All posts by Ridhima

Witticism | Blogging | Philosophy | Spirituality | Online Junkie | Art Enthusiast | Gratification of senses | Technophile | Bibliophile |Totally Unleased… @Rhydemz on Twitter

Why Indian students are disliked abroad?

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It was the first day of a school in USA and a new Indian student named Chandrasekhar Subramanian entered the fourth grade.

The teacher said, “Let’s begin by reviewing some American History. Who said ‘Give me Liberty , or give me Death’?”

She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Chandrasekhar, who had his hand up:?’Patrick Henry, 1775’he said.

‘Very good! Who said ‘Government of the People, by the People, for the People, shall not perish from the Earth?”

Again, no response except from Chandrasekhar. ‘Abraham Lincoln, 1863’ said Chandrasekhar.

The teacher snapped at the class, ‘Class, you should be ashamed. Chandrasekhar, who is new to our country, knows more about our history than you do.’

She heard a loud whisper: ‘F*** the Indians,’

‘Who said that?’ she demanded. Chandrasekhar put his hand up. ‘General Custer, 1862.’

At that point, a student in the back said, ‘I’m gonna puke.’

The teacher glares around and asks ‘All right! Now, who said that?’ Again, Chandrasekhar says, ‘George Bush to the Japanese Prime Minister, 1991.’

Now furious, another student yells, ‘Oh yeah? Suck this!’

Chandrasekhar jumps out of his chair waving his hand and shouts to the teacher, ‘Bill Clinton, to Monica Lewinsky, 1997’

Now with almost mob hysteria someone said ‘You little shit. If you say anything else, I’ll kill you.’ Chandrasekhar frantically yells at the top of his voice, ‘ Michael Jackson to the child witnesses testifying against him, 2004.’

The teacher fainted. And as the class gathered around the teacher on the floor, someone said, ‘Oh shit, we’re screwed!’ And Chandrasekhar said quietly, ‘I think it was Lehmann Brothers, November 4th, 2008’.

Free Listing of company’s on exportersindia.com

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While Surfing net for his suppliers a friend of mine who is a wholesale businessmen came across this site which turned out to be extremely useful for him. He asked me to post few lines about it on this blog, so that everyone can take benefit from it.

Today it gives free listing  to company’s. The need for a common B2B showroom to exhibit their products and a platform to promote their business became urgent. Besides this, the incessant tussle among the business entrepreneurs to revolutionize their business to attract more of potential buyers and crack more of prolific deals accounted for the presence of a common platform where they can promote their business online. ExportersIndia.com is the answer to all, which continues to serve you with such a common B2B platform where innumerous manufacturers, wholesale suppliers, importers, exporters, service providers, etc. have registered in. A complete solution provider to all your business queries, Exportersindia is the destination where business enterprises have benefited by the much needed promotion and exposure in the current scenario of global market. Exportersindia has become a strong source of reliability because of the use of peerless technology and innovative measures. This online B2B directory is the home of innumerous products and businesses across the globe and hence it serves as the ideal destination for every one who wants to witness a bloom in the global trade scenario.

This gives you a complete business solution which is essential for all new and old SME’s.

http://www.exportersindia.com/

http://twitter.com/exportersindia

http://www.facebook.com/ExportersIndia

http://blogs.exportersindia.com/

Indian Currency Gets a new Symbol- D Uday Kuma

IIT Post-Graduate D Uday Kumar entered  his name in the history book, as his Rupee design was approved by the panel. The new design reflects Indian ethos and culture, as required by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Uday Kumar’s design was selected from a pool of five symbols. The decision was taken by a five-member panel. It was approved by the Union Cabinet  The new symbol will be used globally like the Dollar ($) and Pound (£).

Udaya Kumar’s Rupee symbol contains the Devanagari ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’. The main criteria was that it should fit the standard keyboard and be in the national language script.

