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Investing in Land

Investing in land is good or bad?

Today people start buying land / plots not for using it, but for investing.

Earlier, farmers buy land to expand and increase their Agriculture productivity. Industrialist buy land to construct factories to increase their production and profit. Individuals buy land to live, they build houses and start living there.

But Nowadays, people buy land to Invest, not for agriculture, industry, and living. We buy land in the belief that somebody will buy from us in a higher price sooner or later, like shares, mutual funds.

Here is a true incident of buying a land and its impact, which I witnessed.

Person A bought a plot at Sriperumpudur for Rs.7000, twenty years back. He sold it to person B for one lakh after 10 years.

Person B sold his plot for Rs.3 lakhs to person C, 3 years back.

Person C sold his plot for Rs.8 lakhs to person D, a year back.

Person D bought the plot in the hope that, he will be able to sell it for more than Rs.8 lakhs. When he tries to sell his plot, there are no buyers. Nobody is interested to ‘Invest’ 10 to 12 lakhs.

I am not sure, either people are not interested or not able to invest or a plot at Sriperumpudur is not worthy of 10 – 12 lakhs.

The piece of land involved is a plot sizing 2100 sqft – nearly one ground. There are small and big returns in short and long term for A to C. They did not do anything in the plot they purchased. They did not produce anything from the land. But they got profit for their ‘investment’ by natural and sudden growth of inflation rate in those year.

But, person D seems to be in big trouble. He may get a profit in the far future. But as of now, his money is buried in the land he bought. He can not produce anything from the plot he bought. He can not live there, because the plot he purchased is far away from city and lacking in basic amenities to live.

A,B, and C seems to have profit, but our country is the looser. The amount of money buried in the land now is bigger than the profit earned by them.

If Rs.8 lakhs is spent in a normal way, like buying cloths, going to movie, tourism, food and etc – the money would be rotated with countless people. If it is invested in any industries, it will increase production. If it is invested in mutual funds or shares, there may be risk, but it will increase the production or profit of some industry either directly or indirectly.

Now, Rs.8 lakhs is buried. It may sprout out or not. Person D has to wait till the normal Price Index get increased. He has to pray for higher and faster Inflation rate to get a profit in the future. It may take a decade or more.

Eight lakhs belong to our country has become nothing as on date. Investing in land/realty/plot may seem to be profitable in the long run. But it is a loss as of now. We lost the purchasing power of Rs.8 lakhs now.

If the 8 lakhs is the hard earned – life time savings of person D, he may or may not be able to save such amount again in his life.

I realized these things after buying a land in my native place, not for producing anything from it, not for living there, but for Investing. I have buried Rs.1 lakh, it may sprout out or not. But to get the purchasing power of one lakh, I have to wait another couple of years.

Investing in anything other than production or personal use is a loss to ourself and country. We loose the purchasing power for a while. In other words, investing in anything which has no ‘easy liquidity’, is a loss as of now.

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Insure Flats near ECR OMR

Have you insured your flats near ECR, OMR against Tsunami, Flood?

Nowadays, flood is common in sea shore areas. During monsoon and cyclone, our city is inundated – its is a common scene.

So, Insurance to home seems to be mandatory especially in sea shore.

Home Insurance can be the building cost required to rebuild the house again, not the land value. Which means, sum of insured will be building cost required at the time of re-construction.

Second, insure your things inside the home, like TV, Fridge, etc and other than Laptop and hand held devices. When flood strikes, it may wash out the homes. The things inside the home may be scattered around 10 to 15 miles away from the home.

Any part of the world does not seem to be exempted from natural calamities. Seashores seems to be vulnerable for natural calamities.

If you are living near OMR or ECR, you may be prone to both earthquake and sea level rise. If you are away from sea shore like GST, Oragadam, you are prone to earthquake and flood during monsoon. Not a monsoon passed without a flood in the last decade.

ICICILOMBARD, TATAAIGHOMEINSURANCE, ROYALSUNDARAM and other insurance companies offer Home Insurance. Like, life insurance, mediclaim insurance, home insurance seems to be mandatory.

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Real Honey

Buying Real Honey or Raw honey is not so easy, since deforestation or climate changes all over the world.

