Hotel Albert , Latvia - Beautifully inspired by Albert Einstein

Past week I spent in a calm and fascinating baltic city - Riga (capital of Latvia ).My company has the Nordic new joiner course for all the fresh,experienced people who recently join the company. As training is my hobby , so whenever I get the opportunity and have time I sign up as coach.Every time I come here, I meet interesting young fellows from Norway,Sweden,Denmark,Finland n Latvia and also celebrate the diversity in human nature(derived from cultural background).

We stayed in Radisson Blu, hotel Latvia in city centre but the actual venue of the training was hotel Albert.
By name it looks as if it is just another hotel ( whose owner might be some 'Albert' ) but it is not just another kind of hotel.It is a theme hotel which is inspired by the legendary scientist Albert Einstein and so interiors is beautifully and aesthetically designed to suit the work and life of Albert Einstein.Apart from this they have very polite and energetic staff who is shows 'yes, we can attitude' and food is great. Our whole team enjoyed their great hospitality every time and so they we are their permanent corporate client.

I love this hotel because it reminds us of the belief of Albert Einstein and so educate and inspire us.
I am putting some of the pictures of the hotel interior for you :

Note : only one watch runs clockwise , rest of the watches are running anti-clockwise.

Following is the picture of carpets they have in hotel:

Above are the pictures of the floor 5 and 7 , so every floor has Eienstein's formula.

Following are the pictures taken inside the lift :

Following are the symbols for toilets ; Guess , which one is for male ?

Can IT help in handling corruption ?

Anna’s JLP bill assumes that what’s broken can’t be fixed.But actually it is not the case ,we have a lot of good laws and regulations ( and if not then why he is not asking for specific strict amendment to law) but implementation is somehow bogged down at many level of system. 

Being an IT professional and believing in the fact that India is IT capital of the world, I always think and try to find out - How to use IT strategically to tackle( I am not using the word solve ) the problem of corruption in India.So here are the points that I come across :

  

Electronic Identity : Government has already taken initiative by creating Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and soon under the visionary leadership Nandan Nilekani, we will see its impact in reducing corruption. Though there will be hiccups but remember this is herculean task , so one should not lose hope towards best possible finish. Once each Indian is covered ( even if 70% coverage we should treat it 100%) we will identify the real beneficiary and slowly and slowly each and every transaction done by AADHAR holder will be traceable which will certainly control the corruption.

Online Legal information system : Anna’s JLP grants powers to initiate Prosecution against anyone found guilty.  This implies some kind of a parallel judiciary and law enforcement mechanism. Do we need one more court in country of 1.2 Billion people? Why not make reforms to our current courts system and law enforcement enterprises and expedite the pending 30 million cases first to reduce the burden from judiciary. Justice delayed is justice denied. Why can’t we have a electronic system of managing the legal cases , so that people get justice in a specific time-frame and long pending cases get priority and a transparent system of appraisal exists for judges and advocates.   

Integration and Networking: We have experienced that ATM have revolutionized core banking and reduced the burden of banks and so banks are engaged in more productive banking work. Similar reform is much widely appreciated in railways where Centre for Railway Information Systems (or CRIS) is doing fantastic job. So networking and integration is the key to reduce corruption as manual intervention will be controlled, limited and transparent. For example:

-          -   Integration and networking of police stations

-         - Integration and networking of different municipal agencies like Nagarpalika and development authorities (DA).

-          -  Integration and hospitals and Nursing homes and if possible then even medical stores.

-          - Integration of traffic police and transport department

Online Tendering and Evaluation : Since tendering in government departments plays a very important roles in boosting corruption, so computerizing this tendering process will certainly help in transparency. Government can create a specific department for online tendering processes and ask enforce all the government agencies to publish tenders via this interface. Another option is to outsource this online process to some IT company like TCS or Infosys.

Understanding the differences between Govt. Lokpal and Jan Lokpal

For many days , I was trying to understand the differences between Govt's differences on Lokpal and so I tried to do get some comparisons before commenting. Here is the difference in excel sheet format :

Practical meaning of Minority ?

I am member of one yahoo group for foreigners in Norway and there very recently an American guy put up the following question :

"I'm applying for a job and one of the questions is this:
Har du minoritetsbakgrunn? Minoritetsbakgrunn defineres som personer fra Europa utenom EU/EFTA, Asia (inkl. Tyrkia), Afrika, Sør- og Mellom-Amerika og Oseania utenom Australia og New Zealand.
I translate it as:
"Do you have a minority background? A minority background is defined as people from Europe outside of the EU/EFTA, Asia (including Turkey), Africa, South- or Middle-Americas, and Oceania outside of Australia and New Zealand."

