~~Very important~~

I wanted to share an important news with everyone , I was  waiting for this day to say it!

Highlight to read the portions below! 

Happy April Fools Day :)))

~~what a great day~~

  Its was a great day to be in college wearing blue and cheering for the Indian team but I couldn't wactch most of the match as I had to attend a conference on Indian financial crisis chaired by Joseph Stiglitz ,Amartya Sen,Kaushik Basu and Prabath Patnaik. Sitaram Yechury was also one of the guest. It was a mind blowing conference will try to write if I had time.

 My Pakistani friend kept me updated with the scores every 15 minutes so that I can keep track of the match. By the time conference got over India had won the match and I went to college the news channels were broadcasting the victory and people from many country were congratulating me. One Pakistani girl came and wished me "You guys played great" I replied back "We played crap and you played crapier".

There was another major thing that happened  today was I wrote my final macro exam!

~~India Pakistan Match~~

  With Sri Lanka winning the semifinals, the world cup is going to be lifted by one of the Sub continent team. Today I was talking with my Pakistani friend about the India Pakistan match. Yea we are patriotic about our countries and passionate about our teams but not as crazy as group of people who thinks this as the ultimate match and not care about what happens in finals. We are the ones who will be the happiest if our country lifts the World Cup.

He said "In end of the day one team is going to lose and people of that country will never forgive that team and will consider it as disgrace to the nation". It is this kind of unnecessary pressure we put to both of the teams for a cricket match such that the losers cant show up their faces for few months .

One thing we have already got one good outcome from this game, it is the renewal of India Pakistan dialogue which is much needed for economic development of two countries.

~~news websites~~

 From today New York Times has started a new model to pay to view the website in an unique way. One can read around 20 articles per month after that we have to pay charges. In the world of social networks where information flows free from twitter to facebook not sure how the strategy will workout as not sure how to measure quality of news.

Anyways for me its time to search other news sites , I have started going back to read bristish sites like BBC and guardian  and Aljazeera from the land of OCs. 

~~education and water~~

    I was reading about the Monitor groups report on emerging markets emerging, so we know know that India have have grown leaps and bound over the last twenty years. The growth is mainly constrained to upper and middle class. What they do with the extra money majority of the Indians invest it in the real estate or invest gold or save it.

Now another interesting thing about it how much money they invest in for private education and quality water. Given below are from the report.


T.I.M.E. is a successful operator of coaching classes in India, with 175 centers that help aspiring middle-class applicants with entrance exams to professional schools,and annual revenue of $30 million.A market-based-solution business model aimed at poor people would need to manage nearly 15 times the number of centers — almost 2,500 budget private schools in lower-income segments — to generate the same annual revenue.


Bisleri,  India’s leading manufacturer and marketer of bottled water, currently operates 50 plants generating over $70 million of revenue.21 To generate the same revenues that Bisleri produces with 50 plants,a market-based enterprise catering to poor people would need to operate more than 17,500 village water plants.child would require 20-25 percent of income for an average poor family. As such,what low-income segments can afford is mostly of the poorest quality — and sometimes even health-endangering. Yet despite being exploited in traditional markets, low-income groups are willing to pay dearly for what they most value, spending surprisingly high shares of scant income on private health and education services.

Bisleri and TIME are just one of the many among players in that sector.So these are the huge gaps present in education and health sector which is been exploited by the private sector. We can't blame the private sector for this but hope against hope that education reforms bill is passed and access to water is improved by public private partnership.

~~Is it a good deal~~

   I take a class regarding the global finance this semester. I really like the professor of this course who was a wall street banker for more than two decades and after making money has came to academia the job he likes to do. We have to do a presentation next week so we went and talked with him. He was having a busy day as people from all major wall street banks had a meeting with him regarding an equity issue.

As we were hearing his story open mouthed he told I will make a deal with you and said "I will give all the money I have earned but in return you have to give me your age" No one in the group accepted it and he said  with the present opportunities we could make more money than he would have done in the next 20 years.

~~Pic for the day~~

Liked this cartoon very much!

