The Bug’s life

In the recent past, I have faced many issues while using blogger services but nevertheless the fixes/solutions for the issues followed it (if not in a timely manner). The latest in the list of bugs that I am facing is with the newly introduced “Embedded below post” comment option. If you have chosen ‘in your setting options’ to use ‘embedded comment form’ then you wouldn’t be able to post any comments due to some reasons. Also, you will notice there that the drop down menu which should allow you to choose you Google username will be empty.

Check here: Discussions > Something Is Broken > Embedded Comments Not Working Options

The only work around, I found to overcome this issue for now, is to choose either of the older options available in the setting, i.e Full Post or Pop-up Window to let your blog readers to post comments. For advanced users, there is always a work around options to tweak the code and customise it :)

P.S : You may like to follow the official Blogger Help Group for any issues, they are really helpful.

E-filing, life can be simpler !!!

I thought of sharing this information by putting it on blog. Most of you know that today is the last day for filling your Income Tax Returns. And now I can still find some people around - running behind those consultants, asking other for help or information to fill the form or spending time in waiting in the long queue in the Income Tax office. Well! You can avoid all these things if you able to put your little time and try doing things by yourself. So here you go with information that you need to know and for that you may click the link here and go through it carefully. I am sure after you finished reading the information provided there you will easily make out the difference that filling income tax return is no more a headache. It’s just that you have to be aware of how you should proceed with the things involved filling your return and that's exactly the website is meant for. Many of us may find it easy by handing over the paper(s) and paying some money to the Tax Consultant. In turn of that you are assured that he/she would make sure everything that requires filing the forms but I would only imagine such a situation only if it was so un-manageable for me, otherwise why should I ever be ignorant about the process and not execute it all by myself wherever I can do?

So next time you wonder from where or what information you required to start with it … Don’t forget we are into the age of WWW and we have seen many of the work is gradually shifted/shifting to this space where you can save your time and track the necessary information without really depending on some other person(s). E-filling just came along the way to rescue many of the people who find WWW is the place where no physical boundaries separate offices and the people.

P.S : Today (31st July of every year) is the last day for filling your Income Tax return, which means afterward you have to pay the fines if you have any dues.

- If you have already filled your income tax return but not aware of what e-filling is? then probably you should give a try just right now doing your part of home work preparing yourself for the next year. There you go … life can be simpler.

- If you are yet to come under the Income Tax bracket can make a note of this useful information for future use.

- If you don't have any earnings to think about what is that Income tax mean is for? then you can still go on explore to have some insights from where our Government get money to spend on various projects (including paying the money back to its employees) and other public works etc ... Perhaps, all of us should know about it. Ah! I know, trying to live upto the mark for a good citizen of this country ;)

VIT - A place to learn; A chance to grow

Whenever, or wherever we talk about Engineering & Technology Institutes present in India, the first thing that comes to anybody's mind is IIT. Now saying IITs, they are India’s premier Institute and there is always a degree of inclination to the quality of education it associated by itself and also it is one of the toughest tasks for anybody to get a admission there (needn't mention anything about the growing quota system at this point of time). The expectation level and competition is always way too much, I am not against the competition but it has a very limited scope while reaching out to the thousands of aspiring students. I have read an article about How Not To Build New IITs, which is again raising concerns when demands placed in front of the government to increase the no. of IITs/seats. But I am not here today to talk about all those things, today I am here with this post to share a good news about a college other than IIT :)

The growth that we have seen in the recent past in almost all different sectors is fabulous, to add to that gone are those days when only handful of Engineering Colleges were present to allow somebody to engineer the dreams. The situations has completely changed with the time and now hundreds, thousands other colleges come into picture to cater the future need of young engineering minds and for those young minds its more than just a ray of hope. All around, the competition has its own increasing speed with the assurance to the students who didn’t get a seat in IIT that they needn't worry about their future just because they didn't make it to IIT.

The impressive thing noticed here is that some of the Colleges / Universities are slowly but gradually following the path that IITs once started. And to name such a college, VIT (Vellore Institute of Technology) is one among them. This year there are more good news for this Deemed University that one can expect. The first one was India Today ranked it 10th all over India, read here. And the second one TCS created a new placement record all over the world by selecting whopping total of 1,075 students. In news ...