I'm from the USA so I'm not from the UE/EFTA but I'm also not from any of the areas listed above. Do you think I *am* considered a minority or...?Do any Caucasian Americans out there know from your own experiences whether you've been considered a minority?

and generous members of the group helped him by following responses :

• I do not believe that a white American will be considered a minority in Norway.
• I normally choose : Prefer not to answer :)
• I am a white American and for the past 6 years here have been told not only that I am not a minority, but also that I am not a foreigner. Technically according to the dictionary definitions I am both in Norway, but that is not how the words are used on a daily/practical basis here.What it meant is pridomantly people with non-white skin colors who come from non-western cultures or countries.

This raises some more questions  like :

- Do Swedish people are minority in Norway or do Swedish people are immigrants ?

- Do Polish people are minority in Norway or do Polish people are immigrants ?

These are the questions which should be well answered in near future by Norwegian politicians.

Diluting discretionary powers of the Ministers and Diplomats

In India corruption often comes in forms like favouritism and nepotism. It is difficult to stop these practices in practical sense. Looking at the debate which is happening in political circle now , it seems that policies which will be part of Lokpal Bill will be sufficient to solve all the corruption issues India is facing now. I understand that policing is important, but will not eliminate implicit corruption from root. Systemic action calls for focusing on electoral funding reforms,govt-transparency  and the steady reduction of discretionary government power should also be there so that we fill the loopholes in system.

Out of these 3 it looks like that GOI has taken some initiative is diluting the discretionary powers of the Ministers. Though it is just a part of initiative but still worth to start with....Read the following report in indian express.

I m fortunate that I am part of it...

Today I joined the Rosetog(i.e flower march) is Oslo along with thousands others in support of peace , harmony ,unity and compassion for each other.This was the time when Norway showed its character to the world. Norway has shown to the world that :
1. Norway not only promote the peace in other parts of the word by sending its peace keeping people and money
2. Norway not only encourage and support the efforts of peace in world by its Noble peace prize.
BUT
It also follows the same standards when it comes to handling the challenges like war,terrorism and hatred.

Thousands of  young kids,adult and pensioners all were part of this flower march. Every religion was present. And as usual there there was nobody(like security or police) to manage this crowd because in Norway people believe in self disciplined and  so it was not the crowed it was a giant grief stricken but united family marching for the cause of humanity.
- People were not shouting but instead raising their flowers as a sign of solidarity to world peace.

- Many people were having tears in their eyes but they were not angry.
- Everybody was sad but nobody was shouting slogans against anyone.
- Many foreigners who were not knowing Norwegian but still marching together because they believed what any Norwegian was thinking.
- People were carrying their kids on their shoulder, so that ultra young generation understand the feeling of compassion and unity. 
- Foreign media journalists were surprised by the behaviour of the Norwegian people.
- There was no VIP is the crowed ; all were equal.
- Though somehow police(politi) was late in reaching the Utøya but their sincere efforts were praised by the people...because everybody believe that they did their job with honesty and so deserve respect and applause.

Another Example of great country :
Mamma Behring( Mother of the guy who tried to kill the spirit of Norway) was not alone in this difficult situation of life Norwegian people have wrote to her following :

"Dear Mom Behring! In these bad times for you and the rest of the nation, we in this group that you should know that we think of you, you are also one of the relatives.....You are also hard hit, you are also one of the victims, you also are one of those that must be met with more care, more love and more kindness." 

"No one should judge you for what he has done. A mom will always love their children, and there is nothing wrong with that. Do not lock yourself inside came out and accept all the love we have to give you, "

It is very difficult to find such a country where the mother of mass-murderer is so protected and cared. I don't know but somewhere I think that noble peace prize for next year should go to people of Norway.

Some snaps to feel what I felt ...

Norwegian way of handling terror attacks

US President     - Bush,           9/11: "We're gonna hunt you down." 
Norwegian PM - Jens Stoltenberg, 22/7: "We will retaliate with more democracy".

Above lines are not just political statements but ideological statements.As resident Indian in Norway , I have been closely following the post attack development in Oslo and Utøya. What is needed from the citizens and residents of this peaceful country is that they unite against this horrendous act of violence and express solidarity in this state of mourning.
For the past 24 hours or so I appreciated( and as Indian bit surprised )  that every pillar of this strong nation whatever it may be police,politicians,media have shown positive and responsible response and did not indulge in any act of speculation,blame-game or rumor mongering. No opposition party is blaming the govt. for this terror attack and every time Norwegian PM is coming to press conference , he is just avoiding speculation( and no one is saying that he is in incompetent ).I know that it is difficult to control our emotions, thoughts and expressions in such situations but still in the national interest one must follow some unwritten rules and that is what everybody here is doing.

Another things is that PM's press conference is exclusively broadcast by the NRK.no , a norwegian state owned and controlled channel and this way they are justifying the presence of nrk as official government channel.I was thinking that how many people came to DD News during the past Mumbai attacks for authentic,reliable and exclusive news.

My deepest condolences for the bereaved families and wish that God give peace and strength to the grieving families.

Thanks Chrostopher - For great dish

Today Chrostopher demonstrated how to cook a great dish ( He did not tell the name because of copyright !!!!)  in such a different way....obviously it was very different for an Indian guy like me....:)

Ingrediants are explained in picture but for more details contact me personally.....

