London riots - Proof of Deindividuation - "Civil society": An oxymoron phrase

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/02/10/deindividuation/

The London riots just prove that the innermost bad desires are inherent in every person irrespective of whether they are in the developed world or in the developing world, whether in a civil society or not. As a matter of fact, the phrase "civil society" seems to be an oxymoron phrase now. People are civil by intimidation or by force, it just doesn't seem normal. Greed, action, thrill, survival instincts are all part of true human nature. It is only by continuously conditioning that we stop doing it and think twice before burning down other's properties and looting others' things.

P.S: written long ago, but forgot to post it.

Keep those flight tickets

When you get so much free spaces on emails, spare some space for those old emailed flight tickets in your inbox. You never know when it will come in handy.

Take for instance, my aunt's case. She has travelled to UK a few times to meet her son who lives there. And then one day, she lost her passport in India. She applied for a new passport and got it and applied for a new visa for seeing her son in UK. The UK visa team rejected her application on the basis that they were not sure whether she returned back to India during the vaildity of the visa term or stayed back as an illegal immigrant after the proposed visa duration stay as the new passport lacked the immigration check seal of departure from UK. Although the UK's immigration department has details of my aunt's checking out of UK, the country's system puts the onus on the foreigner to prove that they left the country in time and didnt violate any rules. This is one of the ways the government tries to permanently avoid other people coming into their country.

To top this, the British Airliner says they keep information of passengers for only three months and since the travel was beyond that period, they cant give them a copy of the ticket or the confirmation of travel. I wonder how these same airlines and airports would have all the required information and recorded video of the passengers if the enquiring people were some anti-terrorist detectives.

The saving grace was that my aunt's son had a email copy of the ticket lying somewhere in his inbox which he found out.

Moral of the stroy: Despite feeling sometimes that an email/document(air tickets, bank accoubnt closing letter, bank account statements after closing a bank account) is a piece of junk i have to live with, one may never know when it will be a life saviour and where.

A farewell to Victory

 knoA beautiful article on the trends of how the definition of victory in wars has changed over time. Gives pros and cons of different victory methods and specific examples from around the world and what happened where and how.

An 8 page excellent brief of almost all the wars that mattered and matter.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/229869/page/1

The message of AIDS

http://www.globalideasbank.org/site/bank/idea.php?ideaId=386

What AIDS has done to her, we need to do the same to the planet...

The sub prime crisis song

Who knew economists can write such good songs? :)

No sight of solution for crisis

No, this is not about the Financial crisis, but about my personal address crisis. I don't have even one true acceptable present Indian address. :( I have one different id to show proof of address to every new place I have gone to, but now, I have run out of new ids to make to all the new addresses. :( While I was in engg., Bangalore and my parents were in Hyderabad, I got my 2 wheeler driving license done in Hyderabad. Then when I was in our own house for 10 months, I got my passport done. Then when I moved out to stay with my friend in Bangalore when my dad got transferred to North India, I got the lease agreement done on my name to get an address proof. I started facing problems with the expiry of that 11 month contract but managed because of a letter from my personal bank and office letter. Then when my parents were in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, I got my car driving license done. Now my parents are in Trivandrum and yet to give change of addresses. SEBI's rules are very tight and they want an address proof on my name to change the address. Presently, a Power of Attorney is allowing my father to handle the change of addresses as if all the shares are his(and it is his as of now, due to the POA). I dont remember what my credit card address is and when I sent them a mail asking them to tell me my address explaining my situation, they replied saying I should cancel my credit card based on the fineprint if I were to be outside India for more than 183 days. I dont think it will be possible to ever stay as my dependent with my parents if I want to give a change of address on my own. What a sick system and even sicker life of mine.

Useful Railway information

Here is a way to find out seat availability on all trains between two stations in one shot for you to make a decision immediately:
http://www.labnol.org/internet/favorites/get-seat-availability-on-all-indian-trains-on-any-route/6548/

Track your train's location through this:
http://www.labnol.org/india/train-running-status-location/21125/

Improve your chances of booking through tatkal:
http://www.labnol.org/india/autofill-irctc-forms/21255/

Here is some information that can be very useful for you during emergencies:

1. It is possible to travel ticketless in Indian Railways. The penalty for that is Rs.250/-. You will have to pay the full ticket cost plus this penalty money to the ticket checker and he should allow you to travel in the train without any seat or berth. If you object to pay this penalty, then there will be a court case and a fine of Rs.1000/- (plus jail upto six months if the judge wants it).

2. If the TC objects or has any problem, go to the guard of the train. The guard is the KING of the train. If he writes and gives that you can travel in his train, no TC can object. So tell the guard your emergency, your reason for travelling, beg or cry or do what you want. If the guard is ok with it, your travel can be go ahead in the train.

3. If you ever wanted to go from any place to any other far place and don't find direct trains, then think of going through any of the following three stations: Guntakal, Bhoosawal & Nagpur. These three places have the highest connectivity to trains in all directions. So these are major connectivity points. P.S: I dont recommend ticketless travelling, but in case of real emergencies, just do it. Dont get scared of the jail term or the Rs.1000/-. That is just an extreme case.