is letting go of all expectations
The best friends are always gained through trail in life
Never stoop to avenge yourself
Merit doesn’t count every time
Better looking people often get luckier and that shouldn’t demoralize you
Never compromise on personal standards
Prayer can work wonders
Things often won’t work out the way we plan it
You can make mistakes as long as you learn from them
No friendship has a forever guarantee
The most considerate thing we can do is to simply listen
People you love the most may hurt you the most
Things are not what they seen
Betrayal is a common thing but not betraying a betrayer is a decent thing to do
The most cheerful persons have the greatest sorrows buried within
Everyday has its lessons; it is for us to seek them

Education at Gurukul in ancient India

Hi friends, I never miss a chance to read stories of Indian epics or mythologies. I was brought up in a healthy cultural environment where my mom was my first Guru or teacher who used to tell us stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata which are counted among very few great epics of the world. The respective heroes of these epics, Lord Sriram and Lord Srikrishna are described as incarnation of the supreme power who is the creator of the entire universe and still they are worshiped throughout India. As I learnt from these books, education system followed in ancient India was unique in many ways including the process of handing over the student from the first Guru (mother) to master at Gurukul, the ancient from of residential schools. The concept of Gurukul it self very holistic in nature where students will be staying with their master’s residence away from their homes for many years till the master is satisfied with the performance of his student. Master used to treat his student as his family member and all his requirements were taken care off by master and his family members. The parents who send their children to Gurukul were not worried about their children’s activities and safety as they were under the homely care of Gurukul master. At the end of the many years of vigorous training, parents were asked to take their children back and what ever material given as fees towards the education were accepted by the teacher as guru dakshina. It is said that both Lord Rama and Krishna were sent to gurukuls where they underwent training on all aspects of education. But, the modern form of education in India has shrugged off all its cultural values and it has become a means to make huge profit from minimum investment. Now we send our children to far away cities for higher education where they will be staying in hostels for boarding and lodging. As long as children stay in the hostel, parents spend sleepless nights because there is no enough control over the students both within the campus and in Hostels. Even students want to be away from home during their studies to enjoy the student life to its full extent. But at the end of the student life they will realize what is gained and what is lost. Today I was turning the pages College magazine of SJCE, Mysore where my son has done his Bachelor of Engineering and found an article with a heading “Lessons” written by a student. He began his article saying he was thrilled to be away from home to find him and be independent. He says he learnt many things but paid heavy price for them. I thought it will be useful to my readers if I make a blog post out of it. The billeted list of his learning is quite lengthy, so I think it is better to continue in another post tomorrow. I think modern education system is keeping both parents and students sleepless but for different reasons.

Benefits of cycling

Hi friends, continuing discussion on reduction of carbon footprints through change in life style, I want to count the benefits of cycling in all angles. It is a known fact that the concept of cycling is green and it is no less greener then any other environmental friendly activities. Using cycle as a mode of travel in place of vehicle run on fossil fuel will no doubt reduce carbon load on the environment. Benefits of peddling a cycle regularly with respect to personal health are many. Because of our modern life style as well as nature of job, many of us especially younger generation are confined to tables which denies them enough physical activities and lack of physical work retards the calorie conversion in our system. According to Baba Ramdev, who is a well-known Yoga Guru, as long as blood circulates without any hindrance, digestive organs burns all the calories taken inside and mind is free from any worries, then you will keep yours self away from any diseases. He teaches Yoga and other physical exercises along with meditation which can keep a person physically, mentally and socially healthy. Baba says, rhythmic cycling to a long distance will keep us physically and mentally fit mainly because of proper digestion of food. Un burnt calorie will accumulate as fat in different parts of our body and becomes a cause for health upset. As a developing nation with second highest human population in the world, oil consumption in India is always a matter of worry for economists and environmentalist and replacement of motorcycle with a bicycle for daily use can make a huge difference for exchequer and to our environment. I heard that in European counties people prefer to pedal cycles for smaller distance with an aim to save environment and remain healthy. But unfortunately in India, our craze for motorbike is increasing and in spite of increasing fuel price this trend is still continuing. Modern India tries to imitate western culture very happily, then why not adopt their cycling concept?

