Excerpts from the book - "Wings of Fire: An Autobiography APJ Abdul Kalam"

(Pg 12) Iyadurai Solomon used to say, "To succeed in life and achieve results, you must understand and master three mighty forces - desires, belief, and expectation.

(Pg 17) There were setbacks, disappointments and distractions, but my father's inspiring words anchored me in those periods of nebulous drift. "He who knows others is learned, but the wise one is the one who knows himself. Learning without wisdom is of no use."

(Pg 28) I would enter the assembly shop leaving my other problems outside, just as my father used to enter the mosque for prayer, leaving his shoes outside.

(Pg 29) So far, I had believed that the sky was the limit, but now it appeared that the limits were much closer. There are boundaries that dictate life:  you can only lift so much weight; you can only learn so fast; you can only work so hard; you can only go so far!

(Pg 38) What makes life in Indian organizations difficult is the widespread prevalence of this very contemptuous pride. It stops us from listening to our juniors, subordinates and people down the line.

(Pg 51) ...these lines from a little-known poet of the nineteenth-century crossed my mind: For all your days prepare, And meet them ever alike, When you are the anvil - bear, When you are the hammer - strike.

(Pg 58) I have always considered the price of perfection prohibitive, and (instead) allowed mistakes as part of the learning process.

(Pg 73) Beautiful hands are those that do, Work that is earnest and brave and true, Moment by moment, The long day through.

(Pg 80) I preferred exiting workable solutions which would be the best options. Nothing that is new comes into time-bound projects without its own problems.

(Pg 89) Do not make rocketry your profession, your livelihood - make it your religion, your mission.

(Pg 112) I still recall quoting Ronald Fischer at one of the meetings, "The sweetness we taste in a piece of sugar is neither the property of the sugar now a property of ourselves. We are producing the experience of sweetness in the process of interacting with the sugar."

(Pg 175) Take this from me, the more decisions you can make avoiding external pressures, which will constantly try to manipulate and immobilize you, the better your life will be, the better your society will become.

(Pg 176) As Pythagoras had said twenty-five centuries ago, "Above all things, reverence yourself."

Excerpts from "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out"

My favorite excerpts from the book - "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" on Richard Feynman.

(Pg 11) They [must have] expected me to be wonderful to offer me a job like this and I wasn't wonderful, and therefore I realized a new principle, which was that I'm not responsible for what other people think I am able to do; I don't have to be good because they think I'm going to be good.

(Pg 24) I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.

(Pg 86) And the one thing that Von Neumann gave me was an idea that he had which was interesting. That you don't have to be responsible for the world that you're in, and so I have developed a very powerful sense of social irresponsibility as a result of Von Neumann's advice.

(Pg 146) We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize the ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty - some most unsure, some nearly sure, none absolutely certain.

(Pg 179) I finally figured out a way to test whether you have taught an idea or you have only taught a definition. Test it this way: You say, "Without using the new word which you have just learned, try to rephrase what you have just learned in your own language."

(Pg 182) I learned then what science was about. It was patience.

(Pg 187) Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

(Pg 231) And that's one thing I did learn, that if you have some reason for doing something that's very strong and you start working at it, you must look around every once in a while and find out if the original motives are still right.

(Pg 245) In this age of specialization, men who thoroughly know one field are often incompetent to discuss another.

OnlineSBI Remit Vs ICICI Money 2 India

Recently I did a small experiment to compare money transfer from US to India.

My priorities were:

• Money Value (Exchange Rate + Transfer Fees + Service Tax)
• Remittance Speed
• Trustworthiness of financial institute.

I decided to try SBI Online Remit and ICICI Money 2 India. The reason being that SBI is the biggest bank in India, and so it was promising in terms of my 1st and 3rd priorities. ,On the other hand, ICICI being a very big private bank too seemed like a fitting match to SBI.

Here is my finding:

	SBI Express Remit	ICICI Money2India E Transfer
Transfer Requested	100 USD	100 USD
ACH Debit From US Bank	100 USD	102 USD
Money Credit Into IN Bank	4820 INR	4891 INR
Time Taken	4 Business Days	5 Business Days

Each of the banks did offer multiple options of remitting(Using ACH, Using Wire Transfer, Using Checks, and what not). My experiment was with ACH type of transmitting options only. Because it is usually the cheapest means.

I also had an eye open for fastest means of transfer and was quite impressed by the claims of Western Union to transfer money within hours.

