Don’t buy engagement rings.

Some purchases require procrastination. Impulsive buying is not encouraged when you plan to buy a life long gift or necessity. This applies especially to engagement rings, house plots, mattresses and even a tree sapling.

You can’t barge into a jewelry shop, browse around and order an engagement ring off the shelf. Ask around; speak to your relatives who are married; search the Internet for unique engagement rings.

Another popular concept is engagement rings should have a diamond in it. No, I don’t agree with this banal view. There are exquisite gems that are rare and not costly which will be more beautiful than a diamond ring.

There are so many affordable and at the same time romantic alternatives for that one special moment of your life.

Excellent help by British Airways ground staff.

In every field, the ground staff are more efficient and more compassionate than that field's office staff who, like every other white collar employees don't allow a speck on their white collar. Be it a sales force, public utilities sector like electricity, telephone service providers etc, the story is the same everywhere.

I noticed a bunch of ground staff at the Madras airport a couple of days ago that were active and willing to extend their assistance to my mother-in-law who was on her way to Washington.

A girl greeted the passengers at the baggage screening queue itself, tagged the bags and helped move the queue at a fast pace.

From a distance, I saw my mother-in-law being approached by another counter staff to offer assistance. The check-in procedure was all over in less than 20 minutes. And mind you, it was midnight time.

Impressive, very impressive! I thank the British Airways ground staff.

Someone has visualized this.

For many people including me, to listen means waiting for the other person to stop talking. The moment that happens, I would leap into the conversation.

But, on a fine evening, I realized that I am attentive to a friend of my husband. It was may be because he was talking about my favorite subject of bathroom fittings.

I am always very particular about the size of the bathroom in my house and also the hotels I stay. I would love to have my bathroom fitted with ultra hi-tech gadgets.

This friend was telling me why he likes Moen faucets and showed me a couple of brochures of shining gold colored bathroom faucets. At that point, I stopped listening and kept staring at the faucets’ images. I wanted them immediately. I appreciate the person who has visualized this and made it real.

Look the pictures of them here. Go ahead and start dreaming.

Nokia’s Mobile Applications Developers Conference.

The annual parents meeting went off smoothly yesterday. There were usual questions about higher education after the impending academic year. Since I keep myself updated mainly about the prospects in IT industry, I was able to offer useful counseling.

I remembered about the forthcoming Bangalore Conference of Nokia which aims to create a big platform for the aspiring mobile application developers. I know a few of my ex-students who have taken up a career as mobile application developers and their feedback spoke of big scope in the industry.

When I embarked on this topic, I noticed restlessness among the crowd. When prodded further, I was able to realize that there is a widespread belief that developing application for mobile phone is very difficult.

I appeased them of their unreasonable fear by telling them how applications for mobile web have immense future as there is a growing tendency to go mobile among the Internet marketers.

This Nokia conference to be held in Bangalore will facilitate one to one interaction with industry experts who will also elaborate on the latest developments in the mobile industry and the future trends.

More active participation in the Nokia conference is encouraged by announcing gifts for innovative mobile applications.

For full information about Nokia Mobile Applications Developers Conference and the various sessions that include Mobile Technology Evolution, Technology Showcase and Developer Evangelization, please visit the links above.

Celebrating a disaster.

What is happening here? Yesterday I received so many emails and telephone calls reminding me that today (26th Jan) is the tsunami day. I just don't understand why people remember natural calamities even after it had happened 4 years ago?

Why people want to relive the tragedy? Do they want to celebrate several peoples' death anniversary? Aren't they aware that by focusing again and again on incidents and events that should be forgotten, they are more likely to experience/witness the same again?

What you focus on expands! This is the law of universe.

Ask them on which day India won the T20 championship; ask them on which day they got a promotion in their office; ask them when their child took its first step. No, they can't recall.

But they remember well all the dates of the tragic events, natural disasters, death of people whom they never met and whose death would not have affected their lives in any way.

Another melting trip to Spastic Society.

