Global warming could bring ferocious sharks to Antarctic waters, threatening a unique marine life shielded from predators by frigid conditions for millions of years, biologists warn.
Biologists gathered here for the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science warned that the return of predators to Antarctica could prove devastating to its underwater ecosystem.
Antarctica's surrounding waters remain too cold for sharks and other fish capable of crushing shellfish similar to the mollusks living in the vast continent's seas, said University of Rhode Island biology professor Cheryl Wilga.
"As a result, the Antarctic seafloor has been dominated by relatively soft-bodied, slow-moving invertebrates, just as in ancient oceans prior to the evolution of shell-crushing predators," she told a news conference Friday on the sidelines of the conference.
But global warming has already pushed temperatures up by one to two degrees in the past 50 years, and the waters could become hospitable to sharks within the next 100 years, she said.
"The water only needs to remain above freezing year round for it to become habitable to some sharks, and at the rate we're going, that could happen this century," Wilga said.
"Once they get there, it will completely change the ecology of the Antarctic benthic community," she said.
While sharks may one day roam Antarctic waters, crabs are already crawling closer to the vast continent for the first time in ages, adding one more worry for a marine life left intact since the Paleozoic area of 250 million to 500 million years ago, biologists said.
"Predatory crabs are poised to return to warming Antarctic waters for the first time in millions of years, which will disrupt the composition of the archaic marine communities," Rick Aronson, of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama, told the news conference.
"Shallow-water, benthic communities in Antarctica are unique," he said. "Nowhere else do giant pycnogonids, nemerteans and isopods occur in shallow marine environments, cohabiting with fish that have anti-freeze glycoproteins in their blood."
Sven Thatje of National Oceanography Center in Southampton, Britain, urged the international community to take action to curb greenhouse gases that cause global warming and prevent an ecological disaster.
"The crabs are on the doorsteps, they are sitting in deep water, and only a couple of hundred bathymetric meters now separate them from the slightly cooler shallow water in Antarctic shelf environment," he said.
The oceanographer made the crab discovery with other British journalists in January 2007.
He warned that the return of shell-cracking predators to Antarctica "would be a tragic loss for biodiversity in one of the last wild places on Earth."
Feb 15, 2008
Feb 13, 2008
MOTHER
MOTHER This is a truly BEAUTIFUL piece. PleaseRead this at a slow pace, digesting every word and inLeisure...do not hurry... This is a treasure...For those lucky to still be blessed with your Mom,This is beautiful. For those of us who aren't, this is Even more beautiful. For those who are moms, you'll love this.
The young mother set her foot on the path of life. 'IsThis the long way?' she asked. And the guide said: 'Yes, and the way is hard. And you will be old before you reach the end of it... ButThe end will be better than the beginning.'
But the young mother was happy, and she would notBelieve that anything could be better than these years. So she Played with her children, and gathered flowers forThem along the way, and bathed them in the clear streams; andThe sun shone on them, and the young Mother cried,'Nothing will ever be lovelier than this.'
Then the night came, and the storm, and the path wasDark, and the children shook with fear and cold, and the mother Drew them close and covered them with her mantle, and the children said, 'Mother, we are not afraid, for you are near, and no harm can come.' And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead, andThe children climbed and grew weary, and the mother was weary. But at all times she said to the children,' A little patience and we are there.'So the children climbed, and when they reached the topThey said, 'Mother, we would not have done it without you.'
And the mother, when she lay down at night looked upAt the stars and said, 'This is a better day than the last, for my Children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I gave them courage. Today, I 've given them strength.'
And the next day came strange clouds which darkenedThe earth, clouds of war and hate and evil, and the children groped And stumbled, and the mother said: 'Look up. Lift your eyes to the light. ' And the children looked and saw above the clouds An everlasting glory, and it guided them beyond theDarkness. And that night the Mother said, 'This is the best day of all, forI have shown my children God.' And the days went on, and the weeks and the months andThe years, and the mother grew old and she was little and bent. But her children were tall and strong, and walked with Courage. And when the way was rough, they lifted her, For she was as light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill,And beyond they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide. And Mother said, 'I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know the end Is better than the beginning, for my children canWalk alone, and their children after them.'
