Airtel: potential tapping and abuse of personal information??!

A couple of days ago, I had a conversation with one of my relatives about a College that provides Management courses. Yesterday I got a Advertisement message about the same college that reads:

AD-

@place offers UG, PG courses in part-time and correspondence at Affordable fee. For more details call email:

What is puzzling and annoying to me is:

• How did I suddenly get an message about the college I was talking about over phone suddenly?
  
• How come I got the message just a day after I had the conversation?
• Why do the 'Don't disturb' that I'm enabling every time whenever I received unwanted messages, never seem to be activated?

While whether the information was useful to me is secondary, it is not clear how they could get information that they think could be useful to me? Where is Privacy?

Is Airtel tapping calls (automatically/manually) and helps spammers?
If this is the case then Airtel should be held accountable for Tapping, Misuse and abuse of personal information and snopping on people. An, usually happy Airtel customer for years, I'm finding this hard to believe.

Has anyone experienced such instances before?

Note:
1. I have never heard or mentioned about the college prior to that conversation and it has no relevance to my current profession.
2. I never used to leave my phone number with websites.
3. Please feel free to pass on this information to make people aware of such abuses.

Ps. I could register a complaint with Airtel, but they could easily give excuses and might claim that this is just coincidental.

BlogPost - a Blogging client

I'm writing a blog publisher got GNOME desktop using PyGTK, initially for blogger and planning to extend later. This is my first post using BlogPost.

Padithadil Rasithathu

கவுண்டமணியும், வில்லு பட விஜயும்
கவுண்டமணி: ச்சே.. போன எடுத்தா நச்சு நச்சுன்னுராங்கப்பா.. ஏதோ வில்லுன்னு விஜய் படமாம்.. அத விஜய் ரசிகங்களாலேயே பார்க்க முடியலையாம்.. என்ன பாக்க சொல்றாங்க.. அட இது பரவா இல்ல.. சோசியல் மேட்டர், பண்ணிக்கலாம்.. ஆனா விஜய் பாட்டுக்கெல்லாம் என்ன ஆட சொல்றாங்கப்பா.. நான் என்ன விஜய் மாதிரி ஆடுகாலியா இல்ல பரதேசியா? ஒரே குஷ்டமப்பா.. ச்சீ... கஷ்டமப்பா..

விஜய்: ங்கண்ணா.. போன் வயரு பிஞ்சு ஒரு வாரம் ஆகுதுங்கன்னா..
கவுண்டமணி: ஹே ஹே.. ஹெய்ஹெய்.. டே டப்சா தலையா.. இது செல்போன்டா.. உன்னயல்லாம் ஹீரோவா போட்டு படம் எடுக்குறான் பாரு அவன சொல்லணும்..

விஜய்: போங்கண்ணா.. உங்களுக்கு ஒரே குறும்பு.. கம்பெனி சீக்ரட் எல்லாம் வெளியில சொல்லிக்கிட்டு.. சரி சரி.. இப்போ நம்ம பாட்ட கேளுங்க..
"ஹே ராமா ராமா ராமன்கிட்ட வில்ல கேட்டேன்
பீமா பீமா பீமன்கிட்ட கதைய கேட்டேன்
முருகு முருகு முருகன்கிட்ட மயில கேட்டேன்..
ஈசன் ஈசன் ஈசன் கிட்ட மலைய கேட்டேன்"

கவுண்டமணி:நிறுத்துடா ஆப்பிரிக்கா வாயா.. இவ்வளவு கேட்டியே.. பிரபுதேவாகிட்ட கதை என்னன்னு கேட்டியா?

விஜய்:??!!!

Disclaimer: No offense meant to vijay fans :) Infact, I like vijay's dance.

A lesson while fixing blockage in the sink..

The other day my wife was complaining that there was a blockage in our Kitchen sink and the water is getting clogged. As a typical Martian, I went out immediately to fix it. After initial investigation, I figured out there was a small vessel which was obstructing the water. As there was water in the sink I tried to use sharp edged weapons in kitchen :) to take it out. It seemed like a real battle!

It looked like it was struck hard so the vessel didn't come outside after the initial attempts. The troubleshooter in me said that - "Know the problem well before you attempt to fix it". So I decided to take all the water out and see what is blocking.. Once we drained we figured out that the we were trying to take the portion of the sink itself and not the obstructing vessel.

If we had continued we would have damaged the sink itself. And once we isolated the problem we could just take the small vessel using hand and no sophisticated weapon or method is required.. So, the lesson learnt..

Know Your Problem well enough before you attempt to fix! :-)

The Art of Listening

How important is Listening? How does it matter? What difference does it make?
I pondered.. and that led me to write this blog.

Listening is a great thing especially when it comes to interpersonal relations. Some thoughts:

• When you listen to people, you make them feel important, you make them feel special. You encourage them to share their feelings, thoughts, sorrow. Eventually, you make good friends sooner. You see a connection established between you and the them.
  
• Listening, as explained perfectly by a Interpersonal relationship skills trainer years ago to me.
  

L - Look Interested
I - Inquire with questions
S - Stay focused
T - Test your understanding
E - Evaluate the message
N - Neutralize your feelings

This is Active listening.

• Looking interested makes a difference, for sure. Try listening with smiling eyes making an eye contact next time when you listen to your close ones and observe the difference. I'm not saying, listen to whatever crap the other person says without expressing your feelings or thoughts [sometimes you've to do this if you listening to your girl friend or boy friend :) ]. I'm saying whenever you listen make an attempt to look interested and not be indifferent and evaluate than being indifferent.
  
• Of course, the sweetest of conversations are the ones when a listener asks questions, understands and appreciates whenever appropriate. And I recommend, testing your understanding especially when it contradicts your theory or belief.
• Often we put so much emphasis on "Talking". We don't do that much on "Listening" whereas both are equally important.
• How many times we'd ignored our parents, kids, friends. It does no good to relationship. Even if you're not in a position to listen for e.g. tired, make it clear and telling them that you won't be able to listen attentively is much better. And how many relationship would have been saved if the involved people actually listened?
• I think good Listening is a great skill everyone should master along with being observant.
  

Variety is the Spice of Life!

Yup, the old template was boring. Just changed it to more livelier one. Also, the Blog name was too formal, changed it too ;-)

And, with regards to the title of this blog - Yes I believe, Life is more exciting when you try different types of experiences, when you meet people from different parts of the world, when you come across different culture, when you try new hobbies. So reminding myself, that Variety is the Spice of Life" :)

Journeyer Inside is born!!

As promised in the previous post, I have started blogging technical and work-related stuff here.
"Journeyer Inside" is the name of the blog. The URL is http://journeyerinside.blogspot.com/
I chose to keep personal ones here.

Take a peek at it once in a while.

Writer Sujatha

Writer Sujatha, a multi-faceted personality - a great writer, the man behind Electronic Voting Machines and a Linux enthusiast died on 27th Feb.

I am a great fan of Sujatha. Though I haven't read much of his novels, I like very much the way he
simplified and explained the complex stuff in various areas, right from Neurology to Computer science. He had always been curious about how things are working and explaining it to people such that everyone understands. He has made countless contributions in various fields.

May his heart rest in peace.

Time to fork?

I was thinking about this for a while - whether to separate work-related blog from personal blog?
I think it's a good idea mainly because audience are different and I would like to submit the feeds of my work related to some well-known websites.

Soon the announcement will follow :)