5 New Year Resolutions for India

1. Tough Terror Laws
India has always been a soft nation. Its time we make tough laws and take actions against those terrorists and those terrorist nations who have taken this country for granted for a long time. A new anti-terror bill was passed in the Lok Sabha few days back which proposed that a new anti-terror national agency would be setup.

2. Make Education Compulsory
Education should be made compulsory in the country. Every child has the right to be educated but unfortunately there is a majority of people in the country who are poor and uneducated. Education should be made compulsory for every child and should be made free in government run schools.
It should be a duty of every citizen to make sure that they send their children as well as children in their neighborhood to schools.
Tough actions should be taken for those who break this law by imposing taxes and penalizing them.

3. Issuance of Social Security Numbers
A social security number should be issued to the citizens who will be turning 18 or any particular age from the year 2010. A proper system should be put in place for issuing the social security numbers, with the help of big Indian It companies like Infosys, TCS etc. The social security number would help the nation in a number of ways. Illegal activities and Crime could then be easily controlled.

4. Better Health Programs
India has done a tremendous effort to put better health programs form quite a while, although a lot of the diseases have been controlled, but still a lot more can be done. Its important to reach those parts of the society where people are less educated about hygiene and disease control measures. Diseases like AIDS can only be controlled once people are educated about it. Sex education should be provided in government schools.

5. Control Population
Our country's population is increasing at a very fast pace. Its very important that the nation adopts some means of controlling this growing population. Family plans, like the ones introduced in China, where a couple can have only one child should be introduced. Taxes should be imposed for the law breakers and they should be penalized. Girl child should be given more privileges to bring down their mortality rate.

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Review : Passion DVD Player

A few weeks back I bought this new DVD player from my local supermarket, Big Bazaar. I must say that this thing has been a complete surprise.
For a long time I had been looking for a system or a mechanism through which I could play my downloaded videos and mp3 files from the internet without going through the hassle of converting one video format to the other, and burning them on Cds or DVDs.
I haven't forgotten the pains it took for me to watch a movie I downloaded from the internet a few months back on my 5.1 channel home theater system.
I had to convert the 700 Megabyte video to a DVD format, which took about 4 hours and the worst of all, the conversion software sucked up all of my computer resources and I was left PC-less for that frame of time. It was a real bad experience and to add an icing on the cake, the Audio went out of sync by the time I reached the half way point in the movie and all because of the video conversion which went wrong somewhere.
Since a long time, I was looking for some device or some sort of a mechanism through which I could enjoy my downloaded movies and audio on my LCD television and my 5.1 surround sound home theater system. A device which could also be a replacement to my old DVD player which doesn't have a component out port for my LCD TV. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on those expensive DVD players which were available in the market.
I went to an electronic store in my city and checked out some DVD players on display. I checked out this new Samsung DVD player, which had a USB port, so I asked this person in the store for a quick demo.
Ha ha, it couldn't play any movies through a USB device but could only play your digital photographs(Jpegs/Jpgs). The only DVD player they had which could play movies through a USB device, was a Sony DVD player which had support for the Divx format...but that certainly didn't mean that it could play all the movies or any movie you download from the Internet.
What about other formats? Do I still need to undergo the conversion operation for them?..And what about the price?..Well it came with a price tag of about 5000 Rupees ($100 approx).
So I came back home disheartened.
A few days later I went for some grocery shopping to a super market near my home. This super market also had an electronics section and they sold a lot of items there. My eyes caught hold of this small silver colored player which had a USB port in the front...Well it was the USB port that caught my eye actually.

At first it looked like a cheap Chinese player to me and when I looked at the brand name which read 'Passion', I was sure that this was some kind of a cheap jack DVD player...but still that USB port looked interesting. I asked the person at the counter for the price. He told me that it was priced at a mere 1395 Rupees($28 approx) only but I was hardly interested. I thought it was another of those cheap Chinese things that would die down in few days. I was still not out of my bewilderment when I heard him say, "Sir it can even play movies and mp3 files from a pen drive and it comes with a six months warranty as well".
Woaah!, It was as if he knew what I had been looking for.
Suddenly I wanted that thing so badly.

I was kinda, more interested in the product now and I started looking at it with more curiosity. On the front panel I could read Divx, Mpeg 4, Dolby digital and other formats and features. I asked him if he could connect it to a television and play a movie through a pen drive. He played a movie which he had on a pen drive for customers demo and it didn't take me long to decide I was gonna buy that DVD player.
So I came back home, with this small shoddy looking white box but was getting impatient to open it and check out all of the features of that DVD player inside it.