Reducing Carbon footprints through change in life style: Setting an example

Hi friends, as an upcoming blogger I always keep my eyes and ears wide open as far as grabbing blog post topics are concerned and today got some good stuff to write. As I already mentioned in my earlier posts, I am serving in an Indian blue chip company and I am lucky to have a friendly boss with whom I have a good rapport. In spite of this, we hardly discuss personal matters because of our tight schedule but never forget to share our children’s achievements at least for a brief moment. Today in the evening when I was about to leave office, my boss called me inside his cabin and happily shown a news story about his son Mr. Mayank Rungta which was published on Bangalore edition of e-paper DNA (Daily news & analysis) on his PC. Like all Indian parents who are always willing to be part of their Children’s success he was also very happy and exited to share it with me.

The title of the news story is “Make way for pedal pushers” and this about those determined people who use cycle to travel within the city of Bangalore. Instead of using his bike, Mayank pedals his cycle every day to go to his office which is about 11 kilometers from his residence. According to Mayank, riding a cycle is having many benefits both personal as well as environmental. He says, apart from saving money one can save valuable time, remain stress free, stay healthy and reduce our carbon foot prints by regular cycling. He is a proud member of Ride a cycle foundation, Bangalore and enjoys his association with this NGO group As I have mentioned in my earlier posts about carbon footprint reduction, need of the hour is to minimize fossil fuel burning. Voluntary change of life style is essential to achieve this and Mayank’s foot steps can be followed. Once upon a time Bangalore city was known for its greenery and cleaner environment but now day by day it is losing its originality mainly because of our inevitable modern activities and changeable life style.

I want to discuss the benefits of cycling in detail so thinking of stopping here for the time being and continue hopefully tomorrow.

Am I disappointed with the result? No … not at all

Hi friends, my blogging journey started under the expert guidance of Badri way back on 27^th of July 2008 and since then I have never turned back. Day by day my blogging skills got sharpened including writing skill. My Google page rank rose to 4 and received 90/100 website grade from website grader. I joined Indiblogger, a network of Indian blogger and here also my site got 84/100, a respectable rank. I placed all these rank badges on a prime location of my blog and used to watch them proudly every time when I enter my page. As days passed, I started to believe that I have become a matured blogger. I myself gave a respectful position to my blog.

My association with Indiblogger network is not very long and I did not put enough efforts to make more friends within this network. During the initial days of my blogging journey most of my visitors and blogging friends were from abroad. I happened to know about this network when I visited Priyanka Prabhu’s blog and without any second thought I registered my site and that was the first when I felt homely in the world of Blog. I am really proud of some of Indiblogger members who maintain a world class blog. When “Tata Docomo 3G life” contest was announced on Indiblogger, I have decided to take up the challenge and that was my first participation in any contest as a blogger. Without putting much thought and without any preparation I just wrote an article and posted it on Indiblogger. Even I did not make a sincere effort to read posts by other participants some of whom are well reputed blogger. I thought whatever I have posted is enough to win the contest. I have completely forgotten that I am a frog inside a well and unaware of the developments taking place out side the well.Now the results are out and my honest opinion about the winning posts is that out of two posts, one definitely deserves a top position in the list OF submitted posts. I have congratulated both the winners and shared both posts to my face book dash board. Now time has come to address my shortcomings as blogger and need to do serious blogging. I need to change my blogging strategy from visiting more number of sites to reading more posts having valuable contents. I feel this failure is a blessing in disguise for me because it gives a chance for the frog to come out from the well.

Benefits of Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) in Mutual Funds

Hi friends, as a blogger my sincere effort should be to give value addable information or enjoyable moments to my site visitors. Blogger who posts on a particular subject cannot survive for a longer period unless he is a master in that subject. But in my case, I have got too many options at my command. My published posts on my blog can be categorized as “mixed bag” and I am happy about it. I can be choosy about the subject for my next post where as blogger who runs a blog on food category can’t be. One of my friends advised me to try some posts on financial matters which may drive additional traffic to my site.

