Citizen Power Saves Hills

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

That was the headline in today’s “Pune Newsline”..
The news says

The hills have been saved for, after relentless pressure from Pune’s citizens, the Pune Municipal Corporation General Body scrapped moves to allow 4 per cent construction and instead ensured that the land earmarked for a Bio-Diversity Park (BDP) stays unsullied.

The news further says
As for protecting river and water bodies, there’s good news too. A 36 metre river protection green belt is to be designed on both banks and 7.5 metres along the banks of all streams and nallahs will be declared as green belts.

This was in response to the Green Pune Movement’s Peaceful Rally on November 27th, 2005. Once again Punekars have proved that “Citizen Power” is the highest power in Indian Democracy.

Congratulations all you Punekars..

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 12:36 PM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Personalities from Latur

Tuesday, November 29, 2005


There have been many prominent personalities from Latur city and district.. Few of them are shown in the picture.. What I want to discuss is, has their presence really helped Latur?
Politicians have helped Latur to grow as a city.. Vishwanathji Karad helped the Education sector grow..

But in the presence of Politicians and movie stars, other personalities always stayed hidden.. Like Arjun Award winner Kaka Pawar, "Rustum-E-Hind" Harishchandra Birajdar, Pakhwaj player Apegaokar and many more..
How many of us know that 1998 Arjun Award winner was from Latur? Or Harishchandra Birajdar is considered as one of the best wrestling coach..
Well, you might also be knowing few other prominent personalities from Latur.. Do post their information so that the world will come to know about them..



----
Dinesh Soni
9890897198

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 9:10 AM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Never Mess with Women

Monday, November 28, 2005

Allen wrote to his wife

Dear Sweetheart,
I can't send my salary this month, so I am sending 100 kisses.
You are my sweetheart

Your husband
Allen


His wife replied back after some days to her husband:

Dearest sweetheart,
Thanks for your 100 kisses, I am sending the expenses details.

1. The Milk man agreed on 2 kisses for one month's milk.
2. The electricity man only agreed after 7 kisses.
3. Your house owner is coming every day and taking two or three kisses instead of the rent.
4. Supermarket owner did not accept kisses only, so I have given him some other items.
5. Other expenses 40 kisses

Please don't worry for me, I have a remaining balance of 35 kisses and I hope I can complete the month using this balance.
Shall I plan same way for next months, Please Advise !!!

Your Sweet Heart
Adonis


----
Dinesh Soni
9890897198

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 3:10 PM 4 people thought of commenting on this  

Green Pune Movement

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Green Pune Movement organised a peaceful protest march at Alka Talkies Square on November 27. The march was to appeal for saving the hills and developent of Bio-Diversity Park.

These are the words of organisers of this protest march

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) took a monumental step towards ensuring a sustainable future for Pune for the next quarter century and beyond on 21 March 2005 when it approved a Pune city Biodiversity Park on designated hillsides throughout the city, green areas along the banks of the rivers, etc. The Planning Committee newly set up to review the DP has now recommended a floor space index (FSI) of 4 per cent on hill slopes/ hill tops and complete scrapping of the bio-diversity park. The Planning Committee further recommends that farmhouses and educational institutions should be permitted to avail of the 4 % FSI. The FSI would then rise to 25 to 30 % if areas required for roads and other facilities is taken into account.
The public representatives cry hoarse to convince us that they would do anything in the interest of Punekars. However, their stand on indirectly granting huge FSI and scrapping of the Biodiversity Park exposes the depths to which they would go to please the ‘builders lobby’.

Around 500 Punekars and 50 organisations actively participated in this Protest March. Also these citizens filled up the protest form..
You can also help by filling up this protest form. The protest form can be filled at here . You can also download and distribute the flier of the movement from here . Come forward..
Save our Hills !
Save our city !
Save yourselves !!


