tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19921145545907407482024-03-05T19:06:06.233-08:00mikeranaCreative Head eFingertip magazine, social network consultant, published author with 4 books - latest #Digital #Democracymikeranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09781399845785759148noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125truetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1992114554590740748.post-83374969893602815212021-07-12T04:25:00.004-07:002021-08-06T23:48:18.116-07:00Digital Democracy Back Cover <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI56RMy93BzSztlc6m64Et8A6xpsOf0QQ6Trrk2EJhdCTWFbIUjP2HxDWZH1hkDTtB9A9G_T1pGuIW_bxXEIvdcxY8siWp0mOGx4vT94H0-Cey1X2bpy6IA5DZ_qLnL7veVBE_jJvE8KBv/s1280/IMG-20210630-WA0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="905" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI56RMy93BzSztlc6m64Et8A6xpsOf0QQ6Trrk2EJhdCTWFbIUjP2HxDWZH1hkDTtB9A9G_T1pGuIW_bxXEIvdcxY8siWp0mOGx4vT94H0-Cey1X2bpy6IA5DZ_qLnL7veVBE_jJvE8KBv/s320/IMG-20210630-WA0003.jpg" /></a></div><br />#Digital #Democracy<div><br /></div><div><br /></div>mikeranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09781399845785759148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1992114554590740748.post-30466521237537190392018-03-03T21:06:00.002-08:002021-08-06T23:50:30.783-07:00Are we concerned about monetary Frauds ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
mikerana<br />
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<span style="background: white;">Monetary frauds are global; I mean they take place in all countries. The volume or bulk though is different depending on how serious the regulations in every country are. From a citizen’s viewpoint, frauds are undesirable but politicians, corporations and financial institutions view them with different paradigms. The result, passing the buck of frauds to different agencies, on different forums, in different times based on which political party is current. The media takes the cake by feeding us a completely distorted picture. Why? Since they too have received their quota of freebies or favors in different forms and from different people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">On the top, is the funding of political parties, and on the bottom, the recipients of pangs - we the citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">The motivation to circumvent frauds<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<span style="background: white;">If the global evils like prostitution, gambling or terrorism can be controlled or avoided when there is a will - political, economic or any other, then why not the monetary frauds. If a mysterious death, a homicide or suicide is detectable just by looking at the motive behind that unnatural death, then why not fraud. A fraudster flourishes on the variety that he or she can innovate in his actions, demanding that we should enrich our coverage and methodologies to cross over the malicious interests of all the intervening agencies. And find the culprits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">The digitization trends and efforts in India<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<span style="background: white;">India is going through a very critical phase, as is claimed by politicians, where poverty alleviation is perpetually on the agenda, for seven <b>decades</b>. Enemies of the state exist all around requiring that we must invest in high tech weapons. It is rather strange and paradoxical that political parties endorse in the same religious preachers that they now discard but we do remember that they were needed for vote. The coffers were left dry and empty when the change of the ruling party took place last. So they have very little time to focus on monetary frauds, and lesser on the corporate culture. They are all gathering money for themselves, dynasties and parties. No doubt, it is a precarious situation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">And above all, computers and the internet is causing a big turmoil in a country that boasts of illiteracy. Billions are spent to achieve negligible or unverifiable results. Digitization, Demonetization, introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) with multiple levels of rates, keeping petroleum and diesel out of the ambit of GST, is really a wonderful smokescreen for the inefficiency of our systems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">The country is struggling to empower the poor and the women, and all that is happening by extracting money from the tax payer - who are less than 10 percent of the population. And on top, the politicians, the rich farmers, the advocates, the doctors and many others (the poor so to say) don’t pay taxes or pay very little compared to their combined earnings – both legitimate and illegitimate. And the diamond merchants, the liquor barons and the banks lead the way for empowering …<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">And the ruling party boasts about the impacts, the long ranging and far reaching impacts. Impacts that you and me may not live to see, in our lifetimes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">Wonderful …<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">The financial breakdown<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<span style="background: white;">Can I caution you? Are we not slowly but surely preparing grounds for an inevitable financial bailout, a term so common in our lives. It denotes the watering down the balance sheets of the likes of Lehman Brothers, the Greek banks, the Cyprus bank or the Russian ruble degradation. It is now known that all of them hired crafty experts to bring the curtain down on their economy but in India there are rogues who will oblige us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">The central political party changed after a span of seven decades and the new party (for 3 years already) is struggling to make a mark with the public. Not because they need to tone up the systems, but because they look for easy targets for vote banks in the elections. Elections are perineal in our country, the States and the Centre.