Welcome to Our Family… Junior

Update 1: Included video

The last couple of days have been the most tenseful in our lives. I am sure my parents hadn’t been so feared for the well-being of my sister. The reason is, she was expecting delivery of her baby.

And today, the 17th of August 2011, the day when the protests against corruption in India was at its heights, when a single man called Anna Hazare was bringing the Government of India to its knees, the Junior decided to make his grand entrance to this world. At 8.30PM, he was welcomed to this world – using violence… Read more

Newspaper ads and its relevance today

Was checking out todays edition of ‘ The Hindu’ and noticed a quarter-page ad for Emerson. There were two things funny about the ad:

1. The ad was about saving business in Brazil. What is the point of putting up an ad in an Indian daily about Brazil? We are in a country where we are not even bothered about own natural resources. Does the company think we will jump in to save Brazil???

2. Was happy when I saw a bar-code in the ad. Immediately fired up my Android phone’s bar-code reader and scanned it. It took me to a page which didn’t open. It had a server error in the mobile module of the site:
http://www.emerson.com/nbdmobile/defaultnbdb.aspx

A company that spends such huge money in a newspaper ad, shouldn’t they have checked everything. I feel this is money down the drain…

Play Angry Birds Rio From anywhere

angry birds rio

UPDATE 1: Angry Birds RIO has been officially launched in the Android Market. So you will not need this hack.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.rovio.angrybirdsrio

However, you can use this hack to access Amazon’s App-a-day deal…

Angry Birds fans across the world know the release of the latest game ‘Angry Birds Rio‘. The developers of this game, Rovio Mobile, has launched this game through Amazon Appstore, which unfortunately isn’t available to people outside US. However, using a couple of hacks, you will be able to play this stunning game.

Read more

Karnataka and Ration cards and LPG

Update 4: (Dated 3rd August 2011)

‘The Hindu’ carries an article today about the LPG confusion and asking consumers not to panic. The deadline for submitting LPG documents and the RR number has been extended upto 4th August 2011 (Thursday). The Department of Civil Supplies is considering to extend the deadline beyond August 4th. You can upload your documents here – http://web1.kar.nic.in/fcslpg1/

As always, do let us know in the comments below whether uploading the documents worked…

 

Update 3: (dated 25th July 2011)

Consumers can check the status of their connection on the website of the department of food and civil supplies

You can leave in the comments whether this worked or not so that it can help others… 🙂

 

Update 2: (Dated 9th Feb 2011): The Karnataka Government has issued a notice today that the last date for submitting documents has been extended to 19th February 2011. All you have to do is submit a copy of your ration card and electricity bill to your LPG agency. If you do not have a ration card, you can submit a copy of electricity bill with the LPG Consumer number written on it. The Government has warned that if documents aren’t submitted as required, there is a possibility of disconnecting your LPG connection and even cancellation of your ration card (if you have one, that is…)

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UPDATE 1: (dated 5th Feb 2011) Today I visited the lpg agencies and the good news is all you have to submit is a copy of your electricity bill with the consumer number of your lpg connection written on it. It took a maximum of 5 minutes at each lpg agency. A clear example of the government order gone wrong…

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If you are staying in Karnataka and you have a ration card, I am sure you are familiar with the confusion and controversy surrounding the latest Government order.

This is what the problem is. Sometime last month, the Government of Karnataka had asked all APL (Above Poverty Line) Ration card holders to submit a copy of their ration card and Electricity Bill to their LPG agency. The rationale behind this is to weed out duplicate APL ration cards in the state. This is where the confusion starts. What if you do not hold a ration card? My family doesn’t have a ration card. AFAIK, we last had a card, nearly 8 years back, when my parents were in Port Blair. When we relocated to Coimbatore after that, we lost documents for the transfer of the card and nobody bothered to get it renewed again. Read more

Platform Tickets by Indian Railways

Platform Tickets by Indian Railways

Update 1 (dated 25th July 2011)

This might be old news, but KSRTC now accepts ticket confirmations on your mobile. You can now present the SMS confirmation or email that you received when you booked the ticket and present your original ID proof. Now, all counting days before the Indian Railways implement this.  (Source)

 

Yesterday I had to visit the City railway station in Bangalore to send off my grandparents who were travelling to Coimbatore. Their tickets were booked online via IRCTC and they had the ticket printouts already with them. But, I had to take platform tickets. Am trying to document the various places it might be available and what is the easiest solution to this problem:
Read more