Not so familiar in Goa

Christmas followed by the New year's eve which calls for some of the best celebrations in Goa is going to experience some unusual sights across the beaches, shopping places and other public places around Goa. Courtesy the terror attacks in Mumbai followed by some intelligence reports of a possible terror strike in Goa there are more police and defense personals patrolling the goan land.

Last week when I was in Goa, I was pretty much amazed at the entire view at the beaches. Many armed defense personals were all around. There were barrakes all over the roads, with small bunker kind of place that was made. I would not be surprised if I come to know that some police were roaming on the beaches as civilians just to avoide any un wanted scenarios.

The new way to travel

One of the best roads on which you can travel in India is the Mumbai - Pune Expressway. A vast stretch of road spanning about 100+ KM is an excellent drive for any one. And specially if you are taking a Shivneri volvo bus of M.S.R.T.C. the ride is even more pleasant. Couple of months back M.S.R.T.C. got the delivery of the latest version of the Volvo buses. These new buses are just too good. Here are some snaps of these brand new buses.

India makes it to the NASA Top 10

Chandrayaan-1 India's moon mission makes it to the top 10 events in which NASA participated in the year 2008. Definitely a giant leap for ISRO. With the success of Chandrayaan-1, ISRO and NASA are better positioned to work hand in hand for the future space missions.

26\11 in Mumbai

-------Mumbai Attacks-----

The evening across the suburbs of Mumbai was going on as usual on the November, 26 . People were returning to their homes after the days work from CST railway station. Guests were coming in and going in at the Taj and Hilton Towers, two of the best hotels across the Marine Drive (commonly known as the Queens Necklace). Some people were having coffee at the Leopad Cafe. Suddenly gun shots were heard all across, grenades were thrown and the dream city turned into a battle field. A residential complex called Nariman house was held by terrorists as their base camp. For more and 58 hours terrorists had held some of these places as their breeding grounds. India and the entire world had glued to their TV sets watching the entire drama. These attacks had literally brought the entire city on hold.

The only way to explain this is "Brilliant planning and master execution planned by some great master minds of the black world". It seems that terrorists were already staying the hotel as guests and a couple of them were working as house keeping staff. In Nariman house the stocks of ammunition were being piled up for weeks before the day. These terrorists actually hijacked a police vehicle and fired on anything that came in their way. Several police personnels, common public lost their life during those fateful days.At the Taj hotel and Trident hotel many tourists were held hostages for over two days.

Unofficial figures for the number of people who have lost their lives is over 300 and over 700 injured.
Brave Comondos from the NSG, the Indian Army personnles and the Police fought the battle for over 4 days to free many people.

With the whole world uniting for the war against terror we hope to see some good thing happening.

Indian Navy proves it yet again....

The pirates of Somali where on their high and were hijacking vessels that took the Gulf of Aden route. Many Indian ships use to sail through those waters. With hijacking attempts rising, the Indian Navy decided to send its warship INS Tabar to the rescue. Ever since its arrival on the Gulf of Aden, INS Tabar has successfully escorted 35 ships, including a number of foreign-flagged vessels, safely during their transit through pirate-infested waters in the region and also prevented two hijacking attempts on November 11.

After having valiantly fought the pirates, INS Tabar will soon be back home following the central government's decision to send a larger warship into the region.

thousands and counting.....

The recession has hit the economies around the world and, companies are looking at every possible ways to stay afloat. The best known global brands are finding it difficult to survive and to top it all the fear of a pink slip. Job cuts are the most easy way out for many companies worldwide.

