Purposely hiding your tears.... Feels good.

Everybody has moments when they cry and they are unable to control their feelings due to some or other reasons.
One such moment came up in front of me just few minutes ago.

I normally just cry my hearts out but I don't purposely try to hide from people that I cried, however, today it was a bit different.

I was at home and other family members were around me, I somehow had to cry to let the negative energy out of me, some mistakes I made in personal life made me feel like crying today. And I just wasn't able to control by feelings.

I thought it would be a good thing to play really loud music and then cry the heck out of me, in that way I could cry really loud sitting inside my room, and as really loud music was playing, no one could get to know that I am crying.

This was the first ever time I felt like I should purposely hide my tears from my loved ones and from anyone apart myself. I don't know the actual reason why I felt so, normally I don't hide my tears, not at least from my mother, as she takes every bit of my tears and some how manages to convert that into a nice and bright smile.

I think the reason why I went on hiding my tears and found shelter in the noise of loud music was because the reason I was crying for, I didn't want that to be known to my parents, I didn't want my parents to feel helpless and sorry for me. I didn't want anyone to know the situation for which I was crying and the past incidents that let me to that crying situation today.

But now, it feels good, I feel rejuvenated. I feel much more energetic, and because I have already cried really a lot, I feel like there's very little of those sorrows within me now, and I have thrown out all the negativity in the form of tears when I cried.

It's good and healthy to cry sometimes in life, this was one of those "sometime" for me, it let out the exasperation out and because I felt empty within myself after I cried, I could quickly let some positive energy get flowing inside my heart and feel the extreme energy flowing through my nerves, my lungs, my entire body in a matter of seconds.

Moment of Self Realisation - What I actually want to do in my life.

Finally, I have convinced myself to write this post, and the reason  I am writing it here on this blog, which I don't personally update quite often, is simple, I want it to stay anonymous and don't want to reveal my identity obviously because I am a bit scared and uncertain of what I want from my life at this moment.

Over two and half years ago, in last week August 2010, amidst time of personal financial stressed situations and worried about where I wanted to go in future and having been surrounded in an environment where money is of utmost importance, I had developed worries about what could I do to make myself wealthy and rich to enjoy luxurious lifestyle and have fun in life in any and every way I can.

I just believed that money is the only thing that would give me and my loved ones immense happiness, I need to earn loads and loads of money to make myself and my family content.

Going back an year;
I got engaged in October 2009, with a lovely girl, whom I really love a lot, whom I really admire a lot, however, just like every girl she too had some dreams, some hopes and some expectations from her future husband, earning sufficiently to afford a standard living as a bare minimum. I wasn't earning good at the time of my engagement, and was not making good combined from all my sources of earning, not enough to afford a standard living.

However, I was still working at the same place and earning same income as earlier till December 2009, and that's when I heard from a friend / colleague that finance was booming and to make money I must be in one of the finance hubs of the world, and as that colleague of mine had studied and worked in Britain first, he advised me to go to London for studying ACCA and try breaking info finance / banking sector.

I am of Indian origin and till Aug 2010 I never travelled overseas in my life, however always had a dream to go abroad and roam around places and live in 5 star hotels etc etc, the very thought of going to London and living there got me "MONEY STRUCK". Only thing I was able to imagine myself was a safe and secure career, a large villa (house), and a nice mercedes parked out side home for my family.

So thats when I went ahead and started applying for colleges in UK (Not universities, as universities are really expensive), I had made a full proof plan, I thought I would finish 2 years of my ACCA and along side secure a Bachelors degree from Oxford Brookes university and then get 2 years of post study work visa in UK itself and so make a good living finally after 2 years (means by now, Nov 2012). However later in late 2011, UK govt announced that post study work will be scrapped from Apr 2012, so that was the start of my dreams scratching off, however till then I was still in dreams of earning millions of £s and making a really luxurious life out of my career, however I started believing that somehow things will work out and if not in UK, I will be able to secure job somewhere else in the world which would still pay me high enough to afford my rich living style that I want to get.

Finally after having completed 12 out of 14 ACCA exams all in first attempt and having secured a Bachelors Degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brooke University (due to ACCA's tie up), for some reason in the month of Jul 2012 I had to move back to India, and so I decided to study for my final two ACCA papers in India.

