Category: Information

Why is Kashmir Burning??


Last couple of months we wake up reading about violence in the Valley. Not sure how many of you would be aware of why this problem is burning. For those Ignorant people let me give you some reality of the history.

During the time of Independance India was divided into 3 set of territories;

  1. British India ruled by British.
  2. Princely States (Small Countries ruled by Kings by supporting British)
  3. India Ruled by French & Portugese

Post Independence Sardar Vallabhai Patil wanted to make all those princely states, french & portugese colonies as a part of India to avoid future conflicts. Most of the princely states were integrated peacefully except;

  • State of Jodhpur
  • State of Junagarh
  • State of Hydrabad
  • State of Kashmir

The first three states were annexed by war & hostile take over by people. But the choice of Integrating Kashmit was given to Nehru which he handled miserably.

That is what is making the difference till date. All other states have accepted India as their country and call themselves as Indians unlike Kashmiries. So what is

Kashmir problem?

At the time of the transfer of power, Kashmir was ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh, a Hindu, although the state itself had a Muslim majority. Hari Singh was equally hesitant about acceding to either India or Pakistan, as either would have provoked adverse reactions in parts of his kingdom. He signed a Standstill Agreement with Pakistan and proposed one with India as well, but announced that Kashmir intended to remain independent. However, his rule was opposed by Sheikh Abdullah, the popular leader of Kashmir’s largest political party, the National Conference, who demanded his abdication.

Pakistan, attempting to force the issue of Kashmir’s accession, cut off supplies and transport links. The chaos in Punjab resulting from Partition had also severed transport links with India, meaning that Kashmir’s only links with the two dominions was by air. Rumours about atrocities against the Muslim population of Poonch by the Maharajah’s forces caused the outbreak of civil unrest. Shortly thereafter, Pathan tribesmen from the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan crossed the border and entered Kashmir. The invaders made rapid progress towards Srinagar. The Maharaja of Kashmir wrote to India, asking for military assistance, offering an Instrument of Accession, and setting up an interim government headed by Sheikh Abdullah.The accession was accepted, but Nehru declared that it would have to be confirmed by a plebiscite, although there was no legal requirement to seek such confirmation.

Indian troops secured Jammu, Srinagar and the valley itself during the First Kashmir War, but the intense fighting flagged with the onset of winter, which made much of the state impassable. Prime Minister Nehru, in a move that baffled political and military strategists, declared a ceasefire and sought U.N. arbitration, arguing that India would otherwise have to invade Pakistan itself, in view of its failure to stop the tribal incursions. The plebiscite was never held, and on 26 January 1950, the Constitution of India came into force in Kashmir, but with special provisions made for it in the Constitution’s Article 370. India did not, however, secure administrative control over all of Kashmir. The Ladakh northern and western portions of Kashmir came under Pakistan’s control in 1947, and are today referred to as ‘Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir’ by the Indian government. In the 1962 Sino-Indian War, China occupied Aksai Chin, the north-eastern region bordering , which it continues to control and administer.

So what do they Kashmiris want?

There are three set of demands.

  • First is the National Conference version which wants autonomy plus pre-1953 status. If it is translated in simple language, they want a separate constitution, separate prime minister, separate supreme court and separate election commission. They don’t want the jurisdiction of India’s Supreme Court and Election Commission to be extended to the state.
  • Second, the Peoples Democratic Party wants self-rule. The PDP wants to go beyond the National Conference. They want so much autonomy that it’s just short of independence. They even seek applicability of dual currency in the Valley.
  • The third group is the separatists who talk of azaadi (FREEDOM).

Because of great blunder of done by Nehru we are paying the price till date. Would would have been different if Iron Man Patel was Iron fist with Nehru and annexed J & K.

But what every happens as an Indian I can’t accept an India without Kashmir. I support any action by the Government of India that helps in full Integration of J & K into India.

