Kajol - The Case for Cloning

Introducing Anand Giridharadas

Today, I am happy to introduce my readers to Anand Giridharadas.

Some of you may already know Anand. He is an American-born child of Indian immigrants, who moved to India in 2003 to work at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. From 2005 to 2008 he was South Asia correspondent for The New York Times , based in Mumbai. His column “Letter from India” appears twice a month in The New York Times and its global edition, The International Herald Tribune. He now lives in the village of Verla in Goa, India, and is writing a book about social change in modern India.

When I read articles about India by foreign journalists, my reaction quite often is a face-palm. These articles are usually peppered with inaccuracies, interpretations and conclusions based on a poor understanding of India's complexities, a breathless exaggeration and a niggling lack of authenticity. I have often wondered why these articles are not written by Indians themselves. This is an issue not only in the media, but also in Western academia where topics related to India are not adequately presented from the Indian perspective nor represented by Indians themselves.

In this context, it is refreshing to read Anand's articles. He comes across as being very sincere, empathic and balanced when talking about India. I present a few examples for you to read and judge for yourself:

India Calling

The Special Sting of Personal Terrorism

In Cellphone, India Reveals an Essence

Obama, a president who reads!

This week America did something great for a change (in recent times) : It elected a president who reads! Newspapers, no less! And, who gets technology. And, who actually thinks in terms of teachable moments"!

I had once read about how John F Kennedy's administration was romantic, idealistic and attractive like Camelot - with King Arthur and the knights. Now, I can understand how it must have been. Obama exudes this aura about him which will attract lots of smart people, with a can-do, will-do attitude. More importantly, he gives the impression that his administration will be disciplined, focused and get things done.

I hope I am right. I hope he does well. I hope he never forgets that he has gotten an entire generation of young people to believe again and he has a responsibility to not break that belief. I hope he does not screw up. Actually, at this point, I don't care if he screws up. If I'm to be screwed, I'd rather be screwed by a smart person, a thinking person, someone I can identify with and agree with in some ways at least, someone who is actually attempting to do something good!

Scott Ritter: Pick your city!

Scott Ritter, who used to be the UN weapons inspector in Iraq, says, "Pick your city". Anybody who thinks the US should bomb Iran must watch this video. Heck, all US citizens should watch this two-and-half minute video.

By the way, Scott Ritter is not referring to an Iranian city!

Google-race

So, I coined a new phrase on Sunday: Google-race.

To google-race is to drive to a place faster than the time estimated by the Google Maps directions. You are racing against Google Maps.

Usage examples:

• I was google-racing to the restaurant when I got slapped with a speeding ticket.


• Would you guys get ready soon? I don't want us to google-race to the movies.

Go ahead, use the phrase liberally. Tell everybody about it. But remember, you heard it here first! Now, google-race responsibly.

Crazy Italian Govt reveals incomes of citizens

Italian governments can be crazy and controversial. Their latest fiasco was to reveal the income levels of all tax paying citizens on a website!

Don't believe me? Check out this Reuters report for yourself: Uproar in Italy after Web publishes earning levels.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Italians were surprised, and in some cases outraged, on Wednesday to discover their income levels were available for public viewing on an Internet site.

As part of a crack-down on tax evasion, the outgoing centre-left government made public every citizen's declared taxable income on the state's tax website, a decision attacked by consumer groups and some politicians.

Later on Wednesday the Italian Treasury suspended the website after it received a formal complaint from Italy's privacy watchdog.

Incredible!

Curry leaves are banned in the US

Curry leaves are an important ingredient of Indian cooking. For the past couple of months, I had not been finding curry leaves in the stores from where I usually get them here in the US. This was just one more symptom of the world-wide food scarcity. But a curious Google search revealed that this important ingredient has been totally banned from the US because a pest called Asian citrus psyllids was found in a shipment of curry leaves coming into California from Hawaii!

