LPG cap confusion

If you remember, the Government introduced cap and dual pricing for domestic LPG cylinders last year. The initial ruling was that every household will be allowed only 6 subsidized cans per year. After that each can will cost around 2.5 times the normal price. Because this announcement came in the middle of the Financial year, they also announced that for the rest of the year (till March 2013), 3 will be available at a subsidized rate.

In our family, one cylinder lasts for around 30-40 days. 3 for the rest of the year was over in a jiffy and when we ordered the 4th one, we had to pay nearly Rs. 1000.
 As luck would have it, then a ruling came that the cap has been increased to 9 per year and 5 for the rest of 2013. This led to a lot of chaos as described in the article linked. The agencies refused to refund the extra amount for the cylinder that was provided at non-subsidized rate. Even if they don't refund the amount for the 4th cylinder, they should be giving the next 2 at a subsidized rate. Wonder how their software will determine the price considering this will actually be our 5th and 6th for this year (1 more than the new limit). I couldn't find any definite answers. Hopefully we won't be needing a 6th one before March.
Budget problem, big problem!

Twitter vs Blog

I and @Kesavan had a small discussion (kind of) on twitter as whose greatest enemy was Twitter? I had posted as how my usage of Twitter had affected my blogging frequency.
The argument was that Twitter can't be a Blog's rival. Both are different arena with different players and spectators.

I agree, but the competition there is between equals (sort of) its like two good T20 matches being played in parallel in a couple of channels and which is better. Whichever provides better entertainment wins.
But what am talking about is that Twitter is a lazy man's blog and once you start using it extensively, your blogging definitely takes a hit. I feel it’s like a T20 vs ODI/Test. When you can put your point across in a few words, people might not want to take the effort of posting it in a blog which takes much more time.

The impact may not be direct, but bloggers usually develop small ideas into an article and post them. But here on Twitter, you tend to post the idea and be done with it. So the idea never gets to be made into a blog post.
That said, few things do make it to the blog, if the user feels that enough can't be said about them in 140 chars (this post for example)

This is what i felt after being on Twitter for more than a year. If you use both or rather all 3 (Buzz included) may be you can comment as how it has been for you.
But I have seen a few people like Nirmal and Zeno who just don’t seem to be affected by anything else. They just keep bloooggggging :-)

Dogs - More than a man's best friend

I have never had a pet and so have never had a chance to be close to any animal. The closest I ever got to a pet is when my bro-in-law got a German Shepherd puppy for my sister. My in-law was an absolute dog-lover and my sister who was pretty much like me till then, got close to Vincy as the dog grew and became very much part of the family.

Then they moved onto a bigger independent house and the most obvious happened. There were more dogs. They bought a Great Dane pup (Britney) and also started taking care of a Boxer (Tara) and a Miniature Pinscher from known friends. They were as awesome and lovely as much as they were naughty. I used to visit them frequently during holidays and my love for dogs kept growing little day by day. I used to be very reluctant to even go near them, but then they used to recognise me very well and started playing around and then we used to take pictures with them too. They were never just pets and more of a part of the family.

All was well until they had to plan for shifting their house. These days, independent houses are a rarity and they decided to move on to an apartment somewhere closer to their offices. But there, its impossible to have so many dogs with you. So, they had to take a hard decision of giving the dogs away (except Vincy as it was their very first dog). Britney like all Great Danes is very reserved and doesn't move well with people so easily. She is so fond of my sister and wasnt so close with anyone else. A family in AP was ready to adopt them and today they took the dogs with them. Really felt so bad. It was like parting ways with a member of the family. If someone like me who wasnt so close to the dogs, could feel so much, I can understand how sad it must be for my sister and bro-in-law. Feeling very sad for them. I sincerely hope that the dogs are in good health and stay happy wherever they go. Am sure they will stay so as they are very smart and intelligent creatures.

Pets are wonderful. Pets like dogs are not just Man's best friend but more of a companion and an integral part of the family. Hopefully I shall adopt a pet soon. But the difficult thing is when they have to leave you, either due to death or due to some circumstances like the one above.

Vincy (German Shepherd)

Tara (Boxer)

Britney (Great Dane)

The day I was blessed

The magician and his wand

Bless my holy angel! Was i really watching this!? I jus CAN NOT BELIEVE!! I felt like I was blessed 175 times today! Its an innings of a life time and something which u can very proudly say to ur kids n grand children that "I was alive when that happened and I watched it live!!"
And for this first time in my life i shud say n am guilty to accept that today something was more important for me than India winning. I was madly hoping that he wud cross 194 n reach whr any ODI player has never been, the magic 200. However it was dreadful that it could not be a fairy tale ending and had to end that way..
Most of us have read about One man show, single man army n all those stuff where an individual brilliance overshadows anything n everything that happened that day. This was that day and Sachin was the man. The Man of the match award for a man from the losing side stands as a little testimony.
Am damn excited and emotions are running high. Penning them all down is a pretty tough ask. I wud have written a blog for every shot he played today, that wud have been lot easier. It had his class written all over, again n again.