In terms of cost effectiveness, if you are sending large amounts (More than 1500USD) then do check out Xoom (https://www.xoom.com/sendmoneynow/india/fees).

-----------

Updated on Dec 4, 2011: Apparently for larger amount, the result is different.

	SBI Express Remit	ICICI Money2India E Transfer
Transfer Requested	600 USD	600 USD
ACH Debit From US Bank	600 USD	600 USD
Money Credit Into IN Bank	30,549 INR	30,634 INR
Time Taken	5 Business Days	5 Business Days

features only a mother could love

I love it when geeks turn their humor on :-)

"Marsala" in hindi roughly translated means "die you damn" :-)

How to file ITR for free?

Filing of taxes can be done free of charge in two ways:
Method 1 - Entirely on your own
Method 2 - Using a free service

IMP- I do not bear any responsibility for the accuracy of the below given information. Please act on your own responsibility.

Initial Preparation (Common for both methods):
1) Proof Documents: Have all the necessary documents (Like Form 16, TDS Certificates, Interest certificates, Pension certificates, etc) in hand.
2) PAN: Know your PAN number (Besides the PAN card this information can be found in your proof documents and also from this link - Know Your PAN).

3) Government Website Registration: Register with the Indian Government E filing website - https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ (With this you can avail services such as – filing your returns online, checking your e-filing process status for a particular assessment year, checking your returns (ITR-V) for a particular assessment year)

Method 1 - Filing you returns entirely on your own:
1) In order to choose the correct ITR and to download its respective ITR-Preparation software go to this link: https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/downloads.do (This is an Excel tool so you would need MS Office or similar software to use this tool). Relevant instruction about the form can also be downloaded here.

2) Open the ITR preparation software and when doing this, make sure you enable Macros.

3) Refer your proof documents and fill the ITR form completely and as accurately as possible. Some confusing fields are:
a) Designation of assessing officer: You can get this from this link – Know Your Jurisdiction. Eg. ITO, WARD 1(1) In this opinion with the advent of efiling and with the centralized submission of ITR-V(we will discuss this later) this field is largely un-important. So don’t fret about it much.
b) Tax payable on Aggregate income (8a): In case your only source of income is your salary/pension then this info can be got from the Form 16 itself. However if you have some pension or interest income details that has not been mentioned in your form 16 but you have included in the ITR form entries 2a and 2b then go to this link and calculate your applicable tax: Tax Calculator
c) Resident Status: Many would assume that just because they are currently in India while filing their returns then they would qualify as residents. This however is not entirely true. If you are an Indian citizen who stayed 182 days or more during the particular financial year then you are a resident. For others please check this link -- Resident Status.
4) After completion of form. ‘Validate’ (available macro button) the form and then click ‘Generate’. This will generate and xml file.
5) Go to Efiling website and upload this xml file.

Method 2 – Using a free service:
These providers offer a variety of free tax filing services:

1)E-Lagaan – Web Based. Free for folks with less than 3.5 lakhs INR annual income.

2)Economic Times – Web Based. Free for ITR 1 and 2

3)Saral Income Tax – Thick client to be installed (around 60 MB size). Free for ITR 1, 2 and 3.

Final Step (Common for both methods):

1) You will be receiving an ITR-V form, which you need to take a print out of.

2) Sign on the ITR-V hard copy and enclose it in a A4 size envelope (without folding) and send it to “Income Tax Department – CPC, Post Bag No - 1, Electronic City Post Office, Bangalore - 560100, Karnataka” by Ordinary Post(NO Speed Post and NO courier). This should reach them within 30 days of filing the returns online.

Lok Sabha Election in India - 2009

So finally, its that time of the year when we choose who would hold the reins of this country for the next 5 years. I'm assuming here that nothing nasty blows across to make the coalition fall like a pack of cards(fingers crossed).

Anyways, lets do our part and make sure to vote. I believe that every vote counts and the choice of candidate should be an informed one.

If your not sure whom to vote then do make sure you do some little research on the parties and candidates standing in your constituency before taking a call. Some of these links would be helpful in making you decide:

> http://in.elections.yahoo.com/manifesto.html
> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/lok-sabha-election-2009/electionspecial.cms
> http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/landing/loksabha2009/
> http://www.indian-elections.com/
> http://www.socialwatch.org/en/fichasPais/97.html

I hope everyone takes the pain to stand in the sun for one day to decide the fate of the country for the next 1826 days!