Mumbai Trip !!

Last Weekend, I was in Mumbai for some of the official duties.

It was very hot during the daytime and but so chill in the night.

My work in the office got almost over on Saturday itself.

The next day, my colleague Prasad took me to Iskcon and Mahalakshmi Temple (you can watch some of the Snaps taken there).

Also, we did a good shopping in Big Bazaar. In my opinion, Big Bazaar is a place where you can get all essentials and is really attractive - in terms of quality and price.

Trip to Sri Lanka !!

All of sudden during the first week of August 2005, an office tour plan cropped up in the minds of me and Hari (my colleague) to visit Lanka. I immediately started enquiring about the package.

I remembered that, some time back, I helped one of my friends to get a job in a travels company (through an HR guy). When I contacted him to enquire about the Lanka Package, I was assured that I could be offered an excellent package.

Confirming that the total cost would be within our budget, we stepped ahead to fix up the plan. After checking both of our work schedules, we finally fixed the date as 12th August 2005.

When other colleagues in office knew the plan, they started advising us about what are all the places we should visit in Lanka. I have to thank them at this moment for expressing their interest on our plan.

As the days were nearing the travel date, we were very much worried whether we could finish off all the pending work before that,,, but some how finished them all in the late night on 11th. We hove a sigh that we were ready for the travel.

Here's the itinerary:

Colombo, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy & Pinnawela (05 Days / 04 nights)

Day 01 - Friday - Airport/Colombo:

Arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport and welcomed by the representative. We were given a Ford Pulsar car and a chauffer-guide for the complete trip.

Proceed to Colombo and check in at Hotel Grand Oriental.

Colombo is the commercial capital of the country and is the hub of the business community of the island. With a hive of activity during the daytime, it has a vibrant nightlife with many casinos and nightclubs. Colombo is a fascinating city with a comfortable blend of the East and West and a cozy mix of the past and the present.

In the evening, we visited CricInfo Lanka office, met Charlie, Chaminda and Manoj. We spent that evening freely with them sharing our ideas and thoughts on various topics (includes official matters too).

An unexpected incident happened in Colombo this day, was the assassination of Foreign minister Lakshman Kadiragamer. But to our surprise, the city was so cool and calm; and no terror happened as expected and mentioned in the media.

Day 02 - Saturday - Colombo:

This day, we had planned to have our city tour and shopping. We were worried whether we could make it because of the murder happened in the city, but we made it without any hassles.

City Tour of Colombo - This included visits to the old Parliament, the present Parliament, the Town Hall, the Fort and Pettah areas, Buddhist and Hindu Temples including the beautiful Gangaramaya Temple and the Shree Ponnambalavaneesvarar Temple.

Shopping was very exciting with visits to the Majestic City, Odel Unlimited, and the House of Fashion. Our shopping ate all the currencies on the hand :-)


Day 03 - Sunday - Nuwara Eliya :

Breakfast at the hotel. After Breakfast Proceeded to Nuwara Eliya via – Kitulgale.

Kitulgale is the Place where a Part of the famous Hollywood Film “Bridge on the River Kwai” was filmed in the year 1957. We happened to see an aged person there who acted as the jungle boy in the movie. He showed us some of the news-cuttings about the movie and explained how the movie was shot. As per the story of the movie, the bridge, which is originally located at River Kwai in Thailand, has to be blast in a scene. Since, the original bridge cannot be blasted, they found the identical river in this place, constructed a similar bridge and blasted it for the movie.

Then, a drive to Nuwara Eliya was through green hills covered with carpets of tea plantations interspersed by cascading waterfalls and winding roads. As you get closer to this much adored city of Nuwara Eliya also called “Little England” by the British, the salubrious climate greets you with nippy fresh air and its wintry atmosphere. This city located 6,000 ft above sea level, has many comely cottages, churches, a 18 hole Golf course, a lake and the park. It is a famous holiday resort for both local and foreign tourists.

Arrived in Nuwara Eliya and checked in at Hotel Galway Forest Lodge.


Tour the City with visits to the Sita Amman Temple – the location where King Ravana is supposed to have kept Sita hidden from Rama, the 18 holes Golf Course and Lake Gregory.

I have to tell you an incident happened in Sita Temple.

On the way to this temple, we had taken lots of snaps. When we were inside the temple and thought of capturing the footprint of Lord Hanuman (there is huge foot-print of Hanuman on a rock), we could NOT do that. Not only the footprint, we were unable to take any photo-shots inside the temple.