We Indians believe that it is not wise to stretch legs beyond bed which means “don’t spend beyond earning capacity”. I think, by following this age old concept (taught by Indian moms) we remained financially fit when the whole world was struggling to survive. Even during the peak of economic recession, majority of Government owned Banks functioned normally simply because banking industry followed all basic rules of banking while sanctioning loans. Happy news is that most of the economies including US have freed themselves from the clutches of recession and I feel the time has come to increase our financial activities.

During the successful visit of American president Mr. Obama, various deals were finalized between corporate giants of USA and India and it is believed that their out come will be a win-win situation to all concerned. It is generally expected that Indian stock markets may boom after the announcement of $10 billion deal but as usual Indian investor’s response was Luke warm. Individual investors who have got burnt their fingers like me are not in a position to take further chances in this most volatile financial market and I want to give an example to justify it. A dream deal of $2.2 billion is announced between Indian based Reliance Power ltd and US based General Electric. In spite of the announcement of such a huge deal, R. power share price did not move up substantially which is still below its IPO price. What it shows? Majority of individual investors in India invest cautiously and their contribution is negligible in the stock market performance compared to Indian mutual funds, FII and hedge funds. I feel, only because of the participation of foreign institutional investors and hedge funds we could see sensex crossing 20k again and again.

Systematic investment plan (SIP) was practiced in Indian households since centuries. Indian moms used to collect some portion of food grains and money separately to meet emergency requirements if any. For an Indian investor who wants be part of share trading activities but with minimum risk, investing in mutual fund through a SIP is a good option. Since there is a stiff competition between major mutual fund players like Birla Sunlife, SBI, UTI, Tata, Kotak Mahindra, LIC, Franklin Templeton, Morgan Stanley etc. we can expect better service and returns to the customers. A small investment for a longer period may become a huge fund which may take care of future requirements like higher education for children or their marriage. Indian middle class always play safe in all aspects and I feel SIP in few companies will increase the value of their portfolios, keep them free of stock market tension. Browsing the internet to know the past track record of companies and NAV levels of different funds before selecting a fund will end up with a good selection. I am investing through monthly SIP in two different funds of Birla Sunlife Mutual fund and already received handsome dividends which are quite higher than Bank interest.

Indian lemon pickle for my Malaysian blogger friend

Hi friends, every society has got its own culture or way of life and specific food habits are followed in different societies. A particular food habit practiced in one part of the world may not be liked in another part. For example, I cannot even imagine myself eating Chinese non vegetarian items (leave lone eating) and this may be the case with many other people around the world. But things are changing rapidly with easy access to internet. Food blog plays an important role as far as popularizing food culture from one part of the world to other. Now I can prepare a tasty “cauliflower, leek and blue cheese soup” which is famous in America or a French recipe “Seared halibut with vegetable crisps and potatoes” without much difficulty by browsing food blog. As an active blogger I have many friends in different parts of the world and I am fortunate enough to interact with them via our blog. I feel proud of Miss. Seri, who is a blogger from Malaysia and I feel her blogging activities should be a guiding factor for a blogger especially newcomers. Recently she requested me to send preparation method for Indian lime pickle through my Gmail Id. But I thought it is better to be through my blog, so I am linking an Indian food site “Indian Food rocks” from where she can get details of the pickle preparation.

For Seri:

Hi Seri, thanks for giving me an opportunity to share my county’s recipes with you. Hope you can prepare it very easily and all your family members may like it. I feel language barrier can be overcome with Google translator. Waiting for your tasty feed back!

My dear Obama- how you could win the heart of majority of Indians?