A scene at Koyembedu Omni Bus Stand


It was a perfect experience I thrive to have and I really enjoyed the time. Yesterday I had to book tickets to Madurai in an infamous Omni (Private) bus because all reputed travels like KPN, Parveen, ABT etc were all running full houses because of long weekend holidays. I’ve had lot os bad experience with such operators and I was expecting some problem. So this is how it all started;

  • Booked a ticket in a Travels names Sri Saravana Travels through RedBus.in by 8 PM.
  • Bus was scheduled to start by 11 o clock.
  • Cost of the ticket was Rs.780.
  • Had to search for the small office for 30 min and many other bus operators were not aware of this Travels.
  • Upon finding the office by 10.45 PM we were all made to sit on the small dungeon office till 12 o clock.
  • Then people started questioning and we were pacified by telling bus will reach in 15 min and we were made to sit in a near by Travels office in A/C.
  • Then after another 45 min we were all made to stand out telling bus has come.
  • But after standing on the platform for 15 min people started getting irritated (including me).
  • I was the first to go with a rude voice.
  • The owner (We didn’t know then that he was the owner) of the Travels said he is doing us a favor and if we shout he cant help us out. It was almost a blackmail and I was not happy with the way we were treated.
  • When I asked for the name of the owner he said owner is abroad and when I asked for his name he said it is Noor Mohammed. That took my temper to the top because it looked he was teasing us. How can a Sri Saravana Travels owner can be named with a muslim name??
  • Then I called him to the Police station and immediately he started abusing me with all bad words.
  • Then I pulled him to Police station and there was almost a Physical fight between me and the Travels guy.
  • Immediately all the co-passengers came to my rescue and we started pulling him to Police Station.
  • Then all the Travels guys mostly drunk assembled and started pushing other passengers.
  • Immediately I call 100 and asked for the help of COPS.
  • After a heated debate and after 10 min cops reached the spot & they picked all the travels folks.
  • Out of 20 passengers only 4 accompanied me. But I was not bothered and I was ready to fight it alone.
  • As we thought we were made to slog and these travels people were given a good treatment. Which was obvious.
  • When I was writing a complaint a cop asked me not to do it and when I was adamant to give a compliant he started threatening that I’ve to come to station when ever they call until the case ends. By then we thought there is no use in going to cops and came to know their intentions.
  • In spite of cops interfering we got a bus which was not worth for Rs.780/- by 3 AM in the morning.
  • Another thing was the operator was threatening me in front of the cops that he has my address and he will be back with revenge. Though I gave a dawn I was startled because cops were listening to his threats.

Finally after boarding the bus everyone came and thanked me for making this happen. Finally I was contented because;

  • of me others were able to get a bus and travel to Madurai.
  • For sure cops would have taken advantage of the situation and would have taken some bribe.
  • I thought them a lesson that they can’t take everyone for granted.

Again there is not going to be any change. But I did my bit to change things by taking some initiative and by writing this blog which will be of help to others.

Note: Finally we came to know Sri Saravana Travels is just a ticket booking agent and he doesn’t own a bus. They are ticket agents with a Name to cheat people.

Adidas & Puma Story


Rudolf and Adi Dassler learned at an early age the enormous impact that gold medals had on their shoe business.

When U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens got to Germany for Berlin’s 1936 Olympics, Adi Dassler drove from Bavaria on one of the world’s first motorways to the Olympic village. There he found Owens, unpacked a suitcase filled with spikes and persuaded him to try them. Owens won four gold medals in Dassler shoes.

“Owens’s success cemented the good reputation of Dassler shoes among the world’s most famous sportsmen,” Smit writes. “Letters from around the world landed on the brothers’ desks, and the trainers of other national teams were all interested in their shoes.”

Business boomed and the Dasslers were selling 200,000 pairs of shoes each year before World War Two.

The war exacerbated tensions between the two brothers and their wives. Although both Dasslers joined the Nazi party and signed their letters with a “Heil Hitler” salutation, Rudolf was a more devoted Nazi.

The origins of the split between Rudolf and Adi are hard to pinpoint but an Allied bomb attack on Herzogenaurach in 1943 illustrated the growing tension. Adi and his wife climbed into a bomb shelter that Rudolf and his family were already in.

“The dirty bastards are back again,” Adi said, apparently referring to the Allied war planes. Rudolf was convinced his brother meant him and his family. The damage was never repaired.

In 1948, the brothers split their business. Adolf called his firm ‘Adidas’; Rudolf called his ‘Ruda’ before changing to ‘Puma’.

M.Karunanidhi Family Tree


I remember M.K.Tamizharasu having one son  Arulnidhi & Kanimozhi having a son.

Fortune using currency


Normally I don’t copy other articles in my blog. But I thought this one could be of value to my readers. Here is a new avenue to hunt for an opportunity;

Old is gold. More so, if it is an old rupee note. Ask Mehraj Quraishi. Two years back, Quraishi, a trader in old coins and notes, purchased 30 one-rupee notes — the first ones printed by the government after Independence — bearing the signature of the then finance secretary of India, K R K Menon. He paid Rs 1,350 for each note.

