Reflections[blog]snoitcelfeR

Friday, August 03, 2007

Sending Money to India via ICICI Bank ...

This is a quick recipe that is intended to help me more than anyone else :)

If you want to send money to India, there are few options.

The best is to draw a demand draft from (e.g.) State Bank of India in the name of the beneficiary. Banks need cashier's checks to be deposited to them so that they can draw the demand draft in Indian Rupees. I have used this several times. The advantage is that you get the best exchange rate. The only caveat is you need someone trustworthy (e.g. yourself) to carry the demand draft to India and hand it over to the beneficiary.
ACH transfers, money2India programs work great, but I think exchange rates are a bit dicey. So, I usually avoid them.
The last one is wire transfer. The following procedure is only for transferring from local bank in the USA to ICICI Bank in India.

Get all the details of the beneficiary (name, address, phone number in India, ICICI Bank account number). Keep them handy.
Local bank will ask you to fill in a form. Always do the wire transfer from USA to USA. That is, there are intermediate banks that are affiliated to ICICI Bank. These banks are all over the world. You need to know the exact details of those banks. For example, for the US, here is the information:

Intermediary Bank SWIFT Code: CHAUS33XXX
Intermediary Bank Name: JP Morgan Chase, New York. A more complete list for other countries is here.
Intermediary Bank Routing Number: FED ABA 021000021.
Intermediary Bank Account Number: 400808595. (The idea is that your local bank transfers the money to Chase Manhattan in this account and then it's transferred to your beneficiary's ICICI account in India. It is absolutely important that you transfer the money to this Intermediary. That saves you money as it is a domestic wire transfer for your local bank in the USA.

Provide the details of the ICICI Bank.

Name of the bank: ICICI Bank, with address. All the locations of ICICI Bank are available here -- https://infinity.icicibank.co.in/web/services/jsp/Locateus.jsp -- click on "Branches" and find it yourself.
SWIFT Code: ICICINBBXXX (This is for their Mumbai Branch). I will fill in the details for other branches. Note: Please ask your beneficiaries to go to their ICICI Bank Branch and get the SWIFT code for that Branch or for the main branch in that city.

That's it, you are done.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Problem with displaying devnagari characters in Firefox on Mac.

This post is to demonstrate the problem with Firefox (Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4) on Mac OS X (10.4.10).

I have a simple HTML page with my name using the UTF-8 character encoding. This name is expressed in the Devanagari Script. This is how Firefox displays this on my Mac.

The same HTML page is displayed as expected in Safari on the same Mac.

The actual HTML page is as follows:



<html>
<title> Testing Devanagari on Mac/Firefox </title>


<h2>
My Name: केदार म्हसवडे

</h2>

</html>

Thursday, June 07, 2007

FireFox's generic message on sites that could not be contacted ...

This is how it looks ...

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Failed Extension on FireFox 2.0.0.4 ...

Here is how it looks ...

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Remembering David Halberstam ...

The news of David Halberstam's death is unfortunate. I haven't read this celebrated author of 15 bestsellers, but he must have been a notable journalist and storyteller. It is just unfortunate that his illustrious life had to end this way.

When I was reading about the ordeal that Jean Halberstam (his wife of 27 years) and Kevin Jones (the unfortunate UC-Berkeley student who chauffeured him) my mind just filled with grief and helplessness. Various minds will have various reflections about this (sadly) commonplace incident, but I really feel for Kevin Jones. He must be going through a lot of trauma.

Being an Indian, I know that driving on the US roads is a joy. I just pray that I remind myself that getting to drive on US roadways is a privilege. I just pray that all drivers listen to "Mr. RoadShow's" advice that he gives everyday in the San Jose Mercury News. I just pray that I am attentive during driving and so is everyone else :). This everyday activity, so commonplace, is supposed to be safe. It has become so tricky -- and might have dire consequences. And still, it is so taken for granted. Accidents are part and parcel of everyday life. But one should not feel that enough care was not taken, that's all we can ensure.

David -- while you rest in peace, I just hope that we, as a society are better drivers!

Monday, April 02, 2007

Vishy Anand: The new number one ...

Viswanathan Anand is lonely at the top!

Yes, he achieved this remarkable feat in the new ELO Ranking list just released by FIDE. Obviously, the top 3 in the list, Vishy Anand and Kramnik/Topalov are more-or-less comparable in their prowess, but Vishy has made a point by beating the duo by 14 points!

He's been the most consistent player in the last decade, dare I say. He promised the world to be more cautious and yet creative while playing big tournaments and the results are quite fabulous. A master getting his reward. Winning a chess tournament (or a game for that matter) is a big deal. He corrected mistakes that he committed in Wijk-Aan-Zee and converted the 0's into 1's in other games to win his favorite Linares Tournament (after 9 years) by a full point.