Indeed it’s a big achievement for VIT and as the university’s alumni I am really proud about it. I know still a long way to go but not to take away anything from the people out there doing their part of good work .

Congratulation & Good Luck for the future endeavor to all those who successfully cracked the interviews and All The Best to those who are expecting / awaiting their interview calls.

VITians Rock :)

The Genius!

What makes you a genius ? that’s the first question that came to my mind after reading the article published in Telegraph (U.K Edition), The 100 living geniuses. Thanks munmun for sharing this piece of information in her blog, otherwise I would have missed it. And what if I never come across the list then it would be the end of my thinking process about genius people :) It’s interesting to know about people who have crossed the extra mile in their respective field but still going on … and on … as if there is no end of being a genius. And genius being absolutely free from gender, color, race. If at all then they are far away considerations without having any basis.

If you go through the list of people and if you have a little knowledge about what they have done in their lifetime then probably you could figure out some of the qualities that are invariably attached with the word genius. As per Telegraph, they have considered the following criteria to decide the best of the best that includes paradigm shifting, popular acclaim, intellectual power, achievement and cultural importance. The list of people are from various background and fields starting form scientists, writer, musician, historian, poet, publisher, spiritual leader, sports person, film maker, psychologist and the list is real big. Which indicates that it can never be limited to anything … and it goes the same with the people listed in it. That being a pointer to the fact that genius is not directed by certain boundaries or limit. And as rightly said - "There is no great genius without some touch of madness."

The very next moment, out of my mind; It kicked me how a nation with a population of around 1.3 billion failed to produce a single among them? or its another reminder to me that, although genius is not limit by any boundaries but many times it is over shadowed in the race of the basic survival process. In the and it dies lacking the sweat & blood that it requires.

And finally I have left myself with few questions that caught me more than the usual time, just after going through the profile of Kirti N. Chaudhuri (the only Indian in that list); how well we (Indians) know ourselves? And how well the work done by us here is appreciated by the world outside ? Those questions are just moving round and around me and not ready to leave me now. But somehow I am convinced that there is a long long way to go and we still believe only in gifted things?

" Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered - either by themselves or by others." -Mark Twain

Ready for the change - BIAL ???

The BIAL (Bangaluru International Airport), which has received clearances from the Civil Aviation Ministry to start commercial operations, has already informed airlines that all flights landing or departing after 00:00 hours on May 23, would operate from the new airport. It is also confirmed that no commercial flights will depart from the HAL airport after 00:01 of May 23 2008.

The countdown for the inauguration of the new airport of Bangalore is already begun. Now, the big question that revolves around is that whether Bangalore is ready for this change over? There are voices from every corner of the city demanding to retain HAL Airport; and nevertheless the most common problem sighted is that the required infrastructure in the city is not ready yet which will add more worries to the ever growing traffic system, if shifted.

In News : New Bangalore airport ready to roll, old row on

It’s no wonder the connecting roads to the airport has been somthing but smooth. And it takes minimum 2 Hrs to travel from the city to reach the Airport situated around 40 K.ms away and the reason being there are still incomplete connectivity projects.

BIAL is the future but whether the infrastructure is ready for such a movement right now? I mean knowing that things are not at proper place and it will take a sizeable amount of time to carry the required work and there is a little hope that such rush will work out. Ask any traveler in the city; they would surely prefer HAL Airport inspite of its pathetic condition than BIAL, mainly due to its accessibility. And hence, PILs demand old B'lore airport remain open.

Here goes some of the useful information that I gathered from the Internet regarding the bus service/conectivity between various places in Bangalore to the new airport.

BMTC has released the fares of the soon to be introduced 'Airport Bus Service' to BIAL, connecting the airport from eight locations of the city. These buses will be numbered as BIAL 1 to 7 for the intial seven routes.