And the children said, 'You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates.'And they stood and watched her as she went on alone, and the gatesClosed after her. And they said: 'We cannot see her But she is with us still. A Mother like ours is more than a memory. She Is a living presence.... ...'Your Mother is always with you... She's the whisper Of the leaves as you walk down the street; she's the smell of bleachIn your freshly laundered socks; she's the cool handOn your brow when you're not well. Your Mother lives Inside your laughter. And she's crystallized in every tear drop. She's the place you came from, your first home; andshe's the map you follow with every step you take. She's your first loveAnd your first heartbreak, and nothing on earth can Separate you.Not time, not space... Not even death!
PASS THIS ON TO ALL THE MOTHERS &CHILDREN YOU KNOW.MAY WE NEVER TAKE OUR MOTHERS FOR GRANTED...Pass it on to the men too, because they have mothers also...
Best Regards
Kamini Sharma
Ballarpur Industries Limited
First India Place, Tower C
Mehrauli Gurgaon Road
Gurgaon 122002
Tel : ++91 124 4099217
Fax: ++91 124 2560019
Best Regards
Kamini Sharma
Ballarpur Industries Limited
First India Place, Tower C
Mehrauli Gurgaon Road
Gurgaon 122002
Tel : ++91 124 4099217
Fax: ++91 124 2560019
Banished within & without < bhsriram@gmail.com >
Hi Folks,I was reading through the Opinion section of the TOI today and came across this article in which Talisma Nasreen talks about how and what she feels about India. I think it is a must read for all of those who care to find out what it feels to be in an Alien land wanting to belong there with glim chances. I have also attached notes on what I feel about her situation highlighted in Grey.I hope you enjoy this read.:)Raju
It is not about boasting of a LN Mittal, or a Hinduja that India is coming of age in the modern world. We as nation of a Billion have always been a nation of contradictions and hypocrites. In Introducing ourselves as a nation in the preamble, we include the word secular... and we provide Haj Pilgrimage assistance and have Endowments departments that run the temples of the country. The few educated (Not literate) and the qualified, are just a drop who would go awash in the ocean of over a billion common men who have neither any common sense nor put their ideas and words of patriotism into action in achieving the ideals of ours as a nation. The ultimate Indian mantra of salvation "Aham Bhrasmi" (I am the Universe), is what MOST of us practice in true utter literal sense. We are concerned and live by the rule of "I, Me & Mine".Dear Writer, I apologize to you on behalf of a majority my fellow countrymen who aren't able to think with common sense in supporting the freedoms that we fought for from 1857 to 1947. I do not know when, but I hope the resurrection of the great ideals of liberty, fraternity and equality that the we as a nation fought for over centuries becomes a reality in our daily lives at least in my life time which would enable us to revere, hug and share the true warmth of indianness with all the souls like you who feel belonged and find salvation here. ____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ Banished within & without10
://timesofindia .indiatimes. com/Banished_ within__without/ articleshow/ 2770240.cms
Although I was not born an Indian, there is very little about my appearance, my tastes, my habits and my traditions to distinguish me from a daughter of the soil. My father was born before Partition; the strange history of this subcontinent made him a citizen of three states, his daughter a national of two. In a village in what was then East Bengal, there once lived a poor farmer by the name of Haradhan Sarkar, one of whose sons, Komol, driven to fury by zamindari oppression, converted to Islam and became Kamal. I belong to this family. Haradhan Sarkar was my great-grandfather's father. Haradhan's other descendants obviously moved to India either during or after Partition and became citizens of this country. My grandfather, a Muslim, did not. When I was a child, the notion of the once fashionable pan-Islamic theory was exploded by East Pakistani Muslims fighting their West Pakistani co-religionists. Our struggle was for Bengali nationalism and secularism. Even though I was born well after Partition, the notion of undivided India held me in thrall. I wrote a number of poems and stories lamenting the loss of undivided Bengal, indeed undivided India, even before I visited this country. I simply could not bring myself to accept the bit of barbed wire that kept families and friends apart even though they shared a common language and culture. What hurt most was that this wire had been secured by religion. By my early teens I had forsaken religion and turned towards secular humanism and feminism which sprang from within me and were in no way artificially imposed. My father, a man with a modern scientific outlook, encouraged me to introspect and as I grew older I broke away not just from religion but also from all traditions and customs, indeed the very