~~green jam~~

  Since I came back only on Monday evening I have 4 more days to get my cooks food, so until then I had to manage with whatever I can cook in my busy schedule. So I went shop to stock few stuffs for the week. For bread I thought I would get jam and I saw this colorful jam bottle. It was mint jam so I thought I will give it a try.

Today morning I toasted the bread and buttered it along with this jam. It tasted like சுண்ணாம்பு. So thinking of what to with the rest of the stuff.

~~In college- for Japan~~

  With the Tsunami disaster in Japan turning worse than expected we decided to raise funding in the college for the victims. With hand full of Japanese students in the college taking over the initiative.

Though I could give only few dollars they gladly accepted it, I got the above band and wore it all day.

~~Back to NYC~~

   Most of the times when the vacation ends going back to the usual routine would be boring but for me returning back to NYC removes my handicaps and makes me more excited. My mama booked the return trip from Charlotte by plane so that I can avoid the 12 hr bus journey. Since I knew mama would do that I had taken the required docs for the flight journey.

The journey was kind of eventful,since the airport was not much crowded the security was checking and every bags,since my bag contained only my அழுக்குமூட்டை துணி they got disappointed.When I reached the boarding area there was an announcement since there was a traffic jam in NYC the flight will be delayed by 30 mins. Traffic jam in NYC is common but this one was air traffic jam. So after 30 minutes I boarded the plane and as soon as it took off I sincerely started studying. After 30 minutes minutes the plane started shaking and pilot announced it was due to turbulence and till NYC the weather will be like that and this was another reason why there is a traffic jam in the airport. The rest of the journey was like going in an Indian auto. View of Manhattan while landing would be one I always look forward but today what i could see only clouds hiding all the skyscrapers and I could see the ground until the flight was just few seconds before landing.

In NYC I m on my own  I dont need to look for anybody to pick me up as the public transport system here is really good, I caught the bus and reached home. 

~~Equinox (samaraathri) day~~

From my dad

    Today Mar 21, 2011, is the Equinox day. Skywatchers and space enthusiasts will take measurements of the shortest shadow at noon, and also calculate the latitude of the place.  The word ‘equinox' is derived from the Latin words aequus (equal) and nox (night). It means equal day and night. 

          However, in reality, the day is longer than the night at an equinox. This is because the sun is not a single point of light, but appears to be a disc. So when the centre of the sun is still below the horizon, the upper limb already emits light, he said. Furthermore, the atmosphere refracts light downwards, so even when the upper limb is still below the horizon, its rays already reach around the horizon to the ground. These effects together make the day about 14 minutes longer than the night at the equator, and more towards the poles. 

~~walk for the day~~

  After days of eating delicious food I decided it was time to burn what ever I ate ,so after having brunch we went out mall browsed few things and from there we went a place called boardwalk. There was a pond like thing in the middle with 2 mile walk way around it. With the weather being bright and sunny it took an hour to complete the walk. From there we went to an Indian chaat shop had  hot samosas and chum chum. Evening Vishnu wanted me to come and see his soccer training in the nearby park . After seeing the kids doing everything apart from kicking the ball for few minutes I decided to take a walk in the park which had its wonderful walkway.  It is fun to take a walk in the park where we can do free people watching.

So walked  2 hours today more than what I do in NYC.

~~Awesome food~~

  Last few days I having delicious food 3 times a day.It always feels when somebody makes your morning tea and asks what you want to lunch and dinner. So last few days I have been tasting variety of dishes from mutter paneer with meethi roti to fried rice to vadai curry to tortilla wraps, Today when mami asked what payasam I like ,I told her to make "palada pradhaman" ,my wish was instantly granted by evening when mami made the same for the evening. We also had home made veggie puff for evening snacks.

Moral of the story- Good people will get great food :)

~~ad gives a thought~~

 When I come out of New york I feel some what like handicapped as I have to depend on somebody to go out and get things done or even to explore the city. Everywhere car is a part of the life which is a burden in nyc.

 The above was the ad which was posted in the subway which tells it all!

