Quote for the context ...

Sometimes some quotes suite the context so well that we just say (or think in ourselves :) ) - PERFECT. Same is happening with me now these days and I found following FB quote. It suites the time but lets see if essence of the words come out to be the truth .......

Scènes à faire

According to the scènes à faire (stages to make) legal doctrine, if we give two reasonable authors the same idea, they will write the same novel. I guess this doctrine applies to following as well :

1. IT Developers
2. Indian Women
3. Opposition party leaders

Indian entrepreneurship example in healthcare sector

Recently I read about this new venture started by a software engineer in India.
Location :  Devanahalli, on the outskirts of Bangalore,Karnataka
Area        :  Healthcare
Est. Year : 2011

Project Objective :Setup a system (Drishti) to provide primary and secondary eye care services for people living in underserved areas.
Mission :
1.  Have social impact 
2.  Be Sustainable
3.  Be scalable 
Seed Capital : 50 lakhs
People :
1.  40 year old software engineer and
2.  His wife(Anjali Joshi)
3.  Ophthalmologist Rajesh Babu, 34
Industry Analysis :
The healthcare space is one of the most attractive bets by risk capital in India.In the first half of 2012, the healthcare sector in the country recorded equity investments of $749 M across 25 deals, bypassing the long-dominant favourite - IT sector says a report by PWC."It (eye care) is a $5-billion industry, which is extremely unorganised with a large gap when it comes to empirical data. However, investors know that an entrepreneur will have to identify the right market," says AM Arun,Vasan Eye Care, India's leading chain of eye care hospitals. He believes the rising demand for healthcare allows for better valuations of new ventures in the sector.It is a philosophy that industry experts tracking the sector are also beginning to subscribe to.According to PWC' Sanjeev Krishan, the industry's increasing attractiveness for private equity is driven by the premise that healthcare combines elements of retail, consumer products and infrastructure - areas private capital has traditionally invested in."Healthcare has elements of all these industries with less accompanying risk," Krishan, leader,PwC, said.

Business Model :
Drishti operates on a simple model. The 2 vision(Bagepalli , Vijaypura) centres screen patients and reports are sent to the ophthalmologist in the secondary care centre. Within 15 minutes of receiving the data, the doctor responds with his assessment. Additionally, it also hosts 10 eye camps a month in semi-urban and rural areas.

"For cases that require more detailed treatment, an appointment with the ophthalmologist is booked, and the patient is brought from the centre and then dropped back," says Joshi.

The co-founders expect to have their hospital to be fully equipped with operating theatres by January 2013. 
Anandampillai and Drishti's co-founders are currently in talks to raise Rs 2.5 crore from institutional investors, and expect to have a deal closed later this month.

"Our belief is that prospective investors expect returns equivalent to 15-20%, and I think we should be able to meet that," Anandampillai said. "We won't be giving them a return right now. We must first turn cash-flow positive and the target for that is 18 to 24 months".

To turn profitable, Drishti will first have to scale operations by ensuring that individual units are first profitable and can generate enough surplus to fund future expansion. Anandampillai expects to have at least 10 operational centres by the end of 2013. "We should be cash-flow positive within 18 months of receiving the investment. At that point, we should be clocking revenue of about Rs 1 crore," he said.

Plan the learning = Learning to plan

Another things in 2012

Making mistakes in life ...

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
- George Bernard Shaw

 

Greatness of human being lies in simplicity...

A man will be known by his words and works ......................RIP YP

"Pehli bhaisaab ko dijiye. Only then will I accept it," 

"Yaar Chintu I can't believe that I have come this far and that I have a studio in my name.''

'Do it the way Adi says'."

'Amit respects everybody and is the most civilised and cultured person. He is the first exemplary son I have seen in my life. He never talks about his achievement and status. I love Amit.'


 

Culture always unites

As a regular habit , I was standing on monster.no when I saw en event 'Oslo Global Mobility Forum 2012' and my click on it drifted me to its website. To understand the event , I browsed through the pages and suddenly my eyes got stuck on the name 'Pooja Sinha Skogstad' - one of the speakers at the event. Name* looked familiar and so sparked my curiosity to know her more and I just pasted her name from there to google and as always - Google satisfied me.


I got to read , she is daughter of NY based Indian doctor couple and she got married to Nils Ansgar Skogstad- a Norwegian.I chained myself to NYtimes' wedding section and read her story. It was interesting to know that even after living so many years in states, her family has not only maintained the Indian tradition but also embedded it in her daughter as well.After living abroad for few years, my ears heard this kind of story few times ( in fact All NRIs/OCIs want this - I guess :) ). But what was more surprising that a norwegian who lived 5 years in Pakistan( so called political arch rival of India) was mesmerized enough by Indian culture that he waited years to marry an Indian girl.If the article is to believe then it was heartening to know that their relationship was not started because of his love to Indian cuisine ( or bollywood ) but Indian culture(and it's ambassador Pooja).After living in Norway for few years I can say for sure that his statement “I’m sure I’ve visited India more times than you have” says he understood something special about India.