culture which constantly oppressed, suppressed and denigrated women. When I first visited India, specifically West Bengal, in 1989, I did not for an instant think I was in a foreign land. From the moment I set foot on Indian soil, I knew I belonged here and that it was, in some fundamental way, inseparable from the land I called my own. The reason for this was not my Hindu forebear. The reason was not that one of India's many cultures is my own or that I speak one of her many languages or that I look Indian. It is because the values and traditions of India are embedded deeply within me. These values and traditions are a manifestation of the history of the subcontinent. I am a victim of that history. Then again, I have been enriched and enlivened by it, if one can call it so. I am a victim of its poverty, colonial legacy, faiths, communalism, violence, bloodshed, partition, migrations, exodus, riots, wars and even theories of nationhood. I have been hardened further by my life and experiences in a poverty- and famine-stricken, ill-governed state called Bangladesh. The intolerance and bigotry of Islamic fundamentalists forced me to leave Bangladesh. I was forced to go into exile; the doors of my own country slammed shut on my face for good. Since that moment, I sought refuge in India. When I was finally allowed entry, not for an instant did I think I was in an alien land. Why did I not think so, especially when every other country in Asia, Europe and America felt alien to me? Even after spending 12 years in Europe I could not think of it as my home. It took less than a minute to think of India as my home. Is it because we, India and I, share a common history? Had East Bengal remained a province of undivided India, would the state have tolerated an attack on basic human freedoms and values and the call for death by hanging of a secular writer by the proponents of fundamentalist Islam and self-seeking politicians? How would a secular democracy have reacted to this threat against one of its own? Or is the burden of defending human and democratic values solely a European or American concern? The gates of India remained firmly shut when I needed her shelter the most. The Europeans welcomed me with open arms. Yet, in Europe I always considered myself a stranger, an outsider. After 12 long years in exile when I arrived in India it felt as though I had been resurrected from some lonely grave. I knew this land, I knew the people, I had grown up somewhere very similar, almost indistinguishable. I felt the need to do something for this land and its people. There was a burning desire within me to see that women become educated and independent, that they stand up for and demand their rights and freedom. I wanted my writing to invigorate and contribute in some way to the empowerment of these women who had always been oppressed and suppressed. Meanwhile, a few Islamic fundamentalists in Hyderabad chose to launch a physical attack on me, motivated by the desire to gain popularity among the local masses. This is the manner in which Islamic fundamentalists in secular India are attempting to entice poor, uneducated, uninformed Muslims while simultaneously looking to solidify their votebank within the community. After hearing of the incident in Hyderabad, fundamentalist leaders in West Bengal, where I live, became so excited that they wasted no time in issuing fatwas against me. Students from madrasas who did not even know of my existence joined the fray. They knew of my 'blasphemy' without having read a single one of my books. How did they know? Because their leaders had assured them I had made it my mission to destroy Islam. Therefore, it was their individual and collective responsibility to protect and preserve their faith. Can one find a more perfect example of brainwashing? While their knowledge of my work may be infinitesimal, their knowledge of Islam is equally so and they have turned their faith into a commodity for their own base ends. Almost 20% of India's population is Muslim and, unfortunately, the most vocal representatives of this considerable community are fundamentalists. Educated, civilized, cultured and secular people from the Muslim community are not regarded as representative of the community. What can be a greater tragedy than this? A greater tragedy, arguably, is that I may have to endure in progressive India what I had to endure in Bangladesh. I live practically under house arrest. No public place is allegedly safe for me any longer. Nothing is above suspicion, not even the homes of friends. Even stepping out for a walk is considered unsafe. It is felt I should spend my days in a poorly lit room, grappling with shadows. Those who threaten to kill me are allowed to spew their venom. They have tacitly been given the right to do whatever they desire, from disturbing peace with their demonstrations to terrorizing the common man in the name of faith. Those who oppose them and their unholy brand of communalism, those who take a stance against injustice and untruth are silenced in invidious ways. I am warned both implicitly and