I got my driving license made in Chicago for $10 all inclusive, written test, road test et all.
I got it transferred from Illinois to Connecticut yesterday. That cost me $40 for the form and $77 for the license. Written test and Road test were waived off. Just a small sum of $117 for transferring it. Isn't that nice!
Cheers!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Spam
Technology has made great strides in past few years. The spam mails are supposedly one of the areas where marketers and IT folks have worked in order to have some sort of a targeted marketing exercise. So that basically means that the spam you get should be able to give a fairly good indication of what you are likely to buy, looking to buy, want, need or atleast lack.
Here's a screenshot of what I've been receiving lately.
So I must be needing a home, cars, beautiful feet, a master's degree among other things.
Now since most of you would be receiving such spam mails you can notice the absence of a particular category of spam mails. Yeah! You got it... Now I'm definitely happy that atleast whatever technical mumbo-jumbo they use for this targeted marketing didn't put me into the category which needs anything of that sort.
So I must be quite lucky!
Cheers!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Re-engineering
Does it make sense to modernize an inefficient, ineffective system by recreating the same scenario in some other platform?
How is that supposed to be re-engineering? or even plain and simple modernization!
I guess I'm the only one who gets the irony of this situation...
Cheers!
How is that supposed to be re-engineering? or even plain and simple modernization!
I guess I'm the only one who gets the irony of this situation...
Cheers!
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Mumbai-kar
A man has to be outright crazy or truly passionate about his cause to set off on a stormy journey...
I for one believe Raj Thackray fits into the second of those possibilities. Not only that, I dont disagree with a single thing that he's been reiterating for the past few days. It's past few years actually as this issue came up during the last Lok Sabha Elections, in which Shiv Sena had to face heavy losses due to this strategy. So they decided to drop it from then on. That among others was the reason for the formation of MNS.
One of the factors that has repelled me from Mumbai for years has been it's ability to assimilate 'trash'. People get so used to living in that garbage that they start loving it. But no one has the intent to clean it. Mumbai has become like a big dumping ground for trash from all over the country inspired by senseless Bollywood flicks painting Mumbai as the place where you should migrate to from whichever town/ village you're from in order to bring meaning to your life! And not surprisingly we've hoards of dream catchers from all over the country flocking what was once a great city.
Majority of Mumbai's problems have their root cause at this very point. If you're not bringing anything to the table then you shouldn't be there has never been Mumbai's policy. Mumbai has high percentage of Gujaratis, Parsis, South Indians too then why such situations never came up with their immigration? The reason is two fold. First, the simple and the relatively less important one, they added value to Mumbai by their immigration. The second, the more complex but important one they became Mumbai-kars. That was the society which followed the good old 'Do in Rome as the Romans do' philosophy. They not only respected the locals but became a part of the Mumbai society. They were affected when Mumbai was affected. They felt bad when Mumbai ranked as the most polluted city or as the city with highest number of open drains or some such thing.
Now it is a matter of personal choice whether one wants to become a Mumbai-kar. Conservation of one's own traditions, customs and practices is one thing, which is welcome, but arrogance and disrespect for someone else is something that should not be tolerated. Not in Mumbai or anywhere else for that matter.
This is not a regional or a racial thing. It is just good manners and basic courtesy that we're asking for.
Is that too much to follow? I dont think so.
Immigration is a natural process and has been happening across the world for centuries. I dont think it's even a debatable issue whether it's good or bad. It's what the immigrants do and how they behave in their adopted city or country that is something that needs to be scrutinized. The kind of act that has been put up by actors, politicians and media over the past week makes it clear what their attitude is. How many places in the world would such things be tolerated at? Forget that... How many cities in the India will be tolerant towards it?
What makes me believe in Raj Thackray is that he's not going to win seats in any election by using this strategy. And that is a very big thing considering that he's a politician. There is not a single constituency in Mumbai where North Indians are not in substantial numbers to affect the electorate. In some cases they're even in clear majority. And more importantly they vote in patterns. The North Indians had supposedly even proved their power over Mumbai during the Lok Sabha elections when the Maharashtrian agenda was defeated. Govinda being elected is a prime example. And we know how well he has managed 'his' people. The last I heard people in Virar and nearby suburbs wanted to know his whereabouts so that they could bash him!
I'm not interested in proving my point by pointing examples of incidents which have been termed as regional pride and not as un-democratic, separatistic and similar because I know I'm in a clear minority and I kind of enjoy that! People who preach about democratic principles and non-existant ideals in this situation should think what would they have done if someone was to ridicule, insult them in their own home and then treat them as if they're the outsiders.
Mumbai, they used to say wouldn't be the same without it's immigrants. Well... Looking at how things have shaped up in the past 15 years or so I couldn't agree more! And that is in a negative sense for those who do not understand pun...