~~OC shopping~~

  Whenever I go relatives house for holidays, they used to take me to a shopping complex and compel me to get stuffs. In order to make them happy I used to think hard and get stuffs which I need.Today my mami took me to a mall and asked me what do I need, I remember I cut my shoe lace few weeks back, so I told her I need a new shoe and below is the one I got!

Also in order to rectify their older mistake mami also got me a proper swimming trunks(one with proper nada) so that I can go back and jump into the pool.

~~Trip to Charlotte~~

  Since I was studying sincerely for my mid term exams I didn't plan much for the spring break. When it was just few days before the break I thought what am I going to do, since it was for 9 days being alone in the campus doesn't make sense.Then I found a bus which goes to charlotte from nyc for $30 since it was a good deal I decided to Charlotte.

The bus was from Chinatown and when I reached the place I got the feeling of being in a local bus stand with crowds waiting for the bus and few benches put in. Finally when the bus came we boarded our luggages and got it. We have to learn from Chinese how to run a transport service they run like a parcel service. They stopped the bus somewhere in the middle asked few passengers with different destination to get to different bus and few other people going to Charlotte got from other bus to our bus. And the full journey they rode the bus with full capacity.

Another advantage of going in the bus getting down wherever you want I got down at Concord near my uncle's house, the bus took the exit and dropped me near a mall. It was quite an experience.

~~Precaution saves lives~~

  It was fifth largest earthquake in the recorded world history which hit Japan today and infrastructural damages caused by it was going to millions. One thing we have to note is that it happened in Japan if at all the same magnitude hit any other developing countries the lives lost would have been in hundred thousands. My Japanese classmate told that "This is the biggest in 150 years and 5 times larger than the last disaster in 1995, in which more than 6000 dead "but this time due to improvement in technology and early warning system they have saved many lives.

They were above to evacuate more than hundred thousand from the coastal towns to safer place before the tsunami struck. Also many buildings were earthquake proof such that the impact was minimum. So they many things to learn from Japan and building an effective early warning system is one of them.

~~Pic for the day~~

Sheila load this picture in facebook with a title guess who !

~~Art made out of light~~

 When I roaming around the armory show looking at those puzzling picture, one thing caught my attention there was no picture on the wall but there series of lights and magnifying glasses arranged in some random order, at first I thought that was piece of art but when the lights were switched on we could see writings on the wall. There were 4 different combintations giving different sets of letters.

 I imagined a scenario when one entered a dark room and turned on the switch connected to this gizmo and his reaction seeing the stuff on wall.

~~Links I liked~~

1) IQ and Politics
   There is quote the leader of the country is as good as its citizen. A simple study comparing the US elections of 2004 with the IQ of people who voted.

2)Boston train service
    When people was asked to comment on their metro system in Boston,these were the results they got.

3)Brain Power
Amazing video, shows the power of  memory this individual is having.

4)Cricket cartoon
Shows how much One day cricket has changed from 1975 to 2011

5)Rewarding for right policies
Estonia is a country almost bankrupt but their new PM took tough measures by cutting costs and salaries, all unpopular policies but people have shown confidence and relected him back to power!

~~Washington National Cathedral~~

 When  I was in DC two weeks back I saw the Washington National Cathedral. It was one the huge monuments in DC and looked majestic.

Since we had no parking space on the road side we just stopped for a minute to take pictures. 

~~Art sale- do you want anythingt~~

 Today there was Armory show in New York city in which famous artist from all over the world used to display their exhibits and some were for sale too .Entry ticket for that costs around $20 but I got a two complimentary passes. With Asha in the city we went to this place after visiting a flea market and eating at an awesome Mexican restaurant.

The place was too crowded and there were lots of weird paintings and sometimes we wondered we could paint that and put it up there.There were few good ones and there those made of waste materials. It was fun to watch some of them and amazed to see people buy them. If you are thinking of buying a painting I have attached a painting below with its price tag.

~~problems as opportunities(2)~~

  It was one the assignments for my course where I need to write about a social problem and give a profitable business solution to it. I started to think about ways to solve drinking water problem but when I did little bit of research I found less than 5% percent of fresh water is used for drinking. Rest ? read below...