explicitly that, for example, a fundamentalists' demonstration is about to take place and it would be best for all concerned if I quietly left the country. Of course, do return by all means, but only when the situation has calmed down, I am advised. But will the situation ever calm down? For the last 13 years I have been waiting for the situation to calm down. I was told the same thing when I left Bangladesh to go into exile. I refuse to leave because to leave would be to accept defeat and hand fundamentalists the victory they have always desired. It would spell defeat for the freedom of expression, independence of thought, democracy and secularism. I simply refuse to allow them this victory. If they are eventually victorious, the loss will be as much mine as India's. If India gives in to the fundamentalists' demand to deport me, the list of demands will become an endless one. A deportation today, a ban tomorrow, an execution the day after. Where will it cease? They will pursue their agenda with boundless enthusiasm, knowing that victory is certain. And, of course, the secular state and its secular custodians will bow down to their every whim and fancy. Giving in to their demands is not a solution and any attempt to appease them makes them even more dangerous and pernicious. Even in my worst nightmares I had not imagined that I would be persecuted in India as I was in Bangladesh. Persecuted by the majority in one and a minority in another, but persecuted just the same. The bigotry, the intolerance, the death threats, the terrors: all the same. I often wonder what good it would do them to kill me. The fundamentalists are very well aware that it may bring them some benefit but will do nothing for the cause of Islam. Islam will remain as it has always remained. Neither I nor any other individual has the ability to destabilize Islam. The face of fundamentalism, its language and its intentions are the same the world over: to grab civilization by the scruff of its neck and drag it back a few millennia, kicking and screaming. My world is gradually shrinking. I, who once roamed the streets without a care in the world, am now shackled. Always outspoken, I am now silenced, unable to demonstrate, left without the means of protesting for what I hold dear. Film festivals, concerts and plays continue around me but I cannot participate. I spend my existence surrounded by walls: a prisoner. But I refuse to acknowledge this as my destiny. I still believe that one day I will be able to resume the life I once enjoyed. I still believe that India, unlike Bangladesh, will triumph over fundamentalism. I still believe that I will find shelter and solace here. The love and affection of Indians is my true shelter and solace. I still believe I will be able to spend the rest of my life here free of worries.
Although I was not born an Indian, there is very little about my appearance, my tastes, my habits and my traditions to distinguish me from a daughter of the soil. My father was born before Partition; the strange history of this subcontinent made him a citizen of three states, his daughter a national of two. In a village in what was then East Bengal, there once lived a poor farmer by the name of Haradhan Sarkar, one of whose sons, Komol, driven to fury by zamindari oppression, converted to Islam and became Kamal. I belong to this family. Haradhan Sarkar was my great-grandfather's father. Haradhan's other descendants obviously moved to India either during or after Partition and became citizens of this country. My grandfather, a Muslim, did not. When I was a child, the notion of the once fashionable pan-Islamic theory was exploded by East Pakistani Muslims fighting their West Pakistani co-religionists. Our struggle was for Bengali nationalism and secularism. Even though I was born well after Partition, the notion of undivided India held me in thrall. I wrote a number of poems and stories lamenting the loss of undivided Bengal, indeed undivided India, even before I visited this country. I simply could not bring myself to accept the bit of barbed wire that kept families and friends apart even though they shared a common language and culture. What hurt most was that this wire had been secured by religion. By my early teens I had forsaken religion and turned towards secular humanism and feminism which sprang from within me and were in no way artificially imposed. My father, a man with a modern scientific outlook, encouraged me to introspect and as I grew older I broke away not just from religion but also from all traditions and customs, indeed the very culture which constantly oppressed, suppressed and denigrated women. When I first visited India, specifically West Bengal, in 1989, I did not for an instant think I was in a foreign land. From the moment I set foot on Indian soil, I knew I belonged here and that it was, in some fundamental way, inseparable from the land I called my own. The reason for this was not my Hindu forebear. The reason was not that one of India's many cultures is my own or that I speak one of her many languages or that I look Indian. It