Thamie's pages...

It was a Friday sermon at a Mosque near my home and unusually the topic of the day's sermon was focussing on the current affairs of the region on protests happening for banning alcohol and correlated the news with the Islamic teaching on strict ban on alcohol. I was enjoying the speech as the speaker (Imam) was giving random examples from  incidents happening in the state on how, people professing different faiths have united to fight against the socio-economical impacts of alcohol and made us feel proud that Islam has made alcohol Haram (prohibited)several hundred years ago knowing its ill effects.Everything was going fine until the Imam's speech drifted slightly and hit me indirectly ( he does not know who I am) when he said that it's becoming a trend these days that young Muslim boys & girls are joining hotel & catering studies and after finishing their studies they start working for hotels where their main jobs include arranging/assigning rooms for couples...

What an eloquence, profound knowledge of history and confidence to talk about the Brits in their land! Shashi Tharoor knows it well that money is not what India wants as it can only compensate those monetary losses but cannot compensate for the lost lives and bring back the thousands who are moved forever leaving their family and friends from India to Fiji, Malaysia and other colonies. For those who disagree the content of his speech, just relax and enjoy his style and sense of humour.

A great video showing you get what you gave with background from Matisyahu's One Day Album

I am always surprised how global organisations maintain their standards in terms of products , services , people interaction whenever I see HSBC, Marriott,KFC, Mc.Donald's ( but I had a bitter experience with them in India when I have been told they don't serve Big Mac as it is made out of beef and asked me to try Chicken burger or Potato n veggie burger instead! Thank God - KFC has not invented any veggie chicken in India!). Yesterday , I had one such amazing experience at State Bank of India , SBI in their Male' branch by seeing the standardized customer handling. A bit on SBI: SBI has a strong network of banks in India and outside especially in those countries where the Indian expat population in high . I am sure the  customer base of SBI will exceed the population of Australia! and they are preferred by the expat Indians for their services in easy  and quick money transfers back home. Besides this,SBI has varied financial products and services whi...

Two weeks ago, I was on a holiday, when my wife and I were travelling on a Tuk-Tuk ( "Auto Rickshaw" as how it is called in India) through a crowded lane busy with after work hours traffic in Pondicherry , this incident happened which I feel worth sharing as it has some good behavioral examples of people involved and how an incident and behaviors of people can vary from different point of view. Like the famous " Subway story" of Stephen Covey, I should have this "Tuk Tuk  story" , if I ever author a book!!   My "proactive" wife while pulling money out from her purse to pay for the ride before reaching the alighting point , accidently left a Rs.100 ( 100 Rupees) note which flew out of the vehicle before I could catch. She was tensed, perplexed, not knowing what to do,  waiting for my reaction. I remained calm, which was very unusual and said " leave it! it is a loss but will be a big scene to stop the vehicle in this traffic ...

Once again, Muslims all over the world are happy for being blessed with another Ramadan, the holy month during their life time.The obligatory ritual of fasting from dawn to dusk for a period of 30 days by refraining from eating , drinking , smoking, having sex  and so on. Fasting is a wonderful scientific and spiritual concept of cleansing the body and soul.On contrary to its very fundamental purpose to experience the hunger of the indigent, today Ramadan is becoming a season of feasting with rich,high calory,heavy foods before dawn ( Sahur) and at dusk ( Iftar) to compensate the lost meal during the day!! How funny!! I have seen many people gaining weight during Ramadan instead of losing weight due to less food intake.The Iftars ,customarily used to have only Dates and fresh Juice or simply water is today a more fashionable lavish banquet where people show off their opulence and stuff themselves with everything as if there is no tomorrow!! It is common in...

                                                 Scenic beauty of Solomon Islands                                          Traditional Kundu band welcome at Port Moresby Airport                                               Royal Papua Yacht Club,Port Moresby,Papua New Guinea                                                                          Down Town-Port Moresby                     ...