Thursday, December 30, 2004

Tsunami Surveyed

Piyush has got a very good article on the Scientific Background and the events related to the current Tsunami hit in SE Asia. Click
here to read it online.
To have a Topographical view of the Areas affetced by Tsunami click here
The more detailed coverage with Discussions, Videos and Photos can be obtained here .
It is really amazing to hear from the USGS officials that they knew about the high waves hitting the Indian Coasts about a couple of hours before the disaster, but they did not have any contact numbers/address of the concerned Indian officials. This is absolutely weird, just an excuse I would say. I cannot believe that they do not keep the hotline number of the Indian Home ministry. With the blessing of the internet, even a kid of 8-10 years old can do a few google and get those numbers in not more than 10-15 mins.
More to this the USGS officials says “let this be a lesson for the IMD” huh!! How can they raise such a remark, don’t they themselves consider responsible for not informing the Indian authority on time.
Considerable lives could have been saved had the USGS officials responded positively and effectively. I admit that 1 hour is still very short time to get the complete evacuation done, but then the toll would have been reduced to half of what it is presently.

From the heart

Now this is really touchy, the rickshaw pullers in Salem contributed to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister' Public Relief Fund.
Read the complete story here .
This shows the big heart of the small. It shows how in times of miseries the entire India can come up together hand in hand to fight back. No wonder why the government has refused to accept the foreign aid currently. The overwhelming response from the generous people of India towards the Tsunami Relief fund, gave us the power to heal our wounds on our own.
I really appreciate the decision made by the PM on refusing the foreign aid and letting it first reach the country which requires it more urgently. This is what is expected of a great nation like India and India has again proved it. Yes, we do have enough resources enough courage and enough power to help our countrymen on our own.

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Tsunami Relief

Sunday was a black day for the coastal regions of South East Asia with thousands dead and hundreds of thousand missing as Tsunami hit these areas. No one had expected the year, so good so far, to end in this devastating fashion.

I urge to the readers of this corner of the weblog to contribute to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.
Click here for details on PMRF.

Send your contribution by Bank Transfer or by Credit Card

People interested in providing relief works in Chennai can get the contact numbers from here. They need essential items like non-perishable food, clothing and essential drugs like antibiotics, paracetamol and pain-killers.

Monday, December 27, 2004

My Christmas Weekend

Had another great weekend with some old friends; Sweety, friend from my graduation days, Bhanu my ITP batchmate and Pranawesh my TCS colleague and Bhanu’s roommate. I drove upto Bhanu’s place on Friday morning and from there we headed to Edison were we had some good samosa and chat. The place is kinda chotta Gujarat with all those guju bhai’s and bhenji’s having shops in all corner of the street. It was like being in apna Desh in Videsh.
You can find everything there, from Vada-paw to idli-vada and from mitha pan to tulsi and jarda… and the price is just reasonable.
The next day we went to NY and our dear friend Pranawesh took us to another Desi place in this Videsh, that’s the Jackon’s Hts…. the place is all crowded with Punju’s giving you a feel of your’s own Chandigarh in US.
The restaurants in those communities are catering to an ethnic population, not to others - it makes a huge difference - not only in food, but in feeling and atmosphere.
After having a good sumptuous lunch at the “Ashoka” there we headed for the Rockefeller where we saw the world’s largest Christmas tree. The environment was real chilling and the whole place was beautifully lighted.
We spent the evening strolling through the streets of NY (Times Sq. WTC etc etc…) and returned home about midnight.
As usual I forgot to take my camera and sweety did bring one but with discharged cells :) . We did take some snaps however with Pranawesh’s camcorder. I will be uploading the pics in my yahoo album as soon as he uploads the same.
The entire weekend was real good. It was fun seeing those old friends and spending such lovely moments with them.
Looking forward for another such weekend on the New Year eve.

Monday, December 20, 2004

It Snowed…..

Yesterday evening it snowed and the entire surrounding was turned white. It continued through the night and laid a thick layer of snow on the windshield and roof of my car. I had to spend almost half an hour to clean up the whole thing.
Had a real hard time standing in that chilling wind, cleaning up the entire mess. The door locks were all jammed and the snow had frozen hard on the windshield. But it was fun, as this was the first experience. But it got to be frustrating if I had to do the same everyday morning (or evening time too??).

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Mind against the Body.... (continued)

Read a post on Piyush's blog "Mind against the body", the entire plot was too inspiring.
Inspiration - yes, that is the driving force that keeps you working on a boring project the result of which would be out at what extent of time you are not sure of.
Well anyway I got highly inspired by his post and restarted to work out in the gym and burn my fat. Each day my mind had to beat my reluctant body to make me go to the gym.
After about a week the things seemed smooth, my body got accustomed to my rudeness and it seemed there would not be any more battle between My Mind and My Body. But life is not so easy; the trouble comes when you begin to think that the things have settled down. The killing winter came in for the support of My Body and forced My Mind to drag himself into the battle again. But this time the poor chap gave up to the rudeness of the freezing cold. Each time I step out of the door, the chilling breeze and the freezing cold forces me to get back inside the house and leave the task for the next day, but the next day will never come I know.
Today is the second day that I did not go for gym and I am sure the saga will continue till summer approaches.

Friday, December 03, 2004

Who is to blame? You think Media plays a good role?

DPS RK Puram--
Saw this news in the Times of India on first day. And since then I have been receiving loads of mails from friends all over discussing about it. I hate this, we are simply adding up to the misery of that poor girl by discussing the news and forearding the mails all over.Can we not take a step ahead to help that ignorant child, by simply clicking on the Delete button of your mailbox and not discussing it further.Can the people who are receiving those MMS, not delete it from there cell phones and give her a helping hand in overcomming her mistake.
The real culprit I say is the Media, who for the sake of making money and making there editorials more popular and demaning makes a hue n cry of the small issues.Take for example the case of the Gujarat riots. The massacre was really not so huge as was portraid by the News channels. While these medias play mischief with the ignorant puplic, they do not realize that they are adding fuel to the fire. They don't even take guard of the things related to the National Security, they feel they are doing great job exposing it to the puplic; where as in reality they just are just adding up to the miseries. Can't they show up things which could help make things better and ignore the scenes that can make things worse?