Source: Pest found in curry leaves halts shipments.

Wonder how long we will have to wait until the ban is lifted. Hope it is lifted soon. Many South Indian recipes just don't taste right without curry leaves!

Do NOT Buy from A1wireless & Wirefly

If you are in the market for new cellphones, do not buy from the following websites:

A1Wireless
Wirefly

Both of the above websites are owned by Inphonic Inc, which is now calling itself Simplexity.

If you do a search for Inphonic rebates, you will find that this company is notorious for avoiding the payment of mail-in rebates to its customers. It has even been sued over its bad rebate practices. This was in Nov 2006. In November 2007, the company filed for bankruptcy. But not before it cheated me of $150!

Despite being sued and going bankrupt, the company continues to cheat customers like me out of their rightful rebate money and it continues to remain in business. The laws are not strong enough to protect the customers. When that is the case, the customers should protect themselves. Avoid losing money like I did. Do not buy anything from the two websites run by Inphonic: A1wireless.com and Wirefly.com.

I bought a cell phone from A1wireless.com. They were supposed to pay me $100 and $50 as mail-in rebates. I fullfilled all rebate conditions to the letter. In fact, in early Nov 2007, I was even able to visit their rebate status website and see that my rebate submissions had been checked and approved, and I'd be getting cheques soon. Just a day or two after I checked my status, when I visited the website again, the only thing I could see was a lame message about the company filing for bankruptcy. The message has vague verbiage about some communication going out to customers expecting rebates, but I have received no communication so far. Calling the rebate status phone lines is of no use because they all play the same recorded bankruptcy message similar to the one put up on the rebate site. Calling the sales lines is of no help - you will only get to talk to Indian call center people who pretend to be dumber than donkeys. So far, there has been no cheque or any communication regarding my rebates.

When Inphonic is not fulfilling its mail-in rebate obligations to old customers, how can the company continue to do business, offering similar mail-in rebates to new customers? Like I said before, the law is not protecting the interests of citizens. Don't lose your hard-earned money to these crooks. Do not buy from them. In most cases, you can get the same or similar deals from more reputable sites like Amazon.com Avoid these guys for the frauds they are.

Happy New Year 2008 - Google Hindu Calendar updated

Wishing a very happy, healthy and successful new year to all my readers.

I have updated the Google Hindu Calendar with all the important Hindu festivals and events for 2008. In addition, this calendar includes the year and months from the Hindu calendar, new moon (amAvAsya), full moon (paurNami) and ekAdashi (11th day of the lunar fortnight) information.

If you have a Google account, you can add this Google Hindu Calendar to your personal Google Calendar using this link: Add Google Hindu Calendar.

To simply view the calendar in your web browser using this link: View Google Hindu Calendar.

If you find any errors or issues with the calendar, please leave a comment here.

Once again, best wishes for the new year.

Do engineers in Google India work in pairs?

I have a theory that Google's engineers in India mostly work in pairs. You know, like how soldiers or cops in certain units usually work in pairs. I think each Indian Google engineer is paired with a colleague and together they work on tasks/assignments.

Why do I suspect this? I have been following the Official Google Blog for a long time now. I have noticed that posts by Indian engineers are usually attributed to two individuals. I have very rarely seen non-Indian Googlers authoring blog posts in pairs. Non-Indian Googlers almost always write blog posts alone, as individuals.

As of today, a quick Reader search of the Official Google blog's feed for the word 'India' returns 15 posts, of which 7 posts are made by people with Indian-sounding names. Of these 7 posts, 4 posts are made by pairs of Indians and 3 posts by lone Indians. I realize that this is not the most accurate way to count and analyze the posts. But I could not find an easier way to search (any suggestions?) for:
1. Only posts made by Indians.
2. Only posts made by more than one author.