I would give credit of this 'Sangam' to Indian culture,Indian parenting and NORWEGIAN UNDERSTANDING and of course to Pooja Sinha Skogstad - God bless them :) .

* In Todays world where few second generation kids change their name to suit the culture they live in making it difficult to know about their roots ( may be that is the intention as well ).

Lucky Indians at Olympics 2012 .....Heart Winners

Like many other fellow Indians I expected India to win at least 3 more medals and at least one Gold. But this was our love for country and driven by past performances of some of our sportsman. We forgot that Olympics in not CWG. It is event where we compete with just the best of world.....but in the end , we realized that we got what we deserved after competing at world level.

We all know that somehow Indians-most of us do not treat sports as career. But this is changing and change is visible not only in terms of performances but also in terms of variety of sports disciplines , where Indians are shining( eg Amit kumar was, youngest Indian wrestler to qualify for Olympics)

Now we can boast of having double Olympic medalist - Sushil Kumar.

Though , many of us disappointed by medals India has won in Olympics but considering our preparation and mentality, we performed well. The expectation of people shows that now we believe in abilities of our own sportsman. Before this Olympics we fetched just 15 medals ( after 1948) but just in this Olympics we won 7 alone. To me this is big achievement. It is a big change that will provide the platform to more and more Indians to come forward and be part of sports new India.

One thing which is very remarkable this time is - support from professional bodies like OGQ and MCT apart from GOI. Of the 6 medalists, 4 were funded by Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), a foundation supporting India’s top athletes; a fifth, bronze medal wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, received similar support from Mittal Champions Trust (MCT).Both OCQ and MCT design customized programs for their athletes, providing everything from the best training and coaching facilities in India and abroad to sports medicine and nutrition to travel expenses. This is something which GOI could not provide (considering their style of working and lack of interest ). So support from corporate sector is somthing which happened first time in Indian sports history - and result is visible.

Hopefully these 6 Indians will ignite rest of millions to bring more medals in 2016 and during these years we will have more world record beaters,world number 1 from India....

What is Boson in 'Higgs boson' ?

In the whole world, physicists are celebrating the GREAT discovery of 'Higgs Boson' - God particle.It will guide us to convert our cosmos theoretical knowledge to practical base. But what is this Higgs Boson ?

Higgs boson is one of the six elementary bosons that were discovered by an Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.These are :

• The four gauge bosons (γ · g · W± · Z)
• The Higgs boson (H0)    
• The graviton (G).

All these bosons are particles which obey Bose–Einstein statistics.

Now Higgs Boson importance ... As the Universe cooled and the temperature fell below a critical value, an invisible force field called the ‘Higgs field*’ was formed together with the associated ‘Higgs boson’. The field prevails throughout the cosmos: any particles that interact with it are given a mass via the Higgs boson. The more they interact, the heavier they become, whereas particles that never interact are left with no mass at all. The problem is that before this july,no one has ever observed the Higgs boson in an experiment to confirm the theory. Finding this particle would give an insight into why particles have certain mass, and help to develop subsequent physics.

So when we raise a toast for people involved with discovery of 'Higgs boson',do remember our own Mr. Bose(Another Indian like Gandhi who deserved the Nobel for his work but but but....).

* a hypothetical, ubiquitous quantum field supposedly responsible for giving elementary particles their masses.

Kind of satisfied..

Worthy enough to remind too much wait could make u 'done'

As always Kalam saahab is best with his message. His every lecture has so much depth and force us to think differently. He is the ONLY president who is nominated to the list of  Top 50 great Indians after MK Gandhi but 'destiny' of our nation is that even though not even a SINGLE Indian can be found who deny the fact that 'Kalam is THE BEST Candidate for the post of Hon. 13th President of India'  but NO BIG POLITICAL PARTY( I am only including them as most of the small parties are opportunistic parties )  has courage to support him publicly ....But still I( and many other Indians) support him to be next President of India. The President of India is deemed to be a non-political post and requires aura,integrity,charisma,honesty,statesmanship and Mr. Kalam is best suited to all these adjectives.He was born(1931) in Rameswaram in a simple Indian family and since then he uplifted himself and worked for India and never compromised his values ( which most of the politician do from time to time ) even now he maintained a dignity by saying that he is agree to be president if all agrees to his name.Which seems impossible in world of indian politics.Even if he can not become the PRESIDENT OF REPUBLIC OF INDIAN, he will be the president of YOUTH OF INDIA.

After watching the politics being played by smaller parties over the issue of 13th president I must say, It is very difficult to understand the word 'Consensus' in Indian politics. I am 100% sure that even if MK Gandhi would have been alive , he must have been denied to become 'President of Rep. of India' if he would have been alive.

