Right To Information!!

• Do you want to stop paying bribes but worried if your work will get done or not?

• Do you think your municipality is skipping the sanitation duty in your area?
• Do you wish to do social audit of a particular department in any area?
• Do you wish to inspect the material used in any government work?
• Do you want to see how the MLA of your constituency spent all that development fund?

Being an Indian if you haven't heard of RTI than you must have been deep asleep while a storm swept over the countries bureaucracy. If you have any of the questions above but don't know whom to ask or where to ask, then check this website out.

Parivartan

I am impressed by the work they are doing and the help they are providing to information seekers. Hope it helps to anyone who wants to change something in the system!!

8 Random Facts

I was tagged by Amrita for this ... nice to know random facts about people but to write your own is not that much fun!! Well here are the rules of the game ...

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged, write a blog post about their own 8 random things, and post these rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
4. If you fail to do this within eight hours, you will not reach Third Series or attain your most precious goals for at least two more lifetimes.

I think it would be fun to give it a try ... not that i m not afraid of rule#4 :P

1.) I love bollywood movies. I can watch any movie made in bollywood, specially old ones.

2.) I read my first english book (apart from text books) at the age of 19, when i was going on vacation from college. It was The Firm by John Grisham.

3.) Unlike most guys in this world, I love shopping of any kind. In fact I love window shopping. It used to be my favorite passtime in India, to roam around in the malls.

4.) Like most people I love sleeping. can sleep almost everywhere ... friends from college remember me as the guy sleeping on the last bench!!

5.) I have been in USA for one year and yet don't know much about amrican tv. On the other hand I follow various indian tv series on a regular basis, like Koffee, Laughter, Office-Office and Antakshari!!

6.) I love learning sports, have tried my hands on several games. I am not an expert in any of those ... kind of jack of all!!

7.) I have started cooking a year back and I love it. Nothing to boast but I Can cook almost all north indian dishes :P

8.) I love babies. They are so cute !!! I would instantly wink at unknown babies and make faces to see them laugh!!

Now the best part of it .... I get to tag 8 more people!!!
My choice is Ankur, Kokonad, Charu, Prerna, Sree, Shridhar, Gaurav. Have fun guys!!!

is your credit card company cheating on you??

Have you wondered why the credit card agents are so anxious to give you those life time free credit cards??
Have you thought how the credit card companies earn profit, while giving you interest free credit for 40 days?
Is your credit card statement perpetually late?? do you have to suffer the late fee because of delay on part of the credit card company?

Link to story

Stop paying late fee, and be cautious while using those cards!!
The credit card companies have earned 6000 crore rs. from customers in terms of various fees. They have been violating norms using unfair practices and making false promises. Its one of their strategy to delay the issue of statement and then levy the high late fee. Another practice they have is selling the credit card in the name of life time free and then levying annual fee one year later!!

*Tip* : If you are victim of your credit card companies bad practices, talk to their customer service and threaten to discontinue the card. Its a tested method and works most of the time.

Great Bihar Police

Bihar faced communal clash in January this year. Bihar policed filed FIR against 7 people for attack on police force and inciting riots. and guess who is among those 7.
A two year old kid who can't even eat his food on his own (according to his aunt). Now that the matter is in media, police says it might be a clerical error. I wonder how many clerical errors of this kind have gone unnoticed, and how many of those innocent people have been booked for the crimes they never did. If they can book a two year old for rioting then there is no stopping them to book anyone for any crime they want.

Link to the story

I remember a joke, once a police commissioner called inspector that his watch and ring are missing. The inspector gets on work. The commissioner calls back in few minutes saying he found his watch and ring in bathroom, the inspector says, "How is it possible sir, I have five different people locked up here saying they stole those items."

Rang de Basanti

We all saw it, we all liked it.

But someone took it to heart, and went ahead to do their part to the society. I always had a bad impression of the rich kids, but then you don't need a million deeds to change your view. These kids know their forte and are using it in a great way. They know they are rich and have contacts with similar people and they have channeled the effort in a very right way. I know it would be too much to ask for everyone doing their part, but even half of us did it, the world would be a much better place to live.


Link to story

I salute you "DSP Sarabjeet Singh"

This article on meri-news touched my heart. The officer went against the 'fatwa' by terrorists and performed the last rituals for the son of a 70 year old lady. I salute to the officer for his brave deed!! These are the people who command respect. His duty did not require him to do that but he chose to do it. That makes it more touching. I have seen this kind of scenes in bollywood movies, but it makes me happy to know that there are real people playing those roles in real life!!
I know it'll take few years for this kind of article to feature in the mainstream print or electronic media. But I hope it happen sooner than later.