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">All completely set for a financial breakdown of systems and breakaway of imposters and fraudsters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">Frauds<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<span style="background: white;">Technically fraud detection and avoidance is as simple as untying a reef knot, but hundreds of arguments can be given why it cannot be done that way. If you place yourself in any situation, you could yourself logically list down various steps that could untie this knot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">Recently we had a situation where a few banks were defrauded. </span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">These frauds were all defended and argued by persons from different levels of responsibilities such as, the prime minister, finance minister, various governing boards, investigating agencies and down to the managers in the banks. The crux of all the arguments was “Not me ... that other bloke was responsible.” And the arguments terminate with one conclusion, “We will take steps to avoid it, but we won’t punish anyone who matters.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">What contributed to this mess?<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<span style="background: white;">Let us look at what how our systems failed, and what our failings were. To do this we should stay away from the erosion of ethics and moralities of our people, which is a true given. All mortals are deemed to be immoral, as Socrates put it. So we better make fool proof systems that prevail over the corrupt people. How should we do that?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">Computer systems are made up of data-capture forms, processes for the workflow, and the people responsible for the flow and approvals. All of these were converted from the manual systems into computerized systems, but with a major glitch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">The processes, transactions and the systems were never <b>engineered for optimization</b>. The application system creators were hard pressed for the project time and they never considered how the end-to-end processes could be optimised or streamlined. They never considered what was already captured in one system that could be easily reused by the others. A glaring example of this redundancy lies in the forms used by banks, insurance companies, mobile phone companies, and those by the government agencies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">Why should there be a need to link the Aadhaar card to every perceivable commercial or governing system, when it still fails to identify the defaulters?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">Have a re-look<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<span style="background: white;">To reach this target of achieving non-redundancy, every system, every process, every form, every entity and every data attribute on every form should have been considered. All these should have been deeply understood and then defined afresh for their meanings in the new applications.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">These are the essential and fundamental requirements of a working system. So if the foundation is weak, any amount of software cannot undo the base interpretations. A computer system has the ability to streamline the data, but a wrongly designed system proliferates data into an uncontrollable mess, and quickly at that. It makes deductions and analysis not worth the trouble of digging into the mess. So people tend to avoid it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">And all this study was required to be done before any process could be engineered and re-engineered. Only then the software writing should have been done. We still have the time to put things in perspective. We should not wait till the financial breakdown becomes a <b>reality</b>.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">What can we do now?<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<span style="background: white;">We should focus on the processes that govern our actions, and guide our systems. A lot of water has flown under the bridges since we adopted digitization. Innumerable designers, project managers, and IT people have given a quality certificate to all the systems they were involved in implementing – a certificate that everything is well, it is documented well, and it meets the laid down requirements. Whereas the truth is, <b>it does not</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">An example of Aadhaar project<o:p></o:p></span></h2>
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<span style="background: white;">There are many projects we can talk about but let us take the Aadhaar project, a system designed by my Alma mater colleague from IIT Bombay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">One cannot deny the benefits that the system has delivered, perhaps the only system that meets the requirements of giving identity to people. Yet, to which people? Foreigners and immigrants too!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="background: white;">The details of the Aadhaar system have been claimed by media as leaked out. I am not discussing the security aspects of the system because that is not important in the context of this article. We need to elaborate on the inadequacy and insufficiency of this Aadhaar system. A system on which the entire country now depends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">We know that the Aadhaar contains just enough data for an individual’s identification, so why should there be a need to repeat that data in almost every form introduced by multiple companies or agencies in our lives. Why should there be a link to banks, insurance companies, telephone operators and other regulatory agencies. Why can’t it be automatically linked or copied? Only the legitimate companies or regulators should be permitted to link automatically our data. Why should we enter new data on forms and be subjected to errors and inconsistencies, and then to frauds?