Insurance Policies

        Am writing this blog for people who are fresh out of college and are starting their careers. This is also applicable for people who are planning for their financial savings. The content am going to mention is not new or not that it is available nowhere in the web but I believe this might help at least a few from going down the wrong path that many of us who have already done.  Am not going to explain or help someone on how to plan their finances as am no expert or haven't specialized in it either.
 80C Savings -  The first mistake everyone makes when planning for this savings is not thinking much of various options available. I would recommend everyone to go through the web and checkout on various options available on which one could claim the 80C rebate of 1Lakh ( as on Feb 18 2013). 

Points to remember :
1) 80 C- The 1 lakh amount includes your PF (provident fund)
2) Insurance is not the only way for 80 C - I believe this is how the insurance agents trap the people who start with their careers.
3) Other avenues are the ELSS ( Equity linked Savings Scheme) , PPF , NSC bonds etc ( there are many such provisions as well)
4) PPF, I believe is a very good instrument for various reasons - The major being that the amount accrued is not taxed when you . Also you can pay varying amounts on each year starting from as low as 500.

 Well the above were to just provide some direction for folks on 80 C and where else to look at apart from Insurance policies. There can be more than these avenues for 80 C.

People who are starting new in Insurance might not be so aware that there are two types of Life insurance policies as on date. "Endowment" and "Term".
 Endowment Insurance policies - These are policies which would provide you a life cover as well as provide returns ( in case one survives the term).
 Term Insurance policies - These are plain vanilla policies which would just provide you a life cover.

  Most of the LIC agents would try selling you the "Endowment" policies citing that you get the best of both worlds "life cover"  and "returns" as well and add to that "80 C " savings. Well don't fall for this bait. Why would someone go out of their way to do you a favor. I believe no one in world would do that without something in it for them,  These policies have hefty agent commissions. The agents get a good cut out of the insurance premiums that you are paying. The returns are going to be very meager as well-You might end up paying a sum of 5L and have a life cover of 5L - may be add to that another 5L of bonus so a total of 10 L for a sum of 5L ).

 Rather go for a "TERM" insurance policy [I strongly bet no LIC agent would have told you first about this - if he has he is truly your friend :) ]

(a) They come with cheap premiums
(b) You can buy most of these online by yourselves now without the need for an intermediate/agent.Even LIC has a e-term policy

And for returns in 80c use the following saving instruments
(a)if you want to play safe go for PPF ( 8.5 % interest rate as on date which is way good than the LIC policies' returns)
(b)Check if your company allows for VPF - Voluntary Provident Fund
(c)If you are risk averse and young , invest in ELSS or Tax Saving Mutual funds

Excellent Singing - Soulful and Touching

           I was really touched to say the least, on hearing this girl's (Anakha) performance. I do accept that the song is an excellent masterpiece by all time gr8 ARR but the Singing just added to the excellence of the song...Really a mind blowing performance, I should say. The first time i heard it I was stunned ...and I was made to hear to it again and again ...Its hard to pick a particular passage of song which was so nice, excellent performance throughout...And by the way this song is actually a duet song,sung by evergreen singers Chitra and Hariharan for the movie "Love Birds"...So she had to emulate two great singers and wow she has done it in such a nice way...I do accept that am not an expert in music,am a novice but I can feel it as everyone can and I felt this to be so soulful and touching...Deserves a big round of applause !!!!

Pay your EB Bills online - TNEB Online

Am not sure if you guys are aware of this or not. If not this could help you or your family or your friends.

Payment of EB Bills can be done online now:
The government has launched a site and it has provisions for making online payment. I personally feel it’s a good and useful step in the right direction. We no longer need to ride to the EB or wait in long queues or keep a note/reminder for the last date or pay with fine. If you still feel it’s better to pay it at the EB counter it is even useful again. Because it also provides the bill readings(meter readings and the total cost) for your electrical connection (i.e.) the EB card( the old and unreadable cards usually kept in the EB box at all homes) is electronically available now. So even if you miss out on a reading( as you forgot to place the card near the box or for some other reason) you will still be able to see your readings and the amount you need to pay through this means.

