TDS ... Tedious

TDS (Tax deducted at source) rhymes with TEDIOUS; Coincidental? May be, but truly it is tedious.

Salary is supposed to be Salary rite? But it actually is not. Basic salary, Gross salary, Net salary ... ooops, i forgot the allowances HRA, Medical allowance, travel allowance, "other special allowance" and other terms that you might have never heard of could come and suck out your salary and WYSINWYG (What you see is not what you get). You never know how money comes in and goes out. Which allowances you are eligible to avail completely or partly or not at all; you never know. Your joining letter would show you a salary which will make you feel proud. But what you get ... ok let me not describe it. Want to hear a few other terms? Here it goes ... PF (Provident fund), Professional tax (One more tax!), Investments (declarations and actuals!).... all sorts of complex terms and finally .... I dont get my full salary.

And Tax ... out of my income a part goes to the government. I hope i understand it is my duty to pay tax. But hey you are taking out my money( I am speaking about TDS)... let me atleast understand how and how much of it is gone. Things are rather too complex with this system ...

I WANT MY FULL SALARYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

Ghajini - must watch movie

If 'Ramana' was a no-nonsense movie, you will find cliched climax along with misplaced song sequences in Ghajini - A.R. Murugadoss's second venture. But a good story line with just-short-of-excellent screenplay is what that makes Ghajini a 'must watch' movie.

As one of my friend said,"the song sequences come in like advertisements while watching a movie in sun-tv". They are real speed breakers in an otherwise pacy movie. Harris jeyaraj is not at his best in Ghajini. Background score is also not too impressive. The other negative is the climax, which is just a typical tamil movie climax where the villans forget that they have a gun.

Apart from that, the movies is really good. I always try and find out 'logical-flaws' in a movie that has a difference in the story line. I couldnt find much in this movie. Surya, as always does his job to near perfection. He seems to be a good actor with a class of his own, without all those punch-dialogues and heroic gestures. Asin does a tremendous job and she is stunningly attractive. Its not just Sanjay ramaswamy (inspite of being a memory loss patient) who is not able to forget kalpana. She stays occupied in our minds too.

Me being a person with a mindset to find faults, i could give the movie a 'EM (Exceeds most expectations)' rating. If you watch movies just like that, you would probably want to give it an 'EA (Exceeds all Expectations)'!

My first Novel - Not a penny more not a penny less

The first few pages of Not a penny more Not a penny less will make you feel that this is not the book one should begin with, to develop reading habit; Especially, if you are new to hear the terms 'stock' and 'shares'. But as the story progresses, you get involved so much that you tend to forget the world outside. Even though there are predictable events, the story moves smoothly and interestingly. The climax was a googly, which makes me rate this novel as one of my best novels still.

It also created an intrest for me in stocks and shares.

Right Justified?

There are many things that have come out of this Greg chappel - Sourav issue. What I find is that all those who are involved have crossed their 'Rights'.

1. It is not within chappel's right to ask sourav to step down as captain. Personal advices are allowed, provided there is a bit of intimacy. It is apparent that there is no intimacy as sourav goes to media discussing about someone asking him to step down as captain. And when there is no such intimacy, things have to be official and it hasnt been. It either had to be official or personal. There is no middle line.
2. It is not within the rights of the media to publish things that are supposed to be personal. Reach does not imply 'right'. It is high time the press realizes that there is something called as social responsibility. The issue comming public has caused a very sensitive situation. We all know that greg chappel can be right. But that doesnt mean we have to give in for a new comer against sourav whom we have know for years and who has done well for us in the past. What is the stand that we take?? Difficult decision ...
3. From where did Harbajhan come into picture? Why does he have to comment on the issue?? This is not right ...
4. Last but not the least, the cause of all the issues - Sourav Ganguly. We all know he is never right. I respect him as a good leader. But as a player he has gone below standards. He had been a great player. We do not need players. We need only performers. And we know he has not been performing. If he had been performing such an ironic scenario would not have come up.

Now that this issue has come public, it is very clear that it has to be either sourav or chappel (If at all things work out smoothly we can only be happy). There is one more option - neither sourav nor chappel. The ball is in BCCI's court and lets see whether the right is justified ...

(I know i cannot be right in all my view points ... Its only my perspective ... )

Google - features galore

I just started using the google desktop utilities. They seem to be very very handy ...
The picassa, sidebar, google talk, and desktop search ... such good utilities. The side bar can hold all of your other desktop features and you can minimize it to your taksbar as 'deskbar' (It nicely fits in one corner of your taskbar). One of my other latest craze is google earth. It is unbelieveable i tell you ... you can go to any place in the earth ... you can even see the cars parked in front of buildings! (I took a virtual tour in the london-eye, saw big ben and my onshore office at hywycombe). Google desktop search is ultimate. And all the utilities does not slow your system down, another big plus.

Google's print.google.com was another useful google search that i was using. It is a bit unfortunate that i am sure whether i will be able to use it again ... people are callilng it a breach of copyright policy ... Google's copyright violation