It was equally healthy ......just some use of oven for few minutes ...otherwise no cooking.......(isn't sad for Indian like me :) )

Which kind of corrupt are you/we ?

I was trying to understand the variety of corruption we see in people's  personality and somehow comes up with following categories :  

• Personally corrupt : You are corrupt by nature and do things for yourself and your family.Eg.Lalu Yadav,
• Socially corrupt : You do corrupt practices to benefit  specific sector/group of society. Eg. Baba Ramdev.
• Professionaly corrupt : You do things for benefit of your professional linkage or employer.Eg. Ramalinga Raju of Satyam 
• Legally corrupt : You are may not do anything above explicitly but by law it has been proved that you are corrupt.Eg. Lalit Modi
  

These categorise are not mutually exclusive.

Farms n Farmers - Incredible Bihar

"Some people refuse to accept things as they are, rather see how they should be - and leave no stone unturned to make it happen" - These are the lines from the heart of 2 young,hard-working and humble IITans.Treading a path less travelled, 2 have taken to agriculture after turning down lucrative MNC job offers and made a mark for themselves within a few months. They started their mission with an offbeat initiative in October 2010 in Vaishali district and now it has spread over 6 adjacent districts in Bihar.

Mission : Social service+Entrepreneurship (maximizing returns from land through natural farming)
Location : Started from Vaishali district,Bihar
Starting date : October,2010
Starting strength : 18 farmers to experiment on six acres of land
Method :
- Farmers are suggested to cultivate Cash crops eg. 'rajma' and flowers instead of the conventional crop of wheat/rice.
- Farmers learn and implement new techniques such as water harvesting and organic farming.
- Each technique is tailored to the soil content and land size.
- Farmers sell directly to food processing companies. It helps farmers earn more.

Organization :
- In February 2011, they founded an NGO, 'Farms n Farmers (FnF)', which does everything from soil testing to providing a market to farmers. Its activities have now expanded to adjoining districts including Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Banka and Purnia.
- FnF charges a nominal 10% of total sale value from farmers. It is planned to lower this figure in future as more farmers join initiative.
- FnF, which has more than 150 farmers associated with it, has an 8 member advisory team which includes Prof P K Sinha from IIM-Ahmedabad, Prof R Singh and P B S Bhadoria from IITKharagpur, and Dr Bimla Rai from RAU, Pusa. Manish and Shashank hold regular training programmes in different parts of Bihar.

Result :
- The farmers earned Rs 1000 per kattha with an investment of Rs 400. For wheat, they used to invest Rs 350 and reap 50kg produce per kattha, earning Rs 400 to 500.
- In Purnia district, where corn and potato are predominantly grown, farmers usually leave their land unused from June to September. They are advised to sow baby corn. As baby corn is reaped within 50 to 60 days, farmers had a bumper harvest just before raising another crop.Several Purnia farmers harvested 25kg baby corn per kattha of land and sold it for an average amount of Rs 750, earning more than Rs 300.
- In Buxar, the farmers, facing water shortage, were advised to grow medicinal herbs, which need negligible irrigation.

Future Plan :
- Though they are currently not using organic methods of farming, they said "organic is best." "Now that we have gained farmers' faith, we have started to work on organic farming. We are advising farmers to avoid using chemical fertilizer," they said.

Last but not the least the Guys..................
1.Shashank Kumar: IIT-Delhi graduate (2004-2008 batch):
- "If I had to go for an entrepreneurship, then why not this sector because no one is ready to work for this sector. This is ignored yet one of the most important sectors, so I have decided to work in this sector,"
2.Manish Kumar, an IIT Kharagpur postgraduate (2005-10 batch):
- Son of a retired clerk.
- Belong to Chakdariya village in Vaishali district.
- "A job in multinational companies wouldn't have given this satisfaction as this job is giving. Here we are changing lives of so many people attached with us."
Link to Video...

Oiling our Health !!!

Whenever I go to departmental store to buy the cooking oil , I get confused as there are so many oils exist in store like corn oil,peanut oil,vegetable oil, sunflower oil ,olive oil,canola oil. I tried to understand nutritive content( like zero cholesterol and less fat) and then buy the one that suits my mind( and pocket as well) there.
This kind of confusion always gave me less satisfaction considering the fact that Indians are highly prone to heart diseases and one of the major reason is the food we eat.Since 95% of Indian food is cooked in oil so oil becomes inevitably the main factor to concentrate on.
This led me to do some research on internet before I come up with following conclusion :
1. Olive oils is the best for cooking in all the respect.Second best could be Canola oil.
2. As we Indian use oil for sauteing, stir-frying, panfrying, or deep-frying so lower-quality olive-oil of normal grade olive oil is good enough as it hold its heat well( it has higher smoke point). So how to do it...
When the skillet is hot, add olive oil and let it heat up 30-90 secs. to just below the smoke point before adding food.










