I read in yesterday’s Mid-Day that all prepaid customers should be able to take their local train tickets via SMS. Thats really good. This is still in planning and testing stage. But is a step forward in the right direction. Integration of railways with mobiles can increase convenience manifold.
I have already mentioned earlier how area based mobile alerts can help long distance travellers.
My verdict - Flop! Not because its a bad movie, its fantastic. But its not for the front benchers and in India there are 80% people who fall in the category of front benchers. If you love David Dhawan and Govinda movies, you will hate this one.
There can be only 2 opinions about it - awesome or aweful, terrific or terrible. Hardly anyone will have an in-between opinion. I say its an awesome, terrific movie. The director and writer has made a valiant effort and applied their minds. It is quite innovative and a very different approach.
Without divulging more details, it all starts after Sue arrives in India to make a documentary on Bhagat Singh and his associates. She finds perfect actors in DJ (Daljit, Aamir Khan) and his group of friends. They all are easy going, fun loving bunch of people who takes Sue’s idea as a joke, but finally goes along with her.
Down the line somewhere, these bunch of people land up playing the modern day revolutionaries. But this time, India is not ruled by British but corrupt politicians in cahoot with selfish businessmen. History repeats itself, but with different type of characters and different circumstances.
DON’T MISS IT! But go with an open mind with zero expectations. Its not a normal Bollywood masala movie. Remember, its little different and hats of to the director, writer and producer for having the courage to make something different!
If you want to read some more blogs/reviews, you can check out the following links or Google it up.
- Official Rang De Basanti Site
- My friend Deep’s blog
- Mid-Day
- Rediff
- Indian Express
- apunkachoice.com
I had installed a software called Vedabase which had a few extensions registered for itself. I also installed OpenOffice 2.0 in my machine. It hijacked a few entensions registered by Vedabase and now Vedabase is not usable. 
I want both the software in my machine to work perfectly. But now I will have to compromise somewhere. 
As of now, I cannot afford to uninstall Vedabase because it is required for the contents of a web-site (Deity Darshan) which is being revamped and expanded. So for time being I will have to do without OpenOffice.org.
There may be so many applications doing this to other applications. I think there should be a extension repository maintained by some authority to let application makers know if the extension they are going to use is already in use by some other application. This could save us from some such trouble.
Due to a public holiday on 26th January, newspapers are not published :(. So there’s nothing to read in the morning. I miss my daily morning dose of news (Times Of India, Economic Times and Mumbai Mirror) Not reading newspapers makes me feel that the day has started on a wrong note. On top of it even Mid-Day didn’t come today
Additionally, the cable is also not working and therefore no news channels as well. I am completely starved of news! But net has come to me rescue to some extent 
I yesterday read in the newspaper about two infant twin babies dying in Surat, Gujarat during the operation. Doctors tried to separate them. One of them had all limbs and the other had none! But they died during the operation. May they rest in peace.
The story made me recollect the early days of my wife’s pregnancy. When we came to know that she was carrying twins, the first thought that came to our minds was about the disaster called Siamese Twins! Life is so difficult for them and consequently for the rest of the family members. But doctor confirmed that they are in two separate sacks in the uterus and therefore can’t be Siamese. We had a big sigh of relief.
So far all the known operations to separate the Siamese Twins have failed. Hope they soon find out something for them so that they too can live a healthy and peaceful life.
I today read in the newspaper that all the socieities collecting more than Rs. 400,000 from their members in a year will be liable to pay Service Tax at 10.2%! Thats simply outrageous! The babus making and implementing laws have gone insane!
Wake up babus, get some common sense from somewhere. Think hundred times before you try to be sensational because most of the times you people land up looking more stupid!
The assumption here is that the society is providing service to the members and therefore it is liable to pay service tax. What they have missed out here is that the socieites are “co-operative” societies. There is an element of mutuality. Society is not providing service to members, but members are coming together for particular purpose and are providing service to themselves! Only for the purpose of convenience and because they are enjoying certain common amenities they have come together! Simply because the law treats the societies as separate legal entity from members individually, doesn’t mean the element of mutuality is lost. Thats the foundation of co-operative societies.
To take a very simple example, a co-operative society can be compared to 5 friends going out. One of them first collects money from all and then keeps track of accounts. At the end of the outing, they simply pay their balance share of expenditure or get a refund. Now where is the question of any taxable service here? 
The first test match between India and Pakistan is going to be a boring draw. Yaaaawn!!
The pitch is so dead and batsman friendly that bowlers from both sides are having a terrible time out there I think the curator should be taken to task by the people who spent money and went to the stadium to watch it.
Here’s a great chances for batsmen to improve their stats and punishm the bowlers. No wonder Ganguly was in a very animated discussion with Dravid and Chappel on the first day and wanted to open with Sehwag. 
At least thats what media reports suggest!
Starting a new venture? Keep these basics in mind. There are a few popular alternatives for new enterpreneur/s.
1. Proprietory Business
2. Partnership Firm
3. Limited Company
There is one common step involved in all new start-ups - deciding on a name and looking for a .com.
