Lavasa Lake City, Pune

Drove down to Lavasa on 27.3.11. Here are a few pics.

Fiat Palio

18.1.11

Purchased pre owned Fiat Palio on Makar Sankranti day ( 15.1 ). It has logged 53k and has been well touched up by Wheel Deal near Golibar maidan, Pune. Tested for fuel efficiency in city driving w/o A/C. That's what I will be doing most of the time. Gives a decent 12kmpl. Probably will test on highway in 1st week of Feb. Planning a drive to Dharwad and back.Frills include power windows, central locking, power steering, rear wiper, heater and Blaupunkt system.

Domestic travel: Airlines can go fly a kite!

11.12.10

My work takes me to and fro Bangalore-Pune at least half a dozen times a year. A decade back, this journey one way meant 24hrs by road or at best 20 hrs by rail. If you were in the productive years, surface transport was ruled out and air travel a necessity. Just look at what changes to infrastructure have done.

We now have 4 laned highways and Volvo/Mercedes buses. Point to point air travel (from my house in Kothrud to downtown Bangalore )takes 7 hours, bus travel takes 13 hrs ( I actual did it in 13 hrs on 6.12 by KSRTC Volvo) and holds promise of 11 hrs once the highway is fully completed.

Ditto on the Pune Delhi sector. Duronto takes you to Del in 20 hrs and holds promise of a 12 hr ride once the rapid corridor comes up in Gujarat.

At this rate,over a period of time,only the snobs and hicks will be travelling by air, at least intra India.Praful Patel then need not oversee the greedy boys!

TVS Suzukied, Hero Hondaed

5.12.10

A couple of years back TVS was dear Johned by Suzuki. This turned out to be good for them. A confident TVS went on to launch Victor and notch respectable market share in the competitive bike segment. It has now forayed into 3 wheelers with their King and slowly inching its way into a pan India presence in Bajaj dominated market.

Over the weekend, Honda has announced plans to ditch its partner Hero and focus on HSMI. It would be interesting to see if parting ways with Honda will prove to be a blessing for Hero group. This should stir their engineering juices to come out with a killer product on their own. Let us not forget what homespun Pulsar did to Bajaj's fortunes.

I am quite upbeat that Hero will come out with flying colours after this divorce. After all, they have not become the world's largest 2 wheeler company by fluke!Time the Japs got a taste of their own medicine.

Dynamics of the stock market

18.11.10

Here is an interesting explanation of the dynamics of the stock market.Right click and chose "view image " for the complete picture.

Brenton Woods revisited

9.11.10

World Bank chief Zoellick has mooted the idea of a Gold standard.I n the late 40s, as per Brenton Woods agreement, the value of the US Dollar was pegged to 35 per ounce of gold and the $ became the world's reserve currency. Most countries pegged their exchange rates relative to the $.This arrangement went haywire post Vietnam war in the 70s.

The new arrangement envisaged by Zoellick involves a basket of currencies that includes the USD, Euro, Pound ,Yen and Yuan. One fervently hopes that in one's lifetime the INR will figure on this podium.

As much as the new order recognises a basket of currencies, in keeping with global realities, it would make similar sense to peg this against a basket of commodities: Gold, Oil, Silver, Copper, Lithium and probably Uranium.

Encourage your kids to blog

6.11.10

One of the dilemmas of parenting is how much exposure one should allow to one's kids. (I have a 15 yr old dot) .Following is an interesting article.

Rishabh Gupta is a successful blogger. His posts are nothing extraordinary. He usually writes about his daily routine, friends, family outings, the movies and TV shows he's watched, and sometimes , even homework. The days he does not make an entry, however, are disappointing to his avid readership—a modest 30 in number—which includes his doting grand parents, uncles and aunts, cousins, and family friends.

Rishabh is just 10 years old.

His parents Suneela and Rajesh take keen interest in their son's blog, constantly egging him on and providing him with feedback on the entries he has made. Besides, the comments left on the blog by the Guptas' family and friends encourage the fifth-standardstudent to write regularly.

And it's true. Children love the attention that comes from having an audience and the approval of adults and peers – and weblogs provide them with such a forum.

Weblogs, a tool to unleash creativity

"For kids, blogging represents a new way to not only write, but to create as well. With all the information and media available on the web today, a blog is the perfect way for young people, to research, vet, and create a living project instead of just a static book report," says Karl Meinhardt , an internet guru with over 20 years of experience in the field of information technology products and services.

Meinhardt, who maintains the resource EdSoMe.com (Educational Social Media), is a key figure in the Portland Project – a program that encourages school teachers in US' Portland Public School District to introduce social media into their classrooms and the learning process.

"The fact that blogs exist in a digital space means that kids can add to it indefinitely and learn more and more about what interests them. If we can use blogs as a way to help young people find their life's passion , then they are invaluable," Meinhardt says.