We then checked up the camera around 10 times, replaced batteries etc but everything went useless. We thought that since we used the camera continuously for 2 days, the camera went wrong and needs to be repaired (anyway, we had another digital camera but left at the room). When we were returning back to our hotel, we tried to take some snaps. To our surprise, it worked fine. We still don't know why it did NOT work inside the temple.

Overnight stay at the hotel.

Day 04 - Kandy :

Breakfast at the hotel.

Proceeded to Kandy, the last bastion of Sri Lankan rule and resistance to British Colonialism.

Enroute visited 18 feet Hanuman Temple build by Swamin Chinmayananda and a Tea Factory.

Arrived in Kandy and check in at Hotel Swiss Residence.


Had a City Tour of Kandy.

Kandy is a city of enchantment and retains its own culture, pace and aristocracy. It’s located in the center of the Island and is rather hilly although not as high as Nuwara Eliya.

The Temple of the Tooth is the focal point of the city with thousands of visitors worshipping to invoke blessings from the Sacred Tooth. The Bogambara Lake is by the side of the Temple which has a tiny island in the center.

The last king of the country – Shree Vickrama Rajasinghe who ruled from Kandy is said to have submerged “Ehelepola Kumarihamy” – the wife of one of his chieftains – in the lake which is surrounded by a parapet wall and much folklore.

There are numerous shrines and temples in and around Kandy where you will see rare paintings, frescoes and stone carvings.

The Royal Botanical Gardens contain rare flora both exotic and endemic with beautiful flowers wafted by the gentle breeze across the River – Mahaweli flowing alongside. The avenue of Palms is famous for memorable walks for many a visitor.

Attended a Cultural Dance Show in the evening. It was wonderful to watch that for one particular performance, the famous Tamil song 'Vaaraayo Vennilaavay' was sung by them and applaused by the tourists.

We had an opportunity to attend the famous anniversary function ' Perahara'.

Kandy’s biggest attraction is the "Esala Perahara". It is a 10-day pagent which leads up to until the full moon of the month of July. There are two kinds of pagents. The first is called the "Kumbal Perahera" which parades for the first 5 nights. Then the "Randoli Perahera" which parades the last 5 nights. The last nights perahera is the grandest of all. Randoli means the ‘Queen’s Palanquin’. Up to 1775 A.D palanquins were carried alongside the elephants in the perahera. The elephants are dressed in colourful silk costumes. The number of elephants increase daily making the perahera more spectacular each night. The Maligawa perahera is followed by those of the 4 devales(hindu temples). It is illuminated by torchbearers because it is held in the night.

First of all the whip crackers crack their whips to announce the Perehera. Next comes the flag bearers carrying all kinds of flags, followed by an official who is called the Peramunerala riding on the first elephant. After them come the drummers. The Gajanayake Nilame, who is a very high official, is the next in line. The highlight of the procession is the Maligawa Tusker carrying the tooth relic of Lord Buddha. The Tusker is in between the dancers and drummers.The Diyawadana Nilame who walks in all the oriental splendour comes after the Tusker. The palanquins, which are also called the randolis, come next. The water cutting ceremony is held at dawn followed by the last perahera on the full moon day.

Though it was a street procession, it was really tough to get tickets to watch the show. Somehow, our guide got tickets for us and we watched the show. The show was too good.

Overnight stay at the Hotel in Kandy

Day 05 - Kandy/Pinnawela/Airport:

Early breakfast at the hotel.

Proceed to the Bandaranaike International Airport via Pinnawela.

En route visited a Spice Garden in Mawanella.

Also visited the Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawela.

The Spice Garden contains many varieties of valuable indigenous as well as exotic spices and medicinal plants and herbs. These can be purchased raw as well as in prepared form to be used for flavouring of food and in ayurvedic treatment

The Orphanage was opened to care and protect elephants of varying age, size and maturity discovered lost, hurt or abandoned by their herds. You will find them well looked after at this foster home for them. They feed, bathe, play, fight and also mate in this environment and there are a few baby calves born in captivity at the orphanage. Bottle-feeding is done three times during the day and it is a treat to watch.