Green Pune Movement : Crowd in action
Green Pune Movement : Crowd in action

Human chain formed by the Activists for Green Pune Movement Protest March, Alka Talkies Square, Pune
Human chain formed by the Activists


----
Dinesh Soni
9890897198

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 5:00 PM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Its Thanksgiving Day: Yet Again


I thank all those who read my blog, put comments and most of all, bear my non-sence posts..
I Thank all those who were my inspiration while writing blog posts..
I thank all those who provided images to post on this blog (Specially Dhiraj and his K750i)..
I thank all those who mailed me appreciating my blog..
I thank all those who became my friends through blogging..
I thank all those who put my site as bookmark (If any :-)
I thank all those sites which provided mt counters, blogrolls and various other facilities
I thank all those search engines which returned my blog on searching for various phrazes
I thank all those whose material I have copied sometimes and put up on my blog
I thank all my friends who always inspired me to put up posts related to trekking as well as technology
I thank all the contributors of Latur blog
I thank Hardik for introducing me to blogging
I thank blogger for providing me template and server space for my blog
I thank Dhiraj for contributing to Mawla Group Blog
I thank the society for providing me different topics to write about
I thank myself for writing all the crap over the period of 1 year

And Finally, I thank GOD for his kind co-operation to my every deed

Here is my previous post about thanksgiving day.

----
Dinesh Soni
9890897198

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 12:00 AM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

The future of Customer Care

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Operator : "Thank you for calling Pizza Hut .. May I have your..."

Customer: "Heloo, can I order.."

Operator : "Can I have your multi purpose card number first, Sir?"

Customer: "It's eh..., hold on......6102049998-45-54610"

Operator : "OK... you're... Mr Singh and you're calling from 17 Jalan Kayu. Yourhome number is 40942366, your office 76452302 and your mobile is 0142662566. Which number are you calling from now Sir?"

Customer: "Home! How did you get all my phone numbers?"

Operator : "We are connected to the system Sir"

Customer: "May I order your Seafood Pizza..."

Operator : "That's not a good idea Sir"

Customer: "How come?"

Operator : "According to your medical records, you have high blood pressure and even higher cholesterol level Sir"

Customer: "What?... What do you recommend then?"

Operator : "Try our Low Fat Hokkien Mee Pizza. You'll like it"

Customer: "How do you know for sure?"

Operator : "You borrowed a book entitled "Popular Hokkien Dishes" from the National Library last week Sir"

Customer: "OK I give up... Give me three family size ones then, how much will that cost?"

Operator : "That should be enough for your family of 10, Sir. The total is $49.99"

Customer: "Can I pay by credit card?"

Operator : "I'm afraid you have to pay us cash, Sir. Your credit card is over the limit and you owe your bank $3,720.55 since October last year. That's not including the late payment charges on your housing loan, Sir."

Customer: "I guess I have to run to the neighbourhood ATM and withdraw some cash before your guy arrives"

Operator : "You can't Sir. Based on the records, you've reached your daily limit on machine withdrawal today"

Customer: "Never mind just send the pizzas, I'll have the cash ready. How long is it gonna take anyway?"

Operator : "About 45 minutes Sir, but if you can't wait you can always come and collect it on your motorcycle..."

Customer: " Wat!"

Operator : "According to the details in system , you own a Scooter,...registration number 1123..."

Customer: " *'!^ *%^**%^I7*"

Operator : "Better watch your language Sir. Remember on 15th June you were convicted of using abusive language on a policeman... ?"

Customer: [Speechless]

Operator : "Is there anything else Sir?"

Customer: "Nothing... by the way... aren't you giving me that 3 free bottles of cola as advertised?"

Operator : "We normally would Sir, but based on your records you're also diabetic....... "

----
Dinesh Soni
9890897198

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 12:37 PM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Happy B'day Ashish

Friday, November 25, 2005

Yesterday, I was at Ashish Kala's place to celebrate his B'day. Well, let me tell you something about this guy. Ashish is my Childhood friend (From 6th standard). We used to study together in HSC, then for IIIT studies and then First Year of Engineering. He is now in DY Patil Engg College doing Final Year, Civil. I've shared almost each of my secret with him and he is the guy on whom I always rely whenever I face any problem.

