ICICI - Bitter Experience

I had very bitter experience with ICICI for couple of times now, and of course, on the both the occassions I did something wrong. I admit that. When everything is going fine, who will go to Bank these days. We have internet Banking, tele banking, mobile banking. If something goes wrong, then only people do go to bank and ask for the correction. If Bank is not able to rectify it or if it says it will take some time (atleast 2 months), then I don't rate that Service Average. It is poor service.

I met a ICICI prudential Sales Executive and he explained me some Investment plan. I have given him cheque without going to Bank/Prudential and filled Application Form. He told me it would take 15 Days to get processed and for recieving Documents. Its more than 40 Days now and no response from that person. Whenever I called up him, he told me that he would enquire. Finally, I decided to walk into near by Prudential Office. There the response is we cannot track just by Name/Mobile Number. I asked her, is it true that anybody can carry ICICI prudential Application forms and sell policies? She told me that No that was not the case, But We could not track on Person Name. She suggested me to stop the Cheque payment and if I wish, she can send a person to take policy.

If at all ICICI can track of variuos channels(Bank, Prudential, DSC) whom they are giving license to sell their policies, why do they that?



@kova

Cricket - On Going Schedules

India is touring Newzealand and Australia tour of South Africa are started. It will be an interesting contest between India and Newzealand. NZ plays well as a Team and does not carry any expectations but it suprised almost all with its Game. India is just playing like NZ of past, full of all-rounders, some one or other performing right through end. The Only difference is India have pool of Talented Cricketers who are working Hard for Perfection where as NZ used to have players who work hard on their Game. Talent alone does not make any player Great, its rubbish. Under a Cool Coach and Calm Captain, India is really doing great. I hope it will continue its good work and will win all three formats.

Australia must be looking for settling scores with SA, but it will not be that easy. Australia is still in transition phase and there is not much difference in its resources. One thing for sure is, Austalia must be counter attacking SA, they will be playing aggressive game. This is what they used to do whenever they were on back-foot. But then, there were batsmen of calibre Hayden, Langer, Martin and Bowlers like McGrath, Shane Warne for whom you does not need to say what to do and where to Bowl. So it will be interesting to see Australia's approach and how does SA respond. SA is doing very well at the moment, they have batsmen who can chase 400s in ODIs as well as tests and bowlers who can take 20 wickets in Tests. It will be great, if SA wins by 3 - 0.

Its time to Act II

Looking at Mumbai Terror Attacks, Our System has failed miserably. 10 Terrorists entered out mother land, occupied couple of Hotels and Nariman House and war lasted for more than 60 Hours. At then end, they died, of course which is obvious. Though Hotel Taj, Hotel Trident Oberoi, Nariman House and CST station are nearby places, its not that easy to reach those places in quick time unless, you know Mumbai Demographics well. So they must have stayed for some time and observed the kind of security, trend etc. If we can strict on renting home and mobile connections, we can trace at least sleeper cells which are helping these kind of activities.
Mumbai police should circulate following things
1. For renting Home, owner must collect some Identity Proof from Tenant.
2. For Mobile Connection, Provider must ask for Identity Proof and Residence Proof.
3. Same holds for Internet Connection.

Mobile and Internet Connection are widely used source of Communication, so if we can restrict on them, we can trace the Connections and People behind such attacks.


@kova

Its time to Act

Dear Friends,

We have seen the human tragedy created by a handful of terrorists in Mumbai few days back. Generally, we blame Pakistan and our politicians for the situation and move ahead. What we always fail to realize is as a Nation we have come to accept terror acts as part of our life, that's too dangerous, if we don't value our own lives, and stop looking at death toll as a mere number, we will fail as a Nation. There is so much of corruption and inefficiency around us and we feel helpless and frustrated. Opposition parties too don't have the patience to ask questions,Parliament and Assembly sessions are disrupted time and again. Issues of national importance never see healthy discussion take place.

We seem to be failing as a democracy. It will fail one day, IF we continue to be mute spectators. We have to actively participate in our democracy. It doesn't just mean voting in elections. We have to ensure that our leaders are accountable to us. We have to ask questions, all of us have a golden opportunity in the shape of RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT. Very few of us realize that we can completely change the face of our country by just asking right questions.

You might say no one will bother to answer, I tell you I have used it three times till now, and I have always got prompt answers (if not correct answers). You can ask something as simple as "When will I get my IT refund ?" to some serious questions like "Why were ATS in Mumbai not provided with quality bullet proof jackets?" Its up to your creativity and there are wonderful websites (some of which I have mentioned below) which help you in drafting the PERFECT questions to make the system become more accountable to you

http://rti.india.gov.in/index.php
http://www.rti.org.in/
http://www.parivartan.com/what_to_ask.asp
http://www.righttoinformation.org/
http://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/default.htm
http://rti.aidindia.org/content/view/270/99/

Lets stop blaming, and start questioning !