When I was a boy, I went with my Grandfather to buy Honey from the local tribes near our village. Those tribes live in the forest. They sell the products they ‘collect’ from forest to villagers. In turn, villagers sell those products to city people.

My grandfather always told me “don’t buy honey from shops, they are not real honey, they may be synthesized or duped honey.”

He also specify tips to Identify a real honey.

Take a glass of water. Let the single drop of Honey should fall into the glass. See how the honey drop dissolves in the water.

First honey drop should reach the bottom of the glass, without dissolving. If it starts dissolving before reaching the bottom, it is not real honey. After reaching the bottom, it has to wait for a while, before starts dissolving in the water.

It has to start dissolving slowly. If dissolving is quicker, it is not a real honey.

How long a honey drop takes to dissolve in the water, that is one of the way to identify it’s quality.

My grandfather took to me tribes in the middle of the forest. Then we walked with them. They have already spotted a honey hive. After reaching the honey hive, they asked as to smear a natural cream(?) over our exposed body parts.

Then, they started heating the honey hive. They seems to be get used with bee sting.

Once bees left the hive, they claimed the tree and cut the parts of the hive, and squish it, capture the squished honey in the vessel, they carry.

Then we returned to their hut. They pour the honey collected just now in the bottles and handed over to my grandfather. He paid money to them.

It took half a day to reach the tribe’s hut by foot. Almost full day time spent in buying raw honey directly from tribesmen. My grandfather used to say, this is real honey. Raw honey is real honey.

It is not possible to get raw honey directly from tribes or forest when monsoon fails or drought times. Bee collect honey from Flowers. If no rain, there will be no trees, plants and there will be no flowers. If there is no flowers, there will be no natural honey. We used to buy honey from shops, supermarkets though they are synthesized or duped in these periods. Something is better than nothing.

We buy from tribesmen through village mediators even nowadays. There are known and unknown health benefits of Honey to mankind.

Quran recommends Honey. Which means, honey is a God recommended food.

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Post hospitalisation mediclaim

How to Claim Post hospitalisation mediclaim.

I recently admitted in surya hospital for malaria fever. At the time of admission my mediclaim card was denied due to TTK stopped processing mediclaim other than corporate policies temporarily. Hospital authorities told me to claim after getting discharged – post hospitalisation mediclaim.

So, as usual I pay my bills through my creditcard, around Rs.17000/-.

After getting discharged, I was not interested in applying for mediclaim. I believed i will not get it.

But my wife was so optimistic, she wanted to claim. I simply directed her to the ‘agent’ from whom I purchased the policy.
He guided us to proceed further.

Lot of forms. My wife filled the forms steadfastly. I put my signature reluctantly. We sent all the bills, lab reports, discharged summery, x-ray and everything to my agent. We took photocopy of the same for back up. Our agent processed the forms on behalf of us.

Everything done.

We forget it and got into our day to day life routine.

After 15 days, we received cheque from TTK for Rs.15000.

I thanked GOD. I thanked my wife. I thanked my agent.

I was skeptical about post hospitalisation mediclaim. But my post hospitalization claim went like a smooth sail.

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Low Budget Flats in Chennai

Low Budget Flats in Chennai is a reality or hypothesis or fact? Definitely, it is an expectation from many middle class or moderate income people.

But low budget flats in Chennai corporation limit is not possible as on date due to the land prices. Price of flat is decided by the prices of plot where it is constructed. Square feet price of land directly affects the price of flat(SQ.FT).

Flats Less than 30 lakhs is not possible within Chennai corporation limit.

There are low budget flats available at the outskirts of Chennai. They are psychologically brought into the boundary of Chennai. But practically they are NOT Chennai.

If you are aware of about the boundary of Chennai corporation limit, you will be shocked to know that the low budget flats are sold actually in other districts, which are sharing the border with Chennai district. They are called Integrated Townships or satellite towns revolving around Chennai.

Low budget flats are available in the Integrated townships sprouting around the border of Chennai, not inside Chennai corporation limit.

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Successful Blogging

Content is the king of Internet. Bloggers feeding the Internet with ‘contents’. Many people becoming bloggers today. It is not all the bloggers who succeed or failed. Moreover ‘blogging’ cannot be termed as success or failure. No need to assess blogging.