I guess am sounding a little lunatic. So, I wud better take a break here n go back to enjoying one of the finest moments in the history of Indian cricket.

The answer was pretty obvious when he was asked post-match as what keeps motivating him all these years. "I care about playing for India, it's a passion and I have been absoloutely honoured to play for India so long" This is why we love u!

I cant imagine hw things wud b, once this guy retires!! I just cant digest that it might happen some day.. Sachin, Do u really need to retire!? U jus keep playing till eternity. Hope the God gives him a long life and in someway an ability to play till his very very end for the simplest of reason that the law of aging just doesn't apply for this man.

- A Sachin Fanatic

Up in flames

It was just another day at office and I was on the worst part of my day 'Traveling in my office bus back home'. Its a real torture traveling in Indian roads in the evenings, where the traffic is at peak and the climate being no less mean ..phew!! hot n sultry.

This day, it was a particularly long travel. The travel seemed to be smooth until Ottery. There was an intermittent rain here n there. Our bus has to take a big diversion these days, thanks to the never-ending Perambur fly-over construction. We have to go through the Vyasarpadi Jeeva junction and get back into Perambur. The under-bridge (if u can call it so, the one that goes below a railway track) usually messes up traffic. It's always a lot crowded there. But today the buses were really inching their way towards the Vyasarpadi area. There were huge crowds everywhere, lot of traffic diversions and people in khaki were in action too. We had no clue as whats happening, and we thought it was just another traffic jam of some kind. It took around 20-30 mins to cover a half a km stretch. Only when the bus neared the slum area we could sense the smell of smoke. A little further down the road, I was really shocked to see what I was really seeing. What had been a huge slum area with so many huts and small houses, was now literally a piece of land covered in black ash and thick smoke. It was a horrible sight for anyone to see their belongings going up in smoke. It must have been very difficult to those people. Almost all of them have been rendered homeless. To make it worse, it started raining again and people had nowhere to go. There were a lot of babies crying their hearts out, kids clinging onto  their moms and women desperately searching for their husbands and most of the people around with the local police trying to help each other.

I was just sitting in the bus not knowing what to do, and with an even worse feeling that afterall I can't do anything. At times I feel that God might have been a little rude. If everything happens for good, what good can this incident lead to? Only time can answer. I consoled myself saying that everything happens for a reason. And back home, I googled about the incident next day and found that nearly 40 huts had been gutted and around Rs 2 lakhs worth property has been destroyed. But, luckily there has been no casualities.
Seems like the fire broke out around 1.30 pm in Kalyanapuram near Vyasarpadi police station and soon engulfed about 40 hutments in the area. Seven fire engines from nearby stations were deployed immediately and the damage has been reduced to the least. But the people who saw it had a different story to tell. They complained that the fire engines took 45 minutes to arrive. By that time, everything was reduced to ashes. And as always, the police denied the charges. God only knows what happened.

As the old cliché goes, prevention is better than cure. The Government shoud start taking serious steps to avoid similar incidents. Am not sure whether the

[caption id="attachment_386" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Firemen trying to douse the fire"][/caption]

entire slum was a legal one, with proper precautions taken. I have heard of people renting the concrete houses provided for them by the Government and preferring to stay back in the slums. A task force has to be created to make sure that all people stay in their rightful homes.
There was a similar incident in Vysarpadi around 6 years back. People never learn from their mistakes :(
This time it was just a damage to properties which can be recovered, but what if its gonna be loss of lives next time! Food for some thought!

Time to fantasize

The IPL II comes to an exciting end today. It being a Sunday of underdogs in South Africa, with two retired war horses in Gilly and Jumbo leading their pack to the finals. No one would have expected them to pull this off given they were the wooden spoon holders last time around finishing 8^th and 7^th respectively.

One of the best things about this season’s IPL has been the Fantasy cricket, I have been playing throughout. It was really exciting to take a manager/captain’s role and pick the best 11 for your fantasy team.

So as a finishing touch, here is my hand-picked fantasy team with the best in this season so far.

[caption id="attachment_316" align="aligncenter" width="382" caption="Ram's 11 - My Fantasy team"][/caption]

Icon player [1]

It was a tough choice. Other contenders were Sachin and Dravid, but Yuvi has been good in parts with both bat and the ball, if not consistent. He has scored 346 runs and picked 6 wickets including double whammy of hat-tricks. His bowling and powerful hitting made him edge over Sachin. Dravid has been sort of in and out of the team, so he had an unsettled look. Sorry Viru, VVS and Saurav, better luck next time. But one small change, the icon player doesn't get to be my captain.