There do exist posts by Indian Googlers writing alone. But it is just as likely to see an Indian Googler posting along with another Indian colleague. And like I said earlier, it is very rare to see non-Indian Googlers writing blog posts in pairs. So, I suspect that the Indian engineers work on projects in pairs, and then end up writing about those projects on the official blog, also in pairs.

If you work for Google in India (or even in other Google locations) or if you know someone who works for Google India, would you confirm if my suspicion is true? If it is true, then why is it so? Why do only Indian engineers in Google work in pairs and not others?

Pssst... The chances of hearing from someone at Google in response to speculative posts about internal stuff is none to zero. So, non-Googlers too feel free to speculate in the comments! :-)

Monsoon Rainbow

(Click for bigger pic!)

This gorgeous rainbow appeared over our neighborhood last evening, after a monsoon shower!

Libran Lover's Blog Updates 2

This year, Google has been introducing a whole lot of sharing options among all its services. I have used a couple of these to share some nice things with you on the side-bar:

1. Through My Lens - In this section on the side-bar, I use Picasa Web Albums to run a small slide-show of some favorite photos, I have clicked myself. You can mouse-over the slide-show to activate the slide-show controls and toggle the caption display. Click on a photo to view it in bigger size, and leave comments if you'd like. Keep checking for new photos from my travels and adventures.
2. My Shared Reading - In this section, I share some of the interesting and share-worthy items I have read recently on my Goodle Reader subscriptions. You can click on the links to read each article in full, on its original website. This section will be automatically updated with fresh links every time I find something worth sharing. So, keep an eye here too for new items.

If you read my blog through RSS readers, you will not be able to see these side-bar sections. You will have to visit my blog page.

I hope all you readers like these new sections. Let me know if the position of these sections on the side-bar should be moved around.

blog.libranlover.net

This blog has a new address: http://blog.libranlover.net. Woo-hoo!

You don't have to be in a rush to update your bookmarks or feed subscriptions. The old blogspot address still works and will auto-forward to this new address.

If you find something broken on the site - like pictures not displaying right, for example - please let me know.

And oh, if you would like a new customized address for your blog or website, do drop me a line. I know this place which gives you about 33% off the typical domain registration price plus private registration for FREE!

Google Lucky

A webpage is said to be Google Lucky if it shows up when you enter a phrase in the Google search engine and click on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

A person is said to be Google Lucky if the person's homepage shows up when you enter the person's name in the Google search engine and click on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

I am Google Lucky for the search phrase, "libran lover". When you enter it in the Google search engine and click on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, you come straight to the homepage of this blog.

Apart from the homepage, this blog has at least two other Google Lucky pages. There may be more that I am not aware of. Click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button for the search phrase, "dating Indian men", and you are presented with this page: Dating Indian Men I. Do the same for the phrase, "innocent flirting", and you get this page: Innocent Flirting or Mental Foreplay?

The above two Google Lucky pages on this blog are examples of making it to the top of the Google results based on the strength of the content. I did not consciously incorporate any Search Engine Optimization (popularly known as SEO) techniques into those pages.

Let me know if you discover more Google Lucky pages on this blog.

Oh, by the way, I came up with the phrase, "Google Lucky", on my own today. However, googling for that phrase, I did discover that other people have been using it before me. Now, let's see, if this particular blog post can get Google Lucky for the phrase, "Google Lucky".

Update on 7-May-2007: Found a couple more Google Lucky pages on this blog.

• "Causes of eve teasing" will take you to this page: Root Cause of Eve Teasing in India.


• "Som Mittal" will take you to Corporate Reaction to a Rape. I guess you could say that Som is Google Unlucky because that page is not his homepage, and it is certainly not flattering to him. Imagine his clients searching for him on Google, and this page coming up as the top result! It's a sobering reminder of how powerful a mere individual's webpage can be on the Internet.

Driving in America

This post is inspired by Priyamvada's recent post The Highway. Priya's post has metaphors and analogies galore. But I am going to set those aside and talk just about driving in the US.

