Read this today.Don't delete it because you are too busy.

Read this today. Don't delete it because you are too buy. You'll see and feel the ‘THE BRICK’

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down.

When he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown.

The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, 'What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?' The young boy was apologetic.

'Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do,' He pleaded. 'I threw the brick because no one else would stop...' With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. 'It's my brother, 'he said 'He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up.'

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, 'Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me.'

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts.. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay.

'Thank you and May God bless you,' the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: 'Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!'

God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not.

Thought for the Day:
* If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.
* If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.
* He sends you flowers every spring.
* He sends you a sunrise every morning.
* God didn't promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.

Read this line very slowly and let it sink in:
If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

Face it, friend - He is crazy about you!

If you care, share this to every 'beautiful person' you wish to bless.

Thanks to Geetha Rangarajan to have shared this story with me.

ConsumerMate.com helps you buy the best laptop.

Just as I was secretly appreciating myself over my previous month’s achievements that include the purchase of a laptop apart from volunteering in an orphanage or that letter to the editor that got published, my pride took a subtle beating.

My uncle called me up and invited me to the laptop computers exhibition that he is organizing. He is one of the largest laptop dealers in the city. He sent me through email some of the press clippings he received in the last three months.

Noticing my reluctance to go to the laptop show, he asked me to visit ConsumerMate.com, a site dedicated to help consumers compare prices of laptop computers of all the leading brands.

I complied and I am sad I did it because had I known about them a month earlier, I could have saved at least Rs.1000 over my laptop purchase. ConsumerMate.com gives in depth analysis of laptop computers provided by Digit Test Center.

It is testing laptop’s features, portability, performance and the most important ergonomics. Based on these parameters, Digit Test Center gives a rating to all the laptops in India.

You see, the laptop I bought was rated below 60 out of 100 points.

My uncle’s laptop computers show will display each and every laptop that is available in the market at present. He is planning to propagate the services of ConsumerMate.com through his computer show.

Personally, I believe this is a positive happening in India where consumer reviews are very rare to find. Every Indian who is planning to buy a laptop should visit ConsumerMate.com to compare laptop prices and features. This will result in better products and services from laptop manufacturers.

In ConsumerMate.com, one can read about new product launches, read technical answers by a laptop guru, get to know the hot deals and special offers etc.

Watch TV shows without commercials.

Thank God! As my son was not here, I was able to strike a bargain for the freebies that was offered by www.DirectSatTV.com that I opted to subscribe for. It was not a tough decision to switch to a different Direct Satellite TV service provider as we were all disgusted with the existing one.

If my son was here, he would have opted for a different of TV channels that others in my house won’t watch. I think my husband discreetly conveyed my cunningness to his son. Well, I will cross the bridge when I come to it. Till then, I will enjoy myself watching some of my favorite channels plus a few other Direct TV Specials offered by the service provider.

There are quite a few HD compatible TV channels that I have been waiting to watch. The reviews in newspapers were rave and I was relegated to the other side of my friends’ circle when I admitted I am yet to watch those TV channels. That was quite a beating you know for a woman?

I will let you in a secret. I am not going to tell my friends that my new satellite TV provided me with a R10 Digital Video Recorder with which I can record programs without the annoying commercials. When I show off to them over the next week’s high tea, I anticipate quite a few long faces.

Oh Malathy, you are getting smarter!

Where few dare!

I stood firm! I am going to talk about Denali Park in the local club. I don’t whether it is already too late to plan for this summer vacation but I want to drive point.

No Florida, no Niagara, no Egyptian monuments for this vacation. It is either Alaska Travel or none at all. But I expect quite a protest over my Alaska suggestion not because of the distance and cost involved but because I am not going to join.

I am sad but I can’t be selfish-right? I have already promised myself a religious sojourn this summer. Hey, I must devote some time to God; after all isn’t he taking good care of me all these years?

Now, about the Denali Park-where moose and caribou roam worry free at an altitude of over 20,000 feet, is supposed to breathtaking holiday place in the world. It is situated in Mount McKinley.

I have gathered enough enticing images of Alaska Mountains where few dare and I see why the local club members would reject my Travel Alaska holiday proposal!

How to activate the law of attraction.

Look who is trying to impress who and that too on what topic! My ex-colleague who is at her lowest ebb spiritually, stumbled on to me yesterday in a temple. Oh, I should say, I bumped on to her.

Without any prelude, she started talking enthusiastically about law of attraction and why I should listen to her attentively and that would help me to experience a different life.