BUT IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT I DO NOT LIKE PRANAV DA. HE IS RESPECTED GUY AND SO HE EARNED HIS DUES. 

Fortunate or Unfortunate..

Like any other guy from U.P. , I had a lot of expectations from Akhilesh Yadav but slowly and slowly it is appearing to me that he is becoming just another U.P. CM. But I still believe in him....

Though I am not sure how much he helps his wife in guiding her to better direction but this example says that she is unfortunate that she could not get right advice from her own husband.

1. She is wife of in-office chief minister( who has majority(224/403) in state assembly).
2. Her father-in-law is M.P.,Founder and chief of a political party.
3. Her brother-in-law and uncle-in-law both are M.P.
4. She does not have any political status by virtue of her own(even lost last contested election by 85000).
5. She is mother of 3 young and cute kids and a young wife.

BUT She still thinks that Above is not enough and she still have more time and has less opportunity to contribute to serve the people of U.P. and so she got herself elected as M.P.

And We Indians who know this all but still elected her unopposed...I find it surprising that Anna Hazare who calls for 'right to recall'( to clean our election process ) could not muster the courage to go the to her constituency and make people realize that 'THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR DEMOCRACY' ( He was JUST busy with making sure that MS is proved to be corrupt)....How pathetic state of our politics.

Starting of Golden phase in Indian Sports history

London is being decorated for 2012 Olympic and so like other countrymen we Indians are also wishing to do better then last year.Country of 1 Billion+ is wishing and praying to break 1-0-2 by a big margin.

Believe me this year will be noted as Golden year in our sports history.....Why ?

Expectations are high as fever is gripping the world,this could be Indian girls'
outing on podium of 2012 Olympic.Wishing and praying that they prove their determination(despite all odds*) and take our sports to a new level. Best wishes to Sudha Singh,Mary Kom,Deepika Kumari, Chekrovolu Swuro and L Bombayla Devi,Saina Nehwal, KM Beenamol,Krishna Poonia,Seema Antil...( No worries,if you know only 2 of these ...just wait and you will see their name in all Indian news paper between 8 july and 12 aug :) )

Special Thanks and Gratitude to very professional initiatives of Mittal Champions Trust (MCT),Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) and GoSports Foundation and truly inspiring leadership of Viren Rasquinha,Manisha Malhotra,Geet Sethi,Prakash Padukone, Nandan Kamath..for Indian sports....London Olympic will begging of historical phase in Indian sports history.

*Mary Kom spents around 300 days a year in national camps, miles away from her home in Imphal where her two kids – Rengpa and Nainai.Just last year, Rengpa was down with fever. So when Mary Kom’s husband told her about it, she asked her husband on phone to take even the second child, Nainai, for a check up. She still can’t explain why(BUT WE KNOW IT) she insisted on that but it proved to be a life-saving call.Nainai was dignosed with a hole in his heart and was immediately operated upon.Mary was kept in the dark about the details till everything was fine.

*The Government of Rajasthan has announced cash reward of Rs 10 Lakhs(after she won gold in c'wealth games) to Krishna though the same government had not approved her application for assistance of Rs 1 lakh for training abroad. She funded expenses on her overseas training out of her pocket .Her son was just 8 months old and she left him for 6 months because of busy training schedules abroad.

For which point Aamir Khan should apologize ?

I am not diehard fan of Aamir khan but support him on case to case basis( as many other do as well).  Recently he started his TV debut show 'Satyamev Jayte' with a bang. As happened with him he does not do things just for the sake of doing it and which reminds me following line :
                           "Winners Don't do Different things they do things differently"

Many people compared his show with Opera Winfrey but I do not believe that this comparison has any meaning as both are differently presented and perceived.

First 3 episodes( female foeticide,child sex abuse and big fat Indian wedding) could not evoke sharp criticism against Aamir but fourth episode converted many of his admirers/fans to foes.Why ? Because here he criticized the malpractices of medical profession and raise the issue of corruption in medical profession.

21 medical associations of medical professions got united against him and demanded an apology from Aamir khan for throwing the bad light on medical profession. Like any other part of world medical profession is very hard-working and respectful profession. All the young kids who get selected into the MBBS,BDS,MS... are bright and intelligent brains. So this demand a close scrutiny of Aamir's show and so I watched it twice and noted down the following details :