But some bloggers may be earning from their blog. So this is not meant that they succeed. But many writers(?) start blog for earning. Registering domains, purchasing hosting account, hiring freelance programmers and etc. But no earnings from their blog.

If you start blogging for money sooner or later you will ‘stop blogging’. You will close your site. Due to expectation and frustration you will forget your blogging site out of depression.

Successful bloggers, those who earn money from their blogs, started their blog not for earning money. In their early stage they started blogging with a passion and spirit rather than with a lust for money. They never thought of selling their blog for huge amount in the future.

They had some interest, concepts, and opinions. They like to share it with the world. They like to brainstorm the world by their blogging. For personal satisfaction, for happiness they blog. Blogging was their hobby. They write about something what stirs them, what moves them emotionally.

Even if they do not earn anything from their blogs, they will be happy. They are happy at blogging. Blog for the sake of blogging. Just to deliver their stuff to the world. Writing for sharing, educating and satisfaction. They have writer spirit. They have cultivated a ‘blogging attitude’. They write about what they like to write and when they can write.

Successful bloggers have the spirit of writing. Have the bloggers attitude. They do not target the money lurking behind their blogs. They love blogging like people love their pets. They enjoy blogging, like how people enjoy when involved in their hobby. Blogging becomes one of the way to loose the consciousness of ‘Time, Space, Self’.

If you have such attitude and spirit start blogging. Otherwise do not waste your time, energy and money in blogging. Blog for earning money by advertisement will change your focus from creating true and quality content to money making. Your blog will be full of pay per click advertisement with poor content. This is not going to work in long run. Soon you will have Blogging Stress.

Successful bloggers do not blog for money. But money may come to them for their true blogging spirit.

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Opportunity Blocking

This is a different way of doing politics to put down the competitor. Never giving any opportunity to competitors. Ability is nothing without opportunity. Ability needs opportunity.

Opportunity blocking can be implemented by supervisors, managers, and those who are in lead position. They assign work to their sub-ordinates.

To implement ‘opportunity blocking’ one has to be close to the management, and able to influence it.

If ‘somebody’ is capable of challenging the manager/lead in the office, manager can prevent the opportunities and keep him idle. ‘Somebody’ can not prove or impress the management without opportunity.

Manager’s ‘target’ wants to grow, achieve. But no opportunity offered to him for proving his/her excellence. He may have to move to another company for better scope. This way manager can root out his competition.

But ‘opportunity blocking’ is very dangerous to work life balance. Manager has to divert the opportunity to somebody else. He can not do all the work. So he may prefer somebody from his ‘Piggy List’ to look after the opportunity.

These piggy people are without any individuality and skills for achievement. They are ‘piggy pathing’ the manager, because they are inferiors. Manager hands over responsibility to them, but it is his responsibility indirectly. His work load is increased. His head has a very high traffic of office issues both work and politics.

This leads to stress and low productivity. Remember the ‘piggys’ never reduce manager’s work load. They may satisfy his ego. They may not get things completed.

At this point of time, company has to hand over the task to somebody, who can get things completed. The default choice is ‘somebody’, who is put down by manager/lead without any opportunity. His head is cool, with high energy because he is without any work. He will ‘gallop’ into the task with the freshness and spirit. He makes it completed. Anyway company is benefited.

The scapegoat is ‘piggy’. Being piggy is pity but comfort. Read ‘Lord of the flies’ by William Goldings to know about piggy and politics.

Your boss is not giving good opportunities to prove your skills. He diverts it to somebody in his favors. Do not change/quit the company because you do not have any scope to progress. Please be patient, and have good spirit. It is just a delay, not a permanent state. Soon you will get your opportunities.

The situation is temporary. Soon you will be the center of action. Opportunities will come to you naturally. It will reach you when your competitor breaks down under pressure of more work in long run.

Those who blocked your opportunity can not withstand the pressure of more work. Since they have taken your opportunity along with their regular work, they have more to deliver. People break under pressure in long run.

Never develop any negative feelings when your opportunities are blocked. So never fight, compliant, and argue with your management as your opportunity is blocked.

If immediate supervisor or somebody else is blocking your opportunity to show your skills, do not get irritated or feel for it. Simply spend your time to learn new things. Have leisure time with your friends, be relaxed and cool. Increase your energy level to receive the opportunity when it ultimately reaches you.

