Times of India Plagiarizes Again

Times of India seems to be in regular habit plagiarizing. This time it is a photograph by Shrinidhi in their Chennai supplement.

I’d clicked this photo few months back at Marina beach and had uploaded it to my blog. Some users have referred to this image in some forum discussions also and incidently, if you search for Chennai police car in google, this image comes first.

I also feel that if your image comes on the first page of Google images, the chances of it getting lifted are more!

And fellow contributor Jo has complied a list of plagiarism incidents by media.

Cross Posted at Blogbharti

Crib, Crib and Crib

Fall sick for one week and you end up working so hard for the next two weeks. One week is over but I can see I am going to be extremely busy the next week too. So very little time for new blog posts.

And 2008 has been a lean year travel wise and it continues to be so.

Remembering the Cold Weather in Oxford

Bus Stop, Harcourt Hill, Oxford

Last year at the end of October, I was waiting for a bus at a stop in Oxford. It was damn cold even during the day but the saving grace is that almost everything is heated and you really do not need heavy woolens indoors. I had gone to the University (not the Oxford) and was waiting for a bus along with a colleague outside. For some reason or the other the bus was taking some time to come and I don't know why I did not had my thick jacket (the one I am wearing in this blog's profile picture, it is a real old one, faded and all, but it is quite warm). Maybe I didn't carry it because I would always get the bus quickly and I did not wish to carry the extra jacket around. I remember I was literally jumping up and down to keep away the cold.

The Warm and Cozy Bus

Thankfully the bus came after a while and I really liked the hot air that would circulate on my feet if I would sit on the left hand side of the bus at the top. Also this time in June I remember one of my British colleague asking me if I found the bus uncomfortable! I asked him if he has ever been to India and been inside a bus? As he has visited India, he immediately got my point. I mean, a heated or air conditioned almost empty bus and uncomfortable??

Lazy Sunday Photo- Another Bird's Nest in the Backyard

Dove's eggs in a Nest

I was picking up basil leaves to add to my tea when suddenly a dove fluttered and flew away. A little investigation (without disturbing any leaves or branches) revealed these two eggs in the nest. This is the second time I found a bird's nest in my backyard.

Little Travel This Year

All Souls College in the Background, Radcliffe Square, Oxford UK

This year I have hardly traveled! June was last when I ventured out to the UK for a short trip and after that nothing! Partly my fault. And now once again Sesha is going to trek and I can't because of all stupid things I fell ill. OK, enough of cribbing. So, my dear readers you are stuck with my old travel accounts, there seems to be nothing on the horizon as of now, travel wise.

OK, why I picked up the picture above. This is from my October-November 2007 trip to UK. At that time I saw this young lady eating something in the beautiful Radcliffe Square and the image remained with me. This time of course I took two of my meals sitting exactly at the same spot! And enjoyed the experience.

The Fever Saga!

Last week, one evening while playing TT I was telling my colleagues that maybe I need to get my eyesight checked as I am having a headache. I even lost a doubles game that day! I get a peculiar headache when I get fever too and it dawned on me while driving home that I might be having fever. I checked my temperature when I came home and sure enough my temperature was 99.7. I had a class the next day, so I decided I would take it and then see what to do next.

Next day in the morning I had 101 fever and still decided to take the class. By afternoon I was in positively bad shape. In fact, a colleague suggested that I should take the rest of the day off, but there was a meeting at 4.00 pm and I decided that if I had lasted this long, I would last till a little after 4.00 too. Thankfully some sense had prevailed and I cancelled the next days class beforehand.

The next day, I had it. Had to ask Sesha to come back from office so that we could go to the doctor and he promptly came back and took me to a doctor, my fever had reached 103.6 at the night and was hovering around 102.8 to 102.9. The young lady who attended to me said I should go for a complete blood test and that she was worried about my platelet count. Being in Gurgaon it still did not ring a bell. I was told to collect the blood test report after 6.00 pm.

My nephew was kind to us and went to collect my report where everything came as normal, only my fever was not going down. We went to the doctor the next day again and this time there was another young lady doctor who attended me and when I said my fever is not really going down, she said why don't you repeat the platelet count once again, you could be having Dengue (there are a lot of cases of Dengue in Gurgaon as of now). They were kind to me and said they would let me know the result of the blood test within half an hour. We waited for sometime at the hospital itself but then I was getting too tired and we decided to go home.

The first time around I had no idea what platelet count meant but this time I was scared stiff, I in no case wanted to go down with Dengue! Thankfully when we called the hospital they told me my platelet count was still normal and I was not having Dengue. By that time my fever had come down to 100 and it went steadily down from there.

And today I was back at office but no TT as of now. In the meanwhile we had plans of taking off during October 2 to Octboer 9 but now only Sesha will go with his friends. 2008 had not been the year of travel for me!

Fever!

103.6 down to 102.9 so no real blogging for a while. This is the nth time I got fever this year but this one is the worst by far.

Update (17/09/2008)- Thanks a lot for your wishes, my temperature is now a little lower than Radio Mirchi! Maybe I will write a new post tomorrow.