The next goal for this remarkable player is to break the 2800 limit. I am sure he'll do it by playing fine chess in the months to come.

A great chess master's games are always memorable like the things of beauty that John Keats has said. Vishy's games are a resounding testament to that. His game collections like the one at chessgames.com are so exhilarating that I feel as if I have just heard a Mozart Symphony or a Lata Mangeshkar Melody. Art, isn't it?

I am very happy.

A great quote ...

While reading a book on funny quotes I found this quite interesting quote:

This sentance has three erors.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Move to the new blogger problematic?

Or is it Impossible?

Am I missing something? I recently tried the new blogger interface. To my surprise and disappointment however, when I logged in using the Google account, it just thinks that it's another incarnation of me and creates two different blog dashboards for me. I thought this is a lossless upgrade, but apparently it is not. In order to create this entry for example, I had to get back to the "old blogger account".

Is this broken or am I missing something basic?

Can someone help?

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Kaler's Lectures on Astronomy ...

I won't say Astronomy has always been my interest because that would mean I don't do much about what I like. But it has been a branch of science that I have looked at with awe. To a mere mortal like me, it's been something that is intangible.

Professor Jim Kaler is a well-known professor at UIUC.

A friend of mine introduced me to Professor Kaler's lectures on Astronomy.

And ever since that has happened, this seemingly unfathomable subject of Astronomy in general and these lectures in particular, have started having immense impact on my life. It has started reflecting on everything I do. At times, the reflections are so immense that I even think of futility of things I do for a living. The Astronomical scale of the things out there is so grand and mind-boggling that I am often speechless after I hear these lectures. On one side we have subatomic particles and nuclear physics and on the other side we have got these mystic celestial (!) bodies moving for ages and in between we have got the beautiful Life! Oh My, only if my words were capable enough to express excited state of my mind, Alas.

Lot has been said about Astronomy by various capable authors. The distinguishing characteristics of these lectures are effective and gripping delivery, clear thought process that permeates the monologue and most importantly, the drama that Professor Kaler creates throughout. It will be evident from statements like:

"The brightness of Earth on Moon is so bright that it ..." (imagining how the Earth would look like, standing on the Moon)

"From Copernicus to Tyco, to Kepler, to Galileo, to Nootn and finally onto Einstein ..."

"... All this set the stage for Issac Nootn ..."

"Sort of a final act when we bring in Einstein ..."

"Everyone who has an advanced technological device, is going to skim the cream! Galileo had the Hubble Telescope of the time!"

"It struck him almost in greeeeen, he said, 'The orbits are ellipses' ..."

"Knowing how it works, only enhances the beauty ..."

These lectures are a treasure to me. Through the chapters like "Romance of the Moon", "Earth, Sky and the Planets", "Putting in all together" what Kaler has been able to achieve is beyond words. You've got to listen to them ...

(Forgive my being emotional, and pardon my excitement).

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Couple Interesting Sites for Engineers ...

Internet is a phenomenon for all.

Here are a couple of sites that are of general interest for Engineers. I think they'd be useful for every engineer there is.

Engineering Tips -- http://www.eng-tips.com/
Design News -- http://www.designnews.com/

I am pretty sure that these are the communities made of professionals as well as amateurs.

Hope you find them useful.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Misspell it, meaningfully ...

San Jose Mercury News is conducting an entertaining competition. The rules are as follows:
- Choose an English word.
- Make another word from it by changing just one alphabet (alphabit :) ). In other words, a letter can be added, removed or changed from it, to get the new word.

Send the (now misspelled) words to perspective@mercurynews.com.

I sent the following entries ...

- buscher (noun, pronounced, bu-sh-er) -- (the alphabit 't' in butcher replaced by 's') -- A hawkish head of any powerful state who defies sane opinions and invades other states based on false intelligence information and faulty judgment. Irresponsible acts by such a person usually result in wide spread anger and devastation and claims several innocent lives. A typical usage could be: "The beginning and the end of the twentieth century saw some of the worst buschers of all time. We hope the twenty-first century has something better in store for humanity."

- milemma (noun, pronounced, mii-le-ma) -- (the alphabit 'd' in dilemma replaced by 'm') -- A state of mind (usually a disorder) that makes a person confused between various impressions of living world. When in this state of mind, the person often thinks that the physical things seen (by other normal human beings) are unreal and that there is a parallel universe existing somewhere. Such a person usually has hard time believing that a life is neither a movie nor a dream.