I open the box...

1. A sleek and very light DVD player. Its not a big DVD player in width and breadth and can be easily carried from one room to the other.

2. The front panel is made of plastic and had four buttons for power on/off, eject/open, play/pause and stop. An amazing thing is that the USB port is on the left hand side in the front and I find it a little convenient to plug in my pen drive.

3. The player supports Dolby digital and Prologic II technology.

4. It has a component out, coaxial, 5.1 channel support, S/PDIF, S-Video Out and the normal stereo and video output(composite - red,white,yellow cables).

5. No HDMI - I wasn't even expecting a S/PDIF support and component cable out, so certainly HDMI was out of question.

6. A decent remote control for the price.

Best Part

Now that this Passion DVD player was at home it was time to check what all formats it could support. I had few movies on my system.
I copied them on my pen drive and checked them for playback on my Television.
It easily played the following formats:
DivX- avi format, Xvid - avi format, MPG, MPEG4 , MP3, Jpeg, WMA, DVD files, .Dat files.
Easily reads, DVDs, VCDs, CD-R and CD-RWs.

Since most of the movies you download from the Internet are in .avi format it could easily play them.
Although I wished it could play .mkv(motoroska) files as well because they are high definition files, unfortunately it could not.
.flv files which are the ones on Youtube and other video sites were not supported as well.

Hard Disks:
I have 2 Hard disks, one a portable 80 GB( seagate laptop hard disk with external casing),
and another External Computer Hard disk 160 Gb with external casing and an external power supply(seagate HDD with external casing). Since the disks were on FAT 32 file system the Passion DVD player was easily able to detect them and play files on them with ease.
I have heard that there is a problem with the NTFS file system and it doesn't detect disks on that particular file system.

The DVD player came with composite cables(red, white and yellow cables) and no component cables.

Not tested features:
Component cable output.
S/PDIF.

The video quality is amazing. The laser head(lens) is of a very fine quality and displays images equivalent to my old Sony DVD player.

This is probably the cheapest gadget I have ever bought. Its truly a value for money. With 6 months warranty as well, what more can I ask for?
The player is available at all Big Bazaar outlets in India and also at futurebazaar.com.
The company that manufactures it is a local Indian Company in Haridwar, Uttranchal, India.
The guy at the store told me that they use a Sony lens/head and the Passion DVD player can be repaired easily if need be.
I am really happy to buy this amazing small wonder, The Passion DVD player, at such a low price. Trust me and get one for yourself today!

Guide to a Scrumptious Low Calorie Pasta in 10 easy steps

You could be reading this for these obvious reasons:

1. You are sick and tired of eating that same old food your Mom has been cooking for you since ages.
2. You want to impress your boyfriend/girlfriend with your cooking skills this New Year.
3. Friends are dropping over and you don't know what to cook.
4. You want to learn how to make a low calorie Pasta.

Well my dear friend you are at the right place at the right time.
So lets not waste anymore time and lets get started.

This is a recipe to a low fat, low calorie pasta.

What all do you need?

Pasta (Pennette Rigate- I like these) - abt 500 gms
Finely chopped Onions - 4-5
Finely chopped Capsicum - 3
Tomatoes - 5
Olive Oil(if available, or any other oil) - 2 Tbsp
Salt
Black Pepper
Basil leaves
Chilli Flakes
Oregano powder.
Tomato Ketchup
Marinated Olives (if available)

Lets Begin..

1. Boil the Pasta in a big pan, so that they are completely soaked. Add a tablespoon of olive oil so that the pasta do not stick to each other. Add the salt with it. It should take about 15 minutes for the pasta to be ready for cooking. Meanwhile you can go to step 3. Check - To check whether the Pasta has been properly boiled, just try to bite a piece to see if you are able to dig in your teeth with ease and its not raw from the inside.

2. Drain out the pasta with a seive in a bowl. Cover the pasta, as we now prepare the sauce for it.

3. Chop the capsicum into very small pieces so that its not left raw while cooking.

4. Chop the onions into medium size pieces. Do not chop them into fine pieces, as we want them to remain crunchy.

5. Peel off the tomato skin and make puree out of them.

6. Heat a frying pan and add 2 table spoon of olive oil.

7. Add the chopped capsicum, tomato puree, basil leaves, black pepper and some chilli flakes. Saute for 10 minutes at high flame.