is because the values and traditions of India are embedded deeply within me. These values and traditions are a manifestation of the history of the subcontinent. I am a victim of that history. Then again, I have been enriched and enlivened by it, if one can call it so. I am a victim of its poverty, colonial legacy, faiths, communalism, violence, bloodshed, partition, migrations, exodus, riots, wars and even theories of nationhood. I have been hardened further by my life and experiences in a poverty- and famine-stricken, ill-governed state called Bangladesh. The intolerance and bigotry of Islamic fundamentalists forced me to leave Bangladesh. I was forced to go into exile; the doors of my own country slammed shut on my face for good. Since that moment, I sought refuge in India. When I was finally allowed entry, not for an instant did I think I was in an alien land. Why did I not think so, especially when every other country in Asia, Europe and America felt alien to me? Even after spending 12 years in Europe I could not think of it as my home. It took less than a minute to think of India as my home. Is it because we, India and I, share a common history? Had East Bengal remained a province of undivided India, would the state have tolerated an attack on basic human freedoms and values and the call for death by hanging of a secular writer by the proponents of fundamentalist Islam and self-seeking politicians? How would a secular democracy have reacted to this threat against one of its own? Or is the burden of defending human and democratic values solely a European or American concern? The gates of India remained firmly shut when I needed her shelter the most. The Europeans welcomed me with open arms. Yet, in Europe I always considered myself a stranger, an outsider. After 12 long years in exile when I arrived in India it felt as though I had been resurrected from some lonely grave. I knew this land, I knew the people, I had grown up somewhere very similar, almost indistinguishable. I felt the need to do something for this land and its people. There was a burning desire within me to see that women become educated and independent, that they stand up for and demand their rights and freedom. I wanted my writing to invigorate and contribute in some way to the empowerment of these women who had always been oppressed and suppressed. Meanwhile, a few Islamic fundamentalists in Hyderabad chose to launch a physical attack on me, motivated by the desire to gain popularity among the local masses. This is the manner in which Islamic fundamentalists in secular India are attempting to entice poor, uneducated, uninformed Muslims while simultaneously looking to solidify their votebank within the community. After hearing of the incident in Hyderabad, fundamentalist leaders in West Bengal, where I live, became so excited that they wasted no time in issuing fatwas against me. Students from madrasas who did not even know of my existence joined the fray. They knew of my 'blasphemy' without having read a single one of my books. How did they know? Because their leaders had assured them I had made it my mission to destroy Islam. Therefore, it was their individual and collective responsibility to protect and preserve their faith. Can one find a more perfect example of brainwashing? While their knowledge of my work may be infinitesimal, their knowledge of Islam is equally so and they have turned their faith into a commodity for their own base ends. Almost 20% of India's population is Muslim and, unfortunately, the most vocal representatives of this considerable community are fundamentalists. Educated, civilized, cultured and secular people from the Muslim community are not regarded as representative of the community. What can be a greater tragedy than this? A greater tragedy, arguably, is that I may have to endure in progressive India what I had to endure in Bangladesh. I live practically under house arrest. No public place is allegedly safe for me any longer. Nothing is above suspicion, not even the homes of friends. Even stepping out for a walk is considered unsafe. It is felt I should spend my days in a poorly lit room, grappling with shadows. Those who threaten to kill me are allowed to spew their venom. They have tacitly been given the right to do whatever they desire, from disturbing peace with their demonstrations to terrorizing the common man in the name of faith. Those who oppose them and their unholy brand of communalism, those who take a stance against injustice and untruth are silenced in invidious ways. I am warned both implicitly and explicitly that, for example, a fundamentalists' demonstration is about to take place and it would be best for all concerned if I quietly left the country. Of course, do return by all means, but only when the situation has calmed down, I am advised. But will the situation ever calm down? For the last 13 years I have been waiting for the situation to calm down. I was told the same thing when I left Bangladesh to go into exile. I refuse to leave because to leave would be to accept defeat and hand fundamentalists