Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

As the parable goes, after creating human beings, God was very much in trouble because every human being would go on and on asking for His favours, day in and day out. No other creature would ever ask Him for so many favours, they were thankful for their existence and for the bounteous earth and did not bother God at all. Therefore God called a meeting of His entire high-level ministerial group. In this meeting all His ministers, old and young, were present. The agenda was that the God was fedup with the frequent demands of all the men and women (and especially children!) and wanted to find a place where he could actually go hide Himself. One young minister suggested Mount Everest as the best place but that was ruled out by God. Very soon, He said, two men called Hilary and Tenzing would get there. Another minister suggested the moon as the ideal place but that was also ruled out, for, said God, with a weary air, very soon a human called Neil Armstrong would land there. Finally a very

Indian call centre workers are falling sick because of verbal abuse by infuriated British callers. According to research by Glasgow's Strathclyde University for the Union of IT Enabled Services, which informally represents call centre workers, 1.6 million people who work in the industry in India , mostly in their twenties, are plagued by ailments like heart attacks, ulcers and insomnia which are caused by the stress of dealing with irate customers. The Strathclyde University study found that 77 per cent of Indian call centre workers felt "very" pressurized and 45 per cent identified difficult customers as the main source of their stress, according to a report in the Sunday Telegraph. The study will be published later in January. A recent health survey by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations has revealed that the outsourcing industry was most at risk from diseases that would hit productivity. It estimated that heart disease, strokes a

Jan. 6: India's off spinner Harbhajan Singh was banned for three Tests for calling Andrew Symonds a "monkey" which was intended to offend the Australian all rounder on the basis of race and ethnic origin, according to ICC match referee Mike Procter. Explaining the ban imposed on Harbhajan at Sydney on Sunday night, the ICC said in a statement that the ban would apply with immediate effect but the player could lodge an appeal with the ICC's legal counsel within 24 hours. While the appeal is under consideration, Harbhajan could continue playing for India. The BCCI said it would lodge an appeal. The Indians also made a formal complaint against Australian spinner Brad Hogg for using abusive language during the ill-tempered second Test, giving a new twist to the simmering feud between the two sides. The hearing into the charge will be held on Monday. "I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Harbhajan Singh directed that word at Andrew Symonds and also that he me

SURYAVEER SINGH, a geography teacher at SD Public School, was at his wit's end trying to get his students excited about his subject. But ever since he started his blog ( http://mygeographylearningblogspot.com ) in April 2007, not only are students enjoying his classes, they are also performing better. "I was not doing well in Geography But after sir started his blog, I'm coping with it well. The video links are most interesting," says Chirag Singal, a class XI student. From videos on whalewatching in Kaikoura, New Zealand, to slide-shows on volcanoes and natural wonders, the blog is full of interesting visual tours. Singh says: "Students can talk to me by simply posting their queries or comments on the blog." About 36 teachers from six schools including Darbari Lal DAV Model School, Pitampura, Kulachi Hansraj Model School and Ved Vyasa DAV Public School, Vikaspuri- have started such blogs. The idea and technical training came from a voluntary group CII-Shik

Los Angeles (Reuters) - SanDisk Corp introduced a new flash storage drive on Wednesday that also automatically backs up data to the Internet. When consumers store documents, photos and music onto SanDisk's new Cruzer Titanium Plus USB flash drive , it will back up that digital information to a Web service offered by a start-up company called BeInSync , which stores data onto Amazon.com Inc's computers. The new storage drive, which SanDisk believes is the first of its kind, is the latest in a wave of devices that link up with the Internet to offer new features to products that were previously considered stand-alone, or offline, devices. For example, Amazon's new electronic book reader, Kindle, comes with wireless access, allowing users to directly download books, newspapers and blogs. Sony Corp's competing reader does not have a wireless connection and requires users to link to a computer to upload books onto the device. The Cruzer, which retails for $59.99 and goes on s

Despite an improved economy, Japan is suffering a crisis of confidence these days about its ability to compete with its emerging Asian rivals, China and India. One result has been a growing craze for Indian education in this fad obsessed nation. The Indian boomlet reflects the insecurity of many Japanese in their schools, which once turned out students who consistently ranked at the top of international tests. But now many people here are looking for lessons from India, the country many see as the world's ascendant education superpower. Bookstores are filled with titles like Extreme Indian Arithmetic Drills and The Unknown Secrets of the Indians . Newspapers carry reports of Indian children memorizing multiplication tables upto 99 times 99, compared to Japan's relatively lax elementary school requirement of knowing nine times nine. And Japan's few Indian international schools are reporting a surge in applications from Japanese families. At the Little Angels English Academ

27 Dec' 07: Pakistan's charismatic Opposition leader and two time former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who escaped death by a whisker during a terrorist attack on her home coming parade in Karachi just over two months ago, was assassinated on Thursday evening in an attack by a suicide bomber and AK 47 armed gunmen who shot her in the neck and chest as she was leaving an election rally in the cantonment town of Rawalpindi, near here. Ms Bhutto, 54, was killed just after she had finished addressing a large public rally at the historic Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi as part of her barnstorming campaign across the country for the January 8 general election. She succumbed to her wounds on the operation table at the Rawalpindi General Hospital at 6.16 pm local time (6.46 pm IST). Ms Bhutto, who is survived by her husband Asif Ali Zardari and three children Bilawal, Bakhtawar and Asifa, will be buried at Larkana, the family's ancestral home in Sindh province, close to the grave