On my way back to India, as I arrived at Heathrow airport Terminal 4, checked in my luggage, got by boarding passes, I kept thinking, in past 2 years in UK, there was nothing to be honest I did that made me feel I am actually enjoying and fulfilling my dream of going overseas, visiting great places, enjoying nice sights, greenery, roaming on streets of London, enjoying night life, visiting famous places, being out with my new friends, etc etc, all I did in those two years was lock myself in my room or be at library and study. However, I thought, do hell with that, once I earn a fortune, I will come back to London with my family and wife and enjoy loads and loads.

So finally, I am back in India in the last week of July 2012, and studying eagerly towards my final exams, meanwhile going through tough time at my home as we are facing some financial downturn in our life at this time, along with these tense worries about financial situation, the present atmosphere, environment, need to make a good living, earn a good salary, and also its now been over 3 years since I got engaged, so worries of getting married are all making me feel scared day by day. Due to obvious family disturbances, locality in which I live, the other family members in this joint family house consisting of total of 18 members, I am not able to concentrate enough on my studies and so I started trying awkward schedules for studying, like starting studying in morning 2 am and studying till 10 am in morning and after that sleeping in day time till evening, and various other stupid schedules, but nothing seems to have worked appropriately and there continues to be loads of disturbances everywhere around me, however, I have still managed to prepare somehow for my final exams, although not as good as I would have in London, sitting in LSE Library studying for about 10 hours a day in Silent Study rooms of LSE.

Amongst all this tiredness and life's non smooth paths and gush of trying hard to earn some money, somewhere it has started daunting on me that what I am pursuing for over 2 years is actually just a rush behind money and nothing else. What I have been doing in past 2 years is all but not what I really want to do in life, its not what something makes me fell HELL YEAH! I wanna do it!!.

Being a banker, making big bucks, doing complicated math behind finance models and trying to figure out price of stocks is really not what I feel like doing, I don't want my life to be completely absorbed around meetings, emails, drafts of emails, targets, agendas, blackberry, schedules, busy routines etc etc. I don't want to work day and night with less than 3 weeks of holidays in entire calendar year. I don't wanna be a slave of my blackberry day and night waiting for my boss's email or client's meeting agenda to fix my next day's schedule. I hate being so overwhelmed by work that I can't give few hours a day to my family, I don't wanna work weekends or for over 80 hours a week often doing an all nighter in front of a computer screen and then at night 3 am when I bring my ass back home, there is no one to even greet me or welcome me home. I don't want to earn so much money that it starts controlling me and my life completely, it will be more like a drug that a drug addict cannot live without. This is not what my journey is all about.

At this stage, I am not sure what I want to do, but this is definitely not what I want from my life, this is definitely not what I believe I am made for,

I tried doing some brainstorm with what I like to do, and I came up with stuff like, I love to create video tutorials, I love to take photos, I love to roam around, meet people, talk to them about various things and make friends.
I love music, I love to listen music as well as play music.
I love to get involved in creativity stuff, stuff that bring happiness, in my life as well as in lives of people around me.
I want to go out and celebrate every day of my life as if it were THE BEST DAY of my life and not stick in front of my computer for 15 hours a day and rest in front of a blackberry / smartphone answering office emails and calls.
I like swimming, I want to get in shape and for that I need to reduce my obesity and for that I need to take out time and start working out.
I still love reading tech related stuff, I love to impart education to those who are unable to get education due to some or other reason. I love to learn new stuff, but stuff that I feel like learning.

I have always wanted to learn to play a guitar, I want to learn flying (not commercial planes, but gliders and helicopters)

But now, this pressure to earn for family, is increasing very tightly. Besides, my fiancee, she's got some high expectations from me and it would be super hurting her if I hurt her feelings. She has given me an awful lot of time and been extremely patient for me to make my career and now if I tell her that this is not what really I want to do, I am so sure that she would feel super betrayed. That is not what I actually want to do, I don't want to hurt her, because no matter what I do, I want to feel happy and I could feel happy if I am satisfied with what I do and I see smiles on faces of my loved ones which consists of my family including my wife.

I don't want to hurt my parents either. They are the soul of my life, my father stood by me in all times, and spent his life time's savings behind my stupid endeavours to become a finance professional and study in London and so on.. Now, how can I tell him that sorry dad, I don't feel like doing all that I have been studying for in more than past 2 years on which you spent your entire life's fortune.