Hi friends, though I am not much interested in world politics I keep a watch on the important political developments taking place around me. In India we have received heads of various countries in a big way but only visits of American Presidents arouse curiosity in even common Indians where as dignitaries from other countries failed to make much impression. Even I too have a special attraction towards America and I admire Americans for my own reasons and this may be true with majority of Indians. Mr. Obam’s visit has become a talk of the town well before his arrival and the entire 3 days concentration of the whole Nation was on him. I think he could win the heart of Indian people and made a permanent impression by his simple and straight forward approach. From the first day of his visit where he landed at Mumbai to his historic speech on the floor of Indian Parliament House his fan following went on increasing and I think today he is the most popular international figure in India. His deep knowledge about India and its cultural heritage, references of Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar in his address has brought him nearer to Indians. His statement “I am directly speaking to one billion Indians through this platform” has become an added advantage for his popularity. I liked his style of pronouncing Namaste and Jai hind and I am sure millions of Indians felt so. Whatever may be the out come of his visit on political and economical grounds, it has boosted the spirit of our business community. I feel, the tie up between two countries will result in increased income opportunities in both countries. Whatever good thing happened during 3 days of his visit is because of the combination of US policy and the personal interest of President Obama. I feel proud of this gentle man who acts tough when ever situation demands not only in the interest of his country but the whole world. I think America and American’s are lucky to have him as their leader. Mr. Obama, all of us want to see you in active politics for many more years for the betterment of the world. Bro, wish you all the best

Mr. President - is it a Big bang visit?

Hi friends, much awaited and much debated visit of Mr. Barack Obama to my country is over and in many ways it is considered as different from visits of earlier American presidents to India. Unlike other Presidents, he has attracted the attention of whole nation during his stay in India. I have watched his live actions in our Parliament house where he addressed members of both houses. I salute him for his oratory skill and it was a treat to watch him speaking on various topics beneficial for both India and America. I felt he was speaking from the bottom of his heart and I am impressed by his pleasing personality and positive body language. All the dignitaries listening to his proposals were applauding voluntarily including Mr. L K Advani, who is one of the tallest leaders of India. I don’t want to go into details of the proposals and assurances given in his speech but I can say they are beneficial to our country also. I feel proud that my country is slowly becoming a economic power and President of mighty America is giving us business proposal on equal grounds. His assurance of support for a permanent membership in UN Security Council may taste very sweet for us but it may take more than 2 decades before it takes place.

It is believed that the whole universe was formed because of an event called Big Bang and shall I call Mr. Obama’s visit a Big bang visit, which may give birth to many positive developments for the betterment of the word? He deserves a second term as President of USA and hope American’s will rightly give him another term to rule and improve their country.

Welcome to India Mr. Obama

Hi friends, wish you all happy Deepavali and prosperous New Year. Deepavali, the festival of lights is already on and my observation is that people are showing better enthusiasm than last year in its involvements. The only reason for this observed behavioral change is nothing but secured financial condition. In spite of being a most disciplined economy, we also felt the heat of turbulence in the world economy and tightened our belts on personal level as well as organizational. Moreover the contradictory predictions by different economists created doubts in the minds of Indians which made them to think twice before spending. But, now the derailed world economy is slowly and steadily rolling on the right track and that is why we are loosening our belts little bit. Indian stock markets are booming again and as usual corporate is bettering its results. American President Mr. Barack Osama is going to visit India shortly and Indian economy is welcoming him with a record stock market jump. But I think we cannot relax too much because some experts are expecting few more bubbles to burst in near future. Any way I wish better sense prevail on us not to repeat the earlier economic blunders which led to the collapse of world economy.