Show start : Aamir  started his show with the words 'I am concerned about healthcare system'.
example-1 : Vektesh of Mumbai got bad treatment from a doctor.
example-2 :  A girl from audience described her ordeal with doctor.
example-3 : Major Pankaj rai story who lost her wife because of some doctor.
Aamir said - "Doston Galti kisi se bhi ho sakti hai . Doctor bhi ek insaan hai usse bhi ho sakti hai. hum galti ki baat nahi karenge hum niyat ki baat karenge"
example-4 : Pathology owner  Dr. Anil Picchar described how he has been treated by other doctors when he started his lab. He described commission that is widely paid to doctors for pathological tests.
example- 5: Dr. Amol pandit described his reason why he left India and working in Wales,UK (referral commission ).
example- 6 : Case of women of whole village in Andhra Pradesh who lost their uterus.
example- 7 : what happened in MCI in past few years.Boss of MCI Dr. K.K. Talwar could not deny what Aamir put forward. ( Aamir has the data for 50 years via RTi but he just got answer for past 4 years does he is at fault for answer he got for RTI ?)
After this he said - "Our health system is ill but we will find where is the root cause"..and show continues ...
example- 8: Dr. C.M. Gulati talked that health is least priority in our system and said that privation of medical collages is increasing and govt. operated medical collages are increasing and he justified why the doctor is charging more money. He said medical profession is UNVIABLE.
Dr. Gulati himself said that 30% commission is paid to doctor for prescribing specific medicines. He says medical area 'bribe Lena jurm nahi hai lena hai' - Aamir did not say anything.
After this Aamir moves to solution and says there are 2 basic challenges :
1- how to give good health services
2- how to make them affordable for all
example - 9 : Dr. Devi Shetty's  hospital Narayan Hridayala is lauded for affordable health care solution.He justifies how they made healthcare affordable.Aamir says - "YOU ARE INSPIRATION TO ALL."
example - 10 : Private medical vs generic medical purchase case is discussed. Dr. Samit Sharma is lauded for Generic medical stores.He said that medicines are being sold at very high prices.
Aamir says that Rajasthan govt has done good job by opening the generic medicine shops.
Aamir concluded that "THERE ARE MANY DOCTORS WHO ARE COMPROMISING WITH THE HEALTH OF THEIR PATIENTS BUT IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT ALL THE DOCTORS ARE DOING SO. STILL THERE ARE PLENTY OF GOOD DOCTORS WHO ARE DOING THE YEOMEN SERVICE AND HE SALUTES THOSE DOCTORS"

Now my question is -  For which point Aamir should apologize ?

• For the examples that were presented on the show ?

• Should he aplogized for what ALL the DOCTORS (Dr. Anil Picchar,Dr. Amol pandit,Dr. C.M. Gulati,Dr. K.K. Talwar,Dr, Devi Shetty,Dr. Samit Sharma) said on the show ?

• For the good words that he said about the doctors or the words he said about the pathetic condition of our health care system ?

Just 2 more points :
1. Which of the following fact(which SJ discussed) is distorted or biased :
---> Doctors NEVER take commission from pathology against the tests?
---> Doctors ALWAYS write generic medicine names on prescriptions ?
---> Private Medical collages are being opened more as compare to Govt. ones.
---> India spends less than 2% of its GDP on health sector.
---> Since 2008 NO doctors have been suspended by MCI for not following the MCI norms ?

2. If all doctors are agree(against what was said on SJ)then why they are not asking the organization like Ask the IMA(Indian Medical Association) and medscape to terminate the membership all those 7 doctors who were part of the SJ episode.If not then it means that MAJORITY of doctors agree with Aamir and SJ.

Satyamev Jayate is NOT Mahabharat

Listen to this one Satyamev Jayate

Very recently I participated in a event where all participants are requested to donate/contribute some money for development and charity projects in Asia and Africa. I was very humbled to see the compassion of the Norwegians(in general Europeans) for such purpose. They were very sincerely and quickly filled the forms that says that they are ready to give away x% of their salary every month for this great NGO.Hats off to such initiatives.
While coming from there , I was thinking that can this kind of charity solve the problems in developing countries alone. Being an Indian obviously my mind was forcing me to think in the context of India and my conscience said- NO NEVER... DONATING MONEY CAN NEVER SOLVE THE PROBLEMS IN INDIA.WE ARE NOT SHORT OF MONEY.

What we need in India is a junoon to do the things for people.Love for money is prevailing over love for country/society. By the grace of God in India we have ALL - natural resources,human resource and technical resource  and billion of rupees as well. We have enough food to feed our country(Nobody should die of hunger), We have enough medicines to give better health services and we have enough engineers to automate the whole process to block loop holes in system. But hunger for money/profit is number 1 and this is affecting the behavior and attitude of common Indians.

What is the use of more money if that money is going towards corruption or become black money(and making all of Indian even more debt ridden). For uplifting the society India need money for sure but money is not first thing first things are following:
1. People who think for society/India.
2. Better Policy which serves the majority not just minority.
3. Better implementation of government schemes/projects.
4. Harsh punishment for people who obstruct point 2 and 3.

Unfortunately Anna Hazareji's movement is working for option 4 while Aamir khan is working for option 2 but nobody is working for option 2 and 3.