Foreign players [4]

Orange capped Haydos and his good old team mate Gilly were automatic choices. Mr. Priest, the walker gets to be my captain for his ability to lead from the front. Bowling slot was sweeped by Malinga given his consistent performance thru out the series. I couldn’t make a quick decision reg the 4^th slot. Should it be a bowler or a batsman? If a batsman then, ABD or Dilshan or Duminy. Else Nannes / Abdulla / Murali. I would love to have Abdulla in my team. This guy was amazing picking 14 wickets in 9 matches. He was unlucky to have Lee back in the side and he automatically fell out of favour. But inorder to maintain a balance, I have to go with a batsmen. And it’s the first centurion of this season ABD.

Indian under-22 [2]

Blore’s Kohli, Chennai’s Tyagi, Deccan’s Rohit n Suman, Delhi’s Sangwan, Punjab’s Sohal n Chawla, Kolkata’s Ishant, Mumbai’s Abishek, Rajasthan’s Kamran Khan n Jadeja have been really impressive and outstanding. I was really happy to see these kids perform well in the big stage, after all, IPL is all about identifying new talents like these. Now coming back to my pick, Rohit Sharma goes straight through. He has even been named the ‘Citi under-23 success of the tournament’. He rightfully deserves it. 2^nd slot was a tough fight between Ishant, Sangwan and Chawla. Sangwan gets picked for his wicket taking ability (He is 8^th in the top 10 wicket takers of this tourney) He bowls good left-arm medium-pace like his idol Wasim Akram.

Indian over-22 [4]

Purple cap holder RP Singh, the underdog and revelation of this season Ashish Nehra (I never expected him to be this successful) and namma Chennai’s very own super king Raina pick themselves up. The only remaining slot had the Pathan brothers from Baroda in a tussle. But, Yusuf lost it to his younger brother Irfan for his exceptional all-round abilities picking 17 wickets at an avg of 22.94 and scoring 196 runs @ a strike rate of 124.05.

All said and done, if there were no restrictions like Icon/Under-22/4 Foreigners etc., then the one below would have been my dream team.. Looks sexy na :)

[caption id="attachment_321" align="aligncenter" width="260" caption="My dream team"][/caption]

Let the games begin

I've lost track of days.. I don realise time flying by around me.. Days go on faster than nights.. I know wt u r thinking rite nw. No no! am not in love, but the Cricket carnival is back with a louder BANG!!

As sad as I am that it isn't played in India this time, am as happy tht it gets to be played at all. SA - the land of Goldmines, natural beauty, wildlife n all the action - gets to set the stage this time around. Hoping to have a cracker of a season. My favorites, namma Chennai Super Kings look better this time around with Haydos available for the whole tourney, the Million dollar baby Andrew, the captain himself on a roll after successfully touring with the Indian team around the world.

The 2008 finalists Super Kings n Raj Royals might start as favourites but I will hold the cards close to my chest. Look out for the Daredevils, MI and a rejuvenated Chargers and Knight Riders. I can't place the Royal Challengers anywhr. But somehw I feel Raj Royals n Punjab r gonna b a let down.
We r already a few days into it.. n there ve been few positives n negatives picked so far

+

• The carnival, big party and the opening ceremony


• English in IPL this time.. we ll get to see wt the kevins and Andrews get to do.


• No more Indians-led-pack. Last time it was all abt Indian war horses, young n old, leading the teams (with the exception of Warny). But this time common sense seems to prevail, with proper captains leading the pack (tho am nt sure if McCullum is better than Dada)


• All the Bollywood glam dolls being part of the franchises. Last time it was only Preity, this time we ve Shilpa, Juhi n Katrina joining her.


• N of course all those Cheer leaders. They really keep the game going :)

-

• ARUN LAL - no offense meant. but its getting really tired to hear him day in n day out during each break.


• One suggestion: Pack Arunlal off to Africa (so that we get to c him very less) n bring Mandira back on studios. I really miss the deadly combo of Charu n Mandira. Not that Mandira is anywhr near 'hot n happening', she looks overdone n old. But anyday she is better than few mokkai mannars. Not to mention the first day when I was really pissed off watching 2 Lal's (Arun n Lal chand rajput) discussing the 1st day's game.. I was like wt the hell!! the perfect way not to start the big games. Btw, all these with due respect to his contribution to cricket. It wud ve been better if he had only stopped thr.


• Big things come with controversies. All those things abt multi-captaincy, Pak players being withdrawn, few aussie players pulling out. Many turned out to be dampeners.