Just to give you a glimpse of the job cut numbers around the world:

1. Pepsi Bottling Group: 3,150 jobs
2. HSBC: 500 jobs
3. Citigroup: 52,000 jobs
4. Fidelity Investments: 3,000 and counting
5. Royal Bank of Scotland: 3,000 jobs
6. Sun Microsystems: 6,000 jobs
7. United States Steel Corp: 675 jobs
8. British Telecom: 10,000 jobs and counting
9. Morgan Stanley: 19 per cent of its staff
10. Virgin Media: 2,200 jobs
11. Yell Group: 1,300 jobs
12. Nokia Siemens Networks: 1,820 jobs
13. Volvo AB: 1,000 jobs and counting
14. DHL US Express: 9,500 jobs
15. Nortel Networks Corporation: 1,300 jobs
16. General Motors Corp: 3,600 jobs
17. EW Scripps Co: 400 jobs
18. Ford Motor Company: 2,600 jobs
19. Volvo: 6,000 jobs
20. Corus: 400 jobs
22. American Express: 7,000 jobs
23. Bank of America: 7,500 jobs and counting
24. Development Bank of Singapore Group: 900 jobs
25. Mattel Inc: 1,000 jobs
26.American Express: 7,000 jobs
27. New York City: 3,000 jobs
28. AMD: 500 jobs
29. Goldman Sachs: 3,200 jobs
30. GlaxoSmithKline PLC: 1,000 jobs
31. Jaguar Land Rover: 400 jobs
32. Nokia: 600 jobs

Never ending problems for England

India today once again crushed England in the 3rd One day match at Kanpur. For England the bad light played a more crucial role in their defeat. With around 10 overs remaining and about 45 runs to get with 5 wickets in hand, it was a easy win for India. But the bad light made it even more eaasy and India won the match by the (D/L) method by 15 runs.


Indian Cricket team rocks........

Our Next step to the Moon - Chandrayaan II

With success from Chandrayaan I ISRO, has announced their plans for Chandrayaan II targeted for 2011. In this mission Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) is joining with ISRO for development of Chandrayaan-2 Lander/Rover.

Chandrayaan-2 will consist of the spacecraft and a landing platform with the moon rover.

The rover would move on wheels on the lunar surface, pick up samples of soil or rocks, do a chemical analysis and send the data to the spacecraft orbiting above.

On the moon

India has touched the lunar surface on Friday 14 Nov 10:00 PM IST. Historic moment for India and every Indian. A feeling to be very proud about. One of the eleven instruments on board Chandrayaan called MIP (Moon Impact Prob) was released late Friday evening. The ride from Chandrayaan to the moons surface lasted for about 25 odd minutes. The only small hitch in the whole thing was that on impact instruments on board MIP were damaged.

Neverthe less we have still made it to the moon.!!!!

Two tons....

The next big thing in Indian cricket to look forward to is Yuvraj Singh. The most memorable 139 run knock on the first one-day match against England was a treat to watch. The last 10 overs of smashing done by Yuvraj was too good. People thought that they were seeing highlights of a match.

As many as 100 runs came in 6's and 4's. For england bowlers it was a run all over the ground. They were up in a conference meeting with Yuvraj. :)

To top it all in the second one-day match Yuvraj came on to bat when Indian score was at a miserable 3 for 40 runs only to make another 100 + runs.

I guess all doubts regarding Yuvraj have been burried deep inside the ground.

Hope to see Yuvraj in the Indian Test Team soon.

The dada effect.....

The dada of Indian Cricket, Sourav Ganguly retires today from International Test match cricket. Sure, Indian is going to miss Dada big time. Even the batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar has no doubt that Indian cricket will surely miss Sourav. A great leader, a captain who always led India from the front. It was under Ganguly's captaincy that India reached the final's of the 2003 world cup. A captain who exactly knew what he was doing, some great examples: the match with England at Lords that Ganguly took off his shirt and waved off in the air, declaring the innings when Sachin was very near to a double hundred. The winning record for India has been at its best under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly.
With over a decade that he has played Internatinal cricket for our country, he has given his best. Even though his career was always revolved around controversies that never reflected on this on field performance. This is best proved in last series he has played.
A great answer given to all his critics by Sourav. You rock man, Indian is very proud of you. The best shot that I like of Sourav is when he comes down the track to hit a six to a off spinner. The sun finally sets at Nagpur today..... Wishing all the very best to the Great cricketing legend.

