Affordable foreign destinations

Sharing an interseting read from the net. Want to get more value out of every rupee while travelling aborad? Then these are some destinations. Just beaware of the fact some these countries prefer to charge tourists in dollar rather than their own currency. I am aware of wildlife trips to Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Therfore my advise is to do further reserach before you take the bite.

17 Super Affordable Countries That Will Make Every Indian Feel Richer

Bursting the online shopping myth- Part-II

Continuing from my earlier posts, here I intend burst another myth on online shopping. The diaspora tends to believe that items are cheaper online. But is it really cheap?

Well, this may be true for those living in second or third tier cities. But certainly not for metros where there are stiff competition, it may not always be true. While online may be cheaper for items like mobile phones, but not for many marchandise. So onee should explore before making the purchase. I am sharing one of my recent experiences to burst this myth.

My wife was looking to purchase a pair of sports shoe for her gym outings. Therefore when Myntra.com had announced a hyped sale with a full page ad on the TOI, we decided to explore it. We shortlisted a Nike shoe with a MRP of 3596. It was on offer @30% discount for that day. Thus the price indicated after discount was 2517. When we added it to the cart and proceeded for payment, the surprise element popped up. VAT Extra. How much VAT? Rs.431/-. How it was calculated. @12% of MRP, not on the discounted price. So final price I need to pay after adding VAT was 2948. Thus effective discount got reduced to a mere 18%. As most of the shops in malls gives a 20% discount during sale season, we decided to try it out at a shop rather than buying online. In shop purchase resluts in lower post purchase disonances as you can try out various options on spot.

Item on sale with 20% discount on a hyped sale

Notice the extra VAT amount when you add the item to your cart

Out of curiosity, I decided to visit Myntra.com again next day. The hyped sale was over as it was only for a day. Hence the same pair of shoe was on 10% discount only that day. To check VAT applicability, I added it to the cart and proceeded for payment. To my surprise there was no extra VAT that day. This means that customers are taken for a ride in the name of sales. One is made to feel like getting an extra 20% discount in sale, whereas he was actually getting just 8% extra discount.

Same item when not on sale.

Notice no VAT extra on background. Coupon codes never applies on such items.

Now that there is a Nike factory outlet in one of the malls not very far from my home, we decided to visit the shop. This being the end of season sale period, everything was on flat 40% in the shop, including the model we had checked online. And to the top of it, there was no extra VAT. Therefore we got that pair of shoe for 2217 from the Nike outlet whereas the price on hyped sale was 2948. To make you all understand how we are being taken for ride by these online sale, I have decided to corroborate this with screenshots I had retained. Unfortunately I did not save screenshot of the sale circus with extra VAT. But the images below clearly shows that the offline purchase from outlet was cheaper by almost 22% than the online price. I however have retained images of a much lower scale sale @20% off, which also attracted extra VAT.

Same shoe purchased from Nike factory outlet

Bill showing actual price from shop which was much lower than online sale price, And no VAT extra.

It reminds me of the famous quote – You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. So next time you see another full page ad of an online sale, make sure to compare before you buy.

Bursting the online shopping myth- Part-I

I am among those early users of online shopping. My first online merchandise purchase was made way back in 2002 at baazi.com which later went onto become eBay.in. During this intervening eleven years, I had shopped with various portals across the globe. With a smart phone in every other hand, ever improving internet connectivity, coupled with vigorous advertising push, the online shopping phenomenon had taken India by storm between end of 2013 and 2014.

I had procured a wide range of products online. From microwave (2002), Digital camera (2003), handycam (2004), Books, Watches, camera accessories, mobiles, kitchen accessories, bags, voltage stabilizers, etc. The list goes on. Internationally I had used services of amazon.com, alibris.com, aliexpress.com, etc.  ordering items from US, China and Hongkong. Fortunately all of them got delivered without any fuss at Delhi. On domestic front, I had availed the  services of bazee.com, ebay.in, tradus.in, flipkart, snapdeal, amazon, infibeam, firstandsecond, myntra, yepme, jobong, printavenue, zoomin, and few other standalone single vendor sites which I do not recall now. Thus I had availed services across a wide gamut of e-commerce platform, from the one selling a single specialised product to those selling almost everything. Needless to say that I had come across an equally wide range of experiences to share. This article is the first of two articles I had penned to share my experiences.  