Each day, I say to myself that I must stay put for my family, for my going to be wife and some other time pursue my dream to do what I want to do in my life. But at the same time, my heart says "It's either now or never"....

I have got my final exams in 10 days time and I feel very underprepared for those exams as compared to how much prepared I have been for all my exams so far.. I really don't know what will I do with my life and where will I go, I feel so much messed up from my inner-side at this stage, often feel like running away from where I am at this time, however this is not going to be a solution for anyone, neither me nor for those who are attached to me in some or other way.

I don't feel like doing what I am doing at this time, as a reason of which many times, in late nights I start working out to lose some fat from my body, sometimes i just open up some videos on youtube about entrepreneurs and how to start a new business, etc etc. however, if I am not preparing for my final exams, I feel as if I would be of no use to my family, I would let down my wife and make my parents feel worse about me.

The reason why I have put this post, is not because I want anyone to read it, but because I am tired of carrying this burden in my heart that what I am doing is not what I want to do in life but if I don't do it, it makes me feel bad and guilty in front of my family. I wanted to let out my thoughts somewhere and so thought, anonymous blog would be a good place to start with.

Recipe 2 - Sindhi Koki

Here comes another one!

This time its a rather daily casual stuff, something that we people eat on a regular basis, generally as breakfast in mornings and find it really tasty and healthy to eat.

SINDHI KOKI

Ingredients:

• 4 cups wheat flour (makes 2 koki)

• 1 onion large finely chopped 3 green chillies finely chopped

• 1 tbsp. coriander leaves finely chopped

• 2 tbsp. ghee or oil

• 1/2 tbsp. cumin seeds

• 1/2 tbsp. Annardaana (dried pomegranate seeds)

• Salt to taste Oil for shallow frying

Method:

• Sieve flour, add salt, onions, annardana (optional), cumin seeds, chopped green chillies, coriander leaves and oil (except oil for shallowing).

• Mix well add very little water, knead into the stiff dough.

• Divide the dough in two portions.

• Take each portion and roll with rolling pin just to flatten the roll. Do not roll it much. Slightly roast it on both sides on hot tawa (frying pan) again roll it with rolling pin till it reaches thickness of paratha (This helps to make koki bit flaky than chewy).

• Place it on tawa again, cook on each side, adding little oil or ghee from sides, on medium flame, till very small brown patches appears on surface

• Repeat for remaining dough.

• Serve hot with yogurt or tea or papad.

• It has a shelf life of about 24 hrs, so is ideal for picnics or while traveling long distances

Thanks Fiancee for your simple yet Simply Delicious recipes!

Recipe 2 - Sweet Corn Raita

I continue with my urge of sharing recipes, thanking my fiancee for allowing me to do so.

Today's Recipe

SWEET CORN RAITA

A dish that is perfect for parties, perfect for casual dinners and looks just amazing may that be in a traditional Indian Dinner or western dinner with Indian Cuisine.

Ingredients

1. Boiled Sweet Corns (1 Cup)
2. 1/2 tbsp Red Chilli Powder
3. Yogurt (2 cups)
4. Onion Chopped - 1
5. Finely Chopped Coriander
6. Finely Chopper Mint
7. Coriander Powder - 1/2 tbsp.
8. Oil - 2 tbsp.
9. Salt - 1 tbsp.
10. Sugar to taste

Recipe

1. Heat Oil and Fry Onion and Red Chilli
2. Add corns, red chilli powder, salt and coriander powder, stir for 2 mins and mix it well.
3. Add sugar to yogurt, ChuRn and keep it in a bowl.
4. Add corn mix to it and mix the whole stuff well.
5. Garnish with coriander and mint leaves
6. Please Serve it.

Note:

If you don't like sweet taste, you can skip sugar and use salt according to your preferred taste.

Recipe 1 - Saada Yakhni Pulao

Hello Readers!

Thanks for visiting my blog, here comes the first recipe as promised a bit earlier.

This recipe is for an Indian / Pakistani dish called Saada Yakhni Pulao (Rice)

Saada Yakhni Pulao

Ingredients per 250 gms rice:

• 1 Bay Leaves (Tejpatta)
• 5 Cloves (Laung)
• 2 Green Cardamom
• 5 Black Pepper (Kali Mirch)
• Salt according to taste
• Mixed Spices (Garam Masala)
• 250 gms rice

(For Garnishing)

• Finely chopped Onion
• Chopped Pistachio (into 2 halves)
• Chopped cashews (into 2 halves)
• 1 tbsp. oil

Recipe

Heat oil in a pan, Add bay leaves, cloves, green cardamom, black pepper.