the victory they have always desired. It would spell defeat for the freedom of expression, independence of thought, democracy and secularism. I simply refuse to allow them this victory. If they are eventually victorious, the loss will be as much mine as India's. If India gives in to the fundamentalists' demand to deport me, the list of demands will become an endless one. A deportation today, a ban tomorrow, an execution the day after. Where will it cease? They will pursue their agenda with boundless enthusiasm, knowing that victory is certain. And, of course, the secular state and its secular custodians will bow down to their every whim and fancy. Giving in to their demands is not a solution and any attempt to appease them makes them even more dangerous and pernicious. Even in my worst nightmares I had not imagined that I would be persecuted in India as I was in Bangladesh. Persecuted by the majority in one and a minority in another, but persecuted just the same. The bigotry, the intolerance, the death threats, the terrors: all the same. I often wonder what good it would do them to kill me. The fundamentalists are very well aware that it may bring them some benefit but will do nothing for the cause of Islam. Islam will remain as it has always remained. Neither I nor any other individual has the ability to destabilize Islam. The face of fundamentalism, its language and its intentions are the same the world over: to grab civilization by the scruff of its neck and drag it back a few millennia, kicking and screaming. My world is gradually shrinking. I, who once roamed the streets without a care in the world, am now shackled. Always outspoken, I am now silenced, unable to demonstrate, left without the means of protesting for what I hold dear. Film festivals, concerts and plays continue around me but I cannot participate. I spend my existence surrounded by walls: a prisoner. But I refuse to acknowledge this as my destiny. I still believe that one day I will be able to resume the life I once enjoyed. I still believe that India, unlike Bangladesh, will triumph over fundamentalism. I still believe that I will find shelter and solace here. The love and affection of Indians is my true shelter and solace. I still believe I will be able to spend the rest of my life here free of worries.
I love this country. I treat this land as my own. If I were to be ejected from this country, it would amount to cold-blooded murder of my most cherished ideals, perhaps a fate far worse than I could meet at the hands of any fundamentalist. I have nowhere to go, no country or home to return to. India is my country, my home. How much more will I have to endure at the hands of fundamentalists and their vote-grabbing political allies for the cardinal sin of daring to articulate the truth? If the subcontinent turns its back on me I have nowhere to go, no means to survive. Even after all that has happened, I still believe, I still dream, that for a sincere, honest, secular writer, India is the safest refuge, the only refuge.
Feb 12, 2008
"What do they do here?"............bhsriram@gmail.com
man dies and goes to hell. There he finds that there is a different hell for each country.He goes to the German hell and asks, "What do they do here?" He told, "First they put you in an electric chair for An hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the German devil comes in and beats you for the rest of the day."
The man does not like the sound of that at all, so he moves on. He checks out the USA hell as well as the Russian hell and many more. He discovers that they are all more or less the same as the German hell. Then he comes to the Indian hell and finds that there is a long line of people waiting to get in. Amazed, he asks, "What do they do here?" He is told, "First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the Indian devil comes in and beats you for the rest of the day."
"But that is exactly the same as all the other hells - why are there so many people waiting to get in?""Because maintenance is so bad that the electric chair does not work, someone has stolen all the nails from the bed and the devil is a former Govt. servant. He comes in, signs the register and then goes to the canteen !!!!! !
The man does not like the sound of that at all, so he moves on. He checks out the USA hell as well as the Russian hell and many more. He discovers that they are all more or less the same as the German hell. Then he comes to the Indian hell and finds that there is a long line of people waiting to get in. Amazed, he asks, "What do they do here?" He is told, "First they put you in an electric chair for an hour. Then they lay you on a bed of nails for another hour. Then the Indian devil comes in and beats you for the rest of the day."
"But that is exactly the same as all the other hells - why are there so many people waiting to get in?""Because maintenance is so bad that the electric chair does not work, someone has stolen all the nails from the bed and the devil is a former Govt. servant. He comes in, signs the register and then goes to the canteen !!!!! !