India can not be better place if we just once a while launch a good TV show(eg. Satyamev Jayate) or Anna anti-corruption movement. People will appreciate all this and forget once TV started broadcasting IPL and other soap operas.
We need to understand that Satyamev Jayate is not Mahabharat, which we can watch and forget. It is not history that we should just 'KNOW' for the sake of knowledge.It is not the serial where we just say 'what?' and 'Ohh' and then continue with routined life. It is 'Agaaz' of  a movement which should not stop after some Sundays it should become the JUNOON of todays India.Awareness is good for only those who don't yet not aware of it for others it MUST BE 'JUNOON'. A JUNOON to make India a better place for all of us and our coming generation.Remember that Gandhi,Subhash,Ajad, Bhagat they never spread the awareness alone they spread the junoon. If those people can spread the junoon 70-80 years back without media then why can not we do it with media, technology and even more intelligent and learned India. Aamir can do wonders !!!

In my opinion Aamir should repeat the same episode with new contestants(only those who got effected after first episode on same theme) after six months and then take it from there.We should never stop this junoon movement until we covered the point 2 and 3 as said above.Because then only we will be on the track to make India 'Shining'.

Signing off with the following song... Satyamev Jayate
Satamev Jayate....Jai hind.

SlideShare acquisition - a different perspective

I was reading a news about the SlideShare acquisition by linkedin for 119 million. It was inspiring to know that an Indian led company has achieved so much success. SlideShare wasstarted in 2006 and so it has achieved the status of no.1 presentation sharing site of the world. One could not ask for better success than this and that is why Amit Sinha says - "We could not be happier about this....". I was more interested to know 'Why' about his decision when he has acieved so much in 5 years and so went to SlideShare website and read his own comment where he pointed out following reasons :

One : "I firmly believe that SlideShare will grow faster with LinkedIn."
Question :
Growing faster in which domain ? Userbase,Branding or Revenue 
- In area of userbase , SlideShare does not need linkedin's help. It has it's own and very large userbase.
- In area of Branding , It has established itself as leading brand in content sharing and even can do more if diversify itself in some areas.
- In Revenue : I guess this is the area where Amit seemed more tempted but ....

Second : "I have watched as LinkedIn has grown from being a place to share your resume to a much richer site, where you go to keep up with what your professional network is doing and sharing. We like the path they are on, and are excited to join them on this journey."

Question : It is good that you are inspired by linkedin but you have much scope of as well. Why to sell ur own baby ..just collaborate with other majors and you could have be flying as well.....

As I was not much satisfied by above 2 reasons so I tried to analyzed this by another NON-Business way and found this as another example of Indian tech company bought by American giant just because they lack the world leadeship and tempted by the money.He did following  :


1. Worked for Americans companies
2. Left American firms and start their own business
3. Again worked hard to develop the business
4. Developed recognition
5. Sold the business to another American company
6. Ready to start American company again(After earning 119 million)

So he completed a cycle from step 1 to 6 with more money but lost the opportunity to make it BIGGER like LinedIn or Facebook.

It is not the first time that an IT guy has done something like this...read following example :

1. World fame Sabeer Bhatia, got educated in India and US.
2. Worked for apple as hardware engineer
3. Worked with Jack smith to setup and developed the world famous email brand - Hotmail
4. Sold Hotmail to Microsoft for around $400 million in 1997
5. Worked for Microsoft for 1 year....and now a days doing many things like ......

Above is my thoughtabout this acquisition and somehow it gives me an idea that America are the real business nation who knows how to do the business and dictate the market. They have the simple practice either grow faster or buy the one who have the potential to make Americans grow faster. Indians who are god gifted,hard working and laborious( and have seen life in India ) and love money and recognition falls easily into the trap.......they get everything but INDIAN Business loose the opportunity to be the lead the world and be 'LEADER'....:(

PS : A question that is popping up in my mind ...why India does not even a single world leading product brand ???...may be someone have answer .....

The power of emotions ....:)

Though I must admit that I am not a movie buff but sometimes we all want to feel the different stroke.....So late Friday night , I wanted to see some great movie but basic intent was to watch something very different yet emotional.Tried to search for top 10 emotional hollywood movies but list could not satisfy my quest. Suddenly I realized that Youtibe has some different kind of movies that one watch....So just browsed youtube movies and found following 2 movies :

Perfect Opposites : Based on a western couple who wanted to Live together, in harmoniously, mutually fulfilling bliss. but destiny takes it own turn in their relationship episodes which clearly portrayed by cast and ultimately it is proved that experience and maturity comes with age and mistakes(perhaps :) ).Key Lines in the movie that I find catchy :

• ...winning people like Aand B......is a lot less important than losing people like C.
• ...Live together, in harmonious, mutually fulfilling, emotionally gratifying bliss.

Later I was in good mood and had enough stamina left to go for another short movie and so landed with following :


Memories In March : A movies that clearly depicts a different angle to contemporary debated topic.This national award winning film has shown that emotions have power to change feelings of hate to love ( and vice-versa ). But willingness and time both are needed to understand that emotions is prerequisite for it. Movie director Sanjay Nag deserves full credit as the way he has depicted the plot is just admirable where as the credit of story goes to great Ritupano Ghosh.