6. Add the chopped onions and oregano powder and saute at medium flame for 5 minutes.

7. Now add the pasta to the sause in the frying pan and saute for 5 more minutes.

8. Now to make your pasta tangy, add 2-3 table spoons of tomato ketchup and some chopped marinated olives.

9. Walla! Your Pasta is ready.

10. Serve it hot with red wine.

Coco & Me!

Just a few days back I watched an online trailer of this new movie 'Marley and Me'. To tell you the truth I am a little scared of watching this one, especially after checking out some reviews at IMDB.com. The title of one of the reviews read, ‘Ending too graphic'. Even though I have watched the gory Saw series, and some really horrifying B grade flicks I don't have a heart to watch this one.

Well the movie is adapted from the book by journalist John Grogan on his dog Marley, a yellow Labrador dog. 'Ending too graphic', one can now imagine that this poor chap Marley must have met a tragic end in reel life as well his real life.

I was in Singapore last year, visiting my brother, who gave me this book on my return flight to India. I was to wait for 3 long hours at the Chennai airport for my next flight to Delhi in the evening. He knew how much I loved my sweet little dog Coco, who was a Yellow Labrador too and whom I had got just a few months back. He was my best pal, and I got him when I was going through the worst time of my life. My joining with the company I got a job with had been delayed by almost 8 months and I was going through a bad phase in my love life. When I saw him for the first time, this Fur Ball was so small and cute that he immediately caught my attention and captured my heart. I kept him underneath the back seat of my car and flew him right away to my house. I used to be with him the whole day, hugging him, caressing him and chasing that little brat who used to run away with almost anything he could get hold off. How those eight months flew by with him, I have no clue, all I can remember is my mom chiding me for bringing that scoundrel who almost brought down her three bedroom apartment and fortunately no bad memories of those tough days. Be it her new table cloth, her new wooden bed, hundreds of bathroom slippers, computer table, her brand new center table, her bed mattresses and what not!..This guy kept chewing and chewing and chewing, until he was satiated.

I was missing him a lot on my trip to Singapore. I had not seen him for the past 15 days or so.

I had hardly read few pages when I felt as if I was reading about my dog. All his memories flash backed in my head and I started missing him a lot more. But I could only read it half that time and still have not been able to finish it.

Coco was like my own son, a piece of my heart whom I recently gave away. While almost everybody who knows me hates me for that fact, and at times I hate myself too but most of the times I feel happy for him. I was the only one in the house who used to take care of him. My mother was a little scared of him and my father used to be busy at office and could hardly take out some time for him. Once I got busy with my job, this poor chap started to feel all alone. I was not able to take him out for walks or play with him more often. I was in some ways being cruel to that little fella. So one fine day we decided to give him away for adoption. I found out a nice little home for him, where he could play the whole day long and have the best time of his life. The first few days were easy when I gave him away, but soon the days felt long and the house felt quiet on weekends. But the thought of him being happy at his new home would make us all strong. There were times when we decided to get him back, but we would soon realize that it was for his own good. My mother cried at times when she was all alone in the house. Even for her it was like parting away from her own son. My father also sees him in his dreams at times.

Coco 1 month Old

I hope he is happy at his new home with his new friends. It’s been few months when I last spoke to the Army officer, whom I handed over my sweet Coco; he was in the best of his health. I don't call him anymore, partly because I fear of his well being and partly because I fear my paternal instincts could make me weak.

I see him almost every day in my dreams, that's probably because the connection with him was so strong, or probably he remembers me too. I now have a very special place for all the animals in my heart, but unfortunately all of that sounds strange to the external world. I try to find my Coco in other dogs that I see and probably that is the reason why I cannot hold myself back when I see a little puppy on the road looking for his mother or some food from a passerby.

One day I wish I could bring him back to my house and tease him the way I used to by running in front of him or stealing his favorite toy.

If you happen to have a dog or a pet, then hug him now, because they are your best pals, and the only ones who will always love you, come what may.

I was very happy to watch the trailer of this new movie, and I was looking forward to watch it but I have no guts to watch it anymore.

The mere thought that this poor dog will meet a tragic end, has left me numb and brokenhearted already.

The sweet poster reminds me of Coco, whom I will always love.