3G – launching pad for a successful journey

Hi friends, I am 53 years old, serving in an Indian blue chip company where my job descriptions are mainly connected to production activities. In spite of my different nature of job and ordinary educational qualifications, I used to update my computer knowledge on my own capacity as and when it was required for my organization as well as to fulfill my personal ambitions. My computer literacy is adequate enough to be part of ongoing developments taking place in this field and I am enjoying its benefit to my personal satisfaction. Still I remember those memorable days of learning and enjoy working on MSDOS, Word star, Lotus123, Foxpro, Qpro and thrilling video games. I never thought using computer would be so easy till the arrival of MS windows package. Now I am living in an amazing world called internet, I own my own website there, under it I run my blog where I can show my talent to my online friends who are not only from my country but from other parts of the world too. I use various types of social networks like orkut, face book, twitter to communicate with my online friends. My website is becoming a means for generating online income and it is improving slowly but steadily. Apart from blogging, I engage myself in online share trading also. So, keeping in mind all my online activities I whole heartedly activated GPRS on my mobile hand set, but disappointed with the slowness associated with it. I heard the benefits of 3G from my online friends who are from USA and I never thought my turn will come so early to have 3G on my hand set.Tata is a house hold name in India and they recognize themselves with both rural as well as modern India. Tata DOCOMO is a joint venture between Tata group and NTT docomo, Japan and thanks to Tata Docomo, modern India is going to enjoy benefits of 3G network. As a citizen of a developing country, I feel proud that we are at par with developed countries like America as far as telecom service is concerned and as a blogger I count the benefits of having a 3G on my hand set. I have already confirmed that my present hand is compatible with 3G and waiting to continue my journey of passion (blogging) with Tata Docomo 3G life. With Tata Docomo 3G, I am sure to make my blogging activity more fruitful and can connect with my online friends face to face where ever they live. 3G speed will help me to down load my share trading software and trade in real time. For people who are fond of particular programs on TV channels including cricketer matches, 3G is a boon for them. In this era of video conferences, hand sets equipped with 3G can save time and energy for low profile companies. Blogging is my passion and I am happy that I am going to be on line all the time with all my friends and I am sure that all my dreams connected to this field is going to be realized very soon. I use this opportunity to wish Tata Docomo a great success and rule the network world for many more years

CNN Hero of the Year Award

Hi friends, in India we believe that offering food is the best gift among all and if this gift is offered to a needy person who is not in a position to earn it then the significance of this offering becomes multifold. To justify the importance of food offering in Hinduism, I will quote an ancient Sanskrit verse – “Anna daanam maha daanam” which means food offering is the greatest offer. In spite of world wide economic progress and development in all spheres, still there are some backward areas in different parts of the world including my own country, where some people are lacking food and shelter. When it comes to poverty, hunger and malnutrition we talk about only Ethiopia and pretending as if our country is free from these entire social issues. In this back ground, I would like to mention the selfless service of Mr.Narayana Krishnan who has been short listed for the prestigious “CNN Hero of the year” award. He is the only Indian among short listed 10 heroes from all over the world and through a public online voting system “CNN Hero of the year” will be selected in which anybody can vote through internet.Before writing this article I have already voted for Krishnan. Mr. Krishnan hails from Tamil Naadu a South Indian State and when I read his life story in an e-mail received from my friend, I have decided to write a blog post appealing people to vote for him. arayana Krishnan is from a middle class family and after completing his preliminary studies, he was about to proceed to Switzerland for higher studies which could have changed his life entirely. But, during one of his visits to Madurai Meenakshi Temple about ten years back he happened to saw an old helpless, homeless person eating his own human waste and decided to spend his life to feed hungry people. He could have become a rich NRI like many of his co country men who settled in western counties but thought of perusing a unique service to mankind in the form of hot meals supply to hungry people. Presently he is employed as chef in a luxurious hotel and along with he is carrying out his mission without any break. He wakes up at four in the morning, cooks meals to about 400 people every day, travels about 200 kilometers to feed them along with his team members who are sympathetic to this great cause. In the mean time they have established a trust called Akshaya and till date they have distributed hot meals to about 1.2 million hungry people in a span of about eight years. Apart from this, Akshaya trust carres out other free service like hair cut who need it. They are having ambitious plan like providing permanent shelter to these people but mobilizing necessary fund is a major constrain and I think the ongoing poll is a God send opportunity not only to Krishnan but rest of us because a huge sum of cash award is waiting to enter the bank account of the winner. If our vote makes him to win, then he will receive $100,000 apart from $25,000 which he entitled to get for being short listed which will be entirely utilized to fulfill the vision of his mission. I request all my friends from blogging community to visit the site http://heroes.cnn.com/vote.aspx and vote for Narayana Krishnan. The voting lines are open till November 18.

