Gulfnews: 6 years jail for Bollywood star

Gulfnews: 6 years jail for Bollywood star

Yes, the star in question is Sanjay Dutt and I’m wondering what the future options are going to be for this sentence to be changed or dropped. It’s pretty massive for someone to face 6 years in jail, especially considering he is an age-ing star and his career will probably be finished if he goes to Jail now (and that too for so long).

I feel sorry for him. Not that I know the merits or the demerits of the case. But unless the appeal can get him some major relief, the rest of his life could become pretty mundane and sad, considering how well he was doing. Moral of the story – as mom and dad always said… just stay away from all the mumbo-jumbo. You never know when it comes and bites you in the a@$#.

A fable from the Himalayas

This is a short film by Nitin Das (IIM Calcutta, http://www.filmkaar.com). Got the link on the e-group with a message from Nitin saying – The enchanted land is dissappearing fast. Could you please spread this film to your friends. In the fight against Global warming, no effort is too small.

Watching the video is a small motivation to do our bit. I’m feeling good about the water harvesting we do… and thinking maybe some of the parking space at home can give way to a tree!

NH-8, the big Gurgaon Highway

I know NH-8 is not the big “Gurgaon Highway”, but for us, and for a lot of other people, this is the new lifeline for Gurgaon. I’ve seen it take shape from the nothingness that it was. I have seen places where we earlier went only on drunk nights become hot-spots. The office where I went last in Gurgaon, was totally OUT 5-10 years ago (right opposite 32nd milestone) but now is almost in the main frame of the NCR. Development is so amazing to watch. I’ve often thought – the person who owns 32nd Milestone would have seen his property appreciate a million percent over the years. If I were him, I would consider either selling it off or re-developing it completely, seeing how it sees little business throughout the year. Anyway, I digress… the plans for NH-8 look something like this from what I have read:

A completely new experience is being promised for commuters on the Delhi-Gurgaon highway once the proposed 32-lane toll plaza becomes operational. Slated to be the largest of its kind in India, the hitech plaza would assure speed, transparency and efficiency.

Spokesman of D S Constructions, Rafiq Khan, said, “The automated tolling system at the plaza would also have lanes for commuters where they would not have to stop and pay the toll if they already have toll tags on their vehicles. As it is expected that in the next few months the 27.8 kilometer stretch will witness a huge traffic flow Khan said the plaza has been designed to be flexible enough to be able to change at short notices. Besides 16 lanes per direction, another three special lanes have been planned on both sides to accommodate the slow moving vehicles. However, slowmoving traffic will not be allowed in the toll lanes.”

Significantly, out of the 32 lanes, four lanes in the centre would be `reversible lanes’. This means, according to the requirements of the volume of traffic flow, lanes on either side could be changed to the configuration of 18 lanes and 14 lanes per direction.

Khan claimed that there will be three different colour schemes for three different kinds of tolling systems. The lanes with orange signage would be for those vehicles which would have a smart tag attached on the inside of the windshield and expressway. These lanes will be unmanned and will be in the middle of the toll plaza. The lane with blue signage would be for commuters using a prepaid card called the Contactless Smart Card (CSC) with a transaction time of under 3.5 seconds. With touch and go technology, the commuter has to stop and manually swipe the card without worrying about carrying cash for paying toll.The lane with green signage would be the cash lane and the commuter would have to stop and pay cash at the counter.

Kingsbury by TDI at Kundli

EDIT 30th March 2012:

As usual, TDI keeps saying that delivery of the apartment will be within the next 3-6 months. The BIG scare that I got recently was that apparently the S block towers and the W block towers were under contention from the farmers etc and that work on these had stalled. Thankfully, having spoken to the TDI guys, I got to know that my particular tower, the W-6 is not under any such threat and it is some of the other towers. I feel bad about people who are going through this pain, because apparently after 6 years of making an investment, not only did TDI deliver no profits to its investors, they are now telling these particular owners that they have to shift to other apartments at the prices prevailing NOW. What a disgusting company and I wonder who would ever again invest with such people…

EDIT 1st Nov 2011:
Sorry for not updating and approving the comments for some time now. I have cleared most of the pending things. Also, I believe the latest is that TDI HAS finally been handing over the apartments in Kingsbury this year. My own apartment is still not handed over and I have some money that I need to pay to TDI.

Also, I had spoken to 2 brokers a couple of months ago. One of them said that you should be able to make 10-15 lakhs on the 3bhk after it is delivered and another said that since my building is one of the inner ones, I will not make any profit on it even after delivery.

What are your experiences, if any of you have sold or tried to sell?