I was never worried about buying something online, until recently. An incident that had changed my opinion about online shopping. I would be wrong if I say there were no issues during the 2003-2010 period when I had mostly traded through bazee and eBay. In fact, online shopping was looked upon suspiciously by most because of cheap imitations sold online during those days. However, both bazee and, later eBay, had a very strict customer protection policy. At some point, a seller in ebay would automatically get banned for 3 negative customer feedback. The system had changed somehow, yet you see those pleading lines from seller requesting you to contact them directly before leaving a negative feedback. As a customer I was always allowed protection and all issues were resolved with prompt refund. I still vouch for eBay’s time bound issue resolution policy. On two occasions in last 6 months eBay had offered me refund with 150% of price I had paid within two days of lodging complaint– once for defective product and once for part of the order missing.  In these ten years, I also had come across fraud site like booksorbit.com. They have a perfectly working website even today with secured payment facility. However once you place an order, they neither delivers, not respond to your mails and more importantly not reachable over the phone mentioned in their website. Our laws are so lax that the site is still online and God knows how many have fallen victims. I was rescued by my credit card company from the booksorbit scam.

December 2013 saw something beyond the regular 10-20% discount online, offered often on selected items only. For 3 days, the most stupendous online sale ever happened in India, promoted by all major credit cards. The discount was on final cart value, not on specific items. I remember buying even wildcraft items on this sale at 20-30% discount. None of the sales that followed offered even 10% discount of wildcraft goods. Before this sale, Jobong used to deliver in less than 24hrs in Delhi. I kept receiving apologies for delivery delay for items purchased during the sale and it took 7-10 days for delivery of all items. Success of this event led to several such hyped sales like GOSF, Black Friday sales, etc. in the last 12 months. It also include the botched sale by Flipkart leading to issuing an official apology. But nothing had matched that sale of Dec 2013.

If awareness creation was the objective, then these hyped sales had achieved it. Diaspora now believes that things are available cheaper online. Everyone now seems to be doing online shopping. The delivery boys lugging a huge bag on back riding zipzap through city traffic are ubiquitous these days. Scammers saw this as opportunity to make some quick bucks. They setup shops on sites that do not have any customer protection policy. You can be held responsible for not dispatching an item, but it will be tough on customer to prove if a similar imitation is sent, or even a blank box.

Despite occasional smaller issues, my brush with online purchases had generally good. My first real issue came with snapdeal in 2014. I had ordered a camera lens – Tamron 90mm macro VC. The item has a MRP of 39K and was available at snapdeal for about 32K, which is close to its street price. For me the reason to buy online was payment by credit card with emi option. The item was delivered 7 days after I had ordered. To my horror the item sent was ‘similar’ but not the exact item I had ordered. The product delivered was Tamron 90mm macro non VC. Tamron has two different version of the leans – non VC and VC where VC stands for Vibration Correction, similar to IS – Image Stabilisation. These lenses have distinct product code and MRP of also differs.  The non VC version is priced about 10K lower at 29K. SO I was delivered a product which costs about 24K in market as against my payment of 32K. This is too big a ‘mistake’ someone dealing with photo goods to make. It was a well-planned fraud. Fortunately the bill. Which invariably was for the VC lens, also had serial no of product mentioned for warranty. The product label on cartoon where this serial no is printed clearly indicated the item code and item description as non VC version. Even the MRP sticker substantiated the ‘mistake’.  Without bothering  to break the seal, I called up snapdeal helpline. The lady on other side keep reiterating that I should not worry as the purchase is covered under ‘protection’ and promptly sent me a mail asking for photographs of items, bills, etc. Little did they realise that it was a high value item of 30K plus value at that time. Without wasting time I sent back images within couple of hours of receiving the mail. But that was it. I had received a system generated acknowledgement. I had gone through such experience once for a smaller value product. So I had kept proof of everything – my communication, their mail, system generated acknowledgment, snapdeal policy of dispute resolution, etc. There had been no response back from sanpdeal even after couple of days. I kept calling them at helpline and I kept getting information like your issue is being addressed, we have written to the seller who is to respond back, etc. Finally I lost my patience on 7^th day and called my credit card company to lodge a complaint of fraud. They asked for evidences to be submitted with dispute lodging form. As I had everything ready with me, I did it promptly. But before submitting I wrote to snapdeal once again informing them about the action I am initiating with my bank and gave them 2 more days’ time to respond. Still snapdeal did not reply. Thus on the 10th day, I lodged a formal dispute with bank submitting all proof of communication. Bank was satisfied with my proof and reversed the charges on my card. I could breathe easy now. I got my money back.

