How Written Communication has changed.

A few years back people communicated to each other using Letters.
Post Offices developed throughout the world helping people send letters.
The Letters used to take one week to reach Europe and USA.
People waited patiently to receive replies from their near and dear ones.
We used to await the arrival of the Postman to our homes as we were eagerly waiting for letters.
Pen friends were developed across continents thro letters exchanged thro the postal service.
The postal work is considerably reduced as the need to write letters is no more there.

Everything has changed now.

Today is the age of Face book, Twitters, and e mail.
Mobiles have reduced the need to write e mails as well, as sms and chat over the mobiles have surpassed the use of e mails and chat on the PC’s.

The development of e mails was an interesting one.

1971: A computer engineer Mr. Ray Tomlinson used the @ sign to separate the name from the terminal he was using.

1980: AOL developed instant chat.

1989: The World Wide Web is born. Mr. Tim Berners-Lee wrote the Hyper Text Protocol (HTTP)
A language that enabled the computers to communicate hypertext documents over the internet.

1996: Mr. Sabeer Bhatia & Jack Smith launched the first E mail service and called it “Hot Mail”
Derived from HTML.
This is one of the biggest e Mail service providers today.
Later Microsoft acquired this company in 1997.

1997: Yahoo launches its E Mail service.

2004: Google is a late entrant to this facility and it is next to Hot Mail & Yahoo in users.

2004: Harvard Sophomore and Mark Zuckerberg launch the social networking site Face book which has revolutionized the concept of writing.
E mail has taken back seat and people write thro Face book.
As we see in 8 years since Hotmail was launched the e mail has become staid and social networking has taken over.

2011 Google Plus has entered the social networking site.

The invention of newer forms of communication is so fast that today we cannot write anymore but only tweet.

Crusade Against Corruption

The story of Modern David and Goliath.
We live in a country where great souls were born.
To name a few: Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, and Sir Ramanujam.
These were the people who excelled in their work and did India proud.
Mahatma Gandhi gave us the Freedom from the British Empire, but he is not alive to see the state of affairs in this country now.
It is a sad state of affairs that in this country we live amongst corrupt politicians, Police Officers, Government Officials and of course the corporate world.
The scams of recent times like Common Wealth Games, and the 2G scam are the ones which have brought disrepute to our country.
The 2G scam is mind boggling and one cannot understand the serious impact on our country’s wealth.
Why has this happened?
The people of this country are poor and do not understand the huge loss to the exchequer because of these scams.
The corruption is so rampant that all of us would have faced this in our day to day life and we just cannot circumvent this hazard.
We have learnt to live and accept this as a way of life.
What a shame that we live with this malady and do nothing about it.
Then comes this small statured man Anna Hazare who leads a campaign against corruption and goes on fast.
Today is the 12Th day and the people of this country are behind him.
This gives strength to his movement and for the cause.
Isn’t it strange that the Government is not seeing the writing on the wall and relenting, its time they accept the demands (sorry it cannot be called a demand but it’s a need of the people) and try to resolve the issue?
It’s strange that the Government is arguing about Parliamentary systems and following the constitution and saying that Anna cannot blackmail them to accept his demands.
If they were following the constitution to the core then why was there no transparency in running a Government as envisaged in our constitution?
We can understand their predicament, how would our politicians accept this Lok Pal Bill when they would be subjected to the scrutiny of the Lok Pal in future about any misdeeds committed by them.
It’s sad that even after 64 years of Independence that we do not have a corporate governance act in Government and they have dilly dallied for over 42 years on this bill as reported in the newspapers.
What Anna could do with his hunger strike, nobody could imagine, it’s a snowballing effect and people are frustrated and fed up with the existing rotten political system.
They say that Politics is a place where there would be strange bedfellows.
There is a complete breakdown of governance and every politician in this country has ensured that their kith and kin need not work for their lifetimes for the the next few generations and have also ensured that their sons daughters get a place in the political system and make their lives even better.
Anna is a savior and has taken cudgels against the government and he is fighting valiantly and I am sure that he would get more support from the general public.
Anna Keep fighting, we are with you.
Many thanks to Anna for enlightening us and bring some semblance of dignity and uprightness in our political system.

01.09.11
PS: Anna has ended his fast and the Government has conceded to take up the three vital issues raised by him.Thank God wisdom prevailed on our authorities and people's will prevailed.
It's a true victory of democracy.
It's been an unique non violent movement since Independence and it was well managede by the people of the country.
India has shown the world once again after Gandhi that we are peace loving and believe in non violent satyagraha.
It's a good lesson to our youngsters who constitute a vast majority of our population today.

India shines in Quarter finals.

What a match it was yesterday 24Th March 2011.

India played against the invincible Australia, champions in four world cups.
Ricky Ponting the captain who has lead his team successfully on three occasions in the past.
It was nerve racking and a tough game for the Indian team to surpass the mighty Australians.
Australia batted reasonably well with Ricky Ponting scoring 104 runs, a really good captain’s innings. True leaders are the ones who lead from the front and motivate their team, and Ponting did just that.
He showed grit, good and firm attitude and a determination to win.
Australia scored 260 for 6 wickets in 50 overs.

This was followed by India, the going was good until the first wicket fell at 44 that of Virendra Sehwag.
There was a hush in the stands, and India recoiled back with Gautam Gambhir coming in at 2 nd position.
The going was good between Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir, and Sachin lost his wicket at 94 runs on the score board. He had played well scoring 53 runs and completed 18000 runs in One Day Cricket , and this was his 94Th Half Century.

The trouble for India started with wickets falling in regular intervals, and in 93 runs India had already lost 3 more wickets. India was at 187 for 5 wickets.
The Australians are known for their intimidationary tactics on the field and they never give up easily.
There were times when we thought that India would not make it as the run rate had dropped and Yuvraj Singh was at crease with Suresh Raina.
For Suresh Raina it was a first ever experience against the mighty Australians in the World cup. The pressure could be seen on his face as he faced the onslaught of the Aussie bowlers.
He kept his calm and gave support to Yuvaraj.

Yuvi had the grit, calmness and determination to play a very sensible cricket which kept India going though slowly but firmly.
Australia had tried everything but could not break the formidable partnership of Raina and Yuvaraj.
It was a crucial game and Yuvaraj had the nerve to remain there till the end and maintain the run rate and eventually helped India win with five wickets in hand and wound up the game in 47.4 overs.

The Indian side owes its victory to Yuvaraj who bowled well with 2 for 44 and scoring 57 not out. He has completed 10000 Runs in One Day Cricket.
India enters into the semi finals, would be facing the fiery Pakistan and let’s hope India does it once again.