EDIT 13th May 2010:

There is a group called TDIKAWA, which asks for membership fees etc. but promptly throws out a member of a bloody e-group as soon as I started asking questions about what they have done in the last one year in which they keep having meeting after meeting. Apparently, they decided that sending out an update email was leaking material to TDI. I cannot understand why the “TDI mole” cannot go to the meetings as well if it is important to them. The other thing is, if they did have a mole, it would probably be good for us as they would take us seriously if we were actually doing some damage to them. Just like a military dictatorship, these fools have actually thought that it is right to block someone from an e group because I had a dissenting tone. Even though half the members got there from this blog. Also, such rash behavior is probably not undertaken even by people of the Indian political system. I did not abuse, I did not threaten. Just cos I told them that they are all talk and no action, this joker of an owner of the e group actually banned me?!?! I’d advise anyone and everyone against giving any money to this residents welfare association till they can show what they have actually done beyond their adult game of meeting-meeting.

Edit on Jul 16, 2009:

There are a big number of people who are now getting together in Delhi contemplating legal and media based action against TDI for their behaviour and practises. Mostly, this has centred around the new and enhanced EDC being levied by TDI on customers who have already paid in full and been allotted as well as other customers who are feeling the pinch of firstly not getting anything at all in over three years and now bearing the brunt of more and more payments with no work to be seen almost.

I would request all investors of TDI to join this e-group mentioned in the post and comments of this blog entry. Together we can take a lot of action and media will also cover this if only they see the numbers and see the story in how the semi-reputed builders of this day and age are also fleecing customers. Look forward to some new folks joining the group and joining the action against TDI in Delhi.

The yahoo egroup is in the comments below.

Edit on Mar 10, 2009:

Just spoke to them again, and apparently for the 3BHK, Kingsbury, where I have the apartment, the allotment has STILL not reached 407 (my priority number). The thing is, we booked in APRIL 2006. We were made to pay again in JUNE 2007 by saying the allotment is coming up, even when the second payment was to be done ON ALLOTMENT. Since then, there is deathly silence except for new schemes all the time either trying to make you pay up in advance and being blackmailed into paying to get some allotment/possession/something.

The allotment apparently will still take “some time”.

The website, to which I am putting up some links below, actually talks about possession coming “soon” when I have not got a clue about allotment also. When I questioned the gentleman about it, he said yes, some possession is coming and it is for people who booked earlier than you. I mean, how much earlier could they have booked? 10 years before me? And I booked in original allotment with TDI directly!

Such brazen flouting of rules or principles should really be taken up by the authorities. Is there no one to oversee delivery and promise-keeping from these builders.

New pictures from the TDI website:

Edit on May 21, 2008:

Just spoke to the TDI Service Centre on 42166666. Point no. 1 – At least they talk politely and try to help. Of course, if there is nothing happening then no point blaming them for it or shouting on the staff… but they tell you what they can.

Updates:

1) Apparently the allotment for 3 BHK has happened till priority number 160. Mine is 407 so god knows when it will happen.

2) If you pay 90% of the amount, maybe also through the financing scheme in the comments below, then you can get immediate allotment.

3) Within 10-15 days of allotment, you will also have to pay the next installment which will be 277232.14/-

4) It is ABSOLUTELY SAD, but the pictures I have put up here on this blog are not of the apartment we seem to have bought as the woman told me that now “digging” is going on for the site!! Wonder what this building was on the TDI Site.

5) I remember when I had bought the house, it was supposed to be 1625 sqft. and now when I look at the receipt they sent me for the payments, it says 1400-1500 sqft. I had even confirmed with the contact centre very early on and they had said it was going to be 1625 sqft. Where did the amount in between go?

Seems like the place where me and my buddy invested in a flat finally seems to be taking off. It is really sad that we are not in India at the moment and I don’t know whats happening with the allotment of this flat. We really wanted to get in on an advatageous location within the complex. Perhaps overlooking the swimming pool 🙂

Anyway, a little bit happy that at least this work is happening –

Edit on 20th January 2008:

I guess all the optimism about something happening with TDI is waste. It has been almost 2 years since the booking investment was done and more installments have been paid since then. Had the same booking money been put with any of the other developers, it would have resulted in monetary gains for sure. This compares rather badly with the negative premium going on these TDI properties as far as I know. In any case, in two years, people usually develop and deliver the properties under construction. God help us!!!

Here is a link that usually has some activity on TDI properties -> TDI discussion forum

India & Pakistan

In spite of the fact that we share so much with each other, India and Pakistan have always been at loggerheads. Unlike the siblings who grow up to love and help each other through troubling times, we’re the estranged half-siblings who gloat at each stumble the other one takes. What we fail to realise is that each of these stumbles hurts the oneself as much as the other one. A weak or unhappy Pakistan is always going to be a problem for India and vice versa. Political instability, especially, is one of the biggest drivers of cross-border unhappiness. The reason is not difficult to spot – A weak government’s only hope of keeping itself alive is to divert attention to international issues (even when they may be non-existent) and then to either go to war or just generally raise the ante in the int’l arena.