If you are Noodle lover ...Do read this !!

Many of us can't live without "Instant Noodles" especially when one is away from home,came late and do not want to cook, in a foreign land. Here is a piece of information to share so that we can remove the potential health hazard of consuming Instant Noodles like Maggi.

DO NOT IGNORE THIS ... Especially those fond of Maggi...

INCORRECT WAY OF COOKING NOODLES'
Normally, how we cook the instant noodles is to put the noodles into a pot with water, throw in the powder and let it cook for around 3 minutes and then it's ready to eat.

This is the WRONG method of cooking the instant noodles.

By doing this, when we actually boil the ingredients in the powder,normally with MSG, it will change the molecular structure of the MSG, causing it to be toxic.

The other thing that you may or may not realize is that, the noodles are coated with wax and it will take around 4 to 5 days for the body to excrete the wax after you have eaten the noodles.

CORRECT METHOD:

1. Boil the noodles in a pot of water.
2. Once the noodles are cooked, take out the noodles, and throw away the water which contains wax.
3. Boil another pot of water, add the cooked noodles into the hot boiling water and then turn off the stove.
4. Only at this stage when the stove is off, and while the water is very hot, add the flavouring powder into the water, to make noodle soup.
5. However, if you need dry noodles, remove the noodles and add the flavouring powder and toss it to get dry noodles.

Dietician's Note:
If you buy plain hakka noodles which you make, you initially need to boil in water and discard the water. This will soften the noodles but to prevent it from sticking we need to add a tbsp of oil and also the noodles are deep fried partially to make them crunchy and then dusted with flour to prevent them from sticking while boiling. Hence when you buy the noodles they are already made unhealthy and this is the type we use to make stir fry noodles and the regular Maggie too is made the same way, plus they add MSG / Ajinomoto and other chemical preservatives.

A large number of patients with ages ranging from 18-24 years are ending up with pancreatitis either as a swelling or infection of the pancreas due to regular consumption of instant noodles... If the frequency is more than 3 times a week, then it is very hazardous...

Please share this info and help others to lead a healthy life .....

Western way of thinking abt public schools

On my way to hotel I bought an english news paper Copenhagen post ( I guess only one in english) and tried to understand the city from a different angle. Main news that caught my attention was the following :

Copenhagen City council had 2011-budget of 872 billion kroners ( 79253355 crore ) and out of that budget they used 900 million less. So city council had a meeting to decide what to do with the remaining 900 million kroners and unanimous decision was to use that money for uplifting the infrastructure of government schools as that is area where the local government has priority.

When I was reading this news I was just wishing

• How fortunate our Indian kids could have been if our politicians had the same feelings for our kids- specially the kids who go to public school. I myself went to public school and know the environment and attention we get there.Not sure if ever city council has given so much attention to publich school. Privatization of education has taken so much priority that nobody thinks about the public school. All the public school teachers who are good take private classes just because of apathy of 'local government'. God knows if this kind of trend will lead us to a point where we will be able to say that All indian kids have 'basic right of being educated upto high-school'. If so then we will be real knowledge capital of the world.
• sense of responsibility should prevail over our political lords and they also raise themselves from party,religion,region and think genuinely about the development of city/country.

Wow ... Nordic countries are quite educated too

Nordic countries are always quite highly ranked when it comes to standard of living but that has to impact the way education is provided to the kids here. Recently I found out that two nordic countries in list of 10 most educated countries :

1. Canada
2. Israel
3. Japan
4. United States
5. New Zealand
6. South Korea
7. Norway
8. United Kingdom
9. Australia
10. Finland

Though I do not know much about Finland but reason for Norway to be part of such list :
- In Norway schools have no restrictions placed on kids and kids are allowed to do what they wish.
- Kids know that they will not be subject to endless hours of homework and memorization, so there is   no pressure on them what so ever.
- In Norway,if a student really enjoys reading, he or she might read book after book all day long.
- In Norway schools never promote the toppers alone rather emphasis is given to the overall development of the class and group study is encouraged and practiced in early classes which results in better understanding among kids.

I wish that India should learn from these countries and make sure that kids are not burdened with high parental expectations and enjoy the study. 

Winning and be the best ....after loosing

I want to read the book....'It's Not About The Bike' as I wonder what made him winning one of the world's toughest cycling championship-'Tour de France' 7 times(1999-2005) after diagnosing cancer in 1996....I was listening on lecture of Tony Robbins and as per his believe - it is emotions who drove him to achieve this feat. So I want to feel how strong emotions can change lives. I am talking about the US cycling legend Lance Armstrong.

Can emotions ONLY be the biggest factor in life changing decision making ?

Nice quote to manage finance ..I do take note of it.

1.Save Money on Fuel : He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver nor security people around him.
2.Use public transport ( if possible) :He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world’s largest private jet company.