Everything said, no one really has the will and power to find a solution or take decisions on this issue. Those who have power... well... the less I say the more civil this post would be. Raj Thackray has the will but not the necessary power and we, the people are not going to give it to him because he's a dictator, a blood thirsty hound!
Mumbai belongs to the Mumbai-kars. Mumbai-kars who're Marathi, Gujaratis, Tamilians, Sindhis, Muslims or even the North Indians for that matter, but they're Mumbai-kars first. Mumbai-kars who're passionate about their city and want to improve it. Mumbai-kars who dont need politicians from 'outside' to guide them. We need to find these Mumbai-kars else Mumbai is just going to rot away the way it has been... and I'm being optimistic about it!
Cheers!
I for one believe Raj Thackray fits into the second of those possibilities. Not only that, I dont disagree with a single thing that he's been reiterating for the past few days. It's past few years actually as this issue came up during the last Lok Sabha Elections, in which Shiv Sena had to face heavy losses due to this strategy. So they decided to drop it from then on. That among others was the reason for the formation of MNS.
One of the factors that has repelled me from Mumbai for years has been it's ability to assimilate 'trash'. People get so used to living in that garbage that they start loving it. But no one has the intent to clean it. Mumbai has become like a big dumping ground for trash from all over the country inspired by senseless Bollywood flicks painting Mumbai as the place where you should migrate to from whichever town/ village you're from in order to bring meaning to your life! And not surprisingly we've hoards of dream catchers from all over the country flocking what was once a great city.
Majority of Mumbai's problems have their root cause at this very point. If you're not bringing anything to the table then you shouldn't be there has never been Mumbai's policy. Mumbai has high percentage of Gujaratis, Parsis, South Indians too then why such situations never came up with their immigration? The reason is two fold. First, the simple and the relatively less important one, they added value to Mumbai by their immigration. The second, the more complex but important one they became Mumbai-kars. That was the society which followed the good old 'Do in Rome as the Romans do' philosophy. They not only respected the locals but became a part of the Mumbai society. They were affected when Mumbai was affected. They felt bad when Mumbai ranked as the most polluted city or as the city with highest number of open drains or some such thing.
Now it is a matter of personal choice whether one wants to become a Mumbai-kar. Conservation of one's own traditions, customs and practices is one thing, which is welcome, but arrogance and disrespect for someone else is something that should not be tolerated. Not in Mumbai or anywhere else for that matter.
This is not a regional or a racial thing. It is just good manners and basic courtesy that we're asking for.
Is that too much to follow? I dont think so.
Immigration is a natural process and has been happening across the world for centuries. I dont think it's even a debatable issue whether it's good or bad. It's what the immigrants do and how they behave in their adopted city or country that is something that needs to be scrutinized. The kind of act that has been put up by actors, politicians and media over the past week makes it clear what their attitude is. How many places in the world would such things be tolerated at? Forget that... How many cities in the India will be tolerant towards it?
What makes me believe in Raj Thackray is that he's not going to win seats in any election by using this strategy. And that is a very big thing considering that he's a politician. There is not a single constituency in Mumbai where North Indians are not in substantial numbers to affect the electorate. In some cases they're even in clear majority. And more importantly they vote in patterns. The North Indians had supposedly even proved their power over Mumbai during the Lok Sabha elections when the Maharashtrian agenda was defeated. Govinda being elected is a prime example. And we know how well he has managed 'his' people. The last I heard people in Virar and nearby suburbs wanted to know his whereabouts so that they could bash him!
I'm not interested in proving my point by pointing examples of incidents which have been termed as regional pride and not as un-democratic, separatistic and similar because I know I'm in a clear minority and I kind of enjoy that! People who preach about democratic principles and non-existant ideals in this situation should think what would they have done if someone was to ridicule, insult them in their own home and then treat them as if they're the outsiders.
Mumbai, they used to say wouldn't be the same without it's immigrants. Well... Looking at how things have shaped up in the past 15 years or so I couldn't agree more! And that is in a negative sense for those who do not understand pun...
Everything said, no one really has the will and power to find a solution or take decisions on this issue. Those who have power... well... the less I say the more civil this post would be. Raj Thackray has the will but not the necessary power and we, the people are not going to give it to him because he's a dictator, a blood thirsty hound!
Mumbai belongs to the Mumbai-kars. Mumbai-kars who're Marathi, Gujaratis, Tamilians, Sindhis, Muslims or even the North Indians for that matter, but they're Mumbai-kars first. Mumbai-kars who're passionate about their city and want to improve it. Mumbai-kars who dont need politicians from 'outside' to guide them. We need to find these Mumbai-kars else Mumbai is just going to rot away the way it has been... and I'm being optimistic about it!
Cheers!
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