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Although Rediff (rediff.com) is a portal popular only amongst the frustrated Indian male population, who think that this is the only place where they can be at their chauvinist best, but still it should maintain some kind of sanity in the articles that it publishes. Somebody at work forwarded me this link How to pay zero tax on family income of Rs 13.10 lakh. But don’t rejoice just yet, take a look at the article and you’ll understand how stupid it is. Year after year they publish the same stupid article (I get such links every year from someone or the other around budget time). They “reveal” a “loophole” that there is no tax on gifts upto a certain limit, but someone should ask them that there might not be tax on “receiving” money through gifts but the gifter still has to pay the tax on that money, it does not get deducted from his income magically. And even if by some contrived process, this thing works out, it is still useless for salaried people. I wish there was some law with which could ban such portals for spreading misinformation among the public.

[tags]Rediff, rediff.com, income tax, India, HUF[/tags]

© Shantanu Goel | A Farce Portal That Rediff Is

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I watched “Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay” a few days ago. Cool movie, though not as awesome as “Go to White Castle” one. But one thing that I liked was the poem that Kumar (Kal Penn) recites in an attempt to woo back her love by embarrassing himself more than he had embarrassed her (Yes, you can see such situations only in H&K movies ). The poem is actually written by one “David Feinberg”. And it may sound too geeky or lame to most normal people, but then again, we all know that I ain’t no normal fella. So, here it goes for your consumption (People who skipped maths in school might want to chew on a few appetizers first):

I fear that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three

As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed
© Shantanu Goel | “The Square Root of 3″ – Kumar Does It Again

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But we don’t want to do the effort involved in playing the guitar, or the drums or even just head-banging to the music. All we want is to flick the long curly hair back, raise both the hands towards the sky and soak in the euphoria of the crowd chanting our name.

For the people who still didn’t get it, the above lines are just a metaphor (go dig out your Wren & Martin’s).

There exists a “matrix” in this world. Matrix is all around you. But fortunately this one is of the can-be-told-and-explained types unlike the one in which Neo and Morpheus had to fuss over red and blue pills. Every day when the world wakes up to the sweet baritones of trucks/buses honking (birds chirping, you say? in the city? joking, right?), the only thought that covers everyone’s minds is “How do I score another point today?”, in the manager’s score book, that is. Working, producing results isn’t a concern anymore. It’s all about the game and how you play it. As the Neo in you fights through the “sentinels” of bugs in the code, the “agents” are busy firing away e-mails at the rate of gazillions per hour. After all, its the one who sent the email that counts.

But before you jump to conclusions, let me tell you it’s not the agents’ fault. The “architect” designed them this way. Some time ago I bought a t-shirt which said “Job Appraisals are blackmail” (and I made it a point to wear it to all my appraisal meetings, until it faded down to the extreme that it began to read “i blackmail”). So far I have been unable to fathom the dynamics that govern this. The anomalies in the equation seem to be just too many for any human being to solve. May be it’s like that “Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle” we read about. The moment you measure the anomalies, the rest of the equation changes, and you are left with a jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces too less or too many.

The easiest way out would be to request the dolphins to approach the mice and get them to carry out a simulation that gives us our “42″. After all, the dolphins are indebted to us for all the fish and it’d be easy for them to pitch in a bit more than just saying “so long, and thanks…”. But of course, the mice have better
things to deal with than the minor nuances of measly human beings’ daily lives.

The next best thing would be to get an audience with the architect, but who is he? Everyone. Each one of us is the architect of one’s own demolition, and of everyone else around us. Each one of us contributes to the fallacies that plague “the equation”.

But of course, we can’t rectify it, because we can’t accept it.

‘cuz we all just wanna be Rockstars………….

without playing the guitar, or the drums, or head-banging………..

(PS: You, at the back, in all your “frowning” glory, how much more coherence do you want from a guy ranting away at 3:00 in the morning?)
© Shantanu Goel | ‘cuz we all wanna be Rockstars…

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The Delhi Bloggers are having a one day “Social Media and Blog Camp” on 7th June 2008. So, mark your calendars right now. Details follow:

Date : 7th June’08 (Saturday)

Agenda : A one-day semi-camp style unconference which brings together stakeholders and audiences of social media and blogging.

Venue : Indiatimes office,

             Times Internet Ltd.
             I World , Opp. DLF Golf Course,
             DLF City Phase V,
            Gurgaon, Haryana – 122005

The venue is wifi enabled and has an auditorium, projectors and a board room for parallel tracks if the need arises. Lunch/tea/coffee/snacks would be provided by our prime sponsor – Indiatimes.