Management Lesson: venkat_eedupuganti@yahoo.com
One fine day, a bus driver went to the bus garage, started his bus, and drove off along the route. No problems for the first few stops - a few people got on, a few got off, and things went generally well.
At the next stop, however, a big hulk of a guy got on. Six feet eight,built like a wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground. He glared at the driver and said, "Big John doesn't pay!" and sat down at the back.
Did I mention that the driver was five feet three, thin, and basically meek? Well, he was. Naturally, he didn't argue with Big John, but he wasn't happy about it. The next day the same thing happened - Big John got on again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down. And the next day, and the next.
This grated on the bus driver, who started losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him. Finally he could stand it no longer. He signed up for body building courses, karate, judo, and all that good stuff.
By the end of the summer, he had become quite strong; what's more, he felt really good about himself. So on the next Monday, when Big John once again got on the bus and said, "Big John doesn't pay!"
The driver stood up, glared back at the passenger, and screamed, "And why not?"
With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, "Big John has a bus pass."
Management Lesson: "Be sure there is a problem in the first place before working hard to solve one."
venkat_eedupuganti@yahoo.com
At the next stop, however, a big hulk of a guy got on. Six feet eight,built like a wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground. He glared at the driver and said, "Big John doesn't pay!" and sat down at the back.
Did I mention that the driver was five feet three, thin, and basically meek? Well, he was. Naturally, he didn't argue with Big John, but he wasn't happy about it. The next day the same thing happened - Big John got on again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down. And the next day, and the next.
This grated on the bus driver, who started losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him. Finally he could stand it no longer. He signed up for body building courses, karate, judo, and all that good stuff.
By the end of the summer, he had become quite strong; what's more, he felt really good about himself. So on the next Monday, when Big John once again got on the bus and said, "Big John doesn't pay!"
The driver stood up, glared back at the passenger, and screamed, "And why not?"
With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, "Big John has a bus pass."
Management Lesson: "Be sure there is a problem in the first place before working hard to solve one."
venkat_eedupuganti@yahoo.com
TCS cuts staff salaries in tune with tough times
Are companies fair with salary cuts? Write in ........
MUMBAI: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest software exporter, is effecting a small across-the-board cut in employee salaries based on the company’s performance in the third quarter, a move reflecting caution amid tough times for the outsourcing industry. A top company official confirmed the move while stock market analysts said TCS is sending signals that revenue growth has not met internal targets and employees can’t expect a big wage increase this year.
TCS has clipped a portion of the variable pay linked to its performance, effectively reducing an employee’s salary by about 1.5% for the January-March quarter, TCS executive director and global human resources head S Padmanabhan told ET. “We undertake a review of variable pay every quarter and this time, we decided to make an adjustment,” he said. “We will revisit it in April.” This is the first time in two years that the IT giant has reduced the variable portion linked to company performance. Mr Padmanabhan said the outsourcing sector faces macroeconomic challenges, which had to be factored in the quarterly review. The variable pay related to individual performance has not been touched, he added. “This can send a strong signal to the employees that revenues have not measured up to internal targets,” a Mumbai brokerage analyst said. “The cut is small and is unlikely to attract a howl of protests, but employees will get the message that all is not well with the sector. Instead of giving them a shock at the time of annual salary review, the management has sought to lower their expectations of wage inflation through this small cut,” the analyst said. TCS had reported a 5% quarter-on-quarter revenue growth and 6.7% rise in net profit for October-December, in line with market expectations. It had expressed ‘cautious optimism’ in the face of fears over a US slowdown and reasserted its ability to manage the rise in rupee’s external value. A recruitment expert said a move by any of the top three software companies to temper variable pay would be quickly followed by smaller companies. “In the last couple of months, we have seen some lead indicators that there is moderation in wage increases. Companies have been following a little bit of a cautious approach,” Ma Foi Consultants COO E Balaji said. Ma Foi data reveal that yearly wage hikes have fallen to ‘high single percentages’ from 15-16%. Job-hoppers get not more than a 12-15% hike in their new jobs compared to 25-30% earlier. “It is all part of the business cycle. Once stability comes back, wages will return to normalcy,” Mr Balaji said. After years of heady growth, India’s outsourcing industry is facing the prospect of a slowdown due to US economic worries triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis. Major clients may cut back their spending on technology and postpone upgradation
MUMBAI: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest software exporter, is effecting a small across-the-board cut in employee salaries based on the company’s performance in the third quarter, a move reflecting caution amid tough times for the outsourcing industry. A top company official confirmed the move while stock market analysts said TCS is sending signals that revenue growth has not met internal targets and employees can’t expect a big wage increase this year.