Here are few snaps of his B'day celebration.


Me putting cake on Ashish's face
Me putting cake on Ashish's face


Me and Ashish Kala in some happy mood
Ashish and me in some happy mood


Me, Ashish Kala and Ghansham Mundada
Ashish, Me and Ghansham


Ashish Kala with cake on his face
Seems Ashish liked the cake too much


Me with cake on face
Even I was "OFFERED" the cake

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 12:39 AM 1 people thought of commenting on this  

Narayaneshwar Temple, Narayanpur

On Sunday, 20th November; I visited Narayanpur along with Dhiraj and Seema. The Narayaneshwar temple and Dattatraya Temple at Narayanpur are indeed very beautiful. Though our main plan was to visit Balaji Temple near this village, we had to shift our plan due to excess rush at the Balaji Temple.
The Narayaneshwar temple seems to be around 700 years old. The sculptures in the temple are said to be of Yadav Era. Most of the Art on walls and doors has been ruined, probably during some Muslim attacks.
Narayaneshwar is the village of Saint Changdev. The Dattatray Temple in the village (which is next to the Narayaneshwar Temple)is very beautiful. Pilgrims come here to worship the Auspicious Audambar Tree.
Here are few snaps of this tour.



Ruined Sculptures on the door of Narayaneshwar Temple


One of the "Dwarpals" of the temple. Notice the broken body parts of the idol


Seema, Me and Dhiraj

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 12:16 AM 1 people thought of commenting on this  

Trek and cleanup at Tikona fort

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Mawla Trekkers will organize a cleanup campaign at Fort Tikona on 17th and 18th December, 2005 on non-profit basis.


Awesome view of Tikona Fort
Awesome view of Tikona Fort

Here are the details:
Where:
Fort Tikona
When:
17th and 18th December, 2005 (Saturday and Sunday)
Why:
Trek and Fort Cleanup along with Lots of fun
Cost:
Around 200/- (Non profit basis)
Cost Includes:
Transport and Food
What to bring:
Hiking shoes, Drinking water, Extra pair of clothes, Torch, Tiffin for 1st day lunch, Bags for garbage collection
Assembly:
Punekar: 6:00 AM at Pune station (SBI ATM)
Mumbaikar: Can take 7:20 AM Local from Lonawala and get down at Kamshet Station at 7:37 AM

Contact:
9890793853 (Dhiraj)
9890897198 (Dinesh)
mawlapune@gmail.com
www.mawla.tk



These images are self explanatory towards the need of cleanup..

Dirty caves of Tikona
Dirty caves of Tikona

Names written on walls of temple at Tikona
Names written on walls of temple at Tikona

Names written on walls of temple at Tikona
Names written on walls of temple at Tikona

Previous Efforts by Mawla Group
Previous Efforts by Mawla Group

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 4:08 AM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Eye Donation Card

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

I got my Eye Donation card. Dhiraj also got the same. We both have decided to donate our eyes and registered ourselves with "International Eye Bank of Pune", Grant Medical Foundation, Ruby Hall Clinic, Pune. This was as a part of activity of Mawla Group. Here are snaps of the eye donation card I got.


Front side of Eye Donation card

Rear side of Eye Donation card

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 9:33 PM 1 people thought of commenting on this  

A funny post by Gaurav Sabnis

Monday, November 21, 2005

Here is a very funny post by Gaurav Sabnis.

Check out the post here.. One advice: You'll get heavy stomachache due to excess laughing, so be prepared :)

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 11:46 AM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Modern Art

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Ever wondered what can be modern art? Here is a very good example of modern art..
These are the old sculptures at fort Raigad..