2 days after that snapdeal awoke from its slumber. It was the 12^th day since deliver and my reporting of incident. Some idiot from their Okhla office called me up and said that they had asked the seller about the dispute and he had confirmed that he sent the correct item. I lost my cool and gave him a piece of my mind. It was quite evident that they did not bother to look at the evidence submitted by in form of bill and images of packet, its item code, etc.  Customer bought an orange, the seller sends him a lemon; customer lodges complaint with evidence of lemon being delivered, they ask the seller again; he says he had sent an orange, and you as customer care relay it back to the customer! Then I told him that I had already got my money back. This is your item lying with me which you can get picked at your leisure. 3 days after that it was picked up as a 'reverse pick up'. The pickup slip said ‘defective item'. My ordeal had come to an end.

Few days after this incident I came across another photographer friend from Mumbai who had exactly the same issue, and with the same product. I asked him if he bought on snapdeal? He said yes. So we both were victims of a well-planned con, on the same portal and apparently by the same seller. Unfortunately, snapdeal never bothered to apologise to us, forget about taking some action against the seller. Little do they understand that these sellers are ruining their reputation.

This problem is unique to snapdeal. Few weeks later, one of my friends shared a youtube video in facebook. He had ordered a pendirve from Flipkart. When he opened the box, there was nothing inside. When he called up, Flipkart did not agree to his version. But as he wanted the item and it being a low value product, he ordered again. Ditto same time. Empty inside. Flipkart disagreed again. So he setup a trap. He ordered it a third time. This time on COD. When the delivery boy came, he paid the money as you have to do for COD orders, and recorded a video of opening the box in front of the delivery boy. Your guess is right. It was empty again. And this time he had proof. I had no follow-up of how Flipkart finally settled it. Another image I saw on a social networking site is someone receiving a bar of soap instead of a mobile. But that was a still image, hence veracity cannot be established.

But the bottom line is that fraud is happening across several platform which allow independent sellers to set up online shops. This has seriously dented customer confidence. I have stayed away from snapdeal since the incident. There had been sporadic incidences of local traders in second tier cities holding protests over proliferation of online commerce. Such protest with vested interest is not going to rollback e-commerce. Whether you like it or not, e-commerce is going to stay here for the convenience, choice and savings it offers. It is like the supermarkets that has become part of our life because they sells almost everything below MRP. What is going to hold back e-commerce’s further progress is the failure to stem the rot within. Once bitten twice shy.  And with social network fuelling, a duped customer will spread his message to thousand others. I do not agree with the point of view of banishing online commerce so that customer’s continue to buy items on bloated MRP at a local shop, that is part of a longer than required supply chain, that add to the cost to the customer. However, the idea of a legislation is welcomed. Besides regulating the business, this should seek also protect customers from these frauds. Not only that customer gets back his money instantly, but also the portal should get penalised. In turn they will pass on the penalty to the seller which will eventually discourage them. Right now, the fraud sellers are having a free run without any fear of crackdown. Most sites do not require a seller to register with a PAN or TAN no, which will establish their identities with a verifiable address. Are they carrying out checks on sellers? Did they forget the incidence where eBay India chief landed in jail for someone selling porn though his portal?

