BSNL in Chennai vs BT in London: What a Service !!

In my recent visit to my home town (Chennai aka Madras in India), I was taken by pleasant surprise by the speed of service from BSNL.

To tell you why I need to tell you another story, Just a few months back one of my friend in London (South West), moved into a new rented house as he was getting married. He ordered for a new telephone BT line and was told

* it would take 7 - 10 working days for connection
* Engineer would visit only during working hours
* Engineer would give a call in the morning, 8-9 am (the time you would be either traveling by tube to office or getting ready to do so)

He atlast managed to find a time with this engineer on his second attempt on the 8th day and found to his bad luck that the line had some wiring problem and finally it all got done and he was linked on the 16th day(working day).

Eventhough it can be generalised that all the cases are handled by BT like this but thats just a sample showing such things do happen in with BT.

Now coming to Chennai, it is a semi state run org called BSNL. When I went to the office along with my friend for application of new connection, it looked more like any other Govt. Org in India. Then I happen to notice that it was Saturday afternoon and still staff at counter is brisk collecting forms and friendly in explaining to things to the customer.

It was our turn we asked a we questions which he happend to explain and finally accepted our application. We also found that we could apply for Broadband as well for about 500Rs., @ 256 Kbps 1 GB ( Now we also have plans like 900Rs. @ 256 kbps - Unlimited download).

Then on the Monday evening my friend called up saying that they a linked and a new physical connection has been given at around 7:00pm after my friend returned home. It was surpising they hardly took 1 working day, it was less than 1 working day elapsed.

To add to this surprise by Wednessday evening my friend was online, surfing the net. Its amazing how much things can improve in country like India, given a litle bit of competition and privatisation, where paying an electricity bill or phone bill and getting a connection is always tougher than building a house.

Hope this spreads to other areas like Electricity Boards, House Tax & Metro Water, any other Government / Semi Government Organisations.

Its a very good start indeed..

IBM's new vision for Lotus: Yellow is the new black

To many who had a chance to goto to Lotusphere or the new Lotusphere comes to you, would have had a very distinctive satisfaction this time..

It was not the same confused IBM, which was yet to decide what to do with Lotus Domino/Notes, whether to have a separate Java engine capabilites with Domino?, should there be Notes users? asking users to move to Websphere and eventhough nothing similar between Domino / Websphere other than that they are Web Technologies.

Its a very distinctively clear IBM, which has heard its customers and for a change accepted some of their views and concerns, the one which understood that Nothing in this World could the Domino users and developers (for that matter) are going to be threatened. Definetly not just by saying Java as future. Rather they understood that the need to have a path laid down to move along and may be over next 5-10 years bridge the gap so that may be there exists a code to inter convert or coexist.

Not only that the IBM has also understood the power of Blog and the reach it has among the communities / customers and made a distinctive intiative to push for their own employees and some loyal developers to have a good network that would stand a chance to compete the Propoganda War with that of Microsoft. Some of them are here and more to come

Its very heartning to know that IBM is thinking atlast with a fully customizable (atleast by Experienced developers) client and the one which could not just embbed a passive interent browser rather to have an active Click 2 Action based system. This would make a new way to think forward for the solution providers. Its also interesting technolory preview on SOA ( Service oriented architecture) and Activity Managed System and Composite Application Interface.

It was very happy customers who were able to have a sneak preview of the Hannover Notes client & Sametime 7.5. Especialy the Sametiem 7.5 which could compete with any mordern IM and could give a run for its money. Some features i doubt even the mordern famous IMs have. Though performance and stability is something we need to look at a bit apprehensively at this stage.

But out and out this Lotusphere is something that definetly brought some smile to just sneak through the corner of the customers' / developers' / administrators' faces.

Hope we have the golden days ahead..

Please register before you proceed. Its Free!Oh no.. I just want to read this article..

How many times have you been to a website (nytimes.com, ft.com, vikatan.com etc...) and asked for registration, and to your frustration would ask you for a email id for verification or password confirmation.

I am sure every one of us would have faced this, at least once.

Don’t worry, there are couple of ways to elude:
1. Bugmenot
2. Mailinator

The first one is fighting for its existence, as it is being thrown of the web quite often, but has come out with huge support from web surfing community for its survival. Based on public contribution provides username / password for most news site. Quite useful if you want to access for just reading a couple of articles.

The second one is useful too. Incase you did not find a successful username / password for the site, then make your own by registering using the email id provided by this site, which remains valid to get the confirmation mail and password information.

I am sure this two would remain and more will come up to aid the browsing community to get the required information with less web harassment. :-)

Here we go, the Sample House Rent Agreement (India)

As promised, this is what I prepared as the Rental Agreement . This should be a good template to start.

This one was prepared for a unfurnished apartment. You may remove or add any clause as it might suite the specific needs.

To Google for a House Renting Agreement

Hello All,
Long time since I had been around here.. If am right its just about a year since I have been here. Now then I was trying to Google for House Renting Agreement. I could not find one simple sample document for India (Google Result). Its no surprise to me, people have just now started this practise. I am planning to post one soon.

With my limited renting experience in both UK & Singapore, along with the things I have seen of Indian Tenants, I am planning to prepare one. Would sure will post it here and I believe that will be a good starting point for those who search for in future..