Why a .com? Because that is the way to go! Having an online presence is so simple and economical that even a paanwala in Mumbai, Muchchad paanwala, has his website! Even if you don’t want to build a web-site, its looks pretty professional if your visiting card and other stationery has an email address like yourname@yourcompany.com. You can check the availability of a .com domain name at mailnspace
If the .com is not available, look for the country specific domain .in, .co.in, etc. If none are available, you may also consider other Top Level Domains (TLDs) like .info or .biz. However, none of these carry the weight of a .com or a .in. If the exact domain name of your company is not available, try variations like thecompany.com or companyindia.com or as a last resort change the name of the company! But in my opinion, it is pretty necessary to have a domain name that matches your comapny.
1. Proprietory Business (PropB):
This is the simplest form of business entity. Its very simple to start PropB. There are hardly any legal formalities involved. Have a rubber stamp made, open a bank account and your new business has started. All the best.
However, please bear in mind that depending on your type of business, turn over, profit, etc. you may need to go for registration under Service Tax, VAT, Excise, Income Tax (PAN & TAN), etc. PAN is used for filing your return of income and TAN is used for TDS returns. TDS stands for Tax Deducted at Source. To be on a safer side, consult your legal advisor, for ignorance of law is no excuse in violating it!
2. Partnership Firm (P’shipF):
You need to go through some legal formalities like documentation, registration, etc. to form a P’shipF.
First and foremost a Partnership Deed needs to be made. Provisions of the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 and Income Tax Act, 1961 must be considered while drafting the Deed. The Deed needs to be registered with Registrar of Firms. Registration is compulsory in Maharashtra, India. Check out the status in your city/state with your legal advisor. Consequences of non-registration could be fatal at times!
There are a couple of very important points to be kept in mind before deciding on a partnership.
One, as on today (15 Jan 2006) P’shipF are liable to pay 36.59% (35% + 2.5% Surcharge + 2% Education Cess) income tax on their net profit, which is higher than what is payable in case of individuals. So a certain amount of tax planning is necessary to bring down the net tax burden. One way of doing this is to provide for interest and salary to partners in the partnership deed.
Second, unlike limited companies, liability in the partnership is unlimited. That means that in case of loss, if the partnership assets are insufficient to pay the liabilities, even the personal assets of the partners may be attached/confiscated/sold to recover dues.
Third and the most important thing is that as per the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 each partner is an agent of the other partner! So if one partner takes a loan in the name of the partnership and disappears, the other partner/s will have to pay for it. This provision alongwith the provision of unlimited liability makes a partnership with stranger only a bit safer than gambling!
3. Limited Company (Co):
Out of all, this is the most complicated form of a new business. You have to first get your name approved from Registrar of Companies, then file a whole lot of papers and go through quite a bit of formalities. It is not possible to list out the complete procedure here because then this would not remain a blog and become a treatise. The Companies Act carries detailed provisions for the formation of the company. The procedure is more complex if you want to promote a public limited company.
Out of all the 3 options, this option is the most expensive tax wise (mainly because of dividend distribution tax) and requires the most number of legal formalities to be observed. But the most appealing part of this option is limited liability. If the company runs into losses, no one can look to your personal assets for recovery.
I made a web-page with some very simple Javascript (6-7 lines) and it ran as I had expected in Firefox. Just to be doubly sure, I opened the page in Internet Explorer and it showed me a blank page. It didn’t even show the plain HTML stuff. I thought I will try it in Opera, but once again it showed me a blank page!
I checked the code, there was nothing wrong in it! And if there would have been some error, how would it show in Firefox! I thought I will consult a few techie friends. I contacted Deep, Shahab and Anurag (he prefers to be called GNUrag ;)). None could point out the error that was causing the page to appear blank.
What the hell!! When will the browsers follow the standards set by World Wide Web Consortium! Everytime we make a web-page, we have to check it in different browsers and keep tweaking it till it appears almost same in all of them. What a waste of man hours and resources! What a pain!
I personally hardly ever enjoy Gujarati dramas. Almost all have similar type of characters, same old jokes and absolutely predictable melodramatic endings. But there are a few dramas/performances that have been truly great and enjoyable. Here’re are 3 that I remember.
Lali-Lila:
This is about two Siamese Twins who are joined from their Spinal Cord since birth. Not a great story line, but very unique act. It has a marvelous co-ordination displayed by two actresses who are joined from their backs almost all throughout the drama. As usual the end was pretty predictable, but fantastic direction and excellent acting by the leading ladies. Even if one doesn’t understand Gujarati, this one is worth watching. Its still on, don’t miss it.
AMEY LAI GAYA, TAMEY RAHI GAYA:
This one has Sharman Joshi (who has acted in films like Style, Excuse Me, Shadi No. 1, etc.) in quadrupal roles!! Yes you’ve got it right! He plays 4 characters in the same play and the way he switches from one character to another is a treat to watch. He is a pretty talented actor. This one is also going on in Marathi and is called “Sahi Re Sahi”. That Marathi play is a world record holder of more than 500 shows in 365 days. Once again, don’t see it for the story line, see it for the acting and performance of its leading man!
CHITKAAR:
This one is a pretty old and isn’t running at present. It had Sujata Mehta in the lead role. She fabulously portrayed the character of a girl going from sanity to extreme insanity. I have heard that she got so involved with the character that she ultimately landed up needing some psychiatric treatment. This one was a marvelous performance.
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