Like her, I too have reflected on how much of driving is based on trust - trust of the people who put up the signs, trust of the other people with whom we share the road. This is one of the things about the US that I am amazed about: regardless of how remote a location is, if there is a road, there are proper, well-maintained signs. It seems like every last aspect of the road and driving conditions are considered and taken care of, including posting the most optimum speed limits for the changing curves and gradients, designation of passing lanes and stretches, etc. I can't remember a single instance of missing or bad signs on American roads. Of course, there are some residential localities where I have heard the residents wish they had speed humps or additional stop signs. But the busier highways and roads never let us down.

Coming from India, this amazes me no end. In India, driving is not about trust. It is about blind faith in our own life-line. We can never trust any signs, signals, directions or other people who share the road with us. We can never lean back and truly enjoy driving because anything could happen at any time! I mean, literally anything! There is no telling what we might encounter all of a sudden, with absolutely no warning or signs - an animal or a person lying right in the middle of the road, another vehicle travelling in the wrong direction or against the signal, a dip or a hump or a big open ditch. Anything is possible! Other Indians would know what I am talking about. No wonder that 2006's accident statistics of just one Bangalore city shows an average of three deaths and seventeen injuries per day due to accidents! I am so thankful to whatever agencies maintain the American roads and signs. It is not only a job truly well-done; more importantly, it is the result of a healthy respect for life and property. Something that's sorely lacking in India.

Linens 'n Things (LNT.com) order processing SUCKS!

Linens 'n Things' online order processing SUCKS! Their online process via LNT.com, is a case study in how not to do online order processing. There is nothing wrong with their website's add-to-cart, go-to-checkout, pay, close process itself. It is pretty much the standard checkout process we see in most online stores. But there are underlying issues with how the whole system works, which makes for a bad customer service experience.

One small issue can break the whole chain of of the buying process with Linens 'n Things, and nobody seems to be able to fix it from there on. That is the symptom of a very badly designed system. In a robust well-designed system, a problem would be contained within a small boundary, without impacting the whole process. Moreover, it would allow for a fast resolution and smooth continuation of business. Clearly, Linens 'n Things does not have such a system/process. Talking to their customer service people, I get the impression that Linens 'n Things is not aware of the seriousness of these issues and how much they inconvenience the customers. Here's a sequential list of their issues:

1. Store inventory status not accurate on the website
The whole problem starts if you want to order something on the LNT.com website, and then pick it up from a store location of your choice. People might want to do this to avoid shipping charges and/or to take advantage of a discount or special pricing which is available through the website. Now, the LnT website does not have accurate status of the store's inventory. So, it might show that the item is available in the store, allowing you to complete the order, even though the store might actually not have the item in stock! In the age of real-time inventory updates, it is an unpardonable sin to tell the customer that you have something in stock and take the order, when you actually don't have it. Promising and not delivering results in greater customer disappointment, than if the customer was told upfront that the item is not in stock.

2. Summarily cancelling an in-store pickup order
If the store from which you want to pickup your online order does not have your item, they will immediately cancel your order. They will not attempt to get the item from their warehouse or from another location. They will not give you the option of waiting a few more days for the item to come back in stock. They will not ask you if you want to pick it up from another location in the city. They will not even offer you the option of converting your order into a shipped order, instead of an in-store pickup. They will simply and summarily cancel your order. Worse, the cancellation of the order results in a stock, automated email which does not tell you the exact reason why the order was cancelled. It simply tells you that your order was cancelled and the item you ordered is not available for pickup at the store!

3. Not being able to change cancelled orders
Once an order has been cancelled, you (the customer) have to go through the ordering process from A-to-Z, if you want to pick up the item from another store or have it shipped to your home. The customer service representatives on the phone or the clerk at the store cannot route your order to another store or convert it into a shipped order. They simply cannot do anything with the cancelled order. The result is that, if there was any special pricing or discount at the time you placed the order, you could lose it by the time your original order is cancelled and you are able to order again. Even worse is what happens to your gift card, if you placed the original order using a gift card.

