Purloined Banner Image From Puri Online

I love this banner image on the Puri Online web site. I took the liberty of grabbing a copy. Sorry Bulu. The image is so beautiful!

 

 

Shree Shree Jaganath Ratha Yatra 2007 - Photo Gallery

Puri Online has a photo gallery of this year's Ratha Yatra.

Also a video gallery with videos of the Snana, Hati Besha & The Yatra.

Great work Bulu & team!

Public Interest - HDFC Credit Cards - Excess Cash Back Charges

 

The following email was sent to an internal mailing list in my organization. I think it is worth reproducing it here.

If you are holding an HDFC Value plus credit card and have in past few months seen something like an excess cashback billed to your card , please get in touch with HDFC customer care people asap .

 

I too had experienced the same in 2 of my past months card statements .Infact my roommate and some of my friends were also charged for the same thing .We talked to thee HDFC people and finally after putting in some efforts were successful to get our money back.

 

To add to that I had personally asked them to send me an apology letter for the same , which , though I got is in a very sugar coated language,but nevertheless I got my money back..I told  them that I have a number of friends who were confronted with the same issue , so they gave me a POC for this issue whereby if anybody among you has come across the similar problem ,you can talk to this POC and he'll get your problem resolved .

 

The POC is  : Sai Rupendra.. (U can call HDFC customer care and ask the person taking the call to directly connect you to Sai Rupendera).

 

So folks , please utilise the services of this person to claim back your hard earned money from HDFC .

 

Do examine your credit card statements carefully. You should not allow yourself to be charged for something that you did not spend!

Bablu's Experiments With MS Paintbrush

Bablu loves to play with the computer. When he is not playing games, he is drawing pictures with MS Paintbrush. I showed him how to save his paintings and he hasn't looked back since then. These are a few samples of his work

Shri Shri Jaganath's Ratha Yatra

Today is the Ratha Jatra of Shri Shri Jaganath, the lord of the Universe. The Ratha Jatra is an annual pilgrimage that Jaganath along with his elder brother Balabhadra & younger sister Subadhra undertake to the adobe of their aunt. Special Rathas are built every year by a guild of carpenters & blacksmiths. The Rathas are swept by the King of Puri with a golden broom before the Jatra commences.

Jaganath's wife Lakshmi is left behind by the siblings and she closes the temple doors on them, to be opened only when they return.

See the live telecast on major TV channels today. You can also see a live web cast of the Ratha Jatra on PuriOnline.

See this article for information about the Ratha Jatra and meet the head carpenters.

 

Jaganath Swami

Nayana Patha Gami

Bhava Tume!

 

Madhumita Satpathy's Marriage

Madhumita is my cousin and the youngest daughter in the Satpathy family (my generation). She married Sidharth Hotha on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at Rourkela, Orissa.

I attended her wedding along with my parents, grand parents and a host of other family members. This trip to Rourkela was rather arduous. I left Hyderabad on Tuesday afternoon by Faluknama Express and arrived at Bhubaneswar on Wednesday morning at about 11.20 am. Took the late night bus to Rourkela the same day. Attended the marriage and then caught the train back to Bhubaneswar the same night. Finally took Konark Express back to Hyderabad on Friday afternoon, arriving at 11.30 am on Saturday morning. Phew!

This marriage was overshadowed by the death of my youngest uncle (father's youngest brother). As a result none of the Satpathy family (of the same Gotra) could participate in the marriage itself. The bride was given away by her maternal uncle, Dr. Bharatendu Swain (Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad). My aunt (father's sister) did most of the work.

Anyway, I am back in Hyderabad now. Catching up on emails and have the boss breathing down my back...

ICICIDirect Stupidities, Or Oh No Not Again!

ICICIDirect! Those morons have done it again! Did I say Morons? My apologies. To the morons of this world. I didn't mean to insult you guys by saying that ICICIDirect is at your intellectual level.

I tried logging into the ICICIDirect web site at about 6.20 pm today (IST). The login page came up fine. I entered my stuff and hit the enter key. And guess what? I got a very polite page saying that the blasted &*(66%^*&*^&) web site was down for "For Some Technical Reason".

1. What happens to my login information? I entered my credentials and had the site bomb in my face! Why can't the blasted "Site Down" notice be pasted before the login page?
2. Notice the "Contact Site Admin" notice? How do I contact the site Admin? Email? Phone? A kick on the Bum? Bloody Idiots!
   

Resurrection! The Home PC Is Alive Again :-)

Raghu (RR Peripherals) came over this morning to change the motherboard. It took about 30 mins for the entire process. I realized that I need a new SMPS. My current one is 300 Watts and the new motherboard needs 400 Watts. Anyway, it works for the time being and should be able to take the current load but I will change it as soon as I return from Rourkela (Munu's marriage) next weekend.

I had to spend another hour reinstalling all the key drivers (network, audio, video etc). Otherwise everything works like a charm. And the new 1Gb RAM makes it feel smoother than before (I had 512 Mb then).

Bablu came running to me half an hour ago asking if the "Computer Is Okay Now?". I grinned at him and said Yes. At this he ran back into their bedroom and triumphantly informed his elder sister - "I Told You So!". It seems he recognized the startup sounds that the PC makes on starting (Windows XP Pro) but could not convince his sis.

The New 7 Wonders

The results are out!

And the Taj Mahal is one of the new 7 wonders.

 

This is the first ever global voting exercise.

Of course the Taj Mahal is still attributed to the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. I hope the time will come when the Hindus will get back their lost, desecrated  temples in India and elsewhere (Mecca etc). 

My Home PC Died, Long Live The Home PC

My home PC died yesterday night. It was a peaceful passing. The motherboard folded up, most probably because of CPU overheating. The CPU cooler has been giving me problems for a while now. I have to regularly clean out the heat sink vanes.

Luckily I had setup a wireless router last month. So I still have my Internet connection (on the laptop). But the home surveillance system is out of commission along with the web & FTP servers.

Raghu of RR Peripherals sold me the PC a couple of years ago. I contacted him this morning and he helped me identify the problem. He also directed me to a supplier for a new motherboard, Intel P4 chip and 1 Gb of RAM. He has promised to replace the motherboard etc tomorrow morning. I should be back in business by lunch tomorrow.