e-Nagar

October 31, 2006

father jokes

Filed under: Humor — pegasus @ 9:53 AM

In 1900, fathers prayed their children would learn English.

Today, fathers pray their children will speak English.
-
In 1900, a happy meal was when Father shared funny stories around the table.

Today, a happy meal is what Dad buys at McDonald’s.
-
In 1900, when fathers entered the room, children often rose to attention.

Today, kids glance up and grunt, “Dad, you’re invading my space.”
——–
Little Johnny answered the doorbell smoking a big cigar.
“Is your mother home, little boy?” asked the traveling salesman.
Flicking ash on the salesman’s shoes, he replied, “What do you think?”

————–
The psychic gazed at her Tarot cards and delivered the bad news: “I’m sorry, ma’am, but there’s just no easy way to say this: prepare to be a widow. Your husband will die a violent, horrible death within the year.”
Visibly shaken, the woman stared at the single flickering candle, then down at her hands. She took a few deep breaths, composed herself and asked, “Will I get away with it?”
—-
Death is hereditary.
—-
Many things can be preserved in alcohol. Dignity is not one of them.
—-
Last year our school district spent $100,000 on a new school bus so our kids wouldn’t have to walk to school.
This year they spent $1,000,000 on a new gymnasium so the kids can get some exercise!
—-
Sometimes we are so much engrossed in the solution that we forget the problem.

The Sierra Club and the U. S. Forest Service proposed an alternative for controlling the coyote population to the Wyoming Wool and Sheep Grower’s Association. For years ranchers had shot and trapped coyotes, but the tree-huggers wanted a “more humane” solution:
capture the coyotes alive, castrate the males, and release them all again and the population would be controlled. The ranchers considered this idea for about a minute before an old boy stood up in the back of the room and said, “I don’t think you boys understand the problem. Those coyotes ain’t f*¢kin’ our sheep — they’re eatin’ ‘em!”

October 30, 2006

why Quote

Filed under: Quotes — pegasus @ 10:49 AM

Ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.
- W. Somerset Maugham

It said, “Insert disk #3” but only two will fit!

A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history, with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.
- Mitch Ratcliffe
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When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
- Henry Ford

In Heaven all the interesting people are missing.
-Friedrich Nietzsche

“Sometimes what’s right isn’t as important as what’s profitable.”
– Trey Parker and Matt Stone

counting

Filed under: Puzzle — pegasus @ 9:22 AM

A friend of mine gave me a link of some good puzzles. Most of them were common sense based challenging your power of estimation, visualization and creativity. But I found this interesting one.

Puzzle: Count from 1-10 in base negative 2
solution

Puzzle2: You have three baskets filled with fruit. One has apples, one has oranges, one has a mixture of both. You cannot see inside the baskets. Each basket is clearly labeled, and each is labeled incorrectly. How can you determine what’s in each basket by choosing only one fruit from one basket?

October 27, 2006

Sometimes you are too confused to stay and too scared to run.

Filed under: Thoughts — pegasus @ 10:11 AM

I think this line summarizes what most of the relationships which are on the verge of transition. Life is too short to waste. Also I always believed that a feeling as pure as LOVE should never be kept hidden. Every moment is the right time to express it.

Friendship is the first step towards love. If there is trust, if both of you look forward to spend time together, and enjoy each other’s company then go ahead express yourself.

You will immediately offload a big burden from your head. And never again you will sit back and wonder…. “She could have been mine”. It is always better to try and fail, rather than to sit back as couch potatoes and ponder endlessly what would be the right time.

Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid

Filed under: Cartoons, Thoughts — pegasus @ 5:26 AM

Setting the tone right, let me continue my discussions on junta colony and merge it with the ideas I got from “Fortune at the bottom of the Pyramid”

If any one of you has actually visited slums, you would realize that you are more likely to see TV, coolers than toilets. Since these people live in constant fear of eviction, they do not invest in improving their living conditions. Hence there is no drainage, pest control, sanitation or even paint on the house.

Government cannot provide them with ration card (PDS), drinking water, electricity or even health care cards because for all these, you need a permanent residence. And providing these cards means legitimizing their claim on the land. Net result the schemes meant for urban poor never reach the poor themselves.

Since nobody has the legal ownership, the goons have a field day. They run their clandestine operations there, they settle all the disputes and rule the area.

Slum lands cannot be used by its owner because eviction/relocation is politically impossible. The poor who have been occupying it for almost 15-20years do not own it. I always believe land/house is an asset. If you have property in your name, you can use it to raise funds and invest properly. If there was a way in which poor/rich got the ownership, they could unlock its value.

As real estate becomes more expensive apartments, high rise buildings become cheaper. But since nobody is willing to invest in construction, poor continue to live in single storied shacks. What a waste!

Solution (refer the cartoon above): 1 lakh apartments.

Make 7-10 storied apartments, each with 1open kitchen facing the window, 1 bathroom (with sanitation, running water), 150-200 sq feet of living room, a door with your own lock and key. Most important make them have clear titles, so there is never again a fear of eviction.

The building will unlock lots of slum land, so even the govt/land owner might me more than willing to give the land for free.

The ground floor can have shops whose rental could pay for the apartment upkeep.

Does it not sound feasible?

Well each metro has room for 10,000 such houses (100 cr business opportunity in each city) multiply it by the number of cities and it will be a few percentage of the country’s GDP. Builder who made it possible is actually doing good business while also serving the poor

Poor happy because they will get quality of life.

Banks: give me one bank which will not like to be part of this humongous venture.
I am sure even the poorest can raise 20k for their dream house, and borrow another 10k from relatives. So net result bank can give a 70k loan against a secured property of 100k (sounds logical)

The EMI (@8%) would be 586/- p.m. on 70k. (so it will take 17 months of default for bank to lose 10k of safety margin… I think it is worth the risk for the bank)

Since most of the slum dwellers never had a banking account. This loan will give banks new clients and will give poor access to cheep credit and attractive savings schemes.

October 26, 2006

Closing of English Medium schools

Filed under: education, Thoughts — pegasus @ 1:13 PM

One should always go by the spirit of the law rather than the wording. Recently Karnataka government threatened to shout down over 4000 schools in and around Bangalore.
Reason: They have permit of running Kanada medium while they were actually teaching English medium.

1) If Government wants to promote Kananda, then it should open up more schools. Shutting down schools that are already running won’t promote Kanada in any form.
2) Since these schools were not getting any government grants (in fact they were paying huge sums for license etc.) State has no business in interfering with there proceedings (unless of course the education and facilities are sub-standard)
3) Majority of these schools lied in the suburban area, where people from lower middle class used to send their wards for quality education. So denying them English education might force the parents to shell out huge sums for the already few education.
4) There is a market for English medium schools so private schools cater to the niche. Closing these schools would only worsen the situation. Remember it will be the poor who will suffer, the rich will pay some donation and continue to send their kids to the choicest schools.
5) Do they want some kick-back to regularize these schools? More the controls, more inspector raj, more the corruption.

When will government realize that it has done a shoddy job in providing government sponsored primary schools to the masses? Subsidizing college education at the expense of primary education does not benefit the average Indian. Still 30-40% of the children have no access to schools.

Private schools are doing a great service by providing education without government having to spend a single penny (out of infamous educational cess). If you cannot assist them, then at least do not hamper their work.

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