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">We also know that Aadhaar has a fundamental <b>inadequacy</b>. The designers didn’t think it was necessary or they thought it was too cumbersome. Aadhaar data is completely quiet about residences, property and immovable property. Bringing this information in, could have rendered Aadhaar much more resiliency and reliability. It could have tackled the real estate domain. It could have helped the police, tax authorities, passport authorities and other regulatory agencies becoming more trustworthy. It could help them to track imposters, terrorists and fraudsters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">And believe me it can be done, even if only to a limited extent. The system has the potential of replacing the national <b>population survey</b> mechanism or even a <b>voter list</b> handled completely differently by an independent (state) agency. None of the three are linked between themselves, and we talk about linking Aadhaar system to banks, insurances, mobile phones and commercial systems. I am appalled at it, at our ignorance and our vested interests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">And, it should be done. I have designed and put in place a porotype of the Aadhaar + system. It will link the holdings, movable and immovable, of selected individuals. The selection of these individuals may be, from the urban areas, from the frequent foreign travellers or perpetual money borrowers. So far the proposed system is for individuals but it should be extended to corporations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">Re-engineered </span>systems to detect frauds<o:p></o:p></h2>
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<span style="background: white;">We got involved in fixing attention on not so useful things like PayTm, Uber, Ola, social networks, like Flipkart, Amazon, Google, Facebook or Twitter but we never paid a similar attention to non-web-applications and large on-line-transaction-processing systems required in governance. We needed audit of processes to focus on frauds, the systemic ones, as much as we needed the support of impenetrable security.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">There are three golden attributes of a system design - the data-capturing forms, the processes and the security. The forms capture the data, so obviously these should not capture redundant data that has a possibility of imparting confusion. The processes, that should be minimal, logical and legal, as conceived by a trained mind. The security, it should be impenetrable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">If a logical person sits down to develop and use the unblemished principles of data base design he could inherently deliver the BigData and Business Analytics that we require for governance. He could enlarge the span of his work to virtually pan over multiple platforms, computers and systems and fire the SQL (Query Language) to detect frauds. It is all possible now-a-days with cloud computing and internet. There are better dividends to be derived from such systems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">AI is not just in the domain of Mark Zuckerberg or Sunder Pichai alone, and it should not be restricted to the social networks or browsers alone. It should be usefully directed to economic, financial and monetary systems that fall into the domain of governance. Do not tend to ignore them as a compartmentalised container of technology or as a web-application developer. Use the principles of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect frauds and defaulters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">Such a thing requires us to do what is known as Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), a concept that originated in the nineties but faded around in 2010 when the web-applications and mobile application came around. Unfortunately, the IT engineers of today are generally unaware of those principles and concepts. But we surely need it now then ever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;">There should not be a loophole in the data capture that can be exploited by the fraudster, and there should be very little redundancy just to ensure that nothing falls within the cracks, and a government employee can be warned. For this a central and independent government agency is required – a one that is unanswerable to IT, Finance or Quality Control departments and therefore to those ministries.</span><br />
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mikeranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09781399845785759148noreply@blogger.com0Gurugram, Haryana, India28.4594965 77.02663830.14926266382115472 41.8703883 56.769730336178846 112.1828883tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1992114554590740748.post-31628340291087921152017-06-08T23:45:00.004-07:002017-06-11T04:25:20.453-07:00How to write a blog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A few links</h3>
<a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/10-sure-fire-headline-formulas-that-work/">10-sure-fire-headline-formulas-that-work</a><br />
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<a href="http://my.copyblogger.com/type/ebooks/">my.copyblogger.com</a><br />
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Categories and Tags</h3>
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mikeranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09781399845785759148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1992114554590740748.post-38767270318782345732017-06-08T00:25:00.001-07:002021-08-06T23:51:14.303-07:0013 Reasons for An E-book<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Haven’t
we suffered from the burden of maintain our books and music for years, on the conventional
platforms. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Thanks
to YouTube we can now do away with our personal recording of music. The current
trend is playing or even downloading music of our liking (from the millions of