Sculptures at Raigad

Sculptures at Raigad

And here are two examples of modern art..

New Sculptures at Raigad

New Sculptures at Raigad

Photography Courtesy: Dhiraj Jain

--
DINESH SONI
9890897198

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 11:21 AM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Latur through Google Earth

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Was having some timepass with this amazing new tool called Google Earth. Tried to find out how exactly my Latur looks from top. Here is what I got.
To view full view, click on the image..



Btw, Tekdi has large collection of satellite images of various forts of Sahyadri.. Check it here.

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 10:55 AM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Quit Smoking 3

Thursday, November 17, 2005

After previous two posts about disadvantages of smoking (here and here), here is one more..



A healthy human lung, left, and a smokers lung injected with a polymer preservative are on display during a press preview of 'Bodies...The Exhibition,' Thursday, Nov. 10, 2005 in New York. The exhibit which feature 22 whole body specimens, as well as more than 260 additional organs and body specimens opens at the South Street Seaport Nov. 19, 2005. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Will you still continue smoking and let your lungs die of smoke? Its your turn to think...

News Source: Yahoo News
Thanks Ritesh

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 12:52 PM 3 people thought of commenting on this  

Want instant energy: Try this

Previously I put up a blog entry about the golawala at deccan. Just next to it is a juicewala named “Zam Zam juicewala” where you can get pure orange or pineapple juice for 12 bucks.. If you are exhausted in the hot weather, tired of work or just want to chill out, the juice will solve all the three problems with the instant energy. And moreover, the good quality of oranges with the guy really adds up taste to the juice..





Photographs Courtesy: Dhiraj Jain

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 12:26 PM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

An Interesting Forward

*Year 1981*

1. Prince Charles got married
2. Liverpool crowned Champions of Europe
3. Australia lost the Ashes
4. Pope Died was shot at and almost died


*Year 2005*

1. Prince Charles got married (again)
2. Liverpool crowned Champions of Europe (again)
3. Australia lost the Ashes (again)
4. Pope Died (again)


Moral of the story - In future, if Prince Charles decides to re-marry....
Please warn the Pope!!!!


Forwarded by Kedar Bhave

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 12:14 PM 1 people thought of commenting on this  

Ice Gola: Best thing to have

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Are you a food lover in Pune? Do you keep looking for new places where you can get something new, something yummy? Then you must know this place. The “Manasi Golawala”.
Sachin has his gola stall at the square next to crossword, at the beginning of Z-bridge (two wheeler bridge). The Malai Gola topped with 4 different flavors and lot of pure cream for just 15 bucks is really a treat for your tummy. And moreover, Sachin is a really nice personality who will win your tummy as well as heart, for sure…







Photographs Courtesy: Dhiraj Jain

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 11:27 AM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

File hiding mechanism for Windows XP

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Do you have some sensitive data which you want to hide from your friends and fellow computer handlers? The basic method used for the same in any operating system is to hide these files, which has now become so common that even children know the trick. Another thing people do is install some file hiding software. No doubt this technique is very useful with the existence of softwares like “Hide files”, “Fake folders”, and many more in the list. But basic problem with this is you have to remember the password. And the existence of softwares can easily be sensed. Also you have to waste up some disk space for these softwares.
Also few people tend to change the extension. Just for example extension of image files is renamed as .DOC or .PDF. These image files won’t open up in Microsoft Word or Acrobat Reader. But there are few ‘smart’ softwares which find out the type of file and prompt the error regarding wrong extension.
Well, there are few more ways with which you can reliably apply security to your files without anyone knowing about it. And yes, you don’t need to remember any passwords.

First method for folder hiding on windows platform is redirecting the path of your folder to control panel. All you have to do is add the hex address of control panel in the end of your folder name. Once you add this string to the folder name, the folder will show control panel icon. And if you try to open it, all that opens up is control panel window. The system won’t show up the string attached to the folder name, so none will know that you have applied any such security. If you want to see the contents of original folder, just rename folder to previous name through DOS.