My God! I could not believe it. Of all the people, I have to listen to her about law of attraction! I suppose, LoA was at its best. May be, it was me who had attracted her into my life again by my negative imagination.

Finally, I had to cut her unsolicited advise short rather indecently after telling her I blog very actively on spiritual energies and also asked to read my blog post titled Steps to activate the law of attraction.

I am like a vulture!

Vultures are patient birds. But when they decide to end their patience, they ensure to have their grab of the day.

I too wait for days and sometimes months before I am ready to buy something I need. I look around the web, gather prices and other Sale Offer details, read reviews, save them and re-read.

I am criticized strongly for this habit of mine. Of course, I buy several things on an impulse but not so when I buying valuable products that are really needed.

Usually, I end up getting appreciation after I show off my purchase. I must admit the credit goes to buy.com, the cheapest shopping resource online and I never stop recommending buy.com to my friends and colleagues.

I just ordered a portable hard drive manufactured by Transcend. It is a 320 GB memory disc that comes with a protective leather case.

The salient points to look for in a web design.

Look who is talking about the technical details of a web design when I don't know the x,y,z of web designing! But then, I don't have to operate a flight or run a restaurant to give feedback on the in-flight service or the food that is served-right?

Having spent nearly 11 years in the Internet should be sufficient to gain in depth knowledge about how a web site should be developed. This is my humble opinion.

I also don't believe in web designs based on the topic of the website. Won't you look at a website dealing with watches that is otherwise considered as a design for recipes?

The navigation is the vital point in any web site.
Cluttering a site with distracting ads should be avoided.
Ads can be placed but not very liberally.
Too many links is a spoil sport.
Too many images also make the loading time long.
Three menu bars are unnecessary.
There must be a search function.

There, I drove my points!

My greatest weakness!

After all I am a woman and that too a typical Indian woman and it is quite natural that I pursue womanly pleasures that will appear to be very silly to every man including my husband.

So it is no use curbing my irresistible urge to buy brightly colored and gaudy looking hand bags. I prefer hand made handbags and Channel hand bags to Gucci and other leading brands.

Agreed! I don’t use all that I buy. But so do many men! Do you mean to say that they use all the watches and neckties they purchase?

I can show you a typical example in my home itself. My son who hates to carry large luggage, feels it convenient to use backpacks. If I can count (yes, I can), he has 17 backpacks of every size and color. It is my poor husband who carries them whenever we shift the house which happens every two years.

This is the last backpack my son bought-a convenient single strap backpack that is ideal for two wheeler riders.

So, tell me, do you still think women alone spend recklessly?

Strong weight loss pills?

When did the diet pills manufacturers introduce strong weight loss pills and what made them manufacture strong diet pills? Will the strong weight loss pills speed up the process of weight loss or are thy meant for people of abnormal obesity?

Hmm… I don’t know but I intend to get the full details about strong weight loss pills such as the percentage of the ingredients and dosage recommended. I seriously want to compare the facts of strong weight loss pills and the ‘not so strong’ diet pills.

I think this industry is growing at a frenetic speed to cater to the needs of over 60% Americans who are obese.

I read a report in a health magazine that obesity is controlled by exercises and balanced diet alone in India and in the Middle East countries. I wish this fact is widely reported to create an awakening.

Did you make a profit?

Did USD lost value or INR gained value in yesterday's FX trading? The debate will be on several novices' mind but the truth is-God only knows!

However, yesterday's drop in USD value vs INR cost me a few thousands. I wonder how many people in India gained because of that sharp decline in values. Actually I was expecting the other way round and was waiting to see USD touch Rs.52.

Forex market is where trading in currencies of various countries are speculated. Unlike bullion market or equities market, where there are serious investments, I feel Forex market is more speculative.

India now joins the leading Forex markets in Tokyo, London and New York. The most heavily traded currencies are the United States dollar, Australian dollar, the Swiss franc, the British pound sterling, the Japanese yen and the Euro.

I wonder when INR will enter the Forex market of other financial super powers!

What can an unbreakable toy do?

You think this question itself is a bit weird-right? Well, I don’t think so. If you take it lightly with a pinch of salt, here is the answer:

“An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.”-

It is a sad story that I want to share with you. That’s why I started off with a mild humor.

My husband is a volunteer for several institutions. Very rarely I accompany him. On one such occasion, he took me to an elder care home.

There, he took me to meet a very old man whose room was full of myriad toys. On seeing some of them, I gasped because I recognized them. They all were used by my son 21 years ago.