TCS has clipped a portion of the variable pay linked to its performance, effectively reducing an employee’s salary by about 1.5% for the January-March quarter, TCS executive director and global human resources head S Padmanabhan told ET. “We undertake a review of variable pay every quarter and this time, we decided to make an adjustment,” he said. “We will revisit it in April.” This is the first time in two years that the IT giant has reduced the variable portion linked to company performance. Mr Padmanabhan said the outsourcing sector faces macroeconomic challenges, which had to be factored in the quarterly review. The variable pay related to individual performance has not been touched, he added. “This can send a strong signal to the employees that revenues have not measured up to internal targets,” a Mumbai brokerage analyst said. “The cut is small and is unlikely to attract a howl of protests, but employees will get the message that all is not well with the sector. Instead of giving them a shock at the time of annual salary review, the management has sought to lower their expectations of wage inflation through this small cut,” the analyst said. TCS had reported a 5% quarter-on-quarter revenue growth and 6.7% rise in net profit for October-December, in line with market expectations. It had expressed ‘cautious optimism’ in the face of fears over a US slowdown and reasserted its ability to manage the rise in rupee’s external value. A recruitment expert said a move by any of the top three software companies to temper variable pay would be quickly followed by smaller companies. “In the last couple of months, we have seen some lead indicators that there is moderation in wage increases. Companies have been following a little bit of a cautious approach,” Ma Foi Consultants COO E Balaji said. Ma Foi data reveal that yearly wage hikes have fallen to ‘high single percentages’ from 15-16%. Job-hoppers get not more than a 12-15% hike in their new jobs compared to 25-30% earlier. “It is all part of the business cycle. Once stability comes back, wages will return to normalcy,” Mr Balaji said. After years of heady growth, India’s outsourcing industry is facing the prospect of a slowdown due to US economic worries triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis. Major clients may cut back their spending on technology and postpone upgradation
global warming
dear users,a thing that is spreading more eruptly then terrorism is global warming and that is all due to us(human Beings). lets start doing something from the second we stop reading this mail. everyone will have its own way to tackle the problem, my ways will be these: 1. make use of vehicles less if uu destination point is in walking distance and u have enough time. it will be a best practice for ur body as well as for human beings.2. switch on lights only where it is needed. switch them off where ever u find them of no use.3. when not in use switch off the computer moniter. switch off computer when it is not going to be used for the next 30 min. it will save power.4. stop excessive use of equipments that need power. better to switch to single mode of appliances use.forward this message to others also either in ur own words or the same.save energy stop global warming save life save earth ...
faith_mani@yahoo.com
faith_mani@yahoo.com
Hr Professionals wanted:lepra society
Dear HR Faternity,
If any one is looking for change, here is an opportunity:
http://www.leprasoc iety.org/ pdf/HRExecutive. pdf
Regards
Hari
If any one is looking for change, here is an opportunity:
http://www.leprasoc iety.org/ pdf/HRExecutive. pdf
Regards
Hari
Marketing-Head position in RelianceCommunications.
Dear All,We received information, seeking resumes from GITAMalumnus for Marketing-Head position in RelianceCommunications. The ideal person should have over 2-3years experience in sales/marketing in a reputedorganization. Salary is no constraint for thisposition.If you are interested send resumes immediately tokishankaza@gitam.edu.
With best wishes fromKishan kaza
Associate Professor (Training & Placement)College of Management Studies
GITAM UniversityVisakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
0891-28403
0994907-48800
With best wishes fromKishan kaza
Associate Professor (Training & Placement)College of Management Studies
GITAM UniversityVisakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
0891-28403
0994907-48800
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