Stir for 2 mins, then add 2 glasses of water in it.

When water starts boiling, put salt and mixed spices into it. Add rice into it.

Now leave pan on high flame. Let the rice soak water, when there is little water left, low down the flame and cover the lid.

Let the rice cook for 5 minutes.

While rice is cooking, take one more pan, heat the oil and fry chopped onion till brown, once onion is fried till brown, take it out of the pan and now fry cashew and pistachio.

Now, Use fried onion, pistachio and cashew as garnishing.

Alright guys, this was a small yet really delicious recipe, my first recipe, courtesy of my fiancee.

I hope you guys enjoy this recipe and let me know through emails / comments if you guys happen to try this recipe.

Have a wonderful day.

Apple Apple Apple Everywhere!

Well, this is not about the fruit Apple, instead it is about the world's most valued (Market Cap wise) company, called Apple Inc.

Its official, Apple's upcoming Sept. 12 event, as events of Apple near their airing date, people start losing their mental stability and probably you as reader of this post are one of those hundreds of thousands of people who have already decided to queue outside Apple stores from Sept. 11 midnight in various parts of the world, without even actually knowing if the new iPhone is going to be made available from Sept 12 onwards, or is Sept. 12 only the date of announcement.

Click on image to Enlarge it!

Its crazy how Apple is taking on a ride everyone with so many rumours about upcoming iPhone 5 (so called worst kept secret in the history of Apple so far).

People seem to really get crazy and nitty gritty about the upcoming event and after having had a recent look at CNet's AppleByte, they have made a whole RAP song on Apple's senior executives like Tim Cook, Scott Forstall, Phil schiller, etc.

There are so many alleged iPhone photos and people like Brian Tong of Cnet are busy trying to decode what the flyer for upcoming Apple event showing "12" with some shadow below it that Brian says looks like making a "5" is all about. May be I am getting stupid at it, but what's there to decode in it? there is less than a week to go for the event, don't we have anything else to move on till the event date comes up?

Tons of photos of the repair site iResQ demonstrate that the new iPhone is going to have a two tone design and Apple is going to throw away the rear glass (probably Apple has learnt about the dropping tests of iPhone, the way the glass completely smashes away!)

But then there are also rumours that these all photos are of a chinese phone called GooPhone. Although several reports and google search results claim that GooPhone i5, the so called Chinese iPhone 5 is actually a leaked version of iPhone 5 prototype. And as usual, there may be some more legal suits against Apple or against Chinese phone maker. Who knows whats true? (Heck! why can't we just wait and watch?)

(Click on images to enlarge them)

There are also videos on chinese website vgooo.com of the alleged next gen iPhone 5 with same boot screen as current iPhone, however as the phone boots it shows "We are unable to complete you", doesn't that show that someone has forcefully tried to install iOS on a non Apple phone and so the phone actually suffered a failed boot up? Well undoubtedly it does seem a dodgy video completely released with a thought of attracting visitors and making some money along side getting some popularity.

Another feature we humans including Brian Tong of Cnet (mobile phone users actually) are really getting crazy about is the wireless charging feature as shown by recently launched Nokia Lumia 920 a Windows Phone.

Brian says this seems to be a big deal in coming years especially with businesses like Airports, Virgin Atlantic, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and so on… However, who really cares about it? I mean, there are tons of ways to charge a phone without a electricity outlet, every Aircraft these days has a USB port where in you can plug in your USB charger and let your phone and other gadgets charge, and if not Airplanes, I am sure you guys are aware of XPalPower like stuff, that lets to carry electronic charge for your gadgets.

Another thing, again that may be valid if Apple goes for smaller dock connectors is, according to iLounge, Apple is to be the sole maker of the Dock connector Adapters, this may mean, Apple is saying, go My way or the High Way, so we would need to buy only Apple branded dock connectors in case our original dock connector goes bad! Clearly Apple here wants to limit competition, but again, small local manufacturers do end up making duplicate connectors, especially the road side phone repair shops, etc try to invent new cheaper stuff which costs less to make but sells at a good enough price getting them some nice profit. Well everyone, including the roadside mobile repair man wants a share of Apple's success..