If any of these e-commerce portal comes up with such a system where they can claim that all their sellers are verified, and they offer a time bound dispute resolution process, and also provide feedback to the buyer in case of a proven fraud, then everyone will be happy to pay a premium for their services. As such a utopic situation is unlikely and a legislation is a distant shoot, a customer should trade cautiously as you do not know when you will slip and found yourself staring at an abyss. You will cry for help, expecting succour from the portal to pull you out of the mess, but it may never come. Till that time, safe online shopping in India is likely to remain limited to only cloths and shoes, and may be books. Till that time, think twice before ordering anything above couple of thousands rupees.

Unveiled : Photography exhibition

Unveiled
Originally uploaded by KaushikMunish

The second photography exhibition by my fraternity at Munish Khanna Academy is being put up from 4th to 8th March 2010 - (10am-8pm) at the Convention Centre Foyer, India Habitat centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi. This photo feast is aimed at treating you with the works of some budding and talented photographers nurtured by ace photographer Munish Khanna. Don't miss this occasion.

Gaffar Market : the mobile bazaar of Delhi

My Nokia N72 had gone bust in about a year and half. I continued with it till it died about a couple of months ago. Around this time I had landed in the Gaffar Market in Karol Bagh, Delhi. There is a big mobile bazaar there. I was at a loss as to how to buy a mobile there on my first visit. The place was choc-a-bloc with vendors and buyers. However most vendors were selling cheap Chinese duplicate. Once I realized how to proceed, my eyes found an Omnia and an iPhone. Both were Chinese copies, but unless you try to use it, you will not be able to discern it as a lookalike from their look. The market had everything to offer – from Chinese copy of any mobile you name to unlocking and software update services.

Impressed by the variety on display, I bought one. The price I paid was just 4100 for a sleek looking phone. I expected it to last for at least 6 months till I get my second official handset. I paid another 50 bucks for a iPhone case. Other accessories like iPhone dock were also available.

I came back and decided to do some research on iPhones. I gathered information not only from Indian mobile sites, but also from international sites giving good information on iPhone, mainly to know what are the features available and what are missing. The iPhone is actually not sold in India. One of my colleagues had it from USA and then got it unlocked here. Both looked identical, the original one being heavier. But everything just stops there. There is no internal memory in the copy, neither its touch screen is very responsive. But the phone did have some very good feature. However, the problems outweighed the good features. In fact this 4K iPhone impressed everyone.

The phone also passed the IMEI no. test imposed by government few months back. The batteries use to last about 2 days of normal use. Then one fine day it stopped detecting SIM. This is the end of it. It probably last about 4 months. It has now become my daughter’s iPod to play music as except for the SIM detection, everything else still works.

This is my brief encounter with a Chinese mobile. I tried it to know why so many people keep buying them. But it is certain that I will not buy another again. My opinion is that Gaffar Market is good for iPhone accessories, not for mobiles.

Exploiting power of the net for tourism

Many a times I am surprised by the amount of information available online today. Just 5 years back, I had to re-plan a trip because I had failed to find information about the place I wanted to visit. But the scenario has changed drastically in these intervening years. The tourism and travel industry had understood the potential of the unimaginable reach of the internet. No one will deny the value of having a website and tap the potential customers.

Take for example of a place named Corfu. I can bet that many of us have not even heard of the place. It is an island in Greece and a popular tourist destination. The 1981 James Bond movie ‘For Your Eyes Only’ was filmed in this Greek island on the Ionian Sea. But I was surprised to find the no. of sites catering exclusively to Corfu, hitherto unknown to many, including me. I picked one of the sites Fantastic Greece and found that Corfu is a popular place with many attractions. Useful information is presented on the page in a simple, clean and uncluttered way. I like such uncluttered WebPages devoid of animations and distractions.

Anyway, this was just to be bemused at the power of the net. Such information helps one choose peaceful destinations that is not on the radar of general tourist. This is one of the reasons why the internet continues to fascinate me.