All the elephants (around 200) are taken to the river in the morning for bath. The best part of the show was that when we were standing near the gate to take snaps of the elephants, all were rushing towards us to proceed to the river. It was so thrilling to watch so closely this much number of elephants.
Arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport at 12.30 p.m for departure.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE PHOTOS !!

~~~ End of Tour ~~~

Extension of due date for filing the IT returns in the State of Maharashtra

Considering the disruption caused by heavy rains in the state of Maharashtra, the Central Board of Direct Taxes, in exercise of powers conferred under section 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, has extended the due date for filing of returns of income required to be furnished by 31st July 2005, to 31st day of August 2005, in the case of income-tax assesses in the State of Maharashtra.

FINANCE MINISTRY ASKS EPFO TO RETHINK 9.5% RATE

The Finance Ministry has asked the employees provident fund organisation (EPFO) to reconsider the 9.5 per cent interest it had recommended for 2004-05.

The Central Board of Trustees (CBT) has discussed the issue on June 30 when it met to consider the interest for the current financial year.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram had agreed to the 9.5 per cent interest rate after pressure from the Left.

The CBT had subsequently agreed to the proposal even though it would mean that the EPFO would have to use its own reserves to bridge the Rs. 700 crore deficit.

The proposal was then sent to the finance ministry for concurrence.

Officials said the finance ministry had asked the CBT to reconsider the proposal following consultations with the Prime Minister's Office.

LAST DATE FOR FILING INCOME TAX RETURNS - AUGUST 1, 2005

The Finance Ministry on 20-07-2005 said that the last date for individuals and other non-corporate taxpayers to file their income tax returns for the financial year 2004-05 will be August 1, 2005.

Returns filed on August 1, 2005 will be deemed to have been filed within the due date of filing returns, i.e. July 31, 2005.

The Ministry has so far said there would be no extension of the last date for filing returns for this financial year.

The Ministry has directed tax authorities to make arrangements to accept returns on July 30 and 31, 2005 which happen to be government holidays.

Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT):

The term fringe benefit is defined to mean any consideration by way of:

“Any privilege, service, facility or amenity directly or indirectly provided by an employer, whether by way of reimbursement or otherwise to an employee or former employee”.

Any free or concessional ticket provided by the employer for the private journey of an employee or a member of his family.

Any contribution made by an employer to an approved superannuation fund for employees

Who are all covered ?

It is payable by a firm, a company, an AOP, a BOI, a local authority or an artificial juridical person (exempted are: Individual, HUF, fund and trust)

What it includes ?

It includes ALL official expenses incurred for the staff. For example, if the company incurs expenditure on the travel of an employee, it is covered under FBT, IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT IT IS FOR THE OFFICIAL PURPOSES.

It includes capital expenses also. For example, if a DVD player or a fridge is purchased and placed in office for the use of employees, it is covered under FBT and the company has to pay tax on it.

Computation:

The method of computation of the value of fringe benefits for the levy of FBT is the aggregate of:

 Cost of free or concessional tickets for private journeys of employees or their family members: Cost at which it is provided to the general public reduced by the amount paid or recovered from the employee.

 Contribution to approved superannuation fund: Amount contributed

 Festival celebrations, use of health club or similar facilities, and use of other club facilities, gifts and scholarships: 50 per cent of the expenses.

 And 20 per cent of expenses in the case of:

a) Provision for hospitality of every kind by the employer to any person, whether by way of provision for food or beverages or in any other manner whatsoever and whether or not such provision is made by reason of any express or implied contract or custom or usage of trade, but does not include expenditure on or payment for, food or beverages provided by the employer to his employees in office or factory.

b) Expenses on conference other than expenses by way of fees for participation in the conference.

c) Sales promotion expenses, including publicity other than expenditure on advertisement.

d) Employee welfare expenses other than those incurred to fulfil a statutory obligation or to mitigate occupational hazards or provide first aid facilities.

e) Conveyance, tour and travel, including foreign travel.

f) Use of hotel, boarding and lodging facilities.

g) Repair, running (including fuel), maintenance of motorcars and amount of depreciation thereon.

h) Repair, running (including fuel), maintenance of aircrafts and amount of depreciation thereon.