Target audience/speaker profiles :

 Experts/executives from social media related platforms or blog platforms, Journalists who know how blogs have become an alternative to mainstream media, Professionals who have used social media to connect and build communities, Marketers (clients or agencies) who are using social media/blog strategies, Techies/application developers in these fields, Entrepreneurs who have ideas around social media and blogging platforms, bloggers (corporate, professional and otherwise), blogreaders who want to know a bit more, PR professionals looking to develop/enhance their blogger relationship programs, Marketers who want to look at case studies on how others are using the same.

More details of the event and the method of confirming attendance/volunteering for the event/speaking on relevant topics will be put up on Delhi Bloggers Bloc and other related entities soon. Till then, you can follow the progress on the mailing list.

[tags]Blogs, Blogging, Blog Camp, Delhi Bloggers, Delhi Bloggers Bloc, Social Media and Blog Camp, 7th June 2008, Indiatimes, unconference[/tags]

© Shantanu Goel | Delhi Bloggers Present “Social Media And Blog Camp” – 7th June ’08

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Falls down slowly,
seeps into the ground
isn’t just flowing water,
won’t stop until your brain is found….

Acid…..Acid Rain…..

Such was my state of mind, when I quit blogging. One thing after another kept smashing into me like a hurricane. Things aren’t normal even now, but now I know, the only way to become normal is to try to “be normal”. And what’s better than a new home to rejuvenate you. So, here it is. My shiny, flowery, and over-all feel-good blawg is back for your bouquets and brick-bats. Most of the things have been migrated from my old blog http://iamhuman.blogspot.com minus a few paining posts, plus not all the posts are tagged, categorized yet. Will do that gradually. Blogs shall be added back to the blogroll after some cutting-shutting. The theme is also be polished around the corners. Just getting the hang of this cool thing-a-magic that wordpress is.

Not just this, I’ve also given shape to an old desire – to have my own tech blog. Head over to My Technophilic Musings.
Thats it for today. Hope to see you back here soon.
© Shantanu Goel | Life is beautiful again….(again??)

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well guys, u must have been wondering where I disappeared after coming back to the blogging scene after so many days. Well, I’ve gotta a confession to make. One of my old loves is back. Yes, here in the US. And in so many forms. Yupz am talking abt games. My sweet darlings. Just can tell you how ecstatic I feel while holding that flak cannon in my hands in UT2004. It feels like roses are being showered all around me as I shred up my opponents in a crammed up online room. And the high that I get when tony Hawk himself salutes me after I pull off a 1080 in THUG2. And neways, vin diesel can never even come close to the drifts that I do in NFSUG2. Mr. Gordon Freeman (of HL and HL2 fame) is awaiting his turn right now cuz the rest of my time is prettty tied up with his highness himself, yeah a prince, the “Prince of Persia”. So, please forgive me for not writing more often cuz as soon as I try to write, the games just take control of my fingers and they just want me to do the tango on the keyboard and mosue rather than doing a military march of typing. Neways, now that the initial euphoria of the heavenly reunion is over, I guess I can now settle down and write more often. So, u can expect me to be a bit more regular.

And for being so patient, heres a gift. Stealth bomber caught on google maps. Zoom a little to locate it.

© Shantanu Goel | Fragging all the way

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AT LAST!!!!!
Yeah, the d00d is back in the house. I had not blogged since the time I had reached here. Thats over a month…
Why? No man, I was not busy. But its just that the gora log do only one thing in office, and that is “work”. They do have their share of fun at the work place but still they believe in working hard for 8.5 hrs and then start thinking abt the fun part.
They have perfectly divided their lives in two parts: professional and personal and dont let any of them intermingle. They keep their personal matters restricted to their homes and also keeps stringent limits on the hrs they spend in the office (And they also efficiently utilize each and every minute of that spent in the office).
Well, enuff of the background info. The point is, I couldn’t blog from the office and didn’t have any source to access net at hotel. But now I got my laptop (Yipppeee)….
Thanks to all those who had given me inputs to finalize my shopping list, I have done a sizable amount of my buying. Here are the things I have bought so far:
1. Laptop.
Specs: Compaq R4000 series. 15.4″ WUXGA with bright view screen, AMD Athlon 64 bit 2.0 GHz processor,
1 GB RAM, 128 MB ATi Radeon Xpress 200 m Gfx card, DVD writer, etc…

2. iPod

3. Digicam: Canon Powershot S1 IS (Just love the 10x zoom)

4. An extra 120 gig hdd

5. 1 GB CF card

and some small tit bits….

The major thing I like abt the states so far is the driving part…everyone drives in such a civilized manner….
But facing a bit of problem in the food deptt as its difficult to find good veg food.

Neways, thats it for now. Pics next time….

© Shantanu Goel | Making a Comeback