Choosing freedom to travel

The thought of acquiring a house in Delhi cropped up several times in my mind in last two years. This was looked upon more as an investment rather than acquisition of a house for life. Given the current prices, this is a big financial decision as I have to pool up all my resources. Real estate prices have gone through roof. But this might have stabilized and may not escalate at the same rate as it had done in 2004-06 period. Therefore this may not be a great investment option with a horizon of 3 years. With a small investible amount and without putting any stress on my lifestyle, I had made my money to grow sizeably in the share market in last one year. If you know how to invest, the direction of the market is irrelevant. I made one lakh while the market was going up and had made another lakh while it is going down. Every time the thought of buying a flat in Delhi crops up, my BP (and also my wife’s) gets pumped up and probably takes few moments of our life. But after the latest surge few days back, we have collectively decided to put that plan to rest for ever and enjoy life.

Actually we do not need another property. I had acquired a flat at Guwahati 2 years back. We always have a paternal house to live in a growing city like Guwahati. This paternal house has enough scope of adding two more floors. My only brother is settled in Bangalore. Both of us have one kid each. As such we really do not need another property or should not get our self bogged down under a huge loan and live a life which we do not want to live. It is better to enjoy life.

A huge bank loan would change the way I live. Specially, the amount of travel I undertake – a luxury we can afford every now and then. This situation is avoidable. In fact we might not be traveling at all if we take that plunge, because I will have little money left after paying a hefty emi. I will feel like a caged animal if I have to live at the same without traveling. I have taken three holidays in last six months. Yet keep feeling like planning another one in next few months. This is freedom. We will keep this freedom to ourselves for the time being and will not ever though of acquiring a house at Delhi again. To add to our delight, the LTC policy of my company had been revised to include a foreign trip every four year. The earlier policy allowed us to travel to anywhere within India, including Andamans or Lakshadwwep. The catch was that it has to be within India. Now that rider is removed, one can easily travel to Middle East destinations like Dubai or Abu Dhabi or to South East Asian hotspots like Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur. A better planning may take one even further. So let’s enjoy life.

Accommodation in Europe

The travel supplement of leading national dailies is something I follow keenly. It is full of packages and deals for outbound tourists, especially to the European countries and hot spots like Mauritius and South East Asian nations. With plethora of options for cheap air ticket, the biggest apprehension is Accommodation. The evolvement of travel sites is a big relief and has helped people in a big way in making travel decisions, tickets and hotel bookings etc. Many of us are not really aware of such Travel sites for traveling abroad. These sites also provide general tourist guidelines as well which is often very helpful.

I had come across one such site for tourists bound for UK and some other European nations. A site named ‘Easy to Book’ offers you the choice of several types of accommodation. In fact the site offers accommodation for a few other places, like Barcelona, London and Rome. Though they offer accommodation in some other cities, may be through some other link partners, they seem to provide value by giving other required information a traveler may want to know for the place. Like this page on EasyToBook provides a detailed info on tourist attractions in New York.

Vacation rental

February provides the best time to travel. The end February is the period that is neither too cold nor too hot. I had a memorable vacation last year in the desert. This year too I will be holidaying in the last week of Feb. But this time it will be in the wild. What I have in mind is one of the popular National Park in India. The trip is being worked on.

This season also offers opportunity to holiday at some good properties at highly discounted rate. Being shoulder season most vacation rental companies offers good discounts. But unfortunately they have limited options. Only plus point I find in a holiday at a property owned by some vacation rental company is that they have good, often star rated facilities. The competition in this segment is increasing with few new players getting into it in India. Earlier we had only two players of which only one had brand recognition. But I still feel that this is still not a popular concept in India. Reason one for this laggerdness is prohibitive pricing by Indian standard and reason two is limited options or choice of locations. Vacation rental is a popular concept aborad. The scenario may change few years down the line.