3. Drizzle olive oil over salad,pasta or mix it into salad dressing or sprinkle over rice.
4. Use olive oil in marinades or sauces for meat, fish and vegetables. Oil penetrates nicely into the first few layers of the food being marinated and give better flavour as well.
5. Since olive oil is a fruit juice so air,heat and light will cause olive oil to turn ranacid( which taste buttery) so it should be stored in dark cabinet away from stove and sunlight(ideal temp. 14 degree) and tight capped as well.
2. Avoid using butter and coconut oil for cooking.

Usage : 1 tablespoon of butter = 3/4 tablespoon of olive oil.

Free Norwegian language course in Oslo

Norwegian language is kind of  assured success in Norwegian society and to help the immigrants in such an endeavour, Norwegian government has started the following free Norwegian language classes for foreigners at Veitvet in Oslo. This project is not well know to many foreigners so I am putting the following link as well :



http://www.bydel-bjerke.oslo.kommune.no/article200638-40214.html?articleID=200638&categoryID=40214&printMe=1

Reason to love Oracle professional..

While reading a book I come across the following interesting line - One reason that women love men who are Oracle professionals : we're not afraid to "commit".

M.F.Hussain - Lived India in Heart

Everyone will leave this world one or the other day...but the way we approach the destination - the journey matters.
MF Hussain lived a celebrated life until 2011 and celebrated the festival of life throughout through his colourful paintings.He was 32 when India got independence , he saw the celebration,zeal in people and that made him emotional enough to took the daring decision of leaving his job(he was married and had 2 kids at that time) and dedicating his life to only paintings and God helped him as well because God always helps those who help themselves.

• Padma Shri (1955)
• Padma Bhushan (1973)
• Padma Vibhushan (1991)

His dedication paid him laurels and later this entrepreneurial artist could not restrict himself to just painting and so excelled in drawing,writing along with movie direction. He did not ever let his age become a barrier in his passion for art.Even in his 95 year, he was planning to paint Vidya Balan and had intention to cast her in a movie also.

He always believed in freedom of speech and expression and somehow involved in religion vs art controversies. Matter went to SC, that ruled on the controversy.It said that Husain's paintings were not obscene and that nudity was common in Indian iconography and history.... Delhi HC while quashing the case against the Hussain ruled that “sex and nudity in art, per se, cannot be deemed to be obscene and the merely vulgar does not equal the obscene”.But India is India, so it takes a lot of time for us to forget few things(thanks to Fundamentalists)

I guess following lines somehow describe his patriotic feelings for India ...
जींदा रहने के लिए तेरी कसम एक मुलाकात ज़रूरी है....
He was emotional , passionate, tireless,a true karmayogi and wonderful human being until his death.He wanted to come back to his home(India) until 9-jun-2011...and he expressed his desire for it in every post-2006 interview. Though he got everything from the western world in terms of 'recognition'(Forbes regarded him as "Picasso of India") like any other big international artist and also accepted citizenship of Qatar but he never disregarded India.

May God bless his soul with peace. .

Dots , failure and Death

Few days back I got the opportunity to listen to the old address(2005) of Steve Jobs(CEO apple and Pixer) at the Stanford Univ. Commencement ceremoney. He gave 3 short but substantive stories where he describe his Life and values he maintains. These are :

1. Connecting the dots : One can not always connect dots looking forword but can always connect them backwords....so believe in something and follow your heart rather than just wait.
2. Love and Loss : Love what you do and do what you Love....keep looking and don't settle until you find that you love to do. Steve himself failed(fired from the company he founded) but did not loose hope...and come back with the bang.
3. Death : Every Morning,Look in the mirror and ask if today is my last day of life and so am I doing what I should be doing, and whenever the answer is no for many consecutive days...then you should know...you have to change.

Link to this video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc&feature=BFp&list=WL7BB188C18CEF6FE2&index=20

Hope you like it as well...............

Baba Ramdev- Jantar Mantar 2.0

कहें सियापति सुन हनुमाना का चुप साध रहा बलवाना .....

There is no doubt that corruption is biggest challenge India is facing in today's time. And so above lines from Ramayana are best suited where it says that we need God Ram(now Anna or Baba Ramdev) to motivate Hanuman(now central govt.) for doing goods....

If we just look at the cause behind the fasts of both Anna and Ramdev, then it looks that both are crusader but actually not. While the history of Anna Hazare says that he is true social leader who is leading a austere life where as Baba Ramdev is is commercial-political yoga guru-who wants to be leader but do not have interest in leading.To understand my statement you have to read following points :