4. Charging gift cards for cancelled orders
If you use a Linens 'n Things gift card to place an order, and your order gets cancelled, your gift card will still show that it was charged the amount of your order. It takes Linens 'n Things five to TEN days to restore your gift card balance. That SUCKS BIG TIME! So, if your gift card purchase item is not available in one store and your order is cancelled, but the item is available in another store, you cannot just go and buy your stuff from the other store if you want to use the gift card. You have to wait five to TEN days before the gift card can be used. Making the customer wait for no fault of theirs, in the age of the Internet and instant gratification, is the BIGGEST SIN of all online business practices!

I went through this whole sequence of issues not once but twice in the last two months. About $150 worth of money is tied-up in currently unusable Linens 'n Things gift cards. All I did was to order an item and choose to pick it up at a store, which had it in stock as per their website. After my order was cancelled, the website was updated to show that the store in question did not have my item. The last time I had a very similar problem, the website continued to show that the store had the item in stock, even after the store cancelled my order for not having the items.

There is nothing that anyone from LnT has been able to do to resolve problems 1., 2., 3. or 4. The only thing I have been able to get out of them is a weak promise of restoring my gift card balance in a "couple of days or so", and that does not include the weekend! So, including the weekend, I may still have to wait about 5 more days! I am fuming right now, and hence this rant! I hope someone at Linens 'n Things sees this and cleans up their online order processing system, which SUCKS right now.

Updated on Jan 14th, 2014 HRS:

1. I had attempted to place my first order on Thursday, Jan 4th. This order was cancelled and my gift card was charged.

2. After posting this on my blog, on Saturday, Jan 6th, I sent an email to Linens 'n Things online customer service. They replied back with the same old b.s. Worse, they told me that it would take 2 more weeks for my gift card balance to be restored. Clearly, they had not read in my blog that one of their support supervisors had promised me on the phone that my gift card balance would be restored in a "couple of days".

3. On the evening of Tuesday, Jan 9th, my gift card balance was still not restored. I called their phone customer service and reminded them of the supervisor's promise to restore the balance in a couple of days. The phone support person told me that they showed no record of their supervisor promising or requesting for my balance to be restored in two days. She said all the supervisors had gone home for the day and I should call the next morning.

4. On Wednesday, Jan 10th, I called LnT phone support again. The person who answered the phone this time told me that they did show a record of my having spoken to their supervisor the week before, and that they had over 50,000 cases they were trying to work due to the holiday gift season, that they were working round the clock, and that my balance would be restored soon, and I should just wait. He also told me that he will flag my request again and hopefully my balance will be restored in 24 to 48 hours.

5. On Thursday, Jan 11th, my gift card balance was restored in early afternoon. This is almost exactly one week after the original order, which got cancelled. I placed the order again on Thursday afternoon using the gift cards and about 3 hours later, my order was filled and ready for pickup!

Curious about what I was so keen on buying? This:
It's a Linens 'n Things Professional Stainless Steel 17-piece Cookware set. Although their website calls it "Everything Kitchen" brand, the label on the box and on the vessels says 'Linens 'n Things' brand. It is a beautiful heavy gauge 18/10 (whatever that means!) stainless steel set with encapsulated aluminium and copper disk bonded to the base, with riveted solid stainless steel handles. The set costs $199 plus taxes. I was able to get a 20% discount with an online discount code. The set includes:

• 10" Covered Skillet with Assist Handle
• 12" Open skillet
• 1.5 qt. Covered Saucepan
• 2.5 qt. Covered Saucepan with a double-boiler
• 3.5 qt. Covered Saucepan with a steamer insert
• 5 qt. Covered Dutch Oven with a steamer basket
• a whopping 12 qt. Covered Stockpot!
• Pasta Insert for the stockpot

Morning Thoughts - Dec 1st, 2006

1. My arms were stuck out from under the blanket when I woke up this morning and they were freezing. Even within the shelter of my home, it gets so cold. As I got under the hot shower, I wondered about the homeless people and street sleepers. The winters must be so tough on them. How miserable they must feel every night! I am the kind of person who can sleep almost anywhere, and cold is about the only thing that can keep me from my sleep. So, I have extra sympathy for those poor people with no homes.