Accomodation in Europe

Evolution of online accommodation booking sites have made travel planning a lot easier. I keep checking such sites for bargains. I had come across one such site for tourists bound for UK and some other European nations. The site named ‘Cheaper than Hotels’ offers you the choice of several types of accommodation. You can find accomodation in UK, France or Germany through this site. In fact the site offers accommodation for a wide range of places, including India. I had tried the site and was surprised to find hotels for Delhi, India as well. I choose the option of 3 star and below. Names of the hotels that pop up for Delhi are not seen even in Indian travel sites. This is because Indian sites offers only big star hotels which are beyond the budget of most people. But ‘Cheaper than Hotels’ search included some 1 star hotels. Only problem I had observed with the site was that the prices are not in INR. But the site is good and worth giving a try.

Seven Wonders of the World

What had happened to the Colossus of Rhodes, listed as one of the original seven wonders ? The massive statue, perhaps about 100 feet tall, which also supposes to be an inspiration for the Statue of Liberty, has been an object of mystery, imagination and debate.

In fact, there are several categories to the Seven Wonders of the World list. The earliest documented is that of historian Herodotus (484 BC–ca. 425 BC), and the scholar Callimachus of Cyrene (ca 305–240 BC) at the Museum of Alexandria, made early lists of "Seven wonders" but their writings have not survived, except as references. The Colossus of Rhodes, find mention in that list as one of the seven wonders. The Taj Mahal features in list of modern Seven Wonders.

The colossus is long gone. But because of its rich history, the Rhodes island has grown to be one of the popular tourist attraction in Greece. Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, situated in eastern Aegean Sea. In fact all the islands in the Dodecanese group of islands have a rich history.

Winter Holidays

Last night I saw a beautiful photo of a snow covered resort in Whistler, Canada. It made me long for a holiday again. Drying leaves and dipping temperatures has heralded onset of the winter. Going on a vacation this winter ? In fact the final days before the winter offer probably one of the best traveling windows. Think of a winter vacation and a snowy landscape with people skiing around probably conjures up your mind. That may be because I live in a area far away from those locations that receives snowfall every year. If you are planning a vacation in aboard then here is a site which you can explore : Holiday Whistler

My schedule for this traveling season has already drawn up. I had already applied for leave so that it coincides with winter break of my daughter’s school. But this time it may not be a snowy break for me.

Find Accomodation in Europe

I have seen some sites which cater to accommodation requirement of some specific European cities. Like this one caters to accommodation in Amsterdam. Though they offer accommodation in some other cities, may be through some other link partners, they seem to provide value by giving other required information a traveler may want to know for the place. Like this page on EasyToBook provides a detailed info on tourist attractions in Amsterdam. These are useful information one can use. They also offer accommodation in non Dutch cities like New York, Dublin or Rome.

Travel information on the net

Surfing the web for travel blogs, I have come across many sites which are meant exclusively for Travel Blogs only. Whenever I see a travel blog, I normally check their listings. This penchant has led me to such travel blog sites. I found that these sites are very useful for frequent travelers like me. You do not have to search countless blogs for a travelogue. The most recent site I have come across is Real Travel. I had explored its page related to India. It has listed information over 10 pages, though some of the pages are yet to be completed. Most of the posts are by foreign tourists indicating that the site is probably not known to Indian bloggers. Overall, Real Travel has the potential to be a very good travel site. It is just one of the sites offering only travelogues. There are many out there. I feel bloggers should help building these communities.

Accomodation online

The travel supplement of leading national dailies is full of packages and deals for outbound tourists, especially to the European countries and hot spots like Mauritius and South East Asian nations. Some of them offer really attractive rates, but no one really mentions about hidden costs. The general perception for a trip abroad is to take a package tour, unless you know someone close living there, who will help you in getting local travel assistance in a foreign country. Accommodation abroad is a big apprehension. The evolution of travel sites in India has helped people in a big way in making travel decisions, tickets and hotel bookings etc. We are not really aware of such Travel sites aboard.

I had come across one such site for tourists bound for UK and some other European nations. A site named ‘Cheaper than Hotels’ offers you the choice of several types of accommodation. In fact the site offers accommodation for a wide range of places, including India. I had tried the site and was surprised to find hotels for Delhi, India as well. I choose the option of 3 star and below. Names of the hotels that pop up for Delhi are not seen even in Indian travel sites. This is because Indian sites offers only big star hotels which are beyond the budget of most people. But ‘Cheaper than Hotels’ search included some 1 star hotels. Only problem I had observed with the site was that the prices are not in INR. But anyway it is a good site. I wish some of the Indian travel site also starts offering budget accommodation.