songs available on You Tube). We can share them with friends on Facebook or WhatsApp
too. There is no need to be drowsed in the erstwhile withered Gramophone
records, CDs, DVDs and Tapes. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The same
applies to eBooks. Companies like Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Flipkart are
here to help us in getting rid of paper libraries (from millions of books on
these platforms). But, for the time being, we have to pay a little for them (from
1 USD to about Rs 100). Constant downloads and promotions from these sites will
probably change their business model. Even books will be available for free (I
hope).<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">So, are
you ready for the eBook revolution? </span></h4>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Get rid
of your books, unless you want to adorn them on the bookshelves that no one
really looks at. They provide a good sight as long as dust doesn’t cover their
covers. Take a plunge and replace them with eBooks on your phones.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">For a
minute, for those who like the scent of old book pages, and the classical small
fonts that publishers used for reducing the size of the books, and the fact
that you want to feel them in your hands, I have no solution. But if you care
for your eyes, the aging eyes, the inadequate ambient light and color, the
solution offered is worthwhile and worth considering. Even handling of physically
heavy books can be taken care by eBooks, while you toss around in your bed languishing
for the evasive sleep.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Like I
fool, for almost ten years, I recorded music on analogue and digital formats
simultaneously, thinking I will lose the music fidelity if I record it on digital
format. Analogue was considered </span><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">better, even now the studios do it that way. But again,
the studios too compromise on the digital sound processing equipment.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">So, let’s
talk about the eBooks revolution. Let us look at an example:<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">I
replaced DRACULA authored by Bram Stoker which was withered, whose pages had
come out of the binding and they were beginning to get scattered. Its font size
was about 9 or may be even smaller, the pages had lost whiteness to yellowish, and
the print was faded to grayish black not the readable like the bright black. In
effect, I never read it again.<o:p></o:p></span></em><br />
<em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></em></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">When I
replaced it by an eBook at Rs 50, the book came absolutely new into my hands,
with variable font sizes, color and background color.<o:p></o:p></span></em><br />
<em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></em></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-style: normal;">So, learn the
following:<o:p></o:p></span></em></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<ol>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">The
eBooks can be downloaded and they can lie on any hand-held device such as Android
Phone, iPhone, Tablet, PC or even desktops. No need to buy the Kindle hardware,
absolutely not.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">After downloading
from the internet, you can synchronize it on the device. The internet can then be
switched off. It is no longer required.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">The
number of books that you can download, is limited only by the phone memory. In my
case, it is 4GB + 132 GB on the Mi Max smartphone. The phone has 6 large inches
of screen display, which is very comfortable to read.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">The
number of books I hold on this phone today is more than 200, much more than my
personal paper book library. So many more could be downloaded. And high-resolution
photographs too. If you still run short of the 132 GB space, which is
unthinkable, Google Photos and Google drive can augment these numbers. And you
pay nothing extra for these.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">They
give heavy discounts on school books.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">To read
the books, all that you need is the download of the Kindle application on your
phone, or on your computer or any other android device. And all these books will
become available on just a click.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">You can
group books by categories or subjects. Such as Classics, Literatures, Fiction,
Travelogue, or anything you like. Like they do it in libraries. There is absolutely
no limit to these categories.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">The most
important aspect is the font. The book opens on your device with a font size
and font style that you are comfortable with. The fonts don’t remain fixed as
on a paper-book, almost uncomfortable for at least one individual coming to the
library. It can be from very small to extremely large, something unimaginable like
‘one word’ on the whole screen.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">The background
color that you select can be dark at night or any good color that you like in
day time.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">The book
opens with a page turn over indication. It imitates the book-turning as if you are
physically turning the books of a paper book.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">The
readability is excellent. If you are accustomed to read a book in reference ie
looking at pages simultaneously, then eBook is the only option. You could jump
from one page to another like we do it on HTML links, and then return to the original
page.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">On a
click on any word of the book from any page, you could open the Wikipedia or Oxford
Dictionary. It comes up in a flash, in seconds. It enhances your knowledge amazingly.