On the other hand, this might also upset existing Apple users who are used to those 30-pin dock connectors. And so all there old accessories, portable speakers, etc may not be any more usable on the new iPhone 5 which is like to adopt a smaller 19-pin dock connector.

Anyways, who knows whats exactly going to be true? Apple might just come up with a different type of Micro-USB charger simply to be one of the crowd and get more flexibility when it comes to connecting Apple iPhone to various devices like Laptop, etc.

A report from Apple Insider, also says, Apple's alleged 9-pin dock connector may be of the same size as Micro-USB

So lets simply wait and watch and see what is Apple upto rather than getting hyper about the rumours surrounding Apple.

Recipe Time - Tons of Recipes to come soon!

My "going to be wife" (Fiancee) loves trying different recipes, tasty yummy dishes, and I am not often the first one to test her cooking skills (thank God!), although, I am aware of her passion for cooking which sometimes makes me crave for her food.

The reason why I am not very often the first person to test her new recipes is because, as an Indian, according to our culture, we don't generally live in together before marriage, and being in a Long-Distance relationship, I hardly get to see her once in 8 months to a year's time.

Anyways, following on to suggestions given by my better-half, I have made up my mind to start sharing with my readers, her recipes! (Please be aware, try at your own risk though! :-P)

So, from now onwards, I shall be posting two to three recipes a week that comes from the great treasure-like recipe diary of my fiancee. I may post a bit more or a bit less in some weeks, depending on how frequently she sends me the recipes that she wants me to share with my readers (yes, she won't allow me sharing her entire own written personal recipe diary!).

So friends, do keep visiting here or subscribe to my posts and let me know how you find the recipes that I shall be starting to post anytime soon now. You can send in your suggestions and any experiences (if you happened to try the recipe) through emails or through comments below.

Thank You very much, I look forward to hear from you guys..

And Thanks My Love (My Fiancee) for letting me share your personal work on my public blog!

A Little Bit of Heaven - Amazing Movie

Wow, What an amazing feeling! I just finished watching a great movie called "A Little Bit of Heaven".

Source: Wikipedia

At first I thought it was just another movie about living life the way we wish to rather than having boundaries and limits about everything in life binding us from being the very ourself. However, once you keep watching the movie for at least a third of the running time, you start realising there is something different in this movie. It's not just about living the life to the fullest, but it has something more to it, some deep message may be.

Keep diving more into the movie and as it goes opening up, the movie just makes you feel WOW!, its not always about living your life to the fullest that matters, but what is more than just living your life to the fullest is living it happily with everyone attached to you in some way or the other.

Its important to learn to trust in yourself and your loved ones and forgive others for all things that they might have done wrong in the past, as no person remains same for the whole life and no person is equal by any means to other person, so judging someone is by far the most common mistake and most stupid thing one would ever do. We need to get ourselves up and above this, and let others dive into our lives and give them a chance so that they can show and prove it to us, that they are not really that bad as we perceived them to be.

Forgiving people, gives you satisfaction, a sense of good feeling, a contentment and most of all, it re-ignites love in relationships, no matter what relationship it is, may that be of a husband-wife, mother-daughter, parents-child, friends or anything whatsoever, forgiving just does wonders.

So my friends, try to watch this movie and look for the message deep hidden inside the movie. I am sure you would enjoy it just as I did. Cheers!

Empty Blogging.Org - No Projects Available

There are many websites on the internet that are looking for professional bloggers and prospective employers / Article buyers, and these websites act like a platform for these supply - demand market where bloggers can find people who need them.

One of such websites is: Blogging.org. I happened to come across this site while reading one of the most famous blogger, Darren Rowse's blog called Problogger.net. Under the jobs board he lists "Write Articles & Get Paid! at Blogging.org" (click on the link to see the screen shot of this listing.) and it is that of a recent listing, dated 10 August (2012).

Once landed on this website, it gave me impression of a copy of popular freelance jobs portal, freelancer.com. It feels like a pure copy or might be use of similar website creating software or platform plugin. Anyways, the first thing to do as I landed on this website was Register, and again, unlike freelancer.com or other job portals, blogging platforms, it doesn't let you browse the current projects available without actually visiting your email inbox and confirming account.