i) Use of telephone, including mobile phone and internet charegs, other than expenditure on leased telephone lines.

j) Expenditure on guesthouse other than accommodation used for training purposes.

The tax is payable in respect of the value of fringe benefits provided or deemed to have been provided by an employer to his employees during the previous year.

The value of fringe benefits so calculated is subject to additional income tax in respect of fringe benefits at the rate of 30 per cent (increased by the surcharge at 10 per cent and additional surcharge at 2 per cent on such tax and surcharge).

The fringe benefit tax is payable by the employer even where he is not liable to pay income-tax on his total income computed in accordance with the other provisions of this Act.

20% category:

a) Entertainment
b) Hospitality
c) Conference
d) Sales promotion including publicity
e) Employee welfare
f) Conveyance, tour and travel including foreign travel
g) use of hotel, boarding and lodging facilities
h) Repair, running, maintenace and depreciation on motor cars
i) Repair, running, maintenance and depreciation on air crafts
j) Use of telephone other than leased lines
k) Guest house

50% category:

i) Festival celebrations
ii) Use of health club and similar facilities
iii)Use of any other club facilities
iv) Gifts
v) Scholarship

100% category:

a) Superannuation
b) Leave Travel concession to the extent of the concession (actual minus recovered)

Arnold Schwarzenegger !!

When I won the 2nd prize on the body building competition in my college, my mates started calling me as “Arnold” Bala. That was the start-point of mine to know more about Arnold Schwarzenegger. His achievements went in to my heart very deeply and I became his ardent fan forever.

Most of the people feel that muscle developing is not a difficult one and that any one can get it if they go to Gymnasium regularly. Frankly speaking, it is not so easy.

I have seen lots of guys (on the Gym where I used to go) that in spite of hard exercises, they could not develop their muscles. When I asked the same question to my Gym master, he advised that those who do exercises regularly would have a body fit, but is not sure that they can develop their muscles. Thank God, I was one among the guys who could !!

I was surprised to note Arnie’s muscles (see the picture). I started watching his movies very interestingly thereafter (still I watch T2 fully if it is shown on any channel, of course, every body at home hate me for that).

Here’s the background of Arnie:

Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria, four miles (6 km) from Graz, to a Gendarmerie-Kommandant policeman, Gustav Schwarzenegger (1907-1972) and his wife Aurelia Jadrny (1922-1998). His parents were members of the Nazi party.

With $20 in his pocket, and not fluent in English, he moved to the U.S. in 1968. He became a U.S. citizen in 1983, although he has also retained his Austrian nationality. During this time, he earned a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Superior where he graduated with a major in international marketing of fitness and business administration in 1979.

In 1971 Schwarzenegger's brother Meinhard was killed in an automobile accident, and his father died the following year. In 1977 his autobiography, Arnold: The Education of a Body-Builder was published. In 1986, Schwarzenegger married TV journalist Maria Shriver, niece of late President John F. Kennedy. The couple have four children: daughters Katherine and Christina, and sons Patrick and Christopher. Together, the couple own a home in the fabled Kennedy Compound.

His distinctive and oft-imitated accent has led many entertainers and pundits to refer to him simply as "Ah-nuld".

Schwarzenegger first gained fame as a bodybuilder. His well-developed physique earned him the moniker "The Austrian Oak"(or "The Styrian Oak") and won him the titles of Junior Mr. Europe, Mr. World, Mr. Universe (five times) and Mr. Olympia (seven times). The seven wins at Mr. Olympia was a record set in 1980, cementing him as a legend of the sport. The record would remain until Lee Haney won his eighth straight Olympia in 1991. Schwarzenegger is considered among the most important figures in the history of bodybuilding, and his legacy is commemorated in the Arnold Classic annual bodybuilding competition.

Schwarzenegger's breakthrough film was Conan the Barbarian (1982), and this was cemented by a sequel, Conan the Destroyer (1984). As an actor, he is most well-known as the title character of James Cameron's android thriller The Terminator (1984). Schwarzenegger's acting ability (described by one critic as having an emotional range that "stretches from A almost to B") has long been the butt of many jokes; he retains a strong Austrian accent in his speech even in roles which do not call for such an accent. However, few of the fans of his work seem to care. He also made a mark for injecting his films with a droll, often self-deprecating sense of humor, setting him apart from more serious action heroes such as Sylvester Stallone, his most prominent contemporary. (As an aside, his alternative-universe comedy/thriller Last Action Hero featured a poster of the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day which, in that alternate universe had Sylvester Stallone as its star; a similar in-joke in Twins suggested that the two actors might one day co-star, something which never came to pass).