Source - One of the mails I got from my friend on Mumbai Terror Attacks and How should we act.

@kova

Mumbai Terror Attacks - Eenadu Story

I have seen many people making Fun of Media these days because of thier over-reaction and sensationalism. Recently, I read a news article in Eenadu, a leading dialy in Telugu(In some survey, it stands third nation wide in no. of readers). Artcile says that - "No Country is Touring Pakistan because of Terrorist attacks and all, India is also not willing to tour Pak in January, so if they attack India then Pakistan can question other teams which travel to India and at the end, They might have attacked India because India is not willing to tour Pak based on Terrorism". Anybody who have seen these attacks, can easily guess the planning and homework done for these firings. These are not some thing, which are thought on Monday and executed on Wednesday. Being a Leading News paper, Eenadu failed miserably in this aspect. You can find that article Here.


@sarma

Team India Beat England and Won the Series 4 - 0

Men in Blue have won the Hero Honda Cup 2008 in very Authoritative Fashion. Team India has done good on many occassions so far and testing times ahead as there will be changes in team composition to give rest to players who are playing for some time and to test players who are sitting for some time. Before this series, it appreared to be clash between two equally good and Motivating Captains. But Dhoni out-classed KP in each and every department. Toss usually plays an important role in winning matches. KP won most of the tosses, but did not make money from any. Dhoni's thinking is always way ahead of KP, either in Bowling changes, opting for Batting Power Plays. Dhoni usually kept his main strike bowlers fresh by giving enough rest for Batting power play, while KP used them all the time, in a way they are not able to bowl successfully when there are field restrictions. Lack of thinking and Application from England Side cost the series. On paper, England side does compete with Team India, but on Field, they are hardly manage to do so. Its true that whatever Dhoni touches, its turning Gold, but Fortune Favours the Brave.

So Bravado Dhoni, Good Luck for Clean Sweep.

@kova

Creating a Shared and Static Library Using Gnu Compiler

Sample steps to create static and shared Library using gcc.

Program for which Library is created

Library Contains code to multiply two integers.

Header file contains Function Declaration.

find_mul.h

int multiply(int, int);

Source file contains Function Definition

find_mul.c

int multiply(int a, int b)
{
return (a * b);
}

Creating Static Library

A static library is a set of object files that were copied into a single file. This single file is the static library. Executable contains static Libraries at compile time itself. The static file is created with the archiver (ar).

we create object file for find_mul.cpp

gcc -c find_mul.c -o find_mul.o

and Static Library is

ar  rcs libmul.a find_mul.o

Note: the library must start with the three letters lib and have the suffix .a

Creating a Shared Library

Shared Libaries need position independent code which is done by -fPIC

gcc -c -fPIC find_mul.c -o find_mul.o

and Shared Library is

gcc -shared -o libmul.so  find_mul.o

Sample Program Using Library

main.c

#include
#include "find_mul.h"
int main()
{
int a = 20;
int b = 30;
printf("Multplication is %d\n", multiply(a, b));
return 0;
}

Linking against static Library

gcc -static main.c -L. -lmul -o statically_linked

For Running

$ ./statically_linked

Linking against static Library

gcc main.c -o dynamically_linked -L. -lmul

For Running,

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=.

$ ./dynamically_linked

Thanks to web.


@kova

Team India - Dada and Jumbo

I have come across an excellent article on Sachin, Rahul, Anil and Sourav - how they influenced a generation of people in India. You can find article here. Personally, I also feel, if I had to watch Indian Team without Jumbo and Dada, I feel something like part of body missing.

@kova

SMS to get the Blood

Now its become easier to get the blood. All u do is just type "BLOOD Blood Group> to 9600097000
EX: BLOOD B+

BLOOD DONOR WILL CALL U.

Note : Information has to be Verified.

Source: One of the Forwarded mails.


@kova

Sachin - The Run Machine

Sachin Became the Highest Run getter in the Test Cricket. He broke the record held by Lara He crossed 12,000 run mrk also. Greatness is not in scoring runs, but it is in performing consistently. No doubtedly, he is the one who carries the most pressure while coming into crease than anybody. There are many Great Crickets like Riky, Rahul, Sourav, Lara, Kallis etc, but Sachin beats everyone of them based on the Performance Vs Pressure they bear ratio. Representing a nation for more than 19 years is something which does not happen quite often. He achieved it.

Congrats Sachin and Job Well Done and Keep Doing Well.

Here is Sachin's post match session conference with media.

@kova