Musharraf, has possibly, done his share of good work for the uplift of Pakistan. I am not a very enlightened person on whether this is all for good or not, but is it not strange that a Pakistan-born top man in India’s establishment and an India-born top man in Pakistan’s establishment can not bring India and Pakistan closer to each other.

In expat communities, it’s the Pakistanis who give company to the Indians and vice versa. We’re the same at heart, and we go back such a long way. A lot of us think how it would be if we had a single cricket team, or a single hockey team.

Distrust can only take you so far. For the amount of money we would have spent on the military, India and Pakistan could have been two very different nations if the same money had gone to development of the masses. We could be two different countries if politicians did not have the neighbour-bashing opportunity to divert our attention from the real issues that face both these countries internally. A lot of our people actually do believe in the evil-ness across the border, but then most others realise we are all humans, and India and Pakistan have too much in common for us to be too different from them. I think we should leave the past behind and move on to bigger issues. A strong and safe neighbour is good for both of us. Imagine, if a lot of the citizens are happy and content and building their own live with their families, then why would be have terrorism and fighting and finger-pointing. These are all gifts of unhappiness and illiteracy. Lets point our magic wands at them.

Couple of good articles:

http://gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/world/10142517.html

Formula 1 : Spyker seat not likely for Narain Karthikeyan- F1-Live.com

From the link below, it seems unlikely that Narain Karthikeyan will get the Spyker Ferrari seat vacated recently. It’s a little disappointing cos it would be so much fun to see Narain race in F1 again and especially good if he can be in the top 10 in F1. Well… I’m guessing we’ll have someone in sooner or later with motorsports really starting to pick interest in India as well as India looking for an entry into the F1 calendar in a couple of years.

Formula 1 : News Spyker – F1-Live.com

Weakening dollar, Strengthening rupee – DOUBLE whammy

We came to the UAE about 5-6 weeks ago, cannot sit and calculate the exact time frames right now. The irony (b@#$h) of it is, that the rupee has been rising for the past few months, beginning before we left and now continuing unabated. Sadly, our salaries are denominated in Dirhams now, so effectively they are going down. Most of the Indians in the Gulf come with an overall aim of taking money back to India sooner or later. The rupee, that they have seen perhaps at levels of 13 (12 easily) is now down to just about 10+ and further doom is predicted. Why, oh why do the economics of the world always work against me. Whether it is the stock market, currencies or loans!!!

It was soooo bugging to see the economictimes.com article stating the “years” highs that the rupee is achieving. waahhh!!!

Good times to be in India, surely! More shopping, more trips abroad! Less prices for all these imported goods. I am sure my last employer (IBM India) is also laughing all the way to the bank. But maybe not as IBM India also provides a lot of these offshore services like TCS, Infy, Wipro, Satyam! Whatever.

Corrupt Mumbai Police Officers & Bank Managers

I’m not really sure about the facts of the case mentioned below, but it seems like this man has been harassed so bad by the Mumbai police that he is determined to get his dues back. Obviously I support him (hope there is no fraud within the story), and I can do my bit by raising awareness for such issues through my very limited efforts. The link is provided below, and by clicking “next” at the bottom of each page you can go through a number of letters he has written to the senior cops.

I wonder if there is more information and if it finally got resolved… I guess it is ongoing as per the site he has developed.

Corrupt Mumbai Police Officers & Bank Managers

Blogging has become quite a strong tool all over the world to influence decisions and for the public to raise their voice. We should do the same in India. It’s definitely not going to be up to people like me as

a) I’m not such a great writer

b) I’m not even residing in India (maybe it makes a difference, maybe not)

So lets pull up our socks and contribute a little bit back to the world and make it a better place… for you and for me and the entire human race (heal the world – michael jackson)

Nice! when you take the time to read them…

A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his Customer,
“This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you.”

The barber puts a five rupee coin in one hand and two one rupee coins(1+1=2) in the other, then calls the boy over and asks,
“Which do you want, son?”

The boy takes the two one rupee coins and leaves.
“What did I tell you?” said the barber. “That kid never learns!”

Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of
the ice cream store. “Hey, son! May I ask you a question?
Why did you take two one rupee coins instead of five rupee coin?”

The boy licked his cone and replied,
“Because THE DAY I TAKE THE FIVE RUPEE COIN, THE GAME IS OVER

Formula 1 : News SPYKER – F1-Live.com

Formula 1 : News SPYKER – F1-Live.com

The most amazing part of the article is this – Kolles problem is that while Williams test driver Karthikeyan can promise a raft of sponsors, team chiefs including Mike Gascoyne are pushing for Klien — who is not substantially backed.

Pray, pray…. perhaps the new financial muscle of India is going to get us what we want to see.