Here is how the folder will show up in folder view. I’ve applied the technique to the folder “Video_files”. And if you rename the folder to control panel, none will even know what you are hiding under the icon.



This is how the folder will look if you open up it. Check out the path is I:/video_songs, same folder which have been hidden using this technique.

Another way can be applied if you want to hide whole drive. All you have to do is go to drive management utility, select the drive you want to hide, rename the drive letter and remove the letter. Now try opening up the drive through My computer, Run prompt or command prompt. You can’t open it from any of these..



You will notice that drives I and J are missing as I’ve hidden them using this technique.

If anyone interested in knowing more about these techniques, you can just contact me or Dhiraj who taught me these techniques.



--
Dinesh Soni
dinesh.soni@gmail.com
9890897198

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 11:13 AM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Practicals over

Sunday, November 13, 2005

After lot of hues and cries over the postponing of practicals twice, finally practicals are over. Following usual tradition of MIT, the labs were not properly maintained for the practicals. With lot of antivirus warnings bugging up and long queues for print outs after the exam, the exam simply rocked. Another thing that rocked was the externals who were just as cool as ice and the internals who were as firing as hot water or fire itself..
Yes, they were literally firing, and they fired a guy outside the lab coz he was talking. Well, the guy was not asking for help or helping anyone. He was just waiting for the print outs in the queue along the printer. If they are really so concerned about college reputation, why don't they first maintain the f***ing lab? All systems in the lab are infected by w32.lovegate.R@mm virus and these warning windows by antivirus software make the testing impossible.. Still, the internals think, these are the students who can't perform the testing and blame it to system.. Yes, you read it right.. I said internals coz the external was so cool that he even didn't care about the verification and validation of the practical exams. ie "Are the students doing right thing?" and "Are the students doing the thing right?"

But one thing is sure.. Wherever I may go in life, I'll never forget these practical exams in the college.. Coz they have taught me lot.. After all, these were the worst days of my life and a person learns a lot through bad times..

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 9:10 PM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Durgachitra: Exhibition at Balgandharva

Friday, November 11, 2005

Durgachitra: An exhibition of paintings of different forts of Sahyadri has been put up at Balgandharva Kala Dalan, Pune.
These paintings have been created by Shailesh Deshpande over a period of 2 years. Shailesh, a software professional working in TCS Pune, is into trekking and photography for past 10 years.
The exhibition will be open Upto 13th November, 2005. 09:00 AM - 08:00 PM.
Here are few snaps of the exhibition.










If anyone needs the contact details of Shailesh Deshpande,


- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 8:42 PM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Missing me.........?

Just close your eyes and think of me for 10 seconds......
Open your eyes !

Now you will realize that u have wasted 10 sec in thinking of a fool............


As you can see, I'm damn bored of these studies.. Just waiting for the termination of exam session so that I can come out of hibernation and restart my trekking session with new session key (Of course if there isn't any Denial of Service from my family and no Replay Attacks from the nature).. Damn IT, why am I getting so technical........?

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 4:12 AM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Exam time

Tomorrow (ie 12th Nov) is my ISS Oral.. And I don't have time to post some big things..
So please get satisfied on the cover page of the Cryptography book we are referring for the subject :) And this is not exactly the book we are referring.. We refer the Indian Edition (Low Price Edition) of the book..
Btw, I promise to give some better posts once my exam gets over..



- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 2:12 AM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Media inspiring from Blogs

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

There had been a report on "Sahara Samay" on 9th Nov 2005, 8:00 news.. The report traced the same point as mentioned in the post related to the topic of Kuldeep Singh and Mahedra Dhoni..
Should we take this as a case of "Media getting inspired from the blogs?"
The blog entries related to the topic are here, here and here

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 9:13 PM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Welcome Back Abhijeet

Welcome Back Abhijeet.. I welcome you again to the bloggers' world...