So, no need to go for a dictionary at hand when you read a text.</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">You can
highlight any word or a phrase in different colors and they remain available to
you forever, thereafter. You could even edit those.</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Millions
of books you always wanted to read, become now available to you. You can fetch sleep
not by pills but by reading your favorite book, available on just a click while
you continue tossing around in bed. It is so very easy to carry the eBooks
around, just your phone.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "cambria" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">It’s the
eBook and eMusic revolution. Be a part of it. All that you need is the
willingness to experiment. And hardly any price.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Publishwithline">
<span style="background-color: white;"><w:sdt contentlocked="t" id="89512093" sdtgroup="t"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 1.0pt;"><w:sdtpr></w:sdtpr><w:sdt docpart="09C99A0865EA4ACAA04639D1A803BA99" id="89512082" storeitemid="X_5F329CAD-B019-4FA6-9FEF-74898909AD20" text="t" title="Post Title" xpath="/ns0:BlogPostInfo/ns0:PostTitle"></w:sdt></span>
</w:sdt>
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
mikeranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09781399845785759148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1992114554590740748.post-71320320965791059962017-06-07T21:49:00.000-07:002018-03-04T21:11:55.309-08:00Who else wants to visit Dalian <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">Dalian competes well with the most glamorous cities of the world. I found it more glittery and flashy than what people told me. Now, after my visit, I know that it’s more captivating and mysterious than whatever they wrote. Does it allure you too to visit Dalian? Probably it does.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’m sure you’d consult Google before you plan your visit. But maps shouldn’t be your only reference. Goggle maps are dependable but Google itself is blocked in China. Lonely Planet hasn’t published a guide for Dalian. In Dalian, it might take you a few days to lay hands on an English tourist map. If you don’t wanna be disoriented, you better carry some information on printouts or on the pen drive. Otherwise, down the memory lane, after you return, you might continue to miss Dalian, as an enigma.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Does it have history</h2>
<div>
Dalian is unlike the heavily traveled Beijing, Xi’an or Hangzhou. Those cities are dominated by palaces, temples and museums, which emphasize their long history and rich culture. In contrast, Dalian in the Liaoning peninsula, is a dynamic, vibrant and modern city.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A hundred years back it was just a fishermen’s village, and look where it has reached. It now boasts of a maritime extravaganza, a shipping yard and a locomotive factory. And it has a lot of high rise buildings, parks and eateries. In 2007 February, it was granted the title of “China Best Tourist City” and Google called it "The most livable city in China".</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The first half of these years saw power struggles between Russian, Japanese and Chinese, but now with China becoming a super power, Dalian has its singular status. Being declared a sister city of many similar cities like Vancouver, Vladivostok, Glasgow and others, there is enough potential for Dalian’s further development and tourism. But for me St Petersburg in Russia, should be called its twin city. There are very many reasons for that statement.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Both the cities are ports and Dalian is more befitting as a harbor because the sea water does not freeze here, as in St Petersburg. It remains functional throughout the year.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqOXZ1IgtTWs5SO-ewqbPhznv4aENfjQXbAvnj3fdMOAvIu7KVY11gTYYLnLs0vpvnPgDBWmbaxXmITHBKDweJ6oqmi547PjyIKwqYbdNTrJaCkPWATx8jzM_TwTjxX_ti1DbydEP_7EYz/s1600/2016-05-01+Dalian+Museum+High-008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqOXZ1IgtTWs5SO-ewqbPhznv4aENfjQXbAvnj3fdMOAvIu7KVY11gTYYLnLs0vpvnPgDBWmbaxXmITHBKDweJ6oqmi547PjyIKwqYbdNTrJaCkPWATx8jzM_TwTjxX_ti1DbydEP_7EYz/s400/2016-05-01+Dalian+Museum+High-008.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_wxdI4mHWqjpRs2UM0vtj8BKB9NeU4rsnMCWZAHAjtUpCMx7JTIoo9pU7b2oeBP_Yr7RLvOujvSEnwyZctkSvbKbQ1Gct054eDTBdv4_m5HBPmbowe6vBBMpYGoRzs6WN4OkvHvVxKen/s1600/2016-05-01+Dalian+Museum+High-009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="955" data-original-width="1600" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_wxdI4mHWqjpRs2UM0vtj8BKB9NeU4rsnMCWZAHAjtUpCMx7JTIoo9pU7b2oeBP_Yr7RLvOujvSEnwyZctkSvbKbQ1Gct054eDTBdv4_m5HBPmbowe6vBBMpYGoRzs6WN4OkvHvVxKen/s400/2016-05-01+Dalian+Museum+High-009.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two related paintings at Dalian Museum</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Emotionally, the residents in both these cities carry history in their heads. If St Petersburg (erstwhile Leningrad) suffered at the hands of Germans, Dalian’s previous generations also took the onslaught of misery of the struggles for power. If Leningraders get the credit of recovering from the wintry torture of the German seize (more than two years i.e. 1941 until 1943), which took them three generations, I think Dalianites will do it only in two generations.