Political problems in our New India

With the economic crises to deal with, the new India now has to tackle a new problem raised by our country's well wisher politicians, the problem of dividing our country for their vote bank. The lok sabha elections are fast approaching and for our greedy politicians its the best time to make their presence felt. And adding oil to this fire is our media, I guess the Indian news channels should be awarded the best prize to show such biased news. Unfortunately no minister is looking at creating employment for the unemployed, shelter for the needy, food for the hungry. God alone knows will we as Indians ever see a bright day which is far more better than what we are seeing today.

We as Indian citizens should ensure one thing that we are not fighting with each other no matter what our politicians say, coz when a problem comes these so called peoples representatives are the last to come for a help. Insted for sure they will be the first to grab an opportunity to make a election issue out of that.

For our political leaders there is one big very big benefit and that is their vote bank is split. This problem will only divide the country and do no good for the people like you and me. Common man will still keep on facing the same problems always. Its only that we understand such intentions and not fight between each other on the basis of religion and make the situation more worse.

Making profits from stock markets

Stocks stocks and stocks; a cry in every ones heart for the last month. With markets showing some improvements in the last few days its a small respire for many. For freshers in the stock market, hold on, things are still not very right and definitely not stable. Markets are again likely to fall in the near future. Save some good money for that day and the moment you see a sharp fall put in some money (abt 20%) . Look at about investing 2,000 Rs every month.

Some tips to look at:

1. Invest in fundamentally strong companies
2. Decide on the term of investment short term or long term, this will in turn decide the stocks in which you would want to invest.
3. Have a constant watch at the market
4. If you cannot look at the market regularly then i suggest go for a SIP with a good mutual fund.
5. Instead of putting all your money on one day go for a monthly investment plan in the stock market. This will help you minimize your risks there
6. Look at the US market results every morning, other Asian market results before our markets start

Note: These tips are given by my room partner, and believe me i am making some good money out of this.

The gigantic aircraft carrier

USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) - is the largest warship known to humans and is owned by the united states. This ship is huge and to quantify, it is as long as empire state building is tall at 1,092 feet (333 m) and is 134 feet (41 m) wide at the beam and has a flight deck 252 feet (77 m) wide.

This ship is home to over 5,500 sailors and over 70 F-16 aircraft. The best part about this ship is that it can sail for over 20 years before needing a refuel. Name a thing and its there on the ship from bombs, cables, kitchen, food, dorms etc.


These days this ship and a few other U.S ships are sailing off the coast of Goa for a joint exercise with the Indian Navy.

yet another world record

The great little master as we know him, reached yet another world record for making the most runs in test cricket. My best wishes for this great man, who made every Indian proud. This world record came on the first day of the second test between India and Australia at Mohali in Punjab.

For all the spectators who watched Tendulkar's innings it will definitely be a memorable event for their life. With a standing ovation by the entire crowd on the stadium, congratulations from the Australian players and fire crackers bursting all over the sky one can imagine the admiration Sachin gets.
Record established on 17th Oct 2008 at Mohali against Australia

A sign of relief

Less than 48 hours after announcing the layoff plans for hundreds of Jet Airways employees, a relief statement comes from Naresh Goyal. "

"I apologise for the trauma which the sacked employees have gone through in last two days. The company is like my family and so are the employees. As the father of the family, I cannot see unhappy faces. My conscious does not allow me to see my employees worried." - Naresh Goyal

Lets just hope no employee is sacked again.

Rise rise and fall

Aviation industry in India touched its life time high with more than 10 different airlines operating in the domestic space in its peak time. The birth rise and fall of low-cost airliner AirDeccan with a dream to make every Indian traveling by train to take the aerial route. Following with some mergers and acquisitions.

Today with a taste of waters from all oceans, airlines are still struggling to find a steady state for operations. Thanks to the global economic crises, the every increasing fuel prices and huge losses reported by them every quarter.

Things today have become so critical that arch rivals Jet airways and Kingfisher decided to form a operating alliance to some how tackle this problem. And for employees of both airlines this alliance did not come as a good news at all. Both Jet and Kingfisher announced their layoff plans and almost putting their layoff numbers is four digit figures. Never would anyone had thought of this day to come almost 6 months back.