Uday Kumar’s Rupee symbol is based on two concepts – Indian Tricolour and Arithmetic. Uday Kumar will be get a cash reward of Rs 2.5 lakh. He is a student of IIT, Mumbai.

image: moneycontrol.com

Bombay the inside story

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/Seven_Islands_of_Bombay_en.svg/349px-Seven_Islands_of_Bombay_en.svg.pngAccording to ancient history, a grouping of seven islands comprising Colaba, Mazagaon, Old Woman’s Island, Wadala, Mahim, Parel, and Matunga-Sion formed a part of the  kingdom of Ashoka the Great of Magadh, ironically in North India.

The Bhaiyas and Biharis whom the Thackerays accuse of being outsiders in Mumbai, come from the region, which was a part of Ashoka the Great’s empire.. We judge everything according to history and the history of Mumbai proves that its earliest known ownership was with a North Indian.

The seven islands of Mumbai passed through many hands, the sultans of Gujarat, the Portuguese and the British. Every ruler left behind proof of residence in Mumbai.

The Mauryans left behind the Kanheri, Mahakali and the caves of Gharapuri more popularly called Elephanta.

The sultans of Gujarat built the Dargahs at Mahim and Haji Ali, the Portuguese built the two Portuguese churches, one at  Prabhadevi and the other St Andrews at Bandra.

They built forts at Sion, Mahim, Bandra and Bassien. The Portuguese named the group of seven Islands ‘Bom Baia’, Good Bay. The British built a city out of the group of seven islands and called her Bombay.

The original settlers of the seven islands, the Koli fishermen, worshiped Mumbaidevi, her temple still stands at Babulnath near Chowpatty. The Kolis called the island Mumbai,  ‘Mumba, Mother Goddess’.

In 1662, King Charles II of England married the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza, and received the seven islands of Bom Baia as part of his dowry. Six years later, the British Crown leased the seven islands to  the English East India Company for a sum of 10 pounds in gold per annum. It was under the English East India Company that the future megapolis began to take shape, after the first war for independence Bombay once again became a colony of the British Empire.

History has forgotten this but the first Parsi settler came to Bombay in 1640, he was Dorabji Nanabhoy Patel. In 1689-90, a severe plague epidemic broke out in Bombay and most of the European settlers succumbed to it. The Siddi of Janjira attacked in full force. Rustomji Dorabji Patel, a trader and the son of  the city’s first Parsi settler, successfully defeated the Siddi with the help of the Kolis and saved Bombay.

Gerald Aungier, Governor of Bombay built the Bombay Castle, an area that is even today referred to as Fort. He also constituted the Courts of law. He brought Gujarati traders, Parsi shipbuilders, Muslim and Hindu manufacturers from the mainland and settled them in Bombay.

It was during a period of four decades that the city of Bombay took shape. Reclamation was done to plug the breach at Worli and Mahalakshmi, Hornby Vellard was built in 1784. The Sion Causeway connecting Bombay to Salsette was built in 1803. Colaba Causeway connecting Colaba island to Bombay was built in 1838. A causeway connecting Mahim and Bandra  was built in 1845.

Lady Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy, the wife of the First Baronet Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy donated Rs 1, 57,000 to meet construction costs of the causeway. She donated Rs. 1,00,000 at first. When the project cost escalated and money ran out half way through she donated Rs 57,000 again to ensure that the vital causeway was completed. Lady Jamsetjee stipulated that no toll would ever be charged for those using the causeway. Today Mumbaikars have to pay Rs 75 to use the Bandra-Worli Sealink, connecting almost the same two islands. Sir J J Hospital was also built by Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy.

The shipbuilding Wadia family of Surat was brought to Bombay by the British. Jamshedji Wadia founded the Bombay Port Trust and built the Princess Dock in 1885 and the Victoria Dock and the Mereweather Dry Docks in 1891. Alexandra Dock was built in 1914.

A Gujarati civil engineer supervised the building of the Gateway of India. The Tatas made Bombay their headquarters and gave it the iconic Taj Mahal Hotel and India’s first civilian airlines, Air India. The Godrejs gave India its first vegetarian soap.