1. Political ambition : Baba Ramdev's political ambitions are really not a secret at all. He is using his yoga network
for political purpose and already declared to fight next Loksabha elections through his political party- Bharat Swabhiman. The objective of his party was :
..............1. corruption free India
..............2. Black Money
Question here is :
- On one hand he is using democratic system to solve the problem(corruption+Black money) but on the other hand he is relying the satyagrah tactic to solve part of same problem(black money). Why ? why can't he wait until election and slove this issue in democratic style ?
- Another question is - why is he looking at the centre now...don't we have corruption at state level or district level ? would it not be easy for him to concentrate on some state and solve the problem there while Anna puts the pressure on central govt and doing the same ?
2. Industrialist Baba : Baba Ramdev is an industrialist with empire of 1100 crore.He has a private jet.He charges thousands of rupees for his Yoga course that his Bharat Swabhiman Trust runs.
- Why he did not declare his assets before going to Delhi for fast ?
- He came by jet plane to Delhi to start the fast.....
- He talks about swedeshi all the time and criticize MNCs for taking profit of India but Ramdevji has joined hands with a world''s leading Swedish packaging solution company Tetra Pak to expand his food and beverages business.Not only this but his companyPatanjali Ayurved Ltd has already launched its first product packaged in Tetra Pak - amla juice. He has future plans in the same direction and so Ramdevji had acquired an ayurvedic medicine company in the name of Herbo Ved, for an undisclosed sum, to sell the new products in US.

3. Style : He is thinking that he should not miss this opportunity and so his followers are collective money from citizens where as Anna and his followers did not do this kind of method at all. He is using his yoga skills to fulfil his political and industrial ambition. Read my another post in same context.He should create his website and mention all his+trusts's income and expenditure there.When he is following Gandhi's satyagraha then he should also know that Gandhi travelled in 3rd class to understand the people of India and used his own earned money for it not people collection.His pandals are more looking like wedding place rather than fasting place.

- He tied to disguise himself and run away from Ramlila ground. Why ? If he was Satyagrahi , then why did not he just stayed there and let police did what they wanted to ?
- Why is he saying to have army of 11.000 men and women who will be trained to attack if action is taken against...is this Gandhian style ?
- Gandhi spent 249 days in South African jails and 2,089 days in British Indian jails, Can Ramdevji do the same if needed ?
4. Baseless demands : His demands are kind of baseless and redundant (w.r.t Lokpal bill).He is just mixing multiple irrelevant issues under the banner of 'Black Money' for eg :
a) Minimum Support Price (MSP) of grains be increased substantially.
b) Wages of different categories of labourers be made uniform across the country
c) Pro-farmer Land Acquisition Bill be brought quickly
d) Hindi like Japanese and Chinese be promoted countrywide.

His one demand says : Ensure passing a resolution against black money at UN.
everybody knows that we have United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) - which is legally binding international anti-corruption instrument passed by UN.
Govt of India is already doing its efforts to strengthen the UNCAC and to include black money issue there as well.

To me it just looks like he is becoming over smart and exploiting the faith of people for his political gains.

If they want to ...they want to

It seems all of us have the habit of saying 'I don't like this/that' and then get busy with our life...we do not think that if the whole society is just going to say the same then the things will ever change?. Our kids learn from us and they continue the same rely race.
The reason why we do not want is take lead varies from people to people....Many times people think that one need to be empowered socially/financially/politically to drive changes but it is not the case always......We need to make something actually happen instead of all of this talking. Some people should make things happen and following example shows that if somebody wants to covert dreams/idea/vision into reality then there is possibility.........

Name : Nine star school
Location : DASDOI Gram Panchayat,KAKORI,Lucknow(25 km away)
Description : one of 8 village-level private schools that have been started since 2001 by a group of young Bahá'ís working under the guidance of Foundation for the Advancement of Science (FAS), a Bahá'í-inspired NGO located in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
Strength : 80 students
Run by : Sri. Ram Vilas Pal( trained in television repair )
Project : to train and support educated rural youth in the processes and profession of primary education, with the goal of starting small, sustainable, and effective private rural schools.
Challenge : Most important challenge before these young innovators is to keep their schools profitable - which is the key to long-term sustainability. Problems include spiralling costs, regular defaulting in fee payment, and children being pulled out of school to be used for agricultural labour.

Highlights:
1. The owners of these schools, who are also their principals, come from unlikely backgrounds. Mr. Pal was trained in television repair. Another school founder dispensed medicine in his village as a local "doctor." Another was a farmer.What is common among all eight principals is their passion for social transformation and their conviction that school is the place for this to happen. Indeed, as the soft-spoken Mr. Pal says, "The community and the family depend on the school to create a responsible citizen out of the child. When a child is found misbehaving, people ask him, ‘Is this what your teacher teaches you in school?'"
2. School in Dasdoi has a 50-50 ratio of girls to boys, which is unusually high in the region.
3. FAS is not a funding agency and, in fact, has adopted a policy of providing most of its support in the form of training and encouragement, although the foundation does occasionally provide salaries for one or two teachers when the going gets tough.FAS acts as a catalyst. It is just helping people use their potential to find a useful area of work - and to help them satisfy an important need in society.