Thank God, BMTC has procured 40 air-conditioned Volvo buses for dedicated Shuttle Services between the Airport and seven destinations across the City. Named Vayu Vajra, these buses will ply on seven diferent routes, around every 15 minutes. The cost of the bus fare would range from Rs. 80 to Rs. 200 depending on the distance.

In addition, BMTC has also procured 116 Ashok Leyland Non AC buses to connect the airport to the City. Named Suvarna, these buses will ply during peak hours of the morning and evening. The cost for each trip in these buses will range between Rs.20 to Rs.90 per trip, depending on the distance traveled.

P.S : The fares indicated above are 1 BMTC, 2 Autos, and 3 Taxi.

Now, its time for most of us to wait and watch how things are turning around for the new airport and already there are assurances and some encouraging plans are in the queue …. So let’s hope for the best.

A New ISP in the City

A good news and yet again it is an indication that India is marching towards accruing the best of Information and technology. Still a long way to go but thanks to all of those whose effort made this possible.

I don’t know how many of you are aware of this piece of news but I thought its worth blog, to make sure the message will continue to spread …

In Bangalore RailTel is lunching Broadband Internet Service (known as RailWire - Express Network) with a very affordable price. This service is limited now to Whitefield, B'lr only and it is expected that the service will gradually spread across other areas and cities/towns too. Now, gone are those days when you have to pay a hefty amount to get a broadband connection and also you were not assured with the quality of service. This is a clear signal to kill the monopoly of the majors in the market, to name a few Tataindicom, Reliance etc... I can hope the RailWire's quality of service would impose a challenge to them to retain their shares in the market. The other thing that is really impressing about Railwire is that the service will be a blessing for smaller cities and towns people considering the fact of accessibility and the cost per month. And cities like Bangalore what say – where every other person is in need of accessing the Internet. It will give people one more big choice / option to choose what is best for them. So I am looking forward to it.

You can check the detail information about the areas that are currently having this service, the plan charges and other required stuffs at RailWire’s website.

For more in the article published in Deccan Herald here.

Cleartrips for trains :)

Check out for cleartrip, what you will notice there is bit surprising but same time encouraging too. Guess what ! Indian Railways is giving a stiff competition to the low cost airlines. Now side by side you can search which one is best for you. Yes ! cleartrip is out with its new train search pages (Cleartips Train beta), the first impression was good.

Now you don’t have to only depend upon IR website :)

The Dream Route Train !!

One great news for all those Indian railways fan, from 8th of Dec passenger trains between Mangalore and Bangalore (the dream rail track route through Western Ghats) is starting. It’s something that people of Dakshina Kannada desperately waiting for so long time. The ticket booking for this train Yeswantpur- Mangalore Express (No: 6517/8) is started today, and by the time I book mine the quota was almost over.

Timings :
The first ever passenger train on this route will be flagged-off at Mangalore Railway Station by the Railway Minister on 8th Dec 2007 at 11.30 AM. The corresponding train from Bangalore will leave Yeswantpur Railway Station at 8.35 PM on the same day. And from 9th Dec the regular service will begin from Yeswantpur at 8.35 PM and will reach Mangalore at 8.05 AM the next day. The train from Mangalore will leave Mangalore at 7.45 PM and will reach at Yeswantpur at 7.40 AM next day.

Route :
The train will run via Yeswantpur/Bangalore -> Kengeri -> Mandaya-> Mysore -> Krishnarajnagar -> Sakleshpura -> Kabakaputtara -> Bantawal -> Kankanadi -> Mangalore. The end to end distance will be around 503 K.ms and that will be covered by 11 hrs 30 mins of time.

Coaches :
There will be 16 coaches in the train which includes 6 ordinary, 6 sleepers, one 2AC, one 3 AC and two luggage coaches.

Fares :
The fares for traveling between the two end points will cost in Indian Rupees 119 by Second Class, 227 by Sleeper Class, 611 by 3AC and 850 by 2AC.

Most of the people know the importance of this train and the route is absolutely mind blowing, traveling through the Ghats is always a pleasure to eyes. I guess some pictures would explain it better then anything else…. Need to wait sometime. I wish the other purposed train which would run in the day light will also be flagged-off soon.