If I had my way, I’ll have all of them sued

I stumbled upon this post titled Fiction Fragment: At the wedding that Neha Vishwanathan wrote:

She writes :

“A sudden flash of memory. Standing in the assembly, roasting in the
summer sun. Uniforms being checked. One arm distance from the person
ahead of her in the line. Reciting the national pledge together. India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters.
It makes her want to throw up. She didn’t know what was more revolting. The idea of state-sponsored incest or the thought that all the awful people she was in the midst of were somehow related to her.”

Her blog seems to be written out of London and there is no ambiguity in what she has to say.

If I meet her some time, I’d like to ask her if her parents were Indians – and if they were, what would that make her.

At least in India, I believe you cannot do something that would be a direct insult to a national symbol. If she were in India, I would have liked to listen to her in the court of law, the explanation she would have to offer on what prompted her to write what she wrote.

Sadly, she even has an Indian audience which doesn’t seem to understand that it is not right to insult a country’s sentiment.

It has always made me sad to see people who were born in India, who in their early years profit from the family and education system here and then leave this country to make a fortune else where. Some of them are senseless enough to think that sitting in a foreign land makes them invincible and they can get away by parting with their wisdom of why the Indian system sucks irrespective of how other Indians feel about it.

If Neha were educated in India, I’m sure she must have known that its not funny to make fun of the National Pledge, and I’d really like to see an apology from her.

Global warming – Check list for Indians

One man cannot cause global warming. The globe is warmer now because over several decades , its people have continued to do things that have consumed energy. Cutting down unnecessary energy consumption is the first step to slow down the process. Here is a quick check list that applies in the Indian scenario. 

 global-warming.pdf

Please print this and paste this in a place so that it hits the eye often.

Old Indian currency

I was surprised when this landed in my e-mail. An excellent collection of 20 odd pictures of old Indian currency. The star is the 10,000 rupee note!

 

This email claims that the first set of British India notes were the ‘Victoria Portrait’ Series issued in denominations of 10, 20, 50, 100, 1000. These were unifaced, carried two language panels and were printed on hand-moulded paper manufactured at the Laverstock Paper Mills (Portals). The security features incorporated the watermark (GOVERNMENT OF INDIA, RUPEES, two signatures and wavy lines), the printed signature and the registration of the notes.

Rupees Ten

Rupees Hundered

 

British India Notes facilitated inter-spatial transfer of funds. As a security precaution, notes were cut in half. One set was sent by post. On confirmation of receipt, the other half was despatched by post.

Half note

 

This series remained largely unchanged till the introduction of the ‘King’s Portrait’ series which commenced in 1923.

Green Underprint – Rupees Five Hundred

Green Underprint – Rupees Five

Red Underprint – Rupees Fifty

 

Small Denomination Notes

 

The introduction of small denomination notes in India was essentially in the realm of the exigent. Compulsions of the first World War led to the introduction of paper currency of small denominations. Rupee One was introduced on 30th November, 1917 followed by the exotic Rupees Two and Annas Eight. The issuance of these notes was discontinued on 1st January, 1926 on cost benefit considerations. These notes first carried the portrait of King George V and were the precursors of the ‘King’s Portrait’ Series which were to follow.

Rupee One – Obverse

Rupee One -Reverse

Rupees Two and Annas Eight – Obverse

 

King’s Portrait Series

 

Regular issues of this Series carrying the portrait of George V were introduced in May, 1923 on a Ten Rupee Note. The King’s Portrait Motif continued as an integral feature of all Paper Money issues of British India. Government of India continued to issue currency notes till 1935 when the Reserve Bank of India took over the functions of the Controller of Currency. These notes were issued in denominations of Rs 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000, 10,000.

Rupees Fifty

Rupees One Thousand

Rupees Ten Thousand

 

The Bank’s issues to January 1938 when the first Five Rupee note was issued bearing the portrait of George VI.

Rupees Five – First Note issued by Reserve Bank of India

This was followed by Rs 10 in February, Rs 100 in March and Rs 1,000 and Rs 10,000 in June 1938.