Cleverness vs Kindness

Founder and CEO of Amazon.com Jeff Bezos was talking at TED. His some points made me rethink of life as they went straight in.He said that everyone of us has 2 options to reflect our character in life :
1-Cleverness - Gift
2-Kindness - Choice

'Cleverness is a gift, Kindness is a choice. ' - Jeff made the case that our character is reflected not in the gifts we're endowed with at birth, but by the choices we make over the course of a lifetime.Many times( or all the time) during our lifetime we have the option of :
- being clever by our deeds and words
- being kind by our deeds and words
- being kind and clever both
Sometimes, we overestimate ourselves with our gift. And some bad decisions force us to pay an arm and a leg. Many times we realized our mistake and try to take it back but sometimes it becomes difficult to go back the way things were. If we are unlucky, it can ruin our whole life.He gave example from his life when his intention was to be admired for being clever and smart but it did not work out that well.
PS ! One can be clever and be kind, but if you are trying to be clever, then you run the risk of being neither. Trying to be clever makes it about you. Being kind is about the other.

IT professionals to Doodhwala ....

In today's world a lot of people love to work in IT companies as IT is fast progressive career and it lets them good salary, cosy working environment,foreign trips and free laptop,mobile,internet and lunch(subsidized or free). Once they join an IT company , this kind of life style becomes daily routine. There are very few who have the courage to change the course of their life and get out of this mental and physical comfort zone and strive for change in society.....these guys are among those did it............

Names : Shashi Kumar, Ranjith Mukundan, Venkatesh Sesasaye and Praveen Nale
Former Employer : Wipro Ltd,Banglore
Location : Kodihalli village of Channarayapatna taluk,Hassan district.
Business venture : Akshayakalpa Farms and Foods Ltd ( milk dairy venture)
Business Partner :21
Investment : Rs 15 crore
Land : 24 acre
Stakeholders : 300 formers
Setup period : 5 months
Aim : To promote rural entrepreneurship in the agro sector to create employment and prosperity in villages, to prevent the educated unemployed from abandoning agriculture and migrating to cities
Social Benefit of Venture :
1. Farmers will be educated on modern cattle-rearing methods, milking machines and increasing milk production.
2. The company will help the farmers get loans from banks to set up satellite farms and purchase cows. The milkman will sell milk directly to our company without any middlemen, the transportation of milk and regular medical check-ups of cows will be free for milkmen registered with company
3. Each form will be equipped with sensors, GPS, pedometers and other equipment to monitor and trace the movements of cows, how much milk a cow produces every day, and to check the animals' body temperature and keep tabs on their health. All this data will be monitored by the dairy.

Mamta Banarjee- Where the mind is without fear

WHERE the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Above lines by Tagore fits the ambition and hope of people of West Bengal today.Mamta Banarjee has won the right to serve the W.Bengal.

Few years back many political stalwarts used to call her names, never thought that this lady from the dingy alleys of Kalighat, dressed in a simple cotton sari and a pair of hawai chappals, would ever be CM with such majority and will become the darling of common Bengalis....but she did so. In 1993,Mamata Banerjee, then a Youth Congress leader, stormed Writers’ Buildings and sat on a dharna in front of the chamber of then CM Jyoti Basu, demanding justice for an alleged rape victim. As she refused to budge, the police caught her by the hair, dragged her out and locked her up.Now in 2011 ,she nailed the same 'Mugal' govt. and become the CM.

Team : I see her triumph not only because of her simplicity,audacity and honesty but because of the team she has chosen in this election as well.She has fine balance of ministers which includes IPS officers,IAS officers judges ,artists and technologists and so I am very much hopeful that now she will live up to the expectations and prove the world again 'what Bengal thinks today. India thinks tomorrow'.I just want to mention some of the key people in her team as well :

• Manish Gupta(Armymen turned IAS, Former Chief Secretary of WB)
• Amit Mitra(DSE educated former secretary general of FICCI)
• Rachpal Singh(Retired IG, joined the party when Didi asked him)
• Sabeer Bhatia and Derek O'Brien(Famous IT guy and quiz master respectively)
• Abhijit Mukherjee(SAIL GM)
• Rabi Ranjan Chattopadhya ( A retired professor)
  

Obviously, Mamta has won election by offering a clean,intelligent,honest and hard working team to serve the people.

Process : Another thing which not everybody has noticed - the way TMC has fought the election this time. People like Sabeer Bhatia and Derek O'Brien had made no stones unturned to make sure that Mamta's message reached to common people in most effective manner and she should hit the right note at the right time and at the right place.Comparing the Mamta's election campaign with Obama' campaign is not hyperbolic at all. The only difference I see here is the scale,geography and audience(in WB most of it is rural).Some highlights...
- Advertisements were published on not only on TV,FM channels,mobiles but also on web portals, Facebook. Twitter was used as well for minute to minute feedback and thought exchange.
- Positive Campaigning - Bodla noy, Amra bodol chai', (We don't want revenge, we want change)
- Bengalis are intellectual, emotional, poets, and philosophers but not fighter.Mamta is projected as fighter to these people who loves her fighting spirit.
- Connect at the local level and try to penetrate the feelings with personal touch.

What is the Best Breakfast ?