Advice From Warren Buffett For us :
1. Don’t go on brand name; just wear those things in which you feel comfortable.
2. Don’t waste your money on unnecessary things; just spend it on what you really need.

Some unknown but exotic Indian tourist destinations

Most of the people want to go on vacation and recharge their body and soul for further hectic life.But in a country like India finding a place where one can relax and enjoy peaceful vacation as well is quite a challenging task. During the vacation time most of the known places are full of people. So I am searching some places which are less crowded and peaceful. There is always a other side of such places and that is- these places do not have good infrastructure and facilities. So if you are ready for such places then find some of the places below :

• Location : Solang Valley

State    : Himachal Pradesh
Distance : 14 kms from Manali
Attraction : Ski school (winter),Paragliding school(Summer)
How to get there :
- Well-connected roadways from Manali and Shimla make Solang Valley easily accessible.
- All transports will be stopped a few kilometres before the valley. One has to completely rely on terrain vehicles or your own legs to reach the heart of the valley.

Remember: To check out the government-operated(HPTDC) tour operators in the base camp before booking your guides as private operators charge you triple the amount.

• Location : Valley of Flowers

State : Uttarakhand
District : Chamoli
Distance :  595 kilometers (370 miles) from Delhi
Attraction : The stunning landscape of The Valley of Flowers National Park in northern India's state of Uttarakhand, bordered by Nepal and Tibet, comes alive with the monsoon rain. This high-altitude Himalayan valley has around 300 different varieties of alpine flowers, which appear as a bright carpet of color against a mountainous snow capped background.The Valley of Flowers was “re”-discovered by a British mountaineer (Frank S Smythe) in 1931 by accident when he lost his way while returning from a successful expedition to Mt Kamet, he subsequently wrote a book on it titled “Valley of Flowers”. The park is open only in summer during the months between June and October, and is covered by heavy snow for the rest of the year.
How to get there :
- The nearest airport is in Dehradun, 295 kilometers.
- Nearest railway station : Rishikesh, 276 kilometers (170 miles) away.
- The closest you can get to The Valley of Flowers by road is Govind Ghat. This requires around a 10 hour drive to Joshimath, then another one hour to Govind Ghat. From Govind Ghat it’s a 13 kilometer (8 mile) trek along a steep, narrow, but well defined mountain trail to base camp at Ghangaria. This will take between 4 to 8 hours, depending on your fitness! The start of the main valley, where all the flowers are, is a further 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from Ghangaria.

One Itinerary sample from New Delhi :
day1     Start from Delhi and take Mussouri Express to Haridwar
day2     Arrive at Haridwar and onward to Joshimath by bus
day3    Joshimath to GovindGhat by bus and trek to Gangaria (3048m)
day4    Trek from Gangaria to Valley of Flowers (3962m) and back
day5    Trek from Gangaria to Hemkund Sahib (4329m) and back
day6    Trek from Gangaria to GovindGhat and onward to Badrinath by bus
day7    Badrinath to Auli and onward to Birahi by bus
day8    Birahi to Rishikesh by bus and catch train to Delhi
day9    Arrive at Delhi

• Location : Auroville

State    : Pondicherry
Distance : 6  kms from Pondicherry

Attraction : The Auroville(which means the 'City of Dawn') is an international experimental township. It was inspired by the evolutionary vision of Sri Aurobindo and founded by Mirra Alfassa, known as the Mother. This place is interesting because of the different concept of living adapted by the people of this town. They build community-based housings and the whole township is planned around the Matimandir which is located in the centre of the Auroville.

• Dhenkanal : 

State : Odisha
This is Odisha's very own hill station about 1600 km from Delhi.It is home to a variety of temples dedicated to Hindu deities with Lord Shiva reigning supreme in worship rituals.Dhenkanal is home to a variety of temples dedicated to Hindu deities with Lord Shiva reigning supreme in worship rituals. At 2239 metres from sea-level, situated at the north east corner of Dhenkanal, the Kapilash temple with its Kalinga style of architecture leaves you spellbound. Believed to be the second 'Kailash', you need to climb a fleet of 1352 stairs to get to the temple. During monsoon,the place is truly a visual treat as the surrounding jungles turn a shade of sapling green withpeacocks dancing.If you wish to be welcomed by the cooing of birds, ticking of woodpeckers, chuckling of chimpanzees, silent yawns of alligators, grunts of elephants and occasional roars of tigers, then Satkosia Gorge is the place to be in. A boat ride in the turbulent Mahanadi River with a cluster of ghariyals on the periphery will bring about a sense of adventure to your otherwise quiet holiday in Dhenkanal. 