Lazy Sunday Photo- A Little Bit of London

Trafalgar Square, London

Tower of London

Millennium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral, London

The London Eye at Night

Hyde Park, London

The Marble Arch, London

The Gates to Buckingham Palace, London

Butler's Wharf, London

Lots of Flowers

Cala Lilies

Saw these in a Flower Shop

Looks Like a Lily to Me

Is this Chrysanthemum? Probably Not! (Now I know they are Carnations)

Small White Flowers

Small Yellow Flowers

I love clicking images of flowers. On treks I usually try to click every new flower that I see. Here is a selection of flowers that I clicked in the summer in Oxford and Leeds this time. Unfortunately I do not know the names of most of the flowers.

White Washed Rainbows

Non Stop Goli: White washed Rainbows

Dr. Suchitra Roy writes a very moving guest post White Washed Rainbows about a patient she met as a part of her studies. If you have to read only one post today make sure it is this.

As my mind was doing this the boy was running his hand across the edge of the table. He was turning his head from where he supposed his father must be to the other side probably trying to find him out. Nothing about him to suggest he could not have been a boy straight from the fair, who had made his father buy him the goggles from a vendor. All he lacked was perhaps a red balloon; and I could half imagine him clutching one in his left hand. Or was there a lack that dint meet the eye? Only time would tell that,and in a few seconds it did.

Times of India Downloads Picture from Flickr and then Acts Funny

Twilight Fairy wrote to me about her picture being flicked by Times of India newspaper and the editor a Ms. Poonam Singh is now acting funny. And in her comment section you can find another user saying his/her picture was flicked by Economic Times. Shame on TOI.

Well, I clearly understand that it was not the editor herself stealing my image, but some downtrodden employee. But then undoubtedly, Ms. Poonam Singh, who represents the Times of India, is not performing her job of being an editor, if her employees are violating copyrights! Who is responsible for educating employees about copyright violation and the legal ramifications of it? How come the Indian publishing industry takes this so lightly, whereas the Indian IT industry (of which I am a part) takes IPR’s, patents and copyright violations so seriously that they throw out employees who download pirated mp3’s on their machines? I have undergone trainings on ethics a zillion times in my career. We have had several instances of audits, policies stuffed down our throats and what not. Why? Because the Indian IT industry takes this matter seriously. On the other hand, nauseatingly so, the Indian publishing industry takes this as its birthright!

Driving into a Ditch, Literally!

Not this one but one like it with a bigger ditch, roads in the National Capital Region, Delhi

It was after seven and I was driving home from work today, after a game of Table Tennis in the evening.

I don't know how I did it, I went towards the side of the road where it was quite broken. Of course I am used to such roads. I turned the car a little over what was a small mound of mud and the fellow in the next car by my side gave me a really alarming look. But by then I had managed to get my car stuck into the deep hole that was next to the mound of mud and was not visible from my angle.

I tried reversing the car out of it and then tried to drive forward. Both didn't work. I got out of the car and I had panicked a little by then. Then there were two people walking by after their factory shift and I asked them if they had any clue what could I do? They said they can try and push the car out if I switch on the engine and try to reverse the car. Those angles tried and failed. They stood by me and asked for help from others passing by. Two declined and I don't blame then, the car was really in a nasty hole.

Then there were four people coming towards us and I asked them myself. They gave me an ugly glance (stupid female driver and all that, can't even see where she is driving, she deserves to be in a hole and we poor folks have to get our hands dirty now) but agreed to try. Once again I started the engine and tried to reverse the car. With six people trying and the car being a light Maruti 800 it came out of the hole!

I thanked them a lot and the crowd moved on. The two men who had stopped originally, I tried to give then some money for all their trouble but they just waved me off!

Note to self- don't get yourself into a hole in the first place.

When in Rome ... A Few Things that Scare Me!

I have been abroad only a few times and every time for work, I don't think we have the courage (nor do I have a big salary) to spend that kind of money on a vacation. So, I never know when will I manage to land up in a new/foreign country next! That probably keeps the charm alive but I wonder if I traveled abroad often would it ever become routine for me?That reminds me of a friend who was made to travel so much that he told his manager "you are moving me around like a piece of luggage" and he was complaining about being sent to Hawaii again!

So to put the record straight I love to travel a lot and I also like to travel abroad if I get an opportunity even if it is for work. But then there are some aspects of foreign travel that feel so strange!

London Underground

I am so used to the hustle and bustle of the Indian railway stations that when I encounter a platform like the one in the picture above, I used to freak out. I remember waiting for a train in Bologna that would go to Venice. I read the information board and proceeded to the platform at least 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time only to find it completely deserted. I was so confused that I actually went and rechecked if I was at the correct platform! When the train finally arrived not more than 10 people would have boarded it. So, now when I encounter a scene like the one above I do not get dazed but calmly wait for the train to arrive and it always does.

Tower Bridge, London, UK

Hanging on to the passport is another thing that becomes an obsession with me. I mean even in really beautiful areas (I liked the Tower Bridge area) you hang on to the hand bag that contains the passport with all your might.

Once when I was taking a flight to Amsterdam from New Delhi, I was filling some form and took the passport out to fill the passport number. And then I went to exchange some currency. In the line for currency exchange there was a gentleman ahead of me and the young lad at the counter asked for his passport. A bell went in my head and I immediately realized that I had left my passport at the place where I was filling up my form! I ran back and I had panicked quite badly. I stood at the spot desperately trying to locate my passport but could not find it. Then a kindly voice called, saying "Are you by any chance looking for this?" and he was pointing a finger to the passport that was lying exactly at the same place where I had left it, right in front of my eyes and yet I was unable to see it! Imagine if that happened at a foreign airport!