Moments

Now I have landed in Changi aiport, Singapore. Flight was on time from Bangalore. Flying by Singapore airlines for the first time. Liked the interiors of the B777-200 flight. I had the window seat. Bangalore looked great from the night sky during takeoff. I could guess where my sweetheart was cuddling with her teddy bear. In-flight entertainment dint impress me much. Lot of movies were there but I thought of catching a nap to sync up with the biological clock. Food and beverages were served. I dint trouble my sleep too much and opted for just an orange juice. Arrived at Terminal 2. Three hours transit at Singapore airport. Next flight at 9.20AM local time. My watch shows 3.50AM IST right now. I took the SkyTrain to Terminal 3 for my connecting flight. Terminal 3 reasonably empty as people are just moving in for their morning flights and daily shift. Checked the internet at the free internet kiosk. No free wireless access here :-( 7.30AM local time. Sitting at the boarding g...

Leaving Bangalore international airport to Singapore by 11.05PM flight. I was planning to reach airport by 8PM considering the rush that I saw last time at the immigration desk at Delhi airport. But I managed to catch only the 7PM airport bus service which would get me to the airport 45 min later. It was sort of ok. I still had 2 hrs time prior to departure. In fact, it was good. I spent another half an hr with my fiancee at the BIAS bus stop at HAL. Reached the airport and found the singapore airlines counter pretty much empty. Since I had checked in through the internet earlier, no hazzles here. I checked in my baggage to San Francisco, collected my boarding passes for Bangalore-Singapore and Singapore-San Francisco flights and proceeded to the immigration desk. That was the first suprise. There were just 18 counters (compared to some over 30 in Delhi) out of which 3 were operating. And in each there were just 5-6 people in queue. I still remember the 1 hr queue at the Delhi airpor...

After tracking Apple's launch of tablet with all the hype and not so revolutionary product as an outcome, dont you think we need a hybrid of iPad and a netbook? What are the requirements of this "third" device as they call it? Should be larger than a phone. an optimimum screen size is somewhere between 8-12 inch (between a paperback and a magazine) Should be lighter than a laptop. less than a kg. some would be happy with upto 1.5 or 2. Battery life as long as possible. 5-6hrs (full power mode) 20hrs (as a media player) 60hrs (standby i.e say connected to the internet to just inform abt new mail or get a ping on chat software, almost equivalent to a phone) Touch screen Keyboard is optional. Would be nice to have if onscreen keyboard is responsive. Else normal keyboard is better. I dont want to wait too long for the response during typing. Processor - 1-2GHz should be sufficient. May be multi core, one core for handling the touch input RAM - 2GB minimum Web c...

Nearing the end of financial year and emails from the finance department in the office to file in our investment proofs churns out a new idea. Tax is something that most people think is a waste of money. All of us want to pay lesser taxes. For this we are ready to make investments in financial instruments that would give us lesser returns compared to others but would save us tax. All these instruments are in some ways or the other linked to government's idea of savings. It wants us to save money and not spend all that we are earning. And saving money means putting it in a place in the economy where the risk of losing it is very small. Now how does it help the government in promoting savings when it is actually giving you exemption and is going to get lesser revenue from taxes? The idea would be to use these low risk financial instruments to its own benefit so that instead of taking away 30% of your hard earned money, it is taking away 100% saying that it is safe. It is like borro...

This link here made me wonder what kind of politicians we have in our parliament. Of course the first thought would be our Prime Minister, a man of principles, policies and level head. And lot of others who talk nicely and hence come under the category of captivating politicians. But the guy described in the link, Shashi Tharoor, has indeed been a man who has caught our attention neither because he talks nicely (nicely here refers to appeasingly and all our politicians, lalu, mayavati, advani, karunanidhi fall to that category) with the prime motive of hoodwinking the public nor does he show level head and keep out of controversies like our PM. From talking about cattle class to letting opinion about visa regulations on public domain (Twitter), he has been a person who connects to the current generation giving them what they want in their own fashion. It might not go down well with the orthodox parliamentarians and parties who consider public speaking (and that too true from your hea...