Cowasji Nanabhai Daver established Bombay’s first cotton mill, ‘The Bombay Spinning Mills’ in 1854. By 1915, there were 83 textile mills in Bombay largely owned by Indians.

This brought about a financial boom in Bombay. Although the mills were owned by Gujaratis, Kutchis, Parsis and Marwaris, the workforce was migrant Mahrashtrians from rural Maharashtra. Premchand Roychand, a prosperous Gujarati broker founded the Bombay Stock Exchange. Premchand Roychand donated Rs 2,00,000 to build the Rajabai Tower in 1878.

Muslim, Sindhi and Punjabi migrants have also contributed handsomely to Mumbai.

Mumbai is built on the blood and sweat of all Indians. That is why Bombay belongs to all Indians.

Apart from its original inhabitants, the Kolis, everyone else in Mumbai, including Thackeray’s ‘Marathi Manoos’, are immigrants.

The “Mumbai for Marathi Manoos” war cry has once again been raised to shore up the sagging political fortunes of the Thackeray family.

When the Shiv Sena-BJP combine came to power in 1993, under the guise of reverting to the original name they replaced Bombay with Mumbai.

I wonder when they will discard the anglicized Thackeray and revert back to their original Marathi surname Thakre?

This article was written on February 7, 2010 by Tushar Gandhi, founder/president, Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, and the grandson of Gandhiji.

Leadership: Roll Up Your Sleeves

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One of Mr. Ratan N Tata’s first assignments was the stewardship of the ailing electronics company in the Tata portfolio – Nelco.

Story goes that a team of senior managers from Nelco was driving to Nasik along with RNT. Halfway into the journey, the car had a flat tyre,  and as the driver pulled up, the occupants – including Mr. Tata – got off for a comfort break, leaving the driver to replace the tyre.

Some of the managers welcomed the forced break, as it allowed them a  much-needed chance to light up a cigarette. Some used the opportunity to stretch, and smile, and share a joke. And then, one of them suddenly noticed that Mr. Tata was not to be seen, and wondered aloud where Ratan Tata might have vanished. Was he behind some bush? Had he wandered off inside the roadside dhaba for a quick cup of tea?Or was he mingling with some passer-bys, listening to their stories?

None of these, in fact while his colleagues were taking a break, Ratan Tata was busy helping the driver change tyres. Sleeves rolled up, tie swatted away over the shoulder, the hands expertly working the jack and the spanner, bouncing the spare tyre to check if the tyre pressure was ok. Droplets of sweat on the brow, and a smile on the face.

In that moment, the managers accompanying Ratan Tata got a master class in leadership they haven’t forgotten. And that’s a moment that the driver of that car probably hasn’t forgotten either.

Questions to ask:

  1. When was the last time I rolled up my sleeves to do a task much below my hierarchy?·
  2. Do I wait for the big opportunity to showcase my leadership?
  3. Is that big opportunity ever going to come?
  4. Am I trying to manage upwards so much that I’ve lost the feel of the field?
  5. Ideas for action:
  6. Humility is the essence of success.  Be humble and even teach your children to be so.
  7. To reach the top and remain there, always start from the bottom, else your days at the top will  not last long..
  8. Practice leadership in small things instead of waiting for the big crisis or a major product launch.
  9. Seek to find opportunities to lead in everyday moments.
  10. Build your leadership skills one baby step at a time.
  11. When ones hands get dirty – The mind remains clean !!!

A cockroach can live without his head! #Omg

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A cockroach could live a long time, perhaps a month, without its head. The only reason we need our head for basic survival is:

(1) We breath through our mouth or nose and the breathing rhythm is controlled in our brain. Cutting off our head would interphere with breathing although that could be maintained with a respirator.

(2) Cutting off our head could lead to blood loss and a drop in blood pressure which would result in death due to lack of blood transport of oxygen and nutrition to our tissues.

(3) Cutting off our head would prevent us from eating and we would die of starvation pretty quickly.