Filmography:

· Hercules in New York (1970)
· The Long Goodbye (1973)
· Stay Hungry (1976)
· Pumping Iron (1977) (documentary)
· The Villain (1979)
· Scavenger Hunt (1979)
· The Comeback (1980) (documentary)
· Body by Garret (1982) (short subject)
· Conan the Barbarian (1982)
· Conan the Destroyer (1984)
· The Terminator (1984)
· Red Sonja (1985)
· Commando (1985)
· Raw Deal (1986)
· Predator (1987)
· The Running Man (1987)
· Red Heat (1988)
· Twins (1988)
· Total Recall (1990)
· Kindergarten Cop (1990)
· Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
· Freed (1992) (documentary)
· Dave (1993) (cameo)
· Last Action Hero (1993)
· The Last Party (1993) (documentary)
· A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
· Beretta's Island (1994)
· True Lies (1994)
· Junior (1994)
· T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (1996) (short subject)
· Eraser (1996)
· Jingle All the Way (1996)
· Stand Tall (1997) (documentary)
· Batman & Robin (1997)
· Junket Whore (1998) (documentary)
· End of Days (1999)
· The 6th Day (2000)
· Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) (voice)
· Last Party 2000 (2001) (documentary)
· Collateral Damage (2002)
· Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
· The Rundown (2003) (cameo)
· Around the World in 80 Days (2004) (cameo)
· How Arnold Won the West (2004) (documentary)
· WMD: Weapon of Mass Destruction (2004) (documentary)
· The Kid & I (2005) (currently in post-production)

Some time back, me and my colleagues planned to have a temple tour (it had been long time since our last tour). After deep and detailed discussion, we fixed it to be on Last Friday (1st July 2005). We hired a Tempo Traveller and started from Chennai in the evening at 8:00 P.M.

List of persons joined the tour:

a) Bala
b) Ramanan
c) Hariharan
d) Srinivasa Reddy
e) Sanjay Kumar
f) Vaithi
g) Kriba Santhanam
h) Deena
i) Nakul Srivathsa &
j) Gopi

We had our dinner at Hotel Highway in Madhuraanthagam at 10:00 P.M. The food was palatable. Then, we had 6 hours'journey to Thiru Nallaaru where Lord Saneeswara is located. The place was crowded with around 2.5 lacs masses. Some how, we tried to have the darshan in 2 hours's time.

Break-fast at Hotel Nalaa. Food was not up to the expectation.

Then, we travelled to Suryanar Temple located at Kumbakonam. Speciality of this temple is that it has all the 9 planets located within the temple. The place was damn hot.

Lunch at a hotel in Kumbakonam was not good for me.

Then, we reached Tanjore where we visited Lord Bragatheeswarar Temple . This temple is amazing.

Finally, we reached Sri Rangam where we visted Renganathar Temple . There are two specialities in Srirangam - one is this temple and the other is that it is the home town of our ex-boss Dr. Badri Seshadri.

We reached back to Chennai on Sunday morning at 5:00 A.M.

It proved to be a successful and delightful tour.

Regards
Bala

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough - Abraham Lincoln

Money !! Money !! Money !!

Hi,

Here, I talk about the category of people who are employed in companies for a consideration.

It is the common node of people who think that if the company does not offer a suitable salary in spite of their hard work, they should look out for another job. Yes ! you can shine, only in a place where you can. So, people start looking out and they join companies which offers a suitable salary. Here comes my point.

Before that let us take a view on the following.

I always think that the following factors are important for any person to stay with an organisation.

• reputation of the firm
• its performance
• area of specialisation
• job responsibilities
• work atmosphere
• target orientation
• work freedom
• performance appraisal
• development of skills, relationship etc & finally
• a suitable salary

But, I have been invariably watching people who join companies for the simple reason that they offer a good salary. They simply ignore the other factors mentioned above. Notably, they quit these organisation in a short span of time, for various reasons like

• job profile does not fit them
• unimaginable work-pressure
• atmosphere not as expected
• internal politics
• company not doing well
• no motivation from the employer

From the above, i mean to say that before accepting any job, people should look at whether the job fits their profile and interest. If money becomes the primary factor, then it turn outs to be a wrong decision.

Please advice me if i'm wrong.

Regards

Bala

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing - Abraham Lincoln

*************************************************************************

Hello Friend,

This is Bala,

• a resident of Chennai,
• holding ACA, ACS & MBA degrees and
• handling the Finance Division of CricInfo - the excellent website for Cricket.

I have created this blog based on the advice of my colleague who is a high class educationist and holds a decent status in the society.

I hope this blog would serve as a platform for sharing my views and at the same time, to correct my views based on the feed back from you.

You are invited to regularly watch this page.

Regards

'Arnold' Bala