This particular old man lost all his personal memory except the toys he used when he grew up. He finds great pleasure in just surrounding himself with myriad toys. I was quite touched and proud of my husband.

Next time when I visit him, I vowed to take new toys for the old man. I hope I can find something exciting in buy.com, the world’s biggest and finest toys shopping mall online.

What web auditors can do for you?

I attended a bunch of Internet entrepreneurs. I was asked to tell them about my blogging experience. I started of tentatively and soon found myself talking about web traffic analysis in great details.

I think I must have talked about 15 minutes on hundreds of web tools that every web master must at least know about if not already using to build web traffic. Without web traffic analysis, you can only grope in the dark.

When I mentioned the web auditors, there was a murmur and raised eyebrows. I patiently explained about web auditors who does the job of painstaking analyze web site visitors' details.

Those web auditors will work for you and with you to improve your web site's quality and increase your revenues.

The meeting was thoroughly enjoyable and I picked quite a few friends.

I invite Kauffman Foundation to India!

I am burning with envy and I hope millions of Indians too must have felt the same emotion. The role played by Kauffman Foundation in the lives American Entrepreneur is being followed by every young and aspiring businessman all over the world.

The latest proof is the first Economics Bloggers Forum held at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City on 26^th February 2009. It was attended by a large number of entrepreneurs from as many as 60 nations. I read several U.S. economic leaders also participated in the Bloggers forum.

The recession is a sort of blessing in disguise for all of us. Hitherto untapped potentialities are now explored to rebuild the world economy. Entrepreneurship is highly encouraged by the American Government and leading institutions like Kauffman Foundation.

Reading various reports in Internet about the economic bloggers conference, I gathered that the participation by the bloggers from diverse fields was enthusiastic and they spoke sensibly about their views on the practice of blogging and its influence on economic policy, research and journalism, and how the recession is impacting entrepreneurship and innovation.

I was amused when I noted that even blog traffic was discussed in the conference. But then, without traffic, there is no point in discussing about the role of bloggers-right?

A small note on The Kauffman Foundation for those who have not heard about them:

Young Entrepreneur like I, consider Kauffman Foundation as the biggest motivator of youth to become successful entrepreneurs. It is referred to as one of the largest foundations in the United States that is devoted to entrepreneurship.

I invite Kauffman Foundation to India to do some ground work in motivating entrepreneurship among Indian youth.

Wonderful self learner.

I have been training a few persons to blog. The training session itself was a revelation to me. I found out I know more than I think I know.

Today's training session was with a person whose son is also my math student. I introduced an online earning opportunity to him a few days before. In fact I didn't explain much to him about it.

Today, he informed me that he made his first dollar with that income opportunity and several of his tasks are waiting to be approved.

He showed stupendous self learning capacity and I am very happy for him. He told me a few things about that site which even I didn't know till today.

He is too good a trainee. I am sad he completed his last training session today. I wish him well.

Why I declined an opportunity to migrate to Australia?

A couple of months before, an Indian girl studying in Sydney approached me for a short term math coaching. I don’t generally take short term coaching. But she came with a recommendation from a friend of mine that I could not refuse.

At the end of the training, she asked me if I can migrate to Australia where I can earn triple the amount I am earning now. The offer was tempting.

Seeing my hesitation, she even offered to pay for my flights to Sydney to attend the routine interview. I said I will think about her invitation. There is still the expense for the return flight to consider.

I didn’t want to take the risk. However I checked out cheap flights to Sydney and I found that to be beyond my means. But that girl persisted. She suggested that I look at travel.com.au, one of the oldest and most dependably Australian travel web sites where I can compare the prices of various airlines including Qantas, Jetstar and Singapore Airlines.

Hmm… no, finally I decided that I won’t reconsider. My roots are here and I feel I am leading a comfortable life here. I am earning enough money already.

Life is too short to long for money.

I am expecting several centum.

Finally, the 'D' day came and went. The 10th Std math exam got over yesterday. As usual, I was mobbed by my students when their exam got over and the discussion and debate started over how to have solved a problem, what steps should have been applied to solve another and so on.

There were frantic recalculation of expected marks and some of the students jumped in joy when they saw 100 in the calculator.

Of course there were quite a lot of long faces; consoling them was very painful as most of them made a silly mistake and calculated that they might miss the coveted centum by just 1 mark.

Well, my reputation again enhanced as the best math teacher around and all the parents of the top scoring students thanked me.

Thank you God for all the support.
Image source

POS system is a sign of growth.