What you need to know?
1) Need to login into
http://www.tneb.in

2) In order to know the reading or make a payment you need to know the service number/consumer number. The service number is nothing but a number which is something of the format like this XXX-XXX-XXX (for example 121 005 005). This will be available in your previous bill(if you have) or the old EB card as SC No. If in Chennai you need to know the Chennai Circle in which you fall in. Again this can be found in the previous bill or your card or by just knowing which part(North/South/East/West) of Chennai your area falls under.
You need to go to the following link to know the reading or make the payment "Navigate from the home page to the readings page by Choosing "Billing Services" menu and then choosing "Bill status"in the drop down menu (or) use the following link
http://www.tnebnet.org/newlt/menu2.html and then choose your appropriate region(North/South/East/West)


3)In order to make a payment you need to create a new account as such you create a e-mail account and then provide the SC no also there. We can also add one another number(SC) in the same account(so that you can make payments for your friend/neighbor if you wish to :) ).

4)So to make payments the following is the procedure:
(i) Login into http://www.tnebnet.org/awp/TNEB/index.php
(ii) Create a account as specified above.
(iii) At the beginning of the month of the payment,log to your account then choose and pay the appropriate amount.
(iv) There are various options to make your payment.Currently they allow credit cards(which might attract a little service charge)payments.Axis bank,icici bank net banking accounts can be used. They deduct service charge when I paid through my icici net banking account(around Rs 11/- few days after the payment date)

Am pretty much pleased with this service by the TNEB as this will definitely save me from the hassles I face to make the payment and also lessen the load on my already overloaded memory to remember the bi-monthly EB payment date and amount. Am sure whoever makes the regular EB payment at their respective houses will also appreciate this as I do :)

All we need is an Internet Connection @ Home (and off course a little bit of computer knowledge :) ) and a creditcard.

Please note that this facility is now available only in few cities of TamilNadu - Chennai,Madurai,Tirunelvelli,Erode,Coimbatore,Vellore,Villupuram,Trichy( PS:- Am not sure about the cities other than Chennai as I haven't made any payments for connections in those places. This information about cities in which online facility is available was published in Hindu)

My First Story Book Reading-Chetan Bhagat's One Night @ Call Center

Reading as we all know is a very good habit. I still remember my Dad insisting me "Reading maketh a full man". He persisted on reading very much at my younger age. It got to me.I did love to read books,magazines,newspapers etc.At my young age, I loved reading story books .I was a total sucker to Tinkle stories . However was pretty much focused on stories of the types that were short and sweet(like Kalia the Crow,Suppandi etc). I was not much attracted to books that turned to lots of pages. There should have been either something wrong with me(my brain not able to concentrate for long hours) or the author was not able to convince me to sit down and read the book for hours.

To be frank I rate myself to be bad at story book reading,in fact I hate those small books(small in size but huge in content) called the Novel.I couldn't ask myself to sit over and read through the pages of a book with tiny letters running through heaps of pages without any pictures.I tried my luck on some books written by pretty famous novelists like Sidney Sheldon. In fact I was reading through one of his book like for months but I never felt I was into it. I was reading it for the sake of reading.I used to wonder(and still wonder) "Why the heck do novels don't have better font sizes?"By doing so, I need not spend all my energy on trying to look hard at what the letters are and rather enjoy the content.And why don't they provide some colorful pictures in Novels.Am a strong believer of the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words". Perhaps by doing so the author can create a image of the characters being portrayed so that the reader may relate very well to the characters and the situation pretty easily and get absorbed into the story.