2. This morning, I flipped the monthly calendar over to the new month, the last month of the year. I am amazed at how quickly time seems to fly. It feels like only last month that I hung up this 2006 calendar at work. There is another calendar at home which I have not even hung up yet. I always thought that I would come around to hanging it soon, but kept postponing. And now, the year is almost over!

Not the babies!

I never watched the TV series The Sopranos on cable. In the past two or three months, I have been catching up on DVD, starting right from season 1. I am totally impressed by the series. It is incredible. This is one of the most entertaining TV series I have watched.

IMDB link: The Sopranos.

I am watching season 3 right now. Yesterday I saw the episode in which the young Meadow Soprano loses her virginity(?). It was kinda weird watching it. I mean, the Soprano kids were so young in the first episode, first season. Meadow was barely a teen, and now she is already losing her virgnity! I guess the fact that I saw the first episode, first season only a couple months ago has something to do with my weird feeling. In actuality, there must have been a gap of at least a couple of years from when Meadow first appeared on season 1 and lost her viriginity on season 3. But what is even more weird (for me) is that I am talking so seriously about characters in a mere television series!

Another kid who is growing up too fast in my world is my colleague's daughter. Two and half years ago, when I first met her, she was just 3. Now she is over 5. That's simple Math. But what is not so simple is that two years ago, she was just a baby of 3. Now she is a girl of 5. Two years ago, she still had baby fat on her face and arms, and she still preferred to be carried around as much as possible. Now carrying her would seem weird to her and to me. She still plays with me when we meet, but not as much or as closely as we used to.

In the coming years, the distance will only increase. Before I know it, she will be a teenager who will hardly have time to even talk to me. Even if she had time, we would not really have much of anything to talk about. Soon, she will be a young woman who thinks she is smarter, hipper and more "with it" than me. And then, we will be lost to each other forever. Although in measures of time, all this will happen in a matter of years, it will all seem too fast and fleeting. And then, I will look back and realize that I really had her in my life, in my arms as a baby, for just a fleeting moment... or two, which I will remember, but she won't.

As kids grow older, although the age difference between them and us remains constant in terms of the number of years, the distance between us only seems to get bigger. The generation difference only gets bigger. I don't mind growing old myself. But I wish the babies didn't!

SULEKHA SUCKS and SULEKHA knows it!

Update on 3/29/2005 12:30:00 PM:

I posted the link to this blog on Sulekha weblogs on March 28th, 2005 and it was deleted!

Message to Sulekha:
Why was the link to this blog on Sulekha weblogs deleted? Just because it tells the truth and Sulekha knows it? So, Sulekha won't let us tell the truth on their weblogs now. This is yet another reason why Sulekha SUCKS!

Sulekha and I are not the only ones who know that Sulekha SUCKS. Check the comment posted on this blog. Quite a few Sulekha bloggers have moved out and are posting on Dud Sea Scrawls, which is hosted on Blogger.com!

Warning to Sulekha:
The first time, I posted the following only on Sulekha weblogs. Sulekha deleted it. So, I had to host the content here and post a link on Sulekha weblogs. If Sulekha continues to delete the link I post on Sulekha weblogs, I will be compelled to post the link on many more forums on the Net.

Original blog posted on 3/28/2005 06:34:00 PM:

On March 27th 2005, I posted a blog on Sulekha weblogs and someone from Sulekha deleted it! I am reposting the contents of that deleted blog below, as closely as I can remember. To be polite to Sulekha, I originally posted the blog only on Sulekha weblogs and not on my personal blog here on Blogger.com. Sulekha, which knows no respect and courtesy, deleted my blog.

