Inflation the true picture

Came across this price list board in Sri Rangam. This board tells the story of inflation.

P.S: For those who cannot read Tamil, the board shows the prices of various dishes.

BSNL land line and broadband story

If I was found searching for antonym for the word "service" on my desktop wordweb , the credit goes to BSNL. First the broadband stops working for no reason and no one picks up at the customer "service" center. When contacted to one of the agents whom we knew, he gave all stories(not solutions) possible by him. Like reconfiguring the router and changing password etc etc. Finally when we were able to raise a complain we came to know that the problem was that the phone number was itself gonna change and without any prior notice and without any change to my physical address. The reason being that some exchange is being changed. So now here I stand with a new changed phone number and I have to inform all my relatives and friends of the change. Whats more taxing is that this is the phone number which is updated in all my previous employers,passport and all other important documents. As of now when called to the older number they redirect to the newer number by a message, but I am not sure how many months that message will be played.

And by the way the antonym for service happens to be a simple "disservice".

Sporting extravaganza on the weekend

This sunday I witnessed two big sporting extravaganzas. One being the cricket final for Asia cup played between India and Sri Lanka and the other being the Wimbeldon finals and I was found switching my channels at every chance I get. Though cricket failed to garner my interest for long (as has beent he case of late with 50 over matches) , some moments truly stood out in cricket as well.

• India's decision to field 8 specialist batsman and only 3 genuine bowlers came as a surprise move to me but nevertheless, Dhoni should be appreciated for thinking out of the box.
• Though the match was a lackluster fair especially if you were supporting India, the presentation had its own drama. Rameez Raza in his typical anti-India comment quoted the statistics of India losing out 18 finals out of 22 played from 2002. Dhoni was quick to bounce back with " At least we came to finals, some teams(Pakistan) even failed to make to finals." Bravo Dhoni once again.
  

And what a tennis match it was. Inspite of rain interruptions now and then we were in for a treat. The match initially in Nada's favour found the champion in Federer when he bounced back like never before with 2 set wins. It was a contest of Champion vs The Aggressor. It was the match between two men who showed true character. How else do you explain the amount of focus and determination shown by both during this 4 hour 48 minute battle of nerves. Hats off to both of you! I could only wish for some more of the match.

Some random thoughts

The issue which is taking the whole country by storm these days is sky rocketing inflation. Now added to that are sever shortage of fuel and a indefinite truck strike which is set to create a sever shortage of essential commodities which in turn will raise the inflation again. And as has been the trend in recent times in movies and various talk shows , people are blaming IT companies and the economic imbalance it is creating in the society for all these. Is the blame game right? I feel no.

The Govt. has failed to capitalize on major opportunities of growth and employment generation and this is the major cause of the economic imbalance existing in the country today. Which sector of Govt. in the past 61 odd years of Indian independence has created as many job opportunities as the IT sector. And why is Govt. not coming ahead in implementing some of the key development projects in India for instance the interlinking of rivers which is all set to generate more than 2 lakh jobs and eradicate the problem of floods and drought. It is because of the petty politics of the parties where they pull each other's legs which is the main hindrance in the successful completion of such projects and not the economic imbalance created by the IT sector. IT sector pays more. Agreed. But the reason for the same is that an IT company initial investment is very minimal and the profits it earns are huge. No IT company pays employees as a charity. Hence, Govt. must concentrate on uplifting of other sectors for equal growth rather than trying to pull down IT's growth.

However, I feel that the IT cos and employees on their part have to be more socially responsible. Especially in the aspect of saving fuel. The entire world will face a very severe fuel shortage in near future with the current growth rate in all the sectors. IT cos should invest some amount of their research in fields to develop energy efficient computers which will cut down fuel usage. Also the employees should shed off their ego and refrain from using unnecassary ACs. I mean, you don't need AC at night 9 pm even in the sultring heat of Chennai in the bus or cab. And the lightning used in the IT cos is also a major concern for me. The lights are shielded with glass walls. All this is done just for a decoration purpose. But makes lights useless in terms of their primary role.
Also, the buildings should be constructed in a way to promote natural light to peep into. Many a times sitting in the office we do not realize what time of the day it is. And lastly, we employees can resort to some basic energy saving tips like shutting off the computer at EOD and switching off the monitor whenever away from seat. I know some companies have already started to work on these but majority still have not.

Lets save power and lets save the world.