Weather : The overall climate is hot, with humidity reaching a peak in April and May. Winters are short and hit the town between December and early January. Sporadic breakout of monsoon keeps the weather breezy and comfortably cool through the year. 
How to reach : By Train- there's no direct train except the Hirakud Express (from Delhi) that runs 3 days a week. By air: Flight to Bhubaneshwar (from Delhi) followed by a couple of hours journey by road to reach Dhenkanal

List will be updated as I get to know more such places .....Keep coming :)

what is Cowparade and Elephant parade ?

Sometimes somethings attract us and we connect to them so intimately that we can not describe the feeling and that is exactly what happened when my plane landed on A gate terminal of Copenhagen airport at Kastrup on last monday morning. As it was morning 7.30 am so I was in hurry(want to know why in hurry then please read book rich dad and poor dad ) to reach client office at christianshavn.

Suddenly my eyes got stuck on a status of a cow outside of a airport shop and I could not help but to stop and appreciated the art. My was surprized to notice that whole shop is filled up with cow and elephant statues some with ceramic some with metal and some with paper too.

I asked the girl at the counter about the companies who are producing such an art and she gave me the aautomn catalog of both the following companies which are doing such a remarkable work in the field of art.

http://elephantparade.com/
http://www.cowparade.com

Great work by renowned artists working for these companies..

Bianco Rosso Latte at Baresso

MV is fond of coffee and so I am afraid that a ardent tea lover like me is at the verge of changing religion.....We both together ventured out to the nearest Baresso outlet in evening(+6 degree) Today. Initially I thought to just accompany but it turned out a different experience.Though I tried to avoid the opportunity because of calorie conscious week but when she(find her in picture) recommended Bianco Rosso Latte as very different fruit coffee so I thought to respect her recommendation and ordered one for myself. This is grand caffe latte with raspberry and white chocolate(stick). I never heard a coffee with berry so was bit surprised.The Girl at the counter was kind enough to understand my calorie conscious thought and made coffee in skimmed milk.

I was not disappointed ( so it is proved that I need to ...) as it turned out to be a tasty coffee where the last few bites were good enough to remind me the flavor for next 30 minutes......courtesy MV.

Mini Switzerland of India

After visiting the Switzerland , I was thinking that though it is special place but our India has got some places which are similar to it and then I started my journey on internet. Soon I was reading it somewhere :) and got to know about the Khajjiar. It is the place where people can find peace and enjoy the nature and also be happy that their own country is offering the same view as world famous Switzerland.It is 24 km from Dalhousie (famous hill station ) but lies in Chamba district of state of  Himachal Pradess,India.

Khajjiar is among the 160 locations in the world that bear topographical resemblance with Switzerland and that is by one famous swiss it is named - Mini Switzerland of India.

One more place that has caught my attention was Mcleodgunj - Home to His Holiness Dalai Lama.It
is a small town near to Dharamshala, with not much to offer when it comes to number of places to visit. But there will be lot to explore if you want to see the lifestyle and the vibrant atmosphere on the streets.

2012 : An attempt to check the fitness level...

Life goes on hour by hour,day by day,month by month and year by year ; so we crossed 2011 with the hope that 2012 will be a better one than 2011.Started my first working day in Copenhagen with Nordea capital market project.This was a different kind of project where challenges are being thrown from day one. In the same spirit , I was thinking to do something new(as people do when a new year starts) and then somebody send me the following lines .....

" Having thoughts of 'I could do' or 'I should do' leads you down the path of DOING NOTHING! Stop rationalizing your thought process of I could or I should and choose to take the positive initiative to do! Lead others to do the same and remember there is no try! Do it and DO IT BIG!!!"
 
and while in the hotel lift I saw the ad of stylist gym at Radisson Blue ; An idea struck to take above words into action ; Decided to check the fitness level of my body and so started doing some exercise in evening and noting down some of the stats...(just for self introspection...) and so I continued daily to see what is easy for me( of course and quick ). After 4 days of short routine I had some stats to review and take it from there and here it is .........


Monday : 
Treadmil ; 2 km - 110 kcal - 2.5 degree
Lat machine : 15x25 kg,15x30 kg

Tuesday :
Treadmil ; 3 km - 250 kcal - 2.5 degree
Lat machine : 15x25 kg,15x30 kg

Wednesday :
Treadmil ; 2 km - 100 kcal - 2.5 degree
Arm curl  : 2x(20x25) kg
Lat machine : 15x25 kg,15x30 kg
Chest Press  : 2x(15x25kg)

Thursday :
Treadmil ; 3.5 km - 300 kcal - 2.5 degree
Arm curl  : 30x25 kg
Lat machine : 15x25 kg,15x30,15x35 kg
Chest Press  : 3x(15x25kg)

and the BMI is 25( height 167 and weight 69.8 kg).....Just overweight :) :(
I never ever thought that some stats can declare me OVERWEIGHT but stats are stats. 
This was not what I expected out of my body as well but considering the work schedule I had no reason to complain.....but to do better in the next coming days of 2012.

Magnetic heart

“There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first; when you learn to live for others, they will live for you.” - Paramahansa Yogananda