Now, what I am going to write about this website in a few seconds, would actually make the entire registration / confirmation process really meaningless.

There are no projects available as of now, by now I mean: Wednesday, 15 August 2012, 22:50:30 PDT. Now this thing really puts me off about this website, it wasted a good enough 15 minutes of mine and in the last gave me nothing but a useless account and now I am imagining because I have a account with them, useless spam emails would keep on flowing in additionally as these all websites often make money by selling user information like Name, Email address, etc to third party marketing organisations, and because it was a confirmed email address, they might actually get paid more for selling my information to someone else without my consent on actually doing so and giving me zero profit out of this activity.

I was so much put off by this thing, that I decided to put my additional 15 minutes in actually writing a blog to make people aware that not everything good visible on internet even though from good sources is always good.

Things can be ugly quite often so be prepared for that and don't let such things put you off.

By the last statement I meant, I am not going to stop here, I will go on looking at more available websites for blogging, and if I found more such websites who are uselessly aiming at collecting user information, would continue sharing here on my blog.

Meanwhile have a look at these great blogging resources if you are one of millions aiming to make a living through Earning online sitting at home.

A moment of joy, a feeling of achievement

Two years ago I wrote a small 2 A4 page sized article that I then planned to post online on a blog.

It was originally written in my handwriting while I was sitting in my college, observing my tutor. The article was about how my tutor inspired me to work harder in life to achieve my goals in life and reach at desired levels in life.

I used to observe her in class and even outside, everything about her used to excite me, her way of dealing with colleagues, addressing students, meeting with people, teaching students, helping students with solving their doubts and queries, etc.

She is a very active person; she is reachable on email at any time of the day and is very fast in her work approach. Her fast paced behaviour could give goose bumps to most active people, as her charisma was amazing and people would just get so much inspired by her all the time.

The one thing that I saw was really unique to her was her smile. She smiled all the time, no matter what she was doing. There wasn’t a moment in college or even outside if I ever got to see her after college hours of before college hours when she wasn’t in a happy and excited mood.

She used to tell us students in class about how much she loves teaching and she feels so blessed having teaching as her profession. May be her love for her work used to make her smile, her positive approach and work ethics made her really active whole day and so her charisma was so attractive that having her around them would just inspire people.

The article that I wrote about how much inspired I was by her, I never really published online on a blog, It was just there in a large pile of documents, and now over 2 years later I that article was actually written, I thought I would share it with my tutor, although she doesn’t teach me anymore, I keep in touch with her through emails and facebook.

So I decided to share the article with her.

The response I got was really overwhelming, it was so heart warming.

She wrote: “She had tears in her eyes after reading the article, and that she never really paid attention to her work manners and ethics” and she was really pleased that as her student I was paying so much attention to her behaviour and working style and was getting inspired by her without she even being aware of it actually happening.

She then thanked me for sharing that article with her, and said that she wished she had every single student like me in her classes. I felt really good by reading those words of her.

She has been one of my most favourite tutor, and it is a sense of achievement that a tutor (who is considered to be a godly figure in a person’s life) feels grateful for having taught her student.

I felt like I was in seventh sky that day. It was more of a heavenly experience than anything else, as I always dreamt of making my teachers, my parents feel proud of me, and here was this moment when my teacher, that too one of my most favourite teachers, clearly said to me that she wished she had all students in her class like me.

I was able to feel those words by her and was able to picture entire situation when she would have read my article and she had tears in her eyes and then she would have felt really happy and she wrote back to me such a nice email back.

Undoubtedly it felt amazingly great.

For a moment, I recalled Steve Jobs famous words “Insanely Great” although he meant insanely great computer machines, but I was feeling insanely great and content from my within.

I heartily thank God, my parents and my tutor for being there in my life and making my life so much worth it. Had they not been there for me by my side, I won’t have reached and become what I am today.

Corruption in Mobile Sim cards in India

It is one of those moments when I feel like fighting for what is right and truthful. This is an incident I just happened to come across this afternoon at a local Mobile dealer store in one of the most busiest areas in the city of Ahmedabad, India.

I have recently arrived in India from my over 2 year long education trip to London, UK. Although I have stayed in India ever since my birth before I left for my further education, I was never involved in buying a mobile phone sim card in the past and so there was very little I knew about the formalities (document submission, etc.) and the cost for purchasing a new pre paid (aka pay as you go) connection in India.