“If there are no changes in man and machine, then they are not growing”-coined by yours sincerely. ()

And I firmly believe in this theory. Think about a minute about all the modern technologies from which we are deriving immense benefits but never gave a thought about the genius behind them.

Hey wait, I am not here to preach; I am here to share my appreciation towards the aspiration and the growth of my personal beautician. I paid a visit to her about an hour ago. My God, was she crowded on a Sunday!

Do you know what-she even appointed an accountant, installed her in a cubicle with all the communication and billing gadgets like a POS system, credit card swipes (she used to accept only cash), a satellite TV and what not!

Her POS system was brand new, bought under finance by the vendor of the POS system itself (The Posgys.com).

I am sincerely happy for her and wished her prosperity. I had to, because, after all, she gave me priority in spite of my gate crash.

Learn all about file extensions.

I have created a new blog three days before. It has funny pictures and videos, jokes and cartoons and very rare paintings. My son used to send me so many emails that contain the above. I like every one of them and thought of sharing through a blog.

But I didn’t know I have to know about various file formats in order to save and upload the images and videos in my blog. Till now I never looked at the three letters that are followed after the dot.

For example, wmg, mdi, jpeg etc were always there but I never even looked at them till now. But now, I am forced to learn several file extensions that I find it difficult cope up with.

I sought my son’s help. He directed me to computerfileextensions.com and asked me to study the information given there. My God, I was astonished to find a big, big list of file extensions arranged in alphabetical order.

I wanted to learn about file extension dmg and file extension mdi among other frequently used file extensions like file extension mpeg, jad, ppt, etc.

After I passed out a test held by my son, he then asked to read about the unique software called 'Regcure' that is supposed to fix some of the registry related errors that arise due to different file extensions.

After spending about 15 minutes in computerfileextensions.com, I gave up and surrendered at my son’s computer knowledge. For your information, he is a computer science engineer working as a software engineer in an IT firm.

But I wish, computerfileextensions.com offered a more easy way to search and locate the file extension one is looking for. Overall, this site is very useful for all computer users.

A woman to woman message.

Estrogen, atrophy, ERT, Progesterone and what not-all these words pose no meaning to women of 50 and above who experience acute discomfort due to vaginal dryness.

Those words mentioned above make no impact on me and I am sure I am not alone. I don’t need education about anatomy at this age. All I need is a solution to the discomfort-right?

So, let us get it over with quickly. Moisturizing creams, medicines, diet- do you recommend anything which you have personally used and found them to be the perfect solution for this very womanly issue?

ICICI bank's exceptional service.

My blog post made on March 2nd 2009 titled, "Bitter Experience with Yatra.com" made a mention of a bug with ICICI bank's online contact form.

It got the desired attention (but not expected) and one of the officer at ICICI bank made a comment on that blog post requesting me to email her superior with my contact details. I sent out an email to the Nodal Officer of ICICI bank.

I received a call from him the next day to inform that my money that was lying with Yatra.com without their attention was credited back to my son's ICICI bank account.

I am very happy to note that someone has been appointed by ICICI bank to sour the web for any complaints against them. Commendable! Superb customer service from ICICI bank.

Thank you very much ICICI bank.

Yatra.com, are you reading this or all your staff are still sitting in the moon, unaccessible to your unsuspecting customers?

I am your host; be my guest.

Replying to comments on my blog posts is not my habit. I know it is not healthy but I find it difficult to reply to comments that are of very few words.

But there are exceptions of course. For example, one of my blog posts on web hosting that I made in an another blog of mine received a good comment appreciating the insights and tips I wrote that every aspirant should take notice of for their own first web site.

In that comment, a comparison was raised between webhostinggeeks.com and another one that also enables one to browse through various web hosting options offered by several web hosting service providers.

Yes, I took the comment seriously, conveyed my thanks and had a look into the other website. I decided immediately that I will not yield to any more such temptations. I am extremely satisfied with webhostinggeeks.com whose presentation of the information is easy on the eyes.

More than the discounts, features of various web hosting packages and freebies, I value the presentation of the information. After all, only when someone is able to spend time and easily peruse the data, he will be able to make a decision-right?

One of my online contacts recently bought a PHP web hosting for her new web directory project. Her niche is going to be confectioneries and candies.

You can read a lot of very useful articles on web hosting, domain names, shared and dedicated hosting etc in webhostinggeeks.com

Please don’t think I am affiliate of a web hosting shop. I am just sharing my experience and offering my sincere advice.

I am very happy and a proud mother.

My son came from his training for a little more than day to attend the convocation function that was held at his college on last Saturday. He was excited to lay his hands on the B.E. degree certificate.