Well, bad move, Sulekha! You leave me with no choice but to post here on Blogger.com that SULEKHA SUCKS AND SULEKHA knows it! Incidentally, the title of the deleted blog was "Notes from my experience with Blogger.com" or something similarly simple and neutral.

What follows is a close reproduction of what I had posted yesterday, March 27th 2005, on Sulekha weblogs:

About a month ago, I stopped hosting my blogs on Sulekha weblogs section (I am deliberately not providing a link to Sulekha here) and moved to Blogger.com. I made this move because Sulekha edited one of my blogs without asking or notifying me. (You can read the background to that here: Moving out of Sulekha weblogs). Following are some of the notes from my month-long experience:

1. The look and feel of this blog, hosted on Blogger.com is much much better than Sulekha's simplistic and primitive weblog.

2. My blog has its own unique URL (http://libranlover.blogspot.com), which makes it very easy and convenient for me to share my blog with people. I can even post my blog's unique URL on message boards, as part of the signature in my emails, and on various other forums which market websites, getting exposure and visits to my blogs. This is so unlike Sulekha blogs where a person has to come and search for your blogs buried among hundreds of others.

3. The editor on Blogger.com is far better than Sulekha's archaic, outdated editor. Blogger.com's editor allows you to play easily with different fonts, sizes, styles, templates to help you get effect you want. It has other tools which make it easy to insert hyperlinks into your blogs, block-quote text, have bullet-lists and numbered-lists. You cannot even compare that with Sulekha's pathetic text-only editor, which is a very very tiny window that displays just 8-lines at a time. Why don't they at least make that window bigger?

4. Blogger.com has the awesome feature to post pictures. Yay! I am more a written words person than a pictures person. So, I have made limited use of this feature. But I would love to see fellow Sulekha bloggers go wild with this feature.

5. You can even post audio on Blogger.com! It is not a very advanced feature though. You have to call a 661 US area code phone number and record your audio blog over the phone. It is not even a toll-free number. I wish they also had the option to record audio blogs through the mic connected to a computer. I sound better when I record my singing through the mic, than on the phone. Well, something is better than nothing! One of these days, I will sing on my blog. However, I think my first audio blog is going to be stupid reports from a party in which we tried to get drunk and failed!

6. My next comment is about my beloved Sulekha readers' comments or rather dearth of it: Ever since I moved to Blogger.com about a month ago, I have had over 800 visits to this blog and I know that most of my readers are my friends from Sulekha. However, the number of comments people have left on this blog are quite low. I wouldn't think much about it, if people generally did not leave comments. But people who are quite unhesitant and prolific about leaving comments on Sulekha weblogs, don't do that on my blog here. I don't understand why. What is the hesitation? Can someone tell me?

7. Anonymous comments! Blogger.com allows one to post comments anonymously. There have been a few anonymous comments on my blogs which are quite personal. It would be nice to know who posted those comments. I am not asking for the reader's name, last name, the whole story with kula-gothra. Just the reader's Sulekha handle would suffice. Imagine getting an anonymous email, which has personal comments in it. Wouldn't you be disconcerted? I don't mind anonymous comments which are non-personal and generic.

8. I am very happy with hosting my blog on Blogger.com. I feel safe and free. I don't have to worry that some insecure, discourteous moron from Sulekha will edit my posts or delete them. It would be great if the Sulekha bloggers tried Blogger.com and experienced the wonderful features for themselves. I know that at least one other Sulekha blogger, d_w, also posts on here. However, he does not share his Blogger.com blog's links on Sulekha, like I do. So, I won't post his blog's link here.