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Stressed Out Programmer

Stressed out Programmer do great jobs with great stress.

Both Smart programmer and stressful programmer are technically sound in getting the job done. The difference lies in their attitude. How do they feel at their work which makes the difference.

Expression:
Stressful programmer do not express them self properly. They have communication problem in both mother tonque and foreign language.

They do not express their emotions from small to big. They bottle neck everything. Later on they blast out everything.

Technically, they are good at time estimate, but they do not express it properly. If their client or Project Manager wants to done the work quickly, they agree to complete the work in short time. They do not fight or argue for the time estimate which they feel right.

They work for long hours. From morning to midnight. They work like anything to get the job done ‘quickly’. They never express their inability work or tiredness.

Emotional Well Being:
While working their emotional well being will be negative. They have angry and aversion. They feel for ‘running on heel’ to finish. They have thoughts like, ‘This task can be done in four days, but forced to do in 2 days or less… nobody cares or technically not sound to estimate the time as I am…”. But they do not express their thoughts to the right person.

If they feel four days is must, it is their right to demand it and work comfortably. It is programmer’s responsibility to educate the client or Project Manager about the time required and reasons for the time required.

It is every individual’s responsibility to take care of their health both mentally and physically. Stressful programmer ignore their responsibility to maintain their health.

Fear of Unknown:
Stressful programmer have fear of unknown. They have anxiety always. They have fear of loosing their job. They never say ‘NO’ to their client or immediate supervisor for ‘in-human’ requests. They always say ‘YES’ and suffer a lot.They want to be too good to the management.

Ego and Comparison:
They have ego or pride as they are working hard and long and completing the tasks. They compare them self with others and develop lots of negative feelings and complex.

Stressful programmers always compare them self with smart and stress free programmers.

Salary Hike:
They have desire for salary hike or deserve it, but never express it. Instead of expressing, they expect management to reward it.

Nobody gives what you want till you express your demand. Those who express have two results. Either their demand is granted or not granted. For those who do not express have only one result. Not granted, since nobody aware of their expectation.

Skill is not the only deciding factor in salary fixation. Lots of socio-pollitical factors are involved in it.

Immediate Boss Relationship:
They always think they are better than their immediate boss. It may be or may not be true. Their relationship with their immediate boss is always bad and stressful.

Immediate boss is a designation, do not expect it to be superior in skills.

Job Hopping:
Stressful programmer tend to change job often. For any problem in the workplace, they think ‘Job Hopping’ is the only solution. When problem arises, leaving the current job is not solution. It is a sort of escapism.

Conclusion:
Programmers are getting stress by their attitude and emotions. They do not express and bottle neck. They have fear of unknown and anxiety. They want to be too good and suffer for being too good. They compare and complain everything around them.

By changing the attitude, stressful programmer can become Smart Programmer.

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Blogs are Literature?

Are Blogs literature? There are plenty of content written in Blogs. Are they part of Literature?

There may be copied content in Blogs. People simply copy content from another websites and post it their website with or without changing the words. This is eGarbage.

There is another type of copying is cGarbage. cGarbage is Concept Garbage. This can be referred as tGarbage – Theme Garbage too.

God Divinity Salvation
The concept of Milton’s Paradise Lost is God or divinity. The concept of Pilgrim’s Progress By John Bunyan is God or Divinity. There are various and countless works written woven around God, Divinity, Salvation. These three are copied as concept or theme for many or countless early literary works.

Love
Love is the theme of millions of literary works from all over the world in all the languages. From Romeo and Juliet to Lila Majnu all sharing the central theme Love.

There are common themes like Revenge, Society, Humanity, Charity and etc.

There is no single concept which is unique and not copied over. Billions of books written for Personality Development.

When cGarbage can be called as Literature, eGarbage also can be called as Literature.

Existence of Blogs in Olden Days
Baccon’s essays, Charles Lamp’s essays and other coffee house publications after Renaissance can be considered as forerunner to Blogs. Those works were written in the form of blogs but in printed format since 15th century. Now the blogs are written electronically in Internet. Earlier there were few people who are educated among educated few ‘contribute’ to English Literature. Now many are educated and many are writing blogs but are the bloggers contributing to Literature?