I guess my stay in Norway is making me more and more health concious everyday and I look for the reasons to eat anything ( or look for the reason for not eating something). In the same context for many days I was thinking what could be the 'the healthiest/best/ideal breakfast'.
Breakfast should include protein and plenty of fiber; the combination will help satisfy our hunger and will keep us feeling full until lunch time.The protein can come from low-fat meat, eggs, nuts or dairy products. High-fiber foods include fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Mind it that we all are living in busy+expensive world and so a healthy breakfast doesn't need to be extravagant or take a long time to prepare.

Recently I read about a survey conducted in Britain where people between 19 and 64 years of age were involved in sampling to find out what breakfast works among them as 'best'.
Conclusion : The best way to start the morning is with-a bowl of cereal+egg, as it makes people less likely to turn to fatty, sugary food through the rest of the day.People who eat breakfast cereal generally eat less fat, saturated fat and sugar than those who do not and have better intakes of protein and important micro-nutrients, such as iron, vitamins and calcium.
Cereal should be combined with an egg(preferably boiled with or without yolk).

Why Cereal ? Cereal is a good source of calcium and numerous other key nutrients, such as fibre, protein and carbohydrate.There are many options in cereals we have :
- Corn flakes ( less fibre ,less iron )
- Bran flakes ( made of wheat and has more fibre and iron )
- Musli
- Seeds ( Muskmelon Cantalope i.e kharbooja..)
- Raisins
- Oat-based cerials like Cheerios ; oatmeal - contains helps in decreasing LDL(bad cholesterol)
- Shredded Wheat
- PLUS - Adding some fruits like banana and strawberry can enhance fruity touch to breakfast as well.
Tips : If possible then go for fortified cereals as they have more nutrients.

Why Egg ?
- One egg contains 5.5/6 grams of protein and some healthful unsaturated fats.
- The average large egg contains 212 mg of cholesterol. All the cholesterol lies in yolk.
- Eggs are also a good source of choline, which has been linked with preserving memory, and lutein and zeaxanthin, which may protect against vision loss.(More than 90% of Americans are choline-deficient.)
- Egg also contains - vitamin D which is necessary for health of the bones, vitamin E which repairs cells and Vitamin B2 which is required for normal blood formation.
- One egg contains 65 calories.
- eggs and cardiovascular disease : No evidence of an overall significant association between egg consumption and risk of CHD(-coronary heart disease) or stroke in either men or women.Higher egg consumption appeared to be associated with increased risk of CHD only among diabetic subjects.

Egg Myths:
- All that cholesterol goes straight to your bloodstream and then into your arteries. Not so. For most people, only a small amount of the cholesterol
in food passes into the blood. Saturated and trans fats have much bigger effects on blood cholesterol levels.
- Eating eggs is bad for your heart. The only large study to look at the impact of egg consumption on heart disease—not on cholesterol levels or other
intermediaries—found no connection between the two. In people with diabetes, though, egg-a-day eaters were a bit more likely to have developed heart disease
than those who rarely ate eggs.

Recommendation :
- If you like eggs, eating one a day should be okay( especially if you cut back on saturated and trans fats ).
- Boiled egg is healthier than an omelette.
- Store eggs in the refrigerator where they will stay fresh for about one month.
- Nutritionists suggest that you can consume three eggs in a week to receive adequate health benefits.
- healthy people can safely enjoy eggs without increasing their heart attack risk.
- eggs' satiety index is 50% than that of most breakfast cereals
- The shell's colour is not related to the quality or nutritional value of the egg itself.
- eating two eggs for breakfast can help us to lose weight.

In land of sunshine, Indians suffer Vitamin D deficiency ?

I am living in Norway and most of the time Indians here say that we Indians don't have any problem related to Vitamin D deficiency as we are from land of sunshine. Later I read something and realized they are partly correct. So here, I want to highlight the following which is not very well known.Indians in most part of the country suffer from Vitamin D deficiency.

Yes, in the land of plentiful sunshine (which makes this vitamin in the body), we suffer from Vitamin D deficiency. In short, it’s right to say that people of both north and south India suffer from this deficiency, in many cases even poor bone health.

One big reason: lack of calcium in the diet. Vitamin D helps in the absorption of calcium in the body. Indian doctors who’ve studied this say in

- rural India, due to exposure to sun, Vit-D levels are good in the body but calcium intake is poor

- urban India, due to better diet, calcium levels in the body are sufficient but Vitamin D level is poor. Blame it on long indoor hours (often under air conditioner) and inadequate exposure to sun.