9. If Sulekha cannot provide great features with its own weblog tool, it should seriously consider doing what I am doing: Sulekha should encourage its bloggers to host their blogs on Blogger.com, and share their links on Sulekha weblogs page. Sulekha could easily continue to provide the feature of displaying the blog title, along with the first few lines of the blogs, on its blog listing page. There are simple, ready-to-use tools available to do this. This makes everyone a winner: the bloggers get the best world-class features, Blogger.com gets more users and Sulekha continues to have its vibrant blogger community intact.

10. In its current form, Sulekha's weblog feature SUCKS and Sulekha knows it. To make that worse, SULEKHA SUCKS because of its discourtesy and disregard for its user community, the very same community which makes Sulekha what it is today. I have said this before and I say it again, Sulekha's user community is the probably the only good thing about it.

Moving out of Sulekha Weblogs!

I have decided not to host my blogs on Sulekha.com Weblogs any more. I have also decided to move all my blogs to this site on Google's Blogger.com. The primary trigger for this is the fact that Sulekha edited my last blog: If Dad is taking a shower with Mom,DO NOT tell your BPO rep!

I had posted a picture at the beginning of the blog so that it would display as an embedded image. The link to that picture is also available at the top of my blog. The original blog looked like this: original look of the blog. Sulekha edited my blog and removed that embedded picture. Without asking my persmission. Without requesting me to remove the picture myself. Without even informing me. Is it too much to expect some basic courtesy from Sulekha towards its user community?

This is uncivilized, unevolved and unprofessional behavior. This is a serious breach of good faith. This is also a violation of my rights to my writing. The fact that I post a blog on Sulekha does not mean they have all rights to my posting and they can edit it.

The only good thing about Sulekha blogs is the user community which gives us a feeling of belonging. The nice close-knit kind which exists (existed?) in village communities. Otherwise, technically, Sulekha weblog section is PRIMITIVE and SUCKS. There is no incentive for staying on here when there are better options and tools available.

Google's Blogger.com is an excellent site I have started to use. It has great tools which are easy to learn to use. You quickly get a hang of them. The editor allows one to easily change font, size, style, color, to create hyperlinks, to align test the way we want them, etc. And it has the awesome option of being able to post pictures. Imagine sharing your pictures with fellow-bloggers, an option Sulekha does not have and does not seem to encourage! There are different blog templates which you can use and customize to suit your style. You can copy your previous blogs from Sulekha, post them here and even set the date-time, so that you continue to keep the original date-time from your blog on Sulekha.

To see what other bloggers are doing on Blogger, go to the top of this blog page where you see the NEXT BLOG link. Use this link to view another random blog. This link appears on every Blogger.com blog and you can keep clicking on it to visit random blogs and see how other people are using Blogger.

As I already mentioned, the best thing about Sulekha weblogs is the user community. We are a happy, close-knit online village. The features and facilities on Sulekha weblogs are also primitive in comparison. Blogger.com is a big international city with the comforts and facilities which come with it. We can continue to maintain our online community ties, and yet enjoy the advantages of Blogger's facilities. There are two ways of doing this:

1. Post your blog on Blogger.com and post a link to that blog on Sulekha weblogs. The Sulekha community can click on your link and see your blog. They can post comments right there on Blogger.com. This way, we continue to maintain our network of friends and readers through Sulekha! This is exactly what I have done with this blog.
2. Get your Blogger.com blog listed/registered (a one-time thing) on other blogger communities like BlogStreet India and Blogwise.com. These communities have thousands of other Indian bloggers from all over the world. Blogwise.com is an international site. Click here for Indian Bloggers on Blogwise.com.

I will no longer host my blogs on Sulekha. I will just post links to my blogs there. It would be great if other Sulekha bloggers joined me. It no longer feels comfortable having my blogs hosted on a site which does not think twice or have the courtesy of getting in touch with me before editing them, a site which has primitive features, and which becomes inexplicably and unapologetically unavailable about once a month or more!

PS: If you have questions or suggestions please post them in the comments section of this blog.