Platter of Half Baked Ideas

As reported in Economic Times today (slightly abridged): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and economist Amartya Sen are among nine Indians figuring in Time magazine's annual list of 100 most influential people while Bollywood sensation Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan tops its 100 Alumnae list.  Manmohan Singh finds himself in the 19th spot in the Leaders list headed by Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with US president Barack Obama in the fourth place.  As India's finance minister from 1991 to 1996, Manmohan Singh "released India's potential for the benefit of its people. Now, as Prime Minister, he is guiding India into the ranks of the great powers," wrote PepsiCo's Indian American chairperson Indra Nooyi.  Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar gets the 13th place among 25 "Heroes" headed by former US president Bill Clinton who is recognised for his work as a fund-raiser and anti-poverty activist.  Writing abo...

Let your money work for you! Can you spare Rs.1,000 per month for yourself and see how it helps you build a corpus??? Investment through a S ystematic I nvestment P lan is an excellent mode of regular saving. The amount can be as low as Rs.500 per month. Let’s first see a simple illustration on how it works: Making my Money work for ME! SIP for 10 Yrs SIP for 15 Yrs SIP for 20 Yrs Monthly Investment Rs.1,000 Rs.1,000 Rs.1,000 No. of Years of Investment 10 years 15 years 20 years Interest on Investment 12% p.a. 12% p.a. 12% p.a. Total Invested Amount Rs.1,20,000 Rs.1,80,000 Rs.2,40,000 Fund Value Rs.2,30,039 Rs.4,99,580 Rs.9,89,255 Absolute Return 92% 178% 312% The figures...

How nice do you think it would be that you could some charity without having to donate anything.. not even your time? How convenient  would it be if we never had to leave the comfort of our home / office and yet we could donate to those who need it? And what could be better if, in the process, you stand to gain something, which is not philosophical like mental satisfaction etc etc?? FreeRice is a charity site with a difference. The site allows you to play word games and helps you improve / test your vocabulary. And for each correct answer you give, it donates some rice to the hungry. Nice, isn't it? I now have it open permanently in a window and go play whenever I want to take a short break. You should try it too.

Eat a healthy meal. Keep a secret. Send a thank-you note. Give away half of your clothes. Hike a new trail. Offer an apology. Recycle. Refrain from gossip. Write a poem. Refuse to do a thing which is wrong. Pick strawberries. Overcome an addiction. Ride bike with a 7-year old. Kiss your spouse. Give a nice wedding gift. Bring fresh flowers into your home. Exercise. Read  To Kill a Mockingbird . Subscribe to  Zen Habits . Call an old friend. Forgive a past hurt. Take a day off. Visit the beach. Cultivate spirituality. Say “thank-you.” Take a picture. Find a job you love. Retell a funny joke. Develop more patience. Hand write a letter. Order dessert on a date. Say “I love you.” Take the stairs. Have a tea party with your daughter. Tip generously. Ask a grandparent about their childhood. Stop a scandal. Take a hot bath. Drink a glass of water. Become an early-riser. Wave to a child. Say a prayer. Learn your mail carrier’s name. Smile...

Yes... this was the headline in TOI couple of days back. And I was as surprised reading this as any of you. Makes you wonder.. where is education system in India headed. Whether the school in question could have found better and less dramatic ways of inciting confidence in its students is anybody's guess. I think the school should rather focus on introducing students to various career options, and help them identify their strengths and work on them. But well, thats me. The complete news is as follows: SURAT: This could be an extreme lesson in testing the endurance of children as young as 10-14 years. A city school on Tuesday night made the kids walk on burning coal and broken glass pieces as their parents watched.  The school authorities, however, described the incident, which happened around 11pm at River Dale Academy on L P Savani School Road, as a "scientific and confidence-building exercise". The school claimed no one was injured in the event in which a few par...

After a long pestering from this guy - who never gives up on me to contribute to his blog... here I am with my first post...and to be honest...am really excited about it :) We have been hearing about the changes in the interest computation of our deposits in Saving Accounts. Here is an article by Uday Dhoot, CFP CM , CIPM is a financial planner and COO at International Money Matters who has explained it very lucidly about how you're going to benefit from it . I found it very informative and simple to understand. However, how are the banks going to set-off this additional expense is still unclear and under scanner. Whether the banks increase the minimum balance limit for depositors or increase the annual cherges is for us to wait and watch. More interest for your savings account Idle money never has worked better for you. Your deposits lying in your Savings Bank Account will work better for you now than they did earlier. Effective April 1 st 2010 the RBI has issued an announcement b...

The line between nerd and sports fan is almost invisible when you get down to it: Is there really that much of a difference between a cosplayer wearing a bathrobe and waving a glow-stick at comic-con, and a fat high school burnout wearing a $200 Walter Payton throwback jersey while referring to the Bears in the first person plural? Whedon groupies and Jim Rome's clone army share the same doomed wish. But at least the jocks pine to matter in sports that actually exist. For the rest of us, we can always dream of sports like... #10:  Dom-Jot ( Star Trek ) How the Game is Played: You hit a ball with the tip of a stick, rolling it along the top of a felt covered table littered with obstructions, impeding the ball's progress and providing targets for the player to hit. The game is essentially a combination of pool and pinball. According to the Memory Alpha wiki, "rolling the terik into straight nines is considered an extremely skilled move." Nobody who ha...