All of these reasons for dying are not present in cockroaches and many insects in general:

(1) Cockroaches breath through spiracles which are in each body segment and the blood does not carry oxygen to the tissues. The spiracles deliver air to each cell of the body through a set of tubes called tracheae. The brain does not control the breathing through the spiracles.

(2) The cockroach does not have blood pressure the way a mammal does and so cutting off the head does not lead to uncontrolled bleeding.

(3) The cockroach is a poikilotherm or cold blooded animal. They need much less food and a one day meal would be enough to last them a whole month as long as they were not extremely active. Without a head the cockroach would just sit around without doing anything much.

All this along with a cool temperature could allow the cockroach to last about a month without need for their head, as long as they did not get infected with a mold, bacterium or virus, which could kill them prematurely.

Woman Arrest Law in INDIA

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An incident took place in Pune – a young girl was attacked by a man
posing as a plain clothes officer; he asked her 2 come 2 the police
station when she & her male friend didn’t have a driver’s license 2
show. He sent the boy off 2 get his license and asked the girl to
accompany him to the police station. Took her instead to an isolated
area where the horrendous crime was committed. The law [which most of
us are not aware of clearly states that between 6 pm and 6 am, a
woman has the right to REFUSE to go to the Police Station, even if an
arrest warrant has been issued against her. It is a procedural issue
that a woman can be arrested between 6am and 6pm, ONLY if she is
arrested by a woman officer & taken to an ALL WOMEN police station.
And if she is arrested by a male officer, it has to be proven that a
woman officer was on duty at the time of arrest.

Everyone in this country must know this.

The Art of Appraisal

Big Boss: This year your performance was good, excellent and outstanding.

So, your rating is "average".

Kumar: What? How come ‘average’?

Big Boss: Because…err…uhh…you lack domain knowledge.

Kumar: But last year you said I am a domain expert and you put me in this

project as a domain consultant.

Big Boss: Oh is it? Well, in that case, I think your domain knowledge has

eroded this year.

Kumar: What???

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Big Boss: Yes, I didn’t see you sharing knowledge on Purchasing domain.

Kumar: Why would I? Because I am not in Purchasing, I am in Manufacturing.

Big Boss: This is what I don’t like about you. You give excuse for

everything.

Kumar: Huh? *Confused*

Big Boss: Next, you need to improve your communication skills.

Kumar: Like what? I am the one who trained the team on "Business

Communication", you sat in the audience and took notes, you remember?

Big Boss: Oh is it? Errr…well..I mean, you need to improve your Social

Pragmatic Affirmative Communication.

Kumar: Huh? What the hell is that? *Confused*

Big Boss: See! That’s why you need to learn about it.

Kumar: *head spinning*

Big Boss: Next, you need to sharpen your recruiting skills. All the guys

you recruited left within 2 months.

Kumar: Well, not my mistake. You told them you will sit beside them and

review their code, and most resigned the next day itself. Couple of them

even attempted suicide.

Big Boss:*stunned* (recovers from shock) Err…anyway, I tried to give you

a better rating, but our Normalization process gave you only ‘average’.

Kumar: Last year that process gave me ‘excellent’. This year just

‘average’? Why is this process pushing me up and down every year?

Big Boss: That’s a complicated process. You don’t want to hear.

Kumar: I’ll try to understand. Go ahead.

Big Boss: Well, we gather in a large room, write down the names of

sub-ordinates in bits of paper, and throw them up in the air. Whichever

lands on the floor gets ‘average’, whichever lands on table gets ‘good’,

whichever we manage to catch gets ‘excellent’ and whichever gets stuck to

ceiling gets ‘outstanding’.

Kumar: (eyes popping out) What? Ridiculous! So who gets ‘poor’ rating?

Big Boss: Those are the ones we forget to write down.

Kumar: What the hell! And how can paper bits stick to ceiling for

‘outstanding’?

Big Boss: Oh no, now you have started questioning our 20 year old

organizational process!

Kumar: *faints