A tool for new literacy...

Blogging also helps kids in many obvious ways: It improves their capacity for observation; increases the child's communication with family and friends who might be living in other cities; teaches them how to use the internet appropriately, and even helps improve writing skills and spelling.

"In the past, students learned how to read and write using print and paper . Today, in the global digital world, they learn by using the computer and internet," says Dr Patricia Fioriello , a US-based educationist who publishes at Kidslearntoblog.com.

Dr Fioerello—whose e-book 'Teaching Literacy: Keeping Up with the Times' examines the relationship between technology and the way we teach children—also believes that blogging could help increase the confidence levels of shy students, letting them express themselves better with the help and assistance of the internet and technology. "When children blog their thoughts and ideas, they have the opportunity to interact with different cultures and countries within a matter of minutes. They also learn to write in an interactive way and to understand how and when to respond to comments," she says. Besides, blogging for a reciprocative audience inculcates a sense of discipline in kids from having to make a daily post, Meinhardt says. "Kids begin to understand that blogs are messages that need maintenance and care. They also help children obtain some rudimentary project management skills," he opines. And Rishabh is a case in point. Over time, Suneela says, he has been spending more time on his entries, constantly asking to check his spellings and for help in grammar. Recently, he posted a school essay to his blog for his grandparents to read. "He was proud of how he was graded in that essay, but what made him happier was the feedback he received from the family in the form of comments to that post," his mother says. "Also, in just two years, Rishabh is quite a proficient typist and is well-acquainted with the computer keyboard," Rajesh pitches in proudly.

Blogging for homework...

And increasingly, educationists closer to home are seeing the power of the medium. Santa Cruz-based Ramniranjan Podar High School, for example, allows its students in the 9th, 10th and 11th standard to submit their assignments in the form of blogs. "The response has been phenomenal ," says Principal Avnita Bir. "Students are so technology driven these days – and now, even our teachers have realised that assignments are being submitted very systematically and on time using the medium." Meera Isaacs, principal of Cathedral and John Connon School in Fort, concurs: Nowadays, kids use the internet extensively, they "would be more than happy to submit their homework online in the blog form," she says, while adding that the introduction of blogs in her school could be a distinct possibility. "Educators and parents must embrace the new technological way of learning if they want children to succeed," says Dr Fioriello. "And what better way than to start with blogging; it is a win-win situation for everyone."


SETTING UP A BLOG FOR KIDS...

1. Before you choose a blog service for your child, make it a point to check for privacy tools that the various web sites allow you – this, especially if you want the entries to be readable only to a "controlled" circle of family and friends. Blogger.com, for example, gives you the option of listing the blog on its home page, or turning off the functionality for more privacy. Similarly, it also allows you to decide whether you want the blog to show up in Google Blog Search results or not. Other such simple services include Wordpress.org and www.tumblr.com.

Parents could also choose blog services offered by kids-only sites such as www.kidzworld.com. School teachers looking for similar tools for an entire class might want to consider Kidblog.org.

"Whatever type of service you select, make sure it is safe and appropriate for children," Dr Fioriello recommends. "What you want to look for is how the service addresses issues relating to ageappropriate activities. If the service involves social media, find out if it is a controlled environment where kids only interact with other kids their age on that particular site."

2. Once you set up a blog for your child, create ground rules with regards to what can be posted. Inform and educate your child about the ills of posting any personal information and photographs online that could possibly disclose identity or location.

Very importantly, make sure that the only way your child can be contacted through the blog is an e-mail address that you can monitor.

3. Supervise your child's blog posts. This does not necessarily have to be an intrusive process. Supervision could take the form daily discussions on what the day's post is going to be about. Also, it would be advisable that the computer your kid uses is in an open space that can be easily monitored. And yes, make it a point to regularly check the blog, and even post comments to your child's entries.

"It is important for parents to subscribe to their child's blog to provide some oversight in the blogging process," Meinhardt says. "In fact, parents should make their child's blog more of a group project than a solo project. In a group blog project, parents could act as the editor-in-chief or even better, act as the "customer" of the blog and respond to the content. It will also help the parent stay more visible in the process."

4. Setting up a blog is one thing, but getting your child to write and post is quite something else. Encourage discussions on topics that could be possible blog posts. This could include the books your child has read, and even movies and TV shows. Make it a point to show off your child's blog to friends and family when he or she is around, and invite relatives to visit it regularly. Also, if you have a digital scanner at hand, your child's artwork could make for an interesting post. A picture, after all, is worth a thousand words. "It's important for young people to learn how to embed media to illustrate and add meaning to their message. This is a critical skill for life as people respond to pictures more than printed words," Meinhardt says.