He was also more excited to meet all his class mates. I can understand the expectations among the youth at such times.

I was expecting to watch him walk up the dais to receive his first class degree from the Vice Chancellor of the Anna University but my son asked me not to come because of the hot weather.

When he showed me the fine folder in which was the laminated degree certificate, I recollected all the struggles we all went through those 4 years. Financial burden was quite heavy on us but God led us all through.

I am very happy and a proud mother.

The burning problem and a quick solution.

Wait! Don’t let your imagination to wander off to some remote Australian jungle where a forest fire was raging for days. That burning problem was solved.

But this burning problem that I am referring to, will recur and recur if you don’t meet it head on and put an end to it once and for all.

The diet pills are the ones that will mitigate the calorie burning problem if you can’t curb your gluttony. You can ask around personally as to which is the best diet pill today that promises no side effects or you can browse through several consumer reviews online and decide.

Whatever may be your method, act quickly to end the burning problem!

How call center is a failure in India?

Look, let us first acknowledge some hard truths.
* India is too diversified a nation
* I believe there are as many languages in India that is equal to the number of states in India
* Not all know English and I strongly feel it is not necessary also.
* The assumption that all people living in metropolitan cities speak English is absurd.
* Another assumption is that everyone have good ears. How they can expect such people to communicate with call centers?

On the last point alone, let me cite my husband's personal experience. He is not deaf but he is not sharp. When I contacted a bank's customer care and introduced myself and informed them that I am speaking on behalf my husband because of his handicap, the call center person simply refused to listen to me and insisted on talking to my husband in spite of his condition. What a sympathetic attitude!

I know how people from other cities in Tamilnadu suffer because the call centers are adamant not to speak in local language when they know the caller can't speak in English.

Who are we fooling? Are we alluring multi national companies that India speaks English only to gain a call center contract? I don't think the MNCs are so dumb not to recognize this truth. The craze to be a slave of western business has not ended even after 1947.

You satisfy your customers but not by compromising the country's identity and true nature. Can't the call centers ask the caller about his language preference and act accordingly? Is it that much difficult?

There are call centers who are ill equipped with staff and they also show intolerable inefficiency. I already cited my bitter experience with an online travel site in this blog a few days ago. They are giving me and the entire nation jitters with their utter indifference to complaints.

I will write out the full saga between me and that online travel website if and when I am able to resolve the issue.

I think this is my longest post; I just could not curb my frustration.

An invitation to save the planet earth.

I am least bothered in knowing about the technology that is used in LED light bulbs though I appreciate the invention. I am fascinated by the fact that led light bulb uses much less energy than the traditional fluorescent bulb and I am happy to say that I have made a small contribution for the green planet by using led light bulbs.

Yes, I know they are costlier than fluorescent bulbs but LED bulbs last up to 34 years! This is fantastic. This 50 Watt led light bulb contains no gases and is said to last 50,000 hours!

LED lighting is going to get better as its efficiency is bound to increase with more innovation and reduced prices.

Come on folks, switch over to LED lighting. Save the planet earth.

Bitter experience with yatra.com

My God, what an experience! My son requested me to book a flight ticket to Hyderabad to fly on 8th March. I paid through his ICICI bank account. After completing the payment, I was greeted with a message, "Payment declined by payment gateway".

When I checked my son's bank account, I saw the amount Rs.5647.00 has been deducted. Since then, for the past one hour, I have been trying to reach yatra.com over phone but in vain. Once, I was holding the phone online for 17 minutes hearing the repeated message, "Please hold while we try to connect to our customer service executive". I think they are all sitting in the moon and that is why the delay in contacting them.

I have tried to make a complaint to ICICI bank through their online contact form. In fact, the online submission form is still being processed. It has been saying, 'loading' since 15 minutes.

This is India for you. Inefficiency to the core and customer service cannot be spelled by these companies. I wonder where all the Indian efficiency is gone!

I don't know how to recover the money obviously lying in the bank account of Yatra.com

Why should a diver wear a watch?

I am shocked that watches priced at the cost of a small flat are exclusively meant for deep sea divers. But why should they wear a watch when going down under the water?

See, this watch IWC Aquatimer that is priced at $5800. I happen to read a review of it in a fashion magazine. I gasped at the price first. I was really curious as to why divers buy this watch.

I learnt that it is not just a watch but an instrument built with a gauge to measure the depth of the water. Some of the features of the aquatimer made me feel like a school girl.

I hope the divers take more care of themselves than their costly chronograph. I wish them safety first.