Finally thanks to Kailash who reminded me of my blog with his own blog intiative. I wish him all the best for the same.

Who is Santa?

Hello Mate,
Here I am with yet another Christmas based Bedtime stories.. I just wondered how did Santa Claus (one of the several names given to the icon.., this one is from US, oops basically Dutch.."Sinter Klaas" it was) the famous Father Chirstmas came into being.. The story dates back to 500 - 600 AD, in a small place which is part of current world Turkey.

There was once a good man by name Nicholas, who came to know that a poor father had 3 daughters. He was almost ready to sell them as he did not have enough money to arrange for their marriage.. (Dowry system.. its was not just in India!!). Nicholas planned to help them, but without any once knowledge he dropped a bag of gold into their house through the chimney..(Guys itsa smoke ventilator, quite common in Cold countries, I know you all know this but still :-)) He did the same for two nights and third night the girls daughter got a doubt and caught Nicholas on the act.

Nicholas requested not to disclose to any one.. but you know. these things dont stay in the castle.. Nicholas thus became very popular and any one, gets any anonymous gifts are said receive them from Nicholas.. Thus he was called in time as St. Nicholas.. Sad end to is story is that they say he died on 6th December which is celebrated in some part of the work as St. Nicholas Day(In Holland Kids get gift on that day not on Christmas eve).

So now you all know who Santa is, and by the way his current figure of Red and white plumpy appearence is the work of Coca-Cola, yes thats right a marketing strategy to make their drink sell in Winter.. it worked so well that he permanently became red & white..

If interested to learn more on christmas and various forms of Father christmas check this link..
Why Christmas?

By the way I had good christmas lunch yesterday @ Honda UK. and tasted the turkey for the first time.. mmmm.. boy it was good.. :-))

Think U r a Geek !! Then try this...

You guys think your are real geek.. Give it a try.. its just a simple situation Dont worry .. It aint ARITHMETICS :-))

There are 5 houses in 5 different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same beverage. The question is “Who owns the fish?’

Facts:

The Brit lives in the red house
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane drinks tea
The green house is on the left of the white house
The green house’s owner drinks coffee
The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill
The man living in the center house drinks milk
The Norwegian lives in the first house
The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats
The man who keeps the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill
The owner who smokes Bluesmasters drinks Beer
The German smokes Prince
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house
The man who smokes Blends has a neighbour who drinks water

Einstein wrote this riddle this century(Not so sure!! It was part of the question u c :-)). He said 98% of the world could not solve it. It can be done! Be part of the 2% that COULD

For your info I am part of the 2% (Real proud u c....)

St. Thomas in Chennai ! A Myth or reality?

All those who are from Chennai(a city in southern India) are pretty sure have known about St. Thomas.. Does not matter whether u r a christian or not.. St. Thomas mount, Santhome Church, Santhome Beach (St. Thomas should have become Santhome :-)). Yes you are right we all know mostly to that level, but do we know that St. Thomas is considered as one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus(remember last supper) and is called as Twin of Jesus. (May be because he looks like that.. or may be he is born to Mother Mary, not very clear in the sources I found).Check this here

He questioned Jesus on his resurection and said only when he is able to see him again he will believe in him.. But do you all know that his visit to India is still under lot of questions.. Even though widely accepted that he came to Malabar coast(Western Coust of india), to have reached as far as Chennai is still a question, as per this book. Hey guys, that book does have very outrageous views.. especially it states something on temples at Mylapore, which currently we can neither agree or disagree.. but for a view you can go through..

if you want to know more about St. Thomas in Chennai refer this article which was published in The Hindu some time ago..

Birmingham ka Biryani

I am currently in Bescot (the so called "Outskirts" of Birmingham).. staying in the hotel.. For few days did try the food in the hotel for the dinner. My my its horrible.. dont want to name the hotel.. either too salty or none at all..

To my surprise there I found a indian(British indian) restaurent. I was wondering to see the menu. but the smell.. that was good enough to suggest that I have hit a jackpot. Oh well I saw the Indian menu there and of all the first and the best I got to see was Biryani and that too Chicken Tikka Biryani.. mm I could not resist myself..

I went on ordering and took it to the hotel.. (was even not sure whether I can take outside food to room.. never mind who cares.. biryani it is :-)) Once in my room.. opened it with a wack..Wow!! it was hot and spicy.. and with cucumber and tomato on top and along with the so called vegetable sauce and not to forget the mint sauce..

It got over in just minutes.. :-(( but still had a good taste of indian food.. after a long time indeed.

Its Friday.. & am fighting with WIN Api to print....

Strange day, I am having a funny behaviour dont know who is the culprit.. Either Lotus Notes 4.6 / Lotus Script or Win NT or the crazy PRINT Spool API or may be ME :-).. But something is driving me crazyyy..

when I remove a single piece of DIM statment it the OpenPrinter of WINAPI does not respond.. I have never had such a problem with WIN API before.. but few things are unique this time.

I am not using my machine :-))(all my useful tools and settings) I dont have admin access to this machine.. Its NT nt nt nt.. and above all notes 4.6.. Ooops I am doing lot of what we call my native "Polambification".. Never mind it works.. let me get on with it..