Rupees One Hundred

Rupees One Thousand

Rupees Ten Thousand

 

In August 1940, the one-rupee note was reintroduced, once again as a war time measure, as a Government note with the status of a rupee coin,

Rupee One Obverse

Rupee One Reverse

Rupees Two

 

As an added security feature, the security thread was introduced for the first time in India.

George VI Profile

George VI Frontal

The George VI series continued till 1947 and thereafter as a frozen series till 1950 when post independence notes were issued.

Avoid marketing calls

Receiving marketing calls on your mobile phone is getting very frequent and unpleasant nowadays. I heard from a friend that there is a DONOTCALL page in most of the banks. Once you register, you can avoid those nagging calls from various banks. I guess it works!

Here are the links to the DONOTCALL pages of various banks

ICICI:
http://www.inuonline.com/dnc/donotcall.asp

HDFC:
http://www.hdfc.com/donotcallform.asp

HDFC Bank:
https://www.hdfcbank.com/applications/misc/dnc/dnc.htm

HSBC:
https://www.tools.asiapacific.hsbc.com/webform/apply?id=in+donotcall

CitiBank India:
http://www.online.citibank.co.in/ngrhtm/custhmdnd.htm

Standard Chartered:
https://play.standardchartered.com/smail/in/IN15/index.html

ABN Amro:
http://mail.abnamrobank.co.in/creditcard/do_not_call_servicemail_cc.asp

SBI:
http://www.sbicard.com/sbi/donotcall.jsp

Canara:
http://www.canbankindia.com/personal/card/faircard/faircard-main.htm

 

Tags: Banks, DONOTCALL, Marketing calls

Koi nahi paraya – No one is a stranger

I’m reproducing this poem from http://karthiksn.wordpress.com/poems/ simply because Google does not have a second reference to this beautiful poem as on date.

I’ve known earlier about Gopal Das. But I’ve never read this particular poem of his before.

I corrected the English translation a bit so that the meaning conveyed is now closer to the original script.

Koi nahi paraya, mera ghar sara sansar hai
No one is a stranger, the whole world is my home
Mein na bandha hoon desh kaal ki zang lagi zangir mein
I m not tied in the rusted chains of country and time
Mein na khada hoon jaati paati ki unchi nichi bhid mein
I m not standing in the crowd of caste and creed’s differences
Mera dharm na kuch syahishabdo ka sirf gulam hain
My faith is not the slave of words written by ink
Mein bas kehta hoon ki pyar hain to ghat ghat mein ram hain
I m only saying that if there is love, God is there everywhere
Mujse tum na kaho ki mandir-masjid par mein sar tek doon
You should not tell me to go to pray to a temple-mosque
Mera to aaradhya aadmi, devalay har dvar hain
My God is human and every house door is my place of worship
Koi nahi paraya,mera ghar sara sansar hain
No one is stranger,the whole world is my home

 

Tags: Koi nahi paraya, Gopal Das Neeraj, Poetry

Online teaching – IITs

The IITs have taken up an initiative of starting online teaching and thus have started offering course materials online for every engineering stream. Many professors from all the IITs have provided course materials for each chapter and each subject.

One has to register at the link provided below and can access the course material. Every Chapter has been described with diagrams and charts. Please spread this message to everyone, as many can benefit from this program taken up by the government and IIT.

This is just a trial period going on and hence I request everyone to register at the link given.

1] Go to http://nptel. iitm.ac.in
2] Click on Courses
3] Sign up as a NEW USER
4] And one can access any course material.

Please spread the word, so that this initiative benefits as many students as possible.

Reducing plastic usage

What can you do to reduce plastic usage?

1. When going shopping, carry your own bag.
2. Stop giving free plastic bags and stop accepting them.
3. Use bags made of natural fibres available locally – cotton, jute etc.
4. Avoid paper bags altogether. They cannot substitute for plastic bags. Save the trees.
5. Pass an act or bill or something.
6. If you use plastic, dispose it properly.
7. If you see plastic litter, clean it up if you can.
8. Replace plastic boxes with metal or wood, if you can
9. Spend 10 minutes at http://www.reusablebags.com
10. Teach youngsters around you that “natural is cool”.
11. Spread the word.