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’ve personally seen the first generation suffer in Russia and the one-night turmoil that took place when the old Ruble was converted to the new one. I shudder to think of the pensioners when their savings of life time were reduced to rubble overnight. Most of them were unable to buy a pair of shoes from their rainy day funds. It was a government-inflicted poverty, on which no one dared raise voices. How would you feel if you’re in that situation, and overnight at that? I was so moved at their impasse that I framed the old Ruble note, and kept it hanging as a souvenir in my office. It does remind me pitifully, of the so called pensionary funds, which are so fragile in the hands of the governments. I am myself a pensioner.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dalian too bore the brunt of smaller wars than the World War II, and the suffering on people was no less, - poverty, food shortages, and deaths. Thought, this agony was not emphasized in the world. May be China was hidden behind a metaphorical wall. I empathized and fell in love with these hapless residents in both the cities in my very first visit. I’ve seen them recover, and something tells me that the present generation of vibrant youth, coupled with modern internet facilities and international travels, would probably turn out equal if not better than St Petersburg.<br />
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Major Benchmarks in the City</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
All maps give you a static impression of a city. They show the placement of different benchmarks and if you’re quick-witted, you can memorize them. But it is important that, as a traveler, you grasp a mental picture instead, and do that rather quickly. That mental abstract helps you through the streets and corners of the city in your day to day wanderings. For example, in Delhi you memorize everything with reference to Ring Road, or in Paris Eiffel tower is the relevant vantage point.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There were two such roads that always rang a bell in my mind in Dalian.<br />
<br /></div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
Roads and Plazas</h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of them, is the Renmin road that extends from the Gangwan square to the Zhongshan square, about 4 KM long. It houses a lot of the high-rise buildings such as the Shangri-La hotel, the New Friendship Store and the like. The road presents a breathtaking view of the modern architecture, and walking on it merges you with the commoners on the street. Beyond the Zhongshan square, it extends to Zhongshan road.<br />
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<span style="text-align: justify;">The other one is the Binhai (coastal) road, a stretch of 30 kilometers, that leads you through the sea resorts and beaches of the city. What do you think of a city that has a coastal line of about 1900 kilometers? Not a city; to me it is more like an island. Being on that road a few times, was indeed a pleasure. If you miss this road, then Dalian will remain just another metropolitan city of the lots, in your memories.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Your entire travel could concentrate on or around just these two roads and you’d have covered half of the city. Most of the plazas or squares for example, Shengli (Victory) Plaza, Olympic Square, Gangwan (Bay Square in English), YouHao (Friendship) square, Xiwang (Hope) square, Renmin (popularly known as Stalin) square, Xinghai (represents the reunion of Hong Kong to mainland China) are all on these roads. Whether you stay for a week or a month, these very names will be reverberating in your mind. You can easily configure the bus routes based on these concepts of squares and radial roads.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One benchmark which you can’t shut eyes to is the flyover that converts the Jeifang road to Wuhui road. The 5-star Kempinski hotel standing majestically on this turn marks the beginning of the Wuhui street. Whether you pass over it at night or in the day time you’ll simply be overawed by its glamour. If you’re not dazzled by the night illumination pampered by the hotels Meridian, Swish or Parkland, you will certainly be blown away by the gold tinted sea food restaurant which stand shoulder to shoulder to the Meridian. And what to speak of the of array of car headlights at night or when there is downpour. It is simply astounding. You cannot but choose to pass on or around the flyover.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<h2>
Style and Architecture</h2>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The city follows the Paris style layout. Radials roads stretch between each plaza, square or площадь (space - in Russian). Because in modern times such roads are prone to traffic congestion, therefore designers tend to arrange construction in avenues and blocks as in New York, Toronto or Chandigarh in India. So if you take a wrong road you could be drastically diverting from your intended destination, and returning back to the starting point will be the only choice, whether you take or leave it. Historically both the Russians and the Japanese preferred to build Dalian as a regal and majestic city, and they both followed this style. Maybe they didn’t expect such voluminous growth. And now the Chinese are continuing with the same paradigm, only they make them imposing in size.<br />
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Bus stops</span></h2>
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To say that the roads and public transport infrastructure is excellent, is an understatement. The buses are in abundance and frequency of their plying is countless. The beauty is that multiple routes can be chosen for the same destination. On a major bus stop you’ll find multiple sub-bus stops, each for a different destination. If you know the destination then choose the direct route, but if not as I was in the beginning, you choose any route and you will reach your destination somehow or the other, by indirect routes.</div>