- wittok (noun, pronounced, y-2-k) -- (the alphabit 'l' in wittol replaced by 'k') -- An overly hyped phenomenon that is predicted to happen some time in future in anticipation of which, the world appears to prepare carefully and meticulously. The predictions usually hint at disruptions to normal human life. The topic gets such an attention that even common people in remote parts of the globe discuss it over lunch or dinner (as if some comet were to hit the mother Earth). When the predicted date/time passes, nothing happens. A typical usage could be: "In spite of technological advancements, the scientific community is predicting rather too many wittoks lately."

---------------------------------------
:(
The winners are at: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/editorial/13268025.htm

Our judges were Mercury News staff, two men and a woman. They judged the three submissions shown below to be the winners. ``Hubrids,'' a rare double play on words, and ``nagosecond'' tied for first place. "Kung flu" also was judged a winner.

"Hubrids," n. the excessive pride of Prius owners
-- Russ Atkinson, Los Altos

"Nagosecond," n. the amount of time between the shouted command to do something and the moment when you whould have accomplished the task on your own.
-- Allen Fleishman, San Jose

"Kung flu," n. an Asian variety that really knocks you out.
-- Jo Ann Lawlor, San Jose

Friday, August 26, 2005

translation ...

This is unicode text. Please view it as such:
On Windows platform: Any browser: (Windows 2000, XP), View->Character Encoding ->Unicode UTF-8.

Translating into संस्कृतम् some of the noble initiative names from upakriti.

Light a lamp - dipa-jyotI - दीप-ज्योती
Knowledge enrichment - dnyAna-vR^iddhI - ज्ञान-वृध्दी
Protect the flame - jyotI-rakshA - ज्योती-रक्षा
Bring a Smile - smita-vardhanaM - स्मित-वर्धन
Festivities - Anandotsava - आनन्दोत्सव
Health - nirAmaya - निरामय
Arts - kalopAsanA - कलोपासना
Sports - krIDArthI - क्रीडार्थी

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Kyle Maynard - The great inspiration ...

I read it in the readers' digest and then at the official Kyle Maynard site. This man is amazing and makes me feel ashamed at times.

Hats off to him.

Monday, January 17, 2005

zabriski point after sunrise

Sunday, January 16, 2005

A travelogue of trip to San Francisco

Note: This blog is best viewed with firefox browser.

Pioneers:
As you all know, Anil was here in San Jose and we had a good time.
I decided to combine my blogging (mis)adventures with writing something about our trip to SFO.

I love San Francisco for its form, for its cultural programs, for its roads with ups and down, for muni, for that unique cosmopolite nature.

We used the yeoman services offered by CalTrain on the weekends and it was just fabulous. These trains are so nice and relaxing that I have now started hating driving to SFO on 101. The train not fast but it just relaxes the busy commuters. That is so vital.

I used the transit 511 planner to plan the trip After reaching SFO, we took the muni and it immediately landed us in some trouble because we just missed one of the buses to golden gate bridge and quickly we changed the plan to go to the beautiful pier 39 which has got a lot of naval history attached with it. Here is a picture of Anil

at fisherman's wharf en-route pier 39.

We roamed around the pier and visited the little but interesting shops around. Pier 39 is a very enjoyable place. People roaming around, a few solo-shows like riding unicycle, shops selling weird things, eateries and food stalls, a nice view of golden gate bridge and alcatraz, dirty (subjective ;) ) seals are some of its features. Here are a couple photographs:

You can see the ship in background of this photograph, with a different angle here.

Then we decided to go to golden gate bridge and were looking for some help to get there. As we were waiting for line 30, we met a lady who migrated to SFO 35 years ago and immediately became friends with her. She was very talkative and seemed to know the city and muni very well. She was telling us that she had a couple foster children, one in India and one in Guatemala. The city was like heaven for this lady who had a gray head and wore glasses to give her that kinda bossing appearance. The ease with which she was moving around stemmed from the familiarity with the city. She was all praise for it. She gave me the clear directions and still I managed to mess it up all and we got delayed unncessarily. But finally we were able to get on the muni line to golden gate bridge. This is that signature place of interest and inspiration in SFO. The golden gate area is simply gorgeous.

I have not written much about the peoples, the eateries, the streets and cultural culminations of this city. But then, this was just a glimpse!

Do visit SFO sometime!

Friday, December 31, 2004

FireFox Is a Great Browser

I am simply impressed. They have really thought about so many different ways to extend the browser. The extensions, like for instance this very blog that I am creating using the "Just BlogIt" extension, are incredible.

It still has the "techie" flavor IMO. It needs some fresh thinking to use these features and extensions.