My videos are online

Hi friends, I am a proud owner of Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H50 digital camera which was presented to me by my son on my 25^th marriage anniversary and I make use of this user-friendly camera occasionally with my limited knowledge about its functions. Though it is having many features to get high quality output, I use only automatic setting for both video and snaps. Also, I own a Nokia Express music 5800 mobile phone with a built in 3.2 mega pixel camera and I love to take snaps and videos from it also. I need not mention that this phone is also a gift from my son. My videos and photos collection is very huge which is consuming 49GB of my PC’s hard disk memory. I used to browse for my favorite video songs especially old Hindi movie songs in You Tube whenever I get free time and I was wondering how those video clips are made and published. Today I joined YouTube to know about its functions including uploading and publishing of video files from PC. Thanks to Google and its associated sites, I could upload and publish as many as four video clippings without much difficulty. To edit a large video clipping of my son’s marriage function I downloaded free software Videopad Video Editor Software and with its help I made a small clipping from a big video file. Even happily I went one step ahead and linked all those YouTube clippings to my orkut and Facebook profiles where I have got many friends. I am eagerly waiting to here my friend’s feed back.

Looking at the deteriorating environmental condition some times I feel technology and modernization are curse to man kind or Mother Nature but while harvesting its benefits I get confused. We have reached a stage from where we cannot go back as far as using technology and development is concerned but choosing a path of sustainable development may minimize the harm on various compartments of our environment.

Happy Dasara

Hi friends, Happy Dasara to all.

Each and every festival which is celebrated around our globe may be having many more significances apart from spiritual (religious) one. There may be many stories attached to different festivals and our present generation may not be interested to digg them may be because of lack of interest, busy time schedule or may be because of the inevitable mind set change arising out of cultural pollution or dilution. Moral tags are associated with these stories which tell us what is right and wrong with respect to ethics. But, irrespective their lack of understanding about all these moral stories it is heartening to see active participation of younger generation in all festivals. I always believe that main purpose of festival celebration is for entertainment and other things are secondary. Spiritual part of any festival may be for inner happiness which is difficult to understand but in a given day anybody can enjoy participating in a festival with family and friends. India is a great country carrying the richest cultural heritage of the world and under the fold of Hinduism which is a way of life; more than a billion people from different faiths are celebrating different festivals in their own way. Vijaya dasami the last day of navaratri festival which is popularly called as dasara (Dussehra) is one of India’s major festivals and people from different parts of the world are attracted towards it. Wheather it is Mysore dasara in Karnatak(South India) where Goddess Chamundeshwari is worshipped or Dussehra in West Bengal where Goddess Durga is worshipped or Ramleela in Northern India, people from different faiths are participating for enjoyment. World famous Mysore Dasra is celebrated in a most traditional way and millions of people gather on the streets of Mysore on Dasara day to see and enjoy the most colorful Elephant procession (Jamboo Savari). In India, most of our festivals are based on stories in which evil forces were defeated by God and apart from mere enjoyment we can adopt the moral of the stories for the betterment of society as a whole. On this auspicious day I wish the evil force of international terrorists may be destroyed for ever by combined effort of rest of us. Today if any body watches the act of evil forces without supporting the victim as a mute spectator, then tomorrow may be his turn where he will be at the receiving end from terrorists. In the Mahabharata battle field Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that in Dharma Yuddha (war for right and wrong), one cannot remain neutral and everybody should take one side or the other.

It can’t be a better birthday gift to Mahatma Gandhi!

