A year has passed

It's amazing to know that a year has passed since I started my blog. I have really enjoyed about writing anything and everything that I come across. Time flies I guess because I don't feel like its been that long since I started blogging.

Another year has passed as I grew a year older just some time back. I am still in Bangalore and the climate here is still pleasant while the city has grown in population and also in area (As in today's newspaper they mention about Greater Bangalore being officially announced making Bangalore bigger).

Fake money thro ATMs

I was going through the newspaper today and saw an article on the front page stating that every year crores of fake rupee notes are circulated in India. The problem now that has come to everyones attention is that the fake notes are coming out of the ATMs. I remember being told that if I wanted to be careful with regard to Fake notes then I should withdraw cash from banks and ATMs. But looks like we lost one source of money that being the ATMs, so finally everyone will start withdrawing cash from the bank branches itself.

I think the question on everyone's mind would be that how come the ATM contains fake notes. The only one who put the money are the bank people who are accompanied by the security personnel that also in an armoured vehicle. So I think the whole thing is an inside job and is easy to trace. Anyone who withdraws cash from the ATM can inform the bank about the fake notes and then check when the money was put in the ATM and who was responsible. Atleast this should help the authorities in curbing this problem.

After a week of new year

Lots of stuff happened with the beginning of the new year. Saddam Hussein's death sentence which was carried out at the end of last year has made quite a news. The new Iraqi government along with the help of the US and its allies wanted Saddam dead so early. This punishment was an easy way out for Saddam. He was tried only for some of the crimes. He was not accounted for all the injustices he had done in his life. Also hanging him on an auspicious Muslim day is not the right thing. Out of all the days in a year, they had to hang him on that one day.

Lots of other news like 2006 was named the year of Mergers in the business world (With Arcelor-Mittal merger being the main topic). Who knows this year could also be a year of mergers. I use Hutch network on my cell phone and I have been hearing about the competition that is taking place to attain the 4th largest network in India.

The CAS (Conditional Access System) boxes are to be used starting with this year in the Metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. But what can we say when people have started to take their own connections with Dish TV and TataSky. While the smaller cities are using the cable connections with many channels disappearing and reappearing due to the payments not paid by the local cable network operator. What a way to watch things.

This year is also contains a lot of holidays as people have been calculating it. Number of holidays in a year usually remain same. The only difference is that most of the holidays this year fall on weekdays and not on a Sunday. Hope people are already making plans.

What a beginning...

What a beginning has this been for many people. Having a 3 day weekend, then a four working day before another weekend shows up. Apart from the classic parties that people attended on New Year's eve, I think the rest of us were sleeping or atleast watching TV.

There are quite number of shows coming on the TV to keep people busy. Otherwise just pick up a novel and start reading which should keep one busy. This year Bakrid falls on January 1st, so celebrations will keep going on.