Link to the article

Zanies All

"Terrific date last night," Fred told Bill at the office on morning: "Blonde. Really gorgeous. After the dance we went out and parked by the lake. I asked her for a kiss. She saidshe would if I'd put the top down so we could enjoy the moonlight. So I went to work and got the top down in about an hour and-"
"An Hour!" Bill exclaimed. "I get mine down in two minutes."
"Sure," replied Fred, "but you have a convertible!"
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An African chieftain flew to London for a visit and was met at the airport by newsmen. "Good morning, Chief," one said. "Did you have a comfortable flight?"
The chief made a series of raucous noises-honk, oink, screech, whistle, z-z-z-z--then added in perfect English, "Yes, very pleasant indeed."
"And how long you plan to stay?" asked the reporter.
Prefacing his remarks with the same noises the chief answered, "About three weeks I think."
"Tell me, Chief," inquired the baffled reporter, "where did you learn to speak such flawless English?"
After the now standard honk, oink, screech, whistle and z-z-z-z, the chief said, "Short-wave radio."

Top 10 Body Hacks

Are you bored of hacking the silly computers?? Try out hacking your body with lifehacker's top 10 body hacks!!

Lifehacker Top 10 Body Hacks

Foot in Mouth Disease!!

One morning a businessman's secretary was showing off a stunning new tailored suit, her birthday present from her family. Her boss stopped to admire it, then went on into his private office to greet a client who was waiting to see him.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," he told his startled caller, "but i was just admiring my secretary in her birthday suit."

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It had been several weeks since a prosperous farmer had been in the bank where she worked. "Miss Lee," he greeted her, "you seem to be getting a little stouter."
"Don't you know you mustn't ever tell a woman she is getting fat?" she chided.
"Oh," he said with surprise, "I didn't think a woman of your age would mind."



Source: RD

Wit n Humor

Two friends, one 50 and the other 60, were arguing about the forthcoming marriage of the latter to a young lady in her 20's. "I don;t believe in these May-December marriages," disapproved the 50-year-old. "After all, December is going to find in May the freshness and beauty of spring-time, but whatever is May going to find in December?"

The bridegroom-to-be replied, "Christmas!"

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• People seldom think alike- until it comes to buying wedding presents.

Source: Reader's Digest Treasury of Wit and Humor.

Are you a bad guy??

Once, a man was waiting for a taxi. A beggar came along and asked him for some money. The man ignored him. But being a professional, the beggar kept on pestering him. The man became irritated when he realized that the beggar would not leave him alone unless he parts with some money. Suddenly an idea struck him. He told the beggar, "I do not have money, But if you tell me what you want to do with the money, I will certainly help you."

"I would have bought a cup of tea", replied the beggar.

The man said, "Sorry man. I can offer you a cigarette instead of tea". He then took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and offered one to the beggar.

The beggar told, "I don't smoke as it is injurious to health."

The man smiled and took a bottle of whisky from his pocket and told the beggar, "Here, take this bottle and enjoy the stuff. It is really good".

The beggar refused by saying, "Alcohol muddles the brain and damages the liver".

The man smiled again. He told the beggar, "I am going to the race course. Come with me and I will arrange for some tickets and we will place bets. If we win, you take the whole amount and leave me alone".

As before, the beggar politely refused the latest offer by saying, "Sorry sir, I can't come with you as betting on horses is a bad habit."

Suddenly the man felt relieved and asked the beggar to come to his home with him. Finally, the beggar's face lit up in anticipation of receiving at least something from the man. But he still had his doubts and asked the man, "Why do you want me to go to your house with you".

The man replied, "My wife always wanted to see how a man with no Bad habits looks like."

Cabbie!!

A taxi passenger tapped the driver on the shoulder to ask him a question.
The driver screamed, lost control of the car, nearly hit a bus, went up on the footpath, and stopped centimeters from a shop window.

For a second everything went quiet in the cab, then the driver said,
"Look mate, don't ever do that again. You scared the daylights out of me!"

The passenger apologized and said, "I didn't realize that a little tap would scare you so much."

The driver replied, "Sorry, it's not really your fault. Today is my first day as a cab driver - I've been driving a van carrying dead bodies for the last 25 years.

Slum Free Dharavi

This is a continuing post to my last post about slum free dharavi.
Here are many more links to the plan ...

Maharashtra Govt plan's ppt (beware its 118mbs)

Rediff

Hindu

Slum Rehabilitation Authority page.

DNA (Daily News & Analysis)

Mumbai NEWSLine1

Mumbai NewsLine2

Mumbai facelift: is it too good to be true?

Imagine 70 million sq ft land changing from slums to skyscrapers!!! That is the plan IAS officer I.S. Chahal (Vice-President of Maharashtra Housing And Area Development Authority) is looking after.

The plan include giving the land to a builder for development and major points are

• The slum dwellers will be given 225 sq ft flats in some of those buildings. I know the place would be very small but i guess its still more than the place they have currently.
• The govt. will get 450Rs per sq ft premium which would not be very great but still worth mentioning.
• There will be a focus on local amenities like building of schools, colleges, hospitals and police stations.

I know there will be questions about corruption, feasibility, resistance etc etc. But I am happy just to think that there are plans for this thing.
Some of the pluses I see in this:

• Think of all the problems slum dwellers have from from garbage, sanitation, roads, congestion, etc. Slum dwellers doesn't even have proper sanitary arrangements. It would be a change of lifetime for them.
  
• It would solve the land shortage problem of Mumbai to a very great extent.
  
• If planned and executed properly, it would have lots of schools, parks, hospitals etc. Social improvement in line.

The story : ibnlive

Do share your views on this.