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 4:31 PM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

2=3

I can prove 2=3
Anyone can suggest what's wrong with following proof?


-6 = -6
9-15 = 4-10

adding 25/4 to both sides:
9-15+25/4 = 4-10+25/4

Changing the order
9+25/4-15 = 4+25/4-10

(this is just like a square + b square - two a b = (a-b)square.)
Here a = 3, b=5/2 for L.H.S and a =2, b=5/2 for R.H.S.

So it can be expressed as follows:
(3-5/2)(3-5/2) = (2-5/2)(2-5/2)

Taking positive square root on both sides:
3 - 5/2 = 2 - 5/2
3 = 2 ????????

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 1:20 PM 2 people thought of commenting on this  

Forts Info Exhibition

Monday, November 07, 2005

Trek'di organised a very good exhibition of photos and other info about forts in Sahyadri on 5th and 6th November. The photos were shot by Abhijit and Shishir (Both from AAmchi Mumbai). The photos were real fabulous.
Actually, I was fan of Abhijit for quite a long time and even my mobile (Nokia 6820) had wallpapers of Harishchandragad and Sudhagad shot by him..

Here are few Snaps of the exhibition..



The guy in yellow Shirt is Abhijit whereas the guy in White dress is Shishir..





Those who missed the chance, can contact Abhijit or Shishir to know when and where will be their next exhibition.. And if you want to have a look on Abhijit's photography, view these images..

Image1

Image2

Image3

Or just visit Abhijit's Website..

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 11:46 PM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Chhota Recharge 10 Rupaye

BPL introduced Chhota Recharge offer..
Saw this poster yesterday and immidiately shot it with Dhiraj's K750i..
Hey, I'm not marketing executive or salesman of BPL.. Its just I wanted something to post :)



- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 10:46 PM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

Another forum that won my heart

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Its 05:51 AM and I'm still having timepass on net rather than sleeping or studying.. Here is yet another forum after Tekdi and Digit that won my heart..

Presenting you the JAM Forum

Try it and I am sure you are gonna like it..



Btw, Meet Mr. Ramchandra Mutt, The New buddy of Indian youth

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 5:58 AM 1 people thought of commenting on this  

What I am doing....?

It 04:30 AM of Sunday 6th November, 2005..
My trekking friends are at Sinhagad enjoying an overnight timepass party..
I have my practical and oral exam on 7th November..
Both my partners are enjoying sweet dreams..
And I am posting some crap on blogger..
As you can see, I am bored of these studies..
Still, have to keep studying..
So, better I stop this crap..
Btw, its now 04:34 AM

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 4:34 AM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

1 Life for 1 Run

Ritesh has something really very heart-touching to say...

Check out this and also this..

I agree with you Ritesh but really we can't do anything more than just putting black ribbon on our blog or protesting.. And we can't even blame the system because we are part of the system! or better saying, we are the system..

Well, here is one black ribbon on my part.. I protest against the "inhuman terrorists"

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 4:26 AM 1 people thought of commenting on this  

Sachin and Supriya Pilgaonkar

Wednesday, November 02, 2005



Remember this couple? Of course everyone does.. They both star in "Nach Baliye" on star one.. I'm really in love with this couple.. They both are so cute and so enthusiastic even after 20 years of married life.. God knows how they manage it?

Something about this couple:

Sachin started his career at the age of 4 as a child actor, and has so far acted in over 200 films. He has also directed 16 films and TV serials in both Hindi and Marathi. Supriya started her career in 1984 and has won several awards for her outstanding performances in films.

Sachin and Supriya met on the sets of their first film together where Sachin was the director. By the end of the film, Sachin had proposed marriage and have now been happily married for 20 years. They have a 16 year old daughter called Shreya.

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 11:40 AM 5 people thought of commenting on this  

U Know U R In: MIT Boys' Hostel Pune when.

An Article published dew weeks back in JAM magazine..