Well the reason am writing this blog and the above two paras is to give a picture of what kind of person I was and how much I hated to read stories, to be specific, stories which runs into pages. It was a Saturday morning and I was just gazing through the Metro Plus paper(my usual weekend routine) and there was an article which was a success story about a theater group in Chennai called Evam. When reading through, the article mentioned about a book named "One Night @ Call Center" and this Evam people very much wanted to portray it as a play. On the same day evening, I had gone to a mall with one of my friend to help him out with his shopping. I took with me a landmark gift coupon(worth 250) which I had to spend it out someway or the other as it was nearing its expiry.When I was passing through the heaps of books at landmark [ which kind of geeks me :) ]I noticed the same book "One Night at the call center". To be honest I immediately looked for the price( as a normal guy who has no idea about what story book reading is does :-)).To my luck it was cheap(Rs 91) well within my 250 gift coupon limits :). The interest on this book was surely gained by me through the Evam article or else I would have never known such a book existed .So I just took upon this book happily thinking there I go, I have spent 90 out of 250.Deep inside me there was this book telling me "Hey am I going to be one of your books that always remains in your shelves?? :) ".It was pretty sarcastic but somehow it was true,I just buy books and read 2-3 pages before I forget that I have bought such a book.

And the next day(Sunday) morning the book was there, right inside the bag that I had put it in when I bought it. Just out of no other thing to do(my mom was out for some class) I started to read through this book. I never used to read through the first few pages of any story book which describes about the authors or the story(boring stuff !!!) that will follow. But this time upon I insisted myself that am going to do that. I didn't regret my this decision to read it. It was one of the best epilogues or intro whatever.More importantly it kept me going. I felt the inner soul inside me saying "Man this stuff is good.. go on.. ".And so slowly I gelled with the book. It wasn't after few minutes, I realized I had gone through almost 8 out of the 30 odd chapters in that book. Really not bad, for a guy who turns away after glancing through 2 pages. Initially it was hard for me to remember the characters and their names but slowly and surely I could even picture them and sense the story as if i was seeing it. I had almost read half the book on that day before I realized I needed to go to see a friend of mine and also to pick my mom from her class. The Sunday ended with me not touching the book anymore as we had lots of guests and friends visiting us. But deep inside me I could sense that I will complete reading this book sooner than the later. Monday being the first day of the week I had to get things straight at the office .... But Monday night,I read through some pages of the book. It got late and after a tired and hectic day I couldn't stop myself from sleeping.
The next day morning(Tue) as soon as I got up... am not sure what made me do this.After going through the newspaper I immediately took upon this book.It was a working day but I didn't mind it. I wanted to read this book. Now this was the difference.Previously I read books for the sake of reading but now I read as I really wanted to read.I started at almost 7 and I realized that it was 9 only when my mom told me it was getting late for me to the office.But my urge to read through the book was much higher than getting ready to the office :) So I went ahead and continued to read through the book. The best point of this book was that it never made me think a particular part was boring or was unacceptable. And if a author can make a guy like me feel like that then I really bet he has to be a good script writer.I continued to read the book and when I sensed I could complete it by today I decided am going to do with this right now and so did I. I was so happy with myself, for reading a good book,for completing a book within 2 days of reading(3 days of buying) but more importantly for realizing that even I could read a book of 400 odd pages completely enjoying the stuff. I skipped my breakfast that day in order to compensate my lost office hours...I was already running late.In fact I forgot to attend a very very important meeting at my office( felt very bad about it) however when I realized the book had glued me in such a way that I didn't remember this important meeting and my breakfast I could say nothing but Kudos to the author.

I now realize that there was neither any problem(sitting for long hours) with me nor with the authors. I realized it when I read this book "I didn't know where to start".It was the content that didn't match my frequency or taste.I realize now that am much Indian material who would love to sit and read through stories(real life stories with some added spices) written by Indian Authors. Am really not an expert in recommending authors or books(in fact am looking upon for the help of avid book lovers to guide me in this) but am sure if you were of the type who really wanted to do some good story book reading but not sure where to start off as I was,this piece of work by Chetan Bhagat really qualifies to be "The Book".

Time Finder

So ever wondered or confused when someone asks you for timings in another part of the world,schedule meetings with your coworkers abroad at an appropriate timing for all ??? May be you are gifted with some good memory so that you get it right away....But not everyone are so gifted :) There is a pretty easy way to find it out for which the only requirement you just got to be on the net.

I It is the Usual GOOGLE.

Just go to Google and type ” time” and VOILA... there you go pretty simple isn’t it ??