But when Quraishi wanted a few more of these notes a few days earlier, he had to dole out Rs 10,000 for each — a 640 per cent increase in value in just over two years, something not many investment avenues can boast of.

There’s more to it. Some of the Re 1 notes printed in 1964, bearing the signature of the then finance secretary, S Bhoothalingam, are at present available on ebay.com for Rs 25,500 each.

However, all old currency notes do not appreciate as rapidly in value. The availability of the note in the market is the main factor. For example: the Re 1 notes printed in December 1964 and signed by Bhoothalingam are very rare, but other notes signed by him in the subsequent months might be available in the market and may not fetch the same value.

Jayesh Gala, a collector and dealer of notes and coins, has some tips to help customers identify rare notes. “Check the period for which a particular RBI governor has been in office. If it is a short period, chances are that notes bearing his signature will be few and hence would command a high price.”

The physical state of the note will also determine what price it can fetch. An uncirculated note, or UNC as it is known in numismatic parlance, will command a higher price compared to the used ones.

Collectors are interested not only in currency notes which are out of circulation but also those which are currently in use. Of course, they must have some special feature to be of interest to a collector.

Like the Rs 10 ‘star’ note, or replacement note with former finance secretary and present RBI Governor D Subbarao’s signature and a series number 000001. This note was bought for Rs 50,000 by Kishore Jhunjhunwala, a numismatist.

Each note bears a unique series number. For example: your note may have the following number printed on it: 01A 124578. Here, ‘A’ is the prefix letter and 124578 is the series number. You will also find a letter in the background of the series number, known as the inset letter, that identifies the mint it has been printed in.

The combination of the prefix and the series number or just the series number creates the fancy number. For example: a plain series number like 123456 or one that comprises the same digits like 111111 or an interesting combination of the prefix and the series number – 11B 111111, may be of interest to collectors.

The possibilities of a fancy number are endless. The value of a fancy number note cannot really be ascertained, says Gala. It depends on what value the likes of Jhunjhunwala peg it at.

So next time you come across a note with a ‘fancy number’, don’t be in a rush to spend it. It may be worth much more than its face value.

Error Notes

Usually, people are eager to palm off a misprinted note to an unsuspecting person. But if you find yourself in a similar position, don’t rush to rid yourself of the error note.Error notes are notes that are misprinted by the RBI and are supposed to be destroyed. But somehow they find their way into the market and in the hands of money changers and collectors. 

Again, the value of an error note cannot be determined but it is certain that it will fetch you a decent amount.

‘Star’ Notes

These notes are also known as replacement notes. During the printing of a certain series of notes, one of the notes in the bundle could be misprinted. The note which replaces the misprinted one in the bundle will not be serially numbered like the rest. To identify such a note, a star sign is inserted in the number panel between the prefix letter and the series number.

“Such notes are rarely seen in circulation as they are in great demand from collectors,” says Arun Sanghvi, a money changer. Not surprising that even an ordinary Rs 10 star note with no fancy number or a particular governor’s signature can be sold to a money changer for Rs 30. If you ever come across a star note, know that you are richer by a few rupees. Moral of the lesson: do keep a close watch on all your notes henceforth. The value of the Rs 10 note in your wallet may actually be worth a few extra zero’s.

Courtesy: Masoom Gupte

Source: Business Standard

Facts about India Rupee Symbol


Now Indian Rupee has a new symbol and this is how it looks. This new symbol which has been shortlisted through a contest run by Finance Ministry of India. You can read about that Rupee design contest here. The basic aim of the new symbol is to provide the Indian rupee international recognition as the country’s economy exerts more influence in the global space, the unique sign will also help isolate the currency from the current abbreviation ‘Rs’ which is used by neighbouring Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The winning designers concept was based on the Tricolour and “arithmetic equivalence”. While the white space between the two horizontal lines gives the impression of the national flag with the Ashok Chakra, the two bold parallel lines stand for ‘equals to’, representing balance in the economy, both within and with other economies of the world. The winning designer is an IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar.

