Is your marriage LEGAL ? You might want to make it..

Getting married and getting married legally may be two different things - it all depends on if you have Indian government issued marriage certificate or not. If we go by that - my parents are not legally married yet ;-p.

It might seem obvious to get your marriage registered with government and getting a marriage certificate; but believe me it is not so here in India. People here generally take that step only when it is 'required' for some or the other reason; and many do not face any such reason for all their life - like my parents. This is 'the' typical thinking here, that we generally avoid the effort till the time its unavoidable. More often than not, when that time comes we do not have either time or resources to get it done and we resort to unethical ways of accomplishing that task.

I would suggest to get yours registered asap, because you never know when you might need it. With the same thought, I recently tried to get this done. As with all the sarkaari (Indian government) processes - this one is also a tedious-and-multiple-visit-requiring process. It has taken my two visits already, with nothing accomplished; coming Monday - it will be my third. I would try to explain what all you should do to get this done with least amount of pain in the next post - Getting Marriage certificate under Hindu Marriage Act 1955.

In another post - Marriage Registration, another Love affair! - I will talk about what happened in my visits for this purpose.

DA up by 7% - but Pensioners unhappy..

Central Government employees do have a reason to be happy midst of all price hikes of diesel, LPG, etc. - you guessed it right - reason is that they will get some extra green themselves too.

Union Cabinet increased Dearness Allowance(DA) by 7% for the employees. There's news for ex-servicemen too - system One Rank - One Pension (OROP) will also be implemented. 

DA is a part of salary which is calculated based on basic pay of an employee. Before this raise - DA was 65% of basic pay for all central government employees; now they will be getting extra 7% (=72%) of basic pay in their pocket. Moreover this change is implemented from 1st July itself - hence their will be retro-payout also. DA is somehow related to the consumer price index and further to retail price; hence government often increases DA due to increment in retail prices. Last change (+7%) in DA was done in March this year (increment was effective Jan 2012).

OROP, on the other hand - states that two person will get same pension if they retired on same rank after same YOS (year of service) irrespective of when they retired. Meaning if pension is enhanced in future, old pensioners would also get benefit from this. But, seems like the announced implementation is not entirely OROP and is just a delusion. IESM Vice-Chairman Maj Gen Satbir Singh wrote a letter to the Prime Minister: "To illustrate, a sepoy, naik and havlidar have been given an increase of only Rs 400 per month, whereas a sepoy who retired on January 2012 draws approximately Rs 4,000 more than those who retired prior to 2006.".  

In all, around 80 Lakh employees will be affected from these changes (50 Lakh current employees + 30 Lakh ex-servicemen). Reason to celebrate or protest this weekend ?

Update your iDevices - iOS 6 is here!

Before iPhone5 is launched on 21st September, you have a chance to update your devices with all new iOS 6, set to launch today - 19th September 2012.

iOS is the operating system that forms the basis of all the iDevices: iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Today, we will see launch of latest version of the same iOS6. It boasts of more than 200 improvements which are the combination of all types of bug fixes, new and updated applications. 

Let's take a look, which all updates are highlighted by Apple before the launch - what actually user finds useful would only be known after launch. Apps stated to have improved:

• Maps - It now has new, and supposedly new maps in it. Second thing - Directions are now given using voice along the way. At last, it also has some additional thing for viewing selected cities/landmarks from air (fly over)!
• Siri - 'Your wish is its command' - as tagged by Apple. This app accepts your command via your voice. Just say it and it will get done. Though Siri was there before, but in new version it supports more language and countries.
• Facebook - This was simply missing from earlier version. New one has FB integrated with it completely.
• Passbook - Its like a storage place of all your cards in digital form - giving you all the pop-ups, updates and alert you would need. For eg - you boarding pass will tell you in case your terminal changes. Sounds amazing!
• Others - Others include better mail experience, safari - browsing - you can carry on across devices, improved functionality of FaceTime, and the list goes on..

Seems like Apple has taken on itself to provide the stuff consumer would want. We would have to wait and watch what actual consumer reviews say about this. So, when are you updating yours?

Hail the God of Architecture.. God Vishwakarma!

Today, being 17th September, is the day of Vishwakarma Pooja. Lord Vishwakarma is the God of Architecture and Engineering. It is believed that he himself designed all the God's palaces, flying chariots and weapons - and not just in one yuga but all - satya, treta, dwapar and kal Yuga. Some of the examples of his marvels are: Swarga (Heaven), Golden Lanka (Sone ki Lanka), City of dwarka (Lord Krishna's capital) and Hastinapur (City of Kauravas and Pandavas). 

On this day - craftsmen and workers - worship Lord Vishwakarma to attain inspiration and enthusiasm in their work; and also hope that they get some divine intervention in their creativity and work. This puja (worship) is observed on day after Diwali in some parts of country; other does that on 17th September - that is today.

Another attraction of this day is that it has a custom of flying kites attached to it. People either use their terraces for this activity or gather in an open ground for this. Either ways, it is a lot of fun. Do you celebrate this day, if yes - then how? 