For example to know San Jose timings just Google “ San Jose Time
http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=San+Jose+time&spell=1

To know the US timings as such just Google “ US Time
http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=US+time&meta=

You need not look for any time zone converter(I was doing this before ) or need not remember them in your already heavily loaded brain . No worries about when daylight savings time starts or ends. You get to know the exact time of the other place(country/city) sitting right on your desk :) ...And this works even for Chennai Time, Madurai Time, Coimbatore time:)

Wrong Shops @ Wrong Places

TASMAC locations:

TASMAC shops/bars(Tamil Nadu State MArketing Corporation),a place which is the most busiest and favourite among people these days,a place where everyone pays something to lose everything. Am least bothered to dwell about drinking and its hazards. Am pretty worried about the location of these so called TASMAC shops.

It is a pretty known rule that TASMAC shops/bars should be away from important public places like schools,temples etc. However I am noticing quite a few number of these shops being located very near to public enclosures. One such prominent TASMAC shop/bar is seen near Velachery Vijayanagar bus stand. The shop is so near that it seems to be the door to the bus terminus. It is located in such a way that anyone who wishes to go to the bus terminus has to cross this shop for sure. This Bus terminus being the connection point to the City for Velachery has to be used by wide variety of people who range from school children to officegoers, young to old who travel to and from the other parts of the city. Till now,I haven't seen any trouble in front of me, however condsidering the location and the crowd that throng the bar it is definitely a great cause of concern.

Especially during the evening hours when the crowd to the bar is at its peak its hard to pass by without a little bit of hesistancy and uneasiness. If its hard for me I can imagine how uncomfortable a female commuter or passer-by feels to walk via such a place crowded by hoards of men who are out of contorl. There is every possibility that something unruly can happen at any time.

If,Velachery being a place of rapid development has to face this I can just imagine how other places would suffer from such a shop. Am just wondering why the authorities who provided licenses to these TASMAC shops/bars did not foresee this when providing the shop a license.

Traffic woes

   Am writing this as I was unable to digest what I saw in front of me when I was riding my bike. It showed the extent to which few people have started to violate basic traffic rules. Not only violate traffic rules but also show that they dont care a tad for others.
      It was evening 6:30 the peak time during which the office goers leave to their homes.The roads were as usual packed with huge number of bikes,cars and people. As I was riding home in my bike, a bike overtook me.I was startled to the least on seeing the bike that overtook me -it was a splendor( a low weight bike),the man riding the bike should be someone who is in his late 30's . The thing that took me aback was neither with the man nor with the way he drove his bike ,it was the LOAD he was carrying in his bike.He had a LPG Cooking Gas cylinder attached to the side of his bike. He had attached the cylinder to the left side of his bike using some iron strings. 

    Now, this kind of transport is not only illegal but the least safest thing to be done by any literate man with a little common sense. Safety not only for SELF  "Safety" for ALL. I could clearly see and sense that he was unable to balance his bike at low speeds as the cylinder being tied to one side was pulling him in that direction. The worst part of all was that he was taking a prohibited U turn . Now, what if some one or some vehicle collide with the cylinder ?????(this could have happened very  easily considering the traffic at that time) and what if the string gets loosened and the cylinder falls and rolls over onto the busy roads????? what if the one who is riding the bike falls off balance ????  It would have been total chaos...He would have caused difficulties and safety problems not only to him but also to the other fellow riders and people who are eagerly returning to their dear homes.    

  Well,I can understand that the cooking gas cylinder is a very essential commodity at everyone's home these days but there are specific people and means to do this transport. Worst case, he could have carried it by other better safety means or at off hours(early morning or late night).
  

  Am sure the above would seem to be a small incident and most of us would have seen more serious violations and issues especially with load vans and lorries at times and even the autos carrying Dangerous loads(cylinders, protruding ironroads etc., ) in them. I wanted to highlight this incident as someone reading this will definitely think about doing something like what this particular senseless Guy did. Commuting by roads by itself is tedious these days. With people like this it makes commuting doubly dangerous. Hope we make commuting by roads safer. Please take some time and think for the welfare of yourself and others when you drive ...Drive safe !!!!