Back in London, sim cards used to be completely free, and because I was alone (without my parents) in London, that was the first time I really looked on internet on ways to get a mobile sim card and felt really normal to see that the sim cards alone are completely free in UK and they come with no credit, and can be ordered for free online on any mobile network provider's website like T-Mobile, Orange, O2, etc.

However, now in India, I was charged Rs. 40 (£0.50) for a new sim card that came with zero balance. to those living in UK this might be a very small amount and may not even be something that needs to be taken into consideration, however it is not so for those who live in India, where the GDP per capita (as per the wikipedia) is just $1,410. On top of this I was asked to submit a copy of Photo Identication proof (Driving License, Passport, etc.) which must also have my current address on it and also two passport sized photographs. Now I know some of you reading this might be laughing at me, specially those to whom this is a very normal process that everyone has to go through when they are buying a new mobile phone conneection, however because I was never involved in such a process in India, and had seen a really relaxed and easy atmosphere in UK, this was a bit of a surprise.

I asked the guy at Reliance Web World, the reason behind charging my Rs. 40 and not even agreeing to give me a receipt for the amount I paid, he says, this is the normal activation fee, there are no needs for any receipts and they have never issued one in the past for this activation fee. however if I wanted to add credit to my new sim card account, they can issue me a receipt for that.

I quickly came home and went on Reliance communication website and was even more surprised when I found that the charge for a new sim card is actually Rs. 4 and that too gets you a credit of Rs. 1 so you can immediately make your first local call (within the state of Gujarat) immediately without any need for extra top up.

I felt cheated and looted, the concern was not the money, but the reason behind the actions of that Reliance Web World executive, who did this for his personal gain and now I have made my mind to send an email to Reliance complaints department about the same.

I hope to get some positive response out of it, as considering the amount of new connections that reliance services and even other telecom services get in a day due to the sheer size of the population in this country, this is a huge corruption market, where people may be earning a really handsome figure, and who knows some stores may be charging even much more than what that store charged me as it is situated in old city of Ahmedabad which is normally where lower middle class and fairly lower class people reside.

Google's partnership with Motorola vs Samsung vs Asus

Probably, many haven't realised or are too lost in the new glittery world of Google's own (in partnership with Asus) first tablet device called the Galaxy Nexus 7.

The tablet, primarily aimed at competing with Kindle Fire, is currently available for pre order at $199 in USA whereas for £159 in the UK from the Google Play Store.

However, the point that I want to base this article on is, the reason why google might have decided to make a move to Asus to manufacture its tablet rather than Samsung or Motorola (Motorola's Motorola Mobility division is now a subsidiary of Google).

One clear and obvious reason for this move could be the fast growing patent - wars and court hearings / proceedings between Samsung and its biggest rival Apple. Google partnered with Samsung for Nexus S back in December 2010. A year later, it went on with another partnership demonstration by announcing Galaxy Nexus in November 2011.

This year, although a bit early for traditional Nexus family to announce its next product, it now came with a tablet device, but not only the device being a "tablet" is new thing, but also its manufacturer.
Its not Samsung anymore, its now Asus. Google got into partnership with Asus for its new flagship device, its first tablet device. Clearly, the wars of Apple and Samsung aren't doing good for Samsung at this moment.

The next Nexus phone, due sometime later this year, probably after the release of iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple calls it), may as well be with a different organisation., may be Motorola Mobility this time, to avoid the newly made phone being banned into US market if made by Samsung (remember!, long patent war between Apple and Samsung)

Well, we will have to wait for the time being, as there are no announcements for the next Nexus Phone officially, although rumours are that it is coming from Motorola Mobility this time, partly because Google has full power to influence its manufacturing / design process as Motorola Mobility is owned by Google itself and also that Nexus Phones have a good stand in market. They have developed a goodwill and a brand image amongst google fans, so trying that out with Asus may cost Google that goodwill / brand image.

However, another aspect of this would be, if next Nexus Phone is not manufactured by Samsung, it probably means, Samsung would come up with something to compete with Google's Nexus phone, and considering Samsung's current dominating position due to Galaxy SIII, Google may have a lot on stake (possible failure or phone being made invisible by Samsung's other device launches).