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On every sub-bus stop, which may be within a few meters of each other, there is a route chart depicted on beautifully designed displays. They appear neater than a billboard. The only information lacking on these may be the maps or photographs. No commercial ads are vandalizing or defacing their surfaces, as they invariably do in India.</div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">These charts have two sides, on one side is inscribed the route in Chinese and the other side is in English. Every bus-stops in the route appears on these displays and the current stop is highlighted. If you read the display upwards, you get the route in the reverse order (that is all the stops which went past up to this point) and if you read downwards you get the stops that are forthcoming on the way ahead.</span><br />
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So looking at all the displays on the bus-stops, you can determine which bus must be taken for a particular location. You don’t have to ask for help, if you know the name of the place that you wanna visit.</div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Of course every stop follows a queue and one Yuan is collected from every passenger by the driver, in a box placed for this purpose. No body travels without ticket. And if you make a mistake, get down anywhere and change over to the new route. It is well affordable at 1 Yuan per trip.</span><br />
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Cars and Public Transport</h2>
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And cars! you name a brand and it is there in Dalian. I found Bentley and Porsche with young girls on wheels. Both sides of the roads and streets were lined up with abundance of cars. Mercedes all models, BMW's, Volkswagen, Volvo, Toyota and Nissan and almost all form of SUV's are parked on both the sides. I didn’t fail to notice, and you too will find, that they were brilliantly polished and shining. And what a surprise, sometime the ladies were seen taking up the role in the car care. I’s so excited at the array and brands of cars on display, that a special section for cars and public transports was crafted in my portfolio of photographs.</div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">The cars take turns for parking; in day time the office goers park near their offices and they return at night to park close to their residences. Amazing that they find adequate space, and each parking bay is marked with paint or with bricks. I think it is a good arrangement and I wish we followed it in India. There were however excellent parking spaces in the bottom three floors of high rise buildings.</span><br />
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Taxi drivers. they do not cheat as in other countries, probably they don’t find fresh tourists in their day to day operations. Everyone is aware of what price one should be paying for one'strip. The taxi driver is assured of 10 Yuan every trip. So why would he cheat.</div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.5;">There are very little metros in Dalian. Out of the proposed 5 lines only one works for the time being, and I guess they aren’t emphasizing on them. Since the other systems are working without glitches. Some places within the downtown area, are connected with trams. Two typ</span>es exist; one the classic type - the older version and another the newer type - the modern looking.<br />
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Pricing Euphoria</h2>
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Yuan is the currency in China. The distinction between the terms <em>renminbi</em> and <em>yuan</em> is similar to that between <em>sterling</em> and <em>pound</em>, which respectively refer to the British currency and its primary unit.</div>
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Aren’t you surprised that the one trip on local bus costs only 1 Yuan (about Rs 10) and the taxi fare varies between 10 Yuan to 30 Yuan. The local train fares are similar. Won’t it allure you to be in Dalian, and travel around? It is far too little than in Europe or in America. Are you crazy, the whole of the Dalian city can be traversed in taxi by spending less than 500 Rupees?<br />
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Conclusion</h2>
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If what I described to you is Greek and Latin, or Chinese, you could explore the city yourself and find pleasure in abundance.</div>
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mikeranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09781399845785759148noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1992114554590740748.post-14261963900948362452017-05-31T08:16:00.000-07:002018-03-04T21:12:35.319-08:00UNEXPLAINED - an eerie story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #283d4b; font-family: fondamento, cursive;">UNEXPLAINED</span><br />
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“Is Søren Swami already dead or is he inside your mind, Vidur?” Rupaena the Visha Kanya asked.</div>
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“He reincarnates and becomes a reality, unlike Dracula who rose from his grave only at night. I fear him more for he deals with spirits belonging to his own domain. He has an army of them.”</div>
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“But you killed him, didn’t you?”</div>
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“Yeah… but …”</div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.in/UNEXPLAINED-eerie-story-Swami-S%C3%B8ren-ebook/dp/B072FLWNVL?_encoding=UTF8&keywords=mike%20rana%20unexpalined&qid=1496406584&ref_=sr_1_sc_1&s=books&sr=1-1-spell">Buy in Indian Currency eBook only (Rs 260)</a><br />
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mikeranahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09781399845785759148noreply@blogger.com1Gurugram, Haryana, India28.4594965 77.02663830000005928.236067 76.703914800000064 28.682926000000002 77.349361800000054