Worship and enjoy!

Black Mesa: Half Life: Source remake; and its FREE*

On 14th Sep - Valve Software presented half-life 2 fans with re-invented version of the game; and that too free*. This development took 7 years to complete and now its ready to be downloaded with full soundtrack. It can be downloaded from this official Black Mesa Download link.

Cast and characters are more or less the same that you have seen in earlier version. But you will see new maps, models, voices; and as mentioned new sound track. Trailer of this game was released earlier - check this out if you have not already seen this.



When you play the game you will feel the gameplay techniques remains the same but the game itself is now at much higher level with a great story.

*Here comes the catch - with all technical specification the game requires- it also requires you to have a copy of any source engine game to download and play this game.

Minimum tech specs required:
OS: Win XP/7/Vista. Mac users will not be able to enjoy this one.
RAM: 1GB
Graphics Card: ATI 9600, Shader Model 2.0 capable, NVidia 6600 or higher.
Hard Disk: Free 8GB
Processor: Pentium IV 2.0 GHz or other similar capability one.

If you have all that - go ahead and download and kick some ...

Engineers - be happy, its your day today :)

Happy Engineer's day India! I say 'India' because Engineers day is celebrated on different days in different countries. Today, 15th September, happens to be India's Engineer's day - this day is celebrated in the honor of Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya: a Civil Engineer, a great one in his time – he’s a Bharat Ratna. He also served as Diwan of Mysore for 7 years. A well deserving man’s birthday was picked to be named as Engineer’s Day.

For some of us who have lost the feel of being an engineer, today’s the day to tap on that feel. Feel proud that you are the one who has contributed to society in some or the other constructive ways.

Don’t get all emotional – we all know what engineers do ;-p. We have been known to use a secret technique irrespective of what type of engineer we are – it more often than not helps in day to day work – you know what it is – yes – Jugaad* it is. I am going to dedicate this day to this jugaad concept of engineers – what about you?

* Quick Alternate way to solve or Fix complex or expensive problem. To know more visit here.

FDI - finally ON! India's up from sleep?

India's Government today has allowed/cleared several things:

1. 51% FDI for multi-brand retail.
2. 49% investment by foreign airlines in aviation sector
3. Sale of equity in four PSUs

Foreign Direct Investment

FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in simpler terms is allowing a company based in country B to invest in direct production in country A. Generally country A's wages are low or there are other special benefits in investing here; that is why country B's company would be interested in investing.

After these declarations were done, India's PM - Manmohan Singh urged public to support this decision as it will help improve the employment in difficult times; and overall these steps would take India towards positive growth.

Though these are cleared on national level, there's a catch - states on their individual level do have a right to reject the reform. And, sure enough, we have already seen protest against the today's reforms and as well as against fuel hike that we saw yesterday - this was from West Bengal's CM, Mamata Bannerjee. She also used her FB page to state this and gave 72-hour deadline to take back these steps taken by government.

Let's see where all this goes and would we be able to see companies like Walmart tie up and sell directly to customers; which sounds like this would help a common man to get his things in a little less rate. I have my fingers crossed, so should be yours, in hope that India will see new light and any decision that it takes turns out to be great for all. 

Do let me know your thoughts about these reforms and would you support the decisions taken by government in past 1-2 days?

Princess Kate's topless photos creates stir..

Prince William and royal family are really sad by the the publication of photos of Prince's wife Kate Middleton while sunbathing at a private home in South France. While this has created a stir in the media; this also reminds of the Diana car crash after she was hounded by press and paparazzi in August, 1997. 

Closer cover!

The pictures of Kate in 'Closer' were not very clear and were shot from a distance. They were taken in France earlier this month. The Duke and Duchess (William and Kate) of Cambridge, were touring the Far East and South Pacific to mark Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee when the photos were published.

"Their Royal Highnesses had every expectation of privacy in the remote house. It is unthinkable that anyone should take such photographs, let alone publish them," a St. James's Palace official said. Another royal statement said "Officials acting on behalf of their royal highnesses are consulting with lawyers to consider what options may be available to the Duke and Duchess." Seems like someone is at cross-hair of a royal sue. If counted - this would be the 3rd photo-scandal related to Royal family.

India sees increase in Diesel prices by Rs 5 - but no change in Petrol

From few days around we are hearing that petroleum ministry is planning to yet again increase the diameter of the hole they make in our pocket through increasing the green you pay per liter for diesel, petrol and LPG in India. 'Just in' is the news that price of diesel has been increased by Rs. 5 but price of Petrol and LPG remains unchanged. 

Though there's some limit been considered on number of subsidized cylinders one household can get; you can, most probably, now only get 6 cylinders per year at older rate - after that you would have to pay unsubsidized rate. This is because they are making a loss of Rs 347 per cylinder on LPG per day.

Lets see how aam junta responds to the increased buck per mile for their diesel vehicles; and not to mention all the industries that use diesel as main fuel for their heart!