Effective solution to water crisis

According to a study around 1 billion[1] people in the world does not have access to safe drinking water.  UN in one of the millennium development goals[2]  has clearly stated “Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation”. The improvement in the agriculture and manufacturing industries over the last decade has not only increased the demand for water but at the same time polluted the water sources. The fastest developing countries like China and India also face water shortages due to constant increase in their populations. Even though there were few countries who have taken this initiative seriously lack of action by other countries makes this problem persistent. Though the UN, World Bank and other organizations are doing lots of developmental projects to get people access to water there is a tremendous opportunity for social entrepreneurs to invest and build models to make access to water to the people.

When we look at the use of fresh water major chunk of it is used for irrigation. So if we effectively manage the supply of fresh water we can reduce the water problem to quite a bit. In most of the developing countries agriculture is one of the main occupation and most of the methods used for irrigation are ancient where the wastage of water is more and most of it are lost due to evaporation and leakages. There are countries like Israel[3] which have effectively save water using technologies such as drip irrigation. It is a technology by which drippers emit the water directly to the soil adjacent to the root system, which absorbs the water immediately, evaporation is minimal with peak water utilization rate almost 95%.This reduces the hassle of watering the plants on day to day basis and one time installation It been absorbed the crop yields have increased or remained the same when this technology is used. Apart from that it minimizes soil erosion and reduces the cost of labor employed.

The only problem in implementing this technology is the high initial cost which is one of the basic reasons that this technology hasn’t found any takers in developing countries.  If the above technology was replicated in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia water resources there can be managed effectively. This gap can be filled up by social entrepreneurs who can set up shops in developing countries and help low income farmers to get access to drippers in their field ,they can also transfer the know how technology on how to use these drippers. One way of providing drippers to the farmers is by giving loans and so that they have the access to the drippers. Another way is by forming a partnership with the farmers and gets a percentage share of the yield once the crop is harvested or they can involve the local communities to develop a funding strategy. One has to make sure the farmers are being able to install the drippers and make sure they are using it in the right way,

The excess water which has been saved can be used for drinking and various other useful purposes. Though privatization of water resources may have some negative impact among the people as most of them think access to water as a right, we can overcome this problem by having a proper dialogue with the community and make sure the project which is implemented would be beneficial for society.

Thus the social entrepreneurs have more scope than the governments to meet the needs of people and provide on a sustainable basis the resources needed to address the huge social problems such as the water crisis.

---

[1] http://thewaterproject.org/

[2] http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/environ.shtml

[3] http://www.export.gov.il/Eng/_Articles/Article.asp?ArticleID=4050&CategoryID=818

~~problems as opportunities~~

 We should we never see problems as problems we should think for the right solution to solve it.

I was reading a case study on how to dispose the garbages disposed in big cities. I came across a quote “Waste is merely raw material in the wrong place,” This was what people in Bangladesh thought about where each day, six million residents generated about 3,500 tons of waste.  When a city didn't have much options to dispose this waste they had to come up with a solution . They sorted the organic waste from the garbage and then built a dual-purpose operation consisting of a gas recovery site and a 700-ton per day composting plant was built using the organic waste collected.

The compost is a manure which can be used as a substitute for inorganic fertilizers.Being cheaper than the inorganic ones now the government is falling in short of supply to meet the demands.

Its getting 2 mangoes in one stone!

~~WC Cricket ~~

 Its always great to see minnows beating the well established players but winning big like what Ireland did against England happens once in a blue moon. It is always fun to watch these kinds of matches when a complete turn around happens and players who played for Ireland will never forget this day in their life.

On a lighter note Irish economy went to bust last year and it was saved by England which flushed in lots of money to prevent them from default, so most of the money Irish uses are from England. So English team can feel happy they were beaten by a team which was aided by their country.

~~Oscars~~

It was fun to watch Oscar ceremony two days back ,with Anne Hathway taking over the show. Its known that King's Speech have won 4 oscars from best movie to best actor. I found a comedy link how the movie would have been if taken in US.