D FOR DEFICIENCY
The causes:
 Indoor confinement during the day
 Darker skin pigmentation
 Use of sunscreen
 Poor intake of calcium
 Low maternal levels of vitamin D
 Vegetarian diet as vitamin D occurs only in foods of animal origin
 Living at higher altitude
Preventive measures:
 Direct exposure to sunlight, at least 30 minutes/day
 Good calcium intake (equivalent to 1 litre of milk)
 Artificial fortification of dairy products or infant foods
 Supplementation to lactating mothers
 If on supplements, check for optimum dosage

So recommended Calcium intake is :

• Babies( between 0 and 6 months ) - at least 210 milligrams of calcium/day.
• Kids( between 7 months and 1 year )- 270 mg/day
• Children( between 1 and 3 year)- 500 mg/day
• Children( between 4 and 8 year)- 800 mg/day
• Children( between 9 and 13 year)-1300 mg/day
• Adults( between 19 and 50 )- 1000 mg/day

More facts :
- Calcium source : Milk is actually only one of many sources of calcium—dark leafy green vegetables and some types of legumes are among the other sources.
- 100 gm milk has 120 mg of calcium.
- Skimmed cow's milk contains slightly more calcium than full-fat milk because calcium is found in the watery part, not the creamy part.
- If you are taking a supplement to get your daily calcium make sure you are also taking magnesium with it.Magnesium is the transport that brings the calcium to your cells. The ratio of magnesium to calcium should be 2:1. In other words if you are taking 1200mg of calcium you should also be taking 600mg of magnesium for a complete solution.
- While skimmed milk is a perfect health drink for adults and is excellent as part of a fatcontrolled diet, it should not be given to children under five because of its low calorie, fat and vitamin content.
- Soya milk has long been regarded as the healthy alternative for those who are intolerant to lactose - the sugar found in cow's milk.

- For adults,Reaching 1,200 milligrams per day would usually require drinking two to three glasses of milk per day—or taking calcium supplements—over and above an overall healthy diet.

Interesting experiment ?

Location : Delhi Slum Area.
Experiment participants : Poor slum dwellers who did not have a ration card but wanted to apply for one.
Strategy : Divide all these people into 4 groups in random manner and then they are asked to randomly apply for ration cards.

Group 1 : The first group applied for the ration card and then did nothing more about it
Group 2 : The second attached a letter of recommendation from an NGO to their ration card application.
Group 3 : The third paid a bribe after putting in their application
Group 4 : The fourth enquired about the status of their ration card application through an RTI request shortly after the initial application.

Result ....Guess.........................Winner is Group 3.

i.e the group who paid a bribe was by far the most successful, in that its application was processed faster.

But who was Second ......But interestingly, the group that put in an RTI request was almost as successful.

What about others......Hardly anyone in the other two groups received their ration card during the 11-month duration of the study.

Hint for future: Lokpal bill must ensure that 'accountability is fixed' ASAP and process of fixing the accountability i.e legal implementation of lokpal bill should be the top priority of Govt.Also the RTI was filed in court so even RTI filing can become a big business and courts later submerged with millions and millions of RTI applications.

Here we have to consider that Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, who is also the convenor of the Lokpal Bill Joint drafting panel can play a pivotal role even out of the committee as he can expedite the initiative to dispose of all pending cases in various courts across the country.

PS : India has most number(30 million) of legal cases pending in the whole world.

Can Social networks assist job hunting ?

Here in Norway ( and in many other western countries like States,UK,Canada...) most of the recruiters invariably do Google to find out the suitability of prospective employees who have foreign origin( it does not mean that they don't do it for native people) .They do it because as foreigners it is difficult for them to find out the personality of another foreigner( because culture plays a role in personality) who comes from a not only from a different country but from a different continent.Dating partners,Landlords do online research about each other before they get into deeper waters. Even neighbours do digital social network snooping on neighbours.

How it works for Employers :
- They Google search on their prospective candidates and explore social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn to cross-check before they hire anyone.
- They read blogs,comments,posts to understand your attitude.nature and philosophy.
- All the time they give a call to reference (mentioned in resume) and confirm about his behaviour , attitude and work-ethics( not much emphasis is there on technical side as these calls are made by HR guys- who typically do not have much idea about the technical aspects).

Positive side : Now one can use these social networking sites as an extension to resume and
SO DO NOT RESTRICT YOUR RESUME TO RESUME....LET MAKE DIGITAL SOCIAL RESUME.

Recommendations :
- Create Blogs and share your technical and social ideas with others.
- Post your response on others blogs.
- Have a detailed(matching) linked-in profile which gives the SAME information but in different style( so that you can explain your career in different perspective)
- Avoid sharing your spur-of-the-moment opinions, risque photos and outrageous experiences with others including strangers, the danger of compromising your digital identity, privacy and social reputation and, consequently career prospects, is tremendous.
- Try to avoid making public comments ( which have many meanings) as when information goes viral, we cannot recall it a curse of the digital age. Eg. Many Indian politicians/celebrities have been discovering that people have taken their twitter comments in different context.
- Always remember that our digital pasts may not be undone and can haunt us.
- Settings : On all the networking sites they have provided some features that can help us to limit our personal information available online; so change your private settings, delete unwanted comments and remove your names from any photos tagged to identify you ( that is not needed). recently I have a call from friend of mine and he asked about some information that I changed on my facebook account and then I realized that I have to change my Facebook privacy settings to restrict some information outflow......