Decisions of nobel-committe have always been politically motivated.
1. Award was given to Obama; despite his continuation of US Imperialist policies,his support of Israel's (brutal & one sided) War against Gaza. Committe has done same while giving peace prize to Ex-presidents of US.
2. In cold war era Nobel committe used to be more intent on giving prizes to Russian Scientist. Russian government had banned scientist from receiving these awards. Thus most of the winners of Nobel prize eventually used to leave Russia.
3. Noam Chomsky, the person who is political activist from 1966's. Has worked extensively on bringing US Imperialist policies under light. He has great track record in linguistic. He should have got multiple Nobel prizes in both these areas. But it has not happened yet.
If you are an 'Resident' Indian then you have two options here: 1. Paypal 2. Wire Transfer
Third option is Automated Clearing House (ACH) but sadly it is not available in India.
Paypal is good for smaller payments or if payments are online donations (or something similar) ,where payee can change his decision if it is not convinient for him to pay.
For payments greater than 250 USDs, Wire transfer is better than Paypal. This is because Wire transfer will take fixed 10 USD charge wheras Paypal will take 4 % of amount. (Note that on Wire transfer as well as Paypal there are extra charges for Currency conversion).
Also Paypal has many other charges like Withdrawal etc. etc. Also They feel they are doing mercy on Indians by operating here in India. So they switch off some services sometimes.
Refer to this link for additional details http://www.topcoder.com/wiki/display/tc/Payment+Methods
I usually track topcoder site for current & upcoming competitions, This involves clicking on various competition categories. Few days back I tried RSS feed of these upcoming competitions, by this way all upcoming competitions are shown on my Google Page. Similarlly I have used this feature to show all Review Opportunities on Google Page.
Apart from this, I can see my mails on GMail from Google Home Page.
Last few days I was harrassed by Tata Photon and My Account balance was evaporating. I had recharged my account twice, called customer care more than 10 times spent more than 3 hours on these calls but still had to be without Internet connection for four days.
Column descriptions for above table
Total Consumed(MB) : Values in this column are total MBs consumed on that day. This I have taken from Transaction Logs provided on Tata Photon website.
Balance(MB) : Values in this column are taken from End of Day SMS's sent to me by Tata Photon .
Recharge : MBs I have recharge on that day.
Expected Balance : This is = ( Yesterday's End of Day Balance + Recharge - Total MBs Consumed).
Difference : Difference between Column Balance & Expected Balance.
Values in Column Balance & Expected Balance should be same but the difference is staggering and that's my complaint.
Also there seems to be problem in Data consumed been shown in transaction logs. I have been recharging for 200/- Rs and using it for 10 to 15 days. But in last few days it has started showing more data consumption though my usage pattern has not changed.
Few more irritating points
I called Nodal officer number few times on Friday 9th July. But there was no response. At one time I had my call waiting (you connect to number, but there is no representative) for 15 mins. Same was the case on Monday 12 July. Here also one call I was kept waiting for 15 mins. And this is not a toll free number .. so I was paying money to be kept waiting. Despite all this I couldn't get through to Nodal officer number.
Since my connection was not working from 8th evening I recharged on 9th again on 11th and again on 13th.
If your connection stops working because of insufficient account balance there is no immediate ways to know it. Connection software shows error message "Remote computer did not respond." . Customer Service people can see previous day balance so they will register complaint. You will expect call from them but no call comes. (At least I didn't had a call in those 4 days.)
Today I finished my first 10-Day Vipassana course. I was pretty eager to do this course from more than a year. The motive for me to do course was more to remain secluded and practice nothing but meditation for 10 days. I was not so much interested in learning the technique, but the technique seems pretty useful though.
Noble Silence
As part of course everyone had to be silent for the course duration (except 10th day), so participants are not supposed to talk to each other at all, not even gestures. One could speak to Teachers for any questions related to technique or Dhamma workers (volunteers) for any other issues. But things are so very wonderfully well organized that one would not have to speak to Dhamma workers if he is concerned with his meditation practice.
I was not much concerned with this precept, as I knew that it won’t be difficult for me to observe this.
Day 1 to 3 (Practicing Anapanna) First 3 days we were practicing Anapanna meditation i.e. to be aware of natural breath. I realized that the amount of time spend in unconscious thoughts was pretty high It would be more than 95% of total time I was meditating . (which shouldn't have been a surprise, but I was epecting lesser percentage at such a setting).And at the end of 3rd day I was unhappy with such high degree.
Day 4 to 9 (Practicing Vipassana) But things changed drastically from 4th day, when we were taught Vipassana. The technique taught was very much similar to Inner body Meditation which I knew but never practised regularly. These were supreme days as percentage of unconscious thoughts though big were drastically lesser than earlier. I was feeling very serene.
Day 10 (Noble Chatting Day)
The real implication of Noble silence was well understood on 10th Day. On this day participants can break silence and talk to each other (except when they are meditating :-) ). On this day, degrees of unconscious thoughts are more and mostly revolving around what you spoke with understood about others. Though this would not be a surprise to know this but it is a revelation when you experience it.
You stay with people for 9 days, without talking to them, without knowing their names. And when on 10th day you speak to everyone and understand their name and background many of the unknowingly build opinions in your mind get broken.
There were few college students (which you could make out before speaking to them on 10th day), who had come for course in their vacations. They were having nice time. It was funny to see them express their rebellious spirit by making gestures (i.e. breaking Noble Silence precept) to each other when volunteers are not looking.
Food
Food schedule was like this.
6:30 to 7:00 AM: Breakfast (One breakfast item like Idli, Upma or Rice item ) and Tea.
11:00 to 11:30 AM: Lunch (With fairly more than enough items to have good
lunch).The only major serving of the day.
5:00 to 5:30 AM: Light Evening Snacks, Tea and one Banana or piece of papaya.
(Old Students i.e. Who were doing course more than once,
are supposed to have just glass of Lemon juice. But thankfully this was not moderated)
I was bit afraid on first day about not having anything after 5:30 in the evening. I was afraid that I will feel server hunger in night which will lead to headache (which happens sometimes). But luckily this did not happen & I understood the drastic positive effects it had on practice. I also experimented with skipping evening snacks once. I would like to alter my diet henceforth.
Overall Experience
Though some of the parts in talks were strange (i.e. I was reacting to those parts) and few utterly stupid (like precept of sexual misconduct, non-stealing). Though irritating these were the minor parts if you could ignore them (i.e. not make them food for unconscious thoughts).
Overall experience was very very good. Very nice & green ambience, good food (though it took couple of days to get used to less spicy food), focusing on nothing but meditation. I have plans to practise daily two 1-hour sittings which I hope I do.
My review is if you are thinking of taking a course .. Do It. Very unique experience.