• The strategic time breaks, introduced to reduce the time taken for an innings, as the big-heads feel that more time is wasted to discuss strategies during a match. Tho i feel, this has not helped much, only benefit being to the organizers who ve found more time to sneak in their ads.


• CSK has started on a losing note. They ve lost 2 of thr 3 games!! :( Tho they had fought well, its really sore to be on the losing side. Hoping for brighter days ahead. So Goooo on CSK.. We r always behind u :)

And don miss my fellow IPL blogger Mr. Fake IPL Player, he deftly seems to pack a punch ;)

News and Views

City auto drivers to get lessons in spoken English

This is to showcase Chennai as as tourist-friendly city.

Do they fail to realise what is making autos non-user friendly. First we gotto give them lessons on proper usage of the meter and how to be fair in charging the customers. Even I have been a victim more than once, I was charged Rs.120 for a travel to Teacher's colony in Kolathur (thts less than 7 kms from Perambur). The biggest kodumai is that, they are not even ashamed to demand such illegal (yes, its illegal) prices.
But another news seem to suggest that 43,000 cases have been booked against autos in last 3 months! Really!?!?? o_O

Smoking by mother is the biggest baby killer

Maternal smoking has replaced sleeping on stomach as the biggest factor for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

This may not be that applicable to Indian moms.. but there shud be an awareness about passive smoking. Smoking alone doesn't kill, even being in the company of a smoker, kills. So all moms out there, stay away from ur 'smoking' hubbies.
I just wanna abolish the cigarattes from this world once n for all. Jus like that .. with the press of a 'Shift+Del' :(

Jaya may get into high-flyers club

AIADMK supremo JJ is reportedly planning to take to the skies on chartered aircraft for campaigns.

Ya.. recession has hit the nation hard. But i suppose it has not for this Re 1 salaried ex-CM of TN. Omg! Me and my big mouth!

Eating choc helps improving maths skills

Now some interesting news. People were found to be doing calculations more quickly and more accurately after they had been given a chocolate drink.

It would have been better had I known this during my school/college days. But, I needn't worry, as a wiproite we never run out of tests and assessments.
But that said, i wonder that if all these were true.. I should 've already been a mini Ramanujam :D

Genetic superkid, 3, moves furniture

This is a superboy who can move furniture at the age of 3.

No he isn't been bitten by a genetically modified spider. This  Michigan kid likely has a condition called myostatin-realted muscle hypertrophy, which means his body has very little fat and enlarged muscle fibres.
So, do we have a real-super hero after all these years!? :)

Made in India, to be sold in South Africa

IPL in SA could take the game to a new level. When SA was playing Aus in the T20 game recently, there were a lot of Indian flags flying around and messages welcoming IPL home.  Its quite evident that SA is getting ready to welcome this unique Indian innovation to their shore.

Ya.. who would  say NO to the Big Money Making Machine. The only few disappointed would be those fans who would have loved to watch these matches live in their home towns. But, its always better that its being played somewhere than not being played at all.

Courtesy: TOI for the news

The Ugly face of terror

Once again, our dear country has to wake up to a day of te(HO)rror. First thing that comes up in my mind.. What exactly (WTF, to be precise) do these ppl want?
What are they trying to tell the world by killing all these innocent people. I wud call this pure sadism at its best. People who have missed living their life and cherish its varied colours are out there to ensure that others don't do it too. They just ve to paint it in different colours, giving a more stupid reason each time.

As threatening as it may seem, all these attacks, must not hinder the spirit in us. The more divided we are, the greater we fall.  Coz, these are the times when people must realise that there is much more to life than just family or work or friends. There is humanity, which is why we are after all called human. So what do we call these AHs who derive pleasure from sufferings of others? Blood sucking parasites !? Even parasite would be ashamed as they do it coz they don't have an option.

And its really sick to learn that the master minds behind these are actually one of the most intelligent lot. An engineer or a doctor by profession who feels that life has not treated him fairly enough. So all these acts are going to balance it out!!? Must really be out of their minds. God help them.

But they just fail to realise that they are not getting anywhere with all these. The more you stress n trouble people, greater they unite and stand tall against this absolute madness. In a way this might be helpful, as it makes people forget their cultural/regional/religional differences and stand as one... a true Indian and a sane human being in every sense.

Why not a common ground? - The reservation debate

One must understand that reservation is like giving crutches to the disabled when he can be treated by physiotherapy....
Reservation will not take this nation anywhere..

1. The reservation must be for economically backward people and not caste wise

2. If u need to help them, don't reserve seats, instead provide them monetary benefits, or improve their standard of life.

3. Reservation will only make them more complacent.

4. Provide them the means and not the solution

Give them a common ground as others. Think about this.

P.S. This is not intended to hurt anyone. The aim is to take a neutralized and informed stand on this issue.