The difference between hostel watch timings and IST changes every hour.

Students spend more time in bathrooms than the living room (the bathrooms face the nearby girl's hostel).

There is a room for doctor's visit once a week which is closed for over 5 years.

Seniors consider it foolish to rag juniors. :-)

The TV hall is open only for 2 hours a day.

You cannot play TT on TT table as the net is with warden who is never in his place.

- MIT Hostel victim

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 11:36 AM 0 people thought of commenting on this  

The story behind the IIPM saga

Past few weeks were busy in discussion over issue of the IIPM saga..

Here is the whole story..

It all started June 15, when JAM ran an in-depth report debunking the advertised claims of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), a private business school that had spent more than $1 million in ads for its MBA program in May 2005. JAM found that IIPM had inflated claims about placing all of its students in jobs; having teachers from Harvard, Columbia and Yale; and luxurious extras such as swimming pools, mini golf and Wi-Fi towers.

Then blogger Gaurav Sabnis, an IBM salesman based in Mumbai, linked to the JAM article on Aug. 5 with a post titled, "The fraud that is IIPM." Perhaps the story would have died right there, but then IIPM made a tactical error by sending Sabnis a legal notice by e-mail on Oct. 4.

"The articles have caused unfathomable damage to the reputation of IIPM and to its various operational areas," the e-mail read. "The articles further have affected innumerable future operations of IIPM. We have legally notarized and logged all the releases and are sending you this e-mail to you as the first notice of proposed legal, judicial and criminal action against you that has already been approved & cleared by the Post Graduate Fellow Programme committee at IIPM."

While Sabnis at first found the whole legal threat funny, he wasn't laughing when his boss at IBM told him that IIPM was putting pressure on IBM (which sells laptops to IIPM) to get Sabnis to delete the blog posts. Plus, IIPM told IBM that its students were planning to burn their IBM laptops in protest. Sabnis quickly decided to quit his job at IBM to spare the company the PR nightmare.

Meanwhile, IIPM served similar legal notices to JAM magazine and another blogger who had written about the school, Varna Sriraman. The furor in the Indian blogosphere -- where bloggers refused to delete any posts -- finally caught the attention of the mainstream Indian media, which then covered IIPM's inflated claims.

But the legal threats from IIPM did nothing to cow bloggers or JAM Magazine. Rashmi Bansal, the editor and publisher of JAM and a blogger as well, told that IIPM's Chaudhuri and the school's dean A. Sandeep showed up at JAM's offices to accuse them of yellow journalism. After the visit, JAM received a 17-page legal notice threatening to sue JAM for defamation unless IIPM received a retraction and apology.

Amit Saxena, head of corporate communications for IIPM, sent a statement that tried to deflect the criticism of JAM and bloggers, and accused the latter of a slant toward the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), a more respected and established system of business schools.

"We are stunned as to how the most pampered students of India (i.e. from the IIM) suffer from so much inferiority complex from us that given the first opportunity to pen something (be it [former] IIM students like Rashmi Bansal or Gaurav Sabnis, and all other IIM students on the Net and other media), they stoop down so low as to write relentless lies and spread baseless rumors about IIPM," the statement read, in part. "But beyond a point IIPM can't allow these kinds of shallow rumors mongering to go on and had to take an action."

But Saxena would not discuss the details of the JAM expose, and IIPM has never explained discrepancies with its ads and the information unearthed by journalists and bloggers. Instead, IIPM has served legal notices, and a plethora of nameless blogs, allegedly by IIPM alumni, have sprouted up overnight defending IIPM and smearing the bloggers.

Well, on this all story, i can only say that I am with Rashmi and Gaurav.. I will never tolerate any defending of freedom of speech.. That was a typing mistake.. I wanted to say "I will never tolerate any attacking of freedom of speech.."

- Dinesh Finally completed this scribble at 11:16 AM 3 people thought of commenting on this