The driver was absent (as has been since last 4 days). His wife called up, mentioning his illness and need for an advance payment.

SQL Star, where I completed the Advanced Java courses last year, is still trying to figure out why I haven’t received the certificates.

My Daewoo fridge compressor died. The repairing agency quoted Rs. 5,200/-.

Both of my ACs sound like a truck engine on a ghat, but do nothing to the room temperature.

The sun is as hot as ever and the electric company is bent on observing countless Earth Hours, everyday.

Yet there is no effect on my electricity bill, which is now in excess of Rs. 6,500/- per month.

So, obviously, I need to run up-and-down to-and-from the ATM. But the ATM machine software went kaput and it decided to deduct Rs. 50,000/- from my salary account, when it gave me only Rs. 25,000/-.

Now, I need to add to my already high phone bills by talking to numerous agencies for fixing this-and-that. But, Thank God! My Airtel landline is dead again! So, I quickly complete the conversations over a hesitating mobile connection. After all, the other person can hardly hear anything on the poor Airtel network in my home.

Sometime ago, the HSBC Bank had already predicted my future. They told me, “Take this card and use it! — — later!”. I used it so well that I became an expert, but I recently realised that those 5 dashes mean “Pay us”.

Have a beautiful day!

7/11 2006: Mumbai Train Blasts. 209 Killed.
25/8 2007: Hyderbad Blasts: 42 Killed
Oct 11 2007: Ajmer Blasts : 2 Killed
May 13 2008: Jaipur Blasts : 68 Killed
July 16th 2008: Ahmedabad Blasts : 57 Killed
July 25th 2008: Banglaore Blasts: 1 killed
Sept 13th 2008: Delhi Blasts: 26 Killed
Sept 27th 2008: Delhi Blasts: 2 Killed
Sept 29th 2008 : Gujrat Blasts : 1 killed
Oct 21st 2008: Imphal Blasts : 17 Killed
Oct 30th 2008: Assam Blasts : 40 Killed
Nov 26th 2008: Mumbai Attack: 180 killed

Every major city in India has been attacked consistently over the last two years.
Since 2004, 3850 Indians have died in Terror attacks in over 3000 incidents.
Is the common Indian on the streets really safe ?

Did you know that on the day of the Mumbai train blasts, the Government gave Rs 150 crores for earthquake relief in Pakistan ? Last year our Govt. has given Rs 3000 crores (600 Million Dollars) to Afghanistan? This, when victims of terror in India have not yet got aid? What’s going on?

B) Is this Government really secular ?

1) When Madrasas are being shut down in Pakistan, the Indian Government is giving them CBSE status !! It is depriving Muslim children in getting secular education. A Madrasa educated person can get a job in any government office without going through the secular education system. Can India afford to have fundamentalists in government departments? Why cannot the government shut down Madrassas and let Muslim children study with the rest?

2) Our Government has given 25 lakh scholarships ONLY to minority students.
What sin have the majority done not to deserve these?
Why cannot poor students of all communities be given scholarships instead of only Muslim children?

3) Thanks to the Congress led Government, out of 36000 temples in Andhra Pradesh, 28000 have closed down in the last five years. Do you want the same trend to continue in other parts of the country? Do you want a Nagaland type of situation in the whole of India? While government controls most of the Hindu temples, the minority community has had full freedom to organize their religious bodies. The minority communities now have the first right over resources. Is this not a blatant violation of fundamental rights of the majority community?

4) Why have the minorities in Nagaland, Mizoram & Kashmir not got the similar privileges like the minorities in other states? Why is the Govt following different rules for different religions?

C) Is this government really making friends or enemies for India ?

Thanks to a weak and visionless foreign policy, India has created enemies all around. By the Home Minister’s own admission : “India is surrounded by a circle of fire”. Rajiv Gandhi’s vision of a powerful “SAARC” is now defunct.

1) Today, India commands little respect from all its neighbours, despite being the largest democracy in the world.
2) Terrorism has engulfed the country from inside and outside. Of course Pakistan,the motherland of international terrorism continues to be a big threat.
3) China has territorial ambitions on India.
4) Nepal, is now being headed by a Maoist government and is ideologically more aligned to China. While India helped to dismantle the dynastic rule in Nepal our own Government surreptitiously supports dynastic rule within its own party.
5) Myanmar is increasingly aligning with Chinese forces with huge Chinese investments in that region.
6) Indian Policies in Srilanka have made Tamil Nadu burn. Will Tamils ever forgive India for encouraging military assault rather than facilitating peaceful dialogue on their north and north east regions.
7) Bangladesh continues to repeatedly aid and abet terrorism.

D) Is this Government really pro-poor?

The number of people living below the poverty line has increased by a horrifying 20 per cent. India had some 270 million people below the poverty line in 2004-2005, when the present Government took office. That number has gone up by 55 million, or 20 per cent!

E) Does this Government really care about the nation?

The Pakistani flag is now being hoisted in five districts of states like Assam where the Muslim population has gone up significantly. 92000 Hindu and 6000 Christians are now languishing in refugee camps. The government has turned a blind eye to this.

In the name of security, innocent people have been put in jails, whereas people like Yaasin Malik who has 23 murder charges on him, are moving Scot free and gathering their own strength. Is it acceptable to any patriotic Indian?.Afsal Guru,the Supreme court sentenced is not hanged,but the judgement is under hanging.

Can the Congress led UPA promise a non-muslim CM in J&K ? Reservation for a Hindu student in Nagaland ? If so, we wholeheartedly support them. Otherwise they should sit at home the next few years and rethink their policies.

Can our politicians stop stooping down to any lengths just for money and power ? Like Mr.Sharad Pawar, who first ditched the Congress and then ditched the people and aligned back with the Congress, just to be in power.

Don’t be deceived. What appears to be communal is not communal, and what appears to be secular is not secular. It is time we change our thinking.

Stand up for this most tolerant and ancient civilization and prevent this great nation from becoming a communal battleground. As citizens of India we must vote for change.
“And as per the CAG website (Controller Audit General of India) more than 50,000crores rupees has gone missing from the Govt. Treasury”

WAKE UP INDIANS. LET US VOTE FOR CHANGE.

While digging deeper into this, I realized that this is nothing to do with the Yahoo! Presence widget that I have installed.

I visited the Yahoo! Online Presence Indicator at http://mail.opi.yahoo.com/online?u=chintanzaveri&m=a&t=1 to see whether or not I am shown online, and it doesn’t.

The response code that the above link sends is “00″, which means offline. The response code that I am expecting is “01″, for online. I checked the above URL substituting my Y! ID with my friends’ IDs. Their statuses are all correctly indicated.

I also checked the permissions for my profile at http://profiles.yahoo.com/settings/, and they are as below:

Who can see this on my profile?

About me: Anyone
My updates: My Connections (There is no such option as “Anyone” here. The only options are “My Connections” and “Me only”.)
Guestbook: Anyone

There is also a checkbox for Allow my connections to share my information labelled “My Connections” with third-party applications they install and developers who made the applications. This is checked and cannot be changed.

I tried logging into Yahoo! Messenger using different clients like Adium, Yahoo! Messenger for Mac, Yahoo! Messenger for Windows, but no plus.

Any ideas on how I can make this work?