Yes, the bloggers contributing to literature. Literature reflects the Society. Blog reflects every aspect of life in detail. Some body write about politics, some write about environment, some write about divinity, some write about health care, some write about tourism, everything from personal perspective about every aspect of life.

By reading a blog, it is possible to study about the country and its culture. If you read the technical blogs you can understand technical penetration in day today life of the country the blogger belongs to.

At the same time, efficiency in writing is different from simply writing. I am able to speak is different from, I am an Orator. But all are speeches. The quality of writing may differ but what ever is written is content and it is literature.

Blogging is Literature.

In the next centuries, Blogging literature will be studied as part of English Literature. Blogging Literature is global as well as local. Like American Literature, Indian Literature, Blogging Literature will have its niche in English Literature.

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Buying House in Chennai

Who can buy a house in Chennai?

Buying a house in Chennai is beyond the scope of middle income group people without housing loans. No two bed room flats or a house around 1200 SQFT is available for less than 25 lakhs. This is regarding apartment. Independent house can not be bought by middle class people even with bank loan.

Moreover, the NRIs from chennai has more opportunity(money) to buy a house in chennai with bank loan than Middle class people living and working in Chennai.

If you look around your known circle, the software professionals working/worked in abroad booked apartments more than non-software professionals.

The land value of within the city is beyond the life time income for middle class chennai population.

ECR or OMR areas are for NRIs and proprietors who employed and providing provisions to middle class people.

Well, where can the chennai middle class people ‘settle down’ in their own house?

About 30 to 40 kilo meter away from chennai city(sub urban bushes), chennai’s middle class population can buy a house. In Urappakkam, Kooduvancherry, by all the GST road from chennai to trichy has little scope for chennai middle income group to buy their house.

Chennai is growing. You can buy a old house or around Chengulpet and say you have owned a ‘house in chennai’. Chennai will swallow the areas till Chengulpet, Kanchipuram, and Pondicherray. Chennai is extending in all the direction (except in the east) by swallowing the near by villages, municipal towns etc.

Kunrathur was a separate entity from chennai, is now part of Chennai.

The Chennai city is expanding like universe.

In spite of all the financial hurdles, is it worth buying a house in Chennai? You have to pay the house loan EMI for the rest your life if you are a middle income man.

Is it worthy of buying a house in chennai? Along with the price, the quality or quantity should increase. Is it happening in rocketing realty price hike? If you have already bought a house in chennai, you may read it why you may dispose it.

The chennai city is growing in size and population.

Is the water reserve proportionally increased? Is water distributed equally to all citizens of Chennai? Are the road quality and road capacity to handle exploding traffic get increased? Are the police stations and police men are increased proportionately with increasing population and land. Is the public transport enhanced to meet out the commuting of ever exploding Chennai?

Are Government Hospitals, schools, colleges increased along with physical area and population? Are there enough public toilets and parks? Does Chennai have a drainage system with the capacity to dispose sewage from its dwellers?

If ‘NO’ is the answer for all the above questions, this city is growing unevenly. No proportionate growth in all the aspects. It seems to be both crowded and congested. A concrete jungle than a well planned and organised city.

If you are living in Chennai with your family, you may need to travel from 4 to 5 hours per to day to shuttle between your house and office. You find it difficult to reserve travel ticket to go to your native place. You find it difficult to go to a movie without reservation in weekends.

You vacate your house in raining season because your house is inundated.

You find it difficult to park your two wheeler or four wheeler in your house premise or your house may not have premise. You have to park your vehicle in street.

You have to wait in a ‘Q’ for everything and anything in public places.

Your family women have to carefully walk in the street to avoid men like barbarians who are intoxicated by alcohol.

You children are trained to be professional corporate slave if they study in English medium private schools. After finishing college, they are only eligible to be a corporate slave than a free man.

Just think whether you are going to buy a house in Chennai which is a man made concrete jungle or in a human habitable city. Chennai seems to be Concrete Jungle growing aggressively than a city worthy of living. For middle class man it is a city for working than living.

Chennai or any metro city is a cluster of loosely coupled industrial units than a City.

Soon the people living outside of Chennai will shuttle to their offices from 40 to 50 km away from chennai. Finish their work and go home in the late night or midnight.