Along with the announcement of the result, there have been a number of controversies as well. One of the RTI activist had revealed that the panel took less than 20 seconds to go through each of the design and analyze. This is what the activist revealed according to RTI Documents :

  • Non-eligible candidate was shortlisted in top five finalists. As candidate had submitted four designs.
  • One finalist was in contact with Finance Ministry and RBI prior to competition.
  • Design concept or brief was not put in front of jury along with Indian Rupee symbol design.
  • No marks or grades were allotted to selected (2644) candidates design entries, in the process of shortlisting top five finalist design entries.
  • Jury had spends less than 20 seconds on each design entries to analyze it .
  • Three jury member were absent in two days long meeting dated 29th Sept. and 30th Sept. 2009.
  • One jury member from Ministry of Culture was absent on the day of final presentation.
  • All seven jury member had never meet in this whole selection process in any given time.
  • No records are available with Finance Ministry which could indicate how many total design entries Finance Ministry had received!
  • Advertisement was only published in English language.

Keeping aside all the controversies, I am happy that there is a new symbol for Indian Rupee!

42 great facts


  1. MOPED is the short term for ‘Motorized Pedaling’.
  2. POP MUSIC is ‘Popular Music’ shortened.
  3. BUS is the short term for ‘Omnibus’ that means everybody.
  4. FORTNIGHT comes from ‘Fourteen Nights’ (Two Weeks).
  5. DRAWING ROOM was actually a ‘withdrawing room’ where people withdrew after Dinner. Later the prefix ‘with’ was dropped..
  6. NEWS refers to information from Four directions N, E, W and S..
  7. AG-MARK, which some products bear, stems from ‘Agricultural Marketing’.
  8. JOURNAL is a diary that tells about ‘Journey for a day’ during each Day’s business.
  9. QUEUE comes from ‘Queen’s Quest’. Long back a long row of people as waiting to see the Queen. Someone made the comment Queen’s Quest..
  10. TIPS come from ‘To Insure Prompt Service’. In olden days to get Prompt service from servants in an inn, travelers used to drop coins in a Box on which was written ‘To Insure Prompt Service’. This gave rise to the custom of Tips.
  11. JEEP is a vehicle with unique Gear system. It was invented during World War II (1939-1945). It was named ‘General Purpose Vehicle (GP)’.GP was changed into JEEP later.
  12. Coca-Cola was originally green.
  13. The most common name in the world is Mohammed..
  14. The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.
  15. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
  16. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row ! of the keyboard.
  17. Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!
  18. You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath.
  19. It is impossible to lick your elbow.
  20. People say “Bless you” when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.
  21. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
  22. The “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
  23. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.
    • Spades – King David
    • Clubs – Alexander the Great,
    • Hearts – Charlemagne
    • Diamonds – Julius Caesar.
  24. Horse Statue in a Park…
    • If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.
    • If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle
    • If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
  25. What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common? Ans. – All invented by women.
  26. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
  27. A snail can sleep for three years.
  28. All polar bears are left handed.
  29. Butterflies taste with their feet.
  30. Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump.
  31. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
  32. On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
  33. Shakespeare invented the word ‘assassination’ and ‘bump’.
  34. Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
  35. The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
  36. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
  37. The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
  38. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.
  39. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
  40. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
  41. The cigarette lighter was invented before the matchbox.
  42. Most lipstick contains fish scales.

Lessons from a frog in boiling water


Just came across this finding & we can take a lot of cues form this in our life. Like a frog we all react when there is instant change / impact in life and we ignore slow change / impact in life.

If the temperature of the water is suddenly increased, the frog realises it and jumps out of the water.

But if the temperature is very slowly increased, one degree at a time, the frog does not realise it till it boils to death.

Miranda’s new ad with Asin rocks!!!


Asin once again does some galatta as she takes on Chennai’s famous auto man, Speed Sangar. I really love this ad here is the video for you with has sub-title;

All about Craiglist!!!


One of the many inspiration i’ve in my life is the evolution of craiglist.org the way it evolved form a email distribution list to world’s number one classifieds portal. I wanted to share some insights about the evolution;

  • Craig Newmark began the service in 1995 as an email distribution list of friends, featuring local events in the San Francisco Bay Area
  • Became a web-based service in 1996.
  • Incorporated as a private for-profit company in 1999.
  • Craigslist expanded into nine more U.S. cities in 2000
  • Four each in 2001 and 2002, and 14 in 2003.
  • The site receives over one million new job listings each month, making it one of the top job boards in the world.
  • The site serves over twenty billion page views per month.
  • With over eighty million new classified advertisements each month, Craigslist is the leading classifieds service in any medium.
  • As of 2009, Craigslist operates with a staff of 28 people.

Its sole source of revenue is paid job ads in select cities – $75 per ad for the San Francisco Bay Area; $25 per ad for New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, Boston, Seattle, Washington D.C., Chicago, Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon – and paid broker apartment listings in New York City ($10 per ad).