Cat chasing a Bear

It has been a long time since my last post. The hiatus has been so long that even blogger.com has changed in between. I wanted to write about many things during this break -- from Indian cricket team to (in)Justice Bhayana. But somehow could not manage time. This morning a mail in my inbox had an interesting story. My desire to share it with you have brought me back to blogger. A small cat chases a bear up a tree. So check out the photo and the story.

Cat chases a bear (or the Bear is coming down to eat the cat)

Bypass Websense

Finally I could bypass Websense!

Ever since Websense was adopted in my office as firewall, it became a headache. Though it effectively kept out those who used the net only for voyeuristic pleasures, but to us it blocked almost everything. It is lovingly called Nonesense. After searching in the net, I had learned that Websense is one of the most effective firewall. It even blocks access to proxy sites. We had found out different ways, but all of them got blocked. I had tried to find a solution in the net, but without much luck. Probably my search criteria were oriented more towards ‘Bypassing Websense’ then finding a proxy site. Websense effectively blocks most common proxy sites. However I stuck a goldmine yesterday. A site threw me 3 pages of proxy sites. To my delight, only 3 of the sites could be detected by Websense. So guys, if you are facing such firewall problem, try this site Top 20 Free which has a long list of proxy sites. And ENJOY and uncensored world.

BIGG BOSS on Sony India

Bigg Boss is watching! Have you watched the newest reality show in India on Sony Television. If not, then start doing it soon before it progresses too far. I have watched the episodes till now. I feel that this Indianised version of the immensely popular show ‘Big Brother’, is going to be next hit in Indian television, at least among the urban crowd.

The show, a kind of Reality Show, was the brain child of Dutchman John de Mol and developed by his production company, Endemol. The first series of Big Brother was aired in the Netherlands in September 1999, and the show was subsequently adapted to virtually every other part of the world. It has been a prime-time hit in almost 70 different countries, earning Endemol large sums of money. 32 of these are original versions and others are near clones. The show's name comes from George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which Big Brother is the all-seeing leader of the dystopian Oceania.

The Indian vesrion called the BIGG BOSS is produced by Endemol India. So, it is not a plagiarised version, but a genuine one. The original programme Big Brother had broken many televion records. It was quite surprising that it took so long for it to enter the Indian televion scene.

The show timimg is 10 pm to 11 pm as of now. Once the ratings pick up, it will probably get a prime slot between 8 to 10 pm. The 13 celebraties inckuded people like Salil Ankola, Rakhi Swant, Rohit Roy, Anupama Verma, etc. Cut off from the rest of the world, nearly 30 cameras keep a watch on them round the clock What you get to see is a totally uncensored version of these celebrities daily life. Slangs are used generously. Obviously you can not hold you back for the sake of camera for too long. What amused me till now is the totally unexpected personality of Rakhi Sawant. She is very frank in her attitude and actions. So do is Ravi Kissen. There is very little secret about them and they appear as what they are. Others still appear to try to hide something in their personaility. May be this will change as time progresses.

Yahoo Mail Beta

When I logged on toady to my Yahoo.co.in mail account, I was greeted with a message to upgrade to the new beta version. I obliged to find what is new. My first experience is a nice one. Some nice features are available in the beta version. Why do not you check it out!

A landmark achieved : 10000 visitors

My blog has crossed a milestone today. It has crossed the 10,000 visitors figure this morning. This has been achieved in 16 months. Thanks to all those who has repeatedly visited my blog and spared tome to read my thoughts in one of those 100 odd posts. When I look back, I still remember searching meaning of a blog. My blog has become one of my favorite indulgences. On this occasion, I had decided to go for a makeover. In fact I had been waiting for the last few days with my customised Andrea's template. I wanted something new to mark the occasion. A new outlook, but inhibiting the same passion. I will seek your continuous patronage for the journey ahead.