Hi friends, to day is the birthday of Late Mahatama Gandhi and many people call him as father of our great Nation (but I have got strong reservation about it) and I think all Indians have given a most precious birthday gift to the messenger of truth and non violence. His soul will be the happiest one in the heaven among all and the simple reason is every Indian followed his path of non violence on the crucial day of Ayodhya verdict on 30^th of September. Proving all the all predictions of violence wrong, Indians shown highest level of maturity and all sections of society shown the world that we Indians are also ready to be part of a civilized Global Village. India as an oldest civilization went though some ugly phases in the recent past on the religious ground and I believe Ayodhya verdict provided us an opportunity to count our positive aspects as human beings. Just like a pat on the shoulder of a school boy as an appreciation for his good work, we also got a gentle pat on our shoulder and we want to show more qualities of a civilized society to the rest of the world who were expecting a civil war and blood bath in India. I believe we Indians born on this soil are very lucky to be a part of a very old civilization and our positive aspects are bound to come out one day or the other in spite of many odds in our society. Now it is the moral responsibility of all our leaders both religious and political to encash the good will created in favor of a stronger India where real secularism is practiced. If we proceed in this direction and succeed to devote all our energy to rebuild our Nation which is free from violence, intolerance and above all free from corruption, then it will be a touching tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and a great service to Mother land which comes first and every thing next. The speed at which our population is increasing, we need to concentrate on multi fronts including infrastructure, job creation but we cannot forget the importance of an education system which will make our citizens proud of our country and its heritage but we are still banking on Lord Macaulay’s education system which is aimed at division of Indian minds. Let us prepare now it self to give a better tribute to Mahatama Gandhi on his next birthday.

Humanity shown by an animal

Hi friends, sad part of human history is that there is a drastic drop in humanity as we grew as a civilized society. The dictionary meaning of humanity is kindness, benevolence or desire to do well to others and this nature is slowly disappearing from us and it is replaced by selfishness. There are many instances of kindness shown by animals particularly by pet animals towards human beings. Today I received an email attachment from my daughter- in- law and friend Varsha Kamath from Bangalore about a rare act of kindness by a monkey. As soon as I opened the mail I thought it is a good idea to make it a blog post. You can see a monkey with two blind persons in a temple in Bangalore.

They were very thirsty and desperately trying to operate the water tap without any success. The monkey which was silently watching the proceedings opened the tap for those disabled persons, allowed them to drink water, also drank some water and closed the tap afterward. If you closely watch the picture, you can observe the eagerness on the face of monkey in helping them. In India we worship various types of animals including monkeys and our association with this animal is very old. In the war of Ramayana, monkeys fought evil forces along with Lord Rama and Hanuman a super ape was instrumental in the defeat of King Ravana. Since then till today Hanuman is worshiped all over India in temples separately as well as along with Lord Rama. This is the gratitude we are showing to Hanuman for helping Lord. In fact, the main deity of RagiGudda Anjaneya Temple where this rare incident took place is Hanuman, the super Ape

Happy birthday to you - Google the Giant

Hi friends, this is the first time I am wishing happy birthday to a company and like me millions of well wishers of Google are sending birthday greetings from all parts of the world. Incorporated on September 27th, 1998, Google celebrated its every birthday with note of success and now it is celebrating its 12^th birthday as the most successful and proud birthday boy. Today Google is the biggest and very efficient online search engine with more than a million servers at its data centers around the Globe. You can’t think of any online activity without Google and its associated services and Orkut may be the most popular social networking tool used by majority of people both young and old. List of service provided by Giant Google is growing and looking at the way it performs, no doubt it is going to rule the world of internet for many more years. In this context I remember a story which was there in my 3^rd standard text book. Kanaka Dasa was a great saint and poet who lived in between 15^th and 16^th century in southern part of India. He was a staunch devotee of Lord Krishna. In his school days one day his teacher gave a banana each to every student and asked them to eat in a place where no body observes them. All students came to the teacher and happily explained how they ate the banana but only Kanaka Dasa returned the banana to the teacher and told him “Sir I am unable to find a place where no body is watching me, Lord Krishna is every where in the universe and I could not eat this banana without his knowledge.” Now Google has become like a Lord who watches and captures all online activities and you cannot escape from its eagle eyes. Getting a respectable page rank from Google has become a prestige matter for blogger like me and earning money from Google adsense is the dream of millions of blogger. Only thing you must remember while dealing with Google- he will not show mercy towards cheaters and will never give second chance. I am ending this special post by wishing Google many more successful birthdays in the coming years.