This has been my practice for the last 23 years. I make it a point to be in Coimbatore on 24^th December at any cost. On this day, every year, I along with a few of my college friends visit the Spastics Children Home.

Our day with these unfortunate children affected with cerebral palsy will start sharply at 6.00 AM. We then go through the morning duties with loud cheer.

Then after a rather sumptuous breakfast we arrange, we engage the children in myriad activities that will fill their memories till the next Christmas. Every year, we do miss a few children as they move away to other caring homes with more facilities. Those fortunate children mostly would have been benefited after successful legal battles that are efficiently conducted by cerebral palsy injury attorneys.

Some spastic children would have found foreign sponsors.

This year, my group was joined by a new set of my husband’s friends. We just returned after melting trip.

Have a happy Christmas eve.

I love the day before the holidays and festivals than the holidays and festivals. I am simply elated in anticipation of the forthcoming good things to come such as good food, a relaxed mood, a benevelont state of mind, etc.

By this way, I enjoy two days fully in place of one day. Isn't it smart of me?

Here, let me give you a reason to smile on this eve of Christmas and if you just forward this to others, you will make them smile to. You will set in the happy mood!


















Source

How to avoid dumping unwanted gifts.

I was 17 when my heart melted seeing the forlorn look of a boy on the eve of the New Year. He must have been only about 5 years old. I saw him when I loaded a big cardboard box with gifts on the car, to be given to my college friends.

I had spent a considerable amount to buy the gifts. The look on the boy’s face pierced my heart. A big pang of guilt swept over me. Here, I was going to dump gifts on my friends which they might never need or never use but at the same time, that boy would have never received any gift in his life.

That was the last time I bought gifts but I continue to give gift cards in small and medium denominations ranging from $10 to $50. Gift cards enable the gift receivers to buy what they want. By this way, they don’t end up with 10 pen sets (just an example) that will surely find their way to the garage. Invariably, people don’t have heart to give away the unwanted gifts to the needy people.

Why don’t you think of buying a few Subway gift cards and give them to street urchins for this Christmas? They will get a meal of their life.

There is also the TGI Friday’s gift card. They have about 500 restaurants spread over the entire nation. Each gift card can be personalized with a custom message and design.

To me, food to the needy is the most valuable gift in the world.

They know their luggage.

When I told my mother-in-law that the waist pack that I bought is specially meant for her up coming travel to the U.S., she offered to pay me the cost of it. It cost me $34 and I bought it from Luggagebase.com, web’s number one online mall for all your luggage needs.

Waist Packs are ideally suited for Indian women who wear sarees. The waist pack can be conveniently hidden under the saree thus making it invisible for the passers by.

It is also (waist) a convenient place to handle the content of a bag.

Luggage Base deals with all major luggage brands that include Samsonite, Eagle Creek, American Tourister, etc. and also every kind of luggage needs like suitcases, backpacks, pull on, shoulder bags and miscellaneous travel accessories can be bought.

3 essential eye exercises for bloggers.

Not all bloggers but pro bloggers like I who spend at least 12 a hours a day hurt their eyes beyond full realization. Well, if you are below 40, you may even scorn at this indication but please be aware that, your eyes are nothing but organic matter and tend to decay over a period of time.

So, while we can't prevent the ultimate decay, we can still postpone it and live to enjoy seeing more colors and people.

Here three essential but very simple eye exercises that my dear friend Kamath has mentioned in his last blog post.

1. "After every 20 minutes of looking into the computer screen, turn your head and try to look at any object placed at least 20 feet away... and

I now request you to visit Kamath's blog titled, Mirror of Soul, to read the three exercises. After all he is the author-right?

The most useful Christmas gifts.

Though the price of the gift for Christmas we are contemplating to give to our temple garden is very cheap, we were in a dilemma still. Passion Flower or Birds of Paradise-which one to buy?

Since the garden is very small, the garden keeper can’t take too many gifts. To know which one is more suitable for the garden that is on a dry land, I thought of seeking meaningful information from shop wiki, the most dependable reference site in the Internet.

I favored Birds of Paradise; I love those bright orange petals and an electric blue structure strutting out of the flower. After reading the wiki on growing the Birds of Paradise, I ordered a dozen packets of its seeds.

Just as I was leaving the shop wiki web site, the word ‘Bird Feeders’ caught my eye. Immediately I remembered the open admiration of the bird feeder I had installed in my garden by ex-boss.

Mine is a squirrel safe bird feeder mounted on a pole. I looked around for more models in shop wiki and settled for the same as in my house but a slightly bigger one.

This website shopwiki.com is really an excellent resource for all of our shopping needs.

Learn what you need.

As a teacher, that is what I advice my students-learn what you need and not what others say you need. Students get carried away easily by others’ opinions, teachers’ advice and friends’ choice of education.

Thus they don’t realize what their exact need is and what their favorite faculty is. Whatever may be the subject they choose, I am a strong advocate of education through Internet.

There is a great variety of options for online college courses these days when compared to 30 years ago. Sure, the cost of studying online too has gone up but so too the standard of education in online universities like Capella University, the fully accredited online university that currently offers 111 graduate and undergraduate specializations and 15 certificate programs.

There are various financial aid options available to face the rising educational cost. Even Capella University’s “Inside Online Education” podcast featured an in depth interview with their financial aid director Mike Nylund on the issue of financial aid to online college courses.

This 15 minute podcast can be heard at capellacommons.com.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Devotional Christian songs.

Having lived nearby Christian friends for so many years, I grew up liking their devotional songs. A sense of jolly mood sets in whenever I hear their chorus song. I hope this won't offend anyone. As a Hindu girl, the Christian songs are a big deviation in music. I like it even today.

The home opposite to me belongs to a Christian. He has installed a small Christmas tree, decorated it with colorful lights and hung a star also in front of his house.

Seeing this, the children of his neighbor started pestering their father to install a Christmas tree and a star in their house too. And he kindly obliged his daughters. He is a Hindu.

How nice of him to have this wonderful global attitude!

Who is my father?

I have this habit of reading the RSS feed of Market Watch just to amuse myself. I have a purpose too to upgrade my general knowledge. My profession demands it.

A couple of weeks before I read about a revolutionary over the counter DNA paternity test kit called Identigene. What an apt name to identify the genes of anyone!

This is said to be the first DNA Paternity Test ever sold in retail outlets. Will it mean less remuneration for specialist lawyers dealing with paternity claims?

I still remember the legal battle of Larry Birkhead claiming the parenthood of his daughter Dannielynn that he finally won in the court in Bahamas in 2007. I happened to remember this particular case because it concerned celebrities.

This wonder testing kit Identigene will deliver the results of testing within 5 business days. Earlier methods of paternity test are said to take longer time to announce the results.

Of the various DNA testing centers in the world, DNA Diagnostics Center (DDC) located in several parts of the U.S. is the world's largest and most experienced private DNA testing laboratory.

Hilarious video capturing cat's funny movements.

I like cats only from a distance. As far away as watching their playful activities in computer monitor. Somehow, I have not gotten used to the proximity of animals and birds.

I just enjoyed about 5 minutes of hilarious video clip capturing extraordinary funny movements of a few cats. I thoroughly enjoyed its paly with a kid, its escape from a glass jar, its near walk on the water in a pond.

I am sure you will have a memorable next five minutes if you watch the video. I predict you are going to forward this video to several contacts.

Condor's splendour.

I woke up 4.30 AM today and habitually switched on my desktop. While it was getting loaded, I washed myself and prepared to make coffee.


--->Condor



When I sat in front of my PC while the coffee maker was informing that it is active by the those odd sounds, I saw this bird, a huge one really occupying the entire monitor screen.

I am sure it must have been the work of my husband who shrieks with child like delight whenever he sees a new bird.


I don't know the name of this bird. Oh, wait, it is a Condor.It must belong to eagle's family!

Source: Flickr

Cheap car coverage.

I didn’t know that car insurance cost is so high. Three days before, my brother-in-law offered his old car to my husband free of cost generously. He is leaving the country for better prospects.

He was explaining the car papers to my husband. We gasped when we saw how much auto insurance charges he is paying per year. We politely refused the gift of a life time.

Seeing our apprehension, my brother-in-law then explained that there are ways to reduce the cost of auto insurance by changing the insurance provider. This can be done by asking for auto insurance quotes for free from several insurance service providers.

There are hundreds of websites that facilitate this service of getting car insurance quotes and compare them and choose the lowest bidder by using a rating engine.

He admitted that he has not been using this method and that’s why he has been paying high car insurance premium.

We are still not able to make up our mind about accepting the car.

Blog traffic analysis that revealed a truth.

I thought people are only interested in money or finding ways to earn money through Internet. I am wrong completely.

And I am happy to be wrong. This error in judgment opened my eyes and mind.

I have a blog about income opportunities. It really contains all the resources to earn money online. Almost all the opportunities that I have written about, do not require any upfront money. You never need to refer a single soul. They are all 100% passive income opportunities online.

And I have a blog on laws of universe. It deals with law of attraction, spiritual development, power of thoughts, angels and spirit guides etc.

When I look at the daily traffic statistics, I am surprised to find more visitors to the spiritual blog than money blog.

Strange but true. Are we all waking up from our dream?

Anticipate lightly.

North facing office room? Contemplate changing the direction if not avoiding the place altogether. Oh, I suppose this rule may not be applicable to all the geographical area.

I am in Madras, a coastal city. We have a unique monsoon season starting from middle of October that lasts till December end. It is called the north east monsoon. At this time of the year, it is always dark in east and north. And if my office faces those directions, the lighting is not sufficient.

The indoor lighting is obviously poor at these times. Builders also are not smart enough to provide lighting points in vantage places in the room. Only after the building is completed and someone starts living in, they notice the error.

We have to outsmart the builders’ error by opting for unique indoor lighting fixtures that brighten the whole room irrespective of various seasons.

I bought a set of ceiling lights last week after the rains had topped. The students thanked me profusely.

Unmatched customer support from Airtel.

I have never experienced nor heard about such a fantastic customer service from any company in the world. Airtel is just too good.

My modem didn't respond today. I made a complaint to Airtel customer service around 9.30 AM. I was told that it will be attended to in 8 hours.

15 minutes later, a service engineer called me up and asked for the directions to my house. He then turned up 10 minutes later. He saw the necessity to change the modem. He had one new modem in his bag. He simply replaced it with the old modem, configured it and went out in less than 5 minutes after he came.

The customer service executive who took my complaint was very courteous, patient and clear. She repeated my nature of complaint and my contact details twice before ending the conversation.

I was naturally immensely pleased with their service. I called them up again to express my appreciation and gratitude.

I doubt very much whether Airtel's customer service can be matched by someone in the world.

Thank you Airtel!

Meet the POS Guys.

High Volume Retail Barcode Scanner from Posguys.com

Obviously, our mailbox will be stuffed with sales flyers, discount offers, festival discounts, surprise gifts from several shopping malls, products manufacturers and retails stores because of Christmas and New Year.

We too leave behinds ghosts of economic recession behind and spend our yearly savings with high hopes for a more prosperous new year. Years of winter shopping experience will remind us to stock food and wine sufficiently.

Yes, the stores and shops too would have enough to last till New Year. But I always wonder whether these shops are wise enough to have backup billing accessories such as barcode scanners, credit card swipes etc.

I know and have seen billing counters get traffic jam due to failure of these barcode scanners and credit card readers. The counter staff are not trained enough to manage difficult customers at crunch situations.

Point of sale (pos) gadgets can be bought from Pos